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Hello! Here we are, finishing up the Rivira arc. Thank goodness it's finally over. I hate doing fight scenes.
Thanks to Rayx2108 and comteqfr for being the beta readers and quality supervisors of the chapter.
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Bell took a step toward the last Goliath, his hand tightly gripping the handle of his sword.
Adrenaline was still pumping through his veins, his body ready to charge… but he stopped himself.
Amidst the dust, rubble, and moving bodies, Ryuu stood, staggering. She was still affected by the Dungeon's scream, her gaze lost, the trembling of her hands revealing the weight of what that sound had brought to her mind.
And she was too close to the last Goliath.
The monster roared in fury, its crimson gaze slowly sliding towards her.
Bell gritted his teeth. He cursed inwardly and changed direction.
He ran towards Ryuu.
"Ryuu-san!" he shouted, pushing his body to the limit. She barely turned her head, as if the world was a distant echo to her. He shook her arm as he reached her, and without giving her a choice, he picked her up by the neck and waist, carrying her without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, but I can't leave you here."
He leaped, dodging a shard of stone the Goliath threw to the ground. The creature was already advancing with a firm stride, causing tremors with every movement.
Bell pushed himself to a safer area, near one of the remaining ruins. He placed Ryuu carefully but firmly on the ground.
"Stay here… at least until you can focus."
Ryuu's eyes met Bell's for a moment. She was still scared, but that moment of contact seemed to stabilize her a little. Bell didn't say anything else. He just turned back toward the battlefield, his sword in hand.
Bell had only taken a few steps back toward the battlefield when a distant roar brought him to a halt. A scream, human and panicked, rose from the opposite direction. Then came more: crossed screams, the echo of magical explosions, and the unmistakable sound of metal striking something.
He turned his head sharply.
From the elevated area where Rivira's adventurers—who had been providing long-range magical support until then—had been stationed, chaos erupted. Bell could see spells flashing randomly, adventurers running in different directions, and the entire defensive formation completely shattered.
His brow furrowed.
"That…?"
A bad feeling ran through him. He took one last look at Ryuu, who was still slowly regaining control, and then shouted loudly:
"Riveria-san! Ais-san!"
They both turned from where they were fighting the last Goliath. Ais was covered in dust, her sword ready for another assault, and Riveria had her staff raised, already channeling another spell.
"Something's happening in Rivira!" he gestured into the distance. "It looks like an attack!"
Ais barely turned her head, her expression unchanging even at the prospect of new danger. She gripped her sword more firmly, her golden hair fluttering in the wind.
"I can do it alone," she said in a neutral tone, without arrogance, only with the cold certainty of her strength.
Riveria nodded after just a glance. "Be careful, we'll take care of it for you."
"Let's go…" Riveria turned quickly, as she began to run alongside him.
Bell hesitated for a second, but the roar of the Goliath in the background and another desperate cry from Rivira prompted him to act. He ran alongside Riveria, both of them moving through the rubble, gaping crevices, and the destruction the Goliaths had left in their wake.
The ground continued to tremble slightly with each step of the monster Ais faced alone, but the most worrying rumble now was the one coming from the hill. The area that should have been safe had become a new threat.
And Bell felt it in his chest.
Something wasn't right up there.
When Riveria and Bell arrived at the entrance to Rivira, the first thing that struck them was the silence.
But it wasn't an empty silence. It was anoppressive silence that trails behind death.
Bodies were everywhere. Adventurers who minutes before had been casting support spells, keeping watch from above, organizing supplies… now laid severed, dismembered, torn apart like rag dolls. Blood and guts stained the makeshift walls of the underground city.
Many had been cut down with a single blow, without time to scream.
Bell felt a lump in his throat. He took a step back without realizing it, his hand trembling slightly.
And then they saw it.
The creature moved among the bodies, as naturally as if it were walking through grass. Its shape was like an elongated skeleton, with dark, sharp bones, claws like obsidian blades, and a long tail that curled like a whip, but ended in a row of blades so sharp that the air whistled when it moved.
It was as if someone had mixed an ancient predator with a living scythe.
Riveria tensed instantly. Her eyes narrowed, her staff already in hand, but her voice didn't sound confident. On the contrary.
"I've never… seen anything like that." She said it without pretense, without hiding her bewilderment. For a veteran who had explored the deepest floors of the Dungeon for years, those words were a high-level alert.
Bell felt something cold run down his spine.
It wasn't just the monster.
It was the fact that Riveria Ljos Alf didn't know what it was.
And worse, his [Danger Sense Blessing] had begun to react with a violence he'd never felt before. Like an alarm that had been broken from ringing so much.
His mouth went dry.
That monster wasn't just different.
It was something that shouldn't have been there.
