Episode 18.7-8

"Alright, time to go."

"At two of Princess Turtle (Fengel) today again I see."

"Hm?"

"There are times when Lecan-dono would wake up later than usual depending on your degree of exhaustion the day before. Your breakfast periods would also slightly shift at times. And yet, you will always wake up at two of Fengel if it's for fighting."

"Hou. Really."

"In a place with no nights or days like inside this dungeon, Lecan-dono's inner clock always gets its time right, I see."

"That doesn't matter. I fight once I'm ready to. That's all."

That day, the group went down the floor 40.

The magic beasts got even faster, their legs and heads got even sturdier.

During the first and second battles, Lecan and Heles couldn't match their timings and almost resulted in friendly fires.

Then that happened in the third battle.

Lecan would always choose the most effective and sure-fire attacks to kill a magic beast. On top of that, he also adjusts his action so that he won't end up hitting the other, or get in their way.

If anything, Heles kept getting in their way.

Nevertheless, Lecan would patiently include Heles in his calculations as he launched his assault.

However, something was changing in Heles during that fight.

That is, she managed to lead Lecan's actions.

Heles rushed headlong toward the magic beast, and when the spider opened its mouth to attack Heles, Lecan felt like she was swinging her sword in a way that induced Lecan to wield her sword toward her head from behind.

Lecan followed that demand. Unleashing an attack that would pulverize Heles's head if she did not dodge.

Heles bent over and hit the magic beast's front legs.

Lecan's sword coming at her head from behind grazed the top of her head as it cut the attacking magic beast's face horizontally.

That ended the fight.

"Heles-san!"

Arios ran up.

"That was a wonderful coordination!"

"What?"

Heles is dumbfounded.

It seems she hasn't realized what she's just done.

"You got it."

Lecan spoke to her from behind.

The look on Heles's face changed as she recalled what she just did.

"Ah, I, did I."

"That was good."

"But, why did I. But, I knew that Lecan-dono's sword was coming from behind my head right in that moment. Hence why I could act so reckless."

"You led Lecan-san to initiate that attack, Heles-san."

"Led? No, that's not it. I foresaw it. How Lecan-dono would swing his sword."

"Yes. In practice, or rather, that's how Heles-san sees it subjectively. But to Lecan-san, he swung his sword as instructed by Heles-san. Isn't that right?"

"Yea."

"Coordination? That was a coordination?"

"Heles."

"What is it."

"Adventurers who fight with their lives on the line don't form up coordination. They come up with it."

"Coordination isn't formed up. But come up?"

"You can't beat magic beasts by chaining down your arms for the sake of coordination. Give your maximum effort at attacking, and let other guys incorporate your effort in their attack to the fullest. That's coordination."

"Incorporate, to the fullest."

"Doesn't matter which did the attack first when you look back later. That's how a proper coordination's like."

"No looking back."

"Knock your left fist to your right. Which fist hit which?"

"Both hit each other."

"Ain't it. That's how it goes."

"I don't really get it though."

"Anyway. You did good. You've attained a new strength. Don't forget it."

"Ah. Thank y..."

Glittering tears fell down Heles's beautiful eyes.

"Tears...? Am, I, crying?"

Heles herself probably has no idea why she's crying.

Those tears aren't sorrowful tears.

"Yup yup. I know that feel. I mean, Lecan made me cry too."

"I, see. He made Eda-dono cry too huh."

"Lecan is a bad person."

"I see. That's right. Lecan-dono is a bad person."

After a bit, Eda and Heles went to help Lecan and Arios carving out mats.

Afterward, the way they fought was unrecognizable from before.

The three would move freely in all directions while supporting each other, amplifying their strength.

The whirlwind given rise by the three easily destroyed every magic beast they came across to.

How Eda would smash an eye of the spiders contributes greatly as well.

Her <Recovery> would also immediately fly to whoever got hurt by the magic beasts' attacks. None of the three swordsmen doubted that.

This was the moment these four became a party in the truest sense.

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

"We got floor 40's <Mark> now."

"I still can't believe it. To think we so easily beat giant variants of floor 40 in succession. When I got my <Mark>, we even had to recruit temporary members and it still took quite a long time to narrowly beat those variants."

"Oh man, everyone was so awesome today."

"Don't sell yourself short Eda-san, didn't you shoot through that magic beast's heart when it raised its head high up trying to squash Lecan-san. That was truly splendid."

"Ehehehe. Thanks. Arios-kun was so cool too. You cut four legs so fast."

"We're getting back above ground once we're done carving out these mats. But this giant variant's legs won't fit into my <Box> even if we cut them at the joints."

"Ooh. Lecan-dono's enigmatic <Box> finally shows its limit."

"No. These are just way too big to fit no matter how you look at it."

"Umu. We also only fetched the venom sac when we beat these back then. It's simply not"

"I'll carry these back on my shoulder."

"Wha?"

"What'd you say?"

"Arios-kun. You can't apply common sense to Lecan-san, you know."

"Sheesh, Lecan-dono, you're really just unbelievable."

"What is?"

"Err. Even parties who make these floors their hunting grounds only hunt two spiders in half a day, or at most four in one day. And yet this party hunted ten today, eleven yesterday, and the day before yesterday, we got five on floor 36, eight on floor 37, 12 on floor 38, so we hunted err, 25 spiders in a day."

"I just felt like it then."

"That makes it even more tremendous. It's simply out of the norm to engage in so many fights."

"Four spiders in an entire day, isn't that too few battles?"

"You drink a potion when you're hurt. Since another potion will be less effective afterward, suffering a serious wound could spell disaster if you don't let it cool down."

"Ah, I see."

"Two high <Recovery> users in one party is simply unprecedented. Besides, I heard you could only cast high <Recovery> four times a day even with blue potions. Since continuous casting in a short amount of time should have been impossible, it's understandable how that recovery user Nunu would be that frantic."

"Eh? Four times, you're kidding right?"

"I am not. Still, these legs aren't too damaged, everything is gathered, and the venom sacs still have got lots of venom left. These will likely fetch handsomely."

"And yet there was no treasure chest drop at all, what's up with that?"

"Hahaha. Weird isn't it. But the mats from spiders on these floors could very well fetch so much more than average treasure chests."

"Ooh really. That's good then."