Free Web NovelChapter 204: Hell Floor
Roughly 10 minutes passed since Sara and Belian were warped to the fifth floor, the Hell Floor.
The entire floor was filled with the sounds of monsters’ death screams and of sword slashes.
"Is there no end to this...?!" Sara complained, starting to sweat.
"..."
Belian, who was mostly calm all the time, also noticed a slight fatigue from the constant fighting.
Since their arrival, monsters of varying sizes and strengths came at them.
"We haven’t moved from here yet, did we...?" Sara asked, looking over to Belian.
There was a path, leading to the floor boss but the two did not have the chance yet to march on.
"Let’s ignore them."
"Huh?"
The moment Belian uttered those words, he charged to the front.
"W-wait! What are you thinking?!"
Sara cut down one enemy after another as she tried to follow Belian. However, the monsters were also running after them.
"..."
Belian created a flame in his other hand.
"W-what’s the plan?!"
"Watch my back for now."
"?"
Belian suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around when Sara caught up to him. He threw the little flame in his hand to the ground, where the fire grew and spread tremendously, acting as some kind of wall to separate them from the monsters, who were chasing them.
This, however, left his back wide open to the enemies on the other side. And that was why Sara was there.
She mowed down the enemies, who tried to attack Belian.
"Keep running!" Belian commanded, taking the initiative.
The firewall would only slow down the enemies’ movements.
"Tch...!" Sara clicked her tongue as she started to lose count of the number of slayed monsters.
They continued to charge right in the enemies and cut them down. That was the only way for them to come closer to the floor boss.
However, it was dark and the path was curvy and small. There were no rails or walls. One misstep and a person would fall down into the dark and bottomless abyss. With enemies coming from both sides, they were too occupied and could, therefore, not see when the path would end.
"There!"
Belian pointed to the front, where a round and empty space was visible.
"Ugh... Finally!"
Finally seeing hope, the two gave it their all for the last distance and continued fighting until they arrived.
"?"
"The monsters aren’t chasing us anymore...?"
Once the two walked over a red line, the monsters gave up.
The monsters took a long look at the red line, which was on the grey soil before they turned their backs on Sara and Belian.
"What’s the meaning of this...?" Belian pondered.
However, he dismissed his thoughts the moment the ground started to shake.
"W-what now?!" Sara shrieked in surprise.
The ground beneath their feet glowed in a dark purple.
"?"
Under them was a circle, covering the whole space. That circle consisted of multiple smaller circles with foreign symbols in them.
Then, their bodies stiffened up all of a sudden.
Reluctantly, Belian and Sara both pointed their swords at them.
"M-my body...!"
"Tch...!"
They expressed their shock and confusion when it appeared like they had lost control over their bodies.
However, it was not like they were stripped of their control. Rather than that, their minds were flooded by a single thought.
’Kill Belian.’
’Kill Sara.’ freewebnøvel.com
At first, they tried to fight back against that urge but soon their resistance amounted to nothing and they ran towards the other one with killing intent.
Their swords clashed and sparks flew as they gazed at each other sternly.
Sara was the one, who took the initiative in the offense and mercilessly attempted to slash Belian without a break.
"Keh...!"
Belian was pushed back but he still managed to avoid getting cut by her.
"!"
Amidst her sword attacks, Sara sneakily kicked him in his waist, sending him to the ground.
Quickly, she applied water on her relic and fired off a black water slash at him before he could stand up again.
Fortunately, he was able to roll away just in time.
The slash, however, left a small trail on the ground behind.
"..."
Belian gripped his sword tightly. It started to steam from its edge.
"Not good!"
Sara charged up another black slash and fired it off simultaneously with Belian’s slash.
From an outsider’s perspective, it looked like Belian cut the air, however, he sent off a melting heatwave at Sara, who in turn, negated that attack with her black water slash.
Now, steam was covering the center of the space. But that was not enough to stop them as they decided to run around the steamy center.
