After returning to the Guild and taking a short break, the team teleported to layer forty again to start Hannah’s turn to kill the Rotten Swordsman. Upon getting the <<Haste>> and <<Fly>> buffs from Tsutomu, Hannah flew close to the ground toward her target, the blue wings on her back flapping along. Her speed was comparable to Camille’s with <<Dragon Form>> activated.
Birdkins generally came in two different body builds. One was like the Silver Beast’s red and blue Birdkins with bird legs and wings as arms. Another was like Hannah, looking mostly human but with wings on their backs.
The former type had lighter legs than humans, and thus more lightweight in general, and could naturally fly thanks to the high lifting power of their wing-arms. Having feathers on their arms also made it easier for them to utilize the Birdkin’s race-specific skill, <<Feather Dance>>, which involved scattering feathers at enemies to lower their accuracy.
Compared to them, Hannah’s legs were just like those of normal humans, and her wings obviously were not enough to get her flying. And since the only feathers she had were on her back, it was quite difficult for her to use <<Feather Dance>> properly. On paper, as far as Dungeon exploration was concerned, Silver Beast’s Birdkin members had the more advantageous body type across the board.
For Hannah specifically, however, she had learned from an early age the technique to gain a very brief air time with her wings, which she used to boost her speed when running across the ground. As such, her wings were actually quite useful for instantaneous adjustments to her movements, and they even helped with her airborne mobility when under the effect of <<Fly>>.
Thanks to the strategy meeting with Tsutomu the other day, Hannah was prepared for the air mobility of <<Fly>> and the sensation-shifting effect from <<Haste>>. Mid-flight, Hannah bent her body back and stuck her legs forward, landing a flying kick on the Rotten Swordsman.
“<<Flame Kick>>!”
Then she activated her skill, wrapping her legs with flames, which made her double-footed kick sink into the Rotten Swordsman torso before the monster was blown away, its body bent into an L shape. The Rotten Swordsman bounced on the ground a few times, eventually managing to bring itself to a stop. It proceeded to place its hands on the ground to try and push itself up, but by then, Hannah had already caught up with it.
The monster opted to grab a handful of dirt from the ground and throw it at Hannah’s face. Hannah saw it coming, however, with her having fought Rotten Swordsmen dozens of times when she had been training.
Hannah defended against the dirt-throwing with her arms, then closed in on the monster again, this time getting into punching range. The closer she was, the harder it would be for the Rotten Swordsman to swing its short sword effectively. Hannah threw a three-punch combo at the monster’s torso, prompting it to step back and try to swing its sword, but then Hannah saw the attack through and managed to dodge it with minimal movement.
The difference in height between Hannah and the Rotten Swordsman was great, giving off the impression of a child fighting against an adult, but despite that, the former was doing well with landing her blows. She focused on her attacks on the monster’s torso and legs, and dodged all of its short sword slashes and shield bashes.
By the time Tsutomu cast <<Haste>> a second time and followed it up with <<Protect>>, Hannah’s repeated blows on the Rotten Swordsman’s legs had caused the monster to start losing balance. Seeing this as a good chance, Hannah decided to go all in.
“<<One-Two Straight>>!”
The Rotten Swordsman, taking two instantaneous punches from the Boxer version of <<Double Attack>>, was now quite visibly damaged. Hannah crouched down and pulled her hand back, ready for a follow-up attack.
“<<Upper Swing>>!”
With the attack launching the Rotten Swordsman up into the sky, Hannah gave chase, kicking the ground to launch herself up.
“<<Aerial Raze>>!”
Hannah landed another series of kicks from below, knocking the Rotten Swordsman further up. Hannah’s weaponized metal shoes smashed through the monster’s armor, creating a rhythmic sequence of metallic clangs with each blow.
The Rotten Swordsman, being equipped with a full set of armor, was quite heavy. However, Hannah’s STR enabled her to keep it airborne and even lift it up higher and higher.
“Whoa…”
Daryl, standing next to Tsutomu, was openly impressed. Amira also seemed surprised by Hannah’s unexpected and unfamiliar fighting style.
The Boxer Job specialized in chaining together skills to make combos, with their bread and butter being the <<Upper Swing>>, which launched the target into the air, and <<Aerial Raze>>, which juggled the airborne target.
