Forget ten minutes—under the Goblin King's hands, the senpai of the Astrea Familia couldn't even hold out for a single minute.
Of course.
As his own level had risen, the spirit-essence of the "Pale King" had grown stronger as well. Although its mechanics hadn't changed, its base stats had grown from the previous Lv. 5 to the current Lv. 6, so it was only natural that Alise and the others were no match for it.
"But you weren't going all out either, were you?"
"Mm."
"Then this... uh... Pale King right now—compared to the [Juggernaut] that's going to kill us, which one's stronger?"
A good question.
Isagi was actually rather curious himself: if he pitted the two of them, the Pale King and the [Juggernaut], against each other in a "cricket fight," who exactly would win.
In theory, it should still be the Goblin King—whether in terms of mechanics or technique, it was far more outrageous than the [Juggernaut].
And so, Isagi answered rationally.
"The Pale King would win."
"Then this is simple!"
Alise hummed smugly—and it was impressive that she still had the strength at this point to clamber up off the ground and then proudly throw out her chest with her head held high.
"All we have to do is beat that monster you just turned into, right?!"
"In theory, yes."
"Then there's no problem at all!!"
The girl was indeed brimming with energy.
Goddess Astrea had been right—Ryuu-senpai really was the type to be so easily "led astray" by a character like this one.
Off in the distance.
Sitting on the blanket together with Cecil, the Elf girl watched the figures of the youth and his companions from afar.
That battle just now, which had lasted less than a minute, she had taken in entirely with her own eyes.
For Ryuu, the most incomprehensible thing was this.
[Were Alise and the others really that weak?]
In the girl's memory, her comrades were, of course, reliable and powerful existences.
But in the battle just now.
Even though Isagi was clearly "holding back a great deal," they had still been utterly unable to withstand a single blow——part of that was the suddenness of a first encounter, but in the Dungeon, this was the most ordinary thing in the world.
A monster that suddenly appeared would not obediently stand still and tell you all of its abilities, nor would it wait for you to grow accustomed to its way of fighting or anything of the sort.
Or perhaps.
Was it actually that she herself was simply too strong?
Ryuu suddenly realized that Alise and the others, at this moment, had only just leveled up to Lv. 4.
Alfia had not come to the city, but thanks to the [Excelia] obtained from sweeping away the executives of the Dark Familia, the girls of the Astrea Familia had still all risen a level recently.
But even so, for adventurers who had only just become Lv. 4 to try and go toe-to-toe with a monster like the Pale King was still highly unrealistic.
What's more, Alise and the others were obviously unaccustomed to this sort of high-intensity combat, which allowed for hardly the slightest mistake.
Forget about getting distracted.
Even in the single instant of a blink, they might lose their lives.
At this moment.
Apart from that idiot Alise, everyone else was, to one degree or another, somewhat shaken.
After all, the battle just now had been simply far too incomprehensible for them.
Kaguya, whose nature was clearly the proud and unyielding sort, had even sat down on the ground, staring at the long blade in her hand, sunk into a certain bewilderment.
She, too, could not understand it.
Just now, in the instant the battle had begun.
She had only seen Alise, wreathed in flowing flames, charge ahead at the front as always—but then suddenly freeze partway, not closing in to pincer the enemy together with her the way she always had.
[Did something happen?]
What on earth was that idiot doing?
And in the very instant Kaguya, puzzled, was about to take a look.
A sudden, violent sense of terror came surging in, stabbing at the perception she'd once honed as an "assassin," and so she only had time to see that the Goblin King, which moments ago had still been far off in the distance, had already arrived right in front of her——
And then, immediately after.
The girl was blasted away like a cannonball, driven from the edge of the woods dozens of meters deep into it, snapping every tree trunk along the way.
And by the time she barely managed to try to crawl up and return to the battlefield.
She discovered that everyone had already fallen.
"...."
How could this be?
She couldn't comprehend it.
Even knowing there was an enormous gap between them, Kaguya still could not understand it.
The girls of the Astrea Familia at this point in time had no experience fighting Alfia—although that woman had been thoroughly pulling her punches at the time, she had, to some degree at least, given them a taste of what it felt like to battle a "powerful foe."
And right now, Alise and Kaguya and the rest simply lacked precisely that kind of experience.
They rarely explored the Dungeon; most of the time, they were maintaining public order in the city and fighting the Dark Familia.
Granted, the enemy did have executive-class adventurers of Lv. 5 and above.
But to be fair.
On the Dark Familia's side, there was no one who could be called a true "strong one," no genius in the real sense—or, to put it in Alfia's words, they were [a pack of insignificant mediocrities].
Back in the era of Zeus and Hera, the Dark Familia had been like rats in a gutter, not even daring to poke their heads out.
It was little wonder, then, that the woman would offer such an assessment.
In any case.
"Senpai, you'll all need to adapt properly now."
Isagi's goal was not to help Alise and the others level up.
For the girls who had only just reached Lv. 4 to all be raised to Lv. 5 would be an absolutely massive undertaking, one that likely couldn't be accomplished in a short span of time.
So.
What this training could improve was only their technique, along with the "combat experience" of facing a powerful foe.
This was very important.
In fact, the reason Ryuu-senpai and the others had once been killed in an instant when facing the [Juggernaut]—one very important factor was precisely the matter of experience.
Although the members of the Dark Familia were also quite "brutal," that was still different from a monster.
More importantly, once the hardest period had passed, the subsequent mopping-up of the Dark Familia's remnants was essentially a game of cat and mouse—rather than the fighting being difficult, it was more that finding the enemy was the harder part.
This had led Alise and the others to grow somewhat "complacent," in fact.
Or rather, they had no real concept of a "powerful enemy" at all—which was exactly why something like that had been able to happen.
"The junior really is strict, isn't he...."
In Isagi's eyes one could see an utterly earnest expression.
"Then let's make this a deal—if you can't earn my approval, then Goddess Astrea will take back your [Falna], Senpai."
"Doing so would be deeply painful for the Goddess as well, but it's the last resort when there's no other choice."
This was a promise.
And therefore.
"If you still want to be adventurers, then you'll have to give it everything you've got, Senpai."
There was no time to rest.
Once their injuries had recovered a little, the Familia's senpai entered a combat-ready state once again, and at the same time Isagi once more transformed into the form of the "Pale King."
At the same time.
He found himself thinking that next time it might be better to call in Miss Heith, or even Miss Airmid.
That way, the efficiency might just be even higher——
____
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