Adventurers generally fell into established archetypes: Mages, Warriors, Scouts, and Healers.
When forming a party, these roles dictated specific combat positions—Vanguard, Mid-Guard, Rear-Guard, and Supporter.
Warriors and heavily armored fighters anchored the Vanguard.
Fighters skilled in mid-range harassment or intercepting flanking maneuvers held the Mid-Guard. The Rear-Guard sheltered Mages and long-range specialists.
In a pitched battle, the Vanguard drew enemy aggro, pinned targets down, and absorbed damage.
This created a stable environment for the Mid-Guard to deal sustained damage and bought vital seconds for the Rear-Guard Mages to chant their spells.
However, rigid archetypes did not define every Adventurer.
Mages were not exclusively relegated to the rear. A prime example was the Magic Swordsman—a fighter capable of executing high-speed, close-quarters combat while simultaneously chanting lethal Magic.
An all-rounder Magic Swordsman.
That was Riveria's current evaluation of Rayleigh.
She had encountered the boy multiple times over the past few weeks and witnessed his combat style firsthand.
As a High Elf, she possessed no framework to judge his blacksmithing skills.
She could only evaluate him as a fellow fighter.
First, close-quarters combat.
Rayleigh's swordsmanship proved exceptionally sharp. Judging purely on technical execution, he stood out even within the elite circles of Orario.
Next, mobility.
His footwork allowed him to evade the visual tracking of first-tier Adventurers.
Finally, his magic output.
He cast high-speed offensive spells and defensive barriers without chanting, seamlessly weaving offense and defense.
He could perform localized healing, and he wielded unique binding magic capable of restraining targets mid-stride.
That level of utility was incredibly rare, allowing him to suppress opponents on multiple fronts.
The more a Magic Swordsman grew, the more dominant they became.
This vast potential was a primary reason the Loki Familia placed such heavy expectations on Ais Wallenstein.
Setting Ais's personal trauma aside, her future ceiling as a Magic Swordsman remained practically limitless.
"Don't stop moving!" Rayleigh barked a warning.
He swept his arms out, pulling the two beauties—the veteran High Elf and the young Sword Princess—into a tight embrace.
Spiritual power detonated beneath his boots as his figure vanished from the blast zone, leaving behind a brief, blooming flower of spirit particles.
Even utilizing Shunpo at maximum output, carrying the dead weight of two people restricted his range.
Rayleigh barely managed to clear twenty-five meters before his momentum stalled.
A fraction of a second after their boots touched the dirt, the Greatest Evil unleashed a second terrifying breath attack.
The beam obliterated the exact coordinates they had just occupied.
The lethal blast sheared a massive trench into the earth, stretching several kilometers into the distance with no visible end.
The attack resembled a surgical incision cutting through the Dungeon's internal organs.
The bedrock melted by the superheated beam emitted a harsh, angry red glow.
The extreme heat caused a brief flash of luminescence. As the molten rock met the ambient air, it cooled, solidifying into jagged patches of black glass.
Riveria did not flinch or complain about Rayleigh manhandling her.
She raised her staff, bracing her boots against the ruined earth, and began a rapid chant.
"Omen of the end, white and gleaming snow."
"At the hour of twilight, raise the raging gale."
"Sealed light, frozen earth, blizzard filling the heavens, triple winter—"
"—my name is Alf!"
The High Elf's chant triggered a massive fluctuation in the surrounding Magic.
The sudden spike in ambient energy drew the immediate attention of the entire battlefield.
It was an established rule of the Dungeon: when a high-tier Mage gathered power, the dense magical signature made them the primary target of any monster in the vicinity.
"Senbonzakura!"
Rayleigh commanded the millions of scattered petals, sweeping them into a single, towering blade.
The giant sword erupted from the ground, striking the Greatest Evil's underside and forcing its massive bulk to tilt off balance.
Rayleigh then scattered the steel again, sending the swarm high into the air, where it coalesced into an even larger, spectral sword hanging directly over the beast's neck.
The Greatest Evil locked its hateful gaze on Riveria, desperate to interrupt her cast.
But Rayleigh's relentless shredding swarm anchored the beast in place, preventing it from attacking.
For Orario's strongest Mage, "Nine Hell," that brief window of suppression provided enough time to finalize her third-tier attack Magic.
"Wynn Fimbulvetr!"
Riveria cried the spell's true name.
Three localized, raging blizzards converged directly onto the Greatest Evil.
A bone-piercing, absolute zero cold spread rapidly across the monster's massive form. In less than three seconds, the thrashing beast was encased in a thick, jagged tomb of solid ice.
However, both Rayleigh and Riveria knew a monster birthed to slaughter Gods would not fall to a single spell.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!"
"Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"
Exploiting the brief window bought by Riveria's freezing spell, Rayleigh stacked his hands together.
He aimed both palms squarely at the frozen monster and began the full incantation for a high-tier Kidō.
Not long ago, he could only execute a bootleg, unstable version of this spell by relying on a clever trick involving dual chanting.
This time, by reciting the full incantation, he prepared to unleash the complete, unbridled version.
At maximum output.
"Hadō #73: Sōren Sōkatsui!"
A sphere of condensed, azure spiritual power materialized between Rayleigh's palms.
The outer shell appeared transparent, housing a brilliant, glowing blue core.
It was a mass of highly compressed, volatile flame pushed to the brink of critical mass.
He released the seal.
Aiming straight at the Greatest Evil's center mass, he unleashed the devastating payload.
A twin torrent of blue explosive flames erupted outward, completely engulfing the frozen dragon.
The resulting blast was catastrophic.
With the monster serving as ground zero, everything within a three-hundred-meter radius was swallowed by a roaring sea of blue fire.
Caught inside the inferno, the Greatest Evil writhed, tearing at its icy tomb.
Deep cracks spread through Riveria's frozen prison.
Struck by the overwhelming thermal shock of Sōren Sōkatsui, more than half the thick ice encasing the beast shattered and melted away.
The explosive blue flames washed over the monster's exposed scales, forcing it to shriek in agony.
But the damage remained superficial.
The raw destructive output of Sōren Sōkatsui failed to inflict a fatal wound on the beast.
'Tch, As expected of an anomaly bred by the Dungeon to challenge the gods.'
'Its strength was no joke.'
'Even a fully chanted Hadō in the seventies lacked the firepower to pierce its armored hide.'
Nearby, Riveria did not view the attack as insignificant.
The chaotic blue flames reminded her of the 27th Floor Boss, the ruler of the blue waterfall: the twin-headed dragon, Amphisbaena.
Amphisbaena's most lethal attack was a devastating breath of blue flame, possessing enough heat to reduce a human body to ash in a fraction of a second.
The blue flames currently roaring across the cavern shared that exact same terrifying signature.
Though Rayleigh's flames lacked the sheer, overwhelming volume of a Floor Boss, judging solely by his rank, the spell's raw threat level punched two full Levels above his weight class.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Exploiting the momentary gap in their coordinated assault, Ais broke formation.
The petite swordswoman, wrapped entirely in a localized gale, launched herself straight toward the Greatest Evil's thrashing head!
"Die!"
The rapier blade of Gonryōmaru crackled with dense lightning with another layer of fierce wind coiling around it.