"Raaah! ...Orun!"
Wil swung his twin-bladed sword at a lunging Manticore—a magic beast resembling a winged lion—sending the creature stumbling.
I didn't miss the opening. I thrust Schwarzhase into its vitals, instantly reducing it to a magic stone.
As expected of a sword forged from Black Dragon scales by a master blacksmith. Even in its base state, Schwarzhase was sharper than the sword I’d been using up until now with Sharpness Up active.
More than that, because it was custom-tuned specifically for me, I didn't have to adjust my movements to compensate for the weapon's quirks. It felt like an extension of my own body, drawing out my full potential. I finally understood, in the truest sense, why senior explorers were so obsessed with bespoke gear. Seeing—or in this case, wielding—really was believing.
The 92nd Floor resembled a massive canyon. In stark contrast to the floor above, the density of magic beasts was low, but the combat power of each individual was formidable. Some of them were strong enough to give the floor bosses of the lower depths a run for their money.
The terrain was defined by extreme verticality, and many of the beasts possessed the ability to fly. Since they frequently held the high ground, we had to keep our guard up in every direction, verticality included.
It had been three hours since we first stepped onto the 92nd Floor. By cross-referencing my own grasp of the terrain with the Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky’s exclusive mapping data, I chose a route that minimized encounters while leading us to the boss area as quickly as possible.
As a result, we’d kept combat to the bare minimum. Our primary objective today was reaching the 93rd Floor. Since a grueling battle with the Black Dragon awaited us at the end of the road, I wanted to conserve as much stamina as possible. This was the fundamental difference between "exploring" a labyrinth and "conquering" one.
"Ah, Orun-kun, you have a cut on your hand. Stay still, I’ll heal it."
Following Lucre’s pointing finger, I looked down at the back of my left hand. A shallow cut was oozing a tiny bit of blood.
"I don't really need recovery magic for something like—"
"No!!"
Lucre’s voice cracked like a whip, cutting me off.
"—Ah, I mean, um, bacteria might get in! If we can fix it, we should, right?"
...I’d slipped up. I’d probably poked at her trauma. If I’d given it a moment’s thought, I would have remembered how hypersensitive she was about her teammates getting hurt. I’d been insensitive.
"...You're right. The chance of it getting infected isn't zero. I’ll leave it to you, then."
"Y-yeah! Leave it to me!"
After several more skirmishes, we continued our smooth progress into the depths. Finally, the cave leading to the boss area at the very end of the 92nd Floor came into view. It seemed we wouldn’t be plagued by any irregulars this time.
Following the cave for a short distance brought us to a set of massive double doors, three meters wide and ten meters high. The Black Dragon waited behind them.
The interior was a gargantuan hall, roughly seventy meters in diameter. Most boss areas shared a similar layout, though they varied in scale. However, unlike the 50th Floor boss area we’d fought in recently, the 92nd Floor's arena was open-air, with no ceiling.
If the boss took to the sky, there was a risk it could climb to an altitude where attack magic couldn't reach it. Destroying its wings was a mandatory objective for this fight.
"...We’re here. Everyone, final equipment checks. Stay alert. Rain, Orun, begin your preparations."
I did a quick scan of my gear and checked my newly acquired ring-type storage magic tool. Once I was satisfied, I began converging mana into Schwarzhase’s blade, coating it in a pitch-black aura. Beside me, Rain-san had her eyes closed, concentrating on her spell construction.
"Vanguard Up. Rearguard Up."
Selma-san applied the Vanguard Up buff to Wil and Rearguard Up to the three of us in the back. Like its counterpart, Rearguard Up simultaneously applied five of the six basic buff types, excluding Strength Up.
I followed up by casting a Quadruple stack of Status Up on myself.
"Alright, everyone ready? ...Let's go!"
We responded to Selma-san’s final call with determined nods. As she touched the doors, they groaned open with a heavy, grinding sound.
As we stepped into the boss area, a draconic roar rained down from above. The Black Dragon was already airborne, circling about twenty meters over the center of the hall.
The moment I spotted it, I used Mana Convergence to create footholds in mid-air, rapidly closing the distance.
"Rain! Orun! Ground it, just like we planned!"
The Black Dragon opened its maw to loose a fireball, but we were faster.
"Mjolnir!"
A colossal pillar of lightning struck from high above the dragon. Rain-san’s preemptive strike didn't quite ground the beast, but it succeeded in shattering its flight balance. By the time the electricity dissipated, I had already taken the position directly above it.
The dragon hadn't noticed me yet; its eyes were locked onto Wil on the ground.
"Heavenly Flash...!"
I brought Schwarzhase down in a vertical arc, unleashing a pitch-black wave of force. This time, the dragon couldn't block with its tail. The shockwave—bolstered by Impact—completely vaporized the Black Dragon’s left wing.
Unable to maintain flight, the dragon plummeted. It managed to stick the landing, but it glared up at me with a look of pure loathing.
This individual might have a narrow field of vision, I noted, analyzing the beast from my vantage point in the air. Magic beasts of the same species aren't carbon copies of one another. While their base stats are similar, they have individual differences in temperament and physique. Floor bosses were no exception.
Directly in front of the dragon, Wil held his twin-bladed sword ready. The blade pulsed with a chaotic mixture of red, blue, and green mana.
Wil’s sword was both a weapon and a storage magic tool. Normally, such tools can only store physical matter. However, by modifying the spell formulas, his sword had been designed to store mana instead. The timing for the absorption was incredibly strict—the mana had to be in contact with the blade—but it allowed him to effectively nullify spells and magic.
Naturally, if he could store it, he could release it. It seemed he could manipulate the manifested energy much like mana infusion.
That said, mana that has been converted into a specific spell isn't exactly "pure" mana anymore. Unless you had a specialized ability like my Mana Convergence to interfere with it directly, controlling that turbulent energy should have been nearly impossible.
Yet, Wil was doing it. Whether through sheer effort or innate genius, he had completely tamed that wild mana.
"Don't look away! Chaos Edge!"
Wil unleashed a horizontal sweep, sending a wave of chaotic mana flying toward the dragon. The slash slammed directly into the face of the beast while it was still distracted by me.
Everything was going according to plan. Rain-san and I had grounded it and crippled its wing, and now Wil had successfully overwritten our "hate" to draw its full aggro.
The Black Dragon let out a roar of fury, manifesting five clouds of purple mist around its body. One of the mists lashed out like a whip, snapping toward Wil.
A mistake.
"You think that’ll work on me?!"
The moment the twin-bladed sword touched the mist, the purple haze vanished without a trace. Mist or not, it was still a mass of mana—which meant it was useless against Wil.
"Switching to Pattern C! Rain and Orun, whittle it down! Wil, keep the hate on you! Lucre, support Wil!"
""""Understood!!!!""""
We all yelled our confirmation to Selma-san’s order.
Rain-san unleashed her next spell. As I leaped away from my position above the dragon to land behind it, a volley of Fire Javelins rained down on the spot I had occupied just a second before, slamming into the Black Dragon's back.