"Go."
Asfi vanished upward on Talaria. At the same instant, Rayleigh fired Hadō #4.
"Byakurai!"
The white bolt struck the cavern ceiling above the waiting monsters rather than the creatures themselves.
Stone exploded downward, and the front rank scattered.
Ais and Tsubaki charged through the falling debris with sealed swords.
Anakitty followed Asfi toward the ledge using the broken terrain as cover.
The cavern erupted.
Two Enhanced Species moved to intercept Asfi.
Tsubaki hit the first before it left the ground, driving Tobiume through its abdomen and using the embedded blade to throw the entire creature into the second.
Neither had time to copy anything.
Ais passed them.
Her sword never released.
She cut through one ankle, pivoted beneath a claw, and drove Gonryōmaru through the creature's throat using only physical strength.
Another monster approached with a spear, its stance copying Raul.
Ais had watched Raul fight once, and that was enough to recognize the pattern.
She stepped directly inside the thrust instead of retreating as the technique expected, trapped the spear beneath one arm, and struck the monster's face with the hilt.
Its head snapped backward, and Gonryōmaru entered the chest. The magic stone shattered; this time, no lightning was needed.
Rayleigh went for the watchers.
The largest creature dropped from the ledge to meet him. It was faster than the others, much faster.
Rayleigh's Benihime barely cleared the sheath before the monster's fist reached his head. He leaned outside the strike and cut across its ribs.
The creature turned with him.
No hesitation, no copied sequence, and that alone separated it from the others.
Rayleigh stepped back.
The monster followed, careful not to overcommit.
'You have experience.'
None of that was good.
Behind it, Asfi reached Lulune.
Anakitty planted herself between the ledge and the climbing monsters while Asfi examined the restraints.
Lulune forced one eye open.
"Asfi...?"
Asfi's hands paused for less than a heartbeat.
"Don't move. The restraints are hooked into the wall, and you've lost enough blood that tearing them loose carelessly could make things considerably worse. I am getting you out, so for once in your life, please make my job easier and remain still."
Lulune's cracked lips moved.
"That sounded... almost affectionate."
Asfi returned to the restraints.
"I can always leave you here."
Lulune wisely stopped talking. The exchange lasted seconds, and no one continued it.
Below them, Anakitty caught one climbing monster across the wrist with her shield and kicked it back into the cavern.
A second came immediately behind it.
Her wounded leg buckled when she shifted, and the creature saw it.
So did Tsubaki.
She could not reach them in time.
"Tobiume!"
Tsubaki released Shikai, but she wasn't aiming at the monster.
Heat surged through the modified blade, and she aimed behind Anakitty.
The fireball struck the wall.
The explosion ripped apart the stone face and blasted a wave of debris outward, knocking both climbing monsters away from the ledge before Tobiume's spiritual pressure ever touched them directly.
Anakitty covered her head behind the shield until the debris passed.
"Tsubaki, some warning would have been appreciated!"
"You were about to get eaten!"
"That doesn't make falling rocks healthier!"
Tsubaki was already fighting again and did not answer.
Asfi reached the first locking mechanism. It was simple. Too simple. Her eyes narrowed, and she stopped touching it.
"Rayleigh! These restraints are connected to something inside the wall!"
He was busy avoiding the large Enhanced Species.
"What kind of something?"
"I don't know yet, but whoever tears these out without disabling it first is going to trigger it!"
The creature in front of Rayleigh reacted to Asfi's shout, its eyes shifting toward the ledge.
For the first time, Rayleigh saw a genuine choice in its movement. It abandoned him, turning toward Asfi instead.
Rayleigh used Shunpo.
Benihime struck its back, and the cut opened deep.
The creature rolled with the impact rather than resisting it, landed on one hand, and kicked backward at once.
Rayleigh blocked with the flat, and the force still drove him several steps away.
He looked at the monster differently now. It had just sacrificed position to protect the restraints, which meant the mechanism itself mattered.
"Ais! Don't let anything reach the ledge!"
She changed direction instantly, Gonryōmaru still sealed as she cut across the center of the cavern, dispatching two monsters with barely a wasted motion between them.
Tsubaki joined her.
The two women fought nothing alike.
Ais used minimal motion, placing the blade exactly where the enemy had to pass.
Tsubaki swung Tobiume with enough physical force to turn every successful block into a mistake.
The Enhanced Species had seen pieces of both styles.
Combining them did not help.
One monster tried Ais's compact guard against Tsubaki and had both arms broken by the impact.
Another attempted Tsubaki's broad power swing against Ais, and she stepped around it and cut through the core before the weapon completed its arc.
Watching them fail, Rayleigh understood something.
The monsters were becoming better individually, but as a group, their copied styles were beginning to conflict, and the thought sparked an idea.
"Sakanade."
The large Enhanced Species snapped its attention back toward him. Rayleigh finally drew the blade.
"Collapse, Sakanade!"
The sweet fragrance spread through the cavern.
Every direction inverted at once.
The floor seemed to rise while the ceiling dropped away; left pulled toward right, forward became backward, and even the source of sound twisted away from where it should have been.
The large Enhanced Species reacted better than Rayleigh expected.
It closed its eyes immediately.
'Clever.'
