Chapter 38 – Show of Power

Selene glanced around. The three Mud Golems were teaming up and heading towards her from different sides again. Not like they had any major intelligence to figure out that their attacks wouldn’t be able to break through the barrier she previously erected, but Selene had a different plan for them anyway. She showed enough of this side of hers.

As the massive stone arms were descending upon her, an intense wave of spiritual energy burst out from below. The pressure pushed all three a few steps back and reached even the rest of the party standing far from the center.

Now, in that spot, stood Selene with a wide smile. Three bushy tails danced behind her back and a ferocious glint could be spotted in her now white eyes. She went into the highest tier of her Awakening she could muster up.

Without further ado, she turned her head to the right, glanced at one of the golems, and her whole posture blurred. Selene then suddenly appeared in front of it. Before the puppet had a chance to react, she pressed her left palm onto its torso and drew her right hand to the back, closing her fingers into a fist. The tension in the air around them increased and blueish tongues of mana enveloped her arm.

“HEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Her fist shot forward and crashed into the hard surface of the reinforced stone. The impact was so strong that it sent a visible seismic wave in a vertical semi-circle all around the enemy, shaking the whole cave a bit. The Mud Golem went speeding backwards and in a fraction of a second, crashed into a wall on the other side of the chamber.

Just a moment later, she blurred again and launched herself at the spot where the enemy got encased in stone. Ast and the rest of the squad saw only how she appeared there for a short flash, her fist already making contact with the golem.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The impact created a two-meter-deep and three-meter-wide hole in the shattered rock. Everyone felt like half of the dungeon rumbled and the observers fell onto their fours to mitigate the small earthquake. While they were catching their balance, Selene casually walked out of the hole with a focused expression. The poor puppet was no more.

This time, without dashing, she strolled towards another one and stood in front of it. The earth creature did what it knew the best, slammed its fist down at her. But. It was stopped. By a single finger. Selene’s right leg got surrounded by the same energy as before.

“HAAAAAAP!”

She made a powerful high kick with a split into the golem’s torso and another seismic wave burst out. It obviously went flying and crashed into the ceiling. But, that was not all.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Selene’s kick sent an insanely powerful wave of spiritual energy when it hit her opponent, which smashed into the top of the cave alongside the big doll, creating another huge crater above her head. Nobody was ready for the second earthquake and both Rudy and Asterios fell onto their butts. Only Miria reacted quickly enough to brace herself a little.

Just one enemy remained. Selene felt an itch on her forearms and glanced down. The lines under her sleeves were slightly illuminated. Not much, but enough for her to notice through the black and blue material. She felt like she could use them to some extent. And the last Mud Golem would be a great testing target.

She sent two streams of mana into them as Asterios previously guided her and felt a sudden surge of power. Suddenly, something connected to her mind. It felt like… she had four arms to move. And soon she understood why.

Two massive arms purely out of spiritual energy materialized over her existing limbs. They had a demonic and beastly touch to them, reaching slightly over the middle of a forearm. Selene clenched her right fist and the ghostly apparition mirrored the movement. She smiled and looked at the practice target in front of her.

She thrust her left hand forwards and the immaterial copy shot the same way until it reached the golem. Selene clenched her fist and her spiritual hand grabbed the enemy like it was a solid object itself. Pulling her arm back resulted in exactly what she envisioned and the opponent was brought to her in a flash.

Not wanting to prolong her transformation state, Selene met the flying piece of earth with a roundhouse kick boosted so hard it blasted the whole doll into tiny particles of mud and dust, with a loud boom accompanying it of course.

The job was done. She sighed heavily and withdrew the transformation. The arms disappeared and her eyes and tail turned back to their previous state. Selene glanced Ast’s way and made a courteous bow, ending her performance.

Asterios and Miria started clapping enthusiastically while Rudy was utterly stunned with her jaw resting on the floor since the moment Selene transformed and started throwing punches on the level of an A or S-ranked Martial Artist.

She slapped her cheeks and quickly approached Asterios.

“Hey. Do you want to maybe like… trade her? Price doesn’t matter. I’ll rob a king if necessary.”

Ast chuckled and looked at the foxkin who was gazing all over her arms, still in the middle of the chamber. 

“Selene! Rudy wants you to come with her! What do you say?” he shouted.

