Chapter 132
"D-did he... get it?" Pack’s eyes went wide.
"What even is that giant orb? It looks insanely powerful," Auben said.
"No matter how many times I see it, it never stops being astonishing," Riveria remarked.
Kiriya’s space-time magic, cast instantly without a single word of chant—and that equally chant-free, instantly unleashed burst of single-target destruction—truly was a marvel.
His arsenal was like some legendary treasure vault: it seemed almost endless.
"I’m dying to know what other cards he’s got hidden up his sleeve," Tione said with a giggle.
"Does it even matter?" Bete said coldly. "With just the tricks he’s already shown, he could swagger through the whole of Orario without a care."
There was a faint sting of disappointment behind the words.
At the rate Kiriya was going, his hopes of ever avenging his earlier humiliation were basically nil.
"Hahaha—I’m just glad you’re on our side, handsome! If you were the enemy... ugh, what a nightmare that’d be." Tiona licked her slightly parched lips.
"Well said." Finn clapped his hands. "But now’s not the time to chat about it. All right, everyone—back to work."
He said it because of the sheer number of metal crabs now swarming in around them.
Whether it was Kiriya’s fierce clash with the moss monster that had drawn them, there was no telling—but the creatures came by the dozens, by the hundreds, with still more metal crabs pouring endlessly out of the surrounding walls until they packed the ground wall to wall.
And it wasn’t just the ground.
The air above was blanketed with huge mosquito-like monsters, their long, needle-sharp stingers glinting with a cold menace. One jab from those, and you’d likely be drained to a dried-up husk in seconds.
Any ordinary Familia—the Apollo Familia for example—would have been thrown into a panic in a situation like this, likely beating an immediate retreat and clearing out of the deathtrap.
But as the saying goes—the Familia in question here was the Loki Familia.
It would take far more than a little display like this to scare them off.
"A Monster Feast! Now that’s some good luck." Bete’s mouth split into a savage grin, baring a row of sharp fangs.
"I was starting to get real sick of waiting."
"Right? After watching you fight, handsome, my blood’s absolutely on fire!" Tiona swung her great double-bladed sword, brimming with fighting spirit.
"I won’t lose to him!" Ais drew Desperate, and even her calm eyes kindled with a flicker of flame.
Seeing morale run high, Finn laughed aloud.
"Then, warriors—onward, to the next floor!"
"RAAAH—!"
The group roared as one and charged ahead, their spirits blazing.
"Awaken."
At Ais’s soft call, her wind magic, Ariel, wrapped around her, and her speed exploded—her whole body trailing afterimages through the air as she appeared, in the blink of an eye, behind a swarm of mosquito monsters.
"Shk—shk—shk—"
A whole cluster of them were cut clean in two before they even knew what hit them.
"Watch this." Compared to Ais’s swift elegance, the werewolf Bete fought in broad, brutal strokes—each heavy crushing kick smashing the metal crabs, shell and all, into paste.
One kick, one dead crab, savage as he could be!
At the same time, Tiona swept her great double-blade in a whirling gale of death, and every metal crab in its path was reduced to shredded meat.
"RRRUMBLE—"
Just as the Loki Familia was in the thick of its slaughter, several crystal sea urchins came tumbling down from the surrounding walls, rolling in like spiked war-chariots to crush everything beneath them.
"Don’t get in my way!"
The normally poised and level-headed elder sister, Tione, flung a great curved blade that spun through the air along a strange sweeping arc, carving straight through the hard shells of several urchins.
The creatures had time for a single wail before their bodies dissolved into nothing.
Watching all this, Kiriya felt his own hands start to itch.
’With this many monsters around, snagging a couple of kills shouldn’t be a problem, right?’ he mused.
’No, wait—I’d just be taking some of the pressure off my teammates.’
With that, Kiriya didn’t hesitate.
He sprang high into the air, his longsword cutting down several incoming mosquito monsters, then landed and stamped down hard on the ground.
"Wood Release: Hell’s Chaos!"
