Arriving on the 13th floor, Nero checked his surroundings carefully, making sure that there were no monsters or people around, once he was sure he was alone he unfurled his wings and flew up to the ceiling, flying along so as to keep a good distance
As he flew around he saw multiple piles of dust everywhere, indicating that multiple monsters had been killed on this floor, and it had happened recently
"Is it trying to make itself even stronger" Nero wondered as he flew along, following the traces of dust
A short while later Nero spotted something shining in the distance, slowing down he inched closer, making sure to use all of the stealth training that Yumi had given him to not be discovered, killing his presence and staying behind the monster at all times
Once he was close enough Nero was able to hear a sickening crunching sound coming from the monster, the crystalline armour seeming to grow slightly with each crunch
"Like the adventurers said, it is eating the crystal mantis's on this floor" he mumbled to himself "it's a shame that only after defeating a monster you can get a drop, or if you could break off the crystals of this guy it would be worth a fortune"
All of a sudden as if something had happened the infant crystal dragon stopped eating abruptly, suddenly turning and running in a specific direction
"Where the hell is it going?" Nero thought to himself as he watched the beast move with surprising speed "the only thing in that direction is..." suddenly frowning "it couldn't be"
Throwing caution to the wind Nero took off after the dragon, worried that what he thought the infant crystal dragon was doing was what he feared
Even with Nero no longer hiding the infant crystal dragon didn't seem concerned with him, in fact it even increased its speed further as the wall of the dungeon came into view
"It really is trying to do it" Nero grimaced, now able to see the hole in the wall that contained the stairs back up to the 12th floor
With a fierce roar the infant crystal dragon leapt into the air and slammed its body into the wall directly above the stairs leading to the upper level, the wall crashing down and blocking the only route back up
"This bastard" Nero complained through gritted teeth "it's blocking my escape"
Picking itself off of the ground the monster turned and placed itself in front on the mound of rocks and dirt, its eyes locking onto Nero as if to tell him that if he wanted to go back up, he would have to go through him first
"Infant dragons shouldn't be this smart" Nero frowned "either there's someone controlling it or its mutation has made it smarter, although based on its earlier actions I'm betting on the former" floating down to the ground in order to battle against the beast as he knew with the crystalline armour that it had combined with its natural magical resistance the only way he would be able to beat it was to enhance his weapons with his power of destruction
Keeping an eye on his surroundings to try and find whoever it was that was controlling the beast Nero pulled out his tessen, imbuing them with his power of destruction as he planned his attack
"Destroying the magic stone is out of the question as it is normally in the center of an infant dragon's body, so my best bet is to take it out in one decisive strike to the head" Nero decided, using his ice king mode to add a blade to the tip of his tessen to give it penetrative power to assist the power of destruction
Seeing that its opponent was preparing to attack it the infant dragon let out a threatening roar and charged towards Nero
Seeing the beast coming towards him Nero retained his cool, watching the monsters movements and dodging out of the way, using what he had learned from Yumi to keep out of the monsters range, channelling his magic power based on the training he had got from Rias and luring it into a trap in the same way that Akiza had done to him many times before, leading the dragon into a corner that made it think that it had cornered him
As the dragon clawed at him Nero used the wall as a spring board along with his wings to catapult himself fully over the dragons body, spinning his body as he landed as the dragon tried to turn around, his timing perfect as he stabbed his blade like tessen straight towards the dragons head with his full force, aiming to thrust them through the beasts eye and right into its brain
Just before he was able to succeed Nero felt a sudden burst of magic hit his tessen from the direction of the dragon, causing his attack to veer off course and instead hit the dragon in the mouth, causing one of its tooth to break off and turn into dust on the floor
"What the?" Nero exclaimed in surprise, looking up to see a imp with the same crystalline armor as the dragon cackling on the dragons back "you mother fu-"
Crack
Hearing a concerning sound that didn't come from the dragon Nero looked down at his hands, his tessen shattering to pieces
"No" Nero blurted out quietly in shock, realising what had happened, the imps magic had hit his tessen which had not only diverted the attack, but it had also disrupted the flow of magic into his weapon, causing the power of destruction to destroy the weapon from the inside
Realising what had happened Nero turned his glare to the imp that seemed to be gloating as it ordered the infant crystal dragon to attack Nero once again
"So you're the brains behind this" Nero snarled, disliking imps more by the second as he realised that this battle was going to be even more difficult than he had expected as he tried to think of how to deal with the situation he now found himself in.