They took a bit longer of a break, so they took the chance to eat some food as well. Once they were done Shizuka dismissed the ice chairs as they made their way toward the stairs leading to the next floor. Only two floors left until the boss.
Walking through the door the party found themselves in a small cave. The only source of light was small rivers of lava cascading down the walls of the cave. There were two pathways on opposite ends of the room. Walking forward, Shizuka could see that each pathway was connected to another small cave with more pathways leading out from them.
"Looks like it might be a maze.." Nori said looking around.
After discussing it, the party decided to go down the right path. Based on Nori's judgment, the right path should be right because it was called the RIGHT path. With no other reason to go the other way, they decided to roll with it.
After continuing through the maze for a bit, they came across a room full of orange lizards the size of a small boulder, the tips of their tails were on fire.
[Lava Tail - Level 43]
"Lusha and Shizuka, stand back and only help if we need it. I wanna test of my new weapon! How about you Klyn?" Nori asked whilst grinning.
"Grrr!" Klyn growled as he grabbed his new sword.
Rushing forward, blood sprayed as the two easily killed everything in the room.
"This thing is awesome! It's so much easier to kill things now!" Nori exclaimed, once again caressing her dagger with her cheek.
Klyn had an excited glint in his eyes as well.
Collecting one of the bodies, Shizuka took a look at what the lizards dropped.
[Small Dragon Scale x5]
[Lava Tail x1]
Curiously it looked like these lizards weren't lizards, they were small dragons. Which probably didn't bode well for them in regards to this floor guardian.
[I think the guardian might be a dragon.] Shizuka wrote.
"A dragon? Why do you think that?" Nori asked.
[Every floor so far has been a bigger version of the regular monsters, and these dropped this.] Shizuka wrote, showing the scale.
"Hmm, that could end up being troubling. Let's be careful going forward. We should also search this maze thoroughly, I heard that mazes often have chests with equipment in them." Lusha replied.
Nodding, Shizuka collected the rest of the bodies.
************************
As they went through the maze, Nori and Klyn would clear out most of the Lava Tails. Shizuka would help out to get some EXP, this way she could hopefully hit level 40 before they fought the guardian. They had also found three chests so far, two of them had some regular materials but the last one had a piece of equipment.
[Lava Queen's Staff (Blue) - Level 40
Requirements: 200 INT
+75 INT
+2500 MP
+50% MP Regen
Skill: Magma Ball - Summon a ball made of magma and hurl it towards your enemies.
Cost: 150 MP
Cooldown: 15 Seconds]
Lusha was ecstatic to receive the staff as it meant she could now help out in fights, rather than just buffing or healing.
As they cleared out the last room, Shizuka was happy to hear a notification on her system. She had finally reached level 40. She put her 30 points into INT, finally bringing her total MP over 10,000.
[ Name: Shizuka
Race: Snow Girl
Titles: Beginner Monster (3/10 Humans killed, +10% all Stats), Path Finder: +50% Points per level
Level: 39 -> 40
Class: Snow Specter, Enslaved
HP: 5,400/5,400
MP: 10,200/10,200
VIT: 160 + 20 (216)
STR: 150 + 20 (204)
INT: 290 -> 320 + 20 (408)
DEX: 100 + 20 (144)
AGI: 150 +20 (204)
MDEF: 300
PDEF: 200
Unassigned Points: 30 -> 0
(): Finalized stats after factoring in equipment, titles and buffs (Rounded down).
Effects: +10% All Stats, Fire and Heat Resistance +30%
Skills:
Tier 2 Ice Magic, Tier 2 Shadow Magic, Shadow Dispersion, Shadow Travel, Frosty Aura (Passive)
Equipment: Lava Queen's Gown (Purple), Fire Resistance Ring (Blue)]
After dismissing her stats, Shizuka looked ahead into the last room in the maze. It was much larger than the previous rooms they had been through. Curled up in the middle of the cavern was a large red and orange scaled, wingless dragon.
[Fire Dragon Guardian - Level 44]
"I think it's asleep, maybe we can setup a sneak attack before it wakes up to give us a head start..." Nori whispered.
As the party cautiously walked into the room, the dragon's nose twitched as it raised it's head and opened it's eyes, looking directly at them.
"Ah... ? I guess he smelled us..." Nori sighed, as she unsheathed her dagger.
Lusha immediately activated her robes skill, boosting the entire parties fire resistance and defense.
Standing up, the dragon turned towards them, a deep growl echoing across the cavern.
"Take it slow, a dragon without wings is still a dragon." Lusha ordered, using the rest of her buffs.
Suddenly The dragon opened it's jaw and a bright red light could be seen down it's throat.
"Breath attack!" Nori shouted.
Pulling his tower shield off his back, Klyn stood in front of the party, placing it on the ground.
Cowering behind Klyn and his shield, Shizuka could see fire engulf the shield, spilling over the edges and shooting past them. Looking around her, it looked like she was in a tunnel made of fire. The heat from it singed her arms, making it hard to breath as the fire consumed all the oxygen around them.
