Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

“——”

Ais brushed past Lefia, walked forward, and gently pushed Lefia's chest away.

In the end, she still pushed him away.

Her overwhelming power alienated her from Lefia.

"..."

The elven girl froze for a moment, then tears welled in her eyes as she chased after Tiona and the others.

Ais watched her retreating figure silently, then immediately turned to face forward.

"I'm sorry, Ais."

"Won't."

As the leader of the faction, Finn sometimes has to give ruthless orders, but he rarely apologizes under such circumstances.

He probably felt that the responsibility he had used to reprimand Ais half a day earlier contradicted his current instructions, making it unacceptable to him. So much so that he couldn't help but apologize like this when they were alone. Ais understood his position and shook her head.

If Finn says it's the best way, then it's the best way. Tiona and the others actually understand that too.

Ais is the best candidate to deal with that monster.

"I'll give you a signal once I'm far enough away. Until then, please buy yourself some time."

"understood."

After quickly relaying his instructions, Finn also left the scene to do what he needed to do.

Before leaving, he returned the Sword of Despair to Ais, who equipped it and confronted the female-sized monster alone.

Countless warty legs crawling on the ground, multiple swaying arms, and a colorful, monstrous appearance.

Faced with a formidable enemy advancing relentlessly, she remained neither aggressive nor trembling, simply maintaining her composure.

Golden eyes fixed intently on him, and he whispered:

"【Wake up】."

The wind was summoned.

With a "whoosh," Ais swung her beloved sword, producing a ringing sound.

"——!"

The woman's body vibrated.

Just as it reacts to the wind it evokes, it locks its target on Ais alone, leaning its upper body back.

A horizontal crack appeared on the seemingly unremarkable face, revealing the mouth.

The corrosive liquid was sprayed out violently like a water gun.

The amount of water and the speed were incomparable to the battle just now. Ais chose to dodge and jumped to the side.

An unusual dissolving sound immediately followed. The bodily fluids melted a large hole in the ground where she had been standing, and continued to spray towards the rocky platform behind her.

The rock wall let out a mournful cry before collapsing, changing color in the blink of an eye, and releasing large amounts of black water vapor.

(We need to lure it away.)

She had to do as Finn told her and buy time for Tiona and the others to retreat.

At the same time, we must lure the enemy to terrain that is advantageous to us.

Fortunately, the monster's target was herself. As long as she maintained a distance, it should catch up—that was Ais's plan…

Half of it came true, and the other half didn't.

"!"

Form an X shape with your four arms in front of your chest, then swing them forcefully.

A deluge of light particles, so bright it made one doubt their own eyes, flooded the area above Ais's head.

“——”

A swarm of shimmering, multicolored particles spread out over a wide area centered on Ais before descending.

The scale of the attack was enough to turn the surrounding area into scorched earth. Originally, she was running at high speed to lure the monster, but she realized that she wouldn't have time to escape now, so she let the air currents of the wind envelop her entire body, as if for strong defense.

The deafening explosion and loud noise immediately rushed towards her.

She was caught in the blast wave. Although several wind barriers shielded her from direct impact, the force of the shock still reverberated through her slender body and temporarily deprived her of her hearing.

Her skin and light clothing were being burned by the intense heat, and she gritted her teeth to endure it. It happened suddenly.

Its enormous, yellowish-green body broke through the rising smoke and appeared silently.

"!"

With a sweep of its flat arm, it tore apart even the space itself.

She used backward movement and a jump to avoid the first three attacks.

But the monster's two pairs of four arms—the final blow of a total of four attacks—hit her.

In a moment of desperation, she used astonishing reflexes to parry her sword between herself and her enemy, but the horizontal slam still sent Ais flying with the force of a burst dam. The extraordinary visual shock was so intense that, had it not been for the wind's protection, the attack would have reduced her to ashes.

After rolling around on the scorched ground for a while, she quickly regained her footing using her hands, feet, and even the wind. With a rough scraping sound, Ais slicing off a large chunk of the ground before stopping, instantly raising the Sword of Despair to its highest point.

Ais, aiming to deliver the final blow, aimed at the corrosive bombardment (buster) that was fired in a straight line, and with all her might, swung her sword downwards.

The marble-like corrosive liquid clashed with the silver slash.

The sword, wreathed in wind, cleaved the corrosive liquid in two, sending it flowing to the left and right of Ais's field of vision.

The sight was truly astonishing. An adventurer was using only a sword to continuously defend against the monster's bombardment.

The female monster tried to force Ais away by doubling the amount of water it released; however, Ais stared with her golden eyes, and the sword that kept cutting through the bodily fluids remained unmoved.

The monster was the first to give up. It stopped spewing corrosive liquid from its mouth, ending its bombardment. Ais swung her sword, pushed off the ground, and launched a surprise attack on the enemy.

(Don't leave any space!)

The monster was indeed targeting Ais, but it was impossible to entice it.

If it wanted to, it could easily turn the surrounding area into scorched earth with its explosive powder. The female form wouldn't even need to chase; it could bombard Ais directly.

To avoid self-destruction, it probably wouldn't dare use explosive powder at close range. Therefore, the only safe zone is within the enemy's embrace.

She abandoned her plan to lure the enemy and decided to let Finn and his men take refuge on their own.

Ais focused her mind on fighting the female-shaped monster.

"!"

Seeing Ais approach, the monster tried to meet her with its four paired arms.

As expected, she dared not use the explosive powder once they got close. Ais used an emergency stop and an emergency acceleration to avoid the sweeping attack, slipped into her opponent's arms, and after gaining a rear position, aimed at the bunch of short legs supporting the huge body.

