Arata looked around him. There weren't any signs of beasts near him. But then, he heard it again. The sound of a flute.

Beasts began to appear in droves, Arata escaped by blocking all of the paths and then breaking the ceiling and getting to the next floor. He had repeated this step many times, and each time, the flute would play and his location would be revealed to the beasts. He would then escape to the next floor in hopes of finding the wielder of the flute soon.

"...Arata?"

He turned his head at the familiar voice and saw Date limping towards him. Battered up couldn't even begin to mention it, he looked like he had one foot in the grave. If it wasn't for the blobs of water surrounding his body and healing him, he might've croaked already.

"What happened to you?"

"I had to fight myself and I ended up like this."

"Ah, so you encountered one too."

"I assumed that was the case."

Date wryly laughed. It wouldn't make sense for him to be the only one who was attacked by such a mysterious creature.

"How did you get up here so fast while looking like that?"

"I was only a few floors below this one. The flying thing got me higher than you."

"Ah... That makes sense. I've gone up around twenty floors already. I lost count after that."

Date looked down the hole where Arata had just come out from and saw the swarm of beasts.

"You've had it rough."

"Well... You're gonna experience that now too."

"I guess you're right."

Date sighed as Arata laughed. Deciding that they needed to move, Arata broke the ceiling again and brought Date with him. The two of them broke through floor after floor and after peeking out the window, they realized that they were already near the peak.

Each floor was at least twenty meters in height. It was only natural that after breaking through so many floors, they'd reach the top sooner than later. Of course, they were stopped by beasts each time, but the beasts couldn't keep up with their pace.

It was on the floor before the peak, two figures stood in front of the stairs to the next floor.

Arata and Natsumi's mimics.

"Huh... So you beat yours."

"It was pretty difficult."

Date removed his arm that was around Arata's shoulder and held his sword. He had gone through quite a few floors and his wounds had already closed enough to at least not let him bleed out.

Just then, another figure walked down the stairs.

"...That's going to be a problem though."

"I agree."

Angie's mimic was walking down the stairs in nonchalance.

"Arata, let me go first."

"Eh?"

Before Arata could get a single word in, Date already began to walk toward the three mimics. It was strange, but Arata didn't feel the need to question him. After all, they'd been together this long, he knew that Date wouldn't do anything stupid.

He prepared his shield and was ready to jump in at any moment but the moment he turned to look at the battle, his eyes widened.

All three mimics were attacking simultaneously while Date was chock in the middle of it. He was dodging all of their attacks and countering when he could. He was wearing down the mimics rather than the other way around.

"...What the heck?"

It was something Arata would expect from a monster like Kai or Wake.

It was one thing to dodge someone below your level but... What Arata was seeing was just unbelievable. It was on Wake's level when he was training them.

"Arata!"

"Hup!"

Arata took a deep breath and threw his shield at his mimic. With one of the mimics temporarily off of him, Date had more leeway and began to overwhelm Angie and Natsumi's mimics.

"What in the world happened to you?"

Seeing that he wasn't having any trouble fighting the two mimics, Arata felt like he could ask so he just threw a question in there.

"I unlocked my Innate Ability!"

Date bent his body backward just as an arrow flew past him. Then, he threw his sword at Natsumi's mimic—breaking its bow. It was suicide to throw away his weapon but he didn't have to worry because his Innate Ability was enough to hold Angie's mimic at bay.

Seeing his inhuman feats, Arata had no choice but to accept it. Innate Abilities were insanely strong.

Still, there was a limit to what his newly awakened Innate Ability could do and how much his body could withstand the added sensory prowess. Blood soon began dripping from Date's Nose and his movements were becoming sluggish.

Arata noticed and switched targets. After impairing his mimic, he moved to defeat Natsumi's mimic first.

Date was also receiving more attacks than before and ended up needing to remain on the defensive. After kneeing Angie's mimic in the stomach and having his sword thrown back at him by Arata, he began gaining ground.

His attacks became fiercer with each step he took and soon, Angie's mimic was completely overwhelmed. It was only a matter of time before Date defeated it.

With Arata containing two mimics and Date defeating one, it would take some time, but they could win.

Just when Date was about to land a fatal blow, however, they heard a fierce roar in the distance.

Arata and Date couldn't help but look in the direction of the roar and saw large amounts of rubble from the walls being broken flying around. The mimics weren't distracted by the noise and capitalized on the distraction by attacking the two of them. But just as they launched their counterattack, a giant fireball hit them.

BOOM

It was an attack powerful enough to break the ground and ceiling in that area. Date managed to avoid it using his enhanced senses and Arata was strong enough to take on the attack.

The mimics—on the other hand—hadn't expected the attack so quickly and were blown away.

Angie, who was riding on the back of the dragon with her arm wrapped around the dragon's neck lowered her hand that had fired the attack at the mimics.

"I need some help over here!"

