by Ao Jyumonji
Tokimune was a big fan of miracles, apparently. Haruhiro couldn’t help but want to simply retort, They’re called miracles because they don’t usually happen, but he refrained. That was primarily because he had bigger concerns.
Straight ahead of them, across the four-way intersection, a whole bunch of cultists appeared.
To the right, too.
And on the left, as well.
“Which way is it, Anna-san?!” Tokimune shouted.
Anna-san pointed to the path to the left. “That way, yeah! Maybe... Absolutely! Absolutely that way, yeah?!”
“No, asking us won’t help,” Haruhiro couldn’t help but point out.
Anna-san glared at him.
“One, two, three, four...” Tokimune was getting a rough count of the number of incoming cultists. “Well, it’d be tough to run away. We’ll have to kill them, huh!”
Haruhiro didn’t bother counting. But, well, they were going to have to kill them. That was a fact.
Haruhiro moved away from Mimorin and tried moving his left arm. It hurt. It hurt intensely. It didn’t even move all that well. He drew his dagger with his right hand. The number of cultists was five in front, five more to the right, and four to the left. That was a lot. There might be more coming, too.
“Ohm, rel, ect, el, krom, darsh!” Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff and chanted the spell for Shadow Mist. The black mist-like shadow elemental burst forth, drifting towards the cultists down the right-hand path.
This’ll work—or it should, Haruhiro thought. It’s there. How is it?
The five cultists all collapsed.
Follow up with another one down the left-hand path or straight ahead, was what he would have liked to tell Shihoru to do, but it wasn’t an option. The cultists were already too close, and some of the party would end up in the area of effect, too.
“Man, Haruhiro! I sure am glad you guys came along!” Tokimune yelled.
Tokimune took off. Straight ahead. Knocking aside a cultist’s outstretched spear with his shield, he aimed for the eye. The cultist leaned back to avoid it, but Tokimune kept charging forward. He pushed down that cultist, then used Bash on the cultist to his left. At the same time, he used his sword to knock away the cultist on his right.
“We owe you for life, man!” Kikkawa shouted. “I love you, Harucchi!”
Kikkawa followed after Tokimune. It seemed Tokimune acted like no paladin should, rushing in and messing up the enemy, while Kikkawa would go in and attack the enemy Tokimune had left in utter disarray, while taking their attacks and serving as a tank.
“I’m on break,” or so Tada said, as he nonetheless sent a cultist flying with a shower of blows from his warhammer.
Mimorin used a two-handed staff and sword style, standing in front of Anna-san.
“Do it! Kill them all! Massacre, yeah!” Anna-san was apparently the team’s designated cheerleader.
“Ahh, this is dangerous!” Kuzaku cried.
Even as he complained, Kuzaku charged into the left cultists’ line of spears. While he did have a sturdy shield, it was obviously still scary. But, despite what Kuzaku said, he didn’t falter. Even as the spears scratched his shield, he closed in on a cultist and swung around his longsword. He thrust. The four cultists stopped advancing.
“Don’t worry!” Ranta declared, attacking the four cultists whose momentum Kuzaku had killed. “I’m here! Here I go! Secret skill... Dolphin Dance!”
For a moment, the vivid image of a pod of dolphins jumping around playfully flashed through Haruhiro’s mind.
Dolphins. They were sea creatures. Since coming to Grimgar, Haruhiro hadn’t been to the sea even once. Despite that, he knew what the sea was, and he could imagine it. He knew what dolphins were, too. Had Haruhiro seen dolphins at the sea before?
Regardless, this had basically nothing to do with dolphins.
Ranta slapped the cultists’ spears with Lightning Sword Dolphin. When he did, the cultists’ bodies shuddered. Using that gap, Ranta stepped in and hit their bodies with Lightning Sword Dolphin. Because of those coats they wore, he couldn’t cut them, but the cultists convulsed and collapsed. Kuzaku pressed the attack. Ranta took full advantage of the situation to attack, too.
“Use Stop-eye, then... Quick-eye!” Yume nocked an arrow to her composite bow, moving her eyes around and squinting them.
