Before long, everything fell quiet.
Every last worm monster had been wiped out, not even a magic stone left behind, and those revolting yellow-green body fragments scattered and crumbled to ash, leaving only the corrosion marks of dissolving fluid all over the ground. Apart from countless pits large and small, nearly every other part of the rock terrace was taken up by these scorched-black corrosion marks.
"It's finally over...."
The Loki Familia members, who'd had their nerves stretched taut, all let out a breath and set down their weapons. The shield-bearing vanguards led by Gareth threw away the shields in their hands, dissolved beyond all use, before gathering at Finn's side.
"Everyone all right? Any wounded?"
Finn was the first to take stock of the casualties.
"A portion of our people got hurt by the dissolving fluid at the very start, since we were caught off guard, but otherwise it's not too bad. No one died, and no one's out of action." Riveria reported the situation, then let out a sigh. "But the loss of supplies is no small thing, especially weapons and shields. Never mind what the members had equipped to begin with, even the spare armaments we'd prepared for the expedition are more than half used up."
At her words, Finn and the others looked around and saw the surviving parts of dissolved weapons one after another, along with fragments of shields, arrows, armor, and the like.
"Ngh, my Urga...."
Tiona held up her huge double-bladed weapon, dissolved down to less than half, crying out without a tear left to shed.
"Shut up, you're annoying."
Beside her, Tione, draped in a wool blanket, spoke up with a thoroughly sour face.
Her kukris had all been ruined too, and even her clothes had been dissolved away. Because she'd gone so utterly reckless, by the time the fighting ended there was hardly a patch of skin on her left intact, corrosion marks all over her body. Her wretched state had frightened every member white in the face, and it was only when Lefiya scrambled to bring an Elixir and pour it over her that the skin and flesh on her body grew back, otherwise she wouldn't have dared show her face in front of her sweetheart right now.
Bete, on the other hand, thanks to Ais's wind protecting him, had his metal boots still in perfect condition and no dissolving fluid clinging to him. But looking at the weapon and armament fragments littering the ground and the members slumped around treating their wounds, his expression wasn't very pleasant either.
"There's so damn many of you, and you still couldn't deal with those clumsy living targets. Pathetic."
Bete was performing his foul-mouthed habit as usual, earning more than a few glares from the Elf members.
Who told this werewolf to drag the Elf royalty they revered into his insults?
This was plainly accusing Riveria of being incompetent, wasn't it?
"...this is indeed my responsibility. I have nothing to say."
Riveria didn't argue, taking the blame outright. She was the camp's chief overseer, and with something this big happening here, she felt she couldn't escape her share of the fault.
Only, others couldn't stand to keep listening.
"Lady Riveria was already on high alert. The moment you set out she stepped up our guard, and it's because of that we were able to spot those worm monsters the instant they appeared and organize an effective defense. If not for Lady Riveria's orders, we might have been wiped out before you got back."
An Elf with brilliant golden hair, standing in the spot nearest Riveria, spoke up in a tone of forceful conviction.
Her name was Alicia Forestlight, a core member of the Familia's Second Army just like Raul. Not only was she an excellent Mage skilled in the technique of Concurrent Chanting, she was also quite adept with the bow and could fight up close with a sword, so in battle she was often chosen as a support role for the First Army's Familia elites. She was someone of not only superb ability but also a gentle, accommodating temperament, deeply trusted by her comrades.
Her Level was Lv.4, and her alias was Elleaf. Unlike the easygoing Lefiya, she was a very orthodox Elf, so she rather worshipped Riveria as royalty, being Riveria's most loyal supporter, and whenever someone spoke ill of Riveria she'd drop her gentle, accommodating manner and fly into a rage.
"That's right, Lady Riveria did her duty fully. If not for her deployments beforehand, the casualties would surely have been far worse."
Next to speak up was a Cat People girl.
She was a Cat People girl with black shoulder-length hair and matching cat ears and tail, slender of figure and lovely of face.