Date took one look at the mimics before running towards the dragon without any fear. Arata wanted to make sure that the mimics wouldn't be able to interfere so using a large amount of mana, he shattered the floor beneath them and once the mimics fell through, he closed it.

It wasn't going to hold them for long, but it would still at least provide them a minute of focus.

Date leaped at the dragon with a giant sword made of water. Angie released her grip from the dragon's neck and jumped off while Arata created a large shield to slam into the dragon.

"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAR"

It roared in pain.

Even though its skin was thick and resistant to a lot of things, it wasn't as if it was immune to pain.

"Dragon Slayer Art: Pulverize!"

Angie stabbed her sword into the dragon's defenseless side and slammed a fireball into its side with her other hand. After the explosion, the dragon could do nothing but slam into the other wall.

"There's no use in trying to control this thing! We need to take care of the anomaly as soon as possible!"

Date groaned as he looked at the dragon. There was no way Angie could take care of it alone, so at least one of them had to stall for time with her. But then, that would leave the mimics unchecked. Though they weren't here right now, they'd be up pretty soon.

"Arata, help Angie."

"Guess that's the only way."

Arata and Angie would have to fight the three mimics and the dragon on their own while hoping that Date fixes the anomaly as fast as possible.

After taking a deep breath, Arata began to manipulate the walls and the ceiling. He created structures and traps on earth and trapped the dragon while Angie made sure the dragon wasn't able to stop him. Date was already running to the next floor.

Soon enough, the mimics arrived from the other end of the hall—by the stairs. Arata took his attention away from the dragon and readied his shield.

There was no way he could beat the three mimics alone, the only thing he could do now was to buy time by tanking all of their attacks. Immediately after he resolved himself to bear the pain, however, there was a voice that rang out behind him.

"Dodge!"

Arata instinctively followed that voice and moved to the side. Angie also complied and moved away from the dragon.

A giant arrow flew past them and crashed into the mimics. There was an explosion. It was so powerful that Arata had to cover Angie with his shield as well. The two of them were blown away in the direction of the voice—to Natsumi's side.

"I'm sorry I'm late."

Natsumi apologized with a slight bow.

Arata and Angie could only look at her, then toward the front. A fourth of the hall disappeared and they could only see the clouds. It was a bit suffocating being this high but their bodies were already past the level of regular people so it wasn't a problem.

"You've gained some pretty strong firepower huh..."

Angie couldn't help but exclaim as she saw the damage. If she could do something like that, then she would've done so already. The walls and stuff here were absurdly harder than they should be. Even though Arata was manipulating it, he still had to exert quite the effort to do so. If Angie wanted to do something like that, then she'd have to pour quite the amount of mana into her attack.

Angie's arrow didn't contain that much mana, which made her question why the destructive power amounted to this much.

But they could leave that sort of conversation for later. Though she did blast the mimics to kingdom come, the dragon would only be injured by something like that.

"Arata, you can go ahead and help Date. He already has one foot in the grave."

”Yeah... I was pretty worried about that as well. His Innate Ability has been making him bleed internally too."

"...? He unlocked his ability?"

Arata nodded and scratched his head.

"It was something like a battle sense. He managed to take on the three mimics all at the same time. Anyway, I'm going."

"Take care."

Natsumi added as she watched him leave. Angie and Natsumi exchanged a look and then gave each other an encouraging nod. Then, the two of them faced the dragon that had just arrived through the smoke and debris.

"Our goal isn't to beat it, right?"

"If it has to come down to that. But, I would prefer having a dragon to ride around this continent."

There were still so many places that they hadn't put up any teleporters for Kai. If there wasn't so much magical interference around the continent, then there wouldn't be a problem. But, with a dragon's speed, they would be able to place teleporters anywhere they wanted.

"Then I guess there's no helping it."

Natsumi drew back an arrow and fired. Angie also dashed along with her attack.

"Woah, you're in really bad shape, aren't you?"

Arata walked alongside Date.

Now that he wasn't in battle, the adrenaline in his body was starting to fade a bit—causing him to stagger as he tried to climb the stairs. His progress was so slow that Arata even caught up with him halfway.

"What happened out there? I just heard a giant explosion."

"Natsumi arrived and blew everything away. The two of them stayed behind to take care of the dragon so we'd better hurry up."

"Got it..."

Date used more of his mana to heal his wounds and quickened his steps.

They felt that the flute was out of place, but they didn't feel any strong mana coming from over here. The person who acquired the flute probably wasn't very strong. After all, just because he found the flute didn't mean that he was all-powerful. If he was a threat of that level, Kai wouldn't send only the four of them to take care of it.

If it was something they could take care of, then just sending Erina alone would've been faster. This was something he planned for their growth, they had no intention of backing down and wasting this opportunity.

When they reached the top, all they saw was an empty throne room.

"...?"

Arata looked around and was confused but Date was glaring at the throne—or to be specific, something behind it.

"Come out."

Receiving no response, he frowned and raised his sword. After channeling his mana into it, he sent out an arc of water by slashing his sword forward.

