<~> CHAPTER 55

The five of us stood outside the doors to a colossal room. The room was shaped like a large circular stage with rows of seats rising up and out of sight in a ring around it. From here it looked like we would be entering a colosseum ring with a short drop all around it. It looked similar to the previous boss rooms but it was larger and more decorated. No one coming across the entrance to this room would be able to mistake it for anything but a boss room. Now that I've seen a few, the circular room stood out to me. I idly wondered if the alraune had been in a similar 'room' and we hadn't been able to distinguish it from the regular forest.

I stared at the behemoth clockwork dancer statue frozen in place with my blindfold. The monsters' bodies glowed brilliantly with magic. They noticeably glowed stronger than the trivial clockwork monsters we had been fighting thus far. It was hard to gauge how much stronger they'll be but I shouldn't expect to smash through them in one hit like the others we have been fighting so far.

"Is everyone ready?" Maxwell asked us.

I shifted to my werewolf form, hefted my axe to my shoulder, and positioned my shield in front of me. The others checked the straps of their gear and a subtle aura of fiery magic cloaked Luna. This time I would be in the front of the formation to tease out their early attacks and get an idea of what we were up against. While this floor had been easy until now, floor bosses could be unexpectedly strong. I hope my experience facing the other floor bosses helped me here.

"Ready," I repeated in chorus with my friends.

The five of us stepped through the doorway to the room and I rushed forward to the middle. Sometimes boss rooms could lock others out so it was better not to take any chances. I nearly got in range of the boss when the entire floor sunk into the ground half a foot with my weight. The entire room hummed to life as a thundering harmony of clicking, ticking, and twangs of music began to play all throughout the room from every direction. It was as if we were standing inside of a music box as it came to life around us.

I tried to regain my bearing and throw myself at the large metallic dancing clockwork in front of me but it twirled out of the way and out of my range. Six smaller ballerinas spun to life in the outside circle and pressed in at me in perfect synchronicity. Their silvery blue daggers wove around me in complex and inhuman movements and I was forced to leap out of the twirl of blades that met in the middle, yet never touched each other by only a hair.

A quick glance at the door saw that my friends weren't locked out but were having trouble finding a way to enter the fight. The ballerinas that had failed to attack me and I only narrowly avoided being stabbed from behind as they spread out in the arena. The moment the smaller ones fanned out though the larger one spun back to the center where its giant dagger sliced through the air at me. The huge clockwork was so fast that I wasn't able to cleanly dodge its attack and a sharp blade tore through my ribcage.

I spat out blood even as my ribs reformed and I attempted to hack into the monster's legs only to barely whiff it as it twirled back out of my range again. As the ring of smaller ballerinas once again pressed in toward me, I dashed forward and tried to cleave one of them in half before they could pin me between them again. The bluish metal warped and dented where my huge axe bit into it but I wasn't able to tear it in half. The maneuver did manage to lock the ballerina in front of me as it angrily stuttered and clicked in displeasure as it wasn't allowed to move in time with its clockwork brethren.

When the ring of ballerinas danced back out from the center I leapt away and watched as the one I had damaged awkwardly slashed at me, out of sync with the others, before twirling away just in time to not slam into the singular giant ballerina. Starting to get a handle on the pattern of the monsters, I managed to dodge out of its attack this time. As I flung myself to the other side of it, I was only barely able to react in time to the foot that nearly clipped me. It had already slightly altered its pattern the moment I started to recognize it.

A rush of heat began to charge under my feet as Luna's familiar magic began to warm the air around me. I danced into the hole I had created in the background dancers' pattern and attempted to hammer again at the one I had previously damaged. My axe once again sank into the ballerina's frame and it clicked at me angrily as I held it in place outside of its desired timing with the other dancers. Once again I was unable to damage it too much and I had to leap away from it before I lost my window to dodge the more dangerous giant clockwork.

I had hoped that even if I didn't damage the smaller dancer, interrupting its timing would at least interfere with the larger one, but the smaller clockwork's pattern changed further instead. Now rather than timing its motions to the smaller dancers its timing more closely resembled the larger one and now I lost any window of opportunity to attempt counter-attacking it as I unsuccessfully dodged out of the way of their newly coordinated attacks.

The ache of my wounds knitting themselves back together almost distracted me from the moment that Luna's magic flared to life. A hot gout of flame filled the arena and superheated the metal of the dancing clockwork monsters. The blue metal had turned a hot molten red and I took the opportunity to hammer my axe into one of the still synchronous background dancers. Loud sounds of screeching metal filled the room as not only had I torn through the leg of the dancer I had aimed at, Maxwell and Aria had successfully damaged two of the other clockwork ballerinas as well.

I slid my body between two of the dancers as they pressed back into the center, and saw that three of them were now missing limbs, two different legs and an arm. I watched as my friends were forced to jump back and away from the stage again as the large ballerina spun around the outside of the ring, continuing to force the other melee fighters out of our dance. Encouraged by the last round of attacks I saw Luna preparing another large area fire spell centered on the stage and the heat once again began to tingle under my feet.

