In the dark passage laced with will-o'-wisps, Violas with yellow-green skin broke the surface one after another, letting out cracked-gong roars that echoed and lingered through the waterway, harsh beyond bearing.
The Violas bored up out of the water one by one, like giant serpents nesting in the depths that had been disturbed, savagery flaring as they fixed on the four adventurers in front of them.
Fanged maws opened one after another.
Countless tentacles writhed madly around their bodies.
Undisguised hostility and malice poured off these monsters and settled over Leo's group.
The next second, all of the Violas moved.
!
At that instant, Leo and Ais moved too.
Leo turned without hesitation and threw his arms around Line, drawing a startled cry from her, while Ais grabbed Lefiya, the Elf girl's cry following right after, though hers carried an embarrassment and delight no one else understood.
Each of them holding one girl, they leapt apart as if by prior agreement, one to the left and one to the right, clearing the spot where they had been standing.
In that same moment, countless tentacles crashed down on the place Leo's group had just occupied, and quite a few Violas rammed themselves bodily into it, shaking the entire underground waterway.
The waterway trembled, and the water erupted like a geyser, bursting apart and forming surging waves that rushed out in every direction.
Leo and Ais had avoided the Violas' direct blows, but they could not avoid the spray, and both were soaked through.
Neither of them paid the slightest attention to that. Their faces cold, they moved on to the next step.
"Hold on tight, Line."
Leo's order to the girl in his arms brought her back to herself, and she quickly threw her arms around his neck and clung tightly.
A flush rose on the girl's face, unseen by anyone, though Leo did not notice it just then.
His eyes were fixed on the Violas, and the leap that had carried him clear changed direction, driving him straight at them.
The platinum longsword blazing with brilliant light was drawn in one motion, trailing a dazzling streak of light through the dim underground waterway.
At the same time, Ais, still holding Lefiya and the suspicious flush on her face, drew Desperate and charged the Violas just as Leo had.
The two of them launched their charges almost simultaneously, and both were extremely fast.
How fast?
Fast enough that in the whole underground waterway there was only a black figure and a golden figure flashing past, like two bolts of lightning in different colors, unstoppable.
In the end, Leo reached the Violas first.
That was right. Leo was faster than Ais.
Before, when the two of them charged at the same time, Ais with her higher Level was without question the one who reached the enemy first. But after rising to Lv.6 and standing at the same Level as Ais, Leo's speed had surpassed hers across the board, and he was on the enemy in an instant.
The Viola at the front had no time even to react before a platinum flash of the blade burst out in front of it and cut it in two.
After that the platinum blade-light flickered without pause, like a storm, like a raging tide, unbroken, drawing out a string of sounds of flesh being sliced through.
Everywhere the platinum blade-light passed, every Viola was in the same state, which was that they could not react in time, standing in place as if waiting to die, bodies severed in the blink of an eye.
Some had their heads taken off, some were simply cut in two, and some were cut all the way down the length of their long bodies, from the head straight to the tail end, split lengthwise into two halves, scattering into dust without so much as a scream.
By the time Ais reached the monsters, Leo's figure had long since vanished into the horde, leaving behind him countless gouts of blood and pieces of corpses splashing down, which made the girl's charge falter for a moment before she took up her sword again and swept out, cutting down a Viola that had been left on its own.
For a while the sound of blades entering flesh rose and fell throughout the underground waterway.
Platinum blade-light and silver blade-light flashed without cease, the former keen, the latter cold, cutting down the Violas in great numbers.
These Violas, unquestionably a difficult enemy for ordinary adventurers, were no different from small fry in front of Leo and Ais. Big or small, strong or weak, all were treated alike and cut down with a single stroke, until the water in the waterway had turned entirely to blood.
The two Lv.6 top-class adventurers moved as if through empty ground, and even with one person in each of their arms, they could put down this sudden monster assault with earth-shaking force.
But the noise and the smell of blood here also drew more monsters.
As the surface burst open again and again, Violas appeared one after another, raising their heads and roaring as they came at Leo and Ais.
No, not only on the surface. Beneath the water there were countless Violas that had not yet surfaced, swimming in fast as snakes, tentacles squirming, fangs bared, hurling themselves at Leo and Ais.
