A few tense hours had passed since Endo slipped away, swallowed by the labyrinth as if it had been waiting for him. Before leaving, he'd worked his craft in a sweeping, meticulous silence—brushing over footprints with a rag-wrapped scabbard, scattering false scuffs, masking their scent with crushed bitter grass and the oily resin he kept for emergencies. The little cave they'd chosen on Floor 93 was barely more than a pocket in the rock, its mouth walled up with rubble and tarps to kill drafts and scatter sound. From the outside it would read like fallen stone; from within, the world shrank to dim lantern-light, whispered breaths, and the slow pulse of fear.
Most of the party bore the labyrinth's usual taxes—scrapes, bruises, shallow cuts that promised to sting more tomorrow. But Ryutarou and Reichi were laid out on cloaks, their injuries a harder truth. Kaori knelt between them, hands already aching from the steady drain of healing spells. Soft light bled from her palms and ran into torn muscle and cracked ribs. Sweat slicked her temples; she blinked it away and kept going.
"Mana potion," she murmured without looking up.
A bottle slid into her hand. Shizuku, who'd been keeping watch at the inner bend of the cave, had moved like a shadow. Kaori sipped, grimaced at the acrid taste, and pushed a little more light into Reichi's side.
They'd fled. They'd chosen to flee. Most of them were relieved to still be breathing.
Kouki was not.
"Why did we run?!" he hissed, too loud for the cave. The word ran along stone and came back thin and jagged.
A few heads snapped toward him. Shizuku's hand rose, two fingers pinched—quiet. She'd done that gesture a dozen times tonight; Kouki ignored it again.
Daisuke's patience cracked first. "Did you miss the part where she had an army?" he whispered, harsh enough to bite. "Or were you planning to go full 'hero' and solo the invisible cat brigade and whatever made the ground rumble?"
Kouki's jaw tightened. "We could have taken her," he said, fists clenching until tendons showed. "All we needed was to capture her, and then—"
"Kouki, please," Eri said, and her voice — strong at first — became more of a whisper the more she spoke, letting the grim reality of their situation fall upon them. "We couldn't even count half the monsters she brought. Those cats weren't just fast—they weren't where they looked like they were. And that rumbling? She didn't bring only small ones. Endo made the right call. If we'd stayed, we wouldn't be arguing. We'd be corpses. Or in chains."
Silence took the cave like a held breath.
Someone in the back whispered what the rest were thinking. "It wasn't just her… The lower floors are different. Stronger."
Another rough tremor rolled somewhere far off in the maze. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Jugo flinched, then grinned at himself for flinching and tried to sit up.
"Don't," Kaori said, the word a thread stretched thin. Her light dimmed; she breathed once, twice, and steadied it.
"What do we do now?" a student asked. "Endo must have made it out by now… unless they caught him."
Eyes swung to Kouki out of habit. For a heartbeat he looked like he might stand and declare something heroic. Instead, uncertainty crept across his face. The weight of the unseen pressed in—the memory of cats that weren't where they seemed, of shadows that tore at the edges of their formation, of a woman who never had to raise her voice to make them run.
Ryutarou broke the stalemate with a grunt, propping himself on an elbow. "We finish what we started," he said, and though pain roughened the words, they held. "We're on Floor 93. She went up hours ago. She'll come back down. If we wait here, we're dead. If we move, we have a chance. Remember that teleportation circle on Floor 70? Maybe there's one on Floor 100 too. There should be."
A flicker of hope—thin, fragile—passed from face to face.
"What makes you so sure?" someone asked, clinging to the hope and already afraid of losing it.
Ryutarou spread his hands. "I'm not. But sitting here until she picks her teeth with our swords isn't a plan."
Shizuku pushed off the wall and faced them all, her voice low and even. "We were on Floor 95 before the ambush. She chose to hit us when we were exhausted and strung out. That means she didn't want to fight us head on." She let her words hang in the air. "She's cautious. Good. That buys us time. Our best bet is to get to the lower floors, faster than she expects, and pray there's a circle at the bottom. I don't know about you guys, but I would rather take my chances on there being another teleport circle down there."
