As long as I was given a mission by my goddess, I had always been victorious. One way or another.
So why?! Why, when I try to do the right thing, when I try to save someone instead of killing, do I suddenly have the worst luck ever!?
I knew I wasn't a good person. No professional assassin was.
But it still wasn't fair!
I just wanted to have the children smile at me and then call me big sis. Maybe rub our cheeks together and cuddle a little as well.
It was innocent, I swear!
I just wanted to save them. The same way their innocence saved me.
So why!? Why, when I tried to do the right thing, suddenly the frigging Gale Wind of the Astraea Familia appeared before me to stop me nya!?
The gods were definitely laughing at me.
And how the hell could she dismantle my skills so thoroughly? My magic had never failed me when it came to confusing my enemies, and it barely fazed her for a split second.
By the divines, she walked off my poison like it wasn't even there!
I was proud of my poison mixing skills, damnit!
And as if that wasn't enough, when it seemed like we would finally be able to understand each other. That monster of an elf got easily taken out by the worst person ever!
It was so bullshit!
"It's been a while, dear sister. How have you been?" My cockroach of a captain said, using my brother's face.
Where did he even come from? I hadn't sensed him, and my ears were stupidly sensitive!
"I heard that you've been naughty while I was preoccupied. But I'm glad to see you were just trying to make amends." The disgusting smirk on his face as he took off the hood from the child in his arms made me want to puke.
"Shut up nya! I'm not your sister, and return that child to me! I won't allow you to take it! " I shouted with as much disdain as I could.
"Don't say that, don't tell me you don't recognise my face. You'll make me cry~. Pffff puahahah I'm sorry, I can't keep up with this. This is great. You think you can order me around?" He mocked me, twisting his face to such a degree that it made it clear that he wasn't my brother.
As if I hadn't known that when he tried to kill me using his face a month ago.
I could feel my heart writhe and burn in agony and hatred as the precious few memories I had with my brother were twisted by this poor excuse of a… a… gaaah!
"You sick bastard!" I yelled, wringing his neck in my mind until it popped off. I wanted to do it for real, but my brother's face and the defenseless child in his arms stopped me.
Not to mention his strength. As much as I hated him, he was level 5.
To make things worse, I knew that even if I killed him, he wouldn't die.
"Hahahahha. You're hilarious!" He was the worst! Literally the worst!
Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be able to rescue the child in his possession. As much as it pained me, saving the one in my arms was already going to be a tall task.
"Shut up! I ain't [playing around]." I said, activating my magic, superposing a clone with my body while summoning the other just behind me so that he didn't see.
"You sure aren't." He said with a smirk. "I was about to run out of sacrifices for my magic. Thankfully, your excellent tracking skills led me to some perfect ones." He pulled the hood off the child in his arms, revealing black cat ears that twitched as they were exposed to the chilly night sky. "Black hair, cat ears, and blue eyes. You really outdid yourself finding these. I'm going to have to ask you to give me the one with you, though."
"In your dreams nya." I threw a smoke bomb to my feet and put my plan into action.
The copy behind me soundlessly ran right towards him in a slight arc, her knife ready to gore him out. While the one superimposed with my darted backwards.
Then, a split second later, with my utmost care and concentration, I threw the child towards my copy in a high arc and darted as fast as I could towards my bastard of a captain.
He just continued standing there. With a stupid smirk on his face, I was sure.
Moments later, I had him surrounded. I was on his right while my copy was on his left.
He knew that I could teleport to my clones. Unfortunately, he was also aware of my main limitation, which was that I could only teleport when I wasn't being directly observed.
Thankfully, that was solved with my smoke screen.
Now, he had to choose; if he defended left, I would simply cut him, and if he defended right, I would teleport and slash him from the left.
It was a battle of a single instant I forced, because an instant was all I had.
I had to jump to my fleeing copy to catch the child in just a couple of seconds, after all.
I just wanted to distract him for a moment, and with some luck, I would manage to poison him.
Come on, now choose! Left or Right?
As I was just a few feet away from him, I heard him."Chloe, Chloe, Chloe, you should have stuck to assassinations. Your inexperience is showing." A chill went down my tail as he bolted away from me towards the direction I threw the child.
Shit! This again!
I threw a throwing knife at him, which he ducked by sinking into his shadow. Wait, that was my brother's magic! How? He shouldn't be able to take the skills of other people!
The mental tug from my clone snapped me out of that revelation, and I jumped towards the fleeing clone.
