by Fujino Omori
As the first-class adventurers gaped, Mikoto’s eyes flashed with determination. She waited for just the right moment, then drew the weapon.
Welf smiled as he watched.
“Go get ’em, Fubu.”
“—!!”
The jade-colored blade sparkled as it was freed from its confines with a single swift, silent movement.
As it flashed before the eyes of Tione and Tiona, the blade released a hurricane-force gale.
“Wha—?”
“You’re kidding me!”
The sisters literally flew backward in the gust.
There was no fighting against the bombardment. The twins were blown high into the air and far away into the distance, completely unable to “withstand” anything.
Their hair whipping around them, Tiona and Tione disappeared from the battlefield.
“We did it…Oops!” Mikoto said, struggling to hold down her Reverse Veil as the powerful back draft pushed it up.
The Xenos cheered.
“Hurry up, they’re not knocked out of the fight! They’ll be back before you know it!” Welf shouted to them.
Like the Hien, the Fubu could not kill or wound. It simply created a strong wind. It lacked even the power to lacerate its victims, and so long as it was used correctly, it would inflict no wounds. The instant Tione and Tiona hit the ground, they would most likely rush back toward their opponents in a fit of fury.
But Fels couldn’t help letting out a shout, even as Welf urged the Xenos along.
“Down with the first-class adventurers!”
Mikoto may have made ample use of the magic blade and veil, but she had nevertheless driven off the sisters, and Fels was praising her for it.
And now…!
As the Xenos continued moving forward, the mage felt confident of their position.
The fact that Amazon the Slasher and Jormungand had intercepted them was likely the result of a miscalculation on Loki Familia’s part. With guards posted throughout the Labyrinth District as well as at the doors to Knossos, few troops were free to move unhindered—let alone the Sword Princess, who was glued to Bell, and Finn, who was tied up commanding the operation.
The underground path to Knossos was close now. If things continued like this, Fels believed they would be victorious. But just at that moment—
“—”
The black-clad mage saw a lone shadow cross the sky.
“I am sorry, Captain!”
It was earlier in the night, and at Loki Familia headquarters, Raul Nord was bowing obsequiously. Finn kept his back to Raul as he gazed out at the western section of Daedalus Street, which was now a battlefield.
“B-because of me, th’ battle formation was destroyed…! But th’ phony captain looked just like you! I mean he coulda been your twin. Two peas in a pod! That’s why I didn’t see through him…! Oh geez, I am so, so sorry!”
“There’s nothing to be done about it now, and I don’t have the time to hold you to account. Just answer my questions, Raul.”
With that, Finn began to calmly question his pale, quivering underling.
“Did my imposter ask you anything?”
“Huh?”
The question confused Raul. He searched his memory.
“Uh…he said monsters had been sighted in th’ south and told me to move the unit…and then, I’m fairly sure that after that he asked me where th’ guards were positioned in Knossos.”
“I see…Good work, Raul. You’ve confirmed my suspicions.”
Ignoring the bewildered Raul, Finn continued as if reciting a monologue.
“Our opponents went so far as to impersonate me in order to find out where the guards were positioned in Knossos…I don’t want to believe it, but there’s no other explanation. They must have Daedalus’s Notebook.”
If that was the case, then all they had to do once they knew the locations guarded by Loki Familia was follow the plan of Knossos to one of the unguarded entrances, avoiding all contact with Loki Familia.
“It’s meaningless for us to guard the underground doors. Raul, I’ve already called back half the guard units and told them to wait aboveground. Take this message to them.”
“Yes, sir!”
Finn stared straight down onto the battlefield as he spoke.
“Send Gareth on a sortie.”
Back in the present, the shadow that Fels had seen approaching lifted the weapon in its hand skyward.
“—”
It was a huge battle-ax.
The figure holding it was a mighty dwarf warrior, his mantle flapping in the chill night air that had descended after the rain.
As Fels watched the aged warrior plunge downward, eyes bulging ferociously, the mage tossed appearances to the wind and let out a piercing scream.
