Hell Mode: Volume 3, page 28
The audience were absolutely smitten with this figure in orichalcum armor who looked like a messenger from the Divine Realm. In the eyes of this world, teetering on the edge of complete annihilation by the Demon Lord Army as it was, the Hero was truly the hope of all humanity.
I wonder how much HP we shaved off just now. Anyway, my analysis is largely complete. I think I have a pretty good estimate of the Hero’s stats.
Helmios’s Cumulative Stats (Status, Class Skill Boost, Equipment)
Attack: 10,400 (2,400 + 3,000 + 5,000)
Endurance: 10,400 (2,400 + 3,000 + 5,000)
Agility: 8,400 (2,400 +3,000 + 3,000)
Our Agility is about the same, and I’m completely behind in the other stats. He’s most likely wearing Agility-boosting equipment too. Did he want to beat me that badly?
“Well, that was dangerous...” Helmios grumbled from up in the sky, much higher than even where Dora was hovering.
“Why did you say that like the match is over?” Allen asked in feigned confusion from where he was standing on the arena stage. “We’ve only just gotten started.”
“Ha ha ha! What’re you saying? Your attacks won’t reach me anymore, Allen. I can fly pretty fast, I’ll have you know.”
“And what are you saying? I actually want to thank you for taking to the sky.”
“What?”
Allen thrust a hand forward, smiling. “Wallys, Explode!”
Ten Stone Es abruptly appeared around the Hero, promptly turned red, and went off in one massive explosion. Allen had carefully calculated the distance and concluded that this midair explosion would not affect anyone in the spectator stands. However, there was no way for the audience to know this, so they screamed all the same. The second- and third-year students who had already raised their levels to a certain degree remained unfazed by a little gust of hot wind, but the various aristocrats already had their guards standing protectively in front of them—in fact, they had been there ever since the dragon first appeared.
“Dear esteemed guests, we ask that you please calm down!” the headmaster called through the loudspeaker system, desperately trying to reassure the crowd.
Eventually, the smoke blew away and Helmios came back into sight.
“Ouch. That actually hurt, Allen.”
“I did say it, didn’t I? That you’ll be spared pain if you just hand over the ring.”
Okay, good, he cast Healing Magic on himself again. That means this attack also works on him. Quick Summoning is really proving its worth here.
One more time, Allen called out ten more Strengthened Stone Es. In the instant it took Helmios to recognize them, they glowed red and exploded once again.
Someone in Normal Mode could only raise their class skill to Lvl. 6, meaning they could only possess a maximum of six skills. However, when Allen reached Summoning Lvl. 7, he had obtained two new skills.
One of them was Quick Summoning, which he had been using to attack Helmios with. Up till now, the processes of Creation, Synthesis, and Strengthening had all taken roughly half a second, according to Allen’s internal clock. Being able to Create a Summon in under a second was quite amazing, but the higher his Summoning became, the more complicated it became to create the newer Summons, with all the iterations of Creation and Synthesis adding up to quite a bit of time.
His new skill, Quick Summoning, greatly shortened the duration of all of his Summoning skills. Whereas a Spirit-type Summon used to require, from Creation to Strengthening and Awakening, around ten seconds, that time was now cut down to practically nothing. It did not matter if he was making ten Summons—twenty, even—it now happened almost instantaneously.
All Allen had to do was focus on a mental image of which Summon he wanted, how many, and in what position they should appear, then—voilà! If he wanted to recall them, he just had to imagine it and the Summons would all return to their card holders. He felt like he had been entirely freed of the time constraints tied to Summoning.
There was one issue he had to be aware of, however: just as before, he still needed to expend MP and magic stones to make new Summons. As such, he would be helpless if he were to run out of either. Even so, the skill was just so useful that Allen considered it a sign he had surpassed Normal Mode.
The other new skill, Deputize, was the first skill that came sealed. When Allen, who was currently Lvl. 55, had attempted to use it, the follow message appeared:
Allen had no idea exactly what level he needed to be at in order to use the spell, but he was eager to see it in action.
