Isagi had once fought [Udaeus] before.
Or rather, a 'weakened' version of it — at least, that's what he'd believed at the time.
Back then he'd only just arrived in the Dungeon a thousand years in the past, barely Lv.5 himself, and the Udaeus he'd encountered that day…
No.
The truth was, the entire time, it should have been the [Founder of the Everlasting Night Empire · Miracle of the King · Udaeus] — and the combat power it had actually displayed was, at most, around Lv.6.
Honestly, that put it on par with the small fry down here in the depths. Aside from slightly higher stats and a few special mechanics, there'd been basically no difference.
Isagi's judgment at the time had been that the Dungeon of a thousand years ago was clever enough to craft a boss with just enough Strength to edge out his own, while pouring the rest of its Strength into nurturing the [Black Dragon].
But thinking back on it now, something felt off.
"Is this guy a little too strong?!"
[Seventh Legion 'Victory' Legion Commander · Hadraeus] — that was the boss Isagi and the girls found upon reaching the upper level of the castle, clad in thick fur armor and wielding a massive battle-axe.
To be fair, things had seemed fine enough outside the castle. But once they stepped inside, everyone realized something about this place was off.
This so-called 'White Blood Cathedral' was, on the whole, built mostly of ash-gray stone, splashed everywhere in broad swathes of thick, sticky crimson blood, as if someone had smeared it on haphazardly.
Amid that stark white and red, here and there parts of the architecture looked as though they'd been 'corroded' or 'overlaid' by something else entirely, shimmering with an unpredictable, dazzling array of 'color.'
On their way here, the towers and corridors had each differed somewhat from one another, but they'd all shared roughly the same overall look.
Once they stepped into this castle, though, the interior shifted to a warm, flame-like orange hue. There was no visible light source, yet the place radiated an orange glow outward from its center.
The space inside was equally complex, broken up into room after tiny room, each one packed with Monsters. Only by searching room after room could they find the lift leading upward — this castle didn't even have stairs, only lifts connecting its levels. It felt like some kind of trial.
The castle was full of horse-headed, human-bodied Monsters — much like Minotaurs, impossibly tall, their long horse heads alone measuring three or four meters, yet their bodies roughly human-sized, giving off an unsettling sense of proportional imbalance.
Strangely, though, these Monsters were quite weak — both in stats and in 'intelligence.' They had no intelligence to speak of.
Orange-red, viscous fluid dripped from their mouths onto the ground. Though they looked armored and armed, their attacks were really no different from a Beast's — they'd even get in each other's way, crowding together in a jumbled mass with no idea what they were even doing.
It all gave Isagi and the girls an almost 'this is too easy' kind of feeling. More often than not, the moment Alfia's 'Evangelium' went off, it would simply steamroll and instant-kill whole swathes of Monsters in front of them, and whatever remained, Isagi and Ryuu-senpai and the others could mop up without much trouble — enough to clear out an entire 'room.'
Until, that is, the group reached the top floor and laid eyes on the boss before them.
After only a brief clash, Isagi realized something was wrong — this thing's stats were way too strong!
At least Lv.8 caliber, not even inferior to that 'SSS'-rank hunter they'd faced before!!
What was going on? This wasn't right!!
He quickly realized the boss before them was off somehow.
Fortunately, they had numbers on their side, and with Haruhime's level-boosting skill, they could hold the thing back for now!
Ais, Ryuu-senpai, Tiona, Lefiya, Heith, and Alfia — the girls took turns engaging it, and together with his own summoned [Soul Teardrop], after some initial rough adjustment, they quickly settled into a standoff with the boss. That also gave Isagi some opportunity to 'observe' it.
Stay calm. No matter what, he needed to keep his head in a fight.
Since he'd assumed this was just an ordinary mini-boss, likely somewhat stronger than a gatekeeper boss, Isagi had simply pegged it at around Lv.7, with unremarkable mechanics and stats — just like those 'S'-rank prey or hunters back in the lower levels, of which he'd lost count how many he'd taken down.
But as it turned out—
This thing was anything but ordinary. Extraordinarily so.
Going by appearance alone, it looked to be one of those Monsters the depths called 'Barbarians.' They'd run into that type plenty of times before.
Their defining traits were a build far sturdier than an ordinary person's, standing roughly two to three meters tall, bulky like some great bear, favoring thick fur armor and wielding heavy weapons like war hammers or great axes.
And, most importantly — a head of wild black hair, an animal bone mask, and a long horn growing from the forehead.
Right now, the ones holding the boss's attention at the vanguard were Ais and Ryuu-senpai, while Tiona rested. She'd just been sent flying by a swing of the boss's great axe, crashing straight through the wall beside her. Her injuries weren't too bad — but more importantly,
the Amazon girl felt her strength being 'drained away.' Her body's fatigue had turned abnormal, to the point she could barely even push herself up off the ground.
Only after downing a panacea, along with an 'antidote' Airmid had mixed up, did she start to feel a bit better.
Poison?
Isagi could feel it too — his own stamina was slowly draining away. The process was excruciatingly slow.
But the moment he moved, he could feel the drain accelerate — probably some Magic speeding up the rate of loss. And if he took damage, it seemed to strip away a large chunk of stamina on top of that.
Confusing as it was, the fight was still ongoing. Ais and Ryuu did their best to stall it, waiting on magic support from Alfia and Lefiya.
With the [Soul Teardrop] lending a hand as well, the overall situation had stabilized somewhat. But it had dragged into too much of a stalemate.
The boss seemed to have strong magic resistance, leaving both Alfia's and Lefiya's magic output rather ineffective.
On top of that, the battlefield was cramped — they couldn't unleash anything with too much destructive power, or it would catch their own side in the blast.
Of course, that wasn't what concerned Isagi. What concerned him was… why was this boss so strong?
Was it simply the Dungeon wanting to throw him a surprise — some small 'clever twist'?
Something about it felt off, somehow.
Could it be tied to whatever storyline was unfolding in this place? After all, judging from what had happened in the lower levels before, plenty of major events seemed to have gone on down in the depths too.
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