“Jirou, buy me some time.” Jeanne told her old friend as she smmed her spear on the ground, a magic circle spawn forth under her feet as she began to chant, “Ride through the sky—Rise from the deep!”

  If physical attacks wouldn’t do much against that monster, then they had to rely on magic. That would be the only tactic they could use right now.

  If that doesn’t work… she would rather not think about it.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t capable of concurrent chanting like the certain famous elven mage, so she could only stay stationary as she chanted. That made her unable to defend herself or evade any incoming attack.

  The Irregur seemed to take notice of that fw and charged at the chanting elf with every intention to stop her spell from being casted. Thankfully, Jirou immediately intercepted it by smashing his sheathed sword into its face, the strike managing to stun it for a moment.

  “Not on my watch!” He shouted as he began attacking the monster in earnest.

  That st attack had the desired effect of switching the monster’s attention to him; the Irregur started swinging its fists at him wildly, as if trying to get rid of an annoying fly.

  And like an annoying fly, Jirou managed to avoid all its strikes while managing to strike back as swiftly as he could. And just like it, while his attacks didn’t even leave much of a bruise on the monster, it did look to be somewhat hurting it.

  Barely, if at all.

  It didn’t help that in order to keep his bde from breaking, he decided to assault it with his sword sheathed.

  “Lightning is your domain—May hellfire rise up…”

  ‘Barely halfway done…!?’ Jirou mentally cried out, ‘Damn it, I’m not sure how long I can keep this up…!’

  He could feel his stamina was starting to drain as a few of its attacks were starting to be grazing him despite him managing to avoid them. If a single of its strikes hit him, he doubted he would be able to walk away from it any better than Garos or Kyumaru.

  Even so…

  “Raaaaahhhh!!!”

  Jirou kept up his assault as much as he could. He needed to buy Jeanne enough time. Her magic was the only thing that could kill the Irregur; it was capable of bsting off the feet of a Goith, after all.

  So, if they were to survive this monstrosity, he had to buy enough time—

  “GUUHH!?”

  In his desperate assault, an attack managed to overcome his evasion and struck him square in the chest. He could feel his ribs breaking under the stone-hard fist as he was sent up into the air; his consciousness fading as the taste of iron coated his mouth.

  The Irregur then smashed its fist into his airborne body and sent him crashing into a bunch of trees; the trees uprooting and toppling on top of him.

  Satisfied with the outcome, it turned its attention back to the chanting elf—

  “May they know your judgement—Feel the fmes of your sins!”

  With one final verse, her spells were ready to fire. No doubt sensing the danger, the Irregur dashed as fast as it could towards her; desperate to stop whatever she had pnned for it

  But unfortunately for the monster, it wasn’t fast enough.

  “Caelum Lupical—Tartarus Canis!!”

  With a wave of her hand, she unleashed upon the duet of spells that gave birth to her alias; the pair of wolves of lightning and magma lunged forward at the monster with the ferocity of one.

  The two spells struck true; thunder boomed across the entire floor as a fsh of light blinded anyone looking at the attack before a fming inferno devoured the target.

  The heat of the resulting explosion had Jeanne sweating up a storm, not just from draining most of her Mind for the dual spells; she fell to her knees, panting and wheezing in sheer exhaustion.

  ‘It’s been a while since I’ve experienced an almost Mind Down… If that didn’t take it down, I could only—’

  “Grrggghh…”

  “…hahaha…”

  A dejected ughter left her mouth as the smoke clear to show the Irregur Troll standing in the middle of a molten crater still alive, but not unscathed.

  The tough skin it was no doubt proud of, it had heated up till it looked like a skin of molten magma that was cooling back down; though there was a huge crack in its chest that was showing some burnt flesh. One of its arms was burnt away, while the other was covered in cracked and bck skin that shows burnt flesh underneath as well.

  Her magic definitely broke its tough hide, but it wasn’t able to pierce into its flesh. Despite that, while it was still standing, the spells left an irreversible mark on its body. It wouldn’t be as powerful as it once was.

  “GRAAAHH!!”

  Letting out a loud roar, the Irregur charged at her with half the vigor as it once did, but with twice the ferocity. Jeanne shakily pulled her spear up in front of her in an attempt to block its attack, as futile as it may be.

  It reeked its remaining arm back, ready to strike down the elven spearwoman—

  “Where do you think you’re going!?”

