Hellooo! It's been a while huh? Well, I'm back with a new chapter. I apologize for disappearing on you guys, this year has flown by in a flash and I have not had time to write any stories with life going by. I'll slowly but eventually keep these stories rolling out. All I ask is for your patience as I have a really busy schedule nowadays so no promises on when my next chapter comes out.

ALSO! I get it! I get it! I'm dumb! I'll go back and fix the Mrs and Ms as well as the lad and lass situation, I'm sorry, I'll fix that asap. I really need to get an editor lmao. You guys know anyone?

Anyways, on with the chapter!

"Hurry the hell up!" Bete yelled at his party.

"Shut up bete!" Tiona yelled back.

"Quiet down you two!" Tione yelled at them.

"Ehhh Tione! Tiona!." Lefiya cried trying to calm the three down.

"Why are we being dragged along?!" Lili yelled at them.

"I want to go home!" Welf whined.

The, uh, "rescue party" were currently on floor 14 making their way to save Bell and Ais. Filvis, Dionysus's child, was just staring at the group with wide eyes, she could not believe what was happening.

"You two are here just in case that we run into the guys that pass paraded you. We need you to identify them so we can kill them!" Tione said with a smile.

"She's joking right?" Welf asked her sister.

"Of course she is! I think?" Tiona responded and killed a group of monsters with one swing of her trusty Urga.

The original party had consisted of Bete, Lefiya, and Filvis, but before they left the twins had returned home and after hearing what happened they tagged along and dragged Welf and Lili with them. So now the seven of them were happily making their way down the floors.

"Also, we needed someone to carry our stuff!" Tiona added and stuck her tongue out playfully.

"Grrrrrr!" Lili growled as she was practically forced back into her supporter role. Not that she minded much this time, she did want to make sure her friend was okay and would've been more than happy to act as their supporter, if they had asked that is!

"And why the hell am I here too?" Welf begrudgingly asked.

"To make sure our equipment is alright. You're a smith, aren't you?" Tione said while punting a hell hound away.

"Aghh. Well at least we're earning a ton of money." Welf said as he helped Lili gather magic stones. Being with first class adventurers was great for lining up your pockets.

"I'm so sorry they dragged you two along." Lefiya again apologized to them, being the only reasonable one in the party.

"As long as Bell's fine then it's alright." Welf said after getting the last stone.

As soon as he said that, a group of monsters showed up to challenge the dysfunctional group.

"Here I go!" The twins shouted in unison.

'Will this party be okay?' Filvis thought to herself.

….

The other party was somewhere in the Grand Tree labyrinth that spanned from the 19th floor all the way down to the 24th floor. Bell and Ais were currently at the 20th floor with the Hermes familia with little trouble from the monsters.

"Hey, check out that huge mushroom!" One of the members shouted and pointed to said mushroom.

"You idiot! That's a monster! You know, the one with the poison spores?" Another one yelled back.

"No! It's definitely a mushroom!" The first one shouted.

"One way to figure it out is by throwing rocks at it. Say guys, how about a little wager? See if it's a monster or not." Keaks, one of the familia members, asked.

"I'm in!" Lulune said.

"What do you say, Asfi? If I win, will you go out on a date with me?" He happily asked.

"Thane. Burn it." Asfi commanded with a cold voice and dead stare.

"Got it." The archer responded and set it on fire.

"Not again!" Keaks whined and fell to the floor.

"Hahaha! Keaks got dumped again!" Lulune laughed.

"Will you ever learn?" Tabitha, a catgirl, asked.

'They are rather lively.' Ais noted.

"Is this normal?" Bell said under his breath.

"Don't mind them." Asfi said tiredly and kept walking.

"So, how deep have you guys gone down?" Bell asked as he looked over everyone in the party doing their own thing.

"We have no reason to answer that, especially to someone from another familia." Asfi answered.

"We've almost hit floor 40!" Lulune said proudly.

"LULUNE!" Asfi yelled and wacked her on the head.

"AHHH!" Lulune yelled in pain.

"Are you naturally stupid?! Or were you born that way?!" Asfi berated as she kept yelling at her member who shrunk from the pain and words.

"Please pay them no mind." Another member told the pair and lead them away from their scary captain.

'Will this familia really be okay?' Ais thought as they watched them lose focus so easily. Just then, her high-level senses picked something up and she turned to look at a far away tunnel at the same time as the lead were-tiger picked up the noise.

"Enemies approaching!" He yelled and the rest quit their antics and got into battle stances.

"All members prepare for battle! Ready your shields and arrows! Mages prepare your chants!" Asfi ordered and the rest fell in line. "I supposed you're interested in our battle strength am I not?" Asfi asked as she spared the sword princess a glance. "Well, here's our chance to show off." She continued while equipping a couple items and passing some around.

"Here we go!" Asfi yelled while her members let out a war cry.

….

"Whew! I thought the monsters would never end." Welf whined and slumped on to a nearby wall.

"I know what you mean." Lefiya said tired.

"This was hardly a warm up." Tiona complained after slicing through the last monster with her trusty Urga.

