The Fake Hero Marius

Dungeon, 30th floor.

The atmosphere was different from everything up to now.

The corridors were roughly twice as wide and tall as before.

Carvings had been worked into the walls and pillars.

Marius’s party was challenging the raid with four members: hero, thief, priestess, and mage.

There were around ten goblins, all of them higher variants.

Marius charged at a Hobgoblin carrying a large shield.

“Hyaaa— Justice Slash!”

He knocked the shield aside and lopped off the Hobgoblin’s head.

The female mage in a wide-brimmed pointed hat spoke in a breezy tone.

“Back up a bit, okay?”

Marius and the thief Nefil fell back while keeping the goblins in check.

Then the mage shook her hat and swung her crooked staff.

“Here goes— Inferno Flare!”

A mass of crimson flame flew forward and exploded in an instant.

Scorching flames blossomed in layer after layer, consuming everything in a wave-like assault.

She had cast it as casually as a low-tier spell, but it was actually a top-class fire spell.

“Gyaaaah!”

It burned nearly all of them to ash in one sweep.

Marius and Nefil hunted down the goblins that had been left standing.

“Looks like this is the bottom floor, but they were no match for us.”

“Pretty much. This level’s a cakewalk.”

After finishing collecting the goblins’ magic cores, Nefil approached Marius.

Pressing her alluring body against him, she showered him with praise.

“That was just what I’d expect from you, Lord Marius.”

“Hmph, naturally— now, let’s destroy the Dungeon Core.”

“This way, my lord.”

Nefil twined her arm around his, pressing it between her breasts.

The priestess openly furrowed her brows in disgust.

However, she followed without saying anything.

They headed into the depths of the 30th floor, walking a passage that curved clockwise again and again.

The mage glanced back over her shoulder and asked,

“Hey, are you sure about the traps? We’re not being lured into a dead end, are we?”

“There aren’t any traps. And the Dungeon Core is just ahead.”

“Hmm. Well, if you say so.”

Then a horde of goblins appeared in the corridor ahead— there must have been around a hundred.

In the front row, armored goblins stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the way.

They raised their large shields, and in the rear row, the Goblin Shamans all began chanting spells at once.

The goblins in the second and third rows thrust long spears through the gaps between the shields.

In the fourth row stood Hobgoblins wielding large weapons, and in the fifth and sixth rows were goblins with bows and staves.

The mage clicked her tongue.

“They put up Magic Protection.”

Nefil picked up a vial hanging at her waist.

“Then how about we splash them with oil and set them on fire?”

“’Kay, let’s do that—”

Suddenly, there was a heavy clank from behind Marius and the others.

When they turned around, a passage had opened in the wall.

A flood of golems poured out.

Stone, rock, and iron golems, all hard as can be— and each one larger than normal.

Each stood around two meters tall, with arms and legs as thick as pillars.

There were at least fifty of them.

“You’ve got to be kidding— we’re pincered!”

Sweat beading on his brow, Marius ran toward the golems in the rear.

The mage knit her brows.

“Sister, hold the goblins. I’ll take care of the golems.”

“Right— Holy Aura.”

The priestess formed a seal, then pointed forward, sending white light streaming toward the goblins like wind.

“Guguh!?”

“Ggyaah!”

The goblins’ legs froze under the holy power.

It did not deal damage, but it clearly bothered them, and they thrust their shields further forward to block the luminous wind.

In that time, the mage spun around, skirts flaring, and raised her long, crooked staff in both hands.

“Here we go! — Explosion!”

She swung the staff, and a sphere of yellow light streaked through the air.

It slammed into the cluster of golems and detonated.

Doooom!

The blast had enough power to make the dungeon itself tremble.

The stone and rock golems shattered to pieces.

Only the iron golems still stood unfazed.

“Marius, finish them off!”

“I know! — Light Sting!”

Marius sent out a sharp thrust with his glowing sword, piercing the Iron Golem’s core.

With a rumble of falling rubble, the Iron Golem collapsed.

However, more golems kept pouring in from the passage.

There were hundreds of them now.

Marius clenched his teeth, his blond hair in disarray.

“Again!? Aim for the golems’ cores! We have to thin them out!”

Marius swung his sword.

He cut down golem after golem.

Support spells exploded around him.

At a glance, things seemed to be going well.

—But.

By the time Marius had turned who knew how many into rubble, another black golem appeared before him.

“You!”

