From the side, from intersections, from the ceiling, from the walls.
Encounter after encounter. The menace of the Dungeon’s depths. The rate at which the black rhinos and deformis spiders attacked them from every angle was incomparable to anything they’d had to face on the upper levels.
Again and again they came, but the party of adventurers refused to back down.
“Grrrraaaaaaaaaaaarrrgghhhh!!”
Bete flung himself at the monsters blocking his path, his flying kick melding seamlessly into a whirling mass of flashing boots that sent the surrounding monsters sailing. The feral wolf Vanargand mowed them down one after another, paying no heed to the carcasses piling around him.
With relentless speed, he went from one monster to the next, hitting and running, hitting and running. His kicks flailed wildly and carved the way forward for the rest of the party, leaving decimated monsters in his wake.
“M-Mister Bete is even worse than usual…” mumbled his fellow frontline supporter with a shudder as blood sprayed and corpses practically rained down from the sky.
Just as the gulp left his lips, a raging Amazon flew by, her own sword swinging wildly. “Stop acting like you own the place, Bete!!”
“Heh. He’s even more impressive in real life!—Oh! Lucky!” Tsubaki watched the scene unfolding along the front line as she deftly took care of an incoming black rhino with her tachi, then grabbed the black rhino horn it dropped. The smith tossed it into her backpack with a smile of delight.
There was a flash as she whipped her tachi from its scabbard with a speed and artistry that made the draw a technique all on its own.
It was so fast not even Raul, running alongside her, could see the movement of the blade.
“Miss Tsubaki, how are you so strong when you’re just a smith…?!” He groaned.
“Come now! A craftsman has to test her work, don’t she? Gotta see how many monsters that weapon of yours’ll cut through and make sure it’ll cut and cut and cut all the way to the innermost depths! Getting stronger just happened along the way.”
“That’s only mildly terrifying,” Raul replied in horror to the natural-born smith’s explanation.
Tsubaki, however, had nothing but drop items on her mind and darted in and out among her surrounding supporters at will, only aware enough to the point that she wouldn’t impede the group’s progress.
“Lefiya, don’t cast your spells at random—you’ll only draw the attention of those new species. Leave the fighting to Aiz and the others for now. Wait until the new species finally arrive, then unleash your magic!” Riveria advised Lefiya as the two of them ran side by side along the rear guard, surrounded by their fellow party members.
“U-understood!”
Keeping the aspiring magic user under her close supervision, Riveria turned her ever-watchful jade-colored eyes toward their surroundings. The two magic users would act as the party’s firepower, but for now they could only have faith in their companions and wait until the time was right.
“Narfi! My Urga!”
“Coming up!”
Tiona tossed her large Durandal sword behind her without even turning around. The Level 4 supporter girl accompanying her on the front line responded by passing her the double-bladed Urga.
Wielding the massive adamantine sword in her hand, she stared down the impenetrable wall of monsters in front of her and then charged.
She screamed past Bete, taking out a good twenty monsters in a single thrust.
“Leeeeeeeeeet’s do this!!”
Using her entire body, she used every drop of strength in her bones to perform a massive circular swipe.
She became a spinning top, bisecting every monster in the passage with her mighty double-edge blade.
Cries of agony filled the room as a whirlpool of blood rose up around the Amazon. From the newly cleared path, she could already make out the raucous noise of more monsters on the move.
“—Here they come! The new species!”
The wide hall quickly filled with yellow-green blobs.
Their skin was a ravishing swath of colors, their bodies like wide, flat arms, resembling stingrays. And their fleshy legs, multitudes of them lining their either side, sent them careening forward like battle tanks on the move. On top of all that, within those bodies was corrosive acid capable of melting anything and everything.
They’d finally encountered them. The caterpillar monsters Loki Familia had prepared for the most.
“Change formation! Tiona, pull back!” Finn shouted through the din. His orders were immediately carried out.
No sooner had the words left Finn’s mouth than Aiz was leaping forward, switching places seamlessly with the retreating Tiona.
“Awaken, Tempest!” she called out with a lunge, activating her Airiel and running shoulder to shoulder with Bete.
“Aiz, send some my way!”
“—Winds!”
At Bete’s request, she focused the power of her wind into his metal boots.
The werewolf, his Frosvirt now wrapped in Aiz’s current, grabbed the twin swords from his waist.
Armed with Durandal blades and protected by the wind, the two of them launched themselves at the massive swarm of caterpillars.
“Gwwwwwwwwuuuuuuoooooooooooooohhhhh!”
A thunderous scream shook the walls.
Corrosive acid shot from the caterpillars’ mouths, only to be deflected by the armor of wind as Aiz and Bete dashed forward. Durandal weapons sliced the monsters’ bodies into countless pieces.
They didn’t allow the acid to reach their companions in the back, either. Nothing the caterpillars tried worked—whether shooting everything they had straight at the incoming adventurers or exploding in bursts of sprinkling acid. Bete’s lightning-fast legs took out caterpillar after caterpillar as Aiz’s equally quick sword strikes split their large bodies in half. Their Durandal weapons held strong, showing no signs of breakage.
