“Oioi, no f.u.c.king way!?”

“The flying f.u.c.k is this!?”

“Are my eyes f.u.c.king with me? Tell me I"m not seeing Souma over there”

He looked the very image of Souma Yuuto. To the level that if you told me the hero extraordinaire suddenly teleported inside the cloud creature and literally burst out from inside, I"d actually believe it.

But the ent.i.ty himself had announced otherwise.

Guardian beast: SOUMA YUUTO.

What I won"t believe though is that there already existed a guardian with a perfectly coincidental perfect matching name. The most likely possibility is––

“Don"t get distracted guys. I think, he"s something that cloud creature evolved to”

“E-evolved? What, do you mean by that, Momok.a.w.kun?”

“I mean that when that thing tried to attack Reina, she turned the tables by taking control of it with some Spirit Master power. Maybe with a skill to dominate monsters and another to make them evolve, she used both in tandem to create a fake Soumkun as one of her guardian beasts”

That was all conjecture, but that was the only conclusion I could draw from my observations. Whether my hypothesis is right, or it just so happened that her patron G.o.d stepped in to save her with a miracle, the reality of the matter wouldn"t change.

It looked like an exact duplicate of Soumkun, but on the inside, it should still be the same cloud creature. We didn"t have to have any qualms about defeating it. I didn"t know how far gone Reina was under it"s hypnotism, but we should first kill it, and then try to get Reina to rights.

“We gotta beat that fake SOUMA now! That things not human, it"s definitely a monster”

“h.e.l.l yeah, you got it, Momokawa!”

“Heh, guess it"ll make up for all the s.h.i.+t the real Souma put us through”

“That faker"s dead meat, dudes”

“UOOOH! I"ll beat Souma, and win over Reinchan!!”

Nice, it was looking like everyone was on board. If the thing had transformed into one of the cute girls from cla.s.s, I don"t think these guys would be so pumped up about it… Sorry, Soumkun. Looks like we won"t have a problem kicking your a.s.s.

“Go! Blackhair Bind!!”

I wasn"t going to underestimate it just because it could be called the weakest of the bunch. The cloud creature had now been evolved via Reina"s spirit mastery. We had yet to see how much stronger it"d become.

Therefore, I didn"t just leave it all to the vanguards, and properly added Blackhair Bind as a measure of support.

I directed my blackhair tentacles to swiftly crawl like snakes in an attempt to immobilize SOUMA YUUTO, who stood there gallantly with Reina behind him.

Ok, I got both his ankles.

With that timing, Ueda, Nakai and Yamada used their experience from all our group battles to pincer him from 3 directions.

He was done for –– was what I"d hoped.

“GAh!?”

Yelled the three in pain as they were sent flying.

“SHHHAA!”

“GUGAAA!!”

Not missing a beat, Raptor and Rem also went for it under my command–– Meeting the same result.

He dodged Rem"s spear tip in a flowing motion almost like the real Soumkun would, and delivered a punch as counter. While at the same time, he used one of his st.u.r.dy legs to precisely kick Raptor across the solar plexus as it had leaped high and came at him from above.

Yes, legs. By the time I noticed, the blackhair binds around his ankles had been completely shredded.

“f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d, eat this!”

As SOUMA was about to continue attacking our felled members, s.h.i.+mokawa and Yamajun fired spells as deterrence.

The accurate shots of water and light element bolts, literally disappeared right before they hit.

“Tch, so this guy"s the wind guardian”

Both when our melee"s got blown off and when the arrow spells were nullified, if I wasn"t seeing things, I"m positive I saw light emerald wind like thing around him.

That green wind looked identical to the spells used by Nis.h.i.+yamsan, the Aeromancer.

We"d thought that SOUMA YUUTO was weak since he wasn"t using a sword, but he in fact had a powerful weapon called aeromancy.

“I will end, anyone, who goes against Reina”

The new guardian, who said dark things despite wearing Soumkun"s refres.h.i.+ng smile, now had mildly glowing emerald green gusts surging around him.

“Oi oi, this guy"s h.e.l.la bad news!”

“Wh-whu"do we do! We can"t handle this thing!?”

“d.a.m.n, f.u.c.k you, f.u.c.k you Soumaaa!”

Our three vanguards who had been blasted off hadn"t actually taken much damage and were now standing. Raptor and Rem also weren"t broken, and quickly got back into battle formation.

SOUMA was admittedly strong as an aeromancer… But our difference in strength wasn"t absolute, he wasn"t able to kill everyone in one strike.

That in mind, we had to defeat him now by all means. Reina already had those dumb animals, Engard and Ramdane, looking out so she didn"t so much as scratch a finger nail. So if she then got another one, one that actually spoke, I could see it as nothing but more trouble.

Most importantly, this SOUMA YUUTO had taken the form of Souma Yuuto, meaning that Reina, who was already delusional, was now on a one way ticket to la la land. Give me a break already. I finally got this s.h.i.+tty NEET working at the goma fortress capture and now this.

