亚瑟影院

"As I said, hamburg steak should still be on the table, right? Right?" Horatius puffed his chest as he twirled his index finger in the air. "It wouldn't be a meal if there's no hamburg steak."

"Took the words out of my mouth." Satoshi noded his head as he patted Horatius's shoulder. At this point, they were already best friends thanks to their same tastes.

"Fried chicken and steak are pretty nice as well. Ahh~ and cold sparkling drinks!" Finana squealed, her eyes sparkling as she continued reciting the food she wanted to order. She had enough money to splurge on two-days worth of food, and she decided to enjoy their rest to the fullest by doing just that.

[Anomaly detected]

[A dimension break is bound to occur.]

[Satoshi, prepare yourself, I've already informed the others.]

Hearing the words in his mind, Satoshi stopped short in his tracks when he realized it was Dex speaking to him. He spoke about something called the dimension break and knowing Dex's tone, Satoshi was fairly certain that his words spelled trouble.

"Dex? What's wrong? Is everything all right? A dimension break?" Satoshi asked, ignoring the other Disciples who weirdly stared at him since he didn't address any of them. He was talking to himself with the urgency of an upcoming war.

"Satoshi?" Lucy asked, also stopping beside Satoshi as she leaned in, trying to figure out if something was wrong. At that moment, she immediately saw the horrified look in Satoshi's face, which caused her to flinch and take a step back before also assuming the same expression.

[Dimension break in 3... 2... 1... Satoshi, brace yourself.]

This was the first time Dex mentioned anything about a dimension break. However, Satoshi concluded that it might have the almost exact meaning of a dungeon break, and it left a bad taste in Satoshi's mouth.

"Everyone, brace yourselves! A dimension break is about to occur!" Satoshi waved his hand, warning the four members of their group regarding the inevitable dimension break.

"What?! Here? A dimension break?!" Horatius exclaimed. Initially, he wanted to shrug it off since he thought that Satoshi was just kidding. But after seeing the sheer seriousness on Satoshi's face, he changed his mind in a snap of a finger and also braced himself.

"A dimension break, huh... Satoshi, how did you kno—" Before Finana could figure finish her sentence and make a joke out of Satoshi's statement, a huge dimensional portal appeared right on top of Lucy and Satoshi's residence. It was so colossal that the gates that appeared on Earth couldn't even compare.

A swirling mass of pure energy bordered the entire dimensional portal, and then an equally colossal monster stepped out of it.

Its skin was red in color, and horns grew out of its head. It had a small waist, and its legs were only one-fourth of the size of its entire body. As such, the monster had to lean forward and assume a four-legged position despite its humanoid features.

However, that wasn't the worst part of it. Another red-skinned monster came out, then another, then another!

"What the— ?!" Horatius screamed as two orbs of water appeared in his hand with lightning crackling around it. "It's a dungeon break!"

Crash!

Underneath the feet of the red monsters, Lucy and Satoshi's temporary dwelling was crushed, dilapidated to the extreme. Fragments of wood and brick flew at the five of them, and the koi fishes who were in the pond started flapping on the ground as they desperately tried to go back to the non-existential water.

Satoshi was quick to move, extending his hand so as to command Orb Oboros to move the koi to a safe place. At the same time, he also integrated with the Alpha Red Salamander. For some odd reason, that was the first familiar that Satoshi thought of, that's why he integrated with it in a flash.

A red armor with a bright sheen enveloped Satoshi's entire body, and the heat that emanated from it was so intense that the others had to step back a little.

"What do we do now, Satoshi?" Horatius gritted his teeth, his eyes turning into slits as he observed the movements of the red monsters.

Since they were the only ones in the vicinity, the red monsters relentlessly rushed at them with an ominous growl. They were already being targeted before they could even regroup.