Kouki latched onto the part he liked. "Then we push," he said, resolve flaring. "I'll make sure we get there, no matter what it takes."
"Stop." Kaori's head came up. The light in her hands cut out; the cave fell a shade darker. "You don't get to decide that alone."
Kouki blinked, stung. "Kaori—"
She kept her tone soft, but each word was laid with care, like stones in a dam. "I'm still patching people together because you wanted to charge at an army we couldn't even see. Kouki, you need to realize that this is us running away from them. Now imagine us running at them, how would we have looked?"
Kouki's eyes panned around the group, seeing all the nicks and cuts that showed itself on everyone's clothes, highlighting the fact that they would not have made it if they did fight.
The quiet that followed had an edge. Shizuku didn't move, but her gaze sharpened. Ryutarou nodded in approval. "She's right man, you're not worth much if you're dead."
Kouki's ears colored. "I just— We can't keep running. Heroes don't—"
"Heroes keep people alive," Shizuku said. Gentle but firm. "So listen."
Kouki looked between them, jaw agape before his shoulders slumped. "Fine," he relented, getting a wave of sighs from the other students in relief.
Kaori returned to her work—light seeping back between her fingers. "Good," she said, but the tightness at the corner of her mouth lingered. Not in anger. Not yet. Just the beginning shape of something that forms when being needed and not being heard begin to grind against each other.
"Supplies," Shizuku said, brisk now that the line had been drawn. "Count it."
They worked in whispers. Five mana potions left after Kaori's sips; three stamina potions; two days worth of rations, well, one since they are eating right now. Cloth for muffling buckles. Chalk for marking—though Endo's maps meant they'd avoid chalk unless absolutely necessary.
Formation: Daisuke on point because he could read the floor and pull them back from a bad step; Kouki one rank behind to strike on Shizuku's signal, not before; Shizuku and Eri center—line-breakers and counters; Jugo in front of the middle group; Kaori in the middle with Reichi until he could move; Ryutarou the anchor, bruised but stubborn; the rest packed tight, every gap a risk.
"Remember the gestures," Shizuku reminded. "Just keep an eye out for those cats. They seem to be the scouts. When we get to the 95th floor, keep an eye out for the shadows." Everyone nodded along quietly.
A scratch on the far side of the stone wall froze them all—the dry hiss of claws on stone, followed by a slow, questioning sniff. Breaths stopped. However, someone couldn't sit still. Grabbing his sword, Kouki jumps to his feet and rushes at the entrance, sword glowing as Celestial Flash was ready to release.
Shizuku and Ryutarou quickly glances at each other before following after their headstrong friend.
With a quick slash, Kouki broke through the earth wall that Kentarou made, and charged at the nearby enemy. The creature, a being that had the face of an owl, and the body of a bear, turned in the direction of the noise. The last thing it hears is "Divine Wrath!" before it goes dark.
Kouki, now on the far side of the bisected owlbear-like creature, stood doubled over and panting. He wiped his blade on its matted fur, a grin already crawling across his face as he turned toward the cave mouth just as Shizuku and Ryutarou emerged.
"See, guys, nothing to wor—"
SLAP.
"You're a goddamn idiot," Shizuku snapped, hand still raised. "What if that had been one of those black cats instead of this bear thing? You remember how fast they were—we couldn't even see them move."
Ryutarou hovered just behind her, torn between the reflex to back up his childhood friend and the very obvious truth that Kouki's charge had been reckless.
"But we don't have to worry about monsters if we take them out before they're a problem," Kouki said, as if it were obvious.
"And what if there were ten more waiting behind it, huh?" Shizuku shot back. "They'd blitz the back line before you even got close!"
"I'll just use Divine Smite and—" The confidence bled out of his voice. He had the decency to look away as the possibilities finally landed.
Ryutarou stepped in, voice even. "Look, man. We know you want to protect us. But we can't run in headfirst like we did back in Japan—especially not when it's not just our little group anymore. We've got a whole class to keep alive."
Kouki swallowed. "Yeah… I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."
Shizuku exhaled, the edge in her posture easing. "As long as you understand what could have happened. Now we're moving soon. Watch our flanks while I get the rest of the class ready."
