"He he he.."

Ooyama Eiji took a huge bite out of his pineapple as he swaggered over to the two Guardians' position.

"So you guys are now part of the Iron Knights, aren't you?"

With a grin, he peered down on them condescendingly.

"You seem pretty weak."

Shidou Makoto bristled a little, but he kept his cool.

"Get away from me. You reek of foul body odor."

"Oh?" Suzuki Shirou smirked when he heard the retort. "Looks like the members of Iron Knights have some backbone."

"Ah, from what I remember, aside from their boss who's on the same level as Kobayashi and hit level 1,000," Nishida pondered. "Everyone else is pretty low level. They haven't even reached level 100, how pathetic.."

Ooyama stomped in front of the shorter Makoto, intimidating him.

"You're both just lowly gatekeepers!" bellowing, he glared down at the defiant Makoto, spit spilling from his mouth. "And you dare to talk to us in such a manner?!"

Makoto's hand moved subtly and quickly, and a knife slid out of his sleeve. Green mana flowed around him, saturating the atmosphere and increasing the tension further. Not at all intimidated, he merely glared at Ooyama.

"You want to fight?" he sneered.

"Fight?" Suzuki lazily rested his spear on his shoulder. "You don't even interest me.."

However, he didn't stop Ooyama, who had crushed the pineapple in his hand into a juicy pulp, shattering it into bits. With a shrug, he cocked his head disinterestedly.

"But if my brothers want to, I won't restrain them."

Ooyama glared down on Makoto and raised his hand, which was dripping with pineapple juice. With a sneer, he leered down on the smaller boy.

"You think your little stick can hurt me?"

"You want to try me?"

"Peace. Please calm down, the both of you."

Before the duo could break into a brawl, Sanada Hiroyuki stepped between the two to intervene and pacify them with a raised hand.

Turning away, he revealed an ice bell from his coat and shook it in his left hand. A crystal-clear tink resounded across the cavern.

"I'll bring you all to see our leader."

Under his direction, an ice bridge solidified in thin air, linking one crevasse to another and hanging over the abyss.

"Oh? That's right. Sanada is an elementalist, isn't he?"

Suzuki smirked when he remembered his former classmate's special abilities. Indeed, it had been a while since he had seen them.

"Yes. Ice element, in case you've forgotten."

"No, I haven't. As ever, you're so cool."

"I thought Tanaka was the one who makes those pun jokes," Nishida muttered, but fell into deathly silence when Suzuki threw a withering look in his direction.

"Everyone."

Sanada called their attention back to him and gestured for them to continue onward onto the massive ice bridge that he had just forged over the abyss. Bowing politely, he beckoned for them to step onto the ice.

"This way."

"Kekeke.."

Suzuki chuckled when he saw how impressive Sanada's ice magic was, but he remained haughty and arrogant as ever.

"But you still haven't earned the right to be my target."

"Hmph." Nishida snorted. "Looks like you're lucky. Even the six people who have broken through level 1,000 don't dare to go up against the boss."

"Finally made it!"

As if on cue, Hoshizaki Kozue jumped onto the edge where one side of the ice bridge was propped up on, only for her to skid to a stop.

"Eh?"

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The three delinquents from Suzuki's group and the two Guardians of the Iron Knights all turned to stare at her, bemused.

"We managed to reach the top of the cliff," I muttered tiredly as I dragged myself to the summit, but I wasn't surprised to see the ice bridge. Thanks to my prowess as the first-person narrator, I knew everything that had gone on.

"That's right!" Hoshizaki nodded. "We'll meet Takeda-kun soon!"

"I'm so looking forward to it."

If she had detected any sarcasm in my voice, Hoshizaki didn't say anything. Instead, she continued skipping forward, with Aoyama and Lilith in tow. Sighing, I followed them while blatantly ignoring the dudes who were there.

"Shit!" Nishida hollered. "Isn't that Tanaka?! I thought Kobayashi killed him. How is he still alive?! And why is he here?!"

"Yo. It's been a while." I narrowed my gaze, especially on Suzuki. The last time I met him, he had thrown his God-Slaying Spear at me when I emerged from the Temple of Lyia. While he wasn't one of those who actively bullied me, he still did try to kill me back then. He was different from the others in that he retreated after that instead of being overly obsessed with killing me and worrying about how I would take my revenge, but if he planned to attack me right here, right now, I wouldn't hold back and would kill him with everything I had.

