Tsuna and his party were surrounded by a bizarre, diverse horde of monsters.
Suddenly, the Lizardman who had initiated the ambush let out a roar. As if triggered by the battle cry, the ground-based monsters charged forward in unison, while the Harpies hovering above unleashed a torrential rain of razor-sharp feathers down upon the party.
"[X-Blast]."
Tsuna switched his flames from Mist to Sun and clapped his hands together. Fueled by the Sun Flame's Activation trait, the sound of the clap was exponentially amplified, generating a massive, omnidirectional shockwave. The concussive blast repelled the charging monsters and scattered the deadly rain of feathers.
Amidst the chaos, a shield dropped by one of the blasted monsters plummeted from the sky. Tsuna snatched it out of the air with his left hand, coated it in Sun Flames, and hurled it with a brutal, spinning motion.
Combining Tsuna's monstrous physical strength with the rapid acceleration of the Sun Flames, the shield broke the sound barrier. It flew perfectly straight, violently smashing into the cavern wall and carving a massive crater into the stone.
The apocalyptic destructive power of the throw drew the attention of every monster in the room, freezing them in their tracks.
"I'll handle the airborne monsters and the Lizardman!! You guys hold off the rest!!" Tsuna yelled.
By executing a devastating attack and intentionally drawing aggro, Tsuna fractured the enemy's formation. Understanding his tactical intent, Bell and Welf immediately stepped forward to prevent the remaining monsters from regrouping, while Mikoto fell back to form a defensive perimeter around the non-combatants: Wiene, Lili, and Haruhime.
With the lesser monsters dispersed, Tsuna switched his flames from Sun back to Sky and charged directly at the Lizardman.
"!?"
The Lizardman opened its jaws, unleashing a torrent of scorching fire. Tsuna's eyes widened in shock—Lizardmen were biologically incapable of breathing fire. Despite the impossible anomaly, he conjured a shield of Sky Flames from his right hand, blocking the inferno.
Exploiting the opening, a Gargoyle swooped down from Tsuna's blind spot, aiming a lethal claw strike at his back. Without even turning around, Tsuna blasted flames from his left hand toward the floor, rocketing upward and effortlessly evading the ambush.
Escaping into the air, Tsuna was targeted by the Harpies, who unleashed another deadly volley of feather projectiles. Dancing through the sky with flawless, omnidirectional mobility, Tsuna wove through the deadly hail with millimeter precision.
If my theory is correct… After continuously evading the aerial bombardment for a set period, Tsuna suddenly killed his thrust and plummeted into a steep dive.
Just as I thought. The moment he initiated his dive, the Harpies halted their barrage. Strikingly, Tsuna had anticipated this exact reaction.
Just before hitting the ground, Tsuna switched his flames from Sky to Mist, deploying a massive smokescreen that enveloped the cavern. However, he dispelled the smoke almost immediately.
"This is…!?"
When the smoke cleared, Haruhime and the others gasped. Standing around the cavern were perfect, lifelike illusions of every single member of the Hestia Familia.
They stopped attacking…!? The instant the illusions materialized, the entire monster horde completely ceased their assault. Unable to comprehend why the bloodthirsty beasts had suddenly stopped fighting, Bell was left utterly bewildered.
Amidst the standoff, one of the 'monsters' broke formation, charging directly toward the Lizardman. The moment it crossed into striking range, the monster's form rippled, revealing Tsuna. His flames shifted from Mist back to Sky, and the decoy illusions of the Familia immediately vanished.
Reacting on pure instinct, the Lizardman swung its longsword in a desperate horizontal cleave. But Tsuna's figure blurred, and the blade cleaved through empty air.
"Over here."
A voice echoed from directly behind the Lizardman. Tsuna was standing perfectly still, the palm of his right hand aimed squarely at the center of the Lizardman's back.
"Do you want to keep going?"
For some inexplicable reason, Tsuna didn't fire. Instead, he calmly asked the monster a question.
"Haha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
In response to Tsuna's question, the Lizardman threw its head back and roared with laughter—in fluent human language.
"That's amazing!! I've never met an adventurer like you before!!"
"I knew it."
While Bell and the others were completely paralyzed by the shock of a laughing, talking monster, Tsuna remained perfectly composed.
"Hey, when did you figure out I could talk?"
"The moment I blocked your swords. Your blade work was far too refined; it immediately felt unnatural."
