Chapter 16: Chapter 16
(A/N: Everything is the same about Ais's growth, it's just that she joined the Loki familia when she was 3 years older than in canon. Right now, in the fic, she has just leveled up to level 5)
As soon as I was away from the entrance of the dungeon, I dashed away from the central walkway on the first floor. As I did so, I could hear Regulus mumbling to himself. I wasn't able to catch all of it, but I heard a few bits and pieces of it. I was surprised by his murmuring due to him being fairly silent while residing inside my body. Even when outside, it was rare for him to say anything. Of course, these were all observations I had made in the very limited time we had spent together so far.
"That girl back there... A half-breed? That shouldn't be possible, Spirits can't...?" Regulus seemed to be trying to come to terms with the impossibility he had just seen.
"This is a whole different world than your used to Regulus. Different worlds - different rules," I said, trying to help the elemental work through his confusion.
"A whole new world, huh? That explains a lot actually, I've been trying to figure out where we are this entire time," he said in his deep, echoing voice.
"Is that so, where did you think we were?" I asked curiously.
"El Dorado, but that is only because I have never been summoned there before. My guess of El Dorado was undermined by the fact that I have not sensed the aura of the Demon Lord said to rule this area," Regulus stated flippantly.
I walked through toward the outskirts of the floor as I roasted any monster that approached me. I collected their stones idly with the help of Regulus's Earth Manipulation skill. I wandered around aimlessly for an hour or so, only coming out when I was sure the head of the expedition team had gone by. I walked a short distance behind the tail end of the expedition's forces as we made our way down the floors. It didn't take long to descend to the 11th floor due to the monsters being already cleared for us.
I broke off from following the forces and wandered around the floor, looking for the highest density of monsters that I could. I was hoping to encounter an infant dragon, but I didn't have my hopes too high. They are pretty rare creatures after all, but nevertheless, I continued on my search anyway. As I did so I put an extra emphasis on training my agility, it had been lagging behind my other stats for a while now. Now, whenever I encountered an Orc or Silverback, instead of attacking it right away, I simply dodged and evaded their attacks.
I would dodge by only a hair, not moving any more than the bare minimum to not get hit. It was only when the monsters started to lose steam did I cleave through their heads' with my sword. By this point in time, I was starting to get used to, and even enjoy combat quite a bit. I cut through any horde of monsters in my path when they came, always leaving one or two to train my agility and dexterity with. That was until I heard a roar from nearby, an infant dragon had finally appeared.
I wasted no time launching myself forward to face this new foe, while still maintaining an appropriate level of caution. As I approached the giant orange lizard turned my way. I roared out a challenge as I approached, causing me to use Haki in return. The Haki seemed to have little effect as the monster lunged forward, hitting the Magic Aura Shield. A moment later my blade was covered in Magic Aura as I approached, ducking and dodging the strikes of the ~level 2 monster.
I wove around its body, scoring it with long slashes as I did so, but I made sure the slashes were only enough to enrage the beast. I figured that I was successful in my endeavor as the monster roared loudly, drawing the attention of other monsters nearby, who joined the fight against me. As more monsters came I ignited my sword and swung it in a wide arc, sending a wave of flame accompanied by a Magic Aura Slash into the oncoming monsters. The slash cleaved through the monsters, killing the weaker ones while severely injuring the stronger ones. A moment later, the monsters who survived the slash burned to ashes.
As soon as I was done with the mobs interrupting my battle, I was hit by the tail of the infant dragon. I was blasted away, losing sight of the monster in the fog as I sailed into the distance. I quickly righted myself in the air so that I could land on my feet. My feet sank into the earth slightly as I skidded to a halt. I looked at the trail of shattered stone, then at my shredded feet. 'Luckily, with Ultraspeed Regeneration injuries like this are a thing of the past' I thought as I watched my feet stitch themselves back together.
Next, I looked up and tried to figure out where that sneaky lizard had run off to. I was sure it was still nearby, stalking me most likely. I walked around in the fog as I kept my eyes out for a massive orange lizard, which definitely shouldn't have been able to hide as well as it was doing now. I was about to check in a fairly large crevice when my sixth sense was altered. I turned, meeting the infant dragon head-on with my sword. Even with my boosted physical attack, I was still being pushed by the monster.
I used Instantmove, and appeared directly behind the beast, I directly cut its tail off. It screamed in pain as it swung its bloody stump of a tail around, spraying blood all over the place. It seemed to go into a rage after its tail was cut off, charging at me. I ducked a bite, then jumped over an attempted body slam. The infant dragon recovered quickly from its missed attacks, going for another bit. I dodged once more, but the monster changed attacks, swinging its neck at me. I could have cleaved through its neck as it swung, but I decided to block it with my offhand instead.
I felt the bones in my arm shatter as the force behind the blow was too great for me to block. I was flung into a nearby stone wall and felt more bones break on impact. 'It's weird to feel and hear my bones breaking, but be unable to feel the pain of it' I thought as I stood from where I had impacted the wall, bones already regrowing and snapping into place. I clenched the fist of my off-hand, feeling no difference from before I received the attack. Before I could admire my amazing regeneration I jumped high into the air, then jumped off of the stone wall, propelling myself even higher.
A moment later the body of the infant dragon smashed into the wall at full speed. It created a crater in the wall, then stumbled back, dazed. As I fell, I dropped my sword into my Statial Storage as I pumped my Magic Aura up to max, then coated my fist. The monster looked up at my falling figure, confused and concussed. That made me feel a bit bad as I drove my enhanced fist straight into the monster's head, driving it straight into the ground. As it tried to raise its head, I slammed it in the chin with an uppercut, but there was less of an effect this time. My final punch barely even caused the beast to flinch as it withstood my blow.
I had decided by this point that I would probably not gain too much excelia by directly killing the infant dragon. Don't get me wrong, it would definitely be a nice harvest compared to the other monsters of this floor, but I could milk it for all it's worth another way. I decided that I was going to only use my fists, Ultraspeed Regeneration, Increased Physical Attack, and Magic Aura in this encounter. That may sound like quite a bit still, but I wasn't trying to die in this encounter so I felt that this was good enough.
I rained a flurry of blows down on the monster, but even with my strength and aura it resisted. Despite the seemingly futile effort I was making, I continued. Due to my close proximity to the monster, it was much harder to dodge effectively. I ended up getting hit much more often, causing me to rely more on my regeneration. I kept raining blows on the infant dragon, but I focused on a particular spot on its head, only attacking there as the battle drew on.
As I accumulated more damage through the battle I was concerned to see that my regeneration was starting to slow down, and my aura supply was nearly empty. I looked at my foe, which I had gained respect for through this battle, the monster's breathing was labored and its legs shook slightly, but it was still standing. My condition wasn't nearly so bad, but I was getting there. I decided that now was the time to end the battle, gathering my remaining Magic Aura into my right fist. The infant dragon seemed to recognize what was going on despite its bestial intelligence, leading it to stand straighter and ready itself for another charge.
After a moment of staring each other down, we bother launched forward. As I approached the monster, I jumped and somersaulted over its snapping jaws. I uncurled my body and looked down at the clear dent in the monster's head where I had focused my attacks. I condensed my aura into my fist as I struck, blowing a hole through the infant dragon's skull. The beast froze for a moment, before stumbling back and collapsing to its knees. I patted its head once as I drew my sword from my storage and collected the magic stone.
I used the last of my energy to cast healing on myself before heading for the exit of the dungeon.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone