Aster

The arena, because that was the only word for the field of stone pillars and lava in front of me was that, wasn't the first thing that caught my attention. The first was the throne in the middle of the circular room and the figure sitting on it. The tarnished metal the throne was made of was cracked in multiple spots, and part of the back had been cracked off.

The figure that sat on the throne looked to be in equally bad shape, but it didn't take away from the fear I got from looking at them. The Fallen Prince on the door had looked imposing and angry, but it had just been an engraving on obsidian. The Fallen Prince I was looking at now was a whole other story. Its red eyes were a deep amber and seemed to radiate malice as it looked at us, even with its seemingly relaxed posture, one taloned hand being used to prop his head up, the other resting on an arrest in deep furrows. His orange scales reflect the light of the magma.

I wasn't the only one to pause and look as all of us estimated, seeming to realize that we might have made a mistake. That was all we had time to do, though, as the Prince (I decided to rename him mentally as calling them The Fallen Prince in my head, was getting annoying) got up. Wren and Kat were the first to react as they started forward.

I looked around for a place to set the packs down and freed my hands. It took a moment of scanning to find a good spot, the sound of fighting that had only started a second ago causing my heartbeat to quicken. Darting over to a broken pillar not to far away I dropped all of the bags, It big enough to hide half of my body and far from any magma so it should be fine.

I flinched at the sound of something cracking. I probably should have been more gentle. My attention was pulled away from the minor problem as a roar sounded out. The sound was loud, causing the ground to vibrate slightly.

With the packs down, I turned, pulling my bow off my back and an arrow out of one of the loops. I was just in time to see the Prince bring his hand down, claws and all on Wren's shield. Right before it hit the shield, it made contact with an almost transparent white pane of force. The force acted as a gel substance, slowing the hit down but not stopping it. When the claws hit the shield, there was the sound of tearing metal. Wren, who had been using a skill that caused his shield to glow blue, stumbled back with four deep furrows apparent on the front side of his shield.

The attack had given time for Kat to approach from the side, and she sunk her dagger into a spot on its leg where a scale had to be weak or missing. While she was only under half the size of the Prince, it was made clear her size, mixed with some skill that boosted her agility or movement, was acting as an advantage as she ducked under a swipe and moved out of the way of a kick before retreating.

Pulling my arrow back and aimed as I moved, trying to get behind the Prince. With there only being one opponent this time and all of us working on trying to take it down, it was better to take my time to aim instead of letting arrows loose as fast as possible. There was also the fact that unlike the spider I'd fought hours ago, which I could put an arrow into anywhere even if it did very little damage, I doubted my arrows would be able to break through the scale of the Prince at all. The fact that the scales caused Wren’s strikes to practically bounce off confirmed it. My aim was the weak spot almost every creature had: the eyes.

Not only was the organ squishy, but it also led straight to the brain, which made a kill clean when hunting, saving meat and the pelt. Imbuing frost mana into my arrow, I waited for an opening.

This style of fighting was something I wasn't the best at and, to be honest, sucked at. When fighting or hunting by myself or with the wolves, it was easy to force an opening, moving around a beast to gain access to its weak spots. This fight was different from any fight that I had previously been in. Not only could I not kill the Prince by myself, but I also was not built for this type of fight. My fighting style and skills were made for open areas where I could wear a creature out, fill it with arrows, and avoid any direct attacks until it gave out, relying on time and preparation to put a creature down. A monster like this wouldn't just keel over and die in time. It had to be put down fast.

My chance came when Kat took advantage of a clean hit from Wren that caused the Prince to stumble. She switched legs, weaving in between them and sliding under the foot of one and sticking a dagger into the sole. The roar of pain it let out was slightly higher than usual, and as it turned to follow Kat swiping at her, I was given a chance. I was positioned atop a pillar, providing the perfect height for a proper shot.

Tilting my bow slightly, giving a final adjustment, I let the arrow fly. It was a clean shot aimed at one of the eyes, so when it noticed the arrow and closed its eyelid, causing it to bounce off the small scales, only leaving some frost to show it had even hit, I was surprised. How fast did you have to be to react to an arrow fired less than three dozen feet away with the strength and endurance I had?

