Foreword: Man, the last time I said this, Umbar ended up losing his arm and leaving the party. But it does effectively summarize my feelings towards these kinds of chapters. So, in any case…

Here we go.

Timestamp: 2 years, 4 months after the end of Volume 1.

Chapter 7
Even with his dying breaths, Christopher Schwartz has no regrets.

… That red was something I should've gotten used to seeing by now.

Blood was an everyday occurrence in the Dungeon. Even discounting the monsters that you would be killing, it was a rare day where adventurers wouldn't end up injured one way or another.

Scratches, bumps, and bruises were nothing. Gashes and broken bones were common enough that I had learned how to just power past it and keep going if need be.

It was a known quantity and an accepted risk. Every time adventurers went into the Dungeon, they accepted the fact that they would probably get injured. And similarly, every time they dove down, they accepted the fact that they might not come back–or that even if they did, that they might not be alive anymore.

Death was the end. No resets, no rewinds, no respawns. You had one chance. If you died, it was over. Even in a world where magic did exist, magic that could bring the dead back to life did not.

As an adventurer myself, I should've been used to it. That reality should've been hammered home into me by now.

And yet, even though I had seen the sight in front of me so many times already–

–for some reason, I couldn't turn away.

~~This is a Line Break~~

A deer-like monster charged at me, lowering its head to reveal antlers that were sharpened into gleaming points of silver. Sword Stag.

Before it could even come close to connecting, however, I had already made my move. My blade flashed outwards, neatly severing the entire set of antlers at the base before I pulled my free hand backwards and punched the stag in the jaw. There was a resounding CRACK as the monster's skull shattered beneath my fist before it collapsed to the ground. It didn't get up again.

3 green humanoids with wooden clubs and shields lumbered towards me as the stag fell, bunched up shoulder-to-shoulder in a line. Hobgoblins.

Their shields were up, but that didn't stop me from closing the distance with a spinning kick that I'd picked up from Lyon, plowing through the monsters like they weren't even there. All three of them were knocked to the ground before I finished them off, crushing the throat of the nearest one with my foot as I cut up the other two.

Overhead, a crimson bird screeched, its beak lighting up with fire as its wings beat in the air, out of the reach of my sword. Firebird.

Scaling the Dungeon's walls to reach it would take too long. I could kill it if I jumped directly at it, but that risked getting caught in the (literal) line of fire if I timed it wrong. So instead of doing either, I took aim and reached down towards the holster at my side. A flick of my arm at the elbow sent the throwing knife soaring through the air, the projectile finding its mark deep in the bird's neck.

The Firebird let out a choked hrgk as its flames guttered out before I threw a second one that embedded itself into one of the monster's wings, causing it to lose control and awkwardly spiral towards the ground. Yelena was there to catch it, finishing the downed bird off with a quick slash.

To my far right, I watched as Hackard went to work on the Mammoth Fool that had rushed at her. With a single powerful swing, she separated its front limbs from the rest of its body, causing the large monster to crash to the ground with an earthshaking THUD before bringing her claymore down on the monster's neck, burying it more than halfway through in a single swing. The monster let out a roar that turned into a gasp before its limbs went still.

A large bee-like monster dashed at me, stinger drawn back to kill. Deadly Hornet.

Instead of dodging, I brought my sword up, catching the attack with my sword and turning my wrist to the right. The monster was forced to spiral off awkwardly to the side as its stinger glanced off of the blade, leaving its back open. Before it could turn around, I caught up and separated its head from the rest of its body with a single slice.

"Yeesh. I'm jealous." Yelena whistled appreciatively before flipping away from a Deadly Hornet that had gotten too close, its claws missing before she retaliated with a swing of her shortsword. The blade connected with a crack, black blood spilling outwards from the chitin, but the monster only buzzed in response before she landed another two more swings, both of them connecting to bring the hornet down. "See that? That's what it's like to still be at Level 2! How does being Level 3 feel, Hikitani-san? Sure must've been a reallll nice 2 weeks, huh?"

I threw a forward kick that slammed into a Mad Beetle that had gotten too close before replying. "Hackard would know better than me. She's been Level 3 for almost 2 months now, after all."

"Don't drag me into this!" Hackard's shout echoed over from where she was, and I turned to see her scythe down 3 Lizardmen, cleaving through both their shields and their bodies in a single attack.

"Well, you heard her, Hikitani-san." Yelena grinned as she swiftly ducked under a second Deadly Hornet's dive, coming up behind it before bifurcating it in the middle with a cross-slash. "Explain yourself! Take responsibility!" Another shot towards the chienthrope's back, stinger drawn back at the ready, but Schwartz was there to intercept, and what could've been a serious injury ended with the hornet bouncing off of his shield.

"It's okay, Yelena-chan. I'm envious too, but it's just a matter of time!" Schwartz said before his spear jabbed outwards, neatly skewering the offending monster as he stepped forward to meet a Swordstag's rush head-on. There was a CRACK as he stopped the monster cold, but even as the stag pawed at the ground, Schwartz still had an easygoing smile on his face. "Hikitani-san only got there after… what, that massive monster party in the Great Falls? Or was it the Goliath raid last week?"

