Live Dungeon!

”Damn it…!”

No sooner had Fenrir vanished from sight than a jagged prison of ice erupted beneath Daryl’s feet, locking him in place. Before he could recover, a massive paw slammed down on him with crushing weight. The relentless assault, combining swiftness and magic in flawless waves, left Daryl barely able to keep himself from taking critical damage. Defense was all he had left.

”Fenrir, what the hell!?” Hannah shouted post-revival, reeling from the shock. ”Why are you doing this all of a sudden!?”

*Woof!*

Both she and the young Fenrir cried out, as if pleading for the onslaught to stop. But the mother beast, her eyes rolled back in a vacant white haze, showed no sign of relenting. If anything, the moment her focus on Daryl began to wane, her gaze shifted to her own cub, her stance one of imminent violence.

Tsutomu knew the truth: the parasite had taken hold, pushing Fenrir into a berserk state. But to the others, it seemed like the mighty beast had snapped without warning. Confused and shaken, Hannah, Leleia, and even Diniel hesitated, unsure of how to respond. Meanwhile, Korinna tried channeling [ and any other skill she thought would help both Daryl and the maddened Fenrir, hoping against hope to calm the rampaging creature.

Daryl, locked in one-on-one combat, narrowly evaded another surge of frost that snaked along the ground. He launched himself into a lateral dive, planting his hand mid-roll to redirect his momentum and barely avoiding the second blast of ice.

[So this is what she’s like at full strength…! She was tough even when wounded. This is on another level! That magic’s a nightmare!]

Tsutomu had intentionally avoided healing Fenrir during previous encounters. He knew how dangerous she could become once her strength returned, and he had even manipulated her into burning through her energy reserves. The beast Daryl and the others had faced earlier had been a shadow of her true self. She had been physically weakened and largely incapable of casting spells.

But now, restored by Korinna’s support skills and no longer restrained by injury or fatigue, the Fenrir’s sheer speed and magical might left even battle-hardened teammates like Hannah visibly stunned.

”We don’t know the cause,” Korinna called out, voice clear despite the tension. ”But it’s obvious that she isn’t responding to anything we say. Even [ didn’t help. If we don’t stop her, Daryl and the cub won’t make it. Hannah, hurry and get your gear ready.”

”But…”

”I’m not saying we have to kill her. But if we don’t fight back, we’ll all die. Even if we retreat, the cub might approach its crazed mother and get killed. I don’t want this either, but we have no choice.”

Korinna had never fought the Fenrir before, and her connection to the beast was distant at best. That emotional detachment allowed her to remain level-headed where others faltered. Hannah’s face twisted in anguish, tears welling at the corners of her eyes, while Leleia and Diniel gripped their weapons with renewed resolve. Together, they moved to support Daryl.

*Woof!*

A sharp cry rang out as one of Diniel’s arrows struck the Fenrir. The cub yelped, the painful, heart-wrenching sound making Diniel falter. Her bow lowered slightly, her hands trembling.

Leleia caught the hesitation with a sidelong glance, sharp as a serpent’s, and surged forward with the Salamander in tow. Her rapier danced with precision, seeking the gaps in the Fenrir’s defenses.

Hannah, still clad in the flaxen garments given after resurrection, hesitated longer than the rest. She was still scrambling to strap on her gear when she looked up to see Daryl staggering beneath the weight and the cold. Frost magic clung to his armor, sapping his strength, slowing his limbs.

”There’s no point in this! Wake the hell up already!!”

With a roar born of frustration and heartbreak, Hannah crushed a Colorless Magic Stone in her palm and charged. Her magic-infused fist collided with the Fenrir’s muzzle, shattering the ice around her fangs and sending a spray of frost into the air. The sheer force of the blow hurled the beast through a thicket of thin trees.

”I’ll take over from here!” Hannah barked. ”I’ve got a read on her moves now!”

”Thank you,” Daryl said weakly, staggering back. ”I’ll recover and rejoin you soon.”

”Don’t push it! You’re frostbitten, for crying out loud. let Korinna fix you up!”

Daryl’s whole body shook as he backed off, his breath ragged from the numbing cold. He did as he was told, limping toward a bonfire Korinna had prepared with a Magic Tool, crouching beside it for warmth.

”I’m going to remove your gloves,” she said softly.