Loki Familia would not be brought down by this new species. Not after all the measures they’d taken. Not with their coordination and teamwork. They mowed through the caterpillar monsters with their tremendously effective armor of wind, delivering wave after wave of killing blows.
They brought the enemy’s attack to a screeching halt.
“Fading light, freezing land. Blow with the power of the third harsh winter—my name is Alf.”
“Everyone, evacuate!”
From behind the combatants, Riveria finished her Concurrent Casting in the blink of an eye.
At Finn’s cry, the front and midlines scattered, forming what could only be described as a living gun muzzle.
And forming the body of the gun was a jade-colored magic circle.
From the silvery white staff there—from the first-tier magic user’s weapon Magna Alf—surged a brilliant flash of snow.
“Wynn Fimbulvetr!!”
Three snowy tendrils shrieked through the passageway.
Every monster caught in the bluish-white blast froze instantly. Aiz and Bete watched the long, straight passageway in front of them transform into a glacial world of blue from their places of refuge within one of the side tunnels.
The frozen caterpillars and other monsters caught in the blast became a gallery of ice sculptures.
“Damn, that was intense! If only we could produce that kind of magic from a magic sword, yeah?” Tsubaki remarked as she gazed out over the ice-hardened Dungeon floor. She rubbed her arms with a shiver. “Wow, it’s cold.”
“The day that happens is the day I lose my job,” replied Riveria with a little smirk.
Once Aiz and Bete had rejoined the others, the whole party took off down the pass, shattering the petrified monster statues just in case as they ran.
No new monsters could spawn from the ice-and frost-covered walls, either, so the group made their way along the main route quickly, continuing down the stairs to the lower levels.
“There’ll be no replenishing from here on out,” Finn said as he turned bac
k toward the rest of the party making their way down the wide, long staircase leading to the fifty-second floor, implying that if any of them had any items to use, they needed to do so now. As none of the adventurers had taken any damage, however, none of them moved.
They stood there quietly, offering him nothing but shared looks of tension.
Tsubaki, on the other hand, the only one not of Loki Familia, glanced dubiously at her anxious companions.
“Let’s go.”
With the short command from Finn, they continued down the stairs.
The Dungeon walls of the fifty-second floor boasted the same graphite color as the walls of the floor above, and the party sped past them at an even faster pace.
“Avoid combat wherever possible! Simply repelling the monsters is fine!” Finn never stopped giving instructions.
The relentless encounter rate from the floor above had yet to change, but they continued their dash all the same.
“Ooh, lookit that drop item!”
Tsubaki brought down a monster with her tachi in mid-run, her eyes sparkling at the tantalizing prize that fell from its carcass. Raul, however, would have none of it.
“No stopping!” he called out and grabbed her wrist as she attempted to break from formation.
“Nnguh!” the smith grunted as the item on the floor stayed right where it dropped. “But whyyyyy?! S’not like I’ve ever been down this deep before. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“We’re going to be sniped,” Raul replied, cold sweat working its way down the sides of his face.
“Sniped?” Tsubaki threw a wandering eye at the changing Dungeon landscape around them as they continued their dash.
Glowing phosphorescence. Countless tunnels. Plenty of monsters attempting to get close to them. But at least with her quick glance she couldn’t make out any suspicious characters waiting to pick them off.
Just as she was about to question what Raul could possibly mean, she noticed it.
It wasn’t just Raul. All the supporters looked scared to death as they struggled to keep up with the first-tiers.
Their faces were pale, and almost tangible panic was building just beneath their skin.
“Keep up the pace!” Gareth shouted from the very back, urging them on.
No one said a word. They didn’t even breathe. The only sounds were their thundering footsteps constantly plowing forward and the roars of monsters they warded off one after another. A very strange, very disconcerting unease had settled over the party.
It was then, just as Tsubaki was finally picking up on the sense of malaise, that she heard it.
An ominous scream reverberating up through the ground.
“…A dragon’s howl?”
The ear-splitting roar of the king of monsters.
Though Tsubaki could sense the mighty beast’s presence, it was true that there were no signs of it in their immediate vicinity.
“Finn,” Riveria called from the back of the group, to which Finn responded with a nod.
“Right—we’ve been spotted.” The prum’s eyes narrowed to an infinitesimal degree. “Run! RUN!!”
The shout propelled them forward, further accelerating their pace.
As the front line heedlessly warded off monster after monster, Tsubaki’s eyes scanned the vicinity. “Where’s it comin’ from…?” The ceaseless cries of the mighty beast were throwing everything into chaos. Riveria’s heavy breathing behind her sounded practically in her ear.
But the source of the roars wasn’t around them. No, it was coming—
“—From below?” Aiz’s mutter from the front of the midline completed her thought. “It’s coming.” The Sword Princess’s eyes turned as sharp as swords.
