Date: May 16, 2020? - 2:01 pm

Location: Small island in the Caribbean Sea? (C-rank Dungeon)

Inside the C-rank Dungeon, Sierra found herself on sprawling grasslands. In the distance, she saw two mountains. Ah, so it’s the bird-type Dungeon, she thought. She took several steps forward and waited. In the distance, she could already see a dark cloud in the distance coming at her. She stretched out her arms and legs a little bit as the cloud quickly approached. In the middle of this, she took off her sunglasses and beret and put them in her Inventory. They would probably fall off while fighting against these kinds of monsters.

Finally, the cloud was close enough to distinguish what it really was. A flock of about one hundred giant vulture-like monsters. Sierra was the very first Dungeoneer to try fighting in a C-rank Dungeon after an Outbreak, so the behaviour of the monsters was simply unknown. Would they aggressively attack the first thing in sight, or would they prioritize escaping through the portal? The first of the vulture-like monsters accelerated as they suddenly dived in closer to the ground.

Sierra smiled when the first vulture swooped right at her. She delivered a swift punch that easily dug itself into the vulture’s body. Before the vulture’s body turned to mist, another vulture was already upon her. She struck that one down as well. In quick succession, she killed the vultures that attacked her with hard blows, but eventually, she was completely surrounded by them, their pecking and clawing shredding apart her clothes.

She burst out from the swarm of vultures by jumping up into the air. Then, she kicked off from a surprised vulture that was circling around the swarm. With her Strength and Dexterity Stats (which was also further boosted by her Evasion Skill) as well as the durability and size of the monsters, she could actually hop off the vultures and ascend higher into the air. The vultures quickly tried to follow after her to continue their assault. However, now they were coming at her in lines again, which made killing them easier.

When there were no more vultures circling around the area for her to jump off of, she then grabbed at one of the vultures that flew at her. With her free hand and her legs, she could still strike back at the other vultures, usually killing them with just one or two hits.

The vulture that she hung onto eventually tired and tried to land, so she jumped off and grabbed onto another one. As if the result of flawed artificial intelligence, these vultures did not know how to deal with the situation other than to simply continue their single-minded attacks.

After Sierra managed to kill off more than half of the vultures, another flock of monsters came. They were the mechanical, silver owls. The massive flock joined the fray and this time it looked nearly impossible for Sierra to prevent herself from being entirely surrounded. However, these owls were also simple-minded creatures that were only concerned with attacking her. Thus, when they came at her as a densely packed attack wave, Sierra could add them to her strategy.

Sierra let go of the vulture she was clinging onto and landed on one of the mechanical owls that was flying in from below her. She purposely landed lightly to avoid instantly destroying it. Then, she jumped off from it and started jumping from owl to owl, each time damaging the one she landed on. Depending on the density of the attacking waves that came at her, Sierra could choose whether to go higher or lower, although she generally preferred going higher since that gave more leeway in case she instantly destroyed an owl that she jumped off from.

The absurd spectacle of an airborne fight somehow persisted without the flock of monsters gaining any clear advantage against this Dungeoneer. Constant usage of her Evasion Skill slowly consumed mana, but it was replenished just as quickly from the Magic Stat points she gained from defeating them. But then, the Mid-boss arrived. It flew towards her, and Sierra, at first, tried to keep her distance from it by strategically jumping around. However, that did not last for long and she had to brace herself for what was to come. The giant, black owl let out an ear-piercing screech that caused Sierra to lose her balance and slip off from the mechanical owl she used as footing. The deafened Dungeoneer did recover though as she grabbed hold onto one of the remaining vultures. The black owl flew in close and faced her. Then, its orange, fiery eyes flared up. At that exact moment, Sierra closed her eyes and swung off the vulture and brought her hands out to grab onto the black owl.