I caught the child just as he was about to touch the floor and immediately had to do a one-eighty as I felt my captain surge through the shadows, his dagger striking with eerie precision towards my heart.
That was definitely my brother's Shadow Storage Magic! But how? That should be impossible! The captain shouldn't possess such capabilities!
I managed to put my knife in between, but the brutal force knocked it out of my hands and threw me rolling through the pavement.
I hugged the child close to my body, trying to shield him as much as I could. Until finally I hit a wall with my back. My ears rang from the blow, and the world was spinning for a second.
With my free hand, I tried to stand up, knowing that that bastard would strike at any second.
But I barely managed to sit up, my back against the wall, when I saw him. Black hair and ears with the face of the person I loved most in the world, looking at me with anticipation.
His knife was pointed at my heart. "You're really sick nya. You waited until I could see you to do the deed."
He chuckled. "You're right, I wanted to see your face when I stick it in you. Any last words?"
"I hope you die horribly a thousand times," I said and closed my eyes. Not wanting to see someone with my brother's face kill me.
"Ohh," He cooed at me. "You say the nicest things to me, dear sister~. Now die."
But the expected pain didn't arrive. Instead, something hot splashed on my face, scaring the crap out of me.
"Y-you bitch! My arm! How? How are you alive!?" I opened my eyes to not believe what I was seeing.
"I don't know. I'm just too stupid to die, I guess. Not as stupid as you for appearing in front of me, though." Said the elf who should very much be dead with the amount of blood she was dyed in. Her sword, no, her very being, sang a desperate heroic song of regret and redemption as he kicked my captain sans the arm on the floor towards the opposite wall in the alley.
"Now die." She said, her voice being punctuated by the beat of her music, before she all but disappeared from my sight and appeared in front of my reeling captain and penetrated his heart all the way in, cracking the brick wall behind it with a spider web pattern. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Kathador, SotDRPAvenger, ARK7860 and 68 othersMystic QuillSep 24, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Monkey_King18Know what you're doing yet?Sep 24, 2025Add bookmark#197fuck yeah! Pop off ryuu! Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:ARK7860, Indecisive Bob and Mystic QuillWindborneDevourer of StoriesSep 24, 2025Add bookmark#198I do hope Ryuu lives. I really like her relationship with Regis. Fun chapter though. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:ARK7860, hornydaoist, Bartimaeus and 2 othersOtakuAQWORLD Veteran,mild-introvertSep 24, 2025Add bookmark#199thanks for the chapter Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Mystic QuilltrashtakerThe (un)lucky Patreon Saint of borrowed fortuneSep 24, 2025Add bookmark#200Windborne said:I do hope Ryuu lives. I really like her relationship with Regis. Fun chapter though.She's main girl. She ain't dying here m8. Otherwise the author might as well bring real life politics here to implode this fic if she did die.
Cause same results if that happened Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:ARK7860, Mystic Quill and WindborneKloudianoriciLurkerSep 24, 2025Add bookmark#201Well damn, I was half thinking we were gonna see her pop out some AIM field wings with that near death monologue at the end there, hope MC can help her out with this. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Mystic QuillMacdaddyJohn BostockSep 25, 2025Add bookmark#202Thanks for the chapter Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Mystic QuillThreadmarks Chapter 30 Threadmarks Mystic QuillGetting sticky.Oct 28, 2025Add bookmark#203Chapter 30
Ryuu Lion Pov.
Awareness abruptly came after what seemed like an eternity of singing my soul out.
A song about not who I was, but about how I dreamed to be. A version of myself that would fit with those brilliant stars in the sky.
And with awareness came a torrent of runes raging in my head.
My Noah Heal and Mind Load formulas somehow had been cast automatically as the song I was singing spilled into my body.
Although there was something strange to the sequences, extra snippets of symbols that I hadn't seen before here and there.
As they circled a second time, I realized what they were.
My Abnormal Resistance Development Skill… My magic seemed to have incorporated it...
And with that realization, my bodily sensation painfully returned to me.
Each beat of the song and image in my soul spawned a burning wave that coursed through my veins and cleaned everything that didn't belong.
After a few agonizing beats, I could finally move enough to put a hand on the floor to turn myself to look at the situation.
What I found nearly made my soul stop singing.
The cat I had erroneously assaulted was against the wall. She had a small bundle cradled protectively in her arms, trying to cover him from the adventurer who had almost killed me.
Armed with a wicked-looking dagger, he seemed ready to thrust it into her heart.
