Chapter 48

Back at the camp once again, we all sat down in total silence.

No one said a word.

In my attempt to keep my distance from everyone else, I found myself, quite unpleasantly, drifting toward the side of that iron coffin.

What a miserable turn of events—having to rest beside a corpse in a situation like this.

I started to pull away in a hurry when Brad’s body caught my eye.

Amidst the countless scars covering his frame, I noticed one that stood out, looking slightly different from the rest. It wasn’t so much a scar as it was a burn mark.

There was a severe burn on Brad’s right palm.

“What are you looking at?”

Jin, who seemed relatively composed compared to the rest of us—perhaps due to his wealth of experience—noticed my gaze and approached.

“Oh, uh, nothing. Just… look at Brad’s palm.”

“Ah, that? It’s a burn, right?”

“You know about it?”

“Well, it’s a famous story. Maybe not so much to the younger adventurers these days. It happened back when Brad and I were both still green.”

Jin continued with a bashful expression that felt entirely out of place given our current circumstances.

“At the time, hearing that story made even my skin crawl. It made me realize there were some incredible guys in my generation, and that I’d better work hard to make a name for myself, too.”

According to Jin, it happened while Brad’s party was attempting to conquer a dungeon called the Fire God Cave.

“It’s a story you hear often with inexperienced adventurers. They overestimate their own strength, dive into a dungeon far beyond their level, and the party gets wiped out. Apparently, everyone but Brad died before they even had a chance to use a Return Stone.”

But Brad survived.

“His weapons and armor were ruined, his comrades were all dead—he was in a truly hopeless situation. In the middle of all that, he faced an attack from a monster called a Flame Knight. Believe it or not, Brad actually grappled with the knight, pinning its attacks down with his bare hands to survive. He used the split second he gained from that to use his stone and escape.”

The Flame Knight that appears in that dungeon takes the form of an armored warrior wreathed in fire. As the name suggests, the armor is supposedly kept at an incredibly high temperature.

“A normal person would hesitate to even get close, let alone touch the thing. But he dove in, grabbed the knight’s wrist with his right hand, and held on just to stay alive. Every veteran adventurer who heard that story was stunned. After that, everyone started showing a newfound respect for the rookie who carried a massive burn on his right palm.”

“Nostalgia is all well and good, but—”

Henya interrupted, raising his voice. His usual sarcastic mask had slipped; he was no longer even attempting to hide his blatant irritation.

“What do you plan to do now?”

It was the question everyone wanted to ask—and in a way, the one no one wanted to hear.

“Wait,” Jin answered with a concise reply, his voice just as loud as Henya’s.

“Wait? Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah. We didn’t exactly start this expedition in secret. Bent knows we’re here, and the party includes his son, Hunt. If a party containing his own son doesn’t return, he’ll send a rescue team.”

“I don’t disagree with the logic, but…” Watch spoke up, his voice quiet yet carrying clearly. “When exactly would that be?”

“Who knows?” Stung by the accuracy of the question, Jin grimaced and spoke evasively.

“This is an unconquered dungeon shrouded in mystery. We equipped ourselves specifically to withstand a long-term exploration before we started.”

Watch continued to lay out the facts with clinical detachment. That was precisely why his words felt so hopeless.

“I doubt Bent will send a rescue team immediately just because we haven’t returned for a week or so. And I don’t believe we can last more than a week in this state.”

“Last more than a week” was Watch’s polite way of putting it. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. The truth was, we could fall apart in another day—or even at this very moment.

“Hah! Then what, Watch? Are you saying we should try to break through to the surface right now, with this group?” Jin shot back, sounding half-desperate. Watch didn’t answer; he simply looked away.

The atmosphere turned toxic.

“You really don’t trust my medicine, do you?” Shirona muttered, sounding utterly exasperated. The tension in the air accelerated.

“Listen up! Think simply,” Jin shouted, trying to force a consensus while glaring at all of us. “Exploring the dungeon further is off the table. That leaves us with two choices. We either wait, or we act.”

He scanned our faces, his voice booming with intimidation. “It’s one or the other. Which do you want? Do we wait, or do we act?”

He raised his voice even higher. “Those who want to act, raise your hand.”

“Right here.”

Without any sign of hesitation, Henya was the only one to raise his hand.

“You really think we should go for it?”

“Yeah. Waiting is too uncertain. Who knows if a rescue team will actually come, or if they’ll make it in time? If that’s the case, we should act. Acting doesn’t exactly cut off the possibility of a rescue team arriving, anyway.”

Henya’s eyes glittered as he leaned forward slightly. “Besides… I don’t think I can take much more of this. I’m itching to cut something, he-he.”

There was an unmistakable trace of madness in his laugh.

“And I don’t particularly care if the thing I’m cutting isn’t a monster.”

As Henya glared at the rest of us, both Shirona and I were so overwhelmed that we instinctively took a step back.

“Are you serious, Henya?”

Jin stood his ground, his own killing intent beginning to swell.

“Leave this to me,” Watch said, smoothly stepping forward to intervene.

“Oh? And what do you intend to do, Watch?” Henya actually looked pleased.

“It looks like you’re about to lose control.”

The air between Watch and Henya took on an eerie, localized heat.

“Hey, wait a—”

I had to stop them. But just as I regained my composure and tried to take a step forward…

Henya suddenly floated into the air without changing his posture. No—calling it a “jump” wouldn’t be accurate. To describe it exactly as it looked: he was literally floating.

It was a leap that seemed to ignore the existence of gravity. I wasn’t the only one stunned; even Jin let out an audible gasp of shock. Shirona remained silent, but her eyes went wide.

Only Watch remained standing, his expression unreadable, not so much as an eyebrow twitching.

“He-he.”

By now, Henya’s head was nearly brushing the ceiling.

Then, as if gravity had ceased to exist for him as well, Henya’s body spun sideways in mid-air. His feet moved up, his head down. He looked exactly like a hanging bat.

“He-he, he…”

Henya’s eyes were locked straight onto Watch, his katana already unsheathed.

Then, Henya’s feet kicked off the ceiling.

Astoundingly, instead of leaping back toward the ground, he began to run along the ceiling.

Faced with this sight that defied belief, Watch showed no sign of agitation. He simply thrust the spear held in his hand toward the approaching Henya with terrifying speed.

“He-he!”

Leaping to avoid the thrust, Henya landed on his feet like an acrobat, right next to Watch.

From Watch’s perspective, his opponent had slipped deep inside his guard. To make matters worse, his spear was still extended—he hadn’t pulled it back yet. It was a complete opening.

“Hi!”

Henya struck. Watch avoided the diagonal slash aimed at his shoulder by swaying his body just enough while still in his thrusting stance, dodging by a hair’s breadth.

It was like watching a magic trick.

That dodging motion seamlessly transitioned into a counterattack. As Watch pulled the spear back, the movement became a strike with the spear’s pommel, aimed to crush the Henya who had closed the distance.

“Hiah!”

Henya ducked, avoiding the blow at the very last second. Without lifting his head, he used that same posture to execute a massive leap backward. Once again, with weightless grace, he covered an impossible distance.

“Spear Hospitality.”

Watch muttered the technique name as he retracted the spear, already prepared for his next move. However, the distance between him and Henya had grown far too wide.

Despite this, Watch unleashed a lightning-fast thrust at Henya with his retracted spear. It wasn’t a simple jab; he twisted his tall frame, putting his entire weight into a strike that should never have reached—and yet, it appeared to pierce right through Henya’s head.

No, it only looked that way.

In reality, Henya had leaned back sharply with a faint smirk, narrowly evading the point. The thrust was so fast it simply appeared to have connected.

“Impressive reflexes,” Watch said, smoothly retracting the spear once more.

“He-he, you made it reach from that distance? No, that’s impossible. No matter how much you stretch your body toward me, or how much you slide your hand to the very end of the pommel at the moment of the thrust… He-he, in my eyes, it looked like the spear itself grew longer. Or was I just imagining things?”

