Is It Wrong to Abusing Cartoon Tropes in Dungeon?

"Hasn't the target arrived yet?"

Hyakinthos's patience was rapidly wearing thin after a prolonged wait, leaving him increasingly irritable.

"Captain, the target still hasn't appeared."

"Are you sure he's taking this route?"

Hyakinthos turned to the scout responsible for gathering intel, his expression filled with anger.

"Yes, Captain, I'm sure he's using this route."

The person being questioned trembled all over.

"Altair departed from the Loki Familia and has been traveling in a straight line. This route is unavoidable."

"Then why hasn't he shown up yet?"

Hyakinthos was furious. He felt like he was being toyed with. It shouldn't have taken Altair this long to travel from the Loki Familia's location to here unless he had taken a different path.

However, the Altair he was searching for was already standing behind him, holding a ship-cutting blade in his hand.

To figure out where these guys had come from and whether they had reinforcements, Altair didn't attack them immediately. Instead, he openly eavesdropped on their conversation to gather as much information as possible.

Unfortunately, they didn't reveal any crucial details, only mentioned his name and confirmed they were here to trouble him.

What a bother. In that case, he had no choice but to take them out one by one and interrogate their leader to get to the bottom of this.

Having made his decision, Altair lightly pressed his foot against the ground and leapt onto a nearby wall. From there, he kicked off the wall, using its force to rebound to another wall, zigzagging his way up to the rooftop.

There were two people keeping watch on the perimeter—one at the alley's entrance and another on the rooftop. He decided to deal with the rooftop observer first.

Altair unsheathed his ship-cutting blade and executed a clean decapitation on the rooftop guard. The guard didn't even make a sound.

He swiftly disposed of the body and cleaned up the blood. Using a beam saber, he seared every bloodstain on the roof to ensure no traces remained.

Then he leapt down from the rooftop.

The alley was a dead end, allowing Altair to sweep through it from the entrance.

He took out the observer at the alley's entrance with a single strike, then charged deeper into the alley with remarkable speed.

The sudden collapse of the lookout puzzled those inside the alley. Their line of sight was obstructed, so they didn't immediately notice the wound. By the time they realized what had happened, a massive gash had already appeared on their own necks.

"Urgh!"

One of them, who hadn't been killed immediately, let out a desperate scream before dying. This annoyed Hyakinthos, who was sitting on a crate sharpening his blade. He looked up with a glare.

"You idiots, keep it down..."

However, the scene before him left Hyakinthos speechless, unable to finish his sentence.

The people he had brought out from his Familia were falling one by one from the alley entrance to its depths. Each of them bore massive wounds—either their necks were half-severed, or their hearts were suddenly pierced. Not a single one survived. It was as though the air itself was killing them.

The sight left Hyakinthos completely dumbfounded.

"Hey! What's going on? What's wrong with you people?"

Though Hyakinthos thought little of his subordinates' abilities, this inexplicable mass death was too bizarre. Clearly, someone was killing them. But who? And why couldn't he see the attacks? Could such an adventurer even exist?

"Who's there? Come out now!"

Hyakinthos stood up and unsheathed his flame sword, roaring into the empty air in front of him. But unfortunately for him, Altair was busy cutting down his men and didn't bother responding.

In just 20 seconds, Altair had slain everyone in the alley. Finally, he approached the tense and sword-wielding Hyakinthos from behind, stopped channeling his magic, and rested his ship-cutting blade against Hyakinthos's neck.

"Tell me, do you bleed?"

Once the blade was at Hyakinthos's throat, Altair's skill, "See, I Told You!," determined that the battle was over, as Hyakinthos had no ability to resist. Thus, Altair finally spoke—delivering a signature line.

The voice suddenly coming from behind startled Hyakinthos, who felt the sharp edge of the blade on his neck. Terrified, he raised his chin.

"Who are you?"

Hyakinthos's legs trembled, but he still tried to question Altair.

"Don't you know killing people in Orario will bring punishment?"

Well, you might not believe it, but Orario's surface-level rules dictate that killing is punished—handled by the Ganesha Familia, the city's enforcers tasked with maintaining order.

But in reality, everyone knew this was just a front. Deaths occurred daily in Orario, especially in dealings with the dark factions.

Hyakinthos understood this, which was why he had planned to ambush Altair. Even now, he tried to use this rule as a threat.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is—who are you?"

"I'm the captain of the Apollo Familia! You can't kill me! If you do, my god won't let you—"

Before he could finish, Hyakinthos's head was sent flying.

Altair flicked the blood off his blade and stored the ship-cutting weapon in his spatial pouch. Looking down at Hyakinthos's lifeless body, he frowned.

"Apollo? That creep set his sights on me?"

No, it made sense for Apollo to take an interest in him—after all, he was ridiculously handsome. But sending people to kill him didn't fit Apollo's character. Based on his behavior in the anime, Apollo would've first approached with a dramatic confession, asking Altair to join him. If Altair refused, Apollo would've sent trouble to the Hestia Familia, escalating into a war between Familias.

The current situation, though—especially the hatred in Hyakinthos's expression—clearly showed that Hyakinthos acted on his own. Altair vaguely remembered something like this happening in the story.

When it came to Familia wars, Altair was an expert. After all, battling the Apollo Familia was almost a mandatory "show-off" moment for anyone crossing into the DanMachi world. If Altair led a war against Apollo Familia, he'd undoubtedly emerge victorious in a flashy display.

But judging from this situation…

"It seems there's no chance for that war to happen."

With so many of Apollo Familia's members, including the rooftop guard and even their captain, wiped out here, their main forces were already obliterated.

How could the Apollo Familia fight a war now?

___

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