Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 37

Good morning Everyone! Hope the week started out alright!

Louella

It took the party the better part of another hour to reach the fifth layer of the mine. Even Meteor couldn’t blast them with one hit on the fourth layer. Their hide were basically a suit of armor by this point. No to mention their claws and fangs reached the point where they could pierce plate armor.

“Feel free to breakthrough during the fight,” mumbled to Ezal as we neared the golden mountain. The rakshasa were even tougher here meaning it would take another hour or so to just traverse this layer.

“If only it were that easy,” she said, sighing. Even at tier one, Ezal was doing a good deal for the raid. She was a talented fire mage but having too much talent might actually be the problem. It would come eventually. Ezal hated to lose after all.

“All in time, as they say.” Another explosion followed by a heat wave washing over us signaled that Meteor was still in full swing. He had taken out the most of the raid. Much to the chagrin of the some of the other mages that were here based on commission with various parties. If they didn’t kill anything, they wouldn’t get paid. “Maybe ask the great Meteor some tips,” I said with a snicker.

“That… well, if I have no other choice,” she replied dropping her head. I had meant it as a joke, but I guess she was more desperate than I anticipated.

“Who are you doing, my sweet?” A shiver ran up my spine at the words. I turned with as nice a smile as I could muster. Marquis Valamar stood with the chained knights in some serious armor. It was a much better set than the leather armor he wore into the dungeon last time. I figured even he couldn’t look pass the near defeat his party almost suffered by the first boss.

“My lord. We are well. Everyone is pulling their weight that I’m not sure I’ll get a part in the coming battle.”

“Knowing this dungeon, it will be a miracle if that is truly the case,” Valamar remarked with a grimace.

“That is most true.” Watching that battle, it resembled a small skirmish as the defenders held a line against a dozen rakshasas. A few of them even could use terra magic giving more of our mages something to do as they defended against it. “I must say, for Bruce being a fire practitioner is surprising. Given his stature, I would have pegged him as a terra mage.”

Terra users could end up dealing with tons of rock thus a lot of them trained their bodies. A few had even survived cave ins thanks to their training. Fire mages, however, liked to stand back and melt their opponents from a distance.

“A fact that has cost many people their lives in the past.” With that grim comment, Valamar moved to convene with another team leader.

“You are lucky, lady Louella,” Ioa said staring after him.

“Ioa? You fancy the marquis?” I asked doing my best to suppress the snicker that threatened to come out. I didn’t peg her to go for someone outside her own race. Elves were purists after all, and she seemed particularly strong in that aspect.

“He is a strong man and well-respected man. Even as a human, he has earned the respect of many elves.” She had a straight face, but I thought there might have been a little color under her pale cheeks.

I decided to keep my mouth shut or I’d end up risking the secret. I turned back as the battle came to an end. Other than one man that was seriously hurt, we had yet to have any casualties. With the nearly ten priests we had with us most of which were in tier two, any injuries were healed quickly.

“Alright! All teams need to regroup and ready for the battle ahead!” Ioa shouted to the members of the raid. As an air user, she could make her voice travel quite the distance. We couldn’t take to long to ready ourselves, the priests were holding back Greed’s influence with holy magic, but they would eventually run out of mana.

I located Tez, and we made our way over. Once we were all together, I cleared my throat. “Well done. You’ve certainly proven you deserve to be among this group,” I said to the party. “We already know what we’re to do. Tez, any last comments?” He was more of the party leader than I was. It was best if I reinforced that.

“The weapon the boss uses is supposably fast and dangerous to the unarmored. Be prepared,” Tez said gruffly then looked directly at me. “My lady. I believe you have the best chance to help the raid succeed. Your lightning might have the speed we need to get her off that mountain before we take any undue loses.”

We nodded then looked to the rest of the raid. Ten minutes until we see if this group can do what it set out to achieve. Tez might have put an extra bit of pressure on me, but each of the parties had one or two members assigned to launching a bombardment at the top of the mountain.

‘A large force you have there.’ I jumped at the voice that echoed seemingly in my head. I glanced around but the others obviously didn’t hear anything. That meant it must be the dungeon host. This wasn’t the first time it had whispered to me like this.

I covered my mouth with my hand as I turned from the others. “What do you want?” I whispered barely even being able to hear it myself.

‘Can friends not speak to one another?’

“When one of the friends asked for blood last time they talked, it makes a bit more difficult for me to trust them.”

‘You wanted something. I wanted something. A trade occurred. End of story.’

“I don’t need anything now,” I growled back.

‘Mortals always need something. I feel like this gathering is unfair. Perhaps I should make it a bit more even,’ the host said before I felt the presence fade.

“Wait!” I said causing the others to look at me. Before they had a chance to ask, there was a crackle of lightning and the boss screamed at the top of her lungs. We all looked to the top of the mountain as roots made of green crystal that had appeared from the ground around the mountain which coiled around her. I could almost physically feel the mana being pulled into the boss as roots dug into her.