Her hands made contact with something so she figured she stuck the landing despite being blind and deaf. Then, she felt whatever she was holding onto suddenly move around and Sierra desperately tried to find a better place to hold onto to avoid falling off. Whether it be her arms or legs, she wrapped herself around Mid-boss as she felt the wind rushing past her. Up, down, and sudden turns, Sierra’s arms and legs frequently slipped off but she still somehow managed to stay on the giant owl.

Then, Sierra felt her hand touch something hot. Sierra’s hand recoiled for an instant from the sudden burning sensation, but she quickly slammed her hand in a random direction and finally found the key to escaping this strange re-imagining of a bull ride. There were only two fiery objects on the Mid-Boss: its two eyes. Sierra started gathering mana in order to use Power Strike. After making sure her grip was good after settling down from another sharp turn, she drove her fist through where she felt the burning sensation.

It felt like she had just punched through molten glass. There was the sensation of fire and glass-like shards exploding out from the impact of her punch, and then her fist kept going and hit something that felt like a vault door. Her fist left an imprint in the metal, and she suddenly felt her and the owl falling to the ground. As she felt the owl starting to writhe around and recover, she charged up another Power Strike, this time with even more mana since the last hit apparently wasn’t strong enough. The owl suddenly flipped around in mid-air and Sierra barely held on with one hand still gripped onto the owl’s eye socket. Then, the owl suddenly accelerated upwards. Sierra grabbed onto the eye socket with her other hand as well, but made sure not to use Power Strike yet. Finally, the owl decelerated as it prepared to swoop back down. Sierra struck into the eye socket again, and this time she felt her fist punch right through. The owl’s entire body rocked in shock and its momentum suddenly died.

The sound of rushing air could finally be heard. Sierra opened her eyes and took a look. She was holding onto the owl’s left eye socket, with her other arm all the way through it. Thanks to her Layered Defense Skill, that arm wasn’t broken but it was probably burnt or cut up, judging by the sensations she could feel along it. As for the right, the orange glow of the one remaining eye had just flickered away and the owl’s entire body started smoking. Then, it transformed into black mist and Sierra found herself looking up at her burnt and bleeding left arm. Sierra quickly glanced down and smiled with relief. There were still plenty of bird monsters that were flying around nearby, some of them already coming in to attack her.

Sierra briefly resumed her chain of aerial attacks before the final flyer arrived. A snow-white harpy with glowing green eyes quickly flew into view and Sierra tried to keep an accurate account of its movements as she continued to kill off the mechanical owls and remaining vultures. Then, unexpectedly, when the harpy was about a hundred feet away, it let out something akin to a loud bird call. Suddenly, the flock of birds that were incessantly trying to attack and swarm Sierra scattered with the exception of the vulture that she was still hanging onto.

The rest of the birds made a beeline for the portal as the harpy came in to attack Sierra with the talons of its legs. Sierra attempted to move over to grab onto the harpy as it came, but it suddenly braked in mid-air, causing Sierra to fall just short. Just as Sierra was about to free fall, the harpy then grabbed onto Sierra by digging its talons into her shoulders. Even with her Layered Defense, the talons easily pierced her skin.

The harpy started to rapidly fly higher up into the air. As it did, Sierra started hitting one of the harpy’s legs to make it let go of her. Just one leg, though, since she would fall straight to the ground otherwise. The first few hits didn’t seem to affect it at all and Sierra was forced to use another Power Strike. She landed a weaker Power Strike as they continued to ascend, and the blow fractured the harpy’s leg bone. She now had less than half of her mana remaining.

Sierra’s body rocked about as there was now only one leg keeping her up in the air. The harpy also briefly stopped soaring up into the air after receiving the hit. Using the sudden shift in momentum, Sierra swung her body upwards, attempting to both free herself from the other leg and get herself into a higher position than the harpy. It barely succeeded, and Sierra’s left shoulder received a pair of long gashes as the talons ripped through her flesh when she flung herself upwards.

