Punching a lunging Gargoyle in the chest, I flung the monster back and followed up with a [Void Slash], cutting it in half, while Yuki slammed her shield into it, finishing the job as its corpse crumbled into small rocks on the ground. With the last monster having been defeated, I flung all the grotesque bits of flesh off of my greatswords and burned the blood before holstering them on my back while approaching Yuki, who looked a little worse for wear.
She wasn't injured too much, her armor proving to be rather strong since even without infusing mana into it, it only sustains a few cuts; granted, there were a lot of dents from all the attacks she received from those elite zombies and gargoyles.
"Haa, that was a good fight." Said Yuki in slight exhaustion while nodding as she leaned against the side of the wall and removed her helmet, displaying her sweaty face with a smile on it.
"Yeah, I'm not someone who greatly enjoys partaking in battle, but that was quite fun. I wouldn't mind doing that again; I could use the exercise." Remarked Alexander with a faint smirk as he glanced at Yuki before leaning against the wall beside her.
"Exercise? You still look rather fine to me; I can't spot a single bead of sweat on your face. How high must your endurance be not to be phased after such a battle?" Asked Yuki in curiosity as she turned and looked at Alexander, who mischievously smirked.
"Heh, that's my little secret, Yuki; though, maybe one day you'll find out." Said Alexander as he made a shushing motion while Yuki just grunted before looking away, causing him to chuckle.
"It must be in the thousands at the very minimum; I've got nearly 3,500 points in endurance, so you must have at least double mine. Not only that, you're quite strong, pretty fast, and seem to have a great deal of mana to boot; you're not a normal E-rank adventurer." Stated Yuki with a thoughtful expression as she inspected Alexander, who looked like he had just seen something incredible.
"Hmm, what is it, Alexander?" Asked Yuki in confusion as she looked at Alexander's astonished expression before turning around and eyeing the wall, only to spot nothing.
"You said something intelligent, Yuki; I can't believe it! Over the few weeks I've known you, I always assumed you were the strong yet stupid type; it seems I was mistaken." Remarked Alexander in fake shock as he looked at Yuki, who grunted in annoyance before suddenly charging him with her shield while he did something stupid and tried to stop it.
Outstretching my arms, I used all of my strength, filled my body to the brim with mana, and even went so far as to use [Strength Augumentation], further increasing my strength as I attempted to stop Yuki's charge, partly curious to see what it's like on the receiving end of her charge, and well, let's just, that was a mistake—using everything that could enhance my physical strength, except for [Lightning Cloak], which probably put my strength at around twice the norm, though that was pushing it a little in my opinion, It was probably around eighty percent, but I've never bothered to test it.
The instant my hands came in contact with Yuki's shield, it felt like I was trying to stop a freaking train. I could barely hold on for a second before she overpowered me and slammed me into the wall behind her. However, it barely hurt, mainly because she slowed down right before the impact; after all, she wasn't actually trying to hurt me; if she were, I wouldn't have dared to do something stupid like attempt to stop her charge.
"Hehe, I yield, Yuki." Said Alexander with a slight chuckle while being squished between Yuki's shield and the wall, though he stayed there for a few seconds longer despite his words.
"Hmph, I'm not dumb; I often just don't like to think deeply about things. If I were dumb, I probably would've been killed by now; every adventurer has to have at least some level of intelligence; otherwise, they'll join a shady group for a dungeon expedition and not return alive. It nearly happened to me once, though I was lucky enough to notice something was off just before we entered the dungeon; unfortunately, the other person wasn't so lucky." Declared Yuki with a huff as she released Alexander and glared at him, using this chance to teach him in a more indirect way, something he was able to discern.
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"Heh, well, thanks for the little lesson, Yuki, but I know. My Master was an adventurer, and she's warned me many times that as an adventure, the most dangerous enemy isn't your opponent, but you're supposed ally." Remarked Alexander with a slight smile as he stretched his shoulders before approaching Yuki and knocking on her shields.
