The short sword whistled through the air like an arrow, accurately hooking around the neck of a bipedal dragon, the rope instantly winding tight around it.
Ryoji and Lefiya's downward momentum halted abruptly. The immense centrifugal force flung the two of them into the air, and while the bipedal dragon choked and spewed saliva everywhere, they swung in an arc and landed on its back.
"Puchi!"
The rope sword vanished.
The katana flashed in white and red, blade in, blood out, instantly beheading the bipedal dragon.
Kicking off from beneath him, Ryoji leapt onto another bipedal dragon and repeated the same maneuver, killing it in a single strike.
On the other side, Tiona, unable to maneuver in midair, could only wait passively for the bipedal dragons to charge her, cutting them down one after another with her indestructible greatsword.
But the number of bipedal dragons was simply too great.
They paid no attention whatsoever to their comrades' deaths, surging forward like a tidal wave. At a rough count, there were several dozen of them.
"Arc Ray - Arrow!" Lefiya shouted.
Her chant completed, and a gigantic arrow of light erupted forth like an artillery blast.
"Turn for me!"
Under her desperate control, the beam of light curved in midair, sweeping away all the bipedal dragons surrounding them and blasting them completely into ashes!
"Lefiya, nice one!" Tiona cheered.
Since she couldn't move through the air, she had been under tremendous pressure; another layer of the green veil covering her body had already been shaved away. By contrast, Ryoji swung back and forth like he was on a swing using the rope sword, and the protective veil around him hadn't diminished at all.
Before the expedition began, Ryoji had wandered through weapon shops all across Orario, finding every imaginable kind of sword weapon, many of them obscure types, and copied them all.
The rope sword was only one among them.
He'd thought these copies were nothing more than toys made for fun.
Who would've expected them to actually prove useful?
The obstacles around them were swept clean, and the trio's figures plunged into even deeper layers.
The pursuing bipedal dragons crowded together at the mouth of the vertical shaft, now clearly unable to catch up.
Soon, a crimson world appeared before their eyes.
This was the deepest point of the Dragon's Urn, the Dungeon's 58th Floor.
It was also, up to this point, the farthest point reached by powerful Familias such as the Zeus Familia and Loki Familia.
Unlike the floors above, there were no labyrinths here, no passageways.
The entire floor was one vast wilderness.
The ground held nothing but stone, no trees, no rivers, nothing else.
This whole world had been dyed crimson.
Monsters rampaged here without restraint.
It was a genuine hell.
The three had already passed through all the floors above and entered this living inferno, with only about eighty meters remaining before impact.
"ROOOAR…!"
But at that moment… The four Valgang Dragons circling directly beneath them suddenly raised their heads and released earth-shaking roars.
Those were dragonic bellows carrying draconic pressure powerful enough to rupture an ordinary person's eardrums outright.
Even a Third Class Adventurer would feel their organs violently churn upon hearing it.
Crimson fireballs condensed within the mouths of the Valgang Dragons.
"This is bad, if they bombard us from this distance…!"
Tiona's face tightened immediately.
Panic likewise filled Lefiya's eyes.
At this range, even if she started chanting magic now, it would already be too late.
Not to mention that Arc Ray - Arrow absolutely could not kill these Valgang Dragons, each of them at least Lv.5 monsters!
"Tiona!" Ryoji shouted.
"Eh?"
Tiona turned toward him with a puzzled look.
Then…
A huge foot came flying straight toward her face.
She instantly understood, and kicked back just as hard.
Their feet collided.
The tremendous force transmitted between them, sending both sides hurtling away toward opposite directions… east and west.
BOOM!
A succession of fireballs streaked upward, grazing past the trio by mere inches.
BOOM!
Not far away, Ryoji adjusted his posture midair and smoothly caught Lefiya in a princess carry.
With a tremendous crash, the two of them slammed into the crimson-red rock.
"Cough, cough!"
A cloud of dust billowed up, making Lefiya cough several times.
Once she recovered, she hurriedly looked up at Ryoji.
She saw him pulling his feet, embedded into the rock like nails, back out, shaking them several times. Aside from a slight numbness, he appeared almost completely unharmed.
'Good… he's alright.' Lefiya instantly relaxed.
Falling from that height would have meant certain death even for a Second Class Adventurer. Even Lv. 5 First Class Adventurers like them would absolutely have suffered severe injuries.
Fortunately, they had used the bipedal dragons as buffers midway down, reducing most of their falling momentum.
"ROOOAR…!!"
The gigantic red Valgang Dragon threw back its head and roared, seemingly furious that prey had dared enter its territory.
From the vertical shafts connecting the 56th and 57th Floors above, countless bipedal dragons could be seen flapping their wings as they descended.
From the far reaches of this crimson hell, other monsters of every kind also released sharp and savage howls, charging toward them from all directions and causing the earth to tremble continuously.
"Ryoji!"
Tiona came running over anxiously from the distance, her face full of tension.
Even with her not-particularly-brilliant brain, she understood that the three of them were now trapped in an extremely dangerous situation.
"This floor is several times larger than Orario! There are probably over a thousand monsters here, we're in huge trouble!"
Hearing that information, even Ryoji couldn't help clicking his tongue internally.
'Good grief… over a thousand monsters!'
Lv.5 physical ability was powerful, but it certainly wasn't limitless.
If they had to fight thousands of monsters like this, their stamina would inevitably drain rapidly, and in the end they might very well fail to endure.
Not to mention that when old monsters died, the Dungeon would continue spawning new ones endlessly.
It was practically an unwinnable battle!
Even Lv.5 adventurers could easily leave their corpses here!
And now, guided by the Valgang Dragons, those thousands of monsters had already detected the Adventurers' intrusion and were rushing here from every direction.
If they didn't formulate a countermeasure quickly, they were doomed to hit a dead end!
"Lefiya, why are you still staying in Ryoji's arms?!"
Tiona glared at the golden-haired elf in Ryoji's embrace.
"Ah… s-sorry!"
Lefiya suddenly realized the situation and hurriedly scrambled out of Ryoji's arms.
"Can you maybe read the room?" Ryoji stared at Tiona speechlessly.
"That's not what I meant!" Tiona puffed out her cheeks, looking aggrieved.
"What I meant is, this is exactly where Lefiya should use a super-large-scale magic spell and wipe out all the monsters in one go!"
"Can you do it?"
Ryoji recalled the encounter they'd had back in Rivira District on the 18th Floor.
At the time, Lefiya had used large-scale magic that burned down practically the entire settlement. Although it had originally been meant to kill the man-eating flower monsters, it still showed just how terrifyingly powerful her magic was.
"I-I'll do my best!" Lefiya took a deep breath.
This place was incredibly dangerous.
Even Ryoji and Tiona might not be able to guarantee their own safety, and protecting her on top of that would put enormous pressure on them.
She absolutely could not become dead weight at a moment like this!
(End of Chapter)
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