When the ring of background dancers opened up again, I slid into the middle hoping to avoid the giant ballerina's attacks by leaning into them this time. Its longer limbs failed to gain purchase but I traded a blow on the giant's leg for another slash against my ribs from the smaller one. My attack didn't do much more than dent one of the larger clockwork's leg panels but a few more hits like that could start to tear it apart.

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I could feel Luna's magic being held near the apex now, waiting for an opportune time to be released. I slid once again into the opening I made in the background dancers and just as the dancers were fanning back out Luna's magic was released and their frames once again took on an angry orange hue. This time four loud noises of twisting metal rang through the colosseum and two sounds of crumpling clockworks followed. Thinking quickly I tossed the clockwork I had disabled out of the immediate arena to give myself more room, and I noticed that Maxwell had a similar idea, having dragged away the other.

I leapt back to the center as the two dancers offset from the rest took their place in center stage and this time I hammered into the smaller one and tried to hold it in place to get it closer in time with the others, but the giant ballerina forced me to give up on that if I wanted to avoid taking one of its stronger, more dangerous blows. The smaller one was now a bit out of time with the larger one but they were still close enough to be more dangerous than the other dancers.

Rather than a long charged area of effect spell from Luna, a quick yet devastating blast of fire superheated one of the smaller dancers this time. The moment I saw the hot orange glow of its legs I took advantage of the weakness and cleaved through them, disabling a third of the background dancers. I was still throwing that one out of the ring when another bolt of fire hit another close to Aria, who efficiently finished it off.

This time no one was able to clear the body of the clockwork in time before the giant one spun back around to that side and kicked its corpse at me. The attack had been so unexpected that it threw me on my ass despite barely bringing my shield up in time. I rolled back into the center, barely dodging the giant ballerina as it circled the edge of the stage, before scrabbling back to my feet just in time to catch the blade of the last background dancer still on its original timing. It twirled backward and away from me as I dodged back and out of range of the two now heading for the middle once again.

I panted and caught my breath. It felt like I had run two miles without stopping. This had been the most intense cardio I had done since I got here. I've been forced to move non-stop for this entire fight. It was only now that there were only three of them left that I had the time to catch a breather. My eyes caught Luna's for a second and I watched her focus her charging bolt of fire on the last of the remaining background dancers out of time with the large one.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to pounce. Her bolt of fire was released and I met the dancer just as her fire superheated the clockwork's legs. A swing of my axe cleaved through both of the clockwork's legs in one go, being even easier having caught it so close to the impact of Luna's magic, and threw it off the arena before the giant one could fling its body at me again. After the moment had passed I dodged the giant clockwork's attack just in time to make it back to the edge of the arena. I took the precious moment to catch my breath once again, now thoroughly exhausted by this ordeal. I leapt forward back into the center once the remaining two clockworks began to spin back out to the edges.

Luna's bolt of magic hit the last remaining small one on the other edge allowing Maxwell to slash through its legs. This time Piper and Aria were ready and dashed forward to hurl the mechanical corpse over the edge before the last remaining clockwork could make it around the arena toward them. All that was left was the final one, the giant clockwork ballerina.

Luna's magic began to collect beneath my feet once again and for three cycles I just dodged out of the ballerina's way and caught my breath. I readied myself for the final burst of energy that I would need to hopefully finish the last remaining enemy off. I felt the intensity of fire magic in the air and knew it was time for the last push.

("Ready,") I told Luna through the rings.

Just as the colossal ballerina spun back to the center, Luna's magic released and the entire lower half of the clockwork glowed an angry orange once again. I darted forward, swinging my axe with both hands. I attempted to chop right through both legs but didn't quite make it all the way. The boss still fell to the ground and off its track but unlike the others, this clockwork didn't die the moment its connection to the arena had snapped and its giant dagger pushed through my torso and expelled all the air from my lungs as the hilt slammed into my solar plexus.

I wrapped my left hand around the clockwork's giant hand and slammed my axe into its wrist repeatedly. I was growing slightly faint from the lack of air but the bubbling rage in my heart was quickly coming to the surface.

My axe slammed into its wrist harder and harder despite the awkward angle of my attack.

DIE DIE DIE DIE, my instincts screamed out as blackness began to claw at the edges of my vision. A blast of heat washed over me and I fell backwards away from the clockwork monster.

GET IT OUT!

I ripped the gigantic dagger out of my chest and hacked out the blood that had filled my lungs before finally getting the air that I needed again. I coughed as the burning in my lungs subsided and I gasped out for air as if I had nearly drowned. I fell onto my back and took lungful after lungful of air until my breathing finally evened out again.

Faintly in the background I realized that the giant ballerina had still been alive and only now between the efforts of Luna and Maxwell finally finished off. Piper kneeled next to me and I felt her magic wash through my body and take away some of the soreness. It took another few moments to realize she had been talking to me and I was lying there unresponsive.

"I okay... I okay... tired," I grunted out.

I could hear Piper's sigh of relief when I finally responded.