122. Chapter 122 – Resurface
Walm, having overcome the troublesome crowd of monsters and survived the greeting of the high-ranking floors, reached the vault. The room was so deserted that the birds chirped in his imagination, but still, it wasn’t reserved only for him.
A party of five people was there. Walm recognized them, after all, he’d spoken to one of them the other day.
Fausto, an experienced adventurer, was sitting against the wall with the other party members. It wasn’t that they had come to this floor only because they wanted to spend their free time like children in summer. Although they were all well dressed, the dirt and the naked wounds that testified to the battle caught the eye.
“I didn’t expect you to come to the 30th floor alone, much less so quickly. So let me welcome you.”
Fausto noticed the entrance, stood up, and walked toward Walm. This time he had brought his party members with him, and it seemed a social gathering was in store.
“As you can see, I’m exhausted.”
This wasn’t modesty, but Walm’s honest words. There was no way he could cut corners on the way here. In fact, he had generously consumed his mana.
“Well, look, even with five, it’s not much different. If there were four more Walm, it would be possible to conquer the labyrinth without breaking a sweat.”
It had been about five days since Walm had dived into the labyrinth. During that time, he hadn’t exchanged a word with anyone. Now that he had the opportunity, for some reason he became more relaxed than usual, which led to him making a lame joke.
“Unfortunately, my brothers weren’t born at the same time. So, no quintuplets.”
“I’m relieved to hear that”
Said Fausto with a carefree smile.
Immediately after, Walm’s five senses were alerted by the sounds and movements in the surroundings. The faint sound of the wind coming to his flank from the side and the signs of death fast approaching could be felt. Fortunately, his survival instinct made his hand move the halberd to receive the blow.
A numbing shock was felt in Walm’s hand. The longsword and the halberd’s handle rubbed against each other. It was one of Fausto’s party members, who was in Walm’s blind spot, slashing a sword at him.
“…But how unfortunate, really.”
Words that came out of Fausto’s mouth weren’t intentional, but unconsciously. The smile of a good man turned into the smile of a sinister man. As if he was wearing a Noh mask. [TN: Noh-mask, is the mask used by the Noh performer. Basically, Noh is a dance-drama where the performer expresses emotion by using a mask.]
It had been a long time since Walm had seen someone with that kind of expression. Even among the soldiers of the northern countries, who were good at killing each other, it was rare. No emotional fluctuations, as if the person standing in front of Fausto wasn’t human, as if Walm was nothing more than useless weeds.
Walm realized that countless sacrifices were needed to manifest this in someone. In fact, he felt that the attack was carefully planned and not accidental.
Why? What for? For what reason? Such questions weren’t necessary. After all, in this world, including Walm, people were generally raised thinking that a fight was normal, that war was normal.
Walm’s train of thought, given the signal to change the target to “battle mode,” quickly switched to the earlier thoughts and feelings he had while diving through the floors of the labyrinth.
The assailants began a full-scale assault after throwing away their deception. Fausto’s spear, aimed at Walm’s throat, approached from below. Walm dodged with his upper body and jumped back, but a mace approached from the side as he retreated backwards. He continued to dodge further behind, only to be greeted by a longsword.
Perhaps they felt that Walm had a solid defense, so as to limit his mobility, his legs were the target
The longsword tried to sweep Walm’s leg, but it was a failure and deflected off the shin guard.
Walm escaped the laceration, but he couldn’t prevent the dull pain that echoed in his bones and the uncertainty of his posture. He stood still, feeling stunned, but without giving him time to relax, the nearby shield-wielder charged at him.
There was no space left to escape safely, so Walm prepared to receive the blow. At the same time as the collision, however, he flew backward to cut off his momentum. After rolling on the ground, he jumped up, but a burning pain attacked his shoulder.
“Uh, ughh”
The archer, who was out of range, shot an arrow through the small gaps of the four vanguards at just the right moment.
Before another arrow was drawn, Walm used his mana and shot a fireball into the ground to break up the formation.
“Keep attacking! Lilo, Haunzen, don’t let him escape!”
The five people facing Walm at some distance set their next action in motion. They used water magic <Water bullet> and wind magic <Gust> to extinguish the flames.
After all, it was a party that could reach the 30th floor. Of course, it was expected that one or two magic users would be present.
Fausto with a spear and an adventurer with a mace approached Walm, who had lost his fire barrier, and another adventurer with a longsword aimed at his flank.
Walm instantly accelerated with wind attribute magic. Flank for flank, he targeted the longsword-wielder on the flank, but the damned shield-wielder and archer tried to stop him.
The shield-wielder could use wind magic, and used magic to give speed in the shield bash presented to Walm at close range.
“Great performance.”
At first glance, it looked like it would be easy to kill one or two. But a clever improvised move like this could happen many times in this fight to the death. If Walm ignored someone for just a second, that person would target his blind spot and deliver a killing blow for sure.
