Solon dove in immediately after her. The two Tree Dragons followed, tumbling and rolling as they plummeted.
THUD!
The heavy sound of impact echoed through the dark cavern. Thanks to his Levitate spell, Solon managed to stumble onto the bottom of the pit—about ten meters deep—before quickly rolling to his feet.
Alise landed beside him, sparks flying from her gear. The two of them pressed their backs against the cold, damp rock wall, instantly enveloped by a darkness far thicker than before.
This was no ordinary pit. It was a slanted, narrow fissure, like a hidden wound sliced deep into the heart of the Labyrinth. The descent of the two dragons made the rock walls tremble; the already narrow passage was now completely blocked, leaving them with no way out.
The heavily wounded dragon was on its last legs but hadn't lost its ferocity, while the fresh Tree Dragon shook its massive head, its vertical pupils locking onto them with a low, menacing hiss.
"No choice but to fight!" Alise wiped blood from the corner of her mouth, the fire in her eyes reigniting.
Solon nodded grimly. Pale Justice and her flaming blade lit up simultaneously.
The battle erupted in an instant. There was no room for maneuvering or fancy footwork—only brutal, close-quarters combat. The dying dragon spat out a final, thin stream of poison breath. Solon deployed a Shield while Alise swung a wave of flaming sword-ki; together, they dissipated the toxic mist.
Solon's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He lunged forward, slipping past the monster's reach.
"Divine Smite!"
A terrifying burst of golden light pierced through the dragon's blind spot, driving deep into its existing wounds. It pried through the skull like a lever opening a shell, obliterating the brain. The dragon's body convulsed once and went still.
The pit appeared too perfectly. The monsters arrived one after another... Solon's internal alarms blared.
The second Tree Dragon's attack followed immediately. In the narrow fissure, its swinging claws covered almost every available inch of space. The gust of wind it kicked up was so heavy it made breathing difficult.
Alise's pupils shrank. She didn't retreat. Instead, she planted her feet firmly, gripped her hilt with both hands, and heaved her blade upward at an angle. This strike wasn't meant to meet the blow head-on, but to deflect the momentum at the moment of contact.
CLANG!
An ear-piercing screech of metal on scale rang out. The blade clashed violently with the armored dragon claw, sending sparks flying. A massive force traveled up the sword; Alise's palms split instantly, blood seeping out. Her arms shook violently, her bones groaning under the pressure as she was pushed back half a step, her boots carving ruts into the stone floor.
But that half-step was enough. The trajectory of the claw shifted, slamming heavily into the side of the rock wall.
BOOM! The wall shuddered, and rubble rained down.
Almost the exact moment Alise stepped up to parry, Solon had already moved. He stayed low, hugging the slick rock wall and darting through the blind spot created by the claw's swing—the narrow gap between the dragon's neck and the cavern wall.
The emerald flames on Pale Justice flared up first, accurately scorching the relatively thin scales on the underside of the Tree Dragon's neck. The moment the scales became brittle and discolored from the heat, they shattered!
Squelch! The blade sank into the flesh beneath the scales, and the scent of charred meat filled the air.
The Tree Dragon let out an agonized roar and snapped its head around. Its massive maw, filled with forest-white teeth, lunged at Solon with startling speed.
Relieved of the immediate pressure, Alise instantly shifted her stance. The flaming sword-ki swirling around her pulled inward, making her swings even faster. Scarlet blade-light lunged out in a continuous stream. She no longer sought wide, heavy blows, but instead targeted the joints of the dragon's forelimbs and the softer sides of its belly with surgical precision.
"Silvery Barbs!"
Solon unleashed the spell. Now, every strike left behind charred, jagged wounds, accumulating damage and constantly disrupting the giant beast's balance.
Solon used his superior speed and judgment to weave through the brief intervals between the dragon's bites and claw swipes. He stopped using high-consumption spells; in such a confined space, unleashing massive explosions was a suicide mission. Instead, he buffed his own attributes and relied on rock-solid basic sword techniques. Every thrust aimed for the gaps between scales, the edges of wounds, or the junctions of tendons and bone. His blade tore away chunks of dark green flesh, widening the wounds and causing continuous blood loss.