"Huh, Tanaka? Right..didn't Sakaguchi and Asakura say that he's alive? They said that they were going to hunt him down and kill him. That's right, they said he escaped to Helsreach, which is quite near here. What a pathetic bunch of fools..after bragging and making such big promises, it's clear that they had failed."

Suzuki didn't seem to even remember that incident. There was no look of recognition in his eyes. Come to think of it, he was from quite a long distance away. The only reason why I knew it was him was because of Absolutely Appraisal and the ability of my glasses to magnify and zoom in over long distances.

Nishida, on the other hand, was trembling.

This is so unlucky..how did we meet him here!? I've heard rumors after Sakaguchi, Asakura and Miyazawa's demises when they attempted to kill him. It's obvious that Tanaka is extremely strong. And with the boss's personality, he'll want to fight for sure. Then I'll be forced to join the battle..

The poor guy was perspiring profusely. But he was smiling to himself, as if he had thought of something.

He he! Good thing I'm good at avoiding fights..as long as I tell him how weak he is, then the boss wouldn't be interested at all.

Grinning, he tilted his head toward Suzuki and jabbed his staff at me.

"Boss, this guy.."

Before he could finish his sentence, Ooyama cut in.

"Huh? Tanaka? That black jacket and glasses..oi, isn't he the guy the 5th Lancer Dragoon Company reported as stealing your glory and kill in the Temple of Lyia? The guy powerful enough to defeat a boss-level Temple Guardian on his own?"

With a snap of his fingers, Ooyama proudly proclaimed as he jabbed at me excitedly. Nishida's jaw dropped and he almost screamed.

"FUCK!!"

"Oh?"

Ignoring Nishida, Suzuki turned to me with a bloodthirsty grin and tightened his grip on his spear.

"He was the hero who took my kill?"

I pushed my glasses up as I watched Suzuki warily.

Yeah, it's Suzuki, all right. Unmistakably the guy who threw that damned spear at me after I defeated the Blooming Buddha at the Temple of Lyia.

"So lucky.."

Suzuki crouched down for a moment, almost like a panther, and then he suddenly sprang forward at me crossing a hundred meters in a single bound.

"I didn't think a boring mission like this would have such a nice reward!"

Clang!

Before Suzuki could reach me, Aoyama had blocked his spear with his twin sickles. As he stood his ground firmly, warding Suzuki away, the latter growled intimidatingly.

"Iron Knights, you dare get in my way?"

His eyes glowing with bloodlust, Suzuki smirked shamelessly.

"I only want to test out how strong Tanaka really is. I've been hearing quite the interesting rumors about him for a while now. Tell me, are you really the one who took out Tsukishima, Kijima, Minamoto, Asakura and Miyazawa? All by yourself?"

I shrugged. "I wonder. That sounds too absurd to be believable."

"Heh, humble as ever, aren't you?! No wonder Kobayashi's always pissed off at you."

"Everyone, be careful!"

This time, it was Lilith who shouted a warning, having noticed that something was amiss with Suzuki's spear.

"That spear in his hand is most likely an enchanted weapon..legendary class!"

"Hang on a second!" Hoshizaki called out frantically. "Suzuki-kun, what are you doing?! Aren't you supposed to be on a diplomatic mission today? Didn't Kobayashi-kun say he sent you guys here to negotiate a truce?"

"That's right. I, Suzuki Shirou, will personally give the invitation to your boss.."

Suzuki increased the pressure on Aoyama's sickles, his grin widening across his face.

"But right now, I'm going to enjoy this fight!"

Suzuki was always one of the strongest members in class..even Kobayashi doesn't dare to harass him that much. Sure, he'll pressure Suzuki into being his subordinate, but as a delinquent, Suzuki was always a wildcard and one of the strongest..seems like he's also among the strongest heroes in class.

I frowned.

But Hoshizaki said something about business? A negotiation for a truce? Nobody told me anything about that.

Before I could think too much about that, Suzuki pressed down against Aoyama and glanced past the blue-haired Witch Doctor's shoulder to leer at me.

