Jeanne rattled off her string of commands, voice quick and steady.
The moment the last order left her lips, she locked eyes with Rose. Both women dropped low at the same time, their boots cratering the ground as they launched forward, one a streak of blue and the other gold, rocketing into the monster tide like arrows loosed from the string.
The two of them plowed straight into the swarm, sending Blue Crabs flying in every direction.
"O Gold!"
"Golden Oath!"
"Barri!"
"Pure White Kite Shield!"
A flash of silver and a flash of gold rippled across Rose's body in quick succession. The twin spells fired off and her Basic Abilities spiked instantly, a massive jump across the board.
Blue Crab pincers hammered against her kite shield one after another, each blow ringing off the shimmering white barrier, but Rose stood rooted to the spot like bedrock. She didn't give a single step.
At the same time, her right hand became a blur, the one-handed sword whipping through arc after arc as her skills triggered in sequence.
White Saint, active.
Steel Knight, active.
Pure White Maiden, active.
Sheltering Hand, active.
With skills, Development Abilities, and magic all firing at once, Rose's combat power surged. It was like watching someone transform entirely, her presence visibly climbing with every passing second.
On top of that, the aura radiating from Sheltering Hand wrapped every member of the party in a solid layer of defensive force.
Watching her go all out without the slightest reservation, Leon understood immediately.
Whenever outsiders were present, he'd drilled it into all of them: never fight at full strength. Keep your trump cards hidden, no exceptions. But here, in a frontline push with nothing but their own people, there was no reason to hold back anymore.
Time to go all out.
"Hm?"
Seeing Rose already fully unleashed, Jeanne's pale violet eyes flicked toward her.
After that, everyone else dropped the act too, one by one pulling out what they really had.
Jeanne's Revelation fired again and again, turning her into something almost clairvoyant. She dodged attacks from every angle before they arrived and always struck at the perfect moment, every blow a kill shot.
The effect of God's Resolution was even more staggering. Every monster's stats were unconditionally suppressed by a full margin. Persephone and Kureha, both swinging away on the front line, felt the change immediately through their blades.
And finally, the raw, blunt double-buff of Saint's Sacred Heart and Holy Maiden made Jeanne untouchable in the monster tide. No matter how massive the wave of creatures crashing toward her, she unraveled each one with precise technique and tactical footwork, holding every enemy firmly outside the defensive perimeter.
"Rose and Jeanne are both going all out. I'm not falling behind!"
Determination lit Laurier's eyes. She launched into a rapid chant.
"Rage!"
"Storm's Aria!"
Howling winds coiled around her slender frame like armor. She nocked an arrow, drew, and willed the raging current to spiral tight around the shaft.
"Hah!"
With a sharp exhale, Laurier released the bowstring. The wind-wreathed arrow screamed through the air with a piercing shriek and punched clean through a Blue Crab's hardened shell in the blink of an eye.
She studied the wound she'd inflicted and frowned slightly, a note of frustration creeping into her voice.
"I'm running skills and magic at full blast and I still barely cracked its defense. Medium damage at best. I'd need at least two more clean hits like that to put one down."
"Damn it. Even a regular monster on the Lower Floors has this much raw power?"
She glanced, somewhat bitter, at the Blue Crab she'd wounded, just in time to watch Jeanne casually sweep it away along with a cluster of surrounding monsters in a single stroke. That sight only sharpened the hunger gnawing at her. She wanted Lv. 2. Badly.
"Laurier, calm down. Don't let it get to your head! Did you forget what Leon told us?"
Aura spotted the restlessness in her friend instantly and called out a warning.
"No reckless moves. Only do what's within your ability. If you break formation on impulse, you'll just make things harder for the seniors!"
Laurier drew in a deep breath and forced the simmering frustration back down, steadying herself.
She kept up her covering fire, sending wind-laced arrows streaking toward the front to support Jeanne and Rose, and answered Aura without looking back.
"Thanks, Aura. I'm fine now."
Seeing that Laurier had genuinely settled down, the tension on Aura's face finally eased a little.
Ahead of the two of them, Leon moved fluidly through the chaos, adjusting his firing angles on the fly, careful to keep his Fireballs from catching friendlies. Every so often he pushed forward into the front line, dropping a Frost Nova to lock monsters in place and buying his teammates room to reposition.
He caught their exchange and spoke up without slowing his rate of fire.
"You two don't need to rush."
"The Great Feat you need for Lv. 2 has been more than enough across all the fights we've been through. The only thing holding you back is your Basic Abilities haven't been pushed to their ceiling yet."
"Once this Expedition wraps up, with the amount of combat you two will have seen, I'm sure you'll be able to level up."
A thought flickered through his mind and he paused for just a beat, lobbing another Fireball before slipping in an Ice Armor refresh on himself in the gap. Then he continued.
"Actually, it might not stop at just leveling up. All the Great Feats you've been stacking could leave you with a ton of excess even after hitting Lv. 2. Once your bodies adjust to the level-up, you can funnel that surplus into pushing your Basic Abilities even higher."
Before the words had fully left his mouth, a chain of explosions from his Fireballs rumbled through the chamber. A massive geyser of water erupted from the canal.
Persephone, holding the right flank near the waterway as center guard, twisted sideways to dodge a pincer snapping at her from a blind spot, then reversed her saber into a vertical chop that split the Blue Crab clean in half.
She wiped the canal spray off her face and shot Leon an irritated look.
"Leon, focus! Quit spacing out!"
"Right. Sorry."
...
Sword Saint's Duel, active.
Clyret Bloodline, active.
Battle Strife, active.
Sword of Atonement, active.
Feeling the sudden spike in power surging through her body, Kureha closed her eyes and drew in a long, slow breath. When she opened them again, her blue irises were perfectly clear, every stray thought burned away, nothing left but razor-sharp focus.
"Holy Sword."
The words slipped from her lips, quiet and precise, activating the final spell.
She glanced at the cold, hair-raising edge of light now sheathing her blade, and the sword-saint blood of the Clyret line roared to life inside her, boiling over.
"The power's coming up!"
She narrowed her eyes, set her sword horizontal, and leaned forward into a low stance.
"Let's go!"
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