Forty-One vol.2

The conflagration of flames burned brightly as they exploded forward, ripping into the beast and blasting it into a mass of roasted flesh and blood. Rose shifted on her feet, re-angled her weapon, and slashed out once more as flames leapt out of her blade. Like searing through butter, her sword sliced through a head at her forefront and the explosion claimed the lives of a few more creatures.

'When fighting this many beasts, technique isn't what's needed,' She thought as she moved towards the next foe. She had spent much of her time in the slums fighting the desert's creatures for money. She knew there was no point playing technique with them. Certainly, it would be efficient, but it'd also waste time and mental energy. 'What's needed is speed, power, battle awareness, and instinct.'

She threw herself from the careful precise calculations that made her swordsmanship when she confronted humans and into the full rhythm of chaotic battle. Her mind latched onto the surrounding mana, her sword blurred, and her figure did the same as mana channeled through her. She removed herself from thoughts of form and technique, and she stepped onto the path she had first discovered when she fought Lilias at the climax of the slum's war. In a way, she was emulating the girl and her way of fighting.

'Enjoyment of battle.'

She slashed, her blade summoning a faint trail of horizontal flames that soon exploded on impact, splashing blood and creating a gap in the horde of beasts.

'I wonder if that's what she does. In the beginning, she must not have had any reason besides that to learn to fight. Or perhaps the thrill was rebelling against her city's laws.'

As dangerous as it was, even as there existed a possibility that she could lose herself to the thrill in much the same way as the dragonian often did, her sword burned deep crimson, and she slashed. For the splitting of a moment, there was a faint spark of lightning in her swing—a small clasp of thunder washed away by roars—then it was gone as fire exploded and beasts died.

Rose's eyes jumped about, and then she was gone, blade plunging into another creature.

"Holy shit she's fucking slaughtering them," Elsa Mont mouthed in disbelief.

Her figure shifted, leaping into wolf form as she avoided the jaws of a beast littered with teeth with the flicker of her body. She didn't have time to glance over at Rose that much, but what little she did see shocked her. She lunged forward, her jaws opened to bite at a creature before dragging and ripping its neck from its body.

Twin blades came besides her, slashing out. One extended like a snake, cutting and slicing at length, while the other stuck close to its wielder with only the momentary bursts of a laser beam leaving its mid-length.

Lilias chuckled, blood awash on her figure as she stood behind Elsa's wolf form. "You haven't figured it out yet? Rose is at her full might when she allows herself to rampage and move more on instinct. What better place to do that than when surrounded by monsters? In a way, she's strongest when she's outnumbered."

"You've gotta be shitting me," Elsa growled out.

The dragonian shrugged.

"She was designed for war, not merely battle," She replied, matter-of-factly, remembering their previous fights, "That is my observation."

Crea Lancelot scoffed beside them, holding her weapon tightly in her hand.

"If you two have that much time to talk, you should use it on fighting more aggressively," She said.

As Lilias faintly smiled, the girl ran with sword in hand, delving into the thinning storm of beasts. The blade of the weapon sparked lightning, and then she disappeared. The next instant, Crea materialized within the shadow of a rampaging beast with a cove of a shield around its body. She slashed, and her weapon rumbled, blurring as it struck the thing.

Her blade broke through its shield and struck its glowing horns, cleaning slicing them into two. Then the lightning made itself known, sparking upon the beast. It roared and thrashed as it fried, and she merely jumped back, eyes watching its motion as she dodged the surrounding beasts.

She took a step forward and disappeared, reappearing in its shadow once more and slashing. This time, its head came off in a spray of blood.

'Interesting,' Lilias Aunbren thought as she watched the team they had met. Though she continued fighting, her eyes shifted to her right and there. 'Very interesting.'

A bomb fell down from the sky, exploding as soon as it touched the ground in a flash of blue light, metal, and the crimson of blood, claiming the lives of bests with the formation of a creator.

In the sky, a suit of silver flew, the shoulder pads opening up intermittently to drop small mana bombs, yet the explosions more than anything Elsa could fashion.

'That's 4k a piece down the drain,' David Bowman thought, looking at the screen of his mech, the digital blue overlaid upon the world. The azure pulsers shooting from his feet and hands guiding him through the air. He descended a bit.

The pulsers from his feet burst through the head of a beast, and then he spun, blasting those around him as well. Akin to the flash of a weapon's burst mode, they both allowed him to fly and served as deadly weapons in close-to-medium range.

Lilias jumped back from a beast, shifting, and slashing with her right sword, taking off its head while her eyes focused elsewhere, to her left.

There, nails dug into a head as two hands pulled, ripping a head into two. Flare Shun grinned, blood splashing her face. She jumped back from the tumbling beast, flipping within the air before her feet touched the ground.

Then she leaped forward, sharp nails piercing through the neck of a creature.

As she watched it fall, drawing in its own blood and broken blood, she dodged a bite at her leg and struck out with a foot, smashing a head out of her way as fangs broke.

She chuckled, seeing herself becoming surrounded.

"Well then." She smirked. "Guess I'll be serious."

Duel pistols appeared in her hands, the tattoo under her eyes shifting to the image of a flame. Then she spun on one foot as she fired.

Explosions of flames resounded around her area. With every pull, there was a bang of fiery pulse flying, striking a creature and bursting into full flames. The force alone took many, those that survived that found themselves wailing, roaring as flames crawled upon them, sizzling and burning their skin to a crisp.

A phoenix's cry rang, drawing attention as the flaming creature ascended into the sky. Then it dove back down through Rose's command, gliding across the battlefield with its wings spread, its burning figure diving through creatures and lighting them on fire. Though the creation couldn't fly far, the area around her immediately died down.

When she turned around, the battlefield was in silence as Elsa shifted back into human form. Rose turned her head, glancing at the corpses littered across the land. The dungeon was lenient. The monsters within the stamped were strong only in sheer numbers. If it had been them alone, perhaps they might have had trouble, but six people was surprisingly as efficient as a scalpel to skin.

She took a step forward, watching as a doorway sliced itself into space, glowing gold.

"A conditional doorway that required us to kill all the creatures first, huh?" Elsa muttered, walking to Rose's side.

Lilias nodded. "Seems to be the case."

Rose stared at the team in front of them.

"How will we share the mana orbs?" She asked.

"Nothing of my concern." Crea Lancelot shrugged. "Vanguard's mission for us is to climb fast, not focus on money. So, we shall take our leave right away."

Then she stepped into the doorway.

"See ya'll~" Flare Shun said, following after her with a grin. "Let's meet again, hopefully, aye?"

David Bowman nodded, the suit of armor collapsing away from his body back into a briefcase, and followed after them.

Rose turned to her teammates, "Should we give up on finding the Guardian?"

"Yup."

"We should."

The three collected the mana cores of the beasts, and entered the portal, leaving the fifth floor. One floor closer to the 75th floor.