Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"These puny humans dared to attack our master, their sins are absolutely unpardonable. I will skin them alive and torcher them until they die regretting that they were ever born" Bea declared in a violent rage.

Her words were so extreme that it made the others frown. Just when Bea was about to make her move, Annette stopped her saying "Did you already forget what master ordered us to do? He needs them alive so you of all people who doesn't know how to hold back shouldn't step up for this task. Besides, there is still the …"

At the end of her sentence, Annette volume became so low that only Simon and those near him could hear her. Although Bea was a little unwilling that everyone got their chance to shine except her, she still decided to listen to Annette and step down for this one.

"In that case, allow me to aid you" Bloodthorn demonic warhorse stated stepping forward. Now that he was relieved of his duty as the steed of his lord, he could go wild and take some of his built-up frustration on these people a little.

"Then I'm counting on you," Annette said nodding her head. She looked towards Irene and Bea beside Simon one last time before moving towards the area where the six adventurers were.

The sevens swords after being handed a devastating defeat at the hands of a single demon viscount, lay on the ground with a face of disbelief. It took them a while and the deaths of the people that came with them to make them realise that they were still in the enemy's territory and if they did not move or escape from here, it would be their turn to die next.

<strong>RUMBLE…</strong>

Thiago turned his head and saw thunderclouds brew in the distant forest and pour down like rain. His eyes immediately went wide when he realised…

"Boris is dead, his presence is gone!!".

"What?!"

The other seven swords reacted with a complex expression on their face. Even if Boris had betrayed them by revealing their position and information to the Sea God's Guild, he was still their former teammate, a person who was one of the seven swords.

His strength was something that they could vouch for themselves. A person of his calibre to die at the hands of someone other than the demon, made them finally realise how dangerous the dungeon they dived inside truly was.

There were other power beings other than the master of the dungeon himself capable of killing them.

"W-we must get out of here" Morgress said clenching his body. Out of all the others, he had suffered the most damage. Even the potion he took from his teammates did not have much effect.

Nobody objected to his decision, in fact, they all unanimously approved of it. After all, being shown such an obvious difference they would be a fool to stay here and continue to fight. A decision that could be said to be the most correct one.

But how could Simon allow them to escape just like this? The decision to dive inside the dungeon was up to the humans; however, the decision to get out of here depended on the master of the dungeon, Simon who has already decided to capture them alive.

"RUN!!" Morgress shouted at the top of his lung seeing the subordinates of the demon arrive beside him one after the other. The seven swords obeyed his command and together made a beeline towards the exit.

But the exit was covered by the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse and Annette who were already standing there.

"Lombus" Morgress cried out, immediately the warrior wielding his huge hammer charged out and brandished his weapon in a wild, unimpeded manner.

<strong> BANG…BANG...BANG…</strong> as if a chain of explosions had gone out, each swing of Lombus was powerful enough to create bursts of winds that pushed everyone back and uprooted the surrounding trees.

Huff… Huff… after Lombus stopped his wild attacks, the entire area in front of them was covered in dust. It was only after the dust settled, that they could see a silhouette of a six legged warhorse standing perfectly still in front of them.

What's more, it had endured every attack from Lombus' hammer without even suffering any damage.

NEIGHH… the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse roared, reared its legs and stomped down onto the ground hard enough to create a small earthquake. Its three pairs of dark eyes looked at the adventurer in front of it as if saying 'Is that all?'.

Lombus wasn't a genius but even he could see the mocking look in its eyes.

"Don't underestimate me beast!!! [Hundred Brutal Hammer Mastery- Hundred Brutal Beating] ORAAAA!!!… " angered, Lombus used his most powerful hammer mastery technique.

It was around this technique that his entire self-confidence was built. Although it was quite a big shock to see their combined attack thwarted out like it was some kind of child's play earlier, he still believed the hammer techniques that had brought him this far and made him one of the seven swords, would be able to display its effects against the calamity class beast.

But to his utter despair, it seemed to display no effect.

<strong>BANG… BANG… BANG…</strong> the hammer bringing along a tide like power slammed onto the warhorse's body, horns, and face. Nonetheless, none of it managed to even shake its body much less do any damage.

"H-how can this be?!" Lombus stopped swinging his hammer and dropped it on the ground. His face was laden with despair at this moment and faint black smoke was coming out of it.