  “Guuh!?”

  A sword sshed into the monster’s back. But unlike the previous few times, the bde had sliced through its rocky and now molten skin and drew blood. It let loose a cry of surprise before turning around and facing the Adventurer it thought to have defeated.

  Jirou limply walked up to the Irregur; blood dripping from his head, bruises all over his body, his non-sword arm id limp on his side, his clothes in tatters; and yet, he still stood strong.

  “I’m not done yet…!!” He shouted as he brandished his sword at it, as a crimson aura began emitting from his body.

  The skill Wounded Warrior; it increased Jirou’s parameters in accordance with the amount of damage he received for five minutes. He couldn’t have counted the number of times this skill of his had saved him from certain death.

  At his current state, his status would no doubt have at least doubled.

  ‘Even so… the injuries are way worse than I originally thought…’

  He grimaced as he felt the pain from his no doubt broken ribs. He could also feel his knees about to buckle any moment, ‘Jeanne is no doubt dealing with a Mind Down right down… and I have no idea if the rest managed to survive the Stampede…’

  “I have to end this, right now…!”

  “GRRAAAAAGGGGHHH!!”

  The Irregur let out a low growl before roaring and charging towards him with a downward swing of its fist.

  Jirou steadied himself as much as he could and swung at its fist, parrying away the attack. The monster staggered back, slipping on the molten ground before falling backwards, leaving itself open for him to deal the fatal blow.

  “RAAAAHHHHHH!!”

  He leaped towards it, reeling his arm back before piercing his sword through the burnt flesh in its chest. As the Irregur fell on its back, he stepped in it and pushed the bde in deeper until he felt the breaking of its magic stone.

  Letting lose a final cry, the abnormal monster finally colpsed into nothing but ash. Once his skill’s aura dissipated, Jirou colpsed on the remains, wheezing from sheer exhaustion.

  “If… if this doesn’t get me… a Level Up… I’m going to rage so hard…” He panted out.

  “You and me both…” Jeanne panted out in response as she limped up to him, “I’m out of healing potions. Do you have any left?”

  “Left thigh pouch.”

  “Thanks.” She withdrew two potions from said pouch and uncocked them, “We need to get to the others… I doubt they could hold against those monsters for long–”

  “RRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

  An emotionally charged reverberated across the forest, one coming from their test newcomer.

  “Was that… Dae…?” Jirou asked, “Did something happen!?”

  “What it is, it can’t be good…” Jeanne agreed as she haphazardly poured the potion down his throat while she drank hers.

  “Bbbuubbbuu—are you trying to drown me with a potion—!?”

  *BOOM*

  Her worries doubled when she heard the sound of thunder.

  Tris thought she knew how dangerous the Dungeon was, of the risks an Adventurer would have to face as their job; and she thought she was fully prepared for it.

  Boy, did she think wrong.

  Comparing to the shitstorm she was currently facing to the Monster Party and Monster Rex combo she faced yesterday; she would have picked the tter over the former.

  At least with the Monster Rex, they had a sure-fire chance of escaping with everyone alive and well.

  Here? It would be a damn miracle that they made it out of this mess alive at all.

  With an Irregur Monster behind them that was at least as strong as the Familia’s best fighters, if not stronger, and a stampede of the floor’s monsters rushing at them in the front, the phrase between a rock and a hard pce came to her mind.

  “Ignis Lumine!!”

  Tetra’s spell bombarded the incoming monsters, the third time she had cast that spell over the past hour or so; and the fourth time she had to drink a magic potion as well.

  The little girl was no doubt exhausted, her voice starting to sound a bit scratchy from the back to back casting she had to do. Even so, she pressed on and began casting once more.

  “Graahh!!”

  “Guh!”

  Tris braced as a hobgoblin pushed against her tower shield; part of its snarling face peeking on the side as it tried to reach her with its nky arms. With a mighty heave, she pushed the monster off her shield, just as an arrow pierced into its chest and it turned to ash.

  Their current makeshift formation was barely holding it together.

  Tetra’s bombardment magic definitely made things easier for them, being strong enough to take down most of the tougher monsters. They would have been overrun three times over without it.

  Even so, Lisa was still barely able to hold the frontlines if at all. Her specialty was rear support with her kusarigama, so being forced to the front was doing her no favors.