"Hmm, I've heard you say many good things about this Master of your Alexander; I'm curious about meeting her someday to see if she's really as amazing as you say." Said Yuki with a curious look as she glanced at Alexander, noticing his stiff expression, which became somewhat somber.
"Oh, she's far more amazing than I could ever describe her, though unfortunately, you're a little bit too late; she passed away not too long ago; if not, you would've seen her right beside me, or we never would've met." Stated Alexander lightly while shaking his head, feeling rather downcasted.
"I-I'm sorry, Alexander; I didn't mean to bring up such a painful memory." Remarked Yuki apologetically as she looked at Alexander, patting him on the shoulder, slightly cheering him.
"It's fine; everyone has lost someone they've loved; similar to whenever you mentioned your Mother, I'll always notice your eyes darken for a split second before they regain that dumb look in them." Replied Alexander with a small smile as he rested his hand on Yuki's while looking up at her, only to smirk toward the end.
"Hmph."
Watching Yuki turn around and walk away, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself; the pain about Master's death was still there and will forever be there, but Talis, and now Yuki's presence helped dampen it; for that, I'm thankful.
'I wonder, was that the reason why my heart wanted me to go to Hyphen? Was it for Yuki?' Mused Alexander curiously as he tilted his head and looked at Yuki while walking right beside her, causing her to eye him in annoyance.
While I was curious, I didn't dwell on it for much longer; whether I was right or wrong wouldn't change anything.
"So, Yuki, are we still continuing?" Asked Alexander curiously as he placed his hands behind his head and glanced at Yuki, who snorted but still responded.
"Yeah, why not; the biggest threat, the monster horde, has been dealt with, so the rest of the sixth floor will be relatively empty, with only a few monsters remaining; we might as well push forward, though we can't exhaust ourselves too much. If the floor guardian happens to return, we'll be forced to fight it; otherwise, we'll be stuck down here." Replied Yuki with a nod as she put her helmet back on, causing her beautiful voice to turn deep halfway through her speech.
'Oh yeah, completely forget about the fact the floor guardian will be rebirthed or whatever. Eh, it was a pretty easy guardian, so we should be fine.' Mused Alexander lightly as he shrugged his shoulders before unholstering his two greatswords.
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Entering the house after a pretty long day of fighting, I closed the door behind me and yawned, which prompted Yuki to do the same a few moments later. After defeating the monster horde, we went down to floor seven, and to our insane luck, we happened to encounter a second monster horde; I didn't know exactly how rare they were, so I thought we were just unlucky, but apparently, monster hordes, in this dungeon at least, occur on average less than ten times a year. So yeah, we were incredibly unlucky to encounter not one but two monster hordes on the same day, and not only that, this monster horde was decently bigger than the previous one.
Now, did we fight it? Yes. Should we have retreated? Yes. We happened to face not only numerous elite zombies, which weren't too much of a threat, but we were also forced to fight elite lickers, and I'll tell you what, they are far faster and decently stronger than their normal counterparts, only saving grace about his whole thing, was, there were no elite gargoyles, which would probably be as strong as the floor guardian, which wouldn't have been good.
In the end, after a long, arduous battle that lasted for nearly an hour, we emerged victorious, though we were looking pretty worse for wear; I was fine, all the harm I sustained had healed, and I did ensure to destroy any evidence of my blood, and thankfully, Yuki didn't find out. I wouldn't have killed her if she found out, but I'd prefer if that were to be kept secret. Yuki, on the other hand, also wasn't too damaged, thanks to her impressive armor, though she was indeed incredibly exhausted, and I had to help her out of the dungeon.
"Ugh, finally! I-I'm hungry, but I don't even want to eat; I just want to sleep." Said Yuki wearily as she dropped her two great shields on the ground and flopped onto the bed, or she was, but Alexander caught her.
"Your armor is stained in blood, Yuki; go change, and I'll make something quick, okay?" Stated Alexander as he picked Yuki up and placed her on her feet, causing her to grumble; nonetheless, she followed his words and slowly walked upstairs.