Paley showed empathetic anger for the woman as he marched toward the Arkuda. It attacked him with another paw slam; he jumped up to dodge it and landed on its forearm, running up to its head and preparing his strongest Fire spell.
He blasted the Arkuda's head with a consistent, powerful stream of flame. It was so powerful that it almost straightened out into a laser. He screamed, keeping the bear's head enveloped in the flames for about ten seconds.
He retreated to the wall just in case it was somehow alive. To his horror, the bear was completely fine. When the smoke around its head cleared, he saw that all he had done was burn off some of its fur and slightly charr its skin. Even his strongest spell didn't make it flinch. The bear started to charge up a Lightning Magic spell, its fur pulsing and turning a light blue.
Paley decided to take that opening to escape, but before he could reach the others, the bear unleashed its attack. A replica made of lightning emerged from it and punched Paley insanely fast. But he'd already predicted an attack was coming and dodged it. The replica hit the wall instead, and its fist dispersed on impact.
The pleasant voice spoke again. "Below you!" It called out, and Paley looked down to see the real Arkuda thrusting its open mouth at him. He threw a Firebolt into its mouth and flew out of the way. It recovered from the impact, cooling the inside of its mouth with Ice Magic after making its replica disappear.
The Arkuda glanced at everyone at the doors and roared furiously, calling all the monsters in the dungeon to assist it. Tremors ensued as hordes of monsters appeared to kill the others.
"Use your runestones!" Paley yelled and dodged another two attacks from the bear, countering with a Firebolt to its face. He had no idea what its weak spot was, so he hoped it was the head.
The others took their runestones out and used them on the approaching monsters. Hig and Libon used theirs first, filling the caves with flames and burning the monsters to a crisp. They knew that Paley was strong, but seeing how much damage one of his runestones could do reinforced that thought further.
But Paley's strength was nothing compared to the Arkuda's before him. Yet that didn't stop him. He had to either kill the Arkuda and claim a hefty reward for it or escape. Paley was too greedy to let the chance of earning a bunch of diamond coins slip. A tier III monster was rare, and as a result, worth a ton.
He landed and burst forward toward the bear, jumping from side to side to evade its attacks. When he reached its stomach, he switched to Water Magic. The air in the cave was full of such dense electricity that you could see sparks of blue appearing and disappearing. The Arkuda began charging up another Lightning spell, and that's when Paley struck.
"Flood!" He yelled and generated a giant wave of water, which wrapped around the bear. Its fur was full of electricity which moved into the water and then back into it. Essentially, Paley made the bear electrocute itself. It groaned from the pain and fell onto its back.
'Good thing I was paying attention in Science class.' He retreated and watched the bear again. It slowly got up and growled at him ferociously. He gritted his teeth. Of course his attack didn't work. It was a tier III monster, after all.
The Arkuda's fur suddenly flashed white, and it flash-froze him. Paley didn't even see the moment it encased him in a thick diamond of ice. He watched, panicking and freezing, as the bear approached him.
"How peculiar..." It spoke in a deep gravelly voice, "How is that even possible?" It tapped the ice that Paley was trapped in, seemingly confused by Paley's very existence. The cold cave went quiet. The only sound was the Arkuda's calm huffs.
Its intrigue turned into a decidedness to kill Paley. It opened its mouth, preparing an Ice Magic spell. Inside its mouth, a ball of air formed, so cold that it was visible. The bear threw its head back, rearing up for the attack.
Time halted, and Paley could only think of one thing; he didn't want to die here. The Arkuda's head came down like divine judgement, and it besieged Paley with an unstoppable avalanche of freezing air.
"Firebolt!" Negie screamed from behind him and hit the ice encasing him with a Firebolt. It burnt through it quickly and slightly charred his back too, but it gave him the opportunity to jump up and dodge the spell.
The spell was so cold that the water vapor in the air deposed and turned into ice. Negie and the others were in the spell's way, so he had to act quickly. He sprinted over to them with Lightning Magic and put up a barrier, but the ice was too powerful and broke it with ease.
Quickly, he improvised and switched to Fire Magic, hitting the wave of frosty air with a flurry of flames. It managed to cancel the Arkuda's spell and also melted some of the ice in the cave. The Arkuda took a step back to recuperate its mana, and Paley checked on the others. They had all fallen to the ground, their bodies shivering, desperately trying to find some heat.
