"Look, it even knew to use tactics and go for my legs. If my opponent had been human, I'd never have made the mistake of neglecting my lower guard. But this thing... it started out mimicking the behavior patterns of an ordinary monster, and it almost fooled me. If Jeanne hadn't stepped in, I would've been caught."
After hearing Rose's analysis, the group looked back at the Moss Giant "struggling" in the sea of flames, and a chill ran through them.
As for Rose saying she'd almost been caught, nobody worried too much about that.
After all... who didn't have a few cards up their sleeve?
As far as they knew, Rose hadn't even shown the alternate use of Pure White Kite Shield during the fight.
"Monster behavior is always straightforward. Every hit is full power. They don't use feints, they don't bait out openings. Basic stuff, but effective. This one, though..."
Leon let out a cold laugh, then abruptly stepped his left foot wide, dropped his stance, and raised the staff high:
"O flame..."
The instant the chant began, a massive magic circle five meters across burst into existence around him!
Magic surged out in a silent storm, whipping the Undine Cloth cloaks and hoods on everyone around him.
True Essence of All Magic, activated!
The magic circle began to rotate slowly around Leon.
It was like a gear. Every turn produced a mechanical click, like a round being chambered. And with each click, the Fireball above his head swelled another size larger.
Demon Lord's Crest, activated!
Magic output doubled instantly, the Fireball's color deepening toward a dark, ominous red...
Scholar's Heart, activated!
The fine details and engravings across his weapon and armor, the sparks that fell as the Fireball compressed and spun, everything around Leon seemed to take on an intense artistic quality in that instant. A striking visual weight.
More refined! More devastating! More beautiful in its destruction!
"...grant me..."
Countless vines erupted from the flames and shot toward the group like a hail of arrows!
Leon watched the wide-area attack bearing down on them, his mouth curving in a small, amused smile.
"Not bad acting, I'll give you that. Trying to lure us in close so you could ambush us?"
Remembering the lesson he'd learned the hard way from that underhanded War Shadow back on Floor 6, he let out two cold laughs and dropped the act entirely, cutting off his "fake chant" mid-sentence.
Under the Moss Giant's "stunned," "bewildered" gaze, Leon instantly switched to True Essence of All Magic's Instant Cast mode and hurled the fully-formed dark red Fireball straight into the mass of vines!
A chain of explosions ripped through everything in its path, fire consuming vine and monster alike.
"Idiot. I lied."
The Moss Giant's roars were swallowed by the inferno.
At first, the blaze only burned across the surface layer of wet plant tissue, failing to penetrate deeper. But when Leon's no-holds-barred, near-full-power Fireball slammed down, the Moss Giant was charred through in an instant, roasted inside and out.
Level 3. Two level-ups' worth of accumulated Excelia pushing his Magic stat to a limit-broken 1599. Doubled again by the Demon Lord's Crest skill. Then further amplified by Scholar's Heart, the Scholar's Staff, Arcane Ward, and the Magic Development Ability H... and on top of all that, he'd used True Essence of All Magic to charge the attack.
The power of that oversized Fireball had far exceeded the maximum destructive output of any Level 3 mage, and even ordinary Level 4 mages couldn't come close.
Perhaps... only those top-tier Level 4 mages with special skills who could chant extended-verse magic could even begin to compare with this single devastating strike from Leon.
"Tch..."
It was Persephone's first time seeing Leon go near full power with that kind of raw, violent output.
Magical bombardment on that scale... in her experience, only the mages from a handful of top-tier Familias and that dark elf from the Goddess Alliance could match Leon's firepower.
She stared at the man whose cloak and hood edges were billowing in the heat wave, that smug, teasing look on his face, and the words slipped out on instinct:
"That's absurd!"
...
A mushroom cloud of flame erupted from the bank beside the waterfall.
Even in its final moments, the Moss Giant couldn't understand...
It had been secretly stalking and observing this party of Adventurers for so long. It had prepared everything. It had woven a layer of fire-resistant vines over its body like a fireproof suit with maxed-out fire resistance. It had played weak, played dead, launched ambushes. It had even known to prioritize taking out the party's crucial shieldbearer first...
And even after pushing its cunning to the absolute limit, it still hadn't gained even the slightest advantage against this party. Instead... it had misjudged their strength, and paid for it with its life.
If the Moss Giant had known that this party had fully embraced a certain someone's philosophy of "always play dirty," and that it hadn't even forced Leon and the others to reveal all their cards... would it have died with even more regret?
...
...
"..."
Watching the Moss Giant slowly stop thrashing in the sea of flames and finally crumble into charcoal, the group let out a collective breath.
Persephone stared at the scorched remains, her expression complicated, a note of lingering unease in her voice.
"That was close... I've never encountered a monster that cunning before. I've run into a few Strengthened Species in the past, but... none of them had that kind of near-human intelligence."
"If I hadn't come to the Dungeon with you all, I might have gone my whole life without encountering something this bizarre."
To that, Leon could only think: That's just because you haven't seen what's coming. Forget years from now. Give it a little more time, and she'd learn firsthand just how "exciting" daily life as an Orario Adventurer could really get.
"Everyone, stay sharp. The fact that the Water City spawned a rare Strengthened Species Moss Giant means something's clearly wrong here. Based on my experience... something feels off."
The moment he said it, Laurier and Aura's expressions shifted. Their weapons, already halfway back into their sheaths, were drawn and held at the ready once more.
Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha exchanged a glance and tensed up as well, eyes sweeping the surroundings without pause, paying special attention to the entrances and exits of the caverns around them.
Seeing how cautious Leon was being, Persephone pushed her gold-rimmed glasses up.
"Running into even one Strengthened Species is already rare enough, let alone a rare one..."
"You don't actually think there's a second one, do you? If so, your luck is just too..."
"..."
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