Chapter 215:

Chapter 215:

Dungeon Stampede 2.0 Crossroads

"Bufho...! Bwooo!"

[Crunch! Crunch...!]

"Kyaaa!"

TogaTanami, who worked at a massage parlor, was in a tight spot.

"T-Toga! Pull harder!"

"...Yes!"

At the emergency exit of a super sento, she and a colleague were desperately pulling the doorknob. From the gap in the door, a bear-like paw with black fur extended, carving deep scratches into the iron door with its sharp claws.

(How did it come to this...!)

Behind the struggling women, a young man with a severe back injury lay unable to stand. He had gone out to check the situation and returned after being attacked by the monster.

"Groooaar!"

""Kyaaaa!""

The battle continued with just a single iron door between them. The monster kept pushing to get inside, but the door opened outward. If it realized this, it would soon break in.

All Toga and her colleague could do was pull the door with all their might to keep it from opening completely.

Since the second wave of the Dungeon Stampede started, they had been holed up in the facility, waiting for the situation to resolve. Fortunately, the super sento had restaurants, so they hadn’t suffered from hunger and had managed to get through the past few days unscathed.

She had tried contacting her father and brother, but there was no response. However, she knew their personalities well. They were surely fighting hard to handle the current situation.

While holding their breath in fear of the unknown, time passed, and as customers and employees grew more anxious, they began to make noise.

The careless action of the young man who went out to check the situation had led to the current predicament.

"Bufhoo! Groooar!"

A foul beastly breath washed over her from above, sending chills through her body.

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In this life-threatening moment, the name of the man she liked and a deep sense of regret came to mind.

The man Tanami had fallen for suddenly became unreachable, only to reappear one day as a woman in front of her. The shock left her speechless at the time.

Though they met again later at work, her cousin Ruri was there, and she couldn’t ask why Naruto had reverted from a woman to a man.

(Despite being so infatuated...!)

When she heard Naruto was going on a trip, she followed him, pretending it was a coincidence. She felt bad about it but was thrilled when they met. They exchanged contact details, and she was so nervous when she called him for the first time.

However, the awkwardness and guilt made her unable to reach out afterward.

Their weapons were bats from the softball club, and shields made from disassembled school desks by the art club students.

They all worked together to protect the school.

Chairs placed around the iron fence were quickly being converted to bicycles, as lightweight monsters had easily entered the school.

The students in training had not yet gained status. Those who had were already leveled up from previous defenses and were patrolling or on guard duty.

"Alright, dismissed! Wipe your sweat so you don't catch a cold!"

"""Thank you!"""

Ruri Toga, also known as Shark, was leading the training. Her fearless nature and caring attitude made her a charismatic figure at the school.

"Toga-san, can I talk to you...?"

"What is it, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes? Don't get too close, or you'll catch my bad habits."

"Hinagata Yuzuki..."

Hinagata Yuzuki, a classmate from Aikido class, approached Ruri at the end of the training.

Following Ruri, they walked to a rest area—just chairs lined up along the school wall. Ruri took a water bottle and drank.

"So, you want another pixie, right? Didn’t you get rejected by Jung? Give it up."

Though they had a truce, they weren’t exactly friends. To Ruri, the truce was temporary.

"Don’t say that. Just let me talk to Veil for a bit..."

Since seeing the pixies, Yuzuki had persistently asked questions, annoying Ruri.

"Veil is napping now. We agreed at the defense meeting to use the pixies for night patrol because they have sharper senses than humans."

Ruri glanced at the tall tree in the courtyard where the pixies rested.

"..."

Yuzuki’s shoulders drooped in disappointment.

"What about the heavy machinery guys?"

"I don’t know... Probably eating stolen food again."

"....."

Ruri knew about the heavy machinery guys’ food supply.

She was initially glad that the food situation improved, but the classmate in front of her scolded them loudly, and that was the end of it.

Ruri was staying with a policeman's family. She understood the difference between right and wrong but felt rigid thinking was misplaced in such times.

Still, the classmate's point was valid, so she said no more to her not-so-close peer.