  It also didn’t help that her attacks couldn’t get through the more armored monsters like the Mad Beetles. She was able to somewhat deal with those by aiming for their joints to slow them down, but that was only the bare minimum against such monsters.

  It was thanks to Drake’s support that the frontlines didn’t colpse; his arrows always hit their mark and often killed most of the monsters Lisa couldn’t kill on her own, and monsters that Tris wouldn’t be able to kill at all.

  “Graaahh!!”

  “Oh, crap!”

  It was hard enough that she had to defend against monsters that were way above her weight css, both figuratively and literally, she also had to do so while protecting not just their magic caster, but also the newest rookie to their Familia; the half elf still not fully responsive, if at all.

  “Dae, snap out of it and help me out!!”

  She had been calling out her friend since the start of their fight, but to absolutely no avail. She was on her own, and she was reaching her limit.

  “I-Ignis L-Lumine—grk!”

  “Tetra!?”

  Just as she was about to cast another bombardment, Tetra colpsed onto her knees; her magic circle faded as her spell sizzled away, just barely avoiding an Ignis Fatuus.

  She had reached her limit.

  “Damn it!” Drake fired another arrow at the monsters before turning to rear, “Tris, get Tetra a healing potion! Guard her till she recovers!”

  “G-Got it!!”

  “W-Wait…!” Tetra hoarsely called out, “I can still…!”

  “And risk getting our only advantage killed by an Ignis Fatuus? Not a chance!” He told her, “The stampede is already down by half, so we should be alright for a few minutes—”

  “GAH!!”

  “Lisa!!”

  Just as he said that, the only second-css Adventurer in their formation was sent flying by a Troll. She crashed into the tree hard; the sounds of her bones cracking could be heard from their location. The Troll stomped towards her, reeling back its fist to finish her off.

  “This is bad…!” Jirou reached for more arrows, and feel out only one left in his quiver, “And of course, I’m down to my st one.”

  “Grraaaghhh!!”

  At around the same time, a Sword Stag had begun to charge at him with equal vigor. He now knew that he had to make a choice; which one of the monsters would he fire his st arrow at.

  Without any hesitation, he drew the arrow and cocked back his bow; taking aim at the Troll, “At least I’ll die saving my comrade.”

  He let loose the arrow, the arrow pierced into the Troll’s head and killing it almost instantly. The Sword Stag soon came close to him, aiming to pierce into his body with its sharp horns.

  “Protect my comrades with your song, spirits; Venti Troy!”

  A familiar spell was cast, and a green translucent shield appeared in front of him, blocking the monster’s charge.

  “That spell is…!”

  “Don’t you count us out yet!!”

  From behind Tetra, Garos and Kyumaru leaped out ready and eager to fight; the vice-captain stabbing and killing the Sword Stag before immediately taking over the guard position from Tris

  Meanwhile, the Renard swordsman charged into the fray with his bde at hand, sshing into the monsters with reckless abandon.

  “Garos! Kyumaru!” Tris cried in joy, “Y-You guys are alright!!”

  “We were almost dead for sure if it weren't for the extra potions we kept well on hand.” He told her, showing her the empty potion fsks, “So, how’s the current situation?”

  “Bad.” Drake grimaced, “Tetra is too exhausted to chant, while Lisa just got knocked away by a Troll. She hadn’t gotten up yet–”

  The fallen trees suddenly moved and the pallum rose from within the pile, staggering back onto her feet while coughing up a blob of blood in the process; with her left arm bent the wrong way and with a broken bone sticking out.

  And yet, her eyes still burned with a determination to fight.

  “…I stand corrected.”

  “Yeah, she is a tough one.”

  A Troll charged at her with a fist ready to strike her down. Twisting the chains around her hand, the Pallum dashed forward to meet the attack head on.

  She dodged the fist by mere inches before with a firm grip, swung her chain and sent the sickle swinging and sshing into the Troll’s neck, decapitating its head almost instantly.

  A sigh escaped her lips as the monster body colpsed down next to her, before she turned to them, “You guys took too long!!”

  ““Sorry.”” They meekly apologized to her.

  “Forget it, can someone spare me a potion? I think mine broke with my arm.”

  “Got one here!” Kyumaru said.

