Although she had mentally prepared herself before coming, Alicia still wanted to say,
Is this a fucking monster that appears on the 5th Floor?!
Oops, I swore!
But the Elven woman still wanted to complain—wasn't the guy in front of them a bit too outrageous?
The pitch-black greatsword slashed down silently.
Alicia could only leap up rapidly, dodging to the side while keeping her eyes fixed on one of its four arms—the one tightly gripping a javelin.
Just then!
Between those pitch-black arms, slender as lines, the javelin was violently hurled toward Lefiya, who was chanting magic in the distance.
Alicia moved again.
While running toward her kin, she began chanting her own magic.
"O forest, become the bowstring. O ice crystals, become the giant arrow! The bow of the upper moon bears the will of the spirit peak, this is—"
The longbow and arrows in her hands were instantly covered in ice and snow.
A massive, crystalline arrow condensed within her palm.
"[Glacial Arrows]!"
The magical arrow struck the hurled pitch-black giant spear with unerring accuracy. Subsequently, the darkness was engulfed by the ice and snow, dyed in silvery white, and gradually disintegrated amidst a somewhat piercing, crisp sound.
A large amount of silver-white ice crystals fell from mid-air; both the arrow and the javelin melted away together.
"Phew..."
Alicia couldn't help but glance at Lefiya in the distance.
The Elven girl remained expressionless, chanting her magic without a single unnecessary movement.
This was absolute trust in her companion.
Since the task of "using magic to dissolve the Lightless King's javelins to prevent it from interfering with Lefiya's casting" was entrusted to her before the battle, then the others absolutely believed she could complete it.
In this moment.
For the first time, Alicia felt that the professionalism of Isagi and his team was no less than that of any veteran adventurer party—
No!
Two Level 3s, two Level 4s—such a configuration was sufficient to tentatively set foot in the Deep Floors!!
And now...
This was merely the 5th Floor.
Alicia looked up. She saw the arm of the Lightless King that had just thrown the black spear begin to twist and swell again.
That was the sign that the next pitch-black javelin was about to appear.
Focus, stay focused!
Her task was to deal with the javelins. Aside from that, she didn't even need to output magic damage. This was to avoid consuming Mind, which might lead to an inability to block those javelins possessing a [Lock-on] effect.
Isagi had surmised:
That thing would kill anyone who took a hit, so absolutely no one could be allowed to actually get hit!
Outrageous.
The Elven woman doubted once again: Was this really a monster of the 5th Floor?
Alicia looked at the towering pitch-black giant before her. Its body was at least twenty or thirty meters tall—in the original Upper Floors, it was impossible for such a colossal monster to appear.
The reason was simple.
The caves in the Upper Floors were only about ten meters high at most, with lower ones being only four or five meters.
But the pitch-black town before their eyes seemed to have formed a massive chamber by digging through the Dungeon out of nowhere.
How high was the ceiling?
Unknown.
And as such a giant stood amidst these ruins, its slender body was completely pitch-black. Precisely because it was too dark, the scattered fluorescence emitting from the top of the chamber actually illuminated its silhouette.
The massive pure white circle on its face also emitted light like a tiny sun.
"Watch out below!"
Following Isagi's warning from the distance.
Alicia also quickly noticed the edge of a pitch-black greatsword rising from within the castle ruins, from bottom to top!
At this moment.
The hand of the Lightless King holding the greatsword had already reached underground, allowing it to launch attacks at will from below where no one could see.
Truly outrageous!
Fortunately, the greatsword couldn't extend in length—nor could the Lightless King's hand.
This was Isagi's previous judgment. Because if it could, the javelins would be unnecessary; it could just extend its hand and blade directly. Why would it need ranged means?
This indicated that the Lightless King's greatsword had a limited "maximum attack range"!
Indeed.
So Lefiya didn't need to worry about the greatsword. Because at any time and place, Isagi would calculate the maximum attack range of the greatsword based on the Lightless King's own position, and then remind the Elven girl to stand outside that range.
Alicia lamented; Isagi's thought process was truly too clear.
The boy was actually such an excellent commander?!
In the distance, firelight exploded.
The Lightless King took almost no physical damage. Against ordinary special War Shadows, one could trade injury for injury, but against the BOSS in front of them, that was absolutely forbidden.
So.
For Isagi himself, using [Lightning of Tomoe] to enchant his weapon could still deal damage.
Including rapid fire from the [Left Bow], and so on.
But besides that, Isagi was surprised to discover that after leveling up, using the "Flame Vent" ability of the Shinobi Prosthetic allowed him to coat his weapon in flames, dealing extra "Fire Attribute" damage when attacking.
And this, damn it, counted as magic!
Isagi was puzzled. Logically speaking, the Flame Vent in the Shinobi Prosthetic should just be flames spewed from igniting Oiled Pine Resin.
How did this count as magic?!
