Many people are complaining that this arc isn't over yet or that the protagonist hasn't leveled up yet, and I understand the criticism and am trying to address it.
Therefore, this chapter was written using a different writing style than usual, a much more compact and concise style with long paragraphs, instead of typical dialogues, onomatopoeia of sounds, descriptions of actions and reactions in a fluid sequence (or at least that's how I think I write) to try to cover as many scenes as possible in a single chapter.
Just writing this, I'm sure I would have written two or three chapters if I had done it normally.
As you might suspect, I obviously used a lot of artificial intelligence to write this; basically seventy percent of the text was done using AI, but don't judge before you read it. If it were that easy to write using AI, I wouldn't have taken more than a week to write this thing.
I spent a lot of time imagining the moment, describing the scenes, requesting texts to be written, correcting parts, changing or simply deleting parts of the text that clearly had AI used, resulting in those bad texts that look like translations of Chinese fanfiction.
So for me, give this chapter a chance. I didn't spend hours of my life making this for some random guy to come along and say it's crap just because I used artificial intelligence. Obviously, there must be errors and cringe-worthy parts that I didn't notice, but please, forgive me.
Now, as usual, because it couldn't be missing... can you believe that this chapter got so long that I had to split it in two? 😅
Yeah, I'm a genius, holy fucking god, my genius sometimes scares me with how awesome it is, I went to write a shorter and more concise chapter and ended up writing eight thousand lines of raw material, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT COMPLETE YET!
So I just took a part of the chapter, literally cut it without further ado, and edited that part to post today, so don't be surprised if the transition from the end of this chapter to the beginning of the next is terrible.
Now read this shit with more than 4k words and give me your stones!
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The corridor was already half-ruined by the time the fight truly settled into motion. Luki moved in sharp, controlled retreats, boots scraping against the stone floor as he twisted away from the Silverback's sweeping arm.
Each backhanded strike tore through the air with enough force to shatter whatever it touched, pulverizing sections of the wall and sending shards of debris flying.
He didn't even consider blocking. Although he felt he was stronger, a direct confrontation was not what he was looking for. So he kept moving, pivoting at the waist, ducking under wild arcs, springing backward whenever a massive forearm carved through the space his body had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
The Silverback pressed forward without hesitation. Its attacks weren't refined, but they didn't need to be. Raw strength and relentless aggression turned the narrow passage into a death trap. It alternated between wide, sweeping swings meant to corner him and sudden lunges designed to close the distance instantly.
Luki's kept the monster's entire frame within his field of vision. When the right arm lifted too high, he slipped to the opposite side. When the creature leaned forward for a charge, he was already pushing off the ground before the impact could land. It wasn't a duel. It was a brutal rhythm, each step decided in the sliver of time between survival and obliteration.
Even so, he was being driven back. Step by step. And the heat was increasing, step by step.
A sudden chill ran down Luki's spine, accompanied by the unmistakable certainty that something was coming fast. He didn't hear Lili's scream behind him. His body moved before his mind did, throwing itself sideways with everything it had.
A fireball tore through the space he had occupied an instant earlier and crashed straight into the Silverback. The explosion of heat and light swallowed the corridor for a brief second. The massive gorilla staggered back, a furious roar tearing from its throat as flames spread across its pale fur. It thrashed violently, slamming its own body against the walls and floor in a desperate attempt to smother the fire consuming it.
Luki rolled awkwardly once and came up on one knee, turning just in time to see the source. A Will-o-Wisp drifted forward from deeper within the corridor, its ghostly flame pulsing steadily.
Behind the helmet, Luki's expression hardened. One had already been trouble. Two would be a disaster. Without hesitation, he shifted his footing and tried to retreat down the opposite side, only for the scorched Silverback, still burning and enraged, to stagger into his path, cutting off his escape completely.
Luki tried to slip past it, shifting left, then right, searching for even the smallest opening. Every attempt was shut down. The Silverback, fur still smoldering in places, moved with stubborn determination, planting itself in his path as if its only purpose now was to keep him there. It swiped low, then high, denying him escape at all costs.
A second fireball streaked down the corridor. This time both of them reacted. Luki twisted away while the Silverback threw its massive body aside, the flames crashing against the far wall and erupting in a wash of heat. The temperature spiked again.
'Enough.' Irritation flared inside him. He stepped in instead and swung his sword.
The blade struck the gorilla's raised forearm. Steel bit into flesh, slicing through muscle before grinding harshly against bone. Blood sprayed, the impact forcing the monster half a step down. It roared through the pain, eyes blazing, and retaliated immediately. A wound like that wasn't nearly enough to bring something like this down.
