Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 852

Shwooo!

The rain was pouring down so fiercely that an umbrella would have been useless.

Fwoosh!

A cold wind screamed through the ravine, mingling with the strange cries of the flowers.

And above all that noise, a voice rang out.

It was beautiful, almost unnaturally so.

“Aaaaah~!”

It was the mental protection spell I had asked Armin to prepare.

Its effects were simple.

It raised my mental stats and weakened every status condition currently affecting me.

Normally, those effects would spread to everyone in range. But thanks to Dedication to the Hero, the spell was focused entirely on me, tripling its power in exchange.

…I shouldn’t have to worry about Frenzy anymore.

With that, I pushed the issue of mental conditions out of my mind.

Sizzle!

Of course, the song did nothing to dull the pain.

Every time the monster’s fluid splashed onto me, the agony was just as intense as before.

No.

If anything, it was worse.

Because some of the holy power had been diverted towards protecting my mind, my healing was delayed by a fraction of a second.

And that tiny delay made the pain feel even sharper.

Still—

“Bethel-RAAAAAAA!”

There was no helping it.

If I truly wanted to escape the pain, I had other options. There were plenty of paralysis-type spells that could numb my senses.

Of course, I had no intention of using them.

What would be the point of casting something that interfered with my ability to fight?

If I had to choose between feeling less pain and increasing my chances of survival, the answer was obvious.

Survival came first.

Sizzle!

“Kugh…!”

No matter what happened, my role did not change.

I blocked Tetraseia’s blows with my shield.

I endured the acid burning across my body.

And I watched as my allies’ attacks rained down on the monster again and again.

“Hehehe…”

But honestly, it was hard.

Even without Frenzy, I could feel my sanity wearing thin.

From somewhere deep inside me, an unbearable urge began to rise.

I wanted to run.

I wanted to get away from this place.

But…

I’m not the only one having a hard time.

The more I felt that way, the more I looked at my temporary allies.

They were not suffering as much as I was, but they were still struggling plenty.

Even the melee fighters, who had little they could do in this situation, were desperately trying to help however they could.

Shwooo!

The rain was far heavier than before.

More rain meant more flowers.

More flowers meant more summons being born from those flowers.

Summons creating summons, which created even more summons…

What kind of ridiculous chain was this?

I decided not to think about it too deeply.

Anyway.

“Stop them!”

“The barrier! There’s a crack in the barrier!”

“I know! But I can’t repair it right now…!”

The main force had reached the point where they had to handle the flowers near them while still firing long-range attacks at the boss.

And then there was this small problem.

I knew I probably should not feel this way.

I also knew that if they collapsed, I would be in serious trouble too.

But still…

It felt strangely comforting to know I was not the only one suffering out here.

“Kiyaaak!”

Honestly, I was starting to understand why this bastard had a skill like Twisted Endurance.

If I’m in pain, then you should hurt too.

Only then will I feel better.

That twisted way of thinking had probably given birth to a skill like this.

Not that I actually cared.

“Oh.”

I suddenly realized something.

For about ten seconds, I had forgotten to feel the pain because my mind had wandered elsewhere.

So that was the answer.

Thinking about anything other than the pain was the best way to endure it.

“Guh…!”

The worse it hurt, the harder I tried to focus on something else.

And if possible, I tried to keep those thoughts positive instead of letting them sink into despair.

Around two hours had passed since the battle began.

Or was it three?

I had lost track.

With how much pain I was in, it felt like I had been standing there for more than ten hours.

Either way, all I had to do was keep going.

Of course, the longer the fight dragged on, the harder it would become. People would start dying. And after this, we would have to face the next wave without getting any proper rest—

No.

Stop thinking about that.

None of that matters right now.

As long as we work together, we can make it through this.

Don’t think about the next wave.

No matter what comes afterward, it shouldn’t be worse than fighting a Floor Lord.

I tried to cling to that small, hopeful thought.

“AAAH!”

“P-push them back! Don’t lose your footing!”

“Fuck! How are we supposed to push them back?! It already hurts like hell!”

“P-please don’t swear…! Sorry!”

…Huh?

What was that?

Badump!

I had no strength to spare on my surroundings, yet the voices from the main group still reached my ears.

A man and a woman were arguing.

“I’ll swear if I want to! If you hate hearing it so much, then you come stand here!”

“I-I’m trying my best too—”

“Argh! You’re just casting spells from the back! Aaah!”

It was a fight between a warrior and a mage.

And it was exactly the kind of thing I did not want to hear.

These were the same people who had mourned the dead together. The same people who had fought through wave after wave side by side.

Now, they were turning on each other.

But I understood why.

“Just casting spells? Do you think this is easy? I’ve already pushed my mana past its limit several times! If this keeps up, we might permanently damage our mana!”

Extreme pressure and unbearable stress made people lash out.

“So what?! I’m the one about to die right now!”

For the record, I actually understood the warrior’s side more.

If someone had told me to just keep pushing while I was the one holding the front line the entire time, I would have been furious too.

Of course, that did not mean I approved of what he said.

“What do you mean, so what?! Hold them back! Use everything you have! There’s nowhere to run!”

“F-fuck…! But I can’t keep going!”

“Wh-what are you saying?! Look at Viscount Jandel over there! He’s still holding—!”

Her words must have snapped the last thread in the warrior’s mind.

“…You bitch! Fuck all of you! My clan’s already dead, so why should I give a damn?!”

Then, in the end, the warrior did something no one had expected.

“Wh-where are you going?!”

“You little—!”

Badump!

That was when I understood why, even in this desperate situation, I had been able to focus on their argument.

My barbarian body, far more sensitive to danger than my mind, had noticed it first.

