Leon

Okay, just what am I looking at?

I stare blankly at the room in front of me as I tensely hold my swords to my sides, the others all formed up around me at my back with the exception of Charles who is at the front. The room itself is completely covered in mist, making it difficult to see across. But what I can see both confuses me and sends a chill down my spine.

I look from the long and narrow pathways above what looks to be a pit of void mana enhanced spikes to the various platforms scattered throughout the room, and lastly to the dozens of large prison cells scattered about the place. But what I don’t see – and what makes me incredibly confused – is the lack of any boss monster.

“Where’s the boss?” Pallus asks, sounding just as confused as me. But Kat suggests, “It’s probably a boss room where certain conditions need to be met for the boss to show up.” I glance at her, and she returns the glance. “I’ve seen it before in other dungeons.”

Oh. Right. She’s a princess. And not an outcast royal like me.

I always forget that she’s been in other dungeons besides just this one.

“In that case, Rose and Jake, keep an eye out on the area,” I order before adding, “and you too Kat. The rest of us will cover both sides of the party as we move forward.”

Everyone responds with an affirmative and we quickly begin moving onto the bridge after Kat gives us the go ahead, not spotting any flying monsters just yet. But not even a minute later on the one and a third meters wide bridge, Kat calls out, “Incoming!” and Charles raises his shield while I lower my center of gravity and raise my swords while looking around.

Nothing happens for a few seconds, making me wonder if Kat was wrong, only for an arrow with a glowing magma arrowhead to fly straight into the air before piercing into a void serpent that is only illuminated after the thing hits it, causing it to begin falling down to the spikes below.

“Shit,” I mutter before calling out, “everyone move faster but remain on guard!”

We all continue moving until we reach the first platform, which immediately shoots out a bright light that illuminates the room as soon as we all step foot on the platform, revealing the room to be even larger than we thought. Not to mention the platform itself, which is about five or so meters in diameter, the room must be several kilometers long. Long enough that I can’t even see the end despite the bright light let off by the platform.

And along with the room, several different paths above the spikes are revealed as well, each branching off of the platform. But the most important things that were revealed were various void serpents floating through the air, along with some lycans on dozens of the other platforms.

Then, as if none of this had happened, the bright light fades leaving everything in the dark again, following which a dull red light shines from the center of the platform, as if marking the platform as reached.

Convenient.

“The boss room is either some sort of maze where we have to get to the other side of the room, a maze where we have to get to a certain part of the room, or I can even see it as a hunt for something on the platforms or in the prison cells,” I tell the others of my theory, and they all nod their heads. “To be safe, I think we should head to one of the prison cells first.”

After that, we quickly begin making our way cross another bridge to a different platform where we experience the same thing again with the bright light and then the red light marking the platform, just like with the last platform. Which marks this as a regular thing.

Meaning we’ll at least be able to easily keep track of where we’ve been, unlike some of the other mazes we’ve seen in this dungeon.

I have to admit. Fenrir made a rather good boss room this time.

Even if I’m still not sure what we’re supposed to be doing in it exactly.

We continue making our way across another bridge towards the edge of the room closest to us, occasionally killing some void serpents that attack us along the way while being incredibly careful to not fall off. Because those spikes down below don’t look very welcoming.

Especially when they cut straight through the dying void serpents the moment they land with a glowing black light.

Once we make it to the first jail cell – which is on a random inlet in the wall of the room, just a couple meters away from the edge of the inlet – a very faint white light shines from the edges of the jail cell, illuminating a room full of traps. And at the same time, another set of jail bars just drops down right behind us, closing us off from escape.

Well, shit.

We all tense up, bringing our weapons up in preparation of an attack, but nothing happens. So I slowly inch forwards before entering the jail cell. But still, nothing happens.

Everyone else follows me in, and it isn’t until the last of us make it inside of the jail cell that something finally happens. That something being the jail cell door slamming shut and locking us inside.

Not sure what the double set of walls is for, but…

My thoughts are cut off when I see various large dire wolves jumping out of the walls with lycans riding on their backs wielding swords radiating a faint black glow.

Without an ounce of hesitation, I raise my sword and send a bolt of lightning straight at one of the lycans, but they simply cut straight through it with their sword, making my eyes widen for a second before narrowing.

“Looks like this might be annoying,” I mutter, faintly hearing someone else respond with an agreement of their own.