The moment James was fully healed, he drank a mana potion and jumped back into action, taking over for Daniel, who had been seriously battered by the Boss’ attacks. He would have liked not to waste the precious brew, but now was not the time to be thrifty.
“It’s flagging!” The Tank called out as he retreated, retaking his position next to the two mages. Ezekiel cast a healing spell, restoring his health enough that he could keep going for a while.
“We need to finish this now before we get too drained.” James shouted to Lauren, who was busy taking up the giant starfish’s attention. She flitted around it, jumping between the crystals, never staying still for more than a moment.
“Let’s do this!” Maria’s fireball was answer enough, as it exploded right next to the Boss, unbalancing it sufficiently that James was able to slip by unnoticed. The moment it righted and brought its attention to the Fire Mage was its undoing.
Lauren’s knives shimmered with the use of a skill, scoring a deep gash on one of its arms, and James punched right below another limb, lifting the entire Boss by a couple inches from the ground.
Assaulted from all sides, it tried to shield its most vulnerable parts, calling upon dozens of rocks from all around to cover its underbelly.
That, however, was not their target. Instead of going for the natural weak point, Team 0 had made their own from the beginning. Maria’s fireballs had heated up the armor in front enough to weaken its structure, and Lauren’s repeated blows had chipped at it until it was almost broken.
Both melee fighters completely ignored the newly formed rock shield, instead jumping to deliver the final blow from the front.
Simultaneously, they struck the weakened area of the starfish's armor. James’ punch, imbued with all the mana he could muster, created a shuddering crack, while Lauren's knives, glowing with energy, further deepened the fracture. The weakened armor finally shattered under the coordinated assault, revealing the vulnerable flesh beneath.
Rather than following through, as would have been instinctive, they immediately retreated, barely avoiding the retaliatory barrage of very sharp rocks.
By then, however, the fight was almost over. Maria followed up quickly, her most potent fireball unleashed. The flames roared, engulfing the exposed part of the creature. A muted warble echoed through the water-logged cavern as the heat seared its flesh, eliciting spasms from its massive limbs.
With one last buff, Ezekiel enhanced their stats enough that they could dance around it, waiting for another opportunity. The creature was evidently wracked by pain as it blindly tried to hit everything in its vicinity.
The team didn’t let up. They continued their coordinated assault, exploiting the opening they had created. James pushed his skill even harder, flooding his limbs with enough mana that some of it leaked when he finally hit its exposed flesh again, causing even further damage.
The cooked interiors trembled with pain, and strength had already started leaving the Boss. Knowing this was the most dangerous moment of the fight, James carefully timed his assault to avoid any last-ditch effort.
His arm wholly entered the cavity in the starfish’s armor, its physical power enough to reach the internal organs. The excessive magical energy he had accumulated into it, as he tried to squeeze a little more from his skill, leaked out in a wave, leaving James dangerously exhausted.
Luckily, he did not have to worry about retaliation. The mana wracked the creature’s insides and pushed out of its back explosively, breaking through its rock armor in a shower of fragments towards the other side of the room.
A ping from the System, unobtrusive as always, told him the fight was over. To that followed a flood of notifications, which he left to the side for the moment.
This is so fucking embarrassing. I’m stuck. I’m actually stuck inside the Boss. Jesus take me now.
James groaned, trying to leverage his feet against the massive corpse to pull himself out, but his last attack had left him truly drained. It felt like his limbs were made of jelly, and it was all he could do not to slump.
Having received the same notification, his teammates were busy celebrating. It took them a minute before they realized he was still arm-deep inside the starfish, and they all gathered at his side, worried he had gotten hurt.
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“What happened, do you feel sick? Is it the poison?” Ezekiel fretted, his hands starting to glow with healing light. James waved him off with his free arm, not wanting the White Mage to waste even more of his mana.
He then took a deep breath and muttered “I’m stuck.”
Looks of disbelief were exchanged, before slightly strangled laughter resounded in the crystalline room. James turned a glare to Lauren, who was trying and failing to stifle her chuckles.
“It’s not that funny.” He complained, even though he knew it actually was.
“I’m sorry, this is just too good. How in the hell did you manage to get yourself in this situation?” She replied once she had gathered herself, her lips still twitching with suppressed mirth.
“I punched it. What else?” James explained, his voice laced with exasperation. “And now I can’t pull out.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Something to work on before it’s too late, eh Jimbo?” Daniel added, joining in the laughter.
“But why can’t you pull yourself out? You are strong enough.” Maria asked, tilting her head in confusion as she stared at his arm, which was shoulder-deep into the starfish.
“It’s the explosion, isn’t it? It wasn’t a skill.” Lauren realized.
