"Die!"
With a roar, Tiona charged back and forth through the monster horde.
The massive Great Double-Bladed Axe in her hands swung with ferocious force, leaving no openings at all. Her movements were fast and direct, completely devoid of hesitation. Danger simply didn't seem to exist in her awareness as she cut down everything in her path.
"That's the fifth one!"
A heavy swing split the enemy cleanly in two.
Each decisive strike perfectly embodied her title-Great Severance.
Without even glancing at the fallen corpse, Tiona surged forward again, charging straight at the next monster.
"This idiot-Ais, keep up with her!"
"Understood!"
At Tione's shout, Ais flashed forward like a silver streak. In an instant, the monsters attempting to encircle Tiona were scattered.
This was the Fifty-First Floor of the Dungeon.
A rare labyrinth-type terrain.
Even in the deep floors, such environments were uncommon.
Flat walls, flat floors, and flat ceilings.
Countless perfectly straight underground passages intersected at sharp angles, forming endless corners and crossroads.
The walls weren't stone.
Nor were they earth.
Pitch-black and unfamiliar, they reflected no light of their own. The only illumination came from faint phosphorescence overhead.
Within these broad, straight corridors, Ais and the others clashed head-on with the monsters of the Fifty-First Floor.
Black Rhinos.
They moved on two legs, their bodies hunched forward.
Though barely two meters tall, their physiques were grotesquely muscular.
Their hardness far exceeded that of the Fomorians from the Forty-Ninth Floor.
Compared to them, the Fomorians were nothing more than children.
But their opponents weren't ordinary adventurers.
They were the elite of the Loki Familia.
"Hah!"
Tiona leapt through the air.
Her Great Double-Bladed Axe cleaved an oncoming Black Rhino cleanly in two. Without stopping, she followed through with a powerful slap of the axe's side, sending another Black Rhino flying.
Before the airborne monster could even hit the ground-
A silver flash cut through the air.
Ais intercepted it mid-flight.
In the next moment, it dissolved into a magic stone.
With overwhelming speed, Ais's figure flickered continuously through the monster group. Each swing of her sword claimed another Black Rhino's life.
Release, Light Arrow!
Holy Wood Bowstring, I am the Master of the Bow!
Intercept! Elf Marksman!
Pierce! Infallible Arrow!
Roughly ten meters away from the frontline, Lefiya's clear, rhythmic chant echoed through the passage.
"Arc Ray!"
A golden beam of light burst forth from her hand.
The dazzling ray crossed the distance in an instant, slamming into a massive target.
A gigantic spider monster that had quietly emerged from the ceiling was annihilated before it could even act.
"Ais! Miss Tiona! Please watch the ceiling-Distorted Spiders!"
"Nice one, Lefiya!"
Tiona shouted back without slowing down.
Even amid combat, Ais found a brief opening to nod in acknowledgment.
Seeing their reactions, Lefiya's cheeks flushed slightly as she smiled.
She could feel it.
She had changed.
"You're getting more and more confident, Lefiya."
Shirou loosed an arrow into a Black Rhino, then lowered his bow and smiled as he praised her.
If this were the old Lefiya, she wouldn't even have been able to finish chanting.
The moment Shirou's words ended-
An explosion erupted.
The violent destructive force of Broken Phantasm swept outward, engulfing everything nearby.
As Broken Phantasm gradually became outdated, Shirou had been searching for a replacement.
And he had found one.
By continuously reinforcing his arrows and detonating them inside the enemy's body, he could cause internal destruction capable of damaging even LV.5 durability.
This was that technique.
"Shirou! Four coming from the right passage-they're yours!"
"Got it. I'll handle all of them."
Shirou immediately canceled his current attack.
In the next instant, reinforced greatsword versions of Kanshou and Bakuya were projected into his hands.
He charged forward.
Tione, acting as mid-guard, maintained command of the battlefield while throwing daggers to support the offense. Combined with Lefiya's magic-now stable and fearless-the monsters of the Fifty-First Floor were rapidly wiped out.
"Well done, Lefiya! That was all you!"
"Yeah, you were amazing!"
"Very reliable."
As seniors, Tione and the others didn't hold back their praise.
"I-I'm really not that good!"
"Don't be modest," Tione replied immediately. "Just accept it."
Shirou gently patted Lefiya's shoulder.
He praised her as well.
After the brief exchange, the five of them began collecting magic stones and dropped materials.
Normally, Tione wouldn't bother.
But this was a small-unit operation.
With two supporters-Shirou and Lefiya-they had enough leeway to gather resources.
Once everything was collected, the five resumed their advance toward Cadmus Spring.
Within the five-person formation-
Tiona served as vanguard.
Tione guarded the center.
Shirou and Lefiya walked in the middle.
Ais, the strongest among them, brought up the rear.
Against the monsters of the Fifty-First Floor, the team advanced relentlessly.
"I feel like there haven't been many monsters today!"
"Isn't that a good thing?" Tione replied. "If we can finish the request without fighting, that's a blessing."
"That's not what I meant-ah, forget it!"
After that, although they encountered monsters several more times, each encounter ended cleanly.
Still-
The deeper they went, the more uneasy Shirou felt.
"This isn't right."
His sudden words made everyone tense.
"What's wrong?"
The question came immediately.
"The monster numbers," Shirou said calmly. "They don't match the expected intensity of the Fifty-First Floor."
"This feels like an Anomalous State."
"...Anomalous State."
The words tightened everyone's chest.
For adventurers, nothing was more dangerous.
An Anomalous State didn't announce itself.
It quietly laid traps.
And then it killed.
Tione's expression darkened.
This area was far too strange.
It didn't resemble its previous state at all.
"Forced march," she ordered decisively. "Don't stay here any longer. Head straight for Cadmus Spring."
"Yes!"
Nervous tension spread through the group.
If an Anomalous State occurred here, even they would struggle.
And worse-
They were already close to Cadmus Spring.
If the Anomalous State triggered the appearance of Cadmus, the guardian of the spring, the situation would become extremely dangerous.
Their pace quickened.
As the passages grew narrower, Tione knew they were almost there.
She raised her hand.
"Stop."
The team halted instantly.
"We're about to reach Cadmus Spring," she said firmly. "Before we proceed-let's confirm the critical points."
--------More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter