The Dungeon's Fourth Floor
Faster. Faster!
Tiona raced through the Dungeon with her gear on her back.
The small stones beneath her feet crumbled to dust as she ran, her figure wrapped in a gale.
The monsters in the Dungeon spotted her and lunged at her with claws bared.
"In the way."
Her expression darkened at the sight, but she only ran faster.
As the distance between them closed, the monster swung its claws at her head.
Tiona raised her left arm and smashed the monster blocking her way in half, then flung its remains aside with a powerful swing.
Tione stayed close by her sister, casually dealing with the "obstacles" that appeared on the right.
The two of them advanced together, easily smashing through every obstacle and monster in their path like building blocks.
The gale from their rapid sprint sent shattered debris and dust flying behind them.
Just then, Tiona spotted a group of adventurers moving ahead and came to a halt.
She and her sister stopped abruptly right in front of them.
The adventurers had sensed the terrifying commotion coming from the two women and hurriedly dodged out of the way.
Before they could do anything else, the two runners skidded to a stop in front of them, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
Before they could recover, a stern female voice rang out from the dust cloud rising before them.
"Didn't you know there's an emergency in the Dungeon? Why are you still going deeper?"
As the dust settled, the adventuring party saw the Amazon Sisters standing before them, their skin a deep brown.
Everyone in the group looked delighted at the sight of the two sisters.
At their words, a tall, middle-aged man stepped out from the group.
Beaming, he addressed Tiona.
"Lady Tiona, Lady Tione, were you sent by the Guild to support us?"
Tiona frowned at his question. "Are you part of the rescue exploration team organized by the Guild?"
"Yes. As it happens, we were just—"
Tiona cut him off and asked, "Have you seen Lefiya or the new member of our familia along the way?"
The adventurer, interrupted mid-sentence, hesitated before answering.
"Lefiya? You mean [Thousand Elf]?
We don't know about the newcomer you mentioned, but when we were turning back the other adventurers, someone told us they'd seen [Thousand Elf] with a boy on the fifth floor."
"Thanks."
Tiona didn't bother with anything else. She hurried past the adventurers in front of her.
"Hey—"
The middle-aged adventurer watched her dash off as soon as she heard the news and raised a hand as if to stop her.
Before he could react, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned and saw Tione patting him with one hand.
"Now that we're here, you don't have to worry. You should head back, too."
Tione lowered her hand and hurried after her sister.
"Hey, Tiona, wait for me!"
The middle-aged adventurer stared blankly at the sisters' backs as they barreled past him and his team toward the depths.
The other team members looked at one another, then gradually gathered around him.
"Leader, what do we do now?"
Someone in the crowd asked.
The middle-aged adventurer stayed silent for a while, then scratched his head and said helplessly, "I'm only filling in as leader. I have no idea!"
The group exchanged glances, and silence fell over the team.
The Amazon Sisters left the adventuring party organized by the Guild and continued toward the fifth floor.
As before, the sisters cleared away the obstacles and monsters blocking their path.
As they reached the stairs from the fourth floor and prepared to charge down to the fifth, Tiona sensed something approaching quickly around the corner ahead.
Feeling it rush toward her, she looked impatient.
"Those annoying pests never let up."
She was clearly fed up with the monsters that had been getting in their way all this time.
Clenching her right fist, she suddenly stopped when she reached the corner.
Her face hardened. She took a stance and swung her arm with all her strength, driving her fist into the corner wall.
After smashing straight through the corner, the ruthless expression on her face slowly shifted to one of surprise.
The two expressions mingled as her face changed, making her look as if she had a facial cramp—twisted and bizarre.
What had caused such a drastic change was the sight of Liber and Lefiya suddenly flying toward her around the corner, holding hands.
The two of them looked just as surprised to see Tiona appear around the corner.
But at that moment, their faces showed more fear at having been suddenly attacked.
Earlier.
The three flying creatures had relentlessly pursued them.
The two dodged the attacks from behind.
From time to time, Liber brushed his hand over the ground, controlling enchanted fragments of stone to attack their pursuers and slow the monsters down as much as possible.
When they saw the stairs to the fourth floor, delight had just begun to show on their faces.
Then the corner wall suddenly collapsed, sending huge chunks of rock flying toward them.
Their expressions changed instantly, and their forward momentum came to an abrupt halt.
Liber did his best to pull Lefiya down with him, bending his knees and leaning backward. Their faces flushed from the sudden evasive maneuver.
