"Kyuuuuuu!" A cute but spirited battle cry echoed through the halls of the
Great Orcus Labyrinth as Inaba the Kickmaster Rabbit dashed through the air.
His bulging hind legs were encased in sturdy metallic greaves.
"Hmph!"
His kick connected squarely with his target—Shea—but she didn't budge an
inch. She blocked his kick with her arms and grinned fearlessly at him.
"Kyuuu!"
Inaba launched a series of rapid-fire kicks, but Shea blocked them all.
Finally, one of his heel drops managed to hit Shea on the head, but the moment it
connected there was a loud clang of metal banging against metal, and Inaba's
eyes widened in surprise. Unfortunately, that left him open to Shea's
counterattack.
"You've still got a long way to go, Inaba!"
"Kyuu?!"
Shea grabbed his leg, then threw him with tremendous force. He just barely
managed to right himself before crashing into the far wall, but as he absorbed the
force of the impact with his legs, he looked up to see Shea's knee centimeters
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from his face.
"Never lose sight of your foe!"
Inaba leaped out just in time, and Shea's kick hit the wall with such force that
half of it collapsed. The shockwave from the blow sent Inaba flying, so he was
unable to stop Shea's follow-up attack.
"You're done for," she said from behind him. A chill ran down his spine, and
a second later, an impact on the back of his head knocked Inaba unconscious.
"Holy crap, you're so good at fighting it's scary," Suzu said, running over to
nurse her poor rabbit familiar.
"Shea-san, since when was your body made of metal?" Ryutarou asked in an
awed voice.
"Hmm, you went all the way up to Level VII there, didn't you? I'm
impressed Inaba managed to push you that far," Tio stated, walking over as well.
"Wait, that was just seventy percent of your full strength? That's terrifying,"
Kaori muttered.
"You really are some kind of monster. Can you stop blades with your bare
hands too?" Shizuku asked.
"Sh-Shea, when did you get this strong?" Yue asked, stunned.
"Maybe it's because she reached Level X once already? It looks like she can
strengthen herself to that level without warming up now..." Hajime mused.
Even though Ragnarok was over, it seemed Shea was continuing to get even
stronger, which amazed even Hajime.
"I know he's the one who asked for this sparring match, but it turned out to
be pretty good training for me too. No wonder he managed to take out the Hydra
all on his own," Shea said, handing Inaba back to Suzu.
Indeed, this sparring match was one he'd requested. Only a few days after
everyone had returned from the Sanctuary, Inaba had headed into the Great
Orcus Labyrinth alone and restarted his training. At this point, he was strong
enough to take out the Hydra by himself, and since Hajime and the others had
come down here for some other business, he'd decided to challenge Shea to a
sparring match, since she was a fellow rabbit and close-combat specialist.
"Are you okay, Inaba-san?"
"Kyuuu, kyuuu!"
Thanks to the language-comprehension ear cuffs artifact Hajime had given
Inaba, everyone could tell he was actually saying, "Goddammit, I didn't even
stand a chance against you. I'm not nearly strong enough yet."
"B-But it was still amazing how well you fought!" Suzu said.
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"That's right, Inaba. You should be proud you managed to force me all the
way to level VII," Shea added.
"Shea's gotten really arrogant..." Yue muttered.
"I guess she is technically Inaba-san's teacher," Kaori replied.
"It's rare to see Shea so fired up," Tio added.
"I guess they get along because they're both rabbits?" Hajime said.
Of course, Shea's and Inaba's sensitive rabbit ears picked up their whispered
conversation.
"A true warrior fights with his fists, not his words," Inaba said, jumping out
of Suzu's arms.
"Inaba-san?"
Inaba turned to his master, a burning resolve in his eyes.
"Suzu! Please cancel your contract with me!"
"Huh? Why?! I give you plenty of food and days off, don't I? What more
could you want?! If I'm doing anything wrong, I promise I'll fix it!"
"Suzu sounds like a clingy girlfriend right now..." Yue said.
