Floor six was a sprawling kitchen. Sinks, counters, ovens, and bags – presumably filled with ingredients – filled the place. It kinda reminded me of the fast food buildings in the water park dungeon. Except for the whole non-euclidean maze thing, at least.
“Kitchen? Didn’t we already fight a cooking demon…?” I asked as I cautiously walked inside, eyeing the passageway on the other side.
Sure enough, once I got far enough into the room and the door slammed behind me, the door across from me opened, revealing my next opponent.
It was a short woman – or a girl? – with rainbow-colored hair tied into a braid, rainbow-colored feathers decorating her forearms, wings sprouting from her back – also rainbow-colored – and most interestingly, very human-looking skin, unlike everyone else in this dungeon so far. Just like always, though, she had no face.
Her weapons of choice were two giant shurikens – glaives? – held in her hands and she was already raising one of them to throw it.
I materialized my gun self and shot a simple water bullet to start things off.
There was an explosion of water at her position as expected. What definitely wasn’t expected was all the water suddenly flash freezing, moments before a glaive came flying from behind the ice structure straight at me.
I startled and quickly crouched behind one of the counters in the middle of the room, hoping to hide from the weapon.
Only to then hear a loud screeching noise as the counter I was leaning on shuddered and I scrambled away from it on instinct.
Said instinct had probably saved me because the next thing I knew, there was a glaive buried in the floor where I’d crouched down and the counter was split in half.
Then the glaive suddenly vanished. When I looked up, I saw the maid running around the ice, holding a glaive in each hand again.
Did she have Quick Fetch on those things? Dammit, that was like the perfect weapon to have that skill on!
Pushing aside my jealousy, I pointed my gun at her again and fired a shower of crystals this time, hoping to either distract her or make her waste Ether by using that ice attack again.
Instead of doing that though, she put one of the glaives in front of her and spun it, before a sudden burst of air that surged out of it. The surge made me stumble back, clattered the utensils scattered around, and blew away the crystals.
Some debris hit me, but it mostly slid off my clothes and didn’t do any damage.
Still, this was really troublesome. She had a deadly ranged attack, several ways to defend herself from my own, and the reflexes to make my fastest attack useless, apparently.
I needed to get close… but that didn’t exactly look easy.
Another glaive flew at me before I could figure out my course of action. This one was on fire.
Part of me thought to just tank it since I still had my blessing skill, but then I remembered that the fire was attached to a sharp bladed weapon and probably shouldn’t try testing the durability of my clothes.
I dodged to the side, just barely because of my brief hesitation.
Then another glaive was flying at me, this one surrounded in icy mist. I shot it out of the air with my gun. As expected though, as soon as my shot hit the glaive, it exploded into water and then flash-froze into another icy piece of modern art.
I kept moving, hoping to get closer while both her weapons were out of her hands.
Naturally, the moment I ran around the ice and spotted her again, she had both glaives in her hands again, preparing to throw another one. This one was letting out sparks of electricity.
Dammit. How many elements was she going to use? Was that why she had rainbow-colored hair and feathers? Why wasn’t she limited to three skills like everyone else?
I ducked under the electrified glaive, but the sparks still somehow jumped to me despite that making zero sense, scientifically speaking.
My teeth automatically clenched and my muscles seized – which freaking hurt – and I couldn’t move for a brief moment.
Said moment was just long enough for her to throw her other glaive – this one covered in black mist –and hit me straight in the chest.
I gasped in pain as my mind blanked for a brief moment.
I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think–
Then I was staring at the kitchen’s ceiling, hearing a sharp whizz get closer and closer to me.
I rolled to the side just in time to hear the loud metallic screech where I’d just been. One quick glance revealed a glaive buried in the floor before it vanished again.
This was going horribly. But at least I’d confirmed that getting hit by one of those glaives didn’t completely eviscerate me.
Although I couldn’t be too sure about the super sharp floor-splitting one. What element was that anyway? Wind? Chainsaw?
I scrambled to get up just as another ice glaive came flying at me. I growled in frustration and Quick Fetched my key sword into my hand. Then I charged it with Ether, activated the black flames, and swung it at the glaive while moving out of the way of its path just in case.
Thankfully, I was actually good enough with the sword to successfully hit a moving target out of the air by now, and to my surprise, I cleaved right through the glaive as if it was made out of butter, the icy fog around it harmlessly poofing out a moment later.
My eyes widened at the ruined glaive on the ground, but then I grinned and looked back at my opponent.
She didn’t summon her destroyed weapon back to her, but was already holding the other one, charging it with electricity, ready to throw it again.
