"Hiyo!"
The thirty feet tall Aeri threw the motionless armored skeleton some distance away, then picked up the unconscious bird. Kara, Amethyst and Ulva ran towards the battle god.
"How is lady Hinotori?"
Kara asked, prompting Aeri to bring her down.
"She seems to be breathing."
"That's good news.”
"You guys. Kawaii is also not moving."
They looked at the worried Ulva who held the colourless slime in her arms.
"Hmm, wait. The screen said that they were undergoing an evolution, didn't it? So then they are fine."
Aeri suggested as she sat down, flexing her arms.
‘I really do feel stronger. And any bruise I might have gotten is completely gone. Just what the hell kind of power does the chicken have?’
She glanced at the sleeping bird. At this point, being extremely cautious with it would be the most advisable option. Many other thoughts came flooding into her mind and as they came, she found that she really had no say in the matter. For the best possible outcome, she needed Hinotori. And she would do anything to stay by her side.
"Big sisters, I don't think we can relax now."
Ulva said, while looking around her. Several skeletons were rising from the ground and coming towards them. Their eyes burning red, almost as if they were angry.
"Don't worry about the undead. I can handle them."
Aeri confidently said as she smashed two undead beneath her feet.
[Aeri has killed 2 undead]
[Aeri has received 314 experience points]
[Party member Hinotori Hyakkiyako has received 220XP]
[Party member Kawaii has received 220XP]
[Party member Ulva has received 220XP]
[Party member Kara has received 220XP]
"See?"
"Ok, makes sense. Should we head back now?"
Ulva walked towards Aeri and yawned, clearly feeling a bit tired from what they had just done.
"Don't you remember what happened as we entered this floor?"
The girls tried to think back to what Kara was asking, but they couldn't remember, which made the ogress let out an exasperated sigh.
"We can't leave this dungeon until we conquer it. That was said earlier."
"Oh? All we need to do is break down those walls though."
Aeri moved towards one of the walls and breathed in. Her fist glowed with a faint blue aura as she punched the wall with all her might. There was a cracking sound as the whole cave shook slightly, particles falling from the ceiling.
Kara gulped after seeing that, since according to books she has read, one wouldn’t really be able to do any sort of damage to an actual damage. Causing this light tremor was really nothing short of scary. As one would expect from a Battle God. However, Aeri was completely silent as she towered above the two.
Ulva was a bit shaken by what had happened and simply wanted to go back to the surface and have fun with Hinotori. Although, that wasn’t what actually made her want to leave. The cave was too enclosed for her liking. Sure, it had a 400m radius, but it kept on closing in on her. Her claustrophobic mind kept going back to the cellar in Keimen City. The things her father said to her. The memories that came back. What she had done. What she was. For a moment her hair switched to white, then back to black. No one noticed this though.
The shaking of the cave may have been a bit misleading. What cracked, was actually Aeri’s fist, proof that it was now broken. Not wanting to cry out like a child, she bit her lip and stumbled backwards.
“W-What the hell?”
She cursed under her breath and clutched her wrist had, as if that would lessen the pain in anyway.
“A-Are you ok?”
Kara approached the battle god and asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Give me an hour or two for this to heal.”
She grunted and took out the band in her hair. She quickly shrunk her body and approached Kara.
“Can you tie it up for me?”
“S-Sure.”
Kara took the piece of cloth and noticed that the texture was a bit rough and spongy.
“What material is this made out of?”
“Hmm, it’s made from a creature called the cortuxie.”
“Ah. You mean the creatures with tentacles that roam the Demise Mountains?”
“Oh? So you’ve heard of them before?”
“Yes.”
“Hahaha! Great. The make good meals once you skin them. We use their unbelievably stretchy skins to make our clothes since we can change our sizes.”
“Oh? I see. I guess it makes sense since you’ve never ripped your clothes before.”
“Have you visited the place before?”
