vol 8 pt 1

ARIFURETA SHOKUGYOU DE SEKAI SAIKYOU (WN)

V8 C1

Versus Demon race I

The red-haired woman of the Demon race who appeared before Kouki's party revealed a cold smile as she looked at Kouki's party who had widened eyes with surprise.

Similar to her hair, the color of her eyes were also red, and she wore a dull-black rider suit-like clothing. Its design was fitting to her body, so her splendid curves could be seen well even in the dim dungeon. Moreover, there was the opening on the chest area, where the splendid twin hills seemed like it was going to spill out at any time. Furthermore, her flowing hair behind her, and her characteristically slightly pointed ears was truly captivating. Most of the male students were blushing even though they know it wasn't the right time.

"You are the hero, right? Yes, you, the one wearing a stupidly sparkling armor."

"St-Stupid… sh-shut up! I won't accept being called stupid by someone from Demon race! Besides, why would a person from the Demon race be in a place like this!?"

Kouki spoke without thinking, and used his slight anger to recover from his surprise, questioning the purpose of the woman of the Demon race.

However, the Demon race woman thought of Kouki's question as annoying and ignored it. Then, she very reluctantly continued saying.

"Haa~ Even though this is absolutely unneeded… Well, this is an order after all… You, I mean the overly sparkling one. Won't you come to our side?"

"Wh-What did you say? Come to your… what do you mean!?"

"Looks like your comprehensive ability is rather low. The meaning is exactly as I said. An invitation for Mr. Hero. I want you to come to our side. There are various preferential treatments, too, you know?"

Time was needed for Kouki's party to completely understand the unexpected words. Then, the classmates looked at Kouki, who glared at the woman from Demon race with strained and disgusted expression. It was then when they understood what she meant.

"I refuse! How dare you… asking me to betray… Human race… my comrades and the people of this Kingdom! It's exactly as I heard; the Demon race is an evil existence! You purposely came her to invite me, but for you to come alone is too foolish! We have the numbers. So, surrender now!"

Kouki's words made the other classmates felt at ease. They thought Kouki would definitely refuse it, but they could not deny that they were slightly worried about it. However, his childhood friends, Ryuutarou and Shizuku, didn't even worry about it.

On the other side, the woman of the Demon race didn't even pay any attention to the immediate refusal, and she muttered, "I see." In fact, when Kouki's shouted his reply, it annoyed her.

"Well, my superior also said it was okay for your comrades to come with you, you know? So how about it?"

"My answer is still the same! No matter what you say, I absolutely won't betray Human race!"

Without discussing with his comrades, the representative, Kouki, immediately answered as such. And as though implying the invitation was something unpleasant, Kouki activated the Holy Sword, which then became cladded in light. There's no more need for discussion, and I will use force if you don't surrender!

Behind him, Nagayama and Shizuku clicked their tongues in secret as they took maximum precaution to their surroundings over the Demon race woman. Considering their situation, the two contemplated to change the location even if they must lie to the Demon race woman. However, Kouki had already answered in anger before they could bring up their idea. Since it could not be helped now, they prepared for anything unexpected to happen.

But if they thought about it, normally, no matter how adept the Demon race were in using magic, they would not come to such a place alone. It was even more unbelievable that she flawlessly manage to annihilate the demonic beasts in the current floor, in addition to not leaving a single trace. If the Demon race was so strong, and she was able to achieve all that, then they would have already trampled the Human race by now.

Besides, the Demon race woman didn't even break a sweat when she reached this floor ahead of the 15 humans. Thinking of how she concealed the signs of combat, it made one fear thinking something laid in wait since they step into the floor, and one would think she had the geographical advantage. It would not be strange if something happen.

The crisis the two had sensed was immediately proven to be correct.

"I see. Then, I won't ask any more. Also let me say this… to invite you is not my main priority, so don't even think of something naive like I won't kill you. Lutos, Havell, Enki. It's time to eat!"

The Demon race woman called out three names and, CRAAASH! Sound of something crushed echoed along with Shizuku and Nagayama's anguished voices when they were blown away at the same time.

"Guh!?" "Gah!?"

It was not known what blew the two away. With the order of the woman of the Demon race, they sensed the left and right spaces of Kouki's party suddenly blurred. There were "existences" approaching them with speed comparable to "Ground Shrinker," and attacked the unprepared classmates who were watching the conversation between Kouki and the woman of the Demon race.

Even with Shizuku and Nagayama's maximum precaution from the very beginning, they were barely able to notice the surprise attack, and they stood to protect the students who were suddenly the aim of their invisible enemy.

Shizuku was a speedfighter, so her defense is low. Therefore, she drew her swords into a cross towards the blurring space, and tried to jump back to dull the force when she received the impact. However, the enemy's attack power was far greater than she had imagined, so her defense was broken, and she was thrown to the ground, sucking all the air in her lungs. There was even shallow cut on her abdomen.

Nagayama was a "Great Martial Artist," which owned special aptitude towards defense even among hand-to-hand fighter class. He had acquired the skill derived from "Body Strengthening" called "Body Hardening," which was similar to "Vajra," and both skills had great credibility as they were far stronger than a steel shield. Coupled by his huge figure, his hard to break through defend made him suitable to be called a human fortress.

However, even Nagayama had his defense broken through by that "existence," and was blown away while splattering blood from his deeply wounded arms. He barely escaped the additional damage of crashing into the ground by chance, and landed on Hiyama's gang who was in the rear.

