Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Kurena's attack did very little damage to Demon General Razel.

Kurena's Extra Skill, which was overwhelmingly strong and played an active role in our dungeon conquest in Academy City and the war in Rosenheim, was completely ineffective.

Desperate looks came over my friends.

"Kurena! Don't stop attacking! Increase your number of attacks!"

"Yeah! Okay!"

I instructed Kurena to erase the air of despair.

(The difference between their [Endurance] and [Attack] is more than I thought.)

Helmios had told me about the strength of Demon Generals.

I had anticipated the strength of Demon Generals to some extent, but I felt that there was a tremendous difference in status between Kurena and Demon General Razel.

Damage dealt was determined by the [Attack] of the attacker and [Endurance] of the receiver.

To be more precise...

- The power of an attack was calculated by adding the effects of skill used and Extra Skill to the sum of your own [Attack] and the [Attack] of your weapon

- The total [Endurance] of the receiver was calculated by the adding their own [Endurance] and armor's [Endurance]

- Critical hits occurred when attacked at vital points

These things were compounded and calculated into damage.

Kurena, who had used her Extra Skill [Limit Break], aimed for the neck, where there was no armor, and also attacked Demon General Razel's vital point, almost without damage.

It showed just how much of a status difference there was between Kurena and Demon General Razel.

Closing the distance between her and Demon General Razel, Kurena repeatedly struck with her sword.

Kurena's Extra Skill had a time limit, and once she used it, she couldn't use it for the whole day.

So, Kurena seemed somewhat impatient.

She seemed to be desperately trying to use her skills while her Extra Skill was active.

At that point, I could see Kurena's sense of urgency that if she couldn't use her skills, she would lose.

Demon General Razel repelled Kurena's desperate attack with the back of his hands as if he were swatting insects. Kurena swinging her greatsword and Demon General shaking his hands didn't match.

"I can't do it..."

The shimmering glow around Kurena faded away.

Her Extra Skill's time limit was over.

"Your Gate of Extra closed? You may be a Master Swordsman, but you're just standing at the Gate. That's the extent of your power, I suppose."

"Who is standing at the Gate?"

"Yes. Only those who can open the Gate of Extra and cross them are called the 'Liberators'. Just like you."

(Hmm? Crossing the Gate means being a 'Liberator', not someone who has to liberate the world? That means I'm misunderstanding something, aren't I? Could it be that Extra Skills are...)

I understood what Demon General Razel's words meant.

Perhaps Demon General Razel thought I was in Extra Mode.

The word 'Liberator' probably meant someone who had opened their Gate of Extra that separated the Normal Mode from the Extra Mode, and had gone beyond the limits of the Normal Mode.

"Hey, he's too strong! Allen, what are we going to do!?"

Cecile's voice echoed as I was verifying Demon General Razel's words.

Cecile, who had been casting spells since the start of the battle, asked me what to do.

"Ah, he is stronger than we expected. We'll have to retreat."

"Hmm, are you done with your clever little plan? But you think I'm going to let you run away now?"

Demon General Razel, who had been listening to Cecile and my conversation, smiled and declared that he would not let us escape.

(Okay, you are completely off guard.)

Then, 1 B-rank Beast rusheed through the gap in the broken ceiling.

The B-rank Beast, who looked like a three-headed Cerberus, bared its vicious fangs and closed in behind Demon General Razel.

"Gururu!"

"From behind again, huh? How many times do you think that the same plan will work?"

Before the B-rank Beast could attack, Demon General Razel waved his hand and blew away the B-rank Beast.

The difference in status was so great that B-rank Beast immediately turned into a glowing bubble.

"It doesn't matter how many of these little fish you take out..."

Just as he was just about to tell me that it was useless to send out any number of my summons...

From the tip of the glowing bubble, a young man with light blue hair wearing Golden Armor appeared, while holding a Golden Sword.

Demon General Razel was saying something, but stopped.

Hero Helmios was hiding on the back of B-rank Beast.

