by Fujino Omori
“Now that Mr. Bell is gone, it will be hard to fend off attacks from ordinary monsters while protecting the injured at the same time. The burden on Miss Aisha will be too heavy.”
Now there were five wounded. If each was carried by one member of the party, that left only three members who could fight properly. As Lilly laid out her logical argument, she glanced at the elven adventurers whom Cassandra was already tending to.
“But Lady Lilly, wouldn’t it be wrong to abandon Sir Bell on this floor and escape…?” Mikoto asked.
“I’m not saying escape to the surface, just to the cliff by the passage leading to the twenty-fourth floor.”
“What do you mean?” Ouka pressed. Lilly responded in an even voice.
“Back in that spot with the good views, there aren’t any streams, and aside from the flying monsters, we won’t be attacked. The cliff trail is the only one, so it will be easy to protect ourselves…That enhanced species won’t be able to take us by surprise. I say we set up an emergency camp out there.”
As long as they kept an eye out for monsters descending from the twenty-fourth floor, they should be okay.
“Miss Aisha, you go up to Rivira by yourself and get help. Lilly and the others will…get a level boost from Miss Haruhime and defend the exit of the connecting passage. We will protect the injured,” she continued, lowering her voice after a pause so Luvis and the other elves wouldn’t hear her talking about Haruhime’s ability.
“So you’re suggesting we use that cliff as an improvised fort,” Welf said.
“It’s true that carrying this many wounded up to the eighteenth floor will be difficult,” Daphne added. “If we just have to get to the entrance to the twenty-fifth floor, though, I think we can make it, and given the terrain, we may be able to hold out until help comes. If we can do that, a party descending from the middle levels just might help us.”
Both she and Welf looked satisfied by Lilly’s explanation. The prum continued.
“Plus, now that Mr. Bell has been separated from Lilly, he is likely to end up coming out at that big cavern. That’s what happens when you get separated in the Water Capital, right…isn’t that what Miss Eina said? If we’re camped out on the cliff by the connecting passageway, we should be able to spot him.”
Having finished her explanation, Lilly drew a breath. Ouka alone still looked skeptical.
“…I understand making the cliff our base. But what are we gonna do if that enhanced species attacks us? It might not be able to surprise us, but with Antianeira gone, we’ll have a helluva time fighting it off.”
“That’s precisely my plan. The road out there doesn’t branch off at any point and has nowhere to escape. By luring it there…Mikoto can use her Futsu no Mitama gravity-controlling magic to crumble the entire cliff path and send it crashing way down to the ground below where it’ll be buried by the rubble,” Lilly said, a cold expression on her face.
Ouka was at a loss for words. He coughed loudly.
Daphne, too, gaped at Lilly. In this do-or-die situation, the prum had found a way to pay the monster back for its earlier clever use of the terrain.
I may have taught her how to lead…but this girl is way smarter than me!
Daphne, who had instructed the prum girl step-by-step, was in awe. Once, she had witnessed a full-scale battle by Loki Familia. Finn’s cool and controlled face as he directed his troops against Goliath, the floor boss of the seventeenth floor, rose before her mind’s eye, and she couldn’t help layering it on top of the face of the supporter who stood before her now, supposedly weaker than Daphne herself.
“The question is whether Chigusa and the other wounded can hold out that long,” Lilly continued. “And of course, this all assumes that if the enhanced species attacks us on the way through the labyrinth, we’ll be able to fight it off…So, what do you think?”
She looked up at Aisha. Only at the end of the explanation had she allowed some of her uncertainty to show.
The battle-hardened Amazon grinned.
“I like it. Let’s go with that plan.”
Her words were the signal for the group to start moving, and Welf and the others quickly responded. Lilly put back on the pack and Goliath Robe she’d thrown off and set to work on other preparations.
“I knew we’d be able to rely on you, Lady Lilly. Mr. Bell said so, too,” said Haruhime, who was helping her.
