The warmth emanating from Lyannis's healing magic flowed through my rib cage like a comforting, lukewarm river, sealing the microfractures in my bones and restructuring the muscle fibers torn apart by the devastating impact of the Chimera Dragon's wing. The deep pain that had previously restricted my movements began to dissipate rapidly, giving way to a feeling of lightness and absolute clarity. Beside me, Eara and Lyannis were articulating spells in perfect synchronization; while the healer injected restorative vitality directly into my bloodstream, the elf directed a hexagonal containment barrier to block the creature's claws, giving me exactly the time I needed to regain my balance on the granite floor.
"His regeneration isn't continuous or infinite," I observed in a low voice, keeping my eyes fixed on the monster's chest as the dust in the arena slowly settled. "There's a small window... a minimal interval between the moment the flesh is cut and the instant the energy from the floor's core is converted into biological tissue."
The Chimera Dragon roared with blind ferocity, swinging its three gigantic heads as its injured wing unfolded once again to cover the underground chamber. The feline head attempted a swift lateral charge against our support position, but a precise barrage of piercing arrows fired by Vespera from atop the pillar struck the beast's eyes with surgical accuracy, causing the aberration to howl in pain and retreat several steps into the central area.
"Scarlet! Rai'kanna!" I called out clearly, drawing the attention of the two warriors maintaining their positions on the flanks. "The core's response time to reconstruct the beast's body is exactly zero point four seconds. If we try to cut it with isolated attacks, the floor's energy will repair the damage before its vital organs can be destroyed. We need to overwhelm the monster's cellular reaction capacity through an uninterrupted sequence of extremely high-speed strikes!"
"Then we won't even give that thing a tenth of a second to breathe!" Scarlet replied, her eyes sparkling with an intense crimson glow as she adjusted her combat stance. "My blades will focus on the lower joints to immobilize its legs!"
"My spear will pierce the serpent head's neck and the right shoulder simultaneously!" Rai'kanna shouted, causing the air around her weapon to vibrate with the accumulation of a colossal amount of physical energy. "Tell me the exact moment to charge, Takumi!"
I turned my gaze toward the rear line, where Liriel, her assistant, and Eara were already preparing the final support circles for the decisive phase of the battle.
"Liriel, Eara, I need you to focus all your attenuation magic on the chamber's mana core the moment I advance," I requested, feeling the golden aura of light begin expanding around my hands with even greater intensity. "If you delay the dungeon's energy flow by even half a second, its regeneration won't be able to keep up with the speed of my sword."
"Leave the floor's node to us," Eara declared firmly, raising her silver staff as three enormous arcane circles intertwined in the air above our heads. "The energy connection between the monster and the Tower will be interrupted exactly when you cross the line of its chest."
I adjusted my feet against the ground, bending my knees and allowing the entirety of my spiritual power to merge with the maximum acceleration technique. The blade of my sword stopped emitting an ordinary glow and transformed into a beam of white light so dense and concentrated that it seemed to distort the very image of the air surrounding the metal. There was no room for mistakes, hesitation, or approximate calculations. Everything depended on the flawless execution of our teamwork.
"Advance!" I ordered with a shout that echoed throughout the underground hall.
At the very same millisecond, Scarlet and Rai'kanna launched themselves forward along the flanks like two energy projectiles. Scarlet appeared beneath the Chimera Dragon's left front paw, unleashing a quadruple sequence of circular slashes that severed the joint's tendons in a fraction of a second, causing the monster's gigantic body to lean heavily toward the left side. Before the serpent head could lower itself to protect the exposed area, Rai'kanna's spear pierced the beast's throat with such tremendous force that it pinned the secondary neck directly against the stone wall at the back of the cavern.
At the same time, Eara and Liriel's barriers descended upon the chamber like an invisible containment net, creating an immediate vacuum in the environmental mana flow sustaining the creature's regeneration. The blood-red glow covering the monster's carapace flickered desperately, losing its intensity at the exact moment the dungeon's core had its energy supply cut off by the mages.
This was the exact opening I had been waiting for.
I crossed the twenty-meter distance separating me from the Chimera Dragon's chest in an amount of time imperceptible to the human eye. The world around me seemed to slow down until it almost came to a complete stop; I could see droplets of black blood suspended in the air, the teeth of the central dragon head attempting to close in a belated bite, and the muscular tentacles around the previous scar desperately trying to move to cover its chest.
"Too late," I murmured to the beast in the silence of that temporal acceleration.
Releasing the full power of my extreme speed technique, I unleashed a storm of one hundred transverse slashes in less than two-tenths of a second. The blade of white light pierced through the scales, the rib cage, the three internal hearts, and the monster's primary energy core with such devastating mathematical precision that the creature's organic matter did not even have time to contract or bleed. The wounds did not close; the colossal amount of mana accumulated within the strikes expanded inside the Chimera Dragon's body in an uncontrollable chain reaction.
Absolute silence took over the great hall for a brief second. Then, a shockwave of purifying light erupted from within the beast's chest, spreading through all its extremities, wings, and secondary heads. The Chimera Dragon's gigantic body began disintegrating from the inside out, transforming into radiant white particles of dust that rose toward the cavern's ceiling before even touching the arena floor.
The grotesque carcass of the abomination was completely vaporized by the heat and speed of the final attack, leaving not a single fragment of contaminated organic matter behind. All that remained at the center of the hall was an immense magical stone with a purplish glow and the floor's crystalline key, gently floating a few centimeters above the polished ground.
I landed with both feet firmly on the stone, sheathing my sword with a calm and precise movement that brought the metallic resonance to an end. The heavy and oppressive atmosphere that had filled the sixtieth floor dissipated instantly, replaced by pure, light, and deeply invigorating air.
"We did it..." Liriel's assistant said, allowing her notebook to rest lightly in her hands before breaking into a radiant smile of relief. "We defeated the guardian of floor 60!"
Scarlet and Rai'kanna approached me, wiping the sweat from their foreheads and looking at the spot where the beast had stood just seconds earlier with expressions of immense pride and tactical satisfaction. Vespera gracefully descended from the elevated pillar, while Eara, Liriel, and Lyannis walked toward us with expressions filled with admiration and genuine relief.
"The reading of its reaction time and the synchronization of the final attack were simply perfect, Takumi," Eara praised, putting away her staff and approaching to inspect the condition of my armor. "The speed of your sword surpassed the Tower's own ability to process the damage."
"The important thing is that the strategy worked as planned and the group remained impeccable from beginning to end," I replied, looking at each of those incredible women who had fought by my side with such courage and mastery. "The Chimera Dragon has fallen, the obstacle has been overcome, and the checkpoint on the sixtieth floor is officially ours."
The victory over the greatest obstacle of our expedition had been secured, paving the way for some well-deserved rest and the definitive consolidation of our progress at the checkpoint panel on floor 60.