"Crk—crk—crk—"
At once, a mass of sharp wooden spikes erupted from the hard stone floor, and the slow-moving metal crabs, unable to dodge in time, were skewered on the spot.
In the span of a single breath, well over a hundred metal crabs had been wiped out.
"Kind of weak, honestly..." Kiriya smacked his lips and grumbled a little.
Then, feeling the resentful stares from everyone around him, he scratched his head awkwardly and hurried to smooth things over.
"Uh... sorry about that. It’s just, everyone looked so cool fighting that I couldn’t help myself... I’ll be more careful next time.... Really, I will."
Luckily, the Monster Feast was still going strong, and no one had the spare attention to dwell on it—they simply threw themselves back into the fight.
The Loki Familia had numbers on its side, and its members worked together like clockwork.
They formed up in ranks, taking turns and covering one another as they beat back wave after wave.
They’d done this so many times that every movement came second nature; they made it look effortless.
The supporters could even stroll about at their leisure, gathering up the dropped magic stones, and now and then a cheer would go up from somewhere in the group—someone had found a large stone, or some high-value material.
And so, together with the Loki Familia, Kiriya cut his way clean through the Monster Feast and pressed on into the twenty-sixth floor.
"Ugh, come on—I was only just getting excited," Tiona grumbled, clearly unsatisfied. "These monsters are no fun at all."
"Quit complaining! We’re barely on the twenty-sixth floor—just how strong a monster were you expecting?" Tione shot back, as usual.
"True. Haven’t even warmed up yet," Bete said.
"Haha, seems like nobody’s had their fill," Finn chuckled. "Not to worry, though. Once we reach the twenty-seventh floor, everyone can finally cut loose and really go at it."
"The twenty-seventh floor... wait, don’t tell me..." Tione blinked, then her eyes lit up. "That big guy’s about to show up?"
"Mm. By my reckoning, it should be about time," Riveria said, picking up the thread. "Assuming no other Familia has already brought it down."
"It shouldn’t have been," Ais said. "I haven’t heard of any Familia going on an expedition lately."
"Ha, perfect." Bete smacked his fist into his palm, suddenly fired up. "When it shows, I’m taking a point."
"Hah?" Tiona and Tione weren’t having any of it. "Says who? We’re going in too!"
Watching the three of them dissolve into squabbling, Kiriya sidled a little closer to Ais and asked in a low voice, "So what exactly... is this thing they’re all talking about?"
"The Amphisbaena. The Monster Rex of the twenty-seventh floor—the floor boss that rules the water levels." The tips of Ais’s ears went faintly red, and she looked away as she answered softly.
"Oh? So it’s a heavy-hitting boss, huh." The moment he heard that, Kiriya perked right up.
"No way!" Tione and Tiona said in perfect unison, leaving Kiriya thoroughly puzzled.
"Huh? What is it?"
"If you jump in, handsome..."
"...then we won’t stand a chance!"
"Tch..." Bete didn’t say a word, but the look in his eyes made his opinion perfectly clear.
"Uh..." It honestly hadn’t occurred to Kiriya that being too strong could get a teammate shunned like this.
But he really did want this monster for himself, so his mind spun—and an idea flashed to him.
"How about this—I won’t use that teleportation of mine. We all go in at the same time, and we see who can knock the thing flat first. Sound good?"
"Not a bad idea. I like it." Bete straightened right up, a blazing fighting spirit rising in the eyes he fixed on Kiriya.
’This time, I’m definitely beating him!’
"Me too." Ais chimed in at once.
When it came to fighting monsters—especially anything of the dragon kind—she was never one to fall behind.
Naturally, the Hiryute sisters had no objections either.
As long as Kiriya left that absurdly, almost cheatingly fast teleport ninjutsu of his out of it, they figured they still had a shot at winning.
Watching the group casually carve up the rights to the Amphisbaena battle among themselves, Finn and Riveria exchanged a glance, both a little exasperated.
"These youngsters... aren’t they just too lively?"
---------
Read 30 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator