The blood-red light radiating from the cracks in the labyrinth walls enveloped the bottom of Floor 60 like a stage of hell. Amidst the completely shattered ice debris of the Glacier, two nightmare existences crouched low. Their bone-white exoskeletons reflected a terrifying magical glow, while the red eyes behind their flat skulls stared straight at their prey.
Juggernaut. The Slaughterer. The labyrinth's immune system, born purely to massacre anything that damaged the Dungeon's ecosystem. And this time, two of them were spawned simultaneously on one of the deepest floors, carrying an anomaly equivalent to Level 9 adventurers.
For the general top-tier adventurers of Orario, facing a single Level 9 Juggernaut was an absolute death sentence. Fear would paralyze their legs, and despair would choke their sanity before the bone claws even touched their necks. However, that rule did not apply to the Zeus and Hera Familia.
For the Empress—the Captain of the Hera Familia who stood at the pinnacle of Level 9—these monsters might just be hunting prey for a muscle stretch. And for the short silver-haired woman now standing in defiance of them, this was not an unstoppable apocalypse, but merely a perfect entertainment stage.
Alfia took a deep breath, the cold air mixed with thin miasma filling her lungs. An arrogant smile, yet filled with absolute elegance, was etched on her lips. She clenched both her gloved hands, letting the soft cracking sound of her knuckles echo. Against monsters that naturally reflected magic and possessed claws harder than pure adamantite, an ordinary mage would instantly meet their end. However, Alfia prepared to conquer them purely bare-handed.
"Sylphie," called Alfia without looking back, her heterochromatic eyes locked onto the two killing machines. "Focus all your wind element on my legs, my joints, and my blind spots. Pull back all your static protective magic."
Behind her, Aria nodded in understanding. The Great Spirit of Wind knew the reason very well. The Juggernaut's exoskeleton armor was instinctually designed by the Dungeon to shatter, deflect, and nullify elemental magic. If Aria unleashed cutting storms or absolute air pressure at them, the magic would only be deflected randomly.
"My wind will become the wings on every one of your steps," replied Aria softly.
Aria brought her hands together, changing the form of Aegis Caelum, which was previously a defensive dome, into an aerodynamic vortex wrapping around Alfia's legs, back, and elbows. This was a modification of high-level support magic—an acceleration booster that would eliminate air friction and increase Alfia's Agility beyond the normal limits of a Level 7.
BAM! BAM!
The ice floor beneath the two Juggernauts' feet shattered simultaneously. They did not jump; they disappeared. Their speed defied the laws of physics, leaving a sonic boom where they had stood.
One Juggernaut attacked from the front line, its claws slashing diagonally to cleave Alfia's chest. Meanwhile, the second moved in an illogical curved trajectory, appearing right in the blind spot from the upper right side, its bladed bone tail striking straight for the mage's neck.
A double attack from two Level 9 monsters at the speed of light. A dead end with no opening.
However, Alfia's heterochromatic eyes did not even blink.
Aided by Aria's boosting wind on her back, Alfia tilted her upper body backward by just a few millimeters. The claws from the first Juggernaut slashed empty air, the tips only cutting a few strands of her silver hair. At the same time, without needing to turn her head, Alfia's left hand—which had condensed pure mind from Silentium Eden, using it as an impact-nullifying glove—rose and parried the flat side of the second Juggernaut's tail blade.
CLAAAAANG! A blinding spark exploded as the silver-light-coated hand deflected the monster's attack trajectory.
Instead of retreating to create distance, Alfia stepped forward, penetrating her enemy's defensive space. Her right foot stomped the ice floor. The muscles in her right arm contracted with a very specific rhythm, perfectly mimicking the breathing and force-release technique of a hero who was once her comrade-in-arms.
Heavy-Class Annihilation Technique: Zard Style.
Alfia swung an uppercut punch toward the lower jaw of the first Juggernaut's skull. The explosion of pure force channeled from her small yet incredibly dense muscles slammed into the creature's chin with a power that distorted the air.
CRAAAAK!
The Juggernaut was thrown into the air with its exoskeleton plates severely cracked, a soundless howl escaping its head that was whipped back by the raw physical impact.
Aria, watching from a dozen meters away, widened her eyes. The Great Spirit held her breath in awe.
A pure physical punch? And she cracked the monster's armor bare-handed? Aria thought in disbelief.
What Aria witnessed was not a magical miracle, but the absolute reason why Alfia was dubbed the "Calamitous Talent". In Orario, it took dozens of years for a top-tier adventurer to master a single martial arts technique to the point of perfection. But Alfia? She only needed one glance.
Her brain and eyes possessed a structural abnormality that allowed her to analyze, deconstruct, and copy the muscle movements, footwork, and techniques of any fighter with one hundred percent precision. During her time in the Hera Familia, frequently witnessing joint training sessions with the Zeus Familia, Alfia had recorded all the close-quarters combat techniques of the living legends.
She might be classified as a Mage on her status paper, but in the realm of close-quarters combat (CQC), she was a living vessel that mastered all the martial arts of the two strongest factions in history. Facing Alfia was tantamount to facing the ghosts of the entire armada of the Zeus and Hera Familia members at once.
The second Juggernaut, whose tail had just been parried, did not waste time. The creature spun its body in the air like a mad top, using its razor-sharp hind legs to kick Alfia's nape.
Alfia did not parry. She let Aria's wind vortex on her legs help her spin. Her movements were extremely fluid, without pause and without stiffness, exactly like a deadly water dance.
Interception Flow Technique: Empress Style.
Alfia slipped beneath that deadly kick with the elegance of a queen, then used the momentum of her own spin to land a straight heel kick right on the supporting knee joint of the Juggernaut.
THWACK! The terrifying monster's balance was shattered.
As the Juggernaut lost its footing in the air, Alfia leaped after it, changing her fighting style in a thousandth of a second. Her hands now moved like lightning, striking the weak points between the gaps in the creature's bone armor with a rapid-punch technique relying on absolute speed and precision.
Lightning Strike Style: Maxim.
Every strike of Alfia's palm created rapid sonic booms. The Juggernaut's exoskeleton ribs cracked and fractured under the barrage of attacks that surpassed the speed of the monster's own reflexes.
On the other side, the first Juggernaut that had been knocked away had recovered its position. It bounced off the remains of an ice pillar and shot back like a guided missile, opening its claws wide to tear Alfia's back while she was in mid-air.
"Six o'clock!" shouted Aria, instantly warning of the direction of her blind spot.
Alfia did not panic. She let go of the second Juggernaut she was raining punches upon, letting the creature fall to the floor. In the air, Alfia twisted her waist and used Aria's boosting wind to perform a backflip.
As she floated upside down, her left foot kicked the flat side of the lunging first Juggernaut's claw, deflecting its trajectory, while her right knee was slammed hard right into the forehead of the creature's skull.
BLAAAAM!
The two Level 9 Juggernauts—entities destined to bring absolute slaughter and terror to the deepest labyrinth—now looked like two wild dogs being toyed with by a martial arts master.
Alfia landed on the ice floor with one knee elegantly bent, then immediately stood up straight. Her breathing began to hasten, and fine sweat appeared on her forehead, but a small laugh filled with pure euphoria escaped her lips.
"More," challenged Alfia, rolling her neck until it made a small cracking sound. Her eyes radiated the madness of a warrior who had long been asleep. "Faster. Don't shame your titles as the labyrinth's bringers of the apocalypse. If this is all your limit is, then your magic-nullifying armor is useless to me."
Aria stared at Alfia's back with a look of awe. As a Great Spirit, she had lived for thousands of years and witnessed many heroes of the ancient era fight. However, if speaking purely of technique and mastery of mixed martial arts, the woman before her was an unmatched existence.
She isn't even focusing the slightest bit of offensive magic, Aria thought, the wind in her hands vibrating softly in realization. She is intentionally prolonging this physical fight. Alfia is... wringing out the potential of her own body.
Aria realized the mage's crazy intention. Facing opponents with Agility and strength far above Level 7, Alfia intentionally discarded her long-range magic and entered absolute death range. Every time Alfia had to activate her reflexes and muscle endurance beyond the tearing point, Excelia—the spiritual and physical experience composing the Status within her body—boiled and expanded at an astronomical rate.
Alfia was using these two Level 9 incarnations of death as whetstones to raise her stat parameters. She was testing how far her physical vessel could develop under the pressure of impossible combat.
GROOOAARRRR!!
As if feeling insulted by the existence of their prey, the two Juggernauts released a cracking sound resonance from their exoskeletons. They discarded all forms of individual hunting instincts. This time, they moved in an impossibly synchronized formation.
The two ran in circles at maximum speed, creating a tornado of ice dust around Alfia. Their speed made their physical forms disappear, leaving a single ring of purple and white shadows that completely caged the mage.
From all directions within that storm ring, claws, tail blades, and bone-plated shoulder tackles shot towards Alfia relentlessly like a close-range meteor shower.
"Good! Give me more of a burden!" Alfia smirked ferociously, her eyes flashing with anticipation.
The true martial dance broke out. Alfia stood right in the eye of the storm, her body moving through the nets of death with microscopic accuracy. She controlled Aria's Aegis Caelum wind clinging to her body not to escape, but to accelerate her neural responses and joint rotations.
