The next day, with skills like Sally's Shed Skin and Maple's Machine God fully restocked,
they were back in the tower.
"Let's finish this off today!"
"You know it. The event time limit isn't far off! We can only make so many runs a day."
Most of Maple's skills had daily limits.
This wasn't ideal for hammering away at tough bosses.
"First stop, floor nine!"
On that floor, they stood before the magic circle, running their final checks. Sally had
taken time to get her DPS buff skill, Sword Dance, to maximum strength. Iz had stocked
them up on Doping Seeds, and all their limited-use skills were fully stocked. They had
no clue what was waiting for them, so Maple wasn't even firing up Martyr's Devotion
until they had a better idea.
And at last, they stepped onto the tenth floor.
The light faded out, and the view faded in.
No dungeons here—instead, they found a chamber made of stone with shafts of light
filtering in. A domed ceiling over the circular interior, no paths leading in or out.
Something stood beneath the sunbeam, clad in a silver suit of armor. The armor itself
was unadorned, and the sword in its hand looked like nothing special.
"So… ordinary…"
"Part of the trick? The others still haven't won."
The boss's features was hidden behind a full-face helm, but its hostility was evident;
it had drawn that battle-dinged sword and was headed their way.
"Guess it's on."
"Mm!"
Maple raised her shield—and the boss lunged, closing the gap.
She quickly swung her shield into the strike, but the boss swung around that, hitting
Maple herself.
"Whoa!"
"Maple!"
With a sound like thunder, Maple slammed into the wall, raising a cloud of dust.
And before Sally had a chance to check her HP—the boss was swinging at her.
"—... Hngg!"
She dodged by a hairbreadth and stabbed back.
But the boss caught that strike on its blade, and it did next to no damage.
This armored foe was always moving in—when Sally tried to backstep out, it kept up,
swinging at her.
"Cover Move! Cover!"
Maple got between them just in time. Devour swallowed up the sword and a chunk of
the body.
"Nice!"
That opening was all Sally needed; she darted around Maple, slashed the boss's side
in passing, and slipped out behind it.
But the boss didn't care—it just flanked Maple's shield, unloading a high-speed combo
on her unguarded right.
"Full Deploy! Commence Assault!"
Maple quickly got her guns out and unloaded them in its face.
This was definitely carving away at its health, but not slowing it down.
Maple kept up the barrage, trying to get it to stop hitting her—and a spurt of flames
emerged from beneath the armor. The boss vanished.
"Um?!"
"Maple! Behind you!"
At Sally's voice, Maple tried to turn and found a sword dropping like a guillotine. She
instinctively raised Night's Facsimile. There was a shock wave—and it split in two.
The attack didn't stop there, either. It swung up, then down, then thrust forward,
destroying Maple's artillery and finally piercing Maple herself—her HP dropped hard.
If she'd soaked the whole combo directly, she'd be dead already.
"Urgh…!"
"Maple, over here!"
Sally shot out her webs and yanked Maple toward her. The next attack caught air, and
the boss paused, blade held high, glaring at them.
"Heal!"
"Urgh, thanks… but I actually took damage…"
"What's done is done. Let's just make sure we beat this thing in one go."
"Right! Refocus!"
"I'm gonna try and slow this thing down. You try not to get hit again."
This boss was all about relentless strikes and an impenetrable guard. Even Sally had
almost no way to get in a hit. One-on-one, she'd find herself slowly but surely losing
ground. They had to find a way for Maple to get in some solid hits.
So Sally charged in close, catching its sword on her twin daggers and deflecting the
strike.
"Oboro, Awaken! Bog Wisp! Oceanic! Ancient Ocean!"
Oboro unleashed blue fire, and Sally's water skill soaked the boss. Both skills served
to reduce the target's AGI, and the fish Ancient Ocean generated also splashed AGIdebuff water all over.
It slowed down a little; Sally deemed it just enough that she'd be a match for it.
"Ack!"
She'd ducked under a horizontal swing, but before she could recover, it shifted into a
three-strike combo.
Sally's eyes went wide. She tried to dodge, but all three strikes hit home.
And she vanished. The real Sally appeared behind the boss.
"Double Slash!"
Not letting this opening go to waste, she activated a powerful skill, then retreated back
to Maple.
"If I hadn't been using Mirage, it'd have gotten me."
"…Um, let's get Martyr's Devotion going."
"But if we do…"
"It's okay! I don't wanna take damage at all, but we need you safe! And I wanna win!"
"You can drop it if you're in trouble!"
"Will do!"
Maple activated Martyr's Devotion and Heaven's Throne, then used Inspire to give
Sally a boost.
"We've gotta keep your skills in reserve till it shifts phases."
"Good luck, Sally!"
"Mm, I got this!"