As Allen was occupied thinking about his skills, Helmios appeared from within the cloud of fire, charging straight at Allen. The Hero had clearly come to the conclusion that keeping his distance only made him a sitting duck. Just as he had said, he was quick and mobile in the air.
Allen dodged the incoming sword slash, then backed away in order to maintain a certain distance from Helmios. Now that he knew Stone Es were effective against the Hero, there was no longer any need for him to continue fighting at close quarters.
“Come on out, Cerby! Keep the Hero busy!”
“Yes, Master!”
When Allen called its name, a giant wolf with three heads rivaling the dragon in size appeared, prompting someone in the audience to scream, “A cerberus has joined the dragon!” The Beast B Summon rushed toward the Hero, the vicious fangs in all three maws glinting dangerously.
Go on, choose either me or Cerby.
The Beast B’s stats were only around a third of the Hero’s. So when Helmios targeted the wolf, Allen stopped running away and turned around to attack him as well, tag teaming with his Summons. Then, when Helmios tried to create some distance, he found Stone Es waiting for him instead. Eventually, Helmios defeated Dragon B and Beast B, but Allen immediately called out replacements.
However, every time he got hurt, the Hero healed himself back up. Allen did the same, only with items instead of magic. After this dogged fighting continued for a while, Helmios suddenly lowered his weapon.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Allen backed up a step. “You mean you’re gonna surrender? Good fight, then.” He had no attachment to the fight itself, so he would not mind it at all if Helmios were to throw in the towel now.
“Ha ha ha, of course not! I mean, I’m gonna put an end to this match. If you want to surrender, now’s the time to do it. After all, if you’re unlucky, you could actually die from this next move.”
“So you’re a comedian too, I see!” Allen laughed provocatively, waving a hand to dismiss Helmios’s words. There was no way he would surrender. Looks like that’s my confirmation that the Hero’s fourth skill is an attack one. All right, gimme your best shot. I’ll teach you how I defeat Heroes.
So far, Helmios had demonstrated three skills: Analyze, Healing, and Flight. Therefore, Allen was sure that one of the remaining ones must be an offensive skill.
“Well, you asked for it. Just saying right now, I can’t really hold back when I use this.”
The Hero gripped his sword tighter, still maintaining his smile. The blade with a golden glow suddenly lit up as if something incredible was being gathered within it. Allen held up his own sword at the ready, flanked on both sides by his Summons.
“Oh? You’re gonna block it?” Helmios asked, sounding genuinely surprised. When his sword grew blindingly bright, he shouted, “Phoenix Blade!” and abruptly charged forward at breakneck speed.
“Dora! Cerby! NOW!” Allen cried, quickly turning tail and running. Dragon B and Beast B stepped forward to meet the Hero, roaring furiously.
“Ha ha ha! Now that’s the Allen I know! You can’t trick me!”
A swing of the glowing orichalcum sword was all that was needed to reduce the Dragon B into bubbles of light. Beast B attempted to get in an attack while the Hero was occupied, but it, too, was defeated without much more effort. Helmios continued closing in on the retreating Allen as if to not give him time to call out any more Summons.
It was basically impossible to directly look at Helmios’s sword anymore. He was clearly pouring every drop of his power into this single attack.
The arena stage was only fifty meters long on each edge. As he had demonstrated when he saved Krena from Dverg, this was a distance that Helmios could traverse in the blink of an eye.
Hah! Fool, you misjudged how fast my Summoning works!
Thanks to Quick Summoning, Allen could call out Summons in no time at all. The process was so fast that in the instant just before Krena was about to land her attack on him, he had been able to Summon a Stone C behind her back and have it use Substitute to shoulder all the damage for him.