Kouki straightened, grateful for something concrete to do. "Right. No worries, Shizuku. I'll keep lookout."
He hesitated, then forced the words out as if they tasted wrong. "I… won't run ahead. Not unless you say so."
Shizuku gave a single, satisfied nod. Nearby, Kaori glanced up from where she was sealing a stubborn tear along Reichi's ribs; her eyes softened, then dropped back to her work. "Thank you," she murmured—gratitude real, weariness realer.
They formed up at the corridor's mouth. Cool labyrinth air slid past, damp and old, tasting of mineral and stale echoes. Daisuke slipped through first, blade low, weight forward on the balls of his feet. He paused, listening to the corridor's hum, then flicked two fingers to wave them on.
They moved like true adventurers—swift and quiet, voices locked behind their teeth, steps light. At each junction, Daisuke checked Endou's map, picking the quickest line toward the lower floors while Kouki shadowed the rear, eyes fixed where the darkness thickened.
They'd eventually managed to rush down to the 100th floor from the 93rd, with dozens of close calls and hundreds of near-stumbles. Now they were in a wide antechamber where the corridor sagged into a low hall. At the far end, a cave mouth yawned—unnatural and deliberate in the way only boss arenas ever are. The rock around it puckered like old scar tissue, stalactites and broken stone teeth framing the throat. Capillary-thin veins of glowstone threaded the walls, their breath-like shimmer pulling your gaze along the stone and guiding you into the cave's black mouth.
Daisuke bent over with his hands on his knees, huffing in relief, sweat dripping off his nose. "Bro, I had like… three heart attacks back there. I don't have Endo's 'fade into wallpaper' skill. Those patrols looked right at me."
"Can we take a break?" someone muttered as bodies slumped to the cool stone.
"Yeah, my legs are sore," Reichi groaned, flopping down and immediately regretting it when his thigh cramped. "Ow—ow—ow—nope, that's a decision I regret."
"Does anyone have water? I finished mine like… three floors ago," Daisuke said, hopeful hand out.
Kaori pressed her lips together but smiled as she moved between them, glowing palms hovering over cuts and bruises. "Sip. Don't chug," she said, handing Daisuke a half-full canteen. "And hold still, please."
"I am still," he said, then jerked as her healing warmth made his skin itch. "Okay—okay—now I'm still."
Shizuku leaned her back against a pillar and slid down, sword across her knees. She exhaled, then tipped her head to look at Ryutarou posted at the rear, one hand braced on the wall as he listened for echoes. "How's our tail?"
"Quiet," he said, though his brow stayed tense. His knuckles were scraped; the last narrow bridge had not been kind. "No footsteps. No skittering. No 'surprise, I'm a nightmare' noises."
Kouki paced instead of sitting, his holy sword sheathed, but too close to his hand. His hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat. His jaw worked, impatient, with that familiar itch to move, to do something. "We made time. We should capitalize, right? If that's the boss room—"
Shizuku cut him a look. "We will capitalize after our healer finishes keeping us all alive."
"I'm fine," Kouki said reflexively.
"You're bleeding," she said, pointing at his arm.
He glanced down at the thin red line he'd honestly forgotten. "It's small."
Kaori didn't look up from Reichi's leg. "If you keep insisting you're fine, I'm going to start healing the floor instead."
Kouki made a face and, grudgingly, sat. The instant he did, the exhaustion he'd been refusing to feel poured into him like someone had opened a valve. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Sorry. I just… I don't want to lose momentum."
Eri had found a relatively clean bit of wall and was picking grit from her sleeve with meticulous little movements, watching the cave as if it was going to eat her. "Momentum is important," she said lightly. "But running into a boss fight with half our stamina is a sure way to become a floor decoration."
Daisuke nodded emphatically. "Zero out of ten. Do not recommend being a decoration."
Shizuku's mouth quirked. "Are you speaking from experience?"
"I tripped a statue two floors up and it tried to make me a matching set," he said solemnly. "We don't talk about it."
Kaori finished with Reichi and scooted to Kouki, touching the cut on his arm. Her magic seeped into him in a gentle warmth, and some of the tension in Kouki's shoulders eased despite himself.
