arc3 · 051-ch51

Episode 51: A Ray of Light

Ryonan, the leader of Parks, deflects the Madness Serpent Mimic's attack. But the Madness Serpent Mimic doesn't change its behavior no matter how many times it's deflected, lunging at Ryonan like it's gone mad. Its defense is tough too—Ryonan deflects the attacks and strikes at its neck, but the surface scales get in the way and prevent him from inflicting a fatal wound.

In the brief opening, he surveys his surroundings. Just like Ryonan, Fujimori, Komiya, and Naganuma are also using their shields to block the Madness Serpent Mimic's attacks. Three monsters would be enough to worry about avoiding, but there are four Madness Serpent Mimics. That's not all. Including the Curtain Frogs, there are twenty monsters gathered around them without their noticing.

That was a despairing number. But Parks' members didn't give up.

"Don't do anything reckless!! Even if it's little by little, deal damage for sure!!"

Ryonan roars as if to tell himself. Spirited shouts come back from Parks' members, but nothing returns from Urban.

Since Ryonan had brought Tachikawa back to his senses, Urban's members were somehow participating in the battle too. But their training and morale were the worst. Even though Parks was handling the powerful monsters, Urban was struggling just to defeat the weak ones.

How to break through. Desperately spinning his thoughts, he deflects the Madness Serpent Mimic's attacks and steps in deeper than usual to strike. Taking risks paid off and he was able to create a breakthrough wound, but that created a larger opening.

He could see a Beginning Frog lunging at Ryonan from the side. The Beginning Frog is the weakest monster in District 3, but those guys cling to explorers and try to push them over, so your movements get obstructed. If a Beginning Frog hugs you, you might not be able to dodge the next Madness Serpent Mimic's attack.

"Ryonan! Don't let your guard down!!"

Tobuki slipped between Ryonan and the Beginning Frog, unleashing a sharp triple thrust from his poised spear to intercept it. The thrusts delivered to its belly, chest, and throat sank deep into the final throat, transforming the Beginning Frog into smoke.

"Saved us!! The Pseudoviscous's pseudo-viscosity is annoying! Can you handle it, Tobuki!?"

"Of course!! Tachikawa, keep handling the Curtain Frog as is!!"

"Damn it!! Fussa, help too!!"

After pushing the Curtain Frogs onto the two Urban members, Tobuki uses his spear's reach to crush the Pseudoviscous cores, which are semi-transparent and hard to see. They shoot acid dissolving fluid, but with a spear reinforced by mana manipulation, even swatting it out of mid-air won't damage the weapon.

"Damn it! Two Rock Earth Dragons are closing in!!"

"Tobuki, keep handling the Rock Earth Dragons as is! Tachikawa!! You take one of them!!"

"Machida!! Reina!! You two go!!"

"Hah!? Rock Earth Dragons' attacks won't go through for us, though!?"

"You don't need to defeat them! Just buy us some time until we get there!!"

Somehow managing to leave it to Urban while clearing through the monster horde. If they could defeat even one of District 3's powerful monsters—Madness Serpent Mimic, Rock Earth Dragon, or Curtain Frog—the situation would improve, but that's difficult. District 3 has many tough monsters that won't go down easily.

Ryonan grits his teeth at how bad the situation is. Parks is fighting a Madness Serpent Mimic alone, but who knows how long that will last. Just like before, Ryonan himself might expose a decisive opening to other monsters' attacks.

He glares at the Madness Serpent Mimic lunging at him. Despite having inflicted a deep wound earlier, the Madness Serpent Mimic doesn't care whether the wound widens and just charges in. If he pursues this wound with follow-up attacks, he can defeat this guy.

If he can take down even one, afterwards two or more can challenge it and reduce the monster numbers.

Putting everything into it, he performs a shield bash with counter timing at the Madness Serpent Mimic's head. Until now he'd been receiving the Madness Serpent Mimic's attacks then deflecting them, so the Madness Serpent Mimic couldn't predict it and its head snapped back vigorously.

He unleashes a full-power diagonal slash at the wound that had widened further from the shield bash. The sword swung down magnificently gouged the Madness Serpent Mimic's wound, succeeding in severing about seventy percent of its neck.

But even then, the Madness Serpent Mimic doesn't die. The vitality of snakes is terrifying. With its nearly severed neck not mattering, it opens its huge mouth and tries to bite. But without its charging power due to the nearly severed neck, the attack isn't even a threat.

