Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 3
Page 21
“Move!”
“…!”
The crimson slashes descending on Bete dyed his vision red. The wind allowed him to evade, kicking each strike out of the way at the last possible moment with the knowledge that he wouldn’t survive if that blade hit home.
Even with the assistance of Aiz’s Airiel, Bete was no match for Levis’s enhanced physical strength. All his skills and techniques combined weren’t enough to overcome her power. Ax kicks, sweeping kicks, reverse cyclone kicks—it didn’t matter. The red-haired woman simply dodged and blocked his wind-infused feet, spinning like a top.
The werewolf’s onslaught tore her combat gear to shreds. One of her gauntlets went flying as the wound in her shoulder reopened, spraying blood as she spun.
“I said move, werewolf!”
Voice shaking with fury, she swung her sword even faster.
Bete jerked his body into a defensive position. Attacking was no longer an option.
“Purge the battlefield, end the war.”
A girl’s song reached Bete even as he lost ground.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the group of adventurers surrounded by a white light. The men were covered in blood, and the women fended off monster attacks with magic staffs. Their screams and the monsters’ howls sounded over the field of death.
An elf magic user stood in the middle of it all, shining like a beacon.
Bete gritted his teeth and sneered as he violently forced his body forward.
“Take this!!”
He knocked the blade back.
Bete knew he didn’t stand a chance but refused to surrender any more ground. If his opponent wouldn’t give him time to attack, he would take it.
Bete howled and bared his fangs in a crazed smile.
“The riffraff’s standing tall! And they’re not gonna see me get my ass whipped by the likes of you!”
It was the pride of the powerful and the iron will of a man.
The sight of the weak putting up a fight lit a fire within Bete, and he pushed his own limits to the point of shattering.
He poured all he had into his kicks as his feet rode torrents of wind. Back on the defensive, Levis widened her eyes before flashing an irritated scowl. Adjusting her grip, she reared back with her crimson greatsword held high.
Bete responded by jumping up with enough force to blast a hole in the floor beneath him as he spun and extended his left leg with incredible speed.
“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
Bete’s ferocious roar filled the air as he drove his foot straight toward his enemy.
The crimson sword came down toward the wind-infused kick.
Impact.
“—”
The vortex of wind provided little resistance against the crimson blade, instantly giving way.
A web of cracks raced through the metal boot from where the two weapons collided.
The leg inside the boot snapped. Blood spewed into the air as skin and muscle tore asunder and bones splintered.
Intense pain quickly followed the shock of impact. Bete’s eyes bulged in their sockets.
“Incinerate, sword of Surtr—My name is Alf!”
—That was the moment Lefiya completed her spell.
A sudden flash of emerald light reached Bete and changed the color of the battlefield.
Magic had been summoned.
“Rea Laevateinn!!”
A towering conflagration erupted from the magic circle.
The pillars of flames started where Lefiya and the adventurers were holding the line. Reaching all the way to the ceiling, the hellfire narrowly missed the other combatants while consuming all the violas in one giant blaze. The roar of the flames was so loud it drowned out their final howls.
The incredibly destructive magic left no trace of the monsters behind, burning their magic stones and ashes into oblivion. The chamber had been turned into a realm of fire.
“—Heh!”
A grin formed on Bete’s lips as red light illuminated his face in the immense heat. The monsters’ fiery demise, the girl responsible, and her protectors’ cheers—his amber eyes reflected it all. Focusing everything he had into his badly hurt left leg—spewing blood, about to give way to the crimson sword—Bete howled loud enough to rival the weaklings’ cheers.
“AWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The silver boot pushed back the crimson sword.
“Wha—?!”
An unforeseen reversal.
Although the collision launched Bete into the air, the weapon’s momentum knocked back Levis’s upper body as well. Her green eyes went wide in the fire-scape.
Bete’s sacrificial, all-in attack had been strong enough to knock Levis off balance.
Then.
A swift shadow dashed toward the woman, surrounded by swirling sparks.
Squeezing her way between the towering pillars of flames, a blond, golden-eyed girl returned to battle with a silver saber clutched in her grasp.
The tip of the blade was pointed at Levis.
“Awaken, Tempest!”
The swirling air currents around her body blasted Aiz forward like a cannonball.
Her ally had given her a window and she wasn’t about to let that go to waste. Desperate in position, she struck.
“GaHA!”
The blade arced diagonally through the air—
And sliced through the weapon that had been hastily brought up to defend.
“!!”
Her technique was flawless.
Just barely missing the center of Levis’s chest and her magic stone, the blade created a new wound that sent droplets of blood into the air as the red-haired woman hurtled backward.
“—AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
One final arcing slash to end the fight.
Both hands firmly grasping the hilt of Desperate, Aiz focused air currents down the blade to create a raging whirlwind as she jumped into the air.
And brought the weapon down—directly onto Levis beneath her.
“!!”
Levis crossed her arms in front of her chest and took the full force of the blow.
The air itself around the weapon screamed with the strike’s incredible power as the blade bore down on its target.