“Huh?”
“He said he always relied on Miss Lilly…He told me that when I was cleaning the house once.”
Lilly widened her eyes and flushed to hear this new information.
“Compared to you, I’m always getting flustered and not helping anyone…” Haruhime sighed.
“Wh-what are you talking about?! Your strength is exactly what we need in emergencies!”
As if to hide her embarrassment, she gave the dejected renart’s tail a sharp slap.
“Ouch!” the fox girl yelped.
“Stop playing around and hurry up!” Aisha scolded.
Just before Lilly followed Welf and the others out of the room, she glanced back.
“…”
Maybe Bell had already defeated the enhanced species and was trying at this very moment to meet back up with them…No, she had to get that wishful thinking out of her head. As long as the parasitic vines growing from Chigusa and the others hadn’t vanished, the monster was alive. For the sake of her companions, Lilly had to leave.
“Mr. Bell…I’m sorry.”
With no one looking, the prum turned toward the water that had swept Bell away and allowed the face of a weak young girl to reveal itself for an instant. Then, mopping the corners of her eyes, she turned and left the room.
The sound of the waterfall thunders on endlessly.
I can tell because of the vibrations that reach me. Although the bottom of the pool is cold and dark, my entire body is hot like I’m on fire. I make a burbling sound as I sink. When I stop moving, I shake off the hand of the cold water that is trying to drag me over the edge of death and push myself upward with a single thrust.
A fountain of bubbles shatters the water’s light-speckled surface.
“Cough! Gasp!”
As my face breaks through the water, I am racked by coughs. My throat convulses as I spit up the huge volume of water I swallowed. The constant powerful roaring and showers of water are incredibly irritating. But that very irritation is proof that I, Bell Cranell, am alive.
I’m in the center of the huge pool at the base of the Great Falls, and I just narrowly escaped death.
“Aaah, ooooh, errrgh…!!”
An idiotic, agonized groan escapes the gap between my teeth. I obey the pulsating voice of my instincts and flail my arms like a drowning child, heading for the shore of the pool as I splash the water around noisily. The second my struggling feet touch ground, I kick off forcefully and push the upper half of my body out of the water. I walk forward, almost tripping facedown into the water, until I reach the shallows where it’s around my shins.
“Aaaaaahhh…!”
I fall forward onto my arms and start crawling. My whole body hurts so much I feel like my blood vessels have exploded. The world looks red. I don’t even want to imagine what condition I’m in. I’ve probably fractured multiple bones. To escape this intense pain that’s making every nerve in my body scream out, I reach for the high potion I stuffed into my reinforced leg holsters and use it. I do that again and again, with who knows how many vials.
After I’ve poured solutions over my head and drunk them down until all my potions are gone…I finally raise my head and look up at the Great Falls.
…So that’s where I fell from.
The immense waterfall pours its emerald-blue water straight down. When we first arrived at this floor, the magnificent flow of water appeared so beautiful to me I couldn’t take my eyes off it, but now that it’s less than fifty meders away, it looks like some horrendous monster. More than anything, the immensity of it is frightening. I can’t help shive
ring at the sensation that nature is an enemy staring down on my insignificant self.
I think I fell from somewhere near the middle of the falls. Given that I was carried over the edge by a stream running through the multilayered labyrinth inside the cliff, that would make sense. If I’d fallen from the very top of the falls up by the roof of this floor…even my Level-4 body would probably have been smashed to pieces.
A shiver runs down my neck as I stand up and look around.
The plunge pool is as big as a lake. It fills about half the huge cavern, and the deep-blue color of the area directly under the falls hints at its depth. Water droplets dance ceaselessly at the base, sending up a white mist. The roar of the falls is so powerful I’m worried my eardrums will burst. About a hundred meders south of the plunge pool is the top of another waterfall leading to the twenty-sixth floor. If I was to fall over that one, there’s no way I’d survive again.
