*CRUNCH*
Blood flowed out of the guardian's mouth as Shizuka watched in horror.
Klyn was dead.
Suddenly something in her mind snapped as rage filled her entire body. Due to her passive, the area around her instantly froze over as a blizzard swirled around her and the guardian.
Shizuka didn't even notice this as her entire attention was focused on killing the bastard in front of her.
Looking down, she saw Klyn's two handed sword laying on the ground. Walking over to it she bent down and picked it up while the blizzard around her grew stronger.
The guardian tried to back away, but it's feet were constantly being frozen to the ground thanks to the ice.
Looking at the Guardian in front of her Shizuka's eyes were filled with hatred. Shadows swirled around her as she activated her shadow dispersion. Flickering forward she slammed Klyn's sword into the guardian's chest, pushing the blade all the way down to the hilt.
But she wasn't done yet. She reached hands up, summoning two giant hands that grabbed the two of the guardian's heads by the throat. Creating two large ice swords in the air, she imbued them with shadow magic, making them flicker with a dark, sinister energy.
Bringing her hands down, the swords flew down, slicing through the guardian's neck, decapitating two of it's three heads.
The middle and final head roared in pain as it tried to spit lava at her.
Waving her hands towards the middle head, she made a grabbing motion as the two ice hands let go of the severed heads and flew towards the middle head, one grabbing it by the neck, the other grabbing it's mouth, slamming it shut.
Swiping her hands down, the ice hands slammed the final head down into the ground.
Walking over to the middle head's one remaining eye, she created a sword in her hand.
She looked into it's eye as hatred and fury overwhelmed her. Clenching her teeth she reached back and plunged the sword deep into the eye. Commanding the sword in the beast's eye to change, she made the tip of the sword grow spikes as they shot shredding into the guardian's skull.
Shizuka watched as it thrashed around in pain, attempting to break free.
When the the thrashing started to slow, Shizuka pulled her hand back, summoning a pillar of ice. Pushing her hand out the pillar slammed into Klyn's sword that was deep in the guardian's chest, burying it deeper until it pierced the guardian's heart, finally killing it.
Watching as it died, Shizuka finally dismissed the ice.
Noticing the blizzard swirling around her, Shizuka took a few deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. The blizzard and the ice slowly started to dissipate as she suppressed her anger.
Collecting the body of the guardian, tears started to fill her eyes as she looked at the only thing that remained of Klyn, his sword.
'This is my fault.. If I wasn't this weak he wouldn't have needed to push me out of the way. If I didn't act reckless maybe he would have lived and Lusha wouldn't have gotten hurt..'
Picking up the sword Shizuka looked over at Nori who was clutching onto Lusha and sobbing as she looked at where Klyn had died.
Looking at Nori, Shizuka gripped the sword hard as guilt overwhelmed her. Klyn and Nori had a special relationship, after watching them, Shizuka had a feeling that they were lovers.
If Shizuka hadn't gotten on the bad side of Guntard, who mutated this dungeon, Lusha would be ok, Klyn and Govad would be alive and they would have passed the level 20 dungeon with ease. But because she showed up everything had gone wrong.
Placing the sword down next to Nori, she noticed that Lusha was unconscious, but still breathing. She would need to get help fast or she would die as well.
Tears fell down her face as she moved her finger across the ground. Ice formed where she touched, writing [I'm sorry].
Standing up she walked towards the door that appeared at the end on the colosseum.
Wiping her eyes she took a deep breath to calm herself. She wouldn't let Nori or Lusha die too. If she beat the final boss, they would be teleported out of the dungeon to where Lusha could get medical attention.
As she closed the door behind her, it disappeared. Leaving her alone with a stairway leading higher up in front of her.
***********************
Looking down at her system she noticed that she had received some loot as well as 3 additional levels.
[Meat x200]
[Black pelt x100]
[Black Metal Collar x3]
[Cerberus's Favor]
[Underworld Helmet (Purple)]
[Underworld Cuirass (Purple)]
[Underworld Greaves (Purple)]
[Underworld Bracers (Purple)]
[Underworld Gauntlets (Purple)]
[Underworld Boots (Purple)]
Tapping on the armor, Shizuka took a look at the stats the armor set gave.
[Underworld Armor Set (Purple) - Level 40
+150 All Stats
+60% Fire and Shadow Resistance
+2500 PDEF
+2000 MDEF
Skills:
Death's Grasp - You are empowered by death growing stronger. +100% STR, +50% defense, +50% movement speed
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 2 Hour
Call of the Underworld (Passive) - With each kill you grow stronger, becoming death itself. +5% STR, AGI, DEF per kill
Duration: Resets Everyday
Set Bonus 6/6: When surrounded by darkness +50% STR, +100% Movement Speed]
Shizuka quickly took the armor out of her inventory and started equipping the set. It took her a minute to figure out how to properly put them on. But the armor shrunk to match her body size so that helped a lot.
Summoning a thin ice wall, Shizuka condensed it down as much as she could till it reflected her image back at her, making a pseudo mirror. Using the mirror she was able to reach behind her back and finish buckling and snapping the armor into place.
