3 bar menu

Volume 1 Chapter 19-1: Sakura

Maybe it was because the Floor Boss didn’t feel any urgency, but it didn’t change its leisurely movements despite my actions. It may have been intentional or because of bodily limitations, but I was thankful nonetheless.

Because of that, I was able to reach Frey before it did.

「What the hell are you doing!? Run away!」
「AH? HIII! ….Nooo….」

F***!

After seeing the deranged and pathetic Frey who had even become incontinent out of fear, I seriously considered changing my perception of her into an evil person and abandoning her here, but I felt like a vision of Sistina’s face looking angry flashed through my mind so I gave up on that.

「DO AS I SAY! If you move like I say then I won’t kill you. I promise!」
「Hi! Eh?…y-you won’t?」
「That’s right! MOVE! Gimme back my pouch! Then run back through the passage with your life on the line!」
「Ah ah OKAY!」

After hearing I wouldn’t kill her she seemed to regain a small measure of her mind back as she placed the pouch on the ground with shaking hands and crawled away. It looked like it’d take a short while for her to regain use of her legs.

I wouldn’t look after her further than this. I returned the pouch to my hip and stared at the Floor Boss moving closer. The reason I had her return the pouch first was because I remembered how Bakuu was able to explode the magic stones and buy time to escape. This pouch had a large Fire Stone inside it…if things went poorly then I could use it.

Still…things aren’t lookin’ great. Do things like this really just hang around the upper floors? I really can’t believe that normal people can face these creatures.

Anyways, I didn’t have to defeat this thing. I just had to be careful and distract it before escaping.

『Sakura! How’s it going behind us?』
『……….』

Still halfway huh? Sakura also had presence detection so I was able to use it to some extent, however to get a more accurate answer it was far better to simply ask her. Sakura responded that she was still only halfway seeming dissatisfied.

In the meantime the Floor Boss was already before my eyes. It was still around three steps away from normal attacking range, but if it utilized its scythe arms then I was definitely in range.

As if to prove that, the Boss pulled back its right scythe in a large swinging motion. Shit! That’s so scary! I’m gonna die!

『…!』

I froze up for an instant. At that very moment Sakura urgently projected 『DUCK!』 and my body instinctively obeyed. Instantly a green flash flew over my head like a whirlwind.

「WOAH!」

If that wasn’t enough, the wind from that sweeping attack sent me rolling across the ground. I made sure not to release my weapons and tried to get up when 『….!』 Sakura warned me again.

I panicked and jumped backwards only to see a green wall appear where I had been. It had tried to trample me. Damn! Don’t think I’ll just sit back and take this!

「Take this!」

I put all my strength into my right arm and swung my bastard sword at the Boss’s leg.

CLANG!

A heavy sound rang out, but the leg was unharmed. I had only managed to break one of the scales on the leg. I could see that this sword didn’t have enough cutting power. It had basically become a blunt weapon.

Thankfully the creature’s movements were slow enough that I could swing Sakura around to make my follow up attack.

GUGIYYAAA!

As expected, Sakura had a far better cutting edge and a wound was cut into the monster’s leg as muddy red blood sprayed out. I can cut it. I can cut it, but because Sakura is too short I can’t deal heavy wounds…even if I deal many injuries none of them would be decisive.

『….!!』

Crap! I had slowed for a moment as I thought, but the Boss had lifted its left scythe for an attack so I had to desperately leap and roll forward. I regained my footing as quickly as I could.

「That’s….it might work!」

I happened to roll diagonally behind the Boss. There was open space in front of me, and beyond that I saw the stairs leading to the second floor. Frey should also have reached the exit passage as well.

According to all the information, once you passed the stairway you would be on the outer wall of the next floor. So if I managed to climb the stairs I could then simply jump out of the window on the second floor and escape. Once they found Frey they would know that I had gone up to the second floor and they could escape as well.

I felt that this was a great idea that could solve all my troubles at once. The issue was whether I could reach the stairway before the Boss. Up until now it had moved slowly, but taking into consideration my speed and how large it was, we would be roughly the same speed. The difference was, that the Boss would have to turn around to chase me.

If I didn’t trip or mess up, then I could definitely climb the steps before the boss reached me.

Before I had even finished considering I was already dashing ahead. If this plan failed then it was likely my future was done for.

If I headed towards the center of the room and failed, then that meant I would have no nearby path of retreat other than the stairs.

Why did I come to another world just to run for my life? I suppressed these grumbles as I sprinted. The Floor Boss hadn’t gotten any closer. It seemed to be debating whether to chase me or not, but I couldn’t be more grateful.