Ling wailed. Her basic combat method was to set up barriers to restrict the enemy's path, but the appearance of the attacking monsters seemed to be physically unbearable to her, so disgusting that she even made a huge mistake at the start of the battle and forgot to set up the barriers.
The monsters resembled bees, but were about the size of infants and possessed countless legs, moving constantly like centipedes. Their mouths opened and closed like spiders, and they possessed seven bulging compound eyes. Their bodies were a disgusting yellow and black, and the green slime that coated them dripped down the poisonous stinger on their tails, oozing everywhere.
It was indeed a creature that one did not want to look at directly, and in a sense, it was blasphemous.
"Rin! Cheer up!"
With a loud roar, Kouki used the technique of "Shrinking the Earth" to rapidly approach the strange bee flying towards Ling, and then swung the holy sword.
However, just as Shia had predicted, the monster bee's evasive ability was superior, and it easily avoided the holy sword's attack. At the same time, green slime splattered everywhere, staining Ling's face.
Ling almost fainted. The strange bee turned around and aimed its tail at Ling.
"disease!"
Shizuku flashed in at lightning speed and slashed the monster bee with her black knife at the critical moment.
"bell!"
“—Heaven, [Heaven’s Destruction]!!”
Shizuku shouted, and the barrier master finally sprang into action. Tears welled in Suzu's eyes, but she still created a barrier path, blocking and diverting the oncoming swarm of monster bees. At the same time, Suzu cast healing magic on herself with unprecedented speed and skill, and the viscous liquid was purified with a glow.
Ignoring the fact that Suzu was almost dying mentally, Kouki and Shizuku covered each other's blind spots and began to fight back.
“—[Sky Flash]!”
A slash of light followed, but the bees scattered in unison, easily dodging Kouki's most potent attack. Their agility was astonishing, like an arrow shot from a powerful bow, while simultaneously defying the laws of inertia and performing sharp turns. Seeing this, Kouki cursed under his breath, "This is too much! Damn it!"
In addition, because their stingers can grow new ones immediately after being ejected, the strange bees use their agility to start a machine gun-like spray with their stingers. They keep circling around and shooting poisonous stingers from all angles.
"Heaven forbid, heaven forbid, heaven forbid!"
Suzu chanted with a mournful cry, her barrier barely able to block the poison needle attack; Shizuku used her speed to break the opponent's connection, creating a gap from which to launch a powerful attack from Radiance.
However, such a coordinated attack can only knock down a few monster bees at a time, and it is still far from enough to drive away hundreds of monster bees.
Compared with the monsters outside, the abilities and fighting styles of these monsters are far too advanced.
"Damn it, these guys are just like the devil's monsters!"
"No, you got it the other way around. The demon monsters are on par with the monsters in the Great Labyrinth."
Guanghui swung his holy sword desperately. He cursed as he recalled the bloodbath he had witnessed not long ago. It seemed the strength of the monsters in the Great Labyrinth was completely insufficient for him.
A strange bee launched a surprise attack from behind Kouki, but Hajime corrected Kouki's statement and shot it down.
Although Guanghui said with full fighting spirit that they would deal with it, the monster bees would not listen to Guanghui. Hajime and others who were waiting in the rear were also attacked by the monster bee swarm.
But it wasn't just Hajime, Shia and Kaori were also able to take it with ease.
"It's no use having good evasive abilities!"
Every time Shia swung her Druken, the shockwave shattered a large group of monster bees.
"Hmm~ I think I got the hang of it!"
Meanwhile, Kaori's Silver Feathers' homing missiles formed a barrage, shooting down the monster bees one by one. No matter how the monster bees tried to evade, the Silver Feathers would turn and pursue them, practically like magic bullets. And the more Kaori fired the Silver Feathers, the more refined her control became, and her accuracy grew ever higher.
The scene entered Guanghui's field of vision, making him grit his teeth.
"Koki-kun! Oh no, I can't hold on any longer!"
Ling's face was already half-crying. Every time the multifaceted barriers she had deployed were destroyed, she had to create new ones. This cycle continued relentlessly, ruthlessly draining Ling's magic power.
The light-attribute intermediate defensive magic "Tian Jue" is indeed a barrier skill that is not very powerful in itself, but it emphasizes the number of times it can be deployed.
Even so, the strength of the "Tenjutsu" unleashed by Ling, a "barrier master", is extraordinary. If it were an ordinary monster, it would have to launch several attacks to break through one barrier.
However, in front of the monster bee's poisonous sting, Ling's "Tian Jue" barrier was as fragile as paper and was destroyed after only one blow. Therefore, Ling was forced to continuously expand the barrier at an unprecedented speed.