Paley quickly walked over to them and tried to warm them, but the distant roar of monsters approaching and the Arkuda preparing to strike again kept him frozen in place. Dreadfully, He watched his friends slowly freeze to death, and the Arkuda approach him slowly and threateningly.
The first few monsters appeared far away in the distant caves, but he didn't do anything about it. He froze. Not from the cold, but fear.
He hated that feeling. The feeling of weakness and helplessness. He gritted his teeth, realizing that unless he acted, everyone would die.
The monsters approached closer and closer, and so did the Arkuda. The massive imposing bear had reached the doorway that led to its chamber and opened its mouth wide for another Ice Blizzard. Paley was out of mana. He was cornered.
Having nothing else left to do, he went into a mana debt and warmed up the others. They all sat up, revitalized, and watched him struggle to hold his balance from the agony of the mana debt. He tried, despairing, to use Dyaahn breathing but couldn't focus due to the pain.
The monsters were now just a few dozen meters away from attacking the others. The Arkuda was halfway done charging up its Ice Blizzard. But somehow, he felt all of his pain vanish, and a soothing sensation replaced it.
He quickly used Dyaahn breathing to suck in as much mana he could from his surroundings. The bear unleashed its attack, but he managed to sprint in front of it and block it with a barrier. Behind him, the first few monsters were about to grab Negie.
His mind went blank. All thinking ceased, and he only followed sheer instinct, running toward the bear instead of helping the others. The Arkuda slammed its paw down on him, but he hopped out of the way and to the right. His arms were covered in rock and soon became two enormous hands made of earth.
Paley's crimson eyes glowed a deep, blood-red as he grabbed the Arkuda's arms with the Earth Arms. With inhuman strength, he pulled the arm, putting up a barrier to keep the Arkuda in place. He screamed, and with all his might, ripped the giant arm from the bear's shoulder and hurled it onto the monsters.
His face contorted with bestial fury, and jumped over the others, putting his hands together to blast the remaining monsters. The spell was so powerful it erased the top halves of all the monsters, burning the rest of their bodies to cinders.
He stumbled to keep his balance, and he and the bear bellowed. One from agony. The other from victorious fury. The Arkuda groaned and tried to regain its balance and attack but stopped when it looked at Paley.
He was staring back at it with a look that froze its very blood as his wounds healed seemingly by themselves. Every intelligent creature, when faced with danger, chooses between fight or flight. The bear couldn't choose either. All it could do was pray for its life before Paley's wide-eyed, devilish glare.
It watched him stumble to the others and take them to the air, flying them haphazardly through the crumbling caves. All the fire before made the ice lose its density and become unable to hold up the caves. More monsters appeared as they traveled up the layers and to slight warmth, but Paley flew too fast for them to land any attacks.
After fifteen minutes of flying with a great struggle, they finally saw the light at the end leading to the outside. Paley tried to urge on, but his consciousness and body were failing him. Hig noticed and quickly formulated a plan.
"Everyone! Hold on to each other," He shouted, and they all grabbed each others' hands, praying that whatever plan Hig had worked. Once they formed a ball, Hig held his hands out behind them.
"Invort Tu Zadardy!" A great burst of wind came from his hands, propelling him and everyone forward. Everyone held on to each other tightly; Libon pulled Paley's flailing, weak body with all his strength.
"I won't let you go, Paley!" He reassured, but Paley had lost his senses. They all zoomed out of the cave, screaming in terror. Hig tried to cancel everyone's momentum and land them, but they all fell headfirst and rolled forward a few times.
Libon held on to Paley protectively as they slid across the hard rock. The monsters were still after them and were about to follow them out into the hole. Paley struggled words out to Negie.
"Destroy the entrance." He mumbled.
Negie nodded, "We have to destroy the entrance!" She repeated louder to everyone. "If anyone has any of Paley's runestones left, use them on the entrance!"
Ott and Ketto had one remaining runestone, so they quickly blasted the top of the entrance. Ketto missed his shot by a lot, but luckily, the entrance still crumbled, crushing some of the monsters in the process.
They all relished in the temporary warmth from the Firebolts but soon watched in horror as a giant crack traveled up the wall from where Ketto missed his shot. Paley gritted his teeth; the crack reached the top of the hole, and the slanted walls shattered, showering them with giant rubble.
