Chapter 45
“But that was a great plan, Kagami-chan. Thanks to you, this is much easier than it was before.”
Takako, who was holding the front line and dealing with the horde of monsters bare-handed, said this to Kagami as she threw a roundhouse kick and gave him a thumbs-up. In fact, the attacks raining down from above had eased, leaving Kururu and Tina with less need to put up defensive magic or dodge, so everyone could focus on the enemies in front of them.
“Rex-chan! I’ll leave the soft-looking enemies to you! Leave the ones that look obviously tough to me!”
“Rex... chan? Don’t be ridiculous! My Hero’s Sword can cut through any opponent, no matter who they are. Even if you’re a skilled martial artist, that division of duties is—?!”
Just as Rex began to protest, Takako threw a straight punch at a monster as large as the Cyclops before her, its body clad in a rocky suit of armor.
The rocky armor shattered as though she’d punched through Styrofoam. Without missing a beat, Takako slammed her elbow into the exposed section, sending the enormous rock monster flying backward. Along with it, Rex’s confidence went flying too.
“Takako-chan has a freakish Skill that ignores her opponent’s defense, so it’s not that you’re weak. If anything, Takako-chan’s the one who’s abnormal.”
Kagami said this, giving Rex’s shoulder a gentle, reassuring pat.
“I don’t want to hear that from someone even more abnormal! Damn it... Over Level 100? Is the gap really this huge? I’ll reach Level 100 too, no matter what!”
“The Demon King-sama and I would be in trouble if you got stronger...! But right now, you have to fight with that kind of determination, or we’ll be in trouble!”
Rex, Takako, and Menou kept fighting against the horde, maintaining a set distance from one another without breaking formation. Parna and Kururu attacked the monsters that slipped through their ranks with magic, and Kagami immediately took down any that survived.
At first, Takako, Rex, and Menou were so afraid of being hurt by the monsters’ endless onslaught that they dodged even if it meant breaking formation. But gradually, to protect Tina and the others waiting behind them, they began to face the monsters head-on without fear of getting hurt.
But that didn’t last long. For a while, Kagami and the others held their circular formation with their backs to the rock wall, but their once-steady distance from the monsters gradually fell apart, and they began to lose their coordination.
Kagami and the others were definitely growing exhausted. Yet they could hardly sense that the monsters were thinning out at all, and that only wore them down further.
“Hey... When are these monsters ever going to stop coming?”
Rex, experiencing the fiercest battle of his life, muttered this as sweat trickled down his cheek.
“Trying to fight all of this alone... Kagami-chan really is an idiot!”
Takako, the strongest among them after Kagami and Menou, had lost her air of ease as well. Sweat poured from her body as she shouted with a grim expression and plunged toward the Cyclops.
“There are still plenty of them. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like a single monster has headed toward Salmaria, though.”
Kagami had kicked off the ground and leaped into the air to survey the situation. After landing, he immediately kicked aside several monsters and told everyone what he’d seen from above.
At his words, everyone’s expressions darkened, turning visibly strained. Seeing this, Kagami smiled faintly, murmured, “It’s time,” then moved toward the rock wall behind him and suddenly punched it with all his might.
The rock wall boomed as the blow struck, leaving a hole as though it had been carved right through. Beyond it, they could see scattered rubble, an open stretch of wasteland with no monsters, and the gate in Salmaria’s wall.
“All right, we’re at our limit! Let’s run!”
Kagami was impressed that they’d held out this long. He called out to everyone there, but no one responded. They were all still trying to fight.
“What are you doing?! Aren’t we supposed to value our lives? Let’s get out of here!”
He shouted it again, but no one reacted to his words. On the contrary, Takako, Rex, and Menou continued to face the monsters without hesitation.
“I can still... fight! If we run now... Salmaria will be finished, won’t it?”
Tina murmured, her expression pained and her shoulders heaving. She seemed close to reaching the limit of her magical power.
“No, no... There’s no point if you’re the ones who end up finished!”
“I want to run too, you know! But if none of you are running, how am I supposed to?!”
As she put her true desire to run into words, Parna unleashed a wide-area annihilation spell at the monsters in front of them.
“Takako-chan! What are you doing?! We’re at our limit! Let’s run!”
When Kagami shouted to her, Takako glanced back with a grim expression. But she immediately turned toward the monsters again and prepared to attack.
“Hey, Takako-chan! Are you listening?!”
“Kagami-chan... I can see right through you, you know?”
Takako finished her attack and turned around once more. After murmuring this, she faced the monsters again, took up her stance, and charged at them.
“I can see right through you too...”
Kururu murmured in response to Takako’s words, and Kagami felt cold sweat run down his forehead.
“Kagami-san... You seem awfully relaxed, don’t you? Are you holding back?”
“Well, you got me,” Kagami said, realizing she’d seen through what he’d been planning. Just as Kururu said, he’d been holding back. Or rather, while fighting in step with Rex and the others, he’d never been in a position where he could use his full strength.
That was why Kagami had been fighting in a way that let him reliably take out monsters in the middle of the group while keeping Rex and the others safe. And when they reached their limit, he’d planned to get them to safety and fight on with the strength he’d been saving.
Of course, he really did intend to get them out safely. But he knew they wouldn’t listen even if he said he’d stay behind alone, so he’d planned to force them through the rock wall, say, ‘Oh no, the rock wall collapsed!’ and fight alone.
“No, no! I am going to run! I really will run once I’ve fought as much as I can!”
“Then fight while we’re still here!”
Kururu shouted, but if Kagami left them and fought elsewhere, he couldn’t guarantee their safety. That was the one thing he didn’t want to do. But when he stayed to protect them, his Skills meant that he inevitably had strength left over.
If he ran first, Rex and the others would accept it, and that would solve everything. But for some reason, Kagami couldn’t bring himself to choose that option. Somewhere inside, he still couldn’t give up on the possibility of saving Salmaria somehow.
He’d promised to run, and he would. But he didn’t want to give up while he still had so much strength left. Kagami couldn’t let go of that selfish thought.
“You seem pretty conflicted, Kagami-san.”
“Of course I am. I have to protect these guys, but abandoning Salmaria doesn’t sit right with me either. I’m having a really hard time deciding what to do... Hm?!”
Kagami answered without thinking when someone asked him so naturally from behind. But as soon as he noticed something strange about the voice, he turned around and saw someone who shouldn’t have been there.
“It’s all right now, Kagami-san.”
There stood Alice, perhaps having come through the hole Kagami had made in the rock wall. She gave him a bashful smile, standing before the monster horde as if it were the most natural thing in the world, without showing the slightest fear.
Before Kagami could ask in surprise why Alice was there, a fierce roar rang out—unlike the shrieks of the monster horde. It wasn’t the roar of a single person. It was clearly coming from a group, so large that it was easy to imagine them rivaling the monsters in number.
“This time, it’s my turn to be there for you, Kagami-san.”
The moment Alice said this, huge explosions erupted all around them. Kagami didn’t understand what was happening at first, but when he saw a horde of adventurers emerge from beside the rock wall, driving the monsters back, everything clicked.
Joy so powerful that every cell in Kagami’s body trembled welled up inside him. He could hardly stop himself from embracing Alice, who was looking over at him with a smile as if waiting for praise. Kagami smiled.
“Protect our Salmaria!”
The instant he heard those words ringing loud and clear, the life returned to Rex and the others’ grim faces. Each of them unleashed a full-force attack on the monsters before them with everything they had.