Archon of Danmachi

With Haruhime sharing the improvements she got from her new gear, the other, being eager to test out their own, called for the departure of the party.

Their first opponent was a Battle Boar with gleaming red eyes, preparing for a deadly charge as if huffed hot air.

"Leave it to me!" Lili shouted and charged towards it.

The Battle Boar, taking as a challenge, charged as well. Lili activated the boosters of her back plate, greaves and sabatons, gliding slightly above the ground in a blindingly fast burst of speed.

At the instant of impact, she smashed her feet on the ground for one last push and not not me blow away but there was no need.

It was like a freight train had collided with a person. The boar was smashed and pulverised into a pile of meat and bode as blood and entrails covered Lili's entire body.

The armor nullified most of the shock and she kept going, smashing into the Dungeon wall at high speed and creating a Lili sized hole in it as the rest of her party just looked on dumbfoundedly.

A few seconds later, Lili climbed out of the whole, now covered in dirt in addition to the blood and entrails.

"Wow! That was way to much force!" She commented.

"No kidding." Aisha quipped, seemingly recovering some normalcy.

But then, Lili noticed the looks of disgust Haruhime and Naaza were throwing at her.

"What are those looks?" She asked.

"Probably what you're covered by I'd guess." Aisha informed.

"What I'm covered by . . . UGH!" Lili finally noticed her current state.

She then spend about half an hour rinsing herself with water. Such an extravagance was only possible due to the Spirit Water Pouches that Nox had given them, which could naturally produce water for them to use by taking in magical energy from their surroundings.

After washing most of the nasty stuff out, the perfectly undamaged armor could be view, all despite Lili's previous stunt. It looked as if it was truly unbreakable.

"All right let's keep going. It's my turn next." Aisha said as she licked her lips. Apparently, the promise and excitement of battle had let her push of her previous state, even if only temporarily.

Going a bit further, the party found a group of red scaled Lizardmen a couple of minutes later.

Aisha charged into them with savage grace but while the battle usually had an obvious sagavery to the viewers as well, this time, it was different.

Aisha's movements were quicker, more flexible and carrier an unspeakable grace. The attacks of the Lizardmen became dull, clumsy and inaccurate, their reaction time slowed to a crawl as they were entranced by the savage goddess of dance in front of them that sliced and diced them with flawless elegance.

That fact that she was wearing a veil to conceal her usual savage grin helped as well but, as the battle continued, there was yet another change.

Aisha stopped attacking as often, her movements became even more graceful and dance like. Most of all though, underneath her veil, the amazoness' expresion had become serene, peaceful and even somewhat sad as she closed her eyes and gave in to the moment.

Lili, Haruhime and Naaza could only watch transfixed as Aisha danced through the group of Lizardman, drawing her blade across their bodies ever so often, for kills that honestly felt beautiful.

In end, when all monsters laid dead on the ground, everyone noticed the different atmosphere around Aisha and, realizing that was not the gear alone but a change in the amazoness herself, one that seemed to be emotionally affecting her, all of them decided to pretend nothing was different and just threw out general praises before moving on.

'These girls are getting quite perceptive and understanding aren't they . . .' Aisha thought to herself as she followed behind her "little sisters".

And so, the girls kept testing out the limits of their new gear.

Lili was like a cannonball, small, nearly indestructible and boating an incredible straight line burst speed, she was a rather destructive force on the battlefield. Her armor also giving her the ability to act in the capacity of a tank, with her wide sword serving as a decent shield.

Haruhime's offensive prowess had also increased and along her usual orbs of Fox Fire that she made plenty of use before, she now had more leeway in terms of Mind Usage to use her offensive summons, the Kitsunebi: Yako.

These nasty buggers would possess foes and curse them with debuffs like frenzy, madness and fear while continuously draining their health, stamina and Mind at a slow pace.

Aisha could now easily distract opponents and maintain combat for much longer without piling on injuries.

All of these things let them progress much further down and they felt right at home, even in the 24th floor.

Naaza on the other hand, was feeling greatly left behind and increasingly sure that she had to talk with her god Miach before it was too late.

Meanwhile, as the girls tested out their new gear, so did Nox on his own on deeper floors. He tried ducking out on his usual floor but realized he was trampling over the monsters there and needed something extra.

With all of his current protection, along with the powerful single use magic items he had with him, Nox finally decided to try himself out on the 37th floor Colosseum.

Taking the risk of using an unstable portal, Nox arrived at the bottom of the abyss surrounding the Colosseum and looked for the small stream mentioned in the novel.

Finding it, he followed it until he reached a white ore. With Spirit Pulse, he ascertained the existence of a stairway behind it and, with Invictus Shade, phased through the obstruction and climbed the stairs.

At the end of the stairway, the same set up awaited him and, after crossing it much in the same way, Nox was on the final stretch.

It was a small enough space near the 4th wall but completely sealed off. Nox then took some time to use the things he had prepared in his inventory to make the space more livable.

He expanded and fortified the walls, ceiling and ground, furnished the place and then made some defensive measures, setting them up in the two stairways,

Nox expanded them and created golems to defend them that stood on each side of the staircase and respond to intruders.

The second white Ore blocking the second stairway was replaced by an Orichalcum gate while the first one was left as is for camouflage. As for the first staircase, it was chocked full of all kinds of boobytraps.

Flamethrowers, spikes, poison darts, deadly pitfalls, saw blades, you name it, it had it.

By the time he was done with his remodelling, Nox noticed he had spent way to much time on it and that the girls had probably already returned from their Dungeon dive.

And so, not wanting to worry them as he had agree to meet up with them afterward, Nox set up his Teleportation Gate, now on the Core of the hideout and used it to return to the 18th floor where the three girls were already waiting there for him.

"Welcome back Nox-sama!" Haruhime greeted.

"When are you letting us use those sweet portals of yours?" Aisha asked.

'Well, she seems better but I ought to talk to her anyways . . .' Nox thought of Aisha before replying to her question.

"When I've made sure they are completely safe for all of you to use." He said.

"Fine, fine." The amazoness conceded.

"So how were the outfits?" Nox inquired.

This question was followed by what felt like hours of gushing praise from the three girls who were all quite vocal about their immense satisfaction and joy when it came to his gifts.

Much to Nox's surprise however, Aisha didn't really try anything with him which was certainly unusual.

Nox pulled her aside to talk to her but the only thing he got was . . .

"I'll come and talk to you when I'm ready." Aisha said this in a tone Nox had never heard from her, wistful and sad . . . It unsettled him quite a bit but he decided to respect her wishes.

Meanwhile, sweet old Naaza was on her way back to the Miach Familia home, of which she and Miach were the only residents after the previous incident led to all of the Familia's other members being kicked out.

She was dissatisfied with how things were going and felt that a change was needed, one that required the approval of her god . . .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR weeks ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.