Sally turned back to the boss as it charged in, thrusting her daggers forward. If she
didn't even try to dodge, the boss didn't block—her strikes actually hit.
Abandoning all evasion, she focused solely on doing as much damage as she could.
"Ugh… argh! Meditation!"
Maple was soaking all these strikes for Sally, but since Heaven's Throne was drastically
reducing the incoming damage, it had taken off only about 30 percent of Maple's
health.
She added a second recovery skill and took a potion to keep herself topped up.
"I'm gonna hurt this boss as much as it hurts you!"
Sally took one step back and then moved in to strike again. Since Maple wasn't getting
hit herself, she had plenty of time to sip potions.
This was not normally an enemy you could brawl with head-on and survive, but with
these two, they could rack up some decent damage.
"Triple Slash!"
The boss's three-strike combo ripped into Sally, and her own combo sent sparks flying
from its armor.
"We're going all out and still only at twenty percent?"
"I'm fine! I got plenty of Iz's potions!"
"Argh, and its movements are so simplistic!"
The boss's move set consisted of nothing more than a basic combo, some swift followup attacks, and regular flanking maneuvers. No weird gimmicky stunts, just sheer raw
strength that was wearing her down.
Sally was sure it would add more tricks as the fight went on, but she was already at
her limit.
"My DPS is as good as it gets, too!"
The blue aura of Sword Dance was at its brightest, and each time her daggers struck
the boss's sword, sparks flew.
She threw in a spell to make it flinch, but the boss dodged it—like Sally would.
"…Maple's Hydra might not land."
Sally's brain was spinning, trying to think of how they could hurt this thing more
before the phase shift. Most of Maple's moves were single big attacks, and if it evaded
any one of them completely, their total potential damage would drop significantly.
And if the boss's DPS got any boosts, their current strategy would fall apart.
"Whew… Oboro, Shadow Clone!"
Splitting herself, Sally had them all lay into it. In response, the boss's blade gleamed,
and it went into a spin, hacking all the clones. Sally herself managed a backstep in time,
but her expression was grim. She was quickly making a mental list of skills they could
use and skills it would thwart, then merging that list with Maple's skills and looking
for a valid approach.
"Okay. Maple! I've got a plan to hurt this thing, so listen closely. Once I'm done talking,
I'll just carve away till the next phase hits."
"Gotcha!"
Raining down blows, Sally filled in Maple on her plan. Maple got her head wrapped
around the skills she'd need and the timing to use them.
"Okay! I've got it!"
"Then… Triple Slash!"
Sally's daggers took out one last chunk, putting it below the 70-percent mark and
forcing it into the next phase.
The boss swung wide and jumped back, running its hand down the length of the blade.
Flames sprang up from it, billowing in the sword's wake.
"Maple, I'm gonna watch a bit. You focus on healing just in case!"
"Will do."
The boss swung the sword, shooting flames out before it—then it charged at Sally.
Sally dodged the flying flames and caught the sword on her daggers. Fire spurted
across Maple's armor, doing damage.
"Ack…!"
"Burn damage there, too?"
Sally stopped blocking blows, focusing on dodging, trying to reduce Maple's damage.
But every attack the boss did was enhanced with fire, and if her dodges were even a
moment too late, she'd get burned. She needed to keep her distance to avoid getting
caught.
"This thing's got even less openings!"
If she backed off too far, it started flinging flame blades at her. That prevented Maple
from bringing out Syrup. But seeing its movements otherwise unchanged, Sally gave
the order.
"Okay, Maple! On the offense!"
"Gotcha!"
While Sally was being aggressive and pulling the boss's aggro, Maple deployed her
weapons and blasted off, getting in close.
"Zone Freeze!"
There was an audible snap, and the ground around Maple froze. The boss had its feet
on that ground, and the freeze spread up them, immobilizing it for three full seconds.
"Power Attack!"
"Hydra! Saturating Chaos! Predators!"
In that brief time, they busted out attacks that left them exposed or were easily
dodged. The Predators' attacks lowered the boss's stats some more, but three seconds
was not very long, and already the boss was moving again.
And as they tried to back off—the boss stuck its sword in the ground.
A massive red magic circle appeared, centered on the armored boss.
"Crap…!"
"Atrocity!"
Maple's cry rang out just as a ginormous pillar of fire erupted from the ground.
When the flames died down, Sally was unharmed—but the Atrocity body was
crumbling away, dumping Maple back in front of her. Sally picked her up and put some
distance between them and the boss. At least it seemed like that big spell left it frozen
for a moment, but they were in no state to take advantage of it.
"That was too close."
"Sorry, didn't think it had that up its sleeve."
"Going all in on offense might be too risky. I can't use Atrocity again…"
"Better not use Martyr's Devotion anymore. An AOE like that will take you down
before your healing kicks in."
