Thomas enjoyed the feeling of increasing his attributes while waiting for the doors to the boss room to open again. It wasn't all that long of a wait. When the doors opened the next group in line entered the room while Thomas's group moved closer to the door to wait for their turn. Since they were next it would only be a few minutes. The group waited in silence while munching on some food. They didn't eat a full meal though. Trying to fight on a full stomach was a terrible idea and would lead to bad things happening.

After a few more minutes of silence, the large stone doors creaked open. There were only two ways out of a boss room. Death or defeating the boss so there was no telling how the previous party had faired in the fight but odds were they won. The four of them climbed to their feet and made their way into the boss room. As they crossed the threshold a familiar system notice appeared.

System Notice: Please select the dungeon boss difficulty.

* Normal

* Hard

* Nightmare

* Impossible

Thomas looked between the three women and asked, "How do you guys feel about nightmare difficulty?"

He wasn't so arrogant to assume that they could beat the impossible difficulty with just the four of them. There was also Selena to consider, she was a local so she only had a single life and if she died in the fight it would likely cause some serious issues. Though he had no clue exactly how serious it would be. Still, he'd been able to solo a boss on Nightmare so he didn't think the four of them would have too much trouble with it.

Janice and Victoria indicated they didn't care. Selena looked a little reserved but agreed as well. Thomas believed that she could easily use her unholy magic to protect herself and possibly even defeat the boss. There would just be the issue of Victoria and Janice learning about it. Thomas didn't think it would be a big deal if they knew though. Most gamers didn't have any prejudice against magic of any form. He didn't consider himself to be a bad guy but he would be more than happy to play around with necromancy. Hell, skeletons might not be the most dextrous but they made excellent assembly line workers for simple repetitive tasks!

Thomas selected the nightmare difficulty as the doors to the boss room slowly closed. With a reverberating clang, they closed completely and plunged the room into complete darkness. Thomas automatically activated his 'All Seeing Eyes' while Janice cast her light spell. The group watched, fascinated, as the boss formed right before their eyes. Thick black clouds of dense mana swirled like a small tornado as it compressed together. It took only a few seconds for the thick cloud of miasma to turn into a kobold.

This kobold was different from the others they had fought. Its body was larger and covered in thick muscles while its head and hands looked distinctly draconic in nature. Specifically like an 'evil' black dragon. It even had a small pair of useless black wings sticking out of its back. It's golden eyes looked at the intruders in its sanctum while it flexed its long claw-tipped fingers. The kobold watched them for a moment before it opened its mouth and issued a loud roar to challenge them.

Victoria laughed before saying, "Awwwwww. It's so cute. I wish I could keep it!"

Considering the kobold was actually bigger than her, it was a rather odd statement for her to make. There wasn't really a need to make a comment on her statement as the rest of them got ready for battle. Thomas prepped his wrist crossbow and drew his kukri. Selena summoned a sphere or water. Janice held up her staff. When everyone was ready, Victoria gave her own warcry and charged at the Kobold Chieftain while lifting her large greatsword in the air.

The chieftain didn't charge at her in return. Instead, it lifted one of its clawed hands and cast a spell. Its hand was surrounded by a thick cloud of mana so dark that it seemed to absorb light into it. The black cloud flew from its hand and collided with Victoria. There was no sign of impact but she very clearly slowed down in her charge. It looked like the first debuff was to her Agility. Unperturbed, she continued her charge towards the monster.

The other three spread out and followed behind Victoria as she charged. They kept a fair distance from each other so they had room to maneuver during the fight. Thomas aimed his crossbow at the chieftain and fired the shot while aiming at one of its knees. He didn't expect the crossbow bolt to deal much damage, but it could still be used to disable or inconvenience enemies. The bolt struck the chieftains knee but barely cut into its skin before coming to a stop and falling to the ground. Thomas clicked his tongue, but there was nothing he could do. Against this boss, his crossbow was clearly completely useless.

