“Joey, switch to frostfire,” Nox yelled instructions as he scanned for an advantageous position. “These things are mostly cold-blooded.”

“Got it!”

The twin projectiles had opened a path for Brianna. She charged only after Otis activated the spell in his store. The room's temperature dropped drastically, and the liquid in the air and on the floor swiftly froze. The lightning ceased, having done its job. Several gorgons and snakes lay stunned or burned to a crisp. Brianna’s tattoos shone an angry red. Nox hoped the residual lightning would fail to penetrate the defenses provided by them, and she Reinforce cantrip.

The orange and red chains came to life, and Brianna turned into a hurricane of axes again when her dance began. It was truly a magnificent site. She didn’t just spin on a point, but complex footwork helped her maintain her balance and avoid anything that slipped underneath the storm. The woman from the distant north turned into a storm of elegance and fury. The fiery tattoos against her plate skin and the scant grey furs she wore for clothes exuded a wild but beautiful aspect. Since Brianna had no allies within her immediate range, nothing kept her from activating her Aether Warrior aura.

Initially, Nox assumed it was something akin to anti-magic or chaos essence. He was wrong. Brianna called it Agony. The aura bathed everything within her small mana zone in the Aspect of Pain and Dismantling. Nox has never heard of anything like it. She explained it as a part of her ancestral magic. It was old, and much like the rest of her tools, it outdated the modern mana system. All that entered the aura suffered as it attacked their nerves. Magic and objects not protected by her Reinforce suffered similarly and slowly started to fall apart as they traveled further toward the aura, especially toward her. She felt a portion of the pain too, which added to her rage. Apparently, her grandfather occasionally imbibed in Pink Sellis or liquors before battle to reduce Agony's effects, but she avoided them so she didn't end up with an addiction like him.

Even though the two other men in the party were cornered, Nox didn't worry too much about them. Ever since Alexander started his druid training, his defensive spells had improved by leaps and bounds. He had an easier time getting his head around macro-Shaping than Manipulation and did better with stone than wood. As a result, several stone barriers stood between him and the attacking gorgons. He had fashioned the rough rocks in the Gorgon Sister's lair into layers of barricades.

Meanwhile, Joey had spent the last year enjoying exclusive lessons under Professor Frances Lorenzo, the university’s expert in barrier and shield magic. When Nox arrived on the scene, he found Joey slinging fire at the attackers. The advice regarding frostfire encouraged him to change tactics. Now, he raced through their frontline, spraying the azure flames and creating icicle flowers that skewered, hobbled, or slowed them. His djinn container, the glass spearhead, shone with the same color as the fire and carved through any creature that tried to attack his flanks or rear. Frost spread from the lacerations they left behind.

The slowly changing tide of battle told Nox that he didn't need to worry about the trio. So, he turned his attention to Caitlin and the boss. The pair appeared matched in strength. The gorgon's tail had wrapped around an armored leg and locked arms, struggling to get the other in a good enough hold. Blood dripped from open lacerations on the boss's torso while sections of Caitlin's Wood armor had turned grey. The gorgon's snake mane bit at the wood and failed to penetrate, but their cumulative venom appeared to be breaking down the wood's elemental armor. Occasionally, little water whips broke free of the joints and struck the snakes, slicing them to pieces. It looked like Caitlin would lose the battle of attrition unless someone interfered. So, Nox used Fold Step to move closer and find an advantageous position to attack while avoiding gorgons that broke free of the ongoing battles.

Unlike Medusa's throne room, her sister's lair was more of a garden; stone pillars, shrubbery, little ponds, and trees littered it. Nox picked the top of a tall pillar as his crow's nest. He needed to Fold Step off the top of a boulder to reach it. Fortunately, the mana cost had significantly dropped ever since he completed integrating the Spatial Manipulation spell with its planet. He couldn't wait until its mana value reached thirty-two so he could create a moon for Fold Step, making it even cheaper and less strenuous to use.

