At times his mask was weird, mainly when it came to smells. Although now that he thought about it, the whole shape shifting so he could eat was a bit odd too. Back to smells, his mask would filter out any poisonous or harmful substances. But general smells were considered an important sense he guessed, even if the smell was horrible. Such as the one coming from the boss's room. More specifically from the towering purple flower that reeked like a corpse left to rot in a pot of boiling shit. Yet the fact his mask let him smell it meant it wasn’t harmful. Dren thought his mask might be broken. That smell was definitely harmful. Even the ever stoic Ren was making a face before pulling silk cloth out of her own storage pouch to cover her face. When she noticed him looking she turned her face up at him from the crinkle of her eyes he could tell she was grinning under her own mask.
Chuckling slightly he willed his mask into its total isolation mode. More meant for breathing underwater, but it did produce plentiful air to breathe. More importantly, it was scentless air. That problem solved he identified the giant purple flower he assumed was some sort of dreadful biohazardous boss. Yet, his identify came back with no levels, just a name. Similar to when he identified a typical plant or tree.
Amorphophallus Titanum Rex
It wasn’t listed as useful for enchanting either. “Ren? Is that stinky flower good for cooking?” Dren’s voice sounded odd while his mask was isolating him. Not muffled but instead more like a growl.
Ren squinted at the plant then shook her head in the negative, much to Dren’s relief. He was terrified she would want to cook with that. Still, glancing around the room he didn’t see the boss anywhere. It was a large circular room but other than the flower growing in the center, there wasn’t anything but the golden glow of the roots overhead. Frowning he slipped into stealth and shuffled around the room looking for the boss. Normally you couldn’t miss them, they were always huge. Yet he made it to the other side of the room without spotting anything. Now scowling, he scanned the ceiling overhead before eyeing the ground. Could it be buried and waiting? Would he have to jump in before it would show itself? That would suck, as he wanted to get the drop on it.
While he debated Ren suddenly poked him in the side and pointed at the flower. Eyeing it again he finally saw it, a bit of movement. Holding still under his cloak’s effect he watched until the movement revealed itself to be a creature. Slowly it emerged from within one of the flower's large purple petals. It was the head of some insect creature. Dren watched it and then frowned, only in confusion this time. It wasn’t the head, but the entire thing. Maybe half a meter in diameter it was a fly. Looking like a common fly just gigantic in size for the insect, but far from what he expected from a dungeon boss.
Sorrowgale Fly Level Forty Two.
That tiny thing couldn’t be the boss, could it? Even if it was fast, it wasn’t like it possessed any claws or even mandibles worth noting. Maybe it spat acid, didn’t flies spit acid to eat or something? Dren was almost tempted to take the corrosive rune and retreat to enchant some armor with it. But that would take too long and maybe it didn’t spit acid. But it had to, right? What else could such a small creature do to make it boss worthy? Perhaps there was a swarm of them in the flower? Still, while staying hidden he watched as the little, well relatively, bug scurried all over the reeking plant. Dren never saw any signs of others and became certain it was a single entity.
Drawing one of his explosive binding daggers he shrugged. Focusing on the tiny fly he almost felt the single dagger was overkill. But still waited until it was well positioned, with its face looking away from them. Silently his dagger streaked through the air towards it. Yet at the last second the creature flew away, moving straight up. The knife still struck the fleshy flower and dozens of chains shot out of it at blinding speed. Yet the buzzing fly managed to outrun the grasping chains. They soon reached their limit and the knife detonated, shredding the flower to a pulp. Overhead a loud angry buzzing sound filled the chamber and to Dren’s shock wind swirled around the entire outer area of the chamber turning into a solid wall. One that also sealed the chamber, with them inside.
Zipping around the fly seemed angry but didn’t attack. In fact, it seemed like it couldn’t locate them. Dren wanted to attack it again, but the stupid thing was zipping around so fast that for a moment he thought it was teleporting. Yet, as he watched his eyes could track it just barely. It was definitely just that fast. Drawing another dagger he flung it up at the creature. Instead of duplicating it, he flooded his Aura skill with both mana and stamina. Or he tried too. He had alternated their effects before but never tried to actually do more than one at the same time. To his shock and annoyance, the twin streams of energy hit the skill and it started sputtering. Flickering between the two energies so rapidly neither had time to actually do anything.