But thinking about it carefully.
Right, his Shinobi Prosthetic wasn't loaded with Oiled Pine Resin—that stuff didn't even exist in this world!
Moreover, the fact that such simple wood and iron pieces could perform complex mechanical transformations was incredible in itself. Calling it "magic" seemed more reliable than "quantum mechanics"!
Then it was fine!
After discovering this, Isagi immediately changed his combat strategy.
He had Tiona throw her large blade over, and after enchanting it, threw it back to her. At this moment, the boy and the girl, holding weapons burning with raging flames, were constantly giving the Lightless King...
A pedicure.
There was no helping it; this guy was too damn tall.
He and Tiona couldn't fly—even the grappling hook couldn't be used, as it would just pierce through the Lightless King's body.
So, they could only give it a pedicure.
This was the unfriendly aspect of giant battles for melee classes.
And he was different from Tiona.
The Amazon girl could just focus on pedicuring right there. At most, when the flames on her large blade went out, she would throw it over for him to enchant again.
But he was much busier.
At the giant's feet, he couldn't observe the movements of its arms at all.
Fortunately, to cope with this situation in advance, he had combined the [Flesh and Blood Long Limb] with the [Glimmer Greatsword], turning it into a "Giant Spear." Furthermore, it could continue to extend, resulting in an attack range that could exceed ten meters at max.
Only in this way was it a weapon for hunting giants!
This allowed Isagi to maintain a relatively safe distance while giving the Lightless King a pedicure, while also observing the movements of its hands.
The hand throwing javelins was being watched by Alicia.
The hand wielding the greatsword, as long as it didn't reach underground and just slashed left and right above the castle ruins, posed little threat.
Thus, two hands remained.
One hand held a scepter—Isagi thought it would release some magic, but it didn't.
This guy just smashed it wildly toward him and Tiona!
Probably because its arms were too short to reach Alicia and Lefiya.
It was even inexplicably funny.
However, every smash caused pitch-black viscous liquid to ooze from the ground, staining all the surrounding ruins black.
Then, pitch-black War Shadow mobs would emerge from it.
And they were all archers!
The monsters emerging from the darkness, holding bows and arrows, shot pitch-black arrows like torrential rain toward him and the others—and these damn arrows also had [Lock-on]!!
This wasn't funny at all.
Luckily, Isagi reacted quickly, immediately switching to the [Left Bow] and drowning them all with lightning-fast brilliant gold magic arrows.
Alicia also helped.
The Elven big sister's other wide-area annihilation magic, [Hail Dust], could turn magic power into countless scattering ice crystals. It perfectly drowned those emerging War Shadow archers while also covering all the arrows they shot.
Isagi had originally thought,
Since the Lightless King became so big after "leveling up," in a sense, it should have become "weaker."
Because as everyone knows, the bigger the body, the bigger the target.
He never expected that,
Because the body was bigger, the weapon was also bigger, the black pits it smashed were bigger, and the mobs spawning from inside were also more numerous.
It could actually work like this!!!
But this wasn't even the most outrageous part. Because the thing held in the Lightless King's fourth arm made Isagi struggle to identify it.
Although that thing was also black,
Judging by its silhouette and design, no matter how you looked at it, it looked like a "gun," right?
Not an ancient "long spear," but a fucking double-barreled shotgun—no, considering the Lightless King's current size, calling it a "cannon" was no problem either!!!
"Arrogant fools, daring to raise swords against me; you shall be eradicated by heaven and earth!"
A loud boom rang out.
Crimson firelight accompanied by gunpowder smoke appeared, and a pitch-black giant shell flew toward Lefiya, who was still chanting magic in the distance.
This time.
Alicia's magic wouldn't make it in time to block such a rapid "shelling."
But it wasn't needed, because Lefiya could solve it herself.
With just a slight movement of a thought, the pure white light arrows floating around the Elven girl scattered out, subsequently colliding with the incoming shell.
In an instant.
The magical explosion even turned the pitch-black town into a stark white color.
Holy crap!
Isagi looked at the "Giant Hand Cannon" held by the Lightless King in the distance and thought, Does that thing count as "magic" too?!
Meanwhile...
...
Dungeon, 9th Floor.
After wandering around, Yama, having only found the way to enter the "Pale City" from here, brought a group from the Rudra Familia.
Looking at the layers of Goblin camps outside the massive city gate in the distance.
He had the tamers under his command order a large group of Minotaurs, wielding giant axes, to make a tentative charge toward these Goblins who were armored and armed to the teeth.
The result...
"What is that?"
Looking at the back of the camp, at the Goblin soldiers who took out long tube-like weapons that sprayed gunpowder smoke and firelight while emitting loud noises.
Yama couldn't help but be curious.
Are those things some new style of "Magic Wand"?
—
PS: Both Bloodborne and Lies of P have firearm settings.
___
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