And when they faced each other again, they both turned offensive and launched one after another sword strike, which parried the other’s slash.
"!"
However, at some point, Belian managed to land a tiny cut on Sara’s left upper arm.
"AAHH!" she shouted in pain due to the immense heat and her slightly sizzling wound.
Belian did not let her catch a breath and retracted his arm in preparation to land his final strike but Sara gritted her teeth and with ferocious eyes she took up her stance and quickly drew her sword.
Drawing it horizontally, she was just a few inches away from leaving at least a cut on his stomach, which would mark his death due to the effect of her relic.
"Dang it!"
"...!"
But at that moment, they lost their footing as the area was about to break in two.
"Was it because of earlier...?!" she muttered grumpily.
When she launched her first black water slash at Belian, her attack cut the ground. In other words, her relic’s effect kicked in and probably caused the area to get split into halves.
"Nevermind that!"
She shifted her focus back to Belian, who also had his eyes on her.
It did not matter to them that the other half of the arena was crumbling into the dark abyss.
"Haaa!" she shouted from the depths of her lungs with her sword above her head.
"Let’s end this!" Belian stated in a low but vigorous tone.
And again, their last blows were interrupted.
"Huh?"
"?"
Baffled, they stared each other in the eyes, stopping their motions. But because Sara was in the air as she was previously jumping at Belian, the two headbutted each other accidentally.
"Ow!"
"Ugh..."
The two rubbed their foreheads.
"That thought... It’s finally gone...?" Belian muttered surprised.
"D-did we really just try to kill each other...?" Sara wondered scared.
The purple-shining circle disappeared with the collapse of the space.
"Wait... I remember the reports containing the fact that one of the floor bosses was something inanimate... Were they referring to this area?"
Belian kept on pondering.
"Of all the bosses, the fifth boss was the most vague one. Every time someone tried to pass the fifth floor, another effect would get activated... Maybe this time, we triggered an effect that tried to make us kill each other..." he muttered.
"H-how creepy...!"
Sara shuddered.
"Huh? What now? Can’t we catch a break...?" she wondered fidgety as she looked at her shining body.
"Sara, prepare yourself." Belian said firmly.
The two disappeared from the fifth floor, which the two successfully cleared.
"..."
They opened their eyes.
However, it was dark. They found themselves under a starry sky. It was cold and yet fresh. And the ground was sandy.
"Where are we...? Are we outside...?" Sara murmured anxiously.
Belian was about to light up a fire but was beaten to it by their new surroundings.
Torches began to light up, lined up in a circle around them.
At first, Belian immediately checked where they were but he saw nothing on the horizon aside from sand.
"!"
His body became rigid when he noticed someone in his peripheral sight.
Sara, too, sensed the being in front of them. For her, it was one of the rarer occasions, where she would freeze up in fear.
In front of them was something with the shape of a tall human. But the appearance could not be described because it was wrapped up in old bandages all over its body. Even its head was covered by the bandages.
And then, there were some loose bandages on it, which were floating in the air. They were black at the ends and gave off an eerily aura.
It took one step forward.
"!"
Mustering up every courage he had, Belian tightened his grip on his sword and dashed towards it.
He jumped in the air and attempted to slash it apart from above.
"Hngh...!"
"B-Belian!"
However, a bandage emerged from the ground beneath them and managed to pierce Belian in the side of his stomach as if the bandage was as hard and sharp as a blade.
The bandage retracted itself.
"!"
And with a loud bang, the bandaged creature punched Belian away.
Following that, Sara appeared in front of it even though she was shaking.
But multiple bandages came from underneath again and wrapped themselves around her.
"Hrngh!!!" she groaned in struggle. freewebnσvel.cѳm
The bandages that were around her neck and tightened up more and more.
Sara started to lose her strength and her eyes were about to close as well.
The only thing she saw before she would eventually lose consciousness was the silhouette of another person arriving there.