"The monster party." I answered. "The raid happened after. It's why Elder was willing to pay us so much." The leader of Rivira had offered us a generous sum by the town's standards–15% of whatever proceeds the raid gave–in exchange for having 2 Level 3s join in on the most recent battle against the Goliath.

Of course, that came with the caveat of him knowing that we were, in fact, Level 3s, and that Hermes had been falsifying our Levels, but it wasn't as if he could prove it. And even if he could, he would've still needed to be able to beat either of us in a fight if he wanted to hold it over our heads.

So instead, he knew, and could call on us if necessary. That was that. Although, come to think of it, I hadn't seen much of that raid's payout…

"Ah, right. Maris-san's drinking competition at Rivira afterwards! That's where the money came from!" I whipped my head around at Schwartz's words. Hackard's what? In Rivira?!

Hackard must've been paying attention, because as she rejoined the party, she began nervously trying to whistle, looking off to the side as she did so. On one hand, she was actually pretty good, managing a jaunty tune, but on the other, she refused to look me in the eye even as she turned to the rest of the party.

"Hey guys, look! Monsters! Isn't that great, we should really be focusing on them!" With that, we watched as she awkwardly laughed and charged headlong into the fray. This girl… she spent the money the commission gave on drinking in Rivira, of all places?! You're kidding me…

I comforted myself with the thought that I'd just take it out of her share of the loot when we got to the Guild later.

Yelena and Schwartz's envy was understandable, though. Clearing the 25th Floor had gotten much, much faster with both me and Hackard now at Level 3. Even though both the chienthrope and her partner were top-of-the-line Level 2s, the difference between us and them was ridiculous. It was comparable to the difference in stats between them and an adventurer who had just freshly Leveled Up to 2.

Even as the experienced Level 2 adventurers they were, Yelena and Schwartz were still struggling once we entered the Water Capital. There was a reason the Lower Floors' Guild-recommended Level was 3, even though Level 2s were technically still allowed, at least in the 25th-27th Floors.

If it weren't for the work Tulle had put in assembling a list of relevant information for us to work with, as well as a schedule that kept track of the Amphisbaena's estimated spawn times based on when other familias cleared it, progress would've probably been much harder and possibly a lot deadlier.

Right now, we were on the 24th Floor, which made things easier for Schwartz and Yelena. Since we had cleared both the goal set on the 25th Floor and the commissions taken a few days earlier, we had started the return trip to the surface.

–My eyes narrowed as a metallic scent flooded my senses. From the way Yelena's eyes widened a moment later, she had noticed it too. Monster blood was typically odorless and tasteless, so there was only one type of living being this scent could belong to.

I held up a hand, and the conversation going on behind me came to a pause. "Stay on your guard. There might be a monster party nearby." That was enough to temporarily dampen all conversation as we began walking again, keeping our eyes and ears open and our mouths closed as we stayed on the lookout.

A monster party was serious business down here. The 24th wasn't as dangerous as the 25th, not by a long shot, but it was still risky. In great enough numbers, even me and Hackard could get seriously injured if a monster party came down on top of us.

It didn't take long before we entered a room to see about a dozen Bugbears clustered together at the center, around what had to be a corpse–presumably the source of the blood I had detected earlier. "Yelena, Schwartz, you're up!"

"Got it!" Yelena said before she raised both of her shortswords and charged into the fray, Schwartz right at her side.

The two of them were as efficient as always, seemingly able to read one another's minds perfectly and cover exactly where the other was lacking. Yelena cut down two Bugbears before Schwartz's shield slammed into a third that had been about to attack her back, stabbing it and then a fourth with his spear. Another monster tried to attack Schwartz from the side, but he only swung his shield, bashing it in the face before Yelena followed by jumping over his shoulder and finishing it off with a sword to the throat.

It wasn't long before the monsters had all been cleared out.

As usual, the two of them were a great duo. In terms of teamwork, they far outstripped me and Hackard together. That wasn't to say that Hackard and I were terrible; on the contrary, we worked well together. It was just that Schwartz and Yelena were that much better; when we had been Level 2s, it wasn't surprising to see them rack up more monster kills together than me and Hackard combined.

"... No way." Schwartz's voice caught my attention. "I can't believe…" His line of sight was fixed on the facedown corpse, and as I turned to watch, it slowly shifted, sucking a rattling breath. "No way." He knelt down, grabbing the body by the shoulder and flipping it over.

I sucked in a sharp breath as the man's face came into view. He wasn't a corpse, but that wouldn't be the case for long.

"You're…?" One of his eyes was gone, something twitching inside the socket as he rotated his other one to glance at each of us. The flesh on one side of his head had seemingly been ripped off, a mess of twisted scalp and pale-white bone. "... adventurers…?"

Even aside from that, there were a multitude of other serious wounds strewn across his body: gashes that could've only come from monster claws, the fragment of a Deadly Hornet's stinger lodged inside of his gut, and what looked like a compound fracture on his right arm.

"You're adventurers!" Despite the state of his wounds, there was something that sounded almost like hope in his voice.

