“Hey what if you made another loop there?”
“Idiot! She can’t move direct him towards us! Must be towards the circle.”
“Few more obstacles over in this hallway… oh yeah like that.”
“Argh… I why can’t we just kill him and be done with it.”
“You wanna risk it? She sounded very convincing describing my death to that thing.”
“Yeah, I’m not convinced, my technique is not supposed to be unparryable, it cuts space itself! Maybe if I ju-“
“Ten times!” Mia snapped back towards the peanut gallery, all sitting on their own elemental pillar of choice or floating, her finger directly pointed at Roy “every time! You! Charge in and get his attention, die, then dumbass Ryker goes and avenges you, dies because he never listens! Claws don’t do anything!” She screamed, glaring at the Tiger beastman in their party.
“Ha-ha, I would do that.” He laughed, shrugging off Mia’s glare.
“Then everyone just goes and gets themselves killed, one by one, why?! He’s invincible for an hour. We go for so long and then one of you jumps in, stop, leave him alone.” Mia panted, she had gotten so close to timing Hiiro out each time, but then half of them couldn’t help themselves and would attack Hiiro one way or another.
The top offenders were usually the party leads, Roy, Seeth, and Drie. Roy would always try and cut Hiiro using his sky slash thing, apparently his pride being wounded hearing his attack was easily parried by a low-level hero. Seeth, the leader of Blue Blazing and a bulky whale beastman, would try to physically block Hiiro with his body and several tons of water… he’d do this after seeing Hiiro cut through Mia’s ice walls with ease.
And Dria, a reptilian half dragon newt, would follow up on which ever idiot acted first because *pride*… a very frustrating thing to watch, she used to attack first like the others, but mentioning her hidden technique of transforming into a large and thick dragon like form didn’t work and instead left her gutted on the ground bleeding green blood all over the place… needless to say she no longer acted first.
“Calm down Mia” Ria wrapped her arms around her sister, bringing her into a hug “just calm down alright?”
“It may be hard to believe, but I believe her… to an extent.” Trevor said upon his stone throne “There will be a lot to discuss after this is over, and of course, a gag order on top of all of this.”
Everyone groaned and shouted their complaints, Mia just going back to extending the hallway, adding several waist high obstacles for Hiiro to navigate and climb over, further slowing him down.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“…” Roy floated higher” Well, I don’t.” he stabbed his finger towards Mia “What if she is lying to just get at- the fuck are you doing?!” He yelled at Mia, who had stepped aside motioned with her hands to go ahead.
“Want to so badly, go.” She then glared at Dria “under the condition she doesn’t go when you die.” She said, frankly sick of him. This time around they were close, he couldn’t have but a few minutes left “Oh, and do it away from here.”
“Yeah, don’t drag us into it.” Ria nodded “already put my sister through so much with this, she’d be-Mph?!” Mia covered her mouth, telling her to stop.
Roy looked at everyone there, all of them either shrugging or shaking their head “you don’t seriously believe this girl? Do you?!”
“Eh, more like it doesn’t matter either way.” Otto spoke up “we are done here, just that one left and we go back up to defend the city, gives us a chance to let the younger generation a chance to rest and get the kids situated.”
“We’d be heading back right now if it weren’t for the boss.” One of the reptilians spoke.
Dria snorted “she knew about my hidden technique only my party mates knew about, I am convinced.”
“Regardless if it is true or not, she will have to answer a lot of questions when this is all settled.” Trevor said “Besides, as Otto said, gives everyone some time to get the kids situated, removing all those collars and calming down kids… we needed a few hours anyways.”
“But it is a threat! We just need to squa-“
The voices of the arguing adventurers grew distant as Mia slid down her pillar and started making her way straight through her own maze, Hiiro couldn’t have that much time left on his skill, but with how much room Mia had left it was now or never. She ran straight towards his destination, the broken circle.
* * *
She caught up to him, carefully trotting up behind him. She looked up at his bald and scarred head, solemnly looking at all the modifications the church had done to him “…I’m sorry I left you…” Mia said, watching him trudge along without acknowledging her, she wondered what was going on in his head, if he had any thought of his own left at all.
“I…can go back in time.” She stepped closer to him “I was, going to go back in another time and save you.” She watched him climb over a waist high wall, herself melting the ice away to give herself a clear path “back in time, back before we met in the city. After I saved my own village.” Her eyes fell on his metal braces, and then to the leather armor, now noticing it was somehow fused to his body, stitched into his skin in some places.
“I didn’t know this is what would happen to you.” She shook her head “Never would have left… shouldn’t have left…”
Hiiro lumbered forward, not paying her any mind as he stumbled over another wall “Open the portal, crush those who oppose.” He repeated.
“I’ll… do better.” Mia clenched her fist “Make sure this never happens to you, never happens to anyone…”
Hiiro side stepped a tall pillar, stopping halfway and began to loudly groan.
“…time’s up?” she gave a wry smile, watching Hiiro’s body start to convulse “I’ll stop you, this time… so don’t worry.” She raised her hand as a small icicle formed within it.
Hiiro turned around and faced her, black blood pouring from his mouth and nose “O-open… the…” his legs suddenly shattered, causing him to drop to the floor as the rebound of him breaking the natural laws of the world began hitting him in full force.
“Next time… I’ll save you.” Mia launched the icicle, piercing his head to spare him any further pain “I’m sorry…”