Before attacking the boss, Nox took a sip from his flask of a new alchemical concoction. Colors turned more vibrant, and time marginally appeared to slow as the latest addition to the arsenal took effect. His movements felt sluggish too until he used Haste. Then, he moved as normal, but everyone and everything else moved a quarter of a second lower. It wasn't a lot of time, but the drug helped him multitask better and think over strategies as he fought. The concoction mostly proved helpful in crowded combat zones where several things were going on at once. Nox had only tested it in his laboratory while juggling several micromanagement-needing brews at once.

First, he struck the boss's human half, especially the bubbling sections of skin and flesh around the solar blade. As expected, they failed to inflict any damage. The Gorgon Sister was far more durable than Medusa. Nox doubted simple projectiles would do enough to damage her. He needed to use the longbow to penetrate her defenses. Yet he tested a handful of other areas for weak spots. She remained unfazed.

“Where the hell have you been? Caitlin grunted from inside the wood elemental armor. Her voice sounded strained. “Do you have any idea what we went through looking for you?”

“Abducted by Mind Magic,” Nox replied, speaking slower than usual so his words didn't sound jumbled. Ratra’s bow transitioned to the longbow. Since Caitlin had the Gorgon locked in position, aiming would be easier. “Sorry. We killed Medusa and raided her treasury, though. So it's all good.”

“Sister!” The gorgon leader hissed and the bubbling on her back intensified. “We fall but we never die!” The words sounded like a chant or beginnings of a song. “We are one. We are legion. We may fall but never die as long as a sister remains to give us life.”

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The Gorgon Sister's muscles bulged, and her tail grew thicker. The standstill broke as her chanting picked up pace, and she pushed Caitlin back. A big lump rose along the length of her muscled back. The mane of snakes growing out of her head grew longer and thicker. More individual strands added to the volume, and then lunged at Caitlin's head armor, jaws open, fangs bared. Many's eyes glowed the same ugly yellow as Medusa's. Fluid dripped from the mouths of others and sizzled as they touched the floor. The stone bubbled for a moment as little pockmarks appeared in them.

It felt like something big was coming, and Nox refused to find out what it was. He needed to act quickly but be careful about the essences he used. Anything too big and destructive could potentially hurt Caitlin too. She had excellent regeneration abilities and had grown potent ever since she absorbed a seedling Dean Woodson extracted from Ygg. However, she still felt pain and Nox refused to hurt her. The ice arrow would explode into icicles on impact, and he doubted Caitlin had the speed to retreat in time. So, he drew an Aquatic Essence arrow and modified the script to create a more concentrated effect, prioritizing penetration over large-scale destruction.

Nox's muscles complained when he drew the longbow to its maximum—or the maximum his muscles would allow. His jaw and teeth clenched as he tried to avoid the shakes and take aim, and he made a mental note to pick up the Reinforce cantrip or a variation of it as soon as possible. Much to his surprise, a scream burst from within the wood elemental armor. Caitlin released her hold on the Gorgon Sister and backpedaled.

Unfortunately, the boss suddenly transformed just as he released the projectile. The lump on her back exploded in a mass of skin and flesh. Leathery wings burst from her back. The wind pressure from a single flap ripped off the blackened bits of Caitlin’s armor. Instead of piercing through her rib cage, the spinning arrow and the spiraling waters ripped through the beast’s serpent tail.

The wings and glowing yellow eyes helped him guess what had happened. The sisters were legion. They were one. As long as one lived, the others wouldn’t die. He assumed the boss had temporarily adopted Medusa and the winged gorgon’s abilities or was in the process of using her own flesh and magic. The lumps growing out of the gorgon’s back and the bubbling flesh suggested it was the latter, and the prospect terrified him. He had his party around him, but they appeared worn.

Nox was sure they had pushed on after the first boss without resting in the hopes of finding him. Facing an agile, poison-focused foe probably wore them down. Then, they defeated all of the section's minions before challenging another boss. If the first boss returned, they would be in trouble. If Medusa resurfaced, they’d certainly all die. The same tactic as the first time wouldn’t work again. There were far too many enemies.

