Both Riva and Victor felt the emerging of a huge presence that could only belong to one entity, the dungeon's boss!
Back when they first arrived, Riva had thoroughly scanned the core region with her mana sense but only found the puppet bodies and had assumed that they were being controlled by the dungeon itself.
It was only now that she finally realized her mistake. She had failed to notice the real enemy because she mistook its signature for the core area's mana and part of the dungeon. It had hidden underground and overlapped its mana signature with that of the core, successfully masking its presence by doing so.
"Got any clue what kind of boss we're facing?" Riva shouted to Victor over the increasingly louder rumbling noise.
"No idea, but whatever it is, it's huge!"
"Okay, you help me deal with it, and don't try any tricks!"
"Haha, of course. Who would have thought, I'd once again be fighting at your side."
There was no fear in his eyes, instead, he smiled brightly. What was that idiot behaving all happy for?
[Puppeteer Beetle
A new life form native to the new dungeon and its only resident of titanic size]
"Careful, the whole area's the boss!" We're on top of it!" Riva warned.
The whole grass clearing was lifted off the ground, pond, huge flowers, and everything. The grass patches had developed cracks and revealed a deep brown shell. It was hard to imagine the whole thing while standing on top of it with its sheer size spanning over a hundred meters. A titan class boss!
"How the hell are we going to deal with this?" Riva shouted over the noise.
Victor, who continued chanting shrugged his shoulders in response. He really had outstanding focus, to be maintaining his barrier, listen to her, even respond and chant a spell at the same time.
The rumbling and shaking gradually subsided. How would such a humungous boss even deal with these tiny ants?
Riva was observing the area through her magic sense so she saw how the boss's mana formed into thin threads.
She had observed the same phenomenon back with the seemingly undead adventurers. The strings originated from the pond and were attached to their targets similar to puppet strings. Through them, the targets would be controlled, while the strings would drain their energy.
The controlled people might have looked like undead from the outside but their mana told her that they just turned into empty husks. They were the limbs of their controller.
These threads now swirled through the area and gradually took control of the surrounding flowers. Riva felt their lifeforce dwindle, absorbed through the connection with the monster. It was likely strengthening itself. And it wasn't just the flowers that were targeted, countless thin threads were closing in on the unconscious adventurers.
Riva immediately ran over and attempted to cut them. To her dismay, Slashy passed straight through. They were immaterial mana.
In the meantime, Rao finished his chant and summoned a considerably huge ball of fire right above his head, and flung it towards the controlled flowers, setting them ablaze. The flame burned not only the vegetation but also the threads inside the area. The spell's mana was overwriting the threads' mana.
On the other side, Riva was having far less success. The first adventurer had already opened his now empty eyes and launched an assault on her.
It was good that this strange boss-ability appeared incapable of taking control over fully conscious beings.
Riva had no difficulties dispatching the puppet guy. It was just a little regrettable, that she couldn't save him. While she didn't care about the adventurers themselves, their demise reminded her of her own death, betrayed and left to die at the hands of a dungeon.
She beheaded the poor man with a long sweep of her blade.
Their scuffle hadn't taken long but it was enough time for another adventurer to be fully controlled, rise, and start sprinting. Unexpectedly, it didn't approach her and was instead running for Victor who was in the process of yet another chant. He had obviously drawn the boss' aggro with his last spell.
Riva chased after the puppet. It had gotten a good head start by the time she noticed the true situation and there was no way to make it in time, not even with 'Haste'.
She couldn't let Victor be killed! Not before getting the whole truth.
Left with little choice, Riva used 'Haste' to throw Slashy.
Flung with incredible velocity, it made a swhooshing noise, followed by the cracking noise of a pierced skull. Another one down!
Riva retrieved two Rockys from her pocket and turned to check the three remaining adventurers. They had already risen under the boss's control and were lunging towards her.
She evaded them and struck one with the Rocky in her hand. It wasn't enough to take him down.
Meanwhile, the other two figures straight up ignored her and dashed towards Victor.
This was bad!
She didn't have the freedom to take care of the other two in the short time it would take them to reach Victor.
The one she failed to kill was getting in her way.
He was the former party leader. He had drawn his hammer in an attempt to bash her head in.
Just in time, when the approaching figures were almost upon Victor, he completed his chant and summoned another fireball, which he hurled at the two puppets.
The ball was big enough to hit both and even singe Victor's hair in the process. Although it didn't straight up burn the two adventurers to ashes, it inflicted severe burns and also took care of the threads that had been controlling them.
With the immediate danger resolved, Riva focused on her own fight.
Despite having little trouble, evading the leader's hammer, she had a hard time finding an opening to counterattack since her opponent had the advantage in weapon range.
She needed to find a way to take control of the situation.
Riva carefully kited her attacker in Victor's direction, aiming for Slashy that remained stuck in the corpse's head. It had been relatively close to the two burned corpses and nearly been included in Victor's fire attack.
Now that Riva took a look she could see the strange threads approaching the burned guys. Shit! Was the fire not enough? And Victor wasn't chanting, two fire spells on top of the sustained barrier had obviously exhausted him.
Riva shot forward and the leader's hammer grazed her arm.
[User sustained damage]
She arrived next to the two burned corpses, Her target was no longer Slashy.
There was no time to think. She sank her teeth into the first corpse but immediately let go and grabbed the second one to hold it up like a shield.
Not a second too late.
The leader's hammer hit his burned companion and smashed his chest into paste.
The puppet control was clearly enhancing the target's strength. There was no way these guys had that kind of capabilities. Worse, Riva had the sneaking suspicion that with each new puppet, the boss gained some of its experience and capabilities.
Although she had yet to face the true boss, just its puppets made it difficult to protect Victor with the way they targeted him.
Well, Riva had her own special abilities.
Next to her, the singed adventurer stood back up. A look at his mana showed, that he wasn't being controlled by the dungeon, instead, his own mana signature had warped. It tasted of rot and death.
The boss wasn't the only one that had the ability to take control over others!
[Congratulations user acquired Zombie minion for the first time. Does user want to name it?]