Indeed, Adam had come up with a truly ingenious plan. So unexpected and well thought out it was, that later it would be written in history textbooks as "Adam's first ingenious plan". Even more impressive was how it had been completely thought up on the spot, with zero revisions necessary.
Adam has simply thought that it would be funny if he said, "Who said anything about sneaking past them?" so he just spit it out as a joke. However, in that very moment, his thoughts happened to flow with unforeseen clarity and genius. As if this plan were bestowed from the heavens itself, everything came together in an instant.
Here, we skip to the great enactment:
Step 1, go fishing!
I stood at the edge of the glowing lake, watching as blood from my arm spilled into the pristine glowing waters of the labyrinth.
There were a few things that I had learned from the initial encounter with the sea serpent. Firstly, the only thing sea serpents have in common with your common garden snake is that neither have arms or legs. Secondly, sea serpents are big-- big enough to swallow a cow in one gulp. Thirdly, sea serpents have a decent bit of intelligence-- Enough to stalk prey and be wary of magic. Fourthly, sea serpents are significantly weaker on land than in water but still completely outclass all other monsters on this level of the labyrinth. Fifthly, the other monsters stay away from the shoreline because the sea serpent often eats them.
So why did the sea serpent spend so much energy to attack us?
It's wasn't like we were threatening it or had entered its personal territory.
One might assume that the sea serpent has a taste for human flesh. But if this were true, the sea serpent would go to areas where humans frequently visited, leading to more reports of the sea serpent eating adventurers. Instead, most adventurers didn't even know that a sea serpent existed on this level. There wasn't even a warning to not go close to the water.
Additionally, high level monsters are able to sense Ryuzu's Fang or at least know that it is dangerous. Why would the sea serpent expend extra effort to attack an enemy that could be dangerous? I'm sure that if Raya had fully released Ryuzu's Fang, she could have easily dealt with the sea serpent. If things truly had gotten dangerous, she wouldn't hesitate to use it. The only reason she didn't was because if she did than the real monster would rear it's head and ruin the plans she has going on in Celestia.
Thus, we must look to another species closely related to the sea serpent -- Dragons.
Dragons were almighty and nearly invincible, though they were believed to have been hunted to extinction by ancient humans. This hunting had been possibly only because dragons did actually have a weakness -- Pride.
Those dragons couldn't accept anything being stronger than them so they would actively attack anything strong that had come anywhere near its territory to reassert this idea.
If you look at the sea serpent in this way, its behavior starts to make sense:
It permits the adventurers to pass through to the next level through its generosity.
It permits the monsters to amass in large numbers and guard the elevator.
As long as it is in control, it doesn't get mad.
The sea serpent must pride itself as being the sovereign of this level of the labyrinth.
But what happens when someone strong splashes down in its waters and casually walks around the coastline, completely open to attack?
Well, its pride simply cannot handle such a provocation, naturally making it want to attack us.
By leaving what it might have believed was a fatal wound on one of us, it believed that we learned our lesson and had successfully asserted its dominance. So it was satisfied.
By willingly spilling my own blood into its waters, I was clearly and openly taunting it. Such a prideful creature could never accept such a thing, even when it was clearly a trap.
Pain nullification, on.
Limit break, on.
Blood and body magic, on.
From the calm waters, a high pressure jet of water erupted with a speed untraceable by the naked eye. Unable to fully dodge it, the jet struck me in the chest.
Adam: [Great, it's only step one and things are already going wrong.]
Luckily I managed to react a little bit, so it missed my heart and pierced slightly below my shoulder.
The rest of the sea serpent came rushing in to finish me off. It snapped it's gaping jaw shut, but I had already leapt backwards out of the way.
Adam: [Alright, I can work with this.]
Step 2, reel it in
The sea serpent was pursuing me faster than it had last time but I always stayed just out of reach. I was guiding us towards the horde of monsters. The idea behind this plan was that the sea serpent would take care of a few monsters, or create some chaos at the very least.
I'd been healing my wound while we were running so by the time we got to the monster horde, I was once again at peak condition.
Some of the monsters had noticed me but before the could reach me I squatted down and then jumped as high as I could in the air, leaving cracks in the stone ground.