When I turn my back on the plunge pool—or rather, lake—I’m confronted by a magical landscape. There are crystal shores that look like rocky flats, and crystal valleys, and crystal cliffs. All are made from the same blue crystal. The only plant in sight is an ajura shedding its bluish white petals. As I stare at the tree, which I’ve seen once before in the red-light district, I forget the passage of time.
…Get ahold of yourself! This is no time to daydream. You have to meet up with the others!
I clear my head and check my gear. The Divine Knife and Hakugen are safe in the scabbards where I hurriedly thrust them. Aside from a few antidotes, my items are gone. But my armor just has a few scratches on it, and I’ve got plenty of mental energy left.
Right now, I’m on the eastern side of the cavern. If I head southeast along the shore, I’ll reach the connecting passageway to the twenty-sixth floor, and if I go the opposite direction along the northeast side that I’m facing now, I’ll reach a cave leading to the labyrinth inside the cliff.
The enhanced species disappeared down a tributary.
It probably assumes I drowned in the Great Falls and is going after Lilly and the rest of the party. I have to hurry.
I hope they’re okay…
The shallows where I’m standing now have so many crystal clusters jutting from them they look like reefs. Far above my head I see some dots, probably harpies and sirens. They don’t seem to have noticed me yet. In order to avoid unnecessary fights, I turn toward the cave to the northeast, beyond the ajura. Just then, I hear something.
“—”
It’s a whizzing sound, like something cutting through the wind.
I jump reflexively to the side. You could say it’s my adventurer’s intuition that tells me to move away in time.
The next instant, something rips my shoulder and I fall into the shallow water.
“Huh…?!”
The water assaults my face as blood flowing from my shoulder dirties the emerald-blue surface. I look up toward the Great Falls towering behind me. Countless scarlet lines are slanting through the misty air.
“Crap…iguaçu…!” I mutter, irritated.
The swallow monsters appear in the Water Capital that extends from the twenty-fifth to the twenty-seventh floor. They live in the cliff behind the Great Falls, and adventurers call them “invisible monsters.”
The reason for their nickname is the incredible speed they possess.
Whenever someone shows up near the falls, they zoom out fast enough to break through that violent cascade of water and bombard them. They look exactly like bullets fired into the air. Some adventurers have even conferred the name “Flash” on them. They’re the most feared monsters on this floor—and the fastest ones in the lower levels!
“—!!”
“Eh?!”
I don’t even have time to curse my own carelessness for standing around near the plunge pool before another scarlet flash streaks toward me. Even with my enhanced dynamic visual acuity from leveling up, I can’t fully make it out. It tears into my cheek, and the wind pressure around it knocks me off balance.
Then another one shoots down.
This one heads for the center of my torso, but even as I stand there wide-eyed, I thrust up one arm to block the devilish missile with the back of my hand, which is sheathed in its dir-adamantite guard.
“Oof!”
There’s a tremendous dull thud and a shock like I’ve been hit with a huge hammer. I fall back clumsily onto my butt in the shallow water.
When I look at the hand that blocked the attack…I see that the corpse of a swallow is smeared onto it. The wet scarlet feathers are falling off, and its magic stone is visible beneath the pink flesh. My eyes meet a bloody eyeball that’s popped out of its socket, and I wince.
This is the fate of an iguaçu that fails in its attack.
The instant they collide with a shield or another hard object, their own speed becomes their curse and crushes their body to death.
The sight of this vain and weird manner of dying creeps me out. As I’m thinking about it, I hear that sound again. Whiz, whiz.
A frightening chorus of bodies cutting through the wind.
“…Crap.”
I look up, and a hope-shattering scene meets my eyes.
An unbelievable number of those scarlet lines are slanting through the air.
I’m not talking about one or two. Even just counting the trajectories I’m able to see at one glance, there are at least twenty of them. Yes indeed, a countless number of iguaçu are flying around up there.
Could this be an irregular event in the Dungeon—a mass outbreak of monsters? And just my luck, an outbreak of iguaçu?