After what felt like forever, the fire finally stopped as the dragon closed it's mouth. Gasping for breath Shizuka almost collapsed on the ground, looking up the others were struggling to catch their breath as well.
'I am not going to let it do that again!' Shizuka thought.
Reaching her hand out she created a band of ice and clamped the dragon's mouth shut, reinforcing it with shadows.
As the dragon struggled to get the ice off, Nori and Klyn activated their weapons skill and attacked, swinging their blades towards the dragons front two legs.
Surprisingly the blades easily sliced through, cutting both the dragon's front legs off.
Shizuka widened her eyes in surprise, from what they had said about dragons, this guy should have been a hell of a lot harder to kill...
Waving her hand, two ice spikes shot out of the muzzle clamped around the 'dragon's' jaw and shot into it's eyes, piercing it's brain, killing it. Just as it died, the dragon's name tag flickered and changed.
[Salamander - Level 44]
*DING*
Shizuka looked down, seeing a notification on her system.
[New Skill Obtained: Disguise]
[Disguise: Change your name tag to hide from or scare enemies.
Cost: 100MP
Duration: Until Canceled or Upon Death
Cooldown: N/A]
"I got an new skill called disguise, did you guys get it too?" Nori asked.
"Yeah I did as well." Lusha replied.
Shizuka and Klyn both nodded.
"To think it wasn't actually a dragon... guess that fire attack was all it had. Well at least the stairs to the next floor are behind it." Nori said.
Walking over Shizuka collected the body of the salamander. Unfortunately it was just materials and didn't give any equipment.
[Just materials, no gear.] Shizuka wrote.
"Alright, well since the fight didn't take that long, let's take a short break to wait for our cooldowns to refresh. We don't know what will be waiting on the next floor after all." Lusha said. "Ill make us some food real quick."
***********************
Sitting down with the group, Shizuka ate with a smile. 'We only have one more floor and then the final boss... we can do this! After that we just need to figure out how to remove these slave crests and we can all escape with Aurora!'
They had struggled over the last six weeks, overcoming many life or death situations. Shizuka felt like she had grown extremely close to Nori, Klyn and Lusha.
Looking over at Nori who was picking on Klyn, who sat with a blush while eating and Lusha who was cooking, Shizuka felt a warm feeling spread through her chest.
'This must be what having a family feels like..' Shizuka thought. 'Klyn is like a dependable older brother, Nori and Aurora are quirky older sisters and Lusha looks after all of us just like a mother.'
Shizuka blushed slightly as she ate her meal. 'This must be what happiness feels like.'
***********************
Once they finished resting, the party packed up and proceeded up the stairs. Opening the door they walked through. The area they entered was shrouded in darkness which made it hard to see.
"Hey! The door just disappeared!" Nori exclaimed.
Looking back Shizuka saw that the door they just entered through had disappeared. This hadn't happened on the previous floors.
Suddenly Shizuka felt a wave of danger wash over her. Looking back into the room a giant paw with large claws filled her vison before she was sent flying into the wall.
"Shizu!" Nori cried out.
Collapsing to the ground, Shizuka coughed up a bunch of blood. She felt like every bone in her body had just been crushed. Just as she was about to lose consciousness, a red light enveloped her as the pain washed away.
[Skill: Lava Queen's Benevolence Used]
Looking at her HP, Shizuka saw that it was full.
'Did I.... just die?!'
"Are you ok?" Lusha asked with concern as she helped her to her feet.
Nodding, Shizuka raised her hand and swiped it down to her side. Following the motion of her hands, the darkness was pushed to the side and dissipated.
They were in a large underground colosseum, Lava poured down from the ceiling, making several lavafalls around the perimeter. And in the center of the area was a very large, black, three headed dog. Lava was dripping from each of it's mouths as it snarled and glared at the intruders. The intruders being them.
[Cerberus - Final Gate Guardian - Level 45]
"A named monster!" Nori exclaimed, stepping back.
"Not just a named monster, it's named after a famous monster. The guardian of the gates of the underworld." Lusha said quietly. "I heard that mutated dungeons were abnormally difficult, but I never expected this."
Lusha quickly muttered under her breath, a magic circle spread out from under her as she activated all of her blessings, as well as her robes skill.
"Be careful! Named monsters are powerful, even more so if they resemble famous monsters." Lusha shouted.
Nori and Klyn rushed forward brandishing their blades as Shizuka pelted the beast with dozens of ice spears.
Dodging one of the heads that went to bite him, Klyn swung his sword, cutting deeply into the guardians leg. At the same time, Nori slashed across it's chest with her dagger, poison seeping into the wound. As they tried to back off after doing damage two of the heads went to bite them in half.
Summoning two ice pillars beneath the guardian, Shizuka sent them slamming into the two heads, knocking them up and allowing Klyn and Nori to get away safely.
Just as they made distance the third head reared back before spitting a stream of lava at Klyn.
