Chapter 42: Battle Again with the Maze Lone King!
Shirou's sudden arrival caused everyone present to reveal surprised expressions.
Compared to Bell's relieved breath, the members of the Soma Familia surrounded Shirou mercilessly, encircling him completely.
At the same time, the leading adventurer laughed out loud: "Haha, hahaha, didn't expect something like this to happen! Hey, Lili, I never thought you'd have this day too!!"
"..."
Lili's expression was undoubtedly very dark in response to the adventurer's ridicule.
She had just used the terrain and fog here to lure Bell away and originally intended to escape immediately afterward.
However, this was not Lili's original plan.
In Lili's plan, she intended to trade with the adventurers, receiving a large amount of Valis from them while secretly stealing Bell's dagger deep in the maze.
This way, she would gain both a huge amount of Valis and the dagger worth millions, killing two birds with one stone.
But when she reached the tenth underground floor, a strong sense of unease swept over Lili.
Her intuition was vaguely hurting, warning her not to make such a greedy move.
As a weak Pallum, Lili had survived the dangerous Soma Familia so far because of her keen intuition and insight.
Because of this, upon realizing the possible danger, Lili decisively abandoned stealing the dagger and merely led Bell to the designated location as originally planned, then tried to escape immediately.
However, when Lili fled from the tenth floor and was about to return to the upper floors, she found Shirou waiting at the entrance of the floor for a long time.
At that moment, Lili's fear reached its peak. She desperately tried to run away but was caught by Shirou as if he was catching a chick, and he brought her all the way here.
"P-please, I beg you, spare Lili! I'll do anything!"
At this point, Lili had no way to resist and could only plead with Shirou.
But Shirou paid no attention at all. His cold gaze made Lili even feel a fear like staring into the abyss.
Meanwhile, the Soma Familia adventurers laughed loudly: "Hey kid, hurry up and hand over that girl! We've disliked her for a long time! Unfortunately, she was always too cunning and all our schemes failed. Who would have thought she would bring this on herself today, hahaha!"
"You're all members of the same Familia, but your relationship doesn't seem friendly."
Shirou, holding Lili with one hand, asked the adventurers.
"Friendly? How could that exist in the Soma Familia!" The adventurer sneered, "To us, our own Familia is the real enemy, the biggest obstacle to getting the divine liquor!"
"Divine liquor? So that's your goal?"
"That's right. Soma-sama's divine liquor, a blessing that can only be obtained at a huge cost! All of us have survived until today just to get the divine liquor!"
"..."
Seeing the fanatic smile on the adventurer's face, Shirou pondered deeply.
He understood more about the Soma Familia's existence and realized what their true nature was.
Everything revolved around one thing—the divine liquor.
If the source of that divine liquor was not destroyed, the chaos brought by the Soma Familia would never disappear.
While Shirou was lost in thought, trying to figure out how to achieve this, the adventurers began to show impatience.
"Hey kid, what are you daydreaming about? Hurry up and hand over Lili!"
"If you want her, come and take her yourself."
Shirou also seemed to lack patience with these adventurers. Calmly, he brought Lili over to Bell's side and checked Bell's injuries.
Seeing Shirou's utterly contemptuous attitude, not even regarding them as worthy of notice, the Soma Familia adventurers immediately got furious.
"Kid, don't regret it if you die!"
The Soma Familia adventurers were completely provoked.
But they did not lose all reason. Instead, with composed steps, they began to surround Shirou from all sides, bit by bit.
They weren't really wary of Shirou; rather, they were wary of Lili, fearing that this small Pallum girl might escape during the fight.
And Lili carried countless treasures and probably hid vast amounts of wealth. To the Soma Familia, she was a treasure mountain they could never afford to lose!
Seeing the wolf-like adventurers closing in, Lili showed a panicked expression and spoke fearfully: "Please, help me escape! If those guys catch me, who knows what they'll do! I can give you all the money, please!"
"Planning to buy your life with money?"
"That's right, that's right."
At this point, Lili had no way out. She knew exactly what kind of tragedy she would face if she fell into the hands of those Soma Familia adventurers.
Compared to that, even giving up all her property was worth it.
But Shirou did not nod. As if he hadn't heard her, after checking Bell's injuries, he looked up and faced the approaching adventurers.
"You all come at once."
