Surrounded by raging flames, Futaba Meiko felt a true sense of crisis.
She could feel the scorch singeing at her skin... but fortunately, the blaze isn’t actually grilling her in here, she realizes. Most likely, this is the same as the flames sealing the entrance, it will only burn around her.
“Uu, -ast... I have to get out fast”
Though her body itself wasn’t on fire, if she kept waiting around in here, she felt she would get baked from the heat bit by bit.
The wall of flame wasn’t the only thing pressuring Meiko. Kotarou and the others were likely having an extremely tough fight, sounds of screams and roars were coming in. Tormented by the heatwaves, Meiko couldn’t decipher the contents of those yells, but anyway, she needed to return at this moment if possible, or they could be annihilated, she imagined.
She must hurry. But, just as Kotarou said, if she forcefully broke through the wall, she could be wounded to the level of becoming an obstruction in battle.
She must escape, and at the same time, must limit the damage to the bare minimum.
It was a mission impossible-like situation, but, Meiko who had since obtained courage, kept her coolness of mind even as time was approaching zero.
If Kotarou’s words are to be believed, the fire would begin to die down in some amount of time.
And for Meiko, there was nothing she could believe more, in this cruel otherworld dungeon, than his words.
“There!”
Seeing the flames encircling her weaken for an instant, Meiko resolved her will, and attempted to escape from the prison of fire. Fortunately, she felt an instance of heat, her uniform scorched slightly at the hems, but otherwise she broke through safe and sound.
From the momentum of jumping out, twice, three times, she rolled on hard stone and stood up when, she was struck with that scene of despair.
“Can’t, be... Momokawa-kun”
Following her gaze, there was Momokawa Kotarou, blood-smeared, and collapsed like a broken doll. Limbs sprawled, he showed no signs of movement.
Could he be... dead? At a glance, it couldn’t be determined. Nay, to begin with, something like his death, would never be accepted by Meiko.
“—GaAAAA!”
With no time to ponder, the ferocious roar of the Boss echoes.
Having the body and senses of a Berserker, Meiko turns her attention to the beast. The fearsome two-headed Orthrus was however, bloodied all over, and didn’t seem as strong as just before.
It has sustained significant damage. The fact that the Boss has weakened, could be seen from a glance.
“Ah—”
Before celebrating the chance to defeat the Boss, Meiko notices. Kotarou and the Boss, they’re both equally bloodied. Every one of their wounds looked all the same, but also, there was another person there, similarly fallen all bloodied.
“... Pain Return”
Recalling the power of that Curse, Meiko connects all the dots.
“Nishiyama-san, Momokawa-kun, did you shoot him?”
From Meiko’s gentle eyes, an unimaginably sharp glare shoots. Its destination, one highschool girl holding her wand, trembling in a pool of blood.
“A, Ouch... Why... I, I didn’t mean to...”
Nishiyama’s, expression despairing as if she had committed a mistake she could never take back, was all it took.
Bodies cut in multiple lines. Kotarou, Orthrus, Nishiyama. Aer Blast and Pain Return.
As the Orthrus was biting into Kotarou, Nishiyama shot them together. There was no other way to explain the situation.
“I see... You betrayed Momokawa-kun”
Speaking frigid words, Meiko moved. Drawing her axe without a moment’s hesitance, the Boss and Nishiyama, she observed the two.
As Meiko moved, so does the Orthrus bear its claws and charge. As if seeking back its lost blood, it hungers for new prey.
The starved wolf’s aim is, naturally, being the closest, and in addition, one it can predate on at ease. Boasting nothing close to any super-human physical strength, it would be the frail girl known as a Wind Mage.
“U, Aah— Aer Sagitta!”
Regardless that she herself was also wounded by blades of wind, that she could yet resist with her Wind Magic, was only because of her little but fruitful experience in dungeon capture. However, starved for blood, the Boss wouldn’t mind a few cuts of wind blade at this point, and it pushed down the powerless girl.
“Kyaaa! Noo! Help me! Please, Futaba-san!”
Meiko was all but calmly, observing the Boss greedily eyeing its feed. Screams from a traitor, she could hear such a thing all day and her heart wouldn’t even itch.
Calmly, serenely, her heart made crystal clear. Focusing on nothing but the fight. Concentrating, on nothing but killing the enemy. That is, a Berserker’s modus operandi. Pure and rational, slaughter.
“Fuuh—”
Her breathing ordered, quietly, raising the sharp axe, she takes a step.
“Kyaaa! AaAAAAAAa!”
The Boss wouldn’t notice her sharpened killing intent, wholeheartedly indulging on the prey it had captured. The roughly moving fangs and claws, shred away at Nishiyama’s body, uniform and all, digging into the maiden’s tender white skin.