However, the female form reacted quickly. It extended its four lower arms to defend against Ais's attack.

—No blind spots?

Despite its enormous size, the female monster is surprisingly agile, using its incredibly wide-ranging, flat arms to deflect attacks from all directions—front, back, left, and right. Even when positioned directly behind an enemy, it can still use its numerous legs to dart around and change direction. It also lacks the common weakness of large monsters—a lack of precision in its movements.

Ais updated the enemy's information one by one, and slashed at her opponent again and again.

"...!"

She uses [Wind Spirit Swiftness] to imbue her sword with a strong wind, repelling or enduring the monster's attacks.

The powerful wind shield allowed her to parry the enemy's massive arms with her slender arms. Adventurers who were meant to form a vanguard would surely be terrified at the sight, but Ais managed it only with magic (a forbidden drug) and the indestructible sword (Durandal). Purely based on her physical strength and swordsmanship, she was no match for the enemy—a fact that troubled her as a swordsman.

The flattened arm appeared to have a uniform yellowish-green surface, indicating high durability, while the colorful inner side seemed to have accumulated the powdery residue from earlier. She repeatedly clashed the "Sword of Despair" against the arm's surface, which could only leave shallow cracks, avoiding direct head-on strikes. She could only block a maximum of two blows from that arm at a time.

The battle remained deadlocked for some time, with both sides testing each other's patience.

However, the situation changed because of the female body type's actions.

"!"

Just as she was trying to move to the enemy's side and rear, launching what seemed to be the umpteenth attempt at harassment and maneuvering, she realized that this was the umpteenth time she had done so.

Several tubes growing from the back of her head seemed to twitch consciously and shot corrosive liquid at Ais.

—Wow, how cunning.

Shoot from above when the person is completely unprepared.

Seeing several streams of corrosive liquid spraying towards her, Ais realized that the air currents enveloping her body were not enough to completely defend against it, so she swung her sword and cut through the fluids.

She couldn't bear to leave the enemy's embrace, so she didn't evade in time, which led to the worst possible outcome. The woman twisted her right side with agility beyond anything seen before, and viciously swung out both arms.

Ais blocked the attack from the lower half of the right arm, but was thrown back. The upper half of the right arm gave her no chance to breathe, immediately scattering colorful particles.

Countless particles of light surrounded Ais.

Perhaps the other party wanted to settle things once and for all, so they invested several times more in new followers than before.

The female form even began to prepare for the attack, leaning back—but in the next instant, it froze.

"The wind."

The wind protecting Ais's body dispelled the armor and spread out, scattering the explosive powder around her.

The swarm of light particles, which was a step behind her, detonated as if out of necessity. Only a very slight shockwave reached Ais, and fiery red flower clusters radiated outwards from the girl in a chaotic display.

—It takes three seconds for it to explode.

Ais has seen this kind of light particle attack three times already.

There are three seconds between the light particles scattering from her arm and the explosion. In other words, as long as the light particles are blown away within three seconds, the damage can be minimized. Her [Familia] elders taught her the insight of an adventurer, so that she would never neglect to gather information when facing monsters for the first time.

For female-sized monsters, Ais, who can manipulate wind magic, is their only natural enemy.

The corrosive liquid, which was normally undefendable, and the explosive powder capable of large-scale attacks—abilities that would pose a threat to many adventurers—all became ineffective against her wind. Finn had anticipated this when he ordered Ais to fight the monster alone.

Soon after, a "thump" was heard.

Surrounded by the blast's halo, smoke and a few sparks flickered and swayed, and a flash of light shot into the distant sky.

Signal that the retreat is complete. Permission to defeat the target.

Ignoring her aching body, Ais embraced a stronger wind than before.

Immediately afterwards, she leaned forward slightly and sped away.

"—" Ais broke free from the monster's reaction.

With an acceleration unlike anything she'd seen before, she dashed past the enemy's right flank, swiftly slicing through the pile of feet stuck to the ground.

"!"

Having lost all its legs on one side, the monster lost its balance. It temporarily used two multiple arms on the same side to support its massive body, which was tilting to the right.

Attack the feet to knock the opponent down. This is a common (theoretical) method when dealing with floor bosses or large-scale monsters.

Ais didn't stop. She swiftly changed direction directly behind the enemy, pushing off the ground with both feet, creating a burst of energy, and raced up the monster's lower body. The tubes growing from the back of its head shattered as she passed, then she severed the flat arms extending from its shoulders.

Large amounts of bodily fluids gushed out. They erupted violently from multiple insect legs, from tubes, and from the shoulder sockets.

Perhaps because the severed arm organs were out of control, the small impact of falling to the ground caused the colorful particle clusters to float gently up.

Three seconds later, it exploded.

"Aaaaaah!"

The chain of explosions that erupted in her arms caused the female monster to scream.

It self-destructed again and again, wildly waving its remaining tubular hair and arms as it struggled in agony.

With a light "thud," Ais landed directly in front of the monster, far away from it. Facing the female figure still being hit by the explosive storm, she swung her beloved sword, which rang out, and decided to finish it off with the next strike.

She slightly braced her knees, then launched into a series of somersaults.

Each flip created a significant distance, and she pushed off the ground repeatedly, retreating like a feather in flight. Her skirt billowed, revealing her long, beautiful legs several times.

Then, she landed on the rocky platform that stood behind her—its upper half.

Maintaining her stance with her feet firmly planted on the rock face, she used her golden eyes to pierce through the target emitting large amounts of black smoke.

Maximum effectiveness.

Enveloped in a whirlwind of air that could already be described as a storm, Ais tightened her grip on the sword. She was about to unleash a divine wind capable of rivaling powerful magic and even surpassing it.