The Saintess and the Boss

"The direction boss was originally heading is the opposite of this, after all."

"… I see. Good job, noticing."

"Yes. Naturally. Uuma-senpai is quite the strategist."

"Really? Uuma, is weak. Then, let's go."

Saintess Alka boasted proudly as she returned across the stepping stone platforms.

She was now walking side by side with Rin without any sense of discomfort.

Unfortunately, the phoenix was nowhere to be seen. It must have hidden somewhere… How truly unfortunate.

Returning from the hot floor full of magma, they came back to the dungeon of stone paving and stone brick walls.

"This was the direction boss was originally heading."

Using [Mapping], she checked the map with her skill as they backtracked through the dungeon.

There should have been a wall there. But perhaps because Uuma had been defeated, the wall was gone.

"… I see, so Uuma-senpai was the key."

"Umu, trouble, some."

Then, casually dealing with traps along the way, they once again found a golem sitting in front of a wall.

It was Uuma. The aura it exuded was clearly different from other golems, so she recognized it immediately. It was just sitting there, yet somehow it felt human.

When Uuma noticed the saintess and Rin, it casually raised its right hand in greeting.

"Yo, would've been nice if you'd just gone back."

"It was quite the good strategy. Ordinary adventurers would have been fooled, senpai."

"Haah… I'll ask just in case. Won't you leave?"

"I refuse."

The saintess said firmly with a bright smile. Uuma shrugged its shoulders as if sighing.

"Rin, you don't intend to stop Alka either, right?"

"Hmm? That's right. I don't."

"Then I'll just crush you along with Alka. Alright? … I'll be waiting in the room right there."

"Kukuku, can you, do that? Alright, try it!"

With a roar, Rin ate Uuma. In its momentum, it destroyed the wall too.

… Beyond it was a door. A luxurious one — a door that practically screamed "boss room."

The room Uuma mentioned must be this one.

"Can Uuma-senpai really defeat boss?"

"Kukuku, who knows. That guy, is weaker, than Alka… but his head, is good."

Human-level intelligence — no, Uuma seemed to possess intelligence beyond that of humans. What would stand in their way as the dungeon's boss? The saintess steeled herself.

With a heavy, creaking sound, she opened the door.

Inside was a dully gleaming iron knight statue. A fully armored knight on horseback holding a lance, but since the face guard was raised, the face was visible… It was an expressionless face that could only be described as an egg with holes.

Where was Uuma hiding? She advanced slowly.

Killing intent. The saintess quickly stepped back two paces. A lance stabbed into where she had just been standing.

As the lance was lifted, clang! Rin cut in and stopped it.

The knight statue was moving… So it was a golem. It was her first time seeing one with a horse too, but if it was a boss, such things were probably possible.

It was a good surprise attack. If Rin hadn't been there, it could have been the end right then.

"Kukuku, Uumaaa, is that you, Uuma!? You've become, horse-like! Huh!?"

Rin laughed joyfully.

"… Now then, let's do this."

The knight golem spoke, lowering its face guard. That was unmistakably Uuma's voice. Taking some distance, Uuma reset the engagement.

"Let's do this, Uuma!"

"Kukuku! Kukukukuku! Here I come, Uuma!"

Rin and Uuma dashed toward each other simultaneously, about to collide… or so it seemed, but Uuma quickly leaped off the horse. Only the horse with its momentum shot toward Rin.

"I saw that, before…—?!"

Just as Rin opened its mouth impossibly wide to eat the horse, the horse exploded, and something white flew into its mouth.

"Gugee?! Guha, ptoo, ptoo! T-this is, s-salt!!"

"There's more where that came from. Eat as much as you like."

A door behind Uuma opened, and white horses came flooding through. Once five horses entered, the door slammed shut.

"W-wait, Uuma?! Are these, all, salt?!"

"There's more where that came from. Eat as much as you like."

Word for word, even the delivery was exactly the same — Uuma declared heartlessly.

The white horses made of salt… the salt horses began relentlessly chasing Rin.

While watching Rin put distance between itself, the salt golems, and Uuma, the saintess blocked an attack from behind with her battle hammer.

"Even if you hide your footsteps with salt, you still stand out, Uuma-senpai."