"Oh, I never knew she was such a devoted woman," Tio mused.
"I just hope she doesn't end up stuck with a shitty dude," Shizuku stated,
turning to Ryutarou.
"Wait, why are you looking at me when you say that, Shizuku? It's not like
Nagumo's much better!" Ryutarou retorted.
"Ryutarou-kun, what did you just say about Hajime-kun?" Kaori asked, a
dangerous glint in her eyes.
Suzu ignored all of them, though. Most of the monsters she'd been able to
turn into familiars were insects, so Inaba was the only cute fluffy familiar she
had. There was no way she was going to let him go that easily.
"Don't worry, I've got nothing against you, Suzu. If anything, I think of you
as a dear friend."
"Then why do you want to cancel our contract?!"
"I want to train myself from the ground up without your help!"
"Are you saying I'm getting in your way?! But all I want is to help you!"
"Please understand! This is a journey I need to take by myself!"
"Wait! Please don't leave me, Inaba-saaaaaan!"
Suzu dropped to her knees and stretched her hand out as Inaba bounded off
deeper into the labyrinth. It really did look like a man going off to chase his
dreams and his girlfriend desperately trying to bring him back.
"Umm...is this my fault?" Shea asked awkwardly.
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Yue and the others could only shrug. Just then, a large black silhouette drew
close to Suzu.
"Mrrr..."
"Huh? What?"
A small black dragon was nuzzling Suzu's nose. Naturally, it wasn't Tio, but
it was one of her black dragon familiars that had managed to escape the
destruction of the Sanctuary by hiding in one of Suzu's monster balls. The
dragonmen were taking care of most of Tio's surviving familiars, and they'd
been putting them to work to help with Heiligh's restoration effort as well as
hunt down the few thousand monsters that had escaped the Sanctuary and hidden
away in the northern mountains. A few of them had been dispatched to the Great
Orcus Labyrinth as well to keep an eye on who went in and out. Hajime wasn't
planning on stopping anyone from trying to conquer the labyrinths, but he did
want to know who'd managed to do so. He'd also placed a surveillance artifact
in Oscar's house for that same reason, but it helped to also have living creatures
keeping an eye on things.
At any rate, it seemed one of those lookout dragons had taken a liking to
Suzu.
"Mrrr... Mrrr...?"
"Hm? 'What's wrong? If you need to vent, I'll listen. Also, where do you
live?'"
"Why is it that you can understand what my familiar is saying when even I
can't, Suzu?"
Though Tio could sense her familiars' feelings, she definitely couldn't parse
their cries as regular human speech. Also, it was rather worrying that Tio's
dragon was acting like a playboy hitting on a girl while she was still recovering
from getting dumped by another guy.
Kaori and the others exchanged worried glances, but Suzu was just glad to
get a chance to make a contract with anything other than an insect.
"If you become my familiar, I promise I'll feed you well, and I'll do most of
the work so you don't even have to lift a finger!"
"Suzu-chan?! I really think you should value yourself more!"
"Suzu-san...if you're like that, then people will just walk all over you..."
"Ryutarou, you need to get it together for Suzu's sake."
"Why are you telling me that?! I mean, I am worried about her, but still!"
Once again, Suzu ignored the comments from the peanut gallery.
"What was that? 'Works for me. Let's get that contract set up?' Hell yes!"
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It seemed Suzu had already made a contract with the dragon, and she was
quite happy to have one more noninsect familiar. For his part, it seemed like the
dragon was grinning, though it was hard to tell.
"Hey, Tio, are you sure that dragon familiar's...safe?"
"What kind of stuff did you teach him? He's way too much of a playboy!"
"Don't pin this on me! I didn't do anything except transform him into my
familiar!"
Tio wanted to believe a black dragon that had once served her couldn't
possibly be evil, but there was a surprising amount of evidence to the contrary.
Seeing how the other black dragons who'd been watching this whole spectacle
seemed to be having similar thoughts, she decided she probably needed to have a
stern talking-to with all of them sometime soon.