Jujutsushi 280.3
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Chapter 280: The Exiled Folks
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
R1[1-3], R2[4-6], R3[7-9]
Part 7
「『Fast Heal』!」
「Forget the scratches, keep the pressure on, Himeno!」
「Then don’t blame me when I don’t heal you until the arrow’s actually sticking in you!」
The arrow grazed Mari; Himeno tried to heal her immediately, but they needed to hammer the enemy archers with 『Lux Sagita』. A bit of pain was nothing — hesitation would get them killed.
「N’bah! Bugeragh!」
「Gaaba, zon! Dagudraaa!」
A hundred metres of ruined street vanished beneath their feet before the Gorma infantry finally appeared, blocking the way. Their morale was surging, they clearly believed victory was already theirs.
「We’re charging straight through, everyone stay with me!」
Letting out a thunderous roar, Yamada the 『Heavy Warrior』, armour clattering, shield raised, crashed head-on into the Goma army's formation. The small monsters were sent flying like rag dolls, scattered as violently as if a speeding car had ploughed into a crowd.
「Out of the damn way!」
「Get blasted, you lot!」
Ueda and Mari hacked at the opening Yamada made, tearing it wider with their skills. Himeno and Nakajima were following right behind them, hurling spells as they ploughed through the Goma ranks.
They cut down two, then three more Goma, and that’s when the real threat finally showed itself.
「Gubaaahahahaha!」
A hulking Gogma stepped forward, a massive hammer perched casually on his shoulder. Govu warriors in heavy gear surrounded them, clearly the backbone of the raiding force.
There was no chance of smashing through this group as easily as they had the Goma.
「“I’ll keep the Gogma busy… You lot use that opening to get through.」
「What!? Oi, Yamada— don’t tell me you’re planning to—」
「You idiot! You can’t take that thing on alone!」
「There’s no other waAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!」
Before anyone could stop him, Yamada charged straight at the Gogma, who greeted him with a smug, booming laugh.
「YAMADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
「YAMADA, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
「GO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!」
Hammer and blade collided with brutal force as Yamada roared, fighting like a man possessed, thinking only of buying time for the others, even if it cost him his life.
No one knew why he could cast aside his own safety so easily. But if he’d chosen to stake everything here, they had no intention of wasting that resolve.
「GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
While Yamada battled like a madman against the Gogma, Ueda and Mari hacked into the Govu blocking their path.
With grim determination, they cut down the one Govu after another. Pressed into a corner, they drew forth power surpassing their natural limits.
Ueda, Mari, and Nakajima, guided by unprecedented clarity and a surging strength, felled the Govu and forced their way through, finally breaking free of the main force’s encirclement————
「Gubu… fufufu!」
「Bahhahahaha!」
And then they saw it, the real nightmare: two Gogma, with a swarm of over a hundred Govu massed behind them.
「Ha… ha… haha… seriously…? This has to be a joke…」
「How many of them are there…? This is insane…」
Yamada sacrificed his own life just to stop a single Goguma. Thinking Ueda and Mari could casually take one each was nothing more than a cruel fantasy.
「No… no… this can’t be happening… it’s over… we’re finished…」
「H-hey! Don’t give up! Please! We can still survive this! There has to be a way!」
Even Himeno’s scream, full of desperation, faded emptily into the chaos.
Their bodies were at their absolute limit, and their hearts were already shattered. How many days had they been hunted without rest? They lived in constant fear of ambushes, unable to sleep, unable even to swallow proper meals.
The fact they had made it this far, pushing past the Goma units, felt like a cruel miracle.
But now — no, far worse — the two Gogma standing directly in front of them, along with the overwhelming number of Govu, drowned them in total despair.
Compared to Yamata no Orochi, these monsters were weaker, but… After losing so many friends and being reduced to only five people, there was no power left, no hope left, no way left to fight.
「Dammit... Dammit aaaaaaaaaall...」
Ueda’s grip on his sword shook violently as tears finally spilled free. The others were exactly the same.
What was the point of all that fighting? What were they even suffering for…?
---"We — we were never meant to die in a place like this—" As if laughing at their broken spirits, the Goguma slowly began to tighten the noose around them.
And then, at last, the massive weapon in the Gogma’s grasp was lifted high into the air.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
A roar so loud that it feels like it pierced the heavens and shook the earth resounded.
The Goma, intoxicated by their overwhelming dominance — including the Gogma — flinched in terror as the feral howl that shook the battlefield.
Before they could even process what it was, it appeared.
A gigantic shadow dropped down from the top of a crumbling building.
「LET'S GO, KINAKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Answering the boy’s desperate scream, a huge demon beast burst onto the battlefield and lunged straight for the Gogma.
「PUNGAAAAAAAAGH!」
「Bugeh, NBUAAAAAAAGH?!」
Accompanied by a ferocious war cry, the demon beast’s huge fist smashed forward, casually blasting the towering Gogma through the air.
The Gogma took a brutal body blow and didn’t stand a chance to brace itself, it sent flying, tumbling across the ground before crashing spectacularly into the Govu mob behind it.
「Beniwo! Flamethrower! Make a wall of fire! Protect everyone!」
As the boy’s voice rang out again, a blazing-red Orthrus — Or rather, a Cerberus-sized fire wolf — came charging in at terrifying speed.
「WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
With a thunderous howl, raging flames erupted forward and smashed directly into the second Gogma.
Driven by heat and pressure, it was slammed through the crumbling wall of the ruins, and the firestorm spread wildly, licking outwards and setting the surrounding Govu ablaze.
Faced with an enormous wall of fire roaring up across the battlefield, even the hardened Govu warriors panicked, pulling back and scattering in all directions.
「GOOOO! Crimson Grillin!」
The flames split apart, and out stomped a dinosaur sheathed in shimmering, blood-red armour.
Before they could even say "What the...", its massive jaws opened, and the rider on its back roared:
「————『TERRA FORCE BLAST!』」
A spell detonated like a falling mountain, a catastrophic avalanche of earth thundering forward with unstoppable force.
The battlefield vanished beneath the roaring surge of soil; Govu warriors were swallowed whole, swept away like insignificant specks in nature’s wrath.
In the blink of an eye, the main battalion under Gogma’s command shattered, their formation crumbling as despair overtook them; in such chaos, the notion of hunting humans had already been left far behind.
Only when a lone, boy descended before them did the truth of what had transpired finally become clear.
「O-OOh, long time no see, everyone.」
In the midst of a battlefield turned into a total pandemonium—monstrosities roaring, wolves howling, dinosaurs tearing across the earth—the boy rode calmly atop a blazing-red raptor, a knight clad in pitch-black armour following like a silent shadow, as he arrived before the four.
「Anyway, these recovery potions are on me. Go on, have a drink and settle down first.」
He said it lightly, almost cheerfully, while offering the potions with both hands.
This was not a dream, nor some comforting illusion. It was real, undeniably real. Because if anyone in the world could pull off something this impossible… it would be him, and everyone knew it.
「M-M-MOMOKAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Thus, in the final, desperate moment, Momokawa Kotaro arrived—bursting through the chaos—to stand at the side of his classmates when they needed him most.