When a tail blade from the lower left swept at her legs, Alfia jumped very slightly. In the air, a pair of bone claws from the right aimed for her head. Alfia tilted her neck, letting the sharp claw tips strike empty space by her cheek. With a single unpredictable, lightning-fast movement, she instead lunged in and locked the monster's skeletal arm under her armpit.
Absolute Throw Technique: Maxim Style.
With an incredible roar of channeled force, Alfia twisted her waist and slammed the first Juggernaut over her shoulder. She smashed the heavy bone-plated body directly into the trajectory of the second Juggernaut charging forward.
CRAAAASSH!
The two monsters collided squarely in the air with the horrifying sound of clashing bones, crushing each other.
But they were the labyrinth's immune system; they knew no pain or hesitation. Even before touching the floor from the collision, the bladed tails of each Juggernaut shot out like deadly springs from two opposite directions straight toward Alfia's chest.
Alfia had neither footing nor enough time to dodge, but she had no intention of running. She focused dense pure mind into both her arms, compressed it into her muscle fibers, and cross-parried the two steel blades using her bare arms reinforced by Silentium Eden.
BLAAAM! The massive thrusting force from the two tail strikes of the Level 9 monsters forced Alfia to drag backward until her shoes created a trench dozens of centimeters deep. The cloth cloak on her arms tore completely, and the blood vessels beneath the skin of her arms bulged visibly due to the pressure of magical compression clashing with raw kinetic force.
"Withstanding a pure impact attack from a Level 9 bare-handed... you are truly beyond common sense, Alfia!" exclaimed Aria from behind. The Great Spirit instinctually increased the volume of the wind thrust on Alfia's back to counterbalance the monsters' repulsive force so Alfia wouldn't be thrown further.
"Hah... hah..." Alfia panted, but her laugh echoed loudly in the ruined hall. There was not a speck of pain or disadvantage on her face; she completely controlled the rhythm of this battle. Her eyes burned with the light of the awakening she had long sought.
"My bones aren't broken. My muscles still respond. This means my Agility and Endurance are still growing, feeding on their pressure, Sylphie!"
Alfia flicked both her hands to the side with an extremely elegant movement, brushing off the remaining vibrations from the brutal collision just now. She could feel it. The stagnant sensation within her constrained physical vessel finally cracked open. Her limits as a Level 7 were now forcibly eroded. Her dexterity and endurance statuses seemed to scream, yet grew wildly beyond their own walls.
In front of her, the two Juggernauts had recovered their positions and risen again. But this time, their majesty as the Dungeon's executioners had been tainted.
The exoskeleton on the jaw and chest of the first monster was severely cracked until bone shards fell to the ice floor due to the Zard Style punch and the collision with its fellow monster earlier. The second Juggernaut that had been slammed also suffered fractures on most of the protective plates on its back and shoulders. The white bone plates that previously functioned to deflect magic were now punctured, revealing the dark purple muscle fiber tissue beneath. The absolute anti-magic shell that was their primary weapon had been breached from within.
Alfia straightened her back. She lowered her martial arts stance with an extremely elegant and deadly movement. The physical trial she needed had been fulfilled. Her martial dance had proven that she was the living incarnation of the combined strength of the Zeus and Hera Familia.
"The shells that support your magic-reflecting abilities are now punctured," Alfia said in a flat tone, yet radiating the coldness of a queen ready to deliver a death sentence.
The glow of black and white mana she had been holding back began to seep out into the air. The glow distorted around her palms, creating a heavy magical hum.
Alfia glanced over her shoulder at the Great Spirit.
"Sylphie," called Alfia, her voice returning to be as calm as the surface of a frozen lake. "Your boosting wind made this dance very satisfying. But physical playtime with these two cracked dolls is over."
Aria smiled faintly, fully understanding her partner's intent. The emerald wind wrapping Alfia's body as a booster was slowly pulled back, leaving absolute stillness around the mage.
The two Juggernauts roared, their primal instincts suddenly sensing horror upon realizing that the prey before them was no longer using martial arts. The air on Floor 60 felt heavy pressing against the lungs. The overflowing magical pressure from the silver-haired woman's body implied a true natural disaster.
"You were born with those shells and abilities purely to slaughter mages," said Alfia, spreading her arms. Sonic blocks in the form of silver and black energy began to form and hover around her body. "But let's see if those gaps in your exoskeletons can swallow the 'sound' of my magic."
Alfia's different-colored eyes flashed mercilessly. The physical warm-up time was over. It was time for the Calamitous Talent to unleash her true identity as the greatest mage in the history of Orario.
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