He surged upwards violently, but Schwartz was there, catching him by the shoulder. "Just… don't move. You're badly hurt. We'll have you treated and brought back to the surface soon." Despite his best attempt to keep calm, Schwartz's voice shook as he spoke. He knew that it was a worthless reassurance.

"No... I…" The man brushed off Schwartz's hand as he amanged to sit up. "My party. It was attacked… by an Irregular. It… they were surrounded." There was a wet cough, and blood sprayed out from his lips even as he continued trying to speak. He would be dead soon. "Please…"

"Don't worry." Hackard knelt down next to him. Her face was solemn. "Leave the rest to us. We'll save–"

"Please, kill it." The man's words seemed to cast a shadow on the room. There was a long silence.

"... eh?" Hackard had a look of confusion on her face, but it slowly faded away into realization as the man continued talking.

"Everyone else… they're dead. It took everything away from me." The man's words hung in the air like an executioner's blade that was waiting to fall. "I'm the only one left. It's only me. Please… avenge us. Kill it."

Hackard was frozen in place, but I could see the shift that was slowly happening behind her eyes. I wasn't an idiot.

"No." Her face whipped towards me with a hard stare, but I held firm. "Not happening. We don't know anything about this Irregular. We'd be walking into a death trap."

"This is his last wish." Hackard's eyes were now blazing with determination. "We owe it to him to at least try."

"And what? Add ourselves to the body count in the process?" At that, the fire in Hackard's eyes dimmed. "We don't have any information on this Irregular. There's no way to prepare for something like this. All we'd be doing is risking our lives for someone who won't even live to see his request finished."

My words drew a collective wince from the rest of the party, but they needed to be said. I didn't know this person. I wasn't going to risk my life or the lives of anyone else present for something as meaningless as a dead man's last request.

Hackard's shoulders slumped, and she stood up, turning away from the man. "... I'm sorry." Schwartz looked up at her, but Hackard only kept her head low as she began walking away. With a sigh, he too got up, joining the rest of us as we began heading back the way we came.

"... I know." A hoarse whisper echoed out from behind us as I passed the doorway. "I know I don't have the right to ask that of you. I know that. This is the life we chose as adventurers. I know that! But this is the only thing left that I can do! This is the only thing I can do to make sure that their deaths weren't in vain!"

The sounds of my footsteps echoed out alone in the hallway, and suddenly, I realized that I was the only one still walking, drifting to a stop as I did so. "I know I don't have the right to burden you with my plea. But there's no one left! You're the only ones!"

Slowly, reluctantly, I turned around.

The man had pulled himself up to his knees, forehead pressed into the ground as he slumped against the ground in our direction, almost as if he was praying in supplication. "No one else can make that thing pay for what it did. Not for Sofia, not for Almair, not for Vincent, not for Juniper! Only I saw it happen! No one will remember them but me! No one can remember them but me! If that thing doesn't die… then… then what was the point?"

There wasn't any. From the expressions on Hackard, Yelena, and Schwartz's faces, they knew that too. And yet, no one said anything.

"That's why… I'm begging you…" The man pulled himself up. A tear glistened, streaking out of the corner of his remaining eye down his face as he looked at us. "Please…" A half-mangled hand that was missing several fingers reached towards us pleadingly, hanging in the air.

"We'll do it." This time, it wasn't Hackard that knelt down. Instead, it was Schwartz that did so, clasping the man's hand firmly in his own. "I swear, on my life and as an adventurer, that we will see that monster dead!"

At Schwartz's declaration, the man's expression eased, just a little. A trickle of blood ran down the back of Schwartz's hand, and I realized that he wasn't breathing anymore. "Schwartz."

"... I know." Schwartz's voice shook, but as I watched he let go of the man's hand, instead moving to close his remaining eye. "Let's… at least, let's put him out of the way. In a corner, or something."

"Sure." Picking up the man's body, I placed it in one of the many tree hollows that were around the room, seating it against a wall before I rejoined the rest of the party. It was the best we could do for a burial. The Dungeon was always shifting, so it wouldn't be long before the body was either eaten by a monster or absorbed wholesale by the Dungeon.

"Alright. Then let's keep going." Before we could begin walking again, however–

"Please wait, Hikitani-san." I stared at Schwartz, who met my gaze head-on without flinching. "If you don't mind, I'd like for us to deal with that Irregular." Even though he worded it politely, I knew it wasn't a request.

"... Why?" I knew exactly why, but I couldn't stop myself from asking him anyways.

"... I made a promise."
"To a dead man."
"That doesn't change the fact that it's a promise."

"Which doesn't mean anything. He's already dead. It doesn't matter to him if we complete the promise or not." According to Hermes, once souls died in this world they were brought up to Heaven, washed clean of their experiences, and sent down here again in some sort of cycle, so Schwartz's promise really was pointless to act on.

"It matters to me, Hikigaya-san." Schwartz's use of my real name had me raising an eyebrow. He almost never did that. "What kind of person would I be if I made promises, only to go back on them once they didn't matter to me anymore?"

There were a lot of answers to his question that I could've given. But none of them were answers that Schwartz would accept, even if he didn't have a retort for them. It was obvious that we were only going to end up going in circles around each other.

Since that was the case, it was time to change the approach. If rhetoric wouldn't work on Schwartz, then what I needed were objective facts and irrefutable logic.