I instinctively tried to move. But my body was too numb, still too weak from the poison, and had lost a lot of blood.
But there was currently magic coming out of my soul, and it demanded that I move.
I couldn't resist the push, nor did I want to.
I had to act! It wasn't the time for weakness, Ryuu!
Stand up, focus, and fight!
I couldn't think about anything else as the world slowed down.
I had to save them, and for that I needed more power.
So I willed the Noah Heal spell sequence to stop and doubled down on the Mind Load skill.
My entire world became the song of how I was supposed to be, channeled through the skill engraved in my back.
My wounds started bleeding again. But the adventurer I wanted to be wouldn't let that stop her!
I felt my skin around the wounds tighten, stemming the blood leaking from me.
I managed to grab my sword and got on my feet, but I was out of time.
The adventurer's dagger was already accelerating towards the cat's heart.
I tried to push more will and magic power into the runic formula of the skill –to get there in time, to save those I had wronged– but was stopped by the built-in limits in the rune sequence of the skill.
No! I refused! I loved you, Lady Astraea, but those limits can go fuck themselves!
I sprinted forward, my will straining against the runes in my mind, when suddenly the sound of a bell started coming from my back.
Limit Off!?
Yes! Thank you, my lady!
The limiters in my Skill were gone!
This divine miracle, the influx of sound coming from my falna, still startled me for an instant.
But it wasn't the time to panic! I had to adapt! Improvise! I had to continue singing!
That's what a hero of the Astraea familia would do!
Instinctively, I renewed my song, incorporating the bell sound coming from my back into it.
Before I realised, I'd already severed his arm and kicked him away from the duo, and pointed my sword at him.
That was…!? The boost to my strength and speed was far beyond what I had ever experienced.
Then again, so was the drain to my magical reserves. That instant cost me the equivalent of a fully powered Luminous Wind. Probably the reason my lady put those runes limiting the Skill in the first place.
I had to end this quickly.
The adventurer looked perplexed and disoriented as he looked at his missing arm. Then he turned his outraged eyes at me as he screamed at me, something about how I was still alive.
Not that I couldn't truly hear what he was saying, it was taking all my focus to keep my current state.
Still, my mouth opened on its own, and I felt the need to say something. The urge to quip back, to say something, was impossible to repress.
"I don't know. I'm just too stupid to die, I guess." I responded, then I felt the urge to add. "Not as stupid as you for appearing in front of me, though." The words left my mouth almost on their own. And I couldn't stop the small prick of nostalgia in my heart.
I had never been good with words.
Still, did I do it well? Alice? Kaguya? Everyone?
I felt the boost coming from my magical music swell with my words, so I took it that they would have approved.
But it wasn't time to smile yet, for evil was still alive.
"Now die," I said as I attacked even faster than before and thrust through his heart all the way through, until my sword impacted the wall behind him.
I could see the murky blue eyes of the enemy adventurer slowly lose their light as he screamed bloody murder at me in his final moments.
Not that I could understand him, his oddly dying melody, and my own melody spilling from my body deafened me to everything else.
Satisfaction ran through my blood, like a weight had lifted from my shoulders as I pulled back the sword.
The dead body fell bonelessly to the ground as I felt the urge to look at the sky.
Yeah, my song harmonized much better now…
Then, I turned around, and I felt the Limit Off bell stop completely. And the song ringing in my soul stuttered for a vertiginous instant, before I remembered that if I stopped, I was going to die.
But even with my life on the line, my singing felt more forced now. It was far more difficult to keep my magic up.
The dissonance of who I was singing myself to be and who I actually was threatened to break my spell in half.
Because… where was the other child? Hadn't I saved them all?!
I slowly and carefully scanned the alleyway. Paying close attention to the corners where smoke still lingered, but even with my new senses, I couldn't feel the little one.
I remember perfectly that there were two of them, and there was just a single bundle on the arms of the openmouthed cat…
I felt the world starting to tilt sideways before I stepped with force to steady myself to ask a question I needed answered.
"W-where is the other one?" My voice was broken, my despair leaking out despite my efforts not to let go of the hope in my heart.
The cat didn't answer. She just stared at me, her lips pressed thin and eyes downcast.
I felt my heart break, the flame of hope at the brink of being snuffed out as my inner song grew increasingly out of tune again.
And with my soul in turmoil, the skill keeping my body upright failed, and my wounds reopened.
