Chapter 133
The twenty-seventh floor: an unusually vast, wide-open cavern.
A deep lake filled the center of it, its surface dark enough that the bottom might as well not exist.
Sheer cliffs surrounded the water on almost every side, rising close to vertical, and only one broad path ran along the shore, connecting the routes back to the 26th Floor and onward to the 28th.
Kiriya walked that path with Bete, Ais, Tiona, and Tione.
Only the five of them had come down as the rest of the expedition party was waiting on the 26th Floor.
Amphisbaena was not something they could treat like an ordinary monster.
It was a Floor Boss with strength on the level of a Level 5 at minimum, and in a water-filled environment like this, its threat could climb close to Level 6.
Its huge body gave it ridiculous raw power, and its magic was strong and strange enough to tear up the battlefield around it.
The Loki Familia’s expedition party was powerful, but there were only a handful of Level 5s among them.
Most of the members were Level 4 or Level 3, with some Level 2s mixed in as well.
If people like that got caught in a fight between Level 5-class monsters and adventurers, the result would be ugly.
That was why Finn had sent the five of them ahead to deal with Amphisbaena first.
Once the Floor Boss was gone, the rest of the party could pass through safely.
As a captain, Finn really did think things through.
Kiriya and the others walked along the lakeside path for a while, but nothing happened.
The water stayed calm.
There was no giant two-headed dragon, no fish monsters, not even a suspicious ripple.
Kiriya looked out across the lake, unsure what to make of it.
"Are we sure this Amphisbaena thing is actually here?"
It was hard to blame him for wondering—the place was strangely, almost eerily quiet.
"Based on the timing, it should have regenerated by now."
Ais kept her eyes on the lake, her body slightly tense and ready to move at any moment.
"That monster is cunning. Sometimes it lurks underwater and waits for a chance to ambush you."
The moment she said that, several huge shadows burst out of the lake beside them.
They were green-scaled pythons, each nearly ten meters long.
Behind them came a swarm of giant fish monsters, hundreds of them, all surging out of the water with their jaws open and their fangs bared.
"So these things are starting first?"
Bete’s eyes turned sharp, and his legs lashed out like lightning.
"Fine. I’ll warm up on you!"
A rapid series of heavy kicks exploded through the air, blasting one fish monster after another apart before they could even land.
Ais drew Desperate and moved like a spirit carried by the wind. Every clean flash of her sword dropped another monster.
Tiona and Tione fought with a much rougher kind of beauty.
Their attacks were wide, heavy, and full of impact, cutting through the swarm with brute force and perfect rhythm.
Kiriya dealt with the monsters around him while activating Energy Perception, searching for Amphisbaena’s real position.
Then he felt it.
A huge source of energy was moving away from them fast, swimming upstream toward the waterfall.
"What the hell is it doing?"
He did not understand at first.
But he quickly realized what it was up to.
With a great splash—
A huge spray of water burst up above the waterfall as a massive figure leaped into the air and came crashing straight down toward the lake.
Two ferocious dragon heads, long slender necks, and a body as huge as a small hill—who else could it be but the Amphisbaena?
BOOM—
The calm lake erupted into towering waves, and a wall of water nearly ten meters high rose up and came bearing down on the shore.
"Retreat!" Tione shouted, and the group sprang away as one, dodging the crushing surge.
But that very move played right into the Amphisbaena’s hands.
"RAAAGH—"
An ice-blue dragon head suddenly thrust up out of the water and spat a mouthful of ghostly blue flame straight at Ais.
Azure Flame—a unique fire fueled by a special fluid produced in the Amphisbaena’s dragon liver.
Not only was it blisteringly hot, it clung like oil; once it touched you, it raced across your whole body in an instant.
Nasty stuff. And now the Amphisbaena swept that pillar of flame across the group, clearly meaning to catch them all in one net.
Bete scoffed and was just about to shift his stance to dodge when Kiriya’s voice reached his ears.
"Water Release: Water Encampment Wall."
The lake below them surged upward.
A spinning wall of water rose between them and the blue flames, swallowing the attack before it could reach them.
The current churned violently, dragging the sticky fire away and breaking it apart until only a wave of heat brushed past.
Tione landed on the path and blinked.
"Okay... wow! That is way too useful."
"You’ve got time to admire it?"
Bete shot her a mocking look, but he had already launched himself forward, heading straight for Amphisbaena’s neck.
He clearly intended to take one head off first!
"Hey, that’s cheating!"
Tiona yelled and rushed after him.
But someone was already faster.
Ais.
With Ariel wrapped around her, she moved like a gust of wind tearing across the lake. In moments, she reached the icy-blue head and drove Desperate down hard.
The dragon’s thick scales cracked and split under the point of her sword, but once the blade sank into muscle, it caught before going deep enough.
Ais immediately used the wound as leverage. She ran along Amphisbaena’s neck, dragging the blade with her and ripping the cut open wider.
Blood sprayed out, and the dragon roared in pain, thrashing so violently that Ais lost her footing and was thrown away.
"We’re not done yet!"
Tiona leapt high, swinging her huge double blade toward the purple head.
This time, Amphisbaena reacted.
Its tail whipped around like a steel cable, cutting through the air with a sharp crack as it came for her.
Tione intercepted it with both blades, taking the impact just in time and keeping her sister from getting smashed aside.
At the same moment, Bete’s kick landed on the purple head. The blow drove the dragon’s skull straight into the lake, sending water bursting up around it.
Amphisbaena roared again, loud and furious, but still full of strength. Bete’s kick had hurt it, but not enough to cripple it.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave."
Kiriya spat out a thin line of water, so fine it looked almost like a strand of rain. It whipped toward Amphisbaena’s neck, ready to cut through it.
Just before it could finish the job, the purple head opened its mouth and released a cloud of red mist.
The moment the Water Severing Wave touched that mist, it vanished, dissolving as easily as sugar in hot water.
’It cancels energy?’
Kiriya landed on the surface of the lake, his expression turn serious.
The dragon’s body was now wrapped in that red haze. Refusing to let it go untested, Kiriya formed another seal and fired off a burst of wind.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
A strong gale tore toward the mist, then it died the instant it touched it.
The wind collapsed completely, as if all the force had been drained out of it.
Kiriya frowned.
"So ranged attacks are out."
He lowered his body slightly, one hand on his sword, and settled into an iaijutsu stance.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
In an instant—the blade was drawn as wind and thunder roared to life!