As if to dine on her guts, the two heads chomp into her abdomen when,
“—Haa!”
Finishing glory. Meiko who saw this as the moment to end it, with frightening speed, and a heavy step drawing the enemy into range, swings down her axe.
GAa! with a sharp cry, the Boss moves to evade in a panic. But it cannot escape the strike, the blow delivered at the best moment, as deemed by the Berserker.
Raising a pained, shrill cry, the Orthrus has its trunk gouged deeply.
“Ih, giiAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa!”
Similarly, Nishiyama’s scream resounds.
The axe swung down by Meiko, not only cut the Orthrus, but also cut into girl’s side.
Along with the freshly gushing deep red blood, long and narrow, winding lumps of meat popped out from the gash. Her intestines, had been severed and had fallen out.
It wasn’t an unfortunate slip of hand. She knew it would hit. She did it anyway. To cut the Orthrus, she severed her ally along the way. [1]
Pertaining that choice, her regrets, were nil.
“Hah, AaAAAAAAAAa!”
Going past the dying Nishiyama, Meiko fiercely chased after the wounded Orthrus.
Gyan, whimpered the Boss, as it had turned hopelessly weak. It must have lost too much blood. Its greatest weapons, showing not a shadow of their original agility, its footwork had become unsteady.
The two-headed wolf was now, nothing but a large-sized enemy.
As the axe swings became a storm, the Orthrus had its legs smashed, neck slit, head split. In no time at all, Meiko’s overwhelming violence had made it into mincemeat.
“Nunh!”
Finally, she stomped on the remaining head, crushing its cranium, and completely stopped the Boss’ life. Both heads had their grey matter scattered about. It wouldn’t rise ever again.
“Ah, Uu... AaAAA...”
The greatest threat eliminated, Meiko wanted to instantly run to Kotarou, but though dying, the figure of a desperately moving Nishiyama caught her eye, so she switched priority.
Her guts spilling, Nishiyama thrust her hand inside her bag fallen beside her, taking out a single small bottle.
“Hmm, so you were hiding something like this. Hey, this is called a Potion, right?”
“Fu-Futaba-san... please... save me...”
Potion. Obtained from Treasure Chests, a magical Recovery Item. Its existence made clear from the information by the Note Circle; since Itou of the Thief class was in their party, there is the possibility of those two hiding it, Kotarou had made such a hypothesis before.
“As I thought, Momokawa-kun was right again”
“P-please... It, hurts...”
Coming near Nishiyama who was lying face up, Meiko gently squatted down. The girl tightly holding her Potion vial as if she wouldn’t let go, had it quickly stolen away.
“Ah, A-Aa... Don’t, give it back... please...”
Meiko pops open the seal, dipping the tip of her finger into the clear light blue liquid, and gave it a taste test. Next, she put a drop on the light burn on the back of her hand.
“Yup, no mistake, looks like this has healing effects”
Indeed, both drinking it and applying it to the affected area will grant healing.
Confirming its high recovery ability, Meiko made a satisfied expression, and as if forgetting that Nishiyama ever existed, she quickly scurried off.
“Wait... Please... please, beg you...”
“Momokawa-kun, I’ll save you right now”
Facing the limply collapsed Kotarou, Meiko reverses and let’s fall the contents of the vial. Along with sparkling particles of light, the blue liquid rains on Kotarou’s petite body.
And the results are dramatic.
Right before her eyes, the atrocious wounds on his limbs and neck close, returning his skin to a fair, maidenly white.
“I’m so glad, Momokawa-kun...”
Upon hearing his lovely, quiet breaths, Meiko smiles warmly as if looking at a cat in its midday nap. He was breathing, and his complexion was also fine. She checked for a pulse just to make sure, and that too was normal.
Momokawa Kotarou, was completely fine.
“Just leave all the rest to me”
Leaving Kotarou to peacefully sleep, Meiko turned towards the gruesome cleanup work, full of smiles.
Drawing the knife instead of the axe, she cut open the Orthrus in no time, and finished collecting the core inside its gut. Holding up the blood-smeared crystal, at the place the Boss had laid in wait, the Magic Circle reacted. Just as with the Great Frog’s lake, the room began filling with red light.
Confirming that the Transfer Circle was activating normally, following Kotarou’s example, Meiko collected their belongings without oversight. She gathered up everything that looked useful.
Meiko thus carries only their loot, and along with an innocently sleeping Kotarou, departs the Boss Room. Hirano, who lay still after losing a copious amounts of blood from his neck, and Nishiyama, who now lost even the ability to groan, the two classmates were left behind in the dimly lit room.