Hisses echoed from the walls all around them. Dark holes in the dark space threatened attack from all directions. Aster turned slowly, narrowing his eyes to pierce the dark. “Stella, can you see anything?”

“My eyes… my dungeon eyes are gone!” Stella said, panicked. She grabbed onto his shirt and kicked, annoyed.

“The crystals… ah, I see!” Aster glanced at the smashed crystals on the ground. She can see through the crystals. Those are her “dungeon eyes.” Without them, not only can Stella not see, but the space is plunged into darkness.

Stella sat upright, straining to hear. “They… they said that just because they helped once, I don’t own them. But that’s wrong. They’re mine, my snakes!”

Aster wrinkled his nose. “We’ll remind them of that.”

“Shut up! I’ll never let you own the dungeon. This isn’t a stinky snake hole, it’s my dungeon!” Stella shouted at the darkness.

Beside them, a brilliant flash of white light burst out. It arced upward and struck the ceiling, then hovered over them, illuminating the area. A nearby snake reared up and fled back into the nearest hole, startled by the flash.

Aster glanced to his side. Milo stood there, chest heaving and eyes wide. He nodded at Aster. “Thank goodness I can cast a light spell.”

“Save your spells for the battle with the other dungeon,” Aster said, shaking his head.

“This one doesn’t cost anything. Don’t worry about it,” Milo said. “Besides, it’s all for nothing if we die here.”

“We’re being attacked! All of us! How can you attack me now?” Stella shouted, frustrated.

The snakes hissed. Scales flashed by the holes, appearing for a moment before they vanished again.

“What are they saying, Stella?” Aster asked quietly.

She wrinkled her nose. “They think they’ll rule the dungeon if they attack me now, while I’m weak. But that’s stupid! That’s wrong. They won’t rule the dungeon. We’ll both get destroyed by the other dungeon while we're busy fighting each other!”

Aster spun his hammer and let out a short laugh. “Sometimes, the only thing that gets the message across is a little bit of violence.”

“They won’t attack while you’re here. They said to leave, and let me and them fight it out. Stupid! I’m not stupid. You’ll eat me without Aster. I’m not having him leave!” Stella shouted at the snakes.

“If that’s the case, why don’t we go ahead and pass through?” Milo suggested.

“Right you are, Milo,” Aster agreed happily. He strode on ahead, boldly ignoring the holes.

Although he kept his head high and strode with a relaxed gait, Aster watched the snakes’ bolt holes from the corners of his eyes and listened, ready to attack at the least sound. Milo stuck close by Aster’s side, hunched over nervously and staring left and right as he went. The ball of light moved with them, casting the dungeon behind and ahead of them in deep shadow. Each stalactite and stalagmite threw huge, dark shadows over the floor, big enough for entire snakes to hide in. The depths of the bolt holes remained impenetrable, pitch black. Occasionally, pinpricks of light appeared in the dark holes where the snakes waited, watching, purple tongues flicking at the air.

Stella tensed. “Aster!”

Scales rustled. Aster spun, already swinging his hammer, and caught a snake on the inside of its upper jaw. Fangs pressed down on him for a moment, inches from his skin.

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The snake screeched in pain and fell backward, wiggling its two-part lower jaw in agony.

Aster breathed out, retracting his hammer. Adrenaline rushed through him, and he laughed aloud. “That was close!”

“Close? Close!” Milo stammered, eyes wide.

“They’re coming! Aster, they’re coming!” Stella shouted.

Aster whirled around and kicked Milo in the rear. Milo went flying and rolled over the threshold of the snake room into the space between the snakes and the boss room. The light chased after him, bobbling away.

“Aster!” Milo shouted, scrambling to his feet.

“You stay over there! We can’t afford to waste your spells!” Aster shouted back.

“But—but—” Milo stammered.

“Stella, make a fire slime!” Aster called.

Stella nodded and threw her hands out. Blue mana swirled, and a fire slime materialized before her.

