Chapter 360: Fight With the Dungeon

Cassandra stood at the foot of the gate relay with Nightglass Longbow at full draw. She had not moved for several seconds, allowing Patient Draw to sharpen.

Martin followed her aim and found the second copied device mounted behind one of the advancing portable barriers. It was fixed to the rear support, which made it a perfect target as long as Cassandra could remain still. Then the barrier shifted.

Cassandra relaxed the string without firing. Patient Draw ended immediately.

She moved three steps to the right, planted her feet, and drew again while the mercenaries pushed the barrier forward. The device remained attached to its rear support.

"Hold them there," Cassandra said.

Martin changed direction. Two mercenaries tried to intercept him. He took the first spear against Breakwater Aegis, while the second struck the Worldshell plate over his upper arm. The blow shaved HP but failed to stop him.

Martin lowered his center of gravity. "Hold the Line."

Golden light erupted across the avenue and divided the battlefield from one wall to the other, separating the front mercenaries from the support team pushing behind them. The advancing barrier struck the golden boundary and stopped. So did the device mounted behind it.

Cassandra remained perfectly still while Patient Draw brightened. Her arrow left Nightglass Longbow, passed through the exposed gap between two mercenaries, and struck the copied spindle. The device shattered.

The black Hungerlines twisted again, and this time every visible trail turned toward the armed intruders. "Clean!" Cassandra called.

Mireva struck the gate relay. Silver light spread across the lower district, and a Ringing Maw coming through the opened seal ignored a wounded Sairren warden less than five meters away. It slammed into the mercenary corridor instead.

The Sairren warden dragged himself clear. Mireva landed beside him, checked his wing, then looked back at Martin.

"Keep that field where it is."

"Thirty seconds."

"Then we use thirty."

Martin smiled despite himself, but Mireva was already issuing orders. The next half minute turned the lower avenue into something the invaders had not prepared for. Sairren wardens abandoned the ground lanes and attacked from above, never remaining in place long enough to duel. They cut straps, damaged portable barriers, and flew out before the mercenaries could answer properly.

Martin’s field kept the front half of the enemy formation separated. Alexandra and Kumoe hunted anyone trying to climb toward the bellkeepers, with Kumoe forcing guards high or low while Alexandra attacked the opposite opening. Pack Rhythm kept refreshing between them until their movements flowed together without either having to call the next attack.

Katherine remained behind them. Kinnami’s barriers kept the narrow bellkeeper routes from becoming death traps.

Elisebeth shaped Silent Stage around every copied tuning device Rias marked. She never blanketed the battlefield because that would have swallowed the Sairren resonance as well. One signal at a time, she contained the foreign notes long enough for Rias to reach the devices and break them.

Cassandra stayed where she could. Whenever a target stopped moving long enough, Patient Draw punished it. Whenever the battle forced her to relocate, she moved, reset, and drew again instead of pretending the buildup remained.

The Dark Force monsters did the rest, but nobody treated them like allies. One Ringing Maw nearly crushed Alexandra when she crossed too close to the false trail, forcing Kumoe’s right head to bark a warning before both moved away.

A Muteclaw attacked one of Martin’s party after a mercenary died and the stronger prey trail shifted. The bells did not care who deserved protection. They only hid the Sairren and promised prey somewhere else.

Martin respected the distinction. His Hold the Line faded, allowing the separated mercenaries to reunite. Several had lost shields or pieces of armor, and one porter was dragging another by the collar, but their retreat was too orderly to be panic.

The surviving barrier crews abandoned equipment that had cost them too much time to recover and immediately compressed around their leader.

"Back!" their leader shouted.

For a moment, Martin thought they were retreating. Then he noticed nobody was looking toward the open gate behind them. Their eyes kept moving upward instead, following the same bell Mireva had struck to redirect the lower spawn network.

Rias noticed too. "They aren’t going to the gate."

The surviving intruders abandoned two portable barriers and ran toward the relay Mireva had used most heavily. The gate relay. Three Sairren bellkeepers guarded it, and Alexandra and Kumoe were already moving before Martin started after them.

"Why that bell?" Katherine asked.

Mireva flew beside them. "It carries the strongest route into the lower spawn network."

The mercenary leader reached the relay platform first, but he did not attack a bellkeeper. Instead, he threw a black metal hook around the bell’s support and pulled.

The bell rang wrong.

The note plunged down into the Lower Belfry.

Mireva’s eyes widened. "Don’t let it ring again!"

Martin slammed into the leader’s guard with Breakwater Aegis and knocked him away from the support. Alexandra cut the hook while Kumoe dragged the broken chain clear.

They were too late.

Something answered beneath them. It was not a monster roar. Ancient mechanisms were waking all throughout the lower wall, and Martin heard one heavy lock after another beginning to turn.

Mireva landed beside the bell and pressed both hands against its frame.

"What did they open?" Martin asked.

She did not answer immediately.

Below the avenue, a row of sealed bronze doors began sliding apart. The mercenary leader laughed once through his metal mask.

Mireva looked down. "They wanted us to wake the lower network."

The first new gate opened fully, and red player markers appeared in the darkness beyond it.

One appeared first, then another, followed by five more. Black symbols burned above several names.

Martin recognized the mark immediately.

Beastslayers.

The first one stepped into the light with one arm covered in hooked bone plating from shoulder to fingertips. Behind him, another player lowered herself onto clawed legs that bent differently from a human’s, every joint loaded for a sudden burst. A third remained inside the gate with folded membranes stretching from her arms to her sides.

None of them displayed a Just Die marker. Rias was already recording.

[Flash Fang: Beastslayer status confirmed.]

[Flash Fang: No verified Just Die affiliation.]

[Flash Fang: Do not upgrade absence of a marker into proof of independence.]

Martin raised Breakwater Aegis.

The bone-armed Beastslayer ignored him.

His eyes found Kumoe.

A black seal flashed across his vision, and a red marker appeared above her right head.

[Recovery Target Identified.]

[Priority: Intelligent bonded beast.]

Alexandra stopped moving.