Chapter 53

“Now’s not the time for jokes! Can’t you see the monsters swarming over there!? It’s a trap! A trap!!”

“Ah, those guys? Don’t worry. I’ll handle it. More importantly… why are ‘you’ even here?”

“Me? Didn’t you give me that bomb artifact for exactly this?”

“No, not you, Sensible. Behind you.”

At my words, Sensible turned her head. Then her eyes flew wide.

“…Selan? Selaaaan!!? Weren’t you supposed to leave with Cheche!? Why are you still here!?”

Timid scratched her head with a sheepish little laugh.

“I-I don’t really know. I just… felt like I shouldn’t run away like that. Before I knew it, I just… stayed….”

“Haa… And why are you doing something you never do? Just to check—no Return Stone, right?”

“Wh-what? As if I’d have something that expensive.”

“Then why stay, you dumbass! If you stay, you die!”

Sensible—who looked a good five years older than Timid—pressed her hard. I hooked a hand into the back of her collar and tugged her away.

“Alright, enough. Who’s dying, exactly?”

“I know you’re strong, Oppa, but seriously, how are you supposed to deal with that many? There have to be at least a hundred!! What are you, some hidden Master in disguise?”

“As if. I don’t like punching down like that.”

“…Huh?”

“They’re big, sure, but they’re all humanoids. Clearing out that kind of trash? I’m better than three or four Masters put together.”

“You can joke at a time like this!?”

“Not a joke. Anyway—here. Take it.”

“What is… this?”

Shing—

I drew Astraphe for the first time in a while and smiled.

“Jerky. I’d offer popcorn, but we don’t have any. Chew on that and watch.”

Illeia knew his real skill far exceeded what she had first imagined.

Unlike the other party members, she had—through a fog of fading consciousness—watched him fight the raiders to the very end.

Even so, the monster army in front of them wasn’t something you could solve with “far beyond what I imagined.”

‘How many are there…? A hundred? A hundred fifty?’

No. Even after they fell into the trap and time had passed, the number of monsters kept increasing in real time. If everything crawling out made it through, the count would hit two hundred… no, maybe over three hundred.

Worse, by the look of them, it wasn’t just surface-floor mobs; there were mid-floor monsters mixed in—trolls, flesh golems, even owlbears.

‘And that thing in the very back… an ogre? A twin-head ogre. My god… I know it’s a trap, but how could a monster like that be here…!’

She forced her thundering heart to settle and pushed her mind to work.

‘Even a normal ogre is a deep-floor monster that only shows up past the 20th floor. Even a Blaster barely has a chance one-on-one… and that’s a twin-head.’

‘Which means to break out of here we’d need the equivalent of three—no, nearly four—Blasters. No matter how strong he is, that’s impossible.’

Common sense said they shouldn’t try to kill these things at all. They should be clinging to the sealed entrance already, desperately searching for any way to pry out a gap and escape.

But whether he understood her fear or not, the man only watched the tidal wave of monsters with an oddly pleased look.

At that point in her chain of thought, Illeia gave up on half her will to live.

“Haa… well, there are worse ways to go.”

Right. Better to die like this than to join hands with scum who tried to kill the comrade who saved her life.

Her only regret was that no one would ever learn what that scum had done.

That’s what she decided. That’s what she had decided—

KRRAA-RA-RA-RA-RAK!!

THUD-CRASH! SPLUT! THR-R-R-RUMBLE! CRACK!

Illeia blinked without meaning to at the bizarre, impossible sight unfolding before her eyes.

“…Huh?”

…
…
…

KRAAAAAAA!

KYEEEEEHH!!

KWEKTA! KO-CHAT-TWA!!

The man vanished from view beneath the rushing wave of monsters for only an instant,
and then—like a lie—the horde that had engulfed him burst apart into five pieces, scattering forward with the very momentum that had driven them.

KRRAA-RA-RA-RA-RAK!!

THUD-CRASH! SPLUT! THR-R-R-RUMBLE! CRACK!

“…Huh?”

For a heartbeat, the monsters froze before that horrific scene.

But when the twin-head ogre in the distance bellowed—KUUWAAAAA!—their spirits surged, and they charged again.

And then—

Slish! Skak!

“…?”

Cling! Tskagak!

“……??”

The monsters began to funnel away like bathwater down a drain.

“Ah….”

At the center of that whirling sinkhole of flesh, the man swung his sword with detached ease.

Though surrounded on all sides by monsters big and small—and armed with nothing more than a single live blade—there wasn’t a flicker of emotion in his eyes.

Slish! Zkuck!!

The way he moved wasn’t like a battle at all. It was like routine work, something he processed as naturally as breathing. Calling it “combat” almost felt wrong—it was closer to “labor.”

“Kwetta! Kuchatta!!”

“Ku-halta! Kwelkwek!!”

Two warrior-class orcs, nothing like the clumsy surface-floor ones, came at him with mana-glowing glaives, striking in perfect unison.

And then—

Sgagagagak!

In the blink of an eye, their glaives split apart. An arm and a knee went flying, followed by heads toppling to the ground.

