A/N: Many people have expressed disappointment that Suzuki isn't going for his High Tier Physical Immunity, but it was mentioned in the Web Novel that he was personally jealous of people who had skills that reduced damage by 10 continuously. His original build was for role playing but since coming to this world he's going for a more balanced build trying to maximize his chances of winning in PvP, particularly because he doesn't have access to all of his usual cash shop items and other things that made him punch above his weight as Momonga.

Theseus, Emilia, and Vikus observed the fighting from atop the walls of Arya.

The beastmen had chosen to mount the walls to give them an advantage while fighting, though this meant that the humans had enough time to completely surround them.

Theseus had initially been afraid that the humans might attempt to starve them out- if they did, their forces would have no doubt been put in a pickle as they would eventually run out of rations (that is to say, humans). However, their enemies seemed to be reluctant to watch silently as the beastmen gorged themselves on their fellow species.

This gave them a slim chance of success.

The humans were besieging the walls, and normally, given the elevation and their greater natural strength, the beastmen should have had an easy time repelling the humans. But, the humans had a large numerical advantage, and their forces included several adventurer teams.

Theseus had already slain twelve Silver and four Gold ranked adventurers, but the tide was still turning against them.

Now, it seemed that their only real hope of survival was to last long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

As Theseus was pondering this, the air hissed as an arrow flew towards him, which the enchantments on his armor deflected automatically. He growled- that ability only worked thrice a day, and while it had saved him, he should have saved those uses up for when they would be more useful.

His eyes found the archer, a woman who was knocking another arrow. While he was not too good at telling humans apart, the fact that the human soldiers had moved aside to create a gap for the woman and three others, and the fact that they wore dark plates around their necks told him that they were Admantite adventurers.

For warriors of their level, a wall was no obstacle and the three of them jumped effortlessly down to greet the adventurers. No one else dared to interfere in the fight between these two groups, well aware that they would be cut to shreds if they tried.

Theseus grabbed a Gold plate and threw it on the ground. "You! Are you the famed Cerabrate of the Shining Sword technique?"

"And you are Theseus, the Minotaur King?" Cerabrate asked.

Vikus snorted- Theseus was no 'king' but the humans had dubbed him so based on his fighting prowess.

"I have waited to fight you," Theseus said, licking his lips.

There were no more words as the two of them charged at each other, exchanging blows before separating twenty seconds later.

That brief exchange was enough for Theseus to tell quite a bit about his opponent. For one, he was quite sure that he was the stronger between the two, and could beat him.

Cerabrate seemed to realize this, and backed away a few paces. His teammates covered for him, making it impossible for Theseus to rush him.

Cerabrate took out a green potion and gulped it down, and also swallowed some strange brown powder. Clearly they were alchemical items to enhance strength and speed.

Cerabrate then morphed into three identical copies. Were they shadow clones?

"Illusion magic," Vikus spat out and cast his own spell which outlined one of the Cerabrates in a dim green light.

Theseus frowned- he was used to fighting one-on-one and such tricks greatly annoyed him. "Do you have no honor as a warrior, human, to resort to such tricks?"

"You're one to speak about honor, beast," Cerabrate spat. "After all the helpless woman and children you and your kind have killed."

"Hmph. The weak are at the whim of the strong, is it not so?" Theseus asked.

"In that case," Cerabrate said with a smirk. "You're at my mercy then!"

Theseus snarled, and the real fight now began as everyone entered the fray.

Although Theseus felt he was stronger than Cerabrate, the human did have several advantages. For one, his equipment seemed to be a grade better than Theseus's own. Secondly, their enemies numbered four while they numbered only three. Third, the humans were able to coordinate their attacks amongst themselves far better than the beastmen, who were not used to fighting together.

"Gah!" Emilia spat as her fists collided with Theseus's blade accidentally for the second time. "Can't you focus, you oaf!"

"Keep your hands to yourself woman, this man is my prey!" Theseus roared back.

"Amateurs!" Vikus said as he cast a spell to block an incoming arrow.

It became clear over time, as Vikus began running out of mana and had taken two arrows, and as even Emilia's trained fists had felt the frostbite of Clarisse's magic, that the tide of battle was rapidly turning against them.

