"Welp."
"Another wild one…"
On the seventh floor, Maple and Sally were greeted by a blizzard, near whiteout
conditions, snow piled to their knees—and a sheer cliff face one step ahead. Above
them, the snowstorm raged as far as the eye could see. It seemed like they had to get
down the cliff somehow, but the blizzard made it hard to see where or how.
This definitely wasn't a view you expected inside a tower, and it left them agape.
The snow was coming down so hard, some of their equipment was freezing and giving
off a faint light.
"What do we do, Sally? I don't see any monsters, at least."
"We're up this cliff, so… we head down?"
With so little visibility, they had to pick their way along.
They soon found a set of platforms leading down the cliff—and no way to progress in
any other direction.
"Guess we've just gotta go down. But…"
"Urgh, this wind is nuts!"
It was hard to see through the snow, their feet buried in drifts and their bodies
buffeted by high winds—navigating these little footholds was gonna be rough. Maple
probably would have struggled with it even in the absence of stormy weather.
"But we've gotta go down. Ideas?"
"If I summon Syrup, it should be a lot easier."
Maple tried to do that, but it wouldn't respond.
"Huh? Uh… guess not. Wonder why?"
Sally checked her status menu.
It had a message saying that equipment skills and abilities were sealed here. Maple
had all her main skills on equipment slots—and they were greyed out.
"It doesn't override Indestructible or stat boosts, but Mirage and Oceanic are gone.
You in the same boat, Maple?"
"Ugh… I'm doomed… but I guess that just means this floor isn't messing around!"
"That's the spirit."
The limitations might be pretty strict, but it took more than that to get Maple down.
She wouldn't start to wilt unless things actually managed to hurt her.
"Should we just head down normally, then?"
Sally looked at Maple, raising an eyebrow.
"Eh-heh-heh. I think there's a shortcut."
"Mm-hmm. That's what I thought you'd say."
They moved to the edge of the cliff and peered over.
Their goal might not be in sight, but if Maple felt like jumping—she could.
Her "shortcut" was in fact a defense-reliant free fall.
"Martyr's Devotion isn't sealed, so I can come with. And the conventional route would
be real rough on you."
"Then let's get ready! Make sure you tie yourself tight! Don't want you getting blown
yonder."
"Yeah, just to be safe, I'd better have an item ready."
Leaving one hand free for Web Spinner, in her other she held an item they'd found on
the fifth stratum—one that generated a mass of water. Sally put her back to Maple's
and tied a rope around them.
"Weird how we just automatically include cliff diving on our list of options now.
Definitely your fault, Maple."
"Ah-ha-ha… Well, if it was sunny out, I'd be up for at least trying the regular path."
"Ready?"
"Yep! On three—"
They took a deep breath, then swung their arms, using that momentum to launch
themselves out into the open air.
They tore through the blizzard, feet straight down, plunging to the unseen ground
below.
"Urgh… the wind is so loud!"
"You… can say that again!"
As they fell, the blizzard subsided. Through the flurry, they could just make out the
ground.
It was covered in a field of razor-sharp ice spikes—which were clearly going to do
piercing damage.
"Urgh! Th-this is really bad!"
"They knew we'd jump and laid a trap?!"
Sally immediately threw out the item in her hand. Easily found in rain-soaked areas of
the fifth stratum, this generated a huge blob of water floating right beneath their feet.
"Water Wall! Subzero Domain!"
She used a skill to increase the water volume and then another to instantly freeze it
all.
Even frozen, it maintained its buoyancy. They smashed into it with a deafening crack,
and it shattered—but it did slow them down.
"It can't quite stop us, but…"
Sally generated a second ball of water above their heads, froze it, and then webbed it,
using it as an anchor to swing them back toward the cliff face.
There were ice spikes there, too, but it was better than the ground below.
"Maple, shield!"
"Huh? Oh, right!"
Maple braced her shield just before they slammed into the cliff. It didn't quite manage
to cover all the ice, and some of the spikes scraped her sides. Sparks flew.
"Ughhh…!"
"Heal! Uh, let's land on a platform here."
Sally topped up Maple's HP, and they sat down on an icy ledge. Maple rubbed her
wounds and gave the spikes a haunted look.
"I guess we shouldn't cheat…"
"Yeah… no more blind jumps."
