“It’s ceramic!”

Ray let out a shout filled with frustration and shame as she activated Azure Raile again. Clearly, her hand was still stinging from the impact as she quickly put some distance between herself and the Sentinel, shaking out her hand.

“Ray? What are you doing here?”

Elowen, usually known for her aloof demeanor and narrow eyes, looked utterly shocked, her eyes wide open in disbelief.

It was a completely unexpected interruption.
Elowen’s brain was likely frozen in confusion before she could feel any joy or relief.

Meanwhile, we had descended into the plaza and managed to split the Sentinel’s attention, diverting its focus.

The Sentinel swung its halberd in a wide arc, keeping us at bay, before it paused momentarily.
It seemed to be calculating whether to prioritize its original target or deal with the four intruders who had just arrived.

As Ray rejoined us, I calmly shared what I knew about the Sentinel.

“It only looks like ceramic; its material is much harder, closer to steel.”
“You could’ve told me that sooner!”
“Whose fault is it for rushing in before listening?”

Ray shut her mouth, realizing she had no counter to that.

But there wasn’t any time for more conversation.

The Sentinel had decided to make us its primary target.

“Fall back!”

Luke stepped forward.

He brought out the shield he had been carrying on his back, and flames of aura flared up around his body.

Fast.

Even from a complete standstill, the acceleration was fierce, as befitting a creature with the reputation of being one of the most dangerous on the second floor.
Despite being only the third strongest of five ranks, the Sentinel before us displayed terrifying power.

They collided.

Boom! Screech!

The halberd crashed down on Luke’s shield, sending a piercing, grating noise across the plaza.

The force of the halberd was like a lightning strike.
It was a blow that even I, Leif, and probably Ray, would have doubted we could survive. But Luke took it head-on.

The vanguard had done his job perfectly.

Now, it was the rear guard’s turn.

“Undine!”

Leif summoned her spirit, while I pushed my power through Leraje, and Ray shot forward like a bullet.

However, the Sentinel’s defense was absurdly strong.

Leif’s Water Jet and my magic bullets were blocked by its magic barrier, and Ray’s punches, capable of penetrating the barrier, couldn’t even crack the smooth, ceramic-like surface.

The clear ringing of the impact, like a bell, echoed eerily through the tense battle, not matching the intensity of the fight at all.

‘Magical attacks are blocked by the barrier, and physical ones by its ceramic-like armor.’

Its defense was ridiculous.

Unlike other creatures, it didn’t have weaknesses like vulnerable eyes or open mouths.
In fact, the Sentinel’s bisque-doll-like face had its eyes completely closed, and its mouth remained shut as well.

“Luke, does it have any weak points?”
“None! Its entire body is ceramic! As far as I know, you’ll need to overpower it!”

We have to brute-force through that defense?
Seriously?

“This is crazy… Even if we break through the barrier, it won’t matter.”
“No, we attack the moment the barrier cracks.”

Ray shouted in confusion at my words.

“Huh? Argentus isn’t long-range! It only works on contact.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve done this before.”
“You’re going to use that?”
“No choice.”

I had never expected to hide this forever.

Eventually, it would come out.
So, hesitating to use it when we needed it would be foolish.

“For now, let’s try to break through with the Water Jet. If that doesn’t work, I’ll use my ability to immobilize it.”
“Understood!”

Leif de-summoned Aerial at that point.

She was determined to pour all her mana into Undine and blast a hole through the Sentinel with the highest-pressure water cannon she could muster.

“Trust me.”
“Got it.”

Just as we were about to move—

[Wait!]

A voice echoed, not in my ears, but through the resonance of magic.

Telepathy.

Though it’s a useful spell, it’s one that depends heavily on the caster’s skill. None of the three of us had mastered it yet.
Obviously, Luke, being a warrior, wouldn’t have learned it either.
In the martial arts world, there’s a technique for transmitting signals through aura waves, but it doesn’t convey clear speech like telepathy.

That left only one possibility.

“Elowen?”

Very impressive, just like an elf.

[I’ll bind its feet. Don’t use that ability.]

It seemed she had figured out what I was planning by noticing my hand on Ray’s shoulder.

She’s going to bind it?

I knew she intended to use spirit magic, but hadn’t her spirit gone on strike earlier?
Did she somehow convince it to cooperate again?

[Trust me. This time, it will work for sure.]

Her telepathic message was filled with confidence.

Ray, still unsure, glanced at me, trying to read my expression.

After a brief moment of thought, I removed my hand from Ray’s shoulder.