When Ryonan punches its face sideways with his kite shield, the Madness Serpent Mimic gets deflected with little resistance. Then, he swings his sword down at the defenselessly exposed neck. The Madness Serpent Mimic's neck is completely severed, but it still doesn't die.

It struggles to attack even though it's just a head, but as just a head it can barely move. Ryonan stabs his sword into the rolling head, turning the Madness Serpent Mimic into smoke.

"We took down the Madness Serpent Mimic!! Going to provide backup immediately——"

Just as Ryonan was about to turn around and head to support his allies, Fujimori was flying through the air in front of his eyes. When he looked, he could see a Curtain Frog taking a thrusting pose right next to the Madness Serpent Mimic.

"Fujimori!!"

Ryonan charges in between the Madness Serpent Mimic and Curtain Frog that were trying to follow up on Fujimori. But Ryonan also can't skillfully handle attacks from two monsters—the Madness Serpent Mimic and the Curtain Frog.

"Why a Curtain Frog!?"

The Curtain Frogs were supposed to be handled by Kamiyuzuki and Tachikawa's group. Did something happen to them? He thinks that, but then recalls the memory from right before.

No one had been defeated. In other words, this Curtain Frog is a newly appeared monster.

He'd finally defeated the Madness Serpent Mimic, and now another equivalent monster got added. He feels frustrated at this vicious cycle state, but then he just needs to defeat it again.

"Fujimori! Can you still move!?"

First, Fujimori needs to return to the battle line. Attacked by two monsters, Ryonan has no room to look back.

"I still can, but this is bad, Ryonan! It's a new monster!!"

"I know!! I'll handle the Curtain Frog! You handle the Madness Serpent Mimic!!"

"No! Not that one!"

Fujimori, whipping his surely hurting body and standing up, tells Ryonan. The worst possible content.

"New monsters are still coming from deep inside! Madness Serpent Mimics, Rock Earth Dragons, Curtain Frogs—they're all unwilling to show up here!"

Even the current battlefield was already at the limit. Monsters that they haven't even managed to sink their teeth into yet keep coming like seconds. That was despairing enough conditions.

"Damn it! You guys might have to run again!!"

"No! We're not dying yet!"

"Rio, let's go!"

Urban's members are about to leave their posts and run away again. If that happens, they'll definitely collapse. No matter how much they run, there's no way they can escape in their current exhausted state.

That's why Ryonan made up his mind.

"It's all right!! We're still all right!!"

It's nothing but empty comfort. Everyone knew that. But there are few people who can put that into words. At the very last moment, being able to hold your ground and say it's still all right—that's an irreplaceable talent for an explorer.

"Raise your heads, you guys! We've experienced a situation like this before, right!?"

The situation is worse than when they were surrounded by Green-Yellow Wolves in District 2. But Parks has the pride of having survived a similar experience. They're standing here right now because they didn't give up.

"Yeah! We're taking down the Madness Serpent Mimic right away!!"

"Yeah! We'll finish them off quick!"

"Right! If you can come, bring as many as you want!"

"Please spare us that, though!!"

Parks' morale rises at Ryonan's voice. Urban is dumbfounded at how unbelievable that is, but thanks to Parks' raised morale, Urban didn't run away.

But there are things that realistically can't be helped. Like this, he'll probably have to fight two Madness Serpent Mimics and Curtain Frogs alone. That's impossible. Until Fujimori recovers, even in that brief moment, even Ryonan couldn't counterattack.

(What do I do... what should I do!?)

Parks, who didn't give up and continued fighting. Because they continued fighting even in a despairing situation and bought time, a ray of light shone before them.

"Water Cutter"

Water blades that suddenly rain down. Targeted at the big one, it also directly hit the Curtain Frog in front of Ryonan's eyes.

In front of the flinching Curtain Frog, before understanding what had happened, Parks launched a follow-up attack. Tachikawa and the others were just looking around unable to attack not understanding what had happened, but Parks was able to inflict a deep wound on the big one.

"Yo there, Explorer High seniors"

Four women with beautifully arranged appearances appeared in the chaotic battlefield. If Suzuka were here, he would have prefaced it by saying they're like celebrities, but the people of this world are different. Having well-arranged appearances is proof that your status is high in the dungeon. Their appearance was just like that of savior goddesses.

"Are you guys from 'zoo'? No, but thanks for the support!!"

"That saves us the trouble of talking. Come on, it's a rare festival. Let's all enjoy ourselves!"

With her long pure white hair featuring pink mesh fluttering in the wind, Kirin joined the battle floating a ferocious smile far removed from a goddess.