The Third Dungeon Battle: Combat (3)

So snakes can move along walls, huh. That was a blind spot.

Despite the snakes being that large and the walls being covered in slime too, the [Lotion Slope] was overcome rather easily. The slime probably didn't accumulate much on the walls, reducing its effectiveness.

Well, the Skeletons slipped and fell just as planned, so I'll call it a success.

"Oh my, is that alright? Washing away all that precious Tentacle Slime juice."

"I was hoping to buy a bit more time, but it was overcome rather quickly… Well, I still have three more rooms' worth saved up, so I'll use it on the upper floors."

With that, I opened the floodgate and washed everything away like pressing a reset button.

Looks like the flash flood attack can still be used plenty. Though it feels like flushing a toilet.

About the slippery slope—the difficulty will increase on the upper floors since Gargoyles will be harassing them with attack magic. There's also a place where they have to cross a narrow bridge without handrails…

… Huh? Aren't snakes actually pretty strong against this? I mean, snakes can just cross tree branches like it's nothing.

Oh well, snakes are snakes. There are plenty of ways to deal with them.

"Still, Team Demon King's second Black Armor hasn't moved yet?"

"Yeah, it's still slashing through snakes and Golems in the entrance room. How eerie."

"How's the bone fish boss going?"

"I'm chasin' it with the shark, but it's pretty nimble. Should get it soon!"

Team Demon King's dungeon is already almost completely flooded.

The traps planted in the passages have been rendered ineffective by the water, putting things very much in Team Sovereign's favor, but according to Haku-san, "There's no way 6 will let it end like this."

… Doesn't that mean, conversely, that Team Dragon King might actually end like this?

Oh, we reached Team Dragon King's fifth floor? That was fast. Isn't there a boss or something? The mermen squad seems to be getting bored.

"Goshujin-sama. The enemy has reached the second floor."

Hearing Niku's report, I looked at the monitor. The snakes and bones that had been washed away had climbed the slope again. This time I deliberately didn't flush them to lure them in. This also signals "I can't do it again so quickly" even though we can flood them anytime. Once they reach the upper floors, I'll flush them in succession. The more we can catch, the better. Water flows from top to bottom, after all.

"Alright, let's use some DP to harass them."

"Oh Kehma, what kind of harassment are you planning?"

"You'll see."

I used DP to summon monsters.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

# Team Demon King's Side #

 

"Oh… so no water this time?"

Core 666 said, sounding somewhat disappointed.

She had her Skeletons, summoned with [Summon Skeleton], continue their advance, but their progress was quite slow.

Meanwhile, on Team Dragon King's side, their Black Steel Living Armor had just bisected a giant slug about three meters long with tough skin. Hard as it was, it was only the outer skin, and only about as hard as iron—her master-controlled Living Armor could cut through it with ease. They hadn't spent all that DP for nothing.

Its movements had been quite sluggish due to the seawater, but that might have been a boss.

Well, let's leave the small fry to the local judgment and Team Sovereign.

Master seems to be enjoying operating the Living Armor, so it's probably better not to interfere.

—What matters is Team Sovereign's dungeon.

Core 666 raised the corners of her mouth in anticipation of what might come next.

After climbing the slope, there was a small room. No branching paths. This dungeon was almost entirely a single path, requiring little exploration. That was probably because it was specialized for water attacks. The fewer places to escape from the raging water, the better.

There were Gargoyles in the small room. They attacked the Skeletons by hurling fireballs and water balls.

"Heh, quite a lot of them. Might be too much for the Skeletons—but I have the numbers advantage."

Core 666's Skeletons surrounded each Gargoyle with five of their own. They had bone bodies with bone weapons, but they could disrupt the Gargoyles' mana by beating on them. Even without fatal attacks, accumulated damage would bring the Gargoyles down.

However.

Bite Snakes attacked the Skeletons that were surrounding the Gargoyles.

"Oh? Have they gone senile?"

She shook off the sparks that landed on her. Swatting away the Bite Snakes, she beheaded them.

Then, she noticed Skeletons attacking Bite Snakes without her orders.

"… Heh. How amusing."

Looking at the map, those ones didn't have the blue color marking them as allies.

In this three-way Dungeon Battle, enemies were uniformly marked red. In other words, those red Skeletons were enemies.

And Team Dragon King's snakes were also marked red… meaning those Skeletons should look like "Team Demon King's Skeletons" to Team Dragon King.

Perhaps the Bite Snakes that had attacked earlier were also Team Sovereign's monsters. Or maybe they only mixed in Skeletons, and the deceived Team Dragon King snakes simply attacked in retaliation… that possibility was higher.

After all, there was no need to give extra hints when deceiving an enemy.

Core 666 belatedly realized that in this three-way Dungeon Battle, she had been operating under the naive assumption that "the enemy of my enemy is my ally."

"Kukuku, poisoning the well, are we!? Good, very good! I'll play along! First I'll annihilate these statues, then the snakes—total slaughter!"

She should have done this from the start. Enemies are enemies, even if they're the enemy's enemy. There was no need to cooperate with incompetents.

Ah, what a fun battle this is. Core 666 smiled from the bottom of her heart.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

—Core 6 watched in silence.

In this Dungeon Battle, Core 6 hadn't interfered at all. Even the dungeon's design had been left entirely to Core 666 and her master.

Core 6 didn't trust Core 666's master in the slightest.

Originally, that master was a swordsman-type human bred at a human ranch. Normally, one doesn't trust livestock. If anything, you only trust them to yield good DP.

One day, a human who was supposed to be [crushed] somehow became Core 666's master and ended up serving as Core 666's [servant]. Since then, this human hadn't displeased Core 666—though apparently she scolded and disciplined him occasionally—and had survived to this day.

Core 6 decided to use this Dungeon Battle as a test—a touchstone—for Core 666's master.

If he was [usable], that was fine.

If he was [unusable], something would need to be done. He was even considering disposing of this master under the pretense of [guidance].

Core 6 simply watched the battle unfold in silence.