"HAAAAAAAAAHHH—!!!"
Ottar’s roar erupted, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.
*BOOM!*
Amid the ruins, which had turned into a sea of fire, the torrential flames began to flow backward.
Amid the roar of Orario’s fiercest boaz, the one who had been ravaging this labyrinth was met with an unexpected counterattack.
*BOOM!*
With a powerful swing, Ottar’s greatsword cut through the air, knocking the falling rain of flames away.
*BOOM!*
A gauntlet-clad arm slammed forward, scattering the rain of flames that had come from the side.
*BOOM!*
A massive thigh swung with a roar, slamming into the fire arrows coming straight ahead.
*BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!*
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
With each explosion, Ottar, roaring in the sea of fire, either wielded his greatsword or struck with his hands and feet, as if he were single-handedly facing an army.
He managed to block all the incoming fiery downpours, relying on his unbreakable defense to completely neutralize the wide-area annihilation magic that could have easily destroyed an entire floor of the Dungeon’s Upper Floors.
"No way..."
Tiona stood in place, dumbfounded, as if she couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.
"You gotta be kidding me..."
Tione’s face froze, holding her breath in disbelief.
"!!!"
Ais’s eyes widened slightly, and her sword hand even trembled involuntarily.
"Damn monster!"
Bete, seemingly shaken by this scene, bared his fangs in shock.
Now, the adventurer known as the strongest in Orario was demonstrating what true strength looked like. With nothing but his own body, he shattered a fiery hell that had threatened to consume everything.
The culmination of his honed status and combat skills exploded, making the onlookers understand why this boaz was called ’the strongest adventurer’ and had ’King’ as an alias.
The simple, clumsy, and pure warrior who only understood how to grow stronger and perfect himself now stood before them, fully unleashed.
"OOOOOOHHH—!!!"
With a mighty roar, Ottar stomped the ground, clearing the firestorm, and charged toward Riezel, who was wrapped in wind.
*DING!*
In a deafening metallic clash, Ottar’s greatsword, emitting heat and smoke, struck the thin crystal sword that Riezel hastily raised, releasing an immense shockwave that sent Riezel flying backward.
Riezel controlled the wind swirling around him, cutting through the flames to stabilize his position.
However, once again, the towering figure of Ottar appeared before him.
*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*
Ottar’s heavy greatsword swung again and again, each strike knocking Riezel, who had only just regained his balance, backward, narrowly avoiding crashing into the labyrinth walls.
*BOOM!*
Another blow came, smashing into the wall just behind Riezel as he barely dodged, causing the stone to crumble into dust.
Ottar, now on the offensive, charged like a wild boar, relentlessly pursuing Riezel, unleashing massive slashes capable of splitting mountains and stones.
This was the ’Absolute Offense’ stance, a transformation from his earlier ’Absolute Defense,’ which reversed the tide of the battle, turning Ottar, who had been previously suppressed by Riezel, into the aggressor.
Upon closer inspection, it became clear that Ottar had not sustained any significant injuries, as if the earlier dominance Riezel had shown was merely an illusion.
Riezel had indeed suppressed Ottar, but the damage was superficial.
Clearly, this was why Finn was so confident in saying that Riezel was not yet ready to face Ottar head-on.
Of course, Ottar didn’t share that opinion.
In his eyes, Riezel, a Level 5 adventurer who could pose such a threat, was now a worthy opponent, one worth facing with full power.
"Come on."
Ottar, who had been roaring moments before, now wore a fleeting smile, not terrifying, but one that suggested he had finally met an opponent worthy of his skills.
"Riezel Brynhart, you haven’t used your full power yet, have you?"
Ignoring the surprised onlookers, Ottar spoke with simple directness, his words causing shock.
"Show it to me."
Riezel, still holding his ground against Ottar’s relentless strikes, raised an eyebrow slightly in response.
He certainly had many more tricks up his sleeve.
For one, he possessed over a thousand types of Tier Magic, yet he hadn’t used any of them in this fight.
Moreover, he had powerful and borderline-violating magic spells like Uchide no Kozuchi that he had deliberately kept in reserve.
If he unleashed them, the outcome would undoubtedly be very different.
In fact, even excluding the power he had consciously sealed, Riezel still possessed many techniques he hadn’t utilized, including his most specialized technique, Sun Breathing, which demonstrated that he was far from having exhausted his full potential.
Evidently, Ottar’s instinct and perception immediately recognized this, and he pointed it out without hesitation.
However, this wasn’t out of mercy from Riezel.
The reason he had refrained from using his world-shaking magic spells and powerful techniques was precisely that he intended to challenge the strongest adventurer in Orario, under these exact conditions, to earn high-rank excelia, cement his legacy, and gain the greatest challenge of his life.
Having fought countless powerful monsters on the floors below the 50th Floor with his true power suppressed to Level 5, he had accumulated a significant amount of high-rank excelia over time, and thanks to that, he had already begun to feel the moment when he could ascend, almost reaching the threshold of his next level.
Yes, he was very close—just a step away.
Just a little more excelia, and he would be ready to level up.
Once that happened, he would reach Level 8, a level currently nonexistent in Orario, and enter a new stage of power.
For that reason, upon knowing that Ottar would be here, Riezel had already made his plan: he would challenge Ottar under these conditions, just one step away from transcending to a new realm.
Although Ottar pointed this out, unfortunately for him, Riezel had no intention of responding with more power for the sake of gaining excelia.
Even more so...
"Haven’t you also not used your full power?"
Riezel pointed out casually.
Indeed, Ottar’s Absolute Defense was formidable, and his ability had reached the peak of what could be achieved at his level.