“Bete! Change course!” Finn urgently commanded, and the werewolf at the front led Tiona and the rest of the following party away from the main route and into one of the tunnels.
It was then that it happened.
“”
The ground exploded.
“~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!”
Flames erupted from the earth, followed by a crimson shock wave.
The backs of the front line, the faces of the midline, and the weapons of the rear guard—everything was bathed in a fiery red hue.
Tsubaki’s right eye widened as far as it would go, her face and eye patch wreathed in a fierce conflagration.
It was as though an enormous land mine had just detonated beneath their feet. Flames enveloped the Dungeon floor, swallowing the monsters in front of them and extinguishing them without a trace.
The pyre wound all the way to the ceiling and then burst through the rock of the fifty-first floor above their heads.
With the massive explosion right in front of them and the waves of heat pushing them back, the supporters had to stifle the screams of terror building in their throats.
“Make a detour! To the western route!!” Finn’s commands pierced through the din, directing the party farther away from the main route and down another wide passageway—only to be met with another sudden explosion that shook the Dungeon’s walls.
“Riveria, hurry! We need a protection spell! If we draw more of those caterpillars, so be it!”
Forgoing a verbal affirmation, Riveria began casting her spell. “Tree spirits, hear my prayer. Gown of the forest!”
“How many of them are there?”
“Six? No, seven at least!” Tione shouted back as her eyes focused on the ground below.
The vibrations practically knocked them off their feet as the relentless waves of heat came at them from all sides.
Again and again the explosions continued, blazing-hot winds and flaming fragments driving them back as Finn gave command after command in rapid succession.
Finally, the dragon’s roars became all too distinct. The next series of explosions shook not only their current floor but no doubt every surrounding floor, as well.
The floor opened up; large sheets of rock crashed down to the floors below. A massive crimson fireball lit up the adventurers’ vision, bursting through the ground to perforate the ceiling overhead.
“So that’s what y’all were talkin’ about…!!” Tsubaki exclaimed, a smile overtaking her face as though she finally understood.
Lefiya, on the other hand, currently running for her life a short distance away, was so pale it seemed as though the color had been drained from her face.
This…This is…
She’d heard about it. She’d even prepared herself for it.
But seeing it right in front of her, right here, right now, she couldn’t stop shaking.
Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest as the rest of the rearguard party scrambled about her in mass confusion. Even first-tier adventurers could do nothing but run for their lives from the roar of this abominable beast. As the raging tide of blazing heat continued and continued, she felt a scream of panic build up inside her throat—until her blue eyes saw it.
“Raul, get outta the way!” Gareth called out from the back, already having noticed it as well.
“Huh?!” Raul cried out, but it was too late. As the bundle of thick thread shot out from one of the tunnels in the side wall, he didn’t have time to react.
Lefiya quickly extended a hand as the spectacle unfolded in front of her.
“Mister Raul!”
Right behind him, she shoved him out of the way, backpack and all.
He stumbled forward and the incoming thread wrapped around Lefiya’s arm instead.
It had her. With an almost audible yank, she was snatched away from the group.
“Lefiya!” Tione screamed as the massive thread of the deformis spider dragged her toward its hole.
Lefiya’s face distorted in panic as the giant spider monster reeled her in, its jaws open wide—only to burst into flames.
One of the many explosions causing the floor to swell had erupted beneath it, disintegrating the spider in the blast.
“”
Lefiya was left s
uspended in the air.
Then she plunged toward the gaping hole in the floor below as waves of smoldering heat assaulted her body. After a moment of weightlessness, she fell headfirst, as if the thread from the blazing spider was pulling her into the mouth of that endless abyss.
It was then that she saw it.
Deep. It was so deep. Too deep.
The hole created by that giant fireball had punched through floor after floor after floor, creating one long vertical descent into oblivion.
And as she fell, she saw the bottom—from which red dragons gazed up at her, smoke hissing from between their countless fangs.
Her azure eyes trembled. Her body began to shake. A very real, guttural terror overtook her entire sense of being.
It was true. All of it.
The volley of explosions assaulting the party again and again and again—were coming from far below them.
They were being targeted by enemies some hundreds of meders beneath their feet.
They…really…
The ominous roars had been a harbinger of the dragon artillery to come.
The enormous flares, capable of blasting through countless layers of thick rock, had been picking off the expedition.
Monsters even more powerful than those inhabiting their current depth were attacking them.
Monsters that ignored the ability levels required to reach each floor.
That ignored the very floors themselves.
Urrghh…
As the dragons eyed her from far, far below, the voice of her companion floated through her mind.
—“Everything you thought you knew about the Dungeon is rendered completely moot.”
—“Descending into the fifty-second floor is like descending into hell itself.”
Lefiya finally understood what Riveria and Raul had been talking about.
Compared to the Irregulars of the upper levels, this one was in a class all its own. An unbelievable phenomenon.
It was of a different scope.
A different scale.
An entirely different level of peril.
Was this even the Dungeon anymore?
It wasn’t possible!
This was beyond ridiculous—it was insane!
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 4 Page 20