Ling's speed in deploying the barrier slowed down little by little, and the poison needles flying towards her gradually shortened the distance. The scene made Ling feel as if a rope was strangled around her neck, dealing a blow to her spirit.
Shizuku's expression was also very serious. As a high-speed close combat type, Shizuku happened to be the nemesis of the monster bee. Shizuku used "No Beat" to launch a fast and slow attack at will, accurately killing the monster bee.
However, the strength of the monster bees lies in their huge numbers. Even if Shizuku can handle a one-on-one fight, the number of bees she can kill is a drop in the bucket due to her lack of mass killing ability, and she will sooner or later be counterattacked by the enemy.
Guanghui saw the situation of Ling and Shizuku, and perhaps felt anxious, so he left them and rushed towards the enemy alone.
"O blade-like will, dwelling in the light, cut the enemy apart! — 'Light Sword'!"
The holy sword shone, a gleam of light extending two meters from its tip, transforming into a massive blade. Kouki spun around, swinging the now-great sword. The light traced a circular path, perfectly slicing every bee monster within range in two.
However, Guanghui's attempt to sweep the enemy left him alone, and his large, wide-open moves cost him dearly. The monster bee took advantage of the momentary pause after Guanghui's attack and charged into him.
“Grr! Damn it!”
Guanghui was knocked backwards, and the strange bee immediately pounced on him. It screamed wildly and tried to stab him with its poisonous stinger. Fortunately, Guanghui's holy armor blocked the poisonous stinger, so he was not stung.
Guanghui struggled to pierce the monster bee that pounced on him with his holy sword and pushed its corpse away. However, the monsters in the Great Labyrinth were no pushovers, and they wouldn't let him recover so easily. Before he could get up, a large number of monster bees swarmed over him.
“Kui!”
“Ooooooohhhhh!”
Guanghui didn't have the energy to respond to Shizuku. He roared, kneeling on one knee as he swung his holy sword. But his struggle was only so far. A strange bee finally dodged the holy sword and clung to Guanghui's back. Its ferocious jaws quickly closed in on Guanghui, ready to bite his neck off.
“——!?”
Guanghui let out a silent wail.
In an instant, a red flash broke through the air, and at the same time, the head of the strange bee clinging to Guanghui disappeared instantly.
Guanghui didn't have time to think about what was happening. He ignored the tingling heat on the back of his neck and roughly pulled away the strange bee corpse that was still clinging to him.
Although Guanghui had barely escaped a life-or-death situation, what appeared in his field of vision was a swarm of hundreds of strange bees.
——We will be besieged!
Guanghui's expression was stiff, and at this moment a voice came into his ears without any anxiety.
"Tianzhihe, don't move."
"what?"
Countless crimson meteors ravaged the space, and after a moment, a long, drawn-out explosion was heard. With each explosion, six flashes of light scattered in all directions. These flashes resembled spears of crimson light, a single flash capable of piercing the far rear of the monster bee swarm, annihilating all enemies in its path.
That was Hajime's gun skill—『Rapid Shooting』. This rapid shooting technique was so fast that it felt like only a single gunshot was heard.
In addition, the shooting angles are carefully calculated, and the fired bullets will collide with other bullets in the air, subtly changing the angle, which can kill the enemy more efficiently.
This was also Hajime's gun skill—『Multi-angle Shooting』.
From a different perspective, it might even seem like the enemy is flying towards the bullets themselves.
Originally, there should have been a slight gap in the reload time after each six-shot burst, but by rotating the gun to reload, he was able to reload the bullets that were transmitted into the air in an instant.
The hands holding Donal and Hulak would never point their guns in the same direction. They seemed to be different creatures, shooting wildly at the enemy.
That was a true masterstroke. The strange swarm of bees was completely expelled in less than ten seconds.
As Guanghui and the others were stunned, Hajime put Donal and Hulak into his holsters as if nothing had happened and walked towards the wreckage of the monster bee.
Then, he uttered something that, in a sense, shocked everyone even more than his earlier spear skills—
"Tsk! Eating it doesn't seem to do any good..."
"Eat? Hey, Nagumo-san, were you planning on eating this monster? Are you serious?"
Shizuku was shaken out of her daze by Hajime's words. She stepped back, a look of disgust on her face as she asked.
"Didn't I tell you? If I eat a monster of my own level or higher, I'll have a chance to learn that monster's unique magic. Ah, but don't try to imitate me, okay? You'll definitely die if you do."
