Shun POV:

I stared at the high ceiling before observing the empty area in front of us.

“Map.”

Unlike the previous Floors, there was nothing special about this one. It was just a massive cave room with an exit to the 10th Floor on the other side, but the ‘Silent Goblin’ was nowhere to be seen.

[The Floor Bosses have banded together!]

[The Floor Bosses are unamused by the betrayal of the 1st Floor.]

7 Reavers stepped out of the shadows in the middle of the cave. A faint tremble ran down Reaver 1’s cloak once the Floor Boss to the front, most likely the 15th Floor Boss, walked forward.

“Averis... Care to explain?”

“Explain what? I’m using her to kill you all, and then I’ll kill her last.”

The distance shrank by a fair amount till both our movements stopped. The Reaver let out a slight chuckle at my claim.

“Human... How much do you know about Reavers?”

I flipped backwards at the shift in the air, avoiding the afterimage’s strike that returned to the Floor Boss. The monster flared its thin blade; the cloaked shadow hid the Reaver’s unknown face.

“1... Reaver. 2... Reaver. 3.. Reaver. 4. I want to knock on the door.”

“!”

Thick traces of violet lined the dark Ki that detonated around the Reaver.

“I... am Yemral. And... You. Are. Dead.”

“???”

My gaze fell to the blood spilling out of my stomach. It brought me to my knees when a system message appeared.

[Yemral is annoyed at his lover being brainwashed.]

[Yemral has summoned reinforcements.]

Hundreds of Reavers cut off the space around me, creating a large ring that blocked any chance of escape.

“Good... Good. Very good.”

The growing smile on my lips reached the bottom of my eyes. They had made my life easier by banding together like this, so why wouldn’t I be pleased? The Reavers behind Yemral turned their shadowed faces to one another, but neither of them could understand the growth their deaths would give me.

I got back to my feet and ignored the wound. The likelihood of Yemral being the 15th Floor Boss just became a certainty.

“Averis, if you move from that spot, I’ll kill you. If you try to save your lover, I’ll kill you too.”

“...Yemral is not... really... my lover.”

The veins around Yemral’s extended arm bulged. Glints of light bounced off the thin blade that trembled. A faint pressure emanated out of his body, forcing the other Floor Bosses to take a few steps back.

“What... DID YOU DO TO MY AVERIS?!!”

Yemral shot forward, and our blades met in the middle. Compared to Averis, he put more weight behind his strikes.

“Come on. You can do better.”

The tempo increased. Sparks danced around the circle in tandem with our blurring blades. A faint red heat covered a refined katana, doubling the power of chain combinations within a 5-second window.

“Reaver Style: Converging Wind.”

The afterimages shot into Yemral, bolstering his speed by a drastic amount. It allowed him to avoid the threat Hanzo’s Blade V4 posed to him and was also a technique I hadn’t seen before.

“Reaver Style: Converging Slash.”

Converging Wind was still active, so there were no other afterimages Yemral could utilise. However, his sword fell, and a powerful wave of Ki exploded parts of the ceiling.

‘Interesting.’

Converging Wind empowered the next technique to make up for its glaring weakness before dispersing. I ignited the katana, spinning around my fingers with my Fire Ki Nature. It blocked Yemral’s strike, but the remaining force still pushed me away.

I dashed Hanzo’s Blade into the inventory and splayed my hand to form a crude sword. A second Converging Slash ignored the creation that tried to block it. It shot me back like a bullet when air currents wrapped around me in time to avoid Yemral’s instant follow up.

We traded blow for blow in the centre of the cave. Reavers could use anywhere between 2 to 4 afterimages, and Yemral was capable of the latter.

“...Why replace a strong weapon with a weak one?”

The crude fire sword extended into a spear that pierced through Yemral’s shoulder. His thin blade sliced it in half, unbothered by the insignificant wound.

“No. This isn’t good enough. All of you attack at once.”