Thomas dismissed the useless crossbow from his mind. When he got back to Ulvstad he intended to make far more powerful weapons anyway. Instead, he began to summon mana into his hand. He wanted to use the featherweight spell to move even faster, but he still needed to raise his water magic a few more ranks so he focused on converting the mana into water.

As Thomas was doing his thing. Janice got within range and lifted her staff. Victoria was a lot closer to the chieftain now so she felt comfortable casting spells. Electricity gathered on the tip of her staff as she whispered, "Lightning Bolt", under her breath. She only had to say the spell name out loud, nothing said she had to shout it at the top of her lungs.

A thick stream of lightning leaped from the top of her staff and streaked across the room to hit the chieftain in the chest. Unlike the weaker elite kobolds, the chieftain took the blast of lightning and was merely scorched a little. The bolt didn't do significant damage at all, but it was enough to piss the chieftain off. It roared at Janice but before it could charge at her Victoria's greatsword came down in a chop that hit it between its neck and shoulder.

The chieftain roared again in anger and slashed at Victoria with its draconic claws. As Victoria blocked the blow with her left forearm protector both Thomas and Selena released water spells at the monster. Thomas fired his water cutter while Selena used the water spray spell to slash at it. The two spells hit the chieftain and cut into its body a little. Sadly their attacks did not penetrate too deeply and only caused the chieftain a bit of pain and pissed it off more.

Thomas continued to circle around towards the back of the kobold while Victoria continued to swing her sword at it. Janice and Selena continued to fire spells at it to back her up and deal more damage. It didn't take long before the chieftain was bleeding from multiple wounds inflicted by the three of them. Thomas got in position behind the chieftain as it moved and fought with Victoria. It wasn't stupid enough to stand in just one spot and fight her, the battle raged around the room.

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Once in position, Thomas lifted his hand and formed the water into a blade shape. He crouched and charged forward at his maximum speed. Thomas was shocked when he felt how fast he was moving. He couldn't measure it to be sure but it felt like his speed had increased by around fifty percent. If he was moving at fifty meters a second before, he was now moving at nearly seventy-five meters a second. His body became a blur as he nearly instantly dashed across the distance between himself and the kobold.

Just before he took off, Victoria had seen him in position and slashed down with her greatsword. As the chieftain crossed its arms over its head to block the blow, Thomas arrived right behind it. With the monsters back completely exposed and both of its arms being used for defense, it was completely open to his attack. Thomas started to spin his body as he slashed with his left hand and released his water cutter spell. The spell was fired at point blank range so it almost appeared as if Thomas had slashed the kobold with a sword made of water.

As soon as the first attack finished his second attack followed immediately. In the same motion, his right arm followed his left as he slashed the exact same place the water cutter had hit with his kukri. The enchanted blade cut through the same slash as the water cutter and further deepened the wound. The kobold screamed in pain as Thomas gave it the first significant wound of the encounter. Thomas didn't stick around to observe his work as black blood gushed from the deep wound. He kept moving and dashed past the kobold to avoid any possible counter-attack.

The kobold was too busy defending against Victoria's sword to counter-attack Thomas. As Thomas moved out of the area both Janice and Selena aimed their next spells at the gaping wound on the kobold's back. Janice lifted her staff and in her excitement shouted, "Ball Lightning!"

After shouting she thrust her staff in the direction of the chieftain and fired off a large fast moving projectile composed of writhing lightning. Hearing what Janice shouted, Victoria let out her own shout, "Shit!"

Victoria immediately disengaged with the kobold and retreated. At the same time, Selena pointed her finger at the kobold and fired off a thin stream of water that pierced into the large wound and dug deeper into it. While her spell was active the ball lightning spell collided with the chieftain. Though the pure water that Selena's spell was made of did not make a great conductor, it could still conduct at least some electricity. The two spells combined a little with each other. A small portion of Janice's electricity flowed through Selena's water spray spell and sunk into the kobold's body, though most of the electricity still struck the exterior of its body.

