The path to the boss took less than a day. Knowing exactly what fork in the road to take minimized travel time and, by consequence, the number of encounters they ran into. As per usual, they stopped at the healing fountain that preceded the stone gate that separated the boss room from the rest of the dungeon. Sleeping there, they headed into the boss room, fully refreshed, shortly after they woke up.
“Please let the boss have some meat on his bones,” Reysha complained, not used to fighting on an empty stomach. They were all filled enough to have all the energy they needed, otherwise they would have gone hunting. Regardless, the general state of low sustenance persisted.
“If it even has bones,” Apexus’ hungry grumble was the verbal equivalent of a stomach rumbling, as he pushed against the stone. Slowly it caved and then swung open all on its own, leaving the trio to walk inside slowly.
As with a lot of boss rooms, the actual monster they had to fight didn’t appear immediately. It would only reveal itself once the group was actually inside, assuring they couldn’t pull back. That left them to inspect the room itself.
It was a corridor. The walls and roof were uneven and craggy, not unlike the rest of the cave system they had already left behind. A broad walkway led forwards, sometimes winding and curving but never completely abandoning its straightforward trajectory. On either side of that path was a steep decline, at the bottom of which hip-deep water pooled around an occasional crystal of golden or silver glow. They were fewer in number than throughout the rest of Myrlight, only enough to tint the room in twilight. The back of the cavern consisted of a grey crystal wall, appearing as if all colour had been sapped from it.
Part of that wall, a diamond-shaped cut-out, began to glow. Soft gold at first, it soon rose to such incandescent brightness that the illumination of the entire boss room became the most intense in the entirety of Myrlight. Shadows were banished, making walls and path seem almost two-dimensional. The pupils of Reysha and Apexus pulled together, to shield their acute eyes from being overly inconvenienced by the light. Two elongated shapes moved behind the crystal wall.
The diamond-shaped source of light vibrated audibly, creating a distorted, triangle-like sound that swelled. Prepared for danger, Apexus nevertheless failed to dodge when a laser suddenly struck him in the chest. The impact was low on kinetic energy, but seared away the membrane over his ribcage. It continued to do so, as the golden ray of light kept streaming on. A smell like boiling saltwater filled the air. Apexus dove down, the laser attack continuing for several seconds even after he got out of the way.
“Gods fucking dammit, no meat or bones!” Reysha cried out and started running down the central path as soon as the first laser faded. “I HATE THIS DUNGEON!” She squinted, trying to see more of the enemy than its overly bright outline. “I can’t see shit. Aclysia?”
“Dodge to the left!” the metal fairy instructed, hovering above. Albeit her vision was generally poorer than that of her teammates, she could stare at the brightness without the drawbacks of biology. Where Apexus and Reysha only saw the incandescent outline, she could actually make out the boss.
Its shape was that of two pyramids cojoined at their square base. One of the middle corners extended out of the lightless crystal wall, energy gathering in front of it. Without resistance, it turned within the wall it was embedded into, as if it wasn’t even there. That turn allowed Aclysia to make out where the boss was aiming.
Reysha still couldn’t see a thing, but the angel’s advice kept her safe. Dashing to the side, she managed to evade the laser that cascaded outwards. She lost her footing, having stepped off the safe path and onto the slope. Barely, she managed to remain on her feet while sliding down two metres.
As she recovered and Apexus caught up to her, the missed laser hit one of the spaced out crystals. The golden glow of it intensified, fuelled by the magic it now absorbed. At its peak, it almost rivalled the boss, then the magic oozed out of a golden mist that flew towards the central path in an arc and gathered in a humanoid shape. A new light elemental was being born from the unused power of the attack.
“I’ll deal with it, keep running at the boss,” Apexus instructed and ran at the golden light elemental. It was larger than the ones they usually fought, but wouldn’t be too much of an issue. The way power rose from its form made clear that it was just as short-lived as other elementals in this dungeon that were without an energy source. “Aclysia, take care where you instruct Reysha to go,” he said while standing in the way of the monster. All he had to do was hold his position.
