As the lead Supremes exit out onto Floor Six proper, the ruined arrows lying on the ledge around them provide a pretty solid hint as to what the dungeon's first trick of the floor was. Still, the darkness of the abyss does continue to add a bit of confusion to the matter. Grenwald cautiously pokes his head out from around his heavy shield, attempting to get a look at things.
"These got fired from the other side, right? Fuck, I can't see anything that far though, you?"
"One moment - a little sensory enhancement spell, and...there we go." Pretty taps the shoulders of his companions, and the pair jerk in surprise as the canyon suddenly lights up in their eyes. Tiffany reacts quickly enough however, and gets to scanning for enemies.
"...Shit, yeah, they've set up a whole defensive line out there, more earth mage walls and all that. No one ever mentioned anything about the dungeon building stuff on that side of it before."
"Because I don't believe the dungeon did build those defenses." Pretty absentmindedly smiles slightly as he considers the situation. "I don't sense any monstrous forms out there, I believe this was done entirely by our dungeon-loving friends. No, don't look at them too closely, Grenwald, they haven't caught on that we can see them yet."
"Oh, so that's why they ain't shooting at us yet, then?" The kobold glances back at the tunnel behind him. "They're waiting for more of us to come out?"
The incubus nods in agreement. "A sniper battle is not to their advantage. No, what I imagine they really want is for us to get stuck climbing some cliff face or something, then they start shooting."
Tiffany grins at the deduction. "Well then, lets go ahead and force that sniper fight then. We've got a couple long-range experts on the other squads, and - " She pauses as Pretty waves a hand at her.
"No, no, none of that."
The arcane demon furrows her brow. "But...why not? A couple long-range Supreme spells could blow those defenses apart in a couple of minutes."
"But it would be boring. Ugh. Besides, if they're not idiots they'll have an escape route planned for when things turn against them. No, no, we must draw them out into a fight they think they can win." The man points to his right, in the direction of the trail ahead. "Onward!"
"Sometimes I wonder if we're not the idiots..." Grenwald grumbles as he takes the lead, still focusing his attention on any potential surprise attacks from across the gap. The first leap he meets is a long one, especially for a kobold, but with Supreme-tier magic including earth spells it proves to be a trivial challenge. Pretty and Tiffany likewise make the jump without issues, and the second squad of the expedition makes their way out onto the floor behind them.
It's as the third squad is coming out of the tunnel that the dungeon's defenders apparently decide to go for a second try at their long-range ambush, and the attack is timed to coincide with a wave of flying monsters that swoop down on the three teams. Of course, being high-tier adventurers who were expecting exactly this to happen, the effect is...minimal. Barrier spells and illusions quickly go up, while defenders like Grenwald intercept any attack they can. None of the distant mortals can seem to do anything to perate Tiffany's spatial shields from this distance, and the mage shoots an angry look at the incubus standing behind her.
"Are you actually going to do anything here? Getting exposed like this was your idea!"
"I'm just in awe of what I'm seeing here. Is it an illusion, or do you see it too?"
"What?" Tiffany quickly glances in the direction that Pretty points in, and does a double-take when she sees it. At first she'd assumed the flying monsters were low-tier dragon-type creatures, which were known to be present on the floor. Instead they appear to be oversized, flying...rabbits. Or hares? Tiffany isn't an expert on small mammals, but they're definitely not the cute, fuzzy kind of creature a child might want for a pet. Instead their patchy fur gives way to scales, their long legs are tipped with sharp claws, and their heads appear to sport a pair of curved horns.
"What in fuck are those!?"
Pretty laughs, even as one spits a tiny fireball at a kobold in another group. "Aha, I think I see it! Rabbits are one of the dungeon's mainstays, yes? But they have no flying variant! So if you hybridize them with dragons..."
Grenwald sheathes his sword for a few moments so that he can pick up a rock and fling it at one of the beasts. "Enough admiring the dungeon's work, how about you kill some of it!?"
"Fine, fine, very well." Pretty casts a spell with a wave of his hand, and one of the dragohares takes a sudden left turn - slamming into the cliffside so hard that it snaps its neck. "I was worried we'd be facing undead-themed fliers here. Much harder to alter their senses. But fliers are uniquely vulnerable, given the myriad of sensory systems required to keep them airborne. Birds and bats and such crash into things much more often than people generally imagine, you know." His spell hits a second and it suddenly plunges downward, eventually bursting in a display of magic as it reaches the dungeon bounds at high speed.
"Okay, so mildly clever, but not - " Grenwald winces as a demon cries out, a crossbow bolt suddenly appearing in their arm. " - not remotely as intimidating to a bunch of people at our tier as the dozen or two people flinging shit at us right now. Got an idea to actually deal with that, or are we putting up with this shit for the entire floor?"
"Tiffany, I think you might be useful in this situation."
"I'm pretty sure I'm useful in more situations than you are! What do you want?"
Pretty gestures at the far side of the cavern. "While my magic does allow me to directly cast upon my foes without the need for projectiles or the like, it does come with a range limitation. From here I can generally sense where they are, but I can't do much to them. It would be much easier if they were closer, don't you think?"
