Clear, resonant bell chimes echoed throughout the Dungeon.
A layer of frost rapidly spread across Rayleigh's body, crystallizing into a pair of ice wings and the heavy tail of an ice dragon.
Ice encased his arms down to his fingertips, forming armored gauntlets and razor-sharp claws.
His feet were also enveloped in ice, taking the shape of draconic talons.
Above the wings, three cross-shaped ice flowers bloomed behind his head.
Drawing on the power of his Bankai, Rayleigh beat the ice wings on his back and launched himself into the air.
The sheer burst of acceleration turned him into a blur.
Gripping his sword with both hands, he shot straight toward the gaping maw of Amphisbaena.
"Ryūsenka!"
The ice blade struck Amphisbaena.
The moment the sword tip pierced one of its heads, the massive skull was sealed instantly inside a giant cross-shaped block of solid ice.
Even the azure flames it had been gathering were frozen solid within that enormous cross of ice.
The release of his Bankai drew everyone's attention.
For the few among them who wielded a Zanpakutō, the shock was even greater.
"A new sword's Bankai? That's amazing!"
"Rayleigh said it's the strongest ice-and-snow type Zanpakutō."
"It can even fly? That's so unfair—I want wings too!" Alise said, her face full of envy.
Among them, only one of the girls could manage short bursts of flight by relying on outside power.
But even that was nothing compared to how freely and naturally Rayleigh moved through the air.
"Hadō #78: Zangerin!"
Rayleigh swept toward Amphisbaena's neck and unleashed a horizontal slash with a powerful blade condensed from Kidō.
The destructive force of the spell was enough to cleave an entire building in two.
He intended to finish it in one stroke and sever the blue dragon head of the two-headed monster.
Whoosh!
But just as Rayleigh prepared to decide the battle midair, a terrifying attack suddenly streaked toward him at incredible speed.
"Rayleigh! Watch out!"
The girls below could do no more than shout a warning.
But Rayleigh had already noticed it.
"Bakudō #81: Dankū!"
A transparent barrier instantly unfolded at his side.
Boom!
The incoming attack slammed into the barrier and ricocheted away.
When he focused his eyes on it, he realized what it was—a massive bolt.
There was no way a weapon like that could be fired by hand.
It had to be siege weaponry.
More precisely, a ballista.
'Who was it?'
'Who was hiding in the dark and trying to ambush me with something like that?'
Tracing the path of the bolt, Rayleigh extended his senses through the Reiraku and quickly picked up a strange presence—deeper and darker in color than that of an ordinary monster.
Without hesitation, he fired off Hadō #63: Raikōhō in that direction.
A golden blast of lightning roared into the cavern wall, and the resulting explosion drew a shriek of pain from within.
Smoke billowed.
Then a figure burst through the haze.
That was—
'A merman?'
When Rayleigh saw his ambusher clearly, he realized it was not human at all.
Since it had been using siege weaponry, he had first suspected it might be a surviving remnant of Evilus.
Several months had passed since the great war, and fragments of Evilus were still scattered about, fleeing in all directions.
Some of them had escaped into the Dungeon.
Rayleigh knew they had likely taken refuge in Knossos, the artificial labyrinth built by the Daedalus Familia.
But without the Daedalus Orb, entry was impossible.
Without it, not even Ottar could break through those Orichalcum gates by brute force.
And beyond that, Rayleigh still did not know the labyrinth's exact location.
The information in his memory was too vague.
Merely remembering that such a place existed was nowhere near enough to actually find it.
But contrary to his expectations, the attacker was a monster.
And a monster capable of operating a ballista could only be one thing—an Enhanced Species.
Rayleigh guessed that this Enhanced Species must have appeared only recently.
Otherwise, the Guild would have already detected some sort of anomaly—or perhaps they simply had not had time yet.
'I see.'
'If an Enhanced Species had been sniping from the shadows during the subjugation of Amphisbaena, then it makes sense that the previous expedition failed.'
'A battle against a Monster Rex is already deadly enough.'
'Especially against one like Amphisbaena, whose destructive power is overwhelming. One mistake from an Adventurer is enough to get them killed.'
'And on top of that, there is the threat of hidden ballista fire.'
'Given the power of such a weapon, it could easily kill a Level 3 Adventurer—or even a Level 4.'
'If it landed a direct hit, even without striking a vital point, death is still the most likely outcome.'
"An Enhanced Species?"
The girls had noticed the situation on this side as well, and immediately tensed in alarm.
Rayleigh quickly assessed the battlefield, then said, "Leave the Enhanced Species to me. You lot deal with the Monster Rex."
Ryuu nodded. "Please."
Kaguya smiled brightly. "We are counting on you."
"Yeah. Leave it to me!"
The icy wings on Rayleigh's back beat once more, and his figure shot over the enhanced merman's head.
"Well then… if it's a fish, getting devoured by a dragon is only natural for them."
With one swing of his blade, Rayleigh summoned an ice dragon.
In its Bankai state, the dragon's appearance had changed slightly.
Wings had sprouted from its back, just like Rayleigh's own.
The ice dragon glided fluidly through the air, weaving about to confuse its target before locking onto the monster.
"Gaaaahhh—!!"
The merman let out a harsh, grating screech.
Spinning the crystal spear in its hand once, it planted the shaft into the ground—and vaulted.
Rayleigh's eyes narrowed.
Seeing how agile it was, he immediately sent the ice dragon twisting back around, jaws snapping toward its lower body.
The merman shrieked again.
Then—
Bang!
Another projectile tore through the air!
Rayleigh's pupils constricted, and in an instant he condensed a shield of ice.
But the very next moment, the shield was blown apart.
Deprived of Rayleigh's control, the ice dragon crashed headfirst into the ground, freezing the surrounding earth solid.
Rayleigh twisted his body aside.
A gaping hole had been blasted straight through the ice shield.
Still, the shield had done its job.
The attack's trajectory was deflected, and the bolt slammed into the ground instead of hitting him.
'How is that possible?'
'There is no longer any trace of spiritual pressure from that direction.'
'How did it pull that off?'
Rayleigh frowned.
There had been no sign of Reiatsu at all from the direction the bolt came from.
If it was a monster, it should not have been capable of hiding itself so completely.
But before he could think any further, the enhanced merman was already charging at him, crystal spear in hand.
Its spear technique was wild and savage, utterly lacking in form—yet the raw force behind it was terrifying.
As the spear came crashing down from above, Rayleigh sidestepped and raised an arm to guard his face.
Because even if he dodged the blow itself, the shattered stone blasting up from the ground could still obstruct him—or wound him.
Rayleigh circled around and brought his blade down from behind.
But the merman bent one leg slightly, braced the shaft of the spear across its shoulder, and angled it downward.
'A deflection technique?'
'It knows how to use something like that?'
The blade slid along the shaft of the spear, and Rayleigh felt his balance shift off-center.
But he did not panic.
He kicked off the ground with both feet, lifting himself into the air and rolling forward in mid-spin.
Using the added momentum from the rotation, he brought his leg down in a crushing axe kick.
The merman had clearly never seen such a nimble movement before, and for the briefest instant, it did not know how to respond.
Rayleigh seized that opening.
His heel slammed straight into the creature's ugly face!
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