One fortunate thing was that the dimensional rifts that had appeared were relatively small in scale.
One unfortunate thing, however, was that there wasn’t just one rift.
Rifts were opening up all over the shopping mall.
Huge scorpions and giant beetles came pouring out.
Creatures that should have been sunbathing in some dry desert had arrived in a cool shopping mall.
– Chirrururuk!!!
Enormous scorpions the size of trucks and beetles like tanks—
And from some of the rifts, mummies staggered out with sluggish steps.
Monsters wrapped in layers of bandages, holding rusty weapons.
Commonly known as mummies.
– Grrraaaaah…
– Uooooooh…
If there was a difference from the way they appeared in movies, it was that their filthy bandages hung in tatters, exposing large portions of their decayed flesh.
Their withered hands gripped bladed weapons with no regard for hygiene.
– Kyaaaahhh—!
– Monsters!!!
– Call the Public Safety Department!
On top of the spiderweb Clara had created,
Various noises filtered into Rohan’s ears.
The screams of people and the cries of monsters blended together, echoing throughout the mall.
From an upper floor, Sion’s electricity crackled and roared, accompanied by the sound of gunfire.
Huge pillars of ice burst forth with loud crashes, pushing back the monsters.
Anyone could tell that was Noah’s doing.
[+4P]
[+2P]
[+4P]
[+3P]
…
…
As the monsters were taken down by their comrades, points started accumulating.
The rift is closing. Did it already spit everything out?
After finishing his observation, Rohan patted Ichinose’s back, which he had been brushing off.
He brought his mouth close to her ear and spoke in a low voice.
“Baby-Nose. From here on, you need to stay sharp.”
“…….”
Ichinose lifted her head from his embrace and looked at Rohan.
She forgot to even blink as she revealed her golden eyes in full.
“Dimensional rifts opened in the shopping mall. This isn’t a dream; it’s real. Got it?”
Rohan cupped Ichinose’s soft cheeks with both hands as she stared at him blankly.
“Eep…!”
He kneaded them gently to bring her back to her senses.
Part of it was self-indulgent.
He had always wanted to touch those mochi-soft cheeks at least once.
“Stand up, grab your sword. All you need to do is cut down the monsters you see.”
“Rohan! Are you hurt, anywhere…?”
“We’ll save the small talk for later, yeah?”
As Rohan lowered his hands from her cheeks,
Ichinose let out a slow breath and closed her eyes.
She gripped her sword handle and stepped away from his embrace.
“…Thank you.”
“Let’s go.”
They landed on a closer floor by stepping onto Clara’s sturdy web.
Once the two had safely dismounted, Clara’s thread, which had served as their safety net, was withdrawn.
– Gwooorgh!!!
– Gyaaaahhh!!!
The moment their feet touched the floor, the monsters greeted them.
Mummies wielding various blades staggered toward them in a horde.
“Rohan, please hold the other side.”
Clack!
When she finished speaking, Ichinose pushed her thumb against the hilt, revealing a part of her Yoru sword.
The slash and the magic blended together in perfect harmony, tracing an otherworldly arc.
[Dreamshade Blade Style – Phantom Butterfly Dance]
As Ichinose brushed past like mist,
The dried-up bodies of the mummies were cleanly severed, and Rohan’s points steadily increased.
She’s seriously on another level. Her swordsmanship is in a class of its own.
Shiiing!
Rohan who was impressed by Ichinose’s dazzling technique drew his longsword.
Blazing Blade.
The heat-drenched blade that was glowing bright red swept through the air.
He flipped over a hard-shelled beetle with his foot and split it in two, then quickly pushed through the mummies in close combat.
He yanked out a scorpion’s tail by striking its weak spot, then crushed its body with his fists.
This place is perfect.
As he slaughtered the monsters, Rohan calmed the urgency within him.
They were inside a shopping mall packed with academy students.
To put it simply, it was filled with people who had received professional monster-hunting training.
– Block from the left! Blunt weapons for bugs only! These bastards are tough as hell…!
– Shit! When are the security guards getting here?!
The sounds and signs of battle echoed from all directions.
There was no shortage of enemies in sight. Everyone was managing to keep fighting, one way or another.
The dimensional rift is small-scale. The monsters aren’t high-tier.
Aside from a few scattered boss-types, the regular students were more than capable of handling the situation.
The shops have their emergency shutters down.
He had considered asking Noah to trap people inside ice for their protection, but the state of the battlefield was, in many ways, miraculous.
Despite the chaos, while there were injured students here and there, not a single corpse had come into view yet.
According to the quest details, dimensional rifts had erupted all across the city at the same time.
There was a high chance the public safety officers of the Academy City would arrive later than usual.
We’re not just holding them back. We’re wiping them out completely.
After slicing through a mummy’s waist in a single stroke, Rohan leaped down to the first floor with Ichinose.
The group, having cleared the upper floors, regrouped on their own.
“Oppa…!”
“Rohan! Are you okay?”
Sion and Clara stepped across structures and railings like ninjas to reach the two of them.
“Huup!”
Noah, relying on his sturdy physique, leaped barehanded from the upper level and landed with a heavy thud!
She shook out her ankles as if they’d gone a bit numb from the impact.
“We’re alive thanks to Clara.”
