Chapter 48
CLANG!
TING!
CRACK!
Bandit leader Serden and his four subordinates.
Opposing them from the Imperial Expedition were Danforth, Frank, Dexter, James, and Müller.
They could have formed a stronger team.
But Danforth had chosen this group for balance.
Three close range fighters.
Two ranged fighters.
The enemy group had a similar formation.
Serden and two of his subordinates used an axe, longsword, and machete.
Danforth, Frank, and James fought them directly.
Serden swung his axe violently with both powerful arms.
He repeatedly targeted Danforth’s wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
Danforth skillfully blocked and dodged.
At the same time, he quickly analyzed the enemy’s strategy.
He’s openly targeting the weaker joints.
He probably believed that once Danforth’s posture broke, he would seize control of the fight.
Danforth had thought he was only a young idiot with brute strength.
Apparently not.
Whether that comes from instinct or experience, I can’t tell.
Very well.
How about fighting on his level this time?
Danforth had been waiting for the right moment.
Suddenly, his left elbow bent sharply and his sword dropped downward.
It looked as though Serden’s heavy axe had finally forced his arm aside.
“Hahaha! Fool! Did you really think you could defeat me?!”
Serden tried to stomp on Danforth’s elbow and crush it completely.
Danforth sighed inwardly.
He quickly shifted his sword into his right hand.
The moment he barely avoided the kick, his sword exploded with fire.
Serden flinched and hurriedly raised his axe.
Screeeeech…!
The metal handle and sword tip collided.
Sparks scattered in every direction.
And during the brief moment when those sparks blocked Serden’s vision,
a sharply formed spearhead of flame appeared in Danforth’s left hand.
SHNK!
“Kgh?!”
Because of Serden’s thick Aura and powerful abdominal muscles, the attack did not penetrate deeply.
Even so, it was a solid hit.
The bandit leader stumbled more than ten steps backward while covering the wound.
Danforth crossed his arms and shouted,
“Carelessness and overconfidence. Those are usually the weaknesses.”
“…Wasn’t that something Senior Yohan said?”
“…Why do you still remember that?”
BOOM! BANG!
“Stop talking nonsense and help me! We’re not finished!”
Müller, who had been blocking wide area magic with a barrier, immediately called Dexter over.
Danforth and Serden were alone again.
“You actually managed to wound this body…!”
“Managed? You think you’re the first person like this I’ve ever fought?”
The Askartier Imperial Expedition.
Humanity’s oldest expedition force, with more than one hundred previous expeditions behind them.
It was often said that they had lost much of their old reputation.
They had also suffered unexpected losses during the chaos of the first floor.
Even so,
their ability was not something to be ignored.
It simply had not been obvious until now.
They had been fighting magic beasts with communication abilities close to real time.
Compared to that,
the combat power and coordination developed through years of fighting in the Dark Lands and the Dungeon went far beyond the common sense of Serden and his men, who had been feared throughout the twelfth floor.
“Even before descending into the Dungeon, I fought countless fools like you. Idiots who mistake someone avoiding filth because it’s dirty for someone avoiding it because they’re scared.”
But there were strange people in the world.
People who chose to clean up that filth anyway.
“Strange people like us, who feel like cleaning up evil like you when you pollute a useful and friendly city.”
“You bastard…!”
In a single brief opening, Serden had suffered a serious wound.
An ordinary human would have had their abdomen pierced completely and been left near death.
Continuing to swing his axe even in that condition certainly showed the spirit of a bandit leader.
But the outcome had already been decided.
His other subordinates were fighting well.
Still, none of them could reverse the situation.
The bandits’ defeat became increasingly obvious.
“You damn brats from outside…!”
“You’ll never understand how many magic beasts we fought just to reach this place from outside. That’s the limit of a frog in a well who’s only experienced the scattered monsters of the twelfth floor.”
The longer they exchanged blows, the wider the difference became.
Cracks spread across the axe covered in sharp Aura.
Danforth’s swordsmanship never missed even the smallest opening.
His blade repeatedly cut across Serden’s body.
“Boss!”
“This is no time to look away!”
“Kgh!”
“Aaargh…!”
Once their leader began collapsing, the other four followed like falling dominoes.
Soon, all four subordinates were captured and restrained by the expedition members.
Then it happened.
Serden looked at the blood dripping from his entire body.
A strange light began glowing within his eyes.
“UAAAAAAAAARGH!”
He threw away his axe and charged toward Danforth.
An entirely different kind of mana poured from his body.
BOOOOOOM!
“Kgh…!”
“I am Serden Pterda! A descendant of the servants who received power from the Great Old One, the White Silence!”
“…What did you just say?”
“I am not some weak creature that can be defeated by trash like you!”
“Whoa?!”
A single blow sent Danforth flying dozens of meters away.
Serden roared.
Like a magic beast.
The shocked expedition members retreated toward Danforth.
Serden’s restrained subordinates broke free and carefully approached him.
“B, Boss…?”
Grrrrr…
SKREEEEE!
With the speed of a wild beast, Serden grabbed the lowest ranking subordinate by the neck.
His hand was no longer human.
The back of his hand, palm, and fingers had turned pale blue and white.
The hand itself was large enough to cover a human face easily.
And that enormous hand did more than crush his companion’s neck.
“I, it hurts, Boss…!”
The sound of breaking bone.
The sound of tearing skin.
