LVL Chapter 160

Zky18-23 minutes 18.06.2023

[Action Start]

Amanai had lived in a place called an earthquake-prone country in his previous life and even he had never experienced an earthquake so large before.

The ground wasn’t just shaking, it was practically jumping up and down.

Not only once, but twice, thrice, and was still continuing.

It happened so suddenly that he fell over.

The silver lining was that he was in an open space where he had been having a mock battle with Julia.

The fact that he didn’t have to worry about getting caught up in buildings collapsing undoubtedly contributed to him instantly regaining his composure. “~~~~! Reika! Are you okay!?”

“Y-yeah! I’m okay!” Reika replied, a hint of anxiousness in her voice.

“How about you?” Amanai turned towards Julia and the rest.

“Don’t worry, neither I nor Baldasare and the others is injured,” Julia answered after checking her fellow students’ conditions.

“That’s good. Damn it, what in the world was… going… on?!” Amanai was struck dumb.

“Are you seeing it too, Amanai-kun? It seems my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me,” said Julia.

As cracks spread in the ground and dust clouds soared into the sky, they looked up and saw something humongous in a humanoid shape.

The thing must have emerged from underground.

A large amount of soil clung to its body, which gradually fell, and sounds of rumbles in the ground were audible from the distance.

“What… what is that?” Reika muttered, speechless.

“I wonder. Judging from the location, it seems to have appeared from the academy… but…” Julia had a worried frown on her face and she glanced at Amanai.

She was expecting that Amanai had reached the same conclusion as her.

And as a matter of fact, he did.

But at the same, Amanai wanted to deny the answer that had naturally surfaced in his mind; he didn’t want to believe it… but he shook his head strongly to stop himself from running from reality.

(There’s no point in averting my eyes. I better assume it is the ‘academy dungeon’. Nanashino must be behind it… no doubt about it, but!)

If that were the case, what was he supposed to do?

He could fly by using the lightning generated by ‘Thunder Sovereign’, so he should be able to enter the dungeon from its head, or at least where its head should have been.

But if he went alone, then what?

He wasn’t confident that he could defeat Nanashino by himself.

To begin with, what was he supposed to do with the dungeon?

Shock and confusion, a mix of these emotions filled everyone present at the appearance of the giant that was beyond their imagination.

“—Julia-sama! I propose that we carry out a rescue immediately!!” Baldasare suddenly raised his hand so vigorously that he flipped his green cloak.

His shout shook everyone out of their daze.

“I have no idea what that huge thing is! But one thing is clear, there are many people who are suffering even as we speak! The earthquake that thing is causing must be destroying countless buildings and a lot of people should get caught up in them; their number is continuing to increase! People will fall into unrest when they are anxious! And unrest will lead to disturbances in public order! Therefore! In my opinion, we as knights should leave that thing for the time being and rescue the people first and foremost!! I want to save the people!!!”

“Noisy.” “Too loud.”

Hearing his too-frank words, the twin sisters behind him covered their ears and smiled wryly. Amanai also smiled involuntarily.

Perhaps Julia felt the same, as she clapped her hands loudly and attracted the attention of those around her.

“As Baldasare said, with the situation being unclear, we should prioritize on rescuing the people and gathering information. We will use this place as our base and evacuation center where we will be assessing the situation and evacuating the people to. We will start off by gathering more hands. Now, move out!”

Even without specific instructions, as long as the main objectives had been determined, they would do what needed to be done to accomplish said objectives. Such was the excellence of the military academy students gathered around Julia.

First-year adventurers Amanai and Akano unconsciously straightened their backs as they watched them in admiration. Indeed, saving people should come first.

(If Sakurai were here, I bet the first thing he would do was charge into the dungeon. If I were to follow him… we should be able to defeat Nanshino at least. But for now, I should do what I can do.)

Since Sakurai’s departure, Amanai had completed many requests.

The people he met while he was doing the requests weren’t some game NPCs, but real, breathing people and he wanted to protect them.

“Alright, let’s do it!”

“Ah, wait, Hayato! I’m coming with you!”

