Chapter 102 - Amphisbaena

Happy New Year Everyone!

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Lyze bent his legs and kept his eye on the dark shape running beneath the water surface in his direction. Lowering himself, he bent forwards slightly and put a hand to Excalibur's hilt as the monster drew nearer and nearer to the shore. Just as it's trajectory surged upwards to the surface, Lyze leapt from his spot and flew through the air just as the Voltimeria broke the surface like a whale.

It was a cross between a whale, a piranha and an angler fish, in the fact it had a wide mouth full of triangular teeth, was as big as whale and had a part in its forehead that emitted a red glow, presumably to illuminate its path when it was swimming underwater. The Voltimeria opened its mouth wide to swallow the boy, like a fly entering its mouth.

Lyze veered to the side as he flew, and stuck Excalibur into its side. The holy sword was dragged along the full length of the fish, drawing blood, slime and blubber beneath the first layer of its skin and it shrieked in pain as it dived back into the water. Lyze flew up and then nose-dived as the Voltimeria resurfaced with its mouth open again, meeting the boy head on.

Lyze put his feet first and landed on the fish's snout, before plunging his sword deep into the glowing part of its head. The fish monster screamed bout as it began thrashing about the surface of the water, swinging Lyze side to side as Lyze held on with a grip that could turn a man's wrist to powder. When his head stopped spinning, he focused on channelling magical energy into the hilt and Excalibur began crackling with lightning.

The fish screamed again as its brain began frying while ropes of electricity burst out from between its scales before it burst into smoke and Lyze caught its core in his hand. He landed on the edge of the shore with a slight grimace on his face.

"That was way harder than it should have been." He said.

"You're in the 27th floor." Gareth said. "Frankly I'm amazed you've even been able to kill anything single handedly down here. You have to be a minimum of of level 4 when you want to solo fight here.""

"Probably something to do with my stats." Lyze said before he quickly turned around and bisected a Devil Mosquito before it could stick its stylet in his neck. "I hate insects. I thought we were well past them."

"If you think that, then you have another things coming." Tsubaki grinned. "At a certain point in the dungeon we're all going to be fighting giant spiders."

"Even worse." Lyze grimaced before shuddering. "The only thing worse than spiders are the parasites that live in them."

"Parasites?"

"Yeah, ever seen them? Long thin worm things that crawl out of the spider's ass when they're done eating out the insides?"

Tsubaki looked at Riveria who shook her head, as if to say she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Not even sure that they exist." The half-dwarf said.

"They're bound to exist in this world though, I'm sure of it." Lyze muttered. "Or was my world the only fucked up one?"

...

"Enough chat." Finn announced as he held his hand and the procession stopped and the wagons came to a halt. "We're here."

Lyze walked forwards to the vanguard to see where they had come to. It was the end of the 27th floor, the great basin in which Amphisbaena would spawn. It sat directly beneath the great waterfall. The water temple was made of three floors but they were all open to each other. In Lyze's opinion, it should have been classified as just one big floor because the height of the waterfall span all three floors.

From what he understood, Amphisbaena was to come from the top of the water fall and plummet into the basin of ice and water to face the adventurers head on. Finn quickly motioned to those with the wagons to begin pulling them quickly to the stairs going to the safe zone. He then began rounding up the lower level adventurers such a those who were 2 and below and sending them down as well.

Riveria began stationing her mage team at different positions around the basin at safe distances. Their duties were to act as support for the fighters who were going to be moving in on the beast. Gareth's dwarves put down their shields momentarily to draw their weapons while Bara and her amazons were closest to the water's edge. Because they would be most nimble, they would be able to conduct the best first wave of attack before the monster rex broke apart the ice layer. 

"Captain." Lyze asked. "I am back to normal now. Based on my overall performance in these floors, what part am I to take in this battle?"

"The same as any other Lyze." Finn responded. "To inflict as much damage as possible."

"Really?"

"Yes. Through magic or brute force, either way is acceptable though I would appreciate some good use of that skill of yours...the one that increases damage?"

"Disaster?"

"Yes. The number one rule is to not die."

"Of course. Thanks a lot."

"You have exceeded my expectations." Finn said before he stuck his spear in the ground adopting a serious manner. "But do not step into overconfidence Lyze. Your power is truly remarkable...but even the best among us have fallen to this beast. Be careful."

"Yes. Would you permit that I take the first shot at it?"

Finn watched as the last of the retreating party made it down the stairs. He then gestured to the lake. 

"Be my guest."

Lyze nodded thankfully as he walked past the mage team. Some of them sniffed at him a little but he paid them no mind as now there were bigger fish to fry. He walked past the attack teams and they straightened themselves up, getting ready as they recognised him to be the one to summon the monster rex.

Lyze approached the edge of the basin, to the part where some of the ice had reached the shore. As it turned out, even the dungeon went through the seasons and seeing as there was barely any warmth to begin with on these floors, it wasn't surprising that ice had grown on the lake. Lyze stood still for a moment, realizing he was unsure of what to do.

He looked back at Finn, who merely tilted his head forwards with a pointed look as if to say 'You tell me...' 

Seeing as he was the one supposed to unravel this since he'd asked for it, Lyze resorted to one of his best weapons in his arsenal. His creativeness. He drew Excalibur and charged it up with magical energy. When it began to vibrate with how much energy was tightly compressed within, Lyze turned it around and stuck it into the ice layers, splitting it and letting the magical energy disperse into the water.

This awakened several aquatic monsters who rushed to the surface in attempt to drag in the adventurers to their deaths. But they were facing experienced warriors and all found themselves speared, hacked or sliced before they had even realized what was going.

