Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 3
Page 16
“Unleashed pillar of light, limbs of the holy tree!”
Her magic circle expanding, Lefiya’s chant rose high into the air.
The only way to help Bete now was to take advantage of the plant monsters’ instinct to pursue magic energy. By offering herself as bait, she could take some of the pressure off her ally.
“Pay her no mind, violas! Kill the werewolf first!”
“!”
However, the man’s voice cut through the chamber the moment the monsters paused to look in Lefiya’s direction.
They followed the man’s command and prioritized Bete, continuing their attack. The tamer’s quick reaction thwarted Lefiya’s plan.
“Enough of this!”
Wand and sword at the ready, Filvis charged headlong into the fray.
Lefiya watched and realized the only thing left for her now was to provide ranged support. She continued her trigger spell.
“You are the master archer!”
Feeling Lefiya’s concerned gaze behind her, Filvis cut her way through a never-ending stream of monster vines.
Broken-bell howls rent the air one after another as a streak of pure-white combat gear made it to the other side. Harnessing the powerful mobility that magic swordsmen were known for, Filvis swiftly beheaded the closest beast without losing her forward momentum.
She dispatched another monster with the sword in her right hand before bringing the wand in her left forward.
“Loose your arrows, fairy archers—!”
“Purge, cleansing lightning!”
There was no hesitation in her voice as Filvis ended her short-trigger spell.
Concurrent Casting executed to perfection, she aimed her wand—at the man dressed in white.
“Dio Thyrsos!”
A thick bolt of lightning blasted forth.
It tore into the flesh of monsters that happened to be in the line of fire, a jagged stream of golden plasma on a collision course with the eyes behind the skull mask.
“You idiot!!”
Bete roared as soon as he caught a glimpse of what was happening.
While he was occupied beating the remaining three creatures to a pulp, the man in white grinned and ran toward the lightning.
Filvis’s red-jewel eyes went wide, quivering at the sight.
The palm of the man’s left hand stopped her golden lightning cold. Unable to continue forward, the bolt split left and right. Although it was a short-trigger spell, it was powered by Level Three magic energy. Time slowed to a crawl for the elf girl as she watched the man demonstrate his immense power, literally cutting her magic in half with his bare hand as he charged right for her.
Lefiya was unable to scream during her incantation, but she turned pale as a ghost, lips frozen in place.
“So weak!”
Filvis saw the fist sweeping up at her and reflexively moved to avoid it.
Raising her sword at an angle to guide the blow away from her body did nothing. Her weapon provided as much resistance as a toothpick, shattering at the moment of impact. The man’s fist broke through her defense, connected, and sent her flying.
The man charged after her, catching up to the tumbling elf and reaching for her neck.
“Dammit, elf!”
“GaHA!”
It happened the instant before the man’s hand reached its target.
Bete’s foot collided with Filvis, sending her into the air once again.
The elf’s limp body arced through the air as the man in white watched with a sneer. Bete’s tattoo rippled across his cheek.
As if ridiculing the werewolf who rescued the woman, the man in white raised an arm to finish it.
Lefiya’s magic would arrive too late. The tide of battle had turned too far in the man’s favor.
All he had to do to end it was deliver the blow. Bete was defenseless, desperately trying to protect himself.
“—”
From out of nowhere…
The eyes beneath the mask widened mid-leer.
The attacker took evasive action.
His forward movement came to a halt, body tilting backward ever so slightly as a red line appeared across his chest. Eh? Lefiya thought in surprise, unable to voice it.
The sound of a blade slicing through flesh had come from the space where there shouldn’t be anything.
The red line cut deepest just below the man’s neck, and a stream of blood sprayed into the air.
Lefiya, Filvis, and Bete watched in shock as the man in white wildly swung at the air with one arm in a rage.
“Wench!”
His extended fist hit something with a sharp WHAM!
A string of loud cracks rang out after the impact, and a young woman’s body materialized out of thin air.
—Perseus!!
Glistening aqua-blue hair reflected in Lefiya’s eyes, allowing her to discern the woman’s identity.
A renowned item maker famous throughout Orario, and also the person Lulune had begged them to save. The leader of Hermes Familia, Asfi Al Andromeda.
Despite her serious injuries and being on the brink of death, she had likely made herself invisible—with a magic item that hid her from sight—and ambushed the man.
“—Look at you, now!”
A dark-black helmet had been destroyed, disabling her invisibility, and its fragments were scattered about the floor. Her voice was weak despite the faint smile on her face as she collapsed. The shortsword clenched in her fist glinted next to her, the man’s rage-filled eyes reflected in its blade.
That was the weapon that had inflicted the wound in the man’s neck, which was still gushing fountains into the air.
The werewolf, already out for blood, licked his lips as he saw the enemy lose his balance.
Eyes flashing, Bete renewed his attack with a vengeance.
“GRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
“GOAH!”
A front kick, straight and sharp as an arrow, accompanied by whirling twin swords.
The kicks kept coming—a storm of sharp slashes and powerful blows pummeled the man dressed in white.
