When Ron joined the battlefield to subdue the Goblin guard, Mikoto had already ceased her advance, avoiding tactical errors caused by poor coordination between them.
This did not mean that she had ended the fight.
The Futsunomitama magic she had mastered was kept ready at all times; as long as the situation turned unfavorable, she would use the gravity field to buy Ron time to withdraw.
But the final result—
Did it seem like this guy did not need her help at all?
"..."
'That's it? It's over already—this is a bit exaggerated, isn't it?!'
The girl remained silent.
The impact from what she had just witnessed was intense. Ron was like an assassin licking blood from the edge of a blade—evading the Goblin guard's attacks while swinging his weapon.
The strikes looked ordinary at first glance.
Yet they produced effects she herself could not achieve, leaving the monster covered in dense, crisscrossing wounds, each line seeping blood.
Until the very end.
Like an "instantaneous explosive ignition suppressed to the extreme," the Goblin guard's massive body was like a water vat riddled with holes, blood erupting in an instant.
No matter how hard Mikoto racked her brain, she could not figure out what kind of special skill this was.
And when facing the Goblin guard's final, desperate counterattack, it was Ron who endured it head-on with his body, then used a short sword to shred the monster's heart and end the battle.
The monster's massive body vanished instantly.
She looked around; only the blood remaining on the walls proved that the floor boss had ever existed.
The girl found it hard to calm her emotions. As for how she should sum it up, she hesitated for a moment and could only sigh in admiration, saying, 'This guy really is… a monster!'
And what interrupted her thoughts was the shout coming from afar, where Chigusa was squatting beside Ron, her voice tinged with sobbing: "Senior Mikoto, do you… do you have any healing—healing potions over there? Mr. Ron—he looks like his entire body is about to completely fall apart."
"Huh?"
Now was not the time to marvel!
A sense of foreboding surged in Mikoto's heart. Even though she knew that Ron possessed incomprehensible healing abilities, hearing this outcome still made her heart tighten.
The girl hurried to the rear.
Just as Chigusa had said, Ron—who had been struck by the Goblin guard's dying counterattack—had his body embedded into the wall, like a shattered porcelain vase.
A deep crimson, the kind of blood that belonged exclusively to humans, was continuously pouring out from his body.
The faint rise and fall of the boy's chest was one of the few signs that he was still alive. The sheer brutality of the scene made Mikoto feel as though her throat were clogged shut.
She fell silent, then spoke: "Are you… okay?"
"Just a mere mortal wound—nothing worth mentioning."
"??"
First of all.
Ron did not think of himself as some kind of masochist. Taking the Goblin guard's attack head-on had been unavoidable; this concerned the accumulation progress of his Soul Shards.
Nothing was more infuriating than having the finishing blow stolen.
Second, with the number of uses of the Revival skill he possessed, he could fear having no money on hand, he could fear returning from exploration empty-handed—but the one thing he absolutely could not fear was death!
But reality was cruel.
The Heal magic applied to himself could lock his life at the brink of death.
'I've already fucking beaten this damn Goblin guard to death, and this magic is still locking my shitty HP. Wouldn't it be cleaner to just let me Remake outright?'
Ron only felt that his mind had never been clearer.
But the pain his body was experiencing was already difficult to describe with words. The fact that he could still breathe and speak showed that the magic's effect was extremely powerful.
That counted as good news, right?
"What do you mean… 'just a mere mortal wound'?!"
Is this really the time to be joking? Even though the one joking was Ron himself.
However, when Mikoto saw the relaxed relief in this guy's eyes, she instantly realized that her worry had been excessive. There should not be any particularly serious problem.
The girl quietly let out a breath of relief.
But this scene—left an unforgettable shadow on Chigusa.
She knew very clearly that the main reason Ron had called her to join the team was precisely because of this: her meager strength simply made it impossible to explore the Dungeon alone.
When they encountered the Goblin guard, it was also Ron who had exhausted himself and used his own sacrifice in exchange for the team's safety.
An endless sense of guilt enveloped her heart. When she raised her head again, Chigusa looked at Mikoto with pleading eyes. "Senior Mikoto, there's still a chance."
"Senior Airmid…"
"Senior Airmid has panaceas, right? Aren't they said to be able to restore all fatal injuries?"
"There's no need to waste money."
Those words were spoken by Ron.
After all, the HP-locking effect of Heal had a time display. Once the magic effect ended, consuming a use of Revival would resolve all the problems.
However, his offhand tone sounded to the girl like a final farewell.
Chigusa choked up. So many words of gratitude she wanted to express could not come out; she could only watch the boy's gradually weakening breaths, along with a sense of relief as if he had been set free.
"Time's about up…"
"…"
And understanding the special nature of the skills Ron possessed, Mikoto took the initiative to step in front of Chigusa and covered her companion's eyes with both hands, only feeling warm tears surge out of her palms as if a dam had burst.
There was no pain more searing than witnessing a companion's departure.
Chigusa felt her whole body go weak. When she collapsed to the ground, she did not dare look at Ron right in front of her; only the girl's sobbing remained.
So much so that even the sound of rubble falling from the wall onto the floor was completely ignored by her.
As the effect of the Heal magic faded, Ron—whose body had long been on the brink of death—found his conscious awareness quickly turning muddled.
Until Revival healed all of his injuries.
His soul, drifting like a lone boat carried by the waves, finally felt substance once more.
This sensation of his whole body falling apart made even Ron feel as if ages had passed. Propping himself up with his arms, he easily pulled his body out from the wall.
"Damn."
"This fight really was thoroughly satisfying!"
Recalling the details of the battle with the Goblin guard, Ron could not help but sigh. When he raised his head, he saw Mikoto's face full of helplessness.
As well as Chigusa, who was slumped on the ground—her uncontrollable sobbing from the very beginning having turned into terror—her eyes filled with a timid disbelief.
"Mm."
After thinking it over carefully, he walked up to the girl and proactively extended his hand, wanting to pull her up from the ground, saying lightly, "Hello, Miss Chigusa."
"??!"
...
The special nature of the Revival skill could not be disclosed, so Ron could only use the excuse that he had taken a panacea in advance to give Chigusa a simple explanation.
If it had been anyone else, they would definitely have maintained a skeptical attitude—but who else could it be, when this was the inexperienced Chigusa?
He returned once more to the place where the Goblin guard had died. With the monster's death, a dark-purple magic stone about the size of a baby's fist lay on the ground.
Materials had even dropped as well.
It was an extremely massive leg bone, its surface presenting a bizarre black coloration. What specific use this thing had was something Ron could not figure out in the short term.
As he bent down to pick up the magic stone, [Soul Shards +15.]
'Isn't this reward a bit stingy?'
'If we're talking about raid difficulty, this thing is no easier than killing five Goblin Knights…'
Recalling the battle with the Goblin guard just now—and the fact that it had consumed the panacea given by Airmid—Ron's mouth twitched, feeling only a pang of pain in his heart.
But immediately after—there appeared before the boy the final reward belonging to the victor.
[Ash of War: Bloody Slash]
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