Arifureta Vol 8 Chapter 6 (1/2)
The Hero’s Defeat
“Uh…”
“Suzu-chan!”
“Suzu!”
With Suzu raising a groan and slowly opening her eyes, Kaori and Eri who were always beside her, called Suzu’s name with anxious voices mixed with relief. Suzu s.p.a.ced out for a while with only her gaze moving around, and finally opened her mouth.
“I-I don’t know this ceiling~.”
“Suzu, I know you like acting, but wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t say something like that at time like this?”
She should be thirsty. However, Suzu desperately said so with hoa.r.s.e voice, which made s.h.i.+zuku retorted in a half-amazed, half-praising tone when she heard her. Afterwards, Suzu moistened her throat using the water from the leather flask by her side.
With lovely sound of gulping, Suzu, who sated her thirst, said, “I’m revived! Literally!,” words that couldn’t be taken as a joke, and she tried her best to stand up with Kaori and Eri supporting her. The cla.s.s’s moodmaker who regained her consciousness from a critical condition, radiated a cheerful atmosphere which made the cla.s.smates who had been depressed until now show smiles.
However, the bright atmosphere was very contrary to Suzu’s complexion. She was exhausted and suffered blood loss. With a pale face and thin lines below her eyes just like a bear’s, her smile looked miserable. Some parts of her body were pierced, but it was unmistakably her “strength” to be able to smile as soon as she got up. s.h.i.+zuku and Kaori watched her with respect.
“Suzu-chan. It’s okay for you to rest some more. After all, your blood shouldn’t have been replenished yet, even if your wounds have recovered…”
“U~n, so that’s why I feel dizzy~. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d~, to pierce the beautiful Suzu… even though, “Can I penetrate you now?,” is better to be said in bed!”
“Suzu! That’s vulgar! Be more prudent!”
Suzu said while hatefully gazing at empty s.p.a.ce, and Eri scolded Suzu with flushed cheeks. Some of the male students inadvertently, “Bff!?,” but averted their gazes due to s.h.i.+zuku’s glare.
“Suzu, thank G.o.d you woke up. We were worried, you know?”
“Yo, are you really okay? Isn’t your face completely pale?”
Because Suzu suddenly caused a commotion after she woke up, Kouki and Ryuutarou approached her. While being weakened for a period of time as an effect from using “Limit Break,” Kouki became depressed because they were severely beaten. However, he seemed to have recovered somehow since a moderate amount of time had pa.s.sed after they had retreated and hid where they currently were.
“Morning~, Kouki-kun, Ryuutarou-kun! Looks like we somehow got away, huh? Umm, is everyone saf—… Wait, one is missing…”
“Yeah, it’s Endou. He retreated ahead alone. We think he should be able to break through the floors alone by hiding himself…”
After greeting Kouki and Ryuutarou with a smile, Suzu noticed one person was missing from the surrounding cla.s.smates. Suzu had lost her consciousness in the midst of battle, so Kouki and the others answered her doubt while they explained the current situation.
Incidentally, Kondou and Saitou had been de-petrified, woke up earlier than Suzu, and had already been debriefed of the situation.
“I see, looks like a lot of time had pa.s.sed since Suzu fainted… Ah, that’s right. Kaorin, thanks! Kaorin has become Suzu’s life benefactor!”
“Suzu-chan, it’s my duty to heal everyone. So don’t exaggerate it by calling me your life benefactor because it was a natural thing for me to do.”
“Heh~, even stoic Kaorin is wonderful! Shall we get married?”
“Suzu… it’s eerie if you say that with pale face. For now, shouldn’t you rest some more?”
Suzu was scolded by Eri while she was clinging to Kaori. If she over did it, s.h.i.+zuku would physically stop her. It was the usual way of things. Even the cla.s.smates who wondered whether they’d be able to survive and return to surface again, gradually regained their composure thanks to Suzu and the girls’ conversation that didn’t mind their defeat.
However, the atmosphere which was starting to turn bright was douse with water by a person who always ruin the ambience.
“…What are you grinning about? We almost died, you know? Moreover, our situation hasn’t changed even now! Think of how we can get out of here if you have time to joke around!”
The one who shouted while glaring at Suzu was Kondou Reiichi. And though he didn’t express it, Saitou Yos.h.i.+ki by his side also watched her with criticizing gaze.
“Oi, Kondou. Can you not say such a thing? Suzu only did this to change the moo—…”
“Shut up! It’s not like you can say anything to me! After all, you lost! I almost died! s.h.i.+t! What a Hero you are!”
Although Kouki tried to admonish Kondou due to his remark, Kondou suddenly burst like fire that got poured with oil and began to criticize Kouki.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d… Thanks to whom do you think we could retreat, huh? We could do that because Kouki opened a path for us!”
