Antagonist Protection Service

Shortly after Sophie consumed her last mana recovery potion, the tunnel they had been fleeing through began to widen.

A chamber lay before them, the walls enriched with small amounts of crystals, and containing two paths on the opposite end.

In the middle of the chamber, a large, crystal golem stood, its presence clearly intended as some sort of obstacle. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Glancing between the monster and the forked pathways opposite them, Sophie wasted no time in voicing her opinion.

"We should skip it and go right to the boss as fast as possible. It might even buy us more time."

In response, Anders shook his head.

"We can’t. Those pathways are blocked by magic barriers. We’ll likely have to kill it to proceed."

"Kh..."

Naturally, one side of her lips rose in vexation, briefly revealing a white canine.

It was the same sort of humanoid-ish golem that had been present on many of the Floors prior to this one, evidently acting as sorts of guardian for certain places, so it certainly made sense.

"I’ll quickly do it then."

Leaving just those words behind, she dashed forwards, not bothering to draw her katars and instead leaping up to land on the golem’s body directly.

It was only then that the golem stiffly moved into action, but it was too slow―Sophie positioned herself on its shoulders, wrapping her slender yet toned arms around its thick, crystalline neck before exerting her full strength.

"Ghh...!"

Crack-!

In a matter of seconds, proof of her might was revealed as a web of deep cracks appeared within the golem, first appearing thinly around its neck, then rapidly growing.

"Be careful with how much mana you’re using."

Hearing Anders’ voice resound calmly from the entrance of the chamber they had come from, it almost appeared like Sophie had taken no notice, but in reality, she heeded his reminder well.

"Hgk-!"

With a final grunt, she utilised explosive force, and the golem’s head snapped off.

Thud-!

Immediately, the monster’s body lost all power and collapsed.

Subsequently, Anders nodded and called out.

"The barriers are down. Solid work."

"Haah, that was good for me. I needed something to de-stress after dealing with that horrid guy trying to kill us all this time...!"

"Just make sure you don’t overdo it. Things’ll get a lot tougher if you run out of mana."

"I know, I know. I limited myself well enough, didn’t I? The potion’s still in effect, anyway, so I’ll recover it quickly."

"...Just keep it in mind."

Casting a cursory glance behind them, Anders continued.

"In any case, we should hurry. That person is following us quicker than I feel comfortable with. Let’s take the right path."

Hastening his footsteps, Sophie followed along without complaining.

"Why right? I probably would’ve gone down it anyway, but is there a specific reason?"

"I sense greater magic sources down this path. It means the probability of the Objective’s Area Boss lying this way is higher."

"Ahh. Let’s hurry then!"

Her voice sounded decently more chipper compared to earlier; it seemed that her claim about de-stressing was accurate.

’She definitely needed that... Although, we should hope it doesn’t repeat itself.’

Bearing the thought that greater magic sources down the right path might just mean more unnecessary obstacles, Anders lightly gritted his teeth and followed closely behind his fellow party member, a faint wisp of fog trailing them.

He truly was averse to uncertainty, but in the current situation, it wasn’t as if there were a whole lot of alternatives. As such, his sigh was at least withheld.

’Further, to rid of that person, there simply exists no fitting opportunity in sight...’

After following the secondary tunnel for a short while, the two arrived at yet another widened chamber, this one containing notably more crystals than the one previous.

This place too had forked paths on the opposite end blocked by magic barriers, and positioned firmly between those exits and themselves, an identical crystal golem.

"...I understand. The right path again holds stronger magical sources behind it. Our task is to continue clearing these obstacles and following the correct path until we reach the aforementioned ’Area Boss’, I suppose."

Stepping forward, Sophie cracked her knuckles.

"I should probably save most of my mana for the boss or an emergency, then."

"Have you recovered?"

"Not fully; you know how those potions are. But, it should be enough for a number of these guys."

Sophie wasn’t confident she could spare enough magic energy to take on the boss, considering the unknown amount of golems that stood between them... although, with her inviolable spirit, she was sure she could at least take them there.

Would they have been progressing with John Pierce by their side, or even simply without any time constraints, there would be no problems whatsoever. That it wasn’t the case was regrettable.

The only thing holding them back... or rather, forcing them to propel themselves farther forward than perhaps otherwise desirable, was ’it’.

