Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Bea smiled at their inquiry and said with a proud look on her face "We are the Valkyries that directly serve Master Simon. You guys might know him as the master of this dungeon. As for the tertiary teams… Emma, tell them to come out".

"Hiie~ A-Alright elder sister" Emma extended her long thin finger and made a grasping motion. Immediately, there was some movement in the forest and dozens of figures could be seen walking out of it.

"They are… the members of the primary teams that were left behind with the tertiary teams to guard them. Why were they hiding in the forest?"…

"Hey you all, what happened to the others and why are you guys all silent like that?"…

One of the adventurers tried to approach them; however, he was stopped by the person beside him.

"Don't, they are acting weird. Their movements doesn't look normal".

The adventurers realised that the other party wasn't acting normally and became even more alert. They could tell that something very wrong had gone on this floor, but their mind wasn't ready to accept that possibility yet.

"Where are my disciples and the other geniuses of our guilds?"

At this moment, when all of these veterans were silent, Karina walked towards the maids and asked. She had a solemn aura and an invisible pressure slowly surging around her.

"Hmm? You mean those brats that acted all high and mighty inside the dungeon?" Bea acted as if she didn't see the anger of the other party and asked.

"You know exactly who I am talking about" Karina spoke in fury. She had the vital imprint of her disciple Hallie with her so she can tell that she was still alive.

Her eyes which were fixedly glaring at the maid, noticed the latter's pupil turn towards the ceiling for a fraction of a second and that was enough for her to realise something. The cocoons that were hanging in the gigantic spider web in the ceiling.

"I see" Karina closed her eyes, took a deep breath and pointed her staff towards Bea all of a sudden.

"You can all now die… Frost Magic Mastery- [Frost Nova]"

Whoosh… the moment she finished reciting the name of her spell, a bone chilling cold erupted out of her staff and immediately covered hundreds of meters of area in front of her. There was no delay in her casting, nor was there any indication. Everything in the surrounding remained the same before the magic took shape.

"Everyone, the geniuses of our guilds are inside those cocoons. Quickly destroy the spider web and release them out of it" Karina ordered.

CLACK… CLACK… she stepped on the ice covered floor and faced the two maids who were now two ice statues.

"Seismic Magic Mastery- [Tectonic Burial]" Karina did not stop, after casting [Frost Nova] she swiftly cast another magic using [Concurrent] and [Multi Cast] skills.

She knew that only her frost magic was unlikely to defeat opponents of such calibre hence she followed up by creating an enormous mountain in the shape of a tombstone and slammed it towards them.

FLAP… Beautiful mana wings unfurled behind her as Karina opened a distance from them.

BANG… the tombstone crashed onto the ground shaking the floor and raising a storm of dust.

Seconds passed by, Karina was looking at the tombstone from the air intently when suddenly the entire construct shook and a red blade of light that came from its base, cleanly bisected it in half.

That was not all, after cutting the tombstone in half, the red blade of light flew towards Karina who hurriedly dodged the attack perceiving the danger in time.

The tombstone which was cut in two halves, fell sideways and two figures walked out of the dust completely unscathed.

"That one is a little trickier to deal with, so I'll be handling her. Emma, you focus on the rest. I don't know how they found out the thing about the cocoon, but don't let these guys free them" Bea immediately moved right after telling her sister what to do.

She created her own mana wings, took to the skies and stood in front of Karina.

The latter narrowed her eyes when she saw her magic failed to do any significant damage making her realise that the foe she was facing right now wasn't any ordinary opponent but a powerful adversary that even she needed to be careful of.

"Why do you stand in our way?" Karina asked. Although she couldn't tell the level of her opponent because of something blocking the [Analysis], her years of experience was telling her the maid was no less powerful than her.

"Why do I stand in front of you? That's a silly question to ask wouldn't you say? You guys are here seeking to conquer the dungeon that my master created. As his loyal servant and his creation, it is our duty as Valkyries to clean off all filth that is trying to dirty this sacred abode of his".