That must be a miracle that occurs when one is able to drink the mythical secret medicine like the holy water, and at the same time be able to endure the excruciating pain of the body's constant collapse and regeneration without going crazy.
Since the holy water is limited now, if the regeneration magic used is not to "restore" the body but to "recover", it will just return to the state before the transformation, so there is no point in eating the monster.
If you use Kaori's highest level recovery magic, it might not be impossible, but... if the recovery cannot keep up with the speed of the collapse, you will die on the spot, so it is not recommended to try.
If the body has changed like Hajime, then ordinary recovery magic will be enough.
"Even if you begged me, I wouldn't eat it. But now that you've said it, it seems like your life back then was pretty miserable..."
Shizuku looked at Hajime with a complicated expression.
Although Hajime is reliable, Shizuku cannot praise him openly because she feels sympathy for Hajime because she feels a renewed sense of his strength based on tragic experiences.
Hajime shrugged at Shizuku, and this time it was Suzu who asked him with a disgusted expression.
"But why don't you eat this monster? No, as for Suzu, she doesn't want to see that kind of hunting scene, so it's best if you don't eat it..."
"Like I said earlier, it only works if you eat monsters of your own level or higher. This level of monster is just too weak."
"I see~ For Nagumo-kun, this kind of monster is pretty weak~ I see~ Ahahaha."
"Ling, I understand how you feel, but please don't collapse. Come back to your senses."
Ling let out a slightly insane dry laugh, and Shizuku sighed, helping her return to normal.
"..."
At this moment, only Guanghui clenched his fists, staring at the scattered monster debris. These powerful enemies who had nearly killed him were like stones on the roadside in Hajime's eyes. Guanghui looked at Hajime, and even though he felt unwilling to accept it, he still clearly felt the huge gap in their strength.
Even though he had been pretending not to notice, dark emotions were welling up inside him.
Hajime glanced at the silent Kouki.
"...River of Heaven."
"! W-What is it?"
"For now, just think about how to find your childhood sweetheart. You can worry about the rest after you've done what you need to do."
"...I know that without you telling me."
Despite some of the sting in his words, Guanghui still agreed with what Hajime said. Guanghui took a deep breath, thinking of his missing friend, and regained his spirits.
Hajime stared at Kouki for a moment, then shook his head and looked away.
In fact, Hajime knew very well what kind of emotions Kouki was feeling right now—inferiority, anxiety, jealousy of the strong... These were all emotions that Hajime had also harbored in the past.
It's truly ironic that a child of destiny like Kouki would harbor such feelings for Hajime. Hajime, due to his inherent personality, is able to see things in a more open-minded way, but Kouki has never felt that way. Can he truly control the dark emotions within himself?
(Forget it, it has nothing to do with me anyway!)
Hajime simply ignored him. Just by advising (?) Kouki to focus on Ryuutarou, he had already become quite smooth in his dealings with people, even for a monster from the abyss.
"Hajime-san, I've cleaned up everything over there~"
"I'm done here too."
Before they knew it, Shia and Kaori had expanded the battlefield and wiped out all the monsters around them.
"Okay, let's go. With Yue and Tio's strength, I think they'll be fine, but it's always a good idea to reunite as soon as possible. As for Sakagami... we'll figure it out when the time comes."
"Hey, aren't you being too casual with Ryuutarou? No, I understand that you prioritize your lover, but..."
As Shizuku complained with an embarrassed expression and Kouki glared angrily, the group set out to go deeper into the sea of trees in search of their lost companions.
About two hours later.
The sea of trees in the Great Labyrinth was dyed red.
Space wailed, the earth writhed, and the trees burned in infernal flames, blazing through the forest. Violent tremors and explosions continued, a scene that felt like the end of the world.
The wailing sounds heard between the explosions were coming from the monsters that inhabited the forest. Their voices were filled with fear, like screams of panic, echoing throughout the forest.
Meanwhile...
"Come on!! Die with the forest, you scum!!"
A ferocious roar like that of a gangster could be heard from the sea of trees.
The owner of the voice was, of course, Hajime.
Incidentally, the one who was causing the explosions that were ringing everywhere and bombing the forest in the present tense was also Hajime.
Veins popped up on Hajime's forehead, and he held Alcorn in both hands, firing rockets and missiles crazily.
“U-um, Hajime-san, is it about time you stop?”
“Y-yes, Hajime-kun, I think that monster must be dead too…”
Hajime, with his fury bordering on violence, unabashedly fired hundreds of rockets and missiles, and continuously dropped cluster bombs from the sky using his cross-shaped floater. Shia and Kaori frantically tried to stop him.
but……
"Hmm?"
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