"You already heard what I said to Hackard." Schwartz's face tensed as I continued talking. "We don't know anything about this Irregular or what it can do. We might as well be walking into a death trap. You really want to risk everyone's lives–" I pointed to Yelena, Hackard, and finally Schwartz himself. "–for something as meaningless as your own pride?" At that, his expression wavered.

"That's not…" His voice trailed off as he tried to look for an answer, but it was clear that he didn't have one.

"Hey. That's not fair to Chris, Hikigaya." Hackard was the one to step in. "You know that it's not him calling the shots here. We're all part of this party. Whether or not we go along with Chris is up to us. That's our choice. And if he wants to go for that monster, I'm in." Behind her, Yelena didn't say anything, but I wasn't an idiot. Where Schwartz went, she followed.

That left only me.

Hackard wasn't wrong, of course. It wasn't fair to assume that Schwartz was the only one who wanted this, when it was in fact the opposite. I was the only one who was set on heading back. But if the 3 of them went for that Irregular, I wasn't just going to split with them partways.

And that look in Schwartz's eyes…

I set my pack down and went through my supplies. 8 High Potions, 14 normal Potions. Along with the usual box of medical supplies. And that was just me; this wasn't counting the supplies Hackard, Schwartz, or Yelena had. It was more than enough to see us to Rivira.

It would have to be enough for this.

"Alright." I resisted the urge to sigh as I relented. "But if it gets bad, then we're running. Understand?" Even if Schwartz wanted to finish it, it wasn't worth risking our lives for it.

"Understood. Thanks, Hikigaya-san." In response, Schwartz gave me a nod, along with a soft smile, and with that, we set off.

~~This is a Line Break~~

It wasn't long before we found the Irregular. The trail of blood had been very clear, and the pieces of equipment and weaponry strewn across the ground only made the search even more obvious.

As the one taking point, I walked into the room… and stopped at the sight in front of me. That's… not good. The annihilation of an entire battle party made sense now.

It wasn't a monster party. A monster party could be outrun and worn down. The situation would've been manageable if it was something as simple as a monster party, but this… this was something that was a lot more dangerous than anything a monster party could cook up.

Green Dragon. It was a dragon-type monster–wings, claws, tail, the whole package. Rather than some variant of the fire breath attack that most long-ranged monsters in the Dungeon packed, however, it was infamous for its vicious poison breath, which would blind and choke you as soon as you made contact with it.

They were unquestionably the most dangerous monsters in the Middle Floors, barring maybe the Goliath–because Green Dragons were also rated as Level 4 monsters, and were a lot faster than the Goliath could ever hope to be. Usually, they were found guarding the Jewel Trees that were dotted throughout the floor, but from the way this one was standing out in the middle of the room, it was clear that this was far from the usual.

This wasn't just any Irregular. It was the strongest Irregular there was.

It was wounded, to some extent. The party before us had evidently managed to do some damage; there were arrows jutting here and there out of gaps in the dragon's scales, some slash wounds that were still bleeding, and a spearhead that was still embedded in its neck. Its wings had several holes punched into it, and as it turned around to face us, it was limping from an axe that was embedded up to the hilt in one of its back legs.

On the other hand, the other party had been completely wiped out. So it hadn't exactly been a fair fight.

We had fought a Green Dragon before–once. Exactly once, because all of us had come so close to dying for what amounted to maybe half-a-million Valis that it just wasn't worth it.

Even with two Level 3s, I still wasn't sure of our chances. But when I turned to look at the rest of the party, I was only met by faces of grim determination. It wasn't like I had much of a choice in this.

Silently, we split ourselves into two pairs–me and Hackard in front, Yelena and Schwartz behind–before we began moving. In a head-on fight, Hackard and I were the only ones who even had a chance at hurting it–attacks from Level 2s would bounce right off the dragon's scales unless you aimed for its weak spots–so we took point.

The Green Dragon started off the fight rather predictably, opening its mouth and spewing a cloud of poisonous gas that shot across the room. "Dodge!" All of us dove for cover, easily avoiding the cloud before we recovered and dashed across the room to close the distance.

Hackard and I got there first, but before we could even begin to mount an attack, the dragon had already reacted, turning in a circle and whipping its tail out at us. I ducked into a slide, letting it fly over my head while Hackard slammed her sword into it at full force, stopping the attack in its tracks.

To my surprise, however, Hackard was shoved a few steps backwards as well before she regained her footing, lunging forward to crash into the dragon's claws head-on with a shout. "Fuck you!"

In response, the dragon snarled, and as I watched, it began to trade blows with Hackard, both of them picking up speed.

It was a stalemate. No, worse–Hackard was slowly getting pushed back. In a contest of strength, she was losing.

"Don't get hit!" This shout was primarily directed at Yelena and Schwartz as I moved to the dragon's side, delivering a two-handed slash that sent the dragon reeling to take some pressure off of Hackard. "If you get hit directly even once, you might die instantly!" If the dragon was strong enough to push Hackard back with its claws, I didn't need to see anything else to know that a clean hit would be bad for us, let alone Schwartz and Yelena.

