In the dim labyrinth passage, hurried footsteps overlapped and echoed, keeping this great escape going moment by moment.
Behind the fleeing pack of Loki Familia's ultra-elite members, countless yellow-green worm monsters were still chasing through the passage, letting out their cracked, grating cries while shoving against one another, raising a thundering roar like a stampede.
"Roar!"
"Grawr!"
"Gukgah!"
During the flight, monsters kept appearing along the way too, some Black Rhinos, some deformed spiders, and large serpent-type monsters as well. But the instant they appeared, they were not only left in the dust by Leo and the others, they were swallowed without a word by the worm monsters surging frantically up from behind, turning their original roars of entrance into screams.
The worm monsters chased Leo's group and devoured every monster they met along the way. Whether Black Rhino, deformed spider, or large serpent-type monster, they swallowed each one whole, the flesh dissolving inside their bodies at a visible rate, leaving only the magic stone to pass into the worm monster's gut, a wretched way to die.
"Captain! You guys are all right?!"
Only now, in the middle of the flight, did Tione finally have the breath to ask Finn, her voice quick and rushed.
"We're fine." Finn's small frame ran at the very front of the group, and even in flight the calm in his voice hadn't slipped. "But Raul's in a bad way."
Only then did everyone notice that Raul, carried on Bete's back, wasn't just giving off waves of black smoke and a foul stench; the skin on his body and the equipment he wore had been dissolved too, a ghastly purple-black mess.
Watching the Familia senior who had looked after him so much turn into this wretched state, Leo's chest tightened.
He pulled an Elixir from the waist pouch behind him and, without a second thought, yanked the stopper and poured it straight over Raul.
The potion took effect at once, mending Raul's steadily dissolving skin bit by bit, so that he, who'd been at death's door, stopped groaning, his head lolling to one side as he lost consciousness and passed out.
"He took a direct hit from that dissolving fluid?"
Tiona spoke up, a little frantic.
"Yes." Finn nodded and answered, "We struck down the mighty dragon by Cadmus' Spring, drew the spring water, and ran into that swarm of monsters on the way back to camp. We tried fighting them, but that dissolving fluid melted our weapons."
"Raul killed one of those monsters, and the thing burst right then and there. All the dissolving fluid inside it splashed over him."
"With our weapons gone and no way to kill the monsters, we had no choice but to run."
At Finn's words, everyone noticed that his spear, Gareth's battle-axe, and even Bete's metal boots had all vanished.
Their weapons had all been dissolved, and Raul the Supporter's backpack hadn't been spared either; when he was doused head to toe in the dissolving fluid, it was wrecked on the spot.
That backpack hadn't just held the water from Cadmus' Spring, but spare weapons and supply potions too.
Without those, Finn's group not only couldn't fight at all, they couldn't even treat Raul, and could only flee carrying him.
Right now, Bete, carrying the barely breathing Raul, wore a sour look, clearly itching to curse Raul out, but seeing that Raul had already lost consciousness, he could only mutter a couple of curses under his breath and run with the others, his face ugly.
"By the look of you, you ran into those monsters too?"
Gareth asked in a low voice as he ran, earning nods from Leo and the others.
But now wasn't the time for talk. The swarm of worm monsters behind them kept closing in, and some had even reared up the upper halves of their bodies, opening their maws to spray dissolving fluid.
"Left turn up ahead!"
Finn gave the order at once, and everyone turned without hesitation, rushing into a narrow single-lane path.
A great spray of dissolving fluid splashed across the spot where everyone had stood before turning, dissolving the ground and walls there.
"Right turn! Then left! Take the third path!"
Finn kept issuing instructions, sending everyone weaving through one narrowing path after another.
This Pallum captain had actually memorized the entire layout of Floor 51, bigger than the whole of Orario, without so much as looking at a map, which couldn't help but leave one in awe.
The paths he chose weren't picked at random either. The narrowing paths would make the worm monsters surging up from behind more and more crowded, until in the end only one could charge at the very front, with the rest unable to squeeze through.
Seeing this, something clicked in Leo's mind.
"Light of heaven, sword of stars."