Instead of trusting senses it knew had been compromised, the creature lowered its body and relied on memory and instinct.
The others handled the reversal far worse.
A spear-user attacked empty space where it believed Ais had moved.
Another creature tried to rush the ledge and drove itself shoulder-first into the wall, while two more collided when each attempted to correct for a direction that no longer existed where their minds insisted it should.
Rayleigh had no intention of leaving his allies trapped inside the same confusion.
He used the opening immediately.
Benihime tore through the nearest monster's exposed chest.
Ais did not pursue anything she saw.
She remained where Rayleigh had told her to stand and cut down the first creature that physically entered the reach of Gonryōmaru.
Tsubaki did the same, waiting until something crashed close enough for Tobiume to meet it with a direct physical strike.
Within only a few seconds, the monsters' carefully copied coordination had collapsed.
That was enough.
Rayleigh resealed Sakanade.
Normal perception returned to the cavern almost as abruptly as it had vanished.
Asfi blinked hard once, waited for the last wave of disorientation to pass, then immediately returned to the restraint mechanism.
"Warn me before you ever do that while I'm holding something explosive."
"I did warn you."
"That warning was inadequate."
She did not continue the complaint because she had already found the trigger.
A thin metal probe followed the restraint deeper into the wall, revealing a narrow wire connected to the locking plate.
Asfi pulled a small flask from her belt and carefully applied several drops of liquid around the mechanism.
The metal hissed and the locking plate softened.
A hidden wire snapped without setting anything off.
Asfi cut Lulune free, and Anakitty caught the beastwoman before her legs gave out.
The second prisoner was Welf Crozzo.
Tsubaki's expression had already changed the moment she saw the young red-haired smith bound to the neighboring section of wall.
Welf was bruised, burned in several places, and barely conscious, but he reacted when Asfi began working on his restraints.
"Tsubaki...?"
"Save your strength, brat. You can complain after we get you home."
For once, Welf did exactly as he was told.
Asfi disabled the second mechanism and freed him, allowing Anakitty to take his weight with her free shoulder.
The moment both prisoners were removed from the wall, the entire ledge trembled.
Asfi looked down.
"Rayleigh! Something activated!"
The large Enhanced Species stopped trying to reach her.
Then it smiled.
A deep vibration travelled through the Dungeon beneath Rayleigh's feet.
Across the cavern, the piles of salvaged weapons began sliding as sections of the floor shifted apart.
Hidden grooves opened beneath them, and hundreds of magic stones that had been buried underneath the equipment poured into the widening channels.
Every groove led toward the same place.
A pit opening beneath the center of the training ground.
Tsubaki stared at the flood of stones disappearing into the darkness.
"They've been collecting all of this for whatever is down there."
Rayleigh stepped closer to the edge.
"They've been feeding it."
A roar rose from deep beneath the chamber.
The sound was powerful enough to shake dust from the ceiling and send a tremor through the stone under their feet.
Every remaining Enhanced Species stopped fighting.
Then, as if responding to the same command, they rushed toward the pit.
Ais realized what they were doing first and cut down the closest creature before it reached the edge, but another slipped around her and threw itself willingly into the darkness.
A third followed.
Then another.
Rayleigh's expression changed.
"They're feeding themselves to it too! Don't let any more reach the pit!"
The large Enhanced Species abandoned everything else and charged toward the opening.
Rayleigh intercepted it with Benihime.
The monster blocked with both arms and tried to force its way past him, fighting with none of the patience or calculation it had displayed earlier.
Whatever waited beneath them mattered enough that survival had become secondary.
Rayleigh drove his weight forward and forced it away from the edge.
"Tsubaki!"
She was already moving.
"Move!"
Rayleigh broke contact.
Tsubaki raised Tobiume and fired directly into the creature's chest.
At that range, the Enhanced Species had no opportunity to establish a sustained drain before the fireball detonated.
The explosion hurled it across the cavern and drove its body into the opposite wall hard enough to crater the stone.
Ais was waiting beneath it.
Gonryōmaru entered through the chest wound created by Tobiume.
"Pierce them, Gonryōmaru!"
A concentrated burst of lightning travelled through the blade and struck the exposed core before the monster could absorb enough of the discharge to matter.
The magic stone shattered.
Its body began dissolving before it even reached the floor.
For several seconds, the chamber became quiet enough for everyone to hear the breathing coming from beneath the pit.
Asfi lowered Lulune carefully beside Anakitty while Welf sagged against the wall nearby, conscious but in no condition to stand on his own.
"We have both of them. We need to get back to Raul before another group arrives."
Rayleigh looked toward the pit.
The breathing below became louder.
Another roar followed, much closer than the first.
Cracks raced outward from the opening.
Then an enormous hand emerged and clamped around the edge.
Its fingers were covered in pieces of weapons that had become embedded directly into the flesh—sword blades, axe heads, snapped spearpoints, and fragments of armor.
Farther up the arm, hundreds of magic stones pulsed beneath translucent grey skin.
A second hand appeared beside it.
The entire cavern shook as something below began hauling itself upward.
Rayleigh kept Benihime ready while Sakanade remained sealed at his side.
Getting the prisoners back to Raul would have to wait a little longer.
"We're not leaving this chamber until that thing is dead."