While Blue was busy trying to break the barrier, Hera was left alone to distract the Sky Ruler. At first, things weren't that bad. She hit the creature using rocks from a spell to cause a distraction and dashed towards it while swapping her chakram to her new handaxe. She got close enough to slash the creature's legs a couple of times. Unfortunately, Hera was overconfident. Killing the smaller griffons was too easy, and the Sky Ruler wasn't doing anything significant. This made her reckless, and she failed to notice when the giant monster set up a trap.

The griffon took a step back after being hit and let its wings fall to the ground, creating a perfect slope for Hera to climb. She deactivated her flaming poison rain and rushed towards the creature's back. Hitting its legs wouldn't do the same type of damage as hitting the torso or head. Excited about the idea of actually making some progress in the fight, Hera failed to notice the wind feathers mixed in the Sky Ruler's regular feathers. The moment she took one step on the monster's back, the spell triggered. Dozens of attacks coming from all directions suddenly assailed her. With her reflexes, some feathers missed, but most still hit her and tossed her around before launching her from the monster's back.

Hera hit the ground several meters away from the Sky Ruler, and a powerful gust of wind blew, once more trying to push her towards the edge. Several griffons were charging at her to make things worse, and the barrage of wind feathers didn't stop. Hera used her fear spell to push the monsters away.

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Ailment Mastery triggered

12 x Juvenile Sky Ruler ailment bonus effects x 3

Sky Ruler ailment bonus effect x2

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Seeing the notification, Hera smiled. She triggered two effects on her target, but that was far from being enough. However, her happiness was short-lived. The moment the Sky Ruler was hit with the fear spell, it started thrashing its wings. Two whirlwinds appeared in front of it, which immediately started growing. Hera created some stone barriers to stop the wind and, using the same spell, opened a hole in the ground so she could hide there. This was the only idea she had to protect herself from a tornado. In theory, it should work with the whirlwinds as well. But before going there, she had to take advantage of the situation. She got closer to the spells and sent out a concentrated pollen field towards the spinning wind. Using the Sky Ruler's spell to spread the particles around. It seemed like things worked a bit too well. The clump of yellow dust went flying into the sky and was tossed around most of the plateau.

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Ailment Mastery triggered

Sky Ruler ailment bonus effect x3

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The Sky Ruler started sneezing violently, and the twisters dispersed at the same time that the barrier surrounding the nest went away. Looking up, the monster seemed angrier, but it was still sneezing because of the pollen. Hera threw another solar flare under the giant griffon. Blue was facing the other way, and even if she wasn't, it was far enough away not to trouble her too much. The spell triggered another ailment, and the bonus effect was increased to 4. Unfortunately, that wasn't a specific amount. Hera had no idea if that meant the effects were 4 times stronger or if it was just a 40% increase overall since there wasn't something in the skill explaining that to her. It was frustrating but understandable. Each type of ailment could have its own benefit associated with the skill.

Seeing as the sneezes became more frequent, Hera rushed under the Sky Ruler, slashing at its legs. In response, the creature clawed randomly at the area under it. This was the first time the giant griffon used a physical attack, and it was much faster than Hera expected. One claw hit her chest, tossing her to the side as the monster continued thrashing. She took a moment to recover her breath, looking at the large scratch that appeared in her armor. Even with the buffs and the upgrade made by Kahala, the Sky Ruler was strong enough to damage it. For the first time since she got in Boothudurn, Hera had to be worried about losing her protection if she took too many hits.

The griffon stopped its mindless frenzy and turned to Hera. Its nose was dripping, and its eyes were bloodshot. Hera almost felt bad. She knew how awful it was to have hay fever when she was busy with something else. However, that also allowed her to attack. Rushing towards the front legs again, she slashed at them, aiming at the tendons. The griffon could now defend itself better, but it wasn't enough to stop all the strikes, even with its speed. In the middle of her flurry, Hera looked towards the tunnel. Blue was already running towards the Sky Ruler. Behind her, Naka, Lija, and Telanz were staring at the giant creature. However, the dwarves turned around and dashed back to the tunnel.