"Mm, you'll have to dodge, though!"
"Leave that to me. It's kinda my thing."
Maple redeployed her guns and hefted her shield. Sally raised her daggers and
refocused.
"Let's go, Maple! Phantom World!"
"Commence Assault!"
There were now three Maples, heavily armed and riddling the boss with an incredible
number of rounds. She was far enough away that its spin attack could not eliminate
her clones, so it threw up a wall of fire, defending itself.
"Argh, break that down!"
As if in answer to her prayer, the flames disappeared—but the boss was in the air, out
of the barrage's path, and throwing itself at Maple.
"Pierce Guard!"
Trying to lay down as much damage as she could, Maple turned her guns up and got
ready to hit it with Devour. The element on the boss's blade was even stronger, like a
pillar of fire cleaving Maple and her clones.
The fire itself did damage over time, and Pierce Guard couldn't block it—but it did
cancel out the sword strike itself, so she was still standing.
Her clones were gone, but Maple paid that no heed, swinging her shield and gouging
a chunk out of the boss's shoulder and torso. A spray of red sparks went up from the
armor.
"One more!"
But the flaming sword knocked away her shield, and the boss charged in after, leaving
her unable to recover.
But that was Maple's plan.
"Sally!"
"Quintuple Slash!"
Sally had slipped away as Maple's barrage started, using Oboro's Shadow Clone to
disappear completely—out of sight, out of mind—and she'd been waiting behind the
boss for a chance to strike.
With Doping Seeds pushing her to her limits, she unleashed her strongest combo
attack. With the extra hits provided by Chaser Blade, each hand hit ten times for a total
of twenty strikes, all stabbing the boss in the back. The blade bearing down on Maple
stopped—the damage it had taken was too great to ignore, and it changed up, stabbing
the sword into the ground at its feet.
The magic circle appeared, ready to incinerate them up again.
"Quick Change!"
"Heal!"
"Aegis!"
Maple's alt gear gave her larger HP pools, which Sally topped up, allowing her to
deploy a damage-nulling dome of light.
A move as big as the boss's—canceling the damage on an attack that should have killed
them. Flames raged outside the dome's reach.
"It's open!"
"Nice!"
The spell left the boss frozen again, and this time, they were ready for it. Maple fired
her guns, Sally landed a few combos, and the boss's health dropped to 30 percent.
That caused a shock wave that did no damage but knocked them both away.
Sally darted over to Maple, topped up her HP, and watched closely for the armor's next
move.
Maple switched her gear back and called on Syrup to up their offensive capabilities.
"That went well!"
"But this ain't over till it's over."
The boss still had its sword in the ground. Flames gushed from it, the ground cracked,
pillars of fire shot skyward, and the entire terrain was transformed. Raging fires lit up
the walls and ceiling, and flames were pouring out of the chinks in its armor.
Five swords made of fire appeared in the air behind it, and the flames on its main
weapon raged even higher.
"…Guess the gloves came off."
"We can take it!"
With the phase shift complete, the boss was ready to attack. All five floating blades
turned toward the girls, swooping in fast. With such simplistic movements compared
to what Shin from Flame Empire could do, Sally easily read their trajectories and got
out of the way. Even Maple had seen attacks like this before and was able to evade
them.
But there was one key difference—these swords left a fiery thread in the air behind
them, reducing their movement options.
"Don't use Cover Move! We can't risk double damage now."
"Yeah, I figured!"
When they dodged the last of the flaming swords, they turned in the air and came
swooping back in. The fiery threads were still burning—and the boss generated five
more swords behind it. The girls gaped.
"More?!"
"Maple! We gotta make this quick."
"Y-yeah!"
The longer this phase lasted, the worse off they'd be. They ran toward the boss.
"Taunt! I'll keep the swords occupied, Sally! You hit it hard!"
"Sounds good! Go!"
All ten swords were going for Maple, so Sally went after the boss alone.
"Syrup! Rampart!"
Multiple walls shot up around Maple. They soon shattered, but they managed to stop
a number of the fire blades. Resigned to losing Devour, she blocked others with her
shield, but three of them still ran Maple through. Syrup took a direct hit, and its HP hit
0—Maple herself had dropped to less than half her total health.
"Urgh, do your worst, Sally!"
"Oboro, Shadow Clone! Wind Cutter!"
The spell drew the boss's guard, and the clones baited it into using the spin.
"If I know what it'll do—"
One hit downed the decoy clones, and an even stronger strike cleaved Sally herself in
two—
Only to fade away as damage sparks sprayed from the boss itself.
She'd used Mirage as a second decoy and stabbed it from behind.
But that left her out of tricks, with the boss's flaming sword swinging her way.