He chanted the simple incantation in the middle of his run, a brilliant magic circle appearing beneath his feet while a meteor surfaced in his hand.
"Meteor Dance!"
Turning, reaching out, Leo loosed the meteor in his hand at the worm monsters behind him, and the instant it flew out it swelled abruptly, becoming a thick pillar of stars enough to fill the entire narrow path, crashing into the worm monsters.
A thunderous boom rang out as the column-thick meteor pierced through a worm monster's body, and without losing momentum bored on through the worm monsters crammed together behind it, clearing the path.
"Good!"
Gareth saw this and shouted his approval out loud.
"I see, so that kind of monster is a type specialized for close combat."
Finn's eyes lit up too.
Dissolving fluid capable of melting First-Class weapons, plus the trait of self-detonating when struck down, these were abilities aimed entirely at close combat.
Though the worm monsters could spray dissolving fluid at range too, this dissolving fluid wasn't all that hard to dodge, and a nimble rearguard could perfectly well kite them and pour out attacks to bring the worm monsters down.
Unfortunately, those worm monsters were too many in number. The moment Leo wiped out a great swath of them, fresh ones immediately shoved their way forward, rumbling into the path and closing in on everyone again.
"Leo!" Finn instructed decisively, "Keep chanting your Magic. Judge the timing of your attacks yourself, but keep more than half your Mind in reserve!"
"Lefiya, have potions ready. For anyone low on stamina, restore their stamina, and give Magic Potions to Leo first."
"Everyone follow my instructions, we start turning up ahead!"
Clearly, Finn already had some strategy to deal with this situation.
Naturally no one would raise any doubt about the Pallum leader's words, and they began to act.
"Meteor Dance!"
Leo calculated the Mind he had left, began chanting his Magic, and fired thick meteors that crashed one after another at the swarm behind them.
The column-thick meteors were like light racing through the passage, piercing untold numbers of worm monster bodies amid the thunderous booms, blasting them all into fragments.
Dissolving fluid splashed everywhere, sending up corrosion sounds and black smoke from every direction.
Under Finn's instructions, Leo and the others charged into an immensely spacious chamber.
"Stop!"
Finn called out, and everyone halted their steps at once, taking up a formation.
"We'll meet that swarm of monsters right here and finish them all in one go!"
Finn made the deployment in a cold, sharp voice.
"We'll buy time. Leo and Lefiya, you two go all out, use Magic with the widest range and the most firepower!"
This was the most commonly used tactic when meeting a group battle in the Dungeon.
Only the Mages' wide-area annihilation Magic could deal with a great number of monsters in one go, resolving the most common encirclement situation in the Dungeon and fully sealing the win in a large-scale battle.
It was precisely because of this that Magic was the trump card, and Mages were so highly prized.
"Easy to say. We don't even have weapons, so how are we supposed to buy time?"
Bete, having set Raul down for now, bared his fangs and spat out words that were extremely unpleasant and extremely practical.
"I don't want my beloved weapon melted, you know!"
Tiona's face was full of refusal, all but shielding her great double-bladed Urga behind her.
This was a First-Class weapon worth 120 million valis, after all. If it got melted she'd be sick over it.
"I've got some spares here."
Tione, for her part, took out several curved swords and handed them to those who'd lost their weapons.
Because they were simple to make and the materials weren't all that rare, and though not exactly cheap, they were still a good deal cheaper than other First-Class weapons, Tione had prepared a fair number of these curved swords as spare weapons, which was also why she didn't mind using curved swords as throwing weapons.
"What the hell good is this thing!"
Bete swore furiously, but still took the curved sword and used it grudgingly.
"Too light, can't get used to it."
Gareth also weighed the curved sword in his hand, his brows knitted tight.
"Finn, use this."
Ais handed her Desperate to Finn.
"You won't ruin the weapon?"
Finn understood something at once, took Ais's sword, and in turn handed Ais the one-handed sword he'd just taken out of Lefiya's backpack.
Ais took the sword, her gaze flicking behind her.
There, Leo was drinking a Magic Potion to restore his Mind, while Lefiya gripped her staff tightly, her face pale.
