"What's next, sweetie?"(Shera)

"A beehive!"

"Are we going to feed the enemy with honey?"

"Mom, sometimes you really have less common sense than me. But I love you anyway. No. By beehive I mean a myriad of arrows are set as traps to inflict damage on this hero. It’s time to move the enemy to a corner."

The hero went up the stairs from the 7th to the 8th level on the labyrinth. The burns on his back weren’t that serious.

…At the 8th level… I pressed another button. Ruri already had some countermeasures prepared. I just improved them. As soon as I pushed it, countless arrows were released from the small holes in the walls and directed towards the hero and the front row guards! It was useless to run away! The absurd amount of arrows attacked from the front, back, left and right sides!

…It was really like a beehive. Even so, the hero stood still after the rain of arrows finished attacking him. He spinned his lance and deflected almost all the arrows. Under his feet was a huge pile of broken arrows. The guards weren't so lucky.

…Ugh! His defense power was high! I guess that's to be expected. The hero spoke after spitting the floor.

"Hmm. That was just a scratch."

Baka. Even if only a single arrow managed to hit you in your leg and it's not lethal… before he realized it, he collapsed on the spot. The arrows were poisoned.

With that, his death should be guaranteed. But his body glowed brightly and he then stood back up like it was nothing.

"I am seriously going to kill whoever designed this place for that!!" (Takeru)

I tilted my head in confusion.

"It's his special ability. Tiger's nine lives. Each time he sustains fatal damage he'll come back as new. If you do plan on killing him, you gotta do it 8 more times." (Ruri)

Well… that certainly is a troublesome ability. But nothing I can't handle. I'll just shave off more of his lives on the way. But in the end, I might have to face him myself.

From now on, they will continue to dive upwards in the labyrinth with cautiousness because of subsequent traps. However, there aren’t any more traps on this level. This might get him to drop his guard.

"Takeru-sama! I see the next staircase!"

"Yeah! There was nothing on this area! Damn it, how does he dare to play with us like this…"

However, the moment he touched the first step of the stairs…

"Gyahhhhhh!!"

 The hero screamed extremely high! Countless needle-like swords stuck out from the floor of the stairs imperceptibly! And of course pierced his entire body. There goes another life.

"Damn youuuuu!!"

Afterwards, a variety of traps was set up on the next level, the 10th level. Pitfalls…Spears coming out of the walls… but he managed to avoid those. And the place where they finally managed to arrive after dodging some of the traps was, however, a dead end. The mud wall had a forehead drawn on it with some kind of ornaments. A sentence was written there.

Four legs in the morning…two legs at noon…three legs at night. Please write the answer of this creature’s name.

A feather pen with ink was placed under the forehead. 

"What a bothersome game. The next staircase won’t appear if we don’t solve this damn mystery…But, don't underestimate me. I'm from earth. You don't think I know the riddle to such a cliche question? The answer is… human!"

*bang*

Suddenly, there was a roaring sound coming from that weird forehead! The video of the hologram was also disturbed!

"What the hell happened? Human is the correct answer for that." (Ruri)

"At the end of the 10th level there is a trap that explodes. The answer you should write is kitty if you don't want it to explode."

"How the hell does that make sense?"

"Cats are cute. And besides, I said please write the answer, not please write the correct answer."

"Wha…What a completely outrageous trap! That's it! I'm done playing these games!" (Takeru)

The hero did something unexpected. He pulled some sort of gem and attached it to his spear. 

"Holy Smite!"

A powerful thrust that generated a light beam, pierced through the ceiling up until the space that was protected by the magic that made my girls disappear and prevented us from leaving the classroom. Darn it. It seems this guy is taking a shortcut.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Ruri-chan, do you have a panic room or something? A separate space from this one where you can hide?"

"Yeah, but why?"

"I want you and my girls to go there. Also make this space as big as possible. Remove the stumps and everything else. I'm going to face him here. All the guards were killed except the 4 surrounding that girl in the back. I'll manage to shave off his remaining lives if he's stubborn and won't run away."

As instructed Ruri made the stumps and other elements disappear. This room really is bigger if it's empty. But there was no time for admiring the scenery. Ruri also made a hole open up, from where everyone except me, was taken to a different place.

I should mention that I also had her remove the force field around this room until this hero actually gets here. I didn't have to wait for long, though. Because of his blast a straight path was now available for them and they quickly reached this place. Although I will admit, the hero was rather rude. He didn't even bother knocking on the door or trying it out to see if it was open. He just violently smashed it.

"Huh!? What the hell is a kid doing in a place like this? Is this another trap?"

*Pout*

"Mou, it's rude to call a girl a trap!"

The refined lady that was still surrounded by 4 guards, took a step closer.

"Takeru-sama, she has a point. Let's not be rude. Are you lost, little one? Do you perhaps know where the Great Sage is hiding? If you tell us, we will gladly escort you out of this place."

"Yeah, I know where he's hiding."

I deliberately used 'he' over 'she'. They probably don't know Ruri-chan's gender, so it's better to leave it like that.

"Hold on, princess? Are we just gonna trust some random child? What if she takes us in another trap?"

His caution is justified. I better clear this up.

"Mister hero, miss princess, let me clear up this misunderstanding. I don't intend to take you anywhere. All I said was that I know where the Sage is hiding. I'm not gonna tell you, though. You see, he doesn't want to meet you guys. So could you please just all go home?"

"Huh!? What an absurd thing to say. As if we would turn back after this much of a sacrifice? It doesn't matter if he likes it or not, but we will see him, and he will assist us. I don't want to hurt children. It's not my style. But I will if I need you to spill the beans."

"So I take it you won't leave?"

"That's right? So what are you going to do? Start crying like a baby?"

"I see. Then I guess I have no choice. If you won't leave… I'll just have to kill you all, teehee!!"