The world snapped back in pieces.
First came sound—raw, ragged breathing, clattering armor, the distant clunk of shifting stone.
Then came weight—gravity reasserting itself, boots scraping against solid ground.
Then sight—dim blue glowbursting in fractured lines across a cavern too large to comprehend at first glance.
Hajime blinked hard, forcing the white afterimage of the teleport to fade. His stomach lurched—teleportation sickness again—but he steadied himself with a breath.
This isn't Floor 20.
His Resonance pulsed against his ribs like an alarm.
A vast stone chamber stretched before them—no, "chamber" wasn't enough. It was a cathedral of rock and shadow, its ceiling lost high above in rib-like arches. Suspended bridges of carved stone crisscrossed an unfathomable chasm, some intact, some broken into jagged fragments that plunged into darkness below.
"Everyone here!?" Captain Meld's voice cracked through the confusion. "Check your surroundings—sound off!"
Students scrambled to gather, some disoriented, some pale, some with hands still raised from spells they couldn't finish.
Kaori's voice trembled. "I—I'm here! Shizuku too!"
"I'm good!" Ryutarou shouted.
"Same!" several others echoed.
Hajime scanned the formation quickly. No one was missing. A miracle.
That was the last miracle they were getting.
A chill rippled through the cavern as something stirred in the misty distance.
Dozens… no… hundreds of faint red pinpoints lit up like scattered embers.
Then they moved.
Figures marched from the far side of the massive chamber—skeletal soldiers clad in rusted armor, gripping corroded spears and chipped shields. Archers in the back raised bone-bows. Their formation was too clean, too deliberate to be random monsters.
Traum soldiers. Undead siege units.
A full army.
"Fall in!" Meld's voice hardened instantly. "Front and rear guard—shields up! Priests, prepare wide-range buffs!"
Suzu squeaked. "N-Not again—why is it this many!?"
Hajime's Resonance spiked painfully.
The labyrinth's mana density was wrong—far too heavy for upper layers. The air vibrated like overcompressed springs waiting to snap.
"We're way deeper than Floor 20…" Hajime muttered under his breath.
A knight standing near him swallowed. "Deep? As in—how deep?"
"I don't know," Hajime said. "But it's not anywhere we're supposed to be."
The skeletons advanced as one—shields locked, spears angled, archers nocking arrows in eerie unison.
Meld drew his blade. "Prepare for engagement!"
The first volley flew.
"Barrier!" Suzu cried.
A sheet of translucent force snapped up just in time, arrows ricocheting off with sharp metallic clinks. The impact made her knees tremble.
"They're too many!" someone yelled.
"Don't panic!" Meld countered. "Frontline—countercharge on my signal!"
Kouki's holy sword ignited with white-gold light. "Everyone stay behind me!"
Hajime pressed a hand against the stone beneath his feet. His Resonance pulsed outward, mapping fault lines, slopes, weaknesses.
He knew what had to be done.
He also knew they wouldn't survive if the flanks collapsed.
"Left side's weak!" he shouted. "Casters, shift coverage—Hiyama, keep that lane tight!"
Hiyama flinched, then scowled. "I know!"
But his eyes flicked toward Kaori first—always Kaori.
"Frontline—GO!" Meld bellowed.
Kouki burst forward in a streak of white light, cleaving through the first three skeletons in a single arc. Ryutarou smashed into another cluster like a wrecking ball. Shizuku flowed between them, blade slicing delicate joints with clean precision.
But they weren't the only targets.
Hajime saw the danger before it formed—three skeletons peeling wide on the right, aiming straight for the archers and support casters.
He moved.
Reaching into a thigh pouch, he flicked out three marked stones in a tight triangular spread.
"Detonate."
The first burst in a controlled flash—stun-grade.
The second shattered into a concussive ripple.
The third sent a sideways arc of force that knocked all three skeletons into a supporting pillar.
"Shiori, Kotone—follow-up!" he barked.
Shiori thrust her staff out, water surging in a wide stream. Lightning from Kotone crackled over it, arcing between bones and rust.
The skeletons convulsed, then collapsed into smoking heaps.
"H-Holy crap," Yuka gasped. "Nagumo-kun, that was—"
"Don't thank me yet." Hajime grabbed another stone. "They're regrouping."
Suzu's barrier wavered. "I-I'm losing stability!"
Hajime slapped a pale-blue stone against the floor behind her.
"Reinforce."
A secondary translucent wall snapped up. Suzu gasped as her own barrier steadied.
"T-Thank you, Nagumo-kun!"
"Just breathe," he answered. "Keep your focus front."
More skeletons poured around the edges.
Left flank—weak again.
Right flank—shifting into spear wedge formation; they were adapting.
"Endou!" Hajime shouted. "Cut the back line!"
Kousuke nodded silently and vanished—appearing behind a skeleton archer to slice its spine. Then another. Then another.
Kaori's voice rose behind Hajime, steadying the wounded with luminous warmth. "Stay with me—everyone, please, don't panic!"
