(General POV)
Ais swung Desperate diagonally, cleaving a kobold from it's shoulder to its hip sending blood spurting out everywhere before the monster disappeared. Lili clapped her hands as she watched Ais evade and counter the surprise attack.
They both simultaneously turned however to see Lyze walking nonchalantly along the dungeon tunnels, lazily swinging his fists left and right as the monsters swarmed him. Every back hand shattered a monster's skull or sent the flying back into the walls where they exploded in ash or guts.
The casualness of this one sided slaughter made the other two sweat drop.
"Are you not going to pull out your sword, Big Brother?" Lili asked.
Lyze froze again with a shiver before he turned back to address her.
"No Lili. I don't have a need to use my sword. These monsters are far too weak for me to bother drawing my Excalibur."
"But Gareth says to always have your weapon drawn in the dungeon as danger can ambush you at any moment." Ais said.
"Perhaps. But remember that there is no way a sneak attack can happen on me in this particular part of the dungeon. Not to mention I'm perfectly capable of either escaping or fighting hand to hand. I'm pretty sure 'you' were the one Gareth was advising."
A War Shadow tried to sneak upon him and skewer him through the chest with its clawed hand. But without even looking back, he caught the claws in between his fingers from which they would not budge, even when the monster pulled with all it's might.
"See?" Lyze said. "Not a chance."
He pulled his arm forward, bringing the War Shadow over his head before slamming him into the ground so hard that cracks began formed in the rock. The monster instantly disappeared into smoke leaving the core to clatter behind. As usual, the monster core levitated itself into his hammer-space.
"We should keep going." Ais said. "If we want to get home before sunset, we need to reach the 13th floor as soon as possible."
"Sure." He replied.
They continued downwards into the dungeon slaying monsters as they went by. Lili picked up the cores that Ais dropped since Lyze didn't require her help at the moment. On the way, they passed by a familiar group that were heading up out of the dungeon.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Said an (sort of) angry red head with green eyes as she locked her sights on him. "If it isn't the idiot who took our kill from us a couple of weeks ago."
"Oh." Lyze said dryly. "Hello Hag."
The girl's face went red with anger as she squealed at him. "I told you not to call me that!" She half-screamed in frustration. "I'm a beautiful young woman who stands as a true champion for justice under the blessing of Goddess Astraea. What part of me is ugly?!"
"What did I do to make you call me an idiot?" He returned as his two companions watched in silent mirth and confusion.
"What did you do?" The redhead spluttered. "First you took our claimed monster rex when we made it very clear that we would be the ones to take it's life. And not only that, when you were done with the thing, you almost burned us alive with the spells you were firing off! What part of that doesn't scream idiot?"
"The part where I didn't stop to consider that a supposedly experienced adventurer would do something stupid like getting in between a battle between an adventurer and a monster rex." He flatly replied.
"URGH!" The girl grit her teeth. "Can't you even make the effort to put at least a little emotion behind the insult. You just sound like an emotionless puppet everytime you sling dirt."
"Maybe because you're not worth the effort?"
"WHY YOU-"
"That's probably enough, Alise." A dark haired girl wearing a kimono with a katana by her side walked up to the girl. "Can't you tell he's just using your anger to get under your skin?"
"Yes I can Kaguya!" Alise gnashed at her vice-captain. "Except that I'm not usually bothered by it. It's only when he does it that my skin starts to crawl!"
Kaguya sighed before turning towards the trio. "Apologies in regard to our captain here. As you can see, she's not completely over the last time."
"It's okay." Lyze smiled. "It's just fun seeing her squirm."
"It's not very nice though." A girl with very dark blue hair spoke up in her soft voice as she walked up to them ahead of her captain and vice captain. "It's wrong to deliberately try and wind people up."
"I'm just saying." Lyze held his hands up. "She's the one who addressed me as idiot first, Maryuu."
"That is true." Maryuu said as she lightly brushed her fingers along her mace, in a non-threatening manner. It was just absentminded wandering of her hands.
