They stepped into the boss chamber. It was a massive stone room with rough rock walls that echoed the trios every step. Standing unmoving in the center of the massive stone room was an equally massive Crystal Guardian—a huge moving fortress of super hardened crystals.

Liang Wu took charge calmly. He had designed the bosses to have a thirty-second grace period, to allow for those challenging the dungeons a moment to strategize. “This is a Crystal Guardian, unlike the previous monsters we fought. This one is on par with a cultivator in the Foundation Realm. On top of that, it is basically immune to blades. But we’re in luck. Although its body is made of hardened crystals, its inner core is weak to shock.”

“What does that mean? Do we need electricity?” Chen Li Li asked.

“No, physical shock. We need to hit it with blunt force until its outer shell cracks, then crush its inner core once it becomes exposed.” He picked a stone from the ground and squeezed it into powder to emphasize his words.

“Oh, but we don’t have any blunt weapons.” Chen Li Li was worried. Liang Wu hadn’t allowed them to bring weapons, so they could train their hand-to-hand combat.

“Yes we do, we have her.” Liang Wu pointed to Daiyu.

Daiyu tilted her head, raising her finger to point at herself. “Me? How am I a weapon?”

“Yes, you. We don’t have time left, so listen to me carefully. Daiyu will be the main attacker. You need to hit the center of the Boss repeatedly until it cracks. Chen Li Li, you will use your speed to maneuver around the Boss and distract it, so it can’t hurt Daiyu.” Liang Wu gave out the attack order as if he were the guild leader in an RPG, he was feeling especially excited as he could never play multiplayer games. What with being the only one in this world with access to video games.

Chen Li Li frowned. “What about you?”

“I—” He was interrupted by a loud noise. Their thirty seconds were up. The Boss had begun to move.

“Time’s up, let’s go!” He pushed the girls forward to get them into action.

As the Boss stepped forward, a green HP bar appeared above its head.

5000/5000 HP

Considering that the enemy with the most health they fought previously only had 500 health, it seemed this fight was going to yaks awhile.

Daiyu charged straight at the Boss. During the last few hours of fighting in the previous dungeon chambers, she had gotten over her initial hesitation, and was no longer afraid of fighting and killing her enemies; though she still tried to avoid killing, preferring to knock her opponents out instead.

Chen Li Li was never hesitant to begin with, so she had no problems with moving towards the Boss and attacking as soon as she got close enough.

“Oh, by the way you don’t nee—”

Boom!

“—d to use Lightning Strike.” He was too late to stop Daiyu from using the added effect of Lightning Strike, but continued anyway. “The Crystal Guardian doesn’t have sensory organs, so using the disorienting effect of Lightning Strike is useless!”

Daiyu was too busy dodging a blow from the Boss’s large hands to respond. She gave thumbs up to show she heard.

“Daiyu, use the Steel Hand technique to protect your hands. Chen Li Li hit it with lots of weak blows to pull aggro.” Liang Wu stood at the entrance, giving orders.

“What is aggro!?” Chen Li Li shouted while slamming her palm into the back of the Boss’s leg.

“It means to get its attention!” He shouted back.

“Then just say that!” She said while continuing to hit the same leg.

The Boss turned around to face her.

“Chen Li Li, avoid the Boss! Daiyu hit it as hard as you can in the back!”

“Why—ah!”

Bang!

“Why aren’t you helping!?” Chen Li Li had turned her attention to Liang Wu, and almost got hit.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I will help when it’s needed. For now, concentrate on keeping aggro from Daiyu, so she can deal damage!”

—

Half an hour had gone by in a flash. The two girls were looking exhausted, but they continued to fight the Crystal Guardian with grim determination. It’s HP nearly emptied.

1000/5000 HP

“Good job girls, it’s almost defeated, just push on a little more!” Liang Wu still hadn’t joined the fight, choosing to stay on the sidelines cheering them on.

Chen Li Li jumped back to avoid a swing from the Boss’s arm. She gave Liang Wu an angry glare, too tired to retort. Before diving back at the Boss, to pull aggro for Daiyu.

If Liang Wu could hear her thoughts, he might just melt from the amount of venomous words she was spewing at him.

Bang! Crack!

Daiyu had landed a devastating blow on the Boss’s chest, finally exposing its inner core. “I did it!” She cheered happily, the excitement blowing her exhaustion away.

