Near the boss area:

“Shouldn’t we return and assist them?” Asked Steve, the spear user of the White Knights.

“I’ve said this multiple times, especially with how things went south. We need to abort this mission and go out of this place. This way we can help those who managed to stay alive.” Replied Lancelot. “You saw those talking monsters yourself; they are out of our league. It took us the three of us, and most of our strengths to take down that Chupacabra.” He added.

“Yeah, and that one who caused the explosion is no joke either. So we’d better find the boss and finish him off.” Affirmed Isaac.

“So, are we sure that the boss has spawned?” Questioned Steve.

“Yeah, before this chaos happened, I left the team and went to check by myself, and I saw him waiting outside of his shack right behind that cliff.” Lancelot Motioned to the cliff in front of them. “The pursuit was not the only trigger to fight the boss, there was something else we didn’t know, and that by itself is a blessing from the heavens.”

After crossing the hill, they saw a large ape sitting in front of his hut. His fur was all green with black hands and legs. He was wearing small shorts and his chest was full of ink symbols. His weapon of choice was a large bone stick on his back, and he was bald.

The ape saw the White Knight warriors coming; he stood up and screamed a battle roar that shake the area around them.

“Prepare yourselves for battle. He’s coming.” Screamed Lancelot.

***

The north side of the forest:

The skeleton warrior attacked Zinouseus with a heavy blow, but he dodged it and retaliated with a swing from his big claymore. The monster blocked it and jumped above the giant. His agility was phenomenal. He was caught by the flying monster and blocked some bullets shot by John.

The flying monster threw the skeleton towards John but was tackled by Zinouseus.

John charged a bigger bullet inside his gun and shot it towards the flying monster.

He dodged it and attacked John with a kick. John jumped to the side and kept shooting random bullets that did not find their targets.

On the other hand, Zinouseus had a hard time keeping the skeleton at bay. He managed to parry several slashes, but his claymore’s condition quickly deteriorated. He was pushed back to where John was and they were back to back.

“Can’t you aim properly and hit that flying monster there?” Asked Zinouseus.

“I’ll give you my gun and I dare you to land a hit on him. If I cannot do that then no one can. Also, I’m not firing at random here; I have a plan, unlike a brute here who’s having a hard time against a mere skeleton.”

“I’m glad your mouth is still working properly after all those bashes you received. So, how much time do you still need to put your plan into action?”

“A few more minutes.”

“Okay. Then let’s switch sides.” Zinouseus smashed the ground with his claymore to make a dust cloud that covered them.

The flying monster flew higher and used his wings to clear the dust.

Zinouseus left his claymore stuck to the ground and dashed towards a tree. He held it tightly and pulled it out from the ground. Then, he swung it at the flying creature who was trying to clear the dust with his wings.

The flying monster was taken by surprise and hit by the tree and fell to the ground.

Zinouseus did not stop there. He jumped at the fallen monster and held him from his wings. “You can’t run away now.”

“There’s no delicacy in your fighting. You’re really a brute, but don’t think you’ll be able to keep me strangled like this.” The monster started struggling and shaking his whole body to become free, but Zinouseus dug the ground with his legs to stay put.

The skeleton tried to attack the giant to free his mate, but he was met with several bullets that stopped him on his track.

He changed his sight to John and tried to cut him, but John’s speed helped him get away before he could make contact.

John kept him busy using his bullets, each with different firepower, which made an immediate retaliation difficult.

Nonetheless, the skeleton managed to corner John and pushed him into a place where he could not dodge. He swung his sword at John’s neck. “This is the end.” He smiled.

“I don’t think so.” Grinned John while throwing his gun at the face of the attacking skeleton.

The skeleton slashed the gun in two and it exploded right on his face. He jumped back to cover himself from the small explosion.

John took this chance to bring out another gun from his inventory, scored a direct shot at the skeleton’s arm, and blew it away.

“Hey filthy giant, everything is ready now.” He shouted while dashing towards Zinouseus.

The skeleton, angry at the lowly human who played one on him, used all his strength to catch up to the running gunner, and he barely managed to catch up to him when he arrived face to face with the giant.

John slid beneath Zinouseus, which allowed the giant to throw the struggling winged beast at the dashing skeleton.

They both slammed against each other instantly, and out of nowhere, a shower of bullets was shot from all directions at the two talking monsters.

“What did you do?” Asked Zinouseus.

“This is my secret move. By firing special bullets randomly, I can control them by breaking the gun that shot them, which makes me use them from wherever they landed and they can follow the target that is touched by the mana released during the explosion of the said gun.” John explained while being proud of what he has done.

Before he could finish bragging about his secret technique, the monsters stood up, all bloodied and screwed by the special bullets.

Zinouseus took this chance to get his claymore and transferred all his mana towards it, and then he slammed the ground and sent a big shockwave that penetrated the rocks and hit the monster's head-on. It was a devastating blow.

***

Shiryuu’s side:

“It seems you have a hard time, boy.” A familiar voice rang through my head.

“Old dragon! You’re awake.”

“Thanks to you, I have enough mana to maintain my form. Now, let me assist you against this demon.”

“So he was indeed a demon.”

“Yes. He is a genuine demon. So they finally started making their moves.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s have this talk later. First, I am going to give you the necessary knowledge on how to use the dragon techniques of your weapon. This is simple, just synchronize your thoughts with mine and you’ll learn everything through my knowledge.”

I closed my eyes and felt a surge of information and power going through me.

I opened my eyes, stood-up, concentrated mana on my sword, and launched an air slash that took the form of a dragon’s head. “Dragon Head,” I muttered the name of the technique.

