The Third Dungeon Battle: Battle (9)

I knew it. I knew Core 666's Black Armor would break through here.

After all, when she floated up in the water and headed toward the orichalcum wire…

"Did I do it?!"

… I accidentally blurted out that line. I'll be more careful next time.

"Kehma, that was close. There, there."

"Why are you patting my head?"

"I dunno, it felt like you were sulking and getting down about something."

"Ah, I'm just feeling self-loathing because I said something I had absolutely resolved to never say. Thanks for the thought, but Haku-san is watching, so please stop."

I'm getting an incredibly cold stare, and I can sense telepathy along the lines of "Now then, shall we make tonight's dinner sashimi?" I'm a fish on the cutting board here. Hahaha.

"Ah, s-sorry, Haku-neesama. We're in the middle of a Dungeon Battle, so we need to focus!"

"Fufu, it's fine, Rokuko-chan. Maybe you could pat me later too?"

"Geez! Haku-neesama, stop teasing me!"

No, I'm pretty sure she's serious, I thought, but I kept that to myself.

More importantly, the Dungeon Battle.

The remaining forces Team Demon King had invested in our dungeon were one Black Armor and numerous Skeletons. Those Skeletons were probably from [Summon Skeleton].

And as for Team Demon King's dungeon…

"Hey, Ichika. At the rate things were going, shouldn't you have defeated the boss by now?"

"U-uh, well yeah, but… the door won't open. I just sent everyone to explore again."

"No enemy reactions remain in the room. I will help as well."

Ichika and Niku's confused voices came back. It seemed they had hit a wall in their exploration… No choice but to search again.

"… There's also the possibility of a hidden passage on another floor."

"Or a door that can only be found by triggering a trap. Don't forget to check the ceiling too… and pitfalls."

Having a passage inside a pitfall is something we do in our own dungeon too. It's right in front of Haku-san, but since that might be the correct route, we have no choice but to search.

"Fufu, this reminds me of the Dungeon Battle between Rokuko-chan and me."

"Eh? Oh, now that you mention it… that's right, Haku-neesama."

"I'll also have them search outside the dungeon entrance, just in case… I'm sending a few Golems over. Use them."

"Yes, Goshujin-sama."

Fortunately, not a single enemy monster remained. It was wide open, as if saying "feel free to search as much as you like."

Were they confident we wouldn't find it even if we searched, or were they stockpiling forces on an undiscovered floor further in?

Were there other possibilities? Overlooking something would be scary…

"Rokuko, what do you think?"

"Well, it's strange that the door won't open when there's no boss in the boss room. We should check if it's really a boss room. It might be a decoy."

A decoy, huh. That's certainly possible. Haku-san mentioned it too, and I've done it myself. A puzzle door that leads to nothing beyond it… There's also the possibility that this boss room simply has nothing beyond it.

"Ichika, so investigate that boss room a little, then search elsewhere."

"Got it."

Having finished giving orders for the attack, or rather, exploration, I needed to make sure our defense was solid too.

Looking, the Black Armor had just finished crossing the log bridge obstructed by Gargoyles.

Only one Skeleton remained. This Skeleton's movements were good… Was the master controlling it?

"Niku, once you're done exploring, get back to defense. This side is more urgent… Rokuko. I'm sending out Tentacle Slime-san. We'll settle things with Core 666 in these upper floors."

"You're sending that out? Wait, why the '-san'?"

"Well, because it's Tentacle Slime-san."

"… I don't think that counts as a reason?"

It's meant to be this dungeon's hidden boss, you know.

"Alright, we're going with [The Big Ball] and flooding simultaneously. It'd be nice if this finishes it, but…"

"Opening the floodgates and dropping [The Big Ball]～! Yaaay, this'll be the finishing blow! Die already～!"

I had nothing but bad feelings about this. Let me gather forces in the rooms along the route, just in case.

The seawater and iron ball combo meant it wouldn't matter even if it were stopped by that scorching magic sword.

[The Big Ball], given momentum, with water following behind it to push it toward Core 666.

Even if she stopped the iron ball, she'd be swept away with it unless she stopped the water too.

And if she tried to melt the iron ball, the water would cool it and prevent that.

Now, what will you do?

Reacting to the sound, Core 666 formed an anti-flooding formation with the Skeletons. Then the iron ball came barreling toward them.

Core 666 readied the magic sword as if drawing a bow. Facing the iron ball rushing straight at her, she thrust.

"—[Crimson Road]"

That's what I heard.

The next moment, the iron ball and seawater vaporized in a straight line. The hand of the Living Armor holding the magic sword was glowing red-hot… Is that a skill? A skill like that exists?

Core 666, that's got to be insanely hot.

"What?! … Whoa, is this for real?!"

"For real, is this for real…? Isn't this absurdly overpowered?"

After that, the seawater flowing from behind cooled Core 666's Black Armor.

The red-hot hand returned to black steel.

"[Crimson Road]. It's a fire-attribute thrust skill with the restriction of being usable only once per day and the drawback of dealing fire-attribute damage to the user, but its power more than compensates for those. She really committed to using it."

Hearing Haku-san's explanation, that meant she couldn't use it again today.

Then if I could hit her with another [The Big Ball] and seawater combo, we'd win, but…

"Kehma, we're out of [The Big Ball]s."

"… Seriously? What about recovering the ones we've used…"

"Melted, shattered, and somehow vanished. That's it."

Damn, if only I'd prepared more…!

Unfortunately, I can't directly produce iron balls with DP. According to Haku-san, it's listed as a trap in her catalog, but is that because we don't normally use traps? Ah, right, I always use homemade ones… damn, being cheap all the time is coming back to bite me!

"What about having Haku-neesama buy it for us in exchange for DP?"

"That's definitely out. Preparations beforehand would be one thing, but on the day itself is too much. This is meant for training juniors, after all."

In that case, was there some existing trap or something I could summon with DP to substitute for the iron ball…? Iron Golems… no, that won't work. Even if I had Iron Golems form a human pyramid and washed them along with the water, I could only see a future where they got sliced up. Not enough rolling momentum!

Ah, if Haku-san weren't here, I could repair the iron ball with [Create Golem]!

"No, think of it the other way around. With this, we've also made the opponent use their trump card. Conditions are even. Fifty-fifty. We still have forces and hidden cards on our side, so we're actually ahead!"

"Kehma, by that logic, the opponent's hidden cards might not be limited to one either, so wouldn't it still be fifty-fifty?"

Rokuko made a valid point.

"… Yeah, well, fine. We'll settle it in the next room."

I said, gathering the dungeon's forces into one room.