Out of all Explorer roles established when God’s Dungeon first appeared in this world, the most common and sought-after role was Attacker. Unlike Tanks and Healers, the Attacker role had been thoroughly researched by the time the Explorers’ progress was down to layer thirty at most, which led to the discovery of functions such as the Skill Combo.
In the game, Tsutomu’s main character was a Healer because he liked playing that role in particular, but he had also created some Tanks and Attacker characters to deepen his understanding of various Job types. In this world, it was impossible to do a Job change, but even if it was, Tsutomu just knew that he would not work as an Attacker anywhere nearly as well as those in major Clans. He could see himself managing the Tank role just fine, but the Attacker role in this world had gotten too advanced to simply hop into.
In Hannah’s case, she had been an Attacker for Ealdred Crow’s second-best team up until about three months ago. Hearing ‘second-best’ might make one think she was not that big of a deal, but Hannah was actually a relatively new Explorer, having started her career only three years ago. She had been somewhat well-known for her agility, and was invited to join Ealdred Crow by the time she cleared layer twenty.
Ealdred Crow had already been a major Clan by then, known for their lucrative employee benefits, efficient training routines, and effective tactics — and they had been hoarding a great number of goods and personnel at the time. Joining the Clan, Hannah had gotten to raise her level drastically quickly, and then learned air combat maneuvers with the effect of <<Fly>>, which by then had gained great popularity among Birdkins that could not naturally fly.
In the following years, Hannah would go on to distinguish herself more and more — and even when she reached level fifty, after which one would find it much harder to gain additional levels, she went on to quickly gain more levels, until she hit sixty. Despite the work environment expecting one to be level seventy, her being level sixty proved to be no hindrance to her ability to perform as well as other Attackers, and her capabilities were recognized not only by fellow Explorers, but also the office staff and instructors.
Hannah’s raw power may still pale in comparison to Amira, what with the latter being the Guild Master’s daughter and possessing a unique skill, but she was plenty talented and skilled. And even if the unique skill were to be taken out of the picture, there was not much reason for Hannah to lose to Amira, whose level was a dozen or so lower than hers.
The Rotten Swordsman, launched so high up into the air that it could not be seen easily from the ground anymore, was now finally free of the barrage of kicks from below… but now it was tumbling down fast, pulled by gravity. Hannah proceeded to repeatedly kick it down, as if pecking it to shreds.
“Die already!”
To finish things up, Hannah slammed her heels onto the Rotten Swordsman’s torso, pushing it down onto the ground. Mid-fall, Hannah did a flip and flew away, leaving the Rotten Swordsman to crash by itself, blasting a hole in the ground like a meteorite. A bang echoed through the vicinity, as if the monster’s body had exploded.
Hannah slowly glided down toward the crash-landed Rotten Swordsman, and what she saw were light particles, flowing out of the monster’s armor. The monster was already dead, and it was mere moments later that it disappeared completely. Tsutomu took a look at the watch and noted the time down.
“Three minutes and twelve seconds. Good work.”
“Piece ‘a cake!”
Hannah landed on the ground and happily raised her fists up. Amira was somewhat stunned by the result, what with it being the complete opposite of her expectations of the one considered by many as a Feather Tank — as someone who was not all that strong.
Tsutomu turned to Amira and smiled.
“Well? That should be enough proof of Hannah’s strength, don’t you think?”
“…Tch. C’mon, next round,” Amira said with a hint of annoyance in her voice, directed at Tsutomu’s smug face in particular.
Tsutomu continued to talk, this time seriously and in a lowered voice, to warn Hannah,
“Just so we’re clear… don’t go in expecting Daryl to be weaker than Hannah, because he’s not. I’d recommend fighting at full power.”
“…You saying you want me to use <<Dragon Form>> or what?” Amira asked, not even hiding the annoyance in her voice this time.
“Well, I guess,” Tsutomu said and awkwardly scratched his cheek.
Amira held her greatsword forward and groaned arrogantly, as if putting up a strong front.
“Well, I’m not gonna use it. I can win — just you wait and see.”
“If you say so.”
Tsutomu, although still wondering whether or not Amira could no longer use her <<Dragon Form>>, proceeded to cast some support skills for everyone. The team then started attacking the two new Rotten Swordsmen as they crawled up from the ground.
