"I'll protect everyone!"
The dwarf tank, Asta, gritted her teeth and stepped forward.
As a vanguard, her duty was to become the wall of the party and block the enemy's attack.
Even if that attack came from a Monster Rex, her duty remained the same!
"Oooooooooh!!"
The dwarf girl braced her large shield with both hands, radiating the spirit of someone ready to die if necessary!
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Iska, the only Amazon in the Familia, threw her Undine Cloth over Asta's shield.
Then she crouched directly behind the dwarf girl, covering her head defensively.
In truth, if Asta could not hold on—or rather, if the shield failed—then the two of them would be burned to ash together!
"Waaaaaaaah!!"
Boom!
The flames blasted into them.
The cloth woven with Undine power protected the great steel shield, and the great shield in turn protected the girls behind it.
When Amphisbaena saw that its breath had actually been blocked, it became even more violent.
The kinetic impact of the flames intensified.
"That's enough! Stop it already!"
Lyra threw her spider silk around the open mouth of the two-headed dragon, wrapping it securely around its upper and lower jaws, then tried with all her strength to force the maw shut.
But the two-headed dragon's physical strength was too great.
It would not budge at all.
'Damn it. The poison of Arachne simply cannot seep in. Is it because of the thick dragon scales?'
...
Bang!
Rayleigh kicked away a stone beside him and stood up from the pile of rubble.
Burns caused by lightning marred his body, alongside wounds resembling deep blade cuts.
A faint glow clung to the surface of his skin—it was the power of Kaidō actively repairing the tissue damage he had suffered.
This was a Kidō he had prepared in advance.
Its activation condition dictated that it would automatically release its seal and trigger once his physical injuries reached a certain threshold.
"Hah."
Rayleigh let out a foul breath, his knuckles tightening as he clenched his fist one joint at a time.
A cold smile appeared on his face.
"I did not expect to get done in by you like that, monster! A monster using a Magic Sword… now that shows some imagination."
Unlike natural lightning, lightning-attribute Magic, aside from being extremely fast and intensely hot, also possessed a piercing characteristic because the condensed elemental Magic power was densely packed.
It was the exact same principle with Kidō.
For example, Byakurai was a spell that emphasized piercing power, no matter how much Reiryoku was poured into the cast, it would always compress into a single line.
That was the reason for the multiple piercing wounds and cuts across his body.
When the enhanced merman saw that he could still stand up, its face froze in a very human-like expression of shock.
It took half a step backward.
But at the very moment before fleeing, it changed its mind.
It knew very well how powerful the Magic Sword in its hand was.
It reasoned that if its prey had been hit by that blast, even if he could stand, he should no longer possess the power to fight back.
Rather than run, it would attack!
The enhanced merman grabbed a broken piece of ore.
This chunk of rubble had a sharp edge, and paired with the exaggerated strength of an Enhanced Species, it could be wielded exactly like a dagger.
Letting out a strange cry, it charged in.
Because of its earlier injuries, it could no longer display its peak speed.
Rayleigh watched it coldly and did not move.
Only when it got close enough did Rayleigh hold his breath and sway slightly.
In the next second, he had already appeared seamlessly at the merman's side.
"Ga?"
The merman's body stiffened, and its vision began to blur and twist.
It toppled forward.
Even after falling facedown on the wet ground, entirely unable to move, it still did not understand what had happened.
Rayleigh turned around and looked down at this Enhanced Species from above.
"Senka.... This is my first time using this move in combat. I did not expect the completion level to be this high, looks like there is no need for a finishing blow."
In that fleeting instant, he had precisely pierced and destroyed this Enhanced Species' Saketsu and Hakusui.
Even monsters bred by the Dungeon possessed souls.
Sometimes they would revive with vague memories of their previous life, or rather, be reincarnated by the labyrinth.
Saketsu and Hakusui—the vital chain and sleep points of the soul.
This time, it would not return to the Dungeon Mother, nor would it be bred again.
It would simply dissipate into nothingness.
Walking up to the paralyzed Enhanced Species, Rayleigh raised his foot as blue Reiryoku patterns spread over his shoe.
Then he stomped down heavily.
Splurt!
The merman's head was crushed directly underfoot. Its body twitched unconsciously twice, then stopped moving entirely.
Boom!
The completely dead Enhanced Species turned into ash.
After finishing his battle, Rayleigh did not immediately rush back to the lake battlefield.
Instead, he first went to the cavern alcove where the Enhanced Species had been hiding earlier.
Just moments ago, a second ballista bolt had been fired from this exact spot.
And that occurred while the Enhanced Species was already engaged in melee combat with him.
There had been no Reiraku signature.
'Could there be a monster capable of completely masking its aura?'
Entering the narrow cave, Rayleigh glanced at the heavy ballista placed there, then spread out his senses again, yet still could not find any trace of a spiritual signature.
There were no tracks left at the scene either.
'It ran away?'
'But there is clearly no other passage here. How strange.'
Finding nothing from the search, Rayleigh returned to the battlefield on the lake.
At this moment, Amphisbaena was moving rapidly through the deep lake.
After entering the water, its mobility had greatly increased.
While cruising around, it used its azure flames to spray at the girls.
A two-headed dragon acting like this was practically a mobile turret.
And it no longer easily exposed itself above the water.
'If I had Ryūjin Jakka, I could try directly evaporating the entire lake… even if I could not completely do it, I could at least heat the water until it boiled.'
'If the two-headed dragon did not want to be cooked alive, it would naturally surface.'
'Although Engetsu is also a fire-type Zanpakutō, it still cannot output power to that extent.'
'According to legend, a single strike from a Crozzo Magic Sword could evaporate the sea. If that is true, then its output would at least be enough to touch the heels of Ryūjin Jakka.'
'When Ichigo awakened his true Shinigami power, merely releasing his Reiatsu evaporated all the seawater in the Hooden!'
The girls' icy footholds had been scattered, and each of them had fallen into an isolated, helpless situation across the lake.
If Amphisbaena attacked their fragmented footholds now, it could easily knock them into the water.
That would be no different from a death sentence.
"Hoo."
Rayleigh briefly gathered his focus, then poured his accumulated Reiryoku into Hyōrinmaru.
Standing in the air, he waved one hand, and six streams of ice-blue light fell separately to different coordinates across the lake.
The six points connected together, forming a perfect hexagon.
At each location, a blooming ice flower appeared, each one carrying Rayleigh's dense Reiatsu.
"What is that?"
"Is that Rayleigh's technique?"
"Looks like he already finished things over there. As expected of him."
After finishing his setup, Rayleigh pointed Hyōrinmaru downward and muttered.
"Rokui Hyōketsujin."
Whoosh!
From the six ice flowers, Rayleigh's Reiryoku rose simultaneously, each point resonating with the others.
In the next second, the entire surface of the lake within the six-point formation instantly froze.
And this flash-freezing did not simply cover the surface in a thin layer of ice.
Instead, everything reaching nearly ten meters below the lake's surface was frozen solid as well.
It could be said that the girls were now standing safely upon an iceberg firmly rooted in the depths of the lake.
The crisis of losing their footholds was completely resolved.
Alise's face lit up with joy, and then she shouted, "Regroup!"
The girls reacted immediately and all gathered toward Alise's position on the newly formed ice.
Meanwhile, Rayleigh remained hovering in the sky, observing the shifting shadows beneath the surface of the lake.
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