Her name was Anakitty Autumn, a core figure of the Second Army like Alicia, and a veteran member who'd joined the Familia in the same cohort as Raul. Not only was she a Lv.4 second-class adventurer, but among all the Lv.4s in the entire city she was considered the unquestioned highest caliber, and on top of that, being composed and calm with exceptional nerve, whenever the Familia's first-class adventurers were absent Finn would generally appoint her as overall commander of the base, and she was considered the member closest to Lv.5 in the Familia.
This Cat People girl of both talent and beauty even enjoyed great popularity among the gods, praised by them as a noble cat breed, and thanks to this the gods bestowed on her the alias Alchat to highlight her elegance.
Now that even she had spoken up, it meant Alicia wasn't simply playing favorites with royalty, but that Riveria really had done her absolute best.
"Yeah, it's all thanks to Lady Riveria that we could hold back that swarm of worm monsters."
"Apart from the start, when we didn't understand those monsters' abilities and some people got hurt by the dissolving fluid, after that Lady Riveria adjusted the countermeasures and basically no one got hurt anymore."
"I, I can vouch for it!"
"Me too!"
The members who'd stayed behind to guard the camp spoke up one after another, including Line, who was treating the wounded.
"Um... everyone, don't get so worked up, calm down, calm down."
Seeing the mood turning a little tense, Lefiya swallowed and, terribly nervous, began trying to mediate.
Ais said nothing, only watching Riveria with worried eyes.
"Hey, you stupid wolf, you're not happy unless you run your mouth at least once a day, huh?"
"Kicking someone while they're down at a time like this, are you even human anymore?"
Even Tione and Tiona couldn't stand by, scolding Bete with knitted brows.
Bete just watched it all with a cold face, not caring in the least even as he became the target of everyone's ire.
"Enough, all of you, knock it off."
Gareth barked out, stopping the mood from souring any further.
"A bit of supplies, lost is lost. As long as there were no deaths, that's what matters."
Finn, for his part, kept his expression unchanged from start to finish, taking in all the remarks and assessments and making his summary.
"This is all thanks to Leo." Riveria, however, didn't claim the credit for herself, saying this. "Before he set out he made a point of telling me he had a bad feeling, that something bad might well happen, which is why I stepped up our guard. If not for his warning beforehand, the situation might really have gotten quite a bit worse."
At Riveria's words, everyone present went still.
"Speaking of Mr. Leo...." Line, who'd finished treating the members, spoke up oddly. "How come I don't see him anywhere?"
The moment she said it, the group froze again.
Only now did Finn and the others realize with a start that, at some point, Leo had vanished without a trace.
Ais, as if she'd suddenly sensed something, whipped her head around and looked in one direction.
It was in that very instant that a deafening explosion rang out.
A blast far greater in scale than any before it appeared abruptly in the gray forest of Floor 50, right below the rock terrace, sending flames into the sky and smoke billowing up, shaking the whole camp.
"What?!"
"Where'd that huge explosion come from?!"
"Could there be more monsters?"
"Get ready, quick!"
The people in the camp went pale and cried out one after another, raising the weapons they'd just set down all over again.
Ais had already dashed out, reaching the edge of the rock terrace in an instant and looking down below.
At that glance, her pupils shrank sharply.
Down below the terrace, at the spot where the huge explosion had risen, a massive figure appeared, bathed in flames and dust.
The figure was about six meters tall, and like the earlier worm monsters it had a yellow-green body and flat arms, its appearance inheriting the shape of those worm monsters too, but its overall build was very different, and the individual was a whole size larger.
Its lower half was a worm, but its upper half, swelling up like a small hill, had smooth curves, like the upper body of a human woman, both like a manta ray and like a folding fan. Its flat, thin upper arms came in left-right pairs, two blades each, and several tube-like organs hung down from the back of its head. The yellow-green skin looked as though gaudy paint had been poured over it, the colors all over its body without the slightest order, as if it had been eaten away by some unknown deadly poison.
These dense colors ran all the way up to its face, which had no nose, eyes, mouth, or other features. The body's outline could indeed call a woman to mind, but the greatly swollen belly ruined every womanly element, hideous in the extreme.
