"Is this all of them?" Sara asked as she panted on the side, feeling her body trembling due to the lack of mana. She's been casting spells to support the fighters for a while now.
"That was the thirty-fifth ground shark. If there are more they won't be showing up." Jamile smiled.
The dancer Mary stared at him. "Can we stop for a while? I like the money and all but dancing for this long is exhausting. If the buffs stopped coming they won't be able to outrun the sharks."
Jamile stared at the rest of the adventurers. They were indeed exhausted to the bones. "We'll have at least several gold coins each from that hunt. Everyone, you can rest." He smiled and everyone fell down.
"AHH! That was nice!" One of the adventurers cried.
"I did want a horse, now I can get it." Another smiled.
"It was a one hour of grueling work, but it was worth it." A woman giggled, pulling a jug of waterskin from her backpack.
"I should be able to afford demon spider strings for new instruments." Gaku cracked his hands as Mary sat ahead of him. "With each hunted shark it was several tens of silver coins per person, what gold maker." She smiled.
Jamile stared at the adventurers with a happy face. He did push them to the limit, but everyone seemed happy with the amount of money they made. Would you run until you pass out for a whole year's pay? Everyone would do, who would refuse to make in an hour what they could make in a year? Of course, based on the adventurer's pace, it could be anything from what they would've made in a year to a few months.
After resting and getting supplies from Liam's team, alongside some angry letter from the butcher upstairs. The adventurers went deeper into the dungeon with their morale at its highest point. Let's find the next layer and make even more money.
But, that didn't last long. A few minutes later, they found a large steel door that was over twenty feet tall. A sharp demonic presence radiated from it and the adventurers stared at it with worried faces.
"It wasn't that deep." One mumbled.
"It's a new dungeon after all. It hasn't been a month since it appeared." Another commented. The guild has been clearing the dungeons as they appear before they could turn into a real threat.
The adventurers sat right outside the boss room, sharpening their weapons and getting ready for the fight. They've just got the supplies from Liam after they defeated the sharps so they are in top shape. They've got plenty of potions, and arrows. Their weapons are all sharp. The wizards have recovered their mana with potions and are ready to blast.
"Since we can't know what kind of boss is inside, I'll take the lead with a large shield and protective magic. I'll charge forward and tank the first hit, one wizard in the back will try and figure out what kind of demon we're dealing with and relay that information to everyone." Jamile laid the plan.
"And then we cut him to pieces and get back home." He took a large tour shield from the supply crates and had the wizards enchant him with protective magic. Alongside the drums and footsteps of the dancers, Jamile kicked the boss's door open and ran inside with everyone behind him.
As they got in, flames illuminated the room as torches ignited on the large cavern walls. A tuned red devil with a humanoid shape and two massive red wings and horns floated in the middle of the room.
With a powerful flap, the devil flew to the side, ignoring the charging Jamile. His eyes quickly shifted to the back, the thin man in a purple robe scrambling through the pages of a book. "You're a problem." The devil said, flying to the back in the blink of an eye, ripping the wizard's head off, and taking the book away.
Everyone gasped. "He's fast!" And one of the back screamed as the wizard's blood splashed on everyone.
The devil flew away and stood on the ceiling, upside down as he flipped through the book's pages. "Oh my, this is how you managed to get all the way down here in one piece? I should've put a cubus down there. But, I did want to eat all of your souls." The book burned in his hand as he smiled at them.
[Wind Slash]
Jamile swung his blade with zeal, sending a flying wave of compressed wind at the devil and cutting the ceiling beneath his feet. The devil flew toward him at a tremendous speed. "You're the leader of those humans, I know."
Jamile swung his sword trying to hit the devil's head as he got in his range, but the devil flew past him, only having the tail cut off. "Bastard!" Jamile growled as the devil cleaved two of the adventurers in half and injured one with a claw swing.
The archers started firing their arrows and cast their skills. The fast one charged forward, and the one with ranged attacks pulled back. The wizards tried to bind the devil with sealing spells as Jamile and the other fights jumped him.
Surprisingly, the fight ended up quickly with them violating the devil with over ten blades, slashing him all over.
Sara stared at the devil's corpse, sweat dripping from her forehead. It was less than a minute, but several people died. Yet, what is this feeling, as if a stone in lodged in her throat, something was off. She pointed her staff at the corpse, screaming in a panic. "BURN IT!"
The other stared at her, "Calm down! It's over!" They shouted, but Gatom felt what she felt. She wasn't panicking in vain.
The devil snapped back to life, piercing Jamile's torso with his arm. "I knew you humans let your guard down when killing something."
"You bastard." Jamile growled, lifting his sword, about to cleave the devil's head.
With his second hand, the devil cut Jamile's head off and then kicked his corpse toward the other adventurers, "It's over. You're my food now." He swung his tail and it grew longer, slashing several adventurers like a whip.
At that moment, a clicking sound boomed across the room and all the adventurers disappeared. Only a single shadowy figure approached from the dust of the tail swing, staring at the devil.
"Hoo, I should've guessed you'd be a problem." The devil smiled.
As the adventurers fell outside the boss room, they all looked around in panic. Sara stood and rushed toward the door to push it open, but it was locked with a spell that she couldn't dispel.
"Open the door! OPEN IT!" She screamed.
Half of them had died from in the last exchange, and most wanted to retreat for now, but none could bring himself to say it.
"Everyone. Look. I've left a mage's eye spell inside and I can still see." [Mage's Eye] Is a spell that gives wizards something akin to a third-person perspective. An invisible flying camera akin to a drone, but made of magic. It can either project what it sees happening in a crystal ball, a projection spell, or directly into the caster's mind. The wizard within the adventurers now was casting a projection spell to show them what was happening inside the boss room in what looked like a floating screen.
The one facing the devil was Gatom, the old wizard.