“Affirmative,” Aclysia shouted back. The metal fairy rose as high under the ceiling as she could. Against elementals, particularly those of the light variety, her own magical attacks would be of insignificant effect. It was better for her to do what only she could and analyse the position of every crystal in the room. The straight path and stationary nature of the boss made it easy for her to estimate the trajectory of Reysha and the attacks of the boss. “Keep to the right of centre.”
“Got it,” the tiger girl responded, as she planted her feet firmly on the path again and started to run.
“Next laser, in three… two… one…” Aclysia counted down. Her number was slightly off. The very start of the laser hit Reysha in the chest and, as she ducked down, she felt its searing energy burn a line into her skin. Neither lasted long enough to deal any significant damage, but Aclysia felt the sting of guilt regardless. “My apologies.”
“You’ll fix it afterwards,” Reysha responded with a maniac’s giggle. The pain was only slight, a bothersome itch that ran across her face. It got her adrenaline pumping, her heartbeat drummed in her chest. This excitement was what she craved almost as much as sex or food. The laser faded and she continued to run.
Apexus was dodging the swings of the diminishing elemental, slowly stepping back. Where he saw an opportunity, he took it. His hands scooped through the energy, a feeling like rushing one’s hand through a mixture of a campfire and water, disrupting its flow and accelerating its decay. His back turned to the rest of the boss fight, he simply trusted his girls to take care of things.
Reysha dodged a fourth laser, then a fifth, listening to Aclysia’s instruction. One mistake wasn’t enough to break the redhead’s trust and she was rewarded by reaching the boss without any further wounds. Her weapon already drawn; she drove it with the entire force of her charge into the crystal.
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The distorted sounds were replaced with something like the cracking of a frozen lake. Reysha was satisfied for one moment, madly laughing as she tried to twist the dagger around. Then she was thrown back by a wave of energy. The colourless crystal wall exploded into a myriad of shards. The two elongated shapes behind it were revealed to be a pair of wings of pure energy. Streaks of lights woven together and attached to the boss. The angelic prism flew backwards at an impressive speed, entering a chamber behind the pathway that had been previously hidden.
Apexus disengaged with the now harmlessly small elemental to quickly take stock of the situation. Brushing a large number of small crystals off herself, Reysha attempted to get on her feet. Red blood oozed from her right thigh, where one larger crystal had embedded itself over the course of the explosion. “Asshole,” she cussed, while the slime and Aclysia approached.
“I’ll take the lead, follow when ready,” he said, the two girls nodding. Gathering her magic, Aclysia focused on some quick healing.
Apexus advanced into the adjacent cavern chamber through a short corridor. It was larger and of a circular shape. Around a large central platform wound a spiralling walkway, the beginning of which led several metres down. The gaps between the stone path were several metres wide and filled with water and the occasional crystal pillar, each one as wide as a person.
The boss hovered towards the platform and stopped in the dead centre of the room. Standing there, its geometric form upright, its bright light switched from gold to silver. The cracks spread throughout its body and surface were invisible to Apexus, all he saw was that light. A swelling, distorted tone, warned him of a renewed laser attack and he quickly retreated to hide behind the wall between where he needed to go and where he came from.
Against his expectation, an energy ray never came flying out of the corridor. Apexus waited for a second to verify, then carefully advanced back into the chamber. The laser spell had been cast, four of them. Each extended from one of the boss’ corners with silver brilliance and aimed at one of the crystal pillars. Slowly, very slowly, the silver crystals were charged with light.
Knowing what this would mean, Apexus rushed into the room as quickly as his slimy origin allowed and dropped to all fours at the edge of the walkway. The intention of the room was to follow the spiralling path, but the chimera was not exactly bound by his feet. Leaping with all of his might and a mighty beat of his wings, he soared over the several metre-wide chasm between two segments of the spiral and landed almost elegantly.
The chamber wasn’t high enough to let him fly properly, even with the lower level the ground had here, but he could repeat that motion rather easily. That was, in theory. Reacting to the invasion, the silver-gleaming boss rotated. Advantageous for Apexus was that the boss was no longer charging any of the pillars. The trade-off was that one of the lasers was now aimed at him and that the energy that had already charged the four crystals now seeped out to form four tiny, silver elementals.
