Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society - Chapter 36 – Starting From Today, I'm an Official Explorer (6)
Library

Chapter 36 – Starting From Today, I'm an Official Explorer (6)

The Lizard Knight roared and thrust its spear toward me. Before its spear could touch my body, I parried it with my glaive. Its spear shot up into the air, and as it was unable to withstand my strength, the weapon flew out of its hands. With that golden opportunity in front of me, I snapped my glaive to the side and quickly pushed it away.

Describing a fight always took time, but all of this actually happened in the space of a second. Although I wasn’t weak, I was no match for the Lizard Knight in a head-on competition of strength. I had to rely on my techniques.

“No way, the Floor Master let go of his weapon!”

“I saw it too, so stop shaking me by my neck!”

I went into my stance and pulled my spear back. The Lizard Knight let out a rage filled roar and swung its tail. At this exact time, the second attack team made their move.

“Whoa, dodge its tail first!”

“Hmph, Lion Strike!”

While the other damage dealers were running back, Ren shouted out and swung his claymore down at the Lizard Knight’s tail. Since he said Lion Strike, he was likely using a skill.

His claymore was surrounded by a golden light and collided with the Lizard Knight’s tail with a  loud boom. The explosive sound happened as the Lizard Knight screamed. There was no need to wait to find out what had happened; I was certain Ren had crushed it.

“Enun, amplify me!” I commanded.

“Got it! Amplification!”

The moment Enun used Amplification, an instant surge of strength exploded in my body. I could certainly feel the amplification. It felt like the mana around me was flooding toward me. At the same time, I instinctively felt that this state would not last long.

I shouted, “Everyone get back! Heroic Strike, Divine Speed!”

This was my first time using the Divine Speed skill, which quintupled my speed for 0.5 seconds. With faster speed, it was obvious that the attack power of my skill would also increase. Although I could also use it to dodge attacks, I didn’t need to use Divine Speed to dodge the Lizard Knight’s attacks.

Divine Speed was truly powerful. When I thrust out with my spear as I normally did, I heard the sound of my spear cutting wind as it entered the Lizard Knight’s stomach. White light enveloped my glaive as it flickered with lightning from Spirit Aura. With the incredible boost from Divine Speed on top of everything else, my spear was no different from a strike from Zeus’ lightning.

“Gwaaaarrr!”

Within seconds, I punched through both the Lizard Knight’s armor and the scales protecting it. With a shrill cry, the Lizard Knight coughed out a mouthful of blood. It looked like the amplification magic did its job.

Of course, I wasn’t doing so well either. Heroic Strike normally had a strong recoil. With the momentum from Divine Speed added, my arm throbbed as if it was going to be ripped off.

“Is Ren okay!?”

“He’s alive! I’m healing him at the moment!”

“Argh… I’m… fine!”

Apparently,  he had also received a huge recoil from his attack. As I was worrying about Ren, the Lizard Knight threw away its broken armor and became bare-skinned. At that point, it looked like it had finally realized that it didn’t have its spear in hand as it rushed towards where the spear had gone flying. Even I had no plans to block his charge head on. As such, I stepped back and shouted to the archers.

“Archers, attack!”

“Yes!”

To stop the Lizard Knight’s movements, the two archers endlessly shot out their arrows. Meanwhile, the priest and priestesses managed to restore Ren to fighting condition. After spitting out some blood, Ren held up his claymore and asked, “What happened to his tail?”

“Ah, it’s dangling, half-severed.”

“Ah, I see…”

I answered Ren as I watched the Lizard Knight happily picking up its spear. Although Ren seemed depressed that he was unable to completely sever the Lizard Knight’s tail, I was surprised on the inside.

It was extremely difficult to cut the limbs or tail of a Floor Master. Their bodies were built completely different from normal monsters. Rather than cutting off their limbs, it was much more efficient to continuously attack their pressure points.

However, Ren managed to crush a Floor Master’s tail with a single use of a skill. It was a questionable attack from a warrior’s point of view since he destroyed his body in the process, but that was why healers existed.

In truth, although the way he used his strength seemed foolish, I had to at least acknowledge the sheer amount of power he had. Frankly, he was stronger than the current me. Based on his choice of the claymore as his weapon, I suspected that his class gave him a great advantage in strength.

As I was thinking about Ren, the Lizard Knight, who managed to retrieve its spear, raised it up high. I, of course, would not miss this opening. Just as I pulled my spear back slightly to use Tempest…

“Haaap!”

Ren cut in with his stupidly large claymore.

“Lion Upper!”

For a man with a large, bulky body, Ren moved quite nimbly. After swiftly approaching the Lizard Knight, Ren swung his claymore from the bottom to the top toward the Lizard Knight’s spear. It wasn’t a bad approach. However, unless he had a technique to make use of the enemy’s strength to maximize the counteractive force, it was better to just strike from top to bottom to mess up the enemy’s tempo!

“Kyaha! Human!”