The glass cracking-like crushed sounds came from the barrier magic Suzu had chanted beforehand; similar to how Shizuku took maximum caution. It was something she did immediately when she instinctively sensed the crisis. The location was at the rear side of the party. She didn't feel the "existences" there, but she somehow used the barrier to not only envelop Shizuku and Nagayama, but also everyone on the rear. It was something she did instinctively which could also be said that it was due to her experience. Her action was extremely correct. Without Suzu's barrier, the third blurred space would mercilessly cut up Nagayama and other party members.

However, Suzu was immediately blown backward as compensation of splendidly protecting her allies because she directly received the impact from the crushed barrier. Fortunately, Eri was right behind her and she successfully caught Suzu, but the crisis had not ended yet, when the third blurring space immediately began to move in pursuit just like the other two blurring spaces, wounding Shizuku and Nagayama.

Because of the suddenness, those classmates who could not react towards the three approaching blurred spaces… at that moment,

"Give the grace and divine protection of light to us! "Heavenly Time," "Heavenly Perimeter," "Heaven Interruption!"."

Kaori activated three light magic at the same time with almost no chanting; she was able to omit some of her chants.

The first magic spell was a mid-rank recovery magic, which immediately healed Shizuku and Nagayama, who were wounded, blown away, and landed on the ground. It was a magic spell capable of healing more than two people remotely away from her. Faint white lights poured on the two people who somehow managed to stand up while groaning because of the pain; their wound recovery rate was abnormal.

The second spell was used to allow Suzu and the others to be unnoticable by the three blurred spaces. Similar faint white light poured into them. The light buoyantly expanded, and an area of light appeared at where they were at.

"Heavenly Perimeter" was a mid-ranked recovery magic, and it was the so called auto-regen. Although the duration was long, the amount recovered was little at a time. It had the feature of wrapping the surrounding with light made of magic power while the magic was activated. Kaori was using that feature, and the recovered amount was set to the lowest to indirectly reveal the appearances of the unknown enemies.

What appeared inside the white light were strange demonic beasts with lion head, dragon-like limbs, sharp claws, snake as the tails, and eagle-like wings on their backs — the so called Chimera. They must have peculiar magic for camouflaging. It was a quite troublesome ability, since not only were their appearances camouflaged, their presences as well. However, the fact that they could not exhibit their full power in that state, and thus the blurred spaces, was a blessing in the midst of misfortunes.

After all, even Shizuku and Nagayama who held the best combat prowess among the classmates were incapacitated with only a blow. They were enemies to be feared. Their powers were completely far above the demonic beasts the students had met on the previous floors, and obviously even stronger than the demonic beasts in this floor.

The three Chimeras readied their claws and fangs in pursuit as though they knew the location even inside the light. Their targets were Shizuku, Nagayama, and Suzu, these three. However, their fangs and claws could not reach the three, since three shields of light appeared before each of them and the attacks were averted in a hair's breadth, and the angle slightly moved while the shields were crushed by the Chimeras' attacks.

They were the mid-ranked defense spell, "Heaven's Interruption." It was the higher ranking version of the beginner-ranked light defensive magic, "Light's Interruption," where more than two shields produced at the same time. Even the "Barrier-user," Suzu was using this magic, and by replenishing the destroyed edges of the shield in high-speed, it was possible to stall time though it'd soon to be destroyed when weakened. In this respect, Kaori could not reached Suzu whose specialty was barrier, since she could not use it like such as even when her aptitude towards light element is high. At best, she could only do minute adjustments to the shield.

However, the shields were helpful. At the moment Suzu's strong barrier was destroyed in a blow, Kaori realized her barrier would be useless, so she chose a method to avert the attack. To begin with, she didn't expect the incoming attacks would be the same as before, so it was more like a sink or swim situation. She was lucky it went well.

The three Chimeras whose attacks were averted, became irritated and moved to attack again. The time she gained was only a moment. It was as though the Chimeras didn't find it troublesome. However, there was no change that the most expensive thing to buy was time, even if it was just a moment. Kouki and the others didn't miss that moment.

"Get away from Shizukuuuu!!"

So, is it okay to attack Nagayama?, No one said just a sentence. Perhaps because of anger, Kouki roared and used "Ground Shrinker" to immediately reached the Chimera near Shizuku. Kouki's movement speed was so fast that he left after images. He swung his Holy Sword towards the Chimera's neck, and the sword became shinier.

At the same time, Ryuutarou took on the Chimera that went to attack Nagayama with his thrusted fist in a karate stance. Rather than a direct attack, he thought it'd be faster to attack using the gauntlet-type artifact's ability, shock wave. A war cry came from Ryuutarou and magic power was supplied to the gauntlet.

Furthermore, Eri, who caught the blown away Suzu, thrusted her hand out, began to chant when she felt the same crisis as Suzu, and powerful fire magic was activated. It was a mid-ranked magic called "Sea of Flame," and just like the name, it was a ranged magic that manipulated tidal waves of flame. Even agile enemy would not be able to easily avoid it.

With sublime power and speed, Kouki swung the Holy Sword down from an upper stance. While Ryuutarou's thrusted fist drew out a form that couldn't even be more splendid and resulted in a violent shock wave that went forward just like a cannonball. Eri's deathbringer, crimson tidal wave surged to swallow its target, turning it into ashes and dusts.

However…

""ROOOAAAR!!"" "GuUURawwwr!!"

Unbeknownst to them, some things had hidden themselves. Three shadows roared and attacked Kouki's party right before their attacks would directly hit their targets.