Amanai shouted to strengthen his resolve then looked forward and started running, and Akano, feeling joy at his proactivity, followed after him.

While she was running behind him, a smile spread across her face. She was convinced he had grown in a positive direction, in no small part due to the happenings during the school festival and his doing requests up to this day.

However, her warmed heart completely froze once they had arrived at their destination.

It was a disastrous scene. Cracks ran through the ground, and a little boy was trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building with his parents trying to help him.

People died in pools of their blood under collapsed roofs or walls and a young man dazedly held the hand of his lover who had turned into a mass of flesh beside him.

Pain, sorrow, anger, and grief, all sorts of emotions dyed the faces of the men and women, old and young. And as Amanai and Reika saw the disastrous scene, giant ‘meatballs’ fell from the sky.

“Giggyogyogyogyo!”

“Karururururururu, karurururururu.”

“‘Sword-Winged Ostriches’ and ‘Adapamimus (half-fish men)’?! Why are monsters here?!”

“Above! They’re falling from above!”

“Run! Run for your lives!!”

The ‘meatballs’ that fell one after another from the arms of the giant that caused the city to collapse were actually dozens of monsters lumped together.

The balls that fell from the sky scattered the flesh and blood of the monsters that acted as cushions upon impact, after which the surviving monsters began to spread out.

And then they attacked everyone that was still breathing.

Not only the uninjured ones who were running away, but also the injured ones, those who tried to help them, and those with fighting skills standing up against them.

“Gaa, gea, sabe, sabe me—”

“Gohegohegohegohegohe!”

“Shit! A mere goblin is strong enough to slaughter women and children! We must kill all of them, don’t let any of them get away!”

“Karurururururururu, karururururururu.”

“Behind us! Another one fell down! We’re surrounded!”

“We don’t have enough fighters! What do we do?!”

Adventurers who had been enjoying their day off, garrison knights, and retired combatants fought back against the monsters sporadically, but the battle situation couldn’t be said to be looking good.

The scale of the damage and the fact that the academy dungeon had come alive and was spreading monsters everywhere was an unprecedented situation that no one had ever experienced before.

To make it worse, it was difficult to relay information amid the ongoing disaster and massacre, making it harder for the defenders to put up organized resistance.

“Luisina! What is taking you so long?!”

“You’re being annoying, Blue. Think it’s easy to lift a collapsed roof while keeping the people below it safe? I have to spread my arms through the gaps between the rubble, carefully lift it so that the whole thing doesn’t go crashing down, then I have to safely pull the people out… it feels like it’s becoming more tedious the more I explain. Graaaaaaah, how bothersome.”

“Do your best! You’re the only one that can do this!”

“Yes, yes. You too, Blue. Finish them quickly and give me a hand so I can take a rest earlier.”

“Geez! Flame Sword, ‘Fire Snake’!”

“Guaaaaaaa?!”

However, not all defenders were in a disadvantageous position.

Although restricted to a few places, some people managed to repel the monsters and saved others just like Higaki who had just swung her sword and launched nine snakes made of flames, causing the monsters to go up in flames.

The figure of Higaki wielding the ‘Flame Sword’ was particularly eye-catching, she became a focal point where civilians and adventurers gathered.

“Phew… looks like I can take a breather for now.”

“Higaki-san!”

“Hm? Aren’t you a member of the disciplinary committee? What are doing here? Is the academy all right?”

The new arrivals were the Adventurer’s Academy disciplinary committee members dressed in pure white school uniforms, Higaki’s former colleagues.

They were in two groups of four, making a total of 8 people. They were influential people who were ranked high among the disciplinary committee members.

They must have fought many battles to get here.

Their uniforms were covered in stains from battles, yet they didn’t seem to have any major injuries, which was proof of their abilities.

“Luckily, one-third of the academy remains. At the moment, the teachers are recovering and making arrangements to turn the academy to be our base of operation. That big guy won’t be coming back any time soon, or so they predicted. We were sent out first to subjugate the monsters while the rest of our companions (party) will join us later.”

“To subjugate the monsters, huh. No wonder they chose you, the Anti-Sakurai Squad.”