  Garos blocked a Mad Beetle’s mandibles and killed it with a thrust of his sword before turning to Drake, “Heal the girls up. I’ll take over command.”

  “On it.”

  Drake holstered his bow and ran over to the two girls; he then withdrew a potion from his pouch and passed it to Tetra, the Amazon girl immediately started chugging its contents.

  Tris let loose a long sigh, knees almost buckling under her weight from the relief she felt. ‘We might survive this after all…’

  “Garos, above!!”

  Kyumaru’s warning came a bit too te; the vice-captain looked up just as a Deadly Hornet flew over them towards the lower levelled Adventurers; specifically Dae, who was on her knees out in the open completely unaware.

  He tried to stop it with his spell, but he couldn’t finish his incantation fast enough.

  “Dae, look out!!”

  His warning to her managed to reach Drake in time and he reacted swiftly; grabbing the tower shield from Tris and ran towards Dae as fast as he could, ignoring every cry from Tetra for him to stop.

  Just as the Deadly Hornet was about to bury its stinger into the half elf, he managed to get in front of her and braced—

  *BANG*

  *SPLAT*

  It felt like being in fog. Everything felt numb. Why did Leos do that? Why did he have to push me out of the way?

  Why wasn’t it me?

  “Guh!”

  Something warm spttered on my face.

  The smell of iron, the smell of blood.

  “…g-grgk…”

  The sound of something heavy dropping into a wet puddle broke me out of my thoughts and brought me to a horrifying sight.

  Drake was in front of me, colpsed on the ground in a puddle of blood spewed forth from a hole in his gut. His eyes half-lidded and unfocused, soft wheezes coming out of his pale trembling lips.

  “D-Drake…?”

  “DRAKE!!” Tetra cried out.

  “Damn it! Someone gets him a potion, now!” Kyumaru called out.

  “That’s not good enough! We need an elixir! Did we stock up on that!?” Lisa asked.

  “There should be one in the bags!”

  “F-Found it!!”

  “Hurry!!”

  I barely registered Tris digging through my bag and pulled out the elixir. She quickly began feeding its contents to Drake; his wounds beginning to heal, but his complexion didn’t look to be getting any better.

  “D-Drake…” Tetra sobbed, “Please… don’t die…”

  I could feel my mind going bnk, not sure what to do. My fingers started to feel numb. What was happening? Why is Drake on the ground? Who have done this to him!?

  “GGRROOOAAARRRR!!”

  I turned to the direction of the roars; my thoughts halted as I saw the horde of monsters everyone was fighting.

  Lisa and Kyumaru swinging their weapons and killing them by the dozens, Garos holding back the ones that got past them.

  As I saw the chaos happening in front of me, a certain emotion came to surface, one I had no idea was capable of feeling at such intensity.

  Anger.

  “RRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

  “Dae, wait!!”

  Letting out a cry that surprised even myself, I found myself tossing the massive backpack aside and charging right at the monsters. It was them, it was those monsters that did this to Drake, to Leos!!

  They must pay for that!!

  They all must die!!

  “Strike, and break through; Electro!!”

  My magic flowed into me as I reeled back my arm, and struck the first monster in my path; my lightning coated fist piercing into the Hobgoblin’s chest and breaking its magic stone.

  As it turned to ash, I turned my attention to the next monster; a Troll raised its hands and smmed down at me with a hammer strike. I leaped back and avoided the attack before climbing up its arm and stabbing my hand into its eye.

  It shrieked in pain before swatting me off of it with a backhand, the strike sending me crashing and bouncing off the ground hard. Pain erupted from my back as I felt my bones cracking from the attack; I ignored all that and I leaped back at it.

  As I reeled back my fist to strike at it, the Troll swung its arm at me and nded a riat, sending me crashing back into the ground.

  “Guah!!”

  The taste of iron coated my mouth, making me want to throw up my lunch in response. A sharp pain erupted from my chest; more painful than all the wounds I had suffered before.

  Even so, the rage in my veins had turned them numb as I staggered back on my feet. I refused to go down. Not until the monsters in front of me were dead.

  Not until they were ripped to shreds!!

  “Then allow me to help.”

  A voice echoed in my head, and that was immediately repced with an enormously sharp pain in my head as well as a huge sense of nausea.

  “Dae, run!!”

  “Not good, we won’t make it!!”