Shizuka quickly summoned an ice wall to block the attack but the lava melted through it instantly. Panicking, she tried to summon an ice hand to grab him and pull him out of harms way.
Seeing that the hand was not going to make it in time, Klyn activated his armors first ability that ignored all damage for 5 seconds. The lava poured over him as he was encased in stone leaving a pool of lava around him.
Sighing in relief, Shizuka used the hand to pull him out of the pool of lava.
"ARGHH!" Nori shouted in pain as an attack grazed her. The tip of one of the claws had left a large gash across her arm.
Backing off, a green glow enveloped her as Lusha started to heal her.
'I need to help while Nori is being healed.' Shizuka thought as she looked around.
She summoned two ice swords, hardening them as much as she could while filling them and coating the blades with her shadow magic. Activating her Shadow Dispersion skill, shadows enveloped her body as she used the increased movement speed to dash towards the giant monster.
'Dodging will be key, even with the damage mitigation from shadow dispersion if I get hit by one of it's attacks I'm dead.'
Dashing forward, she summoned an ice pillar beneath her feet as she jumped, propelling her higher and shooting her towards the guardian.
As the guardian went to bite her out of the air she activated her Shadow Travel ability. The world around her darkened and was covered in a purple hue as she entered the Shadow Realm. She could see everything, but she became invisible to everyone as she phased through objects and people while in this realm.
Phasing through the guardians bite, Shizuka disabled her Shadow Travel ability and sunk her swords into the side of the guardian's neck. Using her momentum, she carved a giant gash in the beast's neck as it howled in pain.
Kicking off the guardian's back, she landed on the ground. Activating her shadow dispersion ability again, she created some distance between them.
By this time Nori was healed and joined in. With Shizuka, Nori and Klyn each covering for each other and Lusha healing and shooting the occasional fireball, the fight progressed for several minutes.
***********************
Backing up the guardian glared at the party. It was now covered in gashes, as blood covered most of it's body. It was breathing heavily, obviously on it's last legs.
As Shizuka, Nori and Klyn closed in to finish it off, Shizuka could see the eyes of the guardian shift as it looked behind them while crouching down.
Turning towards were it was looking, panic filled her as she realized what it was about to do.
"LUSHA RUN!!" she tried to shout, but no sound came out.
Reaching out she started to summon an ice wall around Lusha as a large shadow passed over her head.
Seeing the giant beast jumping towards her, Lusha turned around to try to dodge out of the way but was too late. The guardian's claws dug into and across her back as she screamed out in pain.
Summoning all her strength Shizuka summoned several large ice pillars, sending them crashing into the side of the guardian. The impact from the pillars lifted him off the ground and sent him flying towards the wall. Luckily Shizuka had stopped him from cutting Lusha in half, but the damage was still done, and none of them could heal her.
Shizuka rushed to Lusha's side, panic filling her as she looked at the large gashes across Lusha's back. She quickly moved her hand across Lusha's back, creating ice to cover the wounds to attempt to stop the bleeding. The ice almost immediately turned red as it soaked up the blood, but seemed to do the job.
Making sure that Lusha was still breathing, Shizuka felt a bit of relief wash over her knowing that Lusha was still alive. If they could quickly clear the rest of this dungeon they could get help. Shizuka looked at Nori who had just arrived by her side. Flicking her finger Shizuka created a few ice words in the air.
[Look after Lusha.]
Dashing towards the guardian who was getting to it's feet, she slashed her swords across it's side.
Dodging a swipe of its paw she slashed up at the foot that just passed over her head, leaving yet another gash across it's ankle. Seeing the middle head rear back and spit lava at her, she activated her Shadow Travel ability again, letting the lava phase through her she dashed out of the pool of lava, jumping up she deactivated it, cutting across the guardians left eye on the middle head.
Jumping back, she tried to put some distance between them, but the guardian was having none of it. Lashing out it swiped at her again, summoning another ice pillar she jumped over the paw to see one of the heads rushing towards her to bite her. Summoning an ice wall, she pushed off of it, dodging the first head, with the second incoming, she rolled across the ground and pushed off, jumping out of reach of it.
Little did she know, the guardian was waiting for that. The third head that it had only used for spitting lava was waiting, it's jaws wide open to bite her in half as it quickly closed in on her.
Time seemed to slow down as Shizuka quickly thought about her options. With it being this close, she didn't have enough time to summon anything to help her dodge. Her shadow travel ability was still on cooldown. Her shadow dispersion skill wouldn't help and her one life saving skill was already used up at the start of the fight.
'I really am going to die down here...' Shizuka thought sadly. 'Ahhh.... I really wanted to see Aurora again..'
Suddenly she felt a strong pressure on her shoulder as she was pushed out of the way.
Looking over, she saw Klyn looking at her with a smile and his face full of relief. His hands were outstretched as he pushed her out of the way.
Shizuka widened her eyes and tried to reach out to grab Klyn as the jaws of the guardian closed around him.
Black fur and blood covered her entire vision as she heard a loud crunch sound.