"Thank you," he said, voice low.
She nodded, eyes already moving to Ryutarou's knuckles. "You too."
Ryutarou grunted and offered the hand without complaint. Up close, Shizuku could see the tiny tremor in his fingers he was hiding from the others. He'd been bracing the rear the whole descent—feeling, more than hearing, when the stone hummed wrong, when the air tasted off, when something hunted from behind. The weight of being the wall everyone else leaned on settled in his chest. He didn't mind it. He just wished the wall could have a nap.
"So," Daisuke said, now that he had water and the immediate threat of dying had dropped from screaming to muttering, "is the boss door going to, like, congratulate us for speedrunning, or…?"
"It's going to do the opposite," Shizuku said. She rocked her head back against the pillar. "Let's talk about our plan."
Kouki sat up straighter, grateful to pivot into motion of a different kind. "Right. We open, I take point with Holy Blade. Ryutarou anchors the front with me. Shizuku on the flanks. Kaori hangs back—"
"Shields before swords," Kaori said, not looking up. "We lead with information. Endo's not here to scout—"
"—so we have to be our own Endo," Shizuku finished. "We approach the cave, and not cross the threshold until we know what we're walking into. We test the floor, the ceiling, and the air."
"Air?" Daisuke repeated, alarmed.
"The boss might have a miasma or release a heat wave," Shizuku said. "We have antidotes and a few spare talismans. Not enough to waste. Conserve mana potions—Kaori is down to three."
Kaori's jaw tightened, but she didn't disagree.
Eri tilted her head. "What about timing? If there's a phase change at, say, half health, we'll want burst in our pocket. Kouki, can you hold your finishers until we force it?"
He hesitated. "I… yes. If I know when."
"I'll watch for it," Ryutarou said. "It'll show. It always does."
Kouki exhaled hard, knee bouncing. "The longer we wait, the more—"
"—the more we recover and the fewer stupid mistakes we make," Shizuku said gently, and then, because she knew him, added, "I know you're itching. Use it. Think. Walk me through openings you'd force if you were the boss."
That got him. Kouki's brows furrowed in thought. "If I were the boss and I saw our formation, I'd punish the backline with ranged pressure, bait Ryutarou forward with a heavy slam, then pivot to Shizuku when she counters."
Shizuku nodded, impressed. "Good. So we build answers to that. Ryutarou, don't overcommit on the first big swing. I'll be ready to peel if it feints. Kouki—"
"—hold a guard for the follow-up, not the opener," he said.
"Exactly."
Kaori finished binding Ryutarou's knuckles with a quick wrap. "Daisuke, you're staying glued to me. If the room turns into a blender, we move left. Always left. Do not get heroic."
"I am proudly anti-heroic," Daisuke said. "Hero-adjacent at best."
Eri smirked, then let her eyes slide back to the entrance. "Time is on the boss's side," she said. "Not ours."
"Point taken," Shizuku said smoothly, reclaiming the tempo. "We're not camping. Kaori, call it when you're confident in basic function, not full. We go in with what we have in five."
Kaori nodded. "I'm almost—"
Boom.
It rolled through the stone like thunder trying to escape a throat. Dust sifted from the ceiling in a soft gray curtain. Everyone froze. Ryutarou had his shield up before he understood why; Kouki's hand found the sword-hilt without thinking.
"Was that… the boss?" Daisuke whispered.
Another boom. Closer. Not like a trap springing. Not like a monster's distant roar. This was a sound with shoulders. A sound that didn't care there were walls in its way.
Shizuku was already up, movements clean despite the fatigue. "Positions," she said, voice steady. "Back from the centerline. Ryutarou—"
"On it."
The third impact wasn't a boom. It was a crack, a tearing groan as stone split somewhere down the corridor they'd just used, then a violent crunch like a giant fist closing around masonry and deciding it was in the way.
Kaori's heart climbed into her throat. "It's coming this way."
"Do we run?" Daisuke asked, voice pitching high.
"No," Shizuku said, even though the animal part of her screamed yes. "If we run blind, we die tired. Anchor. Eyes up."