"At least it wasn't monsters."
"True. Don't wanna ruin our no-damage run here."
Despite everything, they'd still skipped the bulk of the cliff descent.
"Whew… my heart finally stopped racing."
"Same. Good thing I had an escape plan ready."
Once they'd calmed themselves down, they undid the rope and began carefully
jumping down the remaining platforms.
There wasn't much left to that intended path, and they took their time with it.
They'd skipped all the most dangerous sections of it, so it really was just a matter of
well-aimed jumps.
When they reached the bottom, they found a forest of icy blades looming ahead.
"…Do we go that way?"
The snowstorm had died down enough for Sally to spot a narrow path leading out
through the spikes.
"At least they don't stab you if you're just walking between them."
They started down the icy path.
There were no signs of any monsters. This floor's threats were all terrain.
"I bet that means these spikes are armor piercing," Sally said, knocking the icy side. "If
we'd fallen on them, they would've killed us instantly."
"Urgh, I'm so glad I didn't slip while jumping down…"
Maple didn't often encounter instakill damage, so this made her shudder.
Eventually, the path opened up to a circular arena, buried in snow.
"The boss?"
"Nothing here now… Oh, is that it?"
They could hear something smashing through the spikes—and then something big,
round, and spiky came tumbling out.
It unrolled itself before them.
The boss looked a lot like a hedgehog—albeit one made of snow, sporting spines of
ice.
"So cute! Um… cute, but…!"
"Don't want it rolling into us."
Those spines looked like trouble, and it had come rolling in at speeds that belied its
appearance.
The whole design screamed piercing damage, so they really couldn't afford to soak a
charge.
The hedgehog spotted the girls and rolled itself up into a giant snowball—covered in
icy spikes. It started rolling their way.
"Maple, brace yourself!"
"Okay! Pierce Guard!"
Sally hid behind her, and Maple used her shield to deflect the charge—and the sheer
speed of it sent her flying.
"Ugh… it's so fast!"
She got up, dusting herself off. No damage, but if they were getting knocked around
like this, it would be hard to fight back.
"We've gotta stop it somehow."
"H-how?"
"…Uh… Maple, look over there."
Sally was pointing at the boss's back. Two of the spines had snapped off at the base.
If those were gone, then Maple didn't have to worry about piercing damage anymore.
"Worth a shot. If you attack those and guard when it charges, and the spines keep
breaking, that's likely the intended strategy."
"Okay! I'll give it a shot. Full Deploy!"
Maple spouted guns and started shooting at the boss as it got ready to roll back at
them.
Her bullets hit—and did no damage. But they did break several ice spines.
"Incoming!"
"Cover Move!"
Maple fired till the last second. Sally jumped safely out of the path, and Maple used a
skill to follow her.
"Eh-heh-heh, been a while since we used that trick."
"But if you take a hit now, it'll do double damage."
"Ah! I forgot. We'd better be careful."
"…Doesn't seem to be any point attacking while it rolls."
"True! Those hits didn't break any spines."
"Let's work out when exactly we can hurt it. It seems to have several phases."
"Okay! As long as we can dodge it, it's not so scary."
"At this speed, we should manage it. Letting you handle attacks for now."
"Cool! But you're in charge of dodging."
Maple opened fire again, and for a while, they fled the boss's charges with Cover Move.
It was invincible while rolling, but it wasn't that hard for them to target it during the
downtime between charges.
They rinsed and repeated this until all the spines were broken.
"Great! Now what?"
With the threat of piercing damage eliminated, Maple had nothing to fear.
They braced themselves for the next charge—but the hedgehog slipped on the snow,
landed on its back, and didn't get up again. It was just thrashing its stubby little legs.
"Now's our chance!"
"Argh, it's too far away!"
"Sally, grab hold!"
"Huh? Oh, sure!"
Maple pointed her artillery down and used the explosion to rocket them at the boss.
She more or less crash-landed right on its exposed belly and grinned triumphantly.
"Fire Ball! Triple Slash! Cool, I'm doing damage!"
"Uh… what attack skills do I have? Oh! Pandemonium!"
Ogres appeared on either side of the writhing hedgehog and began pounding it with
their clubs, doing… some damage.
"Th-the visual is, uh…"
"They aren't doing that much damage, though… Yikes!"
"Maybe it resists? Back off for now!"