“I’m sorry but no matter the offer, I won’t leave my Lord’s side.”

“And here’s your answer,” Asterios added.

Rudy bit on her lip and looked between the two in turns. “Then… Do you know if she perhaps has like… a twin sister or something?” She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

Asterios turned around, patted her shoulder while matching her gaze and shook his head before walking away towards Selene, with Miria by his side. They both heard the frustrated and defeated whimper Rudy made behind them. And just like that, for the first time in his life, Asterios ruined someone’s crush before it even happened. He knew Selene wasn’t looking at him that way, but it didn’t really matter for the warrior, she still was out of her reach.

He noticed Miria having her gaze glued to the ground, with her hands joined behind her back. There was no usual smile on her cute face. It was left neutral or even a little saddened right now. Ast stepped closer and placed his hand on her waist reassuringly.

“What’s wrong?”

She looked up and showed a wry smile. “Nothing. I was just thinking about something from my past. It’s—”

“Miria,” he rubbed her side gently and spoke in a soft tone.

The panthergirl averted her eyes again. “I… Before, it was my role to fight monsters on the front while using my strength and speed, but now that Selene joined… She is just way stronger than me. And she’s almost as fast as I can get with Master’s help. And on top of all that, she not only can use magic to attack but also to defend herself or others. And that spiritual ability at the end…”

She was turning more and more disheartened the longer she spoke. It looked like the show Selene made for them had an undesirable impact on one of the audience members.

“I feel like… I lost my place in Master’s team… I know it was my idea to bring someone who can cover both areas, but… when compared to her… I’m pretty much useless…”

Asterios sighed heavily. He turned Miria towards himself and left a quick peck on her cheek to not embarrass the shy girl too much. Moving his hand up, he started scratching behind her ear.

“That’s enough. I admit that Selene seems really strong from what we saw, but you are ignoring some crucial details here.” He smiled at her. “Let’s start from the beginning. First of all, Selene is a Spiritualist at the core. Her main area of expertise is manipulating spiritual energy and bending it to her will. You can’t do that so she fits the team perfectly. Secondly, she is way weaker physically than you are. Even with how much time she dedicated to training her body, without Awakening, she doesn’t come even close to your endurance, strength and agility, even without any buffs or Physical Strengthening on yourself.”

He stopped for a moment to check if Miria was properly listening. After confirming that she was following his words and gazing straight at him, he continued.

“And then we reach the major aspect. The Awakening itself. It surely is a huge boost to her strength, making Selene able to fight enemies face to face, but I’m pretty sure it does not come without a price. The boost is huge as we have seen. Do you really think she can just pop it up and stay in that form for hours? Without any repercussions? Just like that?”

“It’s exactly as my Lord says.” Selene arrived by their side and joined the conversation. “Entering that state puts an immense strain on my body. It can’t withstand the third stage for longer than fifteen minutes. Reaching that point, I would literally collapse on the spot, bleeding from all possible orifices. And be done for at least a week.”

She came closer to the duo and brought her arms forward. They were shaking a bit.

“Even just this short demonstration left me like this. And I won’t be able to enter that state again for at least a few hours. I mean, I can forcefully do so, but you can imagine the consequences if I overexerted myself,” she explained to Miria.

Asterios nodded his head and looked the panthergirl in the eyes. “In the long run, you are much stronger than her. You can keep fighting on the frontline for hours while boosting your physical abilities and body all the time since that’s your main strong point. And it won’t leave you weakened for a considerable amount of time after. Selene’s main job is to support you, take some weight off your shoulders, and in case of emergency, jump in to help you, not to steal your role. She is our caster, you are our attacker. She can also partially function as our defender with her shields, but so can you with your evasive style. It all depends on the situation.”

He stopped playing with her ear and moved his hand to her cheek, brushing it gently.

“Don’t forget that she will be keeping me safe for most of the time, to allow you to fight to the fullest and to let me comfortably focus on buffing you. It’s a great bonus that Selene can also fight by your side when necessary, don’t you think? So, stop beating yourself down. Nothing has changed. You are as important to me as you were before.”

Miria took a deep breath and the usual, radiant smile returned to her face. She hastily closed the distance and gave Ast a quick kiss on the lips while her cheeks grew a little rosy.

