As we cautiously advanced through the dungeon, we found somebody who had fallen under a torch.
“That’s…”
“It might be best not to stare at it too long. That, and please don’t approach it carelessly. It’s possible a monster is hiding somewhere and us getting close to the body is exactly what they’re aiming for.”
Just as I was about to approach, Layla stopped me.
Based on her words…
“…so, he’s already…”
“Passed away, yes. I don’t feel any soul.”
“I, see…”
I pried my gaze away from the fallen corpse.
God damn it, man. I’ve played my fair share of gory games, but the real thing’s so much more graphic. But then again, this is reality, so I guess that much is obvious.
The corpse was by a T junction, so while we still approached, we did so slowly and with utmost caution. I grabbed a torch in the nearby wall and threw it. The next moment, an arrow struck the torch while it was in the air.
The heck, they can even use bows!?
I rushed to the corner and aimed for the archer. I saw 1 Spartoi that had a spear and 1 that had a bow. Two in total.
Perhaps to protect the one with the bow, the one with the spear thrust its weapon out. I dodged the attack thanks to my Magic Eye, stepped in, cut the monster with my sword. I didn’t use any magic power since I was already running low on gas.
That attack launched the monster’s lower jaw. I immediately followed that up with a diagonal slash from the shoulder, which even cracked the monster’s neck. But as though to stop me, the one with the bow had nocked an arrow. Was it confident it wouldn’t hit its friend or did it just not care if it hit the friend? Either way, it was about to release the arrow.
“Ha!”
“Kakaa”
Layla swung down her sword and broke the bow. And then, with surprisingly graceful swordsmanship, she slashed at the now empty-handed Spartoi.
While watching all that with my peripheral vision, I stepped close where the tip of the spear wouldn’t get me and attacked again. I grabbed my sword near the tip with my left hand and then grabbed the ricasso with the other. Like that, I stepped on the monster’s foot and bashed what could be called the nose part of the Spartoi with my sword’s pommel.
Just when the monster lost its balanced, I let go of my sword and pushed it down. While we were falling, I used my right hand to draw my dagger.
“Ora!!”
With a backhand grip, I stabbed the monster at its face. It stopped moving, but I stabbed a second and third time for good measure. When I confirmed that its skull was smashed into pieces, I let go of my dagger, picked my sword back up, and ran toward Layla.
She was fending off the empty-handed but still attacking Spartoi, slashing away at it and occasionally tripped its feet to make it fall down. Layla’s stats weren’t really for close-quarters combat, but even so, she was toying with her enemy.
“O-ra!”
Just as the Spartoi was falling over, I swung my sword down at it with all my might. The monster’s skull, sandwiched between my blade and the floor, was smashed to bits.
“Phew…you’re quite strong, Layla.”
“You think so? I’m merely copying the movements I saw in the videos of foreigner knights and such.”
“I mean it. You were so graceful too.”
“Thank you for the compliments.”
She smiled and bowed her head. Just like a real knight would.
…to be blunt, I felt like her movements were so much better than my amateurish attempts. Quite shocking, yeah. It’s a welcome one though, as it was great to know she could more than defend herself. At any rate, we had to get out of here.
…ah, before that.
I turned back toward the corpse being illuminated by the torch.
“Master?”
“…let’s at least take back some of their hair and something that could identify them.”
I had no idea if the corpse would be recovered later. I didn’t even know what would happen to the corpses inside the dungeon if we managed to make it shrink back in size.
…I had heard that many families were still looking for people who gone missing during the whole Shinjuku dungeon incident. To remain being regarded as a missing person or to be confirmed dead, I didn’t really know which one was better. Even so, I think there should be something in the grave…
“Layla, please keep watch.”
“Understood.”
It was a man in a suit. His face…honestly, I couldn’t look at it. All that I saw was red and white.
While still averting my eyes from his face, I pressed my palms together. Afterwards, I used my dagger to cut off some of his hair and tied them with the rubber bands I was keeping in my Item Bag. When I looked in his breast pocket, I was surprised when I found a police identification card.
I only took a glance at the photo, but he looked to be in his 20s. His face gave me the impression that he was a serious person. At any rate, just for good measure, I also took the ring on his left ring finger.
I then put all I gathered into my Item Bag.
“…master, are you alright?”
“Probably…honestly, I don’t really know.”
I felt both aversion with the corpse and pity toward the person. But none of this just felt real. It was like I was just dreaming. I had seen a corpse before, so I found what I felt all the more strange.
“Sorry I kept you waiting.”
“Don’t mind it. You’re just doing the right thing here.”
I stood up and grabbed my sword. We soon moved again. From time to time, we would hear and see the walls moving. There was less and less time between the changes in the layout. When this whole thing started, it had been easy enough to reach the station platform, but now, I didn’t even know how to go back to where I had been just ten minutes ago. And because it was all pretty chaotic anyway, I had given up on making markings with chalk.