“M-Me? N-No. Not really. My siblings on the other hand have. My elder sister went there as a final form of her training and final inauguration into my father’s army and so is my brother right now.”
“Oh? I’ve heard of some war ogres who come to the mountain in hopes of meeting The Exiled One.”
Aeri said as she laughed.
“The Exiled One?”
“Hmm? Yeah. Some idiot who ran off after killing the chief’s wife and stealing several forbidden scrolls.”
“H-He sounds very dangerous.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. We haven’t heard of him in like fifteen years or so, so we assume he’s dead. Even if he is a battle god, he can’t survive the Mystic Peaks all by himself. Especially not since the Black Dragon started to move about aggressively.”
“This black drag-"
“Let’s just go already!”
Ulva yelled and the two noticed that she was actually trembling and sweating. There needed to be communication between the two for them to realise that something wasn’t right with her. If Hinotori was awake, they could have asked her, but since she wasn’t, the best option was to just clear the floor and hope they can leave in one piece.
So they all moved out. Aeri carried Hinotori in her chest since it was the most convenient place at that moment. This allowed her healthy arm to destroy everything in her path.
[Aeri has killed 30 undead]
[Aeri has received 6340 XP]
[Aeri has gone up 1 level]
***
'And I ended up clearing the entire floor by myself. The only dangerous thing in this dungeon should be the big ones from the looks of things.'
They came to a massive room that was held up by pillars and littered with gold everywhere and all sorts of weapons and scrolls.
"There's something ominous about this place."
Kara said, looking around.
"What is it?"
"I don't know yet, but this place… it's weird."
[Floor 2 Dungeon Boss <<The Black Spectre Krollo>> has spawned]
A notification popped up in front of the party and with it, a pure instinctual fear.
"Aeri! Watch out!"
Kara put up a lightning barrier around Aeri, faster than she had ever done before and how she did it, she didn’t. The <<Black Spectre>> cut right through the lightning barrier with ease, and landed a cut on the battle god's arm. Her blood spilled out. Luckily she was quick enough to avoid a deep wound.
"Aeri! Are you ok?"
"Yeah! Don't worry about me. A little surprise attack won’t do anything to me!”
Aeri threw a punch, but it passed right through the spectre. The ethereal being then swung its blade at her again. Quickly, Aeri shrunk herself to avoid the attack by a hair's breath.
"[Super Lightning Rain]!"
Kara yelled out and deep blue magic circles opened up behind her, letting out a torrent of lightning bolts at the spectre, each more powerful and bigger than the last. However, the spectre easily avoided and blocked with its scythe that seemed to eat anything up.
"W-What is that thing?!"
Ulva screamed.
"A demon that wears a tattered black cape. Its eyes burn a furious red in its hollow skull. A scythe that could cut down giants and gods like they were paper. The hooded representative of death itself. The spectre."
The creature's red eyes burned as it let out a horrid screech that forced the girls to cover their ears. In the midst of their shock, it tried to cut off their heads, but the black blade instead shattered a wall of ice. When they looked up, they all noticed Ulva’s hands up and a faint magical energy coming from her finger tips.
Kara was quick to realise that Ulva had only done that on accident and hoping for it to happen a second time was probably stupid. She quickly drew an arc in front of her and three blue runes formed in front of her. She muttered a chant in a weird language.
“[Lightning Blast]! [Charge]! [Lightning Storm]!”
The three runes before her suddenly cackled with lightning. A very dangerous combination. Using [Charge], a technique that forced for a near endless supply of energy through the process of gathering up residue mana from spells in the area and turning that into power for the user. However, in this case the energy was being sent into the other accompanying runes. [Lightning Blast] as its name suggested was simply a powerful, raw, unrefined blast of lightning. And [Lightning storm] was a wild uncontrollable storm of lightning bolts, all of which require large amounts of magical power. Although the usage of this was simply a theory for Kara. It had been centuries since the last confirmed user of Runic magic lived.