He charged, blue-white Serâge flaring from his blade.

But he failed to notice that, though it was the same black as an Iron Golem, it was a size larger.

Marius’s sword drove into its body with a harsh grind and stopped.

“Huh?”

The golem brought down its thick arm.

Pakiinn—!

With an extremely high-pitched crack, Marius’s sword snapped off at the base.

“Aaah! N-no way!”

Marius shook his blond hair as he recoiled in shock, his red eyes wide.

The blow had clearly shaken him badly.

“—Explosion!”

The mage hurled a mass of light.

It exploded, shattering the golem.

But on the one that was a size larger, only the outer layer peeled away.

It shone with a silvery light as it swung at Marius.

“Eek!”

Marius fell on his backside and scrambled away.

Nefil shouted.

“That’s a Mithril Golem!”

“Oh, come on! My magic doesn’t work on it!? This is really bad!”

All the while, more golems were pressing in from every side.

The priestess cried out, her blue hair in disarray.

“We can’t hold them here anymore! —Marius-san, let’s reset our position! Use True Garden!”

True Garden was a hero spell that forcibly created a field in which neither friend nor foe could attack for five minutes.

Since they could still use healing magic, items, and swap equipment, it was a handy spell for rebuilding when the party fell into crisis.

Naturally, only the hero could use it.

—However.

Marius shook his head, face deathly pale, his blond hair swaying uselessly.

“I… can’t.”

“Huh? What?”

“I can’t…!”

“What are you talking about!? It’s a hero spell! You’ve used it over and over!”

Marius’s face twisted as if he were about to cry, and he screamed,

“If I don’t have my sword, I can’t use it!”

“What!? Don’t tell me the Serâge was coming from the sword!?”

The priestess screamed, shaking her blue hair.

The mage also shouted, the wide brim of her pointed hat trembling.

“You have got to be kidding me! I’m so telling Grandpa when we get back! [Double Trigger]— Inferno Flare!!”

Screaming, the mage planted her feet wide and turned her body sideways.

She aimed her right hand at the goblin horde and her left at the golem horde.

Scorching great fireballs shot toward both at the same time.

Dooooom, doooom—!

Massive explosions erupted both in front of and behind the party.

The mage hated lectures and research, but when it came to practical combat, she excelled.

She was a super-genius who had devised simultaneous casting at such a young age.

And her grandfather served as the Royal Court Mage General.

—And yet.

For all that, she did not fell many goblins; their Magic Protection blunted her ultimate move.

On the golem side as well, the Mithril Golem absorbed most of the damage, and only a few were destroyed.

Their encirclement from both front and rear slowly tightened.

They were in a desperate situation.

—Just then.

Zaaash—!

With a thunderous sound, an Iron Golem split clean in two and toppled.

Behind it appeared a man with shaggy black hair that nearly covered his eyes.

“You guys holding up?”

It was the seemingly unmotivated thief, Edgar.

“Y-you’re—!”

“Edgar!”

Just as the hero party had been battered and driven into a corner, Edgar’s team had rushed to the rescue.

“Haa!”

“Take this!”

“There!”

“Hah!”

The boy swordsman and warrior swung maces and hammers, while the hunter and ranger fired arrows whose tips held small pouches.

When the arrows struck the golems’ joints, the pouches burst.

Black powder scattered.

It was iron sand.

No matter how tough a golem was, once iron sand was driven into its joints, its movements dulled.

They then hammered those joints with blunt weapons, rendering the golems barely able to move.

It was a way for even frail boys and girls to handle golems.

Edgar shouted.

“Go! Now’s your chance!”

Nefil wrapped an arm around the stunned, swordless Marius and led him away, while the priestess and mage also slipped out of the encirclement.

Even as she ran, the mage stooped to pick up the broken sword’s hilt.

The priestess raced past Edgar’s side and called out,

“Sorry! Our party can’t fight anymore! We’re leaving the rest to you!”

“Sure thing— alright, everyone, we’ll meet them with the Antlion Formation.”

“Yes, sir!”

The swordsman and warrior moved to the front, keeping some distance.

The archers lined up behind them.

The healer girl took position in the center of the rear.

From the front, the healer looked like the obvious target.

The golems surged toward them.

Edgar readied his knife.

“Focus on defense. We’ll fight while pulling back rather than worry about finishing them.”

“Yes!”

The children answered brightly and continued the battle, slowly and steadily drawing their line backward.