The transparent barrier spread open in front of the party.
Bang!
A Flash Swallow shot forward in a straight line at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, slamming directly into the Dankū Rayleigh had cast.
Because of its terrifying speed, the force of impact instantly crushed the Flash Swallow's head.
Even most of its body, along with its wings, twisted into a grotesque, unrecognizable mess.
Blood splattered across the barrier of the Dankū.
Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang bang bang—!!!
A dense swarm of Flash Swallows descended like a pitch-black rainstorm, hurling themselves madly against the Dankū.
Watching the suicidal assault and the blood slowly congealing across the transparent barrier, everyone behind it went pale.
It was not that they lacked the courage of adventurers. But as women, they had a natural aversion to things this disgusting.
Not just them.
Even Rayleigh was already regretting doing it this way!
It was easy, sure.
But it really was a little revolting.
The piled-up corpses of the Flash Swallows drifted away with the current toward the waterfall, slanting into the lower stream.
When no more attacks came, Rayleigh dispelled the Dankū.
More than a hundred liters of blood, having lost what it was clinging to, splashed straight onto the ground and flowed into the river.
Red.
For a moment, the river itself was dyed the color of blood.
But the current here was extremely fast, so in the blink of an eye, the water turned clear again.
According to the Guild's handbook, monsters like Flash Swallows could be defeated easily by simply raising a shield.
That was why he had thought of using the Dankū to make them kill themselves.
The result, however, had worked far too well.
Probably because the Dankū was colorless and transparent, the Flash Swallows attacked without the slightest hesitation, never suspecting there was a wall there until they were wiped out.
The Water Capital held another danger as well.
You absolutely could not travel along the water's edge, and you had to stay on guard at all times.
Once you were dragged under by a monster in the water, your chance of surviving was less than five percent.
And if you fell from the Great Fall, with its drop of over eight hundred meters, even a first-tier adventurer would die from the impact.
Even if by some miracle you survived, you would still be gravely injured—only to be devoured by the monsters in the water.
On top of that, the impact of the current and the crushing water pressure would deal severe damage to the body.
"How far have we gone?" Rayleigh asked Lyra, who was holding the map.
Lyra answered helplessly, "Barely halfway."
'Halfway, huh.'
'As expected of the twenty-fifth floor. Its area was incomparably larger than the upper and middle floors.'
"We…"
Rayleigh had just started to ask something else.
But suddenly, he sensed a monster's Reiraku.
He gripped the hilt of his blade.
Under the strange gazes of the others, he suddenly swung.
Slash!
A giant water snake burst out of the river, but the instant it showed its head, Rayleigh beheaded it with a single stroke!
The headless monster dropped to the ground, its body still twitching wildly.
The girls let out startled cries.
After killing it, Rayleigh extended his senses through the Reiraku once more.
And this time, his expression changed drastically.
"Something huge is coming! Huge—no, absolutely enormous!"
The moment the words left his mouth, an enormous dragon's head suddenly rose from the water.
"..."
"What is that?!"
That dragon head was far too massive.
The giant water snake, nearly five meters long, looked like a little fish in comparison.
The colossal dragon beast opened its blood-soaked maw and swallowed the water snake's corpse in one bite.
Then its icy vertical pupil swept toward the party.
A chill ran down every girl's spine, and their bodies trembled.
It was the instinctive fear of prey being stared down by an apex predator.
"That thing is—Amphisbaena!"
"Why is it here?!"
Rayleigh shouted a warning. "Everyone, battle positions!"
That single cry snapped them all out of it.
The girls immediately steeled themselves and took up combat stances.
Because what had appeared before them was none other than the special Floor Boss that moved between floors—
The Monster Rex of the Dungeon.
The Two-Headed Dragon, Amphisbaena.
They had expected battle to break out at any second, but the massive dragon beast instead withdrew back into the water.
Rayleigh observed the situation beneath the surface through the Reiraku and was instantly shocked.
"This thing was attracted here by the corpses of the Flash Swallows and the Harpies…"
"Most likely, all the blood that suddenly poured down from upstream stimulated it."
But even as he analyzed the situation, one question still lingered in his mind.
Where had the previous subjugation party gone?
That group should have set out several days before them. By all rights, they should already have encountered Amphisbaena.
Yet Amphisbaena was still active.
Had they failed?
Or had they somehow missed it?
"Um…"
At that moment, the werewolf girl Neze suddenly spoke.
"I think that previous subjugation party probably met a terrible end."
Hearing her say that, Alise asked, "Why?"
Neze replied, "Just now, in Amphisbaena's mouth—or more accurately, stuck on its teeth—I saw a flag. That was probably…"
Neze's words made both Alise and Kaguya frown.
If Neze had seen correctly, then the problem was serious.
The subjugation party had been annihilated, and Amphisbaena was still roaming the Water Capital.
That posed a direct threat to ordinary adventurers.
That was precisely the sort of outcome the Guild had feared, which was why they had specifically commissioned the subjugation in the first place.
"Alise, what do we do now?" Rayleigh asked the red-haired girl.
After all, this was not just a small party of their own this time.
This was an expedition of the Astraea Familia.
The one who should be giving orders was the Familia's captain, Alise Lovell.
The Scarlet Harnel thought for only a few seconds before reaching her decision.
"We subjugate it!"
The girl declared righteously, "Whether it's to investigate what happened to the previous subjugation party, or to protect other adventurers from being attacked by the Floor Boss—"
"Heh, honestly, I knew you'd say that."
Because she understood the red-haired girl so well, Kaguya had already predicted her decision.
Subjugate Amphisbaena!
According to the Guild's evaluation, the Two-Headed Dragon, Amphisbaena, possessed an estimated strength of Level 5.
But if the battle took place in the water, then it was estimated to be Level 6.
Given the Astraea Familia's current fighting strength—three Level 4s, six Level 3s, and two Level 2s—it seemed a little .... overcrowded.
Even with Rayleigh, a Level 3 frontliner added in, he was not supposed to make much of a difference.
But there were five users of Zanpakutō here.
That changed everything...
...
A Floor Boss.
If they could successfully defeat it, the enormous amount of Excelia it provided should be enough to fill his falna.
Rayleigh looked forward to this boss battle immensely!
"Then let's begin tracking Amphisbaena. It looks like it doesn't want to fight in terrain that puts it at a disadvantage. That works for us—it gives us time to discuss our strategy."
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