Sitting on throne made of pure ice was a chenoo about ten feet tall.
Normally chenoo wear no clothing and hold no weapons, but this one carried a large hatchet and wore rusty bronze armor that covered it's disgusting misshapen body.
It focused it's beady black eyes on the young couple that had just entered and rose from its throne slowly.
GROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHH
With a loud sickening war cry, instead of rushing forward like most of its kind it conjured spears of black ice in the air and shot them towards the intruders.
Bekka leapt out of the way and began circling the beast searching for a weak point, leaving Exedra to spectate.
"Hate shield."
A red miasma left the dragon's body and gradually formed a sleek, reflective surface before the spears struck against it and shattered on impact.
Hate shield was a spell that Exedra had made sure to learn in Lisa's old shop.
The spell creates a wall of pure hatred made from the users' own emotions and inner anger.
It's most useful when in the hands of certain races and individuals with more explosive personalities.
The angrier you are, the more firepower you can defend against.
The boss seemed to recognize that Exedra wasn't intending to move from his spot by the entrance and instead turned its focus toward Bekka who was still circling it, looking for an opportunity to strike.
'Damn it.. this thing doesn't have a single opening...'
If this boss were the same as the other grunts outside, Bekka could've already torn it to shreds by now, but even at a glance one could tell that it's skin was much thicker than those mobs.
Frustrated from thinking too much, Bekka decided it would be best to rush this beast head on and come up with a strategy on the fly.
Circulating mana into her legs, Bekka shot forward like a bullet and prepared to crush the knee of the monstrous beast with her hammer.
However, the hulking monster seemed to be unfazed by her impressive new speed and immediately swung it's rusty hatchet to counter her attack.
CLANG!
When their weapons collided, the sheer force of the blow sent Bekka skidding backwards several feet.
Bekka looked towards the boss to see if it ha suffered some damage as well, only to see that it was completely fine other than a small crack in his weapon.
'Shit… is that my only option?'
Bekka immediately knew this boss was too difficult for the current version of her to solo.
Unknowingly, her eyes drifted towards her husband who was still near the entrance.
Even though he appeared to be outwardly calm, she could see that his body was very tense as if he was going to rush to her side at any second.
While Bekka was touched by his concern, it also hardened her resolve.
'I told him I didn't want him to see me as fragile, so how could I even think of asking him for help when I still have all my limbs intact?!
Determined to do this on her own, Bekka dropped my hammer to the ground and closed her eyes to focus.
This wasnt something she particularly liked to do as she had always had a bit of trouble controlling herself but her determination to not be seen as helpless caused her to throw caution to the wind.
"Beast Aspect."
Suddenly, all the shadows in the room vibrated before they rushed toward Bekka's feet or more specifically, her shadow.
Exedra and the chenoo boss were equally stunned by the chaotic nature they could feel emanating from those shadows and the boss unconsciously stepped back.
Bekka's body slowly began to sink into the ground until it disappeared altogether.
For almost a minute, there was utter silence.
Exedra and the boss never took their eyes off the pool of shadows for a single second.
They could feel Bekka's aura that was rapidly growing in power and ferocity.
Suddenly a wall of shadow shot up from the ground and the boss immediately took a fighting stance.
When it fell a huge black wolf with glowing orange eyes could finally be seen.
She was about half the size of the boss, but despite that her body emanated a pressure that promised absolute death.
The boss felt the threat from this new beast and wanted to neutralize it immediately.
With another strange battle cry, the chenoo sent forth a larger volley of ice spears that were double the size and strength of the previous amount.
The spears shot forward, but Bekka had yet to move from her spot.
She opened her mouth wide she let loose a fierce howl that shattered all of the ice in midair.
Exedra observed all of this with a neutral gaze, and yet the small smile on his face made his sense of pride known.
Finally making her move, Bekka rushed forward and tackled the boss to the ground and began biting and clawing at his flesh.
The hatchet shattered on impact when it met Bekka's hardened fur and muscles and it's armor was being torn to shreds by her teeth and claws.
More gashes and bite marks were accumulating on its body by the second and it was easy to see the boss was losing vitality rapidly.