The boss finally righted itself, knocking Maple off. Sally caught her, and they backed
away. This boss seemed to resist everything except fire damage, so they hadn't really
hurt it much.
"Mm… Oh, you don't need to attack anymore, ogres!"
The boss had burrowed itself into the snow, and Maple's ogres were still trying to get
at it—but accomplishing nothing.
"Argh, it's running away!"
"No, this is probably…"
As she spoke, the hedgehog resurfaced—
—with a whole new set of spikes.
The ogres started pounding away again, but that alone didn't break all the spikes…
and the boss hit them with its roll, vaporizing them instantly.
"Augh!"
"It might be hitting harder now! Maple, make sure you dodge in time."
"R-right… I really don't wanna soak that."
With the bulk of Maple's high-damage skills sealed and their inherent numbers
disadvantage, this was shaping up to be a long battle.
Maintaining focus would be critical.
They would need to dodge attacks, lay into it, back off—gradually chipping away at its
HP.
As long as they were careful, it wasn't gonna hurt them.
"Dodge… and strike!"
"Great! Halfway mark!"
The HP bar had changed color, but this milestone just renewed their concentration.
If they let it damage them now, it would all be for nothing. As they watched, the
hedgehog burrowed into the snow again, vanishing from view.
"Again?!"
"Maple! It might have a new pattern! Back off and watch closely!"
"Got it!"
Sally threw out an Ice Pillar and webbed them up off the ground.
An instant later, ice spikes started shooting out of the ground at random, trying to run
them through.
"Th-that was close…"
"Gotta watch the ground when it's burrowing. See? You can tell the boss is under
there."
"Oh, I see, I see."
After a minute, the spike attacks died down, and the boss resurfaced.
"It's back. Hop down."
"Got it!"
They waited for it to charge and tried to dodge to one side, like always.
But once again, it changed up its pattern—it curved to follow them.
"Eek?! Cover! Pierce Guard!"
Maple got her skills up quickly, jumped in front of Sally, and held out her shield just as
the ice spines slammed into her.
There was a crack as the spines snapped, but the hedgehog kept rolling right over
them, not even slowing down.
"That was so close… It scraped my head…"
Maple rubbed her head, making sure it hadn't done damage, and glared balefully after
it.
"Good reflexes, Maple. Sorry, I'll get us out next time."
"Yes, please."
The boss came charging in again, and again they dodged. Again, it curved to chase
them.
"Leap! Hokay."
Sally used a skill to jump farther, yanking Maple out of harm's way with her webs.
The boss turned only the one time; once they managed to dodge, it just rolled straight
away.
"If you use Cover Move, it'll be disastrous if it does hit you."
The side effect of that skill was double damage—usually meaningless but, against foes
that ignored defense, impossible to overlook. Once Pierce Guard wore off, Maple's low
HP would leave her vulnerable to surprise deaths.
"If we lower the HP even more, will it turn twice?"
"Maybe. Let's try and cut it down before the next phase shift."
Since her skills could bring them up and over threats, the ground spikes weren't that
big a threat; they were repeating the pattern, piling on the damage.
Both used items Iz had made to apply the fire element to their attacks and were now
doing enough damage that it was like their skills weren't sealed.
With all spines gone, the boss flopped onto its back again.
"Jump on!"
"Okay, attack time!"
Their weapons sprouted flames, and they started pounding the soft underbelly. The
total HP dropped below 20 percent.
But just as it seemed like they had it, the boss burrowed once more.
"Right, let's get outta Dodge!"
"Yeah. I bet it'll change things again. Watch out."
They scrambled back up the pillar of ice, watching it carefully.
Like before, ice spikes jutted out of the ground at random; then the hedgehog popped
out, rolled itself up, and started rocketing around—but this time it was shooting the
spikes on its back.
"Uh-oh!"
"Cover!"
A massive ice spike shattered against Maple's shield. One after another—it was all she
could do to block them.
"Urgh, these are hitting so hard!"
"Keep your eyes in front! You don't want them scraping you!"
Their position precarious, they had to grit their teeth and endure the barrage. Finally,
the boss shot its last spike and tried to bury itself again.
But they weren't about to let it.
"We've got plenty of ranged attacks!"
"Don't let that thing burrow!"
