When they saw the body of their brethren fall, the other martial arts hobgoblins attacked simultaneously.

The boxer attacked with a quick jab directing it to my heart, but I dodged it, and the other directed his sword towards my right eye to impale me.

I parried the attack with my sword and moved to the back.

They didn’t let me have room to breathe and kept attacking me with different techniques while limiting my movement zone by using efficient footwork.

I went to the defensive to find an opening, but their combination was nearly perfect.

I couldn’t use any of my sword techniques due to the lack of space. I was overwhelmed.

I was cut and hit in several places in my body. Blood started overflowing from several injuries. I was quickly overpowered by these two B-rank monsters.

‘How can I push these two away from me? Damn, this is the worst fight I had apart from the dragon. I have to find an opening and strike as soon as possible, I don’t have much time left before I die from blood loss—‘

I was brought back from my thoughts by a powerful hook that brought me down to my knees.

“Hugh…” I screamed.

The fencer hobgoblin took this chance to move back to charge at me with his sword. This was the end for me, or that’s what he thought.

The moment he moved back, I saw the opening.

I bore through all the pain and concentrated all the mana that I had in my sword and launched an air slash that cut the boxer near me in half. Then I used his lower body to protect myself from the sword attack of the other hobgoblin.

I pushed the dead body and jumped several feet away from the fencer.

I took my stance and put everything I had on this last attack.

“Ono-ha-Itto-Ryu ougi, FLASH SLASH.”

Without giving him any room to turn to look at me, I cut away his head and rolled on the ground.

Finally, I defeated them and took a winning stance, then fell on the ground.

***

When I woke up, I found myself being carried by Joshua on his back.

“W-Where am I?” I asked.

“Oh, you woke up. You fought marvelously there.” Joshua replied with a heart-warming smile.

‘Oh yes, I fought three B-rank monsters alone and won.’

“Don’t worry, I’m fine now, I can move on my own.”

When I stood up on my feet, I checked our surroundings. We were still on the same setup as earlier. The same badly lit hallway, but I noticed that we were in a bigger area.

“How much time has passed since I lost consciousness?” I asked.

“Hmmm, I think around two hours. The others moved forward and I kept moving slowly until you wake up.”

Afterward, I checked my body to see the damage that I’ve sustained, but it seemed that I was fully healed.

“By the way, your healing capabilities are extraordinary. Even with all those injuries, you managed to heal so fast and with only minor healing from our healers.” Stated Joshua with a big surprised expression on his face. “And I don’t know if you noticed, but your sword disappeared right after you lost consciousness. We looked for it there but we couldn’t find it. It’s weird”. He added.

“Ah don’t worry about that,” I replied while remembering what the old dragon told me. “The sword is here,” I called it back to my hand. “It’s a defensive mechanism so no one can take it if anything happens to me.”

“Oh, that’s so convenient. Well since you’re fine now, let’s move quickly to catch up to our team.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

***

“I think we’re near the boss room.” Stated Leo.

“Yeah, you’re right. Only one more hurdle.” Replied George. “Talking about the devil.”

As he mentioned it, a large figure appeared from the shadows.

The green creature stood over 3 meters tall and its muscles were visible to the naked eye. It wore torn black shorts and a brown one-arm shirt. It was holding a big club full of sharp screws, and the most identifiable trait was its scarred right eye and three horns.

“It’s a tri-horned troll.” Stated the earth mage.

“So you’ve finally decided to appear.” Added Leo. “Hey leader, can you let me handle this one?” He said with fire brimming in his eyes.

“Huh? Did Shiryuu lit a fire under you?” Questioned the fire mage.

“Yeah. After watching his amazing fight, I can no longer hold my emotions inside anymore. My rival managed to defeat three B-rank monsters alone, so I should be able to take this one too. I can’t let him stay in front of me. I should prove that I am stronger than him, and this is the best occasion.”

“Hmmm, I understand. You can have him. In the meantime, we’ll recover our energies so that when you finish, we should be able to deal with the boss at full strength”. Stated George.

Leo took a deep breath, and put his spear in front of him, then charged at the troll.

The big troll swung his club, barely hitting the charging spear user.

Leo jumped over the club used it as a stepping stone and landed a clean hit on the shoulder of the troll. The spear pierced his hard green skin, and violet blood splashed.

The green monster didn’t budge, and grabbed Leo with his other hand, and threw him to the nearby wall.

After throwing him, the troll charged with a full-body tackle, destroying the wall.

Leo managed to dodge again and stood up behind the troll and stabbed him again in his back.

The troll swung his arm and hit Leo, throwing him several feet away, and without a pause, he smashed him with his club, throwing him far away again.

Leo found himself on the ground, blood flowing from his head, and his spear was under some rubbles.

Suddenly, he heard the ground shaking. The big horned monster was running towards the fallen warrior.

He jumped and smashed the ground where Leo was a moment ago, creating a big crater under him.

Leo managed to dodge again by a hair and dashed to get his spear from the rubble before the troll noticed him.

