Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race Chapter 369 - In All Directions

Meanwhile, deep within the Ever-White Labyrinth, another small group was fighting fiercely against three enormous Trolls, each wielding blunt weapons so massive they looked like metal tree trunks.

"Hoooooowl!"

A small human with bowl-cut hair, wearing battered armor and carrying a huge mace, leapt forward with astonishing aggression for someone his size.

He spun in midair and came crashing down, smashing one of the Troll’s legs with a single blow.

The crack of bones breaking was horrendous, and the knee twisted backward.

"GAAAAAAGHOOL!"

The Troll howled in pain, and its gigantic body began to topple, thrown off balance by the strike.

The opening was more than enough.

The silver-haired elf mage traveling with the group raised her staff at that exact moment.

"Ice Spears!"

A barrage of enormous ice spears appeared around her and pierced straight through the Troll, completely exposed before it had even finished falling.

The ice tore through its stomach, chest, throat, and eyes, then drove into the stone wall behind it, carrying dark blood and chunks of flesh with it. Only one last sharp howl was heard before the monster finally collapsed dead.

On the other side of the battle, things were even easier.

A swordsman in a brown cloak simply cut the second Troll clean in half with a single swing, as if he were out for a stroll.

The blade passed through the body like butter, and the two halves even slid a little before falling in opposite directions.

The third one did not even have time to understand what had happened. Stone stakes shot up from the ground and pierced straight through its brain from below, bursting out through the top of its head with violent force.

It was perfect efficiency, considering they were already on the eighty-sixth floor.

Ruijerd, a green-haired Superd warrior with a red gem set in his forehead, cleaned off his spear as he looked around.

"Rudeus, are you sure there’s no problem with us killing so many?"

Rudeus answered while still scanning the area, seeming distracted by something other than the corpses.

"It’s fine, Ruijerd. The Labyrinth still feeds on dead monsters, but since it’s more of a recycling process, it’s less efficient than killing an outsider."

Ruijerd nodded.

Rudeus then turned to the swordsman in the brown cloak.

"Alek, is Lord Sandor almost here?"

The ragged-looking swordsman, who was actually Kalman III, took out his magical communicator. Although it did not have the same advanced technology used by the Iron Legion, it still let him send and receive messages easily. After checking it, he answered:

"He’s on his way. And it looks like Lady Isolte is coming with him... though I don’t know whether that woman will come as an ally or an enemy..."

Rudeus fell into thought, leaning on his familiar King Salamander staff.

Ruijerd then said:

"I believe our strength should be enough to defeat the opponents here, shouldn’t it?"

Rudeus hesitated.

In theory, the forces were not that different. The situation would have been another matter if the Fighter God or the Technique God were present, but they had already confirmed neither of them was here.

Even so, he still had to consider a possible clash with the Legion’s forces, and even more than that, with the Labyrinth’s own forces, the Trolls, whom Hitogami’s Apostles seemed to control in some strange way.

So he kept discussing the viability of their plans with Ruijerd and Kalman.

Meanwhile, Sara, Sylphy, and Zanoba were talking nearby. None of them seemed especially worried.

That was because Ruijerd, with his Demon Eye, had not let a single thing slip past his perception up to that point.

The ways of advancing through the floors were fairly ordinary in the Ever-White Labyrinth. There were not even any clear divisions between floors; you simply had to keep going deeper and deeper.

Overall, the geography of the Labyrinth was one long descent, the only special detail being that there were three paths leading to the final floor.

Of course, there were connections between those paths, and they crossed each other often, but even so, they were still three distinct main routes.

And just as it had been until then, the group continued on in relative calm, talking and regrouping after yet another battle.

Until, all of a sudden, Ruijerd went on alert.

His expression changed and he drew his spear in a single instant.

Without the need for any signal, everyone immediately shifted into combat mode. Rudeus and Ruijerd activated their Demon Eyes, and Alek jumped in front of Sara and Sylphy. Both were long-range fighters, especially Sara.

Then came the impact.

A blue blur appeared out of nowhere.

Along with it came booming laughter.

"GWAHAHAHAHA!"

Kalman barely managed to follow the movement, but he still succeeded in parrying the strike with precision, and even while blocking it, the force caught him off guard.

The ground cracked beneath his feet as an enormous black blade collided against him, sending shards of stone flying in every direction.

He only managed to shout:

"Rudeus!"

But the warning was not even necessary. Seeing a few seconds into the future, Rudeus had already recognized who it was.

"Atofe!"

Because he had prepared in advance, a barrage of earth spikes fired toward the Immortal Demon King.

But Atofe retreated just as quickly as she had charged in, a habit she had started developing more recently. After facing so many absurd opponents on both sides, ally and enemy alike, she had been forced to become a little more restrained.

"Hohoho! Well, would you look at that, it seems fate really does want us together, people!"

She laughed while everyone in the group was already preparing to fall back and reposition.

Alek then rose fully to his feet, staring at the blue-skinned demon with a shocked expression.

"Grandma!"

That was when a new voice rang out.

"Atofe, stop wasting time. We’re serious here, move forward and kill everyone in the way!"

Linia, one of the Beast Princesses of the Iron Legion, arrived with her blade stained in blood. She looked impatient, irritated, and was advancing without the slightest ceremony—until she saw exactly who was standing in front of her.

Her tail bristled at once.

With almost the same reaction, the gazes of Rudeus and Sylphy instantly turned hostile.

Sylphy in particular became furious that very second.

"Linia Dedoldia!"

Dozens of ice spears appeared around her almost instantly and shot toward the beast warrior at supersonic speed. Linia promptly jumped back, shouting a warning at Atofe:

"Atofe, hold these guys off, they’re going to try to kill me!"

If Linia had to name her greatest fears in the entire world, Eris would be at the top.

Rygar would come right after.

And after them would be Rudeus and Sylphiette Greyrat.

That was because she had a bit of history with that pair.

Not only had she slashed out Sylphy’s eye with a sword strike when they were children, she had also killed Hector and then mocked his death right in front of them.

Sure, from her point of view, that had been battlefield strategy, nothing more. But it was obvious they had not seen it that way.

And one of them had become one of the Seven Great World Powers! What terrible luck!

And, just as if to confirm her fears, that crazy elf attacked her the instant she saw her.

That was not a good sign.

Without any further delay, other fighters from the Legion began to appear, and the two sides clashed immediately.

---

In another corridor of the Labyrinth, moving even faster than Atofe, were Jino, Ghislaine, and Skoll.

They tore through a group of blue-colored Trolls at absurd speed, all of them Rank A mutants, smaller than ordinary Barbarian Trolls, but much faster.

Their legs were thinner and longer, and their arms grotesquely disproportionate.

None of them, however, were truly a concern for those two.

Both Jino and Ghislaine moved far faster than any monster in that group. The gap was so great that the Trolls looked absurdly slow whenever they tried to react.

Jino in particular was moving ahead without a care in the world, wearing a slightly relaxed smile.

He wore tight swordsman’s clothing, with a red cloak swaying behind him, no visible armor, only his sword.

He had never liked armor very much, especially heavy armor.

He felt far freer when all he had in hand was a sword.

And at that moment, his blade truly moved like a storm, living up to the name Storm Tremor.

Ghislaine, by comparison, was also very fast, especially as one of the few people who had mastered Wild Light. But during that advance, she was relying more on Jino’s kills to keep pace with his exact rhythm.

And then, at last, an obstacle appeared.

In the middle of their advance, Jino suddenly spoke:

"Fall back!"

That was for Ghislaine.

She did not hesitate to break off her advance and retreat at once, together with Skoll, both of them pulling away while the blue Trolls were still trying to understand what was happening.

Amid the mass of monsters, Jino saw someone.

A person standing in the center of the corridor.

A pale face with a skull-like appearance, looking more dead than alive.

With a cold, serious expression stood the Death God, former Fifth Great World Power.

And also the only user of the Sword of Bewitching.

Jino immediately saw the thing that bothered him most.

His guard was completely open, far too open.

One slash would be enough, a single slash, and he would die.

Without stopping his advance, Jino felt an unbelievably strong urge to do it.

But that was exactly how the Bewitching of that walking skeleton worked.

Against an ordinary swordsman, it would have been an irresistible invitation. But against Jino, it set off an alarm.

His Sixth Sense warned him.

At the last instant, he braked and vanished from his own position.

In the very next second, the ground exploded completely in a concentrated blast of fire and poison.

