"Monster Summoning—Gobu-be!"
"Monster Summoning—Gobuemon!"
"Monster Summoning—Gobunoshin!"
Hinata summoned three Goblin Swordmasters in rapid succession.
"Holy Bless!"
Immediately after, she cast Holy Bless on each of the goblins.
Once she finished applying the support magic to the newly summoned goblins, she turned her attention to Teruya and his group.
"All right, next are Ikegami-san and the others!"
"Yeah, we're counting on you!"
"I'm getting a little hyped...!!"
"Normally, you'd never get the chance to have Holy Bless cast on you!"
"Indeed...!!"
"Here goes—Holy Bless!"
Hinata cast Holy Bless on the four of them in turn. A pale, white light enveloped their bodies, boosting their stats.
"—Huh!?"
Teruya, who had pulled up his status to check the stat increases, was the first to notice the abnormality.
Normally, Holy Bless was a spell that boosted each stat by 50 if the Divine Magic skill was at max level. Hinata was equipped with the Guardian's Holy Staff and Priestess Vestments, so even factoring in the 1.44x multiplier, the increase should have been 72.
Yet the stats of Teruya and the others had uniformly increased by an astonishing 144. It was double what it should have been.
The reason dawned on him immediately. It was the effect of an all-too-famous title skill.
"Hinata-san, are you...!?"
Teruya swallowed his words just in time.
—The Saint.
They were currently streaming. There was no way an outsider should carelessly reveal that she held such a title.
Besides, Hinata must have known that casting Holy Bless would expose her Saint title to Teruya and the rest. Even so, she had chosen to trust them because it was an emergency. He couldn't betray that trust.
"Whaaat!?"
"Wait, what is this buff value!?"
"Could you be a Saint!?"
"————!?!!?"
Unlike Teruya, who managed to bite his tongue, Kurando and the others were dumbfounded—and Motosuke, in particular, let slip a fatal remark.
Teruya turned his eyes in sheer dismay toward the idiot Motosuke for his reckless blunder.
'Huh?'
'Saint?'
'Whaaat!?'
'Wait, does that mean Hinata-chan has the Saint title!?'
'Eh? Was there ever any info on that!?'
'If Hinata-chan is a Saint, that should be huge news, but I've never heard of it before!?'
'If that's true, she'd be the third Saint in Japan, though...!!'
(We're so screwed...!!)
Thinking that, Teruya snapped into a deep, sweeping bow before Hinata.
"Hinata-san, I am so sorry!!"
"Eh?" "Ah." "—Kh!!?"
Prompted by Teruya's apology, Kurando and the others realized their mistake as well. Motosuke, in particular, was trembling, his face pale.
"—Motosukeee!! What the hell are you doing, you bastard?! Die and apologize for it, dammiiiit!!!"
"Guh!? Gwah!! Gwuuuhh!!?"
For some reason, Mayuri flew into a violent rage, slapping Motosuke back and forth across both cheeks.
Teruya found it jarring to see Mayuri, who was supposed to be on bad terms with Hinata, getting so furious on her behalf, but now was hardly the time to question it.
Hinata herself, however, wasn't angry.
"It's fine. Please don't worry about it. More importantly, let's focus on getting out of here right now!"
"Mashiron, sorry for the idiot..."
"I'm sorry, Hinata-san. We'll apologize properly for this later."
"I'm sho shooorrrryyyy!!"
Mayuri, Teruya, and Motosuke—who was bawling his eyes out—dropped to their knees in a full dogeza prostration.
"All right, I accept your apology."
And with that, the matter was settled. The support magic was already applied. Wasting time would needlessly drain Hinata's MP, so they had no luxury to linger on apologies.
Nor was there time for witty retorts.
(—Mashiron!?!!!?)
Teruya could only react internally to the bizarre nickname Mayuri had just coined. What on earth had gotten into her all of a sudden? He was beginning to worry about the state of his party leader's mind.
'Mashiron?'
'Wait, Mashiron?'
'Is Mashiron... Hinata-chan?'
'Didn't Mayuri hate Hinata-chan???'
'What happened out of nowhere?'
'Hinata-chan thanked her a moment ago, so did that clear the air?'
'Even so, that's a total 180.'
'Is her sense of personal space broken or something?'