Just as Helmios was about to close in, a gleaming suit of full-body armor that towered ten meters high appeared between him and Allen. This Summon, a Stone B, braced with its massive round shield in front of it, indicating its intention on taking Helmios’s strike head-on. Helmios, for his part, discerned with one glance that this was a Summon specialized for defense and decided to cut his way past, swinging his powered-up sword with all the power he could muster.
When the orichalcum sword smashed against the shield that covered nearly half of Stone B’s entire body, a shower of sparks and a deafening boom erupted. Cracks ran along the shield, quickly spreading to the rest of the Summon’s body.
However, even though Helmios expected it to immediately disappear—it certainly seemed at risk of crumbling at any moment—the glow that enveloped his sword suddenly disappeared and reappeared around the shield.
“Well done bearing it, Mirror! Now, REFLECT!”
CRAAAAAASH!
Like a jet engine blasting to life, the round shield held by the Summon named Mirror blasted all the damage it had just taken straight back at Helmios. The shock wave of blinding light slammed directly into the Hero’s face, blowing him backward with enough force to rip up much of the stone arena behind him.
It was a merciless attack from him—someone said to possess the most powerful Status of all of humanity wielding a sword made of the world’s strongest material, orichalcum. All that combined with the world’s one and only Hero’s attack skill, no less.
Allen had been waiting for all these conditions to fall into place. He was fighting with a sword, but he did not possess any skills to use with it. At the same time, his opponent was so powerful that he had barely been hurt after even taking Dragon B’s Awakened Ability directly. And so, Allen had focused on creating the perfect situation for Stone B’s Ability to shine.
As I’d thought, there’s nothing better for defeating a hero than the hero’s own attack. Well done, Mirror.
Although Stone B could not talk, it still managed to convey a sense of pride. Its Ability, Reflect, basically absorbed physical damage and sent it back out as an attack. While this Summon was using its Ability, its Endurance would be doubled, but it still would take damage. If the incoming damage was beyond what it was able to withstand and it was defeated, then its Ability would not activate.
Allen marveled at how much Stone B’s HP had been depleted as he used a recovery item to top it back up to full. The cracks in the shield and armor started fading away as the metal pulled itself back together with loud screeches.
Now then, is it over?
At the far end of the arena, Helmios lay on the ground spread-eagle. A closer look revealed he was simply looking up at the sky as if he was just sunbathing.
“Simply incredible. I’d been waiting for this kind of opportunity all this time...”
He had figured out that he had been instigated into using his skill. Despite the terrible blow he had just suffered, he was so happy that there was a big grin on his face.
“What’re you gonna do?” Allen asked. “If you don’t surrender, I’ll just continue throwing your attacks back at you. If you give me your MP Recovery Ring, though, I’m willing to let you off the hook.”
The speed at which Allen could call out Summons was overwhelmingly faster than Helmios’s movement speed. What was more, Mirror could reflect normal physical attacks as well as skills. Now that Allen was sure Helmios did not possess any Attack Magic, he was confident he could repel everything the Hero had to throw his way.
“That sounds scary, all right. Ha ha ha! I see, I see. That’s good. That’s really good.”
“What is?”
Allen could not understand why Helmios looked so happy despite the situation.
“Turns out the Sovereign of Spirits was right after all. So there is still hope for humanity after all.”
Huh? Don’t people call him the hope of humanity? Why does he sound like he only just found it?
The light of Healing Magic enveloped Helmios’s prone body, regenerating his HP back up. Then he slowly stood up and faced Allen.
“What? You still wanna fight?” Allen asked.
“Of course. It’s my job to teach you that there is always someone better, after all.”
“Oh, no, there’s no need. I am already fully aware of that fact. Omigosh, oh esteemed Hero, you’re so powerful!”
C’mon, just hand over the ring already. We can both recover our HP and MP, so any further fighting is just gonna be a waste of magic stones. Do you know how many I’ve already used up today?
“Ha ha ha! You sure don’t change, do you, Allen? Now, don’t say that—take a good look this time. This is the greatest strike that humanity is capable of.”
Suddenly, a heat haze sprung up around Helmios’s body.
