Pellex stared at the colossal entryway, trying to wrap his head around the many choices they had to make. The entrance to the boss chamber was sealed by a pair of bronze doors, the enormous metal plates covered in weird writing and inscriptions of a horrible beast. Like a caterpillar, but fatter, and with less legs. If the images showed scale properly, it was also about twice the height of a man. Several of the designs showed the monster ripping people in half with its round, slobbering mouth, or smashing them with its legs, or simply sitting on them. Pellex didn’t really want to have his first boss fight with a bunch of complete strangers, but that seemed to be the most reasonable plan so far.

“We have to fight it,” Evwel said, “it’s our only real option. Anywhere else, and we’ll be found.”

“I must concur, I’m afraid,” Refos said, “I don’t relish the prospect of entering an unknown dungeon with a party like this, but I fancy fighting arders far less.”

Pellex broke away from his inspection of the doors and joined into their conversation.

“If we can break the core, we’ll have won. The lights will shut off, there will be no airflow, and the temperature will revert to its natural state. Not even Julian can stop that from happening.”

“Precisely. With the weapons I recovered from the arders, we will all be at least somewhat capable combatants.”

Pellex had been given one of those weapons, an iron saber one of the bandits had been carrying. He made a few experimental swings, feeling the cold weight in his hands. It was terribly unbalanced and quite heavy, but at least one of those could be easily remedied. As they were just sitting around, waiting for regeneration and letting Ucria make an assessment, he took the opportunity to use [Metalshape], the blade turning to putty in his hands. Pellex didn’t need it that malleable. He deactivated the skill and tried again, this time concentrating on the skill as it tried to pull from his thi. As it absorbed the power it required, Pellex focused on his intent, his specific need from the skill. His thi carried his resolve, and the skill responded, the blade softening again, but much less so than previously. Pellex set to work.

A few minutes later, Ucria finished her evaluation.

“Easy.”

Evwel looked up from her exercises.

“Hmmm? How so?”

“The upper area’s preponderance of small rooms and meandering hallways is likely to be consistent – as seen in Targlov, Prezim, and Eiquem, such dungeons usually hide those rooms with false walls and use the poor line-of-sight to rely on weak spawn in large numbers, using ambush tactics to take down the unaware.”

“And that’s something I can handle. After we see a few examples, I can use [Locate] to figure out where they are.” Pellex had [Foresight], too, but he wasn’t going to reveal that unless he had to. His explanation for having it wouldn’t be what was leaked, and having two [Divination] skills would, ironically, lead more people to guess the truth than if he told them the real reason he had the skills.

“Yeah, and with my [Mazesense] we won’t be spending as much time searching for the correct path and can, um, avoid more encounters.”

“Splendid, Ucria. Thoughts on dungeon type?”

“No way to tell at this point – the contention mechanics going on with the arders imply Muol, but the strategy is more what one would expect from a Sarter. Our best bet will be to, um, ask once inside.”

“Oh, speaking about the inside, the boss?”

“Trivial. My skills will probably work on it, and if they don’t, I think it lacks natural armor, which renders it especially vulnerable to your unarmed combat.”

Pellex stood up, sheathing his blade at his side.

“If that’s the verdict, I think it best we enter right away. Hopefully Holia has managed to keep things under control, but we have no idea, and they could have started hunting us quite a while ago.”

“Yup.”

“I have no objection.”

“Sounds, um, good to me.”

Pellex turned to the doors, and, with a flourish, placed his hands on the bronze. He felt [Cogsight] tugging at him where he was touching the doors, but he ignored it. No time for distractions. A wave of light pulsed across the metal, and the massive doors began to slowly swing open, perfectly silent. The room beyond was filled with darkness, but the four people stepped inside without hesitation.

As the door swung shut behind them, cerulean orbs embedded in the walls to either side of the entryway burst alight, and then two farther ones, the lights activating two by two as whatever impulse drove them traveled around the room. The soft blue glow revealed a massive round chamber, a dark stone floor with the polished gray walls Pellex had seen outside. Five marble pillars held up the domed ceiling, and, on the other side of the room, Pellex could see an exit. That wasn’t what caught his attention, though. Everything was covered in carvings. Millions of intricate, beautiful reliefs scrawled across the surfaces, many of them depicting similar scenes to those seen on the doors, but most completely different, indicating flowers, people, landscapes, with skill to rival any of the great masters.

Pellex turned and saw Ucria running her hands over the wall, whispering something to herself. Refos seemed shocked by the room, his gaze traveling over the columns intently. Evwel spared only a glance before shouting out to them.

“Stop gawking and get ready, it’s spawning!”