Theseus felt that the fate of the battle rested on his shoulders- if he could just kill Cerabrate, their victory would be assured. However, every time that he had come close to finishing the man off, that Illusionist behind him pulled out some trick which let the human slip away at the last second. The Illusionist would make the archer's arrows seem to multiply, make the ground seem to crack between the two of them, and fool Theseus on where Cerabrate's sword really was.

Theseus had taken a small scratch due to one of these incidents, and though it was a shallow wound, it was annoying nonetheless. Especially because Theseus had not managed to mark Cerabrate even once.

And then Vikus took two more arrows. And Emilia's face was struck with an icicle, so that drops of her blood stained the ground as she moved.

Theseus could hear the humans cheer as they managed to scale the walls- and he knew then that it was all over. They would all be killed.

No reinforcements would arrive.

Cerabrate would go home a hero- and Marquis Alexander would earn the reputation of a great general. The Marquis would go back to the Draconic Kingdom while hosting a great military parade to commemorate his own victory.

And Theseus would be food for the worms.

...

No.

Something deep within Theseus rejected these despondent thoughts.

If Theseus had been a human and raised in the Slane Theocracy, what he was undergoing would be dubbed as a God-kind's "awakening."

But Theseus had no term for this of course.

All he knew was that all of a sudden, a barrier in his mind that had limited his growth had been shattered, and he was suddenly flooded with energy and power.

In the span of an instant, Theseus was now the equivalent of a level 55 warrior, making him weaker than any God-kind of the Theocracy, but given he had just recently awakened his power that was only to be expected.

Cerabrate didn't know exactly what had happened, but he did sense that there had been a dangerous new development. His sword began glowing as he readied his trump card.

Unfortunately, all of his movements were based off how fast he thought Theseus could move- something that had changed drastically in the last few seconds.

Theseus stabbed the man's shoulder, which would have tore his arm were it not for the Impenetrable Fortress Martial Art that Cerabrate just used in the nick of time.

Theseus then followed up with a new technique. "Slash of Wind!"

His ancestor, the Minotaur Sage, Theseus I, had an attack known as the Great Slash of Wind with which the air he displaced with his axe was said to cleave entire forests in two. This, while a weaker version of the attack, still worked on the same principle.

Cecilia and Cerabrate were simply knocked back twenty feet, but Clarisse and Candice, who were magic casters with low physical defense, were slashed in half by the blow.

Theseus followed this up by charging at Cerabrate, who had the sense to use some sort of Martial Art so that his sword automatically blocked Theseus's incoming attack, but Theseus simply deflected the sword with a flick of his wrist, and using his hoof, crushed Cerabrate's skull.

Cecillia attempted to get up and knock an arrow, but was cut down just as her fingers closed on the arrow's shaft.

Theseus panted lightly- though he had been fighting for some time, he felt strangely energized. He let out a strong war cry as he turned to his two "teammates" so to speak.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?" Vikus asked. He and Emilia had clearly been pushed to their limits. "Or were you just hoping to show off?"

"We still have work to do," Theseus said, rummaging the corpses for healing potions. "I think these are healing potions." He tossed a few to them.

"This is alchemical silver," Emilia said, examining one bottle. "This is a strengthening potion. This is a type of poison. This is a health potion."

Theseus shrugged- he had little experience with human potions.

As it was, Theseus had no real attachment to either of the two of them, but he recognized that even with his newfound strength, he would still need their help to defeat the rest of the humans.

Letting out a war cry, he leapt back onto the walls in a single motion and charged a group of soldiers.

Marquis Alexander led the remnants of his forces back to the fortress of Vrael. Only fifteen thousand of them remained, and many of the lost men had belonged to his domain.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he cursed under his breath.

Instead of being remembered as a great general, he was now going to be known as the man who lost a battle that should have easily been won.

And... his daughter was dead.

The Marquis had thought, like many nobles, of his children as nothing more than objects of power.

However, he had actually spent more time with Clarisse than any of his legitimate heirs because of her special talent.

Clarisse had been the only one amongst his children who would dare speak against him even the slightest bit unlike her sycophantic siblings- because she was confident in her abilities and that if push came to shove she could find gainful employment elsewhere. This had initially annoyed him, but the thought that he would never hear one of her complaints again left a strange emptiness in his soul.

