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"Don't go after them!"
"But...!"
"Raul and the others are here too! We can't split our fighting strength too much!"
Finn stopped Ais from moving.
"Riveria, cast magic on them! Gareth, follow them down! Everyone else, keep moving!"
Although he didn't allow Ais to pursue them, Finn had no intention of abandoning anyone either. He decisively split the party into two groups.
"The safety of our juniors is in your hands, Gareth!"
"Leave it to this old man!"
Gareth, carrying his shield and gripping his battle axe, shouted sharply and dropped into the pit like a meteor.
Riveria swung her magic staff, applying a fresh layer of defensive magic to the four who had fallen.
"Keep moving! Rejoin them as quickly as possible!"
"…Understood!"
Ais showed a conflicted expression, but still returned to the vanguard position.
Only the raging wind around her intensified even further.
An intense sensation of weightlessness struck. By the time Lefiya regained her senses, all that remained before her eyes was an endless, bottomless abyss.
A gigantic vertical shaft pierced through the 53rd, 54th, and other floors, extending to a depth of at least eight hundred meters. Even with her eyesight, she could make out the hellish crimson world at the very bottom.
This is bad!
This is really bad!
Trembling and shaken, fear filled her azure eyes.
Falling from this height was a nightmare.
Not to mention that at the bottom of the shaft, she could already see several ferocious Dragonkind prowling about.
They were enormous Red Dragons.
Each over ten meters long, they circled at the base of the shaft, baring savage fangs toward the sky above.
BOOM!
Suddenly, an explosive burst of air came from behind her.
Before she could even turn around, she felt her waist tighten, someone had wrapped an arm around her.
"Hold on tight!"
Using his special ability to accelerate his descent, Ryoji reached Lefiya in the blink of an eye and caught her around the waist.
In the violent sensation of freefall, suddenly finding something to cling to, Lefiya instinctively wrapped both arms and legs around Ryoji's body. Only after coming back to her senses did she realize that this posture was embarrassing enough to make an Elf commit suicide from shame.
"Ryoji! Lefiya! Are you two alright?!"
Ignoring her embarrassment, Lefiya looked upward.
Just in time to see Tiona running down along the wall of the vertical shaft.
"...Veil Breath!"
Shortly afterward, a beautiful chant of magic drifted down from above.
A translucent emerald veil wrapped itself around the three falling figures.
"Riveria's defensive magic? That's a lifesaver!"
Tiona broke into a delighted smile.
Ryoji recognized this magic as well.
Back when fighting Udaeus, Riveria had cast the same spell on him and Ais. Its effect was equivalent to Jeanne's Noble Phantasm, it would not disappear until its protective capacity had been completely exhausted.
"So what do we do now?"
Still suspended in midair, Ryoji held Lefiya around the waist with one arm.
He lowered his gaze toward the depths below.
From the 52nd Floor onward, the Dungeon was hell.
That was something Finn often said.
Ryoji was beginning to understand why.
A total of seven Red Dragons lurked beneath the shaft, watching them hungrily and ready to unleash bombardments at any moment, and within that crimson world, it wasn't only the Red Dragons; there were many other terrifying presences lurking as well.
It is said that the Zeus Familia, which once reigned at the summit of Orario, referred to the floors from the 52nd to the 58th Floor as the "Dragon's Urn."
Especially the 58th Floor, the bottom of the urn, where Red Dragons known as Balkan Giant Dragons dwelled, each one a monster of at least Lv. 5, possessing unimaginably terrifying physical strength!
Compared to the upper floors, the level of danger here was practically that of another world!
"We can only head for the 58th Floor for now! Let's hope Finn and the others catch up quickly!"
Tiona descended to roughly the same level as the other two and shouted.
Ryoji glanced upward.
Finn and the others had already exited the vertical shaft and were pushing deeper into the 52nd Floor.
Even if they climbed back up now, they would still end up split into two groups. In that case, it was better for their small party to proceed into the 58th Floor together, at least the few of them could stay clustered instead of becoming scattered.
"Careful, another bombardment is coming!"
"ROOOAAARRR...!!"
Before Ryoji even finished speaking, a dragon's roar echoed up from the depths below.
A gigantic fireball five meters in diameter blasted out from underground, turning into a high-speed artillery shell that surged upward to engulf the trio from below.
"I've got this!"
Tiona kicked off the rock wall and charged forward, raising her indestructible greatsword and plunging directly into the gigantic fireball.
"Tiona-san?!" Lefiya cried out in shock.
With a thunderous crash, the fireball was instantly split in two.
"Hot, hot, hot!" Tiona's figure reappeared from within the flames. After yelping twice, she broke into a satisfied grin.
"Hehe, Riveria's defensive magic is amazing! Without this, we'd be done for!"
One layer of the emerald veil covering her body had already been shaved away.
"What a waste!" Ryoji glared at her.
Riveria's Veil Breath was incredibly precious, every bit used up was gone for good, and she'd spent it blocking a fireball?!
Ryoji raised the Vrring Blade in his hand, transforming it into a cross-shaped one-handed sword before hurling it outward with full force!
The blade became a supersonic projectile, streaking straight downward and puncturing the second fireball like a balloon!
The fireball detonated far away before it could even reach them, its threat vanishing instantly.
"Amazing! As expected of Ryoji! But what about your weapon?"
"I've got another one too!"
Ryoji reached behind his back, and somehow pulled out another Vrring Blade.
Tiona and Lefiya froze simultaneously.
'…Where exactly did he pull that weapon from?!'
"Careful! We're about to reach the 56th Floor!"
As the ground rushed closer, Tiona suddenly remembered something and hurriedly shouted a warning.
"What's there?"
"Bipedal dragons! They can fly, they'll definitely come snipe us!"
The irregular rock walls, riddled like an anthill, flashed past them at incredible speed.
During their uninterrupted fall, five hundred meters of distance disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"ROAR!"
Counting the floors in his head, Ryoji heard savage roars exactly as expected when they approached the vicinity of the 56th Floor.
A swarm of flying dragons poured out from the labyrinth.
These Dragonkind measured three meters from head to tail, their entire bodies colored a bizarre dark violet.
Their crimson eyes contained no trace of reason, while razor-sharp claws and fangs lashed wildly, radiating a brutal aura that promised to devour anything they encountered.
Just like the red Valgang Dragons, these bipedal dragons were another specialty of the Dragon's Urn.
They used the vertical shafts carved out by the red Valgang Dragons to ambush Adventurers, and because they were flying monsters, they were notoriously troublesome.
With a thought, the Vrring Blade in Ryoji's hand transformed once more.
The seemingly ordinary short sword appeared in his grip, but the long rope attached to the hilt immediately drew attention.
Grasping the rope's end, Ryoji violently hurled the tethered short sword outward!
(End of Chapter)