What followed was no longer evasion. Luki advanced, sword carving fast arcs that opened shallow lines across the monster's torso, shoulders, and thighs.
The Silverback answered with relentless violence, punches, wild swings, short lunges, even desperate leaps meant to crush him under sheer weight. It was being cut apart piece by piece, yet it refused to yield. It would not step back.
And Luki, despite holding the clear advantage, seemed slower than he should have been. A fraction less precise. A fraction more restrained. Through the narrow visor of his metal helmet, his gaze locked onto the creature's eyes. Normal.
The reason for the struggle was obvious. Though stronger, he wasn't striking to kill. Every strike was controlled, even so slightly. He was fighting… but not going for killing.
For all the time he had already spent in this world, it still wasn't enough. He had adapted, grown stronger, learned to survive, but not completely. Not where it truly mattered. That hesitation, that lingering line that his inner Administrative Assistant refused to cross, was going to cost him dearly.
Behind him, the temperature rose sharply. The Will-o-Wisp drifted into the battlefield at last, hovering a short distance away. It remained suspended there for a few seconds without acting, its flame pulsing in steady waves, as if observing... or doing whatever shit a living sphere of fire does.
Then the glow intensified, the now-familiar hum began to build.
Luki recognized the sound instantly. Panic flickered through him. He had seconds at most. He needed to end this, now. If not for himself, then for Lili.
His jaw tightened beneath the helmet. No more restraint. He stepped forward and swung with full intent.
Steel flashed. Blood sprayed in a violent arc, and a severed limb followed. The Silverback's right leg was cut clean through, the massive body collapsing forward under its own weight with a thunderous crash.
Luki moved immediately, sprinting past the fallen monster, but even on the ground, it refused to yield. A giant hand shot out and clamped around his leg, gripping with desperate strength to hold him in place.
Something snapped inside Luki. Without hesitation, he turned and brought the blade down again, severing the creature's hand in a single brutal stroke.
But it was already too late.
A wave of fire surged down the corridor, swallowing everything in blinding yellow flames. There was no angle to dodge or time to outrun it. The attack would consume them both.
Behind him, looking directly at the incoming, flames, Lili shut her eyes, panic seizing her body as she braced for agony.
It never came.
When she opened them again, the metal visor of Luki's helmet was inches from her face, reflecting the raging yellow inferno as it streamed past. The flames roared on either side, but did not touch them.
In a split-second decision, Luki had pulled Lili off his back and dragged her in front of him, using the Silverback's massive body as a shield. One arm pulling hard the monster's torso, forcing it upright, its broad frame wide enough to cover them both completely.
The heat was suffocating. The air itself felt like it was burning in their lungs. But it held.
The Silverback, on the other hand, screamed. A raw, guttural howl of agony tore through the corridor as its white fur blackened and curled, flesh charring beneath the relentless blaze.
The torrent of flames did not cease immediately. It continued in a relentless stream, pouring down the corridor for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. The roar of combustion drowned out everything else, heat pressing in from all sides as if the world itself were being smelted. Until... the blaze thinned and stopped.
Sensing the end of the attack, Luki released the Silverback's corpse. In the middle of it all, the creature had died without him noticing. Its face and chest had melted and blackened into something unrecognizable, flesh fused and hardened into a grotesque statue of charred ruin.
He didn't waste a second. Throwing one last glance at the strange, kin-slaying Wisp hovering in the corridor, Luki turned and ran. His sword slid back into place at his waist as he scooped Lili securely into his arms, carrying her like a princess.
Shiver
His instincts screamed again, he threw himself aside even faster than before. A thunderclap split the air as a bolt of lightning struck the ground where he had stood a fraction of a second earlier.
Sparks crackled violently around the floating sphere, arcs of electricity dancing through its flames, revealing the full extent of what it was.
Will-o-Wisps were slow for a level two monster, slower even than some level ones. But perhaps in cruel balance, the Dungeon had granted this elemental an overwhelming firepower, command over both flame and lightning, turning it into the world's greatest glass cannon.
Unfortunately for it, today's prey might have been the world's greatest runner. With the speed of a level three and stamina that bordered on inexhaustible,
Luki fled down the corridor without hesitation, trusting his instincts to move before each lightning strike... well, striked.
For a brief moment, things were going well. Luki was widening the gap, his pace steady and relentless. The lightning strikes were falling farther behind him now, carving craters into stone that was no longer beneath his feet. Another few meters more and he would be nearly out of range.
But the Dungeon had other plans.
KRRK… TRRAAAK… KSHHK… CRACK...