Before Bell could even process what he was seeing, the monster moved.
It didn't run. It didn't roar. The monster just disappeared from where he was, and appeared in the air in front of them, like a blink of death.
Riveria was already in motion, her body responding with the precision of years of experience, twisting and sliding with the minimum distance to avoid being split in two. Bell, for his part, had no time to think.
But his body did react.
One of his blessings activated instantly. His body moved without his command, pulling back, avoiding the slash that was aimed straight for his neck. But the monster was fast.
Too fast. Faster than his body could handle on its own.
Death was inches away.
And then, an explosion of fire lit up the entire field.
A deafening roar shook the wreckage, and a flaming figure hurtled down from above like a living meteor. The monster was slammed down with brutal force, blown away amid golden flames and bursts of scorching heat.
The ground shook. A cloud of dust and fire covered the place.
Riveria stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide. "It's… the Monster feria dragon!" she exclaimed, unable to hide her astonishment.
Bell just smiled.
A tense, but genuine smile.
"Yharon," he said, relief in his voice, as a fiery silhouette emerged from the flames, wings outstretched, eyes glowing like coals, and the air vibrating with his mere presence.
His dragon had arrived.
Riveria, without taking her eyes off the burning dragon that now stood between them and the skeletal monster, turned her face slightly toward Bell. Her voice, normally calm and firm, sounded sharp, almost like a command disguised as a question:
"Do you know it?"
Bell swallowed, his breathing still ragged from the shock. This wasn't the time for long explanations. He barely looked at her.
"He's on our side," he said firmly. "If you want answers… I'll give them to you when we get out of here alive."
Riveria narrowed her eyes, assessing him for a second. Then she nodded briefly, returning her attention to the battlefield.
Yharon's roar echoed again. The fight was just beginning.
The skeletal monster let out a high-pitched, guttural screech, like the sound of bones breaking, and lunged again… not at Yharon, but at Bell and Riveria.
Yharon roared loudly, engulfing himself in intense flames as he intercepted the attack with a fiery lunge, deflecting the creature's claws just before they reached Bell. The collision caused a heat wave that shook the air, kicking up dust and ash.
Bell instinctively covered his face, feeling the vibration of the impact run through his bones. When he lowered his arm, Yharon was back between him and the monster, snorting fire from his mouth, his flaming tail marking a line between them like a barrier.
But when the monster moved again, one of its strides veered toward Riveria. This time, Yharon didn't react.
Riveria frowned. She dodged to the side just in time to dodge the downward slash of the monster's claw, her cape flapping behind her from the force of the blow. She pivoted nimbly, backing away to regain distance.
Then, she observed.
Once. Twice. Three times. Every time the monster tried to reach Bell, Yharon intervened, stopped it, or challenged it. But when she was the target, the dragon didn't budge. Didn't help her. Not once.
Riveria understood immediately. She clicked her tongue softly, frustrated.
"The dragon only protects him…" she muttered to herself, ready to dodge again.
That thought was etched in his mind as the monster attacked again, a shower of fire and claws engulfing the battlefield.
Riveria finished her song with precision and a firm voice, making the air vibrate.
"Rea Laevateinn!"
A titanic column of fire erupted from her magic, roaring like a solar storm as it headed straight for the skeletal monster. But the impact never occurred.
With a dry sound, the spell collided with an invisible barrier surrounding the enemy, as if the magic had struck a mirror. The energy immediately rebounded, spinning like a fiery red arrow, shooting toward its caster.
Riveria barely had time to react.
"That-!?"
Bell didn't hesitate for a second. His voice cut through the air with force.
"Yharon, save her!"
The dragon roared in an irritated tone, but obeyed. In an instant, a whirlwind of flames crossed the distance between them and interposed itself between Riveria and the reflected spear.
The spell exploded upon Yharon like a suppressed sun, enveloping him completely… but not leaving a mark. The fire was simply absorbed by the dragon's own flames, as if the spell had never existed.
Riveria froze. Her lips parted, her eyes wide with shock. Her breath caught in her lungs.
"He… got in front of me," she murmured, incredulous. "That dragon got in the way… for me."
It wasn't just surprise. It was pure bewilderment. In her long life as an adventurer and elite mage, she'd seen allies save each other, yes... but never had a monster, much less one so powerful, protected her without hesitation (at least from her point of view). Her mind simply couldn't process it immediately.
Meanwhile, Yharon growled without looking back, his wings spread, his body still engulfed in flames. As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Riveria watched him, unable to tear her eyes away from that fiery silhouette that had just taken a fatal spell on her.
"…What kind of creature are you?" she whispered, not waiting for an answer.