'[Tragic News] Mayuri turns out to be super easy.'
"Shut up, all of you!! Who cares about that right now?!"
Blushing furiously, Mayuri shouted back at the viewers typing away in the chat.
●◯●
All preparations were complete.
The three Goblin Swordmasters and Teruya's group, bolstered by Holy Bless, moved in right behind Gobunaga and the vanguard holding off the Lamia Undead.
"All right—what's the plan from here?"
Teruya asked the group.
For now, they had agreed to cut down the Lamia Undead blocking the corridor and push toward the exit, but they hadn't settled on a concrete tactical approach.
"Either way, everyone just needs to attack with everything they have."
It was Hinata who answered.
"Mayu-chan, when Ikegami-san and the others step forward, could you keep a barrier up for the first ten seconds or so? It'll be dangerous if they take hits while unguarded."
"Yeah, leave it to me!"
"I'll keep everyone's HP topped off! Please attack continuously without worrying about consumption! That should be more than enough to bring them down!"
"—Understood."
"Roger." "Got it!" "Understood, ma'am!!"
Teruya and the others nodded at Hinata's plan. At this point, there was no room for fancy tricks. Convinced, they accepted that brute force was their only option.
"Well then, Teruya."
Mayuri turned to face him.
"You're taking the opening shot. Hit 'em with a massive one using that."
"—Kh!?!!?"
As Teruya's face contorted in sheer embarrassment, Kurando, the others, and even the stream chat piled on.
"That's right, now's the time to use it, Teruya." "We're expecting something cool, Teruya." "Teruya, show us your brilliance that cleaves through the pitch-black darkness..."
'Do it, Teruyaaa!!' 'Looks like the time has finally come to show it off. Teruya's trump card.' 'Feast your eyes!!' 'If you're not gonna use it now, when will you?! It's gotta be now!!' 'If you're gonna do it, go all out!!'
"————kh."
"Hey, Teruya, you bastard, don't get cold feet now! Look at the damn situation!!"
Mayuri barked at the hesitating Teruya.
Spurred by her rebuke, Teruya steeled his resolve. She was entirely right.
(Now isn't the time to be embarrassed. If I don't give it everything I have, we won't make it out alive...!!)
Teruya gripped his unsheathed longsword at hip height, activating Fighting Spirit, Mind Concentration, and the Fire-attribute Magic Sword. And then—
"—Heed my call and come forth, crimson lotus flames!!"
"————Eh."
Leaving Hinata staring at him in utter disbelief, Teruya pressed on with deadly seriousness.
"Become a sharp blade and dwell within my sword! Thou art the hellfire that burns all creation to cinders! Flare up using my blood as kindling, and forge a pact with my life! Fulfill the covenant!! Cleave through all my sworn foes and reduce them to ash!!"
'Whew!!'
'So cool!! LMAO'
'This gets me so hyped!!'
'There are certain nutrients you can only get from watching a handsome guy chant a spell with a straight face!!'
Hinata couldn't help but wonder:
(What on earth is this person saying all of a sudden...)
Yet Teruya wasn't shouting this out of vanity or theatrical indulgence.
"Mayurin and the LMAO Friends" was often dismissed as a one-woman party carried entirely by Mayuri's powerful Barrier Magic.
In reality, however, Teruya and the rest were bona fide top-tier explorers operating on Floor 15 of the dungeon.
As such, there was no way they didn't have a trump card or two up their sleeves.
And Teruya Ikegami's trump card was none other than—Spell Chant.
This was the unevolved form of the Multicast skill wielded by Sage Saito. Its effect stated: "When activating an Attack Magic skill, reciting an incantation tailored to the magic beforehand amplifies its power. When this skill succeeds, it consumes twice the normal MP."
The damage multiplier was 1.6x at Skill Level 1, scaling up to an astonishing 4.0x at Skill Level 5.
However, the incantation required to meet the activation threshold was fairly lengthy, making it impossible to chant casually in the middle of high-speed combat. Furthermore, the user had to compose an incantation that genuinely stoked their own fighting spirit, and tripping over a single syllable meant starting over from scratch, requiring rigorous daily practice...
It was a skill weighed down by heavy constraints in practical combat.
Even so, it was undeniably strong.