Though not a specialist in frostbite, Korinna had enough medical experience to recognize its signs. She carefully peeled away Daryl’s black gloves, revealing pale hands without discoloration; the damage was fortunately not yet severe. Relieved, she cupped them in her own and began to warm them with gentle pressure, all the while maintaining her support skill rotation.

She channeled [ for Hannah to help the latter in the fight, and then guided Daryl’s hands toward a basin of lukewarm water to help him regain feeling. While doing this, she kept one eye on Hannah, whose usage of Magic Fist was becoming increasingly reckless.

”Hannah! If possible, use Fire or Inferno Magic Stones!” Korinna shouted. ”They’ll work better on the Fenrir, and the heat will help your body hold up! Leleia, keep that pressure up! Diniel, focus on fire arrows to melt the ice!”

Adapting common strategies for defeating ice-type monsters, which had proven especially effective against the Winter General, Korinna gave crisp, deliberate instructions while monitoring the subtle aura of death that clung to Hannah’s presence.

As an evasion-based Tank, Hannah always danced on the edge of mortality; one clean hit was all it took. Korinna watched her aura closely, observing the minute fluctuations that signaled when [ would likely be needed.

Her eyes flicked so rapidly it was almost disturbing to see, and yet, she never faltered. As she tracked Hannah’s rapid movements with unerring focus, Korinna continued channeling her healing, maintained the party’s buffs, and guided their formation. Her calm leadership was like a steady drumbeat, gradually bringing rhythm back to the chaos. Under her direction, even the panicked Hannah and the shaken Diniel began moving with their usual precision once more.

Compared to Tsutomu, Korinna was undeniably more human in her emotional depth. She did, in her way, sympathize with Fenrir. But she hadn’t seen the beast and her cub meet tragic ends over and over, nor had she come to this battle determined to break that cycle like the rest of the party. That detachment made her the only one among them who could offer unflinching judgment and objective commands from a third-party perspective.

The Fenrir, the hidden boss of the ninety-second layer, was undoubtedly formidable. But for this party, at their true capacity, she was not an insurmountable foe. If Korinna had lost her composure alongside the others, the battle might have tipped toward disaster. But with a calm and capable Healer anchoring the team, even a few missteps from the Tanks or Attackers could be corrected before it became fatal.

One after another, her preemptively-channeled blessings took effect, smoothly extending support to Hannah and Leleia. She shortened the wait for [ using [, and with impeccable timing, making it kick in just in time to stagger the Fenrir, disrupting a claw strike that might otherwise have torn into Hannah.

”[, [, [… all set.” Korinna glanced toward Daryl, her tone professional yet lighthearted. ”Daryl, time to switch with Hannah. Are you ready?”

”Y-yes!”

”…Would you prefer a bit more time to warm up?”

”I-I’m fine, really!”

Daryl flustered under her teasing smile, trying to maintain his composure. Korinna chuckled softly but then turned back to the battlefield, her gaze sharpening.

”Then try to pull the aggro fully within the next two minutes. Hannah! Swap out now! Focus on evading; keep your offense light!”

After much trial and error to push past the ninetieth layer, Korinna had blossomed into a capable Healer, bolstered further by her teammates’ implicit training to work with a Channeler. Now, as she and the rest of the party grew more attuned to this high-stakes rhythm, the tide of battle began to stabilize.

Standing near her, Daryl felt a shiver run down his spine. It was not from the cold, but from the aura she now exuded. It reminded him of Tsutomu during the previous boss fight. He had thought he understood Korinna’s strength back on the ninety-first layer, but here, once again, he found himself relying on her. And though his team had already reached the end of this set of layers, positioning them as her supposed guides, they were on track to become the ones being guided at this rate.

”[!”

Determined not to be outdone, Daryl summoned a spear-like surge of red battle aura, drawing the Fenrir’s attention. Preparing for a prolonged engagement, perhaps as long as a layer boss, he downed a Blue Potion and began cycling through his skills, giving Hannah the chance to fall back and catch her breath.

▽▽

After nearly two hours of relentless battle within the forest, Korinna’s party had finally driven the Fenrir to the brink. The tide began to turn once Diniel, steeling herself against the cub’s cries, committed fully to the offensive. The Fenrir began to falter, her body bearing wounds too numerous to count. Under normal circumstances, she would have begun to limp, inviting pity with each desperate, dragging step.

