Chereads / Akkaihoshi Jigoku e no mon / Chapter 24 - Chapter twentyfour: Dungeon boss

Chapter 24 - Chapter twentyfour: Dungeon boss

The doors to dark catacombs open and torches light up the path ahead. "That´s not scary at all." Hi comments entering the dungeon. As soon as the both of them enter they hear the screeching doors closing behind them. "Great now we´re trapped." Aria says. "The only way is forward now." Hi tells her. "I guess!" Aria says letting out a sigh. They move on forward through the corridors filled with coffins, bones and dust. They enter a bigger room with pillars supporting it and a stairway leading down. Iron gates drop down below them and the ground begins shaking. From out of the ground skelletons appear. They have a wide array of weapons at their disposal: Scimitars, Straight swords, spears, halberds, bows and magic catalysts. "That´s the skelletons i spoke of!" Hi says sheathing his sword out. Aria readies her spear and moves closer to Hi. They protect each others backs. Hi rushes out killing a lot of skelletons by burning them to dust. Aria cuts off their limbs one by one. The skelletons have died but the ground starts shaking again and a red aura surrounds the skelletons and resurrects them. "Even burning them to dust doesn´t stop their resurrection? So there must be a crystal or a necromancer close by!" Hi says. "I got it I´ll look out for it!" Aria says. They slay the skelletons again and try to make out a source of the magic. "He must be invisible." Aria deducts. "Might be! I´ve got an idea how about we jump up that broken pillar and flood the room with your magic." Hi says. "Good idea!" Aria answers. "Alright, hold on close!" Hi says picking her up and jumping up. "Witness the power of water!" Aria says channeling water and flooding the room as planned. "Great the skelletons can´t swim, but they can survive." Aria says. "Now that the skelletons are gone I can concentrate on locating the necromancer." Hi says closing his eyes concentrating using his ears to hear the water and a heartbeat. Nothing. His nose picks up the scent of corpses from somewhere it´s small but it´s there. "I´ve found you!" Hi says launching a fire ball at the source. The necromancer catches fire and is no longer invisible. "I´ve got it!" Aria says lifting the necromancer up so that Hi can cut him into pieces and burn him to a crisp. Aria lets the water out. "Good job!" Hi says bumping Aria´s fist. The iron gates rise again and the stairway lights up with torches. "I guess that´s our invitation!" Aria says leading the way. It leads to another dark corridor. Now the skelletons don´t wait. "There´s undead with flesh too? Huh?" Hi says. "Necromancy manipulates the corpses of the dead and with time those turn into skelletons." Aria explains to him. "Oh, these look like adventurers but with some old looking gear. Let´s put an end to their misery." Hi says rushing forward slicing and dicing them up. Aria follows and finishes them off with her spear. In no time they arrive at another chamber. The iron gates close and the room is illuminated by torches revealing a skelleton with metal armor a sword and a shield with golden embroidery. It awakens with it´s eyes glowing red. It rushes at Aria who is unprepared. Hi rushes in and blocks the sword just in time. "Thanks. I didn´t even see that coming." Aria says a little scared. "Then leave it to me! I´ll keep it busy." Hi says blocking another sword strike. Aria backs off gathering magic from the area. The skelleton tries to attack her mid-cast but is stopped by Hi once again. "I won´t let you!" Hi says. They continue their bout. With no clear winner in sight. But Hi can quickly overwhelm the skelleton with his strong ever flowing attacks imbued with fire. It blocks with it´s shield which Hi cannot break. "It´s though!" Hi says. Aria has her spell ready now. Hi catches it and steps back. She quicly comresses all the water she created and launches a high density water beam which pierces the shield and armor and even leaves a hole in the wall. The skelleton drops the broken shield and shruggs of the attack. It unsheathes a second sword. Hi now notices the helmet with a red crest. "Hold up it´s one of those old heroes, master told me about!" Hi tells Aria. "Okay!" She answers. The skelleton seems to have become faster rushing Hi with two swords. Aria buts in with her spear and wins Hi some time to sheathe his shortsword. Hi rushes back in with two swords as well and matches the skelletons pace. Hi is now very concentrated and it seems that time is moving slower for him. Hi heats up his whole body and with an explosive burst he ovewhelms the skelleton with a corkscrew like fire attack which turns it into cinders. Hi is now out of breath and needs to recover his stamina and magic. This time Hi is only out for a short time, because he only used it for a brief moment but it still took a toll on his body. "What was that?" Aria asks. "My ultimate technique in which i become stronger and faster but can end up burning my body. Master can use it like it´s nothing because his body is built to be heat resistant" Hi says. "You didn´t burn up at least and that armor should helps absorbing the leaking magic so that you can´t overdo it as easily." Aria says taking off his helmet. She gently brushes her hand along his face. "I´ll always be there to heal you up." she says spreading her water magic from her hand into his body. "I feel much better now. Thanks!" Hi says. "I should be able to keep you up for longer next time you use that technique. That would make you super strong. " Aria says putting his helmet back on. "Let´s move on shall we?". "Yeah