Apollo collapsed completely, going utterly limp.
It was as if every bone in his body had been drawn out in that single instant.
The two still-loyal Familia members hurried forward at the sight, one on each side, hauling Apollo up from the ground.
And yet.
Seeing this, several military police of the Ganesha Familia nonetheless immediately advanced, fully armed.
With their long halberds crossing, they mercilessly took Apollo into custody.
Shakti watched the whole scene with an expressionless face.
After today, the Apollo Familia would cease to exist.
Narukami Koharu lightly flicked the residual droplets of blood from the edge of 'Bloodcry.'
Even though it had cut down two people, the dark red blade astonishingly bore not the slightest trace of blood.
Only the metal itself was faintly hot to the touch.
Satisfied, Narukami Koharu slid the blade back into its sheath, and after a soft "click—"
At the very same time.
The Loki Familia's home base.
Twilight Manor.
"Fwoo…"
Tendou Kisara stood in the center of the broad, level sparring ground and heavily exhaled a breath of stale air.
Her legs bent slightly on the floor of compacted gray brick, settling into a low stance that radiated a bitter, cutting killing intent.
"Claaang——!"
Even exhausted in body and mind.
The longsword in Tendou Kisara's grip still fiercely met the two-handed greatsword that came smashing down like a giant door panel, wrapped in violent wind pressure.
A grating screech of metal.
Accompanied by dazzling sparks bursting out between the two of them.
The savage gust of wind even sent the fine sand and gravel on the ground rolling outward.
The owner of that two-handed greatsword was none other than one of the Loki Familia's Amazon twins.
"Great Severance" Tiona.
The Amazon's figure, clad only in a simple bandeau and a loincloth, was on full display.
Even while wielding such an outrageous double-edged heavy blade in a clash against Tendou Kisara.
Tiona still wore that carefree, over-the-top grin on her face.
As if this violent collision.
For a first-class adventurer at Lv.5.
Was especially effortless.
And indeed it was.
As a first-class adventurer at Lv.5.
Add in the Amazon race's innate, terrifying monstrous strength, paired with that thick double-edged blade, and it was on full, unrestrained display.
For Tiona.
This clash that had shattered several floor tiles underfoot.
probably barely counted as a warm-up to loosen her joints.
Even though Tendou Kisara, thanks to God's Grace, had broken past the limits of all her base stats to reach Lv.2.
Bridging the chasm between Lv.2 and Lv.5 was, to put it bluntly, as absurd as trying to pry up an iron mountain with a spade.
Tiona merely lowered the center of gravity of her grip a fraction, then, raising an eyebrow, grinned as she studied the pretty face of Tendou Kisara, who was already clenching her teeth.
"Your swordsmanship is so vicious."
"Every move just now looked like it was aimed at cleaving a person clean in two."
"It doesn't look like a fighting style meant for killing monsters at all."
For a seasoned adventurer.
Tendou Kisara's swordsmanship was easy to read.
Seeing that Tiona had, in a single remark, seen right through the swordsmanship she had created for the sake of revenge.
"It's not over yet."
Tendou Kisara knit her brow tighter and let out a low growl.
In the split second when the greatsword's crushing weight was about to sap the strength from her wrist.
The hands gripping her hilt sharply twisted the angle by an inch.
Since brute resistance wouldn't work, she decisively released half of her force.
With a single tilt of the blade.
She shunted half of that axe-like downward pressure off along the outer edge.
In the instant that enormous friction made the greatsword slip slightly aside.
Tendou Kisara's body abruptly ducked low.
Like a slippery black fish, she plunged without hesitation into the tiny blind spot that had opened up within the defensive radius of Tiona's greatsword.
So close that the very tip of her nose could smell the bloody stench soaked into that double-edged blade over years of use.
"Huh?"
The resistance in her hands suddenly emptied by half.
Tiona's eyes widened a touch.
This girl had some real nerve.
Even among the veterans who tasted blood on the blade's edge in the Dungeon day after day.
few would dare hurl their own flesh into the blind spot of someone's swung greatsword.
Off by a single millimeter.
And even if Tendou Kisara wasn't sliced in two, she'd have snapped a few ribs.
She had indeed torn open an opening to attack with this near-suicidal maneuver.
But that was merely the ideal scenario.
Tendou Kisara hadn't even had time to steady her footing and draw her strike.
Tiona casually flicked her wrist backward.
That door-panel of a heavy blade instantly whipped back in reverse.
"Thud!"
This time she didn't even use the cutting edge.
A dull impact rang out across the open-air grounds.
The spine of the sword smacked solidly against Tendou Kisara's right shoulder, like swatting a fly aside with a shovel.
"Guaah!"
This brutal, unreasonable impact was something Tendou Kisara couldn't withstand no matter how hard she ground her teeth.
The force poured into her right arm like a flood and drove straight into her chest.
Tendou Kisara's whole body left the ground in an instant.
Exactly like a cloth sack rammed by a mad bull at full speed.
She was sent flying backward several meters.
Even as she gritted her teeth and twisted her waist in midair to right her posture, feet stamping hard back down onto the flagstones.
The soles of her shoes still scraped two shallow white powdery streaks across the ground.
Only after retreating five or six steps.
did she barely manage to halt, her right leg buckling until she dropped onto one knee.
