Their steps echoed throughout the [Dungeon], Xander's own being the loudest of them thanks to his armoured feet. The blue light originating from Skyla's staff illuminating the cave walls surrounding their party. Xander glanced worryingly at Skyla, who had remained dead silent ever since she had been punched by Caelan.

"Hey, you all right?" He asked, bringing Skyla's attention to him. She stared at him blankly, not a single bit of emotion in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" She asked, tilting her head in a questioning manner.

Xander's frown deepened, "You've been dead silent ever since you got punched by Caelan.' He pointed out.

Skyla fell silent once again, looking back ahead. After a while she gave out a heavy sigh, "...I'm fine, just...processing everything that's happened." A very tired look came onto her face, "They never taught us this at the academy." She admitted, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Xander chuckled at that, "I'd be surprised if they taught you about any of this."

Skyla smiled, easing the worry that had been building up in Xander. She looked back towards Caelan, a pondering look in her eyes, "In all seriousness though, what the hell are we supposed to do about him. I mean, he is very clearly an undead, but he's still just a kid." She pointed out.

Xander sighed and looked at Caelan as well, "...I think we should take him back up to the surface. After all, if he is telling the truth, then we just found someone that could be a possible heir to the throne." He rubbed the back of his head, "Although, I'm not even sure how the inheritance law would apply to him. Can a dead royal that came back to life and retained their sentience inherit the throne?"

Skyla frowned in thought, looking down to her feet as she muttered to herself, the exact words not coherent enough for Xander to make out. He looked ahead, deciding to let her stew over this legal problem. They both stopped in their tracks though, when a blue box suddenly appeared in front of them.

Warning: Entering the 12th Floor of [The Dead Labyrinth].

Updating [Dungeon Screen] information...

Information successfully updated.

"...Huh?"

The Abyss Watcher eyed the blue box curiously. Apparently they had entered the final floor of the [Dungeon], yet nothing had changed in the scenery. Heck, it didn't even seem that they had gone down in any way. Frowning he looked behind them. It had been strangely quiet ever since the earthworms that he had killed, and not a single monster had shown up.

Looking back the way they came, he crouched down observing the floor upon which they had been walking on. Sure enough it was on the slightest of angles, so slight that it would be impossible to notice it when one was walking. Why though? What purpose did misleading the people inside you to believe that they were going straight on, but in reality they were going down?

Eyes narrowing he readied his sword, eyes flicking to the walls, roof, and floor as he looked for any sort of movement or disturbance. Seeing this caution his party members repeated it, readying their own weapons. Why? Why the deception? What could the [Dungeon] possibly gain from this?

The party continued to exercise their caution, rooting themselves to the spot as they scanned around them. This continued for a few more minutes before Xander broke the oppressive silence that had fallen over them.

"I think we should get moving." He said, slowly lowering his sword yet still scanning around him in caution, "I don't know why the [Dungeon] was made like this but I don't really want to stick around to find out."

As he finished speaking everyone began to lower their weapons, the Abyss Watcher being the last to do so. Skyla pointed her staff further down the tunnel that they had been traversing, illuminating it in blue light. It was a dead straight path, with no turns nor deviations from the path, the end of it hidden by the darkness. This one however, seemed to not be on the same downward angle that the path behind them had.

Hesitantly, Skyla took a step forward. Then another. When nothing immediate happened, the others followed slowly moving farther in. As they continued to move farther in the air shifted, now feeling more dense than before. As they moved further in a loud slam from behind shook the ground beneath them, bringing their attention towards it. The path that once led out had been replaced by a solid stone wall, the cracked ground underneath telling that it had smashed it's way down from the roof.

The Abyss Watcher quickly walked over to the newly formed wall, brushing his hand over it as he searched for anything amiss among the wall. He had encountered his fair share of illusory walls back in his own world. Unfortunately it did not seem to be the case this time as the wall remained solid. He turned back to his party, shaking his head.

"Well it's not like things can get any worse right?" Xander offered up.

Without warning the walls began to shake violently, the pieces of rock falling from the roof from the sheer force of the tremors. The walls began expanding outwards, the noise forcing it's way into everyone's ears. The walls continued to expand for some time, now accompanied in this movement by the roof overhead, until they had reached past the light coming from Skyla's staff, leaving only the ground beneath their feet and the wall that had remained behind them, the rest left to pitch black..