Hera couldn't understand what was going on, but she hoped they would join the battle soon. Then, looking back at the griffon, she jumped and slammed her handaxe against its chest. A few feathers were cut, showing some of the monster's skin, but her attack was unable to draw blood.

The sky ruler jumped to the side and spun in the air before roaring at Hera. She tightened her grip and ran towards it, not wanting to let it escape. Before she reached the monster, Blue passed her at high speed, still mounted on Sunny. A strong wind picked up, breaking down the controller's mount. But that wasn't enough to stop her. She jumped towards the creature, and several small clouds appeared, almost forming a stairway towards the Sky Ruler's head. This was a version of the blank cloud where she could freeze the air. It took a lot of mana and agility to move like that, but Blue was more than capable of getting up to the griffon's face.

Hera didn't want to stay behind, but she didn't trust herself enough to follow her friend through the makeshift stairwell. Moving its head, the Sky Ruler dodged Blue's attacks and tried to hit her with its beak. However, the controller moved too quickly, jumping from cloud to cloud and avoiding all its attempts. Attacking the legs wasn't that effective. There had to be a better way to deal with the monster. After having a new idea, Hera created a stone pillar under her to propel herself up.

To her dismay, the Sky Ruler noticed its prey kindly being sent towards it and opened its mouth to swallow Hera whole. The explorer froze. She was in the middle of the air, and there was no spell she could use to change her trajectory. Her best bet would be to fight inside the monster's mouth and try to punch through the beak. She was almost completely inside the Sky Ruler's maw when, suddenly, a shining object came up in her peripheral vision. The thing was spinning, almost like a boomerang, and moved towards Hera. In reality, it wasn't going to hit Hera, but to protect her.

A bent silver boomerang appeared in front of her, and in a split second, it changed shapes. Now becoming a massive disc almost twice her size, capable of covering the entire Sky Ruler's mouth. The monster tried to bite down, but despite the object being as thin as a sheet of paper, even the strength of its jaw wasn't enough to bend it. Hera even saw some blood dripping from the beak.

"Hera!" Silah cried. She still was a bit far away, but after seeing Hera use a stone pillar to jump, she sent one of her spells to protect her.

Hera smiled, "Fuck. I'm really in love with that girl."

Before jumping off the Sky Ruler's mouth, she took advantage of her position and slashed the monster's tongue beneath her feet. It took only a single swipe, with each weapon coming from a different side, to carve out most of the muscle. There was only a small part connecting the two pieces. It was small, considering the entire tongue, but it was still more than enough room for Hera to stand.

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Ailment Mastery triggered

Sky Ruler ailment bonus effect x5

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As the blood filled the monster's mouth. Hera picked the Sky Ruler whistle and jumped, blowing it to call for Nimbus. The griffon appeared, allowing her to jump on its back and glide safely to the ground. Blue was still bouncing around the Sky Ruler and hitting it with both spells and her own fists. Silah also arrived in the fight. The first thing she did was turn to Hera and see the scratches in her armor.

"Are you ok? Let's get Telanz."

"No, we need to finish this, and you can help. That shield you made hurt the Sky Ruler," Hera replied.

"What? If I hit it, the barrier will show up, won't it?"

"You just hit it, and nothing happened. Try with an actual attack."

Silah felt it was a bad idea, but she trusted Hera. Moving her hands, she shaped the metal once more. First, gathering the entire sheet in an ingot and then turning it into a giant spike. The metal pierced the griffon's beak on both sides, making the blood inside its mouth pouring out.

"Blue, hit the spike with some lightning!" Hera called from the ground. Following that up, Hera sent some paralyze spells towards the griffon. Trying to trigger one more ailment in the monster. At the same time, another cloud appeared, and lightning crashed into the metal rod.

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Ailment Mastery effects reduced

Sky Ruler ailment bonus effect x4

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For the first time, Hera saw a notification letting her know that one ailment was gone. She suspected it was the one caused by the pollen, but she still used her [Observe] to confirm.