[Extreme pain has caused Brikton Azkel to abandon the battle.]

Everything was falling apart.

***

Anyone who had played Jenga would know how fragile a tall tower could be.

They would also know how important every single block supporting it was.

“AAAH!”

The warrior who had abandoned his post ran straight toward the cliff and threw himself over the edge.

And then—

“That bastard…!”

He vanished into the darkness of the labyrinth.

Everyone thought he had jumped to his death.

But then—

“I-I did it…! Shit! I made it!”

A shout came from somewhere beyond the darkness.

Apparently, luck had been on his side. He had leapt into the abyss and somehow landed on solid ground below.

To my despair.

That actually worked?

We were standing on the brink of annihilation.

But that warrior was not.

“Screw you, idiots!”

Drunk on his own excitement, the warrior mocked us as he left, and he never came back.

However, when he disappeared—

Rip!

I heard another sound.

It was not the sound announcing the start of another dimensional collapse.

It was the sound of our group beginning to break apart.

“Warrior Brikton Azkel of the Sawtooth Clan has d-deserted his post…!”

Armin reported the situation to me, clearly shaken by what had just happened.

Haah…

I knew it immediately.

This would become the trigger.

A single spark powerful enough to destroy both our group and our formation.

“Wh-why are you looking at me like that?!”

“I’m not even close to that bastard!”

“You know we’ve been doing everything we can…!”

Since the deserter had belonged to the Sawtooth Clan, the others from the same clan were now being viewed with suspicion.

And there was one absolute truth in this world.

If someone felt wronged for too long, eventually, they would refuse to keep enduring it.

Just like now.

“Y-you bastard…! Stop looking at me like that!”

“Lektus! C-calm down!”

“You shut up! We’re in this mess because of you!”

The vice-captain hurriedly tried to calm him down, but his words no longer reached the desperate hearts of his clan members.

“Aaah!”

Another warrior broke away, charging through the rain toward the same cliff the first deserter had jumped from.

Dash!

He followed the same path and leaped.

“AAAAAAAAH!”

And he survived too.

Damn it.

Why?

Why did he survive as well?

Was there some huge platform down there?

Or was I simply the unlucky one?

Was the Hans effect still lingering here?

The answer came almost immediately, carried up by a shout from below.

“You should all come down! It’s wide down here! As long as you jump, you’ll land safely! Leave those bastards and live with us! And if you’re worried we can’t survive on our own, don’t be! Golden Ghost is down here! We just have to find his clan, and we’ll be able to return to the city with him!”

For those of us still up here, it was the worst possible development.

Fortunately, Armin reacted quickly.

“M-Mr. Kevron!” Armin shouted.

Ah.

Maybe not fortunately.

A fast response was not always the right response.

“Gather your clan members and bring them to the center! Use force if you have to!”

He had ordered the vice-captain to restrain his own subordinates and stop them from fleeing by force.

I could not believe Armin had chosen this moment to sabotage the situation.

“Armin, take back that order—!”

This was not the way to handle it.

If you tried to force down people who had already been pushed to the edge, they would only resist even harder.

I tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

“Wh-who do you think you are?! Let go, you bastard!”

“Run!”

“Stop them…!”

Since I was not watching them directly, I could not tell exactly what was happening.

The rain was too heavy, and we were far enough apart that their shouts and screams blended into the surrounding noise.

Shwooo!

A few minutes after Armin gave the order, the result was reported to me.

“…I apologize! We failed to stop six members of the Sawtooth Clan from escaping!”

So we had lost six people.

The number itself was not huge, but I could feel the future growing darker.

Grit…

Still, there was no point dwelling on what had already happened.

Cursing them, resenting them, or sinking into despair would not change anything. We could only keep doing what had to be done.

First, I had to change the atmosphere.

Sizzle!

I ignored the burning pain crawling across my skin and shouted at the group.

“Don’t lose your heads! Six people are gone? So what?! We’re fighting a Floor Lord! Losing people is inevitable!”

Of course, I knew this situation was not that simple.

They had not died.

They had deserted.

And that fact would naturally crush the morale of everyone who remained.

That was why I had to make them see it differently.

“I’m sorry! This is my fault! I underestimated that thing’s ability!”

I pulled everyone’s attention to me by taking the blame instead of directing it at anyone else.

Then I gave a clear order to the shaken main force.

“Eloyd! Stop Dedication!”

“Protect everyone’s minds, not just mine!”

They had not run because they wanted to abandon us.

They had been affected by the boss’s Frenzy or Terror.

That meant they were not deserters.

“We cannot allow any more casualties!”

I put weight behind that word on purpose.

The effect was immediate.

“Ah! I get it! That monster made them lose control!”

The survivors, Aynar included, quickly understood what I was trying to imply.

After all, that explanation was much easier for them to accept.

“Aaah…!”

The Dedication focused on me came to an end, and soon the choir priestess’s beautiful voice echoed through the ravine.

[Maria Shur Eloyd has cast Full Moon Wolf.]

[While the melody continues, all characters within range have their mental stats greatly increased, and the duration of all negative status effects is greatly reduced.]

Of course, the song itself probably would not have that much actual effect.

From what I could tell, those who ran had not all been controlled by some mental status effect. Aside from the first deserter, the rest had simply been pushed past the limits of what a person could endure.

But…

“Uraaaaah!”

“Fourth Company, listen well! As knights of the Royal Family, we will not show weakness! Put your honor on the line, defend your positions, and hold until the very end!”

The placebo effect was a real thing.

“Aaaah…!”

Believing that the song was protecting their minds was enough to raise their morale.

With that belief, their broken spirits recovered just enough for them to keep fighting.

“Haah…”

Good.

Let’s try this again.