My blades summoned from fire and wind explode into magnificent balls of man-imbued flames. The white and black blades intertwine with Ember's magic and cover the Silver Dragon, outer shell completely.

It stays silent, unharmed by the blast and waiting for us my make another move. My best guess is it's plotting to finally counter when we do. The Dragon studied our movements, flight patterns, and attack styles while taking damage just to get the upper hand.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Bring it on!"

Yelling out into the magic clouds of debris as we soar upward, the shimmering dragon follows closing the distance just like before.

Our full-powered attacks can't even make a scratch on its new armor, so I'll have to try a much more unconventional way to bring down more of its health.

The moment it erupts from the clouds below, I expand my perception range and activate one of my newest abilities.

"Life Steal."

A pulse of mana with a green hue comes emanating from my body and I feel the life force of the approaching Drogon grow stronger and stronger the closer it gets.

The shimmering green energy of my mana collides with the monster's white aura. I instantly feel the hint of a refreshing sensation come over my full body. From this range, it's hardly taking in 5 HP a second at most, but that's still something.

I smirk as the approaching creature roars and sends a wave of offensive ice magic my way in the shape of a long spear.

"Dungeon Walker."

We teleport away from its clutches and I do the same thing again. By allowing the enemy to come just within range, I suck a small portion of its HP away from it each time. It's growing weaker for every teleportation we use up, but not by much.

Ember and I both send off attacks to counter its fury. This gives me a fraction of a second more time to drain HP before teleporting away.

The only way to do a considerable amount of damage would be to get up closer, but every time I try to teleport a little further into range, the faster an Ice attack blasts at me or we narrowly avoid the massive claws of the enraged beast.

The Boss Monster is getting very frustrated, but its eyes never leave our position. Despite its roars of anger, it stays in full battle mode, only improving with each and every one of my teleports.

By the time another dozen more attacks pass, it's guessing over half of my transport points before I even move there. Despite this, I've drained another hundred or so of its HP.

All I need is time and this battle is as good as won. As long as we stay out of range and keep up this pace, the fight will be over before the collapse gets anywhere close to the final floor.

I charge up my blades and Ember flaps his wings preparing another dual strike to distract it. We blip to the opposite side of the shimmering beast, but the voice that enters my mind catches me completely off guard.

"No more playing around. It's time to get serious."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

In an instant, the sky turns dark and a shadowy figure teleports in between me and the Frost Dragon using a purple and black portal to do so.

Before I can even think to teleport away or stop swinging my blades, the wave of flames already flies forward.

I watch the figure raise its hand and block my two shots and Embers fire with ease.

Through the explosion of flames and excess mana, a pair of long red horns emerge on top of the dark-skinned Arch Demon's body.

It's no more than 3 meters tall, but there's so much power emanating from its small frame the creature seems even larger than the dragon glaring at me from behind it.

The Demon stares forward with a wide smile, bulging muscles, and a dreadful dark aura. It looks identical to the body double it sent to me back in DryRock. The only difference is, that this real body seems as though it's leaking with power just begging to be used.

The air around its exposed chest and legs wavers and the loud hum of mana fills the area even though its mana shielding isn't active yet.

The blindingly white eyes with tiny black pupils look more cold and ruthless than any creature I've ever witnessed or imagined.

This is the result of harnessing mana from the Solaran Labyrinth for years.

This is a real Arch Demon.

____________________________

[Lv. 608]

Active Items:

[Arch Demon's Amulet of Protection] +140% Defense +110 Strength

[Crimson Ring of Truth] +135% Mental Strength +120% Perception

[Obsidian Ring of Deception] +120% Speed +100% Agility

[Arch Demon's Core] +100% All Stats

Active Skills:

Telepathy [Legendary Grade]

Body Double [Special Grade]

Dungeon Walker

Buffs:

Enrage[Hidden ability]

____________________________

The silver Frost Dragon begins to glow brightly again behind the Demon and lights up the sky.

Our chances of victory in this fight just fell from 'within possibilities' down into the 'slim to none' range. The overwhelming power before us is over double our own combined mana control and the growing white light is only increasing that gap.

Three portals of white spatial magic appear over the Dragon's head as it lets out a roar. Out of each one, smaller white-scaled lizard creatures with wings materialize from thin air. They're over 5 meters long and have the same royal blue eyes and dark underbelly to match their summoner.

I comment to Ember through our link.

"It's the second buff. A summoning spell just like the Blue Ogre King we faced...."

Using inspect, I see [Lv. 550] above each of their heads while they flap their wings and begin to glow blue with their own ice magic.

This may have been a plan to deter us from trying, or a way to move me away from its source with this Life Steal skill. Or... they're just summoning backup for fun to crush us into the ground with a single attack.

We're outmatched and out of time, but I can't help but smile with wide eyes.

It may seem like all hope is lost, and it's time to run, but that's far from the case. Without realizing it, our opponent just gave us the perfect opportunity to get on equal ground.

I eye the three winged lizards as they slither out from their portals and the white light fades

The 5 of them stare across a 50-meter gap in the air at the 2 of us. All the debris from our explosions has drifted down to the ground and we're left in a standstill, waiting for the other to make their move first.

The Arch Demon summons a purple portal and lands on top of the silver dragon's head, motioning for the underlings to move forward.

They do, and I hear the monster's voice in my inner ear again.

"You have a few more skills than I gave you credit for. It seems I'll actually have to join to show you our true power."

The Demon's toothy grin matches its bonded dragon. The cold demonic eyes of both creatures stare into our souls, knowing we don't stand a chance now.

I take a deep breath and continue charging my blades with a straight face.

The underlings fly closer, and I calmly wait.

It feels like hours go by in these last few seconds before the final dual.

My heart rate speeds up and my grip on both weapons tightens.

"Finally, it's time."

I shift my gaze to the sky as the first Ice Lizard Spawn comes diving in to attack us head-on.

Both Ember and I let out a full-powered blow, slicing the creature in two and showering the battlefield with remains to announce the Labyrinth's Boss Room fight has begun.

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

__________________________________

[Rank Up]

[YES][NO]

__________________________________