"Congratulations though." Said a white haired werewolf as she grinned at him. "We heard of your new alias...Skelmir'Of'."
"Don't rub it in." Lyze said.
"Or what?" Neze, the werewolf said as she grinned mischievously. "Are you going to fight me?"
"That would certainly be the fun way of doing things." Lyze grinned back as he clenched his fist. "I wouldn't mind getting the opportunity to teach a puppy she's not ready for her claws."
"Oh." She gave a dangerous smile as she crouched in front of him. "And you think you'd win?"
"I'm sure I would. After all, if it takes the bunch of you to take out Goliath, it stands to reason that I'm stronger because I can take it out on my own."
"We'll just have to find out then, shouldn't we?" Neze said as her hair raised and she licked her lips.
Before anything went down though, a pink haired Pallum suddenly got between them and pushed their faces apart.
"Alright you two, break it up." Lyra was her name. She then looked at Lyze. "You don't need to be cocky just because you're nearly level 3 already."
"Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, you're still a level 2." Lyze said.
"I'm working hard for my gains." Lyra snorted. "I don't have absurd magic that just torches my opponents in the blink of an eye to help me along."
"Not exactly the reason for my growth, but fair enough." Lyze shrugged. Lyra peeked behind him to see Lili. The brown haired Pallum took notice and shrank back a little from the sudden attention.
"Oooooh." Lyra said as she approached Lili and leaned down a little to look the girl in the eye. "Who's this little cutie?" She said as she pulled on Lili's cheeks before suddenly levelling a glare at Lyze. "Don't tell me you're taking advantage of her!" She said darkly.
"Nah." Lyze replied unfazed. "She's our supporter and a friend of ours as well. No exploiting going on here."
"Really?" Lyra said mock skeptically before she was interrupted by Ais hands suddenly pushing Lili away from her. Lyra locked eyes with Ais's cold gaze and eyed the girl's hand creeping towards Desperate. She then cocked at her head at Lili. "Is that true little girl?"
"Y-yes." Lili nodded sincerely. "Big Brother Lyze treats Lili very well."
"Is that so?" Lyra asked. "...Well I'm glad to hear it. Remember, we Pallums need to work hard to get by as adventurers. You'll do good in the Loki Familia, and remember to 'learn everything and use anything'. Knowledge is a powerful tool, which can be used to make you very powerful if you put in the work and you're smart about. Got that?"
Lili nodded tentatively, resulting in Lyra smiling approvingly. Lyze stared at the exchange amused with a small smirk. If only those two knew of their relationship in their previous lives...
"Well I suppose we should be moving along now. We don't want to waste any more of anyone's time." Kaguya said as she held Alise's shoulder and directed her past them. "Good luck on your upcoming expedition, Loki Familia."
"You too." Lyze replied as he watched the Astraea Familia members walk past them one by one. The very last to go was a certain blonde elf with long hair and green eyes carrying a sword. The elf stopped and stared down at the boy for a few seconds, prompting him to question her.
"What Ryuu? Finally going to say something to me?" He said.
She stared at him for a few more seconds, her eyes roaming up and down his form before she shrugged her shoulder and looked back at her comrades.
"You should be careful from the 11th floor onwards." She said quietly. Lyze raised a brow.
"Why?" He asked.
"Just be careful. There are weird things going on down there. Stone monsters and stuff like that." She said before swiftly walking away.
"Stone monsters?" He questioned. "Has a new species of monsters appeared or something?"
"They don't seem to get along with you very well." Ais commented. "What did you do?"
"'sigh' The third time round I fought Goliath, I did it purely with magic instead of physical attacks. Goliath tends to swing his arm at me like I'm an insect whenever I fly around him in circles. As a result some of my spells are misdirected and one of them nearly hit the Astraea Familia." Lyze shrugged his shoulder. "I tried apologizing but Hag kept on pestering me about awareness in the dungeon and whatnot. She called me and idiot so I decided to get back at her by calling her Hag."