"Yeah." Tione agreed bored out of her mind. There was no need to go all out as her captain wasn't here for her to impress.

"This is what you call a warm up?!" Lili yelled as she was slowly buckling from the weight of her overflowing backpack. And there were still more crystals to collect!

"Damn weakling. You better not slow us down." Bete scoffed at her before walking away. "We're almost at floor 18. Look alive." He added.

"Why you!" Lili yelled angrily.

"Now, now, just ignore him little prum." Tiona laughed trying to calm her down.

"Filvis, is everthing alright?" Lefiya asked her fellow elf, seeing her off to the side.

"…" Filvis said nothing, not even sparing a glance at the elf, and carried on.

"Did I say something?" Lefiya asked confused on what just happened.

"Oi idiots! We're stopping on floor 18 to see if anyone's seen Ais. The rabbit too I guess." Bete called out as they neared the entrance.

"Who died and made you captain?" Tiona asked with a laugh.

"No where near as good as the captain." Tione said.

"Shut up you two!" Bete yelled back. He turned around as Filvis walked by without saying a word.

"Oi elf, those pointy things of yours work, don't they?" Bete said and went to stop her. Just as he was about to put a hand on her shoulder Filves became enraged and drew her weapon and made to attack the wolf.

"Keep your filthy muts off me dammit!" She yelled with murderous intention in her eyes.

The blade was aimed directly at Bete who was only able to stop it with his arm guard because of his higher level speed.

"Hah?" He asked coldly while reflecting her eyes his with murderous intent of his own.

"Bete! Wait!" Lefiya called out afraid.

"Oh no." Welf said and the twins ran to cool the wolf off.

"Bete! It's traditional that elves do not let just anyone touch them!" Lefiya said trying to calm him down.

"Even so, there are limits to how extreme you can be before someone fights back." Bete replied and swatted Filvis's sword away.

"Hmph!" Filvis huffed and turned away while sheathing her sword.

"Well that went well." Welf said sarcastically.

"No kidding." Lili added, equally sarcastic.

….

"Wow." Bell gasped in awe as he saw the aftermath of the monster party.

"Looks like we'll be okay." Ais said as she took in the Hermes familia's strength.

"I assure you; you won't have anything left to do sword princess." Asfi said confidently.

"With how strong you guys are, were we even needed?" Bell asked with a slight laugh.

"Uhm, better to be safe than sorry?" Ais asked him confused. "Finn says that a lot."

"Come on. We still have a way to go." Asfi ordered. The rest of her familia followed suit.

The party marched onwards after collecting their spoils of battle before quickly falling back in line for the push onwards.

"Lulune, where's the nearest pantry?" Asfi asked her navigator.

"Give me a second. Let's see…" She responded and carefully studied her map and looked around to find her bearings. "That way." She said and pointed towards a tunnel.

"Mmmm. No. Let's go this way." Ais said while pointing at the opposite direction.

"Huh?" Lulune asked in surprise.

"Something wrong Ais?" Bell asked.

"I think, it's this way." Ais said sensing something was off.

"Lulune?" Asfi asked her.

"Well, there is another pantry that way." Lulune clarified while giving the map another glance over. "It's a bit farther." She added.

"We're going to have to search all the pantries in this floor anyway. Sword princess lead the way." Asfi said, trusting the first-class adventurer. Ais led the way, Bell shortly behind her, and the rest of the party behind them.

"Why did you want to go this way, Ais?" Bell asked her.

"Monsters." She replied.

"Monsters? Where?" Bell asked and looked around trying to find them.

"You can't hear them yet. They're further down this way." She replied and pointed at the direction they were heading.

After a few minutes.

"Ais?" Bell asked in slight fear as he finally understood what she meant.

"Yes. They're here." She said and stopped on a cliff and looked down as the thousands of monsters below marched along.

"There's so many of them!" Lulune shouted.

"Quiet down or else we're their next target." Asfi ordered. "Lets make a plan to take care of this." She continued.

"I'll go." Ais said and jumped down.

"Ais!" Bell and Lulune yelled after her only to look down and see monster crystals left in Ais's path.

"Huh?" Bell gasped in awe as he saw Ais single handedly take down the hoard of monsters leaving nothing but crystals and ash.

Soon enough, Ais had come to a stop when there were no monsters left to fight and sheathed her weapon back in its place as the group finally met up with her.

""Wooow."" Some of them said in awe of the Sword Princess.

"I thought you were a level 5, but you've ranked up haven't you?" Asfi walked up and asked her.

"Hm." Ais confirmed with a nod.

"What made you say that?" Lulune asked.

"After you level up, there's a period in where you need to adjust to your newfound strength. Our Sword Princess slaughtered that unsightly horde to adjust to her new strength, am I right?" Asfi explained.

"Yes." Ais confirmed.

"Wooow! So cooool!" Lulune shouted in excitement.

"Ais, I'm starting to think you can handle this all by yourself and we're just witnesses." Bell told her.

"Is that so?" She asked him.

"Well, we're here if you need help." He said with a smile.

