ch281-ch300 · 293-ch293

Chapter 293: The Reverse Surprise

(【Charge・Spear】!)

Either way, I start charging the spear.

What do I do?

Stop them?

My thoughts can't keep up.

I've only got one minute.

(【Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear】【Charge・Spear・Magic Up】【Charge・Spear・Strength Up】【Charge・Spear・Endurance Up】【Charge・Spear・Agility Up】)

Accelerated thought—super mode.

More.

The shield side too!

(【Charge・Shield・Armor Enhancement・Shield・High】【Charge・Shield・Magic Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Endurance Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Strength Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Agility Up・High】)

Hyper mode. The world goes slow.

What do I do?

There's no way Kasumi-san would do something reckless.

Keep your hands off, she said.

There's definitely a plan that lets the three of them win.

A plan that beats the Manticore, the Floor 40 boss?

Kasumi-san is driving some kind of rods into the ground so as to blanket the Manticore's spawn point.

Is that a plan to keep the Manticore from flying?

If it can be pinned to the ground, then given enough time, maybe even Kasumi-san alone could manage.

But there's the tail snake's poison attacks too.

Aikawa might manage with her Beast Transformation, but there's no way Soushi can block the snake's attacks.

(Can they really fight while protecting those two?)

Soushi and Aikawa finish laying something across the ground, then start driving rods in the same way.

What is that? There are strange patterns drawn here and there......

"Daaance..., here—we—gooo—!!!"

In hyper mode, Aikawa's voice comes through all stretched out.

Buff time has begun.

There's barely any time left before the Manticore spawns.

Time for me to make up my mind.

I trust Kasumi-san.

But if it looks dangerous, I'm cutting in immediately.

"Kyo—o—ka—o—o—keee—de—suuu—!!!"

With Soushi's bestowal enhancement applied on top, the three of them scatter.

Seriously?

Kasumi-san heads for the tail, Soushi comes toward me—that part's fine.

But Aikawa headed for the head side all by herself.

The moment Soushi slips in behind the 'Left Eye Gate' instead of behind me, the Manticore spawns.

(The snake!)

The instant it pops, the tail snake's attack comes at Kasumi-san.

In hyper mode, I can follow every detail of the movement.

It's fine—Kasumi-san has noticed too.

From her usual naginata stance, blade tip raised, the butt spike slowly lifts.

Then the butt spike knocks up the tail snake's lower jaw.

Huh? That movement is—

The tail snake, meeting the butt spike, shoots upward with unnatural acceleration.

(【Deflection】!?)

With the skill's effect stacked on top, it's been deflected into the sky with impossible force.

Kasumi-san's spear keeps rotating, and now the blade tip comes up from below at the tail snake's body.

I knew it—this is the Windmill!

A strike timed to the one instant when the body is fully extended.

Kasumi-san's signature 【Deflection】 into 【Counter】 and 【Slash】!

One stroke severs the tail snake from the Manticore.

I'm witnessing a perfect strike—Kasumi-san's technique, her skills, and the principle of the technique called the Windmill all combined.

That is a strike worthy of the 【Spear King】, worthy of the title 'Her Majesty the Spear King.'

"So—o—u—shi—!!!"

Almost simultaneous with Aikawa's yell, Soushi—face and arm poking out from behind the 'Left Eye Gate'—murmurs something.

"Fu—ju—tsuuu!"

Fujutsu? Fujutsu?

The Enchanter?

(The charm-side fujutsu!?)

The 'fu'—the charms!?

Soushi's outstretched hand points straight at the Manticore.

The charms laid on the ground and the ones stuck to the rods all activate at once.

The 【Talismaneer】.

The new upper-rank job Soushi obtained on Floor 40.

A job that lets you pour your own skills into paper charms......

Those 'charms' can apparently be triggered remotely, or activated by someone other than their maker.

But their greatest feature has to be the stockpiling.

Making a charm consumes max MP equal to the skill poured into it.

Soushi's max MP is 1680.

He'd just used the Enchanter-side buff skills, so he must have kept some in reserve.

But if he's spent everything else......

A simultaneous attack backed by some 1500 MP.

What that sky-high MP consumption unleashes—pale comparison to 【Charge・Spear】—is Soushi's maximum firepower: a water jet from the water spell 【Water Pressure】!

Countless strikes that could cleave even an Iron Golem come raining down on the Manticore.

