"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Just how many Sandworms are going to show up!? Give me a break!"
"Just shut up and keep running! My magic power is nearly gone! Fighting Sandworms in this state is a death sentence!"
"W-Wait, look! Over there! People! There are people!"
They were being pursued from behind by Sandworms—giant, sand-colored creatures over five meters long that looked like earthworms, save for the three legs sprouting from each side of their bellies. As the monsters gnashed their fangs and lunged with gaping maws, the three adventurers fled in a frantic, noisy desperation.
A warrior with a spear ran in the lead, followed by a mage woman with a staff, and finally an archer woman bringing up the rear. All three wore sand-colored mantles to shield themselves from the blistering sun.
They had come to this desert floor on a request to gather a special plant known as the Desert Rose. Their luck had started out strong; they had successfully harvested the roses blooming where they sat buried in the dunes. Up until that point, everything had gone perfectly.
In fact, the trio had likely considered themselves quite fortunate until that very moment.
However, they were quickly reminded that their luck was only skin-deep. Just as the request form had described, the moment they cut away the blue rose flowers, the sand exploded right next to the harvest site.
Startled by the blast, the three looked back to see Sandworms sluggishly hauling themselves out of the dunes... eight of them in total.
The mage had immediately cast a spell to take one down, while the archer and the warrior had coordinated to kill a second.
But that had only served to further incite the Sandworms' rage. The remaining six joined the fray. Though the adventurers managed to defeat three more, the mage—their primary source of firepower—eventually ran out of magic power. Left with no other choice, they were forced into this life-or-death game of tag.
Even so, hope remained. They had harvested the Desert Roses not far from the small room containing the magic circle. To those accustomed to this floor, it was a distance that could be covered in less than an hour. They believed that if they could just reach that room, they would be safe.
They never imagined they would encounter other adventurers in their path.
Under normal circumstances, they should have considered the possibility. However, the reports of anomaly species had caused a sharp decline in the number of people entering the dungeon. Those who did enter in search of a quick fortune were heading toward the floors where the anomalies had actually been sighted. Furthermore, the harsh environment of the desert made this floor unpopular with most adventurers. Since they were running across the flats rather than the ridges typically used for travel, they hadn't expected to see a soul.
Deep down, they might have entertained the thought, but it would be more accurate to say they never believed the concern would actually manifest.
Seeing two figures waiting with weapons drawn, the warrior in the lead shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Hey! Get out of here! Run!"
The shout surely reached them, yet the duo showed no sign of fleeing.
On the contrary, the one holding a sword stepped forward, while the one carrying an absurdly large great scythe moved to the rear. They were calmly assuming a combat formation.
Are they fools, or are they experts? I can only pray they're experts, the warrior thought.
He glanced at his two companions running alongside him. The mage was tapped out and couldn't fight, but the archer still had plenty of arrows left.
"We're joining up with those two to take these things down! We can't just dump our mess on them!"
"Aaaaah, fine, I get it! But I’m almost out of magic! I won't be able to do much if things get worse!"
"I’m with you! But can those people actually fight? I’ve almost never seen anyone use a great scythe before!"
Sharl, the mage, shouted in half-desperation, while Otis, the archer, voiced her agreement with the plan.
Something flashed through the warrior's mind at the mention of the scythe, but the distance to the duo was closing fast. He had no time for idle thoughts. Gripping his spear, he yelled to the two strangers.
"We'll help you attack! Is that alright!?"
"Yeah, no problem! Pass us by and then get ready to counter-attack! We'll stop them here!"
The warrior was momentarily taken aback by the voice of the person in the vanguard.
Because of the mantle, he hadn't been able to distinguish their features, and he had assumed they were a man based on their height. But that voice was unmistakably female.
Well, tall women aren't that rare. Does that mean the one with the great scythe is a woman too?
While he pondered this, the gap vanished. The trio sprinted past the woman with the sword and the figure he assumed was a woman with the scythe.
Just as the three pursuing Sandworms noticed the pair waiting for them—
"Haaah!"
The woman in the vanguard—Elena—let out a sharp cry, channeling magic power into her whip-sword before swinging.
In an instant, the weapon transformed into its whip-like form. The tip of the blade plunged into the open mouth of a Sandworm that had insolently tried to swallow her whole, piercing straight through the back of its head. Following Elena's sweeping motion with the hilt, the blade regain its freedom by vertically bisecting the creature's head.
Despite its head being split open, the monster seemed to feel no pain. It continued to charge forward, passing Elena and even overtaking the fleeing trio for another ten meters before it finally ground to a halt and collapsed onto the sand.
The sight was so staggering that the trio reflexively stopped to stare at Elena, but their shock was premature.
"O flames, become arrows that burn all to ash and pour down like rain."
At the same moment the man behind Elena—Rei—chanted the incantation, over fifty flame arrows formed behind him.
