"Did Vanessa not tell you?" Rita looked at him with genuine confusion as her brows pulled together tightly. "Thinking back on it... I don’t think Vanessa posted about it on her Stitch. Did she not check what happened earlier?"
"I think she didn’t." Lucius chuckled softly, rubbing the back of his neck as if he couldn’t decide whether to be amused or irritated. "But it’s good news either way. We’ll celebrate it later."
Minerva puffed her cheek in annoyance, her wings fluttering as she lifted off the tentacle.
She didn’t say anything, but the dramatic way she spun in the air before shooting upward made her point clear.
She left Lucius and Rita alone on the slick, floating piece of Octopus flesh.
"The next floor might be very hard for us... you should rest properly before we head in," Rita said as she shifted closer and placed her hand under his chin, tilting it gently. "If you’re even a little tired... you can lay your face on my lap."
Lucius blinked at the offer. It wasn’t unusual for Rita to act bold, but she always did it with a shy tremble in her voice afterward.
He looked over her shoulder at the floating Awakeners staring at him, then down at his torso... still shirtless, ripped clothes barely hanging on.
"Let’s get down first," he said, pushing his hand through his hair. "Damn... even another pair of clothes Vanessa gave got destroyed."
Rita humd softly and pulled sothing from her storage ring. It was the shirt he had given her back on the first floor.
"I haven’t washed it... but you can wear it." Rita held it out while averting her eyes, her ears glowing red.
Lucius took it and put it on. The fabric was soft and warm from sitting in her storage, and he took a whiff without aning to.
"It slls weird," he muttered under his breath, narrowing his eyes. "Did you do anything to it?"
"Nothing at all..." she said quickly, the tips of her fingers trembling before she forced herself to float again. "I should probably go to Supre Man and discuss heading to the stairs."
Lucius watched her leave before floating down toward the group.
...
In less than ten minutes... just enough ti for Vanessa and the Saintess to seal all the Octopus tentacles into their storage rings, everyone was ready to subrge again.
Supre Man stood at the front, refusing to look back at the others. No matter how much he bathed in the Blood Ocean, he still slled of exploded brain matter, so staying ahead was more of a rcy for everyone’s noses.
Lucius stayed with Vanessa, Minerva and the rest of the Awakeners. So of the female Awakeners kept glancing down at him... mostly at his legs, chest, or whatever their eyes drifted to and he dragged his hand down his face.
’I like the attention but Vanessa’s looking at like I offended her entire bloodline,’ he thought, noticing the crimson-haired woman glaring at the won giving him those stares. ’I swear she’s going to kill before any monster does.’
One by one, the Awakeners stepped into the water as Lucius used his space to help them sink downward smoothly.
Without the Octopus pelting ink into the water, visibility was much clearer, at least clearer than the pitch black void from before.
The scenery wasn’t pleasant though. Bones drifted in the water like snowflakes, floating between slabs of tentacle flesh and clumps of brain matter.
Rita covered her mouth in silent disgust while Vanessa pinched the bridge of her nose.
Even Luna winced when the giant remnants of the Octopus eye drifted past them like a shredded balloon.
But finally, they reached it... the staircase.
Unlike the ones that ascended into the sky on the earlier floors, this one descended downward, burrowing deep into the ground.
It looked completely different too, glowing blue and decorated by jewel-like patterns carved into each step.
’Damn...’ Lucius thought, admiring the structure. ’This floor is fancy.’
Each Awakener passed through the staircase and vanished. Lucius followed last, and the mont he stepped foot into the glow, his world turned solid white.
...
His eyes snapped open.
The transition had been smoother than usual, and the air felt different than before.
’I think we’re making good progress...’ he thought as he exhaled slowly.
They had already spent several days inside this dungeon, but judging by the speed, they might break a record for clearing an A-rank dungeon in under ten days.
Color bled into the world as his eyes adjusted.
All the adventurers were standing in a perfect circle, each of them tense, hands near their weapons.
Surrounding them were tall monsters... green-skinned orcs, each holding spears pointed toward the group. Dozens lined the area. So were bigger, clearly elites, and others stood lower, hunched and snarling at them.
This floor was nothing like the last.
And then Lucius saw it. Not far away, towering above them, was a new staircase ascending into the sky.
’A short floor...’ he thought while rising to the air. The mont he floated upward, Luna also released the drone and activated the stream again.