He also felt bile rush to his throat as he thought of how the beastmen must have now been devouring her flesh- and how she would never receive a proper burial.

But, he had to keep his head on straight. He was a noble- and to reveal one's emotions as a noble was the height of foolishness. He had to keep a stiff upper lip at all times.

Suzuki and his gang had managed to extract nearly everything of value from the place, and now Suzuki felt it was best that they go back to the Draconic Kingdom. He had not received any input from the Elder Lich he had stationed there, but it had been several days and he felt that they should certainly pop their heads back in.

"Any further news?" Suzuki asked the Elder Lich who was patiently standing in the corner of the room as they arrived directly into the hotel room.

"No, Great One," he replied.

Just right then there was a knock at the door, and the Elder Lich moved to open it.

Baron Eisley popped his head in, did a double-take on seeing the Elder Lich, and said, "We request Suzuki-dono's presence at the War Cou-"

He stopped as the Elder Lich moved aside to reveal Suzuki, already standing there.

"How fortunate, I had just returned as you were about to call me," Suzuki said.

"Ah, indeed, Suzuki-dono," the Baron said. "The meeting starts in two hours- same place as always."

The room holding the war council held far fewer people than Suzuki remembered earlier. It looked like half the inhabitants were gone- including Crystal Tear.

"Where is Alphonse?" Suzuki asked the Prime Minister. It was odd that there was no one representing the Baharuth Empire.

Suzuki had a favorable impression of the general, who had welcomed Suzuki and his party quite warmly when they had visited Vrael. Fluder had also noted that the man had a good head on his shoulders, and Suzuki was inclined to believe that.

"Ah, Emperor Jircniv has withdrawn the Eighth Legion," the Prime Minister explained. "As such he will no longer be h- ah, Her Majesty arrives!"

Draudillon joined the War Council and it began. Suzuki noticed the rather uneasy faces on everyone present, and there was an air of despair all around that had been absent earlier.

"I welcome you all here," the Prime Minister said, opening the meeting. "Marquis Alexander has returned from his expedition and has only just arrived from the Fortress of Vrael."

Suzuki was confused- what expedition?

"You all may have heard the bad news," the Prime Minister continued. "Around thirty-five thousand men were lost. Among the casualties were about twenty percent of this nation's Adventurer teams, and sadly, the Adamantite team Crystal Tear."

There were outright cries of despair from some of the nobles in the room.

"In addition, an army of around ten thousand beastmen are approaching Camelot as we speak," the Prime Minister said. "Needless to say, we are in dire straights right now." He turned his head to Suzuki. "Suzuki-dono, we request your aid."

"Wait just a moment here," Suzuki said. He had been afraid that he might've missed out on something earlier, but based off of the fact that both Fluder and Albedo were confused, he was sure he hadn't. "What was this 'expedition' you speak of? Did you attempt to launch an assault on the beastmen? If so, why was I not informed?"

"Ah," the Prime Minister said. "We had deemed that our forces were sufficient to handle the situation, and so we saw no need to disturb you in whatever you were doing."

Suzuki thought that that explanation made no sense at all, but he held his tongue for now. "But, you were wrong? How were you beaten?"

The Prime Minister went on a report detailing how, when the battle had been going in their favor, a Minotaur dubbed "the Minotaur King" had suddenly defeated the Adamantite team Crystal Tear, and then tore through thousands of soldiers and most of their adventurer teams. This gave the beastmen time to rally, and when their forces saw that three thousand beastmen were approaching from the distance as reinforcements, the besieging forces knew that they were finished and Marquis Alexander ordered a retreat.

While the nobles were discussing this news, Suzuki asked, "And where is Marquis Alexander right now?"

One of them said, "The Marquis is, ah, indisposed at the moment from the shock of the battle, unfortunately."

This was all a fancy way of saying that he had locked himself in his room and was chugging down alcohol to cope like it was water.

Eventually the chatter stopped and all eyes turned to Suzuki- the only one they thought could possibly get them out of this situation.

"I require a moment to confer with my team," he said and turned to lead Albedo and Fluder away.