I fell to the ground, my eyes started to tear as the pain came back with vengeance, and this time, I wasn't sure I had the strength–NO!
Not yet! Don't you dare give up, Ryuu! You still had to find the other child! You could still fight!
With the last of my mind, I tried reactivating Mind Load again. But my heart wasn't in it anymore; it wasn't even half as effective. Still, I managed to grab the only high elixir I had left in my pouch, but it fell through my trembling fingers before I could take it.
No! Please no!
I couldn't possibly have… ruined it… again…
As I was about to lose consciousness, I heard the cat grow closer. "I'm sorry. I hadn't realized you were still so injured, nya." She sighed. "It's a really long shot, but I think he still can be saved. So just rest for now, okay nya?"
He could still be saved…?
I managed to turn my eyes at her as she smiled insecurely at me.
The last thing I felt before losing consciousness was the cold touch of glass on my lips.
Still, those words rekindled the tiny flame in my heart.
///////////////////////////////////////
Regis Pov
The Large Tree Labyrinth truly was a good name for these floors of the dungeon.
The ceiling was wood, the floor was wood, the walls were wood, and there were even plants and trees growing from it.
Trees growing from what had to be a stupidly large tree…
Treeception?
How could the dungeon even fit a tree this large underground? Were we even still underground? Where was it getting its nutrients and sunlight?
This place didn't make any sense.
Then again, the dungeon in general didn't make any sense…
I hoped nobody ever asked me how this place came to be, never mind how it was possible, because I didn't know. And I just got a headache when I tried examining it with my ability.
It didn't help that I was a little distracted. Getting flashbacks from the Trials left and right from the Earth Lord Atlas's domain.
As painful as they were, I had to admit they granted me a unique advantage in traversing this place.
Ugh, that was another poison trap. Let's just go around it.
It had been a few hours since I had entered the Large Tree Labyrinth, and the only thing I could say was that I was already tired of this place.
I hadn't been able to muster any kind of enthusiasm to explore, so the only thing I did was configure my dungeon map spell card so it showed me the fastest way to the next floor and had added the functionality to ping me when a monster got closer.
That way, I could keep all my attention on my immediate surroundings. Not only because of the numerous traps that sprang all over the place, but because the stronger monsters around here actually forced me to engage with my precognition to stay ahead.
It wasn't like they were stronger than me, but I needed the extra edge to actually hit and defend against them at the speed they moved.
That meant reducing my range to concentrate my strength.
Which had been a wise choice, as I wasn't sure I would have noticed the numerous pitfalls full of acid otherwise.
Ugh, I just got pinged again by my map. Let's see if I can avoid the monsters this time.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
I groaned as I felt numerous more pings, not managing to keep the disgust from my face.
Another swarm of Deathly Hornets and other flying bugs, which I had grown to loathe, had noticed me and were on my tail again.
I had been able to keep most of my strength intact thanks to my stealth/synchronization magic with the dungeon.
But these critters had been harassing me ever since I entered this domain of the dungeon.
It wasn't like they were a problem, just that these flying nuisances were the only type of monsters that I couldn't avoid.
I sighed as I waited until the swarm of bugs was a dozen meters from my position and I cast Whirlwind Tornado and Embracing Vines in quick succession.
A torrent of protective winds surrounded me while vines started growing from the ground, wiggling in place, waiting for prey.
They didn't have to wait long as the Hornets quickly tried to impale me. But they failed. Their wings, made for agile maneuvering, couldn't withstand the violent winds of my magic.
The bugs were violently knocked back into the ground, where they were snared by the vines.
After most of the bugs were trapped, I deftly modified the vines to grow bladed barbs and made them retreat rapidly into the ground, shredding their exoskeleton into pieces.
The bugs didn't stand a chance against my magic as their core impacted against the ground.
After dismissing the tornado, I noticed a few stragglers that were trying to get to the air, but I quickly ended them with a well-placed ice spike.
I sighed as another pointless battle took a toll on my growing headache caused by exhaustion, and continued on my path towards the next safe zone.
I was aware that this way of indiscriminate fighting wasn't the most elegant or efficient, but my precognition worked better on singular opponents.
After experimenting with different methodologies in my first few fights in this section of the dungeon, I determined that clearing the swarms this way was better than trying to pinpoint precise attacks on each individual monster.
The mental stamina I spent managing the sheer amount of information I had for those types of strikes was simply better spent on a couple of powerful spells.
Only, the dungeon didn't like these large elemental manipulations and punished me by sending more monsters to investigate the area where I used them.
