Fending off the few [Lesser Lignomorphs] that were prowling the area turned out to be no problem for Anaya’s party. In fact, Izuku struggled to call what he was seeing a ‘fight’ - it was just a casual stroll through the Dungeon.
Yla’s behavior might be questionable, but her skills were real. She was clearly having fun dancing past the [Lesser Lignomorph] lashes, forcing Uzar to do most of the hard work by cutting the things into pieces.
Then again, with the size of her knife, she just wasn’t well suited for fighting them. [Lesser Lignomorphs] lack vital organs. No throats, no arteries, no internal organs, no eyes. You had to either cut them into pieces or burn them to eliminate them efficiently.
Her dance was definitely helping Uzar by distracting the [Lesser Lignomorphs], though Izuku didn’t expect the wolfkin warrior to thank her.
The Elder didn’t even bother to cast her bloodflame spell again, the other two were more than enough.
The situation didn’t change until they reached the [Floor Guardian Room] where they encountered Komori flanked by a few more [Lesser Lignomorphs].
“So that’s how they got this place.” Elder comments before raising her hand and immediately casting the bloodflame spell at Komori.
The Hamadryad evades the attack by having branches erupt from the ground right before her before immediately counterattacking by having another pile of those grow right under Anaya’s feet.
The most surprising thing is that the foxwoman was actually surprised by it, staggering backward with some scratches on her legs and feet, a red-hued magic barrier stopping the branches from reaching higher.
The sight of Anaya being injured makes the other two immediately stop half-assing it. Uzar charges while slashing one [Lesser Lignomorph] to dead and almost doing the same to another one, while Yla somehow vanishes from their sight before reappearing behind Komori and trying to slit her throat open.
She failed because Komori had enough combat awareness to realize that a quick enemy with a knife that just went invinsible might be going for your throat from behind. Or you from the front. And, in general, at you from any direction that lets them access your vitals.
And so, this time the tendrils and branches erupted all around her, forcing Yla to jump back and almost managing to wrap a tendril around her legs in order to restrict her mobility. Almost.
Komori tried to score another injury in the fight by turning around and firing a storm of pine needles at Yla before she could react, but her attempt was tragically cut short by Uzar deciding to ignore the [Lesser Lignomorph] trying to attack him and using some sort of dash technique to close the distance.
Before severing Komori’s right arm with a single downward swing of his sword.
She turns around once more, completely unphased with losing an arm and tries to counterattack. Tendrils erupt from her head, which Izuku realizes a second later is a feint, supposed to make Uzar focus on it and fail to notice the pine needles fired from her remaining hand.
Too slow. Uzar proves it by running his sword through her chest before she can hit him. This makes her go past the damage limit of her spiritual body, making Komori phase out of existence, her body collapsing into a small globe of a silver liquid that lands on the floor with a loud splash.
“Is everyone alright?” Uzar asks just as Anaya finishes the last [Lesser Lignomorph] with her bloodflame magic.
“I’m fine.” Yla reports as she starts trying to get Komori’s sap off her blade. “I got quite a scare there for the moment, though.”
“Elder?” Uzar says. Since his eyes were glued to her the whole time, Izuku is ready to guess that he didn’t really care about her, and his questions were aimed at Anaya and Anaya only.
“I was taught a lesson about being too sure of myself.” Anaya replies while examining the scratches on her legs. Then she casts a spell that quickly heals the injuries. “I’ll be fine, thank you for asking.”
“How did that happen?” Uzar asks back while putting his sword back in its sheath. “You’ve fought many hamadryads much stronger than this one, with little to no problem. Some people out there say that you could even face a dryad.”
“Some people out there are flapping their tongues too much.” Anaya replies dryly. “I fell victim to my own combat experience, Uzar. Hamadryads always panic or at least instinctively dodge when you attack them with an open flame. This one instead calmly blocked it and immediately counterattacked.” She glances down at the pool which used to be Komori. “If that hamadryad was older and more powerful, I might have been severely injured or even killed. Despite facing someone much weaker than me. A lesson for the future about not lowering your guard, I guess.”
And that’s an unexpected benefit from installing a new soul inside a daemon.
They don’t know what they’re supposed to be afraid of.
So they can easily surprise an enemy by acting completely differently in combat.
True
Yla was wise enough to stay completely quiet during the talk and not make any snarky remarks about Anaya’s age, which would have likely caused a fight. One that she couldn’t win.
And a Dungeon was a place where someone could just… disappear . After all, casualties happened, right? And wouldn't her corpse - and all the skills inside - be a great gift for the Dungeon Lord?
