CHAPTER 65 — WHEN THE WIND CUT THE SUNLIGHT

  The 18th Floor was supposed to be quiet.

  Grass bent lazily beneath warm cavern light. Water shimmered. Adventurers rested in loose clusters, armor off, weapons within reach but lowered.

  Bell stood near the stream.

  And then—

  A scream tore through the clearing.

  Not monster.

  Human.

  Bell turned sharply.

  Across the field—

  Wind exploded.

  A figure blurred through sunlight like a silver streak.

  Three men in black execution cloaks were already mid-attack.

  They never finished the motion.

  Ryuu Lion cut through them.

  Not theatrically.

  Efficiently.

  One strike shattered a knee. Second split a shoulder. Third crushed a throat with the flat of her blade.

  Level 5 speed made it grotesquely unfair.

  Bell’s breath caught.

  “…Ryuu?”

  She didn’t look like someone being hunted.

  She looked like something that had slipped its chains.

  Another assassin leapt from behind a stone column—

  Ryuu pivoted without turning her head.

  Her elbow caved his ribs.

  Her wooden sword drove into his sternum with controlled brutality.

  He folded.

  She did not stop moving.

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  Blood streaked across grass.

  Adventurers around Bell recoiled.

  Aisha swore. Lili reached for her crossbow. Welf grabbed his sword instinctively.

  “Wait,” Bell said sharply.

  He felt it.

  This wasn’t random violence.

  This was pursuit.

  Because beyond the clearing—

  More figures stood watching.

  Not charging.

  Not panicking.

  Thirteen.

  Spread in a wide arc.

  Disciplined spacing.

  Execution squad.

  They weren’t afraid.

  They were observing.

  And they were counting.

  The First Convergence

  Ryuu’s breathing was heavier than it should have been.

  Bell noticed.

  Even at Level 5, she was burning stamina.

  Deliberately pushed.

  She turned her head slightly.

  For one heartbeat—

  Her eyes met Bell’s.

  Recognition.

  Shock.

  Something almost like warning.

  Then she vanished.

  Not retreating.

  Descending.

  She bolted toward the lower passage beyond the waterfall drop.

  Execution squad moved instantly.

  They did not rush blindly.

  They flowed.

  Four peeled left. Three right. Two climbed to higher ledges. The rest followed at calculated distance.

  Bell stepped forward.

  “Ryuu—!”

  Aisha grabbed his shoulder.

  “Don’t.”

  He hesitated.

  Below, the wind howled again.

  A body hit stone.

  Then silence.

  The Formation Reveals Itself

  The remaining execution members regrouped at the waterfall edge.

  One knelt, checking blood on the grass.

  Another adjusted wrist blades.

  They were calm.

  Professional.

  A tall figure stepped forward.

  Bell didn’t recognize him at first.

  But the air shifted around him like rot given voice.

  The man whose whole plan was to take revenge on Ryu Lion he didn’t smile widely.

  He didn’t need to.

  He looked at Bell from the shadows.

  Measured.

  Then at the lower entrance.

  “Level 5,” he murmured quietly to his men. “So we adjust.”

  No panic.

  No anger.

  Just recalibration.

  He gestured.

  And the formation tightened.

  They were not charging to kill.

  They were preparing to exhaust.

  Bell’s Perspective

  Bell stepped to the cliff edge overlooking the descent tunnel.

  His heart hammered.

  He had seen Ryuu fight before.

  He had never seen her like that.

  She wasn’t fighting to win.

  She was cutting a path.

  Because she knew she couldn’t stay.

  He understood suddenly.

  She did not want them involved.

  This wasn’t a battle.

  This was a funnel.

  They were drawing her down.

  Bell whispered, “They’re isolating her…”

  Aisha nodded grimly.

  “That wasn’t random. That was a controlled chase.”

  Below—

  A shockwave cracked stone.

  Wind detonated.

  Someone screamed.

  Then nothing.

  The Execution Squad Moves

  Jura turned slightly.

  His eyes flicked back to Bell’s group.

  Assessing.

  Weighing interference probability.

  He made a decision.

  “Do not engage others,” he ordered calmly. “Primary target only.”

  They vanished down the slope.

  One by one.

  Not rushing.

  Not afraid.

  Hunting.

  Bell’s Internal Conflict

  Bell gripped his knife.

  Every instinct screamed to move.

  To help.

  To jump.

  But something stopped him.

  This wasn’t like the Moss Huge.

  This wasn’t a monster.

  This was calculated human cruelty.

  And the deeper they went—

  The more prepared Evilus would be.

  Lili spoke quietly behind him.

  “If we follow now, we play into it.”

  Bell clenched his jaw.

  Grass stirred.

  Water fell.

  Sunlight filtered.

  The 18th Floor looked peaceful again.

  Except for the blood staining it.

  And the silence left behind.

  Bell looked down the dark path.

  “…Hold on, Ryuu.”

  Below, deeper than sunlight—

  The Gale Wind was being drawn toward something that remembered her.

  And this time—

  It would be ready.