A pillar of water goes up, and the spray reaches all the way to us.

The sliver of sunset light makes a rainbow—but for all the fantastical sight, what's inside it must be an absolute splatter show.

When the attack finally stops, the Manticore comes into view.

It's collapsed......

(Did they get it?)

The job selection screen isn't showing.

A prompt flag payoff, then.

"It's not dead yet—!"

I shout at the two in front.

In hyper mode that came out as rapid-fire babble, I think, but I hope it got through.

The Manticore is already covered in wounds.

All four legs are torn off, leaving it flat on the ground.

Blue blood is gushing from its body too.

But the wings and the head are intact......

'Unyuunyau..., Hoge, Gugyah.'

Even now, the remaining human-faced head starts chanting its magic—but Aikawa dives in with punches and kicks.

No chanting allowed.

【Partial Beast Transformation】 is arms and legs only, huh?

Her helmet leaves her mouth exposed, so I can see her face, but her head still looks like Aikawa's own.

The Manticore desperately flaps its wings, trying to escape into the sky, but Kasumi-san won't allow it.

She jumps onto its back and shreds the wings to ribbons, like it or not.

There's no escaping now.

Once she's done with the wings, Kasumi-san starts attacking the back as well, and when Aikawa's punch finally pierces the Manticore's eyeball, the job selection screen appears.

That girl does some seriously gory things, you know.

When it was all over, it had been about a minute since the Manticore appeared......

Over in a flash.

"The job screen's ouuut! It's oveeer!"

I call out to the two, who are still attacking.

Stop already—the Manticore's HP ran out long ago......

This time I dropped hyper mode first, so they should hear me normally.

"WE DID IIIIT!! You see that—!!"

Aikawa raises a victory roar at the sky.

To whom, though?

Me? Her father? The dungeon, or the goddess......

The three of them took down a Manticore—I've got no choice but to tip my hat.

"Ah......"

It looked like Kasumi-san collapsed onto the Manticore, but no—she's just rammed her arm in, searching for the magic stone.

So Kasumi-san has gore resistance too.

So when I thought she wasn't aiming for the back of the head, she'd actually been attacking from the back toward the magic stone.

"How's that, Haruki?"

The one who'd been hiding behind the 'Left Eye Gate' says something with a smug face.

Well, it only worked because of his magic, you know.

That was some attack, though.

"Soushi, your activation was slow!"

"Ah, well, that 'Gate' was way too far away. Next time, put the 'Gate' closer."

Dyed completely blue by the blood that splattered back onto her, Aikawa complains at Soushi, while Soushi—who isn't even wet—makes his excuses.

The first strike WAS delayed, sure.

But hitting the exact moment of spawn is hard.

If he'd activated even a little early, that fujutsu attack would have missed entirely.

I've done it countless times myself, and it was only once I could use hyper mode that I finally nailed the timing of the moment of appearance.

Last time with the Manticore, I hung back and watched first, too—asking for a first-try, spawn-moment hit is asking a lot.

"How was it? The reverse surprise—a complete success?"

Kasumi-san jumps down from quite a height atop the Manticore, holding out the magic stone.

Amazing jumping power, and she lands without a sound.

And the magic stone is huge.

This one stone is worth around a million yen, isn't it?

The electricity you can actually draw from it is worth about 300,000 yen, but it's rare, and the amount of electricity you can draw at once and blah-blah-blah—apparently it goes for around a million.

But one floor deeper, the weapons the ordinary skeletons carry are worth two million, so who's to say.

Well, weapon prices do come down once supply spreads.

Come to think of it, I never saw the stone from last time—where did she stash it?

"Well—my lifespan just got shorter. A complete success."

"Ah-hah-hah. There was that bit, too. We're on Floor 40oo! This is a surpriiise! Ah-hah-hah."

"Are you doing this to Mia-san toooo? She'd cry, wouldn't she?"

Aikawa imitates me and laughs her head off.

Soushi is already worrying about his next target.

Grrrnnn. These two......

But what bugs me is that Kasumi-san's surprises have leveled up.

I'll have to be careful when I set mine from now on, too.

"Ohohoho. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Now then—please choose your job. Whichever one you like."

"Huh? Whichever job I like?"

Not a spear job?

"Yes. 【Charge Armorer】, isn't it? It suits you, Haruki-san, so I think it's a good choice."

Out of nowhere, she says this.