"Let's fucking go!" I yelled in excitement as I activated my buffing cursed technique and unleashed my flames.
The red mist around the bones of the Udeaus kept my flames in check but were being consumed rapidly as the giant skeleton two handed the sword and chopped down at me aggressively. I cackled madly as I swung my weapon up to counter. The impact of our weapons clashing ripped apart the air and shattered the floor of the colosseum. I was pressed down but refused to fully bend my knees as I roared and push up against the massive blade.-
With a massive strain on myself I managed to reverse the blade a tiny amount and used that leeway to shift it to the side and destroy my footing as I stomped to launch myself at the open skeleton. The monster tried to move it's arms back to block me but it's size proved detrimental here as I reached it's rib cage before it could and with an erasure coated edge of my weapon slashed through five of it's ribs before it batted me to the side with a roar of anger and pain.-
The beast slammed it's left hand into the ground and many dark bone-like spears began to rise from the floor in an attempt to impale me as I was being sent into another wall. I couldn't dodge the spikes and they tore into me ravaging my insides as the momentum was forcefully stopped by the pointy bits now deep in my guts. I coughed out blood as it pooled in my lungs but used my technique to retrieve it and slip off the spikes as I repaired my body. -
"That fucking hurt!" I said with a laugh as I shot back towards the beast without hesitation.
The monster rex couldn't perform those wide dramatic swings with five of it's ribs on a single side no longer in solid state as doing so would pull them apart and even put stress on the rib above the top most one. The beast would recover in time but it didn't have the ridiculous level of regeneration that the goliath or giant had. It would need at least a day or two at most to recover fully and it wasn't exactly in a position to do so at the moment. -
Still even if it couldn't put it's full force behind it the beast still swung the blade at me fiercely enough. I swung out my own weapon and grinned even wider as my own strength overpowered it's strike without me losing ground. My flames surged as well as I pumped more energy into them and started pushing back the red mist. I was fairly certain if the thing could it would be sweating heavily at this point. I knew for a fact that those flames were not pleasant to even be near much less when you were actively fighting them off. -
I took one step followed by another as my weapon grinded along the edge of the sword that tried and failed to press me down. With each step I focused more and more energy into my flames and the monster finally realized it wasn't winning this and turned desperate for survival or at least to take me with it. Frantic strikes with the blade, it's free hand and even those spikes but I deflected it all or simply walked off the damage as my flames grew more and more intense pushing the red mist closer and closer to the bones.-
"It was fun while it lasted." I said with a smile as I moved my hands into position and sealed the fate of the monster "Domain expansion: Forge of the Fallen!" I said and my domain stretched out under me.
The flames around the monster grew to a fever pitch and the beast screamed as the domains effect got to work as I began to "forge" it. Each piece of bone being refined with each strike my weapon made to the anvils face. The monster screamed and lashed out violently but I took it's sword and arms first. Then it's spine and ribs before finally the stone. Before I released my domain the screaming visage of the Udeaus appeared next to the Amphisbaena and Knuckelavee on the wall.-
There was nothing but silence when my domain shrank away like no more than mere illusion. I smiled and packed away my spoils before cheerfully heading for the next floor. None of the now respawning Spartoi moved to attack me as I left the area and I reached the stairs to the thirty eight floor without issue. This floor was one of recovery and peace as it was a cool floor with shallow pools of water across it like many mirrors reflecting the tiny star like glittering crystals of the ceiling.-
There were no monsters on this floor or the one after it as they were both a sort of conjoined safe zone area after the high intensity area of the thirty seventh floor. These floors were called the "under bridge" because every monster after this point required one to either be in a massive group or be at minimum a peak level four or new five. The fortieth to forty third floors had the same selection of monsters as the thirty seventh but beefed up to peak level four levels of power and since monsters tend to be stronger than adventurers at the same point the necessity was obvious.-
The amount of monsters were more reasonable though so at least there was that. When you got to the forty fourth floor however things got messy. There was only one species of monster native to that floor though monsters from the previous floors did descend to it, Flame rocks. These fuckers were three meter tall rock monsters with a VERY important trait to remember, they were explosive. -
That's right these damned things needed to be killed very carefully or quickly or they'd detonate in grand explosions like a brick of dynamite taking out any and everything within it's radius. If you managed to kill them before that though then you were all but guaranteed a material known as kaenseki. This shit was literally portable explosives, the unstable kind to boot. You drop it, it goes boom. You hit it, it goes boom. You use magic near it and guess motherfucking what, it goes boom. It's typically ground up extremely carefully as the dust is used by craftsmen to make their forges burn way hotter for a short time.