  Words started to popped into my mind, words of a foreign nguage that I had never heard before, but I was able to understand all the same.

  When stringed together, the sentence formed by them resembled something of a chant for a magic spell. That was followed by the effect of the spell, as well as its possible usage.

  Then, as if on its own, my mouth started chanting that spell.

  “Rage, wrath of Heaven. Caelum Veil.”

  A new form of power erupted from within, what could only be described as pure lightning surrounded my body like Electro, only this felt way different. Like the source was coming from somewhere else.

  Then, as I saw the fist was coming close to me, I spoke the next chant.

  “Dispel.”

  And my world turned white.

  Lightning struck, and thunder roared.

  That was the scene that followed afterwards when Jirou and Jeanne managed to recover enough strength and dashed over to assist their Familia in fending off the monsters; they even forcefully fixed Jirou’s dislocated arm.

  Their newest member, looked to be half-dead from a direct strike from a monster that was leagues above her in strength and power, stood her ground as it threw its fist at her.

  Then, foreign words left her mouth in a chant; and almost immediately after, lightning exploded from her, and then shot in all directions around her.

  The effect was instantaneous; the Troll that was attacking the half-elf was completely fried to a crisp, its pale skin now as bck as soot like the ground around it; said monster was now fallen on its back unmoving.

  Any monster that was near them wasn’t left unharmed as well; several of them were on the floor spasming out. The caster stumbled a bit before falling face first onto the charred ground.

  “What… was that…?” Jirou asked, “Did… Dae had a spell like that?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Jeanne stated, ‘The only magic she has is the enchantment magic, but that didn’t seem to be it. And that chant…’

  “…Now!! Kill all the monsters!!” Garos quickly commanded, an order everyone immediately took action and began killing all the remaining monsters.

  Soon enough, the area was left with nothing but ash, broken magic stones and Drop Items.

  “Dae!!”

  Tris ran over to her friend as fast as she could; as she flipped her over, she found the half-elf to be unconscious.

  “W-What is…?”

  “She’ll be fine. It’s just a Mind Down.” Jirou assured the girl.

  “That’s… the condition when you used too much magic, right?”

  “Yup. She must have used up all her mind in that st spell. It is expected, considering the result of it. She should be fine after resting for a bit.”

  “I think we all need to rest up.” Jeanne stated as she took in the current state of the expedition team.

  Both Drake and Dae were unconscious, the former being on death’s door with his life hanging by a thread; Tetra also looked ready to keel over from exhaustion, and that’s not mentioning…

  “Is… Leos…” Tris turned to her captain and asked, “Is he…?”

  “…” The elf grimaced at the question, fully aware of his fate, but not sure how to break it to the young girl.

  “…He didn’t make it.” Kyumaru interjected, walking over with a broken spear at hand, the spear that Leos wielded for this expedition.

  “N-No…this can’t…”

  “He didn’t die instantly, but… he didn’t st for long with his wounds.” The Renard stated, “The spear was the only thing I could retrieve off of him.”

  “We… we were just talking… teasing and joking about…” Tris stuttered, tears starting falling past her cheeks. Jirou pulled her in close, letting her sob into his chest.

  “…Let’s head back to Under Resort while we still can.” Garos suggested, “We need to regroup before we can ponder over our next move.”

  “I agree.” Lisa nodded, “We can’t afford to continue while carrying the two of them.”

  Jeanne agreed with that as well. The two unconscious fighters aside, they had used up almost all of their healing items.

  If they were to encounter another Irregur…

  “Then it is settled.” The elf captain stated, “We’re returning to Riveria!”

  ““Aye!””

  As they all got into formation, Jeanne gnced at the unconscious half-elf on Garos’s back; the chant and spell Dae casted still clear in her memory.

  ‘That nguage is the ones Elves used in casting their spirit magic, magic that they never taught anyone outside their forests or their cns. Why would a half-elf know such magic?’

  As the thought crossed her mind, she muttered to herself, “Just who are you, Dae?”

  …To be continued…

  This was originally going to be one long chapter, but I thought it would be too long so I split it into two. Make things much more manageable.

  Against all odds, they managed to defeat the Blood Smeared Troll and lived. And it was a close match, with Jirou only barely able to pull the win via his skill.

  As for Dae and the whole suddenly new magic, all I can say is that she is more than she appeared. You just have to read on to find out the reason.

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!