"At the Temple of Lyia, you were the one who stole my prey, and you withstood my attack as well.."

"That was luck," I replied. Suzuki snorted before he returned to his manically grinning expression.

"So lucky..I didn't think I would run into you so soon."

Neither did I. Hell, I would much rather I didn't run into him at all to begin with. The guy was a pain to deal with.

"I am very interested in what sort of abilities you used to defeat the rest of our class.." Suzuki continued, unable to conceal his excitement. "But that isn't important right now.."

You're right. It's not important at all. Can we move on from here?

With a huge swing, Suzuki knocked Aoyama back. The blue-haired guy withdrew a few steps, staggering as he struggled to regain his balance. Suzuki shifted his excited gaze from me to focus on the opponent before him.

"Let me take care of you first!"

As always, Suzuki is nuts.

I couldn't help but sigh in exasperation. I should have known – after all, back in our previous world, Suzuki was a delinquent notorious for getting into fights over every little thing. He was like a mad dog, traveling from school to school to seek out the strongest fighters and beat up entire gangs with his own.

That said, this wasn't a total loss.

But this is a great opportunity to observe the abiltiies of one of the strongest heroes in our class, as preparation to fight against Kobayashi eventually.

However, glancing at how Aoyama was lowering his dual sickles and preparing for a fight, I felt that he had it well in hand. I had experienced firsthand how strong he was, and knew he would be able to fight on par with Suzuki.

Seems like I won't need to make a move.

"What should we do, Tomoyuki?"

It was Lilith. She was holding her spear in what seemed like a loose manner, but I knew that appearance was deceptive. When the moment came, Lilith would pierce through even the hardest armor with that cursed blood spear of hers.

"Are we going to fight?"

Hoshizaki also stepped in.

"Suzuki-kun is very strong. I'm sure you know that, Aoyama-kun. I suggest that we fight together and finish him off quickly.."

"No need.."

Aoyama cut Hoshizaki off firmly.

"I can handle him myself."

Sprinting forward at insane speeds, Aoyama slashed with his dual sickles in movements too fast for my eyes o follow.

"Suzuki..I know you've always been a delinquent since back in our world, and you still think you can do whatever you want in Restia. But I won't allow you to disturb Iron Knights' headquarters!"

I smiled as I watched him dash forward.

Even if you're among the strongest heroes in our class, you will still have a tough time against Aoyama's ability.

After all, it wasn't just a physical or magical attack. It was a curse, one that was near-impossible to defend against.

Aoyama slashed at Suzuki from an unexpected angle, swinging from below the latter's guard in an attempt to take him by surprise.

However, Suzuki was just as fast. Spinning around, he parried Aoyama's sickle with the shaft of his spear, causing sparks to fly. With a smirk, he grinned at Aoyama even as their weapons locked and crackled with mana.

"Looks like I need to warm up with you first."

The two of them vanished into blinding streaks of light, and the harsh, metallic noises of weapon clashing against weapon filled the entire valley. Dust billowed and rocks pelted the area as the two of them struck and parried, slashed and blocked. In under a minute, the pair must have exchanged over a hundred blows in a high-speed battle.

He's able to keep up with me..

Aoyama was both shocked and thoroughly impressed at how Suzuki was actually matching him in terms of speed, but as the battle dragged on, an edge of frustration began to creep into his movements.

What a nuisance..

He dropped onto the ground to attack from below, hoping to catch the lax Suzuki off guard.

However, Suzuki leaped high above and spun over Aoyama's head, gracefully avoiding the slash that would have hit his ankles.

"Your attacks don't do any damage.."

As Suzuki slowly sailed through the air, he glanced at his right hand, where a counter had appeared.

"But from the start, there's a number that has been steadily increasing on my hand."

Right now, the number was 22.

Flipping himself upright, Suzuki drew his spear back as lightning began to catch and wreath around the blade of his long weapon.

"Is something scary going to happen once it reaches a certain number? I suppose it will. If I remember correctly, you're a Witch Doctor, after all. So you must be casting a curse on me. How terrifying.."

Despite his words, Suzuki seemed more amused than afraid. He was actually chuckling excitedly.

"Kekeke..weapon ability activate!"

