Chapter 124 Tailing Reunion

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"I've never seen a boss battle like this before," I muttered.

"Alistar, have you encountered other bosses like this in dungeons?" I asked.

"No, there were more powerful ones, but none that moved across several floors like this. Its tactics were unheard of in other dungeons," Alistar replied.

"Wait! There are stronger bosses in this world?" I was shocked.

"Yes, the other bosses usually stay on a platform. Edelweiss and I have fought stronger ones with an elite hunting party before. We usually nibble away at their health bit by bit. But even without tactics like this, this boss could easily beat the five bosses I've fought before."

"I see. Let's kill it then!"

"Watch out! Breath incoming!" Alistar shouted.

The dragon roared, and white light gathered in all of its mouths. The group scattered, trying to evade its attack, but the light didn't gather in one place like before. Instead, it spread out in all its mouths, and each one released a small beam of light scattered around the field. I raised my buckler as its light glanced off of it. The buckler was singed a little, but it held up fine.

Alistar ran towards the creature with a small axe in his hand, swinging it so hard that the handle broke, and its edge embedded itself in the creature's body. The dragon roared in pain, and its body soon grew still. Its head waved around, trying to chomp Alistar like a chicken nugget, but to my surprise, he held it off. With his hands on its teeth, he prevented the beast from closing its mouth, and soon its teeth gave out, shattering and reeling the beast back in pain.

"What crazy strength!" I muttered, wondering if the difference between body blessings like Alistar and mana blessings like us had any significant difference.

"Shiro! Left!" Lily's shout woke me up from my stupor, and I cast several more fireballs at the approaching head that came towards Sig's side. The explosions prevented it from chomping him. Sig swung his hammer at its head, but it was ineffective. His hammer only packed a good punch if it slammed down.

Then the Hydra used its trademarked ability that was often shared in this dungeon. It fled to the lake after using its earth wall to prevent us from chasing it. After Alistar broke down the earth walls, we tracked the lumping mass. I tried to cast fireballs again, and they hit it in the back, but the creature didn't stop, and it dived into the river and went to the lake.

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"Damn it! Cowardly monster!" Helmet stomped hard on the ground, followed by other dwarves and Sig. Even Alistar was dismayed at the result. It was a perfectly good ambush, and we failed to kill it. Lily was furious at the behavior of the monsters in this dungeon.

"Three heads to go!" Nora said positively. We now rested in the jungle, a little farther away from the lake. We still had the lake in view in case the Hydra reappeared. Alistar brought out our supplies of meat and bread, which Lily accepted gratefully. We were getting sick of eating only fruit in this forest.

"Yeah." Lily forced a smile, welcoming Sig's attempt to lift the group's mood.

"Hmm, so we're missing Edelweiss, Rick, Mark, Mattheus, and Joseph. Any chance they were actually together?" Sig tried to do a headcount, and Alistar answered.

"I think Joseph will definitely be with Edelweiss. If Rick, Mark, and Mattheus were alone in this dungeon, their chances of survival were scant despite being experienced mercenaries." Rhegar, who was now missing an arm, made a judgement. Upon closer inspection,

"Yeah, even our group of ten got reduced to only 7 now."

"That's only because of Hydra, right? Ahh, but I think I found a corpse on the riverbank. Is it Leghorn then? Or is it Boord?" Lily asked around while I marveled at the monster's intellect. The beast was quick to know it was at a disadvantage with solid ground around it. It specialized in ambushes and attacks from beneath water or lava. On land, this monster wasn't much of a threat, just like Alistar predicted.

"Even without Hydra, we would have perished if not for Lord Alistar saving us at the nick of time."

"Rhegar, what happened?"

"We lost Leghorn due to an alligator in the river and got surrounded by raptors. It almost wiped us all." Rhegar nodded while mourning his dead comrades.

"I see."

"It was my lack of judgment."

"It was nobody's fault, okay." Alistar cut in. "Alright, Lily, did you lose anybody? Or did you survive this jungle with only three people?"

"No, we didn't lose anybody."

"Wow, I am impressed. I recall that the tunnel only branched into four, meaning those mercenaries are together with Joseph and Edelweiss. That's good!" Alistar smiled. "If Edelweiss has more than two people, she is invincible!"

"Really?" Lily asked.

"Ah, I am merely exaggerating, but it's true that as long as Edelweiss is not alone in this jungle, she has a good chance of surviving unless it's an ambush directly at her. But Joseph should stick to her like glue, so she should be fine. Let's find her now!"

"Ah! Lord Alistar, we found several rooms with those Titan ores we sought. We need to return to them when we find Edelweiss."

"Really! That's good! How many rooms did you find?"

"I dunno, two or three, perhaps?"

"If we combine it with Rhegar's findings, perhaps we could fulfill our quotas!" Alistar smiled.

"Did you find any ores, Lord Alistar? Since we did not have Niece's storage at the time, we could not bring more than twenty kilos."

"Yeah, we mined every Titan ore in the rooms we traversed while dry. But we only got 200 kilos."

"I see." Lily nodded, paying them no mind and enjoying the sandwich before her.

"I thought we would die or fail this mission during that cave-in. But I see hope now!" Alistar shouted. The team also smiled, relieved to have the attack-blessed mage on their team.

"Let's camp here for the night. With our numbers, we shall fear no more ambushes! Tomorrow we shall look for Edelweiss and then leave this dungeon!" Alistar shouted as they brought out wine and ale. It was weird how the mood had switched from despair earlier to cheerful now. I guess they also wanted to get out of this hell as soon as possible.