“Do we continue?” Uzar asks. Someone was being really protective of the Elder, huh?
“Of course, Uzar.” Anaya replies immediately. ”I’ve been injured a hundred times in the past. And I’ve already healed it. Time to see the next level. And let me tell you that my expectations are rather high now.”
SHIGARAKI ACCEPT IT QUICKLY
Done
What was that?
I just realized that we’ve made a mistake.
We shouldn’t have put just the two Cynocephalii down there on the next Level, as they were going to ask questions as to where they came from, and we don’t want to answer that, right?
Shit
You’re right
That was a dumb move
I think we were prepared for another cultist zerg rush instead of the civilized visitors
Yes, I just removed them for now. Before they could enter the Level and lock it down.
***
“That place looks familiar.” Uzar says a moment after the party enters the Fourth Level. “It used to be the entrance section of the Dungeon. How could it be here?”
“The Dungeons can to some degree reshuffle their Levels.” Anaya replies while staring down the corridor with a thoughtful look. “Something that tends to happen during their development period. And we’re still yet to see any servants.”
“You think that they’re preparing an ambush somewhere here?” Uzar asks. Anaya just keeps thinking something over. “It’s much more likely that they simply aren’t there. We didn’t exactly announce ourselves ahead of entry, it’s possible that the servants are somewhere out there in the valley.”
“Maybe.” Anaya finally replies. “But we should stay cautious. The Dungeon clearly doesn’t like us being here and it has already proved to be both tenacious and surprisingly creative.”
I think that this counts as a positive review
yes
***
“That’s new.” Anaya comments when the group reaches the fall traps corridor. “They’ve added another trap behind the first one. Hoping to take advantage of people who jumped over the first one.”
“Smart.” Uzar agrees with her. “Might be a bit of a problem for us, as this is going to be quite a jump. No problems on your side, I take it?”
“Oh, please.” Anaya rolls her eyes. “I’m old, not infirm. Go, I’ll catch up with you on the other side.”
Uzar uses what looks like a stronger version of [Predator’s Advance] to run through the traps before they collapse, all while Yla just jumps past them while bouncing off the wall to reach the other side.
And then Anaya casts a spell that makes her disappear in a small explosion of blood. A second later she emerges from a similar blood explosion on the other side of the traps. Leaving small red puddles on both sides of the traps. She herself, however, didn’t have a single drop of blood on her.
Oh, so she knew teleportation magic. Great.
Oh, c’mon
Guess my great trap idea isn’t as great as I thought
It just requires some creative improvements
Like, say, projectile slits aimed at the position right beyond the second fall trap to immediately fire at people who are about to land there
And that’s… that’s actually a good idea
***
The projectile trap didn’t achieve anything, as expected. Even in the best case scenario it was less about killing intruders and more about softening them up before they’d enter a miniboss room right after that.
Some injuries, some mana wasted trying to withstand the storm of projectiles and so on. Against Anaya they could as well try to send even more elementals. The effects would be roughly the same.
Anaya casts some spell that protects them from the projectiles as they quickly dash to the other side, past the projectile trap. Ugh.
we should add some traps to the floor, of the immobilizing/slowing down sort
Why
It doesn’t have to be that deadly, right?
Counterargument: you can’t ‘s…snuggle’ with your girlfriend if we’re all dead
Wait, have you actually thought that this would persuade me to help you kill people?
yes
because snuggles
Your understanding of people is absolutely as horrible as usual.
I’m still making that trap deadly, because it’s deep enough that people just shouldn’t wander in so deep without nefarious intentions
C’mon, I don’t think that any level after Third Level can be considered quote unquote ‘welcoming’
There are no goods to harvest there, so why would they even come down there than to do bad things with us and our servants?
And that’s… that’s a better argument.
yay
Persuasion
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The moment Anaya’s group reaches the other end of the projectile trap, they realize that there was a serious design flaw to it. Namely - there was a short corridor behind it and the miniboss room. That wasn’t covered by the projectile slits.
It allowed Anaya’s party to recover from the projectiles… and realize that they weren’t alone. Beastkin senses were really something. At least Izuku and Shigaraki didn’t miss the brief exchange of looks between the group and realized what it was and warned their servants.
Not as if it was going to change much.
Yla took position as the vanguard, leaping past the exit of the short corridor and avoiding the ambush entirely. Uzar just runs forward after, raising the sword and easily blocking Kirishima’s log. Before Uraraka can try to [Lesser Thrust] her spear into him, Yla attacks her from the side.
