Chapter XXVIII: It can't be that easy
I wanted to get my sword upgraded by a blacksmith, and it was a chore to get my friends to agree, but I convinced them by saying it would help with killing the boss.
Normally I wouldn't let a low-level blacksmith touch my weapon, much less an NPC blacksmith, but this was only a simple stat upgrade. I wasn't fundamentally changing the weapon yet, and in this early stage they couldn't mess it up too much.
Euphie even upgraded her scythe. You couldn't upgrade a wand without an enchanter, and until we cleared the dungeon and opened trade, there were no enchanters. Kanade didn't even ask to upgrade her bow.
So when we finished, we were allowed into the palace. A different knight escorted us to the courtyard, where a demonic-looking door had appeared. The knight pointed at it. "My master's enemy is through there."
When we walked up to the door, a screen appeared asking if we'd like to challenge the dungeon. I clicked the O, the door opened, and we walked down a long staircase.
When we got to the bottom, it was a huge, open-air room. At the other end of the room was a door that probably lead further down into the dungeon. The room was empty.
It was a trap. Of course, it was. When we stepped into the room, a wall shot down from the ceiling, cutting Amos and me off from Euphie and Kanade. As the room sealed itself around us, cutting off our exit. This was going to be a fight to the death.
I turned left and right, and looked up and down, searching for the threat. The boss monster had to be around here somewhere, right?
At the very edge of the room was a wiry NPC boy, cowering in the corner. I turned to him first. He was small and wiry, obviously not a threat. That's how he appeared, but I knew what the boss could do, change the size of their body. It would be far too easy for a boss to make himself small and meek to lure us in.
But the boy stayed small and meek. Then something dropped down from the ceiling, so tall its head almost touched the ceiling. He had a club in his hand and he was wearing a leopard skin outfit that looked like it belonged in a stereotypical caveman drawing.
"You're a titan?" Damn it! Titans were monsters that appeared a month after the beta started. I didn't expect the monster to be here so early in the game.
"If you want to help your comrades, you must destroy me to remove this wall!" the giant said in a bombing voice.
"I guess that explains why we need to hurry up," Amos said. His wand was already in his hand.
I nodded. "Then let's go."
I jumped right as Amos fired a firebolt. Despite Amos unloading a wall of fire into him, the titan pulled himself up. There were holes up and down his body, but the big monster didn't seem to care. Titans tended to have high physical resistance, but they weren't as durable. He wasn't healing, but he didn't seem to feel the wounds.
He made a swipe for Amos, but the magician was too quick for him. While his attention was focused on Amos, I came up from behind him. My sword started to glow, power escaping from the blade. The titan didn't notice me in time, and I cut off his arm before he could adjust.
The blade whistled as I swung, hissing through the air. The titan's arm was severed above the elbow.
I expected a reaction. Even if the titan was focused on Amos, he should have reacted. I cut off his fucking arm! The agro should have transferred to me! He should have screamed or shown some visible sign that he felt his arm being cleaved in two! Monsters were programmed to react but the titan didn't even look at his arm. The loss of the arm didn't appear to be a concern and it threw me off for a second.
One second too long. He swung the club in his hand as quickly as a snake and got me in the stomach. There was no pain, only the sensation of pressure as I was sent flying across the room. I slammed into the door at the other side, and my health cut in half.
I jumped up, downing two healing potions. It was a good thing we invested a lot of our lyre into potions. I didn't want to think about where we might be I didn't have access to that chat group.
The titan turned back for me, but I had let go of my sword when he hurled me across the room. I was going to have to get past him to grab it, but Amos fired more, running left along the wall. Constantly moving, not staying in one place, and having plenty of MP potions, the plan was going smoothly. Well, other than me being slapped across the freaking room.
This time the head rounds struck his face and that seemed to elicit some reaction. The titan turned to face him at the very least.
I sprinted to the middle of the room, grabbed my sword, and went for his back. Maybe the titan's AI learned when I cut off his arm, but the big guy jumped straight up before I could swing. For someone so large, the titan moved gracefully, evading my blade. He would have landed on me if Amos hadn't fired off his another spell, causing the titan to move.
Despite his size, the titan was pretty agile.
Now was my chance. The titan was sailing back through the air, his body in free fall. I swung my sword as fast and as hard as I could, aiming for his other arm. If I could remove both arms then the titan was done for and he wouldn't be able to fight back at all.
My sword should have taken his head off, but he moved. The titan repositioned his body in the blank of an eye and I watched in slow motion as he position his head where his arms had been, milliseconds before. I don't know if it was some kind of adrenaline effort or if the game was slowing the scene down for me.
My momentum was too great. The distance between my sword and where his arm had been too short. I couldn't stop myself and I cut his head clean off his shoulders.
His head bounced off the metal floor. It came to rest at my feet, no expression on his face. It happened so quickly that Amos put a couple of fire balls into his body before he stopped himself.
"Did he just kill himself?" Amos called. He gradually began to slow down.
"It... It looks like it."
Since when were monster suicidal?
"No way... It can't be that easy... Can it?"
"I don't know." The body wasn't moving. It wasn't shattering either, but it wasn't moving. "I think it should be shattering, but there might be some kind of special effect in this dungeon. Maybe the boss monster's body sticks around?"
I contemplated nudging the body with my foot, but I restrained myself.
"Maybe the NPC knows something?" Amos suggested, jogging over to me.
I looked back at the cowering boy. Oh yeah. I had almost forgotten about him. "Hey, it's alright. We're not going to hurt you."
"Phénix!"
I did not like the sound of panic in Amos' voice. I turned around. The titan's body was standing up, headless. For a moment, I was too shocked to move and it appeared so was Amos.
Instead of attacking, the wall that had come down to split the room started crumbling. In an instant, the wall was destroyed. Kanade and Euphie were standing above their fallen titan, dozens of arrows protruding out of his back.
This was new. This whole thing was strange. The guy who helped fight the boss the first time never mentioned anything about a wall separating the party, or there being TWO bosses. He only mentioned one giant and the key to slaying it at such a low level was constantly moving.
That giant also didn't have a health bar. All monsters had a health bar. Everything either had a health or endurance bar, except for the things that couldn't be destroyed. Something was off here.
Our headless giant exploded into dust. Dust that seemed to have a mind of its own because it shot across the reunited room and struck the other giant. When their dead giant started to glow, they had the sense to get away.
Kanade also had the good sense to light it full of arrows, but the now laughing titan didn't seem to care.
"Well done, champions! You are indeed worthy of becoming a vessel for the darkness!"
***
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