13 Massive Monster

Roko coughed as he got slammed against the wall by the basilisk's tail. The snake continued to hiss at him as Roko crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath. Thankfully he had managed to avoid reopening the wounds on his injured arm or make any new ones. But fighting a basilisk was proving to be way beyond his capabilities.

"Okay." Roko gasped as he used his sword to pull himself up, "Let's try this again."

The snake hissed and lunged forward, fangs poised to bite through Roko. Roko dodged to the side, letting the snake impact the wall behind him. Standing back up, Roko quickly stepped in to slip his sword inside the side of the basilisk's mouth and make a quick slash across its cheek. The basilisk roared as it swung its head back but the damage seemed otherwise minimal.

A slashing weapon was perhaps a bad match up against the basilisk's scales. Without being able to apply enough force to cut through the scales, the sword would only scrape the snake's hide ineffectively. Not that Roko believed he had the strength to cut through the scales even if he had the use of both his arms. If Roko was any braver, he'd stand his ground and stab his sword right into the inside of the snake's mouth but he knew that would be ultimately ineffective as well.

"As it stands my only hope is to hold out until Momo and the others manage to finish up with the golems and come help me out." Roko muttered, "Who knows if that'll ever happen?"

The basilisk reared its head back, signaling Roko to escape to the side as it shot a wad of venom at him, hitting and dissolving the floor where he had stood.

The basilisk turned to hiss at Roko again who just calmly watched for any indication of an opening or of the next attack. The basilisk bobbed its head back and forth, making it hard to predict its next move. Without being able to accurately predict its next move, Roko decided he couldn't risk standing back passively and began to strafe around the serpent. The basilisk reacted violently, diving forward to bite Roko. Roko kept running, letting the snake smash into the wall again. A loud rumbling sound drew Roko's attention back in front of him where the basilisk's tail was swinging around towards him, dragging through the tower's wall. Trapped between the snake's head and tail, the advancing tail was too large to avoid but Roko dropped his sword and dove towards the tower wall anyway. The tail smashed into Roko, cracking a few bones and breaking his arm's cast. With a flick, the serpent's tail sent him flying into the air where the basilisk pulled its head out of the wall and opened its mouth, waiting for its prey to fall right into its maw.

"Eat this!" Roko cried as he threw the rock he had grabbed down the basilisk's throat.

The snake retched and as it began to choke on the rock, letting Roko fall to the ground with a painful thud. Stunned with immense pain, Roko struggled to stay conscious as he heard the basilisk thrashing about behind him. Slowly, Roko picked himself up and managed to grab his sword, stumbling around until he found the wall and propped himself up against it. The basilisk heaved one more time and managed to spit out the rock, partially dissolved in its venom, onto the ground before it turned and hissed angrily at Roko.

The basilisk had a weak point. Roko knew this. The problem was being able to exploit it with it's body all curled up. There wasn't nearly enough room for the basilisk to uncurl fully even if it wanted to. As Roko's mind strained to find some solution, his eyes were drawn to the melting stone the basilisk had spit out and a plan came to mind.

Roko stepped forward and began to wave his sword at the basilisk's head, making it hard to the snake to try to bite him or approach. The serpent tried to attack him, making snaps at the waving sword but with no success, the snake tilted its head back. Roko moved to the side quickly as the basilisk spat its venom at him, missing him and hitting the floor instead. Roko kept moving around the snake as it spat venom at him again and again to no success. Continuing to dodge around the basilisk, Roko kept making sure he was on the side of the body opposite to the basilisk's head, keeping it difficult to attack directly and forcing it to continue to spit venom at him. After almost making a full lap of the room, Roko stopped as the snake shifted its body to face him properly again. Roko tapped his sword on the tower wall and waved it at the snake, taunting it. Recognizing the gesture, the basilisk hissed angrily, slamming its tail against the floor. The venom that Roko had guided had eaten away at the floor's sides and the slamming was the last thing that it could take before the ground gave way beneath the both of them, sending them falling down to the third floor.

Roko landed on the basilisk's body, knocking the wind out of him and triggering the wounds on his arm to scream at him once more. He took deep breaths as he forced his head up and pushed himself off the basilisk's body. The monster had fallen on its back, fully uncurled from the fall and thrashing about wildly in pain. Roko spotted his sword on the ground a few feet away from him. Forcing his legs to run, he scooped up his sword as he yelled with his remaining breath, "Scan!"

The basilisk's stats floated back into his mind but Roko focused on looking for the basilisk's weak point before the serpent could recover. He scanned the basilisk's body and found the weak point not far from him. Stumbling towards it, Roko stabbed his sword into the basilisk's softer underbelly. Pushing his sword with all his strength, forcing his wounded arm to force his attack deeper, Roko plunged his blade through the green outline in the middle of the basilisk's body.