As her body began to shoot up past the harpy, she grabbed onto one of the harpy’s wings. This stopped herself from flying further away and also interrupted the harpy’s ability to reorient itself to keep flying. Then, Sierra consumed almost all of her remaining mana for a final Power Strike, leaving the bare amount to maintain her Evasion. Sierra just needed to hang on for a few more seconds and she was sure she could deal the finishing blow right to the back of the harpy’s head. However, right as she was about to attack, she was suddenly blasted by a powerful gust of wind. She still could have just barely hung on if the harpy did not also make a quick turn at the same time. Sierra’s fingers slipped off the harpy’s wing and Sierra still attempted to connect her blow. However, it only barely grazed the harpy in the back as it turned. The harpy flew off as Sierra started falling back to the ground.

When she hit free falling speed, Sierra finally had an appreciation of just how fall the harpy took her up. Sierra spread her arms and legs out wide in order to try to create more drag, but it made little difference. Sierra took a look at her Inventory but the closest thing she had to a parachute was the folding chair. Well, she would be sure to pack an actual parachute in there next time, she thought as she pulled out the folding chair. The ground drew ever closer and it was difficult to notice how much of a difference the folding chair was making. After falling for around a thousand feet, she finally smashed into the grassland below. The impact deactivated her Layered Defense Skill and she was instantly knocked unconscious.

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Outside the C-rank Dungeon, the first of the mechanical owls and the last few remaining vultures flew out of the portal. After exiting the Dungeon, they circled around the portal, searching for something to attack. However, nobody was in sight and the monsters just continued to gather around the portal. A few minutes later, the harpy also emerged from the portal. Seeing the other monsters just waiting around, it let out another sound similar to a bird call and all the monsters started flying towards the beach, where a destroyer could be seen about ten kilometres away from the coast.

The beach was a kilometre away from the portal so it would take just a minute for the flock of monsters to be in clear sight of the destroyer’s crew. Less than ten minutes after that, the first ever fight between a destroyer and monsters would then ensue. As the monsters neared the beach, something was rapidly approaching them just above the beach. A car was racing along the road by the beachside at top speed.

As the car sped ahead to intercept the monsters, the water along the beach started to stir. Then, it seemed as if a wall of water suddenly rose up from the ocean. Out from this wall, numerous jets of pressurized water shot out like spears of water and knocked down the flying monsters out of the air. The flock of monsters scattered when the attack began, unsure of where to go. The harpy, with its eagle-like vision and animalistic instinct, recognized the driver of the car to be a threat and called out to the rest of the flock, ordering them to go after them.

As the flock came at the driver and their car, the water wall dispersed. Then, the car seemed to suddenly jump up off the ground and flew towards the flock. Just before the car collided into the flock the driver opened the driver side door and jumped out. The car rammed into more than a dozen of the mechanical owls, and several of them crashed through the windshield. As the driver was about to land onto the ground, they suddenly brought out one arm and pointed it at the car. Sparks appeared and the car exploded, taking down several more owls in the explosion.

The driver landed onto the beach below. The common monsters cared not for the loss of their compatriots and immediately continued the attack against the driver. The harpy, however, cautiously observed from behind. The driver wore a hooded rain coat over padded clothing that completely covered up their body, including gloves. The driver’s head was also completely covered up by a racing helmet. As far as the harpy could see, the driver was unarmed, but when it saw the waters behind them rise up again, it knew it made the proper connection of how dangerous this individual was.

The flying monsters dove in as quickly as they could, completely disregarding the possibility of being shot down by more water spears. Surprisingly, only a few water spears shot out, specifically taking down the last few vulture-like monsters. Then, when the first owls were about to make contact with the driver, they brought out one arm again. Faint streaks of light appeared all around the flock of owls, and suddenly, the owls started crashing into each other. Very quickly, a giant cluster of nearly a hundred and fifty mechanical owls formed into a ball and then crashed into the beach, driving up huge amounts of sand.

