The alabaster body reflected the faint crystal glow of the "Water Labyrinth City."Two pairs of draconic eyes looked down in contempt upon the foreign contamination harming its mother—the Dungeon—
the adventurers.
"—ROOOOAAARRRR!!"
The twin-headed white dragon bellowed with crushing momentum.
The head with azure eyes opened its jaws and unleashed a horrifying breath.
A stream of azure-blue inferno burned the air itself, incinerating everything it touched as it screamed forward. It was so beautiful it made the skin crawl—and so terrifying that the moment it neared the surface of the waterfall pool, it boiled up thick clouds of steam.
The scorching breath advanced, drying the lake as it came, and the moment the heatwave hit their faces like needles, everyone snapped into motion.
"Spread out!!"
At the captain's command, the team scattered cleanly, dodging the lethal first strike. The air was still so hot it stung their skin—but they were already in combat posture.
Alysse drew her sword and smiled.
"Everyone—ready to start an 'adventure'?"
Ahead of them was a catastrophic dragon: scales like steel, claws and fangs like blades, breath that could burn the world, pressure that made the heart tremble.
And yet even so…
An adventurer's answer was still the same:
Step forward and swing.
"Yeah!" came the chorus.
"Good. Then let's go."
Against a monster that would make any low-level adventurer despair, Astrea Familia's choice was simple:
Beat the hell out of it.
Two Level 4s took point. The rest pressed in behind them.
Lyla had already prepared an ice-element magic sword. She poured magic into it and swung—releasing its entire stored output in one burst.
A storm of freezing air swept forward, and most of the lake surface between them and the dragon locked into ice.
The magic sword shattered with a bang.
It didn't deal meaningful damage—but it built them what they needed most:
A road.
Amphisbaena refused to let adventurers do as they pleased. It twisted its two necks and spewed a dreamlike fire—
Incendiary Azure Flame.
Cracks spread across the frozen lake. Under the crawling blue fire, the ice began to melt.
But that was exactly the point.
One solid sheet of ice turning into fragmented plates meant—
The "icefield" became multiple "islands."
Which was the ideal terrain to execute the two-headed dragon.
Alysse, Ryuu, and Kaguya burst forward like three streaks of light.
Alysse and Ryuu—newly leveled—had gained strength across the board. And Kaguya, riding the speed advantage of her newly learned Thunder Breathing, managed to keep pace.
The remaining Level 4, Tsubaki, stayed back—anchoring the rear and guarding the supporters.
"ROOOA—ROOOA!"
"HAAAH!!"
Their attacks hit like a razor wind across the dragon's face—sharp, painful, infuriating.
Alysse's blazing offense and unmistakable red hair made her an obvious target.
The right head roared as if urging. The left head answered by vomiting azure flame.
Alysse slipped past it by a hair's breadth—her expression twisting under the murderous heat—while she carved a wide arc around the boss, keeping it at the center.
On the other side, Ryuu evaded the onrushing fire with fluid footwork while weaving a spell. She fired "Wind of Light" as an opening strike.
The elemental wind sphere exploded across the dragon's body. The effect wasn't dramatic—but it was there.
You could hear it in the dragon's irritated bellow.
And before it could respond, fire and lightning detonated on the head that had been spewing azure flame—coordinated strikes from the two mages in the backline and Xien.
They understood the principle: better to break one finger than scratch ten.
So all three focused their bombardment on the same head.
The dragon took it head-on. That head's scales split and its face became a bloody ruin. To prevent further loss, the other head moved instantly.
"HAAAH—AAAAAH!!"
Compared to the left head's azure flames, the right head exhaled something else entirely—
A red haze, like distilled unease.
The fog swept outward in a broad arc, wrapping the dragon like a guardian shroud.
Then—
A katana wrapped in crackling lightning flashed forward, closing the gap in a blink.
But the instant it touched the fog—
The lightning's speed and force dropped.
The slash wave wavered like a mirage, its scale shrinking. It barely forced its way through the haze and slammed into the dragon's body with a satisfying—
CLANG!
