We were doing monster pairs again.
This time, instead of different monsters, we had three of the same one.
“On event floors, you can run into multiple monsters. You need to learn how to deal with that!” Gesai pointed at the large canines growling at us.
“This would be so much better if we had a Tank!” I shifted the grip on my sword.
“Behind us.”
Rix’s warning came as soon as the two in front of us charged. I knew she was heading to deal with them and Justia was behind us with Ren. Between the three of them, they should be able to handle a large canine.
Oz shot forward and slashed, knocking the one on our left over. She was past the other one, and it changed direction just a hair, which let me know that I hadn’t been the original target. It slowed down and started to growl as it began to circle towards my right.
I pointed my free hand at it. “Bind.”
Two vines lashed out of the ground and wrapped themselves around it, locking it in place. Oz had finished hers off and killed the one I’d restrained with a single stroke.
I turned around and saw Rix wrapping her chainsword back up.
“Very good!” Gesai clapped her hands. "The canines tend to show up in packs, and just because you’re in an Uncommon dungeon doesn’t mean that you can't run into two spawns.”
“This is all good, but what are we really learning from fighting the mobs?” I looked at the others on my team. Jord was up in the seats as usual, except today he didn’t look quite as scared.
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“You learn how to fight the mobs because they teach you about the floor boss.” The redheaded teacher glared at me.
“When are we going to fight the floor bosses then?” I wanted to do something more than something we could do on autopilot. I wanted people to have to think. To have to focus. I knew that they weren’t in the best frame of mind right now, but doing something that would let their minds wander was just going to take them down a dark path. They needed something that they could focus on and something that would feel like a win.
“We’ve fought Giant Crabs, a Dust Lizard, some type of cat, and the canine just now.” I shrugged. "Is there a floor boss out of all four, or are you just trying to give us busy work?”
“Let me see that.” Gesai leaned over and started flipping through the book. "Give them that one.”
Glima raised an eyebrow. "You are sure?”
Our teacher looked us over and stopped on me. I nodded. I had no clue what she was going to do, but I knew even if it was too much for us, she’d pull us out before it really hurt somebody.
“Do it.” Gesai didn’t take her eyes off of me.
A single gray canine that looked like the one we’d just fought appeared in front of us. Except this one was four feet tall at the shoulder instead of just over two. It growled and two more normal sized versions appeared beside it.
The larger one howled and it felt like I was being shaken down to my bones. My entire body felt weaker as the howl ended and the two little canines began to circle us.
I pointed at the boss. "BIND!” Vines restrained it, keeping it from moving very far, but it did have some back and forth leeway.
“Take care of the little ones! Watch out for a breath attack!” I moved to the side just a little and jabbed my sword at where its heart should be.
My sword felt like it had just tried to stab steel. I had been expecting give, so the force of the blow pushed my sword up into the air.
“Crab hide!” I tried to bring my blade down when I saw the boss’s fur stand on end. The hairs were actually spines that cut through my bindings. Before I could warn anyone, it shoulder-checked me.