Who in their right mind shouts, "It's not time to retreat yet," lightening the atmosphere so it doesn't feel that tense—only to turn around and give themselves a seppuku?!
Raising a hand wasn't an apology.
It was more like—does this little brother here still have to reincarnate and temper himself?
The girl couldn't make sense of it, yet she was deeply shaken inside. As a warrior from the Far East, she naturally understood the weight that "seppuku" carries within the spirit of the samurai.
A glorious death in the name of duty.
But having gone through yesterday's party exploration experience, Mikoto did not believe that Ron was committing suicide.
'Could it be—some kind of very special skill of his?'
That seemed highly likely.
Even though the young man did not hesitate to plunge the sharp sword into his abdomen, no blood flowed from the wound. Instead, strange, eerie patterns surfaced across his face.
The thrusting sword, having absorbed blood, was wreathed in a blood-red mist.
That sight made Mikoto feel a chill down her spine.
Yet as she looked at Ron's face, twisted in pain but utterly devoid of any wavering—only a resolute, unyielding gaze—the girl knew what she needed to do at this moment.
Trust.
As the Dungeon environment shifted, the surrounding walls changed. All evacuation routes had already been sealed off.
What lay before them—was only a deathmatch. Only by killing this aberration-born Floor Boss here and now would they have a chance to survive.
Mm.
If they could leave the Dungeon alive…
Mikoto felt that, no matter what, she had to correct Miss Eina's mistaken impression. Ron might be steady—but that steadiness somehow didn't seem very likely at all.
"Chigusa."
"Buy Ron some time. We'll fight the way we did during our previous explorations!"
At this moment, there was already no time to give her further explanations. After all, there were simply far too many secrets weighing on Ron, and in this impending battle of a trapped beast—they had to fight with everything they had, all the way to the final chapter!
"…Alright, Mikoto-senpai."
Even though she was trembling all over from a clear awareness of how dire the situation was, when faced with her companion's call, Chigusa still nodded seriously. She too was an all-round adventurer, but compared to Mikoto, what she excelled at most was archery.
If they worked together, it might be possible to hold their own while dealing with the "Goblin Guard."
She did not move far away from Ron. The hand that once again drew the bowstring to its full draw was incomparably steady, once again aiming at the most fragile part of the massive creature before them—the eyes.
As for the young man beside her, whose complexion was gradually losing all color, Chigusa did not urge him in the slightest. She did not know why Ron was doing this, but she knew there had to be a reason. After racking her brains, she timidly spoke up: "Mr. Ron… please—please leave the task of buying time to us!"
She did not receive a reply from Ron, but the look he cast toward her smoothed over the turmoil in the girl's heart. She asked, "Um… can we win?"
"…"
Combat Art - Seppuku
It was not a simple act of seppuku. Ron could even feel the blood within his body being drawn out continuously, as if the thrusting sword had transformed into a blood-pumping device.
Excruciating pain.
The sense of weakness brought on by blood loss gradually enveloped his body.
If not for the near-death lock effect of the magic "Heal," he would probably have had to start preparing for a restart the moment the thrusting sword pierced through him.
After all, he was about to face a Goblin Guard.
In the truest sense, a Floor Boss born from a Dungeon anomaly was something that inevitably demanded a corresponding price to be paid.
Ron felt the thrusting sword stop drawing blood. Gritting his teeth as if they were about to shatter, he pulled it out from his abdomen and, at the same time, picked up a panacea.
He bit off the wooden stopper and gulped it down.
That weakness—one that made it feel as though he could collapse at any moment—gradually faded away. Even the pain in his abdomen was effectively healed within a short span of time.
'As expected of a panacea priced at five hundred thousand…'
Ron's back, which had been bent from the pain, slowly straightened. He looked toward the thrusting sword, now shrouded in thick crimson blood aura and already fully enchanted with the 'Bleed' status.
As for Chigusa's earlier question, he pulled a grin across his pale face, his tone incomparably firm.
"We'll win!"
Bleed.
As the most authoritative abnormal status, it was the most effective means of attack against the hulking, meat-mountain-like monster before them, because this status could be stacked countless times—until it reached a critical threshold and detonated completely.
The Goblin Guard that Mikoto could not deal effective damage to—he could execute it himself, carving away with a dull blade like slicing meat!
'Feels like a huge loss.'
'If I'd known, I should've enchanted both short swords at the same time. Since I was going to perform seppuku anyway, if I cut for both weapons at once, wouldn't that maximize the combat art's effect?'
He still hadn't thought things through thoroughly.
But that did not hinder Ron from launching a deathmatch challenge against the Floor Boss in his peak condition!
He lowered his center of gravity, bending slightly as he gathered all his strength into his legs. With no burden from additional equipment, and with the comprehensive boost brought by his ability values, the speed that ultimately erupted allowed him to complete an instant dash toward the monster.
Chigusa's first two shots both struck the Goblin Guard squarely in the eyes. While completely restricting its movements, they also coincided with Mikoto's pulling and control.
The monster was like a headless fly, spinning around in place in chaos.
And taking advantage of this opportunity, Ron—gripping the thrusting sword and short sword in a reverse-handed hold—was able to attack the massive creature before him in the most optimal posture for exerting force.
Pff!
Compared to Mikoto's slashes, every time he raised his hand to swing his blade, it was accompanied by a spray of crimson blood.
This solid, unmistakable pain made the Goblin Guard let out a blast-like scream of agony. Finally feeling the pain in earnest, it decisively swung its fists in wide arcs, lashing out with all its might toward the invisible, irritating mosquito in front of it.
"Too slow!"
Upon truly entering a Boss battle, Ron was not panicked as he had imagined. Instead, under the surge of skyrocketing adrenaline, he maintained absolute focus.
The Goblin Guard's already massive body—even when its fists cut through the air with booming sounds, the speed still looked slow to him.
Using the momentum of his swing, as he once again drove the thrusting sword into the monster's abdomen, he relied on the backward force to deftly evade the Goblin Guard's counterattack.
There was no emotion in his calm gaze—only the existence of the massive monster before him.
Then...
It was still the same old trick in a new bottle.
Relying on his high mobility, Ron continuously circled around the monster, leaving dense, countless wounds across its body through repeated sword swings.
Blood kept flowing out.
And even—the amount of bleeding itself was steadily accumulating.
Until Ron, seemingly tireless, leapt high into the air once more. This time, however, he gripped the thrusting sword with both hands and drove it straight into the Goblin Guard's chest.
Borrowing both his body weight and the sharpness of the blade, as he descended toward the ground, he directly carried out a disemboweling strike, splitting open the massive monster's belly!
"Blow the hell up!!"
The thrusting sword imbued with the 'Bleed' abnormal attribute, after countless accumulations by Ron, finally broke through the critical threshold that the monster's body could endure.
Explosion!
A violent explosion was triggered in an instant.
The Goblin Guard—with its dark green skin and body bloated like a mound of flesh—erupted like a fountain, blood gushing wildly from its wounds as if a dam had burst.
But this did not finish the monster off.
When the Goblin Guard swung its massive fists toward Ron, he abandoned the thrusting sword and used the short sword to stab straight into the monster's chest—into its heart.
Immediately after—a crushing force, as if it were about to pulverize all internal organs, came surging in.
Ron's consciousness grew hazy. He could only feel the scene before his eyes rapidly receding. Yet the short sword that had thoroughly churned the Goblin Guard's heart to pieces—stood as the symbol of the battle's end.
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