Even though his projectile didn’t kill the boss, it forced the monster back to the ground. The fall dazed it for a moment, and Nox rushed forward. He extended his mana zone to reach Caitlin’s head and used Crystallize Essence. More of her armor fell off, but she snapped out of her daze.

“By Hogg’s Taint!” She screeched. “What was that?”

“No time to explain,” Nox called over the gorgon’s angry cries. “Keep her immobile.”

“Got it.”

The Aquatic Essence Arrow was never supposed to kill the Gorgon Sister. Nox had hoped to hurt and weaken her defenses, at best, and it had worked. The spell’s true purpose was to fill the battlefield with water. Streams of liquid flowed up Caitlin’s elemental armor. They gathered around her arms and formed thick, viny tentacles. She lashed her opponent, wrapping around the torso and wings. The wings vibrated, and the claws growing out of the spines along it sharpened and lengthened. They cut through the water bindings, and the gorgon struggled to get free. Fortunately, Caitlin had long become an expert at Shaping and swiftly reformed and condensed. The water almost appeared to solidify, and bits of it cut into the wings’ leathery membrane.

“This might hurt,” Nox said, drawing his ice arrow.

“I don’t care!” Caitlin growled as more snakes bit at her armor, rotting layers away faster than she could regrow them.

Medusa seemed physically the weakest of the sisters. Nox hadn’t encountered the winged serpent, but the artwork related to her in the corridors showed a lithe, sturdy finger. He imagined she had a light body to facilitate stealth and swift movement, but she appeared muscular. The specimen in front of him now was even stronger and had the greatest durability of all. If he wanted to penetrate her defenses, there was no holding back.

So, Nox channelled extra mana into Ratra’s Bow. The longbow grew sturdier, and its limbs extended. Little points extended along the arms, and energy burst from each. They arced around the front before connecting to their symmetrical opposite. The growth and change shocked Nox. It was a magic circle. He didn’t know what was going on, but the weapon vibrated as he drew the arrow.

“Make it count,” Caitlin yelled. “I can’t hold her for long.”

“Release me, foul mortal!” The gorgon shrieked. Her mane grew, almost matching Medusa’s, as she continued to break free. The snakes bit at the aquatic tethers and Caitlin’s armored arms. “I’ll rend your flesh and feed it to my sisters. Your flesh will nourish Euryale. Your magic shall fuel Medusa. Entering our lair is your greatest and final mistake. I hope you are prepared for your end.”

Before releasing his arrow, Nox channeled mana from the Temporal Sphere’s star to his Spatial Manipulation planet. The final spell didn’t just limit him to folding space. He had also designed it for compression, coiling, stretching, and expansion. First, he pulled the space around the arrow. It and sections of the bow appeared longer, but he knew that it wasn’t. Then, he squeezed the area in front of it as much as his meager mastery of Manipulation and mana would allow. When Nox released his arrow, it moved slowly for a second, but all disappeared as it flew into the compressed space.

The muscled gorgon’s rib cage exploded.

The aquatic bindings and the water along Caitln’s armed joints immediately froze. Then icicles burst from the beast’s chest and lanced towards her. Much to Nox’s relief, the wood elemental armor’s back opened, and the party’s vanguard fell out of it. Deep gouges covered her arm, and the flesh around her arm had blackened. However, the rest of her appeared unharmed.

Even though using an empty planet’s spell significantly sapped the connected planet, Nox used Fold Step to speed to Caitlin’s aid. She had potent self-regeneration, yet he fed her a couple of healing pills, and she accepted it without hesitation. The wounds along her arms were swiftly stitched closed. Then, the dead flesh around her hands fell away. A couple of minutes passed, and then she looked as good as new. Despite the lack of injuries, the vanguard appeared physically and mentally drained, and Nox doubted she had another fight in her.

Fortunately, the boss’ minions collapsed. Many turned into stone and crumbled into dust. Then, the dungeon began to rumble. Dust and stone chips rained upon them.

The party had succeeded in its mission. They stepped onto the sky island to kill a boss and gain the necessary accolades, but they destroyed an Adept-ranked dungeon in the process.