Sera was about to lower her guard, assuming the dungeon cleared, when her intuition flared up.

She quickly picked up her weapons, increased her distance to the body of the knight and brought the blade of her scythe in front of her to protect herself from whatever was about happening. As it turned out she made it just in time. Not even moments after she had reached a hopefully safe distance, her former enemy exploded and an earthquake hit the dungeon.

While she managed to protect herself, without much of a warning, aside from the missing dungeon clear message, she wasn't quite able to evade or block all of the chaotic flying shrapnels.

A number of marks on her armor showed clearly that she would have been seriously wounded without it, yet even now she wasn't unharmed. Blood kept flowing from deep scratches on her face, arms and legs where she hadn't been able to guard herself.

Thinking about getting a potion out to heal and rid herself of her minor bleeding status condition, she soon had to toss that idea aside. The boss was standing again. Now taking the form of an humanoid, fire elemental-like being surrounded by a number of obsidian shards, still holding two black swords.

[Fire of the Knight Lv 34]

Their battlefield was still changing as the ruins of the former bastion were further crumbling, though that didn't trouble the elemental as it surprisingly swiftly closed the distance the girl had previously created.

Unable to evade in time, she could only block the heavy strike. She would have liked to watch the parts of their island break apart and sink into the lava, surely a beautiful scene, though unfortunately the boss forced her to focus on it. Sera didn't even have time to think of a song to hum during the fight!

However seeing it positively, the fight was now much more of a challenge. Just... It could have waited for their now smaller battlefield to stop reforming!

Silently complaining about how unreasonable the boss was, she barely evaded a strike with the second obsidian sword and tried to attack with her own weapon. An action her opponent easily evaded. Yet just to be sure it even used its obsidian fragments to further block her scythe. On one hand a clear sign that it was now more vulnerable, but on the other also much harder to actually hit.

Trying to disengage by throwing a dagger at its head, an attack which was similarly quickly dodged, another sword strike foiled her plans. At least she managed to redirect the attack now, though it was still a powerful swing and a second one was already incoming.

Not to mention that it was getting hotter!

Where previously the armor had likely locked some of the heat of the boss away, she was now fully facing the fire and the being seemed to like to stay close to her. Also with the walls of the bastion gone, the warmth of the lava could now more easily reach the battlefield.

Blocking and dodging more and more of the attacks, as she and her intuition slowly got used to the now higher attributes of their enemy and its patterns. The girl started to suspect that the elemental also got better in swordsmanship, but it was a rather unlikely conclusion. A strength and speed boost because it stripped its armor? Sure. But one doesn't improve one's sword-skill that easily. Though then again the earthquake was too much of a coincidence to not be part of a very game-like boss fight.

A very enjoyable one at that.

However regardless of how much she liked the fight, she had to search for a way to get the deciding hit in, as her resources were more and more dwindling and the accumulating cuts on her body and armor were slowly reducing its durability. Durability did exist, right? Nia had likely explained it, but a young girl could only be forced to listen to boring lectures for so long before she had to see blood again! Or at least something more interesting.

Anyway, if she had a team, the fight would have been easy. One or two could occupy the opponent, while someone else tried to attack the elemental and maybe another person to take care of buffs and heals. But she was alone and would have to deal with it accordingly.

Dropping her weapon again was an option, yet she had already used that tactic once and with its increased speed she would be in trouble without the scythe to hold the elemental at a distance.

That left her with her own fire as the only means of attacking. Not necessarily the most intuitive option, but she had done crazier things, like fighting a dungeon boss double her level alone and without much preparation, aside from inflated physical attributes and a lot of offensive classes.

Not wasting any time, a quick thought summoned a fireball, yet before she could even shot it, the flame was snuffed out of existence and an even heavier and faster strike pushed her back, leaving her with another nick on her scythe and a flesh wound on an unprotected area of her left upper arm.

It even seemed like even her fire had only a positive effect on the boss and she was running out of options... Or was she?

Having an idea, Sera was continuing their exchange a bit, waiting for the right moment.

Parrying and diverting another strike, her enemy tried to hit her diagonally with its other sword. While attempting to evade the attack, she simultaneously spawned a few fireballs. So instead of just correcting the directory of the strike, the flame-knight miscalculated its own power and overcorrected. With the elementals increased speed she still just barely made it out of the path of the sword, yet her gamble had paid off as the weapon easily cut into the ground.

An opportunity the girl wouldn't miss. Swinging her scythe, she quickly severed the body made from flames.

[You defeated the Fire of the Knight Lv 34.]

The foe killed, it's flames were slowly vanishing as only wisps of quickly dissipating smoke remained.

A rather atypical way for a being of Eas to die. And again no clear message.

Though Sera had already half expected it. Having a third stage was a bit surprising, but so was a second stage in a dungeon with most enemies around level 25. Distancing herself from the place the body was vanishing, she quickly searched for a potion.

However getting the flask to her mouth turned out much harder than anticipated, as the second earthquake for the day hit the island.

The girl even nearly dropped the item, though that wasn't as much the disaster's fault as it was the dizziness', which was slowly encroaching her mind.

All the flames and lava had given her again the overheated status condition next to the one for bleeding.

Somehow managing to empty the magical liquid into her body, the girl, still on unsteady legs, looked around, trying to figure out what would happen next. Well, she didn't expect to actually figure anything out, but maybe her intuition could help her and it didn't happen that often that one was in the middle of such a fiery and destructive hellscape! So she should take in the sights.

With the second and much longer and stronger earthquake slowly subsiding, the first thing Sera noticed was the abrupt increase in lava streaming into the pit around the bastion. Next a shock ran through the island and from one moment to the next it sagged a meter or two down. Though already looking around, she quickly noted that she was mistaken about something. The island didn't simply get closer to the liquid rock, it was breaking apart and only a few pillars, offering just enough space for a person, seemed to remain stable.

Knowing games, she was aware where this would lead and the warrior didn't like it. Yet there was nothing she could do about the next stage of the fight, so she ran to the closest pillar as fast as it was possible with her recovering body.

Having reached her temporary safe-haven, she watched as the rubble of the bastion was slowly sinking into the lava. However, also trying to figure out from where the boss would appear, she couldn't make out any signs of the being.

She wasn't sure what it was waiting for, especially as it had attacked her even during the battlefield change between the first and second phase, yet for the moment she was glad to have a few moments to recover and more importantly watch the island sink into lava!

Watching stuff melt was strangely fascinating...

Unfortunately the break ended way too soon. A lava-bubble had formed and was growing bigger and bigger, consuming what little remained from the bastion and hadn't yet been melted, aside from the pillars.

Bursting and splattering the hot liquid around, again a flame in humanoid shape was revealed, though unlike the last version, this one didn't have the obsidian shards surrounding it and not even its swords were made out of the material. Instead everything made from fire and two wings allowed it to float above the lava.

Were the wings even necessary for a being made out of flames? Sera didn't care as the [Avatar of Fire Lv 35] looked cool.

However, just finishing her thoughts on the new form of the boss, it suddenly stood before her. Not even a moment had passed and she was pretty sure she hadn't blinked, yet the girl couldn't even follow the movements of the being!

And the flaming sword was quickly closing in!