These were archery skills. Stop-eye used special eye exercises, methods of breathing, and methods regulating the body to increase shooting accuracy. Quick-eye was something like a trick for hitting moving targets.
She fired.
One cultist took an arrow in the eye.
“Nice, Yume!” Haruhiro praised her as he headed for the collapsed cultists down the right-hand path. “Merry, take care of Shihoru!”
“Okay, leave it to me!” Merry called.
Even with his left arm out of commission, Haruhiro could still handle this much. Or rather, he had to handle it. He was going to finish off the cultists Shihoru had put to sleep.
His dagger gouged out each of the cultists’ one eye. He did nothing unnecessary. He just jabbed his dagger, held with a backhand grip, deep into their one eye, twisted, and tore it free. Haruhiro probably had sleepy eyes right now. He didn’t feel anything. He carried it out like routine work.
Three down, two to go.
Cultists were rushing in his direction from further down the path. Or rather, they had come around a corner right next to him, so the danger was already close at hand. Yes, they. Sadly, it was more than one. Two. No, three.
Reinforcements. He had considered the possibility. He hadn’t done anything to prepare for it. There was nothing he could have done. The party’s hands had been full enough as it was.
I guess it can’t go that easily, huh? Haruhiro thought.
“Haru?!” Merry shouted.
It looked like she had noticed the difficult situation Haruhiro had fallen into. That might mean magical help from Shihoru would be coming. Would she make it in time? Who knew. It could go either way. After all, Haruhiro was already trying to Swat the leading cultist’s spear with his dagger. He knocked it aside, somehow.
The spears were coming. One after another.
It’s not looking like I can do this, you know? he thought.
While he focused his nerves on using Swat to deflect the cultists’ spears, Haruhiro prepared himself for the worst.
Rather than resign myself to it, I need to think about what to do next. Of course, I don’t have the time to. Still, I need to think about it and give orders. I may not be much of one, but I am the leader, after all. No, maybe I really can’t do this...?
He failed at using Swat. That was because he was thinking about things he shouldn’t be.
On his right arm, the cultist’s spear sliced off the flesh between his wrist and his elbow. He nearly dropped his dagger.
With the dagger in his weakened right hand, he tried to Swat the next spear. Somehow, he managed it. But the next one was going to be pretty hard. Well, it was probably impossible. Even so, he couldn’t stand to just die quietly.
Haruhiro tried to Swat. He missed.
“Heh!” Inui called.
Someone had beaten him to the punch. Behind the cultist who was trying to skewer Haruhiro, a man wearing an eyepatch appeared. With his trademark—or maybe it wasn’t, Haruhiro didn’t know—ponytail having come undone, his hair was loose and disheveled. But, still, it was Inui.
Inui caught the cultist’s head between his hands, then twisted hard, and suddenly...
You know, I think I’ve seen it somewhere before, Haruhiro thought. That killing style.
Inui had probably broken the cultist’s neck. It wasn’t clear if the cultist had died instantly, but it slumped to the ground limply.
The remaining two must have been surprised, because they turned to look at Inui. By that point, Inui had already drawn his two swords.
Inui stabbed his sword through one cultist’s eye. The other cultist twisted his neck,
evading Inui’s sword.
His back, Haruhiro thought.
The cultist’s back was half-turned to Haruhiro. When that happened, sometimes he would see it. That line.
Haruhiro practically glued himself to the cultist’s back, kicking his heel into the back of the cultist’s knee to break his stance. His left arm wouldn’t move properly. However, it wasn’t completely immobile. He put his left elbow against the cultist’s neck, then put his body weight on it. At the same time, he mustered what strength he had remaining to ram his dagger through the cultist’s one eye. The cultist jerked a couple of times, his body convulsing.
Is he dead?
Yeah, he was dead.
Haruhiro couldn’t hold the dagger any longer, and he let go of it. The cultist slumped to the ground.
“Ow...” Haruhiro mumbled. He was ready to cry. At this point, his right hand was more or less useless.
“Heh...” Inui picked up the dagger, then held it up in front of Haruhiro’s nose. “In the end, was it over so easily for you?”
