{A/N: As promised, a bonus chapter of the battle Hagime had against the demons in the Great Orcus Labyrinth}
As the heroes were in disarray with the fact that someone from the Demon race could appear in the labyrinth without using the entrance, Koari reached out to the person she knows can save her and everyone.
"I am Cattleya B--"
"We don't need your name demoness, leave here at once"
"Now that's rude, Hero" said Cattleya in a low tone showing her displeasure, but immediately calms herself and tells the heroes her 'reason' for being in the labyrinth.
But Kouki being the Hero that he is immediately rejects the offer to join hands with vile demons with strong conviction in his abilities. At which Shizuku and Nagayama shook their heads at the plain stupidity of their classmate.
'We could have feign surrender and strike or escape when their guards are down... it's too late now' thought Shizuku as she holds her weapon in a close sword stance.
"Thats a shame (not really). Let this floor be your final destination "
Without any more useless words Cattleya and the demon behind the heroes signal the beasts under their control to attack the Hero party. What the overconfident Hero didn't know was, the beasts that were charging towards them were only magical beasts as well as weak demonic ones that haven't developed their Special magics yet.
{A/N: I will be using both demonic and magical beasts alot in different instances, since the beasts the Demons control aren't only demonic. And to make things easier, I will be calling beasts that have developed demonstones but not obtained Special magics, Demonic beasts and those that have obtained them, Monsters. Theoretically, for a demonic beast to gain Special magic their magic capacity should past a certain threshold }
Before the eventual clash, the Hero party split their vanguard and magicians to fight on two fronts. Kouki, Sakagami Ryuutarou and a few fighters facing the beasts from Cattleya's direction, while the Magicians and Healers provided perfectly timed support for both fronts.
The vanguards within this formation line up in two or three layers and switch whenever the ones in front gets tired. Every switch happens after the Magicians behind the vanguard layers launch their powerful attacks to buy time and also reduce opposition numbers.
This was a battle formation taught by the knights to be used in bad situations like this and also protect the support division that boosts their survival chances. But they soon notice that they fighting more beasts than they initially estimated and they began to feel overwhelmed.
"They're holding up really well. You must be pretty proud huh... Captain"
At the end of Cattleya's sarcastic sentence, multiple humanoid bull faced demonic beasts came out of the shadows with the leading one– an unarmed muscled humanoid monster– holding someone they recognize very much.
""MELD!!""
This tiny reveal weakened the concentration of the heroes and soon their formation started to crumble, starting with the Hero.
"Unhand him, you vile demoness"
"Kouki, Don't!!" exclaims Shizuku who turns to see Kouki –the formation pillar– breaking the formation.
Kouki rushes out of the formation without a second thought and with his sword high like a real stupid hero. With a victorious smile Cattleya commands the beasts to 'stop' him with 'full' force.
After dodging, blocking and slashing his way forward, Kouki finds himself trapped among magical beasts, the appearance of a wildcat with four tails. With their tails piercing forth from all sides, Kouki jumps to evade and with the help of gravity smashed the ground with his sword which created an opening with the dust and rock explosion; he uses a flashy move to bisect them into chunks of meat.
Cattleya laughs at the actions of the 'Hero' whose stupidity of using such a flashy move while on a charge disoriented his momentum and balance which she exploits without care.
A bull faced demonic beast instantly appears by his side as Kouki was trying to find balance and punches him into the wall.
"Aaargh!". CRUSHH!!
Luckily only two ribs were broken with the save of his sword but the blow his head took from the wall made him see stars for a while.
"Kouki...!!"
"Hm? Dead people shouldn't talk, Captain" said Cattleya In a disdainful tone before addressing Kouki;
"You actually fell for it, not that I'm surprised. Someone who knows nothing about battle would is always easy bait"
"Kuh!... I'm sorry kids, you shouldn't be fighting our battles for us... I've always regretted doing what I did..."