Walm could choose to run away, but that meant he had to find a way to break through one of the routes to the transfer room or the door to the precious place or the door to the deeper floor. But if he managed to break through, they would certainly do their best to pursue him.
To reach the 30th floor, Walm had repeatedly used up his mana, and if he used 《Demon Fire》, he would only deplete his soon-to-be-depleted mana even faster.
Above all, the adventurer’s equipment made Walm hesitate to use it. Apart from the fact that they all seemed to have above average mana due to their long training, they were also carefully prepared and even equipped with fireproof equipment.
And what would happen to Walm’s eyes if he used this? If Fausto’s group managed to block the attack or escape total annihilation, the intense pain in his eyes would obstruct his vision. In this case, Walm would be like a “Sahuagin on the cutting board.”
At least if one or two people weren’t incapacitated, Walm wouldn’t even be able to escape properly
In short, Walm was clearly cornered. Although he was in an awkward position, the demon mask at his waist was in a good mood. Obviously, it didn’t care about its owner and just wanted to see the bloodshed between the humans. Besides, Fausto was one of the people who made the mask tremble with interest. That was enough for Walm to think that Fausto couldn’t be a decent person.
Walm repelled the attack with his halberd while continuing to dodge, taking fine steps as if he were dancing. Using magic to find a way to counterattack would just be a waste of effort, it would be better to save as much as possible to extend the bankruptcy in mana. Gradually, his limbs were scraped and his clothes were stained with blood. To suppress the bleeding, the magical barrier that played the role of the second skin continued to hold the wound.
A shiver ran down Walm’s spine the whole time, and he began to feel uneasy. Not even a blink was allowed for the strong presence of death. Injured and exhausted, surrounded by powerful enemies. Walm was forced to stand in the line of death. Although there were no spectators, he had to continue dancing in the midst of the great performers.
“ah, hah, huh, hah”
Repeated shallow breaths and strained legs that appealed and screamed as they were reaching their limits. Walm thrust the halberd, turning deadly blows into only painful wounds. Yet the precision of the movement wasn’t lost.
Sure, the battles in the labyrinth he had experienced so far slowly evoked a sense of the past. But this predicament worked wonders. The dullness created by a lazy, alcohol-soaked year was scraped away. Ironically, drifting on the border between death and life was the best environment for Walm to force his past self to resurface.
Unconsciously, a smile appeared on Walm’s face.
Walm stomped on the longsword that came from a blind spot and was about to sweep his legs, forcing the blade to dig into the ground. He then twisted his body and slashed at the sword-wielder with his halberd when he saw an opening, but the sword-wielder immediately let go of the longsword and protected the neck with both hands.
The attack cut through the back of the hand, crushing bone and flesh, but it was stopped there before it reached the neck
As a token of gratitude for the kindness, the mace struck Walm’s flank, and Fausto’s sharp spear pierced his throat deeply. But he didn’t care. After all, they weren’t fatal injuries.
“Move!!”
Fausto took a step back before attacking again, giving instructions to the swordsman, but he was a little late. At that moment, Walm, whose broken ribs were making violent sounds and who even had blood in his trachea, didn’t slow his movements. Instead, he pulled the sword-wielder to him like a beloved lover and exchanged bodies.
The sword-wielder had now turned into a meat shield. Nevertheless, the sword-wielder tried to hug Walm with broken arms.
From the weapon, which showed no signs of slowing down, Walm could read the attacker’s determination.
The meat shield was indeed a useless shield and unnecessary. So, Walm burned the sword wielder’s throat as he thrust this meat shield into the trajectory of the spear and mace.
The sound of boiling blood and the smell of burnt flesh spread through the large room. A soundless scream, burning the vocal cords indeed… delighted Walm.
“… Four left”
Even the tough attackers, who weren’t so easily swayed emotionally, would be more likely to think about the next move because of a loss in their number. There even would be some among them whose information processing would slow down when they saw a dying comrade turned into a meat shield
Walm pulled out the arrow, which passed through the crumbling corpse and stuck in his shoulder. But that wasn’t enough to stop him.
Walm spat the blood that had accumulated in his mouth into the air. The spreading blood mist distorted the field of vision and increased the amount of information the opponent had to process. Walm, who was well prepared, shot the arrow with compressed air.
” <Release> “
The ejected arrow slipped through their focus, penetrated the mace wielder’s eyeball, and reached the brain.
“Three, left”
Walm pointed his halberd at the three.
Accumulated fatigue, spent mana, and injuries all over the body, Walm’s condition was the worst. Nevertheless, his thoughts gave clear instructions on what to do next.
“…….We’ve spent too much time. No, rather, we don’t have enough time to see the end. How unfortunate.”
For the first time since the killing began, Fausto threw words at Walm. The tightly closed door creaked open. That meant the arrival of a new party of spectators about to visit the stage called the safe room.
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