Riveria closed her eyes for a brief second, dissipating the trembling in her hands, crushing her astonishment under the force of habit, of necessity. The battle wasn't over yet.
She raised her staff again, but not to cast another spell. This time she held it like a spear, a firm extension of her will. The staff had a reinforced, ornate but lethal tip, designed precisely for those rare moments when magical combat wasn't an option. This was one of them.
"If magic doesn't work… then hand-to-hand combat it will be," she muttered to herself, voice regaining its cold, calculating tone.
The skeletal monster remained standing, its sharp claws clinking softly as they brushed against each other. Its movements were unnatural, swift, and fluid, as if it had no mass, as if it were sliding its body through the gaps in the world. Its eyes—if they could even be called that—were merely two burning embers sunk deep into the darkness of its skull.
Riveria didn't wait. She advanced with an agility that belied her status as full-time mage, zigzagging through the wreckage and ruins, delivering precise blows toward the monster's joints. Her staff moved like a war club, striking, thrusting, deflecting. She wasn't a warrior by training, but her experience, discipline, and the precision she'd honed over decades gave her a clear advantage.
Yharon wasn't far behind. The fiery dragon roared with fury, slashing and lunging like a living storm. Every time the monster tried to turn on Bell, Yharon was there, blocking and biting. But even Yharon seemed frustrated. The monster's claws left rather large marks.
Bell, meanwhile, stood a few feet away, panting, his fingers trembling on the handle of his sword. He had rushed to try to help at first, but he could barely keep up. Every time he tried to get closer, the creature's speed easily surpassed him, as if anticipating his movements, as if watching him in slow motion.
It wasn't just that it was fast. It was that Bell wasn't fast enough.
He stood still, his feet planted firmly on the rock, his gaze fixed on the battle. He felt as if his blood was thickening. The [Divine Blessing of Danger Sense] wouldn't stop, a constant rumble thundering against his skull. But that wasn't what hurt.
It was that helplessness. The same one he felt when Ryuu screamed desperately in his arms.
He cursed under his breath, his nails digging into the handle. "I can't even keep up with them…"
There he was. Meters away from one of the most powerful mages in the world, fighting hand-to-hand like a seasoned veteran. Meters away from a legendary dragon engulfed in fire, standing in for him without hesitation.
And he… could only watch.
Bell lowered his head for a moment, his eyes hidden by his bangs. He took a deep breath. He wasn't going to give up. But at that moment, he was useless.
So he forced himself to step back a little further, assessing, looking for an opportunity. A crack. A slip of the tongue. Something he could exploit, anything.
Meanwhile, Yharon's roar shook the air, and the sound of Riveria's staff slamming against bone echoed like a war drum. The monster kept moving, relentless, as if no blow could affect it enough.
And Bell just watched.
Behind him, light footsteps were heard on the cracked stone.
Bell immediately turned around, still frowning in frustration, and found himself staring at Ais.
"Ais-san?" he asked in surprise, seeing her approaching without any visible wounds, just a faint trace of dust on her cheek. "Are you… finished with the Goliath?"
She didn't answer.
Bell raised an eyebrow. Ais wasn't even looking at him. Her attention was fixed, riveted with unusual intensity, on the battlefield in front of them. Specifically… on Yharon.
The sword in her hand trembled slightly, as if she were gripping it unconsciously. Her expression was neutral, as always… but there was something different. Something strange. A rigidity in her jaw, a spark in her golden eyes.
Bell waved a hand in front of her. "Ais-san?"
Nothing.
Not a word. Not a movement.
It was as if she were caught between emotions she didn't know how to name. Yharon's roar echoed once more, and she tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. There was no hostility in her eyes, but rather a fierce, suppressed conflict that threatened to spill over at any moment.
Without saying a word, Ais launched into the attack.
Her silhouette blurred, turning into a gust of wind that cut the distance to the monster in an instant. The gleam of her sword traced a brilliant arc through the sparks of battle, intercepting one of the creature's arms with impeccable precision. The impact deflected the attack that was heading straight for Riveria, giving her some respite. Yharon roared, as if approving of the intervention, and redoubled his offensive.
The coordination between the three was immediate, as if they'd fought together before. The monster, which had seemed untouchable moments before, began to stagger under the combined pressure. Ais pressed it with speed that was almost impossible to keep up with, Riveria kept her distance, timing her attacks with her staff, and Yharon—his body engulfed in flames—struck with brutal force, forcing the enemy to retreat.
Bell watched them from his distant position, his heart sinking in his chest.
He wanted to be there. With them. To help. To be useful.
But he knew that if he took a step further, if he launched himself into that fight at his current level, with his inferior speed, with his limited stamina… he would die. Maybe he could land an attack, maybe he could do something that would contribute. But it didn't matter: the price would be his life.