“Run!!”
An instant later, the warrior landed.
“Yaaaah!”
He swung his battle-ax downward, shattering the black brick pavement.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrhhhhh!”
Gareth’s blow bounced high and fell like a meteorite, exploding in the center of the line of Xenos.
Immediately Fels released a shock wave. The Xenos were not injured, but the combined force of the blow and the shock wave was strong enough to crumble the earth and throw them back. Not one was left standing—not Welf, not Mikoto, not Wiene. The sound of the rumbling earth mixed with the cries of the monsters, most of whom had been hurled against the walls.
Cracks split the stone pavement and fissures ran up the sides of the buildings, sending walls thundering down.
“Guess I got carried away. I’ll have to pay for those,” Gareth said, readjusting his helmet. Swinging his battle-ax up onto his shoulder, he broke into a run.
He was closing in on Fels, who was plastered to a wall.
“?!”
Gareth had guessed that the figure in black was a commander of sorts for the monsters and prudently set his sights on the head of the group. The dwarf’s merciless ax cut through the air toward Fels. The instant before it struck, a longsword and scimitar knocked it away.
“Yaarrhh!”
“Huh?”
The side of the sword slashed into the ax, driving it off course and sending it crashing into the wall directly next to Fels.
Even as he pressed his own wounds, Lido had swooped down on Gareth, and now he immediately raised his weapon to mow him down with a second blow. But Gareth pulled his ax back first and, eyes narrowed, drove the pommel into the lizardman’s breastplate.
“Ooof!”
The monster’s massive body flew back as easily as if it were a feather, rolling onto the cracked stone pavement. Fels thrust out both hands and released a shock wave from point-blank range, but the dwarf warrior swiftly leaped to the side, successfully avoiding it.
“OHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The gargoyle’s command echoed through the air, and the next instant the Xenos were flying at Gareth in unison. They had realized they had to deal with this demi-human if they were going to escape. Coughing violently from all the dust, Welf and Mikoto checked that they were still invisible and watched the battle in terror.
More than ten Xenos surrounded the dwarf, but still he managed to keep them at bay, overwhelming his opponents with his sheer strength. Using his ax, he sliced off the jabbing horn of the unicorn and the flailing tail of the lamia, before sending the troll flying with a fierce punch from his gauntlet-clad fist. Even the lizardman and the gargoyle, who were the strongest of the bunch, were dispensed within a matter of seconds.
The scene was an exact replay of the one that had unfolded five days earlier in the Labyrinth District. The overwhelmingly powerful Level 6 adventurer was trouncing the monsters. The most terrifying thing of all was the intense presence of the dwarf who stood in front of them, more frightening even than that of the Amazonian sisters or the werewolf.
“—Aaah!”
With all her might, Rei released a wave of sound.
The strange shriek
caught Gareth off guard. For the first time, his notably un-dwarflike mental agility dulled for an instant. Welf and Mikoto, who had been standing stock-still until that moment, realized this could be their only chance to act.
“!”
Gareth sidestepped the blizzard that Welf’s Hien drew from thin air, but the wave of frigid air that Mikoto released a moment later froze one of his legs. Standing their ground, Welf and Mikoto unleashed a second attack on the trapped dwarf.
The first-class adventurer was imprisoned in a world of freezing winds, ice, and frost. But in the next moment, he rendered Mikoto speechless.
What?!
Welf couldn’t believe his eyes.
Is this some kind of joke?!
“Uwaaaaaaaaaa—!!”
The mighty dwarf warrior was determined to fight, whatever the consequences.
His body still frozen, he burst through the armor of ice with sheer will, raised his ax in his fist, and swung it wildly around him. The Xenos flew at him, mouths agape, but were hurled back.
Welf and Mikoto edged around to his blind side and released wave after wave of cold. He did not stop. No matter that half his body was frozen solid and covered with frostbite. He was one lone adventurer, but they could not stop him.