A heartbeat later, Levis careened backward, as though trapped in the current of a raging river.
Even slamming her feet into the floor didn’t stop her momentum. Two long gashes appeared in the floor as Levis’s one-way trip to the back of the chamber continued unabated.
She finally came to a stop with her back against the base of the quartz pillar. Once bright enough to illuminate the cavern, its feeble red light flickered silently overhead.
Victory was in Aiz’s grasp.
“Haaahh…haaah…”
She caught her breath, saber clutched in her right hand.
The protective air currents around her body going quiet as she released them, the blond swordswoman walked steadily toward the base of the pillar where Levis was waiting.
The magic Lefiya had summoned to the battlefield had turned the pantry into a charred, burning wasteland filled with sweltering heat. The birthing apparatuses that once dotted the ceiling and walls crackled as they burned away and fell to the floor. The rocky surface of the original Dungeon walls began to reappear. The adventurers, this time certain that the enemy forces had been eliminated, collapsed to the floor well behind Aiz’s back.
Levis, propped up on one knee as the blond girl approached, slowly stood up.
A shining vapor drifted from the wounds that covered her blood-speckled body—magic energy residue—as she began to heal. Eyes a bit wider than normal in disbelief, she opened her mouth to speak.
“…Seems I can’t beat you right now.”
Her green eyes showed no emotion at all while she spoke.
Levis openly admitted that consuming Olivas’s magic stone didn’t give her enough power to overcome Aiz’s wind. She was alone with no allies or monste
rs left, yet she still spoke with a calm confidence.
Aiz kept her distance, eyeing the red-haired woman with suspicion as her opponent looked up at the quartz pillar behind her.
“This is a weight-bearing pillar. If it collapsed…Well, I’m sure you can figure out what would happen.”
“!”
—She wouldn’t.
Levis ran her fingers down the surface of the quartz. Aiz rushed forward in an attempt to stop her, but it was too late.
The woman clenched her fist and pivoted at the waist, slamming all her strength directly into the base of the column.
The giant crack raced up the weakly glowing red quartz all the way to the ceiling, like the slash of a dragon’s claw. The high-pitched shatter echoed throughout the chamber, and the badly damaged support collapsed a moment later.
The ceiling of the pantry began to crumble almost immediately. Large pieces plummeted to the floor.
“……!”
“You’ll be buried alive if you stay here. Especially those friends of yours who can’t move.”
Levis casually glanced at the badly injured members of Hermes Familia; then to an exhausted Lefiya, who had pushed her Mind to the absolute limit; and finally to Bete, whose broken leg was in desperate need of attention.
Aiz bit her lip as the first pieces of the ceiling slammed into the floor behind her. Most likely, Levis had this in mind when she absorbed the final blow and made sure she wound up close to the pillar as a result.
More fragments began to fall.
The adventurers started to retreat in a panic.
“Assist the injured! Leave everything behind, escape takes priority!”
Whipping into action, Asfi called out to her allies and directed the movements of Hermes Familia.
“I ain’t some pathetic mutt! Like hell I need your help!”
“Damn, you’re such a pain! This is exactly why I hate dealing with werewolves!”
The chienthrope begrudgingly lent her shoulder to Bete in spite of his complaints.
Exchanging insults, the two raced for the exit.
“Viridis!”
Meanwhile, Filvis was reaching out to help up Lefiya, who had collapsed due to Mind Down.
However—her outstretched arms had stopped, trembling in place.
It was as though she was hesitant to touch her kin with her soiled arms, and her pride as an elf prevented her from moving forward.
Lefiya reached up and took the outstretched hand herself.
“…!”
“Do not…worry…”
The young elf’s gaze was cloudy, a weak smile on her face. Filvis’s eyes widened.
The elder elf drew her younger kin into a heartfelt embrace before lifting Lefiya off the floor.
Holding her delicate body tight against her own, Filvis raced toward the exit.
“……!”
Aiz watched the adventurers assist one another as they fell back, and she made up her mind to join them.
Her desire to help her injured allies took priority over the woman in front of her.
“Aria, go to the fifty-ninth floor.”
It was just before she turned her back to leave.
Aiz looked over her shoulder when she heard the red-haired woman’s voice.
“Things are getting interesting right now. Should answer a lot of your questions.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Surely you have some idea? If the rumors about you are true, the blood in your veins will tell you.”
“……”
“It’d be a lot easier if you went there on your own,” said Levis, hinting that taking her there by force was more trouble than it was worth.
She fixed Aiz with a narrow gaze.
“There are those on the surface trying to use us…but two can play that game.”
Levis muttered as if talking to herself. Falling silent, all she did was stand in place.
“Hey, Sword Princess!”
“Aiz, move it!”
Only when Lulune’s and Bete’s voices had cut through the din of falling boulders did Aiz break contact with the woman’s green eyes.
She then took off at full speed for the only unobstructed exit, where the other adventurers had gathered.
Aiz checked over her shoulder one last time just before leaving the cavern for good.
