Thebel (3)

Thebel 5F

The fifth floor was a small floor compared to the previous ones.

They found themselves in a usual dark green corridor with a straight path to the north. For the preset checkpoint floors there wouldn't be any anomalies while the structure of the floor would also remained static.

Still, the ominous aura in this floor was even thicker than before so the party couldn't help but distorted their face out of discomfort. Their body also automatically feel heavier as if their weight was increasing by several times than usual.

"Looks like the handicap was increasing....are you guys alright?" Haruto asked his allies worriedly.

"...I think I can handle at least one more fight." Rikka answered after thinking for awhile.

"For me I'm already reaching my limit but I still want to give it a try...." Fia said subtly, her face was already quite pale. Haruto who saw that started contemplating.

'Rikka perhaps would be alright but for Fia maybe it's still a little much. Should I join fighting?'

"I think it's alright to let her fight."

Just as Haruto wanted to have her pull back and rest, Rikka gave her opinion.

"Huh? But..." Haruto was not sure what to say.

"It's okay, believe in us. We won't be able to become truly strong if we keep pulling back in times like this. Besides, if things gone wrong you will protect us right, Haru-kun?" Rikka said while smiling.

"*Sigh*... Saying things like that is unfair you know?" Haruto was feeling helpless facing such reasoning. Indeed, he won't let them be killed even if in that case Kaori would be able to revive them. He never looked down of life and death and even if resurrection was possible, letting his important people died is intolerable and unforgivable.

"Fine then, Kaori and I will watch your back so do your best." He raised his hands giving up.

"D-D-D-Do your best everyone~" Kaori said while stuttering. But Haruto did not worry about this. He knew that when her companions truly needed her, no matter how scary it was she would definitely ignore her fear and lent a hand with all of her power, she's such a girl and Haruto was proud of her.

"Okay!"

"Yes!"

They both answered.

....

Exiting the corridor was a huge square hall with 4 pillars standing on each corners. The hall was about more than a hundred meters wide, allowing them to fight freely.

At the center of the hall, Haruto could sense quite a powerful energy, much different than the monsters below the floor. The energy was perhaps a little stronger than the non-transformed black minotaurs he encountered before.

Meaning the power was around lower High rank.

The current him maybe be able to defeat those level of monsters easily but the same could not be said to Rikka and Fia. Just before, they managed to get a few minor scratches from peak Medium rank shadow monsters (already healed by Kaori) so facing a monster with higher rank was definitely a challenge even without including the handicap placed on them right now.

There's a huge differences when a monster leap to another Rank compared to increasing in level from lower to intermediate or intermediate to peak. Perhaps the differences in power would be around ten times stronger than the previous peak rank.

*Sssss....*

They heard a hissing sound echoing from the dark hall.

A heavy sound resounded from the movements of the source of the hissing sound. Before long while they keep moving forward a giant shadow more than eight meters came to their sight.

It was a very massive snake phyton about as big as the one on the famous Anaconda movie back in Haruto's world. It's entire body was the same shadow color like all the monsters before.

Fia gulped seeing her opponent, she was currently a tiny fox being eyed by a giant serpent. Though not long after her eyes turned back resolute and gazed at her opponent strongly. She maybe a tiny fox but she's not an ordinary fox!

"You guys ready?"

Haruto asked the two girls and they both nodded while making their own battle stances to welcome the fight about to befall them.

Giving them one last encouraging look, Haruto pulled back along with Kaori to give them space and to avoid gaining attention on the giant snake.

And so they both began the battle.

....

The two girls dashed forward with their respective weapons on their side. Rikka was gripping the handle of the sheathed crimson katana while Fia was drawing her white claw both in preparation for their attacks.

"SHAAA!!"

The shadow giant snake hissed ferociously as if it tried to scare its opponent away but it wouldn't work on the fully determined girls.

Rikka was planning to land a cut on its body to activate the ability of Murasame, the one hit killing curse that stopped the opponent's heart the moment they were cut by the blade.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be that easy as the moment she drew her sword against the shadow snake's body, it immediately slithered swiftly avoiding the sword and swung the the giant tail against her.

She already expected it wouldn't be that easy so she jumped high and avoided onslaught of the tail while receiving some grazes on her body. At the other side Fia approached near its body while placing her claw in front of her chest before swiping it powerfully.

"Tiger Slash - Kagutsuchi!!"

Shouting the name of the technique she released a massive shockwave slash from the Byakko's claw striking against the snake giant body, inflicting a few cuts piercing the skin.

In fact Fia was shocked from the toughness of the skin since she used quite a lot of power for that attack and it only resulted in a swallow wounds. She even started tottering from using the technique just now.

Black blood was dripping from the wounds and the snake hissed furiously, it immediately aimed at the one who injured its body just now with raging yellow eyes. Fia already so tired and her vision was a bit blurring but she refused to give up just yet.

She raised her claw to parry the striking giant head while rolling at the side from the recoil blood was dripping from her mouth from the shock her body took. The snake changed it trajectory and charged at Fia again but something stabbed near its tail stopping it from its track.

