"Hey! He's about to go swimming! Captain, do something quick!!"
However, before Nernatti could even think of doing anything, Shurry dove right into the water… "Did he just go under, on purpose? What is he doing?" … "Hide!"
Everyone scattered to be out of sight of the Monster Rex. It looked around for the one who'd slammed into it, its heads bickered with each other. And then… It got sent flying upwards, with a column of water forming underneath. The water fell back down, and a few monster fishes were kicked over to the expedition team's location.
"Just what is he? This is not the power of a level 3, are you sure that he's not level 4, and Lady Hathor is just hiding it before the guild makes the announcement?"
Amphisbaena's heads roared, the cavern quaked, and from below the water's surface, many special monsters formed, irregular kelpies. It wasn't just a small handful of them either, no, they numbered several dozen.
"Those… are high level 3 monsters, and some are even level 4." Shakti mentioned, terrified of the level of danger.
"Yay! It worked! MORE MEAT!!!!" Shurry shouted, with a face completely devoid of fear. A punch, a kick, an elbow hammer, a twin hammer, a backhand, to a chomp… Shurry killed every single one of the irregular kelpies, making it look easy as could be. "Can you butcher those carefully? I'm getting hungry, save me the innards too!"
The Amphisbaena finally managed to break free one of its heads, then freed its other head. Falling down from the top of the room, it dove straight for Shurry.
"It's time for lunch!" He smiled gleefully, jumping off a disk of light straight for the monster. "Face my tenderizer massage!" A flurry of palm strikes, punches, and knee slams happened in the span of a few moments.
Amphisbaena tried to snap at him with both of its heads, but failed, opting to dive into the water, in an attempt to heal. However, just before it was about to fall in, its heads hit something hard, their necks making a few cracking sounds as they coiled and broke under the force their falling speed had. It could move anymore, and so, Shurry struck a victory pose.
"I got lots of meat now!"
He brought the dying monster to solid ground. Where it's blood drained into the water.
"Saddly, this prey's blood tastes awful. Such a waste though… Oh! Maybe a mixer could use it for something, it is dragon's blood kinda." Shurry said, tilting his head, and crossing his arms.
A supporter from the Ganesha familia brought over a jar and started filling it up. "No time to waste then, right? Who knows, maybe harvesting its blood while it's still sort of alive will do something to it. This is the type of stuff we live for." He smiled.
""Shurry…"" The three girls started in unison. ""THAT WAS AMAZING!""
"Kelpi slayer!" Alise laughed, copying a few of the moves, but she adapted them into her own sword play.
"I knew you were strong, my instincts told me as much, but still… That was amazing!" Neze cheered with a half embarrassed expression.
Ardess jumped into hugging Shurry, giggling. "Mommy's going to love this story! You're amazing! How did you know that Kelpie's would spawn? And how did you kill it last time?"
"I read the books that Unccy Maxy and Aunty Empress gave me. They said something about how the fights can change depending on uh, hmm changes? Yeah! And last time I saw some weird things in this room, I triggered them this time by sending the big monster flying! Woosh!" Shurry explained. "Then last time I put it inside a ball made of these things, and when it used its napalm breath, it cooked itself under the heat and pressure inside. It didn't taste that good that time so I tried a different way this time." His stomach growled.
Ardee whipped out a piece of jerky. "Ah!" She fed it to Shurry with a big smile.
"Huh, I see why you're worried about those two now, Shakti. They might not realize it but they sure are close."
"Our mother keeps calling him her little boyfriend. And never stops."
"Pfft, if they act this close I can see why someone would say that. Though, it's probably your mother just teasing her sister complex having, daughter." Nernatti giggled.
"You wanna go?!"
"Oh?! Can we?!" The next floor is super cool and there's a great spot to bathe! My aunties showed it to me. It's where Aunty Lyca cleaned the layers of monster blood off of me." Shurry smiled.
"Not too long now, we're almost done slicing and dicing this thing up."
"YAY! Lunch time, lunch time!"
"We can see your pack now too, right?" Alise asked, hoping to see more cute pups.
"Yep! It'll be fun."
…
On the 28th floor, Alise, Ardee, and Neze ran through the fields of flowers. Shurry let out a summoning howl… Then a course of howls followed after. A large group of wolf, and dog type monsters came running over on all fours.
"This is my pack! I've got a lot of them!" Shurry cheered.
"They're so many!"
"Hey, hey! Can I ride one of them?" Alise asked with an expectant smile.
"Yep!"
…
And so, they all ran through the fields riding upon the backs of wolves. Enjoying the breeze through their hair. They stopped at a familiar looking tree.
"Oh wow! These are the Mruit Trees! So this is where they were brought up from." Neze mentioned.
"Yep, I'd bring another one with us this time, but it's a bit dangerous for me to lug it around…"
"Everyone, lunch is ready!"
…
After lunch, everyone did their own thing, training, petting the wolves, or resting. The supporters from both familias talked about what they were all thinking about. In fact, one of the Ganesha supporters had been there the day that Ganesha familia failed in the subjugation.
"That boy… He manhandled that monster. A monster that nearly killed off half our expedition team."
"Our goddess, Hathor, mentioned he was powerful, but I never expected that either. He's without a doubt our familia's strongest. Of that I am certain."
…
Elsewhere in the dungeon, three people were quickly making their way down. One was an older woman, carrying two girls in either arm. "Why'd they have to go crazy with testing their limits on the exact same day that he left? Don't they have any sense left?" … "No, it was the other brat's fault for pushing them this far… Huh? The monster rex is dead? But I didn't see him on my way down? And, it still smells like he was here, pfft, of course he's there."