He took his spear and concentrated mana on the tip of it, then started spinning it so it looked like a sharp wheel.

Afterward, he propelled the mana on his feet to leap towards the troll and slashed him with the rolling spear.

The troll loudly groaned and fell on his knees.

Leo took this chance to attack him with several spear thrusts, impaling him in a different part of his body.

His wounds grew larger and blood started overflowing, but he gritted his teeth and swung his club from a point-blank range, landing a critical hit on Leo who was mid-attacking and throwing him away.

The troll stood up with an angry look on his face. He moved slowly towards the fallen spear user.

Leo started losing his consciousness, but he tried to cling to the last rope of light in his eyes. He smacked his face so he could keep looking at the troll while waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Both fighters kept staring at each other, until the tri-horned troll dashed forward, aiming for the head of Leo with his smashing club.

Leo took this chance to pour all his mana unto his spear and went for an impaling final strike.

The two fighters made contact, and a storm of dust took over the area.

After the dust cleared, Leo and the troll were standing still. Leo was the first one to partially fall, but he leaned on his spear, while the troll fell completely on the ground.

Clara- who was watching all this time while genuinely scared and worried about the well-being of her partner- run towards Leo and held him.

On the other hand, George went to check the fallen body of the troll. He was completely dead.

“I impaled his heart with a mana strike. His heart should be shattered by now.” Stated Leo who was barely conscious at this point. ‘I wanted to show this to Shiryuu to prove that I was still ahead of him, but this should be enough for me, hahaha’.

The healers approached Leo and cast a healing aura around him to constantly heal him with every passing second while using healing spells to help him recover.

***

An hour after the fight between Leo and the troll, Joshua and I caught up with the rest of the team near the boss’s room.

“We’re finally here.” Stated Joshua.

The water female mage noticed us coming and told her teammates. “They have arrived.”

George turned to see that both of us were fine and I was completely awake and on my feet. “Oooh, Shiryuu, It seems you are in good condition.”

“Haha yes, sorry to trouble you,” I replied.

“Don’t worry. That was an amazing fight. If the guild master saw you there, he would be proud.” George’s smile brightened the room.

After I thanked him for his compliment, I quickly gazed at the other members to see their current states, and it seemed that they were all in perfect condition for the final battle.

Leo and Clara were sitting in a corner. Apparently, she was tending to the wounded Leo, so I moved to greet them.

“Hello, there you two. It seems you had a rough time here Leo.” I told them with a grin on my face.

“I don’t want to hear this from someone who was on the brink of death.” Replied Leo with an irritated look. “Well, I’m glad that you are safe at the very least and can still move.”

“Well, I’m in a better condition than some mummy here.”

“Do you want to try me here? I’m still kicking-“

“Stop it you two. You were both badly injured, so no more bad jokes here.” Interrupted Clara.

“Hahaha, that’s a good thing to be this lively before a hard fight.” Stated George. “Shiryuu, your fight was magnificent. I’ve never seen a Mythological Weapon user fight in front of me, so it was something you don’t see any day. Too bad you’re not part of our guild.”

“Well, those were not the techniques of the sword—“.

“What? Are you serious? I heard that when a Mythological Weapon is used by a warrior, he gains tremendous powers and new techniques.” A surprised expression was clearly visible on George’s face.

“Those are my own sword techniques that I’ve learned from a swordsmanship dojo in Asahi no Kuni. I still don’t know how to use the skills of this sword.” I replied.

“Oh yes, I remember that you went to Asahi a few years ago. In many cases, that’s a great fight and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you.” George patted me on the head, while the big smile never left his face.

“Sorry to interrupt you guys, but since we are all here, I think we should start moving, we wasted quite the time on this dungeon.” Said the scout who was sending waves to check how many monsters spawned with the boss in the next room. “There are 2 trolls, 3 hobgoblins, and 7 goblin riders alongside the Orc.”

“I’ve never heard of the goblin riders spawning in the boss’s room before, but I guess there were some instances where other types of monsters appeared and there are no signs of them for this raid.” Said, George. “Well then, prepare your weapons, we’ll enter now.”

***

The room was well lit with torches that were fixed all over the walls. Several stone pillars were spread in the four corners of the room, and in the middle, there was a throne.

The one sitting on the throne was none other than the last boss of this dungeon, the chief Iron-Clad-Orc.

As his name stated, he was wearing a full-body iron armament. He had big fangs coming from his mouth that covered most of his face.

On his side, the two trolls were standing, each on one side, while holding their big axes.

In front of the throne, the three hobgoblins were standing like giant walls not letting anyone approach their king. Meanwhile, the seven goblin riders were the frontline fighters of this line-up of monsters.

‘Finally, after this fight, I’ll officially succeed in my first raid as a B-rank warrior.’ I was excited and held my sword firmly.

Compared to the others who were familiar with these feelings. I tried to not succumb to the pressure, and a big grin appeared on my face. My heart kept pumping so fast with excitement. I held my overflown emotions, and took my stance with the others, preparing ourselves to finish off this dungeon and go outside triumphant.