She now wore a black metal breastplate with leather covering the top part of her dress and torso. Her arms were clad in jagged black metal armor as well, reaching her upper arm. Connecting to her breastplate were black feather covered shoulder plates. She had black metal boots connecting to jagged black leather and metal greaves going up to her thighs. Her hands were covered by clawed, black metal gauntlets.
Picking up the helmet off the ground, she put it on. It was a full face helmet with a visor, but she didn't like the fact that it obstructed her view so she willed it to change to a black hairclip that contrasted her white hair.
Dismissing the pseudo mirror, she pulled up her stats to add her levels and take a look at what she had after putting her armor on.
[ Name: Shizuka
Race: Snow Girl
Titles: Beginner Monster (3/10 Humans killed, +10% all Stats), Path Finder: +50% Points per level
Level: 40 -> 43
Class: Snow Specter, Enslaved
HP: 11,100/11,100
MP: 15,600/15,600
VIT: 160 -> 200 +170 (444)
STR: 150 -> 160 +170 (396)
INT: 320 -> 350 +170 (624)
DEX: 100 +170 (324)
AGI: 150 -> 160 +170 (396)
PDEF: 2,700
MDEF: 2,300
Unassigned Points: 90 -> 0
(): Finalized stats after factoring in equipment, titles and buffs (Rounded down).
Effects: +10% All Stats, Fire and Heat Resistance +90%, +60% Shadow Resistance
Skills:
Tier 2 Ice Magic, Tier 2 Shadow Magic, Shadow Dispersion, Shadow Travel, Frosty Aura (Passive), Disguise
Equipment Skills:
Death's Grasp, Call of the Underworld (Passive), Set Bonus 6/6
Equipment: Lava Queen's Gown (Purple), Underworld Armor Set (Purple), Fire Resistance Ring (Blue)]
The armor had increased her power by a LOT, she had over double the HP she had before. Not to mention the boosts to her other stats.
Dismissing her status window, she proceeded up the stairs to the final boss.
***********************
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, the pathway widened as the red sky shone down. She had reached a platform near the top of the volcano. Lava bubbled and burst around the sides of the platform, looking around, the final walls of the volcano peaked above the platform, cutting off as it met the sky.
At the end of the platform, sitting on a large throne was a figure clad in gold armor. Flames flickered off of it, the armor swirled around making the armor look like it was made of flowing lava.
Narrowing her eyes, Shizuka stepped forward, creating two ice swords in her hands. Imbuing them with shadow magic, they started to flicker with a dark energy.
The figure stood up, towering over Shizuka as it's red eyes looked down on her.
The final boss of this accursed dungeon.
[Lava King - Level 50]
Gripping her swords in her hands, she clenched her teeth and let her rage take over, her passive freezing the area around her as a blizzard started covering the platform.
Focusing her killing intent on the Lava King, she sent a wave of ice crashing towards him.
The Lava King reached down and plunged it's hand into the ground, pulling out a sword made of lava. Slashing it towards the wave of ice, it melted instantly. Raising it's other hand it summoned several fireballs and sent them flying towards her.
Pointing her sword in front of her she summoned several ice spears, shooting them towards the fireballs. Once each spear pierced a fireball it bloomed into a ball of ice spikes, overpowering the fireball, canceling it out.
Waving her hands, they turned back into spears and went flying towards the Lava King, who raised it's sword to block them.
Activating her Shadow dispersion skill, her body was enveloped in shadows, activating her armors passive ability and boosting her STR and movement speed by even more. Pushing off the ground she left a crack in the ground as she flickered away from her spot. Appearing in front of the Lava Kings face, she swung her swords down.
Seeing a light start to grow brightly behind the visor of the Lava King's helmet, Shizuka sensed danger. Trusting it, she twisted in midair, creating a wall she kicked off of it, jumping out of the way just in time.
A beam of fire and lava erupted from the mouth of the Lava King, melting the platform wherever it hit. Turning it's head, the beam followed as the Lava King looked towards Shizuka. Dashing away from the beam, Shizuka slid between the Lava King's legs, slashing at his ankles.
Unfortunately her attack barely grazed the armor so she decided to switch up her method of attacking. Twisting around she dashed back under it's legs, slashing again. This time a wave of ice spread out across the armor where she had slashed.
Slashing it's own sword down, the Lava King tried to cut Shizuka in half, but she used her speed and short stature to her advantage to easily dodge it's attacks.
With her armor and her ring adding +90% fire and heat resistance, it counteracted her 50% vulnerability to fire, making her have a total of 40% resistance. That coupled with her passive making the battlefield a snowstorm, she could barley feel any heat.
This made it so fighting near the towering figure made up pretty much entirely of fire and lava possible.
***********************
She had been fighting for over 10 minutes, whittling away at the Lava King's armor. It was covered in patches of ice as it glared at her.
She had been pushing her speed to it's limit to avoid the Lava King's attacks and was also getting low on mana due to constantly using Shadow Dispersion as well as Shadow Travel to dodge fatal blows. She currently had less than 1/4 of her mana left.