But now, forced into motion by the parasitic monster within her, the Fenrir was beyond pain and exhaustion. Her body could deteriorate to the point of collapse, yet she would not stop. There would be no mercy, no final whimper before collapse. As a result, the party had been forced to literally break her down: both hind legs and one foreleg were shattered, leaving her immobilized on the bloodstained earth.

She could no longer pursue them, but she was not entirely helpless either. If they left her like this, the cub would almost certainly try to approach, only to be torn apart in her mother’s final, mindless frenzy. Already, nearby monsters had begun to close in, sensing the end.

”We have no choice. We have to finish her,” Korinna said, raising her morning star.

”No, I’ll do it,” Leleia interrupted immediately, her tone as flat as her expression. ”If something were to happen to you, we could be wiped out. It has to be me.”

Korinna, with less emotional investment in the Fenrir than the others, had stepped forward without hesitation. But at Leleia’s words, she gave a small nod and stepped back. Leleia glanced at the rest of the party, gauging if anyone else wished to volunteer. Hannah was weeping silently, eyes swollen and red. Diniel, too, looked away, her usual composure visibly fraying. Daryl, his face clouded, stepped forward… but not to fight.

”…May I speak to the cub?” he asked quietly.

”She sees us as enemies,” Leleia warned. ”She’s on guard.”

”If she lashes out, I’ll survive a bite.”

”…As you wish. But keep it brief. Monsters are already gathering around.”

”I understand.”

With a solemn nod, Daryl turned and approached the cub, who stood rigid at the edge of the Safe Zone. Her tail bristled, and she snarled low and sharp, warning him not to take another step. But Daryl continued on until he was close enough to kneel before her.

”I don’t know what caused this,” he said gently. ”But your mother attacked us… and if we let her live, she’ll attack you too. We have to end it.”

*Grrrrrr…!*

”I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough. I’m truly, truly sorry.”

The cub bared her fangs, her face so close he could feel her breath. But she didn’t strike. Daryl stood, turned, and walked back toward Leleia with a hardened expression.

”Please,” he said, ”let it be you. If I tried, I might only prolong her suffering.”

”I understand. Leave it to me,” Leleia replied. ”Keep watch on the cub. If she lashes out in grief, we need to be ready.”

She drew her rapier, wrapping the blade in fire Spirit crystals. Hannah and Korinna watched in grim silence. Daryl and Diniel, still some distance away, kept wary eyes on the cub.

Without hesitation, Leleia approached the dying Fenrir and, with a single clean thrust to the skull, ended her suffering.

The cub’s scream split the forest like a falling star.

*GAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!*

The cub, witnessing its mother’s final moment, let out a roar so powerful that the surrounding monsters scattered in terror. As if in ritual, the cub inherited her mother’s strength, and the frost magic passed into her body, just like it did in Live Dungeon. The ground around her froze in a spreading circle of rime and jagged ice.

”…Now it’s the little one’s turn, huh? What a sick joke,” Hannah muttered. She exhaled hard, all the fight drained from her voice.

Diniel, face uncharacteristically grim, nocked an arrow. Korinna channeled a fresh round of support for Daryl, who stood at the edge of the frost-covered terrain.

Though his eyes were sorrowful, Daryl never released his grip on his tower shield. He braced himself for the cub’s inevitable charge.

But instead of leaping toward him, the cub bounded high into the air.

He raised his shield above his head instinctively, ready for the same crushing strike her mother had once used but then he saw a spike of sharpened ice materializing directly beneath her.

”No…!” The word tore from his throat. He threw his shield aside and dashed ahead… but it was already too late.

With a final, heart-wrenching cry, the cub descended not upon the team, but upon the spike, her face the first to meet it. The ice pierced through her, clean from mouth to tail, and in a single gruesome instant, she was still.

Daryl stared at her, stunned. Then, panic overtaking disbelief, he spun around.

”Miss Korinna! Please, heal her!”

”…I’m sorry,” she said quietly. ”She’s already dead.”

”No… no way…”

”AAAHHHH! I’m so done with this layer! I’ve had enough!” Hannah’s wail echoed through the forest, raw and shattering.

The battle was over; they’d prevailed over the Fenrir and her cub. With nothing left to stand in their way, Korinna and her party had finally conquered the ninety-second layer… but victory had never tasted so bitter.