Chapter 24 (2/2)

This disaster cla.s.s creature could destroy an entire waterfront town. Its overwhelming strength could take out the entire military strength of something at the level of a small country.

“Fireball!”

Ria’s magic exploded towards the Hydra. Without showing any damage at all, its heads appeared from within the smoke.

“Follow the plan!”

Ria shouted, wielding the nodachi. Shouts responded to her call.

The extended battle began.

Gig changed weapons from the warhammer he specialized in to a battleaxe. As the warhammer was a blunt type weapon, even if he’d damaged the Hydra with it, it wouldn’t have been able to sever the all-important heads.

Though he was a little unaccustomed with it, he was able to skillfully try to sever the heads. Carlos intercepted the heads heading to them to bite with his s.h.i.+eld. Maal occasionally shot arrows towards the Hydra’s eyes.

It took the three people to attack a head one at a time.

Ria clad her longsword in flames and went to work. If she burned the wounds, the Hydra knew it would take longer to heal itself. So even though she tried to behead it, other heads would attack, not giving her any opportunities.

She cut and burned, sliced and burned. Nevertheless, since it recovered little by little, even though she’d attacked it many times, she wasn’t able to land a decisive blow.

Still, it was the right choice for her to switch weapons. With the katana’s length, it would have done less damage to it.

Lulu and Serge were properly using recovery and fire magic. The wounds Gig and Carlos inflicted on it were scorched by the fire magic. Though fire didn’t seem effective when it was used directly on its scales, as expected, its wounds didn’t have any defensive strength.

Little by little, tiny amounts at a time, the Hydra’s movements dulled. Though up to this point, they’d also received many attacks. Drinking magic restoration potions, Lulu and Serge both used healing and detoxification magic.

However, that balance was smashed in an instant.

“Haaaaaah-!”

Ria’s attack just about cut off a head. Pushed her katana further into it as the fire dove into the wound, she lopped off its head completely.

“First one!”

Though the number of heads only decreased by one, the balance tilted towards Ria’s group instantly.

“Excalibur!”

Though he hadn’t ama.s.sed enough magical power, Serge’s magic was still able to partially sever a head. Ria followed up his attack, severing the second head.

“Flamethrower.”

Lulu fired off flames. Though it just barely hit Ria’s hair, due to her Heat Resistance there wasn’t even any charring.

From then on Ria’s attacks increasingly used magic.

Though she could obviously wield her katana and swing it, in order for Serge to use Excalibur, she exploded fireb.a.l.l.s in its wounds.

At any rate, when talking about who had the most magical power in the party, it was her. So to save magic recovery potions, it was best for Ria to be responsible for cauterizing the wounds.

Maal drew its attention and both Carlos and Gig exhausted the heads, while Serge cut them off. Ria would then sear the wounds. Lulu focused on healing.

Somewhere along the way, they grew into a steady workflow-like pace.

Before long, there was only one huge head remaining.

Though there was a theory of this last neck being invulnerable in her previous life, according to the subjugation records it wasn’t like that.

Continuing to earnestly wear it down, they injured and burned it.

By chaining their attacks, the Hydra’s blood flowed, certainly weakening.

Carlos stopped a fang attack in the end and Serge’s magic decided it. The head was amputated.

Everyone’s breathing was rough.

To say nothing of the warriors that had been moving around, the magicians had also been pushed to their limits, moreover repeatedly healing to the limit.

“This meat is poisonous. It’s a shame, but we can’t eat it…”

After taking a bite of meat that she had roasted just right, she spat it out. Though she had Poison Resistance, that didn’t mean she liked eating poisoned food.

Even though she’d ran around the outer part of the battlefield, Maal still had most of her endurance left over, so she distributed endurance recovery potions to the warriors.

Cutting up the Hydra’s gigantic body with an axe, Ria took out the magic crystal.

The huge crystal was practically the size of a person’s head.

(Just how much money is that worth? At least more expensive than me.)

Thought Maal.

“Nee-chan, cut off the tail. The tip’s bone should be able to be processed into a sword.”

“Along with that, you should be able to gather a deadly poison from its liver. Since it’s dangerous for us, please do it.”

Because its blood was toxic, Maal couldn’t skin it.

“After that, it’d be nice to turn its hide into armor.”

Taking almost the same amount of time they’d spent on fighting, Ria harvested the Hydra’s materials.

“Well then, though we’ve reached our temporary goal…”

In the open area that’d become a battlefield, Ria spoke. Probably because they were wary of the Hydra’s poison, monsters didn’t approach.

“After coming this far, how could we not take a look at the tenth floor?”

Serge was eager. Everyone else as well, there was no one who wanted to return.

“We still have about half of our recovery potions remaining. Depending on the type of enemies on the tenth floor, we might be able to defeat the tenth floor?”

Even Lulu, who had the least combat desire among the group, decided they could.

“Same with me, I really want to see the tenth floor.”

Even the weakest, Maal, expressed her opinion.

The thing that had no records, the final floor.

There hasn’t been anyone to beat it, or at least if they have they’ve kept their mouths shut about it. For at least these two hundred years, there has been no record of it being beaten.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

Without being worked up, Ria declared.

The group of explorers stepped foot into–

–the completely unknown floor.

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