This did not last long however, as a massive burst of white light appeared above, washing away the darkness to reveal the changes that had been made. They now stood in a large room, the sides reaching far enough to consider this place an arena.

Warning: Boss Arena Trigger activated!

Huh, so it was an arena. He looked to his companions. Each had a look of horror on their faces. He tilted his head in confusion. Come to think of it, he had never heard of this 'Boss' before. Was it some sort of strong enemy? Suddenly the ground began to shake, the tremors seemingly originating from the centre of the arena, as something began to dig out of the ground.

That something turned out to be a massive hand armoured in some sort of black metal, which burst out of the ground, it's large fingers clawing into the stone as it found purchase. This was soon followed by the rest of the body that belonged to the hand being pulled out, causing all of them to crane their necks as they trailed up it's body.

It was massive, towering over triple the Abyss Watchers height. It's armour was shining black plate, covering every inch of it's body, but leaving a small opening in the helmet to reveal the head of a skeleton, two purple fires burning in it's eye sockets which stared down at the party. It reached it's hand behind it's back, grabbing the handle of an axe that looked like it was bigger than the skeleton itself and drawing it from it's back, the entire thing made of the same black metal that it's armour was made of.

[Analyse]

[Categories] [Information] Creature Type Undead Monster Name Giant Death Knight Level 133 Core Stats:

[Health 20,000 [Stamina] 40,000 [Mana] 300

Skyla glared at Xander to her left, who still stared up at the Death Knight, his expression hidden by the helmet.

"You just HAD to open your mouth didn't you." She said, bonking him on the head with her staff, bringing him out of his shocked stupor.

The Abyss Watcher looked back at Caelan, the small undead having taken to staring in shock at the massive monster that had dug itself out of the ground. Scanning the room he spotted a single rock, large enough to act as cover. Strange that it was the only rock in the room that disturbed the flat ground. He pointed to the strange rock, Caelan nodding in response as he began to sprint over to the rock.

Satisfied, the Abyss Watcher turned back to the Death Knight, drawing his dagger as he did so. The Death Knight's gaze focused on him, it's sudden movement bringing the attention of the party to him as well. He placing his sword on his shoulder he crouched down, holding the dagger across his chest.

He burst forward, sprinting directly at the Death Knight and past his party members. The Death Knight roared as it saw his movement, raising it's mighty axe with a roar that shook the cavern as it swung downwards. The Abyss Watcher sprinted to the side of it, easily dodging the powerful blow. And powerful it was, as it embedded itself into the ground, causing a spiderweb of cracks to form across the arena floor.

Not wasting this opportunity the Abyss Watcher quickly jumped, taking his dagger and stabbing it into the giants knee, he used his momentum from the sprint to swing himself around the leg, the dagger continuing to slice through the rotten flesh. Finally it stopped, getting caught in a piece of the Death Knight's armour and stopping it in it's tracks. Acting in an instant the Abyss Watcher pulled upwards, propelling himself up the massive leg and up the Death Knight's back as he took his dagger with him.

Using the large momentum build up he reached around the middle of it's back before beginning to slow down. Realising this he pulled his sword in front of him looking downwards.

[Dash]

He blurred downwards at impossible speeds, slicing with his sword as he went, slicing through the Death Knight's armour. He landed on the ground with a thud. The Death Knight let out a roar of pain, taking it's axe out of the ground and swinging behind it. He rolled forward, sprinting back towards his party. He skidded to a halt as he reached them, turning back to face the Death Knight.

The Death Knight turned back to face them, it's purple eyes burning in rage. Of course they were made of fire and so were already burning, but now they were burning with a passion.

"What in the name of Celest did I just witness." Xander suddenly said, looking at the Abyss Watcher. The Abyss Watcher looked at Xander, tilting his head confusion.

A wooden staff once again wacked Xander's helmet, Skyla holding said staff with an exasperated look on her face, "And what have you done huh?" She reprimanded.

"I agree." Alissa said, stepping forward while glancing occasionally at the Abyss Watcher with an unreadable expression, "After all, we can't let him do all the work." She drew her bow, aiming it at the Death Knight, "So let's at least try to stick to the strategy we formulated."

Xander stood still for a moment before nodding, "All right then, let's give this thing hell."

