CH 131

Accompanied by wind noise, a sharp arrow rode the wind to cut through the darkness. Peeking out of the darkness was a Lizardman, which was the target. The Lizardman was shot through in the forehead and rolled to the ground, exposing its long, thin tongue.

Until now, Walm had worked hard to reduce monsters using magic to avoid one-on-one battles. After joining the group, however, he held back to focus on checking the movements of the group members and preserving his mana.

The three remaining Lizardmen rushed in, oblivious to the death of their brethren. And each Lizardman seemed to have decided to engage in one-on-one. Of course, this movement was also intentionally directed by the human side.

Just like Walm, Hari, a warrior monk playing the role of the vanguard, crushed the Lizardman’s head with a hexagonal mace, not caring what kind of swordplay the Lizardman would unleash.

On the other side, a person shifting the center of gravity of the upper body was Merrill, who was called the “Trimagitack”. With that slight move, the downward-sweeping cutlass was dodged and the approaching lizardman was counterattacked with the longsword. The wrist and also the head of the Lizardman fell off without resistance as if cutting soft butter.

What a magnificent performance.

In this way, much work was taken off Walm’s hands. A simple movement of the halberd to deflect the spearhead of the Lizardman and insert the clawed blade of the halberd into the arteries of the Lizardman. And with a simple motion of shifting his center of gravity backward while pulling the halberd, the neck burst open and blood spurted out. That was enough to make the Labyrinth regain its silence again.

Nevertheless, such a reality was enough to shake Walm and make him fall into “idleness”, he even had the luxurious time to turn the halberd to splash the clinging blood.

“Do you have a complaint, Sir?”

Said Merrill, putting away the sword, with a sprinkle of teasing.

In fact, Walm was seen spinning his halberd. He realized it too and felt like a child swinging a twig in idleness, only to be seen by his friend. Of course, it gave him a slight sense of shame.

“No, I’ve no complaints. It’s more than I expected, that I feel complicated.”

“If a party aiming to be the conqueror has trouble on the mid-rank floors, that would be absurd, isn’t it?”

That was a very good opinion. Still, for Walm, who had always been at a numerical disadvantage since his military service and had become too accustomed to diving the Labyrinth alone, he couldn’t help but get restless when he was placed on the side with more numbers.

Fortunately, there was no further investigation from the new comrades, and when Walm saw archer Yuna step in on the Lizardman’s head to retrieve the arrow, he mingled with the others to collect the monster’s relics.

While Merrill looked around the surroundings as a guard, the rest of the members collected the valuables. That was the formation.

The monsters that stood in the way were equally returned to the labyrinth, as the party dived deeper.

The swarming Dullahans and Doll Slimes were swept away by Walm’s fire attribute magic. Even if they sacrificed one of their compatriots to close the gap, waiting for them was a hexagonal mace that Hari called the Spirit-Infusing Rod. The proud armor of the Dullahan and the Doll Slime was shattered unevenly like a broken tin doll. Finally, Merrill and Marianthe would crush anyone who dared to pass through.

Although it was a Labyrinth dive that Walm had tried himself more than a few times, before he knew it, the depth had reached the 30th floor. Although the formation was rough, he effortlessly reached the floor he had worked so hard on just because he was in a party.

Walm couldn’t help but feel the high level of skill of Merrill and the others who had protected each other’s backs so far. And even though a brand new foreign object called Walm had slipped in, the overall movement continued to follow the optimal path as much as possible.

The Ogre that was attacked by a quick shot of the archer, fell down from its head. Walm shot the fireball on his hand against the Ogre that jumped over its brethren who had become an obstacle. Such a large monster, receiving a direct hit in the air, spread blood and flesh everywhere.

Now, there were four of them left, but they too had all suffered the aftermath of the attack and lost some of their bodily functions.

“Newcomers will come from behind.”

At the same time as Merrill’s warning, Walm’s five senses picked up the new movement. It was a group of Centaurs, the heavy cavalry of the Labyrinth, shaking the ground and approaching with a charge.

“Walm, Yuna, both to the front.”

With Merrill’s brief command, the formation of the party changed.

Merrill, Hari, and Marianthe would deal with the high-risk heavy cavalry, while Walm and Yuna would deal with the remaining Ogres.

As Walm charged with his halberd, a flying object flew through from behind.

As expected, this must have been the support of Yuna, the archer.

Having anticipated the movements of Walm and the Ogres, Yuna must have given preference to the one that wanted to engage in battle with Walm. Sure, it wasn’t a fatal hit, but the arrow that entered the base of the shoulder from the collarbone took a lot of pressure off Walm.

One of the Ogre’s arms lost its power as if a supporting string had been cut, and the war hammer that should have hit Walm went in an unexpected direction. The halberd no longer had to be brought into position, and so could be wielded in a straight line, undisturbed. The claw-shaped blade of the halberd, which entered under the chin, reached the Ogre’s brain.

Walm turned the handle of the halberd as he changed his focus, glancing sideways at the next prey. The first fireball had burned half of its face. It wouldn’t be Walm if he didn’t take advantage of this newly made weakness. After all, he knew what it felt like to have only one functional eye.

Sending his halberd downward, Walm sliced through the Ogre’s ankles from the blind spot.

The Ogre, losing its legs, could no longer support its own weight and fell forward. Waiting for the Ogre who tried to get up was the axe-blade of the halberd. The blade, entering the side of his head, penetrated only halfway, for that was enough.

Of the remaining two, one leapt toward Walm with the momentum of someone carving for a hug. He quickly changed his center of gravity in the opposite direction and moved to the side. The second Ogre stuck a longsword in Walm’s way. Walm caught it with the claw-shaped blade of the halberd.