Leo and Ais, each still holding someone, swung their swords and wove an unbroken net of blade-light to cut down the attacking Violas, while their feet never stopped, leaping and darting back and forth, avoiding the lunges of the snapping, clawing flowers.
Sometimes they leapt onto the walls and ran along them, sometimes they leapt onto the Violas' long bodies and sprinted, sometimes they leapt to the ceiling, kicked off it, and used the force to shoot away, evading one by one the tentacles that nearly filled the whole space.
"Meteor Dance!"
At last Leo unleashed his magic, sending out a meteor that nearly filled the entire sewer, blasting out with a roar and swallowing every Viola above and below the water, annihilating them.
"Arcs Ray!"
Lefiya, held in Ais's arms, had finally forced down the suspicious flush on her face, and she chanted her short-text magic and fired what was called a light arrow but was in truth a massive pillar of light, running it straight through one Viola after another and leaving them in tatters.
That firepower, compared to when she was Lv.3, had clearly grown a great deal stronger.
At Lv.3 Lefiya already had firepower on par with a Lv.5, and now that she had risen to Lv.4, and leveled up with the top evaluation of S in the Magic parameter, her firepower was almost a match even for a Lv.6 Mage.
So under the bombardment of Leo and Lefiya, two Mages with overwhelming firepower, the Violas' offensive, having lost a great many of their number, finally slackened.
Only then did Leo and Ais both come down, their bodies smashing into the water, steadying themselves.
"Looks like we've found the enemy's headquarters." Leo set the still-shaken Line down as he spoke. "With this many Violas guarding the place, if there's nothing up ahead, even a rabbit wouldn't believe it."
(A certain white-haired rabbit boy who had leveled up not long ago sneezed, unbeknown to anyone here.)
"It's here."
Ais set down a seemingly reluctant Lefiya and spoke with complete certainty.
"Line, Lefiya, you two go back up first and tell everyone to come." Leo decided at once and told the two girls, "Ais and I will stay here and scout the way, and clear out the obstacles while we're at it."
No sooner had Leo finished speaking than a series of cracked-gong cries came from far off, and Line's and Lefiya's faces changed slightly.
The two of them did want to stay, but they knew that staying would not do much good.
The terrain here was limited and could not support many people fighting at once, let alone with a large number of Violas blocking the way.
Rather than stay here, better to go bring the others.
"Understood, Mr. Leo." Line was more decisive than Lefiya, and she added, "I'll bring the captain and the rest over."
"Please be careful," Lefiya said. "There may be danger up ahead."
Leo and Ais looked at each other, one with a slight smile, the other expressionless.
"Don't worry." Leo smiled faintly. "They're just Violas, it's not like we've never fought them. And even if there really is something dangerous up ahead, with Ais and me together we won't be so cornered that we can't even retreat."
Ais nodded silently, as if in agreement with what Leo had said.
The two girls also felt that a pack of Violas was nothing that could do anything to these two.
Both of them were Lv.6, and neither was an ordinary Lv.6.
With Leo's and Ais's capabilities, even if a Spirit avatar were here, they would not die on the spot, or be unable to flee.
"We'll be back as soon as we can!"
Leaving those words behind, Lefiya and Line started back, looking for the sewer entrance that would take them to the surface.
"...Will they be all right?"
Ais stood at Leo's side, ignoring the cracked-gong roars coming closer from ahead, and worried instead about Lefiya and Line, who had gone off behind them.
It could not be helped. Finding their companions in Daedalus Street and bringing them here was not an easy thing.
Lefiya and Line might even get lost.
"No need to worry, those two are clever."
Leo was not particularly worried.
Lefiya was with her. At worst she could simply fire off a spell into the sky as a signal and draw all of their companions to her.
Better to give some thought to what came next.
Watching the Violas that had begun breaking the surface again, the corners of Leo's mouth lifted slightly.
He had only just risen to Lv.6, and he still had not had a chance to fight properly and get a full grip on the abilities that had jumped so far after leveling up.
That slaughter just now had already made Leo aware that the mismatch between body and mind had appeared again, and that he needed to make adjustments before he could bring out a hundred percent of his strength.
With a great battle coming, he could not leave the problem alone.
Facing what came next, he would have to bring out a hundred percent of his strength to clear it, step by step.
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