Hearing the taunts from the Rudra Familia, Ryuu's face darkened like the bottom of a pot, but Roy stopped her.
Roy wasn't affected by the Rudra Familia at all. Even criminals on death row are given a full meal before execution—so what if he let them run their mouths for a bit?
"See you later," Roy said meaningfully.
"What an arrogant brat!"
The members of the Rudra Familia stared at Roy with displeasure. Just a mere LV.1 rookie.
However, a small number of sharp-eyed individuals noticed something strange—between Roy and Ryuu, it was Roy who was clearly in the leading position. Was that reasonable? The other one was LV.4!
As Shakti gave the order—
Ryuu dashed forward in a single burst, sprinting toward the deep lower passages like a gust of wind. The monsters on the upper floors could barely slow her down.
Roy followed closely behind. With the path cleared by Ryuu, there were hardly any monsters left, allowing him to move unimpeded. With his current status, upper-floor monsters were easy to deal with anyway.
Their destination was the 10th Floor!
"Hey, hey, aren't we fighting?"
"They're not actually trying to push deeper, are they?"
Watching the two run faster than rabbits, the Rudra Familia members were dumbfounded. Were they really that naïve—actually playing a dungeon-challenge game?
Even if the Astraea Familia won the War Game, at most Rudra would be sent back to Heaven. Wanting to deal with them afterward was pure wishful thinking—they would just flee in advance.
They had no real reverence for gods.
It was a relationship of mutual exploitation. The god granted blessings and status updates; in return, they made money and satisfied the god's various demands.
Very few truly treated a familia as a warm family.
The dark-skinned man—the familia captain—spoke in a low voice. "Be careful. Don't let this turn into a disaster."
"Got it."
The others replied. What they respected was his LV.3 strength. Once he lost that power and dominance, the rest would pounce on him like starving wolves—this was the Dark Faction, where the weak were prey.
The captain and vice-captain exchanged a glance, both seeing the worry in the other's eyes. The worst-case scenario had happened—Ryuu, relying on her LV.4 strength, was maneuvering around them in the spacious dungeon. Even if they eventually succeeded in surrounding and killing her, the losses would be severe.
The vice-captain shouted, "Ten people per squad! If you encounter Gale Wind, just stall her!"
Under the command of the captain and vice-captain, more than a hundred people quickly split into over a dozen squads. Most squads included one LV.2 adventurer. If they encountered those two, briefly holding them back wouldn't be a problem.
Once reinforcements arrived and swarmed them, even a powerful LV.4 adventurer would eventually run out of stamina and mental focus.
A large-scale manhunt began.
Roy and Ryuu had no intention of fighting at all. Using the dungeon's complex terrain, they repeatedly avoided the Rudra Familia squads and pushed deeper.
Because their strength far exceeded the standards of those floors, both sides advanced quickly, soon reaching the 10th Floor.
The 10th Floor consisted of vast cavern chambers, thick fog filling the air and blocking vision. From this floor onward, the dungeon's difficulty increased sharply.
People often witnessed sudden mass monster spawns in this area—places that were empty one moment would be filled with monsters the next, a phenomenon known as the "Monster Feast."
It was extremely dangerous, especially if it happened in the center of a cavern. Being instantly surrounded by large numbers of monsters would send ordinary adventurers into panic.
The Rudra Familia's vice-captain led two squads in pursuit and was the first to arrive on this floor, but the thick fog blocked their view.
A cunning glint flashed in his eyes as he shouted loudly,
"Ryuu Lion, are you just going to keep running? Is this your revenge? How ridiculous—Alise Lovell and those filthy women deserved to die!"
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Compared to the previous floors, the wide environment of the 10th Floor carried sound much farther.
The dark-skinned man's mockery and the others' unrestrained laughter echoed throughout the cavern.
The vice-captain scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze but couldn't see Ryuu anywhere. He clicked his tongue. That woman shouldn't be able to hold back like this.
They had crossed paths many times and knew each other well.
"Vice-captain!"
At that moment, one of the members shouted.
Following his gaze, the others spotted Ryuu standing on a cliff face.
The vice-captain grinned savagely. "Ryuu Lion, done running at last?"
At this moment, Ryuu didn't feel the rage she had imagined—only an extreme, icy calm. Her cold, sky-blue eyes fixed on the group of villains.
"There's no need to run anymore. This is where it ends," Ryuu said, her voice filled with killing intent.
Before long, the rest of the Rudra Familia squads arrived, entering the floor. At a glance, over a hundred people gathered together, forming an imposing force.
The Rudra Familia captain sneered. "Didn't expect you to face us head-on. Did Alise Lovell's death scramble your brain?"
"Kill her!"
With that command, everyone charged toward Ryuu.
BOOM!!
Suddenly, one hundred perfectly aligned golden spheres of light appeared in the open space, crackling with golden lightning. The dazzling brilliance illuminated the entire floor.
"What's going on?!"
The blinding light made the Rudra Familia members squint. When it faded, they saw a massive army of giants.
Everyone froze in shock.
Ryuu was no exception. She recognized them immediately—Pure Titans they had once hunted. How had Roy brought these Pure Titans into the dungeon?
A summoning card that called forth one hundred Pure Titans, dropped from a giant dungeon instance—an absurdly powerful item. Among them, the average height was around ten meters.
About thirty percent were aberrant types, equivalent to LV.2 monsters with a particular attribute heavily enhanced.
LV.2 Minotaurs only appeared below the 15th Floor. For so many powerful monsters to suddenly appear on the 10th Floor—what that meant was obvious.
Many members of the Rudra Familia, especially the LV.1 adventurers, were already so frightened their legs went weak.
Setting aside the Pure Titans' combat power, their sheer size—surpassing even the 17th Floor boss Goliath—loomed like mountains, inspiring instinctive fear.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One hundred Pure Titans charged toward the Rudra Familia, their heavy footsteps making the ground tremble.
Facing an army of giants comparable to thousands of troops, the Rudra Familia's morale collapsed.
Adventurers possessed extraordinary power, but they were still human. Humans die when killed, flee when afraid. They weren't here to throw their lives away.
When the two sides finally clashed, the result was exactly as expected—a completely one-sided slaughter.
In the first charge alone, at least thirty members of the Rudra Familia were trampled into bloody paste.