A piercing shriek burst from its mouth, blowing away the smoke and flames.
And there, before this female-form worm monster, stood Leo, who'd gone missing earlier, locked in a standoff with it.
Leo.
"Leo!"
Ais called out his name.
"Wha, what is that...?!"
Finn and the others rushed up, and at the sight of the female-form monster facing off against Leo, their faces went white with shock.
Just then, the female-form monster slowly began to move, spreading open its four flat arms.
Along with its motion, seven-color particles like pollen drifted toward Leo, like dancing motes of light.
In this moment, including Ais, a chill rose in everyone's heart all at once.
An adventurer's keen intuition kicked in at that instant, making them immediately understand that this seemingly beautiful pollen was in fact something incredibly dangerous.
This premonition was borne out the very next second.
The pollen drifting toward Leo flickered a few times, then suddenly burst one after another, kicking up an earth-shaking explosion that swept flames and a shockwave across the whole scene in a flash, surging up onto the rock terrace and sweeping over everyone.
Some screamed, some bellowed, some cried out, some wailed. The Loki Familia's elite members all had their defenses pierced by this sudden huge explosion, either falling with the heat and the shockwave or barely raising their arms to block, just short of being knocked clean off their feet.
Only now did the group understand why a chill had risen in their hearts at the sight of that pollen.
It wasn't pollen at all, but a terrifying bomb.
"Everyone! Retreat!"
Finn roared at the top of his lungs.
For that explosion's scale to reach even them up on the heights, its might was probably no less than a powerful wide-area annihilation magic. In a situation like this, having everyone gathered together was absolutely a foolish course of action.
They had to retreat, had to scatter.
"B-but Mr. Leo, he...!?"
Line's voice broke as if into sobs from within the crowd, making Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and the others change color one after another.
They'd seen it too, Leo, standing off against the female-form monster, swallowed up by the huge explosion.
"Wait! Ais...?!"
Riveria called out.
Because Ais had already dashed out, or rather, leapt straight off the rock terrace, wind wreathing her body in an instant as she drew her sword and swept toward the female-form monster.
Seeing this, Tiona and Tione were about to follow, only to be stopped at once by Finn.
"Don't go!"
Finn's tone was graver than it had ever been.
"Look at that monster's belly. I guarantee you it's all dissolving fluid inside. You absolutely cannot go."
At his words, everyone's faces twisted slightly.
Looking at the female-form monster's huge purple-black belly, and at its build far larger than the worm monsters', everyone had reason to believe that once it was struck down, the dissolving fluid that would spray out then would be a volume never seen before.
If it was like those worm monsters and would self-detonate in the moment before being struck down, then that enormous gush of dissolving fluid would surely corrode everyone in its vicinity to nothing in an instant.
And there was that explosive pollen rivaling wide-area annihilation magic too. Take a frontal bombardment from that, and even if you didn't die you'd be left shedding a layer of skin.
In a situation like this, anyone without magic protecting their body the way Ais did would be in great danger facing that female-form monster.
Even Lv.6s like Finn, Riveria, and Gareth, or Lv.5s like Tiona, Tione, and Bete, would be no exception.
This made everyone's expressions turn extremely grim.
And at this time, Ais, her whole body wreathed in wind, had already engaged the female-form monster.
A lightning-fast slash swept across, landing on the female-form monster's body, but it didn't carve through unobstructed like before, instantly splitting it in two. Instead it only cut a single wound, sending the dissolving fluid inside spraying out.
The female-form monster let out a cracked, screeching cry, whether of pain or of fury there was no telling, and swung a flat arm, slamming it heavily and with howling wind into the airborne Ais, sending her flying.
"Meteor Dance!"
All at once, several thick, heavy meteors came flying, slamming into the female-form monster's body one after another, blasting it into a screeching retreat.
Leo's figure slowly emerged from the flames, his appearance a wreck, but the hand gripping the Emerald Staff steady as anything, his eyes sharp beyond measure.
The meteors circled around him one after another, bathing his whole body in starlight.
Brilliant, and dazzling.
[Read 30+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]