Overhead the fly again zipped away from the projectile, then the swarm of chains that chased after it. In response, it seemed to face him and attacked for the first time. Razor sharp blades of wind rushed towards him, not huge and deadly. But each was only the size of a small coin. But there had to be hundreds of them as they pelted him like rain. Try as hard as he could, he couldn’t avoid them. Nor did they seem to end, literally raining down on him endlessly. They left small scratches in his armor or welts on his exposed flesh. But the damage was starting to build up rapidly. Blood began to trickle from shallow wounds. Wounds that continued to grow.
Dren teleported away but barely appeared before the blades were raining down on him. With a growl, he flung another dagger up and this time flooded his aura with mana to fuel its debilitating effect. Yet, the fly darted away again seeming all but unphased by the move. Dren cursed, teleported, and then tried another attack assisted by the stamina fueled aura to restrain the creature. This worked, as the fly slowed yet remained airborne even as its wings beat so slowly Dren could easily see each stroke. The dagger closing in on it suddenly veered off to impact safely away from the fly. All the time it hovered there seemingly helpless, the rain of tiny wind blades continued.
“You are one annoying fucking monster.” Dren shouted. It was so small and pathetic looking. He felt like he could cleave it in half with one solid strike. Yet, it was hovering in mid air, too high up for him to reach and too low for him to reach even if he headed for the ceiling. It could deflect projectiles and while the damage it output wasn’t a lot. It seemed endless, slowly whittling down his health.
Overhead Ren crept all but invisible across the ceiling towards the insect as Dren kept it distracted. When she was in position she jumped free to sail right towards the insect below her. Silken threads lashed out as she plunged, the sheer number making it look like a net of cutting wire was falling towards it. Yet, just before the attack could reach the fly. All the threads were twisted together and Ren still attached to them was spun around in the air before flying off to impact the windwalls. She bounced off and her armor was shredded on the shoulder she impacted. It seemed the walls were a danger in themselves.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
As if to prove that, the fly moved to hover in the center of the room before winds picked up so intensely he could see the whirlwind building. It rose up and the fly vanished from view in moments, Dren’s most recent attack deflected like all the rest. Annoyed he gripped his two combat daggers and vanished before appearing in the air over the whirlwind. He fell downwards the fly, his Profane Gaze showing him the plethora of glowing critical spots. But as he fell down into the eye of the storm ready to cleave his foe in twain. Yet, just as he got in range a force struck him. It was like falling on a rapidly spinning sphere that gripped him before hurling him to the side. Right into the whirlwind. He spun around rapidly before being hurled into the side of the room. Crashing into the wind wall just as Ren had moments before, and that felt like being pushed into a spinning shredder. Bounding off the wall he rolled on the ground, his body covered in more cuts even as the rain of wind blades continued.
“Ow.” Dren groaned as he looked up. Ren was darting around the room between the whirlwind slowly expanding from the center of the room and the windwalls around the outside of the room. Her form was flickering as her anklets worked to avoid the rain of attacks falling on her. Yet, it couldn’t avoid them all. Nor could she maintain the cost of the ability to work so rapidly for long. Pushing himself up he summoned a fist full of throwing knives from his pouch. Then a second fist full, all of them the newly enchanted ones. Bearing both fire and explosion. Dren shouted. “Defend yourself.” He wished there was a good quick phrase to use to warn his companion he was about to do something stupid. Something that involved a big explosion and lots of fire that they should hide from.
Teleporting again he appeared high over the eye of the storm. Looking down as gravity claimed him he flung both fistfuls of daggers down at the enemy. Then to make sure it was enough, he dumped all his mana into duplicating one. Then he drew his daggers prepared to fall upon the boss monster the moment its defenses were destroyed. Like before the rain of faintly glowing crimson blades struck some unseen barrier and was deflected in all directions to impact the whirlwind around the monster. Only this time they weren’t binding enchanted ones with a slight delay. In the split second, it took them to deflect into the whirlwind. They all detonated. Fire and kinetic force blew apart the whirlwind, but not before its shape channeled much of the power both up and down. Dren blasted into the ceiling hit by the waves of force and fire, his fire resistance enchant helping with the fire while his armor and toughness helped with the force. Still, it blasted all the air out of him and he heard a number of unsettling cracks from his body.
For what felt like minutes he was pinned to the ceiling, his body being pressed into the dirt before the explosion died out. For a moment he remained there, embedded in the ceiling as he looked down at the room below. Gone was the whirlwind and the wind wall. Below him, a charred crater was formed where the reeking flower had been. But at the very bottom, he found a small area untouched and the fly was there. Its wings flapped oddly as it flopped around, but was definitely alive.
