“Huh?!”
“Its eye!! It turns in the direction it’s about to attack!”
Bell’s own eyes widened in startled realization as he immediately looked skyward.
That revolting eye was pointed directly at him. Studying the giant, naked orb, he was able to leap nimbly out of the way just in time as the massive tentacles slammed down beneath him.
They hit the exact spot he’d been occupying mere seconds earlier.
“I…I did it!” Bell exclaimed in jubilation after his magic-like prognosis left him unscathed.
“Those tentacles are its only weapon! Don’t take your eyes off it!” Lefiya followed up before using the same method of foresight to sidestep another incoming tentacle.
“R-roger!”
The trap monster’s appendages may have boasted incredible power and speed, but if that was the only trick it had up its sleeve, it made for an almost monotonous back and forth. So long as they could continue reading the creature’s incoming attacks, they would at least be able to avoid any direct hits.
No longer cornered and fighting for their lives, they might actually have a chance to break the deadlock.
Now to figure out how to attack that thing. If Miss Aiz was here, she’d simply jump off the wall to attack it directly…Lefiya thought to herself, picturing the scene in her head.
Yes, she’d jump from wall to wall, ascending the hole like a lightning bolt in reverse, then kerslash!! It would be over.
Lefiya quickly shook herself from her thoughts.
If either of them was to try such a tactic, they’d surely be bludgeoned by one of those whips the moment they got close. Stupid, stupid! She mentally scolded herself. She had to change her way of thinking.
“I’m going to look for an opening and hit it with a spell! You focus all your efforts on attacking that wall!” she finally yelled, knowing the boy didn’t have any long-range weapons of his own.
“Understood!”
The two of them sped off in opposite directions.
Unsheathing his onyx dagger, Bell launched himself immediately at the wall, dodging incoming whips as he unleashed slash after slash upon its fleshy pink surface. Heroic blue flashes cut through the air as he sliced at the enemy’s insides.
—He really was fast.
Even as she focused on dodging attacks, Lefiya couldn’t help the twinge of astonishment tugging at her.
As much as she hated it, his agility was top-notch—a fact she knew well thanks to their multiple games of tag. Even now, the way he was weaving in and out of the monster’s attacks while unleashing furious slashes looked like a high-speed hit-and-run.
Despite only just leveling up, he was already fast enough that he’d been able to dodge the incoming tentacles’ attacks even before Lefiya had given him the advice about following the enemy’s gaze.
Thinking back now, Lefiya realized Aiz herself had praised the boy’s ability to flee from danger back when she’d still been training him before the expedition.
Guilt began to whittle away at Lefiya’s conscience—it was her fault Bell had gotten mixed up in this, after all—but in the end, all she could do was believe in the boy and focus on the battle at hand.
If I had to hazard a guess, this thing is just like those man-eating flowers…
The monster’s outward appearance was actually quite similar to the femanoid creatures formed when that crystal-orb fetus parasitized other monsters. Perhaps this was another member of that thing’s advanced army, just like the flowers?
Both the femanoids they’d battled on the fiftieth and eighteenth floors were massive, on par with floor bosses, and their power had been well over that of a Level 5. This trap monster couldn’t be far behind in either aspect.
Its colossal size alone, which placed it in the “superlarge monster” category, gave it the potential of at least a Level 4.
!!
The tentacles were coming at them more aggressively now, the thing no doubt angered that it couldn’t catch its prey.
They swung downward, destroyed everything, then lunged forward. The relentless storm of elephantine whips was becoming harder and harder for Lefiya and Bell to dodge. The swords, axes, and shields that had been stuck in the ground at their feet were tossed about with a wild vengeance, almost as though giving life to the lingering regrets of their owners. Though the acid had already completely dissolved much of the weaponry, the upper-tier arms of silver and mythril still retained their original forms.
Lefiya dodged these additional incoming projectiles before grimacing in pain—her shoes had practically melted away at this point, steam rising up from her feet as the acid ate away at her skin. Knowing that a part of her was slowly and surely disappearing entirely was enough to make her insides scream.
Their one consolation was that this acid took considerable time to do its dirty work.
Its strength was nothing compared to the corrosive acid the caterpillar monsters secreted.
Whether its giant structure was at fault or not, the creature had two primary features—its main body and the hole itself—that seemed to have different functions: predation and pursuit. As Lefiya took all this into account, her past experiences facing off against enhanced species such as creatures and demi-spirits weighing in on her diagnosis, she couldn’t help but think that the creature itself wasn’t fully developed.
“Gngh…!”
At the same time, Bell’s flurry of countless attacks at the thing’s inner walls didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere.
His beloved onyx knife itself was doing fine, neither melting nor clouding at the repeated slashes of the acid-secreting flesh, and the cuts it left were many and deep.
But the walls were too thick.
If they weren’t even able to make a solid dent in the surrounding walls, it certainly wasn’t going to have any effect on the thing above them.
