Daisuke grew interested in the crystals on the wall for Kaori sake. With reckless abandon he ran over and climbed the wall to reach out with a grin thinking he impressed Kaori. Meld tried to stop him since was not sure it was safe. One of the soldiers alerted captain Meld that it was a trap. The moment he touched it the whole room glowed blue aura and the whole class was teleported onto a bridge.
When the whole group was teleported to the bridge Selena pulled out her sword. Anticipating what was to come she saw a big ass summoning circles forming in the middle of the bridge and a lot of small circles for Traum soldiers. As Hajime was shifting the earth around the group, Selena took the time to behead all the Traum soldiers around them. The two kept on this cycle of defending and beheading, barely able to keep their classmates safe.The kingdom knights were taking a lot of damage for them.
Somehow Hajime still saved Yuka from getting her head split in half just like Selena remembered, even though they are taking a more active role this time around.
"We need Amanogwa to come over here and help us out! We can barely keep this pace going!" Hajime says to Selena as he pops a few mana pills to refill his reserves.
Selena, "Okay, let go get our clueless leader" she said then frowned. 'Look at how Kouki stupid his pride was in keeping him from seeing the big picture. It irritates me to no end.'
The two start to work their way through the horde of undead to reach their 'oh so great and fearless' leader, who was currently with Captain Meld and his soldiers as they stall the Behemoth from making it to the students. "Kouki, we need your help over here," Selena exclaims as they approach.
Kouki turns his head to see Selena and Hajime getting closer to his group and turns back and responds, "I am going to stay here and help Meld-san out with the Behemoth. You both can stay back an-"
*SLAP*
"Honestly, you can be a piece of shit sometimes Kouki" the group of Hajime, Kouki, and the other members of his wonder team stare at Selena in shock, all with the same thought running through their minds, 'Did Selena just curse'.
Hajime ends up being the first of the group to come back to his senses and adds on to what Selena started, "Our classmates are barely hanging on with the support of the knights and the two of us. You are the only one with enough power to quickly clear a way for us to get to the stairs up and out of here!" and gestures towards the group behind them.
Kouki, finally having a moment of clarity, said, "Sorry Meld-San, we are going to help our class out." At that moment it was too late as they heard the sound of the hollow ground Meld and his knights casted crack and break down. Following the shattering of the barrier, a shockwave was heading towards the group. Hajime quickly transmuted a wall to try and protect us from the shockwave, but it was shattered with ease when the shockwave collided with it, and the group was sent flying. As the knight were moaning in pain due to all the damage they have taken, they heard a roar come from the behemoth blowing all the dust away.
Kouki, looking at the current situation, yells at his party "Ryutarou, Shizuku and I will buy you some time! Please heal the knights Kaori."
Ryutaro hit his gauntlet together getting ready for another round with the behemoth "not like we got a damn choice"
Shizuku grits her teeth and says, "...We'll manage somehow."
The three of them dash towards the looming threat while Kaori rushes to the group of Hajime, Selena, and the knights.
After a short round of attempting to stall the creature, Kouki goes for his strongest strike, and starts his chant.
"O Holy spirit! Bring ruin to all that is evil with thine divine light! By the breath of God, may these clouds of darkness be swept clear, and the world bathed in sanctity! By the mercy of God, may this strike redeem the sins of man! Divine Wrath! "
The moment Kouki finished his chant, both Ryutarou and Shizuku fell back to Kouki. It was obvious that the two were in bad shape despite it only being a few seconds against it. The Behemoth let out a roar the moment the strike landed, bathing it in the white light of the attack. At the same time, unnoticed by many, cracks started to form in the bridge.
"Haah… Haah… Do you think that did it?" Kouki asks while out of breath.
"Haah… Dude, you just jinxed us." Ryutarou says deadpanned at his friend. While he knew that Kouki is a good guy and meant well, even he is able to realize that Kouki can say something stupid every once in a while. As the three are still trying to catch their breaths, Captain Meld stands up behind them after he is fully healed.
The light starts to fade away to reveal the Behemoth, completely unscathed. As the creature looks at the gnats in front of it, its dark red mana starts to pour out of its body. It locks its gaze on Kouki who starts to falter a little bit due to the murderous gaze making him feel like he might just die. Then it raised its head high, and its horns started to buzz and glow red hot. The red continued down to the rest of its helmet until it looked like its entire head was like a glowing ball of magma.
"Don't just stand there! Run!" Captain Meld's shout finally brought Kouki and his friends out of their shock of Kouki's attack doing nothing but angering the beast. They prepared to run, but the beast started to charge at them at the same time. When it was almost upon them, it leaped into the air, and hurtled towards them head first, as if it was a burning meteor.
They were just barely able to jump to the sides to avoid a direct hit, but the shockwave from the impact still sent them tumbling down on the ground. Captain Meld, who was still able to move somehow, ran over to the three of them.
"Can you guys still move!?" Captain Meld quickly asks as he sees the Behemoth bracing its legs to pull its head out of the crater it had smashed into the bridge. The only response that he received was some groans of pain from the three. Their bodies were paralyzed from the shockwaves, just as his team was just a while ago.