They ducked to avoid the incoming rocks—and the fist that had appeared right in front of them.
The forceful gusts rushing toward them from both sides felt like blades slicing across their faces.
Liber pulled Lefiya along as they slid on their knees right up to Tiona, who had suddenly appeared before them.
Feeling the pain in his knees, he stared blankly at her twisted expression and frozen punching stance.
The scene suddenly fell silent.
The rocks Tiona had knocked flying struck and killed the aberrant creature closest behind them.
Tione, who had been following close behind Tiona, also reached them.
Seeing the strange situation before her, Tione asked the two people kneeling on the ground, "Are you all right, Lefiya? And, um... Liber? Are you hurt?"
At Tione's question, and the monsters' roars as they drew near behind them, the startled pair finally came to their senses.
They quickly stood up.
Tiona awkwardly lowered her fists and stood at a loss in front of them.
Her sister noticed that Liber and Lefiya were still holding hands after getting up and asked suspiciously, "Why are you holding hands?"
At the question, the two realized what they were doing and let go.
Lefiya's face turned scarlet as she stammered, "Th-this was an ac-accident!"
Liber blushed, too, but quickly regained his composure.
"Buzz."
Hearing the sound of something rapidly approaching, Liber turned serious and addressed the two sisters before him.
"There's an emergency. I didn't expect to run into you here, but we should hurry back to the surface together."
Tiona, still a little embarrassed, put what had happened earlier aside and said confidently, "This is easy."
With that, she charged at the two remaining aberrant creatures.
"Hey, why are you being so reckless all of a sudden?"
Tione called out in surprise as her sister rushed ahead without hesitation.
Then she said to Liber and Lefiya, "Rest here for now. We'll deal with these monsters, then head back together."
With that, she charged after her sister.
"Wait, no—"
Liber had just started to speak when he saw the two sisters hurry off.
The Amazon Sisters charged straight at the two remaining monsters and blasted both aberrant creatures to pieces.
Tiona glanced at the two resting nearby and said, "See? They were easy to deal with. I don't know why the Guild called this an emergency."
As she spoke, her sister poked her in the shoulder.
"Look behind you."
"What is it? Huh? There are so many bugs!"
At her sister's warning, Tiona turned around and saw a teeming mass of Killer Ants within her field of vision.
Among them were all sorts of strange special variants, some enormous and oddly shaped.
"Enough talking. Let's clear them out and take those two back to the base," her sister urged, rolling her wrists and ankles.
"Yeah, yeah. This is all because you're so unreliable and wasted our time," Tiona said, shrugging as she began to loosen up.
Watching the two warm up, Liber hesitated. "Are they going to...?"
"Looks like they're going to charge right into the monster horde," Lefiya answered.
Then he watched as the two, fully warmed up, charged at the teeming mass of ants as if they were racing each other.
"Be careful!" Liber called out. He was about to rush over and help when Lefiya grabbed him.
"Don't worry. Our familia's senior members are very strong. You should trust them," Lefiya reassured him patiently.
At her words, he turned back toward the ant horde.
The two sisters plunged into the swarm of Killer Ants like nails driven into wood.
Viewed from above, their progress through the swarm looked like two lines scraped across a red image.
Their charges toppled swaths of monsters, and their fists and kicks sent the seventh-floor Killer Ants' limbs flying as easily as if they were made of tofu.
Watching the Killer Ants get knocked away and killed throughout the swarm, Liber felt the shock and awe of witnessing a Level Five adventurer's true strength firsthand.
The sisters' advance through the middle of the swarm began to slow.
As the monsters seemed never-ending, Tiona dodged the liquid spat by a flying aberrant creature.
She glanced at the enormous monster in the middle.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Tiona told her sister. "The Killer Ants aren't much of a problem, but there are just too many of them."
Tione swung her weapon, creating a whirlwind that cleared the monsters around her and opened up some space. Hearing her sister, she asked, "We just have to spend some time on it. What do you want to do?"
"Simple. The usual way," Tiona replied.
At her words, Tione faced her, and the two nodded.
The sisters put away their weapons and grabbed hold of each other.
Tione took her sister's hand and began spinning in place. After a few turns, she flung Tiona straight at the enormous aberrant monster in the middle.
"Wahoo!"
Tiona let out a carefree whoop as she flew toward the monster.
Seeing a person suddenly fly out of the ant horde, even the normally composed Lefiya panicked.
""Look out!""
Liber and Lefiya shouted at the same time.
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