Tragedy (1/2)

The simp girls went over to comfort him as Kaori noticed that something was shining in the rubble.

"What's that? It's all sparkly."

The rubble had a strange mineral that was emitting a pale blue glow.

"Oh, that's a glanz crystal. And a pretty big one at that. How rare," Captain Meld said.

It was an expensive gem that could be sold for a good price. They were often processed into rings, earrings, pendants, and other jewelry to be given as gifts.

"That sounds lovely…" Kaori exclaimed as she stole a quick glance at Hajime which was only noticed by two people in the class, Shizuku, Kaori's best friend, and Hiyama, the jealous bully who hated Hajime because of Kaori."

"If that's the case, I'll go grab it for you Kaori." Hiyama tried to act as some kind of hero and be better than Hajime in Kaori's eyes. He ran as fast as he could and reached the rubble before Meld could stop him.

"Wait, stop. It might be a-" Meld was unable to finish as the fool had already touched the crystal and activated the trap.

"Crap, retreat! Everyone get out, now!" Meld's words spurred everyone into action but they were all too late.

As light filled the room everyone found themselves in front of a majestic stone bridge, around one hundred meters in length.

The students all fell on their butts as they appeared while Mai and Masashi looked around in curiosity.

They both tried to understand how the mana flow worked with that spell but it was too difficult and foreign to understand.

The knights along with Kouki were the only ones looking vigilantly, looking for traps.

They found that there were stairs on the other side of the bridge leading back up.

"Everyone head for the stairs!" Meld shouted as they confirmed the situation to be safe at least for now.

As the group was halfway through the bridge, red magic circles appeared on the bridge as monsters started spawning on both sides of the bridge.

There were all kinds of monsters in the place with the theme of undead like skeletons, zombies, and finally a massive bone dragon.

"Oh my god... It's... a Behemoth!" They all ran for their lives but it wouldn't be enough as the behemoth attacked.

Meld tried to keep formation and have his men block the behemoth for a while using defensive spells to try and get the kids to safety.

This tactic worked for a few seconds but it still wouldn't be enough.

Hajime had been helping one of the girls who had fallen on the bridge when he got an idea.

He decided on a dangerous tactic and asked Kouki to use one of his big spells to attack the behemoth as that was the only option.

After a moment of thought, Kouki decided to use one of his strongest spells which were all 8 verses long. To compare, a normal spell is usually only 2 verses, with the supercharged ones being 4 verses mostly.

The spell summoned a large beam of light that hit the behemoth right in its head as a large cloud of dust appeared on the bridge.

When the dust settled, there were a few cracks on the bridge but the behemoth was still spotless without even a scratch after that bombardment.

Everyone just ran for their lives as the behemoth started to chase after them.

Hajime got a very dangerous idea that would end up putting him in the most danger.

Hajime told Meld his plan to stay back and hold the behemoth there using his transmutation.

"…Are you sure that you can do it, kid?"

"I am," Hajime said resolutely which brought a grin to Meld's face.

"Never thought I'd trust my life to you of all people... I promise I won't leave you behind. So... don't let me down, kid!"

Meld turned to the behemoth and sent a weak attack at him, grabbing his attention, then with one of his stronger attacks he got the behemoth to fall on the bridge.

This was where Hajime came in and transmuted the stone around the behemoth to stall for time.

The behemoth kept breaking the stones as Hajime kept transmuting more and more to buy everyone time to get to safety.

"Hajime!" As everyone got to safety, Meld gave Hajime the signal to let go of the behemoth and run back.

Hajime did exactly that as the mages and long-range attackers fired shots at the behemoth which finally got free, collapsing the bridge.

'I did it.' Hajime's face broke into a smile as he ran to safety but that smile quickly faded away as he saw a stray projectile headed toward him.

It was intentionally aimed at him.

'But why?' He quickly stopped right before he was hit in the face but as a result, the projectile exploded in front of his face, making him lose his balance and senses for a few seconds.

In those few seconds, the behemoth collapsed the bridge and fell to its death as the cracks reached Hajime.

Even though he regained his senses, it was too late.

'I'm not gonna make it…' He thought as he fell to his death.

As he was falling to his death he saw the perpetrator of his murder smile maliciously, Hiyama.

'You fucker, I swear to god if I can live I'll make you regret being born.' Hajime thought with hatred before he fell to his death.

There was a stunned silence for a while as Kaori was wailing in Shizuku's arms saying, 'Hajime-Kun' repeatedly.

"Clap… Clap… Clap"

"What a fun show, don't you think Mai?" Masashi asked rhetorically turning towards Mai.

Masashi's entire demeanor changed as if the low-profile hot guy whom they all saw before was just a complete act.

Which, to be fair it was. You don't share the acting skills of an actress who has won two Oscars and act badly.

In the deathly silence, only the sound of Masashi's footsteps echoed as Kaori's wailing also died down a little.

Masashi slowly walked to Hiyama as he looked down at this pathetic excuse of a person and held him by the throat as he picked him up.

"Ackk… Help." Hiyama begged as Masashi was choking the life out of him.

Masashi in a chillingly flat voice said, "You know, I hate people like you. Acting as if you're big shots, picking on the little guy.

"I've been keeping my eyes on you, all of you."

As Masashi said that, he looked around the room at the other kids.

Kouki was the first to react as he said, "What are you doing, Masashi-san, let him go!"

"You either, I don't like your righteous ass acting as if you know what's best in the world."

At this point, Kouki just went into his crazy mode where whatever he says is right and anyone else is wrong.

"Let him go!" He screamed at Masashi as he charged at him with his sword.

"…Really? That's what you do? I'm disappointed honestly."

As Masashi said that he released his [Intimidation] full force at Kouki who ended up falling face first on the ground and shivering at the dreadful pressure that after the years of regular use had killing intent added to it since Masashi had killed so many people and monsters.

Meld still trying to keep some semblance of civilness said, "Please Masashi-Kun, stop it. We all should just talk like rational people first before acting."

"Yeah?" Masashi just grinned at Meld evilly.

"What are you gonna do if I don't?" He said as he released his soul pressure toward all the people in the room who could be considered combatants.

"I'm tired of all you people's bullshit. This kid just tried to kill the guy who saved all your asses and you all are here defending his bitch ass."

Suddenly Kaori interrupted him, "…Tried to? Tried to? You mean to say that he's still alive?" She's able to speak as Masashi treated most of the students as non-combatants.

"Of course he is, if such a dumb thing was able to kill him, wouldn't it be just fucking sad." Masashi grinned at Kaori.

"Really! We have to go get him! He might be hurt! Please we have to go!" She said grasping at straws as she pleaded.

Masashi ignored her ramblings as he said to the still choking Hayama, "You like her, don't you? You hate that she loves the kid instead of you right? Well congratulations, your jealousy just got to your head and brought you to DAMNATION." Masashi emphasized the last word, as he equipped his [Armor of Damnation].

Looking at the devilishly handsome figure of Masashi as he delivered justice to Hayama, some of the girls had hearts in their eyes as they were a little crazy after being so close to dying.

Mai just rolled her eyes at all this posturing that Masashi was doing in front of these kids.

'Can you get it over with? I want to play around with you and explore this dungeon.' Mai sends a message to Masashi in a coquettish tone, tempting Masashi.

'Come on let me have some more fun.' Masashi mentally sends her the image of him with puppy eyes.

'Sigh, fine, have fun. It's entertaining to see at least.'

'I love you.'

"All right whatever most of you people suck and I don't like you. I'm going to take care of my shit and stop wasting time with you all."

Masashi released his hold on Hiyama's neck, making the already fainted guy fall.