The crystal hanging at the very top of the sky slowly dimmed.
Its faint blue glow, like the moon veiled behind clouds, silently watched over this drawn-out war of attrition.
"Ooooh ooooh ooooh ooooh!!!"
Goliath's roar thundered without pause.
Its mother, the Dungeon, had once feared this boy.
When Bell first arrived in Orario, he had yet to accept Falna and ventured alone into the first Floor of the Dungeon. After that first battle, the Dungeon had felt a strange illusion, as if it were facing an ancient hero once more.
Wary of his existence, the mother had tried to snuff him out before he could grow.
The Goblin Mutation on the Fifth Floor had been the same. And now, Goliath was no different.
At the moment of its birth, Goliath's mind had been filled with rage and hatred toward a certain being.
But now that fury had gradually cooled, replaced by a calm, calculated resolve to kill the boy without fail.
So Goliath instinctively chose a battle of attrition.
As the Floor Boss, it had faced the combined assault of the entire town of Rivira while expending only a minimal amount of magic power.
By contrast, the boy would soon collapse from exhaustion. Even the slightest lapse in stamina could prove fatal.
Goliath stayed at a distance, firing off its roars while continuously calling forth new monsters.
"Why does the Floor Boss suddenly seem smarter?!"
Lefiya sensed something was off.
With the death of the [Mammoth Fool], the passage to the 19th Floor had opened. A steady stream of monsters poured out, claws raised, surging toward the boy.
"This is bad…"
Ryuu frowned.
The Black Goliath wasn't aiming for a decisive blow. It was focused purely on attrition, using overwhelming numbers to grind the boy down.
In a sense, the roles had reversed. The boy had become the one surrounded like a Floor Boss.
And Goliath was now using the very tactics Adventurers favored, wearing him down from a safe distance.
"You… you're all incredible people… Could you please help Bell-sama?!"
Lili clutched Ryuu's sleeve, her voice trembling with urgency.
"…"
Ryuu said nothing.
"Leave it to me…"
Leaning against a tree, Ais tried to push herself up to go to Bell's side. But no matter how much strength she forced into her body, she couldn't stand.
Under the effects of [Spirit Healing], her magic power had recovered somewhat. But the stamina drained by the curse hadn't returned at all.
"Sword Princess, you only drank a curse-lifting potion to barely stabilize your injuries. If you rush in now, you'll only become a burden to Cranel-san."
Ryuu spoke the harsh truth.
Those words were meant for Ais, but they were also a warning to herself.
No one here could offer help.
If they failed to hold themselves back and charged in recklessly, their interference might put Bell in mortal danger instead.
"Right now… none of us can go over there…"
The words seemed to scrape against Ryuu's throat, leaving pain written across her face.
To make sure no one hindered the boy, she deliberately chose to play the bad guy.
"Ugh…"
Lili couldn't bring herself to blame Ryuu.
In the end, she was only a Level 1 Supporter. Faced with a calamity like this, she could do nothing for him.
"Bell…"
Ais whispered his name, letting the topic of rushing to help fall away.
Worry rippled through her golden eyes as the boy's figure moved like a honed blade amid the surging tide of monsters.
Even the sharpest sword dulls eventually.
Against an endless horde, not even a first-class Adventurer could guarantee they would walk away unscathed.
"Bell…"
Ais called his name again, unable to suppress her concern.
Bell understood it clearly himself. The number of monsters in the Dungeon was immeasurable.
With the passage to the 19th Floor open, he was effectively fighting an entire Floor on his own.
The recovery of his stamina and magic had undoubtedly been the effect of his [Sacred Flame] Development Ability.
Just as Rivia had said, it had not only pulled him back from the brink of death once, but restored all his status as well.
Sacred Flame symbolized an undying fire. But Bell knew that such an extraordinary power could not be triggered again in a short span of time.
The flames he had ignited earlier had already faded. The stamina he was consuming now wasn't being continuously replenished.
He couldn't keep this up.
Before even thinking about how to defeat Goliath, he first had to deal with the monsters pouring out from the 19th Floor.
"Firebolt!"
Bell unleashed a Firebolt, neutralizing Goliath's roar.
The dagger in his hand never wavered, yet his steps slowly shifted toward a certain spot.
A swarm of monsters screeched as they flooded in from all sides. Bell dodged and countered again and again.
The surroundings grew darker.
Before anyone realized it, Bell had already moved far from where he'd first been standing.
He hadn't retreated or dashed about wildly. Each time he avoided a claw, he simply adjusted his position by a small margin.
Those subtle shifts piled up. Neither Goliath nor the onlookers noticed anything unusual.
Until Goliath's roar came crashing in once more.
As if he had been waiting for that very moment, Bell stomped the ground and sharply sidestepped to the right.
"Firebolt!"
He thrust out his right hand and fired a quick-cast spell toward his rear.
The blazing Firebolt shot forward. This time, however, it wasn't aimed at Goliath's roar, but at the monsters charging alongside it.
Boom!
The distorted shockwave and the Firebolt struck the central tree at the same time.
The massive tree couldn't withstand the impact and came crashing down.
It fell directly across the entrance to the 19th Floor passage.
The monsters beneath it were crushed into a mass of blood and flesh. In front of the tightly sealed passage, countless wisps of black mist rose into the air.
"…He used the central tree to block the entrance?"
Lefiya's eyes widened in disbelief.
Amid that overwhelming tide of attacks, the boy had calmly analyzed the situation and cut off the source of reinforcements.
Step by step, he had guided the flow of battle, subtly adjusting his position, all to quietly seal the 19th Floor passage.
Just how sharp is he?
For a fleeting moment, Lefiya felt that maybe being called a magic idiot by him wasn't entirely unfair…
"Bell-dono…"
Mikoto stood there in a daze.
She had been training as an Adventurer with Bell-dono as her goal.
Yet in such a short span of time, he had already devised and executed a countermeasure. Compared to that, she hadn't even scratched the surface.
Her gaze locked onto the boy, the admiration in her heart deepening further.
Blue-violet blade light danced alongside his white hair.
Across the grassland, the monsters thinned at a visible rate.
With the final Minotaur's dying howl, silence settled around him.
"Ooooooh!!!"
With the monsters from the 19th Floor cut off, Goliath's attrition strategy crumbled instantly.
Another roar came surging in, but Bell evaded it with ease, relying on his extraordinary [Agility].
The once-lush grassland had been ravaged by the fierce battle.
On that stretch of dark brown earth, only Bell and Goliath remained.
Though their bodies differed in size by several times over, the pressure radiating from them felt nearly equal.
The boy and the giant locked eyes for several seconds, crimson and scarlet gazes watching each other warily.
In the next instant, the one-on-one duel truly began.