The Strongest Adventurers’ Mental Caretaker ~ Somehow I Ended Up Involved with Every Beautiful Girl in the Hero’s Party ~ If You Have Time to Fight Over Me, Please Go Save the World - 10

Chapter 10: The Battle for the Artifacts

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In the deepest layer of the dungeon, there was an abnormal atmosphere drifting in front of the giant stone door. Standing there were the adventurers from another nation who had reached it ahead of us. It was a four-man group wrapped in luxurious equipment. Judging by the crests on their equipment, there was no mistake that they were the hero party of the notorious military superpower, the Impadar Empire.

However, their condition was strange. They were down on their knees in front of the door, breathing heavily as they yelled at one another about something.

“Dammit! What is with that regeneration ability?! I did not hear about this!”

“Mage! Isn’t this due to your lack of firepower?!”

“Oh dear, oh dear… it is impossible, a giant monster like that. My magic cannot burn it away.”

“Ah-ah, I am about to run out of arrows, too. What are we going to do, Leader?”

A blonde young man, a man in giant armor, a creepy man with squinting eyes, and a frivolous-looking man. Apparently, they had challenged the boss, the Two-Headed Dragon, and had been beaten back into a retreat. Their armor was scorched black, and the colors of frustration and fatigue were deeply apparent on their faces.

(I see, they challenged the boss while suffering from the mental contamination of their Artifacts and got beaten back, huh.)

At the exact same time I finished my analysis in a single glance, they noticed our presence.

“Ah? The others are here already?”

The young man who seemed to be the leader glared over here with irritation. Then, looking at our formation, he let out a blatant snort.

“What is with these guys? …One man and three women? Is this a harem trip?”

“Oh dear, oh dear, their equipment is quite lightweight, too. I wonder what kind of country bumpkin adventurers they are?”

Their mocking gazes pierced into us. At that moment, Freya, standing beside me, quietly took a step forward.

“We’re the S-rank party ‘Valkyrie’ of the Arclight Kingdom. …Could you clear the way? You are in the way.”

A ruthless voice. But the hero of the Empire would not back down. Rather, he gave an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders upon looking at me.

“Hmph, I have never heard of it. …In the first place, that man over there does not seem to possess an Artifact, does he?”

The imperial hero looked me up and down as if he was licking my entire body with his eyes to appraise my worth.

“An incompetent person is mixed into a hero party? I didn’t know such a weak nation existed!”

“Hehehe…You guys seem eager for death…”

“If you still value your life, you better go on back home to suck your mama’s milk!”

The men burst into a roar of laughter. At that instant, with a swish! a black shadow rushed forward, slashing the ground right at the hero’s feet.

“—?!”

The imperial hero leapt back in a reflex. Looking over, Freya had drawn her jet-black “Kagerou” and was looking down at the men with eyes like ice.

“…Heroes do not fight one another inside a dungeon. That should be the international accord. …Or perhaps, the hero of the Empire cannot read?”

“Y-You bastard…!”

“Step down. I have no business with losers.”

A touch-and-go atmosphere. However, the imperial hero was overwhelmed by Freya’s sword pressure. He was clicking his tongue as he cleared the path.

“…Hmph, fine. Who would’ve thought there were such comical suicide seekers challenging the Two-Headed Dragon with women in tow.”

“We will not save you even if you come back crying and screaming later, you know? Hehehe…”

Receiving the sour grapes of the imperial hero and the squinty-eyed mage at our backs, I gave a nod to the three of them.

“Let us go. Skill is proven by results.”

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Passing through the stone door, what lay beyond was a scorching hell. In the center of a vast, dome-shaped space, it loomed.

The Two-Headed Dragon. It possessed a massive body about the size of a three-story building. Its two heads each leaked breaths of flame and ice from the gaps between their fangs.

“Grrruaaa!!”

Noticing us, the new intruders, the two heads glared at us simultaneously.

“Now, let us go!”

Freya leapt forward right out of the gate. An impatience could be seen in her movements. Apparently, she wanted to display an overwhelming victory right in front of me, as if showing off to the heroes of the Empire.

“Devour it completely, ‘Kagerou’!”

The jet-black rapier flashed. A giant wolf born from the shadows leapt through the air, biting into the right neck of the Two-Headed Dragon. The steel-like scales covering the dragon’s body shattered, and blood splattered through the air. The response was solid. However…

“…What?!”

Freya’s eyes widened. The flesh of the Two-Headed Dragon that the shadow wolf had torn away bubbled up chaotically, regenerating in the blink of an eye. It did not even take a few seconds for the wound to close.

“The regeneration is fast…! Luminara, support!”

“…Mm. Burning it away…”

The flock of “Yatagarasu” unleashed from Luminara’s staff filled the sky above the room.

“Die…”

The moment Luminara’s staff gleamed, a scorching flame was unleashed from the crows. However, the left head of the Two-Headed Dragon reacted instantly, spewing an icy breath to neutralize the flame.

“Tch, is it no good…! Aeris!”

“Leave it to me!”

Aeris charged straight from the front. The Artifact “Onigumo” she held was a greatshield that forcibly paralyzed the target it touched. No matter what kind of regeneration ability it possessed, if she stopped its movements, it would become a mere target.

“Stop!!”

With no way of knowing such a thing, the Two-Headed Dragon approached with its massive mouth wide open to swallow Aeris whole. Aeris slipped inside the dragon’s guard and slammed the shield against the base of its right neck.

Gigigi…!

The movements of the right neck came to a complete halt. It stiffened as if petrified, and the breath of flame died out at its throat.

“All right! I got it!”

Aeris became certain of victory, and Freya and the others took up positions for a follow-up attack. Everyone thought that they could win with this. But, in the next moment…

A sight that surpassed our common sense unfolded.

“Gyaaaaaa!”

With an unpleasant, screeching voice, the left head opened its mouth wide. However, the one it targeted was not Aeris. It was its own right neck, which had stiffened and become unable to move. A raw, chewing sound echoed with a squelch. The sounds of bones shattering and flesh being torn apart resounded throughout the dome.

To think that, of all things, the left head of the Two-Headed Dragon bit off and swallowed its own right neck from the root.

“What…?!”

“C-Cannibalism…?!”

Before Aeris’s dazed gaze as she looked up, the flesh at the cross-section of the severed right neck bubbled up once again, and a new neck regenerated. The newly grown neck did not possess the paralyzing effect of “Onigumo.” The regenerated right neck roared toward the left, and the left neck roared back as if in response.

“I-Impossible…! To think it would cut off its own neck just to remove the paralysis…!”

A despairing atmosphere flowed through the air. Freya and Luminara also stood frozen, lacking any means of attack in the face of such a sheer absurdity.

Even if they attacked, it regenerated. Even if they stopped its movements, it reset itself. The monster that had cornered the hero party of the Empire looked down upon its next frozen prey with its eerie eyes.

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