The thing had yet to show any signs of pain or annoyance at the scratches Bell was making on its pink inner walls.
It’s not even flinching…! Lefiya thought to herself as she bit down hard on her lip.
While she hadn’t been expecting anything revolutionary, if the boy’s attacks could have slowed the creature even a little, she might have been able to find an opening to unleash one of her spells. It appeared, however, that things weren’t going to be that easy.
This hole really was not only a luring trap but an ensnaring prison, too.
Their only choice, then, was to attack it directly—the magic stone hidden somewhere within its chest.
But the problem with that is…
…whether or not she could dodge the incoming tentacles long enough to pull off a spell.
Even if she used Concurrent Casting, the bit of focus she had to devote to the chant itself severely lowered her reaction and response time, to the point where no amount of reading into the enemy’s movements was going to stop her from being sliced to pieces by those whips.
The closed-in space with limited room to escape didn’t help matters any, either.
And that wasn’t even getting into the fact that nine times out of ten, these vibrantly colored monsters tended to respond to magic. The instant she started casting her spell, the incoming attacks that had been, until now, divided evenly between Bell and her would all be focused straight on her.
While she would have liked to coordinate something together with Bell, she wasn’t about to hold her breath with such a hastily formed dyad as theirs. And even she wasn’t about to do something as cruel as force a Level-2 third-tier to act as a wall for her against this kind of enemy.
No, she’d simply have to do it on her own.
Bracing herself, she began preparing for her chant.
“”
It was then that it happened.
The relentless wave of attacks coming at them simply—paused.
Lefiya and Bell both stopped short, looking up at the motionless creature with identical expressions of incredulity.
Its giant ey
e was still rolling about, back and forth between the two of them.
Upside down and hanging from the ceiling, it gazed upon its nimble prey.
Then.
The crown-like organ around its head began to glow a brilliant blue.
“Huh—?!” Bell’s confusion escaped his lips as Lefiya found herself unable to move.
Something bad was about to happen. Something very bad. But this realization came too late.
From the glowing blue crown encircling its eye came a devastating wave of high-frequency sound.
“Huuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!”
The noise was deafening, splitting their eardrums, and all Lefiya and Bell could do was scream as their eyes nearly popped free of their sockets.
““Gnh!!””
It was a monster cry, similar to those of bad bats and sirens and capable of restricting adventurers’ movements.
Only this cry was incredible, stronger and fiercer than the cry of any ordinary monster.
The shriek had enough destructive force to rob even upper-class adventurers of consciousness, rendering Lefiya and Bell incapable of movement in less than an instant.
They fell to their knees with sloshy thuds, the otherworldly cry robbing them of all balance.
!!
The creature didn’t miss its chance.
Its two tentacles, primed and ready, went screeching toward its prey.
“”
Their target: Bell.
The world hazy around them, Lefiya’s breath stopped in her throat as Bell froze before the imminent attack.
A Level 2 up against what could easily be considered a Level 4.
A direct hit meant certain death.
A one-hit kill.
Lefiya screamed.
“Run!!”
And Bell did, his body ready to put his emergency evasive maneuvers to the test. But it was too late.
The two tentacles streaked toward him, slicing through the air in an instant, and as the boy kicked off the ground, his foot came in contact with one of the armaments that had been sticking out of the acid, sending it flying.
—A shield!
A parting gift from one of the adventurers consumed by the creature, the large silver shield somersaulted through the air, Lefiya’s eyes widening as its path sent it directly in front of the oncoming tentacles.
A second later…
…an earth-shattering noise shook the world around them, almost like an explosion going off, and Bell’s body was launched away like a bullet.
“Gaggghh!”
He zoomed through the air.
The phenomenal impact of the tentacles with the shield sent him careering into the walls of flesh.
The collision reopened the wound on his head in a spray of red-hot blood. His body peeled away from the wall, plunging into the pool of acid with a splash.
He stayed there, motionless, white steam rising from his frame as the acid ate away at his skin.
……
The deafening cry coming from the trap monster’s crown fizzled into nothingness.
Then, one of its tentacles extended like a long spear, shooting straight toward the boy to land the final blow.
However—
“Unleashed beam of light, limbs of the holy tree!!”
—Lefiya was ready.
In an attempt to thwart the attack, she wove her spell.
The magic circle formed beneath her feet, proudly announcing her presence, golden light rising from the acid’s surface with a rippling shudder.
The reaction was immediate. The tentacle shooting toward Bell veered sharply in its trajectory.
Rolling its entire body over, the trap monster changed its target. This time, it was pointed straight at Lefiya.
“You are the master archer!”
!!
Lefiya took off at a dash, her voice soaring as she fled the rampaging set of tentacles.
It was the most desperate Concurrent Casting she’d ever performed—controlling her web of magic as she flew through the confined space of the hole, all the while continuing her song.
“Loose your arrows, fairy archers—!”