“Yes. The monsters that are falling from the big guy are ones that spawn in the academy dungeon, after all. We’ve learned almost everything about them, though the process wasn’t pleasant at all…”

The young man that spoke as their representative smiled wryly while averting his eyes. They were the elite members of the disciplinary committee who had been selected to catch Sakurai Tōru when he ran rampant in the dungeon.

Formed during the days when Sakurai repeatedly trespassed the academy dungeon, as a result of chasing after the intruder (Sakurai) countless times and observing how he dealt with monsters, they naturally came to learn the monsters’ movements and the most efficient ways to subjugate them, making them experts when it came to hunting monsters and even boss monsters that spawned in the academy dungeon.

For that reason, their complicated feelings aside, they, objectively speaking, could be the spearhead to deal with the monsters that were attacking people right now.

“We would like to share information, can you spare us a minute?”

“Yeah, of course. I should be thanking you for it, in fact—wait a second.”

In an instant, Higaki turned her body around and swung her sword upward.

The flames enveloping her sword turned into a snake that soared into the sky. This technique named ‘Inahikari(flash of fire)’ intercepted a falling ‘meatball’, enveloping it in flames.

Once the ‘meatball’ fell to the ground, Higaki and members of the Anti-Sakurai squad didn’t lower their weapons and kept their vigilance. The outer layer might have been burned, but other monsters inside of the ‘meatball’ most likely were still alive.

And their prediction soon proved to be correct.

The meatball that was burnt on the surface burst open like a flower opening its petal, revealing the monsters packed inside.

Something was outside their prediction, however; a strange man stood in the center of the monsters. And it seemed like he had the monsters under his control.

He counted the monsters. “—One, two, three…… ah? There are more than six of you, that’s too many for me to count. Why, why are there more than six of you?”

His fur-covered body was muscular, but not overly big. Kind of like the toned body of beastmen.

He looked like a werewolf, except his head was furless and smooth without so much as a single wrinkle, much like a light bulb, and on top of his head there were four tentacles that extended out in four different directions.

A human who had the power of monsters implanted in them, demon-kin.

At a glance, Higaki could identify that he was of the same kind as the freak she had dealt with during the opera house incident.

“…He doesn’t seem to be a monster. I mean he talks.”

“He’s a freakish creature called a demon-kin. I’ll deal with him, you guys take care of the monsters.”

With that, Higaki took a step forward.

Naturally, the demon-kin’s gaze turned to her as she started to move.

However, his gaze immediately turned from Higaki to the members of the Anti-Sakurai Squad behind her.

He then bent his six fingers with sharp claws one by one and tried to count them.

“One, two, three. Ahh, you have more than six on your side too.”

“Are you a member of the ‘Black Sword’? What is your purpose in creating this uproar? Answer me!”

“Bitch, making fun of me just because I can only count up to six…!”

Higaki immediately gave up talking to the demon-kin.

The look in the demon-kin’s eyes that stared straight at hers seemed somewhat familiar to her.

It was the look of someone tormented by deep-rooted self-loathing, which turned into irrepressible anger. It was the same look that Higaki had whenever she looked at the Sword Saint’s merchandise in her room.

In Higaki’s case, she directed her anger toward herself, but the demon-kin seemed to direct his at others.

(…But what are those?)

The tentacles on top of the demon-kin’s head swelled and elongated in response to his rising anger. They gave Higaki a slight sense of unease.

Before Higaki could figure out what they really were, the demon-kin’s face twisted into a mixture of pain and anger and he released a scream that shook the air.

“I know! I just have to reduce your numbers to six or fewer! Then, I can count you!! Okay, I’ll kill until there’s six or less of you remainin—”

“Then let’s start with you.”

However, his scream was drowned out by a larger sound of something collapsing.

The source was a roof that suddenly fell on the demon-kin and the monsters that waited upon him.

It was part of the collapsed building that Luisina had lifted with her own strength.

Having finished helping the person that had been under it, she slammed the roof down on the noisy demon-kin with all her might.

“Blue, guys who keep spouting rubbish like that better be dealt with sooner rather than later, you know?”