“Let’s give her a chance.”
“And if she fails…?”
“We’ll rescue her, don’t worry.”

Ray wasn’t one to trust Elowen’s plan easily, and yet, there we were, aligning with her directions.
Always so consistent in her skepticism.

After we came to an agreement, I spoke to Leif.

“Elowen will bind its feet. Our plan remains the same: Ray creates an opening, and we finish it.”
“…Understood.”

What was that?

It seemed like she wanted to say something, but now wasn’t the time.

Leif closed her mouth, and I turned my gaze toward Ray, who was already sprinting ahead.

I recalled the new spell I had learned at the floating island.

Elowen’s encounter with the Sentinel wasn’t purely by chance.

However, it wasn’t her intention to fight the Sentinel either.

Her goal was the place the Sentinel was guarding.

So she came up with a plan—a plan to lure the Sentinel into a monster-free plaza and collapse the ground using her contracted mountain and cave spirit, Oread.

In spirit magic, the strength of the contract determines the power of the spirit, but the spirit’s own inherent strength defines the upper limits of that power.
Even if the contractor’s original strength is ten, a spirit’s abilities could elevate it to thirty or fifty—that’s the allure of old-school spirit magic.
Of course, modern spirit magic, refined over time, doesn’t work that way, but as a practitioner of the older method, Elowen didn’t need to worry about that.

The plan was good, but it had failed miserably.

The unexpected factor had been Oread’s refusal to cooperate.
Up until now, Oread had rarely ever denied Elowen’s requests, so the spirit’s strike was a significant setback.
Perhaps asking for a full-scale collapse had simply been too much from the start.

However, now Oread was more obedient to Elowen than ever before.
Enough so that she was confident it would even execute the collapse if she asked again.

‘Now, it’s possible.’

The moment she saw Ray slam into the ground.

Elowen gave Oread a command.

“Bind it, Oread.”

This time, her voice was cold and matter-of-fact, unlike the pleading tone she had used earlier to pacify the spirit.

And Oread obeyed.

Fwoosh!

The ground beneath the Sentinel’s feet suddenly turned soft, as if it had become a swamp, and the Sentinel’s footing gave way.

Its balance collapsed.

The halberd it had been swinging toward Luke veered off course.

Luke, being a seasoned explorer and warrior, didn’t miss that opportunity.

He charged forward with his shield raised.

Although the Sentinel, with its centaur-like lower body, was larger than a human, it wasn’t four or five meters tall.
The force of Luke’s shield attack made the Sentinel stagger.

Then, Elowen clenched her fist.

“Hold it.”

The ground, which had become as soft as a swamp, suddenly hardened again.
The earth returned to its original form, trapping the Sentinel’s legs in place.

With its balance broken, its legs immobilized, and the impact from Luke’s shield, the Sentinel was completely disabled.
Ray’s punch tore through the Sentinel’s magical barrier, more like scraping it away than shattering it.

The translucent magic shell peeled away, revealing the smooth ceramic surface beneath.

Then, a stream of water shot through the exposed area.

Crack! Crackcrackcrack!

It wasn’t so much piercing the ceramic as it was grinding it down.
The high-pressure water cannon tore through the Sentinel’s surface, scattering powdered ceramic into the air.

‘It’s not enough….’

The output was insufficient.
As Elowen was quickly considering her next move, the water subsided, and in its place, a black bullet shot forward.

Boom! Crack!

“Huh?”

Elowen gasped in surprise.

She recognized that attack.

She had seen it several times before and had even been hit by it during training.

But back then, the power had been surprisingly mild—just heavy enough to make her think, ‘That’s stronger than I expected.’

Yet now, that same attack—despite the damage done by Leif’s Water Jet—had fully pierced the Sentinel.

Groan…

The Sentinel’s massive form swayed.
A gaping hole had been opened in its body.
Though its feet were still trapped in the hardened ground, its torso tilted and collapsed, completely motionless.

Deactivated.
Or perhaps dead.

Three pairs of eyes turned toward the one who had silenced one of the second floor’s strongest monsters with a single blow.

Even the person responsible was staring down at the hand that had fired the magic bullet.

“More powerful than I imagined.”

It was the spell I had received at the floating island.

Compressed Reinforcement.

A support spell that condenses mana into a single, stable formula.
It wasn’t anything extraordinary on its own—just a basic support spell.

At best, it would allow someone to create stronger magic barriers.

But for someone with unlimited mana but low burst power, it was like a golden ticket.

‘This is completely broken.’

Smite.

That was Roman’s third spell.