Anyway, we kept moving. Soon enough, we found a few Spartois around a corner. There were 3 of them. Two had a shield, one had a bow.
My Magic Eye had warn me of the danger they posed and I shouted.
“Layla!”
“[Oh, Earth]!”
When she said so, the floor made of stone swelled and became a wall. Since this kind of environment wasn’t really compatible with her Nature Magic, her spell was rather slow. Nevertheless, the wall managed to deflect the arrow as it rose up.
Taking that chance, I planted my foot on a nearby dungeon wall and kicked myself off. I employed Magic Power Discharge too and accelerated myself further. That maneuver allowed me to smash the head of the shield-bearer on the left side.
As though it was not bothered at all by the fate of its ally, the other shield-bearer simply turned toward me and raised the sword in its right hand. It was slow though. With Magic Power Discharge, I moved much faster than usual and cut off the second Spartoi’s right hand.
At that point though, I stopped using that superpower. I just didn’t have much magic power left. I didn’t make use of it often, so I only had a rough idea, but man, Magic Power Discharge’s fuel consumption was really awful.
“Oomph”
Layla had jumped from the wall she made. I got a good of view of her underwear as she descended. Too bad I didn’t have the camera for dungeon reward calculations on me though.
Anyway, with that momentum, she slashed at the Spartoi readying its bow again. Her downward attack succeeded in breaking the nocked arrow.
As I watched the fight between them from the side, I swiped away the shield of the Spartoi I was facing and then front-kicked it. The Spartoi slammed into a wall, and I rushed to stab it there.
Confirming that it was destroyed, I rushed to Layla’s side and smashed that Spartoi’s head from behind. As usual, we waited for the monsters to fully vanish while keeping watch. Judging that no others would show up anytime soon, I breathed a sigh. This was really tiring.
“Are you unharmed, master?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
“I have no wounds either. I also have plenty of magic power left.”
“I see…”
I, on the other hand, would be in a tight spot soon enough.
We could do something against a group of 2 Spartoi, but the more they outnumbered us, the more I needed to use my Magic Power Discharge. However, as mentioned, it had terrible fuel consumption. To put in generous terms, it was my secret weapon. It wasn’t something I should use often, yet I had already lost count of how many times I used it in this dungeon.
“Master, when push comes to shove, I will act as your shield and—”
“Nope, absolutely not.”
“Please understand. Your life has the higher priority. If we’re ever in real danger, I will act on my own and be your shield. When that happens, please do try not to be unsettled and instead be calm.”
“…you’re asking for too much out of me”
Layla said so with only a blank expression on her face, devoid of any hint of a smile. I found myself unable to look at her and only at the ceiling above. If such a thing did happen, I just had no confidence I would be able to remain cool. In fact, I was absolutely certain I would be upset.
But it was also fact that we didn’t have the luxury of choice. I couldn’t even say with any degree of certainty that her “push comes to shove” scenario wouldn’t come to pass. The only hope I had at the moment was that the other Awakened Ones had been successful in thinning out this dungeon. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone else could cut down a thousand Spartois all by themselves?
But as great as that was to imagine, the scream from what seemed to be the police officer quashed it. The scream just seemed like it was somebody on their death throes…
And then, I heard a sound.
“!?”
I promptly pointed my sword toward the direction of the sound. This time, I could tell where it came from. It wasn’t too far from where we were. I exchanged glances with Layla and then we distanced ourselves from the source of that sound.
I had no idea what kind of monster it could be, but I could tell it was much stronger than a Spartoi. I would rather not confront it. While defeating it might decrease the magic power in the dungeon by significant amount, it would all be in vain if we died in the process.
Not that it’s easy either, but defeating Spartois is—
“Wha, stop!!”
I stopped as quickly as I could and put an arm in front of Layla. It was because my Magic Eye had activated. I couldn’t readily believe what it had shown me though. However, as if to declare that my Magic Eye’s prediction was right, things began unfolding exactly as it did in that vision.
A thick stone wall was easily pulverized. The boom and the cloud of dust that followed made me wonder if we were just hit by a shell or something. While my field of vision was compromised like that, I stepped in front of Layla to protect her from any flying debris. Debris did soon hit my body, but they didn’t hurt at all.
My spirit was a different subject though. The simplest—though not necessarily the easiest—way to clear a maze was to bust down its walls and march straight to the exit. However, this was a dungeon and its walls were abnormally strong. If I were to slash at a wall with Magic Power Discharge, I could at best make a hole that was large enough for a person to pass through. The hole before me was much larger than that. A whole truck could make its way through this hole!
Within the cloud of dust, the torchlight outlined a silhouette. It was more than 3 meters tall. It also had two long horns that stretched from its head to the sky, making it all the more larger. And it was large not just vertically but horizontally as well. Its thickness was just not normal. Even the axe it had in his hand was huge.