So, as much as I wanted to take a break, it was for the better that I got moving… According to my map, I should be close to the stairs to the next floor.
Hopefully, I could get there before any more monsters found me.
Finally, twenty minutes later, I spotted the stairs to the 25th floor, thank the primordial Chaos Sea. I was more than ready to get away to this esque-Atlas forsaken realm.
The rustling of the leaves and the scuttling of the various bug monsters were replaced by the roar of a great volume of water clashing against stone as I descended the stairs towards the 25th floor.
I instinctively put a hand in front of myself and squinted slightly as I felt exactly the moment I breached a membrane and entered the deeper domain of the dungeon.
Not only because of the sudden spike in humidity in the air felt like a slap to the face, but also because of the change in rhythm and strength to the heartbeat of the dungeon.
Uuuh… Why was it so different?
The dungeon felt agitated. Even with the layers of separation I put between me and the dungeon, I could feel that its heartbeat was accelerated for lack of a better word.
Did someone do something to anger the dungeon?
I had a bad feeling about this…
But as much as my instinct screamed to remain where I was, the stairs between floors weren't safe.
While it was well known that the dungeon didn't spawn monsters in them, you still had to pay attention because monsters often travelled through them.
In conclusion, I had to continue forward and reach the safe zone on the 28th floor if I wanted to rest.
I took a moment to adjust my stealth formulas and triggered the map generation formulas in my map artifact.
It will take a little while for the artifact to map the floor, and the fastest way to the safe zone that lies after the next few floors. An unfortunate limitation that I still hadn't managed to iron out in the code.
Then, after finishing the last-minute adjustments to my formulas and checking my equipment one last time, I took one deep breath and entered the floors of the Great Waterfall.
Despite my tiredness, I couldn't help the gasp that escaped my lips.
This place was amazing, beautiful even.
The first room on the floor was enormous. More than a room, I would call it a city-sized cavern.
I understood why they called this place the Water City. It was certainly big enough to be one.
The sound of the waterfalls all around me was truly overpowering, to the point that I could hardly hear anything else.
Blue light shone from tiny crystals embedded in the stone, and this reflected beautifully against the water everywhere.
Streams of water fell from protrusions on the walls; these formed rivers after colliding against the rocky floor on the level I was in.
The water of some of these streams fell through the cracks in the floor, probably creating water barriers in the tunnels below, adding another layer to the labyrinth.
But most of them converged at the enormous cliff at the center, where they formed the greatest waterfall I had ever seen.
Overall, it gave me the impression that I had entered into an underwater world.
If it wasn't because of the danger inherent in the dungeon and my current condition, I would have loved to explore this place. I felt the urge to unleash my senses, but I squashed that urge.
Eina's words and lessons about the monsters of this place echoed in my ears. It had some stupidly fast ambush monsters. It was better to keep my close-range senses running at full power and rely on my minimap for navigation and long-range detection.
It should be about done at any moment now…
From the entrance I came in, I could observe two clear paths in the form of entrances to tunnels to choose from if I didn't want to brave crossing the rapidly and violently coursing rivers.
But, since I wanted to get to the bottom as quickly as possible… I turned towards where the main waterfall of the domain lay.
I could simply jump off the waterfall to avoid the annoying labyrinth and water traps that would surely await me if I were to enter those tunnels.
Not to mention whatever it was that had triggered the dungeon… I could feel the floor beneath my feet tremble.
Yeah…, it was better to just brave the fall and skip these floors as fast as possible.
But, as I neared the crest of the waterfall, I heard the unmistakable sounds of fighting over the water coursing through the waterfall.
Ugh, even without looking, I had an idea of who was fighting down there.
It would explain why they had an outpost on the 18th floor…
Grasping a tiny bit of water from the waterfall, I constructed a smooth surface and then froze it, creating a mirror in the process.
The resolution wasn't good, but yeah, those were the high-level amazons that were missing from the Under Resort. And they were fighting the Monster Rex that patrolled this domain of the dungeon.
I sighed.
I guessed it was just per the course, considering how my luck had been these past few months…
Ugh, and I was whining now. I patted my cheeks to wake myself up.
Alright, think Regis. What were my options?
Maybe… I could just jump down there and make a run for the safe zone?
Unfortunately, I didn't think it would be that easy. I couldn't currently sense them from that far away with any precision, but what tiny spells I used told me that they would definitely notice me…
As I brainstormed my options, I felt the world suddenly slow down.