""Hmmmph!?""

The suddenness of this situation made Kouki and Ryuutarou felt chills running down their spines. Two of the shadow rushed towards Kouki and Ryuutarou with tremendous power, and the metal maces in their hands were swung with great speed.

Kouki immediately used the sword's centrifugal force to twist his body while Ryuutarou raised his left hand towards the incoming mace instead of his thrusted out right hand. With his balance broken, Kouki rolled on the ground, and Ryuutarou was blown away by the enemy's second attack, a punch, after he defended against the mace.

What attacked Kouki and Ryuutarou were demonic beasts with appearances similar to Brutal, with a height of 2.5 meters. However, even though they were similar to monsters in RPGs such as Orc and Ogre, the Brutals were like pigs while these demonic beasts were considerably smart. Furthermore, their Brutal-like bodies were strengthened to their limits. In fact, the strength and speed from the previous surprise attack could not be compared to Brutals.

On the other side, even though Eri didn't receive any direct attack, the psychological impact she received was greater than Kouki and Ryuutarou's. Reason being, the shadow that suddenly appeared opened its mouth and begun to inhale the surging tidal waves at once. WoOOOoosh! The expansive flame gathered at a single point and disappeared. The shadow inhaled all of the flame in only tens of seconds.

What appeared in the space where the flame and heat disappeared was turtle-like demonic beast with six feet. The shell on its back was dyed in crimson, just like the rampaging flame that earlier changed its target to ashes.

In the next moment, the turtle with six feet finished absorbing the flame and once again opened its mouth wide. At the same time, the shell on its back shined intensely and red light appeared inside its opened mouth. It was just like how energy was collected before a laser beam was fired.

Seeing that, an impatient expression appeared on Eri's face; she had no room to spare since she had just fired her magic. However, her impatient was blown off by the usual cheerful voice of her best friend in her arms.

"Don't underestimate me! Come in succession o' light of protection and be revived as long as I have the will, "Heaven's Interruption"!"

In a moment, ten light shields appeared in succession before Suzu and Eri. All of the shields were set up diagonally at 45 degree angle. The super-high temperature beam was fired by the six-legged turtle at the same time the shields appeared, and parried upward through where the shields were crushed.

Even so, the power of the beam was greatly above the attack from the previous demonic beasts, since it only needed a moment to pulverize a shield. Suzu was gritting her teeth and chanted in succession to construct new shields one after another. It could be said it was as expected of a "Barrier-user," the shield's construction speed rivaled the speed of the shield's destruction and succeeded in parrying the six-legged turtle's beam, barely.

The parried beam hit the dungeon's ceiling accompanied with great tremor, pulverizing its surroundings, and the scattered scorching minerals fell down like a rain.

"Damn it! What's just happened!?"

"Just what are those demonic beasts!?"

"Shit, let's defeat them now!"

Only until the situation progressed this much did Hiyama's gang and Nagayama's party slipped out of their confusion and prepared to fight. The wounded Shizuku and Nagayama were also healed completely, and they began to respectively attack the Chimeras.

Shizuku entered the super-high-speed world, and not even her after image could be seen. Voom! Her figure disappeared with a sound of exploded air, appearing right behind the Chimera in the next moment, and she used the sword drawing technique to unsheathe her swords that had returned to their sheaths before anyone noticed.

"No Beat," it was a skill that enable movement without preliminary action. Rather than simply moving with speed without leaving any after images, one just could not catch up with her movement, which rapidly quicken and slowed. In addition, her sword drawing and slashing speed were further increased by the skills derived from Swordsmanship. The speed of the naked blades was even faster than what an ordinary living being would recognize as a swift flash.

To return the blow she received a while ago, she used one of the Yaegashi-style secret techniques, "Void Severing." It cut even the space just like its name; at one moment one could see the silver-colored trajectory of the sword, and the Chimera's snake tail was severed into two in the next moment.

"GURAaaaaWR!!"

Raising roar of anger, the Chimera turned around and swung its sharp claws. However, its attack only cut through the air; Shizuku had already moved to the other side. She swung her two swords, and cut the Chimera's flank.

"Kuh!"

Shizuku used her speed to steadily damage the Chimera. However, Shizuku's expression didn't clear up, inadvertently leaking a sound as though she had been bitten a bitter bug. It was because her calculation had been wrong. In reality, Shizuku had wanted to cut the Chimera's body apart with the first strike, but she could not do that, and the snake tail entered her slashing range instead. Even the second slash that supposed to cut the Chimera's body in even halves were stopped when it quickly bent its body right before the slashes reached it.

The Chimera could not keep up with Shizuku's speed. However, it was not like it could not respond to her. It could not see her figure, so it was barely able to respond to Shizuku's extreme speed using its reflex speed; a truly troublesome opponent. It was something more than troublesome for Shizuku who wanted to finish the fight quickly and rescue the others.

Afterwards, she swung her swords for the third and fourth times, and though there were numerous wounds on the Chimera's body, they were too shallow to become a mortal wound. In addition, the Chimera began to become accustomed to Shizuku's speed. An impatient expression appeared on Shizuku's face.

The bad things continued for Shizuku, no for all of them.

"CAAAWWWW!!"

When she heard a shriek suddenly resounding around the room, dark red light wrapped the severed tail and wings before her, and the Chimera's wounds immediately healed. Kaori's "Heavenly Perimeter"'s effect had been significantly lowered, and thus, wounds were not supposed to be healed easily no matter how shallow they were. Shizuku opened her eyes wide and looked at the source of the shriek, while she kept caution towards the healed Chimera.

