Nero knew that this was the most danger that he had been in since he had started exploring the dungeon; facing multiple enemies with armor like shells, razor sharp mandibles and the abilty to work together in a group
"This really is the most do or die situation I've ever been in" Nero thought to himself, sweat beading on his forehead
"Skrieeee" called one of the ants, the rest charging forward towards Nero
"Alright, focus, this is the same as usual, kill the monsters and I'll be fine" Nero whispered to himself
Focusing on dodging all of the ants attacks he focused on trying to spot openings to attack but due to their numbers he was unable to find an oppurtunity to strike
"This isn't working, Yumi might be able to deal with these guys but I don't think I'm strong enough to deal with them all at once" Nero panted, his breathing starting to become laboured
"Think, what can I do" he grunted through gritted teeth
Suddenly an ant sprang at him from behind and instinctively Nero spun around, channeling his energy into Hyōka and Shirayuki, a cold breeze being formed from the rotation as he slammed Hyōka into the ants face, causing it to be forced back and ice to start forming on its face while the cold air made the others weary and caused them to back off for just a second, giving Nero
"That felt almost like ice pillar fan" Nero gasped in surprise, using the second of time he had gained to regain his breath and refocus before locking onto the ice that had formed on the ants face, the ant not able to remove it and was struggling to try and do it
"This gives me an idea" Nero smiled "Their armor might make them hard to beat, but it can also be their weakness, they can move because of the gaps and that's where people normally aim for but what if I give them even more armor there in the form of ice"
Deciding to give up on offense entirely Nero instead focused on spreading out cold air in the same way that Yumi did when she was in her ice queen form, focusing mainly on the ants joints as he dodged their attacks, his stamina lasting longer due to not having to focus on looking for openings
Thanks to another ant helping it the ant with the ice on its face was finally freed and returned to the fight, only for it and all of the rest of the ants to start to slow down, their joints starting to seal up due to the ice that was starting to accumulate causing Nero to be able to dodge even easier and focus on causing more ice to build up
Within a few minute all of the ants were sealed in place, unable to move due to their joints being frozen, only able to scream in frustration
"I should make this quick, I don't want any other ants to start coming here" Nero sighed in relief, going from one ant to the next and delivering a precise strike to their necks to kill them instantly
"Phew, now that that's over I'd better get out of her quick" Nero decided, grabbing the fallen magic stones as quickly as he could and making his way up the stairs, only to be ambushed by another ant as he set foot back on floor 8
The sudden ambush at the top of the stairs caught Nero off guard, causing his tessen to be flung away, being pinned to the floor with the monster on top of him, grabbing it mandibles to stop it from biting his head off, the sharp blade like jaws cutting into his hands
"I just dealt with the rest of your family and now you want revenge" Nero grunted in pain "well you can go join them in hell you monster" Nero's hands turning freezing cold causing the mandibles to turn to ice and using his strength to snap them off
Realing back in pain the ant gave Nero the chance he needed to use the monsters own weapons against it, focusing even more energy into the broken off jaw causing the ice to become hard and lengthening further into 2 short curved blades and stabbing them into the monster neck
POOF
The ant exploded into dust, leaving only Nero panting on the floor with the 2 mandibles in his hands, the surge of magic that he had forced into them seemingly having turned them into drop items with an ice element added to them
"Ok, that's definately enough adventuring for today" Nero sighed in relief, looking at his hands where the wounds had been sealed due to the ice "but it really does seem that real life or death battles push me further than just training does, I feel like I'm starting to get an idea on how to use Yumi's other techniques" he muttured before picking himself off the floor before going over to pick up his teesen
"At least I now know that although coming down here is risky it's also worth it" he remarked able to feel more confident in his techniques and looking at his gacha bar which due to facing multiple lower floor monsters compared to the ones he normally fought had gone up by another 5% leading to it sitting at the 15% mark as he made his way to the surface.