Eri's smile thinned, a quick, private line. "How… inelegant," she murmured, as the fourth impact sent a shiver through the floor that rattled teeth.
The corridor behind them belched dust and darkness. Something slammed the far wall hard enough to craze it into a spiderweb of cracks—no subtle stalker, no careful hunter, just a thing that didn't care about their plan or their pretty formation. Through the dying haze a broad-shouldered silhouette stepped, hulking and heedless, the ruin of a collapsed arch dragging behind it like a cloak. It looked up. And kept coming.
There were two options left for them: left led toward the boss room, whereas the right led into the tunnels where the demon's presence pressed on the air like a storm. The stone under their boots picked up a rhythm—BOOM… rrraaAAA…—each tremor syncing with the silhouette's advancing steps, dust sifting from the ceiling as the wall's cracks spread. With every footfall, the choice tightened: left or right, now.
Ryutarou rolled his shoulders, pasted on a grin bigger than his courage, and bumped Kouki's arm with his elbow. "Alright. I'm gonna solo the boss."
"What?" Shizuku shot to her feet so fast her scabbard clacked. "No. We're not doing dumb hero moves."
Kaori had already moved to the mouth of the fork, palms up, feeling the cross-breeze of both corridors. "If we split, I can anchor here," she said quickly, eyes flicking left, then right. "From this spot I can throw healing both ways. It's not perfect, but—"
"Exactly." Ryutarou thumped his gauntlet on his chest and pitched his voice calm. "Look, we do not know how many monsters that demon has leashed, or how fast she can flood this tunnel. If I go alone and punch the boss down, maybe I open an escape—teleporter, stairs, whatever this stupid place hides. Plan B." He pointed his thumb at his chest, grin tilting crooked. "I can stall. I can take hits. I don't need babysitting."
Shizuku's brows knit. She looked ready to fight him instead of the boss. "We don't split on bosses. That's basic."
Another BOOM, closer. Dust sifted down. Daisuke's voice came from somewhere behind Kaori's shoulder. "Basic is getting eaten if we stand here arguing."
Eri, who had been watching everyone with that small unreadable smile, nodded once. "He's not wrong. If her numbers are unknown, committing our full strength to a single point is risky. We need a contingency."
Kouki bristled. "Then I'll go with him. We clear fast and return."
Ryutarou shook his head, serious now. "No. You're our ace for her. We cannot afford to lose the strongest fighter to Plan B. I'm perfect for this—I'm strong, but not the strongest. If I get stuck, Kaori can still reach me from here, and you won't cripple our main fight."
Kouki flinched at "not the strongest," ready to argue on principle, but the logic got past his pride and sat heavy on his shoulders.
Kaori stepped to Ryutarou and tied a small charm at his wrist, fingers quick but shaking. "Blessing and regen," she murmured, and golden warmth soaked into his skin. "And a tether—if you're within fifty meters, I'll feel you. If you're farther… I'll still try."
He gave her a crooked smile. "You always overdeliver."
Shizuku exhaled, then closed the distance until the tip of her scabbard tapped his boot. "Ground rules," she said, voice even. "You do not 'solo' to be cool. You crack the room, look for an exit or switch, and you come back. Five minutes. If you're not back, we assume you found something and we act without you. I am not chasing you into a blender with that demon at our backs."
"Copy," he said. "Crack, switch, bail. No glory laps."
Eri lifted a hand. "One more thing." She drew a neat symbol in the air; a thin, sweet smell snapped like a broken sugar stick. "Scent-masking. It won't hide you from the boss, but it will confuse the lesser things sniffing in your wake."
Ryutarou wrinkled his nose. "It smells like candy."
"So monsters will think you're deliciously inedible," Eri said dryly. "Go."
Kouki grabbed Ryutarou's forearm. For a heartbeat the bravado dropped from both boys—just them, scraped and scared and stubborn. "Don't do anything stupid."
Ryutarou squeezed back. "Define stupid."
"Dying," Kouki said.
"Then I'll pass." Ryutarou bumped his shoulder against Shizuku's. "Keep him pointed at the right idiot."
"I always do," she said, eyes softer than her tone.
