Creating powerful elixirs that provide immense power, deadly poison able to kill even the most resilient foes, or portions able to cure diseases and heal deadly wounds. That is the craft of an alchemist.

Alchemy is a complex process in which multiple ingredients are mixed together in order to create something new. These alchemical processes can be extremely complex and even dangerous depending on the product one wishes to create. In order to be an alchemist, many years of constant training and studies are necessary. But such training isn´t cheap, and the amounts of ingredients necessary to train a good alchemist are tremendous. Therefore, alchemists are rare, and their products are high in demand.

Many untrained individuals try to sell self-made potions without proper alchemy training, and some may even be of good quality, but be aware of side effects. Real alchemy masters are rare.

The first thing Lena noticed after pushing open the door, was the lack of mana. Well, not the absence of it, but the lack of more. She had expected that the mana density would be much higher inside the boss room as it was supposed to contain the dungeon core. But much to her and Garro´s surprise the mana density in the room was even thinner than outside.

They found themself in a large circular room made nearly entirely of crude metal ore than gave off a grey glow. It was the same material that was present in the rest of the dungeon. It was also the same metal that the reapers had summoned against them. She would have to ask Garro about it but not right. She didn´t let her guard down and they both slowly walked towards the center of the room, weapons held high. They didn´t dare to talk, a boss room was no place to talk. It would have been foolish to think that there was no boss.

The ground was littered with small metal plates, she was confused for a moment until she realized what they were. Scales. Huge scales of metal, some as large as her hand. She wasn´t the only one with a bad feeling. Garro let out a small grunt that could be interpreted as "Shit". They had both hoped for something like a large slime, or maybe a slightly larger version of the dumb metal reapers, but it seemed that it wouldn´t be that easy.

After a moment Lena signed Garro to stop. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her life-cense. The first thing she could see was Garro as he stood right beside her, but soon her senses covered most of the room. At first, she hoped that there might really be no boss, but when her sense covered the entire room she felt it. At the far end of the room, embedded in the wall, was something large brimming with life. She pointed at the wall and Garro nodded.

They slowly walked towards the wall. The rough metal ores build a rather inconsistent pattern with multiple cracks and holes. The constant strange glow from the material also prevented a clear view. When they were only a few meters away from the spot where she had sensed the potential boss, they heard something. The sound of metal grinding against metal.

She was about to step closer when the wall exploded outwards and a giant jaw with two large fangs tried to close around her hip.

"Watch out!" Garro´s warning came late, but she still managed to jump back in time. She had already been bitten once today, it wasn´t something she wanted to experience again, at least not on the same day.

They both backed away from the wall as they watched it crumble. When the dust slowly began to settle they began to see the monster that had tried to eat her. It was a monstrous snake. With maybe over thirty meters the creature was long, its entire body was covered in dull grey scales. Its body was as thick as Lena's and was probably heavy enough to crush her with ease. The snake's large head was adorned with spikes that formed something like a crown.

They watched as the large beast curled up its long body. The small eyes of the creature were entirely black and observed them. Lena knew that this wasn´t some dumb metal reaper, this monster was intelligent, at least to some extent.

"This isn´t going to be easy." Garro said beside her with a low growl.

"Are you okay? This beast almost got you there." He asked. His eyes never left the creature.

"I´m good. Any idea how we´re gonna do this?" She asked, slowly taking in the creature. The mana radiating from it indicated that it was around rank three but its general strength seemed to be much higher tho, maybe even rank five. So it wasn´t going to blast them with magic, at least not with powerful magic. If the creature didn´t attack they were gonna use the time to think of a plan.

"It seems to be focused mostly on you, so you try and distract it as much as possible. I wait for an opening and attack. We change if necessary?" He sounded a little unsure.

"Sounds good to me." She answered since she didn´t have any better plan.

The snake hadn´t moved an inch and was still observing them. With its curled-up body, the creature was easily twice as high as Lena. She slowly moved towards the giant snake, her swords drawn and ready. She just needed to anger it a little bit so that it focused solely on her. And how to better anger a giant monster snake than with a good poke.

She grinned under her mask as the snake shifted slightly, the hard scales grinding against each other. When she was only ten meters away, Lena pushed as much mana into her body as possible and moved.

Garro watched Lena slowly walk straight towards the giant snake. He wondered how she could stay so calm in front of such a predator. But the reason became apparent soon. From one slow step to the other Lena accelerated. Within a moment she was in front of the creature and sliced into its hard scales. Her speed was astonishing, she dodged the heavy tail with ease only to attack again in the same second.

He could only stare at the scene. This small girl was fighting a dungeon boss head-on without the slightest hint of fear. Not only that, she seemed to be winning. The snake was unable to retaliate effectively with its large body. He himself had never been confident to defeat the dungeon boss alone, it was a fricking dungeon boss after all. He had prepared an item that could restrict its movement in order to buy him time in which he would have snatched the dungeon core and left.

But now that he saw that this small girl single-handedly was keeping the monster in check on her own he may not even need it. She is a predator herself. Garro thought. He was even beginning to think that Lena didn´t need his help at all.

His last thought was quickly forgotten when the snake retaliated.

Lena was slightly disappointed, the monster looked like a real challenge at first but in the end, the giant snake was nothing more than a meat sack with a tail. The occasional tail whips were probably dangerous but far too slow to actually hit here. The scales were hard and she needed a lot of strength to cut through them, but it wasn´t impossible. The mediocre defense of the snake gave her ample time to attack.

She was dodging another swing of the snake´s tail when an uneasy thought crossed her mind. It was too easy. She brought down another flurry of attacks. It was almost as if the creature didn´t even try to protect itself. She was about to prepare another attack when she realized what was going on.