A horrifyingly familiar sensation filled my being. A sensation that always meant one thing.
Death.
I didn't think about how or where that feeling came from. I had long learned that way lies death.
Instead, I reacted. A single spell formula snapped in place, and all of the iron sand stored in my pouch surged forth, wrapping me in a cocoon of screeching and sparkling metal.
Not an instant later, I found the beak of an avian creature an inch away from my right eye, before it puffed away as my iron sand shredded it into nonexistence.
Iguazu!
I had heard of these monsters from Eina. They were basically supersonic kamikaze penguins.
They were known as the silent killers of the great waterfall. For killing entire parties before they could react. And while they always died when they attacked, they never attacked alone.
Shit! I had to find cover!
Unfortunately, this part of the floor was completely open, and there was nowhere to hide behind.
I flinched as another supersonic penguin impacted my shroud from the back, shredding part of it before it died. More Iguazu followed, each chipping at my defenses and forcing me to dodge as they weren't enough to stop them completely.
Shit! They were way too fast. And there were way too many! What the hell had they done to anger the dungeon to this point?
It didn't help that my current formulas didn't account for the sheer humidity in the air. My iron sand was rusting fast, losing its magnetism and making my defenses far weaker than they should be.
I should change to a different spell before I run out of usable sand.
I ducked into the ground as an iguazu broke through my iron cocoon completely, after another had weakened that part of my barrier.
Smelling weakness, I felt an additional trio of birds launch themselves my way, exactly in the hole of my defenses.
In a hurry, I dispelled the cocoon and concentrated my remaining sand above me like an umbrella.
I felt the impacts like a hammer against my will. The effort to keep the formulas steady in my mind was quickly becoming too much.
I considered another type of shield, but quickly discarded the idea.
Fast cast ice and stone shields wouldn't be able to stop the iguazu. And casting an ice bulkward would sentence me, considering the vectors and timing the birds were using.
I had to get out of here. Maybe I could sprint towards the tunnels… A quick glance showed that blue crabs and crystal turtles were awaiting me at each entrance.
Screw it, down the waterfall it is.
Leaving an ice copy of myself behind and dispersing my remaining iron sand in a wide burst to mask my position, I threw myself down the waterfall.
Grasping as much of the water as I could, I tugged at the waterfall so that it covered my retreat like a veil.
The stupid kamikaze birds slammed into the thick layer of water like it was cement.
Served them right.
Happy with my defense, I swing my arms to orient myself towards the bottom of the basin.
Just to find myself faced with a two-headed dragon swimming up the waterfall, who looked as surprised to see me.
//////////////////////////////////////////
Aisha Belka Pov
This had been such a bad idea from the start.
"[Hell Kaios]" The magic in my sword cut through the air in the form of a red shockwave. In the blink of an eye, it impacted one of the cliffs near the ceiling, where a group of iguazu was about to dive bomb the entire battlefield.
Who in their right mind would fight a Floor boss in this place to begin with?!
The roar of the Monster Rex reverberated in my bones as I scanned the battlefield now that the iguazu were dealt with. For a little while at least.
Still, despite the madness that was fighting the Amphisbaena in the basin of the main waterfall of its habitat, we were still holding on — barely.
"Group 3! Switch with Group 2! Supporters, relieve and heal the injured! Swimmers! A group of lamias and sirens incoming. Intercept!" I yelled the commands to my fellow adventurers.
It was a pity that we couldn't retreat back to the 18th floor when that bloody hive destroyed most of our supplies on the 24th floor.
The goddess Ishtar had ordered us to deal with the Monster Rex of the great waterfall as quickly as possible. Something about getting the guild off her back… I wasn't too sure.
The only thing we knew for certain was that she wanted this stupid dragon dead and its crystal back to the surface.
Usually, I wouldn't be complaining about it. As an Amazon, a challenging fight like this was one of life's greatest pleasures.
If only it weren't the absolute worst time to do it.
"Aquatic supporters! Help Phyrne get back to the boss's face now!" At my command, two of the idle swimming amazons shot towards where our captain had been blown off by the aquatic dragon.
Not only were we lacking in supplies due to that hive, we also needed to be wary of outside interference…
This raid was a disaster waiting to happen. The only reason we weren't dead – A certain motion in the boss sent my instincts alight.
"Breath Attack! Everyone, find cover!" I shouted, picking up the little fox girl to my right in a princess carry, and ducked down behind a rock.