"We're going in, just like usual," Satoshi said. He wasn't a foreigner when it came to occasional dungeon breaks, but this one was a dimensional break so he wondered what the difference was between the two. Nevertheless, there was no time to think about it, nor did they have the luxury to call for help or strategize.

Left with no choice, they had to engage the red monsters in a fight without knowing how formidable they were.

"I'll support everyone with my barrier. I'm sorry, I won't be useful when it comes to dealing with the monsters." Leif apologetically bowed his head. "You don't have to worry about me. I can at least defend myself while all of you are fighting."

"We can't hold back anymore, can we?" Lucy furrowed her brows as she nervously summoned her Representative, Golden Pen.

"That's right. We have to buy time while waiting for— that's right! Who would inform Magnus Carter about the dungeon break?!" Finana slightly panicked.

To be fair, the dimension break happened so suddenly that they weren't able to collect their thoughts properly. They only had a couple of seconds to prepare before engagin the red titan monsters in a fight. They completely overloooked the need to inform Magnus Carter before anything else!

Before anyone could answer Finana's question, the monsters were already upon them, baring their fangs as they engaged them in combat. Based on their physique, the group assumed that they'd be using their physical formidability to overwhelm them.

But they were totally off the mark. The moment the red monsters were upon them, they extended their hands and gigantic fireballs appeared in the air, raining down on the group. Since their movement was stranger than they had expected, Finana and Lucy actually froze in place.

"Watch out!" Fortunately, Satoshi was quick enough to jump on them, pushing them out of the way.

Because of that, Satoshi took the full blast of the fireball while Finana and Lucy were shoved out of harm's way.

Eh?!

BAM!

"SATOSHI!" Lucy screamed, getting back on her feet as she used the Golden Pen's power to erase the fireball that fell on top of Satoshi.

"S-Satoshi?" With tears coming out her eyes, Finana stammered, struggling to get up as she too used her water superpower to cool Satoshi down. She blamed herself for losing her composure and putting Satoshi in harm's way. if it weren't for her and Lucy, Satoshi wouldn't have had to deal with a fireball to the face.

When the fireball was about to strike him squarely, Satoshi was confident that he'd be able to tank it. But when it was already right up his face. "Ah, I'm die thank you forever." Satoshi said to himself since the fireball was more powerful than he expected.

Closing his eyes, Satoshi prepared for the worst, thinking that the fireball would engulf his entire body and probably take out an appendage or two. It wouldn't even surprise him if the fireball were to consume his entire body.

Eh? What's going on?

When the smoke from the rubble and the smoke from the fireball cleared up a little, Finana and Lucy saw Satoshi standing there with the fireball on his face. Even though the fireball was clearly burning his body, he seemed to be unscathed.

"It doesn't hurt?" Satoshi pushed the fireball out of the way. Filled with disbelief, he glanced at Finana and Lucy. "A-are you all right?"

"Satoshiiii~" Lucy sniffled, convinced that Satoshi was already gravely injured.

Unbeknownst to them, it was thanks to his beast integration with the Alpha Red Salamander that Satoshi managed to survive that. If it weren't for that, Satoshi would've been burned down to the very last cell. The warning of death in Satoshi's mind was actually real, he was just lucky enough to have put up countermeasures before it even happened.

"It didn't hurt!" Satoshi confirmed.

It was no time for a celebration, however. Before everyone could sigh in relief, a dozen more monsters came out of the dimensional break, and now they started using earth magic and hurling boulders at the group.

"We don't have much choice! Finana! You're the fastest out of all of us, you have to go back and inform our Manager about this!" Horatius screamed.

"That's right! If we're the only ones here, we're bound to exhaust our energy before help arrives. Don't worry, we can hold down the fort, Finana, leave it to us." Satoshi said, nodding his head at Horatius as they assumed the vanguard position.

With the two of them in front, Lucy in the middle and Leif holding the rear, it felt like they were back in the cavalry test once again, working as a team against multiple groups of opponents— only this time, it was more dangerous than a normal test.