“Thank you. And I’m sorry. I was just a little surprised with how strong you are, Selene. I now see that I really didn’t think this thoroughly enough.” She stepped back and playfully slapped her cheeks. “Alright! We should focus on how to best work with each other instead! Let’s do our best for Master together!”

Selene chuckled. “I agree. I’m sure we will find ways to complement our respective weaknesses.”

Asterios moved his eyes onto the foxgirl. “And how are you feeling? Should we rest for a moment?”

“I’m fine. We can continue, my Lord. I did my best to finish it up quickly, without exhausting myself too much. I did burn quite a chunk of mana, but as a Spiritualist, I regenerate it much faster than others, being able to absorb it from the environment,” she replied with a smile.

“Alright. Let me help you refill your reserves just in case and we can move on.”

“Ah.” Miria gasped softly, earning herself a curious gaze from the duo.

Ast raised a brow and then realized the reason behind it.

~No. Not with a kiss,~ he spoke to Miria mentally, making the shy catgirl blush even more.

He then moved behind Selene and placed his hand on her back to channel some of his energy into her circuits. To make it faster, Asterios reached towards his core and established a connection with it. He didn’t do it before, but now they would be moving forward as a proper team so it was only natural to be prepared.

The hot energy quickly filled Selene’s mana pool up and even slightly rejuvenated her body, getting rid of a bit of the fatigue accumulated from the Awakening. Not all aftereffects were possible to be nullified with just that but it was already much more than she expected. It definitely wasn’t your usual spiritual energy.

Rudy finally caught up to the group with a slightly dejected expression. She still kept sending Selene some hopeful glances, but that responded only with her usual, calm smile. The warrior sighed while dropping her head and passed them.

“Come on, Mister My-hair-changes-when-I-touch-a-girl. Enough of that flirting. Let’s check the reward,” she said while waving her hand, without even looking back. Looks like she wasn’t even in the mood to question his change in appearance.

In the remains of the obelisk, they found a bunch of copper coins and a dagger looking like nothing special. For the required effort, it was completely minuscule compensation. Whichever party without a proper composition tackled it, they would have ended up with only losses as Golems didn’t have anything to harvest from their bodies and the cores disappeared when destroyed.

After a short discussion, the party decided to head for the fifth floor, where the first boss monster would be located. Usually, every five to ten floors, the dungeon core placed a stronger foe. For many reasons. 

First, more dangerous encounters meant more possible deaths. Second, it was one of the defence mechanisms. If the adventurers had no problems with monsters and traps on the previous floors, they might be dangerous, so an appropriately stronger obstacle should block their path down. And third, similarly to the first, the harder the fight, the more mana expenditure too. Those were the major ideas.

Those ‘bosses’ didn’t drop things after death as Trial obelisks did, but they were powerful entities on their own, often wielding or donning equipment better than their counterparts scattered over the floors above. That and the perspective of even better gains past the ‘gatekeepers’ was the main motivation for people to challenge them.

Besides those, a strong monster or a group could also be found rarely in the fluctuating parts of the level. They were called ‘field bosses’, but weren’t as dangerous as their bigger brothers or sisters. Still. It was possible to instantly realize they weren’t the usual denizens of the floor just from a simple glance. 

There were as many traps and dangers in the dungeon as there were treasures and rewards. Or actually, there should be less of the latter if the core was stingy with its resources. But that usually led to fewer people coming to that specific dungeon. Obviously. 

Rewards and treasures served as auto-promotion for the core. Even if it lost them, they still fulfilled the purpose of incentivizing even more people to pay a visit and try their luck there. If there was a dungeon where nothing was left after a crumbling obelisk, some parties would spread that information, and soon almost nobody would attempt the challenges, avoiding them completely and going only for monsters. And that was way more inefficient for the core than sacrificing its resources to create some rewards.

The second floor was not much of a challenge to the four-man party. They split evenly. Miria took the front with Rudy. The latter served as an attention grabber, or aggro defender in the adventuring slang, while the former focused fully on nimble attacks and strikes from tough angles.

Selene stayed with Asterios in the backline. She was using her spiritual arts to distract and wound enemies for most of the time, shielding one of the frontliners from an unavoidable hit when necessary. 

Ast was taking the role of the party leader and battle manager as some preferred to call that occupation. Besides using his own techniques, he was responsible for attentively watching over all of the battlefield and pointing out important things that could have been missed by other participants. He fit that position perfectly with the connection he and Miria shared. Now that also included Selene.