The kobold writhed in pain as a small portion of the electricity penetrated its body. Steam and smoke wafted off of its body in the aftermath of their accidentally combined attack. Victoria immediately charged back in and before it could react she slashed down with her sword and hit it between the neck and shoulder once again. There was a loud cracking sound at its clavicle was completely shattered by the blow. Victoria laughed and shouted, "Keep it up guys! We got him on the ropes now!"

Just as she was speaking the chieftains eyes flashed with a bright yellow light. It lifted its left claw and hissed loudly. Miasma began to pour down from the high ceiling and gather into two small tornados on the ground. Seeing this Selena shouted, "It's summoning the elites!"

While Selena was reminding them about the elites the chieftain wasn't idle. It lifted its other clawed hand and summoned forth black light that streamed into Victoria. A dark aura surrounded her causing her Power to take a dive. She grunted and struggled to use the heavy greatsword in her hands. As she struggled a little to lift it she called out, "Be careful guys! He lowered my Power so I might not be able to keep his attention!"

Thomas refused to do nothing and charged toward the nearest swirling cloud of misama. As he arrived it vanished and a lion-headed elite kobold stood where the cloud had been. Before it could get a grasp of the situation, Thomas appeared before it and slashed as hard as he could while pumping mana into his kukri. The blade slashed clean through the kobolds throat. It let out a gurgling cry and grabbed at its throat in a feeble attempt to stop the blood flow. Thomas didn't even take the time to revel in how much of a difference just a bit more Power could make as he turned and charged towards the second elite kobold while shouting, "One down!"

Thomas, Selena, and Janice all focus fired their spells at the second elite kobold and killed it before the first elite could even finish bleeding out. With the two elites taken care of, they all returned their attention to the chieftain. It looked considerably more ragged than it had at the beginning of the fight and seemed to be losing strength as black blood continued to leak out of the gaping wound on its back.

Thomas charged toward the chieftain while Janice and Selena fired off lightning and water spells respectively. Victoria was mostly on the defensive at the moment as the reduction in her Power attribute made it harder for her to swing the heavy sword. She'd begun using it as a shield instead while occasionally punching or kicking the chieftain to keep its attention focused on her.

Thomas pushed his body to its maximum speed as he ran in a wide circle to get behind the kobold chieftain once again. He dashed forward at full speed while thrusting out with his kukri at the same time. He thick blade dug deep into the gaping wound on its back near its spine. Thomas released his grip on his kukri and dashed to the side while shouting, "Janice! Target my kukri!"

Janice had an almost wicked grin on her face as she lifted her staff and shouted, "Lightning bolt!"

A thick streak of lightning flew from her staff and collided with the kukri sticking in the chieftain's back. Unlike pure water, iron was an excellent conductor of electric current. The lightning flowed unimpeded down the blade and deep into the kobold's body. The chieftains whole body began to spasm as the electric current flowed through its body, a majority of it directly affecting its nervous system through its spine. Thomas had a vicious grin on his face as he shouted again, "Janice keep hitting the kukri! I don't care if you melt it! Everyone else hit the bastard as hard as you can!"

Victoria could hardly swing her greatsword but it didn't matter as the electricity from Janice's lightning bolt had paralyzed the chieftain giving her plenty of time to lift it up and just let it drop. The weight of her sword alone would be enough to deal serious damage to the completely undefended kobold. Selena kept charging up and firing water spray spells adding more bleeding wounds to the monster's body. Janice kept firing lightning bolts at his kukri to have it directly conduct the electricity into its body. Thomas, meanwhile, slashed with his hand and fired off water cutter spells as fast as he could manage.

Together the four of them viciously attacked the chieftain over and over. The electric damage to its body was causing it's very blood to boil. The black blood seeped from its mouth, nose, ears, and eyes as Janice pumped more and more current into its body. The water spells kept slashing its body open while Victoria's heavy sword kept crushing its bones. It didn't take much of this abuse before the kobold chieftain let out a mournful wail and fell to the ground dead.

System Notice: You have defeated the Kobold Chieftain (Nightmare). You have gained 1,000 experience.