The Green Dragon turned around as I scored a second hit, cutting past the scales and deep into its muscles before I was forced to dodge away from a clawed swipe. A second set of claws came in, but I watched as Schwartz interspersed himself in between the two of us, taking the blow with his shield and knocking it upwards even as he was sent staggering backwards.

I didn't miss my chance. Sliding underneath the limb, I let muscle memory take over, guiding me into a barrage of the deadliest strikes I knew at point-blank range. My sword followed through on the motions perfectly, gleaming silver as it carved through the air and tore into the dragon's vulnerable underbelly.

From the way Yelena was grinning, she hadn't missed her chance either, and the dragon let out a roar as it fell back, blood spilling from the fresh wounds we had inflicted. Almost immediately, however, its tail swung through the air again, forcing us to fall back before it launched a follow-up attack with astounding speed, shooting through the air in my direction.

I barely managed a dodge on reflex, spinning away from a bite attack that would've turned me into mincemeat on the spot if it connected. If it weren't for the reflexes that Lyon and Anya had beat into me, I'd be dead!

But the dragon's attack had left it open, and Hackard's sword hit its shoulder hard enough to send some scales flying and throw it off-balance, skittering across the ground as it tried to regain purchase.

The Green Dragon roared before unleashing another jet of poisonous gas that shot across the room, but all of us dodged it easily, taking care to avoid the lingering cloud as we advanced towards the monster again and went on the offense.

Schwartz's spear jabbed into its ribs in a flurry of thrusts. Hackard's swing connected with its jaw. The dragon tried to counterattack, but all I did was knock the claws aside with a swing of my own before Yelena deftly slid past me to land two more slashes to the center of its chest.

"Dammit, I missed…!" She clicked her teeth as we fell backwards in unison. Her frustration was understandable. If she had connected with the dragon's Magic Stone, it would've already died.

As it were, we watched as the Green Dragon swelled up, opening its mouth again. However, instead of more poison, it unleashed a roar. "AAAAAOOOOOHHHHHH!" There was enough force packed into the sound to make my bones rattle, and a chill crept up my spine, but that was it. As far as attacks went, it wasn't much.

Turning to look at Schwartz and Yelena, however, showed something far different. Both of them were looking a lot paler than before, and their breaths were coming out in short gasps as if they were struggling to stay conscious.

It clicked. This was–

"A Howl?!" I heard Hackard mutter incredulously as she stood next to me, similarly unaffected.

Howl. It was an attack that was used by a few higher-Level monsters, which consisted of a roar filled with magical energy that directly overloaded its target's senses. Any creatures that were "weaker" than the Howler would either be immediately paralyzed or suffer a massive drop in concentration, leaving them easy pickings for the monster to finish off.

There were variations on it which involved utilizing it as some sort of projectile, but those were even rarer. For a Green Dragon to possess a Howl… I didn't remember anything about Green Dragons having those.

But as far as attacks went, it wasn't very useful against Level 3s like me or Hackard. Hackard didn't miss her chance, dashing right up to its face with her sword already poised over her head. Her slash sheared through the side of the dragon's head with a clean thwack-CRUNCH, tearing out an eyeball to turn the dragon's Howl into a screech of pain.

The monster's retaliatory swipe, however, caught Hackard as she pulled her blade out, smacking her square in the chest and bouncing her backwards across the floor. "Hackard!"

"I'm fine!" She called back as she got to her feet, though she coughed slightly. Her chestplate was dented. "Messed me up a little, but I'll be fine." As I watched, she reached into one of the pouches on her belt, pulling out a High Potion and downing it.

"Yelena. Schwartz."

"We… we'll…" Schwartz stammered a little as he responded, but it seemed that cutting the Howl short had worked. At any rate, he and Yelena were looking better as they downed their Potions during the lull from the fighting. "We'll be fine. Let's just finish this."

With that, the four of us regrouped and began advancing on the monster again. In response, it drew itself back and unleashed a roar.

"–Again?!" Yelena shouted as both she and Schwartz covered her ears. "How many times are you going to try this before you realize that it won't work?!" But I narrowed my eyes. This time, I didn't feel any bone-shaking or magical energy washing over my senses.

This wasn't a Howl. What was it?

crack. There was a quiet sound that came from behind me, almost as if the Dungeon had heard my question and decided to respond. It was so quiet that it was almost unnoticeable, but I heard it anyways. It was the one sound that all adventurers were able to recognize. The one constant in the Dungeon.

… No way. I turned around.

I was greeted by the sight of a single flake of wood peeling off from the wall and falling to the floor. Almost immediately, it was joined by a hundred–no, hundreds–more. No way.

The crack crack crack turned into a pounding KRAK KRSH KRAM KRM as monster after monster was born into the hallway right behind us, cutting off the only way of escape. Hobgoblins, Sword Stags, Mad Beetles, Mammoth Fools, Lizardmen… at a glance, there were well over 3 dozen of them altogether. No way, no way, no way!

–This was the worst situation possible. We couldn't deal with both that Irregular and a monster party of that size at the same time. From the look on everyone else's faces, they knew that too.