"…"

"Oh? Silent, Uuma-senpai? You could praise me, you know? Or can only one of your bodies speak?"

A second knight-type golem. It was meant to be a perfect surprise attack aimed at her moment of carelessness. But the saintess was certain Uuma would try something like this, so she was almost expecting it. If anything, she was disappointed it was only this much.

"… Now then, let's do this."

"Yes, let's, senpai."

Saying the exact same words as before to Rin, battle commenced.

Uuma's swordsmanship was close to that of a knight. However, the technique was sloppy — around C-rank adventurer level at best.

The saintess parried the knight-type golem's attacks with her battle hammer. Rin was being chased by the salt horses, so she couldn't expect support from that direction. But in a straight fight, she was confident she could win.

"Fufufu, compared to boss… this is nothing!"

The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out. The saintess's battle hammer was made of black steel, a mineral harder than iron. Uuma's entire body was iron, and its weapon was an iron sword as well.

Every time it blocked the saintess's attacks, the sword let out a grating screech, and dents from the hammer accumulated across its body.

"Hora hora hora! Too slow! There, there, and here too!"

Damage and desperation began showing in its movements, which gradually lost precision. The saintess mercilessly continued pummeling Uuma, leaving dent after dent.

Then Uuma staggered and crouched down. It dropped its sword and thrust out its left hand forward.

"What's this, that's all? Fufufu, dropping your sword means surrender? But I can't reach the Dungeon Core without defeating Uuma-senpai, right? So, I'll finish you off."

"… There's more where that came from. Eat as much as you like."

Uuma pointed upward with its right hand. The saintess flinched, keeping Uuma in view while looking up warily for traps. But there was nothing there… no, looking closer, the ceiling — it was white.

The next instant, the ceiling collapsed. It was a massive amount of salt. While the salt horses and Uuma — both golems — were completely unaffected, Rin and the saintess were forced to close their eyes for a moment.

"Mogaa?! P-ptoo! Ugh, uugghh! Disgusting! So, disgusting! Bleh, ptoo!"

She could hear Rin's agonized voice. Apparently it had been force-fed a salt horse when its eyes were closed. So salt was its weakness. It definitely was. That's why — though she didn't know how — Uuma had prepared such a massive quantity of salt.

"Kuh—!"

When she opened her eyes while keeping her defense up with the battle hammer, Uuma was right in front of her. It wasn't holding a weapon, perhaps because it had been lost in the salt collapse or hidden in the chaos. Uuma's approaching left hand was now much closer to the saintess than before.

—The next instant, something thin shot out from Uuma's left hand at high speed and pierced the saintess's heart.

"… Huh?"

She coughed up blood. It seemed to have also punctured her lung or airway.

Despite wearing an iron breastplate, it had pierced straight through.

"A golem… using… magic? … When did… you chant…?"

Even if she wanted to cast healing magic, the enemy before her didn't seem like it would give her the opportunity. Her lungs were filling with blood to begin with, making even breathing difficult. Her speech was becoming choppy like Rin's. From experience, she instinctively knew — ah, I'm dying.

"Gofu. Fufu… I was, careless. It seems, I've lost…"

"…"

Uuma didn't speak. Of course not. It wasn't like it needed to give her parting words for the afterlife. The saintess would revive.

If it revealed its secrets, she would take countermeasures next time. So it said nothing. It answered nothing.

Even so, the saintess could make some guesses.

Her clothes were wet. So it was probably water-type magic. For it to pierce through her iron breastplate in an instant, it was probably Advanced-tier magic or higher.

Uuma was probably not a golem, but a subspecies of gargoyle.

She didn't know the details, but if she assumed "it can use that kind of magic without chanting," she wouldn't be far off. Next time, then. Next time, for sure.

… However, that next time would be quite a while away. For some time, the saintess wouldn't be able to enter this dungeon. That was one of [Treaty]'s restrictions.

"Mu?! O-oi, Alka! Were you, beaten?!"

"Gu, I'm sorry, boss… I'll come, again, someday…"

Unable to resist the encroaching darkness of her consciousness, the saintess slowly closed her eyes. While thinking somewhat irrelevant thoughts like, "… Aah, I at least wanted to be eaten by boss in the end. But I'm covered in salt right now so that won't happen…"