Episode 40 – The Name of Strongest V
— 59th Floor
From the moment Reaon stepped into the room, he had already activated his Ability.
—Second Sight
A unique pair of eyes that only he possessed, granting him a perfect 360-degree field of vision with no blind spots. With this, he never missed the slightest movement—whether from monsters or fellow adventurers.
One of the biggest reasons Reaon was once chosen as the leader of Aghiya was precisely this Ability.
Whether something was in front of him or behind him, he could grasp the entire situation of the party at all times, allowing him to issue precise commands from anywhere. For any party leader, it was unquestionably an Ability worth drooling over.
Although Reaon’s ability shone best in a party, its brilliance did not dull even when he worked alone.
In fact, he could grasp information about the monsters on this floor more accurately than what one could see with the naked eye.
His opponent: a single enemy.
A massive warrior.
Its height was about twice Reaon’s.
A giant.
And the most distinctive feature of these giant warriors: they had four arms.
In each hand, they held a greatsword—each roughly two meters long. The blades curved in a half-moon shape, thick and heavy, with a single-edged design.
Reaon had never seen swords like these before.
He had already drawn his own blade—a simple longsword.
A 90-centimeter blade, neither particularly thick nor heavy—if anything, it was slender. The blade was clear and glasslike, beautiful enough to be displayed as art.
The weapon held no major special effects.
No poison hidden within, and it didn’t ignite when it struck a foe. Its weight was normal—likely the same as any standard iron longsword. For an adventurer, Reaon actually preferred relatively heavy blades.
The sword’s name was Ashfire.
Back in the days when Reaon belonged to the party Aghiya, it had been forged from the horn of a winged “dragon” known as Sifre Ragario, slain under Iris’s command.
This blade was famed for its terrifying hardness and razor-sharp edge.
The giant noticed Reaon immediately.
Its method of attack was simple: a single horizontal swing of one of its blades.
But what struck Reaon as odd was the sheer distance between them. No matter how far the giant reached, its physical strike shouldn’t reach him.
The giant’s sword slammed into the ground.
The floor vibrated beneath Reaon’s feet.
But that wasn’t all.
Was it a shockwave through the air? Or some other “something”? Through the cracked floor, Reaon could sense a wave-like force racing toward him.
To the naked eye, all one would see was the ground splitting apart. But with his Ability, Reaon could clearly perceive the nature of the attack.
He leapt sideways in a wide motion. He was unharmed. But more shockwaves came one after another. The giant had four arms—one swing would never be the end of it.
Reaon dodged every one of them.
His Ability let him sense each incoming wave beforehand.
And little by little, he closed the distance.
Reaon had no long-range attacks. All he could do was steadily approach the monster.
When he finally reached the range of the giant’s blade, he shut his eyes.
To focus solely on his Second Sight.
The giant changed its method of attack.
Instead of slamming the greatsword into the ground, the giant chose to swing it.
With its primary right arm, it swept horizontally, and at the same time, its secondary arm brought another blade down. Reaon saw both movements clearly.
He slid forward, slipping between the two strikes as if weaving through them. The gap he aimed for was just barely wide enough for a person to pass through—but Reaon had already measured it precisely.
Passing between the giant’s legs, he moved behind it. The giant instantly turned, dropping two greatswords from its left side in a downward strike.
Reaon had already read the attack.
He stepped lightly, aligning himself parallel to the falling blades.
The pressure from the giant’s swing stirred the air, tossing Reaon’s hair—two strands were sliced clean off.
When the greatswords struck the floor, the impact sent shockwaves flying off in empty directions.
Seeing the blades buried in the ground, Reaon leapt toward one of the giant’s left arms.
He ran straight up the arm. The giant tried to swat him off, but Reaon was already near the upper arm; he jumped to the other left arm, then immediately planted a foot on one of the right arms to propel himself again, kicking off the second right arm to change his orientation.
In midair, Reaon found himself inverted, head downward.
But right before him was the back of the giant’s neck.
He never even considered the possibility of falling.
Even without footing, Reaon swung his longsword.
It was shallow—the giant’s thick neck could not be severed in a single cut.
He crashed to the floor, barely managing to break his fall, but his lungs were struck violently.
Even so, his body still moved.
Crawling low, he slashed the giant’s right Achilles tendon.
The giant dropped to one knee.
Gasping for breath, Reaon forced himself up and set his foot against the giant’s back.
The giant struggled desperately, swinging its greatswords at him, but none of it mattered to Reaon, who saw everything. With the smallest possible movements, he avoided every strike, climbing higher and higher.
Then, reaching the wound he had opened earlier on the back of the neck, he gripped Ashfire with both hands and swept it sideways with all his strength.
The giant’s head flew into the air. In that instant, its entire body went limp, collapsing forward onto the ground.
Reaon kicked off the giant’s back and descended to the floor, landing without the slightest difficulty.
He did not spare a glance for the dead giant, nor did he give any thought to the Calvaon that should be inside the severed head. He immediately headed toward the next room.
Naturally, his Ability would be used again once he entered it.
He had chosen the rooms leading downward purely on intuition—a sense cultivated over his years as an adventurer, without any deep reasoning behind it.
Because Reaon believed that thinking too deeply inside a dungeon was pointless.
Dungeons always betrayed people.
Strays.
Internal shifts.
The “dawn” and “twilight” phases.
And more—dungeons constantly changed. This dungeon, Tohe, was no different. The monsters had tendencies, but there was no guarantee the creature one hoped for would appear.
That was why Reaon trusted his instincts when choosing these rooms.
He believed his exploration was going smoothly.
For now—
— 62nd Floor
When Ouro stepped through the door, it was as though he blended into the darkness.
Because he was entirely black.