"Superspeed! Come on—made it!"
She just barely escaped the blade's deadly reach, rolling away.
"Saturating Chaos!"
The big move was mostly to stop it pursuing Sally, so Maple followed up with another
barrage.
Several bullets hit the boss and did drop its HP, but not to a fatal degree.
And it added another five flying swords.
"Rooooough!"
"Urgh, we're so close!"
All the new blades and the boss went for Sally. She was still assessing things calmly.
No matter how she dodged, she was gonna soak two.
"Just gotta minimize it…!"
But even as she spoke, there was an explosion, and something cut in front of her.
Several of the flying swords hit, and red sparks sprayed—but Maple had three shields.
"Sally! Need health!"
"Heal!"
Three shields had blocked the blows, but the flames were still burning her. Sally's Heal
arrived in time to leave her hanging on by a thread.
"Zone Freeze!"
The boss was immobilized just as its blade was about to hit her.
Maple glanced at the boss's remaining health. It was below 20 percent, so she decided
to reveal the ace up her sleeve.
"Break Core!"
A red sphere tore out of Maple, pulsing.
Five seconds till a massive explosion.
Sally saw that and moved to cut off the boss's escape routes. Ice Pillar. Sand Wall.
Normally, it would have gotten away—but she had it trapped.
"Now… it'll hit!"
Maple's skill activated before the boss could free itself. There was a boom, and a pillar
of fire scorched the roof above. The boss's HP dropped hard—and Indomitable
Guardian kept Maple herself alive by a single point.
When the column of light faded—
The boss was still alive. Only a scrap of health left.
"?!"
Maple gaped at it, and a magic circle appeared beneath them. Even larger than the one
before.
"Wh-what do we—? Augh!"
Seeing Maple stunned, Sally darted into the air above, webbed Maple, and yanked her
high.
Then she used Impact Fist to propel her even higher.
Just before the flames erupted below.
Sally made footholds in midair, kicking off them and throwing herself into the fire.
"…!"
Shed Skin kicked in, nulling the damage. She ran even faster.
Before Maple fell back into the fire, Sally made it through, her daggers raking across
the boss's throat. In that instant—the fires died away. Embers scattered—and the boss
fell to the ground.
"Because you protected me—we made it in time."
Sally sheathed her daggers—and caught Maple as she fell.
"Whew."
"Eh-heh-heh."
""We won!""
Both girls collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily—and gave each other a high five.
They took the magic circle out of the tower and got a message from the admins,
congratulating them for conquering the tower and granting them the reward. They
each got five new silver medals.
"Combined with the guild wars, that gives us ten."
"Let's get picking."
"Yeah. There might be new skills!"
"Let's meet up at the Guild Home when we're done!"
"Sure… the fifth stratum, not the sixth?"
"…Right."
They cashed in ten medals each and were transported to the selection zone.
A while later, Sally reached the Guild Home to find Maple waiting on the couch.
"Already done, Maple?"
"I waffled a bit but picked something obvious."
"Yeah, we both know what we need."
"Eh-heh-heh. Here's what I got!"
Maple showed Sally her new skill.
Unbreakable Shield
Take only half damage for thirty seconds.
Three-minute cooldown.
"Aha. You did take a lot toward the end there."
"I'd rather not take any, but…"
"I'll let you know if I see anything like that. I ended up taking a skill that lets me control
water."
"Different from water magic?"
Water Wielding
Water manipulation skill. Levels I–X. Gain an additional skill at each level.
"It changes as the skill levels up, so I figured it could be fun. Good for making frozen
platforms, too. So far, all it lets me do is have water appear on the ground in front of
me, though."
"Can't wait to see where it takes you!"
As they talked, the other guild members must have seen them at home, because they
all started dropping by.
Everyone looked tired but pleased with themselves—which meant only one thing.
Chrome flashed a grin. "Maple! Sally! We got through!"
"Heh-heh. So did we!"
"On our first try!"
"Wow. That takes some doing. It was pretty tough, right?"
"Fire everywhere!"
"You beat us to it? We were this close!"
"What skills did you go for?"
Maple and Sally showed off their new skills. The rest of the guild said the seventh
stratum would be added soon, so they'd make their choices after clearing that.
"Then we'll have to party up, clear the sixth-stratum boss, and hit the new map!"
"…M-Maple… can we use the tower strat…?"
The entire sixth stratum was horror-themed, and the exit boss would almost certainly
be, too. Sally could never fight it. She would have to hide inside Atrocity's mouth.
"Mm-hmm, sure! Then we can play together again once we're safely on the new
stratum."
"The whole guild together again! That should make it a cakewalk."
"We'll do our part!"
"Absolutely!"
Their next goal was clear. They were bound for the seventh stratum.