“To begin with, there’s no need for us to retreat if he wins! More importantly, we obviously had our chance. It would have been all right for us to receive the invitation from Demon Race and defeat them later! But, you selfishly started the fight! Everything is your fault! This is your responsibility!”
This time, Ryuutarou began to admonish such a Kondou. Kondou stood up and confronted Ryuurarou. Sympathizing with Kondou, Saitou and Nakano also stood up and faced Ryuutarou.
“Ryuutarou, I am okay… I’ll accept my responsibility, Kondou. We won’t lose this time! We already understood the characteristics of the demonic beasts, and we won’t get attacked by surprise again. So, we will absolutely win this time!”
Although Kouki made a gesture where he clasped his clenched fist, Saitou muttered with darkened eyes.
“… But, you could not win even with “Limit Break.”
“Th-That’s… i-it’ll be okay now!”
“Why?”
“I’ll use “Divine Might” and attack the Demon Race woman from the beginning. That’s why, if everyone could cover me…”
“But, won’t she know a troublesome attack is coming with such a long chant? Even our enemies will have their own plans, right? Besides, we don’t know if those were all of the demonic beasts she has.”
Even if Kouki said it’d be okay, Kondou and gang complained while beginning to doubt Kouki’s ability, and were looking at him with doubtful eyes. With this, even though Kouki could not help but take responsibility to make sure they win. They would not calm down because of the fact that they had almost died as a result of the enemies’ unbelievable strength and number.
The main cause for them to heat up were because Ryuutarou had a low angry point while Kondou and gang were being belligerent by objecting constantly. Gradually, Ayako, Yos.h.i.+no, and Nomura tried to stop their quarrel, but a dangerous mood began to drift around.
As such, Ryuutarou began to ready his fists while Kondou readied his spear. Tension immediately filled their location. Kouki shouted, Ryuutarou!, and grip his shoulder to stop him. However, Ryuutarou could not be stopped and veins popped on his head while glaring at Kondou. Even Kondou and gang were partly obstinate about it.
“Everyone, please calm down! No matter what you say, we can only bet on Kouki to survive! We must defeat the Demon Race woman even if Kouki was at the time limit of his “Limit Break.” We can only do that since she won’t let us escape. You understand that, right?”
s.h.i.+zuku entered between them and frantically tried to persuade them to calm down, but it didn’t work either. Swaying while standing, Suzu seemed to not want to hear what Kondou said even if he apologized. Finally, Kaori thought she needed to restrain everyone and began to prepare her restraining magic… when they heard something.
“Grrrrr…”
“””” !?””””
A growl. A growl so familiar, so low that came from the bottom of abdomen. The appearances of Chimeras and the four-red-eyed wolves crossed their minds. The dangerous mood immediately dissipated and everyone stiffened. Even the smallest breathing seemed to resound, and their breathing became smaller. Their gazes turned towards the pa.s.sage camouflaged as a wall before them.
Whoos.h.!.+ Fwiiish, Whooos.h.!.+ Fwuuus.h.!.+
Sounds of scratching and rough nasal breathing could be heard from the wall. Someone was gulping. Even trace of their smells should’ve been erased by Endou, so the demonic beasts shouldn’t be able to perceive that Kouki’s party were inside no matter how strong they were. Even though they thought so, they were tensed and unpleasant sweats flowed.
Some time was still needed before they completely recovered. Suzu was not in condition to fight, Kaori and Ayako had used too much magic to heal the others and had hardly recovered. The vanguard group were almost fully recovered, but the magic users in the rear group only had recovered half of their magic power. The healing potions they had also been exhausted, so they still need to wait for sometimes to recover at the earliest.
They could not overlook the holes in terms of roles created by Kaori and Ayako as the healers and the barrier user, Suzu. That’s why Kouki’s party were hoping they would not be found out now as they watched the wall separating the outside and the hidden room.
The demonic beasts wandered outside for a while, but their presences gradually began to fade before long. Thus, silence returned once again. Even so, everyone was standing still for a while, and breathed great sighs of relief when they knew the demonic beasts had completely disappeared; some of them crumpled on the spot. The extreme tension made their sweats overflow like a flood.
“…We’ll be found out if we keep making a commotion. That’s why, please just calm down and recover for now.”
“Y-Yeah…”
“Y-You are right…”
s.h.i.+zuku wiped the sweat off her cheek which fell and created weird dripping sound. Kondou and the others replied while stammering and withdrew their arms. It was as though they got doused by cold water.
Having thought the crisis was through, everyone relaxed… and at that moment,
“ROOOOOOARRRRR!!!”
BOOOM!!!
The wall separating the hidden room and the outside was crushed to pieces along with a tremendous roar.