Meld spoke in a hoarse and painful tone but for some reason everyone in the midst of battle heard him and could feel his sincerity. Soon his body started to glow in a dreadful light as he started turning red with his blood vessels showing in a dangerous way.
"Come with me demon!!"
With a loud shout the humanoid monster who held on to him was blown away by the sheer energy he was emitting. He then rushed towards Cattleya with such vigor that the heroes were clueless of his objective but they weren't given the chance to brainstorm when they were missing their powerhouse against the beasts.
"Im not going anywhere... Devour it! Abund!"
A monster that looked like an overgrown alligator snapping turtle appeared out of nowhere and with the opening of its mouth , the glow around Meld began to die down.
"Impossible... there shouldn't be anything that can devour and absorb inner mana"
"He's a special monster... but you really surprised me, using [Reverse Mana Flow] to ignite yourself to explode was a really sinister move" praised Cattleya as she thrusted her hand and start chanting a spell.
With his plan foiled as well as having all his inner mana devoured, Meld's only option was to cross his arms to defend his heart and head but the joke's on him when Cattleya redirects the spell and creates a hole in Meld's belly.
"Kuhk...!".
"You'll pay!! You evil beast
[Limit Break]! "
"Hm? T-this... this menacing and suffocating pressure!... Achtod!! Get up kill him!!!"
The humanoid monster Meld blew away rushes towards Kouki and throws a fist that will kill him if it lands but Kouki pivets to his right and lands a blow on Achtod's guts, sending it flying into the wall.
Back amongst the heroes fighting for their lives was Koari who appeared busy chanting healing spells for her injured mates. After her chants, Koari in an anxious tone telepathically communes with Hagime who just observes the whole battle.
A few meters away from the heroes, Kouki stretched his right hand and his sword flies into his grapps and without following through on his attack on Achtod, Kouki resumes his charge and Cattleya could feel this time was different.
"Go!! All of you keep kill him"
In front of a powerful force no scheming is needed, Cattleya orders all humanoid demonic beasts, magical beasts and Abund in her side to stop the Hero.
But like a force of nature, Kouki moves forward unhindered as every single swing of his sword cuts even Abund's hard shell like butter not to mention other weak beasts. With triple his previous stats, Kouki swings at Cattleya but misses her when the other demon takes the blow to his back.
"Kukh!... run lady Cattleya, please. Mikhail-sama will be broken if you died here"
"Fool, what about your wife back home... hm?"
Cattleya raised her head to see Kouki holding his sword with shaking hands and an unfocused eyes.
"Mm?... you didn't see us as people, did you?"
"I-i didn't know... I'm s-sorry "
"You only thought of us as beasts eh... you're dangerous, 'Hero'. You need to die, kill them all"
"No!!"
Kouki turns to see Achtod attempting to kill the Magic squad after breaking through the vanguard layers. He forsakes his current goal and faster than sound speeds cuts the arm of Achtod whose fist approached Eri Nakamura and the others in the Support division. After killing the beasts in his immediate surroundings, he collapses with the time limit of the skill [Limit Break] coming to a stop.
A white flying monster appears and heals Achtod's arm. The beasts then surround the heroes to finish the job.
"HOLY SANCTORUM!!"
Koari then uses her most powerful AOE healing spell to heal all her allies including Meld who is amongst them thanks to Kouki's 'distraction', allowing Nagayama to fetch him. Even though he was still bleeding out, it had decreased from before.
"...I didn't expect a healer who can recite the [Ten Holy Ariae] to amongst the heroes even though it kinda makes sense... kill her first "
A bull faced demonic beast tries to kill Koari who kept concentrating on her spell, fully trusting her boyfriend.
DOPAWW!! DOPAWW!! DOPAWW!! DOPAWW!!
Hagime reveals himself with multiple gun shots, killing twelve magical beasts along with some concealed ones blocking the rear of the Hero party.
"Who's that?"
....