Heavenly Lightning Strike!

Lightning crackled and bounced off his spear to fire golden lances of devastating electricity at the defending Aoyama.

There was an explosion as Aoyama forced himself to block it, but the shockwaves sent him flying back across the canyon and toward a rocky mountain wall.

Even as Aoyama was thrown back, the golden lightning continued to stream toward him like some sort of vengeful serpent. From within the smoke and electricity, the point of Suzuki's spear gleamed as he hurtled forward, getting ready to thrust it at Aoyama. Even though there was still a distance between them, Suzuki wasn't patient enough to wait for his spear to pierce Aoyama's chest. Instead, he shoved it forward.

"Thunder Spear!"

With a shout, he gathered all the coalesced lightning around the tip of his spear into a single, supercharged point.

ZING!

A golden beam of lightning blasted off from the tip of Suzuki's spear and lanced toward the helplessly flying Aoyama.

Heavenly Arrow!

"Kuh!"

Aoyama flipped his body in midair, just barely avoiding a fatal strike from Suzuki's attack, but the intense golden beam grazed his shoulder and nearly obliterated his arm.

As for me, I was thoroughly impressed by what I was seeing, to the point I was staring at Suzuki in utter awe.

He can switch between close and long-range attacks?

"Ugh.."

Aoyama grunted as he dropped onto the ground, glancing at his wound. However, even as he slowly rose to his feet, green mana was swirling around his wounded arm and restoring it to its prime condition.

Healing magic. Right, Aoyama was a healer. Of course he could cast healing spells on himself when he was injured.

"Really interesting.."

However, Suzuki wasn't interested in Aoyama's healing abilities. Instead, he was staring at the number on his hand, which had rose from 22 to 23.

"Even the bullet from my long-range attack counts.."

He stared at the 2 digits of 23 on his brown glove, contemplating deeply about the implications of this attack.

"Could it be..?"

He turned to grin at Aoyama, his expression almost triumphant.

"..anything that belongs to me cannot touch your blades?"

He figured it out!

My jaw dropped. Even I didn't understand what Aoyama's abilities were until I confirmed with him later. Yet Suzuki had already realized the implications halfway through the battle.

This guy looks reckless..but his battle sense is incredible..

"Hu.."

Aoyama took a deep breath as he continued healing his destroyed arm and raised his dual sickles, which were crackling with blue mana. A bead of perspiration dripped down his face as he watched the confident Suzuki.

"Amazing..you're the first person who has seen through my ability."

Even as he felt a cold stab of dread upon the revelation, Aoyama forced himself to remain calm.

But it doesn't matter. You don't have a plan against it..and I just need to get 10 more hits to send you away!

"Recovering your wounds.."

Suzuki watched Aoyama straighten and prepare for the next series of exchanges, thinking deeply about his next move.

"Not only can I not touch your heroic weapons..but you hold the title Witch Doctor, and can heal yourself. That's a really annoying ability."

He stabbed the blunt end of his spear onto the ground and grinned manically.

"Then.."

Snatching his spear, he twirled it around and thrust it forward.

"Thunder Spear..Extend!"

The golden lightning spear lanced forward, but not at Aoyama. Instead, it slammed into the rocky mountain wall opposite him, boring a huge crater into it. Rocks poured down in an avalanche as Suzuki dragged his spear across the wall, almost destroying it with his fearsome technique. The canyon groaned as it began to collapse.

Both Lilith and I suddenly realized what he was doing, beads of perspiration flowing down our faces.

With a single jerk of his hands, Suzukin yanked his spear across the mountain wall, obliterating it and sending an avalanche of debris raining down. Suddenly, he switched the trajectory of his spear and forcibly redirected the falling rocks toward himself.

"!"

Aoyama's eyes widened when he realized Suzuki's intentions, but he was too late.

A massive chunk of rock slammed into him, sending him flying across the abyss. The rocky debris slammed him into the wall, sandwiching and crushing him against several tons of solid rock. If Aoyama had been a regular human, he would have been reduced to nothing more than a bloody pulp from the tremendous impact.

"Whoa!"

Both Lilith and I were forced to jump back as shockwaves and clouds of dust billowed against us, buffeting and knocking us backward. Coughing, I raised my head to glance at Aoyama in concern, but he had vanished beneath rubble.

