About an hour after the conclusion of Rejoke's battle against the Lava Golem, Aurora had just about recovered 30 points of mana, getting back up to 170 points in total.
'This should hopefully be enough for whatever is inside this huge thing.' As she lay on the ground, Aurora's gaze swept over the large temple.
She had yet to see what was waiting for her inside, but considering how strong Aurus, the boss of the first floor, was, she knew that this time the boss wouldn't be any weaker.
'Even then, those seventy points of mana probably wouldn't make a huge difference. If anything, I should worry about my stamina more.' Aurora fought as her eyes fell on her stamina bar, which was down to about 70%.
'I haven't slept in a while. It seems like fatigue is really starting to take its toll on me.' Unwilling to waste any more precious time, the little fox stood and made her way to the large temple in the middle of the small island of the lava lake.
Seeing her finally make her move, Rejoke stood up as well and followed closely behind Aurora. He knew that he probably wouldn't be of much help in the upcoming fight, but he would still follow his alpha, even if not to the arena.
This black-wooded temple looked almost identical to the one on the previous floor. If anything, the wood color seemed to be the only difference between the two. The wood also clearly wasn't normal, as there was no way that normal wood could handle such heat.
Just like before, Aurora made her way through the corridors of the temple's first floor, finally catching a glimpse of her opponent. Surprisingly, or maybe not, this boss seemed to be a wolf just like Aurus. Actually, he looked exactly like the Wolf of Ice; the only difference was once again their color.
While Aurus's fur was dyed in a beautiful deep blue, this wolf's fur was crimson red with orange tints. But one thing the wolves definitely had in common was their majestic appearance. Even when it was currently asleep, the red wolf's aura was simply striking.
And so, with one last nod to Rejoke, Aurora took a step into the arena, causing the large wolf to immediately open its eyes. Those crimson, ruby-like eyes stared deeply into Aurora's aquamarine eyes shortly before the majestic beast stood up.
"Auuuuu!"
In a similar fashion to Aurus, the red wolf raised its head to the sky and let out a loud, powerful howl, closely followed by a message from the system.
[You have encountered the boss of the dungeon's 2nd floor.]
[Boreus the Wolf of Fire appears!]
As Boreus's eyes fell once again on the small white creature, he took his stance, readying himself for battle. However, unlike Aurus, he didn't rush in straight away, but rather, he observed the small intruder.
And he wasn't the only one who was observing. Aurora didn't take her eyes off the large wolf for even a second, waiting for his move. She could feel from his aura alone that Boreus was even stronger than Aurus. This meant he was also more intelligent, so she should play it carefully.
Even if she didn't really believe that the wolf might be stronger than her, that didn't mean he couldn't seriously hurt her or even kill her. Carelessnes could very easily become her grave, even more so when facing such a powerful opponent.
The two continued to observe one another without doing anything. Only after about five minutes did Boreus finally make his move. Flaming mana surrounded the red wolf, shooting out throughout the whole arena the next second.
The next moment, everything around Aurora was set ablaze. The arena basically became an obstacle course of flames.
'The fire won't do much to me unless I stay still in it, so it should be fine.' Now that the wolf officially started the battle, the little fox wasted no time either, rushung towards the red wolf.
A clearly aggressive move, one that Boreus anticipated. However, what surprised him the most was the ease that the small creature ran through his fire with. It was as if the scorching flames didn't bother her at all.
Yet he paid it no mind. Seeing the white fox jump towards him, clearly intending to attack, he didn't move an inch. Instead, he used his own claw, swiping diagonally upwards towards the small intruder.
*Cling*
The two claws met like swords clashing in the wind, letting out a loud sound of metal crashing against metal. The result of the collision was a strange stalemate, with neither of them being able to push the other one back.
The two were equally matched, their strength basically on the same level. Actually, no. Aurora was actually getting pushed back slightly, requiring her to put even more force behind her claw.
But it seemed that no matter how hard she pushed, she just couldn't match the sheer power behind the large claw of the red wolf.
Realizing that she wouldn't win a battle of strength unless she used Leadership, Aurora nimbly jumped away from Boreus. She landed back on all four of her paws, just in time to see the large wolf about a meter away from her.
'Shit!' Using all the agility she had, Aurora quickly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack, only to see yet another one coming.
'This bastard.' She quickly began to dodge every one of the wolf's attacks, doing her best not to get hit. Even with all her defense and health, there was no way that such a hit would do nothing to her if it landed.
Boreus continued his onslaught of attacks, not giving the small intruder any chance to relax. Even if he couldn't hit her, he kept calm, not showing any apparent reaction. It wasn't his intention for these attacks to land anyway.
As he kept the pressure on using his claws, he gathered the mana inside him in his mouth, condensing it into pure fire. After he gathered enough mana, he let it all out, releasing a flaming breath towards Aurora.
'As if I'll play along with your games!' The fox in question, however, just sneared internally. Obviously she realized what Boreus was trying to do.
He knew that she could dodge even such a surprise attack, but as soon as she would, there would probably be a different attack already waiting for her.