“Die! Ugh, whoaaaaa!”

It was just as I expected. Ren was unable to win against the downward force of the Lizard Knight’s spear. His claymore was sent flying and the Lizard Knight’s spear ended up hitting the ground like he wanted.

As for myself? Since Ren made me miss my timing to use Tempest, I used Divine Speed to approach the Lizard Knight the moment its spear struck the ground.

“Cough!”

“Uwaaak!”

“‘Argh, damn it!”

[Party member Sherbitz has died.]

[Party member Enun Von Karbia has died.]

[Party member Rodlin Von Ionard has died.]

[Party member Deruin has died.]

Damn, just a single earthquake attack had killed four party members. The people who died were the three healers and the magician, Enun. It seemed all he did was use Amplification once. At least the priest and priestesses healed Ren…

During the time earthquake was activated, I had leapt forward with Divine Speed’s 0.5 second boost and was flying toward the Lizard Knight.

“Kuaaak!”

“Ugh, hang on! Use your potions!”

“Crown Prince-nim!”

I was going to take care of it even if you didn’t call me!

Before I knew it, I was almost next to the Lizard Knight. I first attacked the Lizard Knight’s eye from about a spear thrust’s distance away. Although the boss tried to intercept me, I was much faster. My spear hit its eye perfectly, causing blood to explode out.

[Critical Hit!]

“Kuak!”

“Tempest!”

I first stunned the Lizard Knight from holding its spear up. In the instant when its body lost its tension, I once again made it lose its spear. After the earthquake ended, the Lizard Knight swung its half-severed tail at me with fury.

I had been waiting for this moment.

“Elemental Tempest!” I activated another skill. The elementals around me screamed with joy.

[Whoooo!]

[Everyone gather up! Prince-nim is going to scold us otherwise!]

[Hurry, hurry! We’re going to be late!]

[That looks delicious! Someone fry it up!]

[There are no fire elementals here!]

I couldn’t believe it. Even the process in which the elementals gathered was shortening. Seeing the usually lax elementals rush to my spear, I shot my spear directly at the cut on the Lizard Knight’s tail.

With the swooshing sound of air being cut, a storm ripped the Lizard Knight’s tail apart.

“Kuaaak!”

“The tail got cut!”

“Please, does that look like it got cut? It got shredded!”

As expected, a skill that used half of my MP was indescribably strong. I had used Heroic Strike, Divine Speed, and Elemental Tempest within minutes of each other. Thanks to these skills, my MP was completely drained. As a result, I felt nauseous and my head throbbed.

As I landed down on the ground, I gulped down a lowest-grade mana potion. These potions only restored 100 mana each, so it only took the edge off the dizziness I felt from draining my mana quickly. 

The Lizard Knight was now using Dragon Skin.

“Kukuku, humans, you are strong, I admit! But that won’t matter now!”

“Yeah, the one I met yesterday said something similar.”

“Ugh, I’ll finish him off!” Ren said as he got up with his claymore in hand.

Ren was exactly the type of person who kept getting up after he was knocked down and was a true eager warrior. However, if things were left to him, he would undoubtedly mess up like before. As such, I silently waved my hand at Ren.

“Just stand there and watch.”

“But!”

“Because you couldn’t block his attack, four people lost a week of their time.”

“Argh!”

I deactivated Spirit Aura before putting my glaive aside and charging toward the Lizard Knight bare handed. It had to be severely damaged from Heroic Strike, Lion Strike, Elemental Tempest, and the archer’s focused atta…well maybe not that. In any case, its shaking legs belied its poor condition. It was almost like it was begging for me to use my jujitsu techniques!

“Here’s a two handed grip shoulder throw!”

“Ugghhh!”

“N-No way!”

“C-Crown Prince picked up and threw the Lizard Knight!”

“I can’t stop myself. I’m falling in love with him. I must marry him now!”

“But you’re a guy!”

I hadn’t been paying full attention to the remaining members, but the damage dealers from the second attack team had gotten up and were now spectating my solo engagement with stars in their eyes. However, I could not hear what they were murmuring about since I was focused on the fight. I did not want to either!

I threw the Lizard Knight over and over again without stopping. Because I had no mana left, I knew my body wouldn’t last the moment I missed a technique. I was in a more dangerous situation than yesterday. This was all Ren’s fault.

The boss screamed, “Human! A mere human!”

“It happens, and sometimes you die before you know it!”

“Humaaaaaan!”

“What, Lizard Kniiiight! This is the end! Floating drop!”

This is the power of level 9 mid-rank martial arts technique and a body strengthened with mana! As I threw the seven foot giant down on the ground, the Lizard Knight coughed out blood.

“Ugh, human… Hero…!”

“That wasn’t even Heroic Strike, you fool!”

In case it was still alive after spitting out a mouthful of blood, I made sure it was dead with my spear. The boss soon disappeared and we finally heard the system message we were all used to hearing.

[You have defeated the Floor Master!]