The liquid fire from the breath splattered around us on the floor, and the stone sizzled unpleasantly.
I kept an eye out towards the ceiling and was relieved that more iguazu still hadn't spawned. A volley of the supersonic birds right now could easily be our end.
Relieved that we would survive the next few seconds, I turned my attention towards the girl in my arms.
"You alright, Haruhime?" I asked the girl responsible for our survival thus far, and the only reason we dared to confront the monster in such a reckless manner to begin with.
"Hai Aisha-san. Thanks to you." She said softly, and then bowed awkwardly while continuing. "I'm sorry for causing problems like always."
Hah?! What the hell was she saying?! She was literally the reason we were still alive.
"Don't apologize, silly fox. You're doing great!" A level one adventurer shouldn't even be this deep into the dungeon, never mind in a boss fight.
The sheer pressure she had to be under as a level one adventurer…
The fact that she could cast her magic in this situation was already far beyond what could be asked of her, considering she became an adventurer less than three months ago.
I heard a little gasp escaping her lips, and I turned my eyes to her green ones. Hmm? Were they a lighter shade than usual?
"You said something?" I asked the girl whose eyes I would swear by the goddess were usually not that bright.
Haruhime flinched slightly, her eyes were back to their usual color as she averted them sideways, shyly. Did I imagine that?
"No, it's just…, you were really pretty just now, Aisha-san." She fidgeted with her fingers, a light blush on her face.
Adorable.
No wait! Eh? An honest compliment about beauty? From Haruhime? Someone pinch me because I must be dreaming…
Wait, not the moment! We were in a fight! A boss fight! And it seemed like the dragon finally ran out of breath.
Anyway, I'd better answer before the fox spontaneously combusts from all the blood rushing to her face.
"Of course, I'm pretty. I have always been fabulous. Anyway, get your head in the game, you can compliment me all you want later." Who in their right mind thought about these things mid-fight?
Then again, the little fox had always been a little weird.
Sneaking a peek at the battlefield, I let out a sigh of relief at seeing that the situation wasn't as bad as I feared.
Most of my fellow amazons heard my warning in time and had managed to find cover. And those who hadn't were already using potions to neutralise the fire, even if their cries of pain were unpleasant to hear.
Let's see… The squad securing the entrances was doing more or less okay. There were some serious injuries, but they could hold out for some more time. The water squad was the better-faring one, thanks to being able to take cover in the depths of the basing. But my stomach dropped when I saw a member of the healing squad being no more than a crisped smear on the ground.
Shit… there went a third of our healing supplies. Poor Dyna, we would hold a funeral for her later.
The only silver lining was that Phryne had finally managed to bash the napalm spitting in, which was a relief.
The bad news was that she got hit by the magic dispelling one in the process, and even if the fire-spitting breath was out of the picture now, its physical strength and endurance were no joke.
"Shit, Haruhime, do you have another spell in you?" I asked, a little worried about her stamina. It wasn't the first time Phryne had her buff dispelled by the boss, and she had to recast it each time.
Without it, even with one of its heads done for, the people guarding the entrances and securing the perimeter would be defeated long before the boss was defeated.
"Yūrei-san?" I heard her say distractedly, ears twitching faintly, her gaze distant as if looking through the air itself.
Eh… My far eastern was pretty rusty, but was she seeing ghosts now? Did she finally crack?
The sound of a great impact shook me out of my thoughts, just in time to see our frog of a captain be blown away towards the waterfall. The impact against it was so strong that I couldn't contain a wince on my face.
Thankfully, Phyrne was like a cockroach. That shouldn't be enough to kill her.
Still… this wasn't good…. We needed Haruhime's magic right this moment.
With it, Phryne should be able to finish the Monster Rex.
I would do it myself, but I had to stay to keep an eye on the Iguazu. If I missed a single volley, people would die.
I was about to shake the little fox a little to snap her out of it when the floor itself decided to do it for me.
An explosion cataclysmic enough to roar over the already deafening waterfall almost robbed me of my balance.
What was that?! Did someone set off explosives all over the Water City?
Who was stupid enough–!
No, snap out of it, Aisha! You had been expecting this.
It wasn't like we hadn't been constantly harassed by Evilus these past weeks.
I just didn't expect them to bomb the frigging dungeon. Did they have a death wish?!
The effects on the dungeon were immediate; the stream of monsters coming from the entrances of the Water City tripled, and the amazons guarding them were quickly being overrun.
