CH 180.1

Chapter 180.1: Reunion with Bosom Friend

A tall and slender man in the prime of his life with pale skin. He was wearing a jet-black mantle, though his figure had the grace of a noble, his face looked like that of a man-eating demon with a row of sharp fangs… and it wasn’t figuratively speaking, it was literal, I mean, we’re talking about Count Dracula after all.

「Haah… Haah… We somehow managed to beat this guy…」

That Dracula had finally vanished into ashes after I hit him with my 『Cross Calibur』, it was as if the pale blue light of my finishing strike had purified it.

It was such a long fight, but we finally managed to beat the boss of the underworld. Complete capture.

「Nii-san!!」

「Yeah, I did it, Sakura, I defeated the boss by myse―― woah, don’t jump at me so suddenly like that.」

Sakura rushed forward the moment I beat the boss and embraced me who was sitting on the spot due to exhaustion. I barely managed to catch her, but her tackle felt stronger than usual since I was really exhausted.

「But… Challenging a boss by yourself is way too reckless…」

「My bad. But I’ve to do this to become even stronger.」

Thus, I fought Dracula, the boss of the underworld by myself.

Dracula was much more powerful than the four-armed gogma, this was something that I realized as I clashed with him for the first time.

First, he had physical abilities rivaling that of mine, a 『Hero』. We’re equal in terms of speed and power. And he was also equipped with a sword, his swordcraft mastery rivaling that of an expert, it was sharp and swift.

Dracula was using a thin, lightweight saber, but the weight behind his swing betrayed the fragile-looking weapon in his hand. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the saber itself was an enchanted weapon.

A blood-like crimson aura that swirled like a whirlpool around the sword’s blade could be fired as a long-range attack like a red wind blade. And that wasn’t the only use of it, it could also extend into something like a whip to mow down a large area at random, which to be honest, looked really cool and scary.

His other abilities were something like unleashing a large number of black spears from his shadow or summoning countless bat-like creatures from his fluttering cape… Both of those were troublesome skills and yet, it was worsened by the fact that Dracula could use a variety of spells and other skills which made him the most difficult boss so far.

That’s why defeating him would become proof of my strength.

Learned skill:

『Riot Blazer(Unpararreled Sword Dance)』： Greatly increased the swiftness of consecutive slashes.  Consecutive slashes resemble that of a dance that could create mountains of corpses.

『Grand Walker(Long Distance Galloping)』： Greatly increased movement speed. Allowing the user to run through 1000 li(around 500 km), even on a trackless road.

『Ground Shrink』：High-rank skill of Souma-style martial arts. The way it is used for closing in the distance without being noticed gives an illusion as if the ground itself has shrunk.

『Blue Merit Wave』：Unleashing more powerful light attribute which was created by mixing the Hero’s life force with a high-density magical power aura.

Acquired skill:

『Blade of Holy Blood』：Granting the sword’s blade with powerful purification ability by applying a drop of blood of holy lineage to the sword’s blade.

『Multiple Chains Summoning Formation』：Summoning formation that specialized in summoning a lesser spirit. It’s possible to summon numerous lesser spirits by deploying many summoning formations at once.

『White Shadow Spear』：Materialized light attribute in the form of a white spear. It is possible to take it out from any place that emits light on the user’s body.

I felt that I had gained a whole lot of experience and become more powerful after I defeated a powerful boss but… The most terrifying part about 『Hero』 was their ability to learn even the power and skills of their opponent.

Whenever I learned or acquired a new skill, the voice in my head separated them into those two groups.

It seemed that a learned skill was the type of skill that I learned after accumulating combat experience, while an acquired skill was the type that I gained by mimicking my opponent’s skill.

That’s why learned skill was something that I had developed during the combat, many of those were using Souma-style’s skills as their base.

Acquired skill, on the other hand, was, yup, whether the effect of the spell or the skill, it resembled the one used by Dracula. Naturally, there was no way a 『Hero』 would use something like a sword of fresh blood or dark magic. It just reproduced the skills’ effect by using light attribute.

Though the effect of the new skills was easy to understand… This was far from enough.

「Congratulation for soloing the boss, Yuuto-kun.」

「Thank you for going along with my selfishness, Class Rep.」

「Seeing your battle, I almost can’t stop myself from barging in many times over. Yeah, bosses aren’t supposed to be fought alone, Yuuto-kun.」

「It’ll be okay. I’ll beat the next one too.」

「There’s no doubt that you might be able to beat the next one too but… Can you please at least consider our feelings when we can only watch you fight from afar?」

「Ugh!」

I really couldn’t refute when she said that. And that feeling was enhanced since Sakura refused to let go of me.

「My bad… I guess you’re right about it.」

After a fierce battle against Dracula, my feelings and that of the others had finally cooled down.

In the end, I was in hurry. I had never completely recovered after I lost Reina. Maybe, I tried to escape from reality by fighting the enemy before me by myself.

「I think you should hear Sakura’s opinion, but let me tell you again, we’re your comrades. You should rely on us sometimes.」

「It’s not like I don’t believe you but… I might be scared of losing someone more than this.」

「That goes for us as well. No one here wants to see anyone else die, that’s why we’ve to fight together.」

「You’re right, sorry about that. This will be the last time I do something like this.」

「Uhm, that’s enough. We also felt traumatized when we saw Ayase die. That’s why we feel the same fear whenever we see Yuuto-kun fight the boss… by yourself.」

They’re right, I wasn’t the only one who felt the shock of Reina’s death. That was only natural, I mean, Sakura aside, there was no way that Class Rep wouldn’t feel anything upon seeing Reina’s tragic death.

Only now did I realize just how willful I had become after that incident. I really am stupid.

「Well then, let’s work together to capture the next stage.」

「That’s right, Souma. We won’t fall behind next time, 」

「I’ll do my best too, Souma-kun!」

「Kotori will do her best too!」

Asuna, Natsukawa-san, and Kotori-san’s encouragement gave me strength. Thank you for putting your trust in an idiot like me.

「Yosh, let’s go. We’re going to the next stage, and everyone gathers around me.」

And then, with the core that was left behind by Dracula who turned into ashes as he died, everyone gathered at the center of the room, the location of the transfer circle.

It was a beautiful, shiny red crystal that looked like a garnet that fit the size of my hand. It might be an extremely pure crystal due to its high mana density, or something along that way.

Dracula’s core shone even brighter as the transfer circle started to shine――

「… uhm.」

The next time I opened my eyes, we arrived at a familiar fountain surrounded by trees. The transfer was a success.

Though I’d gotten used to the sensation of transfer, I couldn’t help but be surprised every time it happened.

「――Yuuto, eh.」

「R— Ryuuichi!」

Standing in front of me was the figure of my best friend with the usual sour look on his face.

===

After that, we spent almost two hours filling each other in about what had happened so far to both of us.

「A~h, so tired…」

「Come to think of it, the Class Rep has finally met Ryuuichi.」

I might’ve said it was a reunion, but the one who shoved me away and jumped first into Ryuuichi’s embrace was the Class Rep.

Well, I guess that was natural. She might think that she had hidden it cleverly, but it was an open secret to everyone that Class Tep loved Ryuuichi. So, it was only natural for her to shove everything aside the moment they were reunited.