After another good night’s rest, we got up the next day feeling better than before. The area in front of the boss chamber was still hot, but I was able to use my bone bow to refresh the area quite a bit. I kept it hidden inside a big piece of cloth, and no one investigated either. They just assumed that I had done some enchanting magic.
Things were about to proceed the same way as the previous day, but soon we heard the sound of armor moving. I looked over my shoulder and then almost clicked my tongue when I saw Rowan approaching. He didn’t pay much attention to us, so he didn’t recognize me.
“... The party that was going to challenge the boss today left earlier. You can go challenge the boss at sunset.”
Rowan left without saying anything or waiting for our reply. We looked around and confirmed that one of the parties had vanished. I wondered if they were out of supplies or something. They should have known that they needed at least ten days’ worth of supplies to reach the boss.
“Well, it looks like we got lucky… are you guys ready?”
No one answered Jalal’s question. Going out to hunt some more was out of the question… they needed to conserve their energy and decide their battle plan. Jalal decided to continue.
“We were planning to make Rebecca Frostbolt gain some more levels today, but I guess this isn’t possible anymore. In any case, are you going to use mana in the fight, Clive?”
“Probably not.”
“In that case, can you let Rebecca keep using that kind of tattoo?”
“No problem.”
Even with my mana, Rebecca won’t use Frostbolt more than two times per minute. It was better if we didn’t let the battle drag out that much. The boss will have more skills than the regular fire wolves.
“Gao and I will focus on keeping the boss away from you all. While we do that, Clive and Clarice should focus on decreasing the mobility of the monster. Once that happens, Rebecca will use her magic to stun the monster and then you two will use that chance to blind the beast. Once that happens, we will have the battle in our hands.”
Perhaps Jalal was underestimating a wounded beast, but I also thought that after getting some arrows in its eyes, the monster wouldn’t have much left. The boss of the first section of a dungeon usually was only around ten times stronger than the ordinary monsters, after all. This was a Draconic labyrinth, so perhaps it could be a bit stronger, but even so, the party that defeated the creature the previous day didn’t look that strong, and they pulled off. Still, I decided to be a bit more cautious and ask for some extra planning.
“What if things don’t go that well and the monster becomes that troublesome while it is that much wounded?”
“We will hold the beast off while you keep attacking it from safety. Use all your energy and skills and that will do the trick.”
That was good enough… if things get dicey, I will just use my bone bow and all the frost-enchanted arrows that I had. That definitely will do the trick since I was saving it for the third section of the dungeon. Still, after hearing how deep it could be, I was planning to only keep using my simple bow instead and then leave after the twentieth floor and after killing some Atronachs.
After that, we focused on relaxing and saving our energy for the boss fight. Still, as one would expect, doing that was a lot harder than fighting since there wasn’t much to do and we had gotten used to fighting a lot. The tension and anxiety didn’t help either.
I had some things to keep me busy. Creating more camouflage scrolls at this point in time became second nature, even though I rarely used them… I had this huge stack ready to be used. Hopefully, it will come in handy eventually, but since I was able to avoid drawing attention for the most part and I didn’t walk around the city at suspicious times, the chance never came.
Putting that aside, the others looked far too quiet… since they didn’t say much when we were talking about our strategy, I didn’t think that they would be nervous, but it looked like I was wrong. Clarice was also strong, but she probably didn’t have much experience fighting dungeon bosses in labyrinths like this.
I decided to use all my cards in case things get dicey… As soon as the shadows of doubt appeared in my mind, I would attack the beast without hesitation. No point in trying to keep a secret that much, only to risk letting those kids die. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if that were to happen.
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Time passed rather slowly, but eventually, the time came… we confirmed that the boss had returned once we heard a loud and angry growl echoing in the area and coming from the boss chamber. When that happened, we got up and then walked toward the boss chamber since we had already packed our things.
I stayed on the left side of the group since I knew that Rowan would be guarding the entrance of the chamber in the opposite direction. Despite that, I was able to feel his eyes on me… or perhaps on Clarice, since she was on my right side. I couldn’t tell for certain. He didn’t try to stop us, though.
I sighed in relief when we left the previous floor behind and went to the boss’s chamber. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them, only to see Clarice looking at me closely and then she smiled. It was the kind of smug smile that ticks people off since it made her look like she knew everything. Still, I just frowned at her.
