After arriving back in the Scale Heart settlement, Hera and the others quickly stopped by to talk with Carcassonne and ask about the next target. The result was very simple: the last creature they had to fight was roaming the outskirts of the settlement, just on the grassy plains between where the Scale Hearts were living and the forest.

To fight it was quite easy. They simply walked outside for about 20 minutes when they found a black horse with a large horn on its forehead and a mane that grew from various parts of its body. The mane itself had a dark blue color, and the creature ignited in lightning at their approach. It was a Karin, a very well-known monster. It was simply a lightning horse in most cultures. Some versions of the legends noted that this was actually a dragon-like creature, but most accepted it as just a herald of lightning.

This time, however, Pandora asked to watch instead of fighting since she would prefer to participate in the boss fight, and to watch the Empress fight, since she didn't have a chance to show off their skills. Hera accepted the suggestion, and together with Lurize, they prepared themselves to fight the creature, which ended up being wildly underwhelming.

With the creature attacking with lightning, the Royal Tutor simply had to exist to attract both electricity to its body. But in addition to [Magnetic Rule], every thunder strike was severely weakened. Or more specifically, its direction was twisted due to the magnetic field created by the Empress' skill. The creature died in a handful of minutes as, after understanding its patterns, Hera created an uncommon javelin and, using the break combo, threw it at the creature, removing its head from the top of its neck.

With the last of the monsters defeated, there was only one thing left to do. Go back to the center of the village and talk to the Scale Hearts to trigger the final boss fight. Not leaving it all to chance, they could take things slow. After all, there wasn't anything to discover in this step of the dungeon. It was only about going back and talking with a few people.

They met Carcassonne, who was thankful for the group having rid most of the Apex predators so that the island was now safe. He had also been taking care of the drops that were too big for them to carry around, but, to their surprise, someone else came to speak too, the leader of the Scale Hearts.

"Thank you for assisting us with the hunt. I must say, I was not expecting you to be able to finish all of this so quickly. Especially because you're doing how much trouble those creatures are giving us," the Varamir said with a smile and gestured to the side as one of his attendant brought a box, "We appreciate your expediency. And if you don't mind, we do have a gift for you. A thank you for all your assistance."

Hera smiled, knowing that she didn't have to be polite in situations like this and refuse the present. After all, they were not discussing things with a different civilization but with the equivalents to NPCs inside of a dungeon. Nothing that she did here could matter in the long run, not for the people who only existed in the dungeon at least.

The gift was something very simple but also very useful for anyone running the dungeon. It was an emblem that had a minor effect of reducing the damage someone would take while on the island by 2%, but the real value was that it indicated the leader of the Scale Hearts had recognized them. Basically, it meant that anyone who showed that symbol would receive the same kind of treatment that Hera received now, and maybe even more than that. It was a way for everyone, and anyone, to be just as at ease as the Empress herself.

Hera didn't say anything, but she wondered if by showing the emblem it would stop people from getting another later on emblem. If that was the case, she would have to return to this place to get a few copies of it. If it didn't, then it would cause a domino effect where more and more people would acquire those emblems in order to use them in the dungeon, no longer receiving the emblem.

Just as the Scale Heart leader was about to leave, a strange noise started to echo through the area. As a reflex, Hera turned to Pandora, who was already pulling up her hammer before anything happened. It was clear that this was something to do with the dungeon, maybe even the appearance of the boss.

From between a few of the clouds in the north, a creature approached. It was just about two meters tall, which, compared to the other monsters they had faced, was tiny, and it looked very different. For one, it wasn't an actual animal but a bug. Then again, so was the spider that they fought. The beast itself had two mantis-like arms but a set of eight legs that were stretched around its body. It also had some sort of crown-like structure framing its head, almost like the types of crown that the ancient Egyptians would use, the ones that go along the side of the face.

The creature landed a few meters in front of the settlements and just stared at everyone as they gathered their weapons and got ready to attack it.

"What is that?" Hera turned to Carcassonne, not wanting to have Pandora explain too much.

"I honestly don't know," the Scale Heart replied with a confused expression.

Unfortunately, no one had seen something like this before. The creature clacked its arms, snapping them menacingly, but no one was too fazed by it. Despite its entrance, the monster was hardly intimidating.

To make sure she wasn't fighting against something that she wasn't supposed to fight, the empress also triggered [Observe]. The creature's name was Nactra-Vall, at level 36 with a puppetry affinity. It didn't have the Apex tag attached to it, meaning that maybe it was just a regular creature. But if that was the case, why would it be here attacking an entire village on its own?

But before that could happen, Pandora stepped forward, moving towards the creature. She made a gesture for Hera to follow, which she did.

"Didn't you say that you're not going to take the lead in this one?" Hera asked with a smile.

"I did, but I just remembered that if we don't do anything quickly, things can get very complicated, very fast. Not so much for us, but a lot of people in the village would die. And I have a feeling that even if we are in the dungeon and they are beings simulated by it, you wouldn't want to watch that."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No, that's true. I would prefer not to see a bunch of random people getting slaughtered for no good reason."

"Then we start the fight, and that will give them time to evacuate."

As the Nactra-Vall jumped forward, snapping its claws once more and getting ready to step forward to attack. This time, Hera was supposed to be the one taking the lead with Lurize once, while Pandora focused more on watching and helping with support. Yet, the dwarf had laid a lot of traps on her form, from quick pitfalls to explosive runes.