The resulting wave cut the ceiling above the throne's seat and caused debris to come crashing down. A figure hurriedly jumped out.

"N-no, please!"

It was a demon. That wasn't much of a surprise, considering that they were in the Demon Continent in the first place.

Arata didn't bother waiting for his words, he stomped on the ground and pinned the demon to the wall. Date moved forward to grab the flute from him and then retreated a few steps.

"Looks like this is it."

He could feel the energy of the flute emanating ominously.

"H-how the hell did you two even manage to get up here?! There were so many monsters that they could take over the town!"

Arata moved forward to interrogate the man while Date eyed the flute nervously.

After a moment's hesitation, he cleaned the flute with water and began blowing into the mouthpiece.

"Kuh..."

Angie had to take a step back. The dragon was just too strong for her to block the blow completely. Just the force that her sword had to take after that attack sent her insides shaking.

Immediately after retreating, several arrows flew through the air and exploded on the dragon. The explosions were so powerful that the dragon who wouldn't retreat from Angie's sword staggered.

"That firepower is just too strong..."

Angie didn't mean to insult Natsumi or anything, but she was definitely on the weaker side in terms of firepower in their group. She was there along with Arata, who is a defender, and Umi who is a healer. Natsumi was neither of those and focused more on attack and whenever she could, use her amplification powers.

But now, she just shot past their rankings. To do attacks of that level, Angie would have to use her Dragon Arts, which was something she couldn't do all willy-nilly. Date and Kei would have to expend quite a bit of their mana to replicate her attacks, only Kai, Erina, and Amelia would be able to replicate it effortlessly.

The best part is that Natsumi didn't even need to use a lot of mana, she just shot her arrows and infused elements into them.

'Is mixing elements really that powerful?'

Angie wanted to learn the other elements more than ever. Kai used an advanced form of mixing elements, he used the secondary and tertiary elements instead. But, if just mixing primary elements without allowing them to fuse completely could turn wind arrows into explosives that could injure dragons...

As she dwelled in her thoughts, the dragon suddenly started acting strange. It would normally be very aggressive and charge at them immediately after regaining its footing but now, it was just staying there in the smoke.

"Did they succeed?"

If they were to successfully secure the flute, then the dragon would revert to its normal habits.

"Have you come to your senses?"

(A/N: Imma change all foreign tongues to just "italics".)

"...Yes."

"Great! So, I was wondering..."

"If you could turn me into a mount."

"Yeah!"

"Umm..."

Natsumi was nervously tugging at Angie's clothes.

"A-Angie!"

"Hm?"

She meekly pointed at the dragon.

"D-doesn't it look pretty mad?"

Receiving Natsumi's question, Angie inspected the dragon closely. She felt the dragon's mana rise further and further until she couldn't help but back up in a cold sweat.

Having fought many dragons in her life, Angie felt that she at least had a basic understanding of their emotions and such. What she hadn't realized, however, was a dragon is just like any other living being with emotions—they aren't always logical.

One would normally be grateful to their savior, but after being insulted so much, even if they weren't in their right mind—the prideful dragon couldn't help but seethe in rage.

"C-crap!"

Angie grabbed Natsumi and dashed as fast as she possibly could toward the other end of the hall. That spike in mana could only mean one thing, a breath attack.

Using something like that in an enclosed space like this was practically sending the two of them to their deaths.

Just as the dragon was about to unleash its breath, however, something came crashing through the ceiling and onto the dragon. There was an explosion of dust and debris that were accompanied by a strong gust of wind. Angie and Natsumi had to put up a barrier to shield themselves and once the gust settled, the two of them looked at the dragon.

"Damn it."

"Master?!"

Angie yelled in exclamation.

"Angie?! Get everyone out of here, right now!"

"What do you mean? Is there something wrong?!"

There was a panic in Kai's voice that Angie couldn't help but notice. The fact that he appeared here right now didn't matter, the manner in which he did so was, however.

Before Kai could answer her question, a beam of golden light phased through the ceiling and landed on Kai.

"?!"

Angie's eyes couldn't help but widen in shock. She hadn't felt any mana in that attack but just looking at it made her feel as if that beam of light could've killed her.

"What? Is that all the Supreme Being Candidate of this world can do?"

Just then, a man covered in a golden light descended from the hole the beam had made. Save for his bare face, his entire person was covered in bone-like armor but looking at it didn't bring feeling of terror as one normally would but rather, it gave of the feeling of majesty.

There was an ancient sword in his right hand. It looked so old that she couldn't even tell what kind of ore it was made from. Strangely enough, there was no rust on it despite its aged look.

And on his left hand, a white gauntlet that contrasted his dark look.

Kai walked out of the beam of light with minimal damage to his person, but Angie was shocked to see that his wounds weren't healing instantly like they normally would.

There was a fierce look in Kai's eyes as ice began to form on his body.

Without another word, Kai brandished his sword and attacked the ancient man.