Except for true Level 8s, no one could match him in a one-on-one fight.
But even this nearly Level 8 strength was not his full power.
Because he had a magic he hadn’t used.
Because he had a skill he hadn’t used.
Even though the rarity of the magic and the skill was not rare, their strength far exceeded anyone’s expectations.
And without using them, Ottar had not yet unleashed his full power.
*BOOM!*
Riezel summoned wind around his sword, creating a shockwave between them.
In an instant, a hurricane rose, pushing Riezel and Ottar apart.
"Show it to me."
Still holding his sword, Riezel echoed Ottar’s words, his tone unwavering.
"Let me see just how strong the ’Orario’s strongest’ really is."
With that, Riezel surged forward, his speed increasing as the wind howled around him before he broke through the flames, charging straight toward Ottar.
"Wind Breathing - Eighth Form - Primary Gale Slash!"
For the first time in the battle, Riezel called out the name of his technique.
As he closed in on Ottar, he became like a swift wind, circling him in a dizzying pattern and striking from all sides with powerful wind blades.
*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*
Ottar immediately entered his Absolute Defense stance, swinging his greatsword with incredible precision and deflecting every one of the spiraling wind blades.
"Wind Breathing - Third Form - Clear Storm Wind Tree!"
Riezel’s figure emerged from the whirlwind as he launched three powerful slashes, each one aimed directly at Ottar.
Once again, Ottar’s defense proved unshakable.
The first slash was deflected by his gauntlet.
The second was blocked by his greatsword.
The third was perhaps the most surprising—he used his forehead to block the attack, which created a resounding metallic clash as he deflected the incoming blow.
Defense, defense, defense—Ottar was unmovable, unshaken, and unbreakable as if he had become a towering mountain, weathering all of Riezel’s attacks without faltering.
Whether through swordsmanship or magic, nothing could pierce his invincible defense.
A Level 7 adventurer could never pull off such a feat.
Even someone like Ottar, whose status had reached the peak of the Lower World, could not maintain such an impenetrable defense without his finely honed status and extraordinary techniques.
Needless to say, this would lead to a certain feeling in anyone facing him: despair.
"As expected..."
Finn tightened his grip on his spear and finally made a move.
"!!!"
Almost simultaneously, however, a wave of murderous intent radiated toward Finn.
The dark-and-white elves gripped their weapons, their gazes cold.
The pallum quadruplets also moved in, ready to strike at any moment.
Seeing this, Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione, all standing behind Finn, stepped forward together, releasing an aura strong enough to counter the murderous intent. Only Riveria stepped back, taking her position as the rear mage, her staff already raised and ready to chant magic.
Clearly, the standoff was about to erupt.
Even if it would disrupt the ongoing expedition, Finn and the others could no longer hold back and were prepared to assist Riezel at any cost.
"Ais..." Finn said calmly, his gaze focused on the two elves and the four pallums. "We’ll cover you. Go to Riezel."
Ais said nothing, but nodded firmly in response.
"Go!"
With Finn’s command, the Loki Familia’s First Class Adventurers charged forward without hesitation.
"Not so fast!"
Hedin shouted as he and Hogni leaped into action, intercepting Finn’s advance.
As for the pallum quadruplets, they wasted no time, moving as one to join the fight, each brandishing a greatsword, a warhammer, a spear, and a massive axe, all ready to strike at Finn.
"Tempest."
Ais’s chanting of the magic was clear, as the wind coiled around her slender limbs.
Just like that, the two greatest familias of Orario were about to engage in full-scale battle in the ruins of the Dungeon’s 9th Floor.
It went without saying that this intense confrontation, which would shock everyone on the surface, was about to escalate into something that even the Guild would be forced to intervene—until it was suddenly interrupted outright.
*BOOM!*
Without warning, a wall beside them was shattered.
As if reliving the earlier clash between Riezel and Ottar, two disproportionate figures emerged from the rubble, fighting fiercely as they barged into the battlefield where the First-Class Adventurers stood.
""What—""
Everyone froze, shocked.
Even Riezel and Ottar were forced to pause, stunned by the sudden intrusion.
And the two who broke onto the battlefield, one human and one monster, seemed completely unaware of where they had just entered, as they roared with ferocity.
"GROOOOOHHH—!!!"
It was the roar of a monster.
"HAAAAAHHH—!!!"
It was the roar of a human.
In the midst of the chaos of the firestorm and rubble, the human and the monster faced off in a battle that appeared weak to the others watching but was shockingly intense.
The monster, a massive monster larger than Ottar, with a bull’s head and a human-like body, wielded a gigantic sword.
In just one glance, everyone knew that it was a Minotaur—classified as a Level 2 monster that would normally appear on the Middle Floors but had somehow found its way to the Upper Floors.
Clearly, this was the same large monster that the panicked adventurers had spoken of earlier. A Level 2 monster, known for its combat prowess, had now entered the Upper Floors’ 9th Floor, a disaster for the lower-level adventurers in the area.
Yet in the face of this calamity, an inexperienced human adventurer stepped forward, shouting defiantly as he engaged the Minotaur in battle.
He was young, with white hair and red eyes, resembling a rabbit, and his frame was small and frail, indicating that he couldn’t have been more than 15 years old and was clearly still a child by human standards.
Already covered in wounds and with his body stained with blood, he looked ready to collapse at any moment, or perhaps be struck down by the Minotaur’s sword.
Yet this wounded, immature adventurer stood firm, blocking the monster’s every move.
"Firebolt!"
With a simple gesture, the young adventurer cast his magic, sending a bolt of flame and lightning surging toward the Minotaur.
*BOOM!*
As the bolt hit the Minotaur, it exploded upon impact.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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