And although he had a blessing that allowed him to return from the dead once… It would be only once. One chance. It wasn't a shield. It wasn't invulnerability. It was a warning.
And he didn't want to know what it felt like to die.
He clenched his fists. The sword in his hand seemed heavier than ever. Helplessness ate at him, as if slowly suffocating him from within. He looked down at his own legs, firm on the ground, not taking a step forward. He felt small. Useless.
But he also knew that sometimes, survival was part of the battle. And if he wanted to truly protect them someday… he'd have to become much stronger than this. Much stronger.
As he watched, unmoving, his eyes never leaving the battle unfolding before him, something clicked in the back of his mind.
A warm feeling ran through his chest.
Like a beat other than your heartbeat.
And then, like a voice whispering directly into his conscience, a new notification popped into his mind:
[Divine Blessing of Hero Growth]: Once the stat cap is reached, any accumulated surplus will be retained and automatically applied to the next level with a 1.5 multiplier.
Bell blinked. His breathing stopped for a moment.
It wasn't immediate strength. It wasn't the speed to fight now. But it was something that propelled him toward the future.
He felt his heart race again. Not from adrenaline, not from fear. From hope.
His time had not yet come.
But it was coming.
And finally, with a piercing, determined cry, Ais delivered the final blow. Her sword swung with lethal precision, severing the skeletal monster's head in a single sweep.
The creature's body faltered. A crack ran through its bony form, as if its entire existence had been sustained by that single point. Within seconds, it began to disintegrate, crumbling to dust before the three combatants' eyes.
Yharon took a couple of steps back, his body still covered in flames, as he let out a quieter roar. Riveria breathed deeply, her staff slowly lowering, the muscles in her face still tense, but with some relief showing across her features.
Bell, who had been watching everything with a mixture of frustration and amazement, forced himself to move forward.
His footsteps echoed among the wreckage of the battle. He approached the trio, his gaze lowered but firm.
"They're okay…" he murmured with a hint of relief, before looking up at them.
Riveria looked at him seriously, wiping her sweaty forehead with a gesture. Ais simply put away her sword, saying nothing. Her expression remained neutral, though her eyes briefly flicked to Yharon, as if still trying to comprehend him.
Yharon, for his part, lowered his head slightly toward Bell. A subtle but clear gesture.
Bell stopped in front of the three, swallowing.
He didn't know what to say first.
But at least… they were alive.
Ais took a step toward the dragon, her sword already sheathed, her breathing controlled… but her face, not so much. For the first time in a long time, her expression wasn't cold or empty. There was something else. Confusion. Tension. A conflict that even she didn't seem to fully understand.
Yharon, in response, immediately retreated. His wings folded tightly against his back, and his burning gaze avoided direct eye contact. Ais frowned slightly, taking another step forward. Again, the dragon retreated.
Bell blinked, bewildered, staring at the scene with growing discomfort. Ais took another step, and Yharon stepped back again… until he was standing right next to Bell.
The dragon stood there, motionless, his head raised with dignity, but clearly avoiding getting any closer to the swordswoman. As if Bell was a protective wall. Or rather, a living shield.
"Is he… using me as a shield?" Bell thought, a bead of sweat running down his temple.
Ais stopped in front of them both. Her eyes fixed on Yharon, with a mixture of nostalgia, doubt… and perhaps a hint of resentment. But she said nothing.
The silence that formed between the three was not awkward.
It was tense. Full of emotions that no one seemed willing or able to verbalize.
Riveria watched intently. Her gaze shifted from Bell to Yharon… and then settled firmly on Ais.
She knew the young swordswoman better than most. She knew her visceral hatred of monsters. She knew that, at any other time, Ais would have drawn her sword without even thinking. Without hesitation. Without wavering.
And yet, there she was. Standing. Hand tense on the hilt, yes, but undrawn. Watching. Fighting against something more than an external enemy.
Riveria frowned. She said nothing… for a moment.
Finally, she took a deep breath and turned to Bell.
"I need an explanation." Her tone was calm but firm. Undeniably authoritative. "From the very beginning. Ais and I arrived after the fight against the Goliaths had already begun, but now there are corpses everywhere, a fire dragon protecting you as if you were its master… and that skeletal monster." Her gaze hardened slightly. "I don't recognize it, but I've roamed this dungeon for decades, and I've never seen anything like it."
Bell swallowed. He knew this moment would come. With Ais still silent, Yharon by his side, and the corpses still scattered across the ground… he couldn't avoid it anymore.
"Yes," he finally said. His voice carried some weight, but also an unwavering determination. "I'll tell you everything. But… I'll need you to believe me. It all happened too fast."
Riveria crossed her arms. "After everything I just saw, I think we're past that point."