The force of each impact sent him staggering backward. The blades cut through the cloth covering his body, splitting the skin beneath before the metal boots hammered the man’s body like rampaging wrecking balls.
For the first time, the man allowed one of Bete’s kicks to connect with his face. A web of cracks instantly spread out over his mask.
“Don’t—PUSH YOUR LUUUUUUCK!!”
Consumed by a new wave of rage, the man started to fight back against Bete’s onslaught.
As if the grotesque number of cuts covering his body weren’t there at all, he took hold of the extended twin swords and drove his fist into the flat part of the blades, breaking them in half. Bete howled as he threw away the now useless weapons and coaxed even more speed out of his feet.
Neither side was backing down.
“—Pierce, arrow of accuracy!”
The combatants matched each other blow for blow as Lefiya finally completed her trigger spell.
The bow had been drawn, the arrow nocked, and all that remained was to let it fly.
The man had yet to show any sign of pain despite the terrific strikes his body had absorbed. Unable to overcome a staunch defense that was reminiscent of a floor boss’s, Bete couldn’t deliver a decisive blow. If she was going to use magic, it was now or never.
—But how?
However, Lefiya was wavering.
She’d seen the man physically overpower magic with her own eyes. What if what just happened to Filvis happened to her, just as the red-haired woman had done in Rivira?
That woman’s ferocious visage overlapped the man in white, sending fear down Lefiya’s spine and freezing her hand in place.
“The hell are you waiting for?!”
“!”
Bete’s yell made Lefiya’s shoulders jump.
Despite being in the middle of an intense brawl, he made eye contact with her for a split second. H
is voice echoed through the cavern around the frozen Lefiya.
“Do it, shoot!!”
The look in his amber eyes provided the push she needed. The hesitation was gone.
She pulled back on the loaded bow and let the arrow fly.
“Arcs Ray!!”
A flash of light from the magic circle accompanied the pillar of glowing energy hurtling toward her target.
The man in white saw the straight beam approaching and moved to block it head-on.
“When will you learn your lesson?!”
The man thrust out his right arm to block the magic—when the beam of light started to turn.
“?!”
As for where the arrow of light was headed, it was now on course to collide with Bete’s metallic boots.
Frosvirt: a second-tier Superior weapon. What set these mythril boots apart from the rest was their ability to absorb magic.
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
Lefiya’s offensive spell, Arcs Ray, had the ability to hone in on its target.
The elf was not targeting the man in white. This magic arrow would twist and turn until it connected with Bete.
The man swiped at open air as the beam of light curved around him. Lefiya had correctly interpreted what her comrade had been trying to say. The corners of the werewolf’s lips curled upward.
His right boot pulsed with magic energy as the arrow disappeared into it.
“Rot in hell.”
“!”
His target in sight, Bete closed in at breakneck speed.
The man in white spun to evade, but Bete didn’t give him the chance.
Moving into point-blank range, he slammed his shining boot directly into his opponent.
“!”
The man in white disappeared into the explosive impact of the magically enhanced boot.
His smoking body blasted out of the plume a moment later, arms crossed defensively over his chest as he streaked through the chamber like a comet.
The man landed on his back, but his momentum carried him deeper into the chamber, ripping holes in the fleshy green floor as he went. His path through the piles of monster ash sent black clouds into the air in his wake, all the way until he came to a merciful stop at the base of the quartz pillar.
Just as the high-pitched echoes from the impact began to fade in the chamber, the sounds of battle on the other side also came to an end. Lulune and the rest of Hermes Familia had managed to dispatch the remaining robed warriors once and for all.
“Asfi!” Lulune was the first to dash across the chamber, shouting, her allies not far behind. Everyone had uncorked high potions in hand the moment they reached where Asfi fell, and Lulune dumped a virtual waterfall of Tiger Cub Elixir on her leader’s body. Light from magical healing spells enveloped the woman’s body.
Asfi, completely drenched in liquid, slowly but surely opened her eyes. Lulune was almost in tears as she dove in for a hug filled with pure joy and relief.
“Did you get him…?”
“I aimed to kill when I hit the bastard.”
Filvis returned to the group, staggering as she clutched her injured shoulder while Asfi climbed weakly to her feet. Bete looked past the elf toward the clouds of ash.
Having unloaded every bit of magical energy into that one kick, Frosvirt had returned to its normal appearance.
No matter how good the man’s Defense attribute was, it was unlikely anyone could walk away from a hit like that.
The awe-inspiring power was possible only because of Bete’s physical strength and Lefiya’s magic. The elf nervously waited as moments passed.
A plume of smoke formed from the disturbed monster ash. The cloud expanded to overtake the chamber, blinding them. Only the sloshing sounds of the gigantic flower monsters absorbing the liquid from the quartz pillar could be heard in the darkness.
“—?”
The ash began to settle, a red light penetrating through the smoke.
The ones who’d been watching the fading plume with bated breath suddenly trembled.
A human figure stood in the middle of it. It took a few steps forward a moment later.
“What kind of monster is this guy…?” mumbled Lulune as she lent her shoulder to Asfi, who was also frowning.
