Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 13
Page 18
She saw the boy standing on land.
She saw the light of determination in his rubellite eyes.
“Thank you, Mari.”
Mermaid lifeblood. The mysterious drop item was said to have the power to heal wounds. And truly, Bell had fully recovered. Smoke rose from the wounds that had been bathed in the blood of her self-sacrifice.
To Lyu’s eyes, the scene looked like a beacon for a counterattack.
His right arm restored, Bell steeled his will and tightened his grip on the black knife.
“—”
Behind the Juggernaut, who stood stock-still, before Lyu, who looked on in astonishment, and beside Mari, who poked her face from the water, Bell flew into a rage.
“!!”
He raced toward the Juggernaut, his body—just moments before on the verge of death—transformed now into a speeding bullet.
“!!”
The monster spun violently around as Lyu watched. It had determined that this revenger, whom it had destroyed beyond all recovery but who now came dancing back to life, was no mere bit of prey but rather its prime enemy, worthy of complete annihilation.
As the boy charged toward it with terrifying speed, the monster flourished its claws powerfully, as if to say, This time, you must be crushed.
“—!!”
Faced with this deadly blow that approached at lightning speed, Bell chose not escape but direct advance.
He tore the scarf from his neck, wrapped it around his left hand, and shot forward.
“?!”
Astonishment flickered in the Juggernaut’s glowing orbs.
The black scarf that Bell had wrapped around his hand in place of the demolished gauntlet threw off a shower of sparks as the monster’s claws slid over it.
The devastating weapon bestowed upon the monster by the Dungeon was deflected by the ultimate defensive armor born of that very same Dungeon.
As if to pay back the monster in its own currency, Bell snatched its brief moment of hesitation to attack.
With a suddenness and speed that left no room for escape, the Hestia Knife glinted backhand toward the monster’s chest.
“?!”
Next it was Bell’s turn to be astonished.
He had ripped into his enemy’s chest. Yet the response did not suggest he had crushed its core.
In other words, it had no magic stone?!
Shuddering at each other’s menacing presences, boy and monster slid cleanly past each other.
Instantly, both turned on their heels. Their gazes clashed. Their respective blows met thin air.
This was when the life-or-death battle truly began.
“—!!”
“Yah!”
As the Juggernaut howled murderously, Bell gave a spirited shout and charged head-on toward the monster, Goliath Scarf and Hestia Knife at the ready.
The monster sprang away rapidly with a series of jumps fueled by the energy stored in its reverse-joint knees.
I’ll be slaughtered before I can blink if I let it use those legs to its advantage.
Bell chose instead to engage in a bullfight.
Pouring every drop of his strength into the opening blow in hopes of getting a head start on his opponent, he turned his body into a pure-white arrow of light.
“—?!”
The monster charged forward even as its enemy’s lancing attack shaved the surface of its neck and shoulder.
Blood, flesh, and skin flew.
As Lyu looked on, dumbfounded, and Mari clapped both hands over her mouth, Bell launched a special attack propelled by his surging blood.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
The black knife was aimed at the monster’s right knee joint.
With inhuman speed, the blade cut into its target.
“?!”
The Juggernaut’s right leg dropped slightly with a loud thump.
Although its battle stance and ability to continue fighting had not been impacted in the least, it was no longer able to fly about at lightning speed like a hurricane. Bell’s single blow had landed perfectly on the source of those powerful jumps: the monster’s reverse-joint knees.
It stared intently at Bell, who had already suffered serious damage in their clashes. Though the left half of his body was soaked in blood, the adventurer’s eyes sent a clear message: We’re just getting started.
“Game on!”
Bell raised his knife, his rubellite eyes flashing.
“—Ooo!!”
The monster’s crimson eyes burned. For the first time, it howled with rage.
It charged forward, the exploding swirl of crystal fragments from the floor obscuring its opponent’s form.
Just as Bell had anticipated, the close-range fight began.
“Mr. Cranell?!” Lyu screamed as she propped herself into a sitting position, her broken leg beneath her, and watched his reckless venture unfold.
Lyu knew the terror of the Juggernaut better than anyone else.
What Bell was doing may have been his only choice, but nevertheless it was crazy to place oneself within the monster’s sphere of slaughter. Moment by moment, she could see his body being battered and wounded.
Blood and chunks of flesh flew as his undershirt—stripped of its protective armor—was ripped to shreds. With every passing second, he was being shaved away. Mari watched in pale silence.
But—
“…?!”
The claws of destruction did not pierce Bell’s body.
Using the scarf wrapped around his left hand exactly like a gauntlet, he deflected the Juggernaut’s claws by sliding them over its tough surface.
Again and again, the monster brought down its deadliest weapon, as if to say, Stop playing with me.
But the scarf would not shatter. The number of scratches on its surface increased, but the armor of the Goliath—the “shield” that Cassandra had requested and Welf had made for him—did not break.
