Chapter 37 - Orderly Retreat
With the tables turned, the combined forces had lost most of their fighting capability. With Wiene, Mikoto, Ais and the Xenos the only remaining ones with any substantial fighting power, they had to protect the rest of the army. In the meantime, they could only hope that Bell will wake up with his Falna powers intact and Hestia could provide more information.
Even though it was getting late in the 'evening', the team realized that they must try to avoid any respawning dragons in the labyrinth on the 51st to 57th floors. Thus they quickly went through the 60th floor to the 59th floor. A large scorpion appeared but Wiene and Mikoto quickly destroyed it. The magic stone was quickly collected for Ray, who would likely benefit the most from that level of magic stone.
The group then entered the labyrinth floors. Fortunately, no varlang dragons have respawned during the last several hours. Two hours later, they cleared the labyrinth levels with a huge sign of relief. It was almost 'midnight' but they wanted to get past the 49th level with the potential respawning of the balor. Fortunately, the balor did not respawn over the few hours during their battle.
Perhaps their biggest challenge would be traversing the colosseums of the 48th, 47th and 45th floors. Finn devised a strategy to use futsunomitama to clear the entrance area as they approach the colosseum. Wiene, Asterius, Ray, Gros and Lyd would then rush in to maintain a beachhead in the colosseum. At which point, Asterius would rush through the colosseum to keep the exit clear with Ais' help in Ariel. After which, Mikoto would use Dio Grail to support Ray, Lyd and Gros to keep the entrance beachhead protected, Wiene would make repeated flights to fly the army from the entrance to the exit. Riveria and Asterius both said Finn was brilliant as always, which made Finn feel better. He had been feeling extremely responsible for the end-run checkmate, in which he believed the enemy made use of the vertical holes between the dungeon floors.
As the group approached the 48th floor colosseum, Mikoto stopped to cast futsunomitama, holding and crushing a good number of monsters near the entrance area. As planned, Wiene, Asterius, Ray, Gros and Lyd rushed towards the entrance following by the rest of the group. As the Xenos got near the entrance area, Mikoto deactivated the spell and rushed towards the entrance herself. Fortunately, the Xenos did not have trouble securing the beachhead to the colosseum, as they were substantially more powerful than the monsters in the colosseum. Mikoto quickly joined them to seal off 1 side of the beachhead using Dio Grail. After that, Asterius and Ais headed across the room to secure the exit area. After the exit was secured, Wiene started ferrying over the rest of the group 4 at a time. In the meantime, Mikoto continued to seal off one side of the beachhead while Gros, Lyd and Ray battled really hard to keep the entrance area secured. With tremendous pressure on the entrance area, Ais had to assist with Aerial strikes, leaving Asterius defending the exit area by himself. Members of group 1 and 2 were first ferried over, as they still had level 1 fighting ability to help Asterius. After 5 trips were made across the room, it became possible for Mikoto and the Xenos to walk across the room with the remainder of the group while Ais provided Aerial attacks from above. After the perilous exercise, Mikoto stayed behind with Ais to keep the exit blocked while the rest of the group ran ahead.
Another colosseum had to be traversed on the 47th floor even though it was past midnight. Without any significant encounters, the group proceeded with the same plan. The goal was to traverse all 3 colosseums before stopping for rest.
As they approached the 47th floor colosseum, Mikoto again stopped to cast futsunomitama. After the spell crushed more than 10 monsters near the entrance area, Wiene, Asterius, Ray, Gros and Lyd rushed the entrance. After the Xenos secured the beachhead, Mikoto again joined them to block off 1 side of the beachhead with Dio Grail. Just like last time, Asterius and Ais headed across the room to secure the exit area. After that, Wiene started ferrying over the rest of the group with Ais using Aerial strikes during loading and unloading. After about 4 trips, Mikoto and the Xenos again walked across the room with the remainder of the group while Ais provided Aerial strikes from above. Thus, another sigh of relief as a second colosseum was successfully traversed. A big concern was that Mikoto was getting very tired, but they really did not want to rest between 2 floors with colosseums.
Without any significant encounters, the group attempted to traverse the 45th floor colosseum. To save Mikoto's energy, the Xenos simply rushed the entrance area and fought to build up the beachhead themselves. Mikoto then joined in to seal off one side of the entrance area with Dio Grail. Asterius and Ais again headed across the room to secure the exit area, while Wiene started ferrying over the rest of the group. Unfortunately, Mikoto collapsed after the 3rd trip, forcing Ais to fight off the monsters to save her. With Mikoto suffering from mind zero, the remaining group had no choice but fight their way across the room. The group did their best with Ais using Aerial and Wiene flew low to do strafing talon attacks. While they finally did make it across the room, there were unfortunately 2 casualties including 1 dead.
The exhausted group continued to trek on for another 6 floors. When they reached the 39th floors, it was 3 in the morning. Three members, Bell, Lili and Mikoto, were unconscious. The Xenos took watch duty in pairs. This allowed Ais to rest as she overused her magic while her injuries were still recovering. Completely exhausted, Ais laid down next to the unconscious Bell and immediately nodded off...