The narrow environment limited the Tree Dragon as well. It couldn't spread its wings to gain enough space for a pounce, and its thick tail was hindered by the rock walls, making effective tail-swipes impossible.
Solon and Alise worked in tandem—one as nimble as a needle threading through silk, the other as steady as an anvil. Solon repeatedly used quick feints to draw the dragon's attention, creating split-second windows for Alise to charge her power. Alise, in turn, used violent offensives to force the dragon into exposing openings, allowing Solon to cut in and deal deeper damage.
The cold glint of the sword and the scarlet of the flames flickered and wove together in the dim fissure. The dragon's wounds multiplied, dark green blood dripping steadily. Its movements began to slow from blood loss and pain, but the rage in its eyes burned even brighter.
Solon's ice-blue eyes remained fixed on his opponent. He keenly captured a moment: after a full-force claw swipe, the dragon's head experienced an extremely brief pause as it turned. Following that, perhaps due to the pain and accumulated fury, it threw its head back, its neck arching significantly. It was clearly taking a deep breath, preparing to launch a long-brewing, full-power breath attack.
Its relatively fragile throat and jaw were completely exposed.
Now!
Solon stepped back half a pace, his feet seemingly nailed to the ground as he lowered his center of gravity. The mana flowing through his body was violently compressed and channeled by his will, pouring entirely into Pale Justice. The silver-white blade let out a clear, resonant hum, and a dazzling radiance flowed from the hilt to the tip.
He gripped the sword with both hands and swung from the bottom up with every ounce of his strength. He unleashed a massive, crescent-shaped blade of light, solid as glass with edges shimmering in white heat.
Divine Smite—Metamagic: Upcast, Empowered, Maximized!
The moment the light-blade left the sword, it seemed to swallow all surrounding sound. It tore through the gloom, rising upward to plunge with unerring accuracy into the dragon's wide-open throat—and then sliced upward through the head without a hint of resistance!
Almost at the same instant, Alise let out a determined shout. She gathered and compressed all the boiling flames around her onto the tip of her blade. That single point of red light was pure and intense to the extreme. She lunged forward, pouring all her strength and will into a single thrust, burying the blade deep into where she estimated the dragon's heart to be!
"Agarutium!"
The scarlet light vanished into the thick torso.
Time seemed to freeze for a heartbeat.
Then, from deep within the Tree Dragon's massive body, a muffled, drum-like boom echoed, followed by a violent internal explosion!
Blinding red light burst from the massive wound in its neck, and from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils! The Tree Dragon's body convulsed violently, a wheezing sound escaping its throat as the feral light in its vertical pupils vanished, extinguished like a fire doused with cold water.
Its forelegs buckled, and it collapsed forward with a heavy thud. The massive corpse blocked more than half of the already narrow passage, kicking up a cloud of thick dust.
The two of them stumbled back, their spines hitting the cold, slick rock wall. They slid down to sit on the ground, their chests heaving like old bellows as they gulped down the stagnant, hot, metallic air. Sweat had long since soaked their clothes, mingling with blood, acrid dragon saliva, and the dust of battle into a sticky mess.
A brief silence descended. Only the sound of their ragged, heavy breathing remained.
However, beneath that silence, from further away in the deeper darkness of the Labyrinth, a skittering sound—like countless arthropod limbs scraping against rock—was becoming clearer and closer.
The crisis was far from over.
This hidden fissure they had fallen into wasn't just a dead end; it felt like a corridor connecting to a darker, more primordial "depth" of the Great Tree Labyrinth. Auras filled with malice were continuously emerging and approaching from the darkness ahead and behind, like a hungry pack that had caught the scent of fresh blood.
This pit... as expected, it wasn't just meant to trap and kill. It was a carefully placed funnel designed to lead adventurers who could break through obstacles into a pre-set, even more dangerous place.
Solon raised his hand, using his gauntlet to wipe away blood, his eyes sharply scanning the dark, unpredictable passages. They had to find a way out as soon as possible—or find a loophole in the "rules" of this place.
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Danmachi: My Magic Style is Different from Yours (Simulpub – Ongoing)
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