chapter 16

The dungeon’s 99th floor…

We’ve finally made it this far. All the monsters from the 51st floor onwards were tough and gave us a lot of trouble.

However, we made it through thanks to the skills and special skills that I got.

First were the special skills…

“Cure Brainwash,” “Regenerate” and “Spiritual Unity.”

Next were the skills…

“Wing Cutter,” “Slash,” and “Brainjack.”

We’ve had a much wider array of attacks up to here.

And now, we were fighting the 99th floor boss, Falcon Wing.

Using Wind Cutter, Meryl tried to bring down the Falcon Wing. However, even after receiving the attack, it continued to fly steadily, making it as if it had not taken any damage whatsoever.

Then, the Falcon Wing formed its wings into blades, and launched itself at me while using Wing Slasher.

I evaded it with Toxification. After that, I used Quick Jump, placing myself right in front of it.

“Fall down, bird!”

Using Power Slash, I cut the Falcon Wing’s wings off.

Without its wings, it was unable to stay stable in the air and fell to the ground.

With that, I summoned a stormcloud right above it and brought down my hand.

“Thunder Bolt!”

A bolt of lightning fell on the Falcon Wing, and electrocuted, it died.

Then, I copied its skills.

Hm? Could Wing be…

When using Wing, white wings appeared on my back, allowing me to fly.

“Whoa! Awesome!”

Seeing me act like a child with a new toy, Meryl giggled.

Well, playtime was over, so Meryl and I placed our hands on the door to the 100th floor.

“The next one is the last. Let’s go, Meryl!”

We’ve been in this dungeon for about a week now. It seems like our time here was coming to an end.

As I saw Meryl nod vigorously to what I said, we pushed the door open and walked in.

Walking into the room, all we could see was a figure in red armor sitting cross-legged on a throne.

But as I saw what was in the red armor, sweat trickled down my face…

“Oi, oi. This dungeon’s last boss is… Raphael. Seriously…!?”

The angelic monster “Raphael” noticed us, stood, and drew its sword, then threw slashes at us.

While holding Meryl in my arms, I avoided the sudden slashes with Emergency Evade. The slash was powerful enough to leave gashes in the ground.

I then put Meryl down and drew my sword.

“Meryl, cover me!”

“Roger!”

Kicking off the ground and dashing forward, I brought out my revolver and used Poison Blast, Rock Blast, and Thunder Blast in sequence. Poison, stone, and lightning bullets shot towards Raphael.

However, Raphael didn’t even try avoiding them. It simply used Barrier to protect against all of them.

“Splash!”

Meryl used Splash from behind me, but with another barrier… no!

Somehow, the barrier reflected Meryl’s Splash. And after receiving the reflected attack, Meryl was blown away.

So this must be Reflect…!

Raphael then shot multiple bullets of light at me.

Using Toxification and Emergency Evade to my advantage, I dodged the attack, then while using Haste, I moved right up to Raphael and slashed it countless times.

Raphael used its sword to defend against my onslaught of attacks.

The sound of metal on metal rang out, but suddenly, my sword was stopped by a barrier, and I was hit directly by all the bullets of light.

The bullets of light hit me in the stomach, and with a small explosion, I was sent tumbling away and fell to the ground.

“Ugh… Heal!”

Meryl used Heal on my injured body.

I also used Heal on myself, but…

“Uu, aaaaaah!”

Flapping its wings and soaring, Raphael used Gravity to weigh Meryl down, causing her to stumble to the ground and creating cracks in the ground around her.

This level of weight meant…!

“Meryl! …this bastaaaaaard!”

Seeing Meryl scream inaudibly, I angrily moved up and in front of Raphael with Quick Jump, and then slashed at him with my sword.

It continued to protect itself with Barrier, but putting power into my arm, I reached into the barrier, and it made a cracking noise.

“Take thiiiiiis!!”

Now that it didn’t have Barrier active, I tried to slash at it…

But the blade didn’t hit, and cut through the air. Though it should’ve been in front of me, it wasn’t there, and I could feel something behind me.

“Wh…!?”

Could it have used Teleport to go behind me?!