Daisuke sidled up, thrusting a dented canteen into Ryutarou's free hand. "For the road. Don't drink it all; it's mostly backwash."
"You're a menace," Ryutarou said, tucking it into his belt anyway.
Another impact rattled the fork. rrRAAA— The roar rolled like a wave around a cliff. Kaori set her stance at the crossroads, palms lighting, face set. "Positions! If the monster pack turns the corner, I'm dropping a barrier wall. Kouki, you take point. Shizuku, peel on his right. Daisuke, you do not leave this line unless I physically throw you."
"Copy," Daisuke squeaked.
Kouki tore his gaze from Ryutarou to the right-hand tunnel and drew his holy sword; light cascaded along the blade like water. "We'll hold here."
Ryutarou faced the boss door. Up close, the sigils crawled like veins under skin, pulsing slow. He planted his feet, breathed in the sugary wrongness of Eri's spell and the ozone tang of Kaori's blessing, and let the grin come back—not for show now, but to bite the fear in half.
"Hey," he said over his shoulder without looking back. "When I get back, I'm picking the biggest burrito when we're topside."
"Bold of you to assume there will be burritos," Shizuku said.
"There will be burritos," Kaori said, fierce as a prayer.
Kouki's voice came steady. "See you in five."
Ryutarou nodded and entered the boss' room.
The cave mouth groaned like a throat clearing. Cold air breathed out—dry, old. Past the stone teeth: a wide, dark chamber and the slow, patient thud of something waking up.
Behind him, the right-hand tunnel erupted—BOOM—stone chips skittering. Kaori's barrier flared, Kouki's blade sang, Shizuku's scabbard snapped free.
Ryutarou didn't look back.
"Crack, switch, bail," he whispered to himself, and plunged through the mouth into the dark.
The chamber swallowed him. Capillary-thin glowstone veined the walls, a faint pulse sliding his gaze to the center dais. There, hunched like a boulder pretending to pray, sat a stone monkey.
It moved.
Granite fingers uncurled with a dry grind, dust sifting like ash from the knuckles. A long, chipped tail dragged a groove as it levered itself upright. Pebbles rattled out of its fur—no, not fur: layered carvings of ripples and whorls, each seam lighting briefly as if breath passed beneath the stone. Obsidian eyes clicked open, catching the glow and throwing it back in two hard coins.
Ryutarou's lungs forgot how to work. He took a fighter's half-step, feet wide, hands up. The monkey cocked its head as if considering him, then planted both fists and rose the rest of the way, shoulders broad as an altar. The thud he'd heard wasn't distant at all; it was the thing's heart, hammering inside the rock.
"Uh-huh," he muttered, voice low. "You and me, then."
The statue's mouth split along a carved seam. Not a roar—more like a quarry slipping: deep, sliding, inevitable. Dust gusted across the floor. Behind, steel rang and someone shouted, but the monkey's gaze pinned him in place. It knuckled forward once, twice, each step a small earthquake, and the glowstone along the walls pulsed in time—inhale, exhale—guiding both of them toward the fight.
"Here it comes!" Ryutarou snarled, slamming his gauntlets together. Flames flared along his left fist, ice shimmering over his right. He charged forward, meeting the first spike head-on. Fire-imbued knuckles shattered the rising stone, while his ice fist punched through the next, leaving frost spreading across the fragments.
The rhythm became brutal—stone spikes lunging up in rapid succession, Ryutarou hammering them down, his fists sparking with elemental backlash. Each strike taught him something: fire melted the stone just enough to crack it, ice made it brittle and easy to shatter. He could feel himself adapting, learning the tempo of the monster's earth magic.
But the stone monkey wasn't content to let him play catch-up. With a grinding roar, it ripped a massive boulder from the cavern wall and hurled it with terrifying force.
"Shit!" Ryutarou dove aside, the rock shattering into a hail of debris where he'd just stood. The ground quaked under the impact, but he didn't waste time gawking. Instead, he sprinted low, weaving between the spikes still jutting up from the floor, every step bringing him closer to the towering beast.