But before I could say anything, I watched as Schwartz's face locked down into a snarl and he moved towards the doorway, slamming the closest monster's face in with his shield before running through a second one with his spear. "Focus on the dragon, Hikigaya! We'll buy time for you! Kill it with Maris and join us after!"

Behind him, Yelena was already pulling out the Magic Sword, sending a fusillade of fireballs rocketing down the hallway, but that wouldn't be nearly enough. There were just too many monsters. Even as five dropped to the floor as charred corpses, five more instantly took their place.

It wouldn't be long before they'd get overwhelmed, and then–

"aaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" My thoughts were cut short by Hackard's roar, and I turned to see her meet the dragon's claws head-on, stalling it for a brief moment before she managed to shove them away. Before she could capitalize on the opening, though, the dragon snapped at her with its jaws, forcing her to dodge away before it turned in a circle, whipping its tail outwards.

Hackard managed to block it, but the sheer force of the strike blew her off of her feet anyways, sending her tumbling across the ground before she recovered and was almost immediately forced to dodge away from another one of the dragon's claws.

Out of the 4 of us, Hackard was easily the strongest when it came to pure numbers. But even she wasn't a match for the monster 1-on-1. There was a reason Green Dragons were considered Level 4 monsters–they had too many tools at their disposal for any single Level 3 adventurer to handle.

At best, Hackard could stall it out and wait for us to join her, but as soon as she made some sort of mistake, then–

Dammit. Dammit! I cut my own thoughts short this time, redoubling the grip I had on my sword. Who do I choose? Hackard? Schwartz and Yelena?

If I chose wrong, then someone would end up dead. I couldn't make a blind leap of faith here. Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I thought about what I needed to do.

If I were being realistic, it was far safer to join Schwartz and Yelena. With the 2 of them, that monster party would be dealt with in a few minutes, probably even less considering that I was Level 3. But that meant that Hackard would have to fight the Green Dragon in that period of time, alone, and not make any mistakes that would lead to a fatal injury.

She couldn't do that. I couldn't do that. No one could. If Schwartz were Level 3, he probably would've had a chance, but he wasn't. Thinking about what-ifs was pointless.

What about Schwartz and Yelena? They were still Level 2, but they weren't fighting a Level 4 monster. They'd eventually get overwhelmed by the monster party, but it was only Level 2 monsters. It was far more likely that Hackard would drop first.

And if that was the case, then I had my answer. Who do I choose?

I made my choice, whirling around and racing towards the Green Dragon to join Hackard.

–1 minute. That was most likely how long Schwartz and Yelena would last against that many monsters before things went wrong. If we couldn't kill this thing within a minute, then we were in serious trouble.

Dodging under a clawed swipe, I slid past the Green Dragon's guard, letting the the monster's momentum carry it over and past me before I landed a slice across its inner thigh. The monster roared, but didn't get much further before it was forced to intercept one of Hackard's blows, pushing her back.

"Hackard!" The blue-haired girl looked towards me as she ducked further back from a claw attack. "Front legs! Get its chest open!" She nodded.

The standard strategy for engaging large-category monsters such as dragons centered around depriving them of their movement. In general, you started with the back legs, then moved to the front legs, and wore the monster down from there.

But we didn't have the time for that. Instead, we'd have to focus on weakening its frontal limbs so that we could reach its Magic Stone quickly. That wasn't to say, however, that we'd leave the dragon free to move however it wanted to.

As Hackard moved to try and get on the dragon's blind side, the monster turning itself to keep her within its field of vision, I took the chance to run up and slam my foot into the haft of the axe still embedded in its back leg. The axe sunk deeper into the wound with a psh-krsh, and the monster's leg buckled before Hackard let out a yell and charged.

The Green Dragon made to intercept her, but before it could, I landed a quick slash to the back of its other leg, causing it to stumble before Hackard's sword cut into its outstretched arm with a loud CRACK! and it roared with pain.

The Green Dragon retaliated with a clawed swipe that Hackard blocked before diving down, its jaws stretched wide open for a bite attack before she dodged away. But as Hackard brought her sword up above her head to counter, I watched as the monster's eyes flashed.

"Hackard!" I brought my sword down on top of the dragon's leg again, but it ignored me as it swung its head forward, crashing into Hackard at full force. She took the blow straight to the chest, the force of the attack sending her flying across the room. "Hackard!"

"Gah!" Relief shot through me as I heard Hackard's voice from where she had hit the wall. At least she was still alive–

I stepped back, narrowly avoiding the claws that were where I just was a second earlier. Don't get distracted!

The Green Dragon glared at me with its remaining eye before both sets of claws were swiping at me. I deflected the first strike upwards, slid past the second with less than an inch to spare, ducked under a third, and blocked a fourth that sent me sliding backwards, my hands shaking with the force.

Before I could begin to think about how to counterattack, the dragon was already on the offensive again. Claws sliced through the air, almost connecting with my shoulder before I brought my sword up to knock the limb upwards. I couldn't get my blade back in position in time to stop the next attack, so I sidestepped around it, but before I could counter that, the dragon's jaws were already blurring through the air towards my position. It's too fast!

I threw myself into a dodge, tucking into a roll as the monster's head hit the ground before coming up with my sword finally at the ready, lunging at the dragon with my blade at the ready. Its eyes flashed, but I was expecting that after what happened with Hackard, and before its head could even get close I had already moved out of the way, letting the attack pass by.