Yla had an attitude but she also had skills. She knew her role on the battlefield and performed it correctly, without questions and without needing any words exchanged.
Uraraka managed to block the knife thrust with [Barricade Shield], but that was within Yla’s expectations. She managed to occupy her attention long enough for Uzar to push Kirishima’s log back with some martial technique before hitting him in the face with a hilt of his sword, pushing him back and freeing himself to attack Uraraka and secure the entrance to the Node Room.
And then Yla jumped back, dodged Toga’s [Sharpen Claws] before kicking her back… and then immediately went after their casters.
Shit.
Yaoyorozu only had time to widen her eyes in shock and try to cast [Earthen Shield] to block the attack before it turned out to be a feint, Yla aiming at Monoma who was standing right next to her.
Monoma surprised everyone by lunging forward with his own knife, only to get a knife etched into his throat for his trouble.
It was only after the fight that they learned the reason for this suicidal maneuver - with how close Monoma was to Yaoyorozu, Yla could probably dispatch of both of them at the same time. However, having to deal with Monoma slightly ahead of Yaoyorozu allowed the latter to finish casting her protection magic and Toga to recover enough to attack Yla from behind.
Uzar’s blow breaks Uraraka’s shield before he kicks her back. Kirishima recovers from the hilt-blow to his head enough to perform what is rapidly becoming his signature move.
Namely, he doesn’t bother trying to pick up his log and instead wraps his arms around Uzar’s waist from behind. Uzar didn’t expect to be wrestled and before he could react he was already being german suplexed into the ground. Kirishima somehow managed to do that despite Uzar wearing armor.
The impact is strong enough to leave Uzar briefly stunned while making him lose the grip on his weapon. Kirishima takes advantage of that and partially throws him off before grabbing him in a chokehold.
Uraraka tried to help him by attacking the temporarily immobilized wolfman from the front with her spear, but her attempt to dash towards her made her run in front of the corridor exit. Which is where Anaya was.
She almost gets sent flying by a blast of hardened blood(?), giving Uzar enough time to elbow Kirishima’s side with enough strength to break a rib or two, especially with Kirishima’s failure to activate [Fortify Flesh]’ in time.
In the meantime, Yaoyorozu fires a [Lesser Firebolt] at Yla, who easily dodges it.
Being unable to communicate vocally really weakens them, doesn’t it?
Ye
She can’t do much as a support character without being able to coordinate with others
You actually realized that much? On your own?
Huh.
… fuck off
Toga attacks Yla as well, but it’s made almost immediately clear that, to put it simply, Yla is combat-wise a better Toga. All that Himiko achieves in that attack is losing a dagger and having one of Yla’s blades run through her hand (the reason for the loss of said dagger), before getting an elbow blow to the jaw and being mostly knocked out.
Spinner attempts to shoot her with a bow were about as successful. Yla made sure to position herself so that there was one of his allies between her and him at almost all time (Toga most of the time), and when she had to leave the cover, it was too fast for him to react.
Impressive combat sense, even if her personality was still trash.
Then the situation turned from bad to worse. Now that the exit from the corridor was clear, with Uzar keeping their fighters back just as Yla was dancing with their backliners, Anaya could safely exit it. And put only the bare minimum of effort in her own defense.
It started with Uraraka being blasted back a moment ago. What followed were two bloodbolts in short succession, the first one stopped by Yaoyorozu’s [Earthen Shield], the other piercing her thigh.
Anaya was good enough with what felt like an entry-level spell of blood magic to fool Yaoyorozu completely. First bolt was aimed at her chest, forcing her to raise her shield, only to miss out on the second one.
Yaoyorozu either has higher pain tolerance than Izuku expected or is really dedicated to the role of unfeeling, uncaring automaton in the service of the Dungeon, as despite receiving what was likely a lethal blow (the blood bolt dissolved almost immediately, opening the wound to bleed freely) she immediately tries to hit the elder with a [Lesser Firebolt].
Anaya just waves her hand and conjures a wall of blood that reminds Izuku of Ashido’s defense-oriented supermoves. And then, before Yaoyorozu could do a thing, blood erupts from under her [Earthen Shield], forming a tendril that wraps itself around her defensive spell and pulls it down, allowing Anaya to lodge a blood bolt right between Yaoyorozu’s eyes.
yikes
I think we should be happy that resurrection here is a thing, as otherwise our isekai adventure would be very, very short.
