While still staring at Stark, Lucielle raised a hand and a miniature fireball launched towards the ice boulder. Once the two opposing elements clashed a loud explosion rocked the vicinity, following which water and steam began to spread in the area. Lucielle had raised an eyebrow at Stark as his face had blanched white.
"Y-y-y-you?!?!? Why do you have a power?!? HOW IS IT EVEN STRONGER THAN MINE?!??" Stark shouted as he pointed at Lucielle with a quivering finger. His heart was pounding rapidly inside his chest, almost to the point of trying of cracking his ribs. He knew that he had royally fucked himself this time upon noticing Lucielle's face that appeared through the steam.
A wide smile graced her angelic face as she strode ever so slowly towards Stark, though there was no warmth to be found in those pearly white teeth of hers. "Flames are naturally stronger than ice or did they not bother to teach you about that in school? Also of course I have a power how does one awaken as a Slayer without one? Are you really this stupid Stark?"
The rest of the group was stunned and surprised that Lucielle actually had a power, especially the adults, since some had been in dives into Lucielle previously and had never seen her using her power even once. Though some of them assumed her power was just as weak as she was, hence why she never used it before.
Stark had tripped over his feet and fallen smack down on his ass so Lucielle bent down to stare into his face. "Also what did I say about wasting your energy? Save it for the boss and stop wasting it needlessly. Otherwise I might get twitchy and turn you to ash next time. Do you understand Stark?" The air between the two had lowered significantly as Lucielle unleashed her killing intent for the first time on another human being.
For the third time since entering this Gate, Stark felt the threat of death creeping over him as he stared into those frosty amethyst eyes. 'She really will kill me! Is this bitch crazy?!?' Stark rapidly nodded his head as he noticed a small flame swirling in Lucielle's hand. Her frigid smile stretched wider as she snuffed out the Hellfire in her hand before yanking Stark upwards onto his feet. "Good just so we understand each other."
Lucielle turned and walked away from the deflated boy as she noticed the looks from the other Slayers but she didn't pay them any mind. She didn't care if they thought her power was weak or not because she knew how strong it truly was. She had no reason to reveal this hidden card up her sleeve because only an idiot would let their potential enemies know how strong they truly were.
Brian watched the whole scene unfold with a calm face but inside he was trembling with excitement. 'She's even more capable than she lets on. It'll be so much more fun to break her after this trip is over. Assuming of course we all make it out of here alive.'
After that little outburst the group finished resting up and began to slowly creep their way towards where they assumed the Boss room to be. Along the way they slaughtered more rats which Lucielle promptly burned afterwards. Many of the adults thought Lucielle was stupid for wasting her energy on burning the dead rats, but because she was useful mainly as the forward scout they didn't bother to say anything about it.
When they eventually found the door that lead to the boss room and began to mentally prepare themselves for the gruesome fight ahead of them, Lucielle checked her Profile tab one last time to see how much progress she had made in leveling the Hellfire skill and her own power level.
Name: Lucielle Everstar
Level: 2, EXP 1/100
HP: 10/10
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Stamina: 10
Spirit: 15
Stat points: 6
Skills:
Hellfire Lvl. 3 (EXP 10/1000)
'Depending on how the Boss has mutated will determine how I use these stat points to improve myself. Though it's hard to believe how much the required EXP has shot up to level Hellfire. Definitely gonna need to burn something more powerful than these mutated rats for sure.' Lucielle thought to herself as she listened to Gats proposed raid strategy.
"Okay listen up everyone. Those of you with ranged powers need to keep as much distance from the Boss as possible while also trying not to wander too far away from the the front line attackers. Try to limit your energy usage because if we don't manage to burst the boss down fast enough it'll enter it's Berserk State which will then summon the remaining rats to the Boss location in which case you will have to keep the rats at bay while the rest of us front liners finish it off." The strategy was sound and Lucielle found herself nodding along to the raid strategy.
Because she had no strength prior to today Lucielle regarded people that could use their brains to be a form of strength considering many Slayers didn't bother to do any proper research on the Gates that they dived into. This was usually a problem here in the lower Ranks of Slayers but was usually less of a problem the higher up the Ranks you grew though there was always exceptions. Lucielle was one of the few people in the F Ranks that actually bothered to read up on all the information prior Slayers had shared online about the Gates the raided.
Information such as the strength, intelligence, and berserk skill of the Boss, if it had one. The general strength of the common mobs and what strategies or tactics you could use to counter them and much more. Looking at it from the outside most Gate guides read just like those you would find in video games except instead of being mapped out by pixels this information was collected from the blood sweat and tears of surviving Slayers that managed to make it out alive.
Looking around at everyone Lucielle sighed as she knew this would be the last time she would be seeing most of these faces alive again. Their chances of survival were exceptionally low as they didn't even know if their current strategy would work on the new mutated Boss or not. Though the only person she really gave a damn for was Gat. He was a reliable partner and a fine leader so she'd do her best to ensure he at least made it out alive.
Everyone had finished resting up by this point so Gat made his way towards the iron vault door and began to spin the handle to open the door which caused Lucielle to shift back towards the end of the group. Having raided this Gate plenty of times she knew that the King would immediately pounce upon whoever was closest to the door once it was opened fully. Thankfully it opened outwards so she didn't have to worry for Gats safety at the moment.
As soon as the door was opened fully a giant shadow came rushing out of the vault doorway and pounced upon one of the unarmed fighter before just as swiftly dragging the screaming man into the darkness. This rat had a vaguely humanish form but was also the size of a small SUV from what Lucielle had managed to see of it before it disappeared into the darkness.
'That thing was fast as fuck. Definitely need to be faster so I'm dumping all my points into agility.' Sweat had broken out on Lucielle's usually flawless skin for the first time since entering the Gate.
'Thank you Mithrial. Now I'm slightly concerned though that thing didn't even look like the usual boss that would be in there. So I think our odds of wining this fight without massive casualties has dropped significantly.'
The teenagers that were closest to the man that had been dragged in had frozen up as the trauma of watching their friend hours earlier getting dragged into the darkness played in their minds. Lucielle hadn't expected one of the adults to have been taken off guard so easily and snatched away so she hadn't bothered giving them the heads up about the Boss's opening move but it was too late for regrets at this point.
Taking the lead from there Gat rushed into the room with his claymore already drawn while shouting to wake the others up from their shock. "Get your asses moving! Attack!" Lucielle had sped into the room immediately after Gat had entered and the sight that greeted them all was horrifying.
The Boss had mutated drastically, where once there would have just been an SUV sized fat rat there now stood a towering bipedal rat man. He was feasting on the stump of the unfortunate Slayers neck as he had already devoured his head which explained the cut off screams she had heard just before entering behind Gat.
'Fuck this is bad. It's evolved into a Ratman. This fight it about to get bloody really fast.' Lucielle quickly lobbed a fireball towards the Ratman, which didn't do much damage but did serve to leave a marker which revealed the Ratman as it scampered off into the darkness. This allowed the other Slayers that had just entered the room to quickly find their raid target.