For [Intimidation] to push back, instead of just defending, I needed a threat. Not necessarily as dire a threat as him just coming over and killing us all, but the bigger the better. Threatening his entire House with retributive action by the King fit the bill.

“The King is well aware of your deal with Shadthe,” I pressed. “He’s looking for an excuse to make you pay for it. If the Champions don’t come back, he’ll blame you—whatever you say— and see you torn to pieces by a Dorsay mob.”

I thought this was generally plausible. I’d seen how much the nobles venerated the Champions. I wasn’t sure how much that feeling was shared by the general populace, but I was sure that he didn’t have any idea either. He wasn’t exactly a man of the people.

Similarly, I wasn’t sure just how much of a threat a mob was. He did have a castle, and he was level seven. However, a mob with the King in front of it was another proposition altogether.

It seemed to be good enough. He stopped at least, frowning.

“You,” he said. “Again. What are you doing here?”

“Someone had to represent the King,” Kaito lied, now able to speak more easily.

Nice excuse, I thought, but Finley wasn’t exactly buying it.

“He has Inquisitors, Heralds, and other nobles aplenty, but he sent you?”

“I didn’t think to argue with him,” I claimed with a straight face. “If you want to take it up with His Majesty, he is eager to speak with you.”

Finley glared at me, but he put away his sword. The [Intimidation] didn’t let up though— he didn’t need to have his sword out to actually threaten us. His problem though, was that he was out of contact, and didn’t know what was happening on the surface. For all he knew, the King had taken over his castle and was just waiting for him to emerge. He couldn’t go and check, because he couldn’t ignore the greater threat below.

He could have tried asking me, but even if I’d told him the truth, and even if he’d believed me, I didn’t know either. The King hadn’t told me his plans, and it had been hours since I was in the open air. A lot could happen in that time.

Finally, the scowl came off his face, and the [Intimidation] lifted.

“I thought better of him, but I suppose that even a King can have his head turned by a pretty face,” he sneered. “He must have tired of you quickly to send you down here, though.”

I bristled at the accusation, but I didn’t say anything. Just keep underestimating me, pal. Kaito though, bless her, rose to my defence.

“It’s not like that at all! C-Councillor Kandis is a high-ranked adventurer and a negotiator of rare skill. If anyone could convince you to su- to follow the King's will, it would be her.”

“Yes, yes,” Finley said dismissively. “So, not only do I have to let you accompany me, but I have to protect you? I’m to be blamed for your deaths when there are so many other ways for you to die? I’m starting to see the King’s plan. I’m surprised you all went along with it, though.”

There didn’t seem much point in arguing with the insinuation— he might be right, the King might have sent us all here to die— so I pressed on.

“Can you actually kill the giant?” I asked. “Have you done it before?”

“Yes… but that was leading a larger group,” he admitted. “We had an Air mage to keep a cloud around its head while two squads with greatswords hacked at his legs. That kept him busy while the ranged team pounded at him until he went down.”

He looked down, remembering. “He’s slow and clumsy, but if he hits a person, it’s all over for them. And he’s so tough, it takes a while for even a large team to bring him down.”

“That sounds like the beasts we fight in the forest,” Kaito said, brightening. “Though… of not so high a threat value. Still, we should be able to use similar tactics.”

“Not you, girl,” Finley said. “If I’m to be blamed for your death, you’re not getting near that thing. Dodging is all very well, but its hand is as big as you are— and it doesn’t need to bother making a fist to kill you.”

Kaito didn’t reply, but gave him a cocky grin which as good as said, “You’re not going to be able to keep me away.” I interrupted before they could take it further.

“So who do you have with you, then? My Lord.” I added hastily. He flicked a disparaging glance my way, but I guess he couldn’t deny the need for us all to be on the same page if we were going to be fighting together.

“Allen, [Master Arcanist]. Faulkner, [Shadowed Rogue]. Coles, [Fire Arcanist]. They’re all level six.”

I nodded and checked them out while Kaito introduced his own crew and classes.

Allen was one of the ones wearing the robes. Short and pink-skinned, his light brown hair looked like a bird's nest. [Arcanist] was a pretty popular Profession among adventurers. It gave bonuses to a wide variety of magics, so it allowed for flexibility. [Master Arcanist] was an upgrade to the Profession, available at level six.

[Fire Arcanist] was an upgrade to Janie’s [Fire Mage]. This one looked… not cruel exactly, more like harsh. Blonde hair and tanned skin suggested he got out a lot, probably adventuring in the open air. I wasn’t sure, but I don’t think any of the dungeons gave you a tan. He was one of those people who shouldn’t grow facial hair, but did anyway, resulting in a scraggly moustache and beard.

The final man in the trio was the [Shadowed Rogue]. That Profession was… an upgraded [Rogue] Profession with an additional requirement of [Shadow Magic]. Which made it better than the regular upgrades, (There were a couple, [Assassin] being the main one). The benefits… mainly went to bonuses to [Shadow Magic]. Which wasn’t bad, really.

Kaito had finished his introductions, so I asked Allen what his magics were.

“[Ice], [Water] and [Air],” he replied. I nodded. There were some Arcanists that went for every magic type, but most specialised to some extent. That might explain the huge jumps that we’d had trouble following on the earlier level. Then again, they were level six.

“So what is your plan?” I asked the Duke.

“Faulkner was scouting while the others were recovering their mana,” he said, making no mention of himself having needed rest. Perhaps he didn’t. “Tell them what you saw,” he said to the rogue.

“The Giant has left floor twenty,” Faulkner said. “He was at floor sixteen when I checked, he may be at floor fifteen by now. He’s not moving particularly quickly.”

