The fully charged spheres of light rained down upon the Monster Rex below.
The wind- and light-aspected magical bombardment concentrated on the two-headed dragon's heads, the continuous explosions making it impossible for the beast to even open its eyes.
It could only endure the relentless barrage by sheer force.
Its lower body, frozen solidly in place, prevented it from diving back into the water.
At that moment, the Familia's Mages had also finished their incantations.
"Ryana, Celty!" "I am ready!" "So am I!"
Alise laughed and shouted, "Let us finish this in one breath!"
The two Mages unleashed their spells at the exact same time, dealing considerable damage to Amphisbaena.
But it still was not enough to decisively end the battle.
Seeing how brilliantly the girls were performing, Rayleigh's competitive spirit was stirred as well.
He pressed his palm flat against the two-headed dragon's chest.
At point-blank range, his Hadō #33: Sōkatsui exploded with its full destructive power.
The blazing azure blast was driven straight into the monster's body, so intense that even through thick skin and muscle, a burning red glow could be seen radiating from within.
"!!!"
Amphisbaena threw back its enormous heads and roared.
It was a raw cry of agony.
The monster's primal ferocity was fully provoked.
The azure head opened its jaws, and a terrifying blue flame gathered within before violently erupting outward.
"Flame attack! Evade separately!"
"Asta, protect Ryana and Celty!"
"Maryuu, stay ready to heal!"
Alise reacted instantly, issuing her tactical commands to the Familia in the span of a single heartbeat.
The flames Amphisbaena spewed were produced by a special biological internal fuel.
Not only were they unimaginably hot, they could even continue burning atop the water's surface and could not easily be extinguished.
If they caught someone directly, then unless a specialized extinguishing agent was used, the victim would end up burned to ashes.
'Among all the ways to die, burning alive is absolutely one of the most painful,' Rayleigh thought, analyzing the threat.
'That said, Amphisbaena's flames can reduce a person to ash in under ten seconds. At least the pain would be brief.'
Whoosh—Boom!
The azure flames shot forth like three radiant particle beams.
Every rock wall and stretch of ground they touched melted instantly into glowing lava.
The flames swept wildly across the battlefield.
Seeing that, Rayleigh used Hyōrinmaru to create thick walls of ice as cover.
Against this specific kind of flame attack, the vacuum ice wall formed through the synergistic coordination of Hyōrinmaru and Haineko would have been extremely effective.
But he and Ryuu had never practiced or rehearsed that specific combination beforehand.
Even so, with the ice walls serving as immediate cover, they could not completely block the flames, but they could at least blunt the assault enough to buy everyone a few precious moments to breathe.
Amphisbaena's flames moved like a chaotic brush, painting wildly across the frozen lake.
The ice beneath them melted and split apart under the intense heat, causing everyone's footholds to begin shifting dangerously.
Rayleigh saw it happen and immediately swung his blade, freezing over the melting gaps as well.
Amphisbaena could not maintain that stream of fire forever.
'When it comes to endurance, I can outlast it by miles.'
Boom!
The savage flames melted the ice but Rayleigh immediately created fresh ice.
At first glance, it looked like a drawn-out tug-of-war—But in reality, the exchange lasted less than a minute.
The crimson inferno finally stopped.
Amphisbaena's azure flames were extraordinarily dangerous, and the biological mechanism behind them operated like a furnace engine.
The current output represented only its just-ignited state.
Given enough time, the core temperature of those blue flames would rise sharply, making them far more deadly.
The instant the fire attack ceased, Rayleigh flashed out from behind the melting ice wall and swept two fingers toward the dragon's head as though drawing a line in the empty air.
"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō."
Six golden beams stabbed into Amphisbaena's right head, binding it firmly in place and preventing it from immediately spewing fire again.
With its fire-breathing attack temporarily blocked, Amphisbaena did not stop moving.
Instead, it resorted to attacking through sheer physical force.
Those monstrous fangs—
'If they bite into someone, there is no doubt the victim's body will be snapped clean in two,' Rayleigh noted.
'Whether split left and right or top and bottom is the only question.'
Rayleigh began running clockwise around the massive creature, weaving Shunpo into his movements to dodge at the absolute limit, while murmuring a rapid incantation under his breath.
"Walls of iron sand, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end..."
"Bakudō #75: Gochūtekkan!"
Five enormous iron pillars crashed down from the ceiling above, pinning Amphisbaena's limbs and tail straight through the thick ice.
Now, the only part of Amphisbaena still capable of moving freely was its red head.
"One more full assault!" Alise cried.
She once again unleashed Heavenly Flame Rain, with Ryana and Celty following up in tandem with their own destructive Magic.
Ryuu's current mode consumed too much energy, so this time she used only Haineko, sending chaotic ash slashes flying at the monster's heads.
But Haineko's blunt attacks were not especially effective against thick dragon scales.
So instead, she tried letting the iron ash seep directly into the vulnerable gaps between the scales.
Faced with the incoming barrage of Magic, the red head released a dense crimson mist.
Alise's rain of fire and the Mages' spells were rapidly weakened the exact moment they came into contact with the vapor.
By the time the attacks actually struck Amphisbaena, they were so feeble they could barely be called scratches.
Even if that level of diminished damage were repeated a thousand times, it would never bring the monster down.
"It's the red mist! Magic attacks are useless now—we switch to close combat!" Alise shouted.
As Captain of the Familia, she naturally knew a great deal about Amphisbaena's combat phases.
'If the blue flame of the two-headed dragon is its spear, then the red mist is its absolute shield,' Kaguya reasoned internally.
'The mist weakens Magic and drastically reduces its power.'
'Breaking through it with spells and actually injuring Amphisbaena is basically impossible. Which means we have to close in and cut down the red head with our physical weapons.'
Kaguya rose from the shadows with a sharp smile.
Her gaze was already fixed entirely on the two-headed dragon's red head.
"Gokō!"
A sword technique of overwhelming power bloomed in Kaguya's hands.
Its sheer destructive force tore through the thick neck of Amphisbaena's red head, ripping open a gruesome, gaping wound.
It looked as though a huge chunk of solid flesh had been violently gouged away.
This was Kaguya's signature skill—Pure swordsmanship, specialized entirely for attack!
Its raw power had reached an absurd level.
Even a Floor Boss like Amphisbaena could not withstand it unscathed.
And yet Kaguya still looked dissatisfied.
A faint, throbbing ache ran through her sword wrist.
"Tch. You really are tough, Mister Two-Headed Dragon."
Because of Kaguya's devastating strike, the red head's fierce counterattack suddenly weakened, then stopped altogether.
"Hyōryū Senbi!"
Rayleigh used Shunpo to appear right in front of the dragon's maw.
He swung Hyōrinmaru.
Slash!
With that single swing, the dense moisture in the air instantly froze solid, forming an elongated blade of ice from the sword's tip.
The ice blade shot directly toward the savage wound in the dragon's neck—
But at that very moment, the azure head broke free from the binding spell and lunged over, crushing the flying ice blade in its massive jaws.
Then it opened its mouth wide.
Terrifying blue flames gathered rapidly in its maw, as though in the very next second it would unleash another apocalyptic blast.
Rayleigh could have created footholds from Reiryoku and used Shunpo to evade the incoming inferno.
But he did not.
Instead, he raised Hyōrinmaru and pointed the steel blade straight at Amphisbaena's gaping, fire-charged maw.
"Bankai."
"Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!"