The ground spikes showed no signs of abating, so Sally kept them webbed above the
field, while Maple deployed her artillery, raining bullets and lasers down. Sally backed
this up with magic and attack items, supporting Maple and adding to the DPS.
Since they were exploiting its elemental weakness, the remaining HP was visibly
dropping. Just as it had almost vanished belowground—the last dot vanished.
"We did it!"
"Whew. Good guard work there—it really saved our bacon."
"Your Ice Pillar did that. Without it, we'd never have made it past the ground spikes."
"Heh-heh, division of labor. You made fighting it easy and helped us skip the bulk of
the dungeon leading in."
"Oh, right, that was this floor."
"Next time, let's look before we leap."
"Ah-ha-ha… lesson learned."
Three floors remained in the seventh event, so they called it a day.
They'd used a lot of items, and Maple's skills were running low. Machine God was out
of ammo. Taking some time off would let them come back at full strength and also give
them a chance to ask the other guild members how much progress they'd made. To
that end, they swung by the Guild Home.
When they got back to the fifth-stratum Guild Home, they found the others resting
after their own tower run. Maple ran over, all excited.
"Oh, you just wrapped up?"
"Yes! We're running low on skills, so we called it a day."
"How far did you two get?"
"We just finished the seventh floor!"
Iz filled two more cups, and they all sat down.
The others had just cleared the ninth floor.
"Wow! That's amazing."
"Yeah, we've got some catching up to do."
"We'll avoid spoilers—don't wanna ruin your fun. But the tenth-floor boss is something
else."
"We just came back from a wipe. I'm sure you'll get there easily enough, but be careful.
It hits hard and quick."
Maple and Sally looked surprised. It was hard for them to imagine anything strong
enough that their friends would struggle.
"Maple, Sally! Good luck."
"We're gonna beat it next time!"
"Yeah, we were still feeling it out, so I didn't use any grimoires. It didn't have that many
attack types. I'm sure you can handle it."
The others had plenty of options and ideas they hadn't tried out, but it was clear this
foe was still formidable.
"…Th-this boss sounds tough. I'm getting nervous!"
"Maple, too soon. We've got two more floors to get through first."
"True! Well, let's just be ready for anything."
"If you're low on any items, hit me up. I've also got some neat stuff I made from tower
drops, so feel free to help yourselves to those."
"Oooh, thanks, Iz!"
"Mm-hmm, sounds good. With just the two of us, we've burned through items to boost
our DPS."
Maple's big moves generally did fixed damage, which meant she could lay down the
hurt without any STR, but that also meant it was quite hard for her to boost that.
As the bosses got stronger, they were increasingly reliant on Sally's damage output.
"While our side has three on offense, we sure are learning how great it is to have a
healer around…"
"We normally just use Maple."
"But with Mai and Yui, most bosses have been a cakewalk."
"Glad we can help!"
"We're getting good at landing hits!"
The twins looked pleased by their performance. Seeing this, Maple was glad she'd
asked them to join the guild.
From there, the conversation moved on to the bosses they'd struggled with.
"That book boss was brutal."
"Yeah, it took my katana skills and Chrome's self-healing…"
"Mai and Yui's attack dropped real hard."
All members of this guild had powerful skills, and if those got stolen, their usual
approach crumbled.
"Ew, yeah, that was bad. It took almost all my skills."
"But they just bounced off her, so we ended up tricking it into using Martyr's Devotion,
so everything I hit did damage. Still barely beat it."
"So you are as crazy as ever?" Kanade asked.
Maple started waving both arms around. "I mean, Sally dodged right through a
Machine God barrage while I was getting chewed up by Predators and beat the thing!
She was incredible!"
"Been a while since I had to actually dodge my way through a boss fight, sans her angel
aura. It was kinda fun."
"You can even dodge through Machine God…"
"Nobody else can do that."
The more they talked, the clearer it became that the two of them had not beat many
floors in anything resembling a conventional approach. But the way the other six were
brute-forcing the bosses was not exactly typical, either.
"Once this event is over, I wanna go exploring with the whole guild."
"That sounds good. First we gotta clear this tenth floor."
"We'll figure out a strat to get ourselves through. Whoever wraps up first, wait outside
the tower."
"We'll be there! Doing our best to catch up!"
Everyone was on board with getting the whole gang together, and the conversation
drifted back to other stories about the current event.