Five floors, thirty kilometres to travel, and it had been less than twenty-four hours since the break had begun. That wasn’t terribly slow, but I had the feeling the giant could move faster than that if it wanted to.

“Has the dungeon cleared the way for him?” I asked.

“Yes. It hasn’t changed the lower exit for this level, but it was already large enough for him to squeeze through.”

“The upper exit here, though…” I cast my mind back. “That probably isn’t large enough?”

“Yes,” the duke said. “It's unable to change it since we are here, so this may be the lowest point to serve as a bottleneck. It is… somewhat defensible.”

Not against birds, I thought but refrained from interrupting. There were birds, on this level and the next, but they hadn’t been mentioned as monsters in the lower levels.

“The problem is,” Faulkner said, “He’s bringing a wave with him. All the monsters in the levels we haven’t cleared are being swept before him. That might be part of the reason he’s moving so slow.”

I swallowed. Nine floors worth of monsters, all in one place. “You want to fight them all here?”

“That was the plan,” Finley said thoughtfully. “Along with the possibility of a fighting retreat to the redoubt held by my son. Now, I think it might make sense to push on, kill as many monsters as possible before the wave and then fall back to this level.”

“Wait, why now?” I asked.

“Because you are here,” he replied. “Your group is— barely— capable of surviving on this floor. You can keep it from changing while we head out and kill what monsters we can.”

“Wait,” Kaito protested, “We’re not just going to sit here while you—”

“You do not have the levels to survive deeper floors,” the Duke shot back bluntly. “Here, you can thin out the new spawns and keep this floor defensible. That is of far more use than anything else I can think of you doing.”

“But I—”

“If I’m to be held responsible for your deaths, then you need to let me keep you alive,” Finley continued over him. “If your deaths are to be certain, and I’m going to have to deal with the consequences, I’d rather take the pleasure of killing you myself.”

That shut Kaito up. She looked at me pleadingly.

“We don’t want to die,” I agreed. “But I think the point that Kaito is making is that if we’re not in the thick of things, we won’t be placed to act out the god's mysterious design.”

“I’m sure the gods, in their infinite wisdom, have already planned for that,” Finley said with far more sarcasm than I was comfortable with.

“You know they’re watching right?” I asked. “Can lightning strike underground?”

Finley’s snort was my only reply.

“Stay here,” he repeated. “Kill birds. We’ll be back, and you can try figuring out what the gods want you to do then.”

We all looked at Kaito, but she didn’t protest, just drooped her ears. “Fine,” she said.

The duke nodded and without further ceremony gestured for his men to join him. They all grabbed a hold of Faulkner, and shadows, already thick in this cave, swirled around them. Then they were gone. Already jealous of his teleporting, but suspecting that it couldn’t be that powerful, I took a look down. Sure enough, they’d only teleported down about a hundred meters, to the next loop of the spiral. They’d saved themselves a lot of walking, but I guess Faulkner couldn’t do that too often.

“Um, I have some [Earth Magic],” Fassi volunteered. “I can make this cave deeper, and give it a narrower entrance.”

“I can start shooting birds, if we’re ready to receive a… is charge the right word?” Nori said.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t suppose it matters,” Kaito replied, her gaze still following the Duke and his party as they made their way down. “Let’s get started.

It worked at first. Nori would shoot a bird at a distance of one or two kilometres. It would get mad, and bring some of its friends to attack us. She’d maybe get one before it came into [Blind] range, then I’d get one or two while she tried for her second. That tended to leave two or three for Zichy, Isidre and Kaito. The entrance to the cave had been narrowed so that only two of them could fight side by side. This meant that our three frontline fighters could take turns having a break, something that Kaito had to insist on, since Zichy didn’t want Isidre fighting next to Kaito.

Taking out a small group like this was well within our capacities, especially since we could control the timing and take breaks for healing and rest as needed. We were on our third group when the problem started.

Finley had just about made it to the exit. He hadn’t crossed, or even made it to the bottom. He just went along the ramp until he was over the exit, and then shadow jumped straight down. At which point a few things happened.

For one, a huge bird flew out of the top of the giant tree.

[Identification]: - Eagle Colossus - Threat: 36 - Properties: Flight, Adamant Claws.

That… was one big bird. Fortunately, it didn’t come for us but headed towards the Duke. I, and I’m sure the Duke, had been expecting this. Since the boss didn’t reside in the final chamber, getting rid of the chamber didn’t eliminate the boss.

The second thing that happened was that all the birds that had been flying around the chamber started heading for either the Duke’s party, or for us. This… was also not totally unexpected. You triggered just about all the birds as you went around or through the floor, but the Duke had taken quite a few shortcuts. It made sense that they’d join their boss for the final fight.

The third thing was unexpected. From the exit that Finley had just reached, a huge number of birds started to pour through. These were easily distinguished from the birds of this floor by their more brightly coloured plumage. These giant birds were elementally aspected with Fire, Ice and Air magics.

[Identification]: - Giant Fire Swallow - Threat: 33 - Properties: Fire Aspect (ranged attack)

[Identification]: - Greater Storm Hawk - Threat: 33 - Properties: Ice Aspect (generate storm)

[Identification]: - Shadow Ogre Shrike- Threat: 33 - Properties: Shadow Aspect (concealment)

[Identification]: - Colossal Swift Tern - Threat: 33 - Properties: Air Aspect (movement)

Okay, so not just elemental magics. Our guides had not been complete. There were more than just the four types of course, but I quickly gave up trying to classify them.

Some of them fell to Finley and his men before making it into the chamber. They may have been tougher monsters, but he could still kill them with one blow. Others made it past the gauntlet but wheeled back to attack him or his party.

But some started heading in this direction. We were going to be in for quite a fight.