Thus, unbeknownst to her, the Demon race woman who was standing idly like an unconcerned spectator had a double-headed white crow riding on her shoulder, with one head turned towards Shizuku. More accurately, it was facing the Chimera before Shizuku.

"There's even a healer!?"

She thought she finally wounded the difficult enemy, but it was immediately healed. Even at the best of times, lots of time would have passed before she could attain the victory. However, now, there was an excellent healer in stand by for the Chimera. Such a situation made Shizuku screamed instinctively.

Not only Shizuku, her comrades at the other places similarly raised bitter screams.

Kouki, who fought the Brutal-look-alike while receiving support, had almost finished after he deeply cut the Brutal-like body from shoulder to the waist, but the crow's other head was looking at the wound, and when it shrieked, it was healed as though time had rewinded.

The same thing happened to Ryuutarou and Nagayama. The second Brutal-look-alike Ryuutarou was fighting had its abdomen hollowed out as though it had exploded, and one of its arm was broken. However, it was immediately healed when the head that was looking at the Chimera Shizuku was fighting against, turned towards it and shrieked. Even the Chimera Nagayama had battled against that had parts of its body caved in was immediately healed.

"Looks like you have quite the hard time. What will you do? Will you come to our side now? If it is now, I will let you think for a while, you know?"

Seeing Kouki's party having a hard fight, the woman of the Demon race clapped her hands with composed attitude and once again spoke to invite them. To begin with, she asked the question knowing what the answer will be, and her expression remained cold. Her expectation turned to be right.

"Don't joke around! We won't yield to your threat! We won't be defeated! And I will give you the proof! Here I go, "Limit Break"!"

The words of the woman of the Demon race made Kouki raised an expression of indignation. He used the Holy Sword to counter the Brutal-look-alike's swung down mace, and used the chance to activate "Limit Break".

Cladded in divine light, Kouki shouted this would be the end, and charged towards the woman of the Demon race.

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ARIFURETA SHOKUGYOU DE SEKAI SAIKYOU (WN)

V8 C2

Versus Demon Race II

"Limit Break," a skill that temporarily triples ones basic stats using magic power, however, it is literally breaking one's limit; so, it cannot be used for a long period and the user will be weakened proportionally to the time it was use afterwards. That is because of the severe fatigue and results in the inability to use even half of one's original power. Therefore, the time and place to use this last-resort skill should be thought out carefully.

Because of the demonic beast's strength and recovery, Kouki judged that the morale of his companions would plummet if this kept up, so he used "Limit Break" to immediately defeat the White Crow and the Demon race woman.

With Kouki's declaration of "Limit Break," pure white light wrapped around his body. At the same time, the Brutal-look-alike, whose mace attack was counter attacked again, didn't notice the change in Kouki.

"O' blade-like will, bear the light and tear my enemy, "Light Sword"!"

Kouki bent his body forward to dodge the Brutal-look-alike's mace. He then immediately slashed from below using the Holy Sword which was extended by the blade of light.

He had slashed the enemy before by using "Light Sword," and although it received a severe wound, it wasn't life-threatening. However, this time he was using "Limit Break," which tripled his stats, and with the effect of "Light Sword," the Brutal-look-alike was diagonally cut in two, as though it was made of butter.

One beat later, the Brutal-look-alike's body shifted diagonally and boom!, it crumbled with a raw sound. Kouki put strength into his legs and immediately accelerated fiercely towards the Demon race woman.

Nothing obstructed the space between Kouki and the Demon race woman. Although it was said that the Demon race was a superior race in terms of magic, but it was too late for her to do anything. With this, she would be slashed along with the white crow, the end. Everyone thought so.

At that moment,

"""""GUUURAAAAAARRRRRWW!!!"""""

"Wha—!?"

There were six blurred spaces, and they attacked Kouki while roaring loudly. Because the Chimeras were attacking simultaneously from all sides, Kouki instinctively raised an astonished voice and his eyes opened wide.

He immediately slammed the brake, dodging the attack from the front, and used Holy Sword to slash the Chimera attacking from his right. Next, he believed in the performance of the Holy Armor and endured the deadly attack he received on his back.

However, those were the only things he could do. The claws of the Chimera on his left hit his shoulder. He flew outside of the encirclement when the last Chimera suddenly jumped, dug its foreleg claws on Kouki's shoulders, and pinned him.

"Ack!!" A cry slipped through his grit his teeth.

He was barely able to stop the Chimera that was about to pierce its fangs in the scruff of his neck with Holy Sword. With claws digging into his shoulders, the power to block the jaws was reduced. Kouki who had already broken his limit was gradually cornered, and he could not bring forth enough power.

"O' light of grace, bring your healing and warning to this place, "Heavenly Burn"! "Binding Seal"!"

Seeing Kouki in such a pinch, Kaori promptly activated recovery magic spells. "Heavenly Burn" was a mid-ranked healing magic with a single target. Its effect was higher than the recovery magic, "Heavenly Time," she used earlier to heal several people. However, the Chimera's claws were digging in Kouki's shoulders, so it wouldn't be healed the way things were going.

Therefore, she activated mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Binding Seal," at the same time she activated the healing magic. "Binding Seal" was a magic that produced a cage of light centering on the confined object — Kaori used that magic on Kouki. The cage of light instantaneously expanded around Kouki and pushed the Chimera away.

With the claws coming out of his shoulders, "Heavenly Burn" demonstrated its effect and Kouki's wounds were instantly healed.