And as long as it did not break, Bell could keep fighting.
As long as he had the shield his friends had made for him, he could face this strongest and most terrible of calamities.
If he could withstand the deadly blows that no adventurer was supposed to be able to withstand, then he could extract the tiniest of chances at victory, and therefore he could defeat his own despair.
Screech!!
The Hestia Knife let out its own battle cry as it deflected the course of the claws. A fountain of sparks danced into the air as the blade screamed. Still, the Divine Knife did not crumble. It continued to clash with the monster’s weapon.
The Juggernaut was mad with destructive rage. Bell, too, was acting out a desperate battle armed with the strongest of all blades and shields.
It’s just like I suspected.
As his wounds spurted fresh blood, Bell squinted at his opponent.
He’s faster than I am.
He was not only stronger but also quicker. Compared to the Juggernaut, everything about Bell was inferior. In the past, no matter how much higher his opponent’s level had been, Bell had always had the upper hand in terms of speed and agility. Now even that advantage was gone.
Yet he did not give up in the face of this hopeless analysis. Instead, his heart cried out unyieldingly.
How could he resist this monster that surpassed him in every way? Of course, it was obvious.
By using the skill and tactics he had cultivated so far.
This was the true weapon and shield given to him as an adventurer—this determination burning in his chest. Adventurers took the trial called “despair” and transformed it into great achievement.
Its power and potential are unbelievable for its size—
If he had been asked to compare the Black Goliath and the Juggernaut, Bell honestly wouldn’t have been able to say which was superior.
Comparing them was meaningless.
They worked in entirely different ways.
The Goliath had an extraordinary ability to suppress armies, while the
Juggernaut was a slaughterer who excelled in inflicting deadly damage on individual adventurers. In terms of getting the job done with a single weapon, the claws of destruction most likely outdid the Goliath’s hammer and howl.
On the other hand, in terms of ability to endure attacks, the Juggernaut couldn’t hold a candle to the floor boss.
This monster was best able to exercise its full potential—its highly developed strength, speed, and ability to kill—not in a wide-open room but in the passageways and other closed-in spaces of the Dungeon. This made it the ideal apostle of murder, designed solely to wipe out “viruses” that damaged the Dungeon.
Is it even faster than my greatest rival?
There was the fierce, swift speed of its attacks and the constant vibrating shock waves that made his feet and hands go numb.
In a corner of Bell’s burning mind, fragments of logic compared the beast he faced now to the black minotaur.
In terms of destructive power, the Juggernaut was superior because of its claws.
But perhaps Asterios was the victor when it came to physical strength?
That time, the massive bull had been on the verge of death. His true strength was probably much greater—
Bell cut off the irrelevant thoughts that flashed briefly through his mind. In this desperate battle, any unnecessary mental noise could lead directly to death. The tiniest mistake on the part of either combatant could cost them their head.
“—!”
Even as Bell’s storm of knife blows wounded its body, the Juggernaut showed no sign of easing its own attack.
His whole body was screaming. His overheated limbs and trunk felt like they were about to burst apart.
His left arm might as well be shouting its death cries. Inside the Goliath Scarf, his hand had been pulverized by the force of the repeated claw attacks it had deflected. Pain was the only sense he had left. The blood was sloshing around noisily inside the wrapping. Still, Bell knew that the moment he stopped deflecting the claws, he was done for.
His shoulder and neck burned where the flesh had been gouged out.
His once-healed wounds were torn open again, gushing blood.
Still, the light glowed in his eyes, and he moved forward.
If he fell now, he was sure the Juggernaut would kill Lilly and the rest of his party. Every adventurer in the Water Capital would be exterminated.
He couldn’t let it happen. He had to defend them to the death.
In other words—
You’re going down!!
Even if this monster had been called forth by an Evil and Bell had never wanted to fight it, he could not leave something so destructive to its own devices.
Was he going to let it kill more people? Was he going to let the death continue?
Bell donned the mask of the hypocrite.
For the sake of the people he wanted to protect, he would kill the being in front of him.
“!!”
His enemy’s attack began. Crystal fragments flew. Bell was forced into a defensive stance.
Claw swipe, dodge, biting fangs, intercept.
A counterblow from Bell, blocked by the enemy. Too shallow. Not yet. Another blow. Pieces of the enemy’s shell fell away. I’ll bury it in blows.
Bell Cranell still has fight left in him yet. Yes! Go on! For her sake! Why did I come to this floor in the first place?
In a moment that stretched on for an eternity, Bell speeded up at the literal cost of shaving away his own life.
Faster, faster, faster!
He was determined to put an end to her nightmare.
“AAAAAAA!!” Bell howled, blood streaming from his entire body.
He slashed toward the hurricane of death, a single piece of cloth—his only safety net—wrapped around one hand.
He faced head-on the beast that for Lyu symbolized pure despair.
