“Rifreya-sama, please run away!” 

“You all as well, run away! I will hold this thing back…!” (Rifreya)

“But…!” 

The sound of clashing weapons resonates.

A crazy big longsword was being swung around at fast speed.

And then there’s the faint colored sickles easily repelling them.

(Of everything, it had to be that…) (Hikaru)

There’s a number of monster Spirit Stones scattered around.

They were most likely attacked by several monsters, and right after defeating them, they encountered this.

This is my 3rd time seeing it, but this is the first time I see it fighting.

The strongest monster of the 2nd Floor.

A mysterious monster that I can only describe as a praying mantis monster, and the ends of its arms have giant sharp sickles. The super muscular upper body of a human is supported by the 4 legs of the lower half that’s like that of an insect with a size of around 2 meters. It is easy to tell it is a dangerous monster. The presence it gives out was on a whole other level than the other monsters in the 2nd Floor.

Moreover, its senses are pretty sharp. Even when I am inside the Darkness Fog, it would perceive me and go after me. It is most likely reacting to my breathing or the sound of my footsteps.

That’s why, it is to the point where I would return to the 1st Floor every time I met it. 

“It is impossible to fight against that Mantis, even for you, Rifreya-sama…!” 

“Then, are you just going to give up?! No, more importantly, hurry…!” (Rifreya)

The woman was ordering them to run away within that intense battle.

It was like a group of a princess and her servants.

The 3 women that seem to be the servants were wounded all over, and even if they do have weapons in hand, they are so wounded it doesn’t look like they can fight against the Mantis. 1 of the 3 was so unsteady on her feet that it feels as if just standing was taking her all. 

Only the woman dealing with the mantis man by swinging a longsword is able to fight evenly or even better than that against it. 

The servants are panicking, but in the end, there’s nothing they can do that doesn’t require that woman to fight. I don’t think that mantis man is so soft that it would let their enemies escape. 

The sound of clashing blades resonates, and the longsword carrying strong centrifugal force scraped away at the sickles of the mantis. 

She was spinning her body flexibly as if she were a spinning top, and was dealing consecutive powerful hits.

I simply hid in the darkness and watched that battle. 

(…So pretty.) (Hikaru)

I had that out-of-place thought.

But that’s what I honestly felt. 

It is a beautiful fighting style. 

Her platinum blonde hair spread out like wings matching her nimble movements, and even her sweat flying about was shining.

Her white skin that stands out in this dim darkness left afterimages every time she attacked.

In this situation where life and death mix, each reverberation of the blades became the resonance of life, and the heat transmitted to my heart.

I was completely entranced by this.

(A person as beautiful as this can exist?) (Hikaru)

This is the first time I have been moved since coming to this world.

In this gray space where darkness and death ruled, only she was in color, and was giving out an unbelievable radiance. 

“Kuh…! You all…! Then, please go and call for help! You get it, right?!” (Rifreya)

A sword that’s being swung with every fiber of her body. 

But it looks like her attacks are not working that well on the Mantis. 

The Mantis was repelling her attacks as if mocking her.

(It may be slow…but she is beginning to get pushed back.) (Hikaru)

This clash of weapons will eventually crumble. 

With her defeat being the result. 

I understood that after watching this from the outside.

She must have understood this as well.

That order of calling for help was just a pretext to have her never ending hesitating servants to run away. 

“G-Got it! We will definitely call for help…!” 

“I leave it to you…!” (Rifreya)

The servants turn tail.

They probably wanted to run away as soon as possible, but because of their duty, their position, and all that stuff, they couldn’t run away. 

The path to the stairs is coincidentally the same one I took, and I didn’t see any monsters there. They should be able to reach the 1st Floor without any problem.

The girl called Rifreya watched the back of her servants and smiled softly.

“Now, dance with me until they manage to escape…!” (Rifreya)

She gathered even more strength and attacked it with an unyielding spirit. 

Sorrowfully.

Powerfully.

A rondo of death.

I held my breath as I watched that figure of hers.

To be precise, I couldn’t avert my gaze from her to the point I forgot to breathe.

After several tens, several hundreds of slashes, her sword finally left her hand, and when the mantis monster approached her…I practically moved unconsciously.

The gazes…

The laughs…

I couldn’t hear any of those. 

I undo the Darkness Fog and take one step forward.

In that brief moment I suddenly appeared and the Mantis was wondering if to place his attention on me or not…

“[Shadow Bind].” (Hikaru)

Countless dark tentacles come out from the shadow of the Mantis and the deadly scythe that was about to take the life of Rifreya was tied up.

“[Summon: Night Bug].” (Hikaru)

I placed my hand up and activated the next ability.

The jet black rhinoceros beetles that were summoned from the deep darkness fly around left and right, and scrape away on the Mantis that can’t move.

After seeing that the Mantis had clearly switched its attention to me, I immediately activated the next ability. 

“[Shadow Runner].” (Hikaru)

The humanoid shadow ran to a random direction, and the Mantis that had its attention on me switched to that for an instant.

The same time as this happened, I placed strength into my legs.

“[Shade Shift]!” (Hikaru)

I take the dagger on my waist together with the clone made of shadow, and dash.

“[Darkness Fog]!” (Hikaru)

Pitch Black Darkness that one can’t even see a single step ahead covered the Mantis that had its attention taken away by the Shadow Runner.

With this, what’s left is simple. 

After such a fierce clash of blades, even a monster will be exhausted.

Against an opponent that can’t perceive me…I deal one attack to the spine from the back.

The Mantis didn’t even raise a death cry…as it disappeared into a Spirit Stone.

Leaving only me and the spaced out girl. 

Previous Chapter l Next Chapter