Merrick was tempted to send Alric to loot the dungeon all over again while he dealt with the Colosseum Champion. The War Officiant's announcement had said that all of the monsters had been respawned and due to the increased difficulty, they would be carrying better gear.
However, the Thief was already visibly weighted down by the loot he already gathered. More so, Merrick was not convinced there was anything of value inside the dungeon outside of named items like the Wicked Surgeon's Scalpel.
They proceeded toward the central room to confront the Colosseum Champion together. It was a short walk from where Merrick was ambushed by DeathX and the others to the final battle of the Faction War. When they arrived, though, they learned that it would not be as short of a battle as Merrick had been hoping. Inside the central room, a war party of undead stood at attention waiting for them. Even with Crudle back at their side, Merrick and Alric were severely outnumbered.
At the center of the room, the Colosseum Champion was clear to see in a beam of light shining down from the cracked ceiling above. They wore the stereotypical blackened armor of a Death Knight over their skeletal appearance. A blackened longsword burned with a low blue flame.
Around the Colosseum Champion there were five skeletal knights standing at attention. Even without inspecting them directly, Merrick could tell that their weapons and armor were all rare items. Fortunately, they were all outfitted for melee combat and Merrick felt comfortable in his ability to prevent that from happening.
The cracks in the ceiling did not cast enough light for the whole room to be illuminated. That was where the true issue came into play. In the darkness of the outer ring of the room, Merrick could see ghouls roaming like rabid dogs. From a quick glance, Merrick could count ten of them, but they shifted and moved so quickly that there may have been half or twice as many as that. It was hard to tell in the low light.
It was two Adventurers and one summoned companion against at least eleven undead enemies that had their difficulty level increased by the Levy against The Curious Glades. Merrick felt confident that he could handle the Colosseum Champion and the skeletal party but the ghouls would move too quickly for him to track.
A good rogue, on the other hand, would be able to kite the ghouls. Merrick had no choice but to entrust the task to his teammate, "If you can keep the ghouls off me, we can still win this."
Alric simply nodded in response. Merrick took a deep breath and then a step forward into the room. The boss battle was triggered. The Colosseum Champion roared out a challenge and then ordered his skeletal party to charge.
Merrick started to channel energy from the ground at his feet. Alric disappeared into the shadows and a nearby ghoul yelped before falling dead to the ground. The skeletal party charged forward, unaware of what was about to strike them.
It was similar to the move that Crudle had used against Grunt, but more explosive. The ground ahead of the charging skeletons shifted. The mindless skeletal knights continued charging into the softened ground. It slowed them but they pressed on. As they were about to clear the softened ground, Merrick released the energy that he had been channeling.
The energy carried along his connection with Crudle, giving the Dust Mephit a sudden boost of power. From the softened ground behind the skeletal knights, dozens of rocky spears shot forth. Most of the spears shattered against the enhanced armor that the skeletal knights wore, but enough slipped by to hook the skeleton's by their frame and then pin them to the ceiling. Crudle wasted no time and used the rest of the power boost that Merrick granted to bind the skeletal knights fully to the ceiling.
Dust and rocks fell to the ground as the skeletal knights tried to break free. Merrick assigned Crudle to actively keep them bound. It was like sacrificing a queen in chess to capture the opposing side's rooks, knights, and bishops. Now it was just Merrick's own rook, Alric, cleaning up the Colosseum Champion's pawns and Merrick himself facing off against the dungeon's king.
The Colosseum Champion pointed an armored hand at Merrick, as if issuing a challenge. Merrick hesitated for a moment. He thought that the Colosseum Champion would charge much like his knights did. Instead, a lance of dark magic shot forth from the armored hand.
It was not an arcane magical ability, so Merrick did not sense it activating. This ability was more like the Purgatory Magnetism that Yorin used. Merrick barely had enough time to raise an arcane shield and try to deflect the lance as it struck against him.
If he had Spell Stealer on him, the ability would have been nullified. As it was, Merrick was only able to brush off the worst of it. A minor item that he carried tried to absorb the ability but it cracked under the pressure and shattered.The lance felt like someone had struck his soul with a taser.
Merrick clenched his teeth and closed the distance between them. If the Colosseum Champion had more instant cast abilities like that, Merrick would not stand for much longer in a drawn out ranged fight. Between his opponent's sword and experience as the Colosseum Champion, Merrick did not see a melee brawl going his way either.
Instead, he drew the second item that he crafted for himself from his satchel as he closed the distance between them. Similar to the Spark Sprite Seal that he found in his first dungeon, the Will-O-Wisp Seal would summon an energy-based fairy-type creature.
In lore, Will-O-Wisps were distractions that led Adventurers to their untimely end. A clever Artificer had posted on a message board about the game that they had found a way to use a Will-O-Wisp as a basic arcane battery by simply attaching wire directly to the crystal body of the low-level monster.
Merrick did his best to not think too hard about what he was doing as he released the Seal and summoned the Will-O-Wisp into existence. The Colosseum Champion took a defensive stance as Merrick charged at him. It was clear that Merrick was up to something, but the boss monster had no chance to figure out what exactly it was.
The burn on his soul, from the dark lance, stung still. It made Merrick's steps feel heavy and his thoughts felt a little slower. Fortunately it was not enough to stop him from grabbing onto the newly summoned Will-O-Wisp and using it to power an amplified Lightning Bolt. A system notification warned him about having too many summoned companions, but Merrick ignored it as the Will-O-Wisp would soon be unsummoned.
From within five feet, there was no way that the Colosseum Champion would be able to dodge the attack. Merrick thought that it would at least try. Instead, as Merrick released the spell from almost close enough to touch his enemy, the Colosseum Champion doubled down on their defense.
A shimmering blue shield of energy spread from the edge of the blackened longsword. Merrick suddenly remembered the first time used the spell Lightning Bolt, when it completely destroyed the golem guarding his cell in the Elemental Cage. Fortunately, this time his control kept the overpowered Lightning Bolt from burning his own palm.
For a second it looked like the Colosseum Champion's shield would hold up against the spell and Merrick had started to worry for no reason. Then cracks started to form in both the energy barrier and the sword that created it. With a sudden explosion of arcane sparks, the shield and the sword both shattered and the Lightning Bolt carried through to disintegrate the Colosseum Champion.
Alric, unsure of what exactly was happening, capitalized on the overpowered spell and kicked a ghoul into the bolt as well. Merrick received a system notification immediately that congratulated him for defeating the dungeon's boss. Yet his eyes were glued to the shattered sword that was leaking the remnants of the Colosseum Champion's soul into the air.
Victory was slipping through his fingers.