As they drew closer to the center of the labyrinth, a massive black portal appeared, swirling in the labyrinth’s center. One after another, hideous gray rats poured from the portal. As soon as they appeared, the slimes and bats darted down and destroyed them. The pair of fire slimes Stella had left at the labyrinth’s entrance burned boldly. Their flames stuck to the rats and spread quickly, as one rat panicked and bumped into another, and so on and so forth, every collision spreading the flames further and further. The fire slimes glooped around and consumed the flaming corpses. As they dissolved the rats, they grew bigger and bigger, and set more rats alight as a result.

“What is this?” Daiyo muttered under his breath.

Aster shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Unless…”

“Unless?” Milo asked, looking at his fellow passenger with a sense of satisfaction in his soul. Even you had to be carried in the end. I’m not weak, it’s Daiyo who’s too strong!

“Unless… it’s a dungeon incursion.” Aster put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. There’s only one text that ever references dungeon incursions. It’s an ancient book, and generally considered to be wildly exaggerated and unreliable… after all, how could a lone adventurer visit all seven continents in the span of a week?

Aster thought back to the text. The words appeared in his mind, as difficult to read as they’d been the first time. INCURFION: And a blacke hole didst appear, thick with strange baests, mysterious and horrific; thereafter, the baests did the originale monsters, overrun, and hence, yon dungeon, originally choked wiff all manner of incects and arachnids, didst become, in the eyes of all present, a den of baests.

Aster shook his head. Putting aside the ancient era’s horrible spelling, the text indicates that a insect-based dungeon was overrun by a sudden incursion of beasts, and afterward became a beast-based dungeon. Although many scholars have doubted its veracity, myself included, what do I have before me now but a black hole ‘thick with strange baests?’

No evidence has ever been found of incursions, but sometimes dungeons have been seen to mysteriously shut down, then reopen stronger, or suddenly grow silent, only to resurge with a wildly altered theme. The fabled Slasher Caverns were once a beginner dungeon with a plant-based theme. The change is generally held up as evidence of dungeon evolution and the strengthening of dungeons over time, but now that I’m seeing an incursion right in front of me… I can’t help but wonder if that beginner plant dungeon got overrun by a hardcore S-rank horror dungeon.

He turned to Stella. “Is another dungeon invading you?”

“Make them stop,” Stella muttered, scowling.

Daiyo snatched up a stone, taking aim at the rats. “Don’t let a single one get away.”

One of the rats dodged between the slimes and scurried up on top of the labyrinth. Whole body trembling with its heartbeat, it looked around, little nose twitching and black button eyes glittering.

Its eyes locked onto Stella. For a moment, it fell completely still. Its tiny black eyes widened. It let out a piercing screech.

“Daiyo!” Aster shouted.

Daiyo loosed the rock. The stone struck the rat and reduced the rat to a fine red mist, but too late. Down below, every single rat froze. As if all struck by the same thought at the same time, they sat up, then turned. Hundreds of black eyes locked onto Stella.

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“Shit,” Aster muttered.

As one, the tide of rats surged up and charged toward Stella, their eyes shining with manic light.

“Stella, hold onto my shoulders,” Aster said, setting her on his back. She clung on tight, her hands twining around his neck. Aster drew his hammer and took a deep breath.

From out of the labyrinth’s corridors, Viki charged up, vines lashing out viciously. She ensnared a dozen rats and wrung their necks with a quick twist of her vines, clinging onto the top of the wall with her lumpy potato-like body. She bared her teeth at the rats. “Kill them!”

Daiyo threw his hand out. A tide of stone spirits rushed up, clashing with the rats.

Aster leaped back, mindful of his position as Stella’s last line of defense. His muscles tensed, his eyes tracking every rat. With every fiber of his being, he longed to charge into the fray, but he forced himself to hold back. I must save my strength. Right now, I’m the equivalent of Stella’s final boss. If I waste my strength fighting rats, I’ll be in no position to keep her safe in the long run.

A large rat skittered up the wall and charged at him, buck teeth bared. Stella squealed and ducked down on Aster’s shoulder, her whole body shaking.

Aster spun his hammer around and smashed the rat into the top of the wall. The rat’s skull exploded into a mess of red mush and white bone. A shrill cry sounded from above him, and Stella screeched. Without turning, Aster reached up. He grabbed onto a handful of fur and fury and threw it at the ground, hard. The rat struck the ground and jumped back up, only for a slime to drop onto it in midair.

Stella grit her teeth and glared at the rat, jabbing her finger at it. “Stay down!”

“Thanks for the assist!” Aster called. He backstepped again, leaping to a labyrinth wall behind him.

She nodded and glanced over her shoulder. “The snakes are coming, too.”

“Stella, do you feel better now?” Aster asked.

“Mhm. It was scary at first, but… I can do this,” Stella said, determined, her eyes glittering.

Aster grinned. “Good! We’ll take them out, together. Don’t worry.”

Stella narrowed her eyes. She gestured, and the slimes all jolted upright. The ones that weren’t on fire hurried toward the flaming ones, aggressively charging into their flames. Excited, Stella cried out, “Go! Turn on fire!”

One after another, the ordinary slimes trembled, then burst with flames. They waded into the rats, spreading the fire as they went. Some crunched in on themselves. They shook with tension as they grew smaller and smaller, folding up on the ground.

What are they doing? Breeding? Aster wondered, frowning. Slimes can replicate asexually, but… is this how they do it? I’ve never seen it…

All at once, the smallest of the slimes burst off the ground and flew into the air, like a ball rebounding off a wall. It smooshed into the ceiling and stuck there, its slimy body clinging to the rocky surface.

Aster nodded to himself. So that’s how they get up there! I’ve always wondered.

One after another, the scrunched-up slimes burst into the sky. Bare moments later, they plummeted down, raining fiery slime death down upon the rats. The slimes splashed where they landed, throwing flaming slime all around. Wherever they fell, dozens of rats screamed and fled, slamming themselves into the walls and other rats in a vain attempt to wipe off the burning slime. One after another, the first wave of rats curled up into charred, blackened bodies on the floor, while new rats screeched off, fur aflame.

Viki cursed and retreated, snatching her vines back to herself. “Warn me!”

In the chaos of flaming rats, Daiyo strode forward. He threw out his hand, and the stone spirits charged forward, their stone hands and tiny stone bodies uninjured by the fire slime’s flaming goo. Flaming slime splashed over them and stuck, setting their stone hands alight. They let out high-pitched keening cries and slapped rats left and right. Two teamed up and smacked their hands together, smashing rats between their rock palms.

Aster stomped a fleeing rat and stepped back, feeling slightly useless. Stella’s better prepared for this than I thought.

Good! She’s getting stronger with every day. Soon, she’ll be strong enough to survive on her own.

The portal rumbled, then flashed. A humanoid figure leaped backward out of the portal, hands flashing as he battled a massive rat. His hair flew around his head, whipped up by the force of battle, and a ragged red cloak swirled behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder and locked eyes with Aster. “Brace yourself! They’re coming!”