Seeing the situation was going downhill, Selena knew it was time to get started.
"Hajime do you think you can trap it in the ground for us if I can make it attack me with that charging ability?"
"Ya that could work" Hajime replies as he quickly pops a mana pill getting his magic primed for the risky maneuver and starts to run towards Captain Meld to inform him of the plan. At the same time Selena quickly gathers the three mostly recovered knights and fills them in on the plan.
Selena runs in front of the behemoth, she throws her longsword at it like a javelin to get the agro on herself. She felt truly small compared to her enemy, scared for the first time in this life. As it charged at Selena with its special magic she threw her body to one side of the bridge to avoid a direct hit, only to be blown to the edge by the shockwave. As soon as it hit the bridge and got its head stuck in the ground, Hajime ran up yelling "aaaaa!" as he transmuted the ground keeping its head in the ground while sinking its legs to keep it from moving too much. Constantly rebuilding it and keeping the behemoth stuck. Despite the heavy damage to her, Selena was able to gradually get to her feet and rejoin with Hajime while pulling out a small potion to consume.
"Go back to the rest of the class. I will catch up with you later." He smiled wearily with whole body shaking from fear of being so close to this monster.
"Nah, what kinda friend would I be if I only thought of myself, silly." Selena says as she puts her hand on shoulder and smiles at Hajime with a confident smile, blood still trailing from her lip.
Meld was able to regroup with the other knights and students and break through the Traum Soldiers to get them to the stairs at the landing. Just before the students leave for the safety of a higher level, Kaori speaks up with concern in her voice.
"Everyone, we need to save Nagumo-kun! He is still out there stopping that monster with Selena!" Her classmates look at her in confusion, before looking back to see the bizarre sight of Hajime in a struggle with the Behemoth, keeping it in place, while Selena protects him from the straggling Traum Soldiers that got too close to them.
"That's right! Those kids are stopping that monster all by themselves. They are the only reason your sorry asses aren't skeleton fodder right now! Vanguard, advance! Don't let a single soldier past you! Rearguard, start preparing long-range spells! His magic and her stamina won't last much longer! Once they are clear, start blasting away to keep it busy!"
As the class turns to see Hajime use his magic and Selena there getting ready to sprint Meld calls out, "Alright kids run to us!"
The moment Selena heard that, she put Hajime on her shoulder and started to run to the other side of the bridge.
"This is so embarrassing!" he yelled while trying to hold on to Selena's shirt to make sure he didn't fall off. The behemoth was outraged at the fact that such an unsightly event happened to it, and after breaking out of its restraints, looked towards the duo that was the cause of the event. It quickly found the two, and brought its head down to charge them. However, before it can even start, a barrage of spells slammed into it.
'We can make it!' Hajime thought as Selena kept running towards their classmates. For some reason, he wasn't as afraid as he thought he would be. 'These cheat-level classmates of ours wouldn't miss!'
As the second volley was fired to stall the monster, Selena noticed the infamous fireball that was the key to kickstarting the whole mess in this world, flying towards them. With a quick glance, she was able to see the wicked grin that was on Daisuke's face, as if he had already won. With the little reaction time that she had, Selena jumped backwards to avoid the worst of it. The Behemoth, growing more and more enraged, quickly charged up its energy and did another head smash towards the duo that was the sole focus of its hate and rage. With another leap, it goes for the pair, Selena was just barely able to avoid it, but the bridge couldn't take the abuse any longer. The bridge started to collapse, quickly taking the Behemoth down, with Selena and Hajime not that far behind it. As they start to fall, Selena locks eyes with Shizuku to quickly mouth a message to her, before she rotates her body to hug Hajime in tight. Hajime on the other hand looks up towards his classmates with disbelief reaching his hand out towards them. Feeling Selena's warmth as she hugs him, he hugs her back and closes his eyes, praying for a miracle to occur.
The last thing that Hajime remembers was Kaori being held back by Kouki and Ryutarou, with Shizuku looking at them with a pained expression.
After losing sight of the pair falling into the abyss, Shizuku gives a quick pleading look to Meld to help them with the distraught Kaori. Quickly getting the message, Meld comes up behind Kaori and knocks her out with a hard chop to the back of the neck. Shizuku, finally able to think without worrying for her friend's safety, felt some hope that Selena will make it through this.
Captain Meld looks towards Shizuku with a pained expression and then turns towards the rest of the students. "We cant let anyone else die here, two already is too much."
Shizuku, glad that Captain Meld was taking charge to get people's attention off of the act that just occurred in front of the class, turns to Kouki and says "Kouki get your butt to the front, just like Hajime and Selena said, we need a leader."
Kouki looks back at the rest of the class, and starts to guide them to the higher floors, to eventual safety. As they march out of the hell that is the labyrinth, Shizuku couldn't help but to think of what happened and replay it over and over again. 'Selena was looking at the spells, but then towards us with a look of anticipation… not one of fear. I wonder if something else is at play here'