The Ogre tried to engage Walm in a clash of weapons, but instead of accepting it, the spearhead of the halberd made a high-pitched sound as it slid on the surface of the longsword. It went so far that it finally took all four fingers except the thumb.

The Ogre dropped the longsword and tried to grab Walm. As a response, Walm extended his bent elbow, turned his palm, and pierced the Ogre’s eyes with the lower part of the halberd.

The hand of the Ogre, which had lost its sight, caught nothing but air, and when it realized it missed its target, it swung its arm around unreasonably. Walm slipped past it without delivering a final blow. It was an action to quickly prepare for the last ogre that had stayed behind, but it was an unnecessary move. The last Ogre, too absorbed in its target, Walm, bared its defenseless back to Yuna.

Receiving an arrow on the side of the head, the Ogre’s eyes turned white as the strength left its body.

Only one remained, the Ogre that had lost both eyes. But just as Walm turned his attention back to it, he saw that the Ogro that a moment ago was thrusting its arms desperately into the air, seemed to be breathlessly sinking into the ground.

From a distance, Yuna quietly annihilated the horde of Ogres, which gave their attention only to Walm.

Walm was about to go off to rescue Merrill and the others in charge of the newcomers, but the fighting had already stopped. The heads of the poor Centaurs were being smashed by Hari’s Spirit-Infusing Rod and Marianthe’s mace. It was as if they played whack-a-mole. Those that had their forelegs and heads severed were probably in a fight with Merrill.

“That was good support.”

“Mm.”

When Walm thanked Yuna for protecting his back, he received a short reply. Basically, talking was troublesome for Yuna, so the conversation with her was extremely short. Walm believed that…… in any case, Walm convinced himself that it wasn’t because he was hated.

“Seems like, your side is done too.”

“To begin with, they were weak opponents. Compared to your side which killed Four Centaurs about the same time, I’m probably on the slower side.”

“Well, it’s not like the sooner the better.”

Merrill moved the handle to shake off the sticky liquid on the longsword.

Walm also noticed a presence behind him as he cleaned the halberd. The owner of the look was Hari. With a serious look, he asked Hari if anything strange had happened.

“Did something happen?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m just having trouble choosing between Merrill’s colorful eyes and Walm’s muddy eyes. Aaaah, don’t look at me so seriously with those eyes. Or you will get me “excited”.”

“……Huh?”

Walm couldn’t immediately understand Hari’s words. Still, instinct screamed danger. So without thinking, he contorted his face as he took a step back.

Walm gave Merrill a protesting look, as if to say that something strange must be going on in Hari’s brain. That Hari was a weirdo to the core.

Unfortunately, the adventurer known as the “Trimagitack” only gave a silent head shaking, before giving some supplement explanation.

“His personality, and abilities are overall good, but only this side of him, I can’t fix, I’ve already given up.”

“? Were you looking at the other with a perverted gaze again? Really, stop it.”

As Merrill abandoned the responsibility, Marianthe noticed the series of disturbances and thus reprimanded Hari.

“Don’t say it like that. It’s human nature to be fascinated by beautiful things like high peaks and the sea. Don’t worry, Marianthe’s angry eyes are fine in their own way.”

“uhh――that’s why you got kicked out of the church!!”

Marianthe, feeling her patience reaching an end, struck Hari on the buttocks with a mace. A dry sound rang out, and a metallic protrusion dug into his muscular buttocks, but Hari didn’t move in the slightest. Even if it wasn’t swung with full force, it was basically a weapon blow that could beat an average full-armor soldier to death.

Walm couldn’t help but wonder what kind of flesh Hari had to receive such a blow with his buttocks and remained calm.

“Don’t get so angry. Anger slows you down.”

“Aahh!! Aaahhhh!!! I don’t want to hear that, especially not from you.”

“As you can see, glaring or getting angry at Hari only has the opposite effect, so don’t do that.”

“… Yeah, I’ll for sure keep that in mind.”

If it was a bad joke exchanged in a pool of blood, Walm might have tried to think of another bad joke. But no matter how he felt about it, it was serious.

Walm, offering the offering called Marianthe to Hari, quietly distanced himself.

This kind of ruckus must be a routine for the party…

Yuna, who diligently collected the arrows without paying attention to them, finally uttered a voice after collecting some.

“Walm, it’s great that you didn’t break the arrows.”

If the not-so-cheap arrows could be reused without damaging them, nothing was better than not breaking them. The Highserk Empire Army, which was in a rather sad financial situation, had used what was available. They must. Even arrows that pierced decaying corpses were picked up with pleasure by the archers.

“It’s an old habit.”

Despite their short relationship, Yuna, who Walm thought lacked emotion, looked happy. Had he needlessly shattered her arrows, he would have been branded a brutal man in her heart. Perhaps.

Hari and Marianthe ended their argument and began scavenging the Centaur’s corpse.

There was a saying that the “grass next door looks greener,” but now that Walm had come close, he understood that it was a pile of wild, strange grass. Each person had their own quirks, but Walm was not sophisticated enough to judge other people.

“What’s wrong, Walm?”

Walm lowered his gaze as he lost himself in thought, but Merrill’s light green hair entered his field of vision. At the same time, Merrill’s eyes stared at Walm with different irises. It seemed to him that the eyes were not only watching his face, but also his thoughts. That is, he could understand Hari’s feelings a little.

“I was thinking about how lively the party this is.”

“You’re saying it like it’s someone else’s problem. Remember, Walm is also among those lively guys.”

“Hahaha, you’re right.”

In a gloomy labyrinth, a light smile naturally spilled out of Walm’s mouth.