The mana-blast hit the demon and blasted him away.

“What’s going on?” The demon was surprised.

I advanced towards the demon, and mana was overflowing from my body.

The area started shaking from the huge amount of energy I was emitting. The demon moved back unconsciously. ‘Am I sweating?’ He touched his forehead.

I was brimming with power. I felt the same way as when I fought that dragon weeks ago. “So this is the power of the old dragon” Sounding confident.

“This is just a fraction of my powers.” The old dragon corrected me. “There is still a long way for you to master my powers. Don’t sound confident yet.”

“Yeah you’re right; defeating that demon over there is a priority now.”

I held my sword with two hands and put it in front of my eyes so the side would be parallel with my view. “Ono-ha-Itto-Ryu, Breathless Fang.” Without making the faintest of sounds, I dashed towards the demon to slash him.

He blocked my attack with an invisible wind barrier and followed it by a wind-clad punch. I used ‘Counter and Parry’ to block the attack and slash him with a counter, but he teleported away from me.

I knew he would dodge it, so I fainted the counter and launched a second Dragon Head at where he appeared.

He was taken by surprise and hit by my attack. He fell, and before he could stand on his legs, I used a step slash to cut the second needle from his shoulder.

At that moment, he sent a wind blast at the ground, making an explosion and throwing both of us away. “Is he trying for a mutual kill?” I muttered.

I was not that much hurt from the blast because of the regenerative powers of the dragon. I stood up again but was immediately hit by space-traveling attacks that I did not know when he used them. I could not block them and was pummelled by several heavy hits.

Then, he teleported next to me and blasted me away by another strong windblast, but I took this moment to fire another Dragon Head. We were both blown away.

“I’m so disappointed, you can’t defeat me with that level of attacks.” He shouted and teleported behind me. “This is the end.” He created a big vortex on the palms of his hands and unleashed it at me.

“You talk too much.” I pivoted around my left leg and turned quickly to slash him with my sword before the vortex hit me. I turned my sword upside-down and with high-concentration mana at its tip, I made an uppercut slash that cut both of his hands. “Dragon Slash.”

The demon screamed his lungs out. He was feeling enormous pain.

“This is the true end. Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Ougi, DRAGONIC FLASH SLASH.” The mana around my sword took the form of a winged-dragon and I cut him in two.

.

.

.

I used my sword as a standing stick and took a deep breath. “Finally I defeated this threat.” Sounding relieved.

“Those were some amazing techniques.” Said Akavic as he extended his arm to me.

I took his hand and said, “I’m still not familiar with my weapon, I need a lot of training to unlock its true potential.”

“Nonetheless, you helped us here. I owe you my life.”

Suddenly, we felt a huge presence appearing next to Lucas.

We used what strength was left to run towards Lucas and found another unknown monster holding him. The newly arrived monster had the head of a horse with reddish horns coming from its sides, the body of a human, a peacock tail, and an orc’s legs.

“Who the hell are you?” I shouted.

He turned to face me and said, “So you are the one who killed Marade. You are a Mythological Weapon user. This is interesting.” He took out Lucas’s inventory and muttered some strange words, and then the dungeon reset device was extracted.

“What will you do with that machine?” I asked.

“None of your business.”

‘Hey Shiryuu, that one is out of your league. You would better retreat and make a plan. If you fight him in your state, you won’t survive.’ Said the old dragon.

“I can’t retreat now. If I do as you say then everyone here will die. My pride won’t let me abandon my teammates.”

“Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Adramelech, the leader of the third division of the seventh demon army, and also the superior of the demon you killed.” His expression changed and became more sinister. “I shall kill you and take that sword. It would be the best gift for master Asmodeus.”

While he was still talking, I attacked him with an air slash, but he brushed it off as if it was nothing.

“Akavic, take the wounded to a safe place. I’ll take care of this one.” I used a step slash to cut the demon in front of me, but he blocked the attack with one finger.

I wanted to make him move so that Akavic can rescue Lucas, but Adramelech knew my plan and restrained Lucas with his tail. “You’re not getting this one until you defeat me.”

I used an uppercut slash, but he dodged it and kicked me on the stomach.

I kept attacking the monster with several attacks but nothing worked on him.

Afterward, I jumped backward and readied a Dragon Head attack. However, something glittered from his tail, and suddenly an explosion happened beneath me.

“Where did this attack come from?” I was severely damaged and fell to the ground.

I stood up and tried to counterattack him. As soon as I readied my stance, I felt dizzy and fell on my knees. “What’s happening?”

‘You’ve overused your newly acquired powers. You’re still not used to them.’

“It seems you’re out of strength. Now it’s time to finish you all.” He threw Lucas away and his tail stood up while glittering like the sun.

Suddenly, a message popped up: “Congratulations! Your team cleared the dungeon.” Moreover, a light descended on me. “Am I getting teleported out of the dungeon?”

“Well it seems I missed my chance, but I got what I came for.” Adramelech celebrated his win.

‘Hey kid, destroy that machine. It seems he came for it. Don’t let him celebrate his win.’ Said Raimeiryuu.

The reset device was put a few meters away from the demon, so I used all the strength I had left on me, launched a Dragon Head at the machine, and destroyed it.

“WHAT DID YOU DO YOU MORON?” Screamed the demon. “You’ll pay for this.” He looked at the unconscious Lucas and started laughing. “Hahahaha, you won’t be able to do anything, so I’ll make you suffer.”

He jumped and smashed his glittering tail on the unconscious warrior and a big explosion happened.

The last thing I heard was the hysteric laughter of the demon and then I found myself outside the dungeon.