"This is fine, right?"

Suzuki was still swinging his extended spear around and slashing through the mountains with brute strength.

With a feral grin, he smirked.

"This mountain doesn't belong to me."

Hu..

As the dust dissipated and the avalanche calmed down, silence reigned over the mountain pass. Lilith, Hoshizaki and I were all watching the battle, completely taken aback by what had just happened. Nishida and Ooyama didn't look surprised, but Makoto was trembling in fury. Only Sanada remained calm, but I noticed that his jaw had imperceptibly tightened.

Aoyama lay at the bottom of the rubble, completely battered and semi-conscious. He was so injured and ravaged that he wasn't able to use his healing spells on himself. Smoke drifted about his fallen body, almost shrouding him in death.

"So.."

Suzuki ignored Aoyama's prone figure and studied the digits on his hand, which had remained at 23 even after the attack.

"That really works."

A distance away, Ooyama slapped Nishida on the shoulder, almost sending him tumbling forward.

"These pieces of trash are getting in the way of the boss's fight against Tanaka!" he bellowed as he urged Nishida forward. "Let's go help him!"

Before he could take a single step, however, he instinctively turned around.

"Eh?"

Bam!

Sanada kicked Ooyama in the face with a leg coated in sharp icicles, knocking him back. Nishida was hurled away from the impact as the two heavyweights clashed.

But even the massive Ooyama wasn't able to withstand Sanad's frost kick. With a single maneuver, Sanada sent Ooyama hurtling across the ice bridge and slamming into the wall on the opposite of the mountain, leaving a trail of frozen icicles in his wake.

Lifting his leg up as the ice shattered around it, Sanada struck a cool pose as he glared at the trio of delinquents.

"Since the fight has started..I can no longer try to be the peacekeeper."

Fog billowed about him as he clamped down on his icy rage with cold fury. Okay, I tried to sound poetic with that, but it was obvious that I failed.

Sipping a cup of tea, Makoto merely shook his head and snickered.

"You just want to hit him, right?"

At some point of time, Makoto had conjured a wooden piece of furniture that served as a couch-table hybrid. He was seated in a concave and peacefully drinking his tea as he watched the farce from a safe distance.

Sanada didn't even bother to glance back at him, even as the frost fell from his now free and unfrozen leg.

"Yeah..but you were the one who really wanted to hit him earlier."

Now Sanada finally turned around to glare at his smaller companion.

"Now you're just sipping tea in the battlefield."

With a shake of his head, he voiced his disapproval.

"You can't be like this, Makoto."

"But he is too smelly," Makoto complained as he took another sip of his tea. "It grosses me out too much. Furthermore..although he is disgusting, you can't afford to underestimate him."

Across the icy bridge, a sudden conflagration erupted on the other side of the mountain, almost like a miniature sun.

A golden, flaming arm reached out of the smoke to grab and disintegrate the ice.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I didn't think you would be this strong!"

Ooyama strode out as he carried his huge hammer, which was crackling with electricity that shrouded him in a protective aura.

"But I've reached level 800 and hold the title, Berserker."

Name: Ooyama Eiji

Species: Human

Job/Rank: Berserker/Hero

Special Abilities: Berserk Lightning, Mjolnir, God of Thunder

I pushed my glasses up my nose as I used Absolute Appraisal to study him. Even from this distance, I could clearly see the gigantic lightning aura that cloaked him like a mecha or something. Suspened inside the enormous lightning-type mecha-like form, Ooyama advanced across the icy bridge.

That must be his God of Thunder ability.

Ooyama was laughing raucously as he boasted about his abilities.

"Berserkers have the ability to increase their strength and agility 10 times! Compared to you, who have such pathetically low levels, you're just trash! Die!"

With a single push, Ooyama propelled himself off the mountain to lunge at both Sanada and Makoto in a single bound.

"Who cares about levels?" Makoto rolled his eyes as he stood up from his wooden furniture and began twirling his small knife in his hand.

"My, my..what a pain." Sanada sighed as he focused on the advancing enemy before them.

"DIE!!!"

With a roar, Ooyama descended upon them, wreathed in his God of Thunder form.