I felt a sweat drop beneath my helm. A pair of golden eyes soon emerged from the cloud of dust and I locked eyes with it.
“Are you kidding…at least make it a giant snake or something…”
I was dumbfounded as I looked up at the monster with gold lightning patterns here and there in its black fur. I could only whisper so in a trembling voice.
I wasn’t saying I would be able to defeat a giant snake, but at least that kind of creature would have made thematic sense, what with the legend about the Spartoi and the serpent.
“BuMooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”
It was half man, half bull. It was a Minotaur. A legendary creature as talked about as dragons was right there in front of us. Red blood was dripping from its mouth as it twisted that mouth into one of delight.
“Run!!”
“!!”
Hearing Layla’s voice, my body finally moved. I ran with all my might to get as far away from the creature as possible. As perhaps was natural, I heard the thuds of footsteps from behind. It was chasing us. And quickly too. For a monster of that size, it sure moved fast!
“Turn right!”
Following Layla’s direction, I half-dove into the right path. Immediately after, I heard a boom as the Minotaur crashed head first into the wall of the intersection. Had I been just a tiny bit slower, I would probably have been caught in that.
For a moment, I entertained the thought of turning back and attacking the Minotaur whose horns had been buried in the wall, but my Magic Eye showed me how bad of an idea that was. It had given a vision where my head flew sideways away from the rest of my body.
How can we win against a monster as monstrous as this!?
“[Oh, Earth]!”
In an effort to restraint the Minotaur, Layla made numerous chains from the stone ground and made those latch onto the monster. Before I could confirm it worked, I grabbed her hand and ran once more.
“BuMoooo!!”
Alongside the hair-raising roar, I heard the sounds of things being smashed. Those chains and that wall it stabbed with its horns, they might as well have been made of paper for this guy. Nevertheless, even if it was only for a second or two, those chains did buy us some time. We used them to gain whatever distance we could. As an Awakened One, I could probably run at more than 100 km per hour.
And yet, the sounds from behind suggested it was only getting closer and closer.
Damn, we can’t outrun it!
“Damn it!”
“[Oh, Brambles]!”
Layla made a wall of thorns, but how long could that impede the monster?
Nevertheless, we repeated the process of running, turning into a corner, and restraining the Minotaur for the briefest of time over and over again. We were the hunted and the Minotaur our hunter.
At times, we would run into Spartois, but I made a path forward simply by blowing them away with my Magic Power Discharge, consequences be damned. Behind me, I could hear the sound of those Spartois being crushed by the Minotaur. It didn’t even care that they were supposed to be allies.
We continued to run recklessly like that for who knows how long. I was almost out of magic power. If we kept this up…
“Huh?”
All of a sudden, my field of vision widened.
We had ran into a vast, circular room. It was probably about the size of a baseball ground. It had a really high ceiling too, about 3 or 4 stories of a building. This place, that was totally like the Colosseum, was lighted up by many torches.
“Master!”
The shock of seeing the open area made my feet move slower. Right then, my Magic Eye and Layla issued warnings at almost the same time. In response, I pushed Layla away as I raised my sword up. In the next moment, my sword was against a large iron axe.
“Gah, guahh…!?”
My sword was pushed back and it even grazed my helm. The blow I took on even knocked me away like a leaf. I was thankful for 2 small mercies here: one was that I was too unbalanced to keep on standing on my feet after the blow, and the other was that the enemy swung its axe sloppily. Had any of those points been any different, I…
I suppressed a scream I didn’t have the energy to spare for and landed as my feet dug out the ground. I then lifted my sword with my now trembling hands. My breathe became labored too.
Meanwhile, the Minotaur approached us like a king taking a leisurely stroll in his castle.
I’m so scared. Like, what the heck even is this? Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this, damn it!?
“Master, we have to defeat it here!”
Hearing Layla say that, my hands trembled even more.
“We’ll collapse from exhaustion before we can escape from it! If that’s the case, I say we have no other way of surviving than to bring it down here and now!”
Maybe it understood what she said or maybe everything was just a coincidence, but either way, the Minotaur slowly spread its legs and then stamped on the ground. As perhaps to be expected, its horns were pointed right at me.
“Let’s fight! To survive!!”
Taking Layla’s shout as the signal, the black mass became like the wind
—and I saw a vision where I was pierced in the belly and gorily died.
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
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Below are information not related to the main story
Q: why did Kyotaro expect a snake?
A: In Greek Mythology, the hero Cadmus had defeated a giant snake. And from its teeth, the Spartois were born. Well, there are legends which say that it wasn’t a snake but rather a dragon, so that’s really dangerous too.
Q: Why the Minotaur though?
A: A cow also appears in the legends about Cadmus, so it’s connected to that, you see…or rather, it just feels like it should be a Minotaur. I apologize to those who seriously considered what it will be based on the Spartois.
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