Their formation was quite solid even though it was their first time fighting together. The difference between the girls who were able to converse with Ast mentally and Rudy was very noticeable though. Miria and Selene reacted much quicker and without needing a verbal command or warning. If not for the role she had taken on herself, Rudy would feel almost like a dead weight to them.

Even the third level wasn’t able to give them any major issues. The number of enemies started increasing and opponents such as Forest Goblins, Quagmire Dragons and Bog Sprites began appearing during their journey.

The first ones didn’t pose a threat to the party. Miria pretty much decimated the little, green people with her sharpened blades while dancing all around them. Selene swiftly dealt with any casters that popped here and there, throwing a lazy orb of energy at them or incinerating them with a burst of spiritual flame. It was deadly but really beautiful at the same time, shimmering in various shades of blue.

Quagmire Dragons and Bog Sprites were the troublesome bunch there. 

The former looked like knee-high, oversized lizards, covered on the top with a tough-yet-soft layer of mud and earth, reducing the effectiveness of slashing weapons. They had really ferocious jaws and a bludgeon of rock at the end of their tails.

The latter was more of a headache than a real threat. Just imagine a fist-sized orb of greenish energy that zoomed through the air around you while occasionally spitting some acid your way. Physical weapons barely did them any harm. If the wielders were even able to hit the mischievous spirits.

By themselves, neither of the two was a problem. But, they actually appeared together. And that meant trouble. It was easy to picture the chaos where the lizards assaulted the adventurers and the levitating orbs kept distracting them at all times. A party without good cooperation and leadership was doomed to end up as a snack to the dragons and the dungeon.

But, Ast’s group didn’t lack either. Quickly realizing the situation after recognizing the enemies he read about in the guide, Asterios gave clear orders to every member. Miria got buffed with Steel Skin and Protection from Acid and lunged to spar with the komodos. Selene received just the latter and focused on getting rid of the annoying flies. And since he couldn’t offer any protection to Rudy, she was tasked with acting as Miria’s support this time.

The armoured lizards gave Miria some trouble since there were three of them and she did her best to just stall for time while landing shallow cuts on the unobstructed areas of their bodies. She had to watch for the earthy maces, jumping from place to place without a break. Rudy wasn’t as nimble and she had to block the heavy hits with her sword, but they did their job properly together.

While the duo of frontliners kept the enemy’s main force busy, Selene chased the green orbs with her own spheres. Unfortunately, the sprites were too agile and fast to fall with just that. She switched her tactics and decided to try a different approach. Instead of spheres, she created thin needles out of her spiritual energy and caught them between her fingers.

Asterios got her intention through their connection and offered to help. While Selene lowered her posture and leaned forward with her arms extended to the back, closing her eyes, he situated himself behind her and placed one hand on it. With the other, he first drew a circular rune in four brushes and caught it, activating the sigil.

Selene felt her mind getting clearer, calmer and more focused. When she opened her eyes again, she noticed that the world slowed down a lot. The sprites seemed almost frozen. She tried glancing back at Ast and realized that her head was also moving with a delay, albeit still much quicker than anything else in her field of vision.

She stopped the unnecessary motion and focused on getting the best out of this chance he presented to her. It was now unimaginably easy to predict the erratic movements of the flashing, green balls. Selene’s mind quickly calculated their trajectories and sent the order to throw the needles straight at the enemies. She watched as her arms slowly moved to the front and launched the little spikes, which lazily trailed through the air, taking all the time they needed to reach their target. 

After what felt like twenty seconds, every single sprite got pierced straight through its center. Fifteen more seconds passed in her mind before the world returned to its previous speed and the orbs exploded with a flash, all at the same time. 

From Ast’s perspective, barely a second after he finished the technique, Selene shot her arms forwards, decimating all the orbs with pinpoint accuracy. The technique he used, Sensory Boost, was much more effective with a direct contact than having it activated just through the connection. He wasn’t aware of how much it helped his partner, but it was obvious it did have quite the input, judging by the surprised and curious glance Selene gave him just afterwards.

Without the annoying spirits, the party dealt with the overgrown lizards with ease. They didn’t want to wander the uncharted regions of the third floor for too long so they walked down to the fourth one, taking a short break in its safe zone.