The entire corridor was swallowed by a compressed detonation. Green and orange flames surged upward together, carrying dark smoke and liquefied poison.

Jino would have been caught in the blast radius.

But he executed a defensive technique from the Water God Style.

His sword came down in a controlled arc, and the explosion itself was split in two, opening a narrow path before him through the middle of hell.

He placed a hand on his chin as he assessed the situation.

More reinforcements from the Iron Legion were arriving, and the priority of this mission was to stop the resurrection of Saint Millis.

He decided immediately.

"Ghislaine, handle this one. I’m going ahead!"

With that, Jino completely ignored the man standing in the middle of the corridor. He ignored the blue Trolls around him as well.

Vita saw this and was about to intercept him using the Absolute Void Demon Eye.

But Ghislaine shot toward him like black lightning, cutting off his interference.

At the last instant, a Red Barrier rose in front of him, while his Demon Eye activated, and Jino kept advancing without slowing down for even a second.

Vita looked at Ghislaine through the Barrier.

The blue Trolls around him slammed their weapons toward her, roaring in fury.

But three of them fell before they could even complete the strike, when a massive ebony wolf tore through them with a brutal leap.

Skoll crashed down on them like a predator, ripping flesh apart and throwing bodies aside.

Ghislaine easily dodged the other blows, and Skoll moved with her.

For a brief moment, the two sides simply stared at each other.

Ghislaine, with one light-red eye and one brilliant green eye.

Vita, using Randolph’s body, with one dark-red eye and the other black.

Both wearing serious expressions.

Ghislaine had become known as Black Bolt for a reason.

She was confident in her own strength, and even so, this was the Death God.

She adjusted Hiramune in her hand, the red blade humming with anticipation, and then Ghislaine silently activated the magical effect of her armor.

On the other side, Vita, using Randolph’s body, once again brought forth the Death God’s martial arts.

His body looked far too open, far too relaxed, as though he were not truly ready to fight. But that was exactly what made him sinister.

Beside Randolph, around ten swift blue Trolls glared at Skoll and Ghislaine with bloodshot eyes, eager to attack the moment an opening appeared.

Neither of them was much for talking, so there was no introduction, no taunting.

There was only battle.

Ghislaine could feel only one thing, over and over again, no matter how many times she looked.

Randolph’s guard was completely open—she had to attack now.

She had to cut through that enemy and kill him immediately.

But she knew it was a trap.

Even so, even knowing full well that this was the enemy’s ability, everything inside her was screaming at her to strike and kill him that instant.

With that in mind, she activated her Magic Power Eye and, without waiting any longer, surged forward like a black bolt.

At that same instant, Skoll leapt savagely toward the Trolls.

The ground collapsed beneath Ghislaine’s feet as she unleashed Wild Light instantly, the supreme offensive technique in swordsmanship. Her body vanished from ordinary sight, leaving behind only a black-and-red streak in the corridor.

Time seemed to slow.

Ghislaine clearly saw Randolph draw his sword.

Slow and open.

I’m going to kill him. That was the vision she saw.

A sick, shadowy smile rested on the Death God’s face, and then, suddenly, Randolph’s blade moved in an utterly strange way, in a way that made no sense, tracing a perfect arc toward her left flank.

She saw Hiramune almost reach her opponent.

She saw the tip of the red blade driving straight toward his face.

And in that same instant, she felt it.

A wide slash opened across her torso, cutting cleanly through multiple organs and sending blood flying.

A potentially fatal blow, delivered immediately in the very first exchange.

Randolph was smiling maliciously. In that single instant, he had been able to kill her for her arrogance.

With the same technique he had already used to finish many others.

It was because he believed he had won that he found it strange when he saw Hiramune driven straight through his Demon Eye.

The red blade pierced completely through his skull in one clean, direct strike, entering through the top of the demonic eye and exiting through the back of his head.

The smile on his face froze.

He looked at the swordswoman in front of him.

Ghislaine was looking back at him too.

A small smile appeared on her face.

The wound across her torso did not exist.

Or rather, it had existed.

But it had been healed instantly by the armor’s special ability.

The torn flesh had already closed, the damaged organs had already been restored, and all that remained was blood splattered along the side of her body and across the light armor she wore.

----

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