“Your eyes are sharp as well.”

Watch held his spear upright, gripping it firmly with both hands.

“A trick spear? I didn’t think a man of your skill would resort to such petty gimmicks. No, I suppose that’s exactly why it catches people off guard. He-he, interesting.”

“No, I should thank you for the display. I had heard that Henya of the Sekiun style could fly about like a bird using physical manipulation and wind magic. They said your light-footedness surpassed even Sekiun himself. I thought the stories were exaggerated, but I see now—you are truly something.”

“Wait—”

I tried to step in to stop the two men as their killing intent clashed, but I was held back from behind by Jin.

“Stop. It’s too late. Let them settle it,” Jin said.

“Jin, what are you—”

“It’s no use. Even if we stop them now, we can’t maintain the party with those two. One of them has to die here.”

Jin spoke loudly and without hesitation, even wearing a thin smile.

I was aghast.

“You should step back if you don’t want to get caught in it,” Shirona warned me. “Unless you want to die here.”

Before she even finished her warning.

“Watch Houou!”

Henya unleashed a wide, leaping strike that grazed past me as he charged Watch.

“Hmph.”

With a movement that looked like he was wrapping the spear around his own body, Watch delivered a sweeping blow that parried Henya’s attack.

“Houou, is it? What a ridiculous alias. The Houou family… the ones who once fought my master, Sekiun, for the position of instructor, lost the duel along with their head, and eventually vanished. Using that name in front of me means you were picking a fight from the very beginning, doesn’t it?”

“Forgive me, it isn’t an alias. It is the name of a house that no longer exists.”

“He-he… I had a hunch, but it really is you.”

“A family grudge. I decided I would kill every senior disciple of the Sekiun style.”

“Then try it!”

Shouting, Henya planted his feet on the ceiling again and leaped toward Watch.

“The specialty of the Houou house was swordsmanship, but it seems you’ve abandoned even that to switch to the spear. How could a half-measure like you ever take me down!?”

“Shall we find out?”

In response, Watch held a motionless stance, his feet planted firmly on the ground. Only his spear thrust out with mercurial unpredictability, hounding Henya.

Henya dodged that storm of consecutive spear strikes by leaping between the ceiling and the floor, steadily closing the gap.

“You’re soft, he-he. All bite and no teeth.”

“I suppose so. After all, my true calling is the sword.”

As Henya finally closed in, Watch unleashed a thrust.

“I’ve got you!”

Henya dodged and lunged forward.

In that instant—

“That is why I told you. My true calling is the sword.”

The spear Watch thrust out extended.

But what use was extension now? Henya had already moved past the point.

Then, the front half of the extended spear stretched even further. No—rather than extending, it was launched.

The front half of the spear completely detached from the rest of the shaft and flew past me, missing me by a hair.

“Whoa!”

I leaped to avoid the projectile flying at terrifying speed. When I looked back, I saw the remaining part of the spear. A blade had sprouted from the middle of the shaft—a bizarre, alien appearance, and yet…

“What—!?”

His momentum broken by the surprise, Henya’s movement faltered for a split second.

“An opening!”

Watch swung that incredibly strange “sword” at Henya.

“Guh… gah!”

Crying out, Henya leaped over Watch’s shoulder. Unlike his previous movements, this was a desperate jump.

He failed the landing and rolled away to put distance between them before turning back to face Watch.

On his cheek was a cut—only a scratch, but clearly caused by Watch’s blade.

On the other hand, Watch did not pursue the vulnerable Henya.

His body swayed, and he used the strange sword as a support to keep from collapsing. Grimacing in pain, he slowly turned back toward Henya.

“Impressive, Henya.”

“You surprised me, Watch. I didn’t think you’d have a trick like that. The Houou family has really fallen, haven’t they? Or was it always a pathetic house?”

Henya mocked him through ragged breaths, but…

“Heh… heh…”

Watch was on the verge of collapsing, yet he smiled through his pained, distorted expression.

And the culprit, too, was smiling.

Ideal.

This development was absolutely ideal.