"How nice," Lucius said under his breath as the lens focused on him.
[@MintySorceress: Why are there SO MANY orcs??]
[@IronGutGar: bro this gonna be lightwork for Lucius]
[@TangledNimbus: Orc arc???]
[@ShurikenMommy: I’m scared but excited]
[@BloodSunrise: LETS GOOO THEY LOOK WEAK]
Weapons shifted. Spears lifted. The orcs let out aggressive yells, and the ground vibrated from the sheer number of them.
Several spears flew toward Lucius in the air. He didn’t even flinch. They stopped centiters before touching him, suspended as if caught in invisible mud.
Then they spun backward like boorangs.
The projectiles tore through entire rows of orcs, ripping bodies clean open, blood spraying in arcs across the ground.
Usually Supre Man would shout sothing heroic and lead the charge... but Lucius felt like bullying the orcs today.
He dropped lower, grinning as orcs scread in rage, preparing to rush the group.
"Attack!!!" Lucius shouted, and chaos erupted instantly.
But it died down shortly after... the orcs suddenly stopped cheering, their snarls fading into deep, guttural rumbles as the ground trembled beneath everyone’s feet.
Sothing massive was approaching through the ranks of green bodies. The crowd parted, and from between the orcs erged a creature far larger than anything they had seen on this floor.
Towering over even Supre Man, wearing a crude crown hamred from pieces of bone and tal, and draped in a filthy cloth robe stitched together from whatever the orcs could find.
The beast stepped forward with slow, heavy breaths and the orcs bowed their heads in fear or reverence.
It was the Orc King.
The monster gurgled, its throat bubbling as it tried to speak in a language nobody could understand. It raised a giant spear, preparing to command its army...
But Supre Man blurred forward in a flash. The sound of the impact shook the air like thunder.
His fist connected directly with the king’s jaw, and the force behind the punch was so overwhelming that the Orc King’s head rocketed off its shoulders, flew across the battlefield, and smashed into a distant tree with a crunch that echoed through the area.
[@HawkEyeSniper: FINALLY Supre Man cooking]
[@PillowPrincess420: He escaped the fraud arc!!]
[@CanonBuster: THAT punch was insane ngl]
[@GreenTeaProphet: Supre Man supremacy!!!]
[@Blitzborne: Bro redeed himself]
The victory lasted approximately two seconds.
As Supre Man landed from the punch, several orcs who had circled behind him stabbed their spears forward in perfect synchronization.
The blades pierced through his thighs, shoulders, and even one clean through his lower back. He stiffened, let out a strained groan, and fell over face-first, forced into a kneeling position.
[@RoachKilla: LMAOOO never mind bro folded instantly]
[@CrimsonClaw: Fraud Man RETURNS]
[@ZeroSanity: bro got humbled fast]
[@LilSussyMage: that durability is CRAZY bad]
[@MoonlitMonk: he tanked negative damage]
"I think those spears are packed with sedatives!" an adventurer shouted while charging into an orc, knocking it backward with his shield. "Look how fast he dropped!"
The orcs roared and pressed in harder.
Grimm inhaled sharply, centering his stance. His spear glowed as mana coursed through it.
The mont an orc lunged at him, Grimm stepped in, deflected the spear thrust with a sharp parry, and countered by driving his own spear cleanly through the orc’s skull.
The body collapsed instantly.
"Squad, move out!" Lucius called from above as he folded his arms, hovering calmly in the air while chaos erupted below.
He looked far too relaxed for soone overseeing a battlefield, but everyone had already gotten used to that.
Even Ayela was putting in work. She dashed toward an orc, ducking under a spear thrust and spinning upward with a burst of wind.
Her magic wrapped around her body like a flowing spiral, lifting the orc clean off the ground. She grabbed its head in mid-air, twisted her grip, and spun even faster.
"I hate orcs, dammit!" she yelled as she hurled the creature like a missile.
The orc turned into a living projectile and smashed into a tall tree trunk.
The impact cleaved the tree in half, making the upper half break away and plumt downward. It fell like a guillotine over the battlefield, crushing a whole cluster of orcs who had been gathering beneath it.
[@StormyFox: SHEEEEEESH]
[@TsunamiBoi: SHE’S acting DIFFERENT]
[@HotpotChamp: wind mommy go CRAZY]
[@RippedOtter: She deserves a raise]
[@LunarSilhouette: ok that was badass]
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