The driver approached the magnetized mass of monsters and put one hand very close to them. Sparks appeared again, and then huge streaks of lightning suddenly erupted all across the giant clump. Smoke and fire appeared, and just a few seconds later, the giant collection of monsters was nothing more than a huge cloud of black mist.

For the first time ever, the C-rank monster flew off as fast as it could, but not to attack. It desperately tried to flee by flying high up into the air and getting past the wall of water. The wall of water suddenly collapsed and flowed towards the driver’s hands. More electricity appeared as the water collected into a floating sphere suspended just in front of the driver’s hands. Water vapour formed rapidly and in huge amounts as the driver’s figure quickly became obscured. All the while, more water flowed into the water sphere that remained about the size of a bowling ball.

Then, there was a flash of light as a massive stream of what appeared to be steam streamed towards the harpy at a supersonic speed. The stream accurately struck the harpy from more than two thousand feet away, and an enormous amount of mist obscured the instant of impact. Before the mist cleared away, the harpy was seen falling back down to the ground.

The badly burnt harpy was blinded in both eyes and most of its feathers were seared away, which revealed ghastly and gangly looking arms instead of wings. The deformed creature crashed into the ocean below. Waves splashed out as it broke through the water, but the waves then started to swirl around where the creature fell. After another streak of electricity ran across the water’s surface, the water immediately boiled, and then there was an explosion of steam. Even larger waves formed and raged across the ocean’s surface, nearly obscuring the black mist that rose up from below before turning into nothingness. As a precaution, the driver waited on the beach until they received the notification.

C-rank Dungeon Boss defeated.

Dexterity increased by 47

Magic increased by 47

The Dungeoneer then proceeded to where the portal was supposed to be. When they got to the barricade, instead of a portal, they found Sierra Madrazo, lying under a folding chair, and only just then regaining consciousness. The first thing that came to her mind when she woke up was the notification that the C-rank Dungeon Boss was defeated. The Dungeoneer went over to Sierra to check on her.

“Ah…who’s there?” she asked, hearing someone approach, but not able to turn to look. The Dungeoneer said nothing. Instead, they took out a phone, dialed a number and put it down next to her face.

“...Hello?” Sierra recognized the voice.

“Juan…”

“Miss Madrazo? Why are you calling? Wait, did you do something to the Dungeoneer we sent over?” Sierra tried to laugh but ended up coughing instead.

“...I said you could call me Sierra.”

“...Sierra, what happened to the Dungeoneer that had this phone?”

“I think they’re right here…can’t see them so not too sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I broke a lot of my bones…so I can’t get up right now.” There was a pause on the other side. Sierra did not answer in a way he meant her to.

“...so there is someone with you right now? And they are the ones who gave you the phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay…so, about the Dungeon?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s cleared.”

“That’s…quite something. So, you managed to clear it before the Dungeoneer arrived?”

“Uh…” Sierra tried to laugh again but failed, “no…the Boss got away from me.”

“I see…Sierra, do you think you can get the Dungeoneer on the phone right now.”

“I’ll try…hey, you…pick up the phone and talk to Juan.” The other Dungeoneer did nothing. “Who is this guy by the way? Hasn’t said a word yet.”

“They don’t have a name. We just call them "S" for now. They cleared several D-rank Dungeons in South America and Africa and the Earth Alliance recently worked out some arrangements with them.”

“...that’s cool, I guess…” Sierra’s consciousness was starting to fade.

“Alright, so, to confirm, the C-rank Dungeon has been successfully cleared by the Dungeoneer we sent?”

“...yeah”

“Got it. We’ll send some people over now, then. Hang tight.”

“...are you going to arrest me?” Juan said nothing and then hung up after a moment. Sierra, with what little energy she had left, tried to turn her head to look up at "S" and managed to see up to their waist. Sierra’s eyes forcefully closed on her and her mind started to drift off again. Damn, you’re strong. Let’s fight some time. These were her last thoughts.