A web of partially dried blood was sticking to the face of the lime-haired man who sauntered through the door, their hips wagging.
"Alright, where is this fucking lion?" He blinked a fluttering blink as the one remaining lion grew before his eyes, spotting Nikola in the distance as well. "Oh, jackpot - I found the lion and the girl who stabbed me in the face."
His hair was partially singed at the tips, indicating he had chosen the burny path. Only two others followed him meekly through the open doorway; an archer, as indicated by the presence of a bow on their back, and a wolf-person whose class she couldn't discern.
"You were not missed," Nikola stated in a dull tone that reflected how happy she was to see him.
"Yeah, I missed you like a knife to the face. But here we are, and do you really think I'm just going to let someone shank me and live to tell the tale?" He held on to the dagger in his hand so hard his knuckles went white as he began to move around the lion and toward her. "You two clowns focus on the lion. I'm going to teach her a lesson."
The two standing motionlessly at the door waded into the room and treaded slowly toward the boss, the wolf cradling a mangled paw-hand.
The one remaining dungeon boss was visibly confused with there suddenly being two valid targets bearing the Lion's Mark, its slitted eyes darting between them at random.
Nikola couldn't help but chuckle at the notion of her being 'taught a lesson' for her dire transgression of defending her party member when he was being attacked.
The green-haired player was thin and wiry, with their chest exposed. An array of black leather belts were strapped all down their body, leaving vital fleshy bits conveniently out in the open for her blades to rend.
Thinking back to what Luke had once told her about how she was 'statted to be difficult for a party of early-game adventurers to fight', she had to assume that each adventurer might be somewhere between level 2 and level 5. If she was made to be their equal or better, that put her Butcher class's effective level at somewhere between 10 and 25, or even 30 if she was built to be slightly stronger.
But that didn't make sense. This very player had called her a 'princess' and said that a player couldn't go above level 20 in anything. Was it different for NPCs? It had to be, right? For the math to work out, and for them to provide any challenge to the player(s) at all.
"Can an NPC's level go above 20?" She asked aloud, her blue eyes meeting their electric green ones.
"What the fuck? I just threatened you, and you want to know game rules? If you don't know the answer to that, princess, I don't feel worried for my life at all. Yes, of course an NPC's level can go higher than 20. Why do you even want to know?" The player glanced over her incredulously, and after a beat or two their eyebrows rose, their pupils dilating.
"You've gotta be shitting me. Are you trying to tell me you're Nikola Brightdark, the NPC? I thought you were just a fan or something. Is that seriously what you're saying?"
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
"I simply asked a question," she replied, and made sure she had a solid grip on her weapon of choice. Her challenger must have noticed her prepping for battle, because suddenly - yes, finally, there was the fear in their eyes that made her shiver.
"How? H-how the fuck are you all the way out here? Did they add you into the boss fight, or-- but I saw you out there with everyone else, so how?"
Nikola tired of answering this one's questions. They wouldn't be around for long enough to make use of her answers, so why bother? They had to be under level 10, so even just judging off her lowest possible level of 14, she would beat him handily if only numbers were at play.
She burst toward him, not deeming him worthy of a use of her precious [Crunch], and he tensed up and forgot how to use his limbs.
He definitely had 'more bark than he did bite'. She aimed for one of the exposed-flesh-holes in what could only generously be called his shirt, and her cleaver cut cleanly between two ribs.
"OW! Come on, I had no idea there would be an NPC out here. How is this even fair? Fuck-fuck-fuck, guys, run!" He used the hand that wasn't holding on to his dagger to put pressure on the gaping wound in his side.
The lion had made its decision on who to attack, and its mighty claws were tearing three deep slices into the skull of his archer friend just as he was shouting for them to run.
"No, okay-- I take it back! Spare me and I'll help you. You don't have a low DEX," the rapidly bleeding man shouted desperately in Luke's direction, "and you're not a princess! Or you are if you want to be, who fucking knows. Please just let me live. I have a little sister out there. She needs me to live through this." His eyes pupils were the size of a pinprick now, shaking in his skull.
The wolf in the background drew a quick symbol while backing away from the boss, and the deep wound between her opponent's ribs began to stitch itself closed.
A healer, Nikola thought quickly, momentarily glancing toward the wolf. The lion was raising its paw again and in a split-second decision she drew her [Crunch] symbol into the air and surged into the lion's great, furry side, making a deep cut there that mirrored the green-haired boy's.
The lion roared a mighty roar, throwing its head in her direction in an attempt to shake her away, but she was bouncing off its ribs too soon for it to catch her in the air. She grabbed on to the white robes and fur of the wolf and [Crunching Cleaved] her way away, a confused whine coming from the wolf's canine mouth as soon as their feet left the ground and they both catapulted through the air, crunching from bat to bat.
"Heal this group instead and I will allow you to live outside the dungeon-- fail me and meet the same fate as your friend."
She dropped the robed canid over next to Katalyn, and then cleaved through the poor, tiny bats scattered throughout the tower, their halved bodies tumbling to the marble as she made her way back to the still-bleeding lime-haired man.
Another dead bat fell, torn apart by her blade.
And another.
"I have a little sister," the quivering male bubbled out in a whimper more pathetic than the actual wolf's, right before her tenth and final [Crunching Cleave] split his skull in two like the many bats before it.
"S-stella," he stuttered, the last thing he uttered before his mouth could no longer form words because it was too busy being in two halves.