His jet-black plate armor was streamlined, crafted to deflect any incoming attack. The helmet also bore two horn-like protrusions shaped almost like a rabbit’s ears. The armor had clearly been used for years—its sheen was long gone, and its surface was covered in countless scratches. Even the coat draped over it was black.
Naturally, the sword on his back was also black.
Its shape was distinctive—long and slender.
Perhaps it was better described as a tachi.
Housed in a black scabbard, with even the hilt colored black.
Upon entering the room, Ouro drew the object on his back.
It was indeed a tachi. A great tachi—likely about one meter and twenty centimeters long. Naturally, it was single-edged, but it bore no temper-pattern. The entire blade was black.
Ouro raised the sword toward the ceiling, taking a hassō-stance.
Then he turned his eyes toward the monster that should be somewhere in the room.
He knew it was there.
But the room was dark.
Probably because there were fewer glowing vines hanging from the ceiling.
He could not see the monster.
But he could hear footsteps.
Two of them.
Humanoid, perhaps?
He could tell that something was approaching him with a slow sliding step.
“Ha—!”
Ouro tightened his core.
He focused his ki.
A ritual he performed every time before a battle with a monster.
And he considered the unseen creature before him.
If nothing unusual was involved, he should know what monster he was facing.
He had researched it in advance.
He had gathered information on every monster and prepared individual solo strategies—its movement patterns, methods of attack, even medicines to use against monsters he was weak to.
Not only that.
He had asked the members of Deuza Demo Aural to accompany him into Tohe beforehand so that he could gain experience fighting unfamiliar monsters on his own.
After working through several scenarios, he chose these rooms.
And the monster inhabiting the sixty-second-floor room Ouro had chosen was likely the—Perenbra Conde. A knight-shaped monster. In a dark room, it held the advantage, wearing a black cloak and striking unerringly at vital points with its rapier.
Though only its footsteps could be heard, the Perenbra Conde was counted among the more troublesome monsters of Tohe for its speed.
But Ouro had also devised a strategy for this monster.
The opening move was everything.
That was what he believed.
The Perenbra Conde was extremely cautious only with the first strike.
It approached slowly.
After that, it would switch to high-speed hit-and-run attacks, but its first blow was akin to that of an assassin.
Ouro shuffled forward, slowly closing the distance to the Perenbra Conde.
It approached as well.
Bit by bit, their distance shrank.
Not yet… not yet… neither swung their sword.
It was not the time.
Then, when Ouro’s eyes caught a brief glint of the rapier’s sharp point, he brought his great tachi down with full force.
“Aaaaah! KIEAAAAA!!! IYAAAAAA!! AAAAAA!!!”
A roar that seemed to shake the very air.
Ouro swung his great tachi while emitting a scream so wild that one could no longer tell who the monster was.
Of course, the Perenbra Conde was not idle; it thrust its rapier forward in silence.
But the result was blood on Ouro’s great tachi.
A straight vertical cut.
He had cleaved the Perenbra Conde’s skull open from the crown.
Ouro no longer looked at the monster.
In the end, the only time he ever saw the Perenbra Conde was in those first few moments.
Walking toward the exit door, he wiped the blood from his great tachi with his cloak and slid it back into the scabbard. In contrast to his wild performance in battle, his movements now were elegant.
—Seventy-Seventh Floor
Even before stepping through the door, deep within the dark dungeon, Ameisha was already chanting her invocation.
“O fire—”
What spilled from her lips was, in its own way, terribly beautiful.
“Our fire. Our blessing. Though this body and blood be scorched by your flame, never for a moment shall I know fear of you. Fire is our very soul, our radiance, and the greatest bane of beasts—”
Ameisha stepped into the room.
She had not seen any monsters.
That was because her eyes were closed.
There was no restraint.
She intended to unleash her Gift at full power.
This was, after all, the seventy-seventh floor—the deepest level aside from that special chamber, and once she passed this place, the path would lead straight toward the chamber she sought.
Up to this point, Ameisha had incinerated nearly every monster she encountered solely with her Gift.
She would chant her invocation before entering a room, then release her Gift the very instant she stepped inside.
After burning down most of the monsters, she would decide whether to finish off whatever remained with her straight sword or with her Gift.
This was how Avelient, the party led by Ameisha, conducted most of their expeditions, and for this solo challenge, she chose to do the same.
She did believe that preparing and planning for an adventure had its importance.
Naturally, she had gathered some information in advance. She had chosen a route with many enemies but individually weaker ones.
Even so, she did not change her method of conquest.
For Ameisha, this was rhythm.
Annihilation through her Gift was her routine, and she believed it to be the fastest method. In fact, Avelient was currently the fastest-clearing party in the entire Larva Academy.
“—Become karma.”
The moment she stepped into the room, Ameisha released her flames.
It was hellfire.
The cramped chamber was filled completely with fire—monsters, glowing vines, every last thing was scorched away.
And in the midst of that inferno, only Ameisha stood unharmed, arms spread wide with a smile.
Blessed and beloved by the Fire God—Kagutsuchi—she possessed extraordinary resistance to flame. Naturally, if it were fire she herself produced, it would not harm her at all. Not even a speck of soot clung to the white, nun-like garments she wore.
She was the most divinely favored among all academians.
Perhaps because of that, the range and power of her Gift surpassed that of any other adventurer in the academy.
Not a single monster that had been in the room survived.
She did not spare a glance for the monsters—reduced not even to charcoal—leaving only the Calvaon behind as she headed toward the next chamber.
For the next room was the place she had been chasing all along.
And then she arrived.
At the place where the Hundred-Armed Knight awaited—the first among all challengers.
Previous Chapter - TOC - Next Chapter
Comments
Post a Comment