“Oh for fucks sake.” Dren groaned as gravity tugged on his body pulling him from being implanted in the ceiling. As his body lost contact with the ceiling the thought occurred to him. Perhaps he should have used his cloak's spider climb ability not to fall. But it was too late. Pulling his daggers from his pouch he groaned as exposed skin that was now charred and blackened cracked when he moved. Blood seeping from those crimson cracks. At least his mask protected all of his face, even the parts not actually covered. It would have sucked to have his eyes charred out of their sockets.
Not wanting to face plant he activated his boots midair, changing his vector to appear right above the fly but moving upwards. His momentum hadn’t built up yet, and he appeared above the fly to rise up only slightly before falling down to land next to it. It tried to dart away but it was much slower and zigzagged wildly. Still, Dren slashed out and groaned as the rapid movement spread even more cracks through his charred body. His health had been reduced to only twenty percent. Annoyingly despite the fly's reduced mobility he missed and almost stumbled from overcommitting to the attack.
A second painful slash and this time he made contact. Only for his dagger to be deflected by an invisible barrier that shunted his blade far off to the side. The sudden jerk to the side was painful as all the skin along his charred arm cracked violently. To make things worse, a spattering of wind blades rained down on him. “Are you kidding me?” Dren growled. “Screw this.” Angerly he activated his Life Surge ability. It hadn’t been that long since it had triggered and most of that time he had been draining away his health enchanting. But there was some in the tank. As it rushed into his body seeking to heal his inner wounds first he on a whim clamped down his will on the flowing vital energies just like he did while enchanting.
There was far too much and it was rushing into his body far too fast for him to control all of it. But he directed enough to his charbroiled skin and muscles in his right arm at least. Still painful but able to move it easily he bared his teeth in a menacing grin. The air tasted of ash as the mask morphed around his mouth to show teeth stained with his own blood. This time when Dren stabbed at the fly he resisted the deflecting force. His blade tip meer centimeters from the body of his foe as it jittered around. More and more he bore down on it refusing to let his blade be deflected. Under his assault, the beast was pressed downward until the ground started churning and being tossed away as a perfect sphere around the small boss was ground into the ground.
Around him the rain picked up, and the blades grew larger while coming faster. His health whittled down faster as he snarled while pressing the blade down into the protective sphere with both hands now. Blood dripped down on the barrier to be flung away even as the fly was now half buried in the dirt. Dren pushing from above causing the swirling barrier to dig right into the earth below. Pain pulsed through every inch of his charred body with each of the endless blades that rained on him. It made it hard to think to the point he was reduced to a snarling mass of agony and hatred. Then suddenly the pain lessened. No more blades fell on him and for a brief joyous moment his body was only assaulted by the pain of its countless slashes and badly charred flesh, it was paradise.
Mind clearer he used the active part of his Profane Blade skill and his dagger flashed with a mix of crimson, azure, and bronze. The power of his attack skyrocketed and the barrier beneath the point of his blade shattered. His blade slammed home into the body of the fly monster but missed any critical points. All the extra damage from his skill had been used on the barrier. Thus it wasn’t too surprising that beneath him, the fly angrily buzzed but was far from dead yet. Keeping it pinned with the first dagger he summoned one of his spares and thrust it into a glowing crimson line. To his shock, the tiny creature was still alive. It seemed size and health truly weren’t tied together, not for a monster at least. It might look puny, but it was a level forty two boss after all. Still, pinned to the ground and far too physically weak to break free. Dren just needed to give it an application of the reliable old stabby stabby treatment. Soon enough there was the welcome sound of the system happily chiming a kill notification.
Panting slightly he sat back on his haunches. “Ow.” Only then did he remember to check on Ren. Glancing around he winced when he saw her. She was covered in bleeding wounds and some burns. Not as badly as he was but, bad enough. To his shock a swirling dome of silk still hovered over him, having blocked the fly's assaults but leaving her exposed.
“Stupid.” He groaned as he stumbled over to her, angry at her actions and yet just as grateful. Collapsing next to her, there wasn’t anything they could do. He was out of potions and his Life Surge was down. All they could do was heal the old fashion way. “Maybe I used too many daggers.” Ren made a chortling sound he wasn’t sure meant she agreed or not. Probably that she agreed he decided as he slumped down beside her to rest. There would be time enough for loot later.