There were about 19 people in total, including Paley, and Hig couldn't get them all out of the hole with his Air Magic. Paley had to use Dyaahn breathing again despite already being in excruciating pain already.
"Don't do it!" The pleasant echo called out, but he couldn't hear her anymore. He entered a state of deep focus, blocking everything out, and began absorbing mana from his surroundings. Libon felt it. The cold sensation of your mana being sucked away.
"Paley, what's-" A large boulder fell toward him, about to crush him, but a barrier stopped it, destroying it on impact. He looked to Paley from the sun, which the clouds now revealed. Paley battled to stand, and he looked straight down, hiding his despairing face.
"I don't have much time. Let's go." He breathed heavily and took them all into the air, keeping the barrier above them to knock away the rubble. His consciousness was already leaving him; the strain of using two magic types when he was out of mana was too much. His body ached, and his mind was numb with nothing but the thought of getting to the top.
He reached it before he knew it. The pain was so distracting that he didn't even realize he flew above the surface. And that a Loberaa grabbed Negie and dragged her out of his Flight spell's range.
"PALEY!!!" She screamed as the Loberaa prepared to shock her dead with electricity. Paley panicked and threw everyone onto land, possibly injuring some of them. He blasted the bird off her, falling out of the air as a result. He landed face-first in front of the others and watched Negie fall into the hole, unable to do anything. His magic had run out.
Everything slowed down. She held her hand out toward him, her face filled with dread and fear as she disappeared behind a boulder.
Something suddenly snapped within Paley. He felt a great hunger burn within him. His mind went blank, his last thought being that he wasn't going to let Negie's horrified face be the last thing he remembered of her.
His body snapped forward on its own, and he darted toward her on all fours, jumping from rubble to rubble like a wild animal. Two large boulders threatened to sandwich him, but he fearlessly slipped past them and continued zooming toward Negie.
He spotted her falling about twenty meters below; her shoulder was injured and bleeding. Boosting himself off of a piece of rock, he flew down, grabbing onto the falling boulders and pushing himself downward.
His movements weren't human. His arms and legs stretched more than they should've, and his muscle striations were completely visible.
She neared the ground, and a boulder was about to crush her, but he managed to swipe her up and started jumping his way back up.
She held on to him tightly as he parkoured up the disintegrating rocks ferociously. The sun above taunted him, showing him how close he was to safety. But he still had about thirty meters to climb.
As he neared the top, a flock of Loberaas descended and tried to kill them, but Paley gave them a look so terrifying that they froze mid-air. They watched him continue leaping up, pushing his broken body to its limits, desperate to reach the top before it was too late.
He arrived at his last piece of rubble and made sure to put all of his strength behind that jump; the jump to safety.
He held Negie with one arm and reached for the surface with the other. His forearms and fingers extended. They seemed to hang in the air for an eternity, but in the end, he barely grazed the ledge with his middle finger and fell into the abyss.
He thought he was dead. He thought he got Negie killed with him.
But she managed to use him and propel herself up to grab onto the ledge with one arm. With her other arm, she grabbed Paley, groaning as she too fought against her body's aches.
They hung off the edge of the hole, panting in disbelief. Then, she pulled them onto the surface, where they fell onto the grass to catch their breath.
"You... You really are amazing, Paley." She laughed to ease the pain. "I might just fall in love with you." She turned to him, but he was passed out face-down on the ground.
"Paley?" She shook him, worried that he was dead. "Paley!" She put her head on his chest; his heart was barely beating.
"Guys! Something's wrong with Paley!" She began tearing up and shouted for the others, who were on the other side of the hole. They all rushed toward them, especially Libon, who even used his strength-enhancing magic to boost his speed.
"Hold on, Paley. We'll get you some help." She tried to reassure him, continuously checking his breath to find that it was slowly slowing down. "Paley! Stay with me!" She shouted, now crying.
"I'm fine..." Paley struggled with a tone of annoyance, "Besides, Healing Magic doesn't work on me. I'm cursed." He turned his head to her, smiling slightly. "Let your master rest, will you?"
She broke out into relieved laughter mixed with tears of relief. He turned his head to the clearing skies, trying to get some rest, but she suddenly hugged him tightly.
"We made it..." She giggled weakly and passed out on him.