All along the corridor, monster birth points erupted into existence at once, and from them, well... monsters emerged.
Pig like humanoide Orcs, small and thin red Imps, monstruous bloodscucking Bad Bats, Hard armored lizards with protective rocky scales, more of the same albino ape monsters that were the Silverbacks, the so memorable Lizardmen wielding spears, ghostly monsters resembling a floating, transparent shadow known as Specters, more of the same fire elemental that had been giving Luki so much trouble, along with its wind-type counterpart, similar to small fairies from fairy tales, the Will-o-Wisp and Wind Sprite.
So many monsters in such a small space, as if every monster from the tenth to the twelfth floor had gathered for a single purpose.
And as if this were the new trend, all of them had normal eyes.
Well... the Wisps and Specters didn't have eyes to begin with, but that was beside the point.
— Dungeon, son of a bitch… — He cursed, his voice muffled by his helmet as he drew his sword, holding Lili with one arm.
No one moved.
All of them seemed to hold their breath at once, studying one another in a silence so complete it felt deliberate.
Then, as if it were a signal everyone had been waiting for, a single loose stone broke free from the ceiling and struck the ground.
Tick...
The small sound echoed unnaturally loud through the corridor.
And chaos followed.
— GRAAAAAAAAH!
— KIEEEEE!
— SKRREEEECH!
— RUUUOOOARRR!
BOOM! KRAAASH! SHHK!
SPLRT! CRACK!
The corridor exploded into motion.
They came from every direction at once, claws, blades, fangs, wings. Orcs charged blindly, Imps shrieked as they dove, Bad Bats dropped from above like falling knives. A Hard Armored swung its massive limb without aim, while a Lizardman lunged low, blade-first. Even the air twisted as a Wind Sprite cut across the battlefield.
Luki moved.
He leapt forward instead of back, slipping between converging bodies at the last possible instant. A Silverback's fist crushed an Orc's skull where he had just been. A lightning bolt meant for his spine tore through a Specter instead, dispersing it into shrieking vapor. A gout of flame scorched a swarm of Imps mid-flight.
He didn't slow.
Through the chaos of bodies and violence, he flowed. It might sound ridiculous, but there was no better analogy to describe the scene; Luki was simply like a fish in water, swimming against a current, against a school of fish, that wanted nothing less than to tear him apart.
He seemed to completely ignore the laws of physics and common sense, utterly disregarding the weight and inconvenience of wearing a suit of metal plates with a mesh underneath, making abrupt, fluid, and swift movements to the point where his four limbs were mere blurs, as if he were wearing nothing at all.
His long sword blurred in his grasp, moving with such speed and precision it could have been mistaken for a rapier. Cuts, thrusts and reversals were delivered without pause or discrimination. If something entered his range, and everything was, it was carved open.
As a wise man once said: if there are enough enemies, you can shot anywhere and you'll hit something.
Steel punched through a Lizardman's throat. A backswing opened an Imp from shoulder to hip. A thrust meant for a Hard Armored slipped between its plating and into the softer joint beneath. Blood sprayed hot across stone, armor, skin.
What was happening? Why was this happening? What was the purpose behind it?
Luki didn't know.
And judging by the monsters, neither did they.
In their frenzy to strike him down, they collided constantly. An Orc's club splintered the spine of a Bad Bat mid-dive. A Hard Armored crushed a Wind Sprite's core while trying to stomp Luki flat. A Silverback seized a Lizardman by mistake and smashed it against the ground in blind rage before realizing too late it wasn't its target. A Will-o'-Wisp's lightning arced through three bodies in a row, leaving them twitching and smoking.
And then they began retaliating.
An Imp leapt onto a Hard Armored's back, claws digging into exposed joints. A wounded Silverback tore into an Orc that had slashed its flank. A Specter wrapped itself around a Lizardman's head, draining until both collapsed.
The corridor became a slaughterhouse.
The noise was overwhelming, shrieks layered over roars, the wet sound of tearing flesh, the metallic screech of armor being split apart. Stone cracked under the combined weight of dozens of bodies. The air thickened with the stench of blood, burnt fur, ozone, and charred meat. The ground trembled with every collision, every collapse, every desperate charge.
It wasn't a battle anymore, it was total war, everyone against everyone, and everyone against Luki.
Speaking of the devil.
Luki kept moving.
There were too many things happening, all everywhere at the same time that he simply didn't have time to think properly, acting purely on reflex, whether he was right or wrong.
At a certain point, the concept of ground had vanished; Luki began to move using the monsters as support, weaving between them like a cat on a giant cat bed, limbs moving so quickly they left afterimages, blurs overlapping one another until it almost looked like he had twice as many arms and legs.