I had my issues with her, but we still needed Reina"s power from here on out–– No, wait a second.

“Everyone, stand down! Retreat!”

This time, I wasn"t running away while yelling retreat. As the commander, I needed to be at least the 2nd one to run. I could say I learned from the battle with the Orthus.

“Retreat now?”

“You sure?”

“Oi, Momokawa! Now ain"t the time!”

Ueda and Nakai quickly backed off, they didn"t want to challenge a guardian beast if they didn"t have to. As for Yamada, he was yelling like an idiot again, but even he wasn"t bold enough to do this alone, so now changed his focus to defense.

s.h.i.+mokawa, who had finished chanting his next spell, exhaled to calm down. Naturally, Yamajun too had lowered his hands.

Ok, for now, we hadn"t gone with the flow and entered battle. We were now at a position to initiate talks.

“Reina! We mean you no harm! We"ll leave right now!”

Right, we were having the ‘talk" about parting ways with Reina.

“Oi, Momokawa, what the h.e.l.l are you–– ”

“Guys, look, I know you have complaints, but we need to back off for now. We"re not gonna get off easy if we fight here”

I knew that they, especially Yamada, wouldn"t agree to my choice of separating with Reina, but I spoke first to shut them up. These guys should"ve realized too. That if we fought here, we"d most likely be the ones to end up dead.

“Come on, man!”

“Momokawa, dude, we can"t just leave her here”

“Look, Reina doesn"t even want our help right now. If we try to force it, she"ll get upset, and when she does, she"ll definitely send in Engard and Ramdane”

Two guardian beast, no, three if we included SOUMA YUUTO. These guys who"d been with Reina much longer than I had should know the meaning of taking all of them on at once.

Right now, Reina wasn"t even being held hostage by guardian SOUMA. She was willingly by his side. If we tried to meddle, and she got mad, she"d have no problem unleas.h.i.+ng all her guardians on us.

“It"s just for now, let"s fall back”

Reina had the overwhelming advantage. Fighting here wouldn"t get us anything.

So for now, we"ll go back, and make a good plan to save her–– Is what I"ll have them think right now, while I was actually planning to just give up on her, and later convince them to do the same.

In the first place, Reina was very uncooperative and having her stay as a party member gave us more trouble than she was worth. Sure, her strength from the Spirit Master Job was a great merit, but she was a girl whose uselessness completely negated her positives.

Also, she hated me. I was constantly worried if she"d suddenly have one of hers bite my head off. My reasoning also included these personal circ.u.mstances.

Starting with Yamada, Reina had been revered in cla.s.s as the cutest of little girls, and quite a lot of boys cared so much that they"d lay down their lives if it"s to protect her. Thanks to her looks and charm, she"d been treated with the utmost care and affection, no matter how uncooperative she tried to be.

On the other hand, there was me, someone on whom her charms had literally no effect. I simply had no compulsion to keep such a pain in the a.s.s nuisance around.

That"s right, now was the perfect time to kick Reina A. Ayase out of the party.

She now had SOUMA YUUTO, an illusion in the guise of the boy she was crus.h.i.+ng on, and there was no way she"d want to wake up from that sweet little dream of hers with any of our convincing. I didn"t know whether she was still under the cloud creatures control, or if she was intentionally manifesting SOUMA, but what I did know was that the girl was absolutely refusing to look at reality.

At this point, there was nothing else we could do. My guess was that we"d somehow have to get the real Soumkun here to break her out of the spell.

She would refuse to leave from here, simply because this place was now a paradise she could spend with Souma Yuuto.

“Yeah, this s.h.i.+t ain"t worth it”

“Ditto, we"re dead meat if we take her on”

“Tactical retreat, dudes”

Great, the totem-pole trio got the message.

Keeping a cautious eye on guardian SOUMA, Ueda and Nakai, being as close as they had to be as front liners, started slowly edging backwards. Naturally, I also made Rem and Raptor withdraw.

“d.a.m.n, Dammit… Reinchan, wait for me, I"ll save you soon…”

The lump of regret known as Yamada couldn"t possibly fight alone seeing as the other"s had backed off. He also didn"t make a fuss and positioned himself to retreat.

“Momok.a.w.kun, is this alright?”

“Yeah, I can"t think of anything else”

Yamajun was perhaps, the only one here who realized my intentions. He wasn"t looking at Reina as someone we were regretfully leaving behind, but at me, who had made the decision to exile her.

Yet, even understanding the nature of that cruel action, he didn"t stop me. Thanks man, I appreciate it.

“Reina, tell your guardian to back off. We"re going away and mean no harm, I promise you we won"t bother you anymore”

My chief concern right now was SOUMA, who hadn"t shown any sign of switching out of battle mode. It"d be no joke if the moment we turn our backs, we"re sliced in two by his Aer Sagittas.

I let Reina know of our intentions so she can withdraw her creature and guarantee us safe pa.s.sage.