Why? Why’re you doing this? What, you’re like Dverg? Are you a bad loser too? So now I’ve gotta deal with the Hero’s Extra Skill? I did just heal Mirror back up, but I don’t think two Steelys are gonna be enough. Will five—no, will ten do?
As Allen rapidly swapped out the cards in his holders, Helmios raised his sword. He then started running toward Allen.
“Take this! God Strike!”
Wait, hold on, are we not doing the “You gonna surrender?” exchange this time?!
Once again, a Stone B appeared in front of Helmios, but he slashed through it with little effort this time, not giving it any opportunity to activate Reflect.
“Ugh!” Allen raised his sword to block Helmios’s attack, but with his Extra Skill activated, Helmios sliced off both of Allen’s arms along with his weapon. The ten Stone Cs promptly disappeared into bubbles of light, having failed to take on all the damage that Allen suffered. The ground of the arena was shattered, leaving behind a huge crater.
“Oof...”
“So, how is it?! A serious attack from the Hero? You still alive, Allen?”
“Ugh... Yes, I’m alive.”
Okay, dragged-out fight it is. Guess I’m gonna have to pick up the ring from your corpse. Don’t expect mercy when you showed none yourself.
Allen’s grimoire materialized above his head, dropping a fruit-like item onto his head. The next instant, his arms regrew in a graphic display. Pieces of his equipment had either been ruined or were lying far away, so there was nothing he could do to recover them. He slowly got to his feet, glaring at Helmios.
“What was that? You recovered in a split second. Did you use an elven elixir?”
“Well, something like that,” Allen replied offhandedly, taking out a spare adamantite sword from Storage. It had actually been a recovery item made from a Grass-type Summon, but he was hardly going to go into the details. One made from Grass E could not heal lost limbs, but this one could.
Helmios’s eyes widened as he understood that Allen still very much intended on continuing the fight. “Huh? Why aren’t you giving up?”
“What do you mean why? I want your ring.”
What’s he saying after coming at me with his Extra Skill and all? Wait, don’t tell me he wants to renege on his promise?
“No, that’s not what I was asking. I just showed you how far apart our power levels were. Aren’t you going to give up?”
“If I always gave up the moment I realized an opponent’s stronger than me, where’s that gonna get me? It’s a given that my opponents are going to be stronger.”
Things had been the same in Allen’s previous life. He had always been the weaker one, and his opponents had always been stronger. And in order to get strong himself, he had to pour in the time and effort.
“What if...I told you that once you obtain power, all that you’ll find is despair?”
Allen stared at Helmios with a baffled look, not quite understanding what he was getting at. The smile that had been plastered on Helmios’s face for so long was now gone, replaced by an expression of earnest questioning.
I see. So he’s been grappling with despair for years now.
As it turned out, Helmios’s smile had been a mask to hide his own utter hopelessness. At the same time, it had also been to reassure those who had no choice but to cling to him as the so-called “hope of humanity.”
“Helmios,” Allen said, calling the Hero by his name for the first time, “I promise you that I will overcome that despair.”
“Overcome...the despair? Is that even possible? Who...who are you?”
“You want to know who I am?”
“Yes, I do. Tell me.” The Hero’s eyes had reverted to that of a boy desperately seeking answers.
“I’ve heard that this Demon Lord calls himself Demon Lord of the End.”
“He does indeed. And you?”
“If that’s the case...then I am the Summoner of the Beginning.”
I just came up with the title. Makes sense, since I’m the very first Summoner in this world. Plus, it sets me up as a foil to the Demon Lord.
“Summoner of the Beginning...Allen,” Helmios repeated, as if considering each word. All of a sudden, he walked up to Allen, took something out from a pouch on his waist, and handed it over.
It was an MP Recovery Ring.
“What? Are you sure about this?”
Woo-hoo! I got the ring! Huh? So was the condition for receiving it withstanding his Extra Skill? Or is this the reward for putting up a good fight?