“Thank goodness…”
“Truly, thank you. I’m so grateful.”
“I-I’m j-just g-glad… y-you’re safe…”
When Ichinose expressed her heartfelt gratitude,
Clara grew flustered and stuck close to Rohan’s side.
“Hmph, what a mess.”
Rohan gently patted Clara’s head and quickly assessed the situation.
The inside of the shopping mall was still in chaos.
Without hesitation, Rohan came to a conclusion.
“Let’s focus on taking out the boss-types. You see the really big ones among the bugs and scorpions? The ones with different colors.”
“Rohan. Moving in a group wastes energy.”
Rohan agreed with Sion’s opinion.
Getting tangled up would only slow them down.
He was confident in coordinating with Sion and Clara.
They’d been dragged off to the Monolith and worked under the blazing sun. After all that, he knew the three of them could sweep through the enemy at full speed.
On the other hand, Ichinose and Noah had never properly coordinated with Rohan.
Given the situation, it made more sense to pair those two together.
“Noah, you and Ichinose work well together, right?”
“Of course! Nose and I are like thread and needle!”
“We’ll split into a group of three and a pair. Focus on taking down the boss-types, and the top priority is helping anyone who’s cornered, or rescuing the injured and civilians.”
“Understood.”
Without even needing to communicate further, Sion handed Rohan a spare pistol like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Rohan took it smoothly and finished his preparations.
“Ichinose and Noah, push from the opposite side as you move up.”
As Rohan finished speaking and began to move, Sion and Clara shot forward like arrows.
The two girls moved with such fluid coordination around Rohan that it was as if they were one single organism.
Even when Rohan swung his sword freely, the girls never once strayed into his range.
They moved freely and naturally, using Rohan’s sturdy frame as support without hesitation and leaning on him as needed.
Their movements evoked the image of a trinity in perfect harmony.
Dozens of mummies were shredded like they’d been tossed into a blender.
The huge bodies of scorpions and beetles flipped over and split apart.
“Wow, what are those three, seriously? A married couple?”
Noah was genuinely impressed by the clean coordination between the three.
Ichinose gripped her sword tighter, trying to steady herself.
She could still feel the lingering sensation of Rohan’s hand on her cheek when he’d told her to snap out of it.
“…Noah. Move now. We don’t have time to stand around watching.”
“Okay!”
Ichinose and Noah also broke into a run toward one side.
··
··
Bang! Sion’s bullet took down a beetle that had been about to ambush a student.
[+3P]
Even as she moved her feet, Sion spoke with a calm expression.
“Rohan. I definitely saved someone just now. Praise me.”
“Oh, oppa! I saved some people on the way down too…!”
A commendable mindset. One that shouldn’t be discouraged.
Along with a bit of affection-seeking born from their upbringing.
Rohan kicked a mummy’s head aside and sliced off a scorpion’s tail with his sword,
Then calmly made a promise to the girls moving so swiftly around him.
“Let’s tally it all up at the end. I’ll praise you a lot then. If we say everything in the moment, it loses its weight.”
“Mmm, that’s true.”
“Hehe…”
Sion swapped out her magazine and dodged a mummy’s slashing blade.
As soon as the reload finished, she pulled the trigger straight into the mummy’s forehead.
Bang!
With that final one down, this floor was cleared.
After sharing information with the students and giving brief instructions, they headed to the next floor.
While moving, Sion and Clara looked toward the opposite side.
The direction where Noah and Ichinose had gone.
—Crash!!! Ice shot up, pinning enemies down. Noah who was wielding an ice axe split the tough monsters apart with sharp cracks.
“That’s Frozenheart’s output at full power.”
“Her magic is incredible…”
Ichinose was taking down monsters with simple slashes.
But anyone could see that her control over mana was extraordinary.
Every time there was a click from her sheath, monsters were cut down in droves. It was a spectacular sight.
“Rohan. The academy’s level really isn’t ordinary.”
“I’m the one bringing the average down.”
“N-No, oppa, that’s not true…!”
Clara, denying the joke with all her might, was just cute.
Reminding himself not to forget to praise her, he ascended the stairs.
Just like that, they crushed over a hundred monsters with ease.
They arrived at the floor where the Beetle and Scorpion leaders were located.
Shrrrrk!!!
They saw the large creatures thrashing as they tried to tear through the storage shutters.
They lacked intelligence and only repeated the act of slamming with their bodies. They couldn’t tear them open.
“O-Oppa! People are here!”
They could see public safety officers arriving one by one at the entrance of the shopping mall.
Things outside were a mess too, judging by the state of the officers.
The quickly dispersed officers began clearing out the monsters.
Looks like we can leave the regular ones to them. That’s a relief.
[The quest has been completed.]
The quest had clearly been to hold out until the officers arrived.
Notification windows popped up in rapid succession.
[Calculating the number of monster units defeated.]
[You have received your reward.]
“!”
Rohan opened the shop skills menu. The reward was a huge amount of points.
Including the points he’d earned from defeating monsters so far, the total came to 30,700 points.
Without hesitation, Rohan made a purchase.
He had no intention of standing by just because the public safety officers had shown up.
From behind the shutter where monsters were ramming themselves against it, the terrified screams of people could still be heard.
[You have bought a unique weapon.]
Rohan reached into the rippling space.
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