Hajime forced his breath slow.
Keep the formation intact.
Support, correct, stabilize.
He had done this for a week straight, floor after floor.
This time the stakes were higher.
Much higher.
Skeletons pushed forward again, tighter and heavier.
"Kouki! Pull back half a pace!" Meld barked. "You're splitting the line!"
Kouki's jaw clenched. "I can't—Kaori's exposed!"
"No she's not," Meld shot back. "Shizuku's covering her!"
Shizuku parried a spear cleanly, stepped aside, and elbowed Kouki sharply as she passed.
"Stop overextending," she hissed. "You're leaving openings!"
Kouki flinched but adjusted, tightening his footwork.
Good. They could still hold—
The floor vibrated.
Slow. Heavy. Rhythmic.
No…
Hajime knew this sound.
A knight near him whispered, pale, "Something's coming…"
The skeleton army parted.
Not retreating—making room.
A shape emerged from a magic circle on far archway.
Five meters tall.
Muscles like boulders.
A bull's head crowned with jagged horns.
Dark mana oozing from every crack in its hide.
Behemoth.
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" multiple students cried.
Meld swore under his breath. "Hold formation! Walls in layers—slow it down we are at floor 60 right now!"
The Behemoth roared—deep, primal, a shockwave bursting outward.
Suzu's barrier flickered dangerously. "I-I can't hold—!"
The Behemoth charged.
It hit the first barrier like a battering ram—shattering it.
It hit the second like a runaway boulder—splitting it down the middle.
It hit the third—Suzu's last—
and it cracked, spiderwebs of light racing across its surface.
"Fall back! Bleed its momentum!" Meld roared.
The students staggered backward.
Hajime didn't.
He moved sideways—along the very edge of the bridge.
Timing.
He slapped both hands onto the stone.
"Transmute!"
The ground beneath the Behemoth's charging hooves shifted—flattening, tilting, creating an unnatural slope.
The Behemoth's front legs hit the incline—
its weight shifted—
and its entire massive body stumbled.
"NOW!" Meld roared. "Everyone—hit the joints!"
Kouki's holy sword slashed down in a burst of white.
Shizuku struck a tendon.
Ryutarou slammed a gauntlet into a knee.
Nana iced the ground in front of it.
Kentarou erupted spikes of stone up through its ankles.
The Behemoth crashed onto one knee, bellowing in fury.
This was the moment.
Hajime grabbed darker stones—
the ones he hadn't shown anyone.
He slid them into thin cracks he'd created earlier with his transmute.
Pale vapor hissed out.
"Muscle relaxant," he warned nearby knights. "Don't inhale it."
They stared at him, stunned.
The Behemoth sagged—just a little.
"KEEP PRESSURE!" Meld shouted.
Light, fire, ice, stone—every spell they had hammered its head and neck.
It was working.
The Behemoth's roars weakened.
For a moment, victory almost seemed—
The Behemoth's eyes snapped open—glowing deep crimson.
Its mana surged outward in thick, dark veins.
"Berserk mode!?" someone screamed.
The slowing vapor was blown away in an instant.
The Behemoth heaved—stood—and tore through knights like dolls.
One swipe sent a frontliner flying into a pillar.
Another crushed a stone spike like it was clay.
Hajime reacted without thinking.
He slammed both hands into the ground.
"Transmute!!"
A thick stone clamp burst up around the Behemoth's front legs—grinding, reinforcing, anchoring deep into the bridge.
The Behemoth's weight slammed into it—
the pillar cracked—
the bridge shook—
but it held.
Barely.
Hajime's arms trembled. Sweat slid down his temple.
Hold. Just hold a little longer…!
"Everyone—FOCUS FIRE!" Meld shouted.
Spells streaked forward.
Knights dove in.
Casters chanted.
But someone wasn't watching the fight.
At the far right flank, half-hidden behind casters, Hiyama stared.
Not at the Behemoth.
Not at Meld.
At Hajime.
Pinned at the center of the bridge, kneeling, holding the monster down with raw will.
Saving Kaori's flank.
Saving the entire formation.
Hiyama's grip tightened on his staff.
Jealousy.
Fear.
Denial.
All twisted in his chest.
Why him? Why is she looking at him? Why does he keep saving everyone? Why can't he just stay in his place?
The bridge beneath the Behemoth and Hajime was already cracking—hairline fractures spreading from the weight.
Hiyama lifted his staff.
A spell formed—one he'd practiced alone.
"Stone… Fracture…"
His voice barely above a whisper.
He aimed—
not at the Behemoth.
At the cracked segment directly behind Hajime's stone clamp.
Hajime's Resonance flared—too late—
BOOM.
The shockwave ruptured the fractures into splits.
The splits into collapsing stone.
The bridge floor under Hajime dropped away.
"HAJIME!!" Kaori screamed.
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Author: "Hey readers, could I get some stones?"
Reader: "Beep boop, no emotion detected, stones.exe not found."
Author: blue screens emotionally 🧍♂️💔
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