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"Bastards, I never agreed to that!"
Hearing his own men offer to give away the biggest prize of the Floor Boss for free, Bors's face violently contorted. He whipped around and roared, "We can share the loot, but there's no way in hell we're giving up the lion's share! Do you idiots want to work for free?!"
"Don't be so stingy, Bors! It's the Saint of Battle Rhythm! Chances to fight alongside her don't come often!" someone heckled from the crowd.
Aiden rubbed his arms, realizing he had goosebumps. He flashed a wry grin. "I don't mind joining… but don't regret it later."
"Hahaha! I like the straightforwardness!" Bors waved his massive hand, turning back to the crowd. "Listen up, everyone! The Focalors Familia is officially joining the Floor Boss raid! Let me hear you cheer!"
"OOOOOOOOHHH!"
The adventurers raised their weapons, letting out a deafening roar of excitement.
"Robin-babe, you really are popular," Hyacine giggled, hugging Robin's arm and whispering in her ear.
Robin smiled helplessly, though she didn't feel uncomfortable. She simply looked at the fanaticism of the several hundred people before her without a ripple of emotion in her heart. She was a stage idol whose fans once spanned the universe. Her concerts had audiences measured in the hundreds of millions.
This small scene wasn't nearly enough to shake her composure.
Just as the adventurers threw their arms up in jubilation at the prospect of fighting alongside the highly renowned "Saint of Battle Rhythm," an ear-piercing crash shattered the noise.
—BOOM!
In the distance, the colossal wall that separated the room violently ruptured without warning.
In an instant, hundreds of adventurers stopped cheering. The fanatic roars died in their throats, and an eerie silence fell over the entirety of the 17th Floor.
"The Floor Boss is spawning! Everyone get ready!"
A second later, Bors's thunderous roar shattered the silence. "Vanguard, step up! Rearguard, prep your magic! Mid-guard, keep the mobs clear and don't let them interrupt the mages' chants!"
True to their nature as veterans who constantly danced on the line of life and death, the raid group displayed incredible professional discipline at Bors's command.
The heavily armored vanguard roared, raising their shields to form a wall of steel at the very front. The mid-guard, wielding a variety of weapons—some even carrying expensive Magic Swords—quickly fanned out. They kept a vigilant eye on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, ready to intercept any lesser monsters that might spawn.
In the absolute rear, dozens of mages drew their staves and began to chant in low, overlapping voices.
Subjugating the Floor Boss was something they did all the time. Although this raid group wasn't exceptionally high-leveled—their leader, Bors, was only Lv.3—they had numbers. Relying on flawless teamwork and a massive numerical advantage, they could easily take down the Lv.4 Goliath.
This was also a common method for average adventurers to earn a Great Feat and accumulate High-Quality Excelia. Although the experience was split so many ways it was almost negligible, doing it enough times would eventually pave the way to a level-up.
As the wall completely shattered, a massive cloud of rock dust and debris billowed outward.
However, when the dust finally settled, the creature standing before the adventurers was not the familiar giant they expected. It was a terrifying entity they had never seen before, radiating an aura of pure dread.
It was a humanoid mechanical monstrosity towering over five meters tall. Its gray, twisted pseudo-muscles and skin were encased in a black metallic shell. Veins of glowing green energy flowed slowly across the armor like a living organism.
It simply stood there, like a cursed monument ripped straight from the depths of hell.
Its head hung low. It had no eyes—only a massive, glowing green fissure that stretched across its entire face. The corners of its "mouth" tore upward at an impossible angle, forming a silent, manic grin.
In its right hand, it tightly gripped a colossal polearm. Calling it a weapon was a stretch; it looked more like a massive street sign violently ripped out of some ancient ruined city. The pitch-black metal board was the size of a door, its surface etched with unrecognizable, eroded text. Despite the wear, the edges gleamed with a heart-stopping, razor-sharp chill.
An overwhelming, suffocating pressure and physical killing intent swept outward like an invisible tidal wave, causing every single adventurer present to shudder uncontrollably.
"Damn it! What the hell?! Where's Goliath?! What the fuck is that thing?!"
"Fucking Dungeon, screwing us over again! This is an Irregularity!"
"Why are we so unlucky?! Why does this happen when we raid it?! Why didn't the Loki Familia run into this shit when they were here?!"
Bors and the frontline adventurers instantly began cursing out loud.
They weren't just angry because this new monster's aura was vastly more terrifying than Goliath's. They were furious because all of their preparations—their tactics, their formations, their items—were specifically tailored for Goliath.
They knew exactly how to fight Goliath. But now, the Floor Boss had been replaced by an entirely unknown entity. Unknown attack patterns. Unknown strength. Everything was a blank slate. How could they not curse?
At the back of the crowd, Aiden quietly lowered his head. The corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Aside from Daphne and Cassandra, who were still out of the loop, Robin, Tifa, Hyacine, and even Jeanne all turned their heads to stare at him with extremely strange expressions.
Their eyes practically screamed: Look what you did.
In the next moment, as if enraged by the adventurers' cursing, the humanoid monstrosity violently snapped its head up. It ripped open its horrifying green maw and let out an earth-shattering roar.
"ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!!!"
A terrifying sonic shockwave blasted outward, kicking up gale-force winds and sending dust flying.
The shield-bearers in the front felt a sudden chill run down their spines. A massive black shadow, accompanied by the ear-piercing shriek of tearing air, materialized before them at a speed the naked eye could barely track.
The colossal street sign swept forward with tyrannical, unstoppable momentum.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sheer kinetic force was unimaginably violent. It was absolute devastation.
Even the vanguard, clad in the thickest armor and specializing in pure defense, were swatted away like fragile rags. The moment of impact twisted their sturdy tower shields into crumpled tin foil. The sickening crunch of shattering arm bones echoed through the cavern. Several shield-bearers were launched into the air like kicked pebbles, spewing blood mid-flight, their fates unknown.
With a single strike, the monster instilled a level of unimaginable terror into the hundreds-strong raid group.
"Are you kidding me?! Mages! Blast that thing to hell!" an adventurer screamed in terror from the back.
He didn't need to ask twice. The mages had already completed their chants.
Dozens of brilliant magic circles illuminated the backline, lighting up the cavern as bright as day. In the next instant, a torrent of magic—lightning, fire, wind, earth spikes, and ice blades—surged forward, completely engulfing the terrifying silhouette.
The roar of explosions, howling winds, violent shockwaves, shattering stone, and the monster's shrieks all merged with the violent trembling of the floor.
Everyone craned their necks, staring intensely at the smoke-filled impact zone, praying that the concentrated bombardment had worked.
But Aiden simply shook his head.
That level of magical bombardment wouldn't even one-shot the thick-skinned Goliath, let alone the monster standing before them.
He had already recognized it. This new Floor Boss was the Dead End Butcher. A monster that only existed in his memories.
If I remember correctly, this is only the first phase of the Dead End Butcher...
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