The red-haired woman hadn’t moved from her spot at the other end. She was just staring in her direction, green eyes unblinking until she disappeared behind a pile of falling rocks.
Turning away, Aiz helped the last of the wounded to safety.
The twenty-fourth floor’s north pantry collapsed that day.
The party of adventurers managed to escape before it was too late.
After surviving a series of fierce battles that would remain largely unknown, Lefiya and the adventurers made a brief stop in Rivira before returning to the surface later that day.
A worried Loki was quick to punish Aiz in her own way once the members of Loki Familia returned home, but they had all made it back in one piece. Bete’s badly injured leg made a full recovery thanks to Dian Cecht Familia’s healers, and Lefiya recuperated from Mind Down after sleeping for an entire day.
Filvis didn’t say much when she headed home to Dionysus Familia, sharing only a quick smile with her fellow elf. She did feel that the distance between them had drastically reduced and wanted another opportunity to talk about many things with Lefiya in the near future. According to Loki, her god, Dionysus, had a difficult time dealing with this incident and apparently “spent the day bawlin’ his eyes out.”
Unfortunately, several members of Hermes Familia didn’t make it out alive. Lefiya didn’t know what to say, but Lulune and Asfi softly smiled and only asked her to please put flowers on their graves. They also reassured the elf by saying that each of them willingly became adventurers and were fully aware of the risks involved. The girls knew their allies were prepared to die. Lulune, the one who had accepted this quest in the first place, was clearly grieved…but Lefiya was not in a position to ask.
This incident had left considerable scars on each familia, but slowly and surely, they all returned to life as usual.
“So much has happened…”
On the second day since their return…
Lefiya, feeling much more like herself, lay on her bed in her room with nothing to do, blankly staring off into space. She shared the room with several other female members of the familia, but the spacious quarters felt exceptionally empty without their company.
“Aria, huh…?”
The orb with the feminine fetus. The Evils’ Remnants. The creatures.
Her head was still spinning from all the shocking discoveries, and so many questions were unanswered. However, that name was at the top of the list.
That was what Olivas had called Aiz in the middle of the cavern.
The same thing had happened during the attack on Rivira. The red-haired woman—Levis—called her Aria as well. It sounded like they were searching for someone by that name.
Not knowing the connection between her idol and these mysterious beings got under her skin, so she went to Aiz to ask for an answer. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. Aiz didn’t tell her anything about what happened in the cavern, what Levis told her, or who this “Aria” was.
An apologetic “Sorry” was all the blond girl offered. Her voice unsteady, Aiz likely didn’t understand the situation herself.
“Uwahh…I know it is wrong to press for answers, but…” She groaned.
Plop. She rolled over in bed.
Her golden hair fanned out beneath her as she stared up at the ceiling.
“Lefiya, you all right in there?”
“…Miss Tiona?”
Hearing a muffled voice on the other side of the door, Lefiya stood up.
She went over and opened it to find not only Tiona but Tione as well.
“Are you really okay? That had to have been rough! Should you even be standing?”
“I-I have recovered, as you can see…”
Tiona bounded through the doorframe, asking one question after another. Lefiya retreated a few steps.
Smack! Tione hit her sister across the back of her head to make her cut it out. The younger Amazon’s apologetic smile let Lefiya know the sisters were worried about her and had come to see how she was doing.
The headaches and fatigue from suffering Mind Down had been so horrible the day before that Lefiya had stayed cooped up in her room.
“I only heard bits and pieces from Aiz and Bete, so what really happened is beyond me.”
“No, you idiot. You’re just too dense to figure it out.”
“Ah-ha-ha…I just remembered. The two of you were part of the group that went into the sewer systems, yes? Did you find anything?”
The Amazonian twins had accompanied Finn to investigate the old sewer network beneath the city at the same time Lefiya had been fighting on the twenty-fourth floor.
“Found a few of those flower monsters, but nothing I would call useful. Going back in was a waste of time.”
Tione shrugged.
Lefiya paused for a moment, deep in thought…Seeing the cages of monsters ready for transport in the pantry meant the Evils were the ones who had brought them to the surface.
But there was a different question on her mind.
“Um, Miss Tiona, Miss Tione…Does the name ‘Aria’ mean anything to you?”
Lefiya felt horrible for asking around behind Aiz’s back, but the thought of forever remaining in the dark on this matter wouldn’t let her remain silent.
Tiona and Tione had known Aiz long before Lefiya met her. Thinking there was a possibility they might know something, she decided to take a chance and ask.
“Aria? Never heard that name before…” said Tione as she tilted her head.
“Aria? Oh! I know!” Tiona jumped in.
“Eh?! Y-you do?!”
“Yep, I dooo.”
In truth, Lefiya hadn’t had much hope that the twins could provide any information. So the fact that Tiona of all people had the answer caught her off guard. “P-please tell me everything you know!” said Lefiya with a step forward.
“Sure thing!” answered Tiona without a second thought.
Suddenly, the Amazon started walking toward the door.