The whips rushed at her, cutting through the air, the rushes of wind in their wake slashing at her battle clothes. Even as her feet moved at a frenzied clip, she never took her eyes away from the creature’s single eye. She used everything Filvis had taught her—to throw aside her defenses, to continue even as her body was battered—simply dodging everything she could as she read into the enemy’s movements and continued her chant.
Her insides were boiling hot as if to fuel her mad rush, sweat pouring down her forehead and all across her skin.
!
As she clutched her staff, as she wove her spell, as she dodged attack after attack by naught but a hair’s breadth, the trap monster moved its head.
Then that same light, that terrifying blue light, erupted from its crown.
“Huuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhh!!”
“Gnngh—pierce, arrow of accuracy!!”
Lefiya raised her voice, face distorting as she competed with the incoming wave of high-frequency sound.
Just as she completed the spell, however, the tentacle she thought she’d evaded changed its course, curling like a snake and latching onto her left wrist.
“Oh n—!!”
Suddenly she was up in the air, hanging by her left arm, before getting forcefully bashed against the wall.
“Guuuuhhh!!”
The air was knocked out of her.
Chant interrupted, the magic circle disappeared from beneath her feet.
The trap monster’s other tentacle was quick to descend, mercilessly shrieking toward her as she continued to hang helplessly in the air.
Ah—
The color drained from her face at the sight of the cyclops’s whip filling her vision.
In that moment, her mind flashed back to a gold and silver gleam—her golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman, when Aiz had rescued her from those carnivorous flowers.
But in the next moment…
“—Yooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuu bastaaaaaaaaaaaard!!”
…a white shadow raced toward her…
“Huh?!”
…before slamming itself into the tentacle on its collision course with Lefiya’s body.
The white shadow—Bell—swung the great ax in his hands with every drop of strength he had left in him and brought it down on the massive whip.
The blade struck with a jarring jolt.
?!
Impact sending it off course, the rushing tentacle missed Lefiya’s body by a mere celch’s width.
Lefiya held her breath, shocked by the fact that she was still alive, as she felt the shock waves from the point-blank attack. Bell touched ground for only a moment before leaping back up with his ax flying.
He sank the blade into the thick tentacle curled around Lefiya’s wrist, blood gushing from the wound as he severed it whole.
“…Y-you…”
Free from the creature’s grasp and having fallen to the pit’s floor, Lefiya looked up at the boy standing before her.
His back was to her, as though he was placing himself between the enemy and her.
A thin white mist rose from his body as the acid continued to eat at his skin, the large mythril ax, a nameless weapon of dwarven use, clenched tightly in his hands.
Blood from the wound on his head stained his back and shoulders, but even still, his eyes never left the creature staring down at them from above.
!!
A creature that appeared very angry now, its one eye bloodshot and glowering as its severed tentacle squirmed like a decapitated snake.
The glow returned to its crown. This time it was going in for the kill.
NOT good! Lefiya’s heart screamed at her as the monster howled anew.
Bell, however, wasn’t about to let it happen. Raising his right arm—
“Firebolt!!”
—he fired his own blast.<
br />
Scarlet tendrils of lightning—no, of fire—shot forth from his hand.
For just a moment, time seemed to stop. As Lefiya watched, the blinding-fast bolt of sparkling flames shot toward the creature, shattering its crown of light before it even had a chance to unleash its cry.
“Gngh?!”
Again and again the fiery tendrils hit, nine in total.
Every single one of them was a direct hit, completely disintegrating the trap monster’s crown.
The crown exploded in a flurry of sparks, abruptly halting its high-pitched scream.
He…he didn’t even have to chant?!
Lefiya couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d never seen such a thing, never even heard of such a thing.
A chant-less, instant spell.
And not only that, but he could fire them one after another.
Is this some kind of joke?! she almost found herself screaming, in complete disbelief as a mage.
“Miss Lefiya! Your spell!!” Bell howled in between haggard breaths.
Lefiya shook herself from her daze, head snapping up to see that vibrantly colored creature right above her, flames raking its body in a fiery inferno.
Its crown continued to blaze, but even through its anguished cries, its one great eye was still pointed at Lefiya and Bell. It was enraged.
Bell readied himself as the trap monster’s fury swelled in tangible waves around them.
His own magic might not have been powerful enough to defeat that thing, but he was going to protect Lefiya and give her all the time it took for her to pull off her own spell. That much was clear from his stance.
Even if his fingers were crushed beneath their shield, even if his body was rent limb from limb, he was going to keep swinging that ax, and he was going to protect her.
“I…I hate you…”
It happened without warning.
The words simply fell from her mouth.
How could he be so cool?
How could he cheat with magic like that?
How could he monopolize Aiz, have her waiting on him, completely ignorant of his own place?!
And yet.
“And yet…I believe in you.”
He was an adventurer.
And she—she was a mage.
She had faith in those rubellite eyes gazing at her from over his shoulder.
“—I’m ready.”
Raising her staff, Forest’s Teardrop, she called forth a giant magic circle beneath her feet.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 5 Page 16