So, Aurora did the unexpected, and instead of dodging, she dashed straight into the flames. Now, there was no way that this fire breath wouldn't damage her; she knew this fact well. Thankfully, it didn't seem like she was planning to jump to her death either.
As the small white creature got lost in the sea of flames, Boreus felt confused as to why the small beast hadn't dodged the attack. However, he didn't even have time to be confused because the next moment, he felt grave danger looming over him.
The next second, Aurora emerged from the flames, covered in a cloak of flames with a different color. By the time the large red wolf realized what was happening, the small fox was already slashing forward with both her front paws.
'Ice Slash!' Aurora's claws got soon enveloped in pale blue light—light that turned into a beautiful arc as she slashed downward.
The two arcs of light reached the red wolf in an instant, easily cutting through his front limb that he chose to use to defend.
Boreus winced in pain as he felt freezing mana spread through his body, completely messing up the flames inside him. The beast quickly jumped back and looked down at his limb that was bleeding badly.
Meanwhile, Aurora watched all this with a smirk. Just now, she had used her own flames to protect herself from Boreus's flaming breath. Her fire couldn't hurt her, and since it's power was at least equal to the wolf's fire, she was able to fend it off without getting burned at all.
This allowed her to land a sort of surprise attack, which she used to test out yet another theory. Technically, as a fire beast, Boreus should be highly resistant against ice attacks; however, when she used Slash with ice mana just now, it seemed to be quite effective.
Not only did the sheer power of Slash manage to easily wound the red wolf, Aurora's ice mana was running rampart in his body, messing up with his fiery mana. The attack was clearly effective, even if it shouldn't really have been.
This meant one thing. As long as the element was strong enough, it could still overpower another element even if it was ineffective against it.
This effect was further amplified with ice clashing against fire. In a normal match, fire would easily win against ice. But if the ice was strong enough, it could also easily overpower and suppress the fire. Truly polar elements.
Something similar was happening right now inside Boreus's body, which effectively prevented him from using his mana until it managed to calm back down.
Of course, Aurora wasn't a saint or anything. There was no way that she would just sit around and let the wolf get his mana back into order. So without wasting any more time, she dashed towards the large wolf.
Seeing his opponent approaching once again, Boreus ignored the pain he felt in his front leg and also lunged forward. The two once again resumed their clash, with Aurora mostly dodging and only occasionally attacking.
However, though she didn't attack often, whenever she did, she made sure her strikes did their job. While most of Boreus's attacks failed to hit their target, every one of Aurora's attacks landed perfectly, slowly chipping away at the wolf's health.
Aurora also made sure to keep using ice attacks of some sort, not letting Boreus use his mana in any way.
Aurora was winning; that much was quite obvious. The large red wolf couldn't do much to her as she slowly but surely brought him down. However, Boreus wasn't planning to go down that easily.
Suddenly, the large wolf jumped back, and before Aurora could close the distance between them once again, he raised his, more or less healthy, front paw into the air. The next moment, he brought it back down with all his might, sending tremors throughout the arena.
While this action seemed pointless at first, Aurora quickly realized what was happening. Cracks began to appear all over the arena, the ground slowly crumbling. Only now did she finally realize that she had been underestimating the wolf too much.
During the entirety of the fight, Boreus would occasionally strike the ground, leaving a few small cracks in it. The action seemed completely pointless, and Aurora just thought of it as something caused by his injuries.
However, now she finally understood what the wolf was doing this entire time.
Not wasting even a second, Aurora quickly jumped off the ground as high as she could, landing on the second floor of the temple. The next instant, the cracks covered the whole arena, and the ground broke apart.
Lava began to rise from beneath the broken rocks, filling the entire arena. Some of the rocks managed to float on the scorching surface of the liquid, while others melted down in an instant.
In the middle of all this chaos, Boreus managed to disappear from Aurora's sight, but it's not like it took a genius to figure out where he was. The wolf was taking a nice, hot bath in the molten lake that the arena became.
Understanding the wolf's plan, Aurora focused completely on the lava, waiting for any signs of movement. And she didn't have to wait long.
With a shift in the lake's currents, Boreus surfaced from the depths, spewing a bunch of smoltering flames and molten rocks towards Aurora.
The small fox quickly dodged, using the second floor of the temple as her new arena. Seeing that the wolf was submerged again, she clicked her tongue and got ready again.
Soon, the same thing as before happened; however, this time, Aurora was more prepared. As soon as Boreus surfaced, two sharp spears of ice flew towards him.
Not expecting the sudden attack, the wolf momentarily froze. A big mistake on his part. Just even that second was enough for the two magical attacks to come close enough for him to be unable to dodge them completely.
This didn't stop him from trying, as he quickly made an attempt to dive back into the lava. But it was all too late. The two ice spears hit his body mid-dive, ripping through his flesh before melting due to the lava's temperature.
The wolf wallowed in pain as he felt the molten liquid pass through the newly opened hole in his body. With such a wound, it was only a matter of time before he would die.
'The end, bastard.' Aurora muttered mercilessly, sending one more spear the wolf's way. The spear reached the wolf in no time, going straight through his skull.
[You have defeated the Wolf of Fire Boreus level 50.]