Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai

A Glimpse of Her True Ability

「In, incredible……」

What I reflexively leaked out was a voice of admiration.

I was surprised by Bernadette’s fighting figure that looked like she was dancing.

Bernadette had jumped up, and landed right in the center of the group of Salamanders.

Bernadette had personally gotten herself surrounded by the Salamanders whose size was about that of a large breed of dog, but in the next instant, the heads of two of the Salamanders were blown off.

Shooting their head and ending their lives, she kicked up the collapsed Salamanders and made them shields against the flames that were released from the left and right.

The moment that the Salamanders that she made into shields fell to the ground, she turned both her arms to the left and right, and shot down two more Salamanders with Maryoku bullets.

*Gou!!* (Roaring sound!!)

Flames assailed Bernadette. But, Bernadette had lowered her posture and avoided it, and as she evaded, she shot down the Salamander that released those flames.

「……Phew!」

Getting a shot in to a Salamander that showed its fangs and tried to eat her, she evaded with a twirl as if she were dancing an attack of a Salamander that raised its arm overhead and tried to tear her to pieces with its sharp claws and then shot it in the head and brought it down. A total of seven Salamanders turned into corpses in an instant.

After that, it was completely one-sided. While spreading out both arms and turning her body, she pulled the triggers and made a clean sweep of the remaining Salamanders.

Bernadette, who had finished shooting her guns, didn’t have a single breath out of order.

「Phew……With this, it’s done.」

Putting her Magic Guns inside of her slit, Bernadette turned her head and looked at us.

「Kuon-sa~n! Are there any more~?」

「……As far as I can tell, there aren’t any.」

Ah~, ……After seeing Bernadette’s true ability, Kuon was smiling, looking extremely happy.

Come to think of it, at the time Bernadette and Kuon fought, neither of them were using the weapons that they originally specialized in.

「Hey, hey, Sister-onee-chan. ……Could you have a quick rematch with me?」

Wanting her to pardon us from that as you’d expect, when I was about to stop Kuon by saying “Right here!?”, Bernadette made a giggling voice.

「If it’s after we conquer this dungeon, we can have as many as you like.」

In my negligence, I felt my heart skip a beat from seeing Bernadette who had winked an eye and smiled.

◇

Having broken through the 19th floor, the nest of Salamanders, in front of us, something identical to the large door we saw on the tenth floor appeared.

For the time being, I guess we can call it the door to the boss room.

「Oi, Fiona, what’s the boss this time?」

When I asked that question to the Fiona that kept silent about the Salamanders, she breathed a sigh and opened up the book.

「It should be a Golem.」

「Should?」

「The gatekeepers that appear every ten floors were all Golems of each attribute……However, now that that monstrosity had appeared, I cannot deny the possibility that another monstrosity will come out on this floor as well.」

True, there is the possibility that a monster of the Beholder class might appear again.

Rather, if it’s that vampire that loves to see our reactions to the things that she does, it’s guaranteed that she’ll do it.

「I would really like for it ta be a Golem.」

Angelica said that while opening up the top of her breast and lifting up the collar with her hand. Fumu, so her bra is black.

「A Golem is also formidable enemy among formidable enemies, isn’t it?」

Certainly, in terms of the level of dangerousness, a Golem would be lower, but seeing as how we are the ones that are going to fight it, it shouldn’t really matter to Angelica’s group.

「A Golem’s core is a Magic Stone. The idea is that the stronger the Golem, the higher the purity of the Magic Stone we obtain is.」

「Now I get it……The fact that this labyrinth is a Magic Stone mine might also be the reason why the bosses of this place are only Golems.」

While hoping that the boss is a Golem, I placed my hand on the door, and slowly push it.

The door made a *Gogogogogo* (heavy creaking) sound, and slowly began to open.

When it did, a heat that overcame the Cooling Magic had come flooding out from the gap of the door.

「っ……, Fiona.」

「Yes, yes. ……『cool』」

Feeling that it would be no good with only Bernadette’s Cooling Magic, when I look over to Fiona, Fiona breathed a sigh and invoked some magic.

With the synergism of Bernadette and Fiona’s Cooling Magic, the heat was completely obstructed.

「Yotto……Uwah, it sure is amazing.」

What we saw after opening the door was magma spouting up, and a high stone ceiling.

Maybe because the magma held a much higher temperature than the other floors, this room was brighter than the outside.

「It’s like the crater of a volcano……」

I nodded at what Kuon had muttered quietly.

There was a path, but there was no way of telling when the magma would overflow.

「Now then, what will happen next……」[1]

As an environment to fight it, it was the worst.

If a monster like the Beholder were to come out here, it would be devastating.

When we continued on while hoping that it was a Golem, Kuon stepped forward.

「Yashiro-aniki, be careful. ……It’s already here.」

The center of the room was a spot that looked like a crater, but in the range that we could see, we didn’t any signs of monsters.

「Its location?」

「Below……No, at the bottom of the magma, I suppose.」

Learning from the vigilant Kuon whose fox ears stood up with a *pin*, I also gripped the handle of my Magic Sword and prepared myself so as to be ready to fight at any moment.

「Of the magma? ……Then that would mean, it looks like it isn’t a Golem.」

Preparing her Magic Guns with a *jyaki*, Bernadette muttered.

A Crag Sentry Golem.

Having enough of a degree of familiarity that you could even say that it’s already a standard in labyrinths, it’s a monster that seldom appears in even low grade labyrinths.

Its weapon was its body itself. Its rock fist that was about the size of a single person was a threat just by swinging it down.

But for those Golems, their weakness was surprisingly flames, and high temperature flames at that.

No matter how hard and solid a body it possessed, in was rock in the end. In a temperature that surpassed a thousand degrees, its body would melt. (Although there was the rare Golem made of iron, its weakness was also flames.)

When thinking of that, what was inside of the magma wasn’t a Golem, but an opponent that could even nullify the high temperatures of magma……

Arriving to that conclusion should have only been natural. ……However,

「……Even if the Golem is a Golem, it looks like we’ve drawn something outrageous. ……Really, each and every time, thanks to Yuu’s bad luck……」

While making the ground slightly shake with a *Zuzun……*, what appeared from inside the magma was a giant build that had a height of twenty meters.

Its body red hot from the magma’s temperature, it was a colossal Golem.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] This was originally a proverb that literally went “will an oni come out or will a snake come out”. Original: 鬼が出るか蛇が出るか