"Hm." Ais acknowledged with a nod.

"Let's cut the chatter and focus on the task at hand; the pantry is up next." Asfi ordered, gathering everyones attention.

"Lead the way Lulune." She added.

"On it." Lulune answered and got back to work.

…..

"Really?!" Tiona yelled excitedly.

"Yeah, heard the sword princess was heading down to floor 24 with the little rookie and some shady group. Don't know much more about that, although a couple more valis may jog my memory better." Bors told the amazon.

"Let's go." Tione ordered and dragged her sister out of the shady shop before she could get scammed further.

"Uhm, thank you very much!" Lefiya stuttered out a quick thanks before turning back towards her party.

"Oi elf, hold on there a minute." Bors called out.

"Huh? Me?" Lefiya asked confused.

"What's the hold up?" Welf asked and walked up to them.

"Not that it's any of Lili's business, but shouldn't we leave now?" Lili asked joining them.

"You all aren't seriously partying with her, are you?" Bors asked the trio and pointed to Filvis.

"'Her?' What do you mean?" Lefiya asked.

"Around here she's known as the 'Banshee'." Bors explained.

"Banshee?" Welf asked confused.

"I've heard of her!" Lili spoke up. "There's been rumors that there's a certain elf who brings down horrors on her party members!" She explained.

"Most of the stories about her are exaggerated, but the one constant detail is that no matter who or how many members she teams up with all end up dead one way or another and she's left as the only adventurer." Bors explained.

"Oh no!" Lefiya gasped in surprise.

"That's horrible." Welf said to himself.

"I'd stay as far away from her if I were you." Bors told them.

"Isn't that all just talk?" Tiona asked, seemingly overhearing everything.

"Ask her yourself. Now, on with ya! I've got work to do." Bors told them and shoed them away.

"Let's keep going." Tione called out and started making way towards the entrance to floor 19.

"Hm? Aren't you two coming?" Tiona called to Welf and Lili.

"Well, we don't exactly have the strength to go down any further." Welf told them.

"We're only level 1, there's not much we can do." Lili said.

"Ah leave them! Useless pieces of trash should've stayed up back home!" Bete called out and turned away from the crowd.

"Don't pay him any mind. And don't worry, you'll be fine with us there! Together, we won't let the captain down!" Tione told them.

"Yeah! It'll be fun!" Tiona added.

"Well, if you say so." Welf said haphazardly.

"That is, unless you want to stay in the town of thieves where everyone is a higher level than you." Tione added.

"To the lower floors we go!" Welf yelled enthusiastically.

"Lili agrees!" Lili added.

Neither wanted to be left alone all the way down there now that they thought about it.

….

"Well, this could pose a problem." Lulune said.

"You think?" Bell asked confused as they stared at a large wall blocking the pantry.

"It looks like this is what's the cause of the monster; it's not an overabundance, it's the lack of food that's causing them to group together to search for it." Asfi noted.

"Hm." Ais hummed.

"Let's get this over with. Guys!" Asfi said and ordered a few of her members to cut down the suspicious wall and the group got to work.

"What is all this?" Bell asked as they walked inside.

"Who knows?" Asfi answered as she surveyed the area.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Lulune whimpered as the group explored further inward. Suddenly, the wall closed up behind them and trapped the group inside.

"What the?!" Bell asked surprised while the others got into a fighting stance.

"We're being watched." Ais said.

"How do you know?" Bell asked.

"You can never count anything out in the dungeon. Also, why did the wall suddenly close right when we were all inside?" Asfi asked.

Just to prove her point, the ground started shaking and the vine like monsters Bell and Ais were all too familiar with sprouted from the ground and were on the attack.

"Take them out!" Asfi ordered and her members let out a battle cry and set off to eliminate the monsters.

"Ais!" Bell yelled as some of the monsters were targeting her specifically and she was forced to duck and jump away to keep from getting hit.

Just as she had sliced one's head off, another forced her to jump away only for the mysterious green wall to start blocking her off from the others.

"Ais!" Bell yelled and jumped after her and made it through the gap just as it closed off.

"Sword princess! Bell!" Lulune yelled after them.

"Lulune! Focus on the battle at hand!" Asfi yelled at her subordinate and got back to fighting.

"Ngh! Dammit!" Lulune said after looking at the wall where her friends were and turned around and jumped into the fray.

….

"Are you alright?" Ais asked after they killed the remaining vines.

"Yeah. Little tired but I'm okay. What about you?" Bell asked.

"Hm." Ais answered with a nod.

"Well, looks like I won't need to look for the other one now." A voice echoed.

The two turned to see Revis slowly approaching them, weapon in hand.

"You're both here for the taking." She finished and charged straight at them.

And that's the end. I know, I know. Short chapters are a bitch but this was quite literally all I wanted to write. I don't know how to say this so I'll just say it; This arc was pretty mid to me.

I don't know. This isn't a bad arc by any means, but I could barely read through it when I read the novels. It feels overshadowed by Sword Oratoria's other great arcs. It's not my favorite but it's too important to exclude.

I'll see you guys soon with my other story!