Suzuki's mind was racing- based on this person's description, he believed the Minotaur King was a possible player. Or, if that wasn't the case, could the fact that they had raided that treasury possibly have somehow led to this development? Suzuki couldn't think of a connection between the two, but it seemed odd that they had visited the vault of the Minotaur Sage only for a powerful Minotaur to suddenly appear later. Was the Minotaur King somehow related to the Night Lich he had seen?

The only link he could think of was that this Minotaur King had been assigned to guard the treasury, and as such was heading towards the Draconic Kingdom as retaliation for Suzuki's actions- but that idea had far too many holes in it to be reasonably plausible. Or was the Minotaur King originally a guard over that place, and had joined the invading beastmen, which is why Suzuki had not ran into him?

"Albedo, how strong do you think this Minotaur King is?" Suzuki asked her. "I think he's about as powerful as an eighth or ninth tier spell."

"I think he should be about level sixty," Albedo said.

"I thought so too," Suzuki said. "But, what I really wanted to ask-" his voice now dropped to a whisper. "What are they hiding from us? Something about their expedition doesn't add up."

"I can only think that they were perhaps afraid that you would reach your quota," Albedo said. "But that doesn't make sense as you have already slain ten thousand more than needed, unless they wanted to fudge the earlier numbers somehow."

"Perhaps it is as simple as misplaced pride?" Fluder suggested. "Some warriors- and nobles have their heads so full of themselves that I sometimes used to wonder how they managed to keep themselves from floating away- they may have just wanted to prove themselves."

Suzuki didn't wholly buy that explanation, but he couldn't think of any thing which was better.

They turned around.

"Alright, we can reach Camelot almost instantly via teleportation magic and intercept them," Suzuki said. "But I would like more information on this Minotaur King."

The information Suzuki was presented with was rather inconsistent- if it was to be believed, the Minotaur King was said to rival someone such as Gazef Stronoff in battle, but in the recent fight had suddenly become strong to the point that it broke many of the noble's perceptions of reality. What had caused this change? No one had any explanation.

In the end, while Suzuki had gotten enough loot for him to be able to completely disregard anything the Draconic Kingdom could offer him save for perhaps the crown, the fact remained that his reputation would take a hit if he were to abandon this job. Given how desperate they were, Suzuki probably also could've negotiated for an even higher price, but decided against it as he felt it was against the spirit of the deal he had made, and also because there was nothing in particular that they could offer him that would interest him.

Once again, Suzuki found himself atop the walls of Camelot.

"Teacher," Fluder spoke up. "I have a question- do you get stronger on killing enemies?"

Suzuki was slightly taken aback, but the thing was that it wasn't really a secret, just something he never talked about, so he said, "Indeed. The stronger the foe I kill, the more powerful I become."

Fluder nodded, his theory confirmed. That would explain why Suzuki had said that he was a bad teacher- his way of gaining power was completely different from Fluder's own.

No matter how many goblins Fluder would kill, he would not be the slightest bit stronger for it.

That said though, it wasn't as if Fluder's time was completely wasted. He had managed to reverse engineer one of Suzuki's spells and added another sixth tier spell to his repertoire, something that he would've thought might've taken years to complete on his own was finished in a matter of weeks.

Fluder resolved that, one day, he would reach that pinnacle of magic- the tenth tier, through his own methods. Slowly, but surely, Fluder thought that by studying Suzuki's magical spells and slowly working backwards from there, he would be able to attain greater and greater heights.

"Another thing, Teacher, Albedo-dono said that she believed that the Minotaur King was a difficulty sixty creature? Surely that is an underestimation?"

Suzuki realized where the misunderstanding was coming from.

He gazed across the horizon at the advancing beastmen and created three Soul Eaters. He wanted to see if the rumors regarding the Minotaur King's powers were true, or just an over exaggeration. According to the difficulty rating used by adventurers these monsters were close to 150. "Albedo and I use a different difficulty ranking system than the one you are used to. These Soul Eaters, or a Death Knight, would be around level thirty-five in our system."

"I see," Fluder said. "Forgive me for my ignorance." By that system, the Minotaur King was nearly twice as strong as a Death Knight- something Fluder Paradyne would've earlier scoffed at, but he was sure that his teacher had already reached such a level.

