9/14 0:57 (Summer, Day, Dungeon)
As the Magic Circle grew she ran in, a trail of fire behind her, while bone spikes rose from beneath her, spikes she casually dodged by jumping over them before landing on one of the said spikes with the point of her left foot, before swinging hard.
The wave of flaming air released from the swing slashed the mass of corpses however the fire on it was forcibly extinguished by its Mana.
"I see. A natural "Parallel Processing" Skill. Makes sense considering how many heads it had. Let's see if I can't outpace the amount of thinking you can do."
She moved, breaking the bones under her with the force of her jump, her feet meeting the ground for an instance before jumping directly over it, slashing numerous time in the air to release various fire air blade at it before landing and sending a final one, causing various wound in it, whose flames were slowly spreading.
It had no time to react as the Skill was activated, causing the hungry flames to burst violently before being negated forcefully while it healed and continuing to Chant and groan.
As spikes appeared around her to try and impale her, she simply transformed her sword into a whip again, grabbing all of said spikes before throwing them back at the Undead, impaling it various times before releasing various slashes raining down on it again and again, more specifically they were targetting the hands and mouths Chanting, forcing it to continuosly switch heads least the Curse destabilize.
The reason it concentrated its attack on her while ignoring the other People there was simple.
It was the only way for it to survive.
At the moment, its concentration was split between the minimum required to Chant the Spell and fighting Luna.
It could not lower the concentration of the Chanting and the moment it did not thought about her, she would inflict immense damage faster that it could kill any of the three.
Not only that, but so long as the three were alive she would not be able to Cast any of the two Spells she used to kill the previous one, without killing them too.
So long as they wouldn't attack or interfere with it, they could be ignored especially considering how it didn't know their Skills and one of them was a Cleric and so was able, at the minimum, in Clerical Magic of the Holy Attribute that was most effective against Undeads, to heal and to Buff others while it had no idea if any of them knew Magic of any type or had any special Skills.
It would be best if it concentrated on the vampiric one until she died as long as the others would not interfere.
This was an error, an error that would prove fatal yet an error that wasn't its fault, but the fault of its programming and modification.
The non-modified one would have been weaker, sure, however…
That one would not have hesitate like this one did.
Once it had felt no Curse on her, it would not have started a lenghty Chant for a Curse consuming Processing Power for a long term possible gain while fearing possibilities, it would have and should have simply attacked at full force from the very start, raining down blow after blow on all of them, forcing her to spend a significant amount of Energy to protect them, unknowlingly attacking her pride to gain an advantage.
After all her twisted personality was her only flaw.
Flaw that it could have attacked, but didn't.
This half-hearted misure was simply a waste of time and Energy for it, waste that she was more than happy to capitalize on as she made a large Magic Circle out of her own Black Blood high in the sky above its own, thanks to "Formalcraft" to instantly finish it by spending a quantity of Vital Mana and Black Blood some would consider great, linking it with the Spell it was Casting, being activated together.
She pierced the ground with her blade, leaving behind a line of fire as she started to circle the Undead.
She stopped suddenly, launching various slashes at it before running in.
It moved, launching itself forward trying to rake its claws on her, arms that were quickly cut off by Luna before she punched it directly in one of its skull, Casting a Mana Burst to damage it heavily before jumping over it and slashing various times, causing various wound on it.
It forcefully stopped itself dead thanks to its numerous arms before throwing itself to Luna again.
She didn't hesitate, impaling it with her blade that was now a scythe before using it to launch herself high in the sky, her weapon now a spear, before she swung all around her to shatter the one meter long bone spikes the Undead launched at her.
The Party merely watched as the fight continued, Luna's bloodthirst evident in her continuos assaults to the point that her weapon was digging in the ground with every exchange between the two.
"Well, what do you think?" Hale asked his friends.
"I would say that they are both at least high D-Class. It is to strong for a First Floor Dungeon Boss." Jay confirmed, as the most experienced of them when it comes to Dungeon and Monsters in general.
"I believe Luna is at least somewhat holding back. She is also very Skilled with a lot of different weapons. To not speak about her Magic use." Sabel was the most experienced of them when it comes to People, expected considering her background.
"So, the next question is cronological and biological age. I would consider around early twenties for one and late teens for the other?" Hale
"More or less. Most long lived race age depending mostly on their maturity. However, I would guess in her case on the lower side considering her power." Sabel.
"Hoh? Yet she is very strong for that age." Jay.
"Yes, but that is the force and grace of talent mixed with effort and she is too weak for that combination to be significantly older. I have seen some Adventurers like that and they grow fast." Sabel.
"I suppose so. Especially if she already killed the Boss before. What do you think that is, "Mana Shaping"?" Hale.
"No, I don't think so. Or at least not "Mana Shaping" alone. They changed shapes too fluidly for it." Sabel.
"Oh well, do you think they will believe us at the Guild?" Hale asked, refering to both the Dungeon and the Dhampir.
"They should. All of us are D-Class in power, the reason behind the fact only you are officially D-Class is because of external matters." Sabel.
"Right. The fact your father is Guildmaster means you are probably stuck at E-Rank for a while." Jay thoughtlessly infiered the Swordswoman's pride.
"Hale, remind me to punch this idiot once we are safe to teach him to shut up." Sabel.
They concentrated back on the fight in time to see Luna impale the Abomination with her weapon, before it bursted into flames.
They noted something strange however.
Luna was stalling while dealing more damage than it regenerated, bleeding it of Energy.
Instantly Sabel watched high in the sky noting the forming purple circle of the Curse and the complete black circle high above it before watching the ground noting how the scars carved from Luna's weapon had a pattern.