The lake however rippled with energy, and the rocks of the water fall were struck like bells. Soon the whole waterfall began vibrating a little as magical energy continuously dispersed over the water and up the falls. The ever awake and living Dungeon recognised this as a challenge.

And answer the challenge it did.

First came the great rumbling as the Dungeon roared in its own way at such defiance before it spawned its child from its belly. From the very top of the waterfall, where the water gushed out, the rockface began cracking and splitting open as two scaled snouts forced their way through. A minute went past as this struggle continued before a large mass burst through and began plummeting down the falls.

"Brace yourselves!" Gareth said as they watched the large body bear down upon them. The Monster rex slammed into the pool, creating a tidal wave that splashed over the adventurers on shore as the light levels in the dungeon significantly dimmed as the boss battle began. For a few moments there was no movement before a great draconic monster broke the surface and rose it's two heads out of the water and fixed their malicious gaze upon the challengers.

Amphisbaena, the two headed dragon. 

Lyze did not understand why it bore this name. In Greek mythology, Amphisbaena was a word for a two headed snake, except that the heads were on either side of the body depriving the creature of a tail. But this was a dragon monster with two heads and still very much had a tail.

It had a body similar to an alligator though with no wings as it was a water dragon. And like a crocodile, it had a large thick tail which was the main propulsion behind it swimming. The scales were mostly white in colour with shades of pink, blue and green here and there. The right head had blue crystal formations on its head which Lyze recognised as a sign of the head that breathed fire.

The other head also had crystal formations like horns around its head but they were green and also behind its skull, it sported a large green sail-fin. It was the head that breathed out a great red mist known for dispelling magic and for choking adventurers to death should they breathe it in. Both heads focused on the foremost challenger, that being the blindfolded little boy with a sword standing upright and strong against its might.

The heads let out roars that rattled the very air in the boss room. The Alpha had announced its arrival. At once, even more aquatic monsters began rising from the depths to aid their new leader, just waiting for the adventurers to step into their turf. Lyze put away Excalibur and held both his hands up with the palms facing each other.

Magical energy began to swirl in his hands as it turned to blue fire which rotated itself into a ball, pulsating with magic as Lyze poured more and more of his magical power into it. The shades of blue began turning darker and darker as both monsters and man were hit with the heat of of the Prodigy's spell. Blue turned to purple which turned to violet with wisps of white as the heat intensified to the point where the ice began melting.

"{Greatest Fireball}" Lyze said for effect and the ball of purple fire launched from his hands, leaving behind a streaming trail of heat as it rocketed towards the monster. The left head moved forward and immediately breathed out the red gas which engulfed the fireball completely. Slowly the red gas began creeping towards the shore.

For a moment, the left head thought that it had dispersed the magic completely but the fireball burst through the red smoke, reduced to blue again but still powerful in its own right. It zoomed past the left head and smashed into the right head which was just about to release its own fire. An explosion rocked the entire lake as parts of the ceiling above began to fall down and a wave of terrific heat fell upon the adventurers. 

The water steamed and the surface-most lesser monsters roasted to death as they were seared by the heat. The right head was thrust back and hit its snout on the wall, stunning to for a moment while the explosion forced the left head forwards and dip into the water as it continued to expel the mists into the water monsters, who died because the magic in the their cores were expelled, resulting in their cores being destroyed. 

The red mist that was still above the water however was nearly upon the adventurers and Finn raised his spear and lowered his body. 

"Lyze!" The Pallum shouted.

"Got it!" Lyze said as he drew Excalibur. "{Full Counter}!"

Instantly the entire mist halted in its approach before it was suddenly blown back with a shockwave back into the monster rex. Just as Riveria waved her arm down and the air was filled with waves of spells peppering the monster rex, making Amphisbaena roar at the realization it had been played.

"Loki Familia! Charge!" Finn commanded and the fighters let out a collective battle cry as they stepped onto the ice and began running for the monster rex's exposed belly, with Bara leading the foremost wave. Lyze decided to help a long as he held Excalibur with one and hand and from the other he fired ice magic into the water, further f4reezing the surface and providing more room to run.

His heart began racing with fear and excitement as Amphisbaena raised its two heads above water again and roared at the oncoming adventurers. When he was close enough, Lyze jumped with enough force to slightly crack the ice he'd just created and create a wave in the water that was affected by the shockwave he'd created. Pulling out Geranos and filling it with the Flame of Origin, he flew towards the right head.

The head opened its mouth to swallow him, assuming him to be a naïve adventurer. But Lyze flew to the side and slashed at the gums, ripping open soft flesh that lit alight with silver flame as the monster rex shrieked in pain and annoyance. The left head faster than he could predict came around and batted him aside, knocking the wind out of him as he was sent hurtling back in the air.

He backflipped and fired a stream of lightning towards the left head, but it opened its mouth again and dispelled the magic with the red mist. Lyze planet his feet in the ceiling and launched himself back at the monster rex, missing the heads altogether as they dodged at surprising speed for their size. He ended up on its back, creating sparks as he tried to slash at the scales but is bladed bounced right off.

The fighters had reached the monster by this point and were attacking it on all sides they could, finding no success as their weapons bounced off like Lyze's. Lyze snapped his fingers. "{Disaster}."

The right head which had tried charging fire breath again recoiled as the gash in its gums suddenly grew several times larger, pouring rivers of blood onto the adventurers below as some of its teeth dislodged from its mouth. Its howl shook the 27th floor as it was attacked on all fronts. Lyze readied Excalibur as he formulated another attack. 

This battle had only just begun.

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