Most corpses looked healthier than the man in white did, but he stood on his own two feet nonetheless.
His arms were barely recognizable after taking the brunt of Bete’s attack. His forearms were broken in several places, the skin was burned to a crisp, and blood leaked from open wounds. His combat gear was in tatters, its once-white surfaces stained with blood in several places, especially across the chest.
His white skull helmet hadn’t survived. The man’s dull-white hair flowed freely.
“…That was a nice try.”
The man’s pale lips opened.
Though his face was downturned, mostly hidden behind hair, his devious smile was just visible.
“However, bodies endowed with Her love don’t crumble so easily.”
He raised his head with his mouth slightly open in a sneer. That’s when the adventurers saw it.
The man’s body was changing.
It started with the arms that Bete had all but destroyed and the cut from Asfi’s blade that had nearly taken off his head.
The wounds were closing on their own.
“Impossible—!”
Lefiya couldn’t believe her eyes.
The same was true for Filvis, Asfi, Lulune, and Bete.
This was no healing magic but pure self-regeneration. Lefiya and the adventurers watched in horror as all traces of their battle started to disappear from the man’s body. Sparkling fragments of light—residue from magic energy—rose from his body like steam.
No one present could say a thing. The last of the ash cloud dissipating, the man stepped into the light and revealed his identity.
“Wha…?”
Asfi was the first one to react.
His face, paler than a dying man’s, was such a shock that she couldn’t move.
“Mi…Miss Filvis?”
“…Why?”
Filvis had the same reaction as Asfi.
Lefiya knew something was wrong immediately when she saw the expressions on the two women’s faces and sensed the tension in the air.
Feeling Lefiya’s gaze at her side, Filvis’s lips trembled as she spoke.
“Olivas Act…”
The atmosphere became grave the moment that name reached the other adventurers’ ears. The man in white had their full attention.
The group began to stir as confusion descended upon them.
“Olivas Act…? The White Devil, Vendetta?! It can’t be!”
Voice going up an octave, Lulune blinked many times as she studied the man’s face.
It was as though her memory were arguing with her eyes. It took all she had to squeeze words out of her dry throat.
“B-but Vendetta is…!”
Lefiya looked around in confusion as the only one who had no recollection of that name. She desperately tried to meet someone’s eyes to get an explanation.
Asfi was flabbergasted, absolutely stunned—until she couldn’t take it anymore and howled at the top of her lungs:
“Impossible! A dead man cannot possibly be standing here!”
Her high-pitched voice echoed throughout the chamber.
Lefiya couldn’t quite comprehend the true meaning of her words. However, the intensity of her expression, as well as those of Filvis and all of Hermes Familia, made her blood run cold.
“A…a dead man…?”
Lefiya felt her lips shaking, but she was barely aware of her own voice as it spilled out.
Asfi attempted to dispel her own doubts by voicing what she knew about the man under the red light of the quartz pillar.
“Olivas Act…Estimated to be Level Three, he was a wanted man who was given the title ‘White Devil, Vendetta.’ His god returned to Tenkai, and the rest of his familia wa
s wiped out.”
Stepping away from Lulune’s shoulder, she took a defensive stance with her eyes locked onto him.
“A known Evils disciple…and the mastermind behind the Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare.”
“—?!”
Lefiya immediately turned to Filvis.
The Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare. A calamity of immense proportions brought on by the Evils who had claimed countless lives. It was also the event that had robbed her friend of her allies and taken her pride as an elf.
Lefiya saw all the color drain from Filvis’s face. The elf was frozen in place.
“Familias fighting in the name of the Guild cornered him during the battle, and he was consequently devoured by monsters…His death should have been confirmed when the shredded remains of his lower body were discovered.”
Her gaze never left the man in front of them while she described his gruesome end.
In the midst of her waking nightmare, she spoke to Olivas directly.
“Did you survive…?”
“No, I died. However, I have been revived from the brink of death.”
Olivas answered with great pride.
At the opportunity to show them his badly injured body—that is to say, the self-regeneration keeping him alive—a look of joy bordering on ecstasy appeared on his face. He then began to run his fingers up his legs, over his stomach, and up to his chest, caressing every curve.
The sudden change in Olivas’s demeanor sent another chill up Lefiya’s spine.
Her eyes followed his hands, leading her to notice something very unusual about him.
The skin on his lower body, beneath the torn combat gear…
Both his legs were the same shade of yellowish green as the plant monsters’.
What’s more, shining through from under the skin healing just beneath his neck was a crystal.
No, a richly colored magic stone was buried deep in his chest.
“—!”
This time, Lefiya screamed.
Others around her had noticed, too. Each of them had turned pale.
Olivas’s devious grin widened, his eyes flashing. Lefiya and the adventurers had lost all sense of calm, and the man wanted to press his advantage. Holding the wound open, he made certain that everyone could see the vivid magic stone in his chest.
“I have been granted a second life by none other than Her!!”
The red glow of the quartz pillar behind him made the man’s visage only more menacing.