The result was better than she could have possibly imagined. However, what she thought would give them enough breathing space to recover and come up with a plan, was of no use. The moment she turned to look at Aeri, she met blood red eyes in a black skull.
One swiped and she was sent flying into a pillar.
'Ah! I need to help! I-I… that's right. I can use that transformation.'
Although she wasn't sure about it, Ulva activated her [Lamprey Transformation]. Her hair began to turn white and her body grew a bit bigger. Her back hunched up and her nails elongated, becoming very sharp and haggard. Her fangs grew longer and her eyes glowed a more violent red. With a very long tongue, Ulva grinned. No. Not Ulva. The monster.
It swiped at the spectre, its claws grating against the black scythe. The two beings slashed and swiped at one another, but they weren't getting anywhere. No. The spectre was gaining the upper hand. It swiped at her chest, the dhampyrs blood spreading everywhere.
It let out a pained screech, but stretched its hand out to the blood, causing it to freeze up and form iced blood shards. It formed a fist and the shards flew at the spectre like bullets, causing it some damage and making it roar in pain.
Kara noticed that the attack was effective, but she also noticed that if Ulva were to defeat the spectre, its next target would be them. She looked at Aeri who was bleeding from her left hand and then at Amethyst who was still unconscious. Hinotori and Kawaii were still not done evolving, and her spells weren't fast enough to actually touch the spectre and she doubted they would be fast enough to get to Ulva.
"Aaarrghhh! Damn it all! Sorry Ulva, but we're going to need you for this."
Kara used [Radio Wave] to enter Ulva's mind while the lamprey was still falling.
****
'Ah… is this what you've been dealing with? Now I see why you didn't want to use this.'
Kara thought as she approached the duo. Ulva was being taunted by the lamprey which kept licking her face with its bloody tongue. Once the monster noticed Kara's presence, it jumped on her before she could react.
“Eeekk!”
It tried to bite off the ogress' head, but the grey giant managed to fend it off, although she was slowly being overpowered.
"Ulva! I'll need a bit of assistance here!"
She looked at the little girl who was still cowering in fear and clicked her tongue.
"Ulva! You have to snap out of it! I can't help you much in here. This is your own domain! Only you can beat this thing. You have to or Lady Hinotori will die."
Ulva looked up after hearing her sister's name be mentioned.
"B-big sis will?"
"Yes! Right now, only you can help us. The spectre will kill her otherwise."
"I-I can't let big sis die here."
She said, she squeezed her eyes, unsure of what to do.
"None of us can, so please wake up!"
"I-I can't… I-"
'Why so gloomy?'
"Huh?"
Ulva looked behind her and saw a young girl about her size with blonde hair and vermillion red eyes. With a fearless grin, she reached her hand out to Ulva.
‘Why are you being stupid right now?’
"Big sis… I can't-"
‘You can't what? Shut up and get up.’
"But-"
‘I don't want to hear any buts. Get up and fight that thing so that we can go home. And if you can't do it alone, I'll help you.’
Ulva began to tear up.
‘What? You need something more?’
"No. I'll finish this quickly so that we can go."
‘Geez, took you long enough.’
Ulva stood up.
‘Remember what I told you?’
She nodded, then begun her sprint towards the lamprey. It turned around and sent its tongue out to try to smack her, but she ducked then got under the lamprey.
'From the bottom up-'
"-An uppercut that'll knock the daylights out of em! [Tori Completely Original Technique: Fiery Uppercut]!!!"
The little girl's fist met the chin of the lamprey, and a massive wave spread throughout the entire realm. Cracks began to spread throughout the lamprey's body and a blinding white light escaped through those tiny crevices, until there was an explosion that destroyed the domain.
‘Have fun out there.'
Hinotori’s voice was faint as she slowly disappeared.
“B-Big Sister!”
Ulva called out her name and Hinotori responded with a smile.
"Let's go for a nice bath after this, ok?"
'No problem.'
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