Taliyah stood steadfast with a rock wall before her. The candle undead on the other side failed to breach. She looked towards her leader—leader of The Wall, Marik—as he prepared a spell she’d seen cast over and over.

Their team had always been underestimated. Taliyah had heard countless times that utilizing walls would not serve them in the long run. Several guild masters had said they needed potent attack power, yet they were able to rise to A-rank on their own merit. As Marik’s spell finished, Taliyah grinned.

The crushing sound of bones reverberated from the other side of her wall. Their formation was simple, and Marik delivered their crunching ceiling. After all, what is a ceiling but a wall from above?

This was their teamwork, surrounding enemies with walls that would make certain of their defeat was only one aspect of this adventuring group. When Taliyah released her wall, they were pleased to see the hallway cleared of the loathsome undead. Their bodies melted into candlewax and sunk into the stone floor.

Tror knelt down next to the descending wax and turned his head back to Marik. “Have you ever heard of a candle zombie?”

“No, but it is ironic when you think about it.”

“It is?” Taliyah asked.

“Yeah, I mean, we are in Candlewax kingdom.” He started walking ahead and down the hallway. “I am more surprised we haven’t heard of them before...What, with the candle golems and all.”

As the hall ended, they turned down another passageway. This one eventually led to a large door with a small candelabra engraved.

“You think this leads to the boss room?” Tror asked.

“Only one way to find out,” their leader said and pushed on the door. It opened easily, revealing a large room.

The room was as big as the throneroom of King Tallow, and there were stone pillars holding the whole thing up. On each pillar was a large candle, providing light and warmth. Towards the ceiling there were crenelations and walkways on each side. Marik looked towards the walkways flanking them.

“I don’t like the look of this. It’s perfect for an ambush.”

Taliyah looked to the end of the room where a stone wyvern sat perched on a flat pillar. Looking closer, she realized that it wasn’t stone. The body of the beast was covered in wax. Taliyah pointed at it. “You don’t suppose that is the boss?”

“Should we wait for others? I doubt they will join us, though,” Tror said.

Marik shook his head. “We should be able to take a wyvern boss at least. The only concerning thing is this appeared on the first floor.”

Taliyah nodded. “This was supposed to be an A-rank dungeon. Either that, or a low S-rank at best. However, the appearance of a wyvern boss on the first floor is a bit concerning. We need to find the others. Without a way out, we can only hope they are waiting on the next floor.”

“Hey,” Tror said, “you don’t suppose that there are multiple floor one bosses for each group, do you?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I have never heard of that happening. In any case, let’s see what this boss is all about, shall we?” As Marik finished he walked into the chamber.

Taliyah followed him with trepidation, hoping this wyvern wasn’t buffed to oblivion. If the worst should happen, she knew that they could finish off the boss. But she desperately hoped the others would greet them soon.

Upon entry, the door slammed behind them, and Taliyah’s fears were confirmed. The Wyvern’s eyes lit up with a red glow. It slowly lifted it’s head. The creature didn’t stand on ceremony for long. It leapt from it’s perch and glided down to the floor with a quake.

“Shit,” Marik said.

Taliyah followed his gaze to the ceiling on the sides. Skeletal archers with candle wax bows stood and surrounded them. The standoff was short lived as the archers pulled back wax strings, seeming more like spider silk. They didn’t pull arrows from quivers. Instead, after the string was pulled taught and released, small flame arrows darted towards The Wall in all directions.

“Earth Formation!” Taliyah pressed her hands to the stone floor, and an earthen wall surrounded them, launching out of the ground with a might similar to the rock giants themselves.

With a flap of wings the wyvern was above them. It launched a fireball in the only place not covered by a wall.

“Earth ceiling!” Tror shouted, and a ceiling of earth manifested to cover their weakness.

Taliyah was glad for the brief reprieve in their new hidey hole, but she knew that wouldn’t last. If they didn’t think of something, they’d be cooked alive. However, this adventuring team wasn’t A-rank for nothing.

“Earth scattering!” Marik pushed his hand up, and the ceiling above them launched upwards. It impacted the wyvern in the stomach hard before pushing it all the way up. The room cracked from the monster’s body, and it shrieked with rage.

The skeletons didn’t stand on ceremony. Some had incredibly jumped from the walls with candle batons. Other’s remained on top to launch another volley of arrows.

“Take care of those, Taliyah!”

“On it!”

Taliyah summoned a wall of rock beneath her feet. The earth spell flung her from the floor to the wall, and she landed sideways on it with grace, using a rock sled to glide along the smooth stone towards the skeletal archers.

There were at least twenty archers on the side she landed, and towards the back was a skeleton with a black orb of wax. She knew what it was on instinct. The summoner will have to be taken out quick.

“Don’t worry about mana conservation, Taliyah!”

Taliyah smirked with the words of their leader. She slammed her palms to the ground. “Earth wave!”

A large tidal wave of sand and rock jutted out of the ground before lurching forward. From this height, the earth wave nearly touched the roof of the boss room. The skeleton archers and summoner were unceremoniously swept away. The wave took their bones and smacked them against the opposing wall, shattering them in an instant.

Taliyah didn’t wait to bask in the glory of killing the small army. She ran to the ledge and jumped. “Earth bridge.”

The bridge formed beneath her, connecting each walkway. She briefly looked down and saw that her companions were easily winning against the clay-wielding skeletons.

Taliyah jumped down onto the other side. This side was noticeably missing a summoner, which meant that she didn’t have to use as much mana this time. “Earth shield!”

A square rock-shield formed in her hand, and she charged the skeletons, smashing through the first one with ease. These ones are only slightly harder than normal skeletons, she mused.

Taliyah spun in a circle, like a ballerina with a massive shield. Before long, the skeletal archers had all turned to white dust.

She ran back towards the ledge to see the ending of the fight. The wyvern was just about to breath fire towards her companions, but when Taliyah felt the swelling of Marik’s magic, she knew that candle drake was done.

“Wall Coliseum,” Marik said. The ginormous wall lunged from the ground and spread almost to the roof of the boss floor, simultaneously blocking the flames. However, that wasn’t the true danger of the spell.

Taliyah could swear she saw horror written on the Wyvern’s face. The wall started to fall towards it, rending the creature with fear. It tried to make a last ditch effort to fly to the side, but it didn’t reach the end of the width. The boss fight ended with the loud cracking of wyvern bones as it was crushed.