"Everyone! Go all out! Use your magic and skills!" I yelled. They wouldn't last long, but they should manage to hold back the tide for a little while. If the monsters managed to flank us, we would all die.
But if that was the extent of the retaliation of the dungeon, we still stood a chance.
We just had to kill the Amphisbaena now and retreat to the safe zone. There, using the stairs as a choke point, we should be able to organise a rotation system to outlast the tide.
An ominous crack echoed all over the cavern, loud enough to be heard over the waterfall.
Oh no, what was it now? A second explosion?
A huge splash brought my attention back to the boss fight, where Phryne was blown away again after desperately trying to bash the last head of the monster in.
Without Haruhime's buff, the dragon was easily able to keep up with her attacks. The captain wasn't the best swimmer in the first place, and even using the swimming amazons as platforms. Her speed just wasn't enough to overcome just how linear and predictable her attacks were.
She needed Haruhime's buff now, or we were done for.
But that wasn't what had really caught my attention. The Floor Boss had been tossing Phryne around since the fight started.
No, what had sent chills down my spine was the huge crystal that had fallen from the ceiling next to the monster rex.
A crystal that its huge maw devoured in less than a second.
The monster Rex glowed in a white glow as its shredded head was healed in front of all our eyes. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, it grew in size until that already gigantic beast turned truly titanic.
Oh, this was the true retaliation of the dungeon, wasn't it? Because tripling its spawning rate surely wasn't enough…
A few of my fellow sisters fell to their knees in despair.
And as much as their weakness disgusted me, I couldn't blame them.
Only my pride let me remain standing as the enhanced Monster Rex's incandescent eyes glared at us not only with hatred, but also a savage cunning that wasn't there before...
Before we could get over the shock of seeing its transformation, the beast took a plunge into the basin, and soon enough, we could see it climbing up the great waterfall. Its heads barely sticking out of the water as it surged upwards.
Chills went down my spine as its plan crystallised in my mind. Its breaths were already stupidly broad. With its new size… It was going to hammer us against the basin from above.
The entrances to the water city were occupied by the hordes of monsters. I didn't think the water was going to be safe either. With its fire enhanced, we would be cooked even if we took the plunge and tried to find refuge deep into the basin. And fleeing to the next floor wasn't an option either. The horde would kill us from behind if we tried to retreat at the speed we would need.
By the time I comprehended how thoroughly fucked we were, it was too late to do anything.
The Amphisbaena was already too high into the waterfall, and my magic was too weak to one-shot the enhanced monster rex.
We were going to die.
It was over.
I looked at the little waif of a hallucinating foxgirl in my arms, ready to hug her even if it was to reassure myself in our final moments, when I heard it.
"Oh, it's beautiful," Haruhime uttered breathlessly, with an almost inaudible voice.
Despite the numbness that pervaded my body due to the hopelessness of the situation, I couldn't help the shock that ran through my body when Haruhime uttered those words.
What!? Where!? HOW?! Even our goddess hadn't managed to get this fox to call her beautiful.
My neck had never twisted so fast as I looked to where her unmistakably glowing eyes were locked, burning with an intensity I'd never seen in her before.
There, I saw it.
I saw a white cloaked adventurer jump down over the waterfall.
A waterfall that came alive as it followed in his wake, shielding him from the iguazu raining on him from above.
A waterfall that, when the figure faced down and saw it was about to collide with the gigantic dragon, twisted itself into two enormous tendrils that deep-throated the dragon's heads away. Leaving its necks in a vulnerable position that the adventurer didn't miss.
Immediately, an enormous icy scythe formed in his hands that he swung in a beautiful arc, emanating a violet blaze in its wake.
The dragon's heads continued ascending into the air, not realising that they had been cut away.
Finally, the waterfall twisted itself, creating a helix path which the adventurer surfed down at a neck-breaking speed on a surfing board made of ice that suddenly appeared beneath its feet.
As the figure skidded to a stop on the water of the basin, the waterfall and the enormous crystal of the Monster Rex slamming behind him and framing his silhouette, I couldn't help but say.
"You were right, Haruhime. That was beautiful."
The entire floor fell silent — monsters and amazons alike were frozen by the sight of the fallen and disintegrating Monster Rex and the figure standing before it.
For a heartbeat, even the waterfall seemed to hold its breath.
But beneath the awe, a chill crept down my spine.
This was a miracle. And he might have saved us from this one… yet my instincts told me that this wasn't over yet.