I ruffled my hair and glared at the Reavers facing Yemral’s direction. His shoulders trembled, and a dark voice left his blacked-out mouth.

“Mumu, I’m going to kill him.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A loud roar shook the entire dungeon, but Yemral wasn’t the source of this sound.

[Imminence Reaver summons Adventurer Shun.]

My eyebrows fell at this sudden interruption. Mumu, the Reaver who had flinched once Yemral called her name, turned to face him.

“...H-He has spoken, Yemral.”

Yemral replied with silence. Muscles expanded and contracted along his arm, begging to be unleashed. The dark brown cloak soon concealed their existence in order to deny their request.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

I cocked my head to the side, questioning Yemral’s passivity.

“Shun... We can no longer harm you. He... wants your flesh to grow stronger.”

Hanzo’s Blade pressed against Averis’s throat from behind. She raised her hands out of the cloak, but that wasn’t what I wanted to hear or see.

“Tell him to rescind his order now.”

“...Shun.”

“TELL HIM!!”

I pushed the katana deeper into her throat when Yemral stepped forward. His knees hit the ground with a thud. His head pressed against the earth before a quiet voice drifted forward.

“Please... let her go. Please.”

Anger and irritation swirled inside of me as I peered down at the Reaver, prostrating itself in my presence. These damn dungeon monsters had one job: kill the humans that entered their territory, yet now they wouldn’t carry out such a simple task?

[The Imminence Reaver is amused.]

[You have gained a new title: ‘Imminence Subjugator.’]

[Title: Imminence Subjugator

Effect: Grants additional dominance over Reavers with an increased likelihood of them serving you.]

I clenched my teeth hard enough to make the veins pop around my mouth. Hanzo’s Blade sank deeper into Averis’s neck, threatening to tear past her hidden skin.

“How strong is he?”

“...Stronger than all of us.”

The blade fell to the side, and I grabbed Averis’s arm.

“You’re coming with me.”

“Averis!”

I pointed the flaming katana toward Yemral; my annoyance drawing near its peak.

“Stay still. You had your damn chance to be of use to me.”

Two violet eyes glowed through his shadowed-out face. Yemral’s muscular hands splintered the earth with their grip. His glare locked onto me, projecting a deep seriousness in an effort to make me care about the words about to leave his mouth.

“If... you hurt he—“

I walked off and dragged the reluctant Averis with me. Regardless of whether her claim about the Imminence Reaver’s strength was true or not, I had no choice but to kill that damn Boss now.

I climbed the steps to the 10th Floor and chucked Hanzo’s Blade V4 back into my inventory.

“...Yemral.”

Averis refused to look away from the stairway. She rested her hand over her heart, moved by how low Yemral was willing to go for her. I couldn’t care less about their relationship.

“Why are you standing there for?”

Averis turned to face me in the tunnel and shifted into the appropriate stance. Her training continued as we ascended the Floors.

Since all the monsters avoided us to the best of their abilities, I took my time to drill even more information into Averis. I adjusted her use of the Reaver Style after analysing its afterimages.

The poison that coated their thin blades was from a technique called Reaver Style: Converging Poison Coat. Each afterimage that shot into the Reaver increased the lethality of the poison up to three times.

Averis grew.

She grew a lot.

“Averis, wait right there. When I kill him, you’re next.”

“...”

My lips curved upward at the significant amount of growth her death would give me. I kicked open the large double doors to the Boss Room and was greeted by an even taller Reaver, hunched over in the middle of the well-lit cave.

A thin blade, the length of the dark purple cloak, rested against its shoulder. The doors slammed shut, and a cool breeze lowered the temperature in the air.

[Boss: Imminence Reaver]

“Imminence is bliss.”

My eyes flickered across the bright space, but there was nothing unusual about it.

“You... amuse me. Training Reavers with... your pitiful skills.”

The Imminence Reaver’s voice was still quiet but had a deeper base than even Yemral’s. The monster got up from its seat and embedded the thin sword into the ground.