She was very nervous, and very flustered too.
Finn clearly intended to turn the whole situation around with her and Leo's Magic. If she choked at a moment like this, then what?
The moment she thought about what kind of consequences she'd face if she screwed up, Lefiya's breathing instinctively quickened.
"Lefiya..."
Ais saw the Elf girl was in a bad way and wanted to say something, but didn't know how to say it.
She was never one to be eloquent in the first place, more like quite clumsy with words, so asking her to come out with something at a time like this to ease Lefiya's nerves was really too much to ask of her.
"You can do it."
That was all Ais could think to say.
In the end, before she could even get that line out, Ais sensed something and snapped her head up to look at the entrance of the chamber.
There, with a thunderous boom, countless worm monsters came charging in.
"Ooooooooooooooh!!!"
The cracked, grating cries echoed through the chamber, shrill and ugly, making one want to knit one's brows.
The worm monsters scrambled over one another to charge into the chamber, some even bursting their own bodies in their eagerness to squeeze in, oozing bodily fluids that sent smoke up from everywhere they touched.
That scene, like an abscess rupturing and the maggots inside gushing out all at once, was no longer just physically sickening; it made one's whole being recoil from it all.
"Disgusting things!"
Bete was the first to charge out, his face twisted, fast as a bolt of lightning.
"Let's go, Tione!"
"You don't have to tell me!"
The Amazoness twins also blurred into afterimages and charged out.
"The defensive line here is yours, Gareth."
"...always foisting the troublesome stuff onto someone else."
Finn tossed out the line, then displayed his nimble skill and slipped out without a sound, leaving Gareth grumbling with a face full of discontent.
"Leo! Lefiya! Start chanting!"
Discontent or not, the Dwarf great warrior still planted himself in front of Leo and Lefiya, and shielded Raul at his feet into the bargain.
He would be the last line of defense, guaranteeing the safety of the wounded and the rearguard.
As for Ais, though she was a little worried about Leo and Lefiya, she forced herself with iron will to shift her attention, and charged out with the others.
Then, she sang out the words that carried power.
"Awaken, Tempest."
That was the factor used to trigger a supernatural force.
"Ariel."
The power called Magic took shape in this moment.
The flow of the atmosphere, visible to the naked eye, began to move, becoming whirls of wind that wreathed around Ais.
Ariel, this was the one Magic Ais could use, and the powerful force on which her fame rested.
It was a wind-attribute enchantment Magic that could aid attacks, raise speed, or strengthen defense by wrapping wind force around the body or weapon, and could even manage brief floating flight, an all-purpose Magic equally suited to attack and defense.
Ordinary enchantment Magic could strengthen abilities only to a limited degree, and unless it was a long-chant or ultra-long-chant enchantment Magic, it couldn't produce too great an effect. Ais's Ariel, however, was an exception, drawing out power enough to rival a Floor Boss off a single ultra-short chant alone, far exceeding the bounds of ordinary enchantment Magic.
It was precisely because she possessed such powerful Magic that Ais could, at Lv.5, seize an alias that not even Lv.6 or Lv.7 adventurers had managed to win, and be called the city's strongest female swordsman.
Once she activated this Magic, Ais could stand on par with Lv.6 adventurers, and in terms of pure Status alone, in this state even Finn and the others might not necessarily beat her.
In this moment, Ais activated this Magic, extremely cheat-like in ordinary people's eyes and no different from cheating, and carrying the howling wind, charged into the swarm of worm monsters.
The one-handed sword in her hand was also wreathed in wind, cutting into a worm monster's body and effortlessly splitting it in two.
The worm monster, cut in half, burst on the spot, and dissolving fluid splashed over Ais.
But this dissolving fluid was deflected by the wind wreathing Ais, unable even to touch the one-handed sword in her hand, no longer able to bring out that terrifying corrosiveness.
With the wind's protection, Ais could finally stop fearing those dissolving fluids, and didn't need to worry about her weapon being dissolved either.
That was why Ais had handed her beloved unbreakable sword to someone else to use.
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