Rikka stabbed her sword from behind when the snake was ignoring her and went against Fia. The black marking curse went out from the gaping wound and started to spread around the snake's body but..

"SHAAAHH!!"

The body part she injured was shaved away by the snake, stopping the curse from spreading on its body. It instinctively knew that something was invading its body so it immediately discard the injured part by shaving it with along with its skin. Thankfully for the snake its body was too big for the sword to pierce deeply inside.

"Kuh!" Rikka sounded her displeased when her attack was failed. A normal slashing attack wouldn't be able to injure its skin so just now she already used most of her strength in order to pierce through and yet it still not enough.

"Haaa!"

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

Fia who already regained her stance landed consecutive blows directly using her claws, dealing a shockwave strike exploded on the body for each blow she landed upon.

Two, three, four, five, she hit the snake with a total of five strikes.

"SSSHHH!"

The shadow snake's body was pushed away from the shock it's body received while more bruised and wounds appeared from the part that just attacked.

Not planning to be done with that yet Fia ran forward before thrusting her claw from the gap on its wound and ground it to plant the claw deeply. This made the injuries larger and inflicted more damage on the enemy. This was her final chance and she would deplete everything she had right now!!

The snake let out a painful cry and moved its body around like mad but Fia kept hanging on its body using the deeply implanted claw as a hold.

"AAAAAHHH!"

Letting out a violent roar, she kept on clinging on its body and drilled through the wound fiercely, earning black blood from the wound splattered on her face and clothes but she kept gritting her teeth and maintaining her position while continuing her attack.

Even so her stamina already reach its limit and her right arms were trembling while the white claw gear was beginning to distort. If this keeps up she wouldn't be able to maintain her enchanted gear and it would disappear.

The snaked decided to aimed its head against the fox girl directly to stop and ate her at the same time but before the head reached her body a shadow landed right a top its body facing against its launched head.

"HAAAA!!"

*SLASH!* *SLASH!*

Streaks of light formed a cross shape right in front of its eyes. It was Rikka who used the momentum of its charging head to land a powerful crossing attack with all her strength. With that her blade could pierce through the skin and dealt a huge X wound on the snake's head while blowing it away at the same time.

The black markings flew out from the wounds and spread around its head before they travelled to the location where its heart was located not far from its neck.

This time because the wound was inflicted deeply it couldn't use the same trick as before to prevent the curse from stopping its heart.

Soon after light began to disappear from the yellow eyes and became hollow while the its entire body turned limp and began to crack before disappearing into black ashes.

Red mist several times larger compared to the other monsters below was split in two and flew to Rikka and Fia's weapon. After that they began to dimly glow along with their user.

Still the girls was not paying attention to this fact because they were very exhausted from the fight. Rikka was wobbling and Fia near her already started to fell to the ground. They already reached the limit of their stamina perhaps even more in the case of Fia since she pushed herself on the last attack before Rikka dealt a finishing blow.

Two hands caught their weak body gently, they smiled knowing it was the boy who watched their fight attentively and anxiously, not knowing how many times he was tempted to interfere. But even so he decided to watch a little more since their situation was not that hopeless. And then they really able to defeat the monster together despite the handicap, it seemed like they were even stronger than he thought. Maybe receiving their weapons also increase their overall power beside the weapon's own ability.

"Good work you two." The boy, Haruto pat their backs softly.

"Hehe, see? We can do it right? Though Fia-san worked the hardest here." Rikka chuckled while praising her partner in this fight. It was Fia who created a chance for her to deal a decisive strike on their enemy.

"....Rikka-san also great at seeing a chance to attack. If it's me I don't think I would be able to do the same thing." Fia replied weakly.

"You both were amazing you know? It's fine to be proud of yourselves you know?" Kaori approached from the side, smiling.

"Yup, that's right. And also, did your weapon just grow stronger?" Haruto recalled both them and their weapons glowing after absorbing the red mist. He's surprised that the red mist would split in two because it never happened before. Maybe because it's a boss fight? Who knows.

"...Un, I think I feel a quite a bit stronger but I'm not really sure being in this state right now..." Rikka seemed uncertain with her fatigued body the same was true for Fia who began to fell asleep out of exhaustion.

"I guess that's true, let's hurry back." Haruto nodded.

He put Rikka on his back while Kaori did the same to Fia. Fia thought it was kind of unfair and pouted but remembering their relationship she smiled helplessly.

The northern part of the hall lead to another straight path with a passage at the side in the middle of it, leading to another square hall but a lot smaller.

The inside was two silver treasure chests containing two mana potions and 1500 quartz while at the opposite direction of the chest was a teleport device used for exiting the labyrinth.

Haruto activated the teleport device and registered his card with the device using the scanner on the machine. He thought this device was more advanced than his world current technology.

They used the teleportation function and went back to lobby before they went back home using Haruto's guild card and a series of Instant Transmission again. It was a very troublesome process but it couldn't be helped, they haven't formed a Clan after all.

And thus the first exploration on Tartarus was over safely.

....

- Tartarus Exploration Progress : Thebel 5F

- Registered Floors :

*5F