The creature moved with blinding speed, its movements barely being able to be followed by Pandora. Yet, for the Empress, it was like the creature was moving in slow motion, so slow that Hera felt she had ample time to consider what was the best way to dodge the attack. She swatted the two claws away and created a venomous warhammer with a bladed edge at the opposite of the shaft.

Ideally, she wouldn't even have that kind of thing, but since her [Venomous Arsenal] was connected to the Legacy Court, she could only create weapons with blades. Lurize did the same thing, creating his own version of the weapon, but it was sleeker and with a longer shaft. While the empress had something very similar to the one that Pandora used, she had no illusion she would be better at wielding the weapon than Pandora. But her experience might be enough to come up with some interesting ways to use the weapon that eluded the dwarf.

The creature tried to slash at the empress with its mantis claws, but in response, she simply parried the blow using the shaft of the hammer. Following that up, she swung the weapon around to bring the strange arm to the side. At the same time, using the main head of the hammer, she swiped at the creature's front legs, making it fall forward.

Right after that, Lurize jumped in. He performed a simple overhead swing, but instead of holding the weapon in the middle, his grip was closer to the end of the shaft, making it a much more powerful blow, even if it required a lot of strength to start the movement. There was a crack as a couple of the boss's leg shattered, but the creature was able to move away enough so that it wouldn't be a deadly blow.

Hera went forward again, using the hammer as a staff and thrusting it forward. This time, the attack landed on the creature's face, breaking some of the crown around its mouth but not being enough to kill the beast. That wasn't unexpected, since the Empress never used hammers like that to fight. She was more used to bladed weapons for a very good reason.

Lurize was right after it, the two moving so quickly that the rest of the blades couldn't join the fight. The Royal Tutor went for a spinning attack, but instead of going just horizontally, he was more diagonal, hitting first the legs and then going up for another aimed at the torso of the beast. The first attack worked, swiping the leg under the creature, causing the Nactra-Vall to fall down. But the second failed almost completely.

The creature snapped its wings open and flew to the side at a dazzling speed that even caught Hera and the Court by surprise. Whatever the creature just did was clearly something made only to escape and not to attack. However, it gained enough distance between them that it was now halfway past the empress and closer to the village itself, which made her a little bit worried, considering Pandora's warning.

As if to prove that her worry was correct, the creature let out several strands of spider silk-like strings reaching in all directions. Some went towards the forest several hundred meters away, others were for the village, touching the tents and the very few structures made out of clay and stone. During all that time, Pandora was silently sending setting traps around the beast and pointing at their location without making too much noise.

The string grew taught, and it started to started to return to the Nactra-Vall. In just a few seconds, the spider silk, or manta silk on this case, attached to large pieces of rubble or carcasses of creatures, appeared in the air. The creature jumped into as those pieces of rock and flesh started to slam onto it, but it didn't seem to be hurt by the sudden impact.

For a moment, its larger body mostly became bones as the monster became its legs, meat, and plates turning into parts of its armor. By the end, there was only one small piece of the original body on display. Its head in the middle of the chest. Over it now stood a giant electromechanical monstrosity of bone, flesh, and warped flesh.

The newborn creature landed with both improved feet on the ground, triggering several of the traps that Pandora had laid. Parts of its body collapsed into massive holes while electrified nets wrapped around pieces of the body that started to spasm due to the electricity. The bones were mostly located in the center of its mass, causing it to shake as they all exploded the moment the creature moved, losing some of its height and causing a massive explosion that severely damaged the mechanical undercarriage.

Hera was still not worried about anything. Her heightened sense of mana allowed her to see how all of this beast moved. It wasn't being completely covered in mana or something that had become something else, but instead there were strings inside it, making it more into a puppet than a full set of armor or a transformation. If those strings were disconnected, the entire thing would collapse. And the location where all those things got together was very easy to see.

She passed the information along to Shadow, who understood the plan and quickly moved towards the top of this giant Necro-mech's head. It no longer looked like a praying mantis but now it was closer to an actual dinosaur, with a massive head and mantis-like arms that snapped around and reached for everything, together with two large bulky legs but no tail to speak of.

Shadow moved over the top of the creature's head and down its neck, reaching where the shoulder blade should meet. Looking around that area, he noticed a small gap in the rock plates that protected its insides. Without hesitation, Shadow quickly teleported into the creature, moving deep into an area with just enough space so he could move and snap all the strings, causing the entire structure to fall down.

It would be impossible for anyone to do that unless they were able to navigate the internal mechanisms of the creature through cracks that were just a few centimeters deep. But thanks to the combination of Hera's sight and her sonar spell, she was able to see a path for the Alabaster Duke to navigate.

Once the mechanical monster was free from the strings, everything started to collapse. The rotting flesh, the clay, the bones, and the rocks all fell like rain. The Nactra-Vall, noticing what was happening, tried to escape. But considering its position in the middle of it all, it couldn't. Its wings were unable to open while the weight of what was above it started to come down, and its legs couldn't find purchase on anything to give it an impulse and push it away.

Even the strings became useless as there was too much in the way, so it couldn't get a good shot somewhere else in order to escape. Seeing that, Pandora went for a risky maneuver and started shifting bombs that failed to explode into the area below where the Nactra-Vall was falling. She had to move quickly as to not be crushed under the weight of all the things that were falling, but she was able to do so without too much trouble.

This wasn't simply something she had done for the first time, but a strategy that had been applied before, even if it usually required people to first open a hole in the back of the creature before they were able to make it collapse completely. Still, it needed to complete the job, and just as they exploded, a notification popped up, letting everybody know that they had finished the dungeon quest.