Sharl was utterly stunned by the overwhelming display.
There were many spells used to form arrows of a specific attribute; Sharl herself favored using Water Arrows. However, with her magic power and control, she could barely manage to manifest ten arrows if she pushed herself to the absolute limit. A feat like creating over fifty arrows was something she couldn't achieve if the world turned upside down.
Rei didn't seem to notice her gaze. Once he judged the number of arrows was sufficient and their potency had reached its peak through the magic he had consumed, he activated the spell.
"Shower of Flame Arrows!"
With those words, more than fifty arrows of fire were unleashed, swarming toward the remaining two Sandworms.
The flame arrows struck home, incinerating the flesh around the impact zones while maintaining enough momentum to punch through the monsters' bodies.
"No way... The number of arrows, the power... Just how much magic power did he have to pour in for a spell on that scale? And he did it so casually, with such a short chant..." Sharl muttered, unable to believe her eyes.
But reality was reality. Before them, the two Sandworms, riddled with holes and wreathed in flames, let out their final breaths and slumped their massive frames onto the desert sand.
Having decimated the monsters with one-sided force, Rei and Elena turned to look at the three dazed adventurers.
"Are you three alright?"
"...A-Ah. Yeah. We're fine. You really saved us."
The warrior, Pleiades, finally snapped back to his senses and nodded. The reason he looked at Rei with such surprise was because the voice was clearly that of a man. Given Rei's youthful, baby-faced features, he might have been mistaken for a woman even without the Dragon Robe's hood.
"I see. That's good to hear. Since we're the ones who killed these Sandworms, I assume the ownership belongs to us?"
"Of course. We were just running for our lives. But... just what kind of party are you? Diving into the dungeon with only two people?"
Otis nodded silently in agreement with Pleiades' question. Meanwhile, Sharl remained overwhelmed by Rei's magic, standing in a daze, unable to speak.
In a sense, Sharl was lucky she lacked the ability to sense magic power directly. Had she possessed such a gift, she wouldn't have just been dazed; she likely would have collapsed. That was how truly staggering the magic power emanating from Rei was.
Unconcerned by the mage's reaction, Rei gave a small shrug at Pleiades' words.
"If you're going to say that, you only have three people, don't you? That’s not much different from us."
"No, we're usually a party of five. We’re just missing some members today."
"I see."
Rei nodded at the explanation, then suddenly looked up toward the sky as if noticing something.
"Well, it's true there are only two humans here. But we have proper combat strength otherwise. Look, he's back."
Following his words, the heavy sound of flapping wings reached their ears. Pleiades and Otis looked up and could only stare with their mouths agape, stunned by the creature descending toward them.
It was a monster with the lower body of a lion and the upper body of an eagle—a creature far too famous to be mistaken. It was an A-Rank monster known as the Flying Grim Reaper.
"A Gryphon?"
Pleiades and Otis reflexively took a step back as Seto touched down on the ground.
"Guruuu?"
Seto tilted its head and turned its round eyes toward the trio, chirping as if to ask what was wrong.
"No, it's nothing. More importantly, how was the scouting? Were there any other dangerous enemies besides those worms?"
"Guruu."
Closing its eyes as Rei scratched its head, Seto let out a negative chirp.
Observing the interaction, Pleiades finally realized they weren't in any danger. He approached Rei tentatively. Sharl also began to snap back to reality, though she found herself intimidated by the Gryphon suddenly appearing before her.
The reason Pleiades spoke to Rei was that, now that he was calm, a certain rumor came back to him. He had heard of a person diving into the dungeon lately without taking a single day off—a person accompanied by a Gryphon who held the alias of Crimson.
In reality, Rei and Elena had taken a break the previous day, but Pleiades wasn't aware of that.
"Let me ask... By any chance, are you the adventurer known as Crimson?"
"Yeah, I'm called Crimson on occasion. Name's Rei."
"...I knew it. Ah, I haven't even introduced us yet, and you saved our lives. I'm Pleiades. That's Otis the archer, and the mage is Sharl. Thanks again for the help."
Rei shook his head silently as Pleiades bowed politely.
"Don't worry about it. It was our first time on the desert floor, so it was a good chance to see what kind of monsters were around."
"Isn't that right?" Rei sought agreement with a glance. Elena nodded as she flicked the Sandworm blood off her whip-sword.
"Indeed. If I think of it as a good warm-up, it wasn't so bad. Especially since we’re getting the materials out of it."
As Elena spoke, she pulled back the hood of her mantle and looked at the three adventurers.
Pleiades gasped as her beauty was revealed from beneath the hood. They had passed her while fleeing for their lives, but at the time, survival was their only concern. Seeing her face properly now, Pleiades—and even Otis and Sharl—could only stare in captivation.
Between witnessing Rei's magic, seeing Seto, and now beholding Elena's beauty, Sharl the mage had likely received more shocks in the last few minutes than in her entire career.