No, you don’t know that, Haruhiro thought. What’s that line supposed to mean? Are you an idiot? And, wait, why are you alive? Damn, you’re stubborn. Seriously, you’re like a cockroach. What’s with you?
“I thought you were dead.” Haruhiro forced himself to accept the dagger using his right hand, which was causing him a distressing amount of pain. He couldn’t feel his fingertips. “I’m glad I was wrong.”
“I call myself Inui the Immortal!”
“It’s just a self-proclaimed title, huh.”
“At last, it seems the time has come for me to unleash my true power!” Inui added.
“And you’re not even listening to what I say...”
“Heh...” Inui took off his eyepatch and threw it away. “Now, I begin in earnest.”
His left eye was... normal.
He hadn’t been left with one eye after some injury? Well, what was the eyepatch for, then?
“Follow me, Harunire!” Inui cried.
Inui looked like he was about to walk off, but then he stopped to stab two cultists to death, the ones Shihoru had put to sleep, which had been looking like they were on the verge of waking up.
I don’t really understand him, but he seems reliable, Haruhiro thought.
“I’m not Harunire, though. I’m Haruhiro,” he said.
Tokimune and his group pushed, and pushed, and pushed like crazy, trying to wipe out the five remaining cultists. Ranta’s group had taken down two of their four. Inui moved soundlessly, not towards Tokimune’s group, but to Ranta’s. Then, without missing a beat in between the two, he buried his swords in the two cultists’ single eyes.
“Huh...?” Kuzaku said.
“Hey!” Ranta yelled. What do you think you’re—Wait, Inui?!”
Kuzaku and Ranta were dumbstruck.
“Pissants...” Inui pulled his swords free from the cultists, then turned slowly with a devilish smile on that face of his which looked middle-aged. “Prostrate yourselves before my true power. For I am Inui! The Demon Lord, Inui!”
“Not again, yeah.” Anna-san slapped her own forehead. “Well, fine. Everyone, follow Demon Lord Inui, yeah! Demon Lord Inui! Go!”
“Hahaha!” Tokimune kicked the last cultist to the ground, stabbing his sword into his one eye. “Hey, Inui! You were alive! And you’re in that mode, too, huh! We’ll just have to roll with it! Haruhiro, let Inui do as he pleases! When he gets like this, there’s no stopping him anyway!”
It’s not just Inui, Haruhiro thought exhaustedly. All of you people basically do whatever you want, and you can’t be stopped.
Inui was charging down the stone path at a good clip.
Haruhiro groaned. “Let’s follow him.”
Oh, whatever, thought Haruhiro. Let whatever happens happen. Or rather, I’m sure it’ll all work out.
If it all went south, they could use the Tokkis as disposable pawns and escape. Even if they did, his conscience probably wouldn’t fault him for it. No, not probably—it definitely wouldn’t. The Tokkis would have no right to hold it against them. Haruhiro and the party had done enough. No, they had done more than enough. To the point they had done more than they should have.
In the time between then until they left the maze of rubble, Haruhiro lost count of how many cultists they took out. However, with his eyepatch off, Inui was ridiculously strong. Tokimune was getting into a good groove, too. Kikkawa was in high spirits. Tada looked intense. Ranta was loud and annoying. Kuzaku was trying hard. Anna-san lost the path multiple times. Yume, Merry, and Shihoru took turns supporting Haruhiro and Mimorin.
Finally, when they escaped the maze of rubble, Inui suddenly collapsed. On closer inspection, it wasn’t just that his hair was disheveled; he had wounds all over his body. He was so heavily injured, it was a wonder that he had been moving around like he was totally fine. When Merry, Anna-san, and Yume tried to care for him, Inui didn’t even move, but when Shihoru reluctantly talked to him, he suddenly sat up. That said, he was having a hard time walking, and that was true for Tada, Mimorin, and Haruhiro, too.
Whether they were having a hard time of it or not, they had to walk back towards that initial hill.
Twice, maybe three times, Haruhiro saw Manato and Moguzo off in the distance.
That girl who was facing in his direction, was she Choco, maybe?
The next thing he knew, Tokimune and the others were trying to chase off a one-eyed dog.
Leave it alone, Haruhiro recalled saying. Though, he might not actually have said it. It might not have been Haruhiro. Someone else might have said it.