The boss made a last-ditch effort to protect itself and get this beast off of it and began to coat it's arms in a layer of thick ice to bolster its defenses and raised them to defend its vital points.
Seeing she wasn't able to claw through as easily as before, Bekka raised her paw and brought it down on the frozen arms of the chenoo and shattered them completely.
"ROOOAAAA-"
In the midst of releasing a pain filled roar, Bekka lowered her head and clamped her jaws down on the neck of the enemy underneath her, effectively halting it's screams and ending it's life.
Whoosh!
A blue pillar of light appeared in front of the icy throne and left behind an ornate golden chest and a rune circle to take them to the second floor.
Dungeon loot was always dropped when the boss monster was slain and could contain any number of rare items.
The quality of dungeon loot that was given was based off the performance of the individual or individuals who cleared the floor.
No one knew where exactly dungeon drops came from, but when they saw the rarity of some of the loot they didn't care much either.
They simply thanked their lucky stars for their fortune and prayed to the gods that their luck would be even better on the next floor.
The widely accepted theory was that dungeon chests contained gifts from the gods who were entertained by the struggles of mortals.
"Very impressive Bekka! I knew you could handle it." Exedra had dropped his barrier and was walking towards his wife with a warm smile on his face.
Bekka suddenly raised her head from the corpse of the boss and focused her bright orange eyes on the presence she'd just noticed.
"Grrrrr…" Bekka immediately took a defensive stance and bared her fangs at the unknown man in front of her.
Exedra seeing this froze immediately.
'Does she not have full control?'
It was not uncommon for races capable of shapeshifting to lose out to their instincts if their transformation was a particularly powerful one.
The problem was that this was an issue mostly seen in young children and by adulthood they had complete control.
Though for wolf type beastkin the full moon wiped all control away as if it never existed.
A full moon was still two weeks away so that meant Bekka's lack of control was an internal issue.
A frown crept onto Exedra's handsome face. He could see Bekka's muscles twitching underneath her sleek black fur and knew she was going to attack him at any second.
He didn't have any herbs to burn and put her to sleep or another enemy for her to tire herself out on, so he knew he'd have to restrain her without hurting her.
Exedra took a deep breathe before he said, "You'll have to forgive me for this my love."
Bekka snarled again before she leaped forward to eat the chattering being in front of her.
"Abyssal Chains."
Exedra raised his hand towards Bekka and black chains surrounded by a red miasma shot out of his palm.
The chains wrapped up Bekka's body immobilizing her, but she still showed no signs of regaining her sanity.
'She won't get mad at me for this….right?'
The chains thrummed with a red energy and began to rapidly drain Bekka's strength until she could no longer stand on her own feet.
Exedra could feel Bekka's power flowing into him and a very dark voice in the back of his mind was telling him to keep her power for himself, but he quickly shook it off.
Eventually, Bekka shrunk back down to her normal form and looked at her husband with half lidded eyes. "Did I win?…"
The weakness in her voice reminded Exedra to return her siphoned power and once the color in Bekka's face returned, she started sounding like her usual self.
"I'm proud of you." Exedra lightly kissed her forehead and Bekka wagged her tail happily with a small blush on her face.
-
"Want to take a look at your rewards?" Exedra finally stood up after several minutes of explaining everything that happened after Bekka used her transformation and made sure she was okay and could continue on.
"Yes!" Bekka quickly hopped up and rushed to open the chest containing her prizes.
Exedra was glad to see she was feeling better as she spent several minutes apologizing for trying to eat her husband.
Inside the chest were two return crystals, a set of black armor that was above her current set in quality, a few health potions and a strange black collar with a bronze skull on it.
"What's this?" she held up the collar with an inquisitive look on her face.
'System can you tell me what this is?'
< Cerberus' Collar :
-Effect 1. Produce two clones of yourself.
-Effect 2. Increases power of darkness affinity by 50%.
"Oh!" Exedra was really surprised.
"It'll let you make clones of yourself and increase the power of your darkness affinity. "
He took the collar from Bekka and placed it around her neck.
She giggled happily before she looked at the magic circle a few feet away from them.
"Ready for the second floor?"
Exedra's eyes gleaned with an intense light and a wide smile broke out across his face.
"Definitely."