Pellex whipped his gaze to the center of the room, where trillions of motes of light were coalescing into a massive form. He readied his blade, and glanced at Refos, who prepared his cogrifle. They nodded to each other, and the cloud of light imploded, resolving itself into a hulking gray monster. The size of a large bear, it had eight legs, and a chitinous skin covering its body. It had no eyes, but a round mouth, lipless and pulsing with its breath. The beast roared, and Pellex brought up the monster notification as they all charged.

Erlch, Dungeon [Tardigrade]

Floor Boss

Phi: 1,424/1,424

Thi: 32/32

Sci: 4/4

As Erlch roared, Evwel roared right back. The [Apheretic] seemed to split apart at the seams, blood vessels bursting open all over her skin. Drenched in blood, she seemed more like one of the dead than the living, but as the red liquid glowed with power, Evwel hurled herself at the beast. Refos wasted no time either, the [Precisian] firing off shot after shot, each bullet slamming into the monster harder than physics would lead one to expect. Pellex, using [Foresight] at critical moments, perfectly dodged around the [Tardigrade]’s initial swipes, and slashed at the monster, scoring deep into the boss’ chitinous coating. He didn’t have any of the proper skills, but he had trained well, at least well enough for a starved dungeon’s first floor boss.

Ucria stood near the wall, concentrating deeply. As Pellex dodged another sweep and ducked in to score another hit, he saw her shake her head in frustration and step back. She made eye contact with Refos and nodded. The old gunslinger nodded back, and he resumed firing. His shots now shone with power, cracking against the monster with sparks of color.

Enraged by the attacks, Erlch stopped moving, shriveling into a much smaller form as moisture suddenly gushed out from it. The torrent swept the combatants away, just in time to see the [Tardigrade] disappear. Refos instantly bowed his head and closed his eyes, but the other three instantly started searching for the boss.

“How did it do that?” Pellex shouted, his gaze circling the arena.

“Ambush dungeon,” called Ucria, “it doesn’t hit head on.”

“Found it,” Refos called, his head snapping up as he aimed at the ceiling and fired, the bullet a sparkling mass of light. It impacted on something right above their heads, and a wave of yellow light pulsed out from the bullet wound, wiping away the invisibility. Erlch clung to the ceiling, still shriveled from before. Realizing he had been discovered and in pain, the [Tardigrade] opened his disgustingly circular mouth and shot out a tongue, wrapping the almost prehensile appendage around Refos and squeezing, pulling him off the ground. As the [Precisian]’s phi reserves were drained, the monster began to recover phi, rebuilding the moisture he had lost. Pellex ran to help, but he was too far and too slow.

Evwel wasn’t. With little more than a slight crouch, the blood-soaked nurse launched herself through the air, aiming directly for the tongue. Soaring through the air next to it, she grabbed the snakelike tongue with both her hands as she passed by, and pulled, the blood around her arms seeming to somehow pull with her. As both of them screamed, Evwel ripped the tongue in two. Refos was released as the tongue went limp, dropping to the floor, and Pellex pulled him out of the way as Evwel beat Erlch up. The blood around her body demonstrated a variety of uses as she slammed her fists into the [Tardigrade], changing from causing dozens of little explosions popping against Erlch’s hide, to acid that ate at his skin, to acting like a crude exoskeleton. Erlch fought back, but without the chance to drain the rest of Refos’ phi, his injuries were too great.

Realizing his imminent defeat, Erlch slammed Evwel to the floor and dropped down after her. Picking herself up, Evwel ran across the arena, the blood covering her flowing to her right hand. hardening and forming a colossal fist. With an incredible punch, Erlch was launched backwards, hitting the wall. As Pellex watched, the [Tardigrade] picked himself up, and seemed to glow for a faint second, before widening his mouth and firing a sickly green beam directly at Evwel. Whatever the attack was, it slammed into Evwel as if it was physical, but the [Apheretic] stood her ground, leaping out of the way a few seconds later. Pellex ran at the monster, hoping to distract him, but was interrupted by an ear-splitting crack. He turned and saw a bullet, glowing like the sun, pulsing through more colors than he had ever seen, pushing its way through the air. It was like time had frozen, and all Pellex had to do was watch as it slowly tore through Erlch and exploded, shattering the boss into a million gory chunks.

Erlch Defeated!

350 XP gained!

As the [Tardigrade]’s remains disintegrated into light, Pellex looked around at the others.

“Further in?”

Evwel responded with a loud cackle as her blood seeped back into her skin, wiping the already blood-free areas clean of some slime she was covered in.

“Oh, I’m just getting started.”