A moment later, a cracking sound split the air.
“…?!”
As if defeated in their battle of wills with the dwarf, the magic blades crumbled to pieces. Overuse had destroyed them. Welf and Mikoto were speechless as they watched the shards of the aquamarine blades crumble through their fingers.
“Mr. Gareth!”
“Get ’em! Bring ’em down!”
As if to drive home their misfortune, Loki Familia’s reinforcements had arrived. Upper-class male and female adventurers flooded in from the alleyways feeding into the main street, from the rooftops of the buildings, and from all four directions.
“Time to use these!”
From the sleeve of Fels’s black cloak appeared a number of black spheres, which the mage scattered across the road.
As the spheres cracked, black smoke billowed into the broad avenue. It was the same smoky veil Fels had used five days ago to help the Xenos escape: the black mist, a magic item. It was a last-ditch strategy to prevent the adventurers from communicating with one another. The black mist instantly turned the street into a tangle of adventurers and monsters blindly fighting any moving body, the air filled with their confused screams.
Shit, this is bad. What do I do?!
Spears and claws materialized from the depths of the mist and besieged Welf, his invisibility no protection from the chaos. He was at the mercy of his own wildly pounding heart.
The word annihilation swam through his mind, stirring his thoughts into chaos. It would be nearly impossible for the Xenos to pull themselves together and escape from this insane melee. At the very least, he had to do something about Gareth.
Welf had lost the Hien. Mikoto still had the Fubu, but if she were to use it to blow away this black mist, both enemies and allies alike would be blown away with it, and when the air cleared, Gareth would be waiting once again to trample them. If the other Loki Familia members were to join in, the fate of the Xenos would be to end then and there. And Lilly probably couldn’t come to their rescue, either.
What if I use this…?! But if I use it now…!
Welf looked at his waist.
In place of his usual longsword, his belt held a magic one. As he gazed at the naked blade, which was a deeper aquamarine than the Hien, a ferocious inner struggle tormented him.
He had already wasted a few precious seconds on this mental conflict when he heard a familiar voice.
“Ha-ha! This is a real party!”
Chunks of ice rained down from the sky onto the street.
“Huh?!”
Welf could hear the crackle of the street freezing and the screams of the dwarf and the other adventurers, and through the mist, he was sure he could see a powerful gust of snow.
As he stood there bewildered, a figure landed with a thud directly in front of him.
“Uh…Tsubaki?”
“Huh? Is that Welfy I hear?”
The girl had brown skin, black hair knotted behind her head, and a patch over her left eye like the one her patron deity wore. Dressed in a bright-red hakama and combat clothing, she brought to mind a fencer from the Far East. Her attractive but somehow peculiar features indicated a mix of dwarf and human blood.
Tsubaki Collbrande, captain of Hephaistos Familia. At the sight of this unexpected intruder, Welf pulled off his veil and revealed himself.
“What are you doing here?!”
“My patron deity begged me to help you guys out. I heard about the Zenoes or whatever you call them, too. Looks like you’ve got yourself wrapped up in something pretty interesting, Welf!” the half-dwarf explained simply with a smug smile. Like Nahza of the Miach familia, she had come to help Welf and his familia members in their attempt to save the Xenos.
Welf wasn’t entirely thrilled that Hephaistos had told Tsubaki about the Xenos, even though he could imagine why. From the perspective of Hephaistos, whom Tsubaki venerated, telling the girl must have seemed unproblematic. But Welf hated the idea that this pleasure-seeking adventurer knew about their situation.
Totally unaware of Welf’s thoughts, Tsubaki held up her magic blade.
“Looks like we both had the same idea, eh, Welf? Anyway, leave it to me. I’ll stay out of view and let them have it with this magic blade. Ha-ha, I’ve got weapons coming out of my ears!”
Welf found the sight of Tsubaki with her bundle of weapons slung carelessly over her shoulder revolting.
“You just want to try out your magic blades!” he shouted, forgetting where he was in his anger at the master smith’s ulterior motives.
Tsubaki was such a pure and eccentric craftswoman that she sometimes descended to the Deep Zone of the Dungeon just to see how well her creations worked. This insane passion also explained her skill as a smith and her genuine battle prowess, which had earned her the nickname “Cyclops.”
“Don’t be stupid. Didn’t I rush to your aid knowing full well Loki Familia would hate me for it? Ha-ha! I’m off! Here I go!”
“Just like I thought; you’re enjoying this! By the way, if you go crazy with your attacks, Loki Familia’s gonna—”
“Ha-ha-ha!! You think that dwarf is gonna roll over because of this? Loki Familia leaders are all monsters!”
Accurately speaking, she seemed to be after Gareth alone. Taking advantage of the veil of smoke, Tsubaki slashed her magic blade randomly through the air. The chaotic battlefield made Welf uneasy, and he had an excruciating headache. After a few minutes, Tsubaki came across his crumbled magic blade.
“Eh, looks like this one reached its limit. Still room for improvement, I’d say,” she said, tossing away the empty hilt.
The next moment, her mood shifted, and she glanced sidelong at Welf through her narrowed right eye.
“And? What are you standing there dreaming about? Is that longsword at your waist a decoration?”
“…!”
“Why did you even bring it, silly boy? Put that thing to use!”
The senior smith seemed to be ridiculing Welf, or perhaps scolding him.
“Didn’t you come here to save those Zenoes guys? While you stand there dithering, the monsters are gonna turn into a pile of smoking ash!”
“…If I use this, even a first-tier adventurer would—”
“Idiot!”
Tsubaki brushed away Welf’s needless worries with a smile.
“I told you before, those guys are monsters. A little baby magic blade like that isn’t gonna knock them down so easily.”
Tsubaki directed her single eye at Welf as if to say he didn’t have time to waste worrying about his opponents’ well-being. He couldn’t find anything to say in response.
Instead, he frowned and gripped the hilt of his longsword, bracing himself for the fight.
“…It’s hard to find the enemy in all this mist.”
“I’ll be your eyes. Get ready.”
Tsubaki was not only a master smith but also a Level 5 adventurer. She could hold her own against any first-tier. Welf frowned at this superwoman who could sense her opponent’s presence especially well in the current chaos, drew his sword, and took a fighting stance.
“Two o’clock. Yeah, right there. They’re on guard, but nothing to worry about—not with your silly old magic blade.”
“Any Xenos in the line of fire?”
“Nope, nothing to worry about. Now is the time—do it,” Tsubaki said, sidling behind him and pushing her finger into his spine.
“Asshole,” Welf mumbled.
Then he swung the deep-aqua blade down from above his head.
“Hiyo!”
With a high-pitched, birdlike screech, a wave of ice and wind materialized.
The aqua-blue ice floe swept through the black mist like the outstretched wings of some giant bird of prey. Instantaneously freezing the pavement below, its sharp beak searched for victims. The raging blizzard unleashed by the Hiyo far surpassed anything the Hien had produced. Even Gareth stared wide-eyed at the blizzard and pulled his shield from beneath his mantle, forced for the first time to take a defensive stance.
Standing protectively in front of the adventurers near him, the dwarf bore the full brunt of the raging snow and crackling ice.
“M-Mr. Gareth?!”
“…Feels about the same strength as Riveria’s magic. That did a bit of damage.”
Gareth’s entire left side, including the shield he thrust before him, was frozen solid. His beard was encrusted in ice and his face was frostbitten, but still the mighty dwarf warrior laughed fearlessly.
“You guys step back!” he told the other adventurers, hiding them behind his back as he made his body into a wall against the second bombardment of ice and snow.
“Hey, look, he’s alive!” Tsubaki laughed.
“Shut up. Lady Hestia, can you hear me?” Welf retorted, taking out his oculus.
“Yes, I’m here. What is it, Welf?”
“We’ll hold them here somehow! Tell the Xenos to move forward!”