As soon as I opened my eyes on the 98th floor, I sensed that this floor might be our last floor of the dungeon. Moments later, I heard curses around me. "At least it isn't a water floor," Adam remarked, only to receive a punch on the shoulder from Horus. "Don't even joke about that," Horus retorted.
The size of the ruins often changed sizes based on the monsters within, and the hallway we found ourselves in was vast. The walls, typically made of brick-sized stone blocks, were now as big as the stones used in pyramids. The ceiling towered at least 100 feet above us.
"Judging by the size of these stones, there are a few possibilities," Horus began. "We might get lucky, and this place was built by people who liked grandeur. But given the massive doorways, it's more likely constructed by some giant race. There's hope that these giants no longer inhabit these ruins. We might face different monsters. Let's just hope we don't encounter giant trolls. If we do, our best bet is to hide until time runs out." After his explanation, Horus instructed us to stay close while Luana cast a scouting spell.
"Damn it," Luana muttered. Soon after, the sound of something massive approaching grew louder. "We're up against giant cyclops. They seem nearly immune to magic, which is why my spell broke. They've detected my general location," Luana explained. Horus chimed in, "Cyclops aren't too bad, depending on their other resistances. At least they shouldn't regenerate. We should be able to handle this one, then decide our next move." We quickly assumed battle positions.
The monster finally came into sight around the corner it was around 50 feet tall, but it didn’t stop and hit the wall quite hard. This shocked us enough that we didn't start attacking, and we all watched as the cyclops took a few steps back, shook its head, and then finally started to look around. Once it found us, it roared and began to charge again. "Hey, big fella with one eye, want to fight?" I said, but it had no effect. This was the first time my ability had truly failed.
One of Luana’s most powerful attack spells did nothing more than clean a part of the monster's skin. Arabella’s arrows didn’t penetrate deep enough to even bury the arrowhead. Horus's attacks didn't do anything, merely bouncing off the armor the monster was wearing.
My sword managed to cut through the chin guard it wore, but the metal was so thick and strong that I wasn’t able to hurt it at all. We all expected someone to be hit by the swing of that monstrous club it wielded, but the monster just ran past us.
"What?" I heard Adam say, and we all watched in astonishment as the monster continued to charge until it hit another wall at the hallway's cross-section. "They are the stupid variety," Horus finally remarked.
“That's why your taunt didn't work. The less intelligent cyclops are extremely resistant to mental effects and are generally quite resistant to all forms of damage. Now, when I say stupid, I don’t mean that they don’t learn. So be careful; it probably won't make the same mistake twice, especially after it brought itself so much pain," Horus added. We quickly saw that his words were correct.
This time, after it shook its head and looked at us, it didn’t charge blindly but approached us at a slower speed, readying its club. I charged towards it, and when I got close enough, it did stop to swing at me. However, all I had to do to evade was to halt my movement.
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Even so, the club passed dangerously close to me, and I believed the shockwave from its movement could have easily killed a regular human. After it passed me, I advanced, using the club itself as a shield from the stone shards that exploded outwards from the point of impact. Such a hit would have been fatal to me instantly.
I didn’t waste any time and quickly rushed underneath the monster. It saw me, but its movements were much slower compared to mine, and it lacked the coordination to squash me. This gave me ample time to attack. After a few strikes, the monster's lower leg armors fell to the ground as I cut the rope that held them in place.
To cut its actual legs, I had to channel a lot of energy into my sword, and even then, it took multiple hits to reach the bone. Each strike caused the monster to cry out in pain and grow even angrier. However, no matter what it did, it wasn’t able to hit me, and I continued my assault.
Only about a minute after I began my attacks, the monster finally fell to its knees and then onto its stomach. I moved swiftly, but its hands were more coordinated, so it took a while of dodging to get to the neck. It's one eye never left me, and the anger in it never faltered. One strike wasn't enough to end it, but it was enough to stop its struggle against me. I could have just walked away, and it would have bled to death, but after two more strikes, its life ended quickly. Not long after, its body disappeared.
"Rich, how are your resources? Did it take a lot to kill it?" Horus asked, but I stayed quiet for a moment. It took a decent amount of energy to kill it compared to other monsters I have faced. But I genuinely felt bad about this kill. It didn't feel like a fight to me; it was more like felling a tree.
There have been other monsters in this dungeon that I could easily handle, but this one felt different. I believe it’s because, with other monsters, if I were in their position, I could imagine myself using different tactics to fight me better. But for this monster, if I were in its shoes fighting myself, I don’t see any effective strategy. The giant cyclopses are simply too large and slow. Perhaps if the cyclops would kneel, but then it would be an even simpler fight if I just got behind it.
"It doesn't take too much energy, and I could fight quite a few of them before needing rest," I informed the rest of the group. I was right in saying that I won’t enjoy battling them, each encounter played out similarly. They charged at us twice before approaching slowly, giving me the opportunity to engage, chop them down, and then sever their necks. It felt as though I was in a slaughterhouse, constantly murdering creatures that couldn't defend themselves against me.
I continued my work, and every monster we encountered was defeated by me. The others simply didn’t possess the firepower to be effective, so the task of killing was left to me and my sword. After dispatching another monster, I examined my sword.
I realized that it was the reason we had ventured so deep into the dungeon. I had never imagined it to be so potent, which made me ponder the capabilities of a sword forged from Rank 4 dragon blood. Regardless, I was profoundly grateful that I had taken the risk and expended so many resources based on a hunch.
We never encountered more than one cyclops at a time, but we soon discovered why when we stumbled upon two of them battling to death. Horus theorized that they were extremely territorial. After one defeated the other, I swiftly engaged the other and killed the victor.
Navigating this place was time-consuming since everything was magnified. We spent hours traversing huge empty tunnels, but eventually, we stumbled upon something we had only seen a few times before. We found the edge of the cyclops ruins, which connected to normally-sized ruins that were quite dark and damp.
We could continue through the cyclops territory, or try our luck in the new ruins. The choice was left up to me, as I was the primary fighter here. However, I had to concur with the others: the unknown is always more perilous than the known. We decided to continue exploring the cyclops ruins.
One thing that surprised all of us was the absence of traps, but none of us complained about that. Our progress was slow due to the sheer size of the ruins, and the time advantage we had initially gained began to disappear.
When we finally reached the boss room, we were only a few hours away from hitting the red line that would leave us with just one day to complete the 99th floor. Peering inside, I had expected to see an even larger cyclops, but instead, I was met with a different sight.
It was still a cyclops, but it was shorter, standing at about 30 feet tall, which likely meant it would be a more challenging fight. The real difference was that there were two of them, connected at the hip. They looked alike, suggesting they were twins, possibly conjoined since birth.
Both wielded their own clubs and appeared more intelligent than the other monsters. I was fairly certain this fight would be tougher than the others on this floor, and Horus seemed to share my sentiment.