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

Raul and his team resolutely carried out the battle plan.

It's a "monster giveaway" where you risk your life.

"Don't you dare die, Raul!"

Soon, Angie leaped up in front of the assassins and landed on their heads.

The monsters that had been chasing her all along changed their expressions when they saw the "feed" covered in "magic stone" powder—

"Stop joking, okay?! Aa ...

The feast of hell begins.

Beginning with Valetta's scream, countless monsters swarmed the humans.

All the other members of the group, except for Angie, rushed over together, and countless monsters surged into the intersection.

"Captain!"

Raul hugged Finn tightly and fell to the ground, blood and monster fluids splattering around him.

The crystals, which the monsters mistook for their targets, were completely useless against the "powder." The monsters, their eyes widening in shock, pounced, using their sheer size to overwhelm the assassins, pinning them to the ground, impaling them, and biting them, their screams echoing incessantly. Valetta and the others frantically swung their weapons in resistance, trying to hold back the overwhelming horde of monsters.

Because they needed to infiltrate the enemy's stronghold, the chief god (Loki) gave them this packet of powder.

Emergency supplies led to a chaotic battle where neither humans nor monsters could be distinguished.

"You damn bastard!?"

Even Valetta, who possessed the strength of a first-level adventurer, felt a sense of crisis when faced with this number of monsters. She scoffed at this as a misjudgment and predicament created by incompetent adventurers using their cleverness.

Valetta and her companions were arrogant and thought they didn't need to worry about being attacked, but they forgot.

Forget that this is a "dungeon" teeming with monsters.

Nothing is absolute in the maze. The number of "Crystal Striders" continues to increase.

Just as the chaos intensified, it was as if they were pressing their advantage—

Angie rushed toward Valetta.

「!?」

The cat-man, his skin slashed by wildly swinging swords and claws, equipped himself with a one-handed sword and aimed at the woman holding the "key".

"Don't underestimate me!"

However, women possess a LV.5 [ability value].

She used her own strength to shake off the monster that was entangled with her, determined to kill the approaching enemy.

"!"

Compared to the furious Valetta, Angie remained calm until the very end.

With a powerful swift movement, she slid her right-hand sword past the blades, her movements as agile as a cat.

As Angie deflected the counterattack, she used the small shield on her left arm to deliver a backhand punch to the enemy's neck.

"grumble!?"

While the woman's eyes were wide open and her posture was unsteady...

Raul made another move.

"————"

As the young man charging straight at her with a short sword, Valetta remembered what her nemesis (Finn) had said.

—“My subordinates… none of them… are incompetent…”

On one hand, there is the wavering caused by the crisis, and on the other hand, there is the strong determination to escape the deadly situation, which determines the victory or defeat of Valetta, Raul and others.

The LV4s, whose strength was originally inferior to his, joined forces to attack, resembling the combined power of the captain (Finn) and vice-captain (Riviera).

Accepting Angie's support, Raul let the short sword flash past.

"!!"

“Gah!?”

Raul's scoop left a diagonal wound on Valeta's body.

Immediately afterwards, the impact of being slashed caused the "key" that the woman was holding to slip from her hand.

"Oh no!?"

Before they could even pick it up, the magical artifacts were crushed by the monster's claws.

Staggering, Valeta was speechless, while Raul, who witnessed the scene, had a distorted expression and cried out:

"Retreat! Run away!"

The primary objective, the "key," is now lost, and the Loki Familia has no reason to remain on the scene.

Raul slipped through the assassins and monsters, narrowly escaping death to join Angie and the others who had also escaped.

Valetta and the others ran back the way they had come.

"Quickly, after them—!? Don't let them get away, don't let those guys slip away—!!"

Valetta's scream came flying, but her assassins had no time to pay attention.

The "magic powder" caused them to be constantly targeted by monsters, preventing them from catching Raul and the others.

"Fen~ ...

She had been completely outmaneuvered by her opponent, and her furious roar echoed through the passage where Raul and the others had disappeared.

"Raul, are you alright!?"

"No, not really, but the little one is fine!"