The giant monster's body suddenly stopped moving and went limp. Roko gasped as he tried to steady his breath and control the searing pain that refused to stop clinging to his arm and his mind. The basilisk's body began to dissipate into blue particles, leaving the monster's true form, a now decapitated small snake on the ground.

Roko collapsed on his back as he struggled to remain awake.

"He could barely summon a troll." Roko spoke to himself in an attempt to keep himself conscious, "Of course he couldn't control an actual basilisk. He just got a snake and gave it an illusory body mimicking a basilisk. Thank goodness for that too. If it was an actual basilisk I would have had no chance."

Carefully, Roko pushed himself up and pulled his sword from the ground, returning it to its sheath, "Now. Let's see if there's still a way up."

There was a small bit of the floor leftover along the side of the wall that lead to the staircase on the other side. Roko had specifically tried to keep one side of the room intact just to ensure there was this bridge but even then, he had to press himself against the wall and be careful of loose bricks to avoid falling back down to his actual death this time. After climbing the stairs to the next floor, Roko saw a collection of contraptions, all thoroughly destroyed. On the next floor, a slain lion, bear and tiger. Next a collection of deactivated magical circles on the ground. The further Roko went up, the more it became clear just how many battles and traps Varis had to go through to progress upwards. Even on the stairs upwards, Roko could see some small magical seals slashed apart. There was certainly some spatial magic going on since the tower seemed bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.

"Still." Roko said as he stumbled through a simple wooden maze filled with destroyed traps, "Did he have to trigger every trap on his way up here? Even if he could handle it, it's not like he needed to do it."

Roko paused, "Unless...did he trigger all those traps just so I wouldn't have to deal with them when I'm catching up to him?"

Before he could think on the possibility any further, Roko suddenly heard Corissa's screaming in the floor above him. Roko took off, redoubling his pace through the final floor of the tower.

When he climbed into the tower's topmost room, Roko found the kidnapper, a thin man ill equipped for the knight's light armor he had on, writhing on the ground as a dark miasma seemed to cover his body. Varis stood in front of the cowering man with his sword raised to strike down the villain. Corissa, freed from her chains, was clinging to Varis' body, stopping him from bringing his sword down.

"Don't!" Corissa sobbed, "Don't do it! Please don't do this!"

Varis' sword quivered in midair as Corissa continued to hold him back. Slowly, Varis lowered his sword until he finally sheathed it.

"Thank...goodness." Corissa smiled weakly as she took few steps back, her body too weak to stand properly. Wracked with fatigue, Corissa fainted, Varis quickly catching her body before she could fall completely. Varis lifted her gently into his arms and turned to leave where he spotted Roko. Varis gave a small nod before walking past Roko to descend down the stairs.

"Be careful on the way down." Roko called as Varis left with his princess, "I collapsed a floor."

Roko walked into the kidnapper's room. It was small, quite smaller and more private than the other floors. The kidnapper himself laid on the floor, the miasma from before having cleared completely but the man continued to shiver on the floor with eyes full of fear and trauma.

"Scan."

Roko looked down on the kidnapper pitifully as the man's information formed in his head.

"You're definitely a skilled magician." Roko sighed, "Skilled enough to manipulate the spatial magic connecting the school. I don't know why you're wearing that armor. You're not exactly fit for it."

The kidnapper didn't respond as he continued to quiver on the floor with quiet, small sobs. Roko walked up to the cauldron and studied the strange mixture curiously. Moving to the only table in the room, he picked up one of the many books, reading the page that it was opened too.

"A love potion?" Roko scowled as he turned to look at the man once again, "So things like this exist too. Disgusting."

Roko kicked the cauldron, spilling its contents onto the floor. The kidnapper gasped and grabbed at his mixture as if to try and save it somehow.

"Roko!"

Momo rushed into the room, finding Roko standing over the mess, "Oh thank goodness you're here! I wasn't sure if you survived that floor caving in. The school's reinforcements are here! But I guess everything's done and dusted now. We were just about done with our golems when they arrived too. Is that the kidnapper? Didn't know he was a knight."

"He's not." Roko said as he shut the book, "Anyway, if we're all done here, I'll just leave it to the authorities. I need a break."

Roko sighed as he put down his pen. The night stretched on outside, the events of the early day now almost like a dream, though the fatigue still refused to leave his body. His arm had been recast and the sling has returned though thankfully he didn't have any new injuries aside from a collection of light bruises and cuts. Roko hasn't seen Varis, Corissa or the kidnapper since they left the astronomy tower and no details has come out about what happened. Word about their rescue mission had become a talking point throughout the day with everybody in the school sharing praises for Momo, Mikado and Roland. Even Kaguya and Helena were praised for their part in the mission. There were no such words for Varis and Roko though. Not that Roko particularly minded. He was just glad to have helped. What's more, the data he had gathered was enough for him. Writing down everything was difficult with only one hand but he had managed to do it, even if it took him all evening. With the night growing old, Roko had decided to turn in for the night when a knock came on his door. Opening the door, Roko was surprised to find Corissa standing in front of the doorway in her pajamas.