I wasn't given time to ponder the question as the Prince's gaze turned to me. Apparently, he didn't like the idea of losing an eye. It took the Prince two of his long steps to get in range to throw a swipe aimed at me.

Pulling on Stalker's Movement, I prepared to move out of the way. Usually, it took a few seconds for enough mana and stamina to enter the skill to even use it.

This time, it was like a bowstring snapping, the skill taking less than a second to charge, and with the slightest movement, I was shooting out of the way by over a dozen feet to the right as every one of my senses felt overwhelmed.

A six-foot drop out of the air, and I was rolling on the ground, stumbling momentarily as I got to my feet. The entire action had taken less than a second, and the rapid influx and drain of stamina and mana had me gasping like all of the air had been taken out of my lungs.

Turning to look, I saw that the pillar I'd been on was now nothing more than rubble, and Wren had managed to get its attention again. I took the moment to catch my breath and brought up the skill description.

[Stalker’s Movement- At the cost of Stamina and Mana increases movement and senses. Increase of effect scales with Party size]

The last line of text had been something I hadn't thought about and, to be honest, had forgotten about, but its scaling was ridiculous. The increase had to be over triple what it was usually.

Stolen novel; please report.

My thoughts were dragged away from the skill as the Prince let out another roar, drawing my attention. It was full of anger as a force pane slowed his hit again as he tried to crush Wren like how a hammer would hit a nail, roaring as he repeatedly slammed his hand down. The force pane started to splinter as Wren raised his shield, taking the blows. It was then I realized the floor boss, as much as it looked like a sapient creature, was still acting like a monster attacking the closest or last thing that had attacked it.

[PMS: Fernand: Aim for the right leg. If we can bring it down, then it should be like the spider. Aim for the frozen spots that Aster makes Kat.]

Pulling another arrow out, I didn't bother responding, aiming for the spots where the blood was running free in the spot Kat had struck. It made spotting the openings easier, but hitting them would be just as tricky. The first arrow I pulled back and let loose missed, an expected result with how small the area to hit was, but it gave me the judgment of distance I needed. The next shot hit true, the satisfying noise of the arrow sinking into the flesh, making it clear. The flesh around the arrow started to freeze over the scales around the wound, glittering. Then the frost began to melt the frozen blood, beginning to run again. I frowned. The creature was giant but not as bulky as the spider had been. The amount of mana in the arrow should have been more than enough to freeze part of the flesh solid. I blinked as my thoughts clicked, and I wanted to slap myself. I was being stupid. The Prince was a grade two dungeon boss and had some sort of fire or magma mana affinity that had to be almost the exact opposite of mine. I was still thinking as if it was a grade one and its mana was on par with mine, both things that weren't true.

Pulling back my bow with a new arrow notched, I relied on Ranger's Aim to hit the same place again, and this time, I didn't stop to watch as I pulled a new arrow out of the loop and shot again. I only gave myself enough time to infuse the arrow to its max with mana before letting it loose. Fernand’s idea might not work as well as he wanted, but from what I learned in Fundamentals of Magic, what was quickly becoming one of the most valuable classes just based on knowledge given, forcing foreign mana into a living being caused a conflict. That conflict was only made stronger when the two manas were opposite. It didn't cause any major reactions as the mana in the body was almost always able to overcome the foreign mana in time as it naturally regenerated. Still, the process was painful and slowed down the natural healing process of the body. The skill I used, Frosted Arrow, was one that delivered my mana to the Prince and also had the side effect of lowering stamina. Needless to say, the arrows that started to turn the scaleless spot of his calf into what looked like the back of a blue porcupine drew his attention.

With a growl of anger and frustration, the Prince whipped around his tail, slamming into Wren, sending him sliding to the side and making Kat leap back to avoid being squished as the Prince gave me his full attention.

The act of having to crane my neck to look up to meet the eyes of something that wanted to kill me was not abnormal as it happened in the forest, but it was something that, even after five years of having it happen, I had never gotten used to it.

I continued to rapidly fire arrows, with my aim changing to his eyes as he faced me. At the same time, I started backing up as the Prince started towards me. He raised one hand to block the arrows as he moved like a bull barreling towards me. It was when my back foot almost slipped into the lava that circled the arena that I stopped shooting and infused Stalkers Movement again, bunching my knees as I prepared to leap out of the way.