I mean, she probably didn"t want to start a s.h.i.+tshow either, so with the hope that she"d actually listen for once――

“Lies”

Raising her thin brows, Reina spoke towards me with an expression that was clearly that of anger, yet still could be described as cute.

“Lies, liar… Momok.a.w.kun, you can only lie”

“I what now”

I heard her alright. Just that I had no idea what she was talking about.

“You liar, you actually ARE gonna get in my way, aren"t you!”

“What, are you even talking about, why would I be lying to you right n――”

“You never tell me the truth, not one time!”

I had not a clue why she had chosen now to go shrieking c.u.n.t. But her words strangely started to ring true.

Ah, yeah that"s right, I"d not once told Reina my true feelings.

d.a.m.n girl, when"d you get this sharp.

“I hate liars, you liar, you always trick me, you bulli me, I hate you, IhateyouIhateyou, Momok.a.w.kun, I-HATE-YOU!”

“So f.u.c.king what. I told you, you aren"t going to see me again. Like I give a f.u.c.k if you hate me”

“Liar! You"ll bulli me again, I know it! Just when I, I finally met Yuu-kun again―― Momok.a.w.kun, I KNOW you will get it our way!!”

Reina screamed half in tears as her emotions exploded.

This was honestly becoming stupid, I"m so done. If she was claiming that every word I said were lies, I"ll just stop saying them. We"re bidding sayonara to this b.i.t.c.h right here anyway. I just need to shut up and leav――

“―― I understand Reina, I"ll go kill Momokawa”

“WHa!?”

I suddenly felt this electrifying chill all over my body. Was this that so-called bloodl.u.s.t? Or maybe an after-wave of mana?

SOUMA YUUTO, that guardian beast had declared his intent to have me dead.

“Momokawa, you hurt Reina”

“What, you…”

“I will not forgive anything that hurts Reina”

SOUMA"s casually raised hand had abnormally thick green magical s.p.u.n.k swirling around it.

Holy mother of, this level of Aer spell will send me to oblivion!

“Wait, just wait, I don"t――”

“I protect Reina―― Aer Curis Sagitta ”

I had no time to get a word in, SOUMA had already launched his powerful blade of wind at me,

Dead, I"m so dead.

Given the awful state of my motor reflexes, I simply couldn"t dodge an incoming spell after I actually saw it coming. No way of blocking it either. I didn"t think I had the time to even pop out a single blackhair.

Ah d.a.m.n, I should"ve made either Rem or Raptor stay by my side. They were both sent on the offensive so they were a little too far right now.

I could see them rus.h.i.+ng to protect me, but they won"t make it with their speed.

That"s why, at this point, I had no choice but to stay defenseless and let that kill shot hit――

“Momok.a.w.kun!!”

The sound of impact, I don"t know if I heard it right as I was pushed away, or when I was rolling on the gra.s.s like an idiot.

But at some point, I was just staring, at the flower of fresh blood blooming just a few feet away.

“… Yamajun”

“Ugh, Ah… Momo, ka… ”

Blood violently spurt out from Yamajun"s body as he collapsed.

“YAMAJUN!? HOW, WHY――”

“Got away. Fine. I"ll hit this time”

I could maybe hear SOUMA speaking in a nonchalant tone. I should"ve understood what his words implied, but my head wasn"t working, Yamajun was right there, blood drenching him.

Why, why did he do that.

“―― Aqua Mist!”

Aside from me who"s time seemed to have stopped, everything else was progressing as usual. At some point, I was surrounded in a thick fog, unable to see much of anything.

“Momokawa, get a grip, dude!”

“Oi, run for it, boiz!”

“Yamada! f.u.c.king run!”

s.h.i.+mokawa had grabbed me by the forearm and forcefully made me stand.

That"s when I finally understood that s.h.i.+mokawa had conjured Eis Mist to aid in our get away.

The dude really pulled through for us. I was really glad, and also, my head, that"d stopped ticking for a while, started working again.

“Yamajun"s still breathing! Lift him up on Raptor right now!”

“Gotcha, Nakai, legs!”

“Roger, go, go, go!”

Though the process could"ve been smoother, Raptor had practically come sliding and crouched down while Ueda and Nakai hurriedly lifted Yamajun onto its back.

Raptor could carry him much smoother and faster than we could. And the more time we took, the more time SOUMA had to find and kill us.

“s.h.i.+mok.a.w.kun, lead the way!”

“This way, dudes!”

Following s.h.i.+mokawa, who was both the caster of this mist and the only one who could see in it, we withdrew as fast as we could from this deadly fairy square.

I could hear the vwoomphs of aer blades rus.h.i.+ng by here and there, but it looks like the guardian couldn"t see through the fog either, and all his attacks missed by wide margins.

“Spread out, Rotten Bog!”

As a last stop-gap, I put down a Rotten Bog at the door to the square as we ran away with our tails between our legs.