The moment the words left her lips, she blurred into a silver afterimage and slammed straight into the horde.
Her heeled boots rang against stone in a rapid staccato, the over-knee shafts flashing alongside glimpses of white thigh-highs beneath, her powerful, rhythmic stride radiating a strange magnetism, equal parts fierce and wild, sharp elegance threaded with untamed allure.
The straight-bladed katana held at her side carved arc after arc of silver light through the swarm with every swing of her right arm, each flash gone as fast as it came. Whole clusters of Blue Crabs were dismembered into chunks and went still where they fell.
Kureha kicked off into a nimble backstep, slipping free of the pincer closing around her with effortless grace. Her body arched in midair, light as a drawn bow, the absolute territory between her black-and-white checkered pleated skirt and long boots flickering past Leon's enhanced perception for just a heartbeat before she touched down with two clean taps, perfectly balanced.
She didn't pause for a breath. The instant she landed she dropped low, leaning forward, planting her left foot as far back as it would go, every line of her slender frame drawn taut with the explosive tension that only a Sword Saint could produce.
Her boot shattered the ground beneath it, and the next moment she was a silver-violet phantom again, tracing a wide arc along the flank of the defensive line before plunging into the monster tide from the side.
Her blade danced in a frenzy, silver hair whipping wild behind her like a banner, the whole display a gorgeous waltz choreographed for slaughter, dealing the monsters a lavish banquet of death.
Peak melee damage and attack speed. Movement so fast the eye couldn't track it.
Every strike a precision critical aimed dead at a weak point. Swordsmanship honed to a terrifying edge, fused tightly with her skill loadout.
Kureha's Basic Abilities were still capped at Lv. 1, but between her absurdly overtuned skill synergies and the technique, strategy, and hard-won experience she'd forged through relentless training, the combination was pure chemistry. She'd become a ruthlessly efficient killing machine, reaping monster lives without mercy.
One minute.
Five minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Once the battle passed the thirty-minute mark...
Apart from Leon, Rose, and Jeanne, who kept grinding at the same steady pace as always, everyone else, Persephone included despite being Lv. 3, was visibly slowing down. Some of their movements were already falling apart.
Clear signs that their stamina was running out.
"Drink up!" Leon swept his gaze across the battlefield and called out immediately. "Once your stamina drops below thirty percent, just use a Potion! These things are dirt cheap at the Blue Pharmacy. The per-unit price Lord Miach gave us doesn't even hit 8,000 Valis... only 7,850. No reason to save them!"
You could've just said "they're cheap." Why did you have to quote the exact price...
You're obviously the one trying to convince yourself here!
Persephone and Kureha's eyes twitched in unison. Leon's borderline obsessive penny-pinching, especially in the middle of combat this intense, hit different when you experienced it firsthand.
"You are unbelievable... We're in the thick of it and you're still haggling over a few dozen Valis!"
Leon's hand stuttered mid-throw. A Blue Crab's massive pincer was already bearing down on him, but he didn't so much as flinch. He stood his ground and flicked his staff with casual ease.
The heavy claw smashed into Frost Armor with a dull thud.
But the full-force blow from a monster with potential reaching Lv. 3 barely dented the ice shell before it snapped right back into shape. Forget dealing damage; the impact had all the effect of kicking a soccer ball, compressing the armor for a split second before it settled back to stillness.
The attack that could easily kill a Lv. 2 Adventurer didn't push Leon back so much as half a step.
He backhanded the ambushing monster away with his staff, then pivoted without stopping. Two red magic circles flickered to life at the staff's tip and vanished just as fast.
"Scorch!"
"Fireball!"
Crackling flames erupted across the Blue Crab's shell before it could react, and a Fireball filling its entire field of vision came roaring in right after.
Leon swatted the burning crab back into the monster pack, the scorching Fireball chasing it like a homing missile. The next second, it detonated.
A thundering blast shook the cavern, a miniature mushroom cloud punching skyward and violently clearing every enemy in the zone.
Kureha and Persephone: "..."
"...Hah. Magic really is convenient." Kureha had just finished downing a Potion. Watching the spectacle, she let her envy show plain on her face.
Persephone's chest rose and fell with slightly labored breathing. She glanced, expressionless, at Leon as he continued pouring fire downrange, and her lips curled in the faintest sneer.
"Doesn't matter how much firepower he's got. Doesn't change the fact that he's a scumbag."
Miss Persephone, that grudge of yours is practically taking physical form at this point.
What on earth did Leon do to you to generate this much resentment...
She was dying to know, but didn't dare ask.
In the end, Kureha just quietly turned her full attention back to the fight.
...
"Aura, bombardment!"
"Yes!"
A Monster Party spawned from the Lower Floors was on a completely different level from anything the team had faced on the upper or Middle Floors, both in raw strength and sheer numbers.
The massive scale of the assault combined with the labyrinthine terrain meant monsters were pouring in endlessly from every tunnel and waterway, converging on the party from all directions. With spawn points everywhere, the group had been forced to fall back to an open clearing at the center of the cavern to make their stand.
Jeanne watched the monster count spike sharply as some fighters' stamina gave out, and her pale violet eyes hardened. Without hesitation, she played her first card and issued the magic bombardment order to Aura.
"Feast of the Bacchanal Harvest!"
Aura pressed her long, black-stockinged legs together, her soft leather heeled boots settling into a T-stance, posture perfectly straight, arms extended to either sides, her body forming a cross.
As she spoke the spell's name, a wind born of pure mana whipped her red-and-black ceremonial robe dress into a billowing frenzy.
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