He understood only a fragment of the suffering she had endured. But it was enough to set his own once-despairing heart on fire.
He howled a long howl, because that sound was the flame of his spirit that would burn away tragedy and calamity.
“Mr. Cranell…”
Even the rather insensitive Lyu knew who he was yelling for. The hotness in the depths of her chest expanded.
“…You’re so much…”
Her final whispered word—“stronger”—disappeared into the din of the battlefield.
She felt pitiful lying there doing nothing. But still this feeling burned in her heart.
For the first time, she understood why Bell liked those hero’s tales so much. For the first time, the elf saw how noble heroes looked when they challenged despair itself.
“…?”
The Juggernaut was puzzled by this totally new feeling it was experiencing. The white flame that had been extinguished roared back to life, had been slashed but was now charging forward, had been beaten down but rose once more in defiance. The newborn monster was unable to grasp the fact that its enemy’s spirit was dominating its own.
Finally—either because it recognized the unending series of slashing attacks as a menace or because it was overwhelmed by the boy’s determination—the monster for the first time retreated.
It had folded first in the life-or-death contest of endurance.
Perhaps it was due to instinct, or perhaps it was the inevitable outcome. In any case, it saw no need to risk its own life for a bit of prey that had nearly died once and was already half-dead again. And so, the monster stepped back from the close-range fight into which it had been tricked.
It was, without a doubt, an advantageous move. But Bell saw a chance for victory.
It’s retreating.
Delirious and covered in blood, he nevertheless felt his hunger for battle burn with fresh ferocity. He let his mind follow the path of that desire.
His greatest rival had not retreated.
His idol would always fight to the end.
The monster before him was neither warrior nor adventurer. Bell smiled.
He had lured the Juggernaut into close combat in order to wrench this one moment from it. Although it was faster than Bell, it had been forced into the defensive for the first time in order to retreat.
He thrust his scarf-wrapped left hand toward his backward-leaning enemy.
“Firebolt!!”
Seventeen successive shots.
He concentrated his mind into those seventeen shots, loading every last drop of magical power he had into the rapid-fire attack.
The all-out, instantaneous firepower erupted before the eyes of the surprised monster.
“!”
Of course, the Juggernaut pulsed its shell to exercise its power of magic reflection. Bell’s magic was pitilessly repulsed by the invincible shield.
“Yeah!!”
It fell for it!
Letting out a yell of victory, Bell dove toward the whirlwind of electrifying flames that came hurtling back toward him.
“?!”
Lyu couldn’t believe her eyes. Mari yelped, and even the monster stared in shock.
The barrage of seventeen Firebolts sped toward him. An instant later, his body was engulfed in deep-red light.
Even as his own fire seared his flesh and pierced his flank, Bell sped forward, shouting victoriously.
A single shot.
A single, carefully aimed Firebolt exploded into his black knife.
He was charging his weapon.
The Juggernaut saw it—saw that instead of scattering like it should have when it hit the knife, the Firebolt was pressed into place by a white light and focused.
A Dual Charge.
Bell had anticipated that his Firebolt would be repulsed and used that to prepare for his deadly strike.
The massive barrage of fire provided a cover. In the moment that the raging electrical fire obscured his body from the enemy’s view, he drew close to its massive frame.
The Juggernaut, frozen for just an instant, understood everything.
It had b
een lured into using its magic reflection by a barrage of firepower strong enough to inflict deadly injury even on a monster. It had been attacked with the aim of provoking that tiny moment of immobility caused by the use of its armored shell.
Time froze for the Juggernaut as it stared at the raging Divine Knife encased in an armor of flames.
It knew it was in a bad situation. Things were moving fast. Still, it had time. If it gathered all its strength, it could intercept the attack, defend itself, and escape.
But a kind of static was interfering with the monster’s instincts.
Was that magic, or was it a knife attack? Should it deflect it with the invincible armor or destroy it with the deadly claws?
The apostle of murder was confused.
It chose escape.
Using its one remaining reverse-joint leg, it sprang forward—not perfectly but adequately.
“—”
To get straight to the point, the monster of calamity lost its bargain with the adventurer.
The second or two it spent deciding what to do was, for the Juggernaut, a most regrettable opening that it should never have yielded to the lightning-fast rabbit.
“—Yaah!”
Bell suddenly unfurled the scarf wrapped around his left hand, launching it forward.
Unlike the Firebolt, this was a midrange, indirect attack.
The black strip of fabric undulated through the air like a whip, landing on the monster’s long tail.
“?!”
There was a tremendous shock as the scarf unfurled to its full length and Bell planted both feet on the crystal ground.
The Juggernaut froze unnaturally in midair. Then inertia brought it hurtling toward Bell’s left hand, which still gripped the scarf.
There was the sound of muscle ripping and the snap of an arm bone popping out of place.
Bell’s eyes bulged.
Still, he gathered his remaining strength and drew his left arm in toward his body.
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”