Karina was a little surprised by Bea's answer but more than that she was surprised by that smile of hers. The gentle expression that the maid had, was no longer there on her anymore, instead, it was replaced by a lewd sadistic expression.

'She said that she was a servant of the master of this dungeon, but how is that possible? Isn't the master of the dungeon only a Demon viscount? How is it possible for him to subordinate such a powerful being?' Karina thought internally.

She shifted her eyes to look at how everyone was doing only to get another shock. The adventurers that were left behind by the primary unit to protect the tertiary team, were at this moment fighting the adventurers from her side.

What was going on? What exactly did these maids do here?

"If you are not initiating then I shall attack first" Karina had no time to think as the maid she was facing came attacking her with a speed that even she had difficulty perceiving.

"Dammit.." Seeing that she was unable to divert her attention to cast her magic even for a second, Karina tried to open a distance from her opponent but how could Bea allow a mage to do that?

She was relentless and even swifter with her attacks than before and slowly chipped away at the magic shield of her opponent. She gave no opportunity to her opponent to cast her magic.

"You leave me no choice but to use these then" Karina took out something from her space ring.

It was a skill crystal and quite a high grade at that. When she inserted her mana into it, a crimson hue emitted out of it and thunderclouds immediately formed in the ceiling.

A skill crystal is able to store skills or magic and since she was unable to cast magic because of the relentless attack form her opponent she used the skill crystal instead to cast magic. One did not need to chant or use an incantation, just insert some mana into the skill crystal and the magic or skill stored, would automatically cast itself.

RUMBLE… the dark clouds in the ceiling churned and three huge lightning bolts that looked like enormous dragons, peeked their heads out of the cloud.

"Thunder Magic Mastery- Thunder Dragon Descent".

Following Karina's commands, the three thunder dragons churning in the cloud opened their mouth and fell down on the maid like a flash of light.

"Twelve Strides- First Stride, Second Stride, Third Stride" Just before the three thunder dragons were upon her, Bea activated her inherent skills and swiftly dodged the attacks. She created multiple after images behind and quickly relocated amongst them.

BANG… BANG… BANG…

The three thunder dragons narrowly missed their mark as Bea managed to avoid the attack. Each of these lightning bolts was more than three meters wide and ten feet long. It would have dealt significant damage even to Bea had she not dodged in time.

The enemy had avoided the attack, but that was alright, since it pushed the maid away. With the leeway and space available to her, Karina started casting her magic.

The space around the 21st floor trembled, the mana started raging and gathering towards her. Immediately, she converted kilometres of area on one side of her into artic hell while the other side had numerous fissures and earthquakes forming.

Amalgamation Magic of two high tier elements and one that was cast by the number one mage of the kingdom, its power and destructiveness was on another level.

"Based on just her achievement and understanding of magic, she might not be too far behind elder sister Annette. However, she still has a lot to learn".

Bea muttered under her breath, pointed her dagger towards the mage and activated [Essence Mana Disruption].

The phenomenon that was about to create a unique three meter ice white golem, immediately came to stop. The Amalgamation magic- [Ice Avenger] that Karina was about to conjure, ended abruptly and the golem disappeared into tiny mana particles.

Puff…

Karina spat out a mouthful of blood and looked towards Bea in shock.

"Mana Disruption? But that cannot be, I have taken all the measures against it. My staff should have been able to resist the skill. If it's not that, then could it be [Essence Mana Disruption]?".

[Mana Disruption] as the name suggests, disrupts the mana around the surrounding making it impossible for mages to cast magic. It is a powerful and rare class skill and is a counter to most of the mages.

However, the skill is not all powerful and has many shortcomings like the one Karina prepared.

One can avoid having their mana disrupted by using artefacts and items enchanted with [Anti-disruption] or moving away from the area of effect of the skill.