The Soul Eaters ran out, and as had happened previously, began unleashing death upon the beastmen hordes. That was until Suzuki felt one of them fade away, and then another, and a minute later, the third as well.

"Hmm... it appears we are dealing with a powerful foe," Suzuki said. "I wonder... Summon Undead 10th!"

An Elemental Skull appeared above his head, and Suzuki ordered the monster to bombard the enemy with its most powerful spells.

"Ah, so that is what a tenth tier spell looks like," Fluder said, his eyes widened in awe.

Theseus let out a cry of victory.

He had only been able to gather ten thousand beastmen, but the thing was that with such great losses it would be difficult to gather any more of them. After suffering such a large defeat, it was understandable that many had started to fear the humans, a reversal of the usual natural order.

As such, what they needed was a large, decisive victory on his part. It was for that reason that he was leading this army towards Camelot- if they could succeed in taking it, it would show the rest of the beastmen that the humans had no way to stop them anymore.

Even when those legendary undead, the Soul Eaters, approached them, Theseus did not stop even as panic began to spread. He was confident in his new powers, and slew one of them with a single blow. He fell another just as easily- but the third one seemed to have realized that its death would be nigh if it fought him and scampered away, killing several hundred of his soldiers before Theseus caught up to it and split its skull open.

This victory of his over the Soul Eaters reenergized the beastmen- now, those undead whom they had long feared was nothing compared to the strength of their leader.

"Advance! The humans have no trump cards left which I can't handle!" Theseus shouted. "There is nothing to fear!"

As he said this, a strange cloud appeared above them. No, not a cloud, it was just a skull floating around in the sky.

"Have you seen that kind of undead before?" Theseus asked those around him, who shook their heads.

The skull then unleashed a great wave of flame that consumed over a hundred beastmen, and even singed him, though he withstood the attack.

The skull was unfortunately out of the reach of his blade, but Theseus had an answer to that- Slash of Wind!

The attack didn't seem to faze the undead, who retaliated with an ice elemental spell which clawed deep into Theseus, who cried out in pain. Even though he was stronger than before, this particular spell he had never seen before still dealt quite a bit of damage.

He racked his brains- slashing damage was weak against some kinds of undead which was why his earlier attack must have failed, so he would have to rely on bludgeoning damage instead.

Putting all his strength into his legs, he leapt up far further than he ever could before, but just as he was about to activate a Martial Art to deal bludgeoning damage the skull vanished and his sword met empty air.

He then felt intense pain in his back- pain as he had not felt in a very long time as he spun around mid-air to see that the skull was now behind him.

Thankfully, his armor did contain an enchantment that would let him fly for a while, but as he chased the skull around it became apparent that his control over it was rather poor. He now deeply regretted not practicing with it a bit more.

Every time he would get close, the skull would vanish and then lash out at him. It either was capable of using invisibility, or teleportation magic- Theseus wasn't sure which.

But, there were still a few aces he had up his sleeve. Lightspeed- a Martial Art which greatly enhanced one's speed, but only let one move in a straight line, allowed him to finally approach the skull, and he then used Meteor Impact, another Martial Art to deal massive bludgeoning damage to the skull.

The single strike caused it to dissipate and he landed back on the ground, panting. Nearly half of his skin had been burnt off but at least the fight was ov-

His thoughts went no further as another skull appeared above him. He used Impenetrable Fortress to steel himself for the next spell, so the acid attack which would've otherwise dissolved him flesh and bones alike, instead only penetrated deep into his skin.

His hand reached for a healing potion, but the skull was granting him no quarter. His eyes moved around to ask for someone to fend it off for a few seconds, but there was no one around him. The skull's area of effect attacks had cleared out any potential allies he could rely on, even Emilia and Vikus. That, combined with how much damage he had taken, made him realize just how powerful this enemy was.

Another use of Impenetrable Fortress was futile as the skull had moved onto using a lightning based attack, which damaged him so much his sword fell from his hand and he collapsed into the dirt.

He was then consumed by a large storm of fire completely.

Not even ashes of him remained.

A/N: Thanks for reading! And finally, I'm beginning to make these chapters a bit shorter.