"Oops, I didn't hold back enough."
Tiona froze for a moment at the sight.
The grin on her face instantly turned somewhat sheepish; she hastily stabbed that utterly outrageous double-edged greatsword into the ground, ran over, bent down, and stretched out a hand toward the kneeling, heavily panting Tendou Kisara.
"Are you okay?"
Tendou Kisara only glanced at the hand before her and made no move to take it.
With the hand still holding the sword, she pressed the blade's spine firmly against the floor.
Prominent veins stood out along her faintly trembling right arm.
Clenching her back molars, she forced her body upright and rose to her feet.
That flat-of-the-blade blow just now.
left her insides feeling as though they'd been tossed into boiling water and stirred.
In those few seconds her complexion had gone paper-white, and she nearly threw up everything she'd eaten that morning.
She raised the back of her left hand and roughly wiped away the trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Then she once more lifted the longsword one-handed and leveled it diagonally forward.
"Again."
Even with the color all but drained from her lips, Tendou Kisara kept her gaze locked hard on Tiona.
Each word came out heavy with weight.
This trait—growing bolder with every setback, fixing on her opponent like a wolf that refused to let go—made Loki, Finn, Gareth, and Riveria, who were watching from the sidelines, all raise their eyebrows.
"Just what muddy patch of ground did Haimer dig this pack of monsters out of?"
Loki smacked her lips.
"Being pretty is one thing, but every last one of them grits her teeth and tries to tough it out too—now that's enough to make a person green with envy."
Finn, Gareth, and Riveria fell silent at her words.
Gareth stroked the thick beard on his chin and turned his head toward Finn.
"Finn."
"How good do you think these girls' odds would be if they went up against Raul's lot from the Second Army?"
Though it went by the name Second Army.
As the echelon tasked with supporting deep-level expeditions, Raul and his people were all genuine, battle-hardened Lv.4 veterans.
Finn pondered for a moment.
"If it's Miss Amaha, Miss Kisara, or Enju and Little Hiruko…"
"In terms of raw strength alone, they're clearly already up to it."
"Beating Raul's group wouldn't be hard at all."
"If they really got serious, they could even trade a few blows with our First Army."
Finn turned his head to look at Onigawara Rin, who was drilling footwork on the other side.
"As for Miss Rin and her group, for the moment their individual strength should be a touch below Raul's people—after all, they received God's Grace later and are still only Lv.2."
"But when it comes to fighting in concert, that's a different story."
"Indeed."
Riveria nodded and picked up the thread.
"Having endured the Dungeon's malice, survived a Monster Feast in the upper and middle levels, and made it out of the Dungeon alive—the tacit understanding between them no longer needs any breaking in."
Riveria's words drew deep agreement from Finn and Gareth.
"No good."
Hearing this, Loki couldn't help but rub her hands together.
"Next time we go drinking in a few days, I've really got to grill Haimer good and proper."
"Just where did he lure these little ones away from—when the time's right, I'm gonna go lure a few back myself!"
With that, Loki broke into a smug, wicked grin.
And then.
"Smack."
A half-gnawed, pockmarked apple suddenly flew in from behind and struck Loki square on the back of the head with pinpoint precision.
And with no small amount of force, at that.
"Hey! Loki!"
A complaining voice rang out right on its heels.
Loki's eyelid twitched violently, and she whipped around to glare.
Only to see.
Under an ornamental tree, a lounge chair had been dragged over at some point unknown.
There lay Hestia, brandishing a silver spoon, reclining on the lounge chair, having just finished scooping up the honey pudding that the Xenos, Fei, had carefully carried over with her red wings.
After eating until her mouth was full of sweetness.
even then, she still wasn't satisfied.
She looked at Loki with a face full of displeasure and complained.
"Where's my freshly squeezed juice?!"
"Too much of this pudding gets cloying—hurry up and go pour me some tart juice to cut the richness!"
Just like a hard-to-please, fussy young mistress barking orders at the help.
After all, as far as she was concerned, with Haimer away, staying here was purely and simply boring.
"That damn little pipsqueak…"
"Just what did she come running over here for…"
Loki muttered through gritted teeth at that.
Watching this creature freeload on her turf, eating and drinking for nothing, and even ordering her around with such shameless entitlement.
The corner of Loki's mouth twitched hard, and just as she was about to roll up her sleeves and go have it out with Hestia.
Just as Loki and Hestia were about to launch straight into their usual daily routine once again.
Suddenly.
From the archway leading to the inner court came a burst of hurried footsteps.
Only to see.
A long-haired girl with black-cat features came jogging over at speed.
—None other than a Loki Familia Second Army member, Lv.4.
The "Lady Cat," Anakitty Autumn.
"Captain Finn! Lady Loki!"
"S-something's wrong!"
Seeing Anakitty suddenly come running, her expression tinged with a rare flicker of panic, Finn was the first to step forward and ask.
"Calm down, Anaki."
"What happened?"
Anakitty swallowed hard and pointed toward the main gate.
"Big news just came in from West Street…"
"Something's happened to Lord Haimer!"
"What's wrong with Lord Haimer?"
"Just now…"
"Lord Haimer took the Ganesha Familia's military police to the Apollo Familia's residence, and killed the Apollo Familia's people right there in the street!"
____
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