"Thou truly managed to defeat the boss with nothing but a traitor on thy side?!" Bonifacius asked in awe.
A few other players were equally surprised, though the fire-trick was by all means luck, it was still quite the achievement.
After everyone got some sleep they got ready to face the final boss of this raid.
"Yeah, thought Bolst was kind of the one to do a lot of the fighting..." John replied.
Bolst walked in the very back of the group, nobody trusted him to be in their group, though John vouched for his usefulness in the previous fight, ignoring the part where he tried to murder him.
"Remember the plan, everyone. Avoid eye contact, ranged attackers should stay in the back,"
"The boss is meant to be pretty low on defence, so we should be able to kill him with enough long-ranged combat!"
The group walked through the first boss' room, then the second as they travelled to the third room.
The group kept all the chests from the bosses in the camp in hopes of distributing it later.
At first glance, it looked like a regular, wet cave, but in reality, every face of the cave was carefully carved, water flowed through little pathways carved into the rock.
There was little to no light in the room, as such the players had to carry torches with them.
"The last boss, eh?" Foxly sounded pretty relaxed.
"Mmmhmm..." Bonifacius nodded.
"It's the snake dude, right?" asked Crown still looking into the dark space ahead.
"Snake dude?" asked Alex.
"Imbusio, we know little of his past, but he is the most difficult boss within this dungeon, capable of turning players to stone with a single gaze and able to snap necks with his tail like they were twigs!" Bonifacius explained.
Suddenly the sound of a Spanish guitar riff could be heard as around the corner appeared the slightly muscular humanoid with a well-defined jaw and flowing black hair.
He had a slight tan.
His body was that of a green-scaled snake below the waist.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
"Grrrrreating frrrrriends...." said the boss flicking his hair upon coming into view, he rolled his "r"s comically long.
Behind the group, the door shut causing tremors to spread across the entire room.
"Therrrre is no need to fearrrr, I will grrrrrant you a swift death~" he gestured towards the party, his movements were silky smooth, he had an aura of elegance you wouldn't expect of someone trapped in a wet cave.
Bolst charged out into the fray, pushing past the others as he lifted his sword into the air, ready to slice the boss in two.
"What a brrrrute~" the boss said bitterly as he effortlessly moved out of the way of the crusader.
"HOLD ON YOU IDIOT! I DIDN'T TELL YOU THE PLAN YET!" John exclaimed.
"SCREW YOUR PLAN! THE FASTER I BEAT THIS WORM TO DEATH, THE FASTER I'LL BE ABLE TO LEAVE THIS STUPID RAID!" he spun around only to see the Imbusio's face inches away as the boss whispered into his ears.
"Fall over like a rock~" Bolst fell to the ground, not physically a rock but unable to move all the same.
"What the hell was that?!" demanded Crown.
"Turrrrning people to stone is so... unorrrrrrriginal... hypnosis is the rrrrreal killerrr~"
"EVERYONE! EVOID EYE CONTACT!" John commanded.
"NO SHIT SHERLOCK!" Crown exclaimed as she fired a mass of fairy flies that bit Imbusio all over.
He slithered towards Crown in the fraction of a second as she struggled to react, he already made eye contact.
"Sleep, frrrrrog~" and with a single command, Crown fell face-first onto the hard floor, unconscious.
"Crown!" Bonifacius called out as cast shield-bash knocking Imbusio away into the darkness.
Bromy made his way to Crown, he cast his healing spell to no avail.
"Looks like she's stuck!" Bromy exclaimed as Imbusio flew towards him, as he was about to make eye contact with Bromy, Imbussio felt a sharp pain in his back as he was shot by Rooting' and Shootin'.
"AH! YOU BASTARRRDS!" he cried feeling the wounds on his back the bled torrents as he turned back and jumped into the darkness slithering where the players couldn't see him.
Kilin looked for any sign of the boss as she was suddenly grabbed by its snake tail leading into the darkness.
"AH!"
"Kilin!" a few players rushed to the edge of where the light from the torch reached.
Moments later screams came from the darkness as another person was snatched away by the boss and added to the orchestra of screams.
Being able to see in the dark, JohnWillStab was able to see them, they weren't being attacked or hurt in any way, they just lay on the floor screaming their lungs out.
He shadow-stepped towards them and brought them back into the safety of the light, Bromy tried healing them but nothing worked.
"SHIT! HELP ME!" Celerious called out as she too was snatched into the darkness, JohnWillStab shadow-stepped into the darkness but was too late.
John was barely able to hear what Imbusio whispered to her before the screaming started.
"Sufferrrr..."
JohnWillStab threw his dagger at him, the boss effortlessly side-stepped it, JohnWillStab already shadow-stepped behind Imbusio, he caught his own airborne dagger before planting it into Imbusio's side.
"AGH!"
John felt his legs dragged by the boss as he leaned in and looked John in the eyes.
JohnWillStab shadow-stepped out of his grasp covering his eyes with his stabbing-hand.
"Don't be shy...~" he hummed.
JohnWillStab's eyes were clenched shut as Imbusion pried them open with his human hands.
When he did he saw the torrent of blood flow out as JohnWillStab stabbed his own eyes out a second earlier.
"What the hell!?" demanded Imbusio as JohnWillStab shadow-stepping away with him into the light.
"GET HIM NOW!" John exclaimed blindly holding onto the pillar he was hypnotised into thinking was the boss as Imbusio watched.
"He even got JohnWillSab!" thought Foxly.
Alexander and Jordan charged in, Jordan fired a ball of fire at the boss only for him to dodge it.
Alex grabbed Thal and slashed at the boss' whereabouts, the blue flames flying out and clinging to the walls.
"The blue firrrre is.... trrroublesome..." Imbusion shot towards Alex, attempting to hypnotise him only for his eyes to burst into blue flames.
"TAKE THAT YOU MIND-CONTROLLING BASTARD!" Thal exclaimed as Imbusion retreated into the cave blindly.
"Hey!" the half-conscious John exclaimed in the distance.
"Not you!" Thal replied.
Alex wasn't able to go any further, the blue flames lit up the dark but he didn't want to accidentally burn anyone, he retreated back into the bright portion of the room, waiting for a chance to strike.
Seeing his chance, Jordan fired a bolt of flames at the blind Imbusio, this time it hit, engulfing him in hellish flames.
"AH! THE FIRRRRE!" he rolled around on the wet ground extinguishing the fire, though he was still covered in burn wounds.
"MONSTERRRRS!" he cried.
"You put Eldarrrrr thrrrrough the same thing didn't you!?" he demanded as his skin began to blacken, it cracked in places as from within the dry husk emerged a black-scaled Imbusio, a more aggressive Spanish guitar riff could be heard.
"You have my worrrrd... I will avenge my friend!" Imbusio exclaimed charging at the players once more.