"I see. So that is why."
The battle continued for a further 30 minutes of attacks from both opponent before Luna nodded to herself upon seeing the Magic Circle almost being completed.
She thrusted her True Lance in it before said Lance exploded in various Spikes that pierced every single one of its skulls and hands as its Magic Circle briefly flickered, almost collapsing, before stabilizing because of its Link with her own.
She didn't hesitate, activating her Familiar-Weapon's Skill to cause the Boss to burst into flames starting from within its body, being reduced to ash.
She immediately jumped away to beyond the scars she inflicted in the ground.
It roared as it was Resurrected in a flash of Vital Energy, being fully Restored, and finally finishing the preparations to Cast its Curse.
This was its last lethal mistake.
The Curse it Casted was a simple one with the purpose to Drain the Vital Energy and Mana of the Target to the Caster's reserves and in this case the Target would be all four of them while ignoring their Resistences.
Its Magic Circle released a wave of purple light everywhere.
"[Curse-Attribute Modification]!"
The Magic Circle made out of Black Blood shone on them all, the purple light being absorbed by it to the shock of the Undead before Curse Attribute light rained down on it, the parameters of the Curse changed to instead release a beam and affect everything hit by it with the Curse while doubling in Potency.
A massive smile appeared on Luna's face, violent madness in her eyes as the second Magic Circle, the one she carved in the ground, started to shine.
"[Curse-Attribute Reflection]!"
The beam launched by her own Magic Circle, landing on the "Undead Abomination", stroke the line of white created by this last Spell, reflected the Spell doubling its Potency again, landing against the Boss once more, Cursing it.
As a conseguence of its Casting, not only did it spent a bit of Mana to accelerate the Casting of the Spell, but it was Cursed with "Energy Drain" at six times the Potency, all because of a couple of basic "No-Attribute Magecraft".
And while they both could recover more than even what a double or triple Potency of the Curse, this was a time bomb on its life as it would continue to weaken in time while Luna would instead recover faster, driving it into a corner.
The final effect Luna was not certain of, but thought it probable.
It was no longer able to use its [Cursed Amp Roar] as that Spell, Technique, Skill? Would target its own Curse too, as she expected from such a troublesome ability.
It roared, bone spikes trying to impale her from all sides before they were shattered by her Ash-Whip, a returning swing branding its body, shattering various skulls and burning him.
Every single use of its Vital Energy or Mana would, inevitably bring it closer to death as while having no Vital Energy or Mana will not kill, it would render it incapable of fighting back against its enemy or even healing from any subsequent injury.
She had already driven it into a corner and it realized that she fought like that to make sure it would die for the first time shortly before the Curse would be finished to maximize the time it would spent Cursed.
In other words, its death would now only be a matter of time.
So the next step was simple.
If it would die either way, considering how it could not leave this room and the Curse would last as long as it would be in the Dungeon, the obvious next step was to kill as many people as it could.
Bone spikes appeared around the three Adventurers.
Before the three could defend themselves from the spikes, a line of fire shattered them as Luna went all out, using a combination of [Mana Burst] and [Greater Self] to maximize her speed, before she glared at the "Undead Abomination", her weapon starting to vibrate slowly with the blade heating up, an almost feral expression on her face.
"I see. It seems like I was too merciful with you in our last fight. It's a shame you don't feel any pain or I would make sure to teach you how to behave thoroughly. Oh, well."
Her blade was swund, releasing an arc of flame forward while she stood near her new acquaintance to protect them.
It didn't bother defending itself, attacking instead not Luna, but the other three, trying to kill someone before it was killed, its Mana being used aggressively and without any reguard as spikes continuosly rained down on the three of them from all directions only to be slashed apart by quick swings.
She quickly grew bored of this.
While the combination of her natural recovery and the Curse assured that she was outpacing what she was spending, this wouldn't mean that she was satisfied to stall until her target was defenceless and defanged.
As another wave of spikes was in the air, she made her move.
She ran forward, her blade becoming a whip and grabbing all of the bones in the air, dragging them after her and coating them in her Vital Mana before launching them forward to impale the Boss.
It didn't hesitate, roaring again and summoning a wall of bone from the ground in the way of both the spikes and Luna as it recognized it as the distraction it was.
Before it could attack the party again to force her back, one of its head saw her.
Instead of being stopped or even meaningfully slowed down, she simply used the wall as a ramp and the spikes stuck there as supports to quickly scale it and attack from above.
It recognized its final error too late.
With the wall in the way, she could afford to go all out without any prying eyes on her.
A second True Blade in hand, this one housing Vision, becoming sharper and more dangerous with jewels similar to eyes all over while her body was covered by a True Armor, a Shape she based on her [Mana-Clad Warrior], housing Warden, gaining a scaled pattern, claws and a pair of horns, a Barrier fully covering her.
She started ripping into it, again and again, faster and faster, her weapons constantly changing shape and ripping into it while its owns were blocked by her Barrier.
It could do nothing else, but being ripped apart until it died, its carcass exploding into Miasma.
She grabbed the crystal resulting by its death, her Weapons ans Armor ceasing to exist well before the three could see them before throwing it to them and moving towards the exit.
She already absorbed the maximum amount of Magicules and Potential she could from this Boss and so this crystal had no meaning or importance to her.
They followed after her, shattering it and absorbing 1000 Magicules each as the reward for four people beating the Boss Room.
Once outside, Sabel turned to the other woman.
"Do you have a place to stay? Because we know an hotel in the nearby city that gives a discount to Adventurers. We can pay for it, it's the least we can do considering that you gave us the Boss reward."
"I may as well, nothing better to go."
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