It almost seemed as if he knew where to place his hands and feet before he even had anything there for him to use.
Furthermore, another person was going through a difficult time, but for a different reason.
Poor Lili.
She was thrown side to side every time Luki needed his left arm, whether to receive a blow aimed at it, to counterattack, or to use it to move. The world spun violently around her that she honestly no longer knew what was up or down. The only reason she hadn't vomited yet was because there was nothing left inside her to throw up.
Tchiiing…
A faint, crystalline shimmer cut through the noise.
Time slowed.
Luki's head turned, as if dragged by an invisible thread. His eyes pierced through the layered chaos, through gaps between thrashing bodies, through narrow slits, through momentary alignments that opened a perfect line of sight across the battlefield.
On the far side of the war zone, she stood.
Small. Beautiful. Radiant.
Long golden hair flowed weightlessly around her, catching invisible currents. Emerald-green irises gleamed without the usual crimson taint of monsters. She even resembled him, if he were a woman.
She wore a light green dress of impossibly delicate fabric, so thin it was nearly translucent, clinging and flowing all at once. From her back extended clear, fragile wings that beat gently like those of a butterfly.
She had also seen him along the same straight path of impossible coincidence, and she was smiling at him.
Her smile was bright and innocent, almost childlike in its warmth. But it never reached her eyes.
'Wind Sprite! FUCK!!!' He thought recognizing the monster.
As if she had heard the thought, the smile slowly changed. The warmth drained away, twisting into something cruel. Her expression stretched into a sadistic curve that promised suffering and pain.
WOOOOOOOOSH! SHHHHHRRRRR! FWWWWAAAAAA!
The wind intensified without warning.
A visible current of air formed around the little fairy, forming a dome of rotating pressure. Her hair and dress fluttered inside it without resistance, while everything beyond that invisible boundary trembled.
Then it expanded.
And in the middle of the Dungeon, a tornado was born.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
SHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAA!
VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM!
The roar swallowed every other sound.
— GRAAAAAAAAHHHH!
— SKREEEEEEEE!
— KIIIIIIIIIIII!
Monsters were ripped off the ground like scraps of paper. From the heavy Orcs and Silverbacks who awkwardly swung their limbs trying to reach something, to the Bad Bats who couldn't do anything but be pulled by the strong winds.
The tornado twisted violently, a towering column of debris and bodies grinding against one another in chaotic rotation. Blood sprayed outward in spirals, vanishing into the storm before ever touching the floor.
— HOLD YOURSELF!!! — Luki shouted.
He jumped.
Midair, he wrapped himself around Lili completely, arms, legs, torso and even sword, shielding her with everything he could offer.
Helpless, the wind caught them and up they went.
The world blurred into a spinning smear of stone, broken bones and red. They rotated violently, faster and faster, centrifugal force crushing against Luki's ribs as he tightened his grip around her. The pressure made breathing difficult.
Then the monsters began colliding.
CRAAAAAASH! KRRRRRACK! SPLAAAAAT! THUD! CRUNCH!
Bodies slammed into each other at terrifying speed. Bones shattered. Skulls split. Flesh tore apart mid-rotation. That was the true danger of a tornado.
The wind itself was survivable, nothing that a little, or a hell lot, of luck wouldn't solve it.
The debris was not.
Luki's armored body slammed into an airborne bodies. The impact rattled through him like a hammer strike, another huge monsters clipped his side, a claw scraped across his plating, and all he could do was endure.
He took the hits one after another, absorbing the punishment as monsters crashed into him from every direction, his grip around Lili unyielding even as the storm tried to tear them apart.
CRASH! SPLAT! KRRACK!
A corpse slammed against Luki's back. Another clipped his shoulder. Something heavy struck his side hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
— GHK!
He held Lili tighter.
The rotation kept accelerating. What had been a chaotic storm was turning into a violent centrifuge. Bodies that once drifted through the air now shot past like projectiles, smashing into anything in their path.
SCREEEEEE!
GRAAAAAAH!
Monsters shattered mid-rotation, their remains swallowed by the screaming wind.
Then, perhaps due to pure physics or intentionally done by the fairy, Luki was slingshotted out of the tornado at full speed.
FWOOOOOOOSH!
Luki was shot like a cannonball, cutting through the air at terrifying speed. The wind screamed past his armor as he spun across the battlefield.
The ground was getting closer and closer, and he didn't seem to be slowing down.
'This is going to hurt.' He thought, contorting his body in the air to be hit first.