At the same time, some people from the rear, such as Suzu and the rear guard group who were fighting against the Chimera and the six-legged turtle, released attack magics towards the Chimeras attacking Kouki. However the distance was too far and they could not get a good aim, even when they had had the effects of Kaori's "Heavenly Perimeter," they were still unable to deal great damages to the Chimeras.

Even so, they were able to buy time for Kouki to regain his balance. Next, he readied his Holy Sword, chanted, and charged to counter attack when he was fully healed.

""Soaring Four Wing Blades""

He swung the Holy Sword which drew a curve in the air, and four slashes of light appeared from the space where he swung at. The targeted Chimeras sensed the crisis beheld by Kouki's action strengthened by "Limit Break," and immediately jumped away to evade.

However,

"Capture them, "Restrain"!"

With a chantless-like short chant, Kaori activated mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Restrain." Numerous chains of light jumped out from the evading Chimeras' feet and twined around their neck and feet. Though it was not difficult to get out of it with the strength the Chimeras possessed, they were stopped for a moment and could not evade.

As a result, the four Chimeras were directly hit by Kouki's "Soaring Blade"s and died as their blood splattered around.

Kouki glared and pointed his Holy Sword towards the Demon race woman.

"How regrettable; your last resort was ineffective against us. Now there's nothing else to protect you!"

Upon hearing Kouki's words, the Demon race woman looked dubiously, no, looked at Kouki with amazement. In her mind, she thought, "Why was it necessary for him to declare that now? Wouldn't it be better for him to immediately slash me?"

Even though the Demon race woman should have been cornered, her composed attitude irritated Kouki. First she let out Chimeras, next Brutal-look-alikes, and now Chimeras again. Those surprise attacks were also the source of his irritation. "You only used surprise attacks and didn't fight fairly. Moreover, you're just spectating. What a coward!" Kouki shouted.

"… Well, that's not my last resort."

"What a bluff!"

"Anyway, forget about whether or not it's a bluff, but what will you do after you repel those? I have confirmed your power as the "Heretic Apostles," so I have no more business with you."

"What ar—" "KYAAA!"

"— Kh!?"

The Demon race woman said while going through the trouble of flipping her hair, when a scream rang out from behind him the same time Kouki was questioning her.

Kouki reflexively looked back, and what greeted his eyes were five Brutal-look-alikes and Chimeras. Furthermore, there was a black, four-eyed wolf he had never seen before who was ridden by a 60 centimeter black cat with four tentacles. They simultaneously attacked his comrades and Kouki could see the spectacle where the black cat's tentacle pierced through the flank of one of his best friends in Nagayama's party, Nomura Kentarou. The one who screamed was Yoshino Mao, also from Nagayama's party.

"Kentarou! Damn you, don't you get carried away!"

"Mao, calm down! I will heal him!"

A member from their party, Endou Kousuke, slashed the tentacle that pierced Nomura and he glared at the black cat with eyes blazing in anger.

Nomura fell and raised an anguished voice, which made Yoshino dumbfounded, but only to be scolded by Tsuji Ayako who immediately activated healing magic. It was a blessing that she completed her chant completed before the tentacle cut by Endou healed up.

"Wh—, there are still more—!"

As he looked back, Kouki made a surprised sound because there were new reinforcements that appeared unbeknownst to him.

"The effect of Chimera's peculiar magic, "Camouflage," activates on whoever it touched. Or have you not thought of such a thing? Looks, there's more of them."

"Kh!?"

The large amount of demonic beasts that suddenly appeared had reversed the situation, and Kouki and his comrades were now the ones who were inferior in terms of numbers. Seeing that, Kouki hurriedly turned back. To Kouki, the Demon race woman gave away the secret of the Chimera's "Camouflage" effect and further revealed more demonic beasts. Ten four-eyed wolves and black cats appeared from behind her and rushed towards Kouki.

"Kuh— oOO!"

The black cats' tentacles extended at extraordinary speed and attacked Kouki from all directions. Kouki made a pinwheel rotation to cut the incoming tentacles using the Holy Sword, but one of the black cats had gotten close to his side and tried to hit him. It was aiming at Kouki's face, so the jumping black cat shouldn't have been able avoid his attack mid-air. Kouki said, "One down!," when he was convinced of the demonic beast's death.

However, his conviction was easily overturned in the next moment. Somehow, the black cat did a somersault in mid-air and avoided Kouki's attack. Next, sharp claws that didn't suit the cat's physique targeted Kouki's neck.

Kouki was barely able to move his head and avoided the attack, but he was unable to respond to a four-eyed wolf's attack that came from behind him, due to the collapse of his balance. It didn't result in a serious injury thanks to his defense of his armor and the strength from exceeding his limit. He then mightily jumped away and returned to his comrades.

With that, the obviously abnormally strong demonic beasts surrounded Kouki's party. Everyone tried to fight back desperately, but what was even more troublesome was that the enemies had suddenly increased in numbers and were cooperating. In addition, the white crow would immediately heal the demonic beasts if they didn't die in one hit.

Although the frontline somehow managed to avoid collapsing, thanks to the continuous healing of Kaori and the other "Healer," Tsuji Ayako, they still could not do anything to break the situation.

Kouki dealt damage to the enemies using the power he gained from "Limit Break," but it had become impossible for him to attack the demonic beasts with "hit and run" tactic while cooperating with the others.

With high-speed movement comparable to Shizuku's "No Beat," the black cat and the four-eyed wolf that possessed a skill called "Prediction," had excellent teamwork which resulted in the evasion of what should have been a mortal wound.

