ch301-ch320 · 302-ch302

Chapter 302: The Fifth Party Member

(Hm? The sound changed? Seeing it wasn't working, did it switch to a different attack?)

The flaw of defending with the 【Gate】 is that no feedback comes back.

Every time Aikawa's skeleton swings its sword, I've been putting up a 【Gate】 in its line of fire, but I can't even tell whether it's working.

Still, I can suddenly tell from the sound that something is attacking.

(There it comes, from above! 'Aiming'!)

Straight up—I throw the spear at the fireball.

The rental spear pierces the fireball's center and triggers a huge explosion.

(Got it?)

But there's no feedback.

The spear's super mode is still running, and the one up above doesn't seem to have been hit.

The fireball came from almost directly overhead, so it should be there......

The fireball's blast comes down.

(【Gate】! —whoa!?)

The moment I raise the right hand that threw the spear and put up the 'Right Hand Gate,' Aikawa's skeleton comes around the 'Left Eye Gate' in front of me and appears.

I'm not holding a weapon......

(Or so you thought, did you? 【Charge・Shield】, release!)

The reason I didn't erase the fireball with 【Magic Shield】 was for this.

I bring the Shield Gauntlet down on the Sword Saint-model sword swinging up from below.

The MP charged into it is 50.

It doesn't just destroy the weapon—it takes Aikawa's right arm with it.

But it was too shallow......

The blast blew it away up to the shoulder, but it seems it didn't reach the magic stone.

(HOT—!)

The blast flame reaches me, and the instant I feel the terrible heat, pain comes from my shoulder too.

Was I cut?

By Aikawa's left hand......

('Beast Transformation'? Claws?)

A knife-hand strike shears diagonally down from my right shoulder.

I barely feel the pain of being cut, but the wound is deep.

This is bad.

Endurance 220 means nothing to it.

Maybe my spear reached the ceiling or something—both super modes ended at just that moment, and I couldn't respond.

My HP has dropped below half, and whether from the bleeding or the flames scorching everything around, it keeps going down.

"【Charge・Shiel—, gufah!"

I try to at least run super mode on the shield alone, but I spray blood from my mouth and can't activate the skill properly.

Even so, I catch the return stroke with my left hand.

But that's all.

I can't hold my ground, and I collapse backward.

Flat on my back, I look up at a mass of flame.

Looks like I didn't hit the enemy in the sky after all—the fireball's second shot.

(Aikawa and all?)

I think so—but Aikawa's skeleton's presence retreats down into the darkness.

Do the flames not reach into the dark?

It's...... hot......

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"Ouch-ouch! Ah—a dream, no wait! That hurts! It hurts!"

I wake up.

I touch my right shoulder—no pain.

But my face hurts.

"Haruki-san! Let us cross blades!"

But first, please let go of my face.

Kasumi-san, who woke me up, doesn't look too pleased.

Kasumi-san gets along badly with 'Sword Saint-chan'—'the Holy Maiden' aside.

I was hoping they hadn't come to blows, but did she hold it in and come home?

It seems she'll be venting it in a mock battle with me.

"Huh? Now? Well, all right, I guess. I was thinking I wanted a mock battle with Kasumi-san anyway...... Oh, but before that, may I ask one thing?"

The only thing that's let me beat the black armor in my dreams is surprise attacks using the 【Gate】.

For some reason, in the dream only one copy skeleton comes out at a time.

The one up above doesn't seem to come inside either.

If only I'd had time to charge MP into my shield, I should have been able to beat Aikawa's copy skeleton too.

Somehow I want to drag out the fight with the black armor and win......

"......Go ahead."

And there's one more thing bothering me.

After me, Kasumi-san, and Aikawa's copy, the next one out should be Soushi's copy skeleton.

That's fine.

But who's the one up above?

Soushi shouldn't be able to use fire magic.

Our party is four so far.

Mia-san is officially in a party with Kasumi-san, but Mia-san doesn't use fire magic either.

Even if she got a new job on Floor 40, that's only a sub-job.

She shouldn't be able to fire magic that powerful.

"Do you know any adventurers who use fire magic? Someone who uses incredibly powerful magic!"

Dreams seen in the dungeon.

They say they often show the past, present, or future.

There's the Chikuzen-ni precedent, too.

Could that be a fifth party member?

"Hmm-mmm-mmm?"

For some reason her other hand also reaches for my cheek, and my cheek stretches too.

Why?

"Kasumi-san?"

"What do you intend to do once you find that woman?"

A woman? So she knows her?

"I was thinking of inviting her into the party......"

"The party!? How dare you say that to me!"

"Well, I couldn't say this to anyone but you, Kasumi-san."

Nobody would believe the dream talk anyway.

"Only to me!? Even I do not grant unlimited permission for everything!"

Fair enough.

After Soushi, Aikawa pretty much decided to join on her own too......

And so far we can beat even the Manticore with four, so there's no reason to add more people.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Forget about the party. But please tell me what kind of person she is."

If I knew her skill loadout, it might give me a lead on beating it.

I don't even know what the point of beating a dream is, but dreaming of dying every night is a problem.

There's also the Hiramatsu-ryu solution of not sleeping in the dungeon, but that's its own thing.

The dream's power-up events might stop happening from now on—or that dream itself might be a power-up event.

I'm curious what lies beyond beating all five enemies, after all.

"Still going on about it! Very well—outside. I shall beat that gall out of you. I will not forgive you even if you cry!"

A mock battle, huh......

If I win, will she tell me?

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"Waaahh. I'm thooorry—!"

"Come on! It's all healed now, so stop crying!"

Shiraishi-san, done with the treatment, tries to get Kasumi-san to stop crying.

"See? Look, I'm perfectly fine now. So please stop crying."

I stand up to show I'm fine.

That's right—I'm the one who got hurt.

My leg's broken......

"I'm thorry, I'm thorry, I'll do anything, tho pleathe forgive me."

Then how about the fire-magic user......—no, the mood's not right for that.

Besides, I lost the match.

That blow to my shin was incredible.

At first, maybe because Kasumi-san was going easy on me, I fought better than expected.

Perhaps thanks to Hiramatsu-san's training, Kasumi-san seemed to be having a hard time fighting.

Her weapon was the cross-tipped staff Hiramatsu-san gave her, after all.

Even so, in the end I caught Kasumi-san's attack with my left hand—and that's when she started using skills.

My left hand usually wears the Shield Gauntlet, so it started with whether that attack counted as one strike, and my saying "it doesn't hurt, I'm fine" was a problem too.

After the match restarted, Kasumi-san's attacks got sharper and sharper, and finally I took her usual 【Deflection】-into-【Counter】 combo on the shin and it broke.

It was the sharpest attack I've ever taken—and because I'd said it didn't hurt, it had the upper weapon enhancement riding on it......

"Fufufu."

"Hey, what are you laughing at! Do something about this, quick!"

"No, I was just thinking this happened before, too."

"Ahh—yeah, it did."

Last time I went all the way to the Sanzu River, so I'm glad this time it was just my leg.