He moved like a blood-red butterfly, spinning gracefully through the battlefield.
------------------------------
The red color of blood brings only terror to the enemy.
"Tsk tsk tsk, as expected of the Night Weaver. Even surrounded by hundreds, you can still fight like a monster. Good thing I made preparations in advance, heeheehee!"
Valletta's loud, exaggerated praise rang out as she admired Fron's killing artistry.
But the curve of her lips showed it wasn't that simple.
"Heeheehee, feeling a little worn out, my dear Night Weaver? Hahahaha! How is it? My exclusive magic, how does it feel?"
Taking a gulp of potion, Valletta retreated a fair distance, watching the fight with great interest.
Compared to before, when Fron's movements were ghostlike and even her dynamic vision at level 5 couldn't track him at all, now his movements were clear and visible. She could hardly hold back her shrill laughter.
The tunnel once bathed in the soft cyan glow of magic stone lamps now shimmered faintly with purple, intricate lines crisscrossing the vast chamber.
A large purple rhombus-shaped magic circle rotated at an angle within the square room, enveloping everything inside it.
And Fron stood right at its center.
"We have to support Fron!" Raul, pale with panic, gripped his short sword with trembling hands, ready to charge.
"Stop, Raul!" But Anakitty pressed firmly down on his shoulder.
"That's right, Raul. Anakitty's command is correct. Everyone, stay alert. As long as we hold our ground, we won't drag Fron down!"
"Anakitty?" Raul looked at his friend in confusion, unsure what she meant.
"Look at the floor and walls around us."
"…That's, a magic circle?"
Though Raul wasn't talented, he wasn't blind either. Surrounded by elves skilled in magic, he recognized at a glance the faint purple lines that formed a concealed spell array.
"Exactly. If I'm not mistaken… that's a very rare kind of magic, a barrier spell. And an irregular one at that."
"Heeheehee, looks like the Loki Familia isn't all trash besides Finn! You're a clever little cat, aren't you? That's right, this is a special kind of boundary magic!"
"It's the only magic I, Valletta Grede, can use!"
Across the chaotic battlefield, over the clashing of weapons and screams of the dying, Valletta grinned as she revealed the truth.
"I call it 'Shaldo'… or at least, that's what that idiot god told me its name was. As for what it does, well, just look at the Night Weaver's condition and you'll see! Heeheehee!"
At her words, Anakitty and the others turned sharply toward Fron.
"Something's wrong."
"More than wrong. At Fron's level, there's no way we should be able to track him with our level-4 dynamic vision. Not as humans, and not even as beastfolk. But now…"
Cold sweat ran down their temples. A chill crept up their spines.
"Don't tell me… this magic!"
"Heeheeheeheehee! You guessed it fast! That's right, my Shaldo weakens the target's stats, and every time they move, the effect stacks!"
"What!?"
[Shaldo]
· Barrier Magic: Irregular Magic, Rare Type
· Inside the barrier, all abilities weaken; the effect stacks with every action
Barrier magic, none of them, not even Anakitty or Raul with eight years of adventuring experience, nor Fron with his encyclopedic knowledge, had ever seen such a thing before.
"Hehe, not even Finn the cunning rat knows about this! I've been saving it as my trump card all this time. I was planning to use it on him, but he turned out to be such a useless wreck! Hahahaha!"
Narrowing her eyes, Valletta watched as Fron's movements became slower and clearer to her gaze.
Her grin widened to madness, her face glowing with savage delight.
"Dance for me, Night Weaver! Let's see how long you can last with level-4 stats! Hahahaha!"
Her laughter turned harsh and crazed as she glared at the man surrounded by enemies.
"Even if you're level 6, you'll still die in my grasp!"
Effortlessly dodging two daggers that came at him, Fron tilted his head to evade another from behind, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
Spinning on his left foot, his staff swept in a wide purple arc, spraying blood in every direction.
He shot a cold glance at Valletta in the distance, mind racing to find a way out.
"Heh." At her mocking tone, Fron answered only with a quiet, derisive chuckle. Contempt was written all over his face.
"Pupupupupu, "
The staff blurred into an afterimage. His technique, an inheritance of Finn's spear mastery, Ais's fluid swordsmanship, the Amazoness twins' hand-to-hand combat, and the rhythm he'd stolen from Revis, was seamlessly merged into something entirely his own.
"So strong!" Anakitty, Raul, Cruz, and the others hadn't seen Fron fight like this in ages.
In the Dungeon, opponents worthy of his full strength had grown scarce. The last time they'd seen him unleash everything was during the great battle on the 59th floor.
And now, he was even stronger.
"So powerful… every move flows as if rehearsed a thousand times, each strike linking to the next with no hesitation at all!"
Even in this desperate situation, they couldn't help but marvel at the artistry of his combat. Even Valletta's expression darkened.
What was this monster? Weakened to level 4 and still untouchable? Just what kind of freak had the Loki Familia found?
But Valletta didn't know, Fron's stat limit wasn't 999, but 1999.
That massive upper limit meant that even trapped within her barrier, his strength degraded much more slowly than she expected.
Did she really think level 4 was his limit?
A flash of cold light crossed his eyes as his lips curved into a deadly smile.
"Ragnarok (Surtur)!"
The air trembled.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
A storm of explosions roared through the chamber.