The monkey raised another boulder, preparing to throw. Ryutarou gritted his teeth and shouted, "Not this time!" Fire flared around his legs as he burst forward with explosive speed, closing the gap before the monster could launch its attack. His gauntlets crackled with twin elemental power—ice and fire dancing together—ready to test his fists against the creature's stone hide directly.
The fight turned savage, the cavern echoing with every blow. The stone monkey's fists pummeled down like falling boulders, forcing Ryutarou to grit his teeth and stand his ground.
"Diamond Skin!" he roared, crossing his arms. His gauntlets and forearms hardened to stone, the defensive buff locking in just as the beast's strike landed. The impact jarred him to the bone, but the barrier held long enough for him to shove forward, sliding under the counterblow.
Kaori's voice rang out, sharp with strain. "Stay on your feet, Ryutarou!" Healing magic stitched over his battered muscles, patching wounds just fast enough to keep him upright. It was slow, grueling—like trying to refill a cup with a hole in it—but it bought him seconds, and seconds were enough.
His fists blurred in a storm. Fire crackled over his right, ice froze across his left. He struck the same spot again and again—heat swelling the stone hide until it glowed faintly, then ice cracking it brittle in the next blow. The rhythm built into a brutal chant: blaze, freeze, strike.
At last, a fracture spider-webbed across the beast's abdomen. The stone monkey shrieked, stumbling back, one hand clutching its stomach. Real damage. Ryutarou's chest heaved as a surge of hope pushed through his exhaustion.
Then—
"DAMN IT, WHY WON'T THEY DIE?!" Kouki's rage bellowed through the chamber, followed by panicked cries from the others.
"Hold the line! Don't scatter, you'll make it worse!" Shizuku's sharp voice cut through, firm but desperate.
Screams echoed after—raw fear from classmates who'd lost their nerve.
The noise sliced into Ryutarou's focus. His eyes flicked to the side, just for a heartbeat—worry, frustration, guilt all boiling together.
That single lapse was all the monkey needed.
A massive stone fist smashed into his jaw, the sucker punch blasting him off his feet. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he tumbled through the air.
"Ryutarou!" Kaori's magic flared, a glowing platform forming mid-air to catch him before jagged rocks could impale him. He slid to a stop, gasping.
"FOCUS!" Kaori shouted, voice cracking with fury. "They don't need your pity—they need you to WIN!"
Ryutarou staggered upright, vision swimming. Across the chamber, the stone monkey had retreated, its eyes gleaming with fury as it hunched protectively over its fractured stomach.
It was hurt. It was angry. And for the first time, Ryutarou saw it—the monster was afraid of him.
Ryutarou staggered, blood dripping from his mouth, body screaming with every breath. Behind him, chaos reigned—their classmates shouting, Kouki raging, Shizuku trying desperately to hold order—but none of that mattered right now.
Kaori's voice cut through it all, sharp and desperate.
"Ryutarou! Get your head on straight! Don't you dare waste this chance! Forget about them—I'm already doing what I can! Please, don't throw away the time they've bought you… because you might be the only way any of us make it out alive!"
The words slammed into him harder than the monkey's fist had. His ragged breathing steadied. He closed his eyes, shutting out the panic, the fear, the shouting. When he opened them again, all he saw was his enemy.
The towering stone monkey.
Ryutarou's lips curled into a grim smile. "Alright… no more holding back. Let's go—for keeps this time."
He let the berserker skill off its leash. Power flooded his veins, burning red as his aura flared outward, warping the air around him. Every heartbeat thudded like a war drum.
The stone monkey bellowed and slammed its hands into the ground. Stone spikes erupted in a lethal wave—Stone Edge, faster and deadlier than before.
Ryutarou's gauntlets blazed as he charged, fists glowing with fire and wind combined. "Haaaah!" He slammed his fists into the earth. Fire burned, wind exploded, the elements twisting together into a roaring blast that shattered the spikes in his path and blew the fragments aside like dust.
The monkey snarled, pounding its fists again. The ground collapsed in Ryutarou's path, leaving a yawning chasm where his charge should have ended. It thought to stop him mid-sprint, to watch him fall.
But glowing green platforms appeared under his feet, one after another—Kaori's magic, just in time.
