Thanks to them working together, Tiona, Tione, Bete, Lefiya, Aika, and Koneko safely landed on the 58th Floor, and through Lefiya's magic, they were able to clear out all monsters that were near them, giving them some room to breathe.
Once they got down on the 58th floor, they met the prime cause of the 'sniping', the Valgang Dragons. Valgang Dragons were large red dragons that could grow up to ten meters when standing on both legs. They lived at the bottom of the Dragon's Vase, which was the 58th floor and were able to detect and breathe fire at adventurers, an attack which was strong enough to blast through layers of rock up to the 52nd Floor.
There were a total of seven dragons currently present and Lefiya couldn't help but mutter, "A-are you able to defeat seven of them?"
"If we can't, then we die. Don't make me say it." Bete answered as he prepared.
Chuckling, Tiona answered, "I guess you're right."
"GRAAHHH!!!"
"Here they come!" Tione shouted as the dragons started approaching them.
But before they could clash, a figure dropped down from above and broke a wing of one of the dragons while creating a small crater in the floor.
The dust settled down and the figure was revealed, "Are you young ones still alive?"
"Gareth!?"
"Old man!"
"Behind you!"
But instead of dodging, Gareth faced the tail that was about to smash him and caught it, "!?"
"Guooohh!!!" With a shout, Gareth started dragging the several tonnes dragon and spun it around.
"Huh? Huh?" Lefiya couldn't believe the scene in front of her and it was the same for the other members of the Loki Familia.
First Class Adventurer, Gareth Landrock. He was a contender for having the highest strength and endurance in Orario, being a super vanguard type that smashes everything in his path and doesn't succumb to any attack.
The Alias that the Gods gave him was Elgarm (Heavy Master). He was a great dwarven warrior with an anecdote of him lifting a seriously damaged Galleon all by himself.
Releasing the dragon, he threw it towards another dragon, "Go flying!!!" Due to their immense weight, a simple throw was enough to greatly injure the dragons.
"N-no way..." Tiona, the musclehead, couldn't comprehend Gareth's sheer strength.
"...If he were to learn how to use Ki, then it should be easy for him to toss these dragons with just an arm." Koneko suddenly muttered.
"Huh?" Tiona, Tione, and Bete were startled at her statement, however, Gareth suddenly called them out, "What are you lot doing? They're still coming, hurry and get up."
"G-Gareth-san, aren't you enough?" Lefiya asked.
Huffing, Gareth answered, "Don't be ridiculous. There's no way I could do something like that multiple times."
While they were talking, an army of caterpillar monsters suddenly appeared from the path towards the 57th Floor.
"The new species are here too," Tione muttered as she readied her Durandal weapon.
"T-the passage to the 57th floor is..."
"Looks like it's been sealed off."
"Who cares. It doesn't change anything."
Since they didn't have magic like Ais, they wouldn't have any way to deal with them in such a tight space making them essentially trapped.
As their current leader, Gareth commanded, "We'll hold them off until Finn and the others get here, understood?"
"Yes!" Everyone answered.
But before he moved forward, Gareth faced their new companions, "It'll be too dangerous for you two. Just the shockwaves from the battles might injure you so stay from a safe distance, but don't get too far away since it'll be harder to respond to an emergency."
Aika and Koneko looked at each other before smiling and faced Gareth and the rest, "We can distract two of them while you deal with the others."
"Wait! That's too dangerous! Just stay near Lefiya!" Tiona disagreed with their plan.
"Tiona is right. Stay with Lefiya so that those caterpillars wouldn't be able to approach her immediately. You don't need to risk yourselves." Tione followed up.
Bete only stared at them silently and didn't say anything. Gareth, on the other hand, sighed, "Fine... But know your limits."
" "Gareth!?" "
"Will do~!" Aika answered as she pulled out her nodachi and muttered, "It's time for you two to shine~"
While wondering what she was about to do, Aika suddenly called out two names, "Akane, Kaguya." A red and black aura suddenly enveloped her, covering her entirety.
"W-what!? What's going on!?" Tiona and the rest had to take a step back due to the wind suddenly emerging from her. But before they could understand what was going on, they noticed the Valgang Dragons and Wyverns scramble away.
"...What the hell?" Bete spoke up as he watched the unbelievable scene.
A few seconds later, the swirling aura disappeared and revealed Aika who was now holding double-edged curved swords, one in red and one in black color each with a length of 70 centimeters. Her Adventurer attire also disappeared as it was replaced by a standard Shinigami uniform, the Shihakusho, which was far better than her armor.
Everyone from the Loki Familia was speechless at her sudden transformation but another thing happened to make them question reality.
Thinking about her Sacred Gear, Koneko summoned her jetpack and it immediately emitted white flames, forming two-pairs of formless wings emerging from her back. A comically large white hammer with a blue outline then appeared on her hand.
Not waiting for the Loki Familia, Aika used Flash Step on one of the fleeing dragons and clashed with it.
Koneko, on the other hand, used her boosters to go to one of the dragons since the hammer was too heavy for her Flash Step. Still, her speed was no joke and the momentum created and transferred to the hammer would be enough to crack the scales of the Valgang Dragon.
"W-what are they?" Lefiya muttered but Bete, Tiona, and Tione couldn't give her any answers.
"Fuhahaha!!!" Gareth's sudden laugh woke the young ones.
"G-Gareth!? What's wrong?"
However, Gareth didn't face them and started moving towards one of the Valgang Dragons while carrying his giant axes, "I can't let them take on the big stage when they said that they'll only hold back a monster each! I'm not going to wait for you a lot!" He then started running after one of the running dragons. He didn't know why they were running away, but their goal was to clear or hold them off until the rest of the party reached them. Besides, thinking is not his forte, so he could just do what he usually did and that was smashing monsters with his bulky muscles.
Bete, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya didn't know what to do, Aika and Koneko were just too weird. Although they knew that they were just Level 2 Adventurers, those actions were enough for them to take them off from the list of Adventurers in their minds.
But since Gareth already started fighting, they could only do the same. However, their eyes would often go to Aika and Koneko, hoping to find answers to the growing questions in their minds.
After all, they too wanted to get stronger and fight higher-level opponents like what they were doing right now.
But they could at least be sure of one thing, the Hestia Familia was not your conventional Familia.
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Comment section
Alexander: So they finally started to show the trump cards. However, today's prize for the best supporting actor definitely goes to Gareth.
28th00: Those dragons are bolting cause her blades are fragments of the True Dragon God's, seriously. They just saw the equivalent of a level 20 Dragon staring at them, and they're only level 1, big difference. Being mana constructs, they'd probably feel it even more, since they only have their aura at this moment.
Goyya: The dragons are fragments, but they are also already separate beings. On top of that, although their potential is enormous, they are still pretty weak.
Another thing is Aika's cheat.
Let me clarify something to all the readers.
Although Aika indeed have better potential than Ichigo, it's not that much. And most importantly, she doesn't have Ichigo's biggest cheat which is the 'get stronger after each fight'. Aika and the rest of the girls have to train a lot harder than him just to achieve the same strength.