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Sky Ruler - Level 15 – 73 % - Poisoned – Sunburn – Sneezing – Bleeding (Cloud Affinity)

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In reality, the sneeze effect was still there. However, it was the fear that went away.

Silah smiled after seeing she could actually damage it and pulled two more pieces of metal from a pouch before throwing them in the air and turning them into a pair of spinning saw blades. She was used to making swords or spears with her attacks, but after hearing about chainsaws and other heavy tools, the blacksmith came up with better options for her spells. The blades went flying towards the Sky Ruler's throat and started carving away. Despite Silah being level 26 and having Pyrrick's buffs increasing her attributes, the griffon's skin still proved too tough for a clean cut. However, unlike Hera's attacks, the progress wasn't that slow.

Blue made another blank cloud and sent it towards Hera, "Make that one rain fire. I'm sending it down its throat."

Hera nodded and cast her grease fire inside the cloud. Then, Blue used the legacy to move it towards the griffon's mouth that was still stuck open thanks to Silah's spike. Only after it was entirely inside the Sky Ruler that she triggered the cloud to start raining. In response, the monster roared and tried to use the wind to push the fire away. That worked to a point. Some of the flaming rain did spew out of its mouth, but the cloud was still there.

The blood lost by the Sky Ruler was already forming a pool in the middle of the plateau, but the monster was still standing. It roared once more, and Hera triggered her poison control, spending 500 points to make the poison already inside the monster make it spasm. She hoped that the violent movements would worsen its injuries, and it wouldn't be able to remove the fire cloud from its gullet.

The Sky Ruler roared and created massive dark clouds in the sky that crackled with lightning. This was its last resort. Controlling the area in such a way was very taxing, and it was likely that it wouldn't be strong enough to do it again. The entire area was so dark that it looked like the middle of the night in a few seconds. In response, Blue jumped into the monster's back and sent out three blank clouds after a few seconds.

"Hera! Use the soil thing."

Spending the rest of her mana, Hera infused the three clouds that turned into small sandstorms. Blue sent them up and, just before touching the dark clouds, triggered her spell that made each cloud grow over ten times larger. The sandstorms engulfed the lightning clouds and made them vanish in a matter of seconds.

Realizing its last resort had failed, the Sky Ruler fell to the ground. Losing the remaining strength it had on its legs. Blue, Hera, and Silah kept attacking, but now the creature was too weak to fight back. It wasn't much of a fight anymore. Instead, the situation turned into the trio, trying to deliver the finishing blow. Silah called back the saw blades and turned the two pieces into a single large javelin. She took aim and sent it towards the Sky Ruler's eye. The projectile embedded itself deep into the monster's skull. Blue followed it up with an electric punch that she was saving ever since the fight started.

The monster roared and started to spasm, slamming its head repeatedly on the ground. Blue had to move away, not to be crushed by the movement, and the spike that was still in the Sky Ruler's beak popped off. When the monster finally stopped moving, the trio just watched it for a moment. It looked like it was dead, but here, there was no notification to tell them if they had finished the fight.

After a few moments, Blue smiled and said, "We did it! I just got a notification about the legacy. I have the entire thing now!"

"We did it?" Silah asked.

"We did it!" Hera gasped.

Silah turned to Hera and saw her girlfriend all scratched, and even her armor all banged up. She was covered in so much blood that it was hard to tell what was hers and what was from the Sky Ruler.

"Can you do the thing with the necklace?" Silah asked.

"Not right now. I'm out of juice."

"Fine. I'll wash myself later," Silah replied.

"What are…" Before Hera could ask anything, Silah jumped into her arms and gave her a long kiss.

"Do you guys have to do that here?" Blue sighed.

"You got the legacy. We got this. Stop complaining," Silah cleaned Hera's lips and returned to the kiss.

Blue shrugged and pretended to be upset, but it was impossible to do that, considering the situation. They had finally defeated the Sky Ruler. All they had to do was complete another dungeon, and they should be able to get back home.