If a monster simply swung a sword with brute force, one could chalk it up to high intelligence. However, this Lizardman's grip, posture, and striking mechanics were flawlessly precise. Acquiring true swordsmanship was an entirely different matter than simply possessing high intelligence.
Swordsmanship was a highly refined martial art developed by humanity. It was unfathomable that a human would willingly teach swordsmanship to their sworn enemy. Even if they tried, a feral monster incapable of communication would never quietly submit to instruction.
Even if the Lizardman had attempted to mimic the techniques of adventurers it had fought, mastering swordsmanship required years of relentless, disciplined training. It was biologically impossible for a monster—a creature driven entirely by primal instinct and bloodlust—to possess the patience required to diligently practice sword forms until mastery.
"Furthermore, the moment I dove toward the ground, the Harpies instantly halted their bombardment. And the second I deployed my illusions, your entire army completely stopped attacking. The only logical reason you would intentionally pull your punches like that is if you were terrified of hitting your own allies in the crossfire."
Typically, Dungeon monsters lacked any concept of camaraderie and would gladly slaughter each other in the frenzy of battle. If they were truly mindless beasts that didn't care about friendly fire, there would be absolutely no reason for them to hold back their attacks, and adventurers would effortlessly exploit that chaotic weakness.
"That's incredible. We've encountered a lot of adventurers over the years, but you're the very first one to completely see through our true nature. And more importantly, you figured it out and still chose not to kill us."
"I knew from the very beginning that you guys didn't have any real intention to kill us. If you truly wanted us dead, you would have swarmed us all at once while we were still fumbling in the dark, long before Lili lit up the cavern with the Glow Moss."
Before the Glow Moss was deployed, the party had only their Magic Stone Lamps, severely limiting their visibility. A low-intelligence monster horde would have blindly charged the light source the moment they spotted it. A highly intelligent horde would have observed from the shadows before executing a coordinated, synchronized ambush. The fact that only the Lizardman had attacked them in the dark was absolute proof that they had no intention of actually killing them.
"Once I realized you possessed camaraderie, the strategy was simple. By forcing the strongest fighter among you to surrender, the battle would immediately end. That was the most effective, fastest way to resolve this without casualties."
He deduced all of that in such a short amount of time…?What terrifying composure and observational skills…He really is in a completely different league… While Lili, Mikoto, and Welf had been desperately fighting just to survive, Tsuna had calmly analyzed the enemy, deduced their true nature, and formulated a flawless, non-lethal strategy to end the conflict. They were utterly awestruck by his tactical brilliance.
"When you say 'allies,' does that include the Vouivre over there?"
"Yeah. Wiene is my friend. Therefore, I will protect her. On my pride. And even if I wasn't here, Bell and the others would have done the exact same thing."
"On your pride, huh…"
Hearing Tsuna's unwavering declaration, the Lizardman smiled warmly. He slowly turned to face Tsuna, and Tsuna lowered his palm, officially ending his combat stance.
"Risking your own life for the sake of a monster… I've never felt an emotion like this before."
"────I told you, didn't I, Lyd? They are different."
"Yeah, you were absolutely right, Ray!! These adventurers are completely different!!"
As the tension finally broke, the talking Siren gracefully descended from the ceiling.
"That voice…"
"Hey, don't tell me…"
"It's her…"
Hearing the Siren's voice, Bell, Welf, and Tsuna instantly realized she was the exact same Siren they had encountered on the 19th Floor.
"First of all, let me apologize. We've been testing you this entire time. We needed to see with our own eyes if the rumors about the adventurers harboring our brethren were true. We had to know if you would abandon her the moment things got dangerous…"
"So you knew we were coming."
"Yeah. And… thank you for protecting our brethren."
Seeing the terrifying Lizardman bow deeply in sincere gratitude, Tsuna and the others realized that the 'brethren' they had been talking about was Wiene. The realization fully solidified the truth: the horde of monsters standing before them were all exactly like Wiene.
"My name is Lyd. As you can see, I'm a Lizardman."
"I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. Feel free to call me Tsuna."
"Gotcha. Nice to meet ya, Tsuna-chi."
"Nice to meet you too, Lyd."
Lyd extended a scaled, clawed hand. Without a hint of hesitation, Tsuna reached out, and the human and the monster shared a firm, genuine handshake.
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