Ruan knew the moment the double doors closed that this wasn't a normal dungeon room. She could feel the chill crawl on her skin, sending shivers down her throat as the air felt heavy and dead.

She changed to her feral form, her hair and tail growing to lengths and burning purple as they whipped and slashed the air around like tips of snake tongues. She felt the energy swirl inside her, pushing away the unrest that festered in the surroundings.

Youmu and Nian followed, raising their weapons against the giant statue before them. It beamed a ghost blue glow in its eyes before it then sprang to life, the once stone gray statue of a skeleton now washed in bone whites, all covered in a black robe with a blue crystal ball floating above its hand.

It sent out a grating ghost screech before raising its crystal ball high in the air. The ball then pulsed blue, prompting a tidal wave of mana to surge outwards to bring about skeletons rising from the ground around the giant room.

This monster was a necromancer lich.

"Uhm guys." Mat said from behind, raising a sword against a skeleton nearing him. "Whether or not you want me to fight, I don't think I have a choice either way."

His three ghost familiars immediately formed a barricade around him, raising their jaw, talon, and spear against the skeletons nearby.

"You handle the skeletons then." Nian said before pointing to the lich at the center of the room. "Just don't fight that one. Leave that thing to us."

Nian was right. The lich was a different beast to handle than the rest of the skeletons. It was at least an E-grade monster, D-grade at worst with its current aura. They entered a dungeon room that didn't coalign with the dungeon's rank- an anomaly just like Youmu had feared. Still, the anomaly in front of them was no stronger than any other D-grade dungeons Ruan's been in times and times before. As long as it didn't have any petty tricks, they'd be fine.

Ruan turned to Youmu and Nian, giving them each a nod before they fixed their eyes towards the lich at the center. At once, they dashed forward, leaving trails of light behind with the skeletons in the way sent flying.

Youmu went in first, holding her sword to her side as she burned in silver light, dashing like lightning towards the lich and leaving silver trails. She rammed her sword into the lich, only for an invisible barrier to block off her charge to send her rolling back. There was a translucent spherical barrier surrounding the lich- a mana shield.

Youmu was a silver ranker. Though she specialized more in absolute defense, it was still surprising that she hadn't left significant damage on the barrier.

Ruan followed behind with a dash, leaving purple fire haze behind as her fists glowed to a violet burn before smashing straight into the lich's mana barrier. The barrier pulsed, sending her back with a mana wave, but not without a crack forming on its surface.

The mana shield was strong, but far from indestructible.

The lich then raised a bony hand towards them, sending out globs of blue flames from thin air like hellfire. Youmu struck her sword to the stone ground, conjuring a mana barrier of her own to block the hellfire to protect the rest behind her. She was the perfect embodiment of a tank.

Nian followed up the lich's attack with her own, knocking an arrow to her bow. As soon as she let go of the bowstring, a piercing arrow zipped through the air like a beam of searing laser, leaving redblack trails before striking the lich's barrier. At impact, a burst of thousand little explosions popped and crackled, sending out black smoke all around.

The mana barrier crumbled and dissipated.

"Now!" Youmu said, though Ruan was already on it before she said it. They both dashed towards the lich with light trails behind. They then jumped, putting all the momentum from their dash into fist and sword, and thrust them both to the lich's bone head. The lich ricocheted back with all of its giant mass- like a boulder- sent flying into the stone wall on the far side.

Stones and dust were sent flying all around, the site of impact conjuring a dust cloud of its own meters high into the air. It obscured the lich to an extent, though within the dust cloud was the black silhouette of the lich already turning to stand again, and before Ruan knew it, blue fireballs emerged from the cloud and hurtled towards them.

Hundreds of arrows then came from behind, intercepting each fireball with explosions, dousing the fireballs into nothingness. Ruan turned to Nian and gave her a nod of thanks.

The lich stepped out of the dust cloud with visible cracks on its skull apparent. Their attacks landed, and they hit hard. One more should do it.

The lich set up another mana barrier.

With a raise of its hand, it called forth another slew of burning rain searing through the air towards them, prompting Youmu to raise another barrier to block them off.

Ruan and Youmu then dashed again, driving all their strength now into a single point on the mana barrier. The mana barrier then crumbled. It was easier to destroy the barrier by focusing their strength all into one spot than even it out over a wide area.

A single piercing arrow then zipped through the air, landing straight to the lich's skull with pinpoint precision. What followed after was a barrage of explosions that slew forth black smoke onto the lich.

Through Nian's explosive arrow, it stopped moving.

. . .

Mat was squaring off against the skeletons around, holding off their rusty swords with Amigo and Juggernaut while Wingman was flying high above, diving at any unsuspecting skeletons.

He parried a skeleton to his side, with Amigo biting off another and Juggernaut spearing off a third.

His attention was divided though, with half fixed on the skeletons and the other half completely in awe at the ongoing fight between the giant robed skeleton and the girls with a flurry of magic flying around. First thing happened after the next, with a blur of dashes, flashes, fireballs, and arrows.

Ruan and Youmu were always up front, keeping constant pressure on the giant skeleton while Nian was outputting a salvo of exploding arrows from the backline like she was the embodiment of mayhem and destruction and all things cool and awesome. The next thing he knew the giant skeleton ate a mouthful of Nian's exploding arrows, and after that it stood there- unmoving. He could feel the pressure in the air collapse, with a shockwave following after the explosions went off from the distance. It was like Nian let off a small nuclear bomb inside the place.

"I don't know what's happening, but it's as awesome as hell." He muttered to himself as he struck another skeleton with his sword.