"Hey." Corissa gave him a small smile, "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"No, I was just about to go to sleep myself." Roko said.

"Oh."

Roko considered asking her about what had happened to her but decided against it in case it triggered any lingering trauma. Instead he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh. Umm..." Corissa shifted nervously, "I...I was trying to get to sleep myself but...I couldn't. My...my room...I just didn't feel safe in it, I guess."

"That's understandable." Roko nodded, "If you want, you're free to sleep in my room."

"Can I?" Corissa looked up relieved, "I'm not bothering you or anything am I?"

"Not at all. Come in."

Roko went to his desk and closed his notebook as Corissa timidly walked in.

"What were you doing?" Corissa asked.

"Just writing down everything I...used my spell on today. The information disappears when I go to sleep so I had to record them today."

"I see." Corissa smiled, "That book must be getting pretty full."

"This is actually my third notebook." Roko said as he set the notebook down on his desk, "I only keep the one that has room on it with me though."

"You must know a lot more than many other people by now."

"Doesn't feel like it." Roko sighed, "I'm still not fit to do anything by myself."

"That's not true. I heard you fought a basilisk today."

"And look where that got me." Roko said looking down at his cast, "Anyway, it's getting late. Feel free to take any of the other bunks."

"Oh. Umm..." Corissa began fidgeting nervously again, "I was hoping that...we could sleep...together."

…

"P-Platonically of course!" Corissa quickly added, "I don't want you to think of me as that kind of woman."

"No, even then there's still a lot of problems." Roko rubbed his eyes, "Why can't you just sleep with your roommates then?"

"With no offense to them, they were with me when I was kidnapped so being with them now doesn't make much of a difference."

"Then why don't you find another female dorm to sleep in?"

"Everyone's asleep now and I don't want to wake them up."

"No, even then." Roko sighed, "At the very least you should be doing this with Varis."

"There are strict patrols between the male and female dorms to prevent any shenanigans like this from occurring. Your room is out of the way though."

"...Aren't you afraid that I'll attack you in the middle of the night or something?" Roko asked.

"I know you're not the time of person to do something like that." Corissa's smile was one full of purity and trust.

Roko sighed again as he tried to think of something else to say.

"Sorry!" Corissa yelped, "If you don't want to, I'll just return to my room!"

"No...well..." Roko took a deep breath, "Against my better judgment, I'll allow it."

"Yay! T-Thank you very much!"

"But to be clear." Roko frowned, "This is platonic. This doesn't mean anything and neither of us are going to tell anyone else about it!"

"Yes! Of course!"

Roko still felt a sense of disassociation as Corissa slipped under the covers with him with a bright smile on her face.

"Sorry about this." Corissa said.

"No, well...I agreed to this so this is also my fault as well." Roko sighed.

"It's not too hot with me under here right?"

"It's not going to get any hotter."

"Hmm." Corissa looked away as her cheeks started to redden. Even Roko could feel his own face starting to heat up, "I-If you want, you can use me as a pillow."

"No, let's not complicate things any further."

"Right."

The two of them stared at each other, faces a bit too close for comfort, unable to go to sleep and unsure of what to say next.

"Umm..." Corissa whispered, "Thank you for saving me. I can't possibly repay you for this but I promise I'll do anything I can."

"I don't need anything from you." Roko sighed, "I'm just glad you're safe."

Corissa giggled softly.

"What?"

"No well...you're always like this. You may look cold and act distant but you're actually very considerate and willing to go along with what other people want to do. You're always yourself and that self always put others over yourself. You must have had a lot of friends in your past life."

"...No...quite the opposite in fact."

"Oh? Then...I wonder...what changed?"

Corissa's voice trailed off as her eyes grew heavy and she finally went to sleep.

"...What changed indeed."

Roko closed his eyes.

In the morning, Roko was woken by series of knocks on his door. Crawling over the still sleeping Corissa, he made his way over to the door and opened it. Varis stood in the doorway in his usual full armor.

"Oh. It's you." Roko yawned.

Varis held up a small bag with a fresh set of clothes inside.

"She's still sleeping." Roko said as he patted Varis on the shoulder, "Don't worry, I didn't do anything to her. Feel free to check for yourself. I'm going to get some breakfast."

And with that, Roko left Varis to deal with his princess.