As soon as I left the ground, I began losing velocity as according to the laws of physics. But after reaching a certain threshold, gravity released me, leaving me floating midair. This was the boundary between the normal gravity below us and the artificial gravity that came from the ceiling. It worked the same as the dressing shop that we visited when we first arrived at Celestia.
I flipped upside down and looked up at the sea serpent. It was coiled up on itself and preparing to pounce on me. Then it closed the distance in a fraction of a second. There was nothing I could do but hope that Raya would do her job correctly.
Over on the roof of a building on the roof, Raya was perched and drew her longbow.
Step 0, Infiltration
Raya was the only one who could go into the monster horde while undetected. Her concealment was a higher level than mine and her Electric Scales allowed her to move soundlessly and much faster than I could. Truthfully, this was just an excuse I made so that she wouldn't try to take my dangerous job of being the bait.
Drawing back the bowstring with two arrows notched in, Raya finished chanting her strongest attack that didn't require unsheathing Ryuzu's Fang. Of course, just because Ryuzu's Fang wasn't being unsheathed didn't mean that it wasn't being used.
Raya: [–O' great cloud dragon of the golden dynasty, in the name of vengeance I beseech thee lend me your aid. Now, pierce through all with heavenly guidance] --Twofold Lightning Arrow
Large amounts of electricity were imbued into the two arrows. Static electricity charged the surroundings and a bright light emanated from the roof of the building Raya was standing on. Several monsters noticed this, but before they could even think about reacting to it, the bright light shot out two blue beams of light into the giant sea serpent.
The lightning arrows were aimed at the sea serpent's eyes and hit their targets almost instantaneously. The sea serpent managed to close its eyes in time but the lighting arrows pierced through its eyelids and struck true all the same.
Boom!
The deafening boom of thunder exploded shortly after the arrows were fired. If I hadn't been expecting it then I probably would have been left deaf for a few minutes.
The sea serpent roared in both pain and confusion. The lightning arrows must have released their electricity into the sea serpent's brain, causing considerable damage.
I took the opportunity to pull myself towards the serpent's head and give it a gift of my own.
Adam: [Violence and bloodshed for the Berserker] --Hand Canon
I punched the serpent's jaw as I exploded my fist, sending the sea serpent hurtling towards the ceiling and me back towards the ground.
Step 3, chaos
At this point, the sea serpent's tail was on the floor while its head was on the ceiling. I pulled on its tail using a large amount of blood soaked bandages to keep it from regaining its balance while Raya leapt towards its head wielding a sheathed Ryuzu's Fang. With its eyes gone, the sea serpent could only rely on its sense of smell to locate us, so I sent several small blobs of blood flying around to confuse it.
Thus, the big snake was mostly helpless against the pummeling that Raya and I gave it. The large horde of monsters had definitely noticed us but most couldn't quite reach the battleground that was mostly taking place along the boundary of opposing gravities. The few monsters that could fly weren't strong enough to threaten Raya or myself and the ones with bows and arrows couldn't organize themselves to make a big enough attack that could do anything.
As the big snake flailed around, it naturally squashed many monsters beneath it and sent many more flying in all sorts of directions. The monsters tried attacking the sea serpent, but couldn't break through its layers of hard scales. The sea serpent would often end up swatting them away as it flailed around.
Truthfully, Raya and I weren't doing much damage to the sea serpent either. After the initial volley of attacks, we were mostly just making it more and more angry as we slowly guided it towards the elevator.
Step 4, last stand
I glanced at Raya. With just our eyes crossing one another, we mutually agreed to enact the final stage of the plan.
While I held off the sea serpent and kept things chaotic, Raya would deal with the monsters directly in front of the elevator.
It was unknown how strong these last few monsters were, making this the most dangerous part of this mission.
The sea serpent's tail swept past the elevator and Raya took the opportunity to dive in.
I couldn't help her out any more than keeping other monsters from interfering. It took nearly all my strength just to stay out of the jaws and off the spears of the myriad monsters.
But, amidst the chaos, I managed to take a glance at how Raya was doing.
She was facing off against two minotaurs and a horned orc general. I couldn't tell how much time had passed since the fight started, but so far she had killed one minotaur, heavily injured the other, and destroyed the weapon of the horned orc general. The minotaur stood at 8 feet tall and was breathing heavily through its bloody snout. Likewise, the horned orc general breathed heavily and stared at Raya with his horns protruding from where there should've been eyes. After a moment passed, they both lunged at Raya, who apart from a general tiredness and a few cuts, was physically fine.
