"Ahahahahahaha—"
Jura threw his head back and laughed uproariously, as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
He shifted his gaze away from Noah, deliberately placing one hand on his hip and the other on his face.
Though maintaining such an exaggerated laughing posture was somewhat tiring, it certainly made for an impressive display of bravado!
An ordinary newbie might have been intimidated into inaction, allowing him to finish his entire performance unchallenged.
But at that moment, Noah had already positioned himself directly above Jura's head.
The sudden darkness made Jura pause momentarily before his eyes widened in shock.
A brilliant crimson light descended from the sky!
The cat demi-human hastily rolled aside, scrambling awkwardly to escape from beneath the scarlet magic sword.
He had witnessed the weapon's power from the shadows earlier—even the tough skin and muscles of beast-men couldn't withstand its edge.
Though his evasion appeared clumsy, it saved him from being cleaved in two.
Unfortunately, his tail wasn't so lucky.
Beast ears and tails were characteristic features of beast-type demi-humans.
Now, Noah had helpfully reduced his by one and no blood sprayed from the wound.
The area severed by the Crimson Guardian instantly carbonized upon contact.
Healing was useless since the cells had already turned to carbon—no amount of revitalization could restore what high temperatures had transformed into different matter.
Only by removing the necrotic tissue could treatment become effective.
Wounds inflicted by the Crimson Guardian were, in a sense, incurable and irreversible.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Jura's agonized scream echoed through the Dungeon.
The excruciating pain from his severed tail made his movements stiff and awkward.
Noah bared his teeth in a ferocious grin.
"So you can make sounds that aren't completely disgusting. Good—your screams are far more pleasant to hear than your nauseating laughter. But..."
With that, he utilized the all-attribute boost from his pseudo-enchantment magic to close the distance to the cat man in an instant.
The weightless Crimson Guardian in his hand left afterimages with each swing.
"...they're still awful!"
Jura, now tail-less, kept trying to find an opportunity to speak, but the young man before him seemed to have triggered some dangerous switch, attacking relentlessly without pause.
'Damn it! A mere Level 2 insect!'
Jura had lost his tail due to carelessness.
The subtle imbalance made his own body feel alien and unfamiliar, making evasion incredibly difficult.
Seizing the moment, Noah feigned a sword swing but instead reached out with his left hand to grab the cat man's collar.
The Raven-Feather shifted, opening four thrusters.
The instant propulsion engaged, Noah changed direction and slammed the cat man violently into the ground.
BAM!
The tremendous impact made Noah realize that human bodies could produce such sounds too.
Jura bounced back from the ground, twisted mid-air and miraculously regained his balance, landing upright.
His face darkened with unprecedented intensity, murderous intent reaching its peak.
"YOU DAMNED BRATTT!!!!"
THUD!
He kicked a nearby stone, shattering it and accelerating the fragments to speeds barely visible to the naked eye, sending them shooting toward Noah.
This was the physical capability of a high-level adventurer.
Using pure physical strength alone, he could turn stone fragments into projectiles with shotgun-like destructive power.
If it were the magic spear thrown by a berserk Level 6 Finn, its power would be equivalent to throwing a missile barehanded.
'There was no way i could dodge this!'
Just as Noah was about to selectively endure the damage, a crimson mist suddenly formed around the magic sword, swiftly enveloping him.
'This is—! The Crimson Mist!'
Under his astonished gaze, the rubble with shotgun-like power disintegrated upon contact with the crimson mist, successfully nullified.
'Well done! As expected of the sword I forged! If i weren't holding this weapon, i might have already been killed—the gap of our levels was just too glaring.'
"What?!"
Unlike Noah, Jura was stunned upon witnessing this scene.
"That... that's Amphisbaena's Crimson Mist?"
As an upper-class adventurer, he had once paid homage to the majesty of the 27th Floor's Boss.
He had even provoked it to attack adventurers within the Dungeon.
Thus, he knew all too well how terrifying that monster was.
The cat-person muttered in disbelief, "Impossible, it can't be! It must just be a similar ability!"
Rubbing his nearly dislocated shoulder from the earlier fall, he frowned and said.
"There's something off about you. My judgment can't be wrong—you're definitely Level 2. But this power... it's bordering on Level 3."
Noah, of course, had no intention of kindly enlightening him.
It was simple: on one hand, the Raven Feathers had amplified his strength, and on the other, he had used the Spell-Weaver's effect to influence the weight of his throws during the attack.
In battle, explaining one's abilities either meant spouting lies to mislead the opponent or staying silent.
Blurting out the truth about one's abilities was just asking for a quicker death!
"Oh—so you know about it? Then you must be aware of its other ability as well."
'Another ability... Could it be?!'
The image of Amphisbaena's Blue Flames, capable of burning even lakes, flashed through Jura's mind.
"Let me make this clear—I haven't unleashed the Blue Flames so far only because I cherish this magic sword's exorbitant cost. But if you insist on causing trouble here, I won't hold back anymore!" Noah pointed his blade at the cat-person some distance away.
Jura fell silent.
After a brief standoff, Jura suddenly revealed a strange expression.
A "swish" sound came from the shadows.
Noah caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye—a long, pink tongue.
With a shredding sound, the tongue was torn apart by the crimson mist.
"A monster?"
'What terrible timing for one to appear.'
"KAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Jura suddenly burst into loud laughter.
Completely unafraid of attracting monsters, he declared, "There's something I forgot to mention—I'm actually a Beast Tamer! Not a frontline fighter! Did you really think you could match a Level 4 adventurer? I'm just not skilled in that area!"
With a wave of his hand, the cat-person summoned a large number of monsters.
"Go ahead and use that magic sword if you want! I have plenty of cannon fodder. This is the Underground Labyrinth after all—monsters are an endless resource! Ahahaha!"
'A Beast Tamer! A special profession capable of taming and controlling monsters. So, he had been stalling for time all along? This guy was two levels higher than me, yet he resorted to such underhanded tactics.'
'Tch, not like I have any room to talk.'
Noah's earlier threat was also merely to buy time.
He had absolutely no intention of making empty threats—he genuinely wanted to eliminate this creepy dude!