The dungeon boss still screamed in front of her, his destructive energy whirling around him in rings, disintegrating anything that came into contact with them.

Seeing the mad look in the creature's eyes, Sarah knew, that she had to go all out from the beginning.

Without a second of hesitation, she pumped her muscles full of magic power and her body started to hum in a deep tone due to all the unleashed energy.

She burst forward, not able to control her speed anymore. But the goal was, to reach the thing through these rings of destruction before it could target her with them.

Her steps thundered in the cave and the ground cracked from the might with which it was pounded. In these few seconds, Sarah realized, that her mind was too slow to process her speed and analyze the movements of her enemy.

And without really thinking about it, she pumped her brain full of magic power too.

Her head instantly felt like it was on fire, but she could see as clearly as never before. Everything seemed slower and more detailed. Her seemingly uncontrollable speed seemed manageable by now. She just had to hope not to fry her brain before she could take down the boss.

With her increased mental capabilities, she noticed a split-second breach of the energy rings and jumped through them.

The eyes of the creature widened in fear and shock and it desperately tried to get away. But it was too slow for her. Sarah crashed into it with her full force and considerable weight. They flew through the air in a tangled mess. She ripped into his body with her teeth, claws, and tail until the dungeon boss could stabilize itself and Sarah was pushed away by an invisible force.

Sarah crashed into the ground and stared up with burning eyes and a mad smile on her face. Her enemy was bleeding profusely and ugly wounds could be seen on its whole body. The energy rings also seemed to have dissipated in the short struggle.

It heavily breathed and looked at her with wild panic in its eyes. With another roar, it conjured the destructive energy rings again, and this time even more than before.

Sarah instantly reacted the same as before and jumped through one of the gaps. When she wanted to land and jump toward the dungeon boss, she lost her balance for a short moment but could stabilize quickly on her left leg.

The pain only came, when she stomped on the ground with her mutilated leg. Her right foot was gone.

With a muffled roar, she suppressed the pain with her abilities and jumped at the enemy with mad fury in her eyes.

The dungeon boss’ eyes widened in shock upon seeing her and threw its hands in front of itself again.

But this time, Sarah was thrown back like a leaf in a storm through an invisible force. The force that hit her cracked her bones and transformed her body into a bloody mess before she slammed into the cavern wall.

She felt her spine crack and splinter, as her body embedded itself into the wall. Her whole body felt like it was on fire. The strain would have made her unconscious, if she hadn’t pumped her brain full of magic power. But she somehow managed to stay conscious.

But she couldn’t move properly anymore. It felt like the connection to her body was somewhat off. The realization hit her, that her spine must have been broken just now.

Seeing her twitching and bleeding half embedded in the wall, the dungeon boss floated back to the ground and let the displayed energy fade away. It was panting heavily and coughed up dark blood.

It fell onto its tiny knees and started sobbing while holding the many wounds on its body.

But Sarah wouldn’t give up so fast. She gritted her teeth so hard that they cracked even more than they already were. And then she pulled her broken body out of the wall and slumped to the ground.

The dungeon boss looked at her with absolute terror in its eyes, while Sarah stood up and limped towards it.

Seeing the terror in her enemy's eyes filled her with an insane joy, which caused her to smile widely.

The dungeon boss crawled backward, also not able to walk or float properly anymore. It lifted its arms and a little energy sizzled out of it until it stopped suddenly. The creature shuddered and coughed up even more blood than before.

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All the while, Sarah had walked towards it, step after step getting closer.

When she was only a short distance away, she felt it trying to pull together energy for one last push of destruction. As if she would allow this.

She pumped her muscles full of her last magic power and jumped towards it with her good leg. The creature got caught by surprise by this and the energy fizzled away.

Sarah had practically no strength or energy anymore. Only her will was keeping her awake and going. So she did the only thing that came to mind in this situation.

She dug her cracked teeth deep into the neck of the screaming creature and started inhaling its remaining energy.

The creature wailed in pain and despair, as it felt its life drain away. Sarah on the other hand felt like she would soon explode from the foreign energy inside her body.

The energy rampaged through her body and so many blood vessels popped, that she could even hear it. But she didn’t stop until she got the system notification she had been waiting for.

But the joy was only short-lived.

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“My body is dissolving?” Sarah croaked with a hoarse voice, surprised that she could still speak after what her body had gone through.

Sarah only had the time to read and understand what the system told her, until a wave of pain rocketed through her body she had never experienced before.

She felt every part of her body shift and change on a fundamental level. It was so painful and disturbing, that a normal person would have immediately lost their minds.

But the corrupted magic power was worse. It felt like it wanted to take control of her body and change her into something else. Something that wasn’t her anymore.

“NOOOOOO!” She roared and suppressed the corrupted energy with all of her might. Her will pressed down on the foreign magic power and crushed its attempt to control her. But it wasn’t enough.

‘This is wrong’ Sarah thought to herself after the process had begun. She felt the concept of the energy settle deep inside her very soul. She knew instinctively, that no living being should have this property inside of it. She tried to stop it, but her attempt was washed away by the system.

So there was only one thing she was able to do at the moment.

The new type of energy in her soul started to damage her and melt down her very being.

‘Yield.’ She commanded in her mind and a ripple ran through her body. But the energy didn’t stop. It even rose like it had a mind of its own and started eating away at her consciousness.

But she wouldn’t let that happen.

‘Yield.’ She commanded again and the energy shuddered and rippled. But it still didn’t want to go down. Sarah felt the connection of her body and soul loosen and dissolve. She knew, that death was not far away.

But this wasn’t the first time, death had come for her.

‘YIELD!’ she roared with her mind and soul and the energy instantly broke down and diffused into her soul and filled the gaps it had eaten out of it.

Shortly after this happened, an explosion of energy shot out from her and completely obliterated her immediate surroundings. A mighty boom echoed through the cave system and made the whole tunnel structure tremble.

Sarah floated in the air for a moment, until she unceremoniously flopped to the ground.

Sarah snorted in disbelief while lying motionless on the ground. She soon started to chuckle and the chuckle transformed into loud, disbelieving laughter.

“How the fuck did I even survive that?” She asked herself in wonder while she enjoyed the brief moment of rest to the fullest. The pain had been so extreme on so many levels just now, that her current state felt like she was floating on clouds.

When she realized, that she would enter a comatose state soon, she hurriedly reached out with her mind to find Neil.

Her heart pounded while she looked for him and a deep sigh of relief exited her mouth when she found him.

“Didn’t know I liked him so much.” She mumbled to herself and kickstarted his unconscious brain with a slight injection of magic power. He’d have slight magic power poisoning, but he had to get up and get Melissa to her. Who knew what her soul would look like after what she had been through?

When she heard Neil groan and cough, she knew, that he would react in the right way.

Feeling relieved again, she focused on something else.

“System.” She said into the space. “Did we conquer the dungeon? Can we go now?”

Nothing happened for a moment until the next system message popped up.

“That was unexpectedly helpful,” Sarah said in surprise and immediately regretted the indirect insult to the system. “Just a joke. Ha Ha. Please don’t make me eat more snails.”

Luckily for her, the system had enough of torturing her, and no new message popped up.

Sarah’s head slumped to the ground again and she tiredly closed her eyes. She had survived. They had conquered the dungeon and she got immensely stronger. And they could finally leave.

She allowed herself to relax for a short moment, and her tense body loosened up.

Sarah contently lay on the stony ground with her eyes closed, until the system shut down her consciousness.