What I didn't expect was for it to turn a full circle, whipping its tail outwards towards my body.

I got my arm up in time to block, but that was the wrong choice. There was a lightning-white crack of agony as the tail connected that exploded across my vision, blowing me off of my feet. I was sent flying backwards through the air, weightless for a split-second before gravity took control, slamming me into the ground hard enough to force every remaining bit of air out of my lungs.

I gasped for breath. Shadows danced in the corners of my vision, threatening to overtake me as I tried my best not to pass out. In front of me, my left arm lay at a funny angle, jagged white bone peeking through where it looked like the flesh had been flayed off. Compound fracture. Not… good.

I let my sword drop from my lifeless fingers and clatter to the ground, blindly plunging my remaining hand into the pouch at my waist as I fumbled around desperately for a High Potion. Pulling out three, I flicked the caps off with my thumb before downing them all at once.

Energy shot through me, and the shadows receded just enough for me to see the Green Dragon standing in front of me, jaws wide open as it hurtled through the air in my direction. That's–I can't dodge this!

There was only one thing left that I could do.

Scooping up my sword from the ground with my right hand, I brought it down to my left side, bracing against it with my elbow as I snapped my right knee up and to the right. The dragon's jaws closed around me with crushing force, but thanks to my quick thinking, I hadn't been snapped in half–at least, not yet.

But now I was trapped. My sword was now firmly wedged against its lower jaw, which stopped my arm from moving and my leg was now the only thing blocking its teeth from sinking into my torso. I clenched my teeth and winced as several of the Green Dragon's teeth slid past my greave and sunk into my leg with agonizing slowness, spikes of pain erupting where I had been hurt. Something cold began to trickle down my leg, and I abruptly realized that it was my blood.

This situation wouldn't last long, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it. If I moved either my arm or my leg, the dragon's jaws would just snap close and kill me. But if the situation continued, I'd get crushed to death between the dragon's jaws before I could do anything, iron maiden style.

–An idea occurred to me, and I glanced at my left arm. The fracture wasn't done healing–the bone was still exposed–but it wasn't like I had much of a choice right now. I had one viable attack left, and this was it.

Clenching my teeth, I removed my left elbow from where it was braced against my sword to reach behind my back and pull out my knife. At point blank range, I can't miss!

Raising my hand high into the air, doing my best to ignore the pain that was flooding from there, I aimed at the dragon's remaining eye and brought it down.

Even though I had prepared myself, I still wasn't ready. White-hot pain shot through my arm and I screamed as I let go of the knife, clutching at my broken arm. The dragon had let me go at some point, because I was able to fall to my knees, and as I looked up, it shrieked as it arched back into the air.

But Hackard was there, and there was a quiet crack before the monster finally, finally turned into ash and scattered.

"Hikigaya! Hikigaya!" I faintly registered her kneeling down next to me and the clink-clink of glass as she rustled around my pockets before there was a glass bottle held to my mouth. "Here. Drink this." I swallowed the High Potion without complaint, and the world seemed to regain some semblance of color. I reached down into my leg holster, pulled out 2 more High Potions, and drank them.

It wasn't enough–not nearly enough for what I'd just gone through–but it'd have to do for now. Because–

"Schwartz and Yelena. Where are…?" My question trailed off as I scanned the room. But there was only Hackard, and a group of monsters still by the doorway. "That's…" Hackard followed my line of sight and paled.

"Get moving." I unsteadily rose to my feet, picking up my sword with a grip that hadn't been this shaky since I had first started adventuring. "Now!"

Together, we charged.

There weren't that many monsters left–somewhere along the lines of 11 or 12. But that was 11 or 12 too many, and I felt my heart sink as bit by bit, the splatters of red blood that were on the floor grew in number.

We were too late.

That fact was only proven as we cut down the remaining monsters, only to watch as the last one fell with twin shortswords embedded in its chest. Neither Hackard nor I had done that. That had been…

"Yelena…?!" The chienthrope girl was covered in wounds from head to toe. Her armor was practically gone, torn to shreds. Glass shards crunched underneath our feet as we ran up to her.

"You guys… !" Monster blood was splattered all over her, but I could see the faint glistening of tear tracks on her face, and I felt a chill run through my body. "Chris is… Chris is–!" I looked down and couldn't stop myself from sucking in a breath.

Schwartz was a living corpse. Not a single part of his body had been spared. His armor was gone. His clothes had been torn to shreds. Punctures and slashes littered his body, and he was missing a leg. His spearhead had snapped off at some point, but the blood that coated the wooden handle told me that he'd kept using it even after it had broken. He didn't even have his shield anymore–instead, there was a shortsword in its place, clutched in a hand that was missing a few fingers.

Yelena looked at us pleadingly. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. "It's… it's bad! Please, I–" Her voice broke off as suddenly, Schwartz twitched and rose from the ground like an undead, the shortsword in his hand blurring through the air as it shot at Hackard's throat with lethal precision.

"Chris?!" She moved fast enough to drop her own sword and catch it with her bare hands, but her eyes were wide open with shock. "Chris?!"