"Go!" the healer's voice carried across the chamber.
Ryutarou didn't break stride. Each step shattered the radiant stone beneath him, leaving only sparks of light in his wake. His grin widened, eyes locked on the monster.
The last platform appeared just short of the monkey. Ryutarou didn't hesitate—he leapt, body wreathed in red aura, crossing his arms to shield himself as chunks of rock and a wild fist came screaming toward him.
He took the hit head-on, pain exploding through his ribs, but he didn't stop. Not this time.
The chamber shook with every collision.
Ryutarou roared, gauntlets flashing as he met the stone monkey head-on. Each of its blows could have flattened him, but he braced himself, channeling wind to catch the force and blunt the impact. It wasn't perfect—every strike rattled his bones and drove blood from his lips—but it kept him standing, kept the fight alive.
Fire and ice flickered back and forth between his fists. One strike scorched, the next froze, the cycle wearing down the stone armor piece by piece. It was slower than he wanted, too slow for a true berserker fight, but Ryutarou knew he couldn't just trade blows endlessly. Not with Kaori straining in the back, his mana stretched thin just to keep them both alive.
*Boom! Bam! Bang!* Every hit echoed like a drumbeat, the cavern walls trembling as fist met stone. Dust rained from the ceiling.
The stone monkey snarled and tried to back off, fury burning in its glowing eyes. But Ryutarou's aura flared, his taunt skill pulling the monster's hatred back onto him. "No running! You and me—till the end!"
The beast screeched and lunged again, throwing everything it had into crushing him. Ryutarou met it blow for blow, each strike numbing his arms, breaking through his defenses. But then—finally—his knuckles tore past the cracked armor. For the first time, he felt flesh give beneath his fists.
"Got you," he growled through bloodied teeth.
He dropped all defense, all restraint. Both fists hammered into the wound, one after the other, fire erupting in both gauntlets until they burned white-hot. The stone monkey's eyes went wide in shock, a howl of agony tearing from its throat.
Flames poured inside the cracks, igniting it from within. Steam and smoke billowed out as its own stone body became a furnace, flesh cooking under the relentless blaze.
The beast staggered, flailing, trying to crush him under wild blows. Ryutarou refused to stop. He screamed with it, fists pistoning faster and faster until the cavern shook like thunder.
With one final bellow, the stone monkey collapsed, its chest caving in as fire burst from its mouth and eyes. It hit the floor in a smoking ruin, the sound echoing like the end of a drumbeat.
Ryutarou stood over it, chest heaving, gauntlets still glowing red. His vision swam, blood dripping down his face, but his grin was feral and triumphant.
"…that's how… a berserker wins."
The stone monkey's corpse crumbled into rubble, smoke curling from the cracks as its glow faded. For a long moment, the only sound in the cavern was Ryutarou's ragged breathing.
He staggered, waiting for the familiar warmth of healing light to wash over him. A soft glow on his wounds, Kaori's steady hand always pulling him back from the brink… but nothing came.
Ryutarou frowned, swaying on his feet. "Oi… Kaori?"
Silence.
The boss chamber was still, eerily so. The oppressive aura that had weighed on them since stepping onto the floor had lifted, but no magic touched his wounds. His heart dropped.
"…shit."
Panic cut through his exhaustion. His victory was already hollow if he couldn't stand. With a grunt, he forced his legs to move, breaking into a stumbling run toward the exit. The corridor leading back to the others stretched out like a tunnel of shadows.
He reached the threshold just before the boss chamber and stopped cold.
The faint shimmer of platforms lingered in his mind—Kaori's desperate magic, each one perfectly placed to keep him running. That had been the last he'd seen of him. Of course. Kaori must've turned back after that, sprinting to the others once the platforms were stable.
Ryutarou clenched his fists, blood dripping from split knuckles. His chest tightened. While I was throwing everything at that damn monkey, he was—
The echo of panicked screams reached him again, faint but urgent. Kouki's rage, Shizuku's clipped orders, the cries of classmates on the verge of breaking.
He gritted his teeth, every instinct screaming at him to collapse, to rest. But he shoved himself forward. His fight wasn't done—not until they were all out of here.