After what felt like forever, I made it out. My arms and face were scratched up, bleeding in several places as some branches were stubborn. At least I was out. Water was starting to trickle down into this pit. Clint must have been making headway.

There was still no sign of Jun, though. I called her name, walking all around the outside of the maze, but heard no answer. Where the hell is she?

I ran back to Clint. He was hacking away, sweat dripping from him, green vine goo covering his forearms. He paused and rested his blade on the pile of vegetation as I ran up to him.

“Where’s Jun?” He asked and my heart sank.

“I was hoping she came back here. She ran into the maze and I followed, but lost her. I made it to the center, but she wasn’t there. I called her name but…” I was getting worked up, my hand clutched over my heart as I felt it racing out of control. Was I going to die again?

“Woah, calm down. It’s alright. We can handle this. Maybe she’s just havin’ a game with yah. Hidin’ to make yah worry. Yah hurt?” He looked me over and his eyes landed on the sword I was carrying. “Where’d you get that?”

“At the center of the maze. She might still be lost in it.” I handed over the sword to Clint. It was meant for him, clearly. The loot in the box was tailored, except for the arrows, for our party it seemed. That or we were really lucky. “I don’t know if you should finish the vines so the blessed water can get to the maze first or if we should chase after Jun. I don’t think Jun is the only thing in the maze.”

“It’s gonna take me all day to get through that. We best find Jun first. She could be hurt.” He stashed his old sword and lifted the new one to rest on his shoulder as he jumped over the blockage and into the canyon with me.

As we jogged to the pit, I explained everything that happened and how I worried that Jun was just playing a trick on me for all the stuff I said yesterday. He thought about it for a moment, weighing my words carefully.

“I don’t think she’d do that. Jun can be irrational, but she ain’t stupid.” He said, patting my shoulder. “She probably knows you were right about yesterday an’ just can’t admit it yet.”

“You are right. I just worry about losing our agro addicted team member.” I admitted.

“Our what?” Clint absently asked as we came upon the pit. It was a sight that had filled me with awe too, so I gave him a moment to take it all in.

As soon as we both stepped into the pit, a drumming sound began. Both of our heads whipped about to find the source, but we couldn’t spot it. I called out for Jun, but there was no answer. I ran towards the maze.

The ground shook and I slid in the water that had started to pool from the little trickle Clint had set free from the vines. I fell hard on my backside and looked up at the statue as it began to move. The right hand holding the sphere of darkness clenched, squeezing the orb until shadow seemed to ooze out of it. The stone cloak rustled like fabric and the statue stepped of the roof of the small room that housed the way down to the next floor. The hooded head turned towards us, staring with an eyeless gaze that seemed to burn.

“Shit. Clint it is a boss!” I scrambled to my feet, covered in mud and water.

“Yeah, he sure is a big fella.” Clint was gripping his sword tightly. “He gonna attack us?”

“Yes. Bosses in games are really strong monsters that guard something or are the goal to beat. They are tougher than the other monsters in the area and often come with rewards.” I explained as I attempted to hide behind him. “This must be his boss room and he didn’t come to life before because the whole party had not arrived yet.”

“That means Jun is here somewhere.”

As if on cue, a bullet of wind struck the statue, causing it to stumble a little. It whipped around and faced the maze, and most likely Jun. Before I could say a word of caution, Clint ed in at the boss. His new blade glowed in silvery light as he struck.

The statue took several steps back. Clint didn’t ease up on his swinging. The boss squeezed the ball of dark and a shadow darted out and struck Clint. He grunted in pain but continued his attack. Another shot of air hit the creature and it stumbled, allowing Clint a chance to step back and use his again.

Darkness struck Clint another time and he fell to one knee. I knew it was time to send out a heal, even if it didn’t do much. I grasped my pendant.

“!” I shouted and felt myself lose all energy. I fell into the puddle of water again, but Clint was back on his feet.

The statue was starting to crack, we had to have been getting close to defeating it. It reached down and swatted Clint aside. He went flying toward the bushes of the maze.

“!” It was Jun’s voice coming from the maze.

A gale of wind ripped through the pit and caught Clint before he could land and be injured. I heard a whoop of triumph from Jun, but still couldn’t see her. At least she had a good spot to see the battle and help out. Now we knew what her other spell was for. It was a great guess and I was so relieved.

Once Clint was on the ground, he charged at the boss with another . He was getting able to use that more and more frequently. His attack caused the statue’s knee to crumble. The boss fell to its remaining knee and tried to thrust the black orb at our fighter. Clint nimbly jumped out of the way and brought his new sword down on the wrist of his foe. The wrist snapped and the creature’s means of attack was lost to it as the hand rolled down the pit towards me and the puddle of water.

It continued to swat at Clint who was hacking chunks off of it. I leapt up and grabbed the large hand to drag to the water, finally able to move myself. The hand was still clutching whatever was causing the shadows. It was a long shot, but I thought that the blessed water could stop the shadows and figured that if I was wrong I at least got the boss’ weapon away from the fight.