A chill runs down my spine. I stare as one of the scarlet lines flashes toward me, and I leap away to avoid it.
“Whoa!”
“—!!”
The iguaçu have begun their bombardment.
Dozens of attacks rain down around me. The monsters streak past at top speed half a step in front of me, grazing my arms and legs before exploding into the water’s surface like miniature geysers.
It’s no use—all I can see are lines!
I run through the shallow water and dive with all my strength behind a crystal cluster protruding from its surface.
“…?!”
Bambambambambam!!
Right away, I hear the sound of crystal busting apart. I stand there gaping at the tsunami of crystal fragments flying into the air and the powerful vibrations, which I can feel because my back is pressed against the cluster.
It’s unbelievable—this thick, rock-hard crystal cluster is being chipped away before my eyes!
Some of the monstrous swallows die as they crash into the surface, but still they’re trying to demolish the obstacle that stands between them and their prey. As they inflict this rain of rapid-fire projectiles on me, the sound of their bodies cutting through the air drowns out their menacing cries.
Second by second, the cluster nears total destruction. My heart pounds low and distant.
A drop of sweat falls from my forehead.
They’re betting their lives on inflicting a single deadly blow. That’s got to be powerful. All the upper-class adventurers say that if you encounter an iguaçu, you should drop anything you’re holding and run. It’s reasonable to think they could open a hole straight through you with their bodies. My enemies are pure hunters willing to offer up their own fleeting lives to murder the invader.
I guess this is part two of my baptism in the lower levels, right after the underwater battle.
The Dungeon has no mercy for adventurers who lose their footing.
What do I do what do I do what do I do?
The crystal cluster where I’m taking shelter is too far from the cave leading inside the cliff. If I try to escape that way, I’ll be stung by the equivalent of a hornet’s nest along the way. If I swim toward the plunge pool and hide underwater, water-dwelling monsters will kill me. Retreat is impossible. All I can do is ride out this assault using some kind of big, hard protective gear. But I don’t h
ave a shield or heavy armor. I might as well be naked. There’s no way I can withstand the attack. I’m defenseless.
—I hate this. I won’t accept it. I can’t go out like this.
I will not die here. This fate of utter destruction can eat a pile of crap. Damn, I’m developing a dirty mouth. Whatever, who cares. Not me. Not if I can get out of here alive.
My friends are out there. My promise to help the Xenos is out there.
The rival I want to beat and the idol I want to match are out there.
I haven’t done anything yet!
A second after that thought passes through my head, the last of the crystal posts in the cluster crashes into the water.
“…!”
I dive underwater to evade the charging iguaçu.
Amid the splashes, I roll over and quickly stand up again.
Half the flock of iguaçu has been killed, and the rest are whizzing through the air as they rally their forces again. As I survey the countless slanting scarlet lines…I make up my mind.
I reach my right hand toward my hip and draw a knife. Holding it backhand as I crouch slightly, I prepare myself to face the flock of monsters.
—I’m going to cut them all down.
Since I can’t escape and I can’t defend myself, I’ve decided to intercept them head-on. My senior adventurers just might faint if they could see me now.
It’s not that I’ve gone crazy or gotten desperate.
I just had a thought.
If she was here—if the Sword Princess Aiz Wallenstein was here—this is probably what she would do.
And if she could get through it…then I’ll prove I can, too.
“—Game on!”
I’ve chosen Hakugen as my weapon. Even among daggers, this unicorn-horn knife is incomparably light, and it handles incredibly. It’s the right knife to take down those ultra-speedy monsters.
I don’t need any other weapons. I’m going to focus all my energy into the single blade in my right hand. If I wait till I see them, I’ll be too late. I have to feel—the flow of the wind and their drive to kill. I have to predict their trajectories.
“…”
White spray flies from the waterfall as the sound of the pounding water tangles with the whizzing of monsters cutting through air.