Just like that, I was hit by light ways at point blank, and was enveloped in light. With an explosion, I took damage, lost my strength, and fell to the ground.

“Aruto-san!”

While I was being attacked, Meryl escaped the effects of Gravity, then caught me on the ground and immediately used Heal on me.

However, I remained unconscious. That was the strength of those light rays.

Seeing me unconscious, Meryl sobbed, and with a vexed look on her face, laid me down, and stood up.

“(I can’t win at my current level… but I’m supposed to be guiding Aruto-san! That’s why…!)”

Raphael glared at Meryl, who had steeled herself and stood in front of me to protect me.

“I’ll… defeat you!”

Meryl quickly dashed forward and attacked with Fireball and Wind Cutter, but the attacks were all sent back with Reflect.

Meryl dodged the counterattacks and continued to press the offensive with her attack skills. In response to that, Raphael moved in front of her with Teleport, and blasted her with a bullet of light.

Meryl took lots of damage and was blown back to around where I was defeated. Her body was too worn out to get back up, and she reached out to me, consciousness fading.

However, not caring about us, Raphael charged up its rays of light.

Then, he fired them.

“(I’m terribly sorry, Ines-san, Aruto-san!)”

Without any means to protect against themselves, Meryl simply closed her eyes.

…but wondering why the rays were taking so long to hit her, she slowly opened her eyes.

Behind me, her tears welled up.

“Don’t hurt my partner, you bastard…!”

I used Barrier, and blocked the rays of light.

“A-Aruto-san!”

“You’ve got guts, Meryl! Take a rest. Now it’s my turn for a show of guts.”

“But winning against that monster is…”

Impossible, or so Meryl tried to say, but I interrupted her with a pat on the head.

“Close to impossible, yeah. But within every impossibility is a possibility, right?”

Even with all the odds against us, I didn’t stop smiling.

“So I’ll break through this impossibility and make it possible!”

I used Wing and approached Raphael who was looking down on us from above, then attacked at it with my sword.

But all my attacks were nullified by Barrier. Getting some distance, I shot at it with my revolver repeatedly.

Raphael used Reflect to send all my bullets back and countered with bullets of light of its own.

Using Emergency Evade, I dodged and drew closer, but it avoided me altogether with Teleport, and from a distance, Raphael charged up its light rays and shot them at me.

I immediately used Barrier to protect against them, but Raphael increased the intensity of its light rays.

I was knocked down by the sheer force, and the barrier started to crack with a noise.

Below me, I could see Meryl with a worried expression on her face.

That’s right… I made up my mind to protect her!

“That’s why… I won’t lose… to this impossibility!”

As I screamed, my white wings glimmered and absorbed Raphael’s rays of light, becoming a brilliant golden colour.

And so, words were etched into my head.

“Photon Wing”… wings of light!

With the radiance of Photon Wing, I drowned out Raphael’s light rays and approached it.

Compared to using Wing, my speed in midair was much faster…!

With this…!

Using my sword and relying on my momentum, I slashed through Raphael’s body.

It seemed like it wasn’t able to keep up with my speed and couldn’t teleport or put up a barrier.

Then, approaching Raphael again, I used Spin Kick to kick it down.

Even as Raphael fell to the ground with a thud, I remained vigilant.

Raphael then fired rays of light at me.

Not even trying to avoid it, I came at it head-on. I thrust my sword outwards and collided with Raphael’s rays, causing impacts and electricity to spark in the area.

After a while, I was gradually able to push its rays back.

I charged Photon Wing up with energy and made my wings shine even brighter, drowning out Raphael’s rays. However, my sword couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered.

“Uoooooo!”

Not having time to worry about it, I struck Raphael’s chest with a Power Punch…

Due to my momentum, the Power Punch was a lot stronger than usual. A crater formed around Raphael… and Meryl and I gained experience.

This was confirmation of our victory. Staggering, I got into form and activated Skill Copy. Words were etched into my head.

After checking my new abilities, I stepped forward sluggishly and opened the treasure chest next to the throne… then fell unconscious.

The last thing I could remember was Meryl slowly running up to me…