The snake was playing with her. Her blades managed to pierce the thick scales but in the end, they weren´t doing any damage and only left shallow wounds in the dense muscles beneath. The occasional tail strike from the creature was nothing more than bait. With each attack that she had dodged, she had gained confidence and was attacking longer. She was lured in.

When she realized the extent of her mistake it was already too late. The next attack wasn´t a slow and unprecise tail strike but a pair of sword-sized fangs. Faster than an arrow the snake´s head snapped towards her in an attempt to swallow her. Lena was unable to dodge as the large tail blocked her escape and forced her to take the attack head-on. Only due to instinct was she able to lift her arms and cast her spell in time.

The creature's open maw crashed into a shimmering barrier. Upon impact, Lena heard a disgusting crunch and she felt her barrier crack slightly. The dome of green energy that surrounded her was about two and a half meters wide and high. Without the spell, the outcome would have been unpleasant. Luckily for her, she was a mage, and not a weak one either. The fact that even her barrier showed a few cracks was proof of the snake's attack power. Luckily for her she survived that attack unscathed.

On the contrary, the snake had suffered heavily. The creature´s head was bleeding under the cracked scales and it trashed and hissed at the barrier, revealing only a single sharp fang. Even through the green barrier, Lena could clearly see the snake's dark eyes glinting with hate.

"Well, your little trick didn´t work out too well, did it?" she said with confidence. Confidence that she didn´t have.

Already before the fight, Lena had been low on mana showing first side effects. She had thought that she could finish the fight swiftly. But now, after using the shield spell? Her situation was direr than she had anticipated. Lena´s core ached, her entire body itched and quivered, hungering for energy. She needed to...

The barrier shone brightly as the snake´s heavy tail impacted the green dome. Lena could only stare at the expanding cracks. The giant snake was towering over her barrier, its bleeding head held high while the snake slowly coiled its long body around the dome. Lena fell to her knees as her legs began to twitch and shake, the grip of her hands around her sword loosened. Her core was nearly empty.

"Fuck!" her voice was hollow. She dropped her swords.

She looked at the snake coiling its body around her barrier, blocking her sight. The cracks all around her grew. Lena had no other way. She activated her storage ring.

A small glass vial appeared in her shaking hand. The clear blue liquid inside seemed rather simple but she could feel the energy it contained. With a single motion, she lifted her mask and drank it in one gulp. At the same moment, the barrier broke.

When he had seen the snake´s attack Garro had been sure that Lena was dead. But again, the small warrior had surprised him. At the last possible moment, she had managed to cast a powerful shield spell. The giant snakehead crashed into the bright dome and Garro saw one of its fangs break. The power of the impact was tremendous and should have broken any shield spell that Garro knew with ease, but somehow, Lena´s barrier held.

He was no mage and was never interested in magic but even he knew that this was a powerful spell. But it was useless to think about it. When he saw Lena fall to her knees inside of her barrier, Garro decided that it was time to act.

The creature was entirely focused on Lena and was wrapping its giant body around her dome-like barrier. During their fight, Garro had managed to place himself a few meters behind the snake. He gripped his sword and prepared his strongest sword skill. It required a few seconds to channel and was normally relatively useless in fights. But against a giant unmoving target? It was perfect.

Slowly he directed his mana from his body inside of his blade. His blade began to shine in a soft blue light that glowed brighter and brighter. When enough mana had been channeled into the weapon he activated the rune inside of the weapon. The glowing blade changed from blue to red and the energy became unstable within a second. Unable to contain the energy anymore he swung his giant blade. Not a second too late as he heard Lena´s barrier break at the same moment.

The backlash from the destroyed spell hit her a second before the snake. With unimaginable force, the snake's body crashed into her from all sides, the body of the beast coiling around her, compressing her entire being. Lena was unable to move, the pressure around her was simply too great. Within the first second, she heard dozens of her bones break and her armor groaned under the immense pressure, but all she could see were grey scales grinding against her mask.

She was about to panic when she heard a loud hiss and the pressure crushing her body suddenly resided. From one moment to the other the snake let go and Lena fell to the ground like a metal encased sack of meat. Lena could hear the trashing snake behind her and Garro´s furious roar.

But she was exhausted. Her core ached as it circulated the mana inside of her body in an attempt to restore her crushed body. Even if she couldn´t feel pain, restoring her body still put a strain onto her.

She wouldn´t give up that fast tho, she still needed to kill that snake after all. What are a few cracked bones for an undead? Nothing but a minor hindrance. Her body didn´t work like that of a human anymore she had to accept it. She didn´t need muscles to move, she didn´t need oxygen to breathe nor blood or normal food. Sleep was optional and a functional heart a myth.

She was undead and she needed to live with it. And right now she needed to fight like it.

She directed her mana towards the bones in her legs and ignored any other injury in order to accelerated the healing process. After half a minute her bones were back to an acceptable state. Lena stood up ignoring the sounds of tearing muscles and the still fractured bones in her arms. She was a being of mana after all and didn´t need them to move only to support her.

She looked at the giant snake that trashed and hissed in anger. A deep cut of nearly two meters marked its body, deeper than any other wound that she had inflicted before. She saw the culprit a few meters away from her lying on the ground. She hoped that he was okay. He had saved her life after all.

It was time to show that snake were it belonged. She raised both of her hands and began to channel her mana into multiple shapes and slowly merged them. The complex construct began to extend and hundreds of white runes began to enveloped her entire form as she infused the construct with her intent. She might still be low on mana but she was a mage and she was done playing warrior.

With a low hum the mana took hold and the spell was ready. With a wide grin Lena let it loose.

"Winter´s Wrath"

(please read the post chapter note: Helpful I think)