Just as she was reading herself to deliver what would hopefully be the final blow, a bright light emitted from the Boss’s inner core. The light was so unexpected that it blinded both girls. Even Liang Wu hadn’t anticipated that the Boss would have such a move.

While the light had blinded the two girls, Liang Wu was luckily far enough away that it only partially blinded him while stinging his eyes.

Through the tears that had involuntarily formed in his eyes, he could see the Boss’s health bar completely full back up.

5000/5000 HP

“What in the fuck!?” Liang Wu usually wasn’t one for foul language, but this situation definitely called for it.

The Boss raised its monstrous hand, getting ready to crush Daiyu, who was standing frozen below it, still stunned by the blinding light.

Liang Wu, seeing this, charged forward. He pushed his nameless footwork technique to the limits, infusing as much of his little Qi into his legs as he could manage.

One reason he had stayed on the sidelines was that he wasn’t as strong as the two young women. In the week since he began cultivating again, he had only reached the 2nd Stage Qi Forming. Although his attributes were on the higher side, thanks to his cultivation technique, he didn’t possess Daiyu’s unparalleled strength, nor Chen Li Li’s speed, and superior reserves of Qi. He would never admit that though, he would claim that he was giving them a chance to hone their skills, which was partially true.

Shit! I need to go faster! He shouted internally as the Boss’s massive hand was just a few measly feet from reaching Daiyu’s head. Thanks to its height advantage, its hand took a longer time to reach her.

Bang!

The sounded of the Boss’s hand meeting with flesh echoed throughout the silent chamber, echoing endlessly off of the stone walls.

“Aaaah!!!” A young woman's shrill scream tore through the echoes, replacing them with its own.

Daiyu was the one producing the scream. Her blinded eyes had regained sight, just as she felt herself being pushed aside by a pair of hands from her right. The sight that greeted her when she regained her vision was that of Liang Wu standing in the position she had just occupied a moment before. The Boss’s enormous fist was lodged in the ground next to Liang Wu, crushing a bloody arm underneath. Only the hand remained visible.

It wasn’t until she glanced up from the bloody arm towards Liang Wu when she screamed. He was standing still with his left hand holding the bleeding stump where his right arm used to be. Face pale as a ghost and a dark red pool of blood forming around his feet.

“Can you… not scream? It’s hurting my ears.” He turned his pale, bloodless face to look Daiyu in the eyes, while a smile hung on his face, as if he hadn’t just had his right arm violently torn from his body.

“Help me distract this thing, so I can stop my bleed, okay?” He said evenly, trying to calm Daiyu.

She hurriedly wiped the tears that were pouring from her eyes and lunged at the Boss with a loud shout. Hammering down blow after blow on its repaired crystal skin, without regard for her on safety. She was trying to vent her pent up fear and anger on the monster that had harmed her master.

“What happened?” Chen Li Li regained her sight, but she was on the other side of the Boss and couldn’t see what was happening.

“Help Daiyu! I have to rest for a moment.” Liang Wu shouted as he stumbled backwards, weakness setting in from the blood loss.

He pressed on the pressure points near his bleeding arm to stop the blood flow. He was really regretting never learning healing techniques, not that they would help anyway, as he wouldn’t have access to them, but he would at least have more knowledge of how to heal himself.

“Might I recommend trying the Beast Transformation Technique?” The voice of his System Helper broke through his wandering thoughts.

“The transformation technique? Oh, to heal my arm, that could work, thank you!” He thanked his System Helper and began circulating his Qi. Instead of transforming into something else, he imagined his arm regrowing. It seemed to have worked as the flesh on his arm wriggled and slowly morphed into the shape of his arm.

“Argh!” The process of healing his arm with the Beast Transformation Technique was incredibly painful, causing him to cry out.

Who could have thought of using this technique in that way? I guess my Helper did… but how’d they know, even I’ve never heard of this technique before…? He let his thoughts drift to forget his pain.

“How di—” He was going to ask a question to his System Helper, but caught the two girls struggling against the Boss out of the corner of his eye.

He moved to help them when he noticed, strangely; it looked like they were dealing no damage to the Boss. In fact, when he glanced at its health bar, it still showed 5000/5000 HP.

Something was wrong, very wrong. There shouldn’t possibly be this kind of mechanic in a beginner level dungeon like this one!

He would have to give the Dungeon Masters a call after this. But for now, he had to focus on helping the two young women fight the Crystal Guardian.