"[Phoenix Sword]"

"Why are you here, Helmios?"

"To defeat you?"

Glowing like a shimmering flame, Helmios used his Extra Skill, [Phoenix Sword] and thrust his Orichalcum sword into the back of Demon General Razel.

The sword pierced through the armor and stuck out from the chest of Demon General Razel.

However, that was not enough to kill the momentum, so Demon General Razel fell face down and slammed into the ground.

The floor was shattered and a wide circle imprint formed by the impact of Demon General Razel being slammed into the ground, and he sank deep into the ground.

(He is ridiculously powerful. That was an opponent that Kurena couldn't damage at all.)

"...Wow."

Kurena was impressed with Helmios, who defeated Demon General Razel with a single blow.

Helmios pulled out the sword that he had thrust into Demon General Razel's back and shook off the purple blood on the sword.

"Your strategy worked, Allen. Thanks to you, we were able to defeat him without any sacrifices."

"No, no, I'm glad you are here to give the decisive blow."

I had known that my friends and I had no decisive attack that could defeat Demon General Razel in one shot.

For that, I relied on Helmios' Extra Skill, [Phoenix Sword], but it also had a 1 day cool time once used.

We needed to make sure that Helmios hit Demon General's vital point with his [Phoenix Sword].

We needed to formulate a strategy and set up Demon General Razel based on that.

For that reason, I secretly brought the Hero to Rosenheim.

No one except for some important people in the Central Continent knew that Helmios was in Rosenheim.

I had also asked the Giamut Empire for an information blockade.

Demon General Razel had thought that my friends and I, who had defeated the Demon King's army and mistakenly thought that we were strong, had come to fight against him, a Demon General.

"It's not easy to use your friends and even yourself as bait, is it? You've got good friends."

"No, no, no."

Helmios looked at my friends and praised them.

My friends and I, who were not strong enough to deal with Demon General, were used as bait.

The more power one has, the more attention Demon General Razel would give us. And the more attention he paid to us, the weaker he was against Helmios' surprise attack.

No one disagreed with my strategy when I said it in the Meeting Room.

(Well, he is a little stubborn.)

I had been checking my Grimoire for a while.

I waited for a while but no message came up saying that I had defeated a Demon General.

"Helmios, it looks like he hasn't been defeated yet. Let's put an end to him."

"Huh? Yeah. I guess so. He isn't dead yet?"

As Helmios was about to pull his sword from his waist...

"... When did you get the Hero to join you? I see, so you've done all this preparation. Thanks to that, you were able to crush one of my 3 hearts."

I heard a voice coming from the hole behind Helmios.

""What?""

Then, Demon General Razel, whose chest was pierced by a large sword, slowly rose and emerged from the ground.

(Oh, no. We couldn't defeat him in one attack.)

We were upset, but we picked up our weapons and prepared ourselves nonetheless.

"What's up? You're not attacking? Then look at the power I gave up everything to attain! I became a Liberator to obtain the World Tree!"

I didn't have any skill that allowed me to gauge my enemy's strength.

However, I could tell that he was getting stronger by seeing the obvious change happening before my eyes.

Demon General Razel's body swelled and became huge as it tore through his armor.

He had huge legs reminiscent of a carnivorous dinosaur, wings reminiscent of a reptile, and six arms sprouting from his shoulders and sides.

His face changed to a magical beast-like face that seemed to embody hatred, and the face of the elf disappeared.

"This is not good. I'll buy you some time, so run."

With that, Helmios grabbed his sword and headed towards Demon General Razel.

"A mere Hero who hasn't even crossed the Gate of Extra! I don't care how many people like you gather, you will never defeat me!"

"Gaha!"

Three of his six arms formed fists and struck Helmios.

Helmios was blown to the wall further behind Kiel and Cecile, who were the furthest away from Demon General Razel.

The wall shattered with a bang and Helmios was there in the rubble.

"No one is getting away!"

As soon as he said so, the transformed Demon General Razel rushed toward Allen and the others.