Dragon scales split.
But the cut didn't bite deep enough.
This was not what Kaguya had calculated.
"Wha—!"
"The lightning on my blade… vanished?"
Her eyes narrowed in shock.
This was her new technique—built from breathing method plus her own skill—yet it failed to deliver.
She immediately realized the culprit had to be that red haze.
And she shouted the warning:
"This red fog—it reduces magic output!"
It was the other kind of "breath" possessed by a dragon with two necks.
If the azure flame was the spear that swept prey away—
Then this red haze was the shield that repelled bombardment.
And just like they'd seen, even a second-tier adventurer's finishing move—something that could normally butcher any monster in the lower floors—
lost its bite.
"Then how about this?"
At some point, Lyla had already launched herself into the air.
Dozens of fist-sized iron spheres dropped freely from above.
They were tools.
Explosive tools—
homemade bombs, crafted with her own hands and her own cunning.
They detonated around the boss in a chain of flashes.
The floor boss let out a hoarse, furious roar.
Its two heads—whether intentionally or not—began whipping the environment in rage.
The double bellow nearly knocked the three frontliners off their feet.
The right head slammed down with savage power from above. Alysse barely avoided it—by a breath. Even for her, taking that hit directly would be catastrophic.
The left head swept sideways. Kaguya and Ryuu leapt with sharp timing and high agility, slipping past it.
The gust of its passing, even without direct contact, bowled adventurers over—and the follow-up vertical chop cleaved a massive ice island into a V-shape.
A spray of water erupted into the air.
Alysse and the others barely landed on one of the smaller "islands," soaked as waves slapped their legs.
"So fast!"
"No—more important—!"
"There's no opening!"
Those two twisting necks had independent intent. Whether they tried to flank, surround, or trap it, the dual viewpoints erased blind spots. And the long, massive necks—woven from dragon muscle—were absurdly tough and absurdly quick, striking from every direction at once.
"!?"
No time to breathe.
The right head shot forward violently—straight for Kaguya.
It wasn't even a real opening. Just a single thread of momentary carelessness.
But even with Level 3 parameters—and the speed boost from breathing—Kaguya couldn't fully evade that colossal threat.
A head-hammer like that would erase her from the fight.
At the final instant—
A gust of wind tore her out of the strike zone.
The dragon's blow crushed empty air.
That speed—
It didn't belong to a mere Level 4.
Ryuu's body was wrapped in a thin, green radiance.
And her presence—
was clearly beyond Level 4.
Ignoring the disbelief in her rival's eyes, she spoke calmly:
"Everyone—don't underestimate it. Don't take your eyes off it."
Alysse nodded.
"She's right. This isn't an unreachable enemy. We hit back."
"Understood."
If it had no openings—
then they would create openings.
Flames surged around Alysse.
Lightning returned to Kaguya's katana.
If externalized magic was suppressed, then they would shift to added-on attacks, embedding power into the strike itself.
The other frontliners arrived: Iska, Nize, Asta—
Everyone dodged by inches and delivered damage in their own way.
In that storm of motion, their coordination became almost frightening. Lethal attacks skimmed past ears and shoulders—but that near-death pressure only made their counterattacks sharper and more precise.
The results of hellish training finally showed.
Even attacks that exceeded their limits—attacks that should have crushed them—were broken down and dissolved through timing and teamwork.
And whenever someone slipped—
Xien covered it.
Instant healing. Status cleansing. A rapid return to the fight.
Little by little, the proud tyrant's body accumulated wounds.
If they maintained this tempo, subjugation was only a matter of time.
But Amphisbaena realized the same thing.
It could feel itself being bled out by small creatures.
So it changed approach.
With a roar, it stopped attacking the adventurers directly.
Instead, it churned up massive waves and dived into the water.
In an instant, the target vanished.
A cold sense of danger rose up everyone's spine.
Veterans knew this was the most dangerous situation of all.
No one knew where the next strike would come from—or what shape it would take.
The entire flow of battle flipped.