“Reaver Style: Converging Fist.”

“Wha—“

Five afterimages converged into the Imminence Reaver at the same moment a fist tapped my chest. Two violet eyes glowed underneath the dark purple hood.

“K-Keuk!!”

I smashed against the large doors less than a second later. Blood poured out of the sides of my mouth as dozens more strikes rained down on me. My HP plummeted despite the Boss not taking a single step forward after the release of that technique.

Imminence Reavers: they had solved one weakness that the Reavers had.

I manipulated the wind to defend myself as I pushed my Ki Armour to the limit.

“Ugh... Good.”

My bloodied hand ran through my hair, paired with a wide smile. Averis was right. This Imminence Reaver couldn’t be compared to the average Reaver Floor Boss.

“...Good?”

“You’re barely good enough.”

My shin smashed into the monster’s neck, making it tilt.

“Did you think I was going all out on my way here? If I don’t lower myself, how will I improve?”

The Imminence Reaver crashed into the wall at the other end of the cave. Currents of air streamlined themselves around me while my blitz was met with its own rapid strikes.

I stood in the pocket. Our hands blurred, fracturing the ground around us.

“...Crafty human. Your... Ki Reserves are enormous.”

I slipped past its Converging Fist and cracked the same spot behind the knee with my shin. The Imminence Reaver stumbled from the accumulated damage, no doubt causing a faint numbness to spread out in that area.

“You...!”

The monster utilised Converging Wind to grab the thin blade behind me, but I responded by pulling out the enhanced King Turtle’s Shield. I held it with one hand to block the slash that made me slide back along the ground.

“Reaver Style: Converging Slash.”

Several Turtle Shields projected forward in an attempt to stop the powerful arc of Ki from reaching me. The technique shattered the shields with ease. However, the fraction of time it provided was enough. I manipulated several currents of air to the limit and managed to avoid the attack.

I continued to block and counter in a mechanical procedure. The target was the same spot behind the knee, and that opening often came after the use of a Reaver Style technique.

Reavers relied on their afterimages, speed, and timing. The most basic pattern all Reavers followed consisted of utilising a Converging Slash when the target was either retreating backwards or had been launched away from the Reaver. This reduced the likelihood of successful counterattacks but also hid the brief delay it took to produce their afterimages again.

Afterimages acted like a passive technique that had to be used with every active technique. The brief delay was also dependent on the technique expelled; it was a Style that required a strategic way of fighting to bring out its full capability.

In other words, the reason for the Reaver’s basic approach to combat was to minimalise the extra thought process needed to control their afterimages. However, Yemral knew about this limitation. His ‘knock on the door’ statement was a method of strengthening his mental imagery of the attack he wanted to release.

No other Reaver did that.

‘If this Boss didn’t get in my damn way, Yemral would have been good enough.’

I shifted my gaze to the Imminence Reaver’s KP that dropped by a noticeable amount whenever it used a technique. The Reaver Style also had a high Ki Cost.

‘It’s not much of a threat since I analysed Averis already. That was another reason why I trained her.’

My shin cracked into the Boss’s leg again, dropping it to one knee.

“INSECT...!!”

Several Converging Slashes forced me back, but...

The Imminence Reaver’s balance had been compromised. It utilised singular afterimages to compensate; however, both power and accuracy were affected in the end.

[The durability of ‘King Turtle’s Shield(Enhanced+4)’ has dropped below 75.]

‘He’s strong.’

I lowered the shield when another opening appeared. My shin sank deep into its leg, dropping the Reaver’s health to half when its eyes glowed violet.

[The Imminence Reaver is enraged.]

[The Imminence Reaver has called for reinforcements.]

“...?”

[Due to the title ‘Imminence Subjugator,’ the reinforcements have refused the Imminence Reaver’s call.]

I stared at the Boss with a blank expression.

“What an idiot.”