The golden blade arced fluidly behind his shoulder, punching straight through the heart of an elite gnoll leaping at his back. It tore through ribs as it exited, trailing arcs of blood and grease behind it. Without slowing, the sword accelerated forward and carved the oncoming troll once vertically, once horizontally, reducing it to what used to be a troll.

Crackle-crack!!

“Back then.”

Illeia startled at the sudden voice beside her. Turning, she found Selan chewing on jerky with a dazed expression.

“I once read this in a short sword manual.”

—There is no such thing as simultaneous.

“It wasn’t anything profound. Just… if you’re attacked by many enemies, set priorities and deal with them calmly one by one. A short sword is more than enough to make that possible.”

“……”

Watching the man mow through the horde without pause, Selan murmured as if dazzled.

“Back then, I thought it was just nice words… but it’s real.”

“……”

“I can’t really see clearly, he’s too fast… but right now he’s cutting them one by one, always starting with the closest. He’s just so fast and precise, it looks like they’re all being swept away at once.”

Illeia blinked at Selan, surprised. The Selan she knew always hunched her head, timid and cowed.

Maybe catching that look, Selan gave a faint smile. Then, without a word, she drew the short sword at her waist and let it shimmer.

Hummm….

Orange mana radiated from the blade.

Illeia’s eyes flew wide.

“A Mana User!? Since when…!?”

“Two years ago.”

“Why hide that!?”

“If I said anything, the Young Master would only torment me worse. The Selan he wanted was weak, clumsy, and timid.”

“…Ah.”

“This is the first time I’ve told anyone.”

“Why tell me…?”

Still watching the man carving through the horde, Selan smiled faintly.

“I don’t know. Maybe because watching him makes everything I’ve been holding onto feel… small.”

Her eyes grew distant, shining as if seeing something too bright.

Chkack!

While the two of them spoke, the man’s swordplay had shifted again.

Up until now, he had moved like a slaughterhouse machine, cutting in reaction to each movement. Now, it was reversed.

Ching—

Golden light streamed from his blade.

And then, the monsters themselves seemed to throw their heads, arms, and legs into that trajectory, as if drawn to it. Like they were competing—who could rush up first and offer their neck to the blade.

Crunch! Crackle!!

“GRAAAAAAH!!”

Even for monsters, the way they died was so effortless it almost inspired pity. Goblin, orc, troll, ghoul—it didn’t matter. Every last one hurled themselves headlong into death.

Kiiing—

Chkack! Kagagagak!!

Whoosh!

Slish! Pagagagak!!

“Kkyeeehh!!”

Illeia stared slack-jawed at the almost magical spectacle.

She had no way of knowing that with only a few steps and subtle gestures, the man was luring the monsters’ reflexes exactly where he wanted them to go. To her, it looked impossible.

“…Unless they were all tamed and ordered to kill themselves, how could this even—?”

Kagagagak!!

The monsters dove harder into death, like moths into flame.

Death accelerated.

Gnolls and trolls, orcs and werewolves stabbed one another and collapsed with eyes full of disbelief. Living armors clashed with flesh golems, falling together, while ghouls and mummies sank their teeth into each other’s bodies.

With just a couple of light steps, the man had orchestrated a symphony of slaughter, and when he swung his sword left and right like a conductor’s baton, monster heads leapt skyward in unison.

A battle that made no sense.

At first she thought he might be a Blaster. Then, maybe a Master.

No. This wasn’t a Blaster’s style. It wasn’t a Master’s style either.

Every high-tier Steel Body user she knew fought like an unstoppable war chariot—crushing everything in their path. None balanced on a tightrope with nothing but a single blade.

And yet… she couldn’t believe this man was weaker than any of them.

“Ah…”

Before she realized it, Illeia had forgotten all her fears, entranced by the shimmering arcs of light he drew.

Watching those golden trails felt like gazing up at stars scattered across the pitch-black sky.

So distant, so unreachable, yet that was what made them so beautiful, so transcendent.

And the one thing that pulled her back to reality… was a strip of reddish jerky.

“Here.”

“…What?”

“Didn’t you hear earlier? Chew while you watch. It feels like the boss fight’s about to start—you’ll want a snack, right?”

“……”

“What, you don’t want it?”

Illeia blinked dumbly at the jerky for a moment before breaking into a small laugh and taking it.

“Looks good. Get some wine out of the pack while you’re at it.”

I shoved aside the mountain of monster corpses around me with my boot and fixed my eyes on the twin-head ogre sitting by the spring.

It hadn’t budged while the others were slaughtered, as if none of it mattered to it. Only now did it slowly rise, its massive body towering more than five meters high.

“Grrrooooh…”

A low rumble, so languid it reeked of boredom rather than menace.

But the way it sounded like, “You’re pretty good, huh?”… that wasn’t my imagination.

“Shia. Know anything about that one?”

Shia stepped forward, wading through the blood without care, and shrugged.

“It is not so different from a normal ogre. Except…”

“Except?”

Her lips curled into a grin.

“It is unbelievably tough. No matter how strong you are, this one will make you sweat.”