"[Piercing Arrow]" Alissa said, the tip of the arrow she had drawn beginning to glow a brilliant green. She released her hold on the string, sending the arrow flying through the air towards the chest of the Death Knight. It went straight through the monster, not slowing nor stopping in the slightest as it also ended up going through the wall behind the Death Knight.

The Death Knight roared in pain as it clutched the area where it had been shot. A bright blue beam than collided with it's roaring mouth, causing it to halt it's roar as it took a step back. Skyla smirked as she held her staff high, the blue beam dissipating as she did so to reveal the Death Knight's face to now be burnt. It roared in rage, raising it's massive axe and swinging down at Skyla.

"[Ultimate Fortress]!" Xander stepped in front of Skyla, shield up high. A massive mirror of his shield, but instead made of a green glowing substance, formed in front of him, successfully blocking the axe swing and causing it to bounce off. That didn't mean Xander was unscathed however, as he fell to his knees with a gasp, the shield disappearing after a few more seconds.

"Bloody hell that thing can hit." Xander said, coughing underneath his helmet as Skyla knelt beside him, a blue glow enveloping her hands. The Abyss Watcher looked back to the Death Knight, this time finding it looking at Alissa. It stepped forward, raising it's axe again.

Eyes widening the Abyss Watcher ran forward, not aiming for the Death Knight nor Alissa. If he went for the Death Knight he wouldn't be able to do enough damage to stop it's swing. If he went to Alissa he wouldn't be able to directly stop the hit, nor would he be able to successfully push her out of the way in time considering that his [Dash] was on cooldown. Sprinting forward he jumped up, intercepting the axe. Using his sword, he pressed his blade against the axe, shifting it ever so slightly to an angle facing away from Alissa.

The axe narrowly missed Alissa, who leapt back with a yelp. The sound of metal against stone filled the arena as the axe scraped against the hard floor. Roaring in anger at missing it's target the Death Knight brought it's axe back up now aiming for the Abyss Watcher.

"[Crescent Blade]!" Before it could even begin to bring it down however, a blue burst of energy that took the form of a crescent slammed into it's side, forcing it to stumble to the side a bit, interrupting it's attack. Standing their, now seemingly recovered was Xander, his shield placed onto his back as he held onto his sword, now enshrouded in a deep blue, above him as if he had done an uppercut with the sword.

Not wasting this opportunity the Abyss Watcher ran towards the still recovering Death Knight, readying his blade once again. He jumped, digging his dagger in between a chink in it's armour and pulling upwards, sending him farther up the Death Knight's giant body. He soon made it to eye level, the Death Knight, who had finally recovered from the [Crescent Blade] Xander had sent at it, looked at the Abyss Watcher in shock.

The Abyss Watcher stabbed forward, his sword extinguishing the flame in it's right eye as it made contact. The Death Knight roared in pain, raising a hand to swat away the Abyss Watcher. It didn't get the chance to however as said hand was impaled by a bright green arrow, moving it away from the Abyss Watcher. It raised it's other free hand, only for that to then be shot by a fireball, also sending it away from the Abyss Watcher.

Smiling underneath his mask, he raised his dagger and plunged it into the Death Knight's left eye, extinguishing that flame as well. Pulling out his sword, he once again pulled himself upwards, using the dagger as an anchor which he brought along with him. He flew above the Death Knight, almost reaching the roof of the arena. He stayed motionless in the air for just a second before beginning to fall back down.

Sheathing his dagger as he grabbed his sword with both hands, he started to spin in the air, building up more and more momentum as he began to fly downwards. He sliced. His feet slammed into the ground a second later, cracking the stone floor beneath them. The arena fell silent. The Death Knight fell backwards silently, that silence replaced by a sickening smash a moment later as it collided with the arena floor.

Boss Defeated...

XP successfully Rewarded...

Item Reward successfully placed into Boss Arena.

The Abyss Watcher stood up, placing his sword back onto his shoulder as he switched back to holding it with one hand. He turned around to find his party members all staring at him. He looked to where Caelan was hiding to find him standing up, mouth agape as he also stared.

A hole then opened up, almost like a sinkhole as the rock seemingly collapsed in on itself, the hole appearing in the middle of the party. Out of it, a pillar of stone rose up, a golden scepter held in a small ring situated at the top of it. The Abyss Watcher's eyes widened. That was what they had come here for. And it had just popped out of the ground. Granted they still had to defeat that Death Knight, but still.

Neat.