“Ohh! Look!” Ranta yelled in a big loud voice like an idiot.
He was an idiot, though. Haruhiro looked idly for Ranta. Ranta was right next to him. He was pointing at something. Haruhiro looked in that direction.
“That’s bad news...” Kuzaku, or someone else muttered.
“Sure is,” someone, maybe Tokimune, replied with a laugh.
It was a silhouette the size of a mountain.
The giant they had fought in the maze of rubble had been four meters tall, at most. They had seen a giant before on the Quickwind Plains, too. That one had surprised him, too, but it paled in comparison to this. It was a few hundred meters away, but it was truly as big as a mountain.
That giant was moving around slowly.
It was walking.
Who said, “Someday, I’m gonna beat that thing down”? It might have been Tada.
It was impossible.
Wait, why would you want to beat it? Haruhiro thought. He didn’t understand. Haruhiro didn’t understand it at all. He didn’t know when he had started walking again, either.
Even when they were attacked by the cultists hiding in the shadows of the pillar rocks, and Merry was forced to swing around her short staff, all Haruhiro could do was crawl around and try to get away.
After awhile, he lost consciousness. Whenever he came to, he was always being lent a shoulder by someone, and was surprised to find himself walking on his own feet.
He was in pain, yes, but he didn’t have a leg injury like Mimori, so he figured he was better off.
At some point, a cloth was wrapped around the wound on his right arm, and that cloth was dark, red, and wet. Who had wrapped it for him?
The wound on his back might be a surprisingly tricky one. He couldn’t feel anything from his back to his waist, but it felt strangely heavy.
“Don’t die, man,” Ranta said with a serious look on his face.
Was that a dream? Or was it reality?
“Like I could die and leave you behind...” Haruhiro mumbled.
That’s what he responded, but, I’m saying something weird, he thought. No. It was a mistake. Why would I have to die before Ranta? Don’t be silly. If you look at the way both of us act on a day-to-day basis, Ranta’s gotta die before me. I’m not gonna let myself die before Ranta, damn it.
That was what he had wanted to say.
When that initial
hill came into sight, Kikkawa carried him.
It’s fine, no need to do so much for me, Haruhiro thought, but he lacked the strength to speak up and refuse.
When they entered the hole, and advanced down it a ways, it seemed the blessing of Lumiaris had returned. Merry cast Sacrament on Haruhiro. The effect was immediate. He still felt groggy, but the pain vanished completely. His head cleared, and he at last met with the goddess called relief.
“Everyone’s okay... huh?” Haruhiro mumbled.
The Tokkis had two priests, Anna-san and Tada. They had, in fact, both learned Sacrament, so with them helping Merry, the healing was done in no time.
“That was an incredible experience.” Sitting with his back leaning against the rock wall, Kuzaku let out a deep sigh. “No, maybe not so much incredible as terrible, I guess...”
“Honestly...” Merry was crouched next to Kuzaku. “I’ve had enough...”
“That’s right.” Yume was letting the lantern she was holding bob around for no reason. She looked sleepy. “For stuff like this, y’know, doin’ it maybe once a year is enough.”
“I don’t think I want it even once a year...” Shihoru looked exhausted, too.
“Weaklings.” Tada used the index finger of his left hand to adjust his glasses. “You’re all weak. This is why you never move up in the world. Try to learn from our example.”
“Hell no,” Haruhiro said firmly.
“Huh?” Tada clicked his tongue, looking down at Haruhiro diagonally. “Well, this time, since you were able to bask in the honor of helping us, you must have felt a lot of things, too. Ruminate on this experience, and grow from it. If you don’t, it won’t have been worth us letting you help us.”
“Um, Tada-san, why are you being so condescending?” Haruhiro asked.
“Because I’m better than you, duh.”
“...Are you now?” Haruhiro asked.
“What, Haruhiro?” Tada snapped. “Do you think you’re better than me?”
“No... Rather, I don’t really care who’s better than who,” Haruhiro said.
“Hahahaha,” Kikkawa laughed. “That’s so you, Harucchi. I kind of love that side of you, you know?”