“Oh, good idea! You can still have a light, even without me,” Milo realized.

Aster jabbed his hammer up and caught the slime as it dropped. The slime drooped around his hammer, then perked up, curious.

Laughing loudly, Aster swirled his fire-slime hammer. “Alright, come at me!”

Milo blinked. Er… I guess that’s… a way to handle it!

“Stella… I’m going to kill these snakes,” Aster declared.

Stella hesitated, then nodded. “They won’t listen. No matter what I do, they won’t obey me. I can’t have monsters like that in my dungeon. I’ll never be able to keep everyone safe.”

The snakes charged at Aster, scales and fangs flashing. Darting around the room, Aster struck them down one after another. Unlike before, he didn’t hold back his blows this time. Bone broke and brains splattered. Injured and dying snakes thrashed on the floor, keening out death cries. More and more snakes burst from the walls, but still Aster fought on. He didn’t stand still for a moment, but danced here and there, dodging a snake, then punishing another one that overreached. Stomping a little snake underfoot, he pushed the fire-slime-hammer into a huge snake’s gaping maw. The little snake twisted in death throes, while the huge snake flinched back, a steaming, sizzling hole on the inside of its mouth.

So this is an S-rank adventurer, Milo realized, jaw dropped. He shut it and shook his head. If he’d been serious, it wouldn’t have mattered if Fontea, Jaro, and Silas were all fighting. We wouldn’t have stood a chance.

On Aster’s shoulders, Stella reached out toward the snakes. The dead snakes’ bodies dissolved into mana, then re-formed, shaping snakes yet again. These snakes fought on her and Aster’s side, charging into the fray with fierce hisses. Unlike the original snakes’ mottled brown and gray bodies, these snakes’s scales gleamed ice-white, with blue crystal-shaped designs on their backs. Blue eyes glared at the original snakes’ amber eyes, and their long fangs dripped a poison that sizzled into the floor below.

Acid? Like what’s inside the slimes, Milo realized. He glanced at the fire-slime-hammer, then at the slime-acid snakes, and shook his head. For a guy who hates slimes, Aster sure chose a dungeon full of them.

The original snakes grew fewer and fewer. More and more white snakes replaced them, with a viciousness that the original snakes couldn’t match. As the white snakes replaced the originals, blue crystals sprouted from the dungeon’s walls. The more Stella’s snakes destroyed the existing snakes, the larger the crystals grew, until at last, the white snakes finished off the original snakes, and the crystals hanging from the walls stood as large as they ever had.

Aster sighed and rubbed his neck, lowering his hammer, then reached up and set Stella on the floor. “Phew! It’s hard to carry a kid during battle.”

“Aww,” Stella complained.

Aster shook his head. “Give me a break, at least for a few minutes. I’m tired.”

Milo ran over, casting a wary eye at the snakes. The white snakes wandered around, gulping down the remaining dead of the original snakes, or slithered into the holes, checking out their new homes and flushing the very last of the original snakes. A few of them glared at him, but none moved to attack. He nodded at Aster. “Impressive!”

“If Stella hadn’t started converting snakes, I would’ve been in trouble, there,” Aster said, patting Stella on the head.

She grinned and nodded. “They’re my snakes, now!”

“Good idea, too, keeping them snakes. That way, they can continue to use this room to the fullest,” Aster praised her.

“Mhm!” Stella said, with the enthusiasm of someone who’d only just thought of that.

Turning to Milo, Aster nodded. “Let’s go check on Silas, then.”

Er… are you guys going to kill Silas and replace him with a friendly Silas, too, if he doesn’t cooperate…? Milo swallowed. After a second, he shook his head and clenched his fist, determined. I came up with this idea. I’ll see it to the end. “Right. Let’s go!”

Aster nodded and clasped his shoulder. “It’s good you’re so enthusiastic!”

Milo furrowed his brows, then caught sight of his own clenched fist. He sighed. I should really stop gesturing as I think…