More wind hit the boss and Clint sliced away. I struggled with the large hand but pulled and pulled until one finger hit water. The stone of the statue sizzled in the water. It dropped the black orb and the shadow dissolved, leaving a pendant in the shape of the moon.

As I picked it up out of the water, I heard Jun scream in shock and the sound of something cracking. I spun around to see Clint crumpled on the ground with the statue raising its fist to hit again. I cast my healing spell but the magic seemed to come from the new pendant and I didn’t get overwhelmed by weakness. With the little bit of healing I managed to do, Clint was able to roll out of the way of the fist barreling down at him. Jun struck with another blow and the statue shattered into pieces, even the hand.

Clint lay on his back, panting. I knew he was still hurting, but I could feel my healing spell resisting me, so it must still be on the cool down. Jun ripped herself from the hedge maze and jumped up and down in triumph.

“Did you see that? I got it! Bam! Right to the head. That had to be a crit or something.” She looked pretty torn up from the bushes, worse off than I was but still able to move around.

I rushed to Clint. He was bleeding out of one ear, but otherwise looked alright. He had his eyes closed but was responding to questions on if anything felt broken, if he could hear me, and so on.

“I was so not expecting the statue to attack us. You were so lucky to get out of the bushes, Alice, there was this faceless thing and it wrapped me up in vines until you got back. I was able to get one arm free and every other shot I took was at the vines to get free. And did you see my other spell! Clint would have splattered, but he didn’t.” She was talking so quickly it was difficult to understand her.

I was finally able to cast another heal on Clint. This time, I had to sit down, but was not forced to topple over with exhaustion. I must have leveled or the new pendant was working well at mana management. Clint was able to sit up now.

“Let’s not do that again.” He said, cleaning out his ear with a finger.

“Why not? You got to kill the boss over and over to get the best loot, that is how games work.” I teased. He looked up at me in horror, not realizing it was a joke. Jun and I burst into laughter and helped Clint up. “At least we know where the stairs are. We will need to get rid of those vines quick. I don’t know how long until the boss respawns, but we need to be down those stairs before it does.”

“You found the stairs?” Jun asked.

I explained what had happened to me in the maze and produced the new wand. She caressed it and flicked it about before aiming it at the maze and casting her spell. It might have been my imagination, but the spell seemed faster and stronger as it carved out a chunk of the bushes. She was on cloud nine and it seemed to lift Clint’s spirits enough to get him up and headed back towards the canyon. I hesitated.

“In some games, the boss rooms reset after everyone has left. I wonder if I should stay so it won’t come back. Kind of be a place holder. Jun can go back to camp and get some of our stuff and Clint can clear the blockage.” I offered.

The two agreed, but not before Clint made me promise to run out of the pit if it looked like the boss was reforming. It was nice to have someone so protective worry about me. Jun wasn’t happy about walking all the way back to camp but decided to make it a race and it perked up her mood.

Once I was alone, I sat on a rock out of the way of the growing puddle to consult my guide book.

Level: [4]

Race: [Aries]

Class: [Healer]

Order: [Club]

Guild: -none-

Party: [Unnamed]

Now that was some progression and all I did was a little healing! I was very grateful that my healing counted for experience in such a big way. I flipped to my skills.

..............Level 4

.......................Level 1

…………...Level 5

................Level 3

...................Level 2

I was progressing. There were no new skills for me to purchase with my points and the points were racking up as well. It looked like we got one every even level. I still had plenty from my lucky draw.

I flipped to the front of the book to get information on the boss.

[The Tainted Cowl]

Floor 1 Boss

Level 8

Shadow Wielder

This statue holds the memory and malice of a long forgotten mage. It taints all magics it touches. It has no thoughts other than removing the living from this plane through dark and twisted means.

“In what cases to bosses respawn?” I asked the first page.

Bosses respawn after the area is empty of players or after twenty four hours, whichever comes first. There will also be a patch in loot boxes not being accessible until the boss room has been cleared of all monsters.

Getting the loot likely saved our lives and access to the floor. I don’t think Clint would have hit as hard as he had without that sword. I wouldn’t have been able to heal as effectively. If only I had been able to get the new wand to Jun. It wouldn’t have been as close of a fight then.

The boss room wasn’t going to reset for a while, but it would soon even if I was inside. That limited our options. I had hoped Clint and Jun could go take out some of the Blight near the tower before we left the floor to aid others in getting through.

We had to leave today. We had to clear the stream today so that when the boss respawned, it wouldn’t overload the floor with Blight again. I was certain that the Blight were supposed to just guard this area and the rest of the floor would have other creatures, like the goblin camp that Jun had found. The blessed water was crucial but this was by design and that was something I couldn’t figure out.

I shook my head, figuring out why the water was blocked would be something to figure out later. Now I needed to think about how we would get the first floor open again. I rested my hands behind my head and lay back in the grass, my hooves starting to get wet with the increase of water.