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Chapter 125 - Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 123

Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.

"5 starters," I muttered immediately before stopping at the corner of one of the aisles as I raised my hand to stop them. They all stopped dead in their tracks and hid. We peered around the corner cautiously.

"Tch, you were right about the monsters." Bakugou muttered as she looked at the first group we came across.

Since we had finished preparing and were ready, we had finally entered the molten metal tower. Just as we expected, the heat increased almost immediately by several degrees.

The tower's design was somewhat odd. Once we entered, we almost immediately stepped onto metal platforms. They were held up by thick chains and pillars of robust steel, and they seemed to be nailed into the ground. The floor was uneven, as if they had placed and stacked any metal plates they could find around the place.

Most importantly, it looked like the tower itself was built inside a freaking volcano. There was lava everywhere, like a river beneath us and flowing down the walls. To my surprise, the heat wasn't as overwhelming as I had expected, which was kind of weird.

Either there was good ventilation, or the dungeon was absorbing the heat that should have built up in the air, being a naturally enclosed space, or the lava was unusual and wasn't typical lava. I really didn't feel like finding out which one it was; you don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that. We could fight; that was more than enough.

Returning to the tower, it had paths scattered everywhere, earthen walls and caves that constantly changed, and stairs, lots and lots of stairs. From what I could sense with my Haki, we had to climb vertically to avoid the other enemies and to reach the dungeon boss. As if we hadn't already climbed enough stairs to scale the central tower of I-Island.

"There are... two with axes, one with a shield who I think also has a short sword, one with a broadsword, and one... without anything?" Ruby muttered as she looked at the monsters. Several of them looked at me, waiting for something, and I snorted.

"Yeah, It doesn't have anything, we'll have to figure out what to do as we go along," I said with a grimace.

"Okay, how do we split them?" Midoriya asked as he calculated.

"I'll go after the one without a weapon. I'll be the quickest to react to whatever it uses. That leaves the other four," I said simply.

"I'll take the one with the broadsword, it looks strong but slow," Midoriya said without hesitation.

"Who cares, I'll take any!" Bakugou exclaimed.

"Take the one with the shield and sword. Your explosions should break his shield, or at least take it away. I'll take one of the rest," Todoroki said with a frown.

"Penny, you're the highest ranked, an A rank, for the moment. Take the remaining one. That leaves Jinx and Ruby, both of whom are B rank, though they can certainly fight above that classification, but since we're lacking monsters, both of you come forward and help out in any fights you think you can help with without interfering." I said simply.

"Tch, I don't like this." Jinx muttered, but still didn't refuse the job. I nodded slightly and looked at the monsters once more.

Starting with the charred undead, who wielded a shield and a sword, he appeared to be about our height, like a normal person, yet quite muscular as he dragged around a shield the size of his entire body, made of solid, thick, molten metal. His 'short' sword was actually what looked like a broadsword that had been broken off almost at the start, so it was now a short sword.

The next charred undead was a head shorter than me, also muscular, but where the previous one seemed more symmetrical and proportionate, this one was different. His arms were really thick and full of muscle, almost the size of his torso. He had a giant metal axe, which was almost more than half his size, and he swung it as if it weighed nothing.

To my surprise, he was the one with the least armor; his arms seemed completely unprotected, as did his head. The only places where he had armor were half of his chest and his legs.

Next up was the charred undead with the broadsword. He was two heads taller than us, maybe three, but he was hunched over so that he only stood a head taller than us. His body also seemed almost disproportionate; his legs were practically average, but his torso began to expand and bulge with muscle, as did his broad shoulders and thick arms.

His broadsword was almost as big as his body.

And finally, the last one was the strangest of all. It was as big as the broadsword undead, but it was completely covered in thick armor without any weapons. It didn't even have any muscles; in fact, it looked like a somewhat obese person, with small feet and stubby arms. But it still moved around the place with ease.

The strange thing was still the lack of weapons.

Still, there was no time to hesitate. I looked at the others and nodded. We all jumped at once. But obviously, I arrived first. My target was the monster missing its weapon. Wado Ichimonji went straight for its neck, right between the joints of its armor.

My sword pierced and stuck into the monster's neck with extreme ease, almost too easily. To my surprise, the monster didn't die; it simply moved and tried to attack me as if it had a minor annoyance for that simple fact.

Damn, that's why I hated the undead. They don't die when you kill them. It was useless to attack an undead monster's weak points because they weren't killed. The head, the neck, the joints, the heart—it was all useless because the monster could keep moving without any problem.

The only way to defeat the undead was to cause so much damage to their bodies that they were considered 'dead', or to break their essence stones.

I tried to cut through the armor. Most of these monsters had armor all over them, and that meant their necks were also covered in armor, or at least parts of them. When I tried to cut through the metal, the complaining squeal my sword made changed my mind. I took Wado Ichimonji out where the knife was stabbed and backed away from the monster's arms.

Okay, decapitating them is not possible, damn it.

The monster moved and created what looked like a sphere of fire and tried to throw it at me, even though they were so close to him. Tch, he was a wizard. I took a step back. Burning Bones, Summer Sun, I made a circular motion in front of me just as the fire bomb exploded in front of me. My slash redirected most of the fire and explosion in a circular manner, preventing it from hitting me.

I launched myself at the monster once more, using my transparent world to see inside. I wasn't really surprised to see all the burned and charred organs inside the creature. I quickly found what I was looking for: the monster's essence stone. And just as I feared, it was in the monster's most protected place.