“Keep your guard up, everyone.”
Jalal declared that when we reached the boss’s chamber. The place didn’t look much different from the rest of the first section, but it had some large boulders blocking our field of vision. We were ready to fight, but we couldn’t see the boss yet.
All of a sudden, the boss jumped from behind one of those boulders, and before even landing, it fired two large fireballs from its mouth… Jalal and Gao didn’t hesitate in swinging their weapons to block the projectiles, but the impact caused small explosions that made them flinch in pain. The heat even reached us in the back line.
The creature that launched the attack was a monstrous two-headed fire wolf, showing an intimidating presence in the chamber. Standing two meters tall, it had a long, powerful body that stretched five meters from its heads to its tail. Both heads snarled viciously, their red eyes gleaming with malice as they prepared to unleash searing fireballs from their gaping jaws. The two heads moved with eerie synchronization, as if controlled by a singular, destructive mind.
Its most terrifying feature was its fur, which was no ordinary coat. It was a living, breathing inferno. The flames danced and flickered across its body, burning with a brightness that made it hard to look directly at the creature. Where its fur was visible beneath the fire, it appeared as dark as charred embers, adding to its fearsome appearance. The fire that engulfed the fire wolf crackled with intensity, giving off waves of heat that distorted the surrounding air, making it seem as if the creature was surrounded by a shimmering aura of fire.
Each movement of the beast left behind a trail of ash and sparks, and the ground it trod upon bore the blackened scars of its presence. The flames on its body surged and ebbed with its breathing, growing fiercer when it prepared to attack. Every muscle in its massive frame was filled with energy. This was no ordinary wolf. This was a creature of pure, living flame, a beast born from fire, destruction, and fury.
The boss sure looked powerful… stronger than any of the bosses that I had faced until now. Those heads also made the others flinch, since it was the first time we had seen something this abnormal.
The monster gnarled for a bit before jumping from the boulder and then charged toward us. Jalal and Gao stepped forward to block the monster, while Clarice and I moved to the sides and got ready to target the paws of the beast.
Much to our surprise, the monster moved its heads in both directions and then targeted Clarice and me with fireballs. Before Jalal and Gao could move to protect us, they were almost run over by the charge of the beast.
While those two were being pushed away, Clarice and I almost mirrored each other’s moves and then fired arrows that hit the fireballs and made them explode. Still, thanks to that, the arrows fell on the ground without reaching the monster.
My next arrow was already nocked, and I unleashed it toward one of the paws of the beast, but it jumped backward in the split of a moment and made me miss… my mouth was hanging open thanks to the surprise. What kind of reflexes was that?
Clarice also unleashed her arrows, but the monster kept jumping from one side to the other and avoided them as well… she clicked her tongue in annoyance. It was almost refreshing to see her, a bit annoyed, but it wasn’t time for that when lives were on the line.
The beast tried to charge again and run over Jalal and Gao, but arrows from the sides forced the beast to stop in its tracks. The beast tried to use fireballs on us again, but we both fired arrows as soon as they were formed.
In the next moment, Jalal and Gao stepped forward and swung their weapons at the monster, but the creature was quick on its feet… if it could avoid arrows, their attacks would be easily avoidable.
The monster snarled at us, looking more than a bit annoyed. Still, soon enough, it began to run to the sides and disappear from our field of vision thanks to the large boulders.
The group moved close to each other thanks to that since we couldn’t fix our formation while the beast moved like that… it could easily run over twenty meters per second.
“We didn’t account for this much speed, right? What are we going to do?”
No one could answer Clarice’s question… It was the first time that we had to deal with a monster this big and this fast, after all. Before we could think of anything, the monster began to use fireballs while it was running around. We couldn’t help but be astonished at the ability to use magic freely like that. We fired our arrows to block the attacks in order to avoid letting Jalal and Gao suffer any more burn injuries.
“It looks like things won’t change unless we start to do our job, Clive. Any good ideas to slow down the monster?”
“That depends… do you need your eyes that much to hit the beast?”
“What are you talking about? Of course I… oh, I get it. Go on.”
Clarice grinned when she understood my idea. It was convenient that she could understand me so well, but it bothered me a bit as well. Regardless, I decided to put my plan into action.