They desperately fought back, but shadows of despair gradually began to loom over the expression of the classmates. That feeling grew larger thanks to the participation of the Demon race woman in the battle.

"The golden eyed lizard sleeping in the depth of the ground, the magic-eyed king born in this world, the one who brought the curse of darkness within his view. What I seek is the eternal and everlasting prison of darkness. Neither terror, nor despair, nor sorrow, to lock out my enemies with those eyes, and what remains would be demise, only cold sanction sculptures. Crush everything and return them to the ground! "Final Prison"!"

Immediately after the chant was finished, a gray orb appeared from the woman of the Demon race's outstretched hand and flew towards Kouki's party drawing a parabola. Although it could not be called fast, there's no one currently in Kouki's party who could not evade it. At a glance, it was truly not a marvelous magic, but the one whose abdomen pierced by the tentacle, Nomura Kentarou, was already pale faced because of the blood loss, and became paler. He shouted,

"Kh!? Fuck! Taniguchi—!! Stop that thing! Use your barrier!"

"Eh!? R-Roger! Bring a sanctuary that won't let the God's enemy pass here! "Holy Interruption"!"

Nomura, who was at his wit's end ordered, and Suzu used shortened chants to invoke high-ranked defense magic of the light element. The shining barrier created a dome-like state and surrounded Kouki's party. Because "Holy Interruption" didn't have a function to detect friend or foe, there were lots of demonic beasts wrapped inside the dome-like barrier. Not only was it a strong magic, it also had high magic power consumption rate. It was the reason why it was often not used in meaningless fights. However, Nomura's shout told her the danger of the magic activated by the Demon race woman, so at the very least, she wanted to use a strong barrier magic and immediately chose "Holy Interruption."

The gray-colored swirling orb immediately collided with the barrier right after Suzu expanded the "Holy Interruption." The gray orb had tremendous pressure and strength belied by its appearance to break through the barrier. To not let it break through, Suzu gritted her teeth and desperately endured the feeling of her magic power being consumed.

Then, as if they received an order from the Demon race woman, the demonic beasts' movements changed. Several all of them began to aim at Suzu simultaneously.

"Suzu!"

"Protect Taniguchi!"

Eri fired her magic to obstruct the approaching Brutal-look-alike as she called Suzu's name. With Suzu in the center, there was Eri with Saitou Yoshiki and Kondou Reiichi fighting against a Chimera, and a four-eyed wolf in opposite of her. Nomura came to Suzu's side.

However, a black cat suddenly appeared from the crack of their defense towards the unmoving Suzu who could not move while maintaining "Holy Interruption." Nomura immediately activated "Stone Spear" and skew it to the ground. However, the black cat was zigzagging mid-air, bent its body to avoid the stone spear, and thrust out all of its tentacles.

"Taniguchii!"

"Agh!?"

Nomura called Suzu's name to warn her, but it was too late. The tentacles had instantly pierced the Suzu's stomach, thigh, and right arm while she tried to dodge. Her small body was caught and was thrown to the side with a strong force.

With splattered blood, Suzu's back struck the ground and her breath hung. Then, she screamed due to the incapability to endure the severe pain the same time she regained her breath.

"AaAaAUGH!!"

"Suzu-chan!"

"Suzu!"

Hearing her agonized voice, Kaori and Eri instantly screamed Suzu's name. Although Kaori tried to focus her mind to activate healing magic, but the shining barrier Suzu made had disappeared first.

"Everyone, get away from that orb!"

Nomura warned the others with a voice filled with frustration. However, up till now, no magic could rival Suzu's impregnable defense, "Holy Interruption." That was why his warning came too slow.

With the disappearance of the barrier, the swirling grey orb flew mightily, crashed into the ground and exploded soundlessly, and scattered grey smoke to the surroundings tremendously.

Saitou, Kondou, and Nomura, ran towards Suzu who had collapsed in agony nearby. The grey smoke immediately wrapped around them. There were no shadows of demonic beasts. All of them had simultaneously distanced themselves at once.

The grey smoke continued to extend and tried to engulfed Kouki and the others.

"Come, O' wind! "Wind Bomb"!"

Kouki immediately used wind magic to create a squall, which pushed the grey smoke outside the room.

Maybe because it was created with magic, the smoke didn't easily get blown out of the room unlike ordinary smoke, but because Kouki's magic was strengthened thanks to the "Limit Break," he successfully blew the smoke away after some struggle, into the dungeon passageway.

However, what was left by the smoke was…

"That can't be, Suzu!"

"Nomura-kun"

"Saitou! Kondou!"

Saitou and Kondou had completely petrified and became unable to speak, while Suzu had her lower half of her body petrified, and Nomura who covered Suzu had the left side of his body petrified.

Saitou and Kondou were petrified with dumbfounded expressions because they didn't understand what had happened. Suzu whose lower half petrified, coupled with severe pain, had lost her consciousness with a truly pained expression.

On the other hand, the one who protected Suzu, Nomura, had the most negligible damage, but he still let out a pained groan while gritting his teeth looking like he seemed to be enduring an acute pain. Nomura's damage was slight because he was an "Earth Magic-user." Carrying the highest aptitude to earth attribute, it was natural he had high resistance against magic from Earth element.