"Are you crazy?"
Hearing Shirou's words, the most panicked person was undoubtedly Lili.
She could not believe Shirou could handle so many adventurers.
If Shirou died, her fate would only be worse; she would be treated as a plaything by these mad adventurers.
But Lili's words did not affect Shirou at all.
He remained standing still, silently watching the adventurers approach.
When the distance between both sides reached a certain point, Shirou suddenly threw a punch at the nearest adventurer.
Bang!
The adventurer's chest was hit by a direct punch, and the entire person flew into the air, rolling several times before falling to the ground unconscious.
"Flying... flying into the sky? How is this possible...?"
The other adventurers were shocked and scared by this scene.
But there was no turning back. They all charged at Shirou with swords and knives in hand.
Unlike the dungeon and labyrinth city of Oralie, fighting with weapons here did not cause any repercussions, let alone killing.
Even facing the sharpness of blades, Shirou's attitude did not change one bit. He casually picked up the silver longsword Bell had dropped and rushed toward the closest adventurer.
Clang!
The clash of swords rang out.
However, something unexpected happened.
The sword in Shirou's hand cut the adventurer's weapon directly in half as if cutting tofu, even piercing through the adventurer's body.
"H-how is this possible!?"
The most shocked was undoubtedly Lili.
That sword was bought by Lili herself.
Although it wasn't the worst weapon, it was no high-grade weapon either—just a few thousand Valis. She prepared the weapon only to expose Bell's [Hassan's Dagger] and thus didn't prepare anything advanced.
Yet, this low-quality weapon displayed effects even more exaggerated than a top-grade weapon in Shirou's hands.
Such a technique of cutting the opponent's weapon required at least two ranks higher, meaning a second-level weapon was necessary to do this.
"What exactly is happening?!"
While Lili was completely confused and bewildered, Shirou had already easily defeated the adventurers.
There was not only a gap in weapons but also an overwhelmingly huge gap in strength. Shirou easily knocked down all the adventurers, leaving only the level 2 adventurer.
Only at this moment did the level 2 adventurer finally recall something and murmured: "Y-you… could it be the one from that night?"
"Oh? Is it you?"
Shirou remembered the situation after the other party reminded him.
Some days ago, he encountered Sheer being surrounded by the Soma Familia and had driven off the surrounding adventurers.
The opponent back then seemed to be a member of the Soma Familia, and the one who got beaten was exactly this man in front of him.
"Monster!"
Realizing his opponent was Shirou, the level 2 adventurer immediately lost the will to fight.
During the battle in Oralie, he felt he was not facing a human but a monster disguised in human skin, understanding what a true gap was.
Now knowing it was Shirou, he gave up fighting but did not surrender. Instead, he pulled out a vial from his chest.
"No! Emiya-san, stop him quickly!"
Lili anxiously said, "He's using a bait potion. Once he drinks it, he himself will become bait and attract all the monsters on this floor!"
The moment Lili finished speaking, the level 2 adventurer drank the potion.
Seeing this, Shirou couldn't help but speak: "If you do that, you'll die too."
"Haha, rather than dying, I can't stand losing all my possessions to someone like you!"
"What?"
Hearing the adventurer's words, Shirou and Bell showed expressions of incomprehension. Only Lili, as a fellow Soma Familia member, could understand this madness.
"We have to earn money to buy the divine liquor!" The adventurer seemed to go mad, "Liquor! Liquor! Liquor! For the divine liquor, it doesn't matter if we die! Ahhh, Soma-sama, please grant me one more cup, just one cup… ahhh!!!!"
Before the adventurer's words finished, a monstrous iron hammer smashed his body into minced meat.
That was a gigantic beast exuding a terrifying aura.
Completely different from ordinary monsters, its huge size was almost as tall as the entire cave, radiating an oppressive feeling that made everyone's limbs turn cold.
This kind of momentum was far beyond ordinary monsters and only a floor boss level monster would have such presence!
"It's… the Maze Lone King?!"
Lili's eyes were filled with despair. She never expected that before dying, the mad adventurer would attract the maze lord of this floor.
On any floor, the maze lord was a target requiring a whole team of well-equipped adventurers to conquer and was absolutely not something a single person could defeat.
Because of its overwhelming strength, adventurers gave it a special name—the Maze Lone King!