James grimaced, sighing. “I may have gotten a bit too overenthusiastic. I put way too much mana, overloaded my skill and now I feel like a newborn baby.” He gave a weak tug, to no effect “Now that we all know, can you guys help me?”
“So let me get this straight.” Daniel began, his lips pressed tightly to prevent the laughter from escaping. “Not only did you get stuck inside, but you also blew your load?” As soon as he finished, he guffawed, holding his stomach. Lauren, unsurprisingly, joined in, tears falling from her eyes.
The other two hid their faces, but James could see their shoulders shaking. He took a deep breath and then let go. It was a bit funny, and he’d laugh at it too, as soon as he was out of the monster’s bowels. Maria approached, still chuckling but with a determined glint in her eyes. “Alright, let’s get you out of there.” She said, grabbing his free arm.
Daniel added his own strength to the tug, and with a collective effort and much more laughter, they managed to extract James from the now lifeless husk of the giant starfish Boss. He stumbled back, supported by his friends, panting and a little unsteady on his legs, but otherwise unharmed.
“You're never living this down, you know.” Lauren said with a smirk as she gave him a supportive pat on the back.
“Yeah, I’ve resigned myself to that fate.” James replied with a weary grin.
As the laughter subsided, the team regrouped, taking a moment to breathe and recover from the intense battle. The Boss had been strong enough to require all their combined efforts, and James was sure that if they hadn’t been so well trained and capable of supplementing the others’ weaknesses, they would not have walked away unscathed.
“We really should not have made it this far, eh?” Lauren finally asked, staring at the massive starfish. “No way a team of rookies could take on this thing. Hell, the field of Whip Seaweed alone should have sent us packing.”
“Do you think that’s what they wanted to happen?” Maria wondered “The Guilds, I mean. For us to give up not even halfway through, thus showing how ineffective the Dawn Initiative was?”
Daniel hummed, looking all around at the show of reflected lights. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that had been the initial plan, but they wouldn’t have minded had we been taken out of the picture entirely.”
“They must have known about the gas.” James concluded. “Miss Walker is excusable because she probably didn’t even physically step into the cave. She must have done the survey in a hurry, since she said they were watching her. But the Guild that had the lease for this thing must have known, and they didn’t say anything about it.”
He wasn’t one to give in to baseless conspiracies, but at this point, it would be more foolish to believe the Guilds to be acting righteously.
Their speculations were interrupted by Ezekiel, who seemed worried “That’s another thing we can bring up once we get back home, but for now, we need to leave. I have just enough mana to get us back outside, but if we wait much longer, the poison will start taking effect.”
“Nobody should come snooping here anyway. I think we can leave it all as it is and come back tomorrow morning.” He finally added, grabbing James and pulling him up.
Walking out of the cave was much quicker than their initial exploration, as they didn’t need to worry about monsters since the straightforward path - alcoves aside - made it impossible to have missed any.
It still took them the better part of an hour before they were out and the light of the afternoon sun greeted them. A cold wind had picked up, but after the dangers they had faced within the cave, it felt refreshing and benign.
Trudging alongside the shore, they managed to get to Mr. Robinson’s van soon enough, where the man was waiting for them, smoking a cigarette. He put it out as soon as he noticed them and their victorious, if exhausted grins told him all he needed “Congratulations! Has it been a fruitful run?”
“A lot of monsters mean a lot of levels and loot, so I’d say it went better than expected. We just need to rest a bit before we can go back in and pick up the mana stones. Could you take us to a hotel that’s part of the AA’s affiliate network?” Daniel answered, putting down his shield with a sigh.
“There are a couple nearby that should do the trick. Will you be spending the night as well?” The man asked, his phone already in hand to choose a place.
The Tank nodded “Yeah, we are exhausted and need to eat and sleep. Since it’s the off-season, it should be well within the budget, right?”
“Very well, leave it to me.”
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Laying down on a sinfully comfortable bed, much better than the one he was used to, James sighed. I could get used to this. Actually, why don’t I just ask them which mattress brand this is and buy myself one? The one I have at home has to be from the sixties, at least.
Since Daniel was in the shower and Ezekiel was well and truly asleep, James was left with his thoughts. The dungeon had been more complex than he had expected, but the great synergy of the team had made it possible for them to tackle it with little trouble, beyond needing to be careful about mana usage.
We would have swept it if it hadn’t been for the poisoned air. No questions asked.
Still, for all the complexities and challenges, the rewards had been worth it. Looking at his status screen, James smiled. The Boss had given him a ton of experience, and since he had been close enough to level seventeen, it had brought him all the way to eighteen. For a few hours’ worth of fighting, it was quite a lot. Especially since most of the EXP in the battles with the Whip Seaweed had gone to Ezekiel, who had gained six whole levels.
There is still a long road ahead, but I’m making progress. I’m growing stronger every day, and it won’t be long before I can start making an impact.