Merely a few seconds since the start of the fight, and they were already going down hard . Yaoyorozu was dead. Toga was injured. Monoma was choking on his own blood with an expression on his face that translated to ‘I’m so tired of this bullshit’ which was morbidly hilarious in context. Kirishima was likely going down next, Uzar managing to stand up before him and being about to pin him to the ground with his sword.
That definitely gives us context as to how powerful our servants currently are.
And the answer to that is: they aren’t
Yeah.
Yla could kill Yaoyorozu-san earlier and probably also Himiko, but she didn’t do that mostly because she didn’t feel like it.
I doubt that Uzar was seriously in danger with that German suplex, and if anything, the whole thing gave me the vibes ‘let’s see what you’ll do with that’, especially with how quickly and easily he freed himself from the grapple.
And Anaya is probably using like 1/50th of her skills and just letting the other two do their job.
Yes
But think how cool it’ll be when we finally manage to grow deep enough to be able to freely produce people as strong as those three
…
Good point, it’ll be cool
Toga was still trying to recover her bearings after the elbow blow (that definitely had her stunned, and could have given her a concussion) when Yla went after Spinner. Who made a split second decision to curl up to cover his vitals and cast [Hard Scales] to endure the onslaught, likely in hopes of Toga recovering quickly enough to help him.
And then everyone realized that they forgot about Uraraka. Well, except Izuku whose eyes were on her the whole time. Which let him notice the moment when [Bloodrage] kicked in.
It was… hard to miss. In an instant, a downpour of blood rained on Uraraka out of nowhere, the girl covered in it from head to toe. And the moment it did, came rage .
A pure expression of bloodlust and rage blossomed on her face, now almost entirely smeared with blood, her bangs soaked in the liquid and partially glued to her face. She let out a deafening howl as she charged forward, the mere sight of her making Toga freeze and stare at her.
Uraraka was bloodier than in her most depraved fantasies. And the expression on her face? It was the liveliest expression that Himiko ever saw. Needless to say, she was completely enchanted by the sight. And completely forgot about everything and everyone in the room that wasn’t Uraraka Ochako.
Uzar’s eyes widened in shock when he saw Uraraka charge at him, taking a step back from now finished off Kirishima, swinging his blade upward. He manages to cut her spear in half, but it was a mistake that almost cost him his life.
She didn’t even slow down and instead jumped at him with all her momentum, her left hand grabbing his right shoulder and using it to hold herself above him, her right hand grabbing the severed front half of her spear before it could land on the ground.
And then, Izuku could only watch in horror as the speartip went on the downward arc, straight towards Uzar’s right eye.
Then, there is a loud ‘bang’ before Uraraka is thrown back, Uzar cursing loudly while stepping back, his right hand covering the eye that was the target of her attack. Did she… did she manage to hit it? And what happened exactly?!
Uraraka lands on the ground and immediately charges again, once again letting out an animalistic howl of rage. This time, though, she is stopped away from her target. The ground beneath her turns into a reddish swamp stopping her in her tracks, right before she gets absolutely massacred by at least twenty blood bolts in short succession.
Elder, it seems, had enough of it.
In the background, Yla finishes off Spinner before Toga had the time to wake up from her love-induced stupor that clearly replaced the one caused by suspected concussion (Spinner gave her an ‘et tu, Brute?’ look right before dying, but he was clearly more disappointed than angry). This leaves Toga as the last active servant in the room, which, as expected, doesn’t last for long.
Anaya immediately hurries over to Uzar.
‘Are you alright?” She asks, looking genuinely worried about him.
“Y-Yes, I think so.” Uzar replies while taking his hand off his eye. It blinks a few times, before breathing a sigh of relief. “Yes, I wasn’t injured. Did you…”
“If I cast that protective spell a heartbeat later, you’d at least lose your eye.” Anaya replies. The woman was clearly shaken by it, even if still in control of herself. This was still more emotions from her than they’ve ever seen. Seriously, who was he to her? “That was Bloodrage. How did a Dungeon servant obtain it?! They shouldn’t even be sapient!”
She says the last sentence while turning her head to look at Uraraka’s now lifeless corpse. Toga would love the sight - Uraraka was not only covered in the blood of the Bloodrage, but also her own, and all while partially submerged in the blood swamp.
Izuku, of course, didn’t. He preferred the lively and clean Uraraka about to cuddle or snuggle with him.
“I guess that’s just another question for us to find the answer to.” Yla comments calmly while cleaning her daggers of fresh blood. “Still, it was pretty fun. Good warm-up, although aside from the one with a blessing, it wasn’t much.”