Looking at her remaining mana she figured she had just enough to finish the boss off. Flickering forward again, she went to continue the assault.
Just as she did she sensed danger as the Lava King slammed it's sword into the ground. A wave of flames and lava erupted from the spot, creating a shockwave that sent Shizuka flying towards the wall before she could activate her Shadow Travel skill.
Slamming into the wall, she collapsed on the ground, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Noticing her dress skill activate, refilling her HP and MP she knew that she had used her last lifeline. Pushing herself back to her feet she was greeted by the Lava King's fist flying towards her. Gritting her teeth she twisted to the side to avoid it, but got hit in the side.
Backing away quickly, she gripped her broken arm with her remaining hand and coughed up another mouthful of blood. She had just lost one of her arms as well as well as broke a few ribs, but she wasn't dead yet and that's all that mattered.
Gritting her teeth she decided it was now or never. She put her entire pool of mana into one last attack. Slamming her hand onto the ground, a huge wave of ice crashed forward towards the boss. It shot fireball after fireball to no avail, finally deciding to use it's breath attack it shot the beam out of it's mouth to halt the progress of the wave of ice.
Pushing harder, Shizuka bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she forced the wave to grow in size and power. Slowly the wave of ice started to overpower the beam as it inched closer towards the boss.
Pushing one final time, Shizuka forced it to grow stronger as the wave of ice finally crashed into the Lava King. Ice covered it's body as it was frozen solid, leaving behind a towering ice statue of a figure trying to push through a giant wave.
Letting out her held breath, Shizuka winced as she struggled to catch her breath through the pain in her side.
After a second she stood up. She hadn't gotten a notification that it was dead, so she needed to break the ice sculpture to end this dungeon.
Summoning a large tendril of shadows, she clenched her first and used it as a whip to shatter the boss into thousands of pieces.
[Lava King Defeated]
[Dungeon Cleared]
[Received One Reward]
[Lava King's Crown]
Her vision went black as she was teleported outside of the dungeon.
***********************
As her vision cleared she saw that she was standing back in the courtyard in front of the dungeon gate.
Looking around frantically she let out a sigh of relief as she saw Nori beside her, holding onto Lusha who was still breathing.
"You fucking swine!! You made me wait here for over two days!! How dare you make me wait that long!" Guntard shouted out as he stomped over to them.
Gritting her teeth, Shizuka looked at the captain with hatred in her eyes. It was because of him that Klyn and Govad died. It was because of him that Lusha was barely clinging onto life right now.
"Please! You must heal Lusha! We made it out of the dungeon, so please heal her!" Nori cried out.
"You want me to use our valuable resources on a fucking demi-human piece of garbage.?" Guntard scoffed looking down at Lusha.
Gripping her broken arm, Shizuka forced the pain to overcome her overwhelming desire to attack this pig in front of her. If she attacked him, they would all die. Maybe she could convince him somehow to heal Lusha.
Narrowing his eyes, Guntard looked at Shizuka's level and new class. After defeating the boss solo, Shizuka had gained another 4 levels bringing her up to 47.
"Hmm.. on second thought, I'll heal your friend." Guntard said with a smirk.
Shizuka looked up at him with hope in her eyes, but flinched mentally seeing the look in his eyes.
"On one condition." Guntard continued. "You have to do everything I say." He said pointing at Shizuka. "Those wounds are pretty serious, without our help she will die in a matter of days. It will take her awhile to recover from wounds this serious but our doctors can save her. What do you say?"
Looking down at Lusha, Shizuka nodded. They had only known each other for a couple months inside of the dungeon, but to Shizuka, those months were her entire life. And the entire time Lusha had watched over her like a mother. She would do anything to save her.
"Good. Sergeant, take her to the hospital. I will be there soon." Guntard ordered someone. "And be careful, we don't want her dying on transit." He chuckled.
***********************
After they had taken Lusha to the hospital, a medic healed Nori and Shizuka before they were put back in the caged off carriage to be taken back to the castle.
Sitting in the corner of the carriage, Shizuka was hugging her knees as she tried to hide from Nori.
Resting her head on her knees, her mind was filled with memories of Klyn and Lusha. They were like family to her and yet all this had happened to them because she had appeared in their lives. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she sniffled softly.
Suddenly she felt a hand pat her head as she looked up to see Nori sitting down beside her. Her eyes were swollen from crying but she gave Shizuka a tired smile as she patted her on the head.
"It's not your fault Shizu.." She said. "I was too shocked by Klyn's death to see what you wrote until after you left.. If I had known you had gone to fight the boss I would have stopped you, but I guess because of you Lusha will be ok now."
"I just want you to know that it's not your fault, all of us came to see you as cute little sister over these past months. That's why Klyn saved you, he was determined to make sure you came out safely." Nori continued.
Shizuka bit her lip as tears rolled down her face. How could she say it wasn't her fault? It was completely her fault.
Gently pushing Shizuka's head down on her lap Nori sighed. "It's times like this where I'm reminded you really are just a little girl." Smiling sadly, Nori continued to pet her on the head as Shizuka cried.
The carriage slowly made it's way back 'home'.