The group quickly fled the scene, and Angie ran to Raul, who was holding Finn.

Raul, Angie, and the rest of the crew were all covered in wounds. But they could still move, and Finn was unharmed. They had brilliantly turned the tables on their enemies, but they were not complacent; they simply kept running, searching for a way to survive.

However, the "artificial labyrinth (Knossos)" will not let adventurers off the hook.

Far ahead, a "door" opened on the side, and a whole group of carnivorous plants appeared in the wide passage.

「!?」

Seeing that the timing seemed perfect, Raul and the others were utterly shocked.

It was Baka, who was monitoring the images on the platform, who did it. He had originally entrusted the leader (Finn) and his group to Valetta, but after witnessing Raul and the others' "unexpected move," he quickly devised a countermeasure.

—You can hear the breaths of despair.

The battered Raul heard the voice of his comrade about to succumb from behind.

Just when they thought they had escaped death, this happened again. The maze's malice easily tried to shatter everyone's hopes.

Now, I and my companions are like "sailing with the wind".

Once we fall behind this trend, we and our companions will truly lose the strength to move forward.

'Roar! Ro ...

Raul glared angrily at the long, slender bodies charging towards them with a deafening roar.

"Take care of the leader!"

"Raul!?"

Raul handed Finn over to the girls (humans) to take care of, and then flew forward, accelerating.

Angie was taken aback when she saw Raul snatch a pistol and a short sword from his companion and launch an attack.

"Come with me!!"

He launched a single-handed special attack on the carnivorous plant swarm.

That silhouette reminded the group members of a familiar scene.

It was Finn leading the charge, and Ais and the others—the backs of the first-level adventurers.

"Ughh ...

Even though he was a Level 4, second-tier adventurer, Raul's spear tip and sword blade sliced ​​through the man-eating plant's tentacles, and when he encountered several monsters, he immediately defeated them.

However, what awaited him was a counterattack, with tentacles raining down on him from all directions.

His head was bleeding, his fingers were broken, and his nose was bleeding unsightly.

This is the limit.

Of course.

Because Raul is not a first-class adventurer—unlike Finn and the others.

“——!!”

However, Raul did not stop.

Even when injured, he still shattered the "magic stone" in return, turning the monster into dust and forcibly securing the team's path forward.

"No, Raul!?"

Angie, who caught up with them, let out a scream.

She called out again and again to the young man's back as he desperately swung his sword to cut through the carnivorous plants, never looking back.

"Stop!! If this continues, you'll...!"

"That's exactly what the leader will do!"

"You're not the commander!!"

Angie screamed in anguish, but—

"I know!!"

The young man's loud reply left her speechless.

"I can't be like the leader... I can't become like them!!"

Raul knew his own limitations.

He's indecisive and incompetent, and even his juniors and other members of the Familia say he's "unremarkable." Even if he had three heads and six arms, he couldn't defeat Finn or Ais.

No matter how hard I try to catch up, I can never become like them, I know that very well.

The vision distorted by the swinging swords was caused by tears of regret. The cruel silhouettes of those chosen ones always robbed me of my confidence.

I always made him fully realize that he was a useless person.

"But……!"

Raul wiped the blood and snot from his nose with his arm, mustered all his strength, and thrust his spear forward.

"If I stop chasing here, I'll become even more useless...!"

Seeing Raul's face scrunched up and his expression on the verge of tears as he said this, Angie was speechless.

Just like Lefia chasing her dreams.

He was also a pursuer.

"Fool……!"

Angie, her voice trembling with tears, uttered only this one sentence before routing the surrounding enemies.

She blocked the tentacles that were being attacked, thus helping Raul.

"Oooooo ...

Raul thrust the tip of his spear at the approaching, ugly, flower-like jaw.

With a snap, the pistol broke in two. However, the tip of the pistol shattered the "magic stone" implanted inside the body.

In the critical moment when he was almost swallowed up, he finally defeated the last one.

"Keep running! Don't stop!!"

"Oh...oh ...

Seeing Raul covered in wounds, the other members of the group were greatly encouraged.