Having completed the bulk of his incantation, Teruya sprang out past Gobu-taro and the goblins holding the frontline shields.
A barrage of aura arrows, spells, and thrusting spears from the Lamia Undead bore down on him, but—
"As if I'd let you!!"
Mayuri's Barrier Magic deflected every single blow.
Having bought the time needed to unleash his strike, Teruya poured everything into his Spell Chant—swinging his sword alongside the final line of the verse.
"Devour all!! —Infernal Flame Blade!!!"
From the arc carved through the empty air, a colossal crescent of fire took shape as a flying slash and surged forward.
It was a Great Flying Blade imbued with a full 30 MP. On top of that, the strike was augmented by Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons, Increased Magic Damage, and Spell Chant—all at their maximum skill levels.
Because Magic Sword carried the properties of both a Combat Arts Skill and a Magic Skill, it benefited from the combined damage multipliers of every single one of those skills.
The result—a massive flaming blade amplified to 2 × 2 × 4 = 16 times its normal power crashed into the Lamia Undead.
The three spear-wielding Lamias at the vanguard were cleanly bisected and reduced to cinders in an instant. The archer and two spellcasters behind them took deep slashes, engulfed in raging flames—before the Infernal Flame Blade lost its shape, rapidly swelled, and detonated.
A cataclysmic burst of flame that eclipsed even the Explosion of a Goblin Wizard swallowed the densely packed cluster of Lamias.
When the inferno cleared, Teruya's Infernal Flame Blade had obliterated five Lamia Undead. It had also inflicted severe damage on eight more, sending them flying and leaving them temporarily incapacitated.
The Lamias' offensive ground to a halt.
"Now's our chance!!" "Take this!!" "Indeed!"
"Gobu-be, everyone, move in!!"
Without missing a beat, Kurando's group, the swordmasters including Gobu-be, and Gobunaga—who had borrowed the swordmaster skills through Army as One—swung their weapons to unleash ranged aura slashes.
They finished off the wounded Lamias and drove their attacks into the ranks behind them.
"Tch, weak as hell! Leveling Junkie Bro-kun would've wiped out dozens in a single swing, you know, Teruya?! Put some back into it!!"
"Shut up!! Don't compare me to a monster like Takeo-kun!!"
Shouting back at the complaining Mayuri, Teruya switched his skill from Magic Sword to Sword Aura to back up Kurando and the others, firing off flying blades in rapid succession.
Though far weaker than the Infernal Flame Blade, the damage dealt to the Lamia Undead was respectable thanks to the stat boosts from Holy Bless. With the three swordmasters and Gobunaga joining the fray, they weren't lacking in sheer volume of attacks either.
And above all—
"Heal!"
"Heal!"
"Heal!"
The HP drained by their skill usage was restored almost instantaneously.
They could spam their skills relentlessly without giving a single thought to exhaustion.
It was an entirely new experience for Teruya and his group—and an immensely reassuring one.
"Take that, take that, take thaaat!!"
"Being able to let loose with skills like this feels amazing!!"
"Let's go! I'm going all out!!"
'All this from having just one healer?!'
'Their firepower is on another level compared to usual.'
'Seeing this makes it crystal clear that a healer is an absolute must.'
'So healers don't just recover health, they directly contribute to DPS...'
Relying on her high Intelligence stat, Hinata precisely tracked the HP cost of each skill Teruya and the others unleashed, diligently patching them up with Heal.
While High Heal was more MP-efficient, she deliberately chose standard Heal to prevent sudden drops in HP from making the vanguard hesitate, ensuring a solid safety margin.
Not everyone could fight nonchalantly while lingering in the critical red zone like Takeo. Hinata understood that better than anyone.
After several minutes of sustained offensive momentum—
"—!? A path opened up!! Break through!!"
Only a handful of Lamia Undead remained in the corridor.
Dragging out the fight risked drawing in reinforcements. The moment the enemy numbers thinned, Teruya and the others made their move to break through.
Teruya shifted back to Magic Sword and unleashed another detonating blade of flame.
Without the boost from Spell Chant, its power was only quadrupled, but that was more than enough.
Blowing away the remaining Lamias, Teruya led the charge past the scattered remnants of the horde—and with Hinata and the others right behind him, they sprinted down the corridor in search of the exit.