"Her name is Alise, Big Brother." Lili said. "She's a captain you know. So you have to respect her."
"She'll get it when she stops calling me idiot." Lyze crossed his arms. "Well? Let's go. We need to get to the 13th floor and we're still stuck on the sixth. Let's move it."
And so they continued onwards towards the misty floors, excited as they aimed to reach the middle floors and see really powerful monsters. None of them noticed the large shadowy figure that was silently pursuing them some ways behind.
As soon as they entered, a couple of Orcs spawned out of the ground as well as a bunch of imps.
"You fine with an Orc Ais?" Lyze asked as he drew Excalibur, not wanting to risk Lili's safety with this many monsters about.
Ais merely nodded before drawing Desperate and rushing towards one orc. Lyze shifted his attention to the monsters he was facing and braced as the imps jumped hi simultaneously. Timing it perfectly, he smoothly cleaved through most of them, turning them into dust. Those that escaped his sword suddenly found themselves kicked or slapped aside. The sheer strength behind each strike was strong enough to put dents in their bodies, providing their last moments with horrible pain before they disappeared into oblivion.
The Orc lumbered forward and swiped with his hands at Lyze's legs, intending to grab the boy and dangle him upside down. Lyze jumped over the arm towards the pig monster's face and slammed a thunderous punch into it's ugly mug. The orc's skull exploded into bone fragments and brain matter as the body swayed a little before collapsing in a vile smelly heap.
Lyze glanced over to Ais just in time to see Ais drive her Desperate into the other orc's heart and twist. The other orc jerked a bit before falling backwards and disappearing. Ais breathed out before sheathing her Desperate. She smiled at him, and he was about to return it when he and Lili became horrified at seeing a Silverback shove it's way out of the ground behind Ais.
The girl looked behind her alarmed at seeing one of the more powerful level 2 monsters falling upon her so quickly. She tried frantically to pull out Desperate again in time when she felt something suddenly rush by her at a blinding speed, causing a dust cloud to blow in her face. She heard the metallic sound of a sword cleaving something, and blinked away the dust to see Lyze where the monster had been.
What remained of the Silverback was two halves of it's body flying in the air, with a perplexed look still present on each part of its face before they monster despawned and dropped its core. They all sighed in relief.
"And I thought you were supposed to keep your weapons drawn, huh Ais." Lyze said jokingly.
She shook her head and smiled. "Thank you for the help Lyze."
"No problem." He replied before eyeing the place it had spawned. "It's not common for a Silverback to spawn like that down here in the 11th floor."
"Maybe we were caught at a bad time." Lili suggested.
"Maybe. Let's get out of here quick before we get any more nasty surprises." Lyze led the two away to the next stairs as soon as they could. There was an unsettling feeling in his stomach.
The feeling intensified when they came upon the entrance to the 12th floor.
"What?" They all said simultaneously.
There were a few monsters scattered about in different positions across the space in front of them. At least what they could see in the mist. Except they were all inanimate for one simple reason.
Lyze approached a still Hard Armoured and placed a hand on it's back. Stone cold, quite fittingly as well. Because all these monsters were in fact made of stone. The creepy thing was though, the poses each of them were in was off. If he didn't know any better, he would have said that these statues were all posed in some sort of startled, defensive manner, akin to someone who had been snuck up upon.
"Weird." Lili said as she ran a hand over an imp statue. "Lili has never seen such detail on a statue. Lili has seen sculptors before, but sculptors can't do this. This is too good and we are in the dungeon."
"This must have been what Ryuu was talking about." Lyze said aloud.
'And everything Lili has said, I've heard these exact things before. Or rather, I 'read' them. This whole scenario feels an awful lot like...'
Out of nowhere, the golden chainmail which he'd forgotten about for a bit now suddenly materialised on his body without his prompt. Looking down at the artifact, he grimaced as he realised his suspicions were on point.
He had seen this exact scenario before. And the girls were definitely in danger.
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