Seeing Lombus' attack fail to even faze the enemy, all of the seven swords wore an incredulous on their face. They were nevertheless, an elite adventurer and thus they swiftly recovered from their daze and prepared to engage with the enemy in front of them.

"Flame Magic Mastery- [Flame Tsunami]" Sable roared out and started casting a powerful intermediate-tier flame magic.

While Thiago pulled his bowstring and released multiple arrows towards the warhorse targeting its weak spots like eyes and nose "Tch.. Sharpshooter Bow Mastery- [Swift Notch Strike]".

The flames roared out, the magic was just about to be complete and the arrows about to reach the warhorse when suddenly the mana around the surrounding was disrupted causing the magic cast by Sable to go out of control and explode in front of his face.

As for the arrows, before could reach a few inches of the warhorse a greenish barrier encircled its body deflecting the attacks.

"Essence Mana disruption, Tempest Magic Mastery- Tempest Guard" Annette recited out from behind the warhorse. It was only now that the rest of the group noticed Annette's presence. That magic just now was something that was cast by her.

COUGH…COUGH… Sable coughed and needed the help of Kendric to support himself.

"Are you alright?" the warrior asked.

Sable nodded with a pale face and pointed at the maid in the distance "Be careful, that woman is no ordinary maid. Not only can she use disruption, but she can also cast magic without any delay".

Hearing his words, the group's expression became even more uglier. As if the presence of warhorse wasn't threatening enough, even the maids around the demon weren't simple. To be able to cast magic so fast, one would need multiple rare and lost skills not to mention they also have a disruption skill in their arsenal which made them all the more troublesome enemy to face.

Imagine a scenario where you aren't able to cast any magic because of the disruption but your opponent is continuously throwing magic at you. There was no need to even say who will come out on top given the situation.

Thus when the seven swords heard Sable mention the skill disruption, all of their faces twitched. They realised that even against a subordinate of the demon, they would have to work together if they wanted to get out of here alive.

"Lombus get back… Kendric, us three will attack the warhorse, Thiago you keep the maid busy and don't allow her to cast her skill. Sable and Osborn use all of your mana if you have to, but keep on casting multiple small magic to create a disturbance. Listen all, we must get past the two of them before other subordinates of the demon arrive here".

Morgress issued orders one after the other. He thought that as long as the demon himself did not take action, they could work together to defeat any subordinates. But he couldn't be any more away from the truth.

The Bloodthorn demonic warhorse was already a powerful calamity class beast while the five Valkyries were each an [A] rank summon. Seeing that Lombus did not respond even when he called out to him, Lombus frowned and called his name again.

Nonetheless, Lombus refused to turn around which made the group notice that something was different about him. Black smoke was coming out of his body at this moment and he had that silly look on his face as if he had gone insane.

He had thrown aside his hammer into the ground and was just standing there in a daze. What they didn't know was that Lombus after losing out in the contest of strength that he was the most proud of had become mentally vulnerable and was easily susceptible to the mental encroachment skill of the warhorse.

Now that his guard was all down, how could the warhorse miss the opportunity? It neighed, reared its powerful forelegs and stamped down on Lombus cracking his armour and imprinting four deep hoof prints on his chest.

BANG… the man flew back dozens of meters crashing down on a few trees on his way and only came to a stop after rolling on the ground a good long distance where he lay motionless. Nobody knew if he was dead or alive.

-------

Name- Annette

Race- Superior Spirit

Rank- [A]

Level- 699+[???]

Skills- Analysis, Tempest Magic Mastery, Infernal Magic Mastery, Thunder Magic Mastery, Spirit Control, Ultra Enhanced Detection, Blunt resistance, Cut Resistance, Poison Resistance, Herculean Magic, Ultra Super Enhanced Endurance, Ultra Super Enhanced Agility, Ultra Natural Recovery, Ultra Minimal Mana Consumption, Ultra High Speed Regeneration, Battle Instinct, Shadow Chant, Delay Chant, Concurrent Chant, Super Body Strengthening, Golden Mana Lines, Cooking, Cleaning, Housework.

Racial Skills- [Essence Mana Compression], [Essence Mana Manipulation], [Essence Mana Strengthening], [Essence Mana Anthem], [Chant Connection], [Essence mana Disruption], [Magic cast Annulement].

Amalgamation Magic- [Infernal- Thunder Mastery], [Tempest- Thunder Mastery]

Mutated Magic- [Locked], [Locked], [Locked].