“Luisina. Yes, I know that, but… I got uneasy feelings from him.”

“You still don’t get it, huh? He was messing around with you. I can see through such cheap acting at a glance.”

“—Sheesh, you’re ruining the fun. What a party pooper.” The demon-kin emerged from the pile of rubble and said in a bored manner.

Luisina, in response, snorted as though she found him not worth her attention, then she walked next to Higaki and put her hand on her shoulder.

“We have a real lunatic here. Your acting, on the other hand, didn’t even worth a fart.”

“Oi, you. What do you mean by that?”

“Oh? I was talking about Tōru, but it seems that you are aware that you are a bit of a lunatic yourself.”

“I-I mean I’m just protesting for Sakurai’s honor… Sakurai’s… honor… ngg.”

Higaki realized that she had lost the argument because she realized the excuse she had said in reflex wasn’t very convincing, even to herself. Something that didn’t exist couldn’t be protected.

However, the careless exchange between Luisina—who was proud of herself for her victory—and Higaki—who was frustrated as the loser—angered the demon-kin, even though they didn’t mean to.

Was it because of his pride, or some other reason, perhaps?

Either way, the demon-kin grabbed one of the tentacles on his head and pulled it out with “Humph!”

He swung it like a whip at Higaki as well as Luisina, who turned her arm into a liquid state and parried with it. Higaki, meanwhile, burst into motion, slashing at him with her sword.

Facing her, the demon-kin pulled one other tentacle from his head with his free hand and slashed out with it like he was wielding a flexible sword to deal with Higaki’s sword.

“Tch.”

The tentacle had blade-like sharpness and it drew a free, bizarre trajectory.

Higaki stepped back and distanced herself from the weapon, which was different from a normal sword and required specialized proficiency to wield.

“Since you guys are boring, I’m not gonna waste my time with you anymore. Come, let’s end this quickly.”

Higaki, who had made some distance gave a signal to the Anti-Sakurai Squad with the disciplinary committee’s special hand signs.

In response, the Anti-Sakurai Squad moved to evacuate the people Higaki and the others had rescued.

The demon-kin saw their movements and mocked them “How futile” then he rapidly swung the tentacles in his hands in a circular motion, sending the rubble at his feet flying away in an ostentatious display.

Then, for unknown reasons, the rest of the tentacles on his head also began to rapidly spin like propellers.

The four tentacles spun so fast that they produced wind-cutting sounds, but they didn’t collide with each other, creating a barrier around the man. Carelessly touch it, and you would instantly be shredded into pieces.

“Let’s not waste any more time here and quickly deal with him. Blue, follow me.”

“Have you recovered enough to fight?”

“That’s why I told you to follow me. You sure aren’t very bright.”

Luisina, standing next to Higaki, didn’t hide how annoyed she was as she locked her eyes on the demon-kin.

Higaki gave Luisina—whose brazen attitude somehow reminded her of Sakurai— a side glance and sighed, but she immediately pulled herself together and nodded an agreement to deal with the enemy quickly.

‘Meatballs’ were still falling in various parts of the town.

Among them, how many contained demon-kins?

Enemies with intelligence were more troublesome to deal with than monsters. Their appearance would definitely spur casualties.

Higaki couldn’t tolerate these people who did as they pleased in this town where the ‘Sword Saint’ made his home.

While Luisina’s heart was forever cold, a fierce fire broke out in Higaki’s.

The flames enveloping the sword in her hand became even fierier, then 9 ‘fire snakes’ grew out from them that then slowly raised their heads to stare at the demon-kin. Each of them bore undisguised murderous intent toward him.

“Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

In conclusion, the demon-kin who encountered Luisina and Higaki was truly unfortunate.

After all, the former was a demon-kin just like him who, in terms of basic abilities, was way above his league as she had been an executive (boss).

Moreover, the latter, Higaki, was better at manipulating fire than anyone else around, and her skills had gone up through the various troubles she had experienced, which mostly were caused by Sakurai.

Therefore, the man’s defeat was inevitable.

In the end, he miserably died by way of ‘immolation’.