#YlaIsABitch
Why did you add a hashtag here
Why not
Also, do you agree with me?
She… definitely has an attitude.
And not a good one.
Yeah
“Looking down on our enemies.” Anaya shakes her head. “Truly, that has never come back to bite our kind in the backside.”
Yla was clearly about to say something, but managed to bite her tongue at the last moment. Uzar was looking at her without a word but with something resembling a satisfaction. Or more like… schadenfreude?
“If that was the Fourth Level, then we can only wonder what awaits us on the Fifth.” Anaya eventually has enough of what feels like salting some personal wound and returns to the subject. “Just in case, be vigilant.”
“That was probably the Dungeon’s last hurray.” Yla counters. “This level feels underdeveloped, with only some old traps and the servants. Past that it’s probably just the Dungeon Heart.”
I have news for ‘ya Yla
You’re not going to like them lmao
Yes.
“I disagree with your assessment, to put it lightly.” Anaya replies dryly. “Considering the amount of mana flowing through this room and the rate at which it increased between each floor, I believe that the Dungeon has six rather than five levels.”
“We’ll see the truth for ourselves soon.” Yla replies, her disagreement with the elder not stated aloud but still pretty clear.
Ugh, politics.
Politics?
Just look how Yla’s acting.
Despite the elder clearly being a big deal.
In my opinion, they are from different factions in their tribe.
And the group that opposes the elder didn’t believe her words and sent her here to confirm it or not.
I can’t imagine Yla acting like this without serious backing.
Ugh, politics indeed
Agreeing with me so much?
You’re slowly becoming a better person.
No, you’re just slowly becoming more like me
Ha!
…
Get out.
Literally.
Sure, sure
***
“Well, that definitely isn’t suspicious.” Uzar says dryly as he looks down the lengthy corridor with uneven floors. And some slits in the walls. “More traps. And we’re seeing those for the first time ever, so we’re going in blind.”
“We do.” Anaya replies while staring at Yla who is clearly trying to avoid looking back. “And considering what we’ve gone through thus far, I feel that it’s a good idea to once again remind you all to be vigilant.”
“Sure.” Uzar replies while nodding. “Let us proceed. Yla, take point.”
“Alright.” Yla replies, sounding somewhat… resigned? Huh.
Izuku feels genuinely bad about it when the first boulder is unleashed. Despite that feeling he still waited until they get pretty deep into the corridor so that the boulder can gain some momentum before hitting them.
He trusts them to be good enough to not get killed.
All three of them look back the moment they hear the sound of the boulder hitting the floor, before immediately and without a single word sprinting off down the corridor. They manage to outrun the first one boulder, just to find themselves in an identical corridor with a second boulder breathing down their neck.
And then, it happens again.
And then, it happens again.
“I… hate… this… LEVEL!” Anaya ends up shouting, at this point, the elder definitely not enjoying what Izuku put her through.
And then, it happens again.
This time, Anaya only groans loudly.
Thankfully for both the visitors and Izuku’s conscience, Yla stayed in front of the group and despite rushing past the exit of the last boulder trap she realized what it was quickly enough to turn around and run into it while shouting at the others to come with her.
“I get the feeling…” Uzar says as the elder is busy catching her breath. “... that we’re not wanted here.
“Yeah, hard to disagree.” Yla replies before looking at the elder. Neither she nor Uzar seemed particularly exhausted by the mad sprint. “You alright?”
“Yes.” Anaya replies while straightening her back. “Yes I am. Barely a quarter of what this place might grow into and yet I was already made painfully aware of my age. Let’s proceed. We’re almost there.”
She had no idea how right she was.
***
They walk down the short corridor before turning right and entering the Fifth Level’ Floor Guardian Room… just to see Tomura Shigaraki with wolf ears and tail, wearing a copy of [Tribal Outfit], and glaring at them angrily.
This makes them stop dead in their tracks. Izuku is ready to guess that thanks to the lack of weapons and the fact that Tomura was glaring at them instead of making sudden movements they already suspected who they were facing.
The Dungeon Lord.
“You’re not welcome here.” Tomura immediately confirms their suspicions by speaking, his glare not ceasing for a second and his unblinking eyes making him look like the psychopath that Izuku took him for before their joint isekai adventure.
He was yet to figure out the correct diagnosis after that.
Izuku was looking forward to explaining to him that he insisted on Tomura being the one to speak with the beastkin because with their Dungeon so small and so underdeveloped they needed a manchild to act the part.