"Hgk-!"

Crack--!

"..."

"Gah! Got it! You said it’s right again? Let’s hurry!"

Without any hope for an outside intervention, the two nevertheless progressed.

❖─────★★★★☆─────❖

Exactly five crystal golem heads were severed since the party had entered the cave of the ice mountains, and with each forked path that followed leading them deeper and deeper, there was no doubt that the Objective’s Area Boss would soon emerge to greet them.

It was a simple inevitability, and the abnormal mass of magic energy growing closer and closer with each golem eliminated only solidified that belief into certainty.

Eventually, after claiming their half-a-dozenth head, the tunnel that led beyond was only one.

"That must be it. How much mana can you use?"

"Hh-... Not enough to be comfortable."

"Whatever remains, you’ll have to make it count. It shouldn’t be long now before you can defer the role and take the backseat, but we can’t take any chances; our pursuer is progressing through the fog faster than ideal."

In other words, the time that continued to tick down was gradually nearing its end.

"Are you bringing this up because you have a plan or just to complain?"

"It’s not a complaint, but a warning. And yes, in fact, I do have something in mind... Let us not idle, though."

With that kind of teaser, Anders swiftly made his way towards what was presumably the final tunnel before the Area Boss, his self-interruption silently indicating for Sophie to follow.

As she did, she couldn’t help but open her mouth.

"Well, what is it?"

"I’m sure you already know the gist. We’ll set a trap and buy time."

"And the details? That alone isn’t much to--"

"Don’t act like this is something new. We’ve done this plenty of times, more than enough for you to be able to improvise. Come."

"What... Haa..."

Baffled, Sophie slightly rushed herself to keep up with her cryptic teammate, who, within the minute, appeared to have suddenly halted his hasted pace.

"Hey, why’d you stop...?"

"..."

Apparently, this tunnel was a tad shorter than those that came before it.

That is, they had arrived just before the assumed final chamber of the cave, which by this point had become almost fully smothered in bluish-white crystals on all sides, transforming the feel of the environment entirely.

On the opposite end of the chamber, there was no subsequent path, forked or otherwise.

More importantly, that which was contained within the chamber itself, was nothing... At least, that’s how it seemed at first glance.

Seeing Anders’ head craned upwards, peeking from under the lip of the tunnel they took cover in, Sophie followed suit, quietly leaning her head to look out.

She too then paused.

On the ceiling of the chamber, something a mix of white fur and crystal was blending in with its surroundings. Something big.

"Is that... the Boss?"

There was no question about it.

"...It appears aggression will trigger once we step foot into the arena. If John was present, we might’ve been able to take it out from safety via ranged attacks..."

"..."

"Regardless. We can only try our best... We don’t need to defeat it ourselves, in any case."

"Hm?"

Sophie subtly raised an eyebrow at the other’s latter sentence, but before she asked anything, he moved.

Crouching down, Anders placed his palm flat against the crystalline ground. In the ensuing moments, grey fog quietly began to spill out, slowly filling the chamber from the floor up.

Meanwhile, without turning his attention away, his low voice resounded.

"Can you keep an eye out? It’s hard to concentrate on other senses while I’m doing this."

Nodding to the back of his head without a word, Sophie turned around to face the tunnel they had already passed through. Her eyes flickering towards the ground for no particular reason, she belatedly realised there was a thin trail of fog, barely perceptible.

"...?"

Thinking it was unusual for Anders to waste his magic energy like that, she opened her mouth to speak when Anders’ own words cut her off.

"Not that way. I mean the Area Boss."

"Oh. My bad."

Accordingly, she turned to face the chamber again, her hands clasped innocently together behind her back. Fortunately, despite Anders’ fog messing with the state of the arena, it was still up there, hiding.

Although, with the sheer amount of magic energy it emitted, as well as its size, it was difficult to imagine how anyone would have a hard time realising it was there... Ignoring the fact that she herself didn’t notice it, that is.

’Well, I’m bad at sensing mana, so it doesn’t count.’

A short while passed like that, the two party members maintaining casual silence between them as they focused on their individual tasks, but eventually, that was all broken by a single sound.

"...Tch. He’s coming."

That was all Sophie needed to hear to have her attention raised to full alert.