The skill was not made to be used in small bursts but was meant to be utilized constantly, and I'd figured that out ages ago when talking with Kulni about the class skills and how they related to her. The problem with the skill was the absurd cost because it was related to a creature so much higher above me. If I kept it active, my pools would only be able to keep it active for a matter of seconds.

I waited until the Prince started to bring his claws down before pushing myself out of the way. The crack of stone behind me and the pebbles that hit my back told me there would be only a splatter on the ground if I did get hit.

Bringing my bow up, I infused another arrow, letting it go as a force ball slammed into the back of the head of the Prince, drawing his attention to Fernand at the same time as my arrow hit it in the calf again.

There was a moment of pause as the Prince stood still, seemingly not noticing the other force ball and arrow that hit him as he snarled and took a deep breath. The temperature in the room seemed to rise even higher as the Prince opened his mouth, and a river of flames left his mouth. Unlike the spiders, the buildup The Prince had no moment of warning, not giving anyone time to do more than take a few steps as he swept his mouth to the side over the entire battlefield. It would've been a disaster for any group who was bunched together or unprepared for a wall of fire, but Fernand had guessed right that there would be some sort of area breath skill, and we had prepared for it.

I grimaced as the chunk of mana required to pull an item out of spatial storage drained from my mana pool. The feeling was nauseating, but didn't I didn't hesitate as I threw it on the ground. As Fernand had explained, the vial was a liquid spell or, as nicknamed by Adventures, a spell in a bottle. Fernand had tried to explain how one was created in the little time we had. Most of the explanation had gone over my head, but he had made it clear that there was a limit to how strong a spell could be when created this way and to only use it at the last moment.

The spell that had been put in the bottle was called Wind Geyser. It was a grade 0 spell that anyone could learn in time, and its effect was simple. It created a massive amount of air that pushed upwards. It was mainly used by people on boats who fell overboard to reach the surface.

The effect it had on me was creating a circle of flames that were forced upwards by the air. The heat the flames gave off was still scalding, and I could feel blisters forming on my hands as the fire started to dissipate. I nocked another arrow and aimed as mana flowed into the arrow, waiting for a clear view. When the flames lowered and as soon as the Prince came into view, I let my arrow fly. The prince was doubled over with his hands on the ground as he coughed, smoke mixed with embers coming out of his mouth. This was the moment Fernand planned for and hoped for. Big attacks from bosses in dungeons tended to have a trade-off. In earlier grades, it tended to be a cooldown and a weak moment, while in higher grades, it could differ. In the case of the Prince, he was having a backlash, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see we were all ready to take advantage. Letting my arrow fly, I aimed for the spot that the Prince had blocked time after time, his eye. The hacking coughs turned into an agonized scream. That scream was cut off as a force ball flew into his mouth, the Prince's hands going to his neck. Kat was the first to reach the Prince as she lodged a dagger into its side, using it to pull herself up on its body as she started to stab every exposed spot of skin. Wren, however, was the most interesting as he ran to the head, shouting something that took a moment to make out.

“How do you like it, you misshapen fuck?!”

He then proceeded to start slamming his shield down on its face over and over. It was probably not the most efficient way to attack it, but as the scales on its face were dented and started to crack, I couldn't fault him. The Prince tried to swipe at Kat and Wren, but its wild swings were met with force shields and easily dodged or blocked. It was a bit of a mess, but the Price was never given a chance to recover, and after a moment, the screen we were all waiting for appeared.

[You have killed a Dungeon Boss - The Fallen Prince - Level 82]

There was a collective cheer as we all received the notification and celebrated. There was a moment before I had multiple screens fill my vision, but with a thought, I closed all of them. Kat slid down the body, and Wren backed off a few steps, heaving in breaths. I sunk to the ground, relieved, and all of my arm muscles aching. Looking down at my hands, which were blistered and swollen. I regretted not ordering gloves with the suit, something I’d fix when I had time. Looking up, I watched as the Prince's body began to fall apart, its limbs and scales turning into black ash, leaving only four distinct items on the ground. Only one of the items caught my eye: the boss core.