The blonde demon turns to stare at her squad leader. "...This much space? I'm good, but that will drain my reserves in - gah!" The woman utters a confused groan as Pretty slaps her on the back, and it takes her a moment to realize what he just did. "I...I feel powerful." She turns back towards him with a suspicious look. "What did you just do, and why haven't you done it before?"
"Just hyper-accelerated your mana channels. It'll allow you to cast at, oh, five times your usual efficiency. It's extremely hazardous to your health, though, so I should probably cancel it within about thirty seconds." He waves at the abyss, as if inviting her forward. "So perhaps you should cast something before that time?"
"Fucker...okay, here goes."
Spatial magics have always been one of the rarest branches of magic due to the high levels of intelligence, imagination, and comprehension required to make them work. Fireballs are easy. Any farming peasant can imagine 'but what if hot thing went that way?' Warping the fabric of spacetime itself however requires a deep understanding of how things like geometry work, and how the common understanding of it can be broken in the right situations. It's so unintuitive that many people don't understand what they're seeing even when it happens right in front of them.
Which helps to explain the dumb looks on the faces of the dungeon's defenders when a hundred-yard gap suddenly closes to one of about twenty feet. Nothing's been ripped from the canyon walls, no one's been physically moved, yet somehow it's as if hundreds of feet of horizontal space were simply deleted from the universe. Ambushers shielded by darkness are now plainly lit up by torches and magic spells cast by the Domain intruders, and what was once an impossible range is now practically spitting distance.
Or at least throwing distance, as one shocked archer demonstrates when he gets brained by a rock tossed by Grenwald. The apparent commander of the ambushers, a minotaur whom Pretty recalls from the fight on Floor Four, bellows out an order to get his people back into fighting shape.
"Unleash everything! Don't let them cast any more spells! Try to disrupt the spell!"
The Supremes aren't one to let this opportunity go to waste, though. The flurry of arrows and magic bolts fired at them does force them to spend some time reinforcing their defenses, true, but their firepower is just as effective. Elemental magic of various kinds begins tearing apart the walls the defenders constructed, and illusory monsters begin 'attacking' the mortals from behind. Pretty can see that they did indeed have a route carved out to escape with, but at this short range it's virtually useless - to turn their backs on the Supremes now would lead them into a slaughter.
Instead they simply focus on taking down as many intruders as they can before said intruders snuff out their lives. A gnollish archer is particularly effective, launching a massive arrow from her equally sized bow that fully decapitates a succubus mage. It only draws more counter-fire on her though, and the woman would be dead in exchange save for an orcish crossbow-woman who pushes her aside. The orc gets practically disintegrated by the trio of spells that hit her all at once, but Pretty doesn't have much time to focus on her. For one thing, he's doing his best to temporarily blind everyone on the opposing side. For another, Tiffany soon begins yelling in his ear.
"I - I can't hold it much longer! It's - agh!" Just as suddenly as it began the spell ends, and the defenders snap back to the position that they never truly left in the first place. The fighting does come to a halt almost as quickly, as return shots from the ravaged defenders seem to taper off within moments.
"Well done - it looks like the ones who can still manage it are beating their retreat." Pretty claps Tiffany on the back yet again, this time to cancel out his enhancement spell - and to congratulate her on her efforts, of course. "I'd recommend we leave them to it - trying to send people over to hunt them down would distract and split us, and I would wager we have not yet expended all of the surprises the dungeon has in store for us today."
"We've barely moved a hundred feet into the floor by now." The kobold tank grumbles, perhaps miffed that even during all that he was limited to throwing stones. "How many more surprises could the dungeon have crammed in here?"
There's a rumbling sound that comes from above, but Pretty simply looks passively into Grenwald's eyes as he speaks. "I didn't make it to being older than dirt by saying things like that. Tiffany - get us out of here!"
The arcane demon needs no second prompting before grabbing on to her companions with her hands and with her magic, and leaping into the air with her wings spread wide. It's not a moment too soon, as massive boulders slam into the spot they were just standing, in some places breaking off large pieces of the ledges and walkways and sending them tumbling into the abyss. Other squads have their own means of escape...mostly. A few adventurers are shielded by a group-powered barrier spell, while one air mage turns into actual mist in order to survive. Tiffany can spot at least two of her allies who are killed by the trap however, one crushed immediately and another sent falling with injuries that could well kill them before the landing does.
She gets to bringing them back to the floor's entrance tunnel as quickly as possible, before she loses the strength to carry her squadmates, but she does take a moment to look upwards at where the rocks came from. "Pretty, I think I see a demon flying around up there! A fury, I think?"
Pretty doesn't respond, even as they land back within the tunnel, but merely keeps his eyes locked on the retreating figure. Eventually she takes to giving the man a slap, which finally seems to bring the incubus out of it. "Pretty! What the hells, this is no time to lose your nerve!"
He shakes his head. "No, no, didn't you sense it? No, of course not. She...that woman." His eyes lock onto Tiffany's with a rare intensity. "She's undergoing an ENLIGHTENMENT."
Grenwald blinks at the statement, but Tiffany's eyes grow just as wide as her commander's. "You're sure? Here? How?"
"I don't know...but I know I'd like to get a taste of that feeling..."
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