But somehow, despite only being in contact with the glaive for a split second before it too got wrecked by my slash, the electricity coating it jumped from the glaive to my weapon and then finally to me.
My muscles seized for one critical moment, giving my opponent enough time to literally fly at me, her right hand extending toward me. I could see the same blur around her hand that the super sharp glaives had and could guess what she was trying to do.
Moments before she could chop my head off though, I fired off Rend.
She stumbled for a second and the blurry aura around her hand winked out.
The distraction was long enough for my own stun to wear off and swing with my own key sword at her. I hit her shoulder, sending her flying. She crashed into one of the bags, which made all of its contents – tomatoes? – spill out. She immediately hurried to get up again.
She had no cuts on her. Even her maid dress was in pristine condition, ignoring some food stains.
The heck? Why hadn’t it cut her? Was she also super durable like me?
After a moment of surprise, I shook it off and sprinted forward at her, covered my key sword with black flames, and prepared to strike at her again.
Just as she stood up again, her hand whipped out, and then there was a metallic clash.
To my surprise, she was holding one of the glaive’s blades in her hand, blocking my strike.
So she could still summon them even if they were broken.
Sparks of electricity sprouted from the glaive blade, jumped to my key sword, and I instinctively fired another Rend at her to stun her in kind before it reached me.
Luckily, as it hit her, it seemed to also disrupt her focus on her electricity skill and it winked off as she stumbled and loosened the grip on her glaive blade.
It gave me enough time to adjust my weapon and quickly slash at her again, this time at the neck.
That actually did the job this time and her head was sent flying before quickly turning into orange smoke, just like the rest of her body, leaving only a chest behind.
I breathed out and relaxed again.
“Phew… You know, chat… These fights feel like they should be harder than the archer, but somehow, they are not?” I mused before shaking my head and crouching down to open the chest.
repeaeaeat:probably becaus you got stronger since then
RetconRanger:The archer just counters you, that’s why it was harder.
KaiEbikoOfficial:this is so nerveracking watching you
bloopbooper:bwooooop! (•̀ᴗ•́ )و
KaiEbikoOfficial:I thought you died when you blacked out for a sec
GeorgeDoshington:noooooo dont kill the cute maid
GeorgeDoshington:whos gonna make me lunch now
“Yeah, I guess I did get stronger… and yeah, armor-piercing kinda counters super armor build, doesn’t it?” I sniffed. “Hey, don’t worry, Ebi! I’m fine! I think that black fog was some mental attack, but it went away quickly.”
Probably thanks to Mind Shield, actually. If I didn’t have that, would the sharp glaive she’d thrown after that kill me…?
Well… good thing, I had it then. Probably should keep it on at all times from now on, just in case.
Ugh, but that meant less free skill slots…
I shook these thoughts away and then read George’s messages.
“Make it yourself, George! You lazy git!”
GeorgeDoshington:nooooooooooo
GeorgeDoshington:those glaives were fuckin cool tho
GeorgeDoshington:i hope u get them as loot
I rolled my eyes at the immediate topic change but secretly hoped for the same as I popped the chest open.
Instead of the glaives, I got… a pile of rainbow-colored feathers.
Great. That was just like the archer’s arm. Only a little less morbid.
GeorgeDoshington:damit
GeorgeDoshington:at least you can make a hat
I gave George’s messages a look.
“...Right. Well, I guess I’m just gonna…” I pulled off my backpack and then gradually stuffed all the feathers inside.
Once done, I sat on the floor for a moment and sighed.
My head kinda hurt from that encounter. Either from bumping it when I’d gotten hit by that glaive or by using too much Intra… I couldn’t quite tell. Still, better to play it safe and not immediately rush into the next floor.
If I was going to take it on right now anyway.
I wasn’t entirely sure if I should, honestly. Yes, this fight had been… easier than I would have expected, but there was no telling when the dungeon would throw another curveball at me like the archer.
After a few minutes of resting and recovering while talking to chat, I decided that while it was risky, my Ether levels were good enough, and my Intra – and also probably Tempor – levels had recovered enough to try and take on the next floor.
Still, I couldn’t help but be anxious about it, now that I’d been reminded about the possibility of enemies with the perfect counter for me.
It especially sucked since there didn’t seem to be any way to retreat once the battle started.
Well, I could try breaking down a door, but I had no idea whether that would work.
Maybe I should try that on a lower leveled floor first before I actually needed to do it.
GeorgeDoshington:gogogogogogo
GeorgeDoshington:full steam ahead!
…Just one more floor.
I mean, what if it turned out to be the final one? Since I always had to start all over again, I didn’t want to quit right before the end, right?