let´s go!" Hi answers. This time the stairs leading down are much wider and look more luxurious. There´s another set of doors this time wiht a skull on it. They open the door and reveal a big chamber with lots of necromancers all in long black rotting clothes hanging around. "Humans!" one yells. "Looks like we´re not welcome here!" Hi says. "It does look that way!" Aria adds. The necromancers summon skelletons and try to go invisible. "So these monsters a capable of speech !" Aria says slaying one. "And they are just skelletons too." . "Just skelletons? No we are more we are immortal humans!" one answers which is promptly cut up by Hi. But the amount of skelletons does not seem to get less. Aria summons some water clones who help her deal with the skelletons. With that opening he can locate and slay the necromancers. In front of them is another door which they open and reveal an altar with a shadowy figure sitting there offering a corpse. On the altar is a dragon skelleton. The room is very big with high arches and a fake crystal moon. This skelleton is bigger than the others and wears a robe, clothes and artifacts made form bones, a dragon tooth and other crystals. "Who dares interrupt my prayers!" It says picking a large staff up from the ground next to it. "That would be us!" Hi says. "My name is Schatten! I will judge thee for causing chaos in this sacred place. State thine name so i can remember yee fools." Schatten says. "My name is Hi and that is Aria. Shadow guy!" Hi says. "It´s Schatten you fool!" It says raising it´s staff which exudes strong red magic which flows through the room even protecting him. Aria fires an arrow at him which doesn´t connect and Hi attacks but is reppeled back. "Oh, great dragon lend us thy strength once more. Live once again and wreak havoc upon thine victims." Schatten says ramming his staff into the ground covering the dragon skelleton in red magic lighting it´s eyes up red. The dragon looks strong and seemingly has flesh made from magic. "Witness. The true strength of us necromancers. A true apostle of the god of the undead." Schatten says laughing menacingly. "Now that´s trouble!" Hi says blocking an attack from the dragon which throws him trough the wall destroying it into a cave light by crystals with very shallow water reflecting. Hi stands up again looking at his foe. Aria and Schatten follow them fighting. Schatten can block Aria´s attacks and uses a magic sword to attack back. He gather the remaining magic from his dead comrades and replenishes his magic reserves. He throws Aria away and she drops her spear. "Experience true horror!" Schatten says summoning some strong necromancer of a similiar stature as him. Aria notices that there is water and heals herself. She is rushed by skelleton warriors which she can kill with her katana. The necromancers can´t resurrect them for a reason. "Oh my. What a pleasant surprise this katana is made from metal imbued with the magic of moon god. A god that puts the dead to rest." Aria says charging forward. She can kill the skelletons and stop their resurrection. The necromancers attack her with magic which she blocks with a magic shield. In the meantime Hi is fighting the dragon which attacks with it´s claws and tail. Hi dodges and can bait a breath attack. The breath is rotten and defeats the necromancers busy with Aria who can block it with her shield. "You foolish, dragon why would you attack your friends?" Schatten asks. Aria attacks him to distract him. She cannot bypass that magic barrier and has to deal with it´s sword attacks. Aria dodges and has an idea to cut the crystals to drop them on Schatten. She cuts them down with high pressure water. They fall on him just as planned but he can teleport away in time. Aria keeps at him. Hi can attack the dragon and make some shallow cuts. "Damn. He is much stronger than that lesser dragon." he says running around the dragon. The dragon flies up into the air with it´s magic wings. "It can still fly?!" Hi asks surprised. It rains down it´s rotten breath on the cave. Hi uses fire magic to counteract it and manages to barely disperse it. "Good thing. It´s undead otherwise i´d have been toast!" Hi says jumping into the air to mount the dragon. In midair the dragon tries to grab Hi but he can use his fire magic to propell himself forward on the dragons back. "This thing doesn´t even have a reverse scale. How do we beat it?" Hi asks himself. Back on the ground Aria runs around with the goal of expending Schatten´s mana. Schatten can´t absorb the other skelletons magic nor use their bones to summon more. Hi manages to grab the dragons horns and can make it fly down at Schatten. Schatten has no choice but use magic to block. "What?" Schatten asks covering himself in even more magic. "No magic barrier is perfect!" Aria says finding a weakspot through which she can stab Schatten. She kills him. "You fools. The dragon will kill you!" he says. The dragon manages to get rid of Hi on his back and is somehow still alive. It´s eyes and magic body turn green. "What it´s still alive how?" Hi asks. The dragon stops attacking and speaks. "Please stop me before i go on a rampage Humans. I should be dead." Arias stabs the dragons skull and it dissapates. "Thank you! Dragonkin monk and woman!" the dragon says in his final words. "Dragonkin monk? I guess he could feel that i was trained by Sozin!" Hi says. "And I´m just woman." Aria says sour. "Not just any woman. My woman!" Hi says grabbing her shoulder. She shrugs of his hand. "Stop flirting you idiot and let´s get out of here. It´s not like I´ll run away." Aria says. "Yes!" Hi says teleporting them outside.