In addition, Nomura instantaneously saw through the Demon race woman's magic because it was of the Earth element, which he had studied — high-ranked offensive magic, "Final Prison." It was a troublesome magic scattering petrifying grey smoke. Even if it was only a slight touch, the magic would gradually invade the body until one was completely petrified, and the only action to prevent it was to create barrier that'd hold up until the effect has worn off, or use strong magic to blow the smoke away. Moreover, the barrier would also be petrified unless it was a high-ranked one, and the smoke could also only be blown away using a high-ranked magic.

"Bastard! How dare you!"

Kouki raised an enraged expression because of the disaster that fell upon his comrades. Kouki, who was wrapped in a shining light due to the effect of "Limit Break," began to shine in a brighter dazzling light. He looked like he would charge towards the Demon race woman at any moment.

However, Shizuku acted as a stopper to Kouki when she yelled with an admonishing voice, followed by telling him to withdraw with all of their might.

"Stop! Kouki! Let's withdraw! The path of retreat is clear now!"

"Wh—!? After what had happened, how can I run away?!"

However, with his fury from seeing his comrades getting hurt, Kouki glared and objected to Shizuku's plan of retreating. The pressure Kouki released rushed towards Shizuku, but she received it as though it was nothing, and pressured him instead with a stern expression.

"Listen! Kaori will surely cure them. However, it'll take time. There's also the possibility of it being too late if we are too slow to treat them. So it is necessary to withdraw now and recover! Besides, we lack three people now, so if you rush out, everyone won't be able to endure the next attack! We'll truly be annihilated!"

"Ugh, but…"

"In addition, isn't it about time your "Limit Break" reached dangerous time? In this situation, it'll be truly the end if Kouki is weakened! Please calm down! Everyone also feels the same as you!"

Hearing the logical words of his childhood friend, Kouki hesitated as he bit his lip when he noticed the bleeding at the edge of Shizuku's lips, and he felt his boiling head go cold. Shizuku was also mortified. Before she knew it, she had cut her lip. Her important comrades had been done in, and if possible she wanted to immediately beat up her enemy.

"Okay! Everyone, time to retreat! Shizuku, Ryuutarou! Please endure it for a little longer!"

"Leave it to me!"

"Right on!"

Kouki thrusted up the Holy Sword and began a long chant. Until now, he didn't use any long chant because it would not have defused their earlier situation. However, it was now the perfect magic to clear a path for their retreat. But, it became necessary for him to entrust his defense to Shizuku and Ryuutarou because he was completely defenseless when he's chanting. In other words, they must face the demonic beasts aiming for Kouki. Naturally, even if Shizuku and Ryuutarou could not cope with it, they would still desperately fight back with considerable vigor even with injuries.

"Do you think I'll let you escape?" When she said this, the Demon race woman ordered the demonic beasts to block the passage behind Kouki's party. Then, she began to chant magic, with the chanting Kouki as her target.

However, that's when something abnormal began to happen to the Demon race woman.

"""""ROOOOAR!!"""""

"Kh!? Why!"

Somehow, five of the Chimeras that should be her allies were attacking the woman. While being surprised with widely opened eyes, she immediately resumed and used a shortened chant to activate her magic. High density of dust clouds became swirling blades with the woman in the center, cutting two of the attacking Chimeras. The attacks from the remaining Chimeras were somehow avoided by blowing herself away using the dust clouds.

The Demon race woman yelled, "Why am I being attacked!?" She was agitated while staring at the Chimeras that attacked her. Then, she noticed something — all of the Chimeras had parts of their bodies destroyed. There's one that was headless, and one with a deep scar in its body which still had blood dripping from it even now.

"These…"

Just as the Demon race woman noticed, the five Chimeras that attacked her were the ones defeated by Kouki. The should-be-dead Chimeras stood up and attacked her. The situation was unreal until the Demon race woman recalled a certain magic and muttered, "Don't tell me…"

"I won't let you disturb Kouki-kun!"

As she shouted so, Eri swung her hand like a baton and made the corpses of the Chimeras surround the Demon race woman.

"Tch! Necromancer, huh! I didn't get such information!"

The Demon race woman had prior investigations before she waited in ambush for Kouki's party. From the information, there's no mention of someone capable using super difficult magic such as Necromancy, so this situation was completely unexpected. That was because, even though Eri had "Necromancer" as her class, she was bad at it and never use Necromancy in actual combat, but now this fact worked in their favor.

Even if I am bad at it, I'll just overcome it! Eri thought while she glared at the Demon race woman with a powerful gaze, and skillfully manipulated the Chimeras as though it wasn't her first time doing it in actual combat. However, she was just going to buy time rather than defeating the Demon race woman.

In the meantime, Kaori used "Focus" and "Ten Thousand Heavens" on Suzu. Among the party members, Suzu was the one in the direst situation, which was why she decided on focusing healing Suzu first. "Ten Thousand Heavens" was a mid-ranked healing magic of the light element capable of curing abnormal statuses. However, the petrification magic was a considerably strong magic, and she couldn't cured it all. Though the holes in her abdomen and arm were immediately recovered, she had lost a considerable amount of blood. She was in such a critical situation where needed immediate rest. It was also necessary to heal the hole in her leg the moment her petrification is undone.

Nomura, with a petrified left side of his body, had been diligently worked on to be released from his abnormal state by Tsuji Ayako. Tsuji Ayako had a high aptitude for healing magic, but the fact that Nomura had high resistance against earth magic, made his recovery rate considerably faster. His petrified leg had already been cured.