I, on the other hand, was not doing so well. The sea serpent had hit me dozens of times throughout the battle, breaking my bones each time and cutting open my skin on its scales that were more abrasive than sandpaper. Spears and arrows had pierced my arms, legs, abdomen, and neck several times.
At some point, my healing had become slower and less accurate. Currently, I was mostly relying on blood manipulation to move my body while only healing things that would lead to my immediate death.
But this is fine, Raya is safe.
A centipede monster managed to sneak up on me and rip off my arm.
This is fine, Raya is safe.
Losing a single string is unimportant for the marionettist.
Thrusting my fist through the centipede's stomach, I grabbed what remained of my arm and forced it back into place.
I can keep this up all night long.
But my body didn't agree with my thoughts. It was failing to keep up.
One more glancing blow. One more monster head crushed. One more set of teeth, sunken into my flesh.
Where are you Raya?
I willed my arm to swing once more, the strings still held tightly in my hands.
Do you see what becomes of me without you? I can barely even think without you by my side.
Half my vision had left me alongside my left eye. Something giant slammed into me from one of my many blind spots.
–Cough–
Blood came out of my mouth just now. What's broken now?
My arm flew off somewhere again. Is it gone for good this time?
I willed my body to get up, but received no response: All my strings were cut.
I guess I'm dying here.
Right, even the best toy can only be repaired so many times.
Something picked me up and put me on its back. The world spun and spun for a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
Golden floor? The elevator?
Adam: [Raya? -cough- Did we do it?]
A beautiful face appeared before me. For some reason it looked distressed.
Raya: [Adam, you did well! You did a great job! Heal yourself!]
She moved her head back and looked at my condition.
Raya: [I-I think one of your ribs has punctured your left lung. Heal that first! Shit, you're bleeding all over the place! Stop the bleeding! No, wait, I'll use these bandages and patch you up. Heal your organs and stuff!]
Adam: [I'm... out of mana... I think...]
She rummaged through her backpack for a moment before procuring some bandages and medicine. She applied them hurriedly but then turned to me anxiously.
Is it just me, or is she lookin kinda cute? I'm such a lucky guy.
Raya: [Adam? Adam! Stay with me, it'll be alright! You've lost a lot of blood. Can you take mine and use it to heal yourself?]
…Hey, that's actually not a bad idea.
Adam: […probably –cough– put as much mana as you can in it, and pour it in my mouth.]
The main reason why I was in this state was mana deficiency. If I just had a little bit more then I could probably figure out a way to heal myself. I remembered that Ash had once told me that you could convert your own soul into mana (and that it might even happen accidentally), but she never told me how to do it or the conditions necessary.
Ash? Maybe you won't be alone up there for much longer... Oh, who am I kidding? Something as nice as heaven couldn't possibly exist.
Raya immediately cut open her wrist and let herself bleed into my mouth.
This would be quite a strange situation if someone were looking from the outside.
As the blood wetted my lips, I stared up at the girl who was doing everything she could to save me. There were tears running down here cheeks.
She would miss me if I were gone.
Smiling internally, I mentally prepared myself and swallowed the mana imbued blood.
Immediately a shock spread throughout my entire body. It hurt even though I still had Pain Nullification on. Then a fire seemed to fill my entire being. My soul shuddered and began to pull apart.
Normally, you can't transfer your mana to someone else. But with magic, there is no such thing as impossible. Because I was a user of blood Manipulation, I was able to take in some mana by acting as if the blood were mine and digesting it. It was similar to how masters of Creation magic can undo their spells to gain back a small amount of mana. The theory was sound, but the side effects were bound to be tough.
My soul screamed under the stress, but, as far as I could tell, it was working, though the efficiency was abysmal. Resisting the urge to vomit or scream, I continued swallowing blood and breaking it down into mana.
Soon enough, my condition was no longer critical.
Raya had also finished with the bandages.
In the end, I looked like a mummy as I laid spread eagle on my back in the middle of a golden elevator.
Adam: [Heh... that was some flawless execution, really...]