This went on for less than ten seconds before with a final pulse of mana, the roots that led to the ceiling suddenly crumbled to dust. Greed slumped into her throne before she started to convulse. With a hair raising scream, she lurched into the air as gold from the mountain flowed into her.

“Don’t let the boss change! Fire your spells!” Ioa commanded. I snapped out of it and started to channel mana into a bolt of lightning. It looked like everyone was going for the fastest spells they knew as we all released at roughly the same time. Lightning, fire, ice, stone, even magma which was a mutli-element spell, flew through the air toward the boss.

Greed raised her hand which was encased in the green crystal and all the spells were pulled into her palm. She rose further into the air as golden wings with lines of the green crystal flapped behind her. The presence of the boss was different from the one I saw earlier. I felt like there was no mind now.

Greed lifted her weapon, a large device that had several tubes at the end. “Cover!” Ioa as well as most of the defenders shouted as streaks of light started cutting through the air toward the raid group. The ground was ripped apart as the projectiles ate their way into the dirt. One defender jumped in the path of the weapon to protect a mage that was too slow to dodge and his shield was turned into shredded metal.

“Her power has increased! Don’t let it hit you!” Ioa shouted as she fired arrow after arrow toward the boss. A few seconds later, an explosion rang out and I felt something impacted my side.

“Louella!” Ezal grabbed my hand and pulled me back. The projectiles cut a line from target to target as Greed continued to fire her weapon. If Ezal hadn’t pulled me, I would have suffered an even worse wound or worse. My hand was nearly covered in blood from holding the wound on my side already.

I cleared my head and stopped worrying about the others. Channeling my mana, I created a dozen of my orbs that worked on Pride. I upped the speed and sent them at Greed. She was blocking spells with her free hand and her wings, which from the shouting I was hearing was a new feature. I could only guess that the next boss had something that absorbed mana since the roots came from the ground.

I controlled the orbs to aim for gaps while Greed blocked spells from the others. Most of them missed or were absorbed, but one managed to strike her in the stomach causing her to stutter for a few seconds. Several more spells hit her in the moment of vulnerability and she was sent crashing down her mountain.

“Nice shot, mistress!” Ezal said sending her own fireball in the path of the boss.

Breathing deeply, it took some mental energy to control the orbs so freely not to mention my wound. “How many did we lose?” I asked with gritted teeth

“Not sure yet. I counted at least ten that are dead for sure.”

“Damn it!” Next time the host talked to me in a situation like this I would be a little more cordial. Mary took the lull to rush over and heal me enough to stop the bleeding. I was thankful that she had recently reached tier two. “Thank you,” I said as relief flood through me.

The spot the boss landed was being bombarded with spells, but it looked like she had cocooned herself under her wings. The barrage of spells went on for close to five minutes before Ioa called for a ceasefire. A wind mage cleared the air of dust and we saw Greed’s damaged but still intact wings.

“Greed?” A voice came from under the wings. “Forget greed. I hunger for fear!”

There was a moment as all the sound seemed to be sucked into Greed before there was an explosion that threw several people to the ground. Greed stood up, her weapon gone but holding a staff that connected to her wings that had detached from her back. Each wing made up a blade on either side of the pole. The weapon had to weigh hundreds of pounds, but Greed started spinning it like it was a feather.

Kicking off, she streaked toward the nearest raid member. She barely got her sword and shield up in time before she was sent flying. Given the amount of blood in the air that followed her, I had no doubt she was dead. We resumed our attacks on Greed, but having given up on defense, she had increased her speed severalfold. Most of the spells and arrows were missing by meters.

“Box her!” Ioa shouted. The defenders still remaining rushed at Greed encircling her. She was finally forced to stop moving when two defenders blocked her attack with both of their shields. One man still lost his arm in the exchange. I didn’t hold back and channeled the remained of my mana into my spell. A bolt of lightning arced through the air striking Greed in the back.

Ezal’s fireballs struck nearly the same place bringing Greed to her knees. Soon half a dozen more spells landed on her exposed personage. She spat up golden blood as Bruce moved in and drove his sword through the chest of the boss. We all waited breathlessly until the boss stopped moving completely.

“Gather the wounded! We’ll deal with the dead once we save those that can still be saved!” Ioa ordered.

“Nicely done,” Marquis Valamar said as he moved next to me.

I took a deep breath as I sat down on a boulder. “I noticed the magma and some more mixed elemental attacks. Was that your doing?” I asked.

“Yes, it was. Not that it helped all that much.”

“Tell me about it. I fear what the next boss has in store for us.”

“Why didn’t that Meteor guy launch his ultimate spell he talked about during the trip here?” Ezal inquired from the side.

“He was the first casualty of the battle. He was in the middle of channeling his spell when she struck him. Though, I think the spell backlash was what killed him,” Valamar replied shaking his head.

“Pity. With how much boasting he did, I thought the battle would have ended after his strike,” I said. Mary might have healed my wound, but at most she only closed it. It would need more attention and still hurt like a bitch. I leaned back on the boulder content to wait until we moved to the next floor and activate the teleport platform.

Next:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44883407

Previous:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44725017