There wasn't a response, and I suddenly knew why. "He's unconscious," I breathed out. He had fought to that point.

"Please… that's enough…" Yelena's hand shakily reached through the air, softly catching Schwartz's wrist. She was crying as she gently guided his wrist downwards, taking the shortsword away from Hackard's neck. "Chris… that's more than enough…"

There was a sudden intake of breath, and I watched as Schwartz's eyes opened before he swayed and collapsed, only stopped by me catching him and laying him on the floor. "... Yelena… ?" His voice was a death-rattle. "... Maris… ? Hikigaya… is that you?"

"Don't. Just… don't move, Chris." Hackard's voice was trembling, and it was with a start that I realized that she wasn't smiling at all.

"... oh." Schwartz's eyes turned to me. "We… won?" I couldn't find any words, so instead I nodded. Schwartz cracked a small smile. "Ha… sorry, everyone. I really did… overestimate myself… back there."

"Don't… just… stop talking, stupid." Yelena sniffled, tears dripping down from her face as she set her pack down and began rummaging through it. "Just wait for us to heal you. We'll get you back to the surface."

I doubted that. This was it for Schwartz. Not even an Elixir could fix this much damage. But even though that was the case, I found myself reaching for the remaining High Potions I had anyways.

To my surprise, before I could open them up and pour them on his body, I found Schwartz gripping my wrist with an unexpected strength.

"No. Don't… bother. No good… anyways. Save them… the return trip." His grip tightened as his eyes searched my face pleadingly before I looked away, letting my hand drop.

Next to me, Yelena started crying even harder. Hackard was silent, her expression frozen as she looked down at Schwartz's body.

"This… this is it for me." None of us could refute Schwartz's words as he gently reached out and took Yelena's hand in his own. Faintly, I wondered how he could be so calm.

"Before I go… I have some things to say. Yelena, you know this already, but… I love you." His hand squeezed around hers once, twice, three times. "Please… take care of yourself."

"You… how can you be so calm… I–" Yelena cut herself off as she shuddered and broke off.

"I don't know," Schwartz answered, even as there was a soft smile on his face. "Maybe it's because I don't want to die like that, I guess."

His head turned towards Hackard. "Maris-san… Thanks for everything. The drinking, and the partying… I had so much fun thanks to you. Please… take care of Yelena after I'm gone." Hackard didn't respond, aside from the smallest of nods, but it seemed to be good enough for Schwartz, who turned to me.

"... Hikigaya-san."

"... Yeah. I'm here." I felt my throat close up a little, but I managed to meet Schwartz's eyes.

"Sorry. For not… trusting you." Schwartz's eyes flicked to Yelena, who was still crying, and Hackard, who still hadn't moved, before returning to my own. "Hikigaya. Take care of them, alright… ? Everyone else. Everything… else."

There was a long silence as I struggled with the weight of his words before finally nodding. Schwartz's eyes slowly closed as he made a visible effort to swallow before opening again.

"It… it was fun. I had a good life. Thanks, everyone. I…" He fell silent once again, as he had many times before while he was talking, but this time, there was something different.

It didn't take me long before I realized that the sound of his breathing had stopped.

The only sound that was left in its wake was that of Yelena's sobbing. Next to me, Hackard was silent as her own tears quietly fell to the ground.

In the middle of it all, I found myself staring at Schwartz's face. His eyes were closed. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. That was how Christopher Schwartz had died.

A cold wind blew out of the room and down the hallway, and I shivered as the chill seeped deep into my bones.

I'd forgotten how cold it could be.

Afterword: Merry… Christmas… ?

Ah, geez, what a chapter for me to put out today, huh? Makes me think that maybe saving that Christmas chapter from Chapter 3 might've been a better release. Definitely would've been more cheerful.

At least the amount of red that's in this chapter fits the Christmas color theme (LOL).

Well, that was certainly a chapter of all time, wasn't it? It's my way of kicking off the "finale" of this volume, touching upon this specific event.

Originally, I was going to update on the weekend of the 21st-22nd, but then I got sick and had to put the chapter on hold before realizing "Wait, people will likely have the day off on Christmas, or be considerably freer. I can just put it out then." Hope the writing hasn't dropped significantly in quality, but let me know if it has and I'll try my best to get to fixin' as soon as I can.

As you can see, we've finally arrived at this point, which I've kinda been alluding to in the past 2 volumes. There are some things that are yet to be covered, so I can't spoil everything, but I'll be straightforward and say that while I had the strong sense of the fact that Schwartz was dead and the vague reasons behind it–after all, that's how I informed Hikigaya and Maris's monologues in Volume 2 and 3 at the most critical moments–the details hadn't been made clear yet, only their respective interpretations.

Writing this, I spent the whole time hoping that what I've created and fleshed out aligns well enough with the thoughts that were written like… 1 or 2 years ago, and helps to explain a lot of what Hikigaya and Maris are always pondering, agonizing, and afraid of. And I hope that I created a fitting end for Chris.

I hope that everything made sense, and that you all enjoyed. Let me know what you thought of things so far! This isn't over just yet, so hang tight for the next chapter!

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Sincerely,
Oreo the Cookie