Chapter 39: The Tenth Floor, Using the Imperial Sword Arts

Solomon stepped through the glowing transit gate and arrived on the tenth floor. The environment immediately shifted from sandy caverns into a sprawling, ancient colosseum constructed entirely from dark marbles.

Torches burned violently along the towering walls, casting long shadows across the stone pathways.

He opened his stream interface to check his progress. The chat was already flooding the screen with frantic reminders.

[GamerGuy: 48 minutes left on the clock!]

[LazyCat: if you want to officially clear 10 floors in under 10 hours, you need to hurry.]

[BloodKnight: The difficulty spike on floor ten is always brutal. Do not get careless just to beat a timer.]

[GoonLord: YOU HAVE 48 MINUTES TO LIVE IF YOU MESS THIS UP! PLEASE FOCUS!]

Solomon smiled and adjusted the executioner’s sword resting on his shoulder. "Forty-eight minutes is plenty of time. We just need to maintain our current momentum."

A loud battle cry echoed down the corridor. A squad of elite armored beastmen charged around the corner. They possessed the heads of raging bulls and wielded long steel halberds, their bodies protected by interlocking plates of iron armor.

Solomon dashed forward to meet them. He channeled his physical strength and swung Eden’s Penance in a massive horizontal arc. The pristine steel smashed directly into the leading beastmen, entirely bypassing their armor with sheer kinetic force.

The impact shattered their weapons and sent them crashing into the colosseum walls, where they immediately turned into piles of gray ash.

While the remaining monsters momentarily faltered, Solomon planted the tip of the greatsword into the floor and let go of the hilt.

He closed the distance in a second. He grabbed an advancing beastman by the horns, pulled its head down, and drove a brutal knee directly into its iron breastplate. The metal caved inward, and the monster dissolved into ash before it even hit the ground.

"The mobs down here have significantly more durability," Solomon noted casually to the floating bronze owl. He ducked under a sweeping halberd blade and delivered a punishing uppercut to his attacker’s jaw. "Fortunately, full plate armor completely restricts their joint mobility. They telegraph their attacks way too early."

Over the next forty minutes, Solomon carved a path of destruction through the winding corridors. He seamlessly alternated between brutal hand-to-hand martial arts and sweeping strikes with the resisting S-Rank sword.

He vaulted over raised shields, redirected enemy spears into their own allies, and crushed helmets with devastating spinning kicks.

The physical toll of the prolonged dungeon run burned actively in his muscles. He had not slept in days, and his body begged for rest. Nonetheless, he kept moving forward, using the adrenaline of the fight and the constant interaction with his chat to keep his mind awake.

[User12: bro is casually analyzing armor mechanics while doing a backflip.]

[NewbHunter: I am exhausted just watching him fight for this long.]

Solomon kicked an armored beastman into a stone pillar and watched it disintegrate. He grabbed his greatsword, stepped over the scattering ashes, and finally pushed through a set of towering bronze doors.

He stepped into the massive circular arena of the boss chamber and checked his stream timer.

"Eight minutes left," Solomon announced to the chat, resting the blade against his collarbone.

A furious, ground-shaking roar answered him.

A towering Minotaur stomped into the center of the arena. The boss stood fifteen feet tall, its body covered in midnight-black fur and corded with unnatural muscle.

It snorted angrily, exhaling plumes of white steam from its snout. The creature clutched a giant, blood-stained battleaxe in each hand.

The Minotaur slammed both axes against the floor, shattering the stone tiles to challenge the intruder.

Solomon tightened his grip on Eden’s Penance and cracked his neck. He looked directly at the towering beast with a confident grin.

"Let’s finish this."

Solomon charged the Minotaur. He swung Eden’s Penance in a massive arc to meet the monster’s descending battleaxe. The collision sent a violent shockwave ripping across the obsidian arena. The sheer force of the impact rattled Solomon’s teeth, and the divine steel immediately sent a punishing electrical jolt up his arm to resist his control.

He pushed off his back foot, side-stepping the Minotaur’s second axe, and delivered a retaliatory slash toward the creature’s ribs. The blade bit deep into the monster’s black fur, but the physical exertion required to move the resisting sword felt significantly heavier than before.

Solomon breathed heavily as he backed away. The exhaustion of fighting non-stop for nearly ten hours was finally catching up to him. His arms felt like lead, and his legs trembled slightly under his own weight.

He simply could not maintain this pace much longer.

The sudden realization that he might actually pass out from exhaustion in the middle of a dungeon boss fight crossed his mind. Instead of fear, a genuine grin spread across his face. The thrill of being pushed to his absolute physical limit made his blood race.

He dove back into the fray, exchanging dozens of brutal, high-speed blows with the Minotaur. The arena filled with the deafening clang of steel against steel. As Solomon pushed his failing muscles past their breaking point, a faint white mist began to leak from his pores.

The mist rapidly grew thicker with every swing, swirling around his limbs and cloaking his movements in a brilliant white haze.

After a few minutes of exchanging blows, the adrenaline suddenly crashed.

Solomon’s body became incredibly heavy and sluggish. The swirling white mist completely vanished, leaving him entirely exposed.

The Minotaur immediately saw the opening, roaring furiously and swinging both giant axes in a synchronized, crushing downward strike designed to overwhelm him.

Solomon realized brute force would no longer work. He adjusted his stance, forcefully overpowered the greatsword’s electrical resistance, and executed a technique he had avoided using all day.

Imperial Sword Arts: Fourth Form.

He stepped directly into the path of the falling axes and thrust Eden’s Penance forward with devastating precision, as he had hundreds of thousands of times.

The movement broke the sound barrier, generating a massive sonic boom that shattered the remaining stone tiles in the chamber.

The pristine steel bypassed the Minotaur’s weapons entirely and pierced straight through the center of the monster’s chest. The force of the blow completely cored the beast, leaving a massive, donut-shaped hole right through its torso.

The Minotaur dropped its axes. Its eyes rolled back, and the towering body collapsed onto the floor, instantly turning into a massive pile of gray ash.

Solomon immediately lost his footing as his legs gave out completely. He nearly face-planted into the ash, but he quickly drove the point of the S-Rank sword into the ground and used the hilt as a crutch to keep himself upright.

He slumped heavily against the weapon, struggling to keep his eyes open. His entire body screamed in agonizing pain as the exhaustion caught up.

He realized that forcing a high-tier Imperial technique through a weapon that actively rejected him was a terrible mistake, but he honestly had no other choice left. He used all his remaining strength in that attack and it one-shotted the boss.

"At least," Solomon panted, staring blearily at the floating stream interface, "I defeated the boss."