BOOOOOM!
The first monster in his path exploded under the impact, its body crushed as Luki plowed straight through it. The momentum carried him forward like an iron bowling ball, smashing through monsters that barely had time to react.
CRUNCH! THUD! KRAAASH!
Bodies flew in every direction as he tore across the battlefield, carving a long trench into the Dungeon floor while the force of his landing dragged him forward.
Dust and broken stone erupted behind him until the momentum finally faded.
At the end of the scar he had carved through the monsters, Luki finally came to a stop.
— Gh…! — The sound escaped his throat as Luki tried to move.
Pain answered immediately.
His body tensed as he forced his arm against the ground, trying to push himself up, but the strength simply wasn't there. The moment he lifted his torso even slightly, the world spun violently and he collapsed back against the cracked stone.
His head ached with a hot, throbbing headache.
A sharp ringing filled the air around him, a high-pitched whine that drowned everything else. The battlefield seemed distant and distorted, as if he were submerged in water
Blood ran from his forehead, sliding down his face in warm streams before dripping into his eyes.
Luki was so disoriented that he couldn't even think, only exist amidst the mess that was his head, however... amidst the hissing somewhere far away, a voice was shouting.
— L…! Luki…!
The words were broken, swallowed by the ringing in his ears.
— Lu… sa…! G…!
He blinked slowly, trying to focus.
— …ki…! Le…!
The voice grew louder, more desperate.
— Luki…! Luki-sa…!
— LUKI-SAMA, GET UP! — Lili shouted.
The sound hit him like a sudden shock.
The ringing faded, then, all at once, the world around him began to return.
— Ghh…! — Luki grunted through the pain and forced his arm down again. This time his body responded. Slowly, with visible effort, he pushed himself off the ground.
His other arm tightened around Lili, pulling her close as he forced himself upright.
Then the armor began to fall apart.
CLANG.
A warped plate slid off his shoulder and hit the floor.
KRRRANG!
The metal covering his back finally gave way, the crushed plates detaching one after another and dropping heavily onto the stone.
CLINK. CLANG. KRRANG.
Without support, the rest of the armor collapsed with it. The chest plate slid loose and fell away, revealing the chainmail shirt and padded gambeson that had been hidden beneath.
Piece after piece of bent metal scattered across the ground around him.
Only the helmet remained. It had taken the worst of the impact. The once smooth steel was now dented and twisted in several places, the surface battered and uneven. Yet somehow, it still clung stubbornly to his head.
— Gh… my head…
Luki groaned as he lifted his right hand and pressed it against the dented helmet where his forehead should be. Even through the metal he could feel the heat and the dull, pulsing pain beating inside his skull.
— Luki-sama! Are you alright?! — Lili's voice came quickly, full of relief.
— I… I'm so glad… For a moment I thought I had lost you forever!
— Yeah… yeah… I'm fine… — he muttered, still holding his head. — Sorry about that. Next time I'll give you a warning.
— Luki-sama, this isn't the time for jokes! — she snapped, suddenly panicked again. — We have to run before the monsters get here. Hurry!
— Yes, ma'am… sigh, no rest for damned.
He adjusted his grip and lifted her properly, sliding one arm beneath her legs and the other behind her back, carrying her like a princess.
The tornado had thrown him far, all the way across the corridor, practically over the entire battlefield. Dozens… maybe a hundred monsters had been between where they were now and the storm.
In a way, the Sprite had helped them escape. Though... it could have chosen a gentler method.
Without wasting another second, Luki began running.
His boots pounded against the stone floor as he rushed down the corridor with Lili in his arms. Behind them, the distant battlefield still roared with chaos, monsters screaming and crashing into one another inside the raging tornado.
The noise grew lower and lower as he moved farther away, until the chaos became nothing more than a fading echo in the Dungeon's depths.
Eventually he slowed.
— Alright… I think we're far enough now.
He stopped and leaned briefly against the wall, catching his breath while the dull throbbing in his skull refused to fade.
— Damn… my head…
Even being a level above didn't mean he could treat Dungeon monsters carelessly.
Who knew what kind of situation something like that could turn into.
— I'm… I'm sorry… — Lili murmured quietly. — If it wasn't for me, Luki-sama could have fought without worrying and-
— Shut up, Lili.
She froze.
— I'm already tired of hearing women whining that everything is their fault. It was just an accident. — Luki's voice came through sharp and irritated; perhaps the headache was affecting his mood, or he was simply fed up with it.
— Ah! S-sorry! I mean- yes!
Caught completely off guard, Lili nodded quickly, stammering as she hurried to agree.