The sound of battle echoed in the 18th floor.
Steel crashed against steel as Hyakinthos launched a furious, aggressive barrage of slashes and thrusts.
In comparison, Belle was calmer, more methodical in her approach.
She used her sword to attack while employing the Hestia Knife to parry and deflect every incoming blow.
The fluid grace of her footwork stood in night-and-day contrast to her opponent, who had abandoned all restraint in favor of reckless aggression.
Unfortunately for Hyakinthos, his blind rage worked directly against him.
With a swift, precise counter-cut from Belle, a spray of crimson blood splattered through the air.
Hyakinthos stumbled back, looking down in horror at the shallow gash carved across his chest, blood rapidly soaking into his clothes.
"I-Impossible! Impossible! You are too fast!"
Hyakinthos exclaimed, his pupils narrowing.
'He is skilled, and I can see that he has trained quite a bit but he is getting sloppy.'
Belle thought as she watched Hyakinthos' expression change, looking like someone who was having a hard time accepting reality.
As the captain of a mid-tier faction, his baseline combat skills were undeniably top-notch.
Yet in this fight, he had allowed his emotions to completely hijack his mind, casting aside the techniques he had honed over years.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Why can't I hit you!?"
"Stay still, you trash!"
Hyakinthos shouted out of frustration.
His eyes were seeing red as he ignored his injuries and continued his assault.
'I refuse to accept this… A Level 3 like me, losing to a Level 2 nobody like her!'
"…"
Belle offered no reply.
She ducked smoothly beneath a horizontal slash that threatened to bisect her.
She immediately closed the distance and, using the butt of the Hestia Knife's handle, landed a clean blow directly on her opponent's nose.
CRACK!
"Argh!"
Hyakinthos grunted as he was forced back, clutching a hand to his bleeding, freshly broken nose.
He glared at Belle with such absolute fury that the thick veins along his neck throbbed violently.
From the start, Belle had been completely overpowering him.
"You… you should have been exhausted from fighting all those monster parties from the previous floors… what trick did you pull!?"
"Don't tell me… you were acting this whole time?"
He raged, forcibly popping his broken nose back into alignment before wiping the blood away with his sleeve.
"I didn't do any tricks… it's one of my skills, which enhances my endurance quite a bit when activated… of course, this doesn't mean I can magically recover my lost stamina."
"I can still feel fatigued after a certain point."
Belle replied as she raised her weapons.
"This unfairness… You cheating rabbit! Why does trash like you get everything?! Why?! Why?! WHY?!"
Hyakinthos gripped his hilt so tightly his knuckles turned stark white, his mind boiling over with raw envy.
From the sidelines, Welf and Lili merely watched.
It's not that they didn't want to provide help, but looking at the situation, it seemed like their party leader didn't even need any.
They looked at each other and saw the disbelief in their eyes.
A level 2 was actually winning and was even dominating a level 3 in a pure one-on-one match.
Although they were already aware of Belle's ridiculous strength, seeing this happen in front of their eyes was nothing short of staggering.
As people who had spent years stuck at Level 1, they knew all too well how massive the gap between Levels was supposed to be.
Normally, no amount of effort would allow a Level 1 to defeat even a bottom-tier Level 2 thug.
"Amazing…"
Welf remarked as a bead of sweat trailed down his face.
…
Hyakinthos gritted his teeth, taking a shaky breath in an attempt to forcibly regain his composure.
Though his pride refused to admit it, he knew he stood zero chance against her in a straight duel.
A sinister light flashed through his eyes before he charged forward, looking like he was about to attack Belle once more.
He lunged toward her with an aggressive overhead slash, then Belle raised her blade to deflect it.
But instead of continuing, her opponent made the decision to slip past her and sprinting straight toward Welf and Lili.
"Hahaha… this is your fault for bringing these weaklings along, you stupid rabbit!"
He laughed mockingly.
That's right… knowing he couldn't beat Belle, he decided to make the very cliché move of holding her companions hostage in order to threaten her.
When he looked back to gloat, he expected to see Belle's panicked expression, but unexpectedly, her face remained calm.
'Huh?'
When he looked back at Welf and Lili, who had been looking defenseless a second ago, his eyes widened when he saw Welf holding a magic sword while Lili prepared a few bombs in her hands.
"We knew you were going to do something like this, you motherfucker! Did you think we were stupid?"
Welf shouted with a derisive grin.
…
Half an hour ago, after they had just dealt with a couple of monsters, Belle looked around and, feeling that no one was around, gathered Welf and Lili close to her and whispered something to them.
"Do not react or say anything, but I think we are being followed."
She said as quietly as she could.
Hearing this, Welf and Lili's eyes widened.
"I am not a hundred percent sure… but ever since we entered the dungeon, I feel like someone has been keeping an eye on us, and they are not friendly."
"They're only targeting me, but just in case… stay on high alert."
"They might try to attack you when I am not looking."
Seeing the dead seriousness in Belle's eyes, both of them had given a firm, silent nod.
…
"Fuck!"
Hyakinthos cursed as Welf unleashed a sweeping wave of roaring fire directly into his path.
His figure blurred as he leapt backward to evade the flames, but the instant his feet touched the ground, a baseball-sized explosive thrown by Lili bounced right beside his boots, sparking dangerously.
He instinctively threw himself out of the blast radius, skidding across the grass just outside the explosion.
"With these cheap tricks, you can't defeat me!"
Hyakinthos shouted at them, looking offended rather than afraid.
"I know, but she can."
Lili pointed as a bell's chime resounded in their ears.
"!?"
Hyakinthos spun around in horror, only to find Belle already standing right behind him, her right fist enveloped in a blinding, swirling sphere of white light.
"Firebolt!"
Belle shouted as fire and lightning overlapped the white glow.
With a punch powered by a 10-second Argonaut charge combined with Firebolt, she landed a clean blow on his disfigured jaw, which coincidentally fixed it back into place.
But Hyakinthos did not feel happy at all, as the force of Belle's punch launched him straight off the ground, his figure engulfed in flames.
He was launched like a cannonball before crashing into a tree.
"Gahhhhhkk!"
He let out one final, agonized cry before losing consciousness.
"What's with all this noise?"
"Is someone fighting over here?"
A series of heavy, hurried footsteps echoed down the trail.
When Belle and the others turned their heads, they saw Bors, the leader of Rivira, and his subordinates hurriedly coming toward them with weapons in hand.
They came over after hearing the commotion during the battle.
"Eh? Little Rookie?!"
Bors blinked in surprise.
Belle scratched her head when Bors arrived, and she explained the situation.
After confirming that Belle was telling the truth, Bors called for the Ganesha Familia, and Hyakinthos was apprehended and imprisoned.
Hearing news of his beloved captain's arrest, Apollo himself rushed back to the gates of Orario, weeping and begging for leniency.
But in the end, no matter how much the sun god pleaded, Royman, fearing that Alfia might take out her anger on him, had Hyakinthos stripped of his blessing, imprisoned him permanently, and blacklisted him.
For a while, this piece of news became the talk of the town.
However, this event was overshadowed when a rank-up notice was posted on the announcement board the very next day.
The Little Rookie, Belle Cranel, had ranked up to Level 3.
And with that, the long, turbulent chapter of the Hestia Familia's conflict against Apollo finally came to a complete close.
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