This was bad.
They were losing the initiative.
No one here could effectively attack a water dragon underwater.
And above the surface…
they were nothing but targets.
Then—
when everyone was at a loss—
Xien stared at his hands.
If the boss chose to ambush one person, or leap and trigger a catastrophic wave, everything they'd built could collapse in seconds. And the floor boss's regeneration was no joke—give it time, and the wounds they'd carved so far would mean almost nothing.
The power he had just witnessed… its consequences were unknown.
But it could break this deadlock.
And if it could break the deadlock, then there was no need to hesitate.
His desire crystallized in a single, burning certainty.
Then—
chant.
"Emerald vortex—this is the pulse of the earth's veins—"
This time, he adjusted the ratio.
Magic and Abundance—one to one.
Green life-energy swirled around Xien's body, spilling outward. Under his feet, in a place that should have been dead stone, fresh grass and flowers began to sprout.
It was something that should have been impossible.
"Azure winds return—thousand forests bloom!Mountain spines—move to my rhythm!Final chapter of all things—life without end!"
The enemy's malice and fangs were about to erupt—
but Xien's will moved first.
"Hardwood Lockdown—Revised…"
His voice dropped like a verdict.
"Advent: Flower-Tree Realm."
Abundance answered the caller's intent.
From every direction, enormous plants burst through stone, surging toward the enemy Xien had designated.
The force of nature became unimaginable.
The dragon—confused—was caught as massive trunks and vines wrapped its body with violent precision.
A binding thicker than a dragon's neck locked around Amphisbaena until it could no longer move.
Xien clenched his fist.
A thought.
And the newborn greenery "understood" their king's command.
Amphisbaena thrashed.
It didn't understand what these plants were. It didn't understand why they had such power. It didn't understand how they could locate it precisely underwater and lock it down so completely.
And the strength—
was deeply wrong.
With brutal force, the growths seized its entire body and—
dragged the deep-water tyrant up out of the lake.
"Everyone—now! Get in!"
Xien's voice—fighting through crushing mental strain—snapped the stunned team back to reality and forced them into motion.
"Beautiful work, Xien," someone breathed.
They broke out of their awe at the vast, radiant forest erupting around them and moved without hesitation.
The huge branches and trunks became natural footholds.
They surged forward from all sides—launching a full assault on the floor boss, now bound so tightly it couldn't move.
Incendiary azure flame erupted again—so desperate to regain mobility that it didn't even care if it burned itself, only wanting to escape these cursed bindings.
Its wounds worsened.
Yet the plants showed no sign of burning away—as if they weren't truly wood at all.
The dragon's confusion deepened.
Its flames should have been able to burn any plant.
It didn't know that Xien's Abundance power was still pouring in, continuously reinforcing the growth.
For a moment, the fight looked simple:
Just cut off the two heads.
But would it really end that cleanly?
Realizing it couldn't break free alone, Amphisbaena released a piercing scream—calling for reinforcements—while it bit and tore at the restraints with its jaws.
As the team closed in—
Multiple snake heads burst up from the water.
"Great Water Serpents!"
"And even Harpies!?"
"It called allies!?"
The Great Water Serpents rose between the ice islands, long bodies twisting around the plants as they opened their jaws and tore at the bindings.
And that wasn't all.
A flock of Harpies dropped from above, trying to block their approach.
Six monsters appeared in total.
The reinforcements were irritating—
but not an impossible number.
"Don't let it happen," Alysse ordered. "Everyone—together."
"Right."
Even Tsubaki, who had been guarding the backline, evaluated the situation and stepped in. The front needed her strength now.
They clashed with the reinforcements, the battle splitting into brutal, time-consuming exchanges.
Six Level 4-class monsters couldn't be erased instantly. Even if their priority was freeing the boss, they were still dangerous enough to stall the assault. And with only three Level 4s on their side, killing them quickly wasn't easy.
Worse—
Xien's plants were rapidly being shredded.
If this continued, everything he had done to seize back the battlefield would be wasted.
....
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