I couldn't attack its armor directly. I'm sure that with my strength, my technique, and the resistance of my sword, I was able to cut the monster in half, but it wouldn't work in the long run, not with the hundreds of monsters we had to defeat. The monster's metal wasn't ordinary steel, nor any other metal I knew; it was definitely something generated by this dungeon, something incredibly resistant, much more so than any other metal.

Wado Ichimonji, as strong and resilient as it is, had a limit, and constantly subjecting it to such abuse by trying to cut metals generated in an A-rank dungeon or higher would crack it before we were finished. Really, I might be able to take some of this metal and see if I could forge something with it.

My sword was extremely durable; it might not bend and retain its shape even if it were crushed by something several tons, but it was still a katana. They weren't made to clash against metal for long periods of time, no matter how the movies portray it.

Even coating it with my aura would be useless, it would consume much more aura than I would like to maintain for several hours to kill all the monsters.

Using Haki for an extended period was a bad idea, even more so because I needed to save everything I could to fight the boss. I didn't know what we would face, but if it was much stronger than these monsters, we would be in trouble if I ran out before we arrived.

Midoriya could surely finish him off, but I refused to blindly trust Midoriya, even though I was confident that he could do it if he unleashed the full power of the OFA.

I was running out of options. The easiest way to take out a Zombie is to deal massive amounts of damage until its body gives out.

I swung Wado Ichimonji and severed every joint and open pathway I could find within the armor of the monster in front of me. It still wasn't enough damage. Even so, its movements became clumsier and slower.

He had no regeneration, and the wounds made it difficult for the monster to move, yet he was able to raise his hand and throw a blast of fire in my direction.

I jumped to the side and pulled out a fairly average sword from my inventory, while putting Wado Ichimonji away. I grabbed the new sword with both hands, Clear Blue Sky, and tried to spin and cut precisely in the path of the essence stone.

CLANG!—KRRAACK I clicked my tongue as I watched the sword shatter against the metal. That's the end of the idea of using spare parts.

"Jinx! Don't hit the metal directly! Only a graded sword can cut through it without breaking! Strike at the joints to slow them down or where they have no armor to neutralize them!" I yelled at Jinx.

"You don't need to tell me -"

"Watch out!!!" Midoriya shouted, interrupting. I looked at Midoriya and his monster, just in time to see the monster raise his broadsword high.

Boom! A sudden explosion erupted, filling the entire room with fire. I could feel the flames lightly licking my aura. I was about to move again when the fire seemed to absorb itself into the broadsword, and we, too, were pulled in its direction.

"What the hell, fuck!!" Bakugo cursed. The attraction didn't last long enough, only enough to move us a few meters, but it was annoying. The monsters weren't affected, so they attacked when our balance was at its worst. Tch. Fake Rainbow.

I appeared next to the creature, ignoring the fire attack the monster launched. I had to defeat it quickly, but with my sword, there wasn't much I could do. I could attack its weak points at its junction points, but with the little I can stab, I wouldn't do enough damage.

I needed something more powerful—my eyes widened slightly, my shadows exploded, and from them I pulled out another weapon. It wasn't something I used often, but now it would be handy. I pulled out a giant ball of spikes connected to a chain, and at the end, a small axe.

Stone Breathing: Second Form: Upper Smash. I quickly manipulated the weapon's chain and threw the ball upward, slamming it hard in the direction of the monster. The chain tightened, and I stepped on it to increase the speed and force of the ball.

The ball fell like a furious god in the form of a massive 200-kilogram metal ball. The impact made a dull thud as it severely dented the metal's armor and crushed it into the ground. My smile deepened. This would work.

Third Form: Stone Skin. I quickly spun around and swung the chain around me; the metal ball and axe struck the monster in front of me in quick succession. The metal ball completely dented and dealt incredible damage to the monster's armor, while the axe attacked the unprotected parts.

In a few seconds and after a dozen blows with my flail, the monster was almost unrecognizable and completely disfigured, before falling dully to the ground without any sign of moving.

He was finally dead. There was no time to celebrate. I looked up and watched the battle change. I looked at Midoriya; the broadsword-wielding monster also seemed to be in his final moments.

His armor was also completely dented and deformed from the blows. I could see the marks of Midoriya's punches and kicks that he left behind with each blow, almost like a map. It was good to know that he could handle himself.

I looked at Bakugou, the monster, who had lost his shield and his sword. In fact, Bakugou had the monster held by its head against the ground and made the palm of her hand explode against its face every time the monster moved.

I looked at Penny, Ruby, and Jinx. All three of them seemed to have just killed the monster in front of them, whose corpse was on the ground, its arms and head severed and motionless. All three of them seemed to be watching the fight just like me.

Finally, Todoroki was the one who seemed to be having the most trouble. In reality, she wasn't losing; she just entered a sort of limbo. She was touching the frozen statue of the monster with an axe. The monster couldn't move, but Todoroki wouldn't let go of it.

I was frowning, I quickly realized that I definitely had nothing that could kill the monster, her ice wasn't exactly strong enough to cause damage, at least not at this level, but it was strong enough to freeze, but with the heat that, inside this tower, plus the temperature of the monster would rise, if Todoroki raised her hand, the ice would definitely start to melt.

I ran towards Todoroki, First Form: Serpentinite Bipolar. Todoroki noticed my movement and stepped back without hesitation. My metal ball began to spin in the air and hit the monster squarely. The little and weak armor barely held against the enormous metal ball.

Even so, my axe also headed in its direction; its lack of prominent armor was also missing on its neck, so my axe decapitated the monster with extreme ease. That, plus the damage from the metal ball, was enough to kill it.

"Thank you." Todoroki said with a slight nod. She looked at the others and saw that their monsters were also falling dead.

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