Chapter 44
At that moment, Kagami kicked off the ground and leaped into the air, intending to take out the troublesome flying enemies first. He figured that if only the monsters on the ground were left to attack them, they would have fewer attacks to contend with, increasing everyone’s chances of survival.
“I’m going all out!”
Carried upward by his leap, he kicked a monster flying overhead, landed on its back, and sprang toward the next one. Kicking that monster sent him hurtling forward with the force of a musket ball. He slammed into a monster on the ground, turning it and the airborne monster into money. Kagami repeated the maneuver over and over.
“Whoa...!?”
But he couldn’t keep it up forever. One of the other monsters on the ground read his trajectory and hurled a boulder at him. Unable to deflect or withstand it, Kagami was sent flying along with the boulder and slammed into a sheer rock wall rising from the wasteland.
“Kagami-san! Are you all right?”
Seeing this, Kururu and the others, who had been fighting on the ground, pushed back the monsters and moved toward the rock wall where Kagami had crashed. The boulder had embedded itself in the wall. Faced with a sight as grim as she could imagine, Kururu couldn’t help shouting toward the wall.
Then their fears proved unfounded: the boulder embedded in the wall suddenly shattered, and Kagami emerged from within, battered and bruised.
“No, I’m not all right. I’m about to die.”
Blood poured from his face like a fountain as Kagami heaved himself out of the rock wall. He looked incredibly bad, but seemed surprisingly composed.
“Don’t say you’re about to die! Why are you acting so calm?! If you die, we’ll all die too, so be more careful when you fight!”
Seeing Kagami give them a mysterious thumbs-up despite his condition, Tina rushed over, nearly furious, and immediately began healing his wounds with magic.
“What happened to ‘Take care of yourself’?! What happened to the plan?! I’m more surprised you’re still alive after that!”
“So much for taking care of myself. You never know what life will throw at you, huh? What a mess.”
“Don’t act so nonchalant with injuries that bad!”
“That just means I trust you that much.”
Seeing Kagami smile so calmly despite his serious injuries, apparently meaning every word, Tina felt a confusing mix of frustration and embarrassment. She fell silent and continued healing him.
“...I’m Tina. A priest can’t do anything if the front line disappears. Please don’t make me worry so much.”
Without meeting his eyes, Tina continued casting her healing magic and said this with an embarrassed air. Kagami’s eyes widened at her words. He thought, “I’m one to talk,” remembering what he’d once said to Kururu, then smiled and reflected on his own behavior.
“I’ve hardly ever fought in a party with anyone but Takako-chan. Sorry—I’ll be more careful.”
“Mmm... I’m counting on you.”
Once Tina’s healing magic had mended his wounds, Kagami pumped himself up again with an “All right!” and hurried over to Rex, who had held the front line and endured the monsters’ attacks while Kagami’s wounds healed. He punched the Cyclops in the torso as it was about to crush Rex, sending it flying.
“All right! Let’s fight as a party!”
At that moment, everyone there thought, You’re the only one who wasn’t coordinating with anyone! But they had no time to complain, and immediately faced the monsters closing in from every direction.
“Princess, and you, the buxom mage over there! Can either of you use a wide-area annihilation spell?!”
“I’m Parna! Quit calling me that! Kuu-chan and I can both use one!”
“All right, Parna! And you, Princess! Start chanting!”
“What are you planning to do?!”
“First, we’ll take out the airborne monsters that attack us no matter where we are!”
Hearing this, Parna realized why Kagami had leaped into the air to attack the monsters earlier. Airborne monsters were normally dealt with by mages specializing in long-range attacks or archers, so seeing him take them on bare-handed made her realize that he really had been fighting almost entirely alone until now.
“I’m done chanting! I can cast it anytime!”
“Me too! What are you planning to do? If we fire from here, we’ll hit two or three at most. The spells will just fly straight up past the rest!”
When Parna and Kururu shouted that their chants were complete, Kagami immediately moved over to them and firmly grabbed each of them around the torso, turning them to face in opposite directions.
“H-Hey, what are you doing at a time like this? W-where are you touching?!”
“This is sexual harassment!”
Ignoring the two as they shouted into his ears, Kagami muttered, “Brace yourselves,” then kicked off the ground and leaped straight upward, just as before. His sudden move left Kururu and Parna speechless. They squeezed their eyes shut and braced themselves against the impact of the leap.
“All right, fire your spells from here! They’ll hit more monsters if you fire from the same height instead of from below!”
Hearing Kagami’s shout, the two understood what he was trying to do and unleashed their wide-area annihilation spells in opposite directions. A wave of blazing flames shot horizontally from Parna’s hands, while a wave of crackling lightning burst forth from Kururu’s.
Their levels were too low to wipe out every monster, but they dealt heavy damage to the flying monsters, and those near the spells’ points of origin turned into money. After firing their spells, the two landed on the ground still held in Kagami’s arms. The impact made Parna let out a pained “Guh!”
“You... It worked, so fine, but next time, at least tell me before you do something like that...”
After saying this, Parna went to Tina to ask for healing; even that small amount of damage was too much for a mage as frail as her. Kururu had also taken a little damage, but healed herself with her own magic. Then, her expression stern, she immediately confronted Kagami.
“Kagami-san! What do you take a princess for?!”
“Uh... I thought that was how comrades coordinated with each other. I thought it was a good attack.”
If anything, Kagami thought it was strange that Kururu was angry when they were doing all this just to survive. When he said so, Kururu happily murmured, “Comrades...” Then her expression quickly turned serious again as she faced the monsters. “I suppose I’ll forgive you this time,” she said, readying her weapon.