However, even with that, Tsuji Ayako could only grit her teeth when she sneaked a peek at Kaori swinging her white wand. Although their class was the same, "Healer," Kaori was obviously above her in terms of capability. Kaori was using magic to simultaneously heal Suzu who had far more serious injuries than Nomura. In addition, she sometimes used healing magic on Shizuku and Ryuutarou who were in battle to defend Kouki. It was a feat impossible to be mimicked by Ayako. She was mortified and felt miserable because she couldn't heal all of her allies while being in a dire situation.

Although Nomura seemed to want to say something to Ayako in regards to what she was feeling, he thought it was not the right time, so he bore the pain and muttered an incantation.

With their fighting force deceased and Kouki out of the fight, Hiyama and Nakano were covered in wounds as they confronted many demonic beasts. On the other side, Nagayama's party and Eri, who were protecting the two healers, noticed they had almost reached their limits. With the current flow, it would only be several minutes before they completely exhaust themselves.

Light gathered in Kouki's Holy Sword, but Nakano, who was about to cry at any moment, panicked when she thought of this as a suicidal action. The party members anxiously waited for the time… which finally came.

"Here I go! "Heavenly Downpour"!"

One flashing line fired from the thrusted up Holy Sword. The light exploded and scattered before the ceiling, pouring down towards the surrounding demonic beasts like meteors.

This "Heavenly Downpour" was an attack magic from light element where it flew above enemies, could pinpoint several enemies, and attacked them simultaneously. Its power wasn't that high since its power was distributed among the scattered lights, and was originally used to clean up a lot of small fries. But in "Limit Break" state, this bombing-like magic was enough to clean up demonic beasts in 50th floor.

However, the abnormally strong demonic beasts brought by the demon race woman didn't receive that much damage as expected, and at most, it only blew them away from his comrades as far as possible. But it was enough for Kouki. By creating a gap, his comrades would be able to retreat while the demon race woman was still occupied by the Chimera controlled by Eri.

Having confirmed so, Kouki demonstrated the characteristic of the magic which had a stupidly long chanting.

""Converge"!"

As it pour down from the heaven, the rain of light that made the demonic beasts retreat temporarily, once again converged into the Holy Sword. The spectacle where the meteors converged as they left trails was quite a fantastic scene. Kouki thrusted the Holy Sword straight, and it shone as it cladded in light towards the demonic beasts that positioned themselves before the passage the retreat path of him and his comrades. With a war cry, he pulled the last trigger from the a series of magic.

""Heavenly Claws Downpour"!"

Immediately, numerous meteors shot like a bombardment when his thrusted the Holy Sword forward. Even though it looked the same as previous attack, it had far stronger power since Kouki used his trump card, "Heaven Might," and naturally it swept away the demonic beasts that closed their retreat path.

Normally, even if he wanted to use "Heaven Might," the chant was long and he didn't want Shizuku and Ryuutarou to protect him any longer than needed.

Even so, "Heavenly Claws Downpour" was the best technique he had in the current situation. The meteor-like torrent of lights went straight towards the demonic beasts blocking their retreat path, and caused numerous explosions simultaneously at the moment of impact. The bombardment that consisted of numerous light bullets exploded like the cluster bomb. The consecutive impacts resulted in the broken balance of the demonic beasts as they were being blown away.

"""ROOOOAR!!"""

The demonic beasts screamed as they closed their eyes. "Heavenly Claws Downpour" had an additional effect, blindness, caused by looking at the flash. The strong light generated in close proximity burnt their sights. Rubbing their eyes with their backhands, the demonic beasts blindly rampaged.

These demonic beasts were already out of Kouki's party's path of retreat. A way had opened straight to the passage.

"Now! Let's retreat!"

With Kouki's order, everyone simultaneously moved. Nagayama had carried the petrified Kondou and Saitou on his shoulders while Endou shouldered the fainted Suzu. Even though his left arm was still petrified, Nomura stood up by himself, endured the acute pain, and began to run towards the passage.

"Tch! Don't let them escape! Capture them!"

While fighting the last two Chimeras, the demon race woman ordered the unharmed demonic beasts. The demonic beasts moved as instructed and began their pursuit at once. Chimeras, four-eyed wolves, and black cats, they were all swift-footed demonic beasts, and the distance between them and Kouki's party was shortened in less than no time.

It was at that time Nomura turned around. With pained face, he thrusted out his right hand and revealed a fearless smile.

"Don't ever think I'll be defeated in earth magic! It's my payback! "Final Prison"!"

The same swirling grey orb just like the demon race woman's magic shot out from Nomura's hand. The magic orb transmitting petrification smoke collided with the incoming demonic beasts. When the demon race woman activated "Final Prison" a while ago, even without her saying anything, the demonic beasts immediately distanced themselves. That's why Nomura the demonic beasts could sense the danger that lies within the spell, and chanted it in preparation to use on the pursuer as he was retreating.

What Nomura concluded turned out to be true. The moment the grey orb shot out, the charging demonic beasts immediately slammed on their brakes and began to jumped back to distance themselves and return to their previous location. At the same time, the smoke became a smokescreen concealing the appearances of Kouki and his comrade as they were retreating.

In addition, Endou used magic to erase the remains of magic power and traces of their smells. Endou's class was an "Assassin," so he had natural talent in covert magic, and the demonic beasts were likely unable to pursue them.

The entrance of the previous room already looked smaller behind them, and maybe it was just their imagination, but mortified howls of demonic beasts seemed like it was resounding.

Kouki's party felt mortified because of their ragged bodies and their comrades who could not open their eyes. However, they also feel glad they survived, and continued to run away without saying anything.

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