Apexus was willing to take the damage from the former. Compared to the singular ray he had previously been struck by, these silver ones weren’t that harmful. However, as he spread his wings for his next leap. One of the silver elementals reached him and pulled on his feathers. Storming down the spiralling path, a second one joined almost immediately. The third and fourth were on their way, but would take a while longer.
While being harassed, Apexus couldn’t jump again, not with enough certainty that he would cover the entire chasm. If he dropped into the water below, that would waste an immense amount of time. As it was, he focused on fighting the tiny elementals. All he had to do was wait them out again.
A challenge going alongside that was the need to keep tabs on where the boss aimed again. One of the lasers was always going after Apexus, but the other three could have easily hit one of the pillars and spawned in yet more obstacles. He had to be careful, which wasn’t easy with the third, half-metre elemental now coming in and running circles around him with its immense speed. At the same time, the laser was burning away at him. Slowly but steadily, he was losing biomass.
“Come on, you can manage a couple of metres!” he heard Reysha’s voice.
Aclysia looked at Reysha, then at the chasm they had just arrived at and hesitatingly nodded. Grabbing the healed redhead under the arms, the metal fairy concentrated all of her magic on her wings and generated as much lift as she possibly could. Sluggishly, they went into the air together and advanced. Their flight was downwards tilted and vulnerable in its speed.
“You’re heavy,” Aclysia whined. Her magical flight was designed to lift her light metal body, not a fully grown person.
“Hardly a time to call me fat, bubble butt,” Reysha laughed in response, just as they reached the bit of the path where Apexus was dealing with the enemies. They were so low that Reysha had to land with her legs pulled in. Once there, she immediately charged forwards to help Apexus. One mighty kick and the first of the elementals immediately dissipated into silver mist.
“I will take the duty of distracting the boss,” Aclysia announced and flew forwards. Predictably, the monster changed its attack priority towards the closer target, not knowing that Aclysia didn’t have the physical capabilities to harm it. Tilting, it aimed up in the air, the laser following the metal fairy as she flew in circles, avoiding both the attack and the creation of additional enemies.
“Go get it!” Reysha told Apexus, as she dealt with the other elementals.
“Yes,” the slime did not know what else to respond with and once more leapt across the chasm. Then a third time. A fourth. A fifth. The sixth leap finally brought him just in front of the platform. The boss realigned its priority again. Too late to change anything. Apexus jumped one more time and the entire weight of the chimera slime, from its simple gooey mass, to its bones, to its limbs, crashed into the absurdly bright enemy.
Pushed over, the already cracked crystal burst upon impact with the floor. Energy wings dissipated among a final discharge of energy that catapulted Apexus backwards and almost had him tumbling into the water. With all of her physical might, Aclysia tried to catch him. She slowed his fall enough that he could catch himself.
Reysha finished off what remained of the decaying elementals and then jogged up the walkway as was intended, where Aclysia was healing her darling. “Does that even do anything for him?” she asked, looking at the slime. Part of his bones were visible, the membrane above completely seared away.
“It makes the mending go faster,” Apexus answered. Normally, he would have just eaten to hasten the process along, but the now colourless crystals didn’t exactly seem edible. He was right, except for a marble sized sphere of a swirling gold and silver colour, laying among the shattered remains. Reysha picked it up. “You can have it,” he said, before she could ask.
“You sure?” she asked. She had held something like it before. It was the magical cortex of a stable elemental. Aside from being small, it was also extremely delicious. It was the condensed centre of a supernatural being and, as such, had a ludicrous amount of the taste the two of them craved and regular mortals couldn’t properly digest.
“Yes,” Apexus answered. He wouldn’t get anything useful from eating it. As he had already resolved, he was acquiring the crystal ducts as nail replacements at the moment. With just a bit of concentration, he made a silver-white nail grow at the appropriate place of every toe and finger. As he had hoped, he could make them sprout rapidly, just at the expense of some energy. Their exact capabilities would have to be tested through time.
That was enough reward for him. Giving the awesome tasting boss core to Reysha to brighten her mood was the best use for it, without a doubt. As such, Apexus had no qualms about leaving it to her.
He did not expect her to moan when she ate it.