Chapter 643: Surprise Boss Fight
We went through the hole that looked like something had crashed through the wall to get to this side.
The place opened up to a cavern that had a hole in the ceiling where light shone through to illuminate the centre of said cavern. The floor seemed to sink into the ground at the centre to form a crater.
Within that crater, there seemed to be a pile of rocks that barely peeked out from within.
The interesting thing was the fact that there wasn’t any snow falling through the hole despite there being a blizzard and also the fact that there was light shining through considering there was a blizzard outside.
That means the light must be coming from another source rather than the sun.
“What is this place?” Emilia asked, voicing out the exact question in my head.
Lisa looked up at the ceiling where the light was coming from, “I don’t know, but I’m more curious about what that light is.”
Without anyone saying anything, we decided to get closer to the centre of the cavern to see what was the source of light hiding in the ceiling.
As we got closer to the crater, I realised that the thing that I initially thought was a pile of rocks weren’t rocks at all when it moved.
Arms came out from under it to push itself up, revealing itself to be another cyclops.
All of us got into battle positions, only to realise that the cyclops was missing its other arm and both its legs seemed to have been torn off.
And I really did mean torn off judging by the broken bones and chunks of meat that were dangling off of it.
I’m more surprised that this monster was still alive despite such grievous wounds.
It turned to us, its single eye staring straight at our group and I could not tell what it was feeling at the moment. But I know that it certainly did not look like it was going to try to attack us.
Right as I wondered what happened to the monster in front of us, I noticed that the light from overhead had turned from a bright, warm yellow to a fiery red.
When I looked up, I realised that the hole above wasn’t a straight line up but a series of twists and turns that disappeared into another turn at the very top where the red light was coming from.
I saw the air start to shimmer near the light and I felt my gut clench at the sight when I realised what I was looking at.
“Everyone, get back!!” I yelled, pulling everyone else behind me before using [Aqua Ball] to form a shield of water in front of me.
Right as the shield formed in front of me, a column of flame came crashing down from above, bathing the cyclops in a pillar of fire.
The flames burned the crater mercilessly and tongues of flames smashed itself against my water shield, causing it to hiss as parts of it turned to steam.
Emilia immediately joined me and conjured more water to shield us from the flames, bolstering my shield with her own to protect us against the flames.
We held strong as the pillar of fire continued to descend into the crater, as though its intention was to incinerate everything inside the cavern.
And as suddenly as it had appeared, the flames suddenly dissipated, which also plunged the cavern into darkness as the light from above disappeared.
The only source of light was my [Spotlight] that still hung overhead, barely enough to push back against the darkness of the cavern.
I released my hold on the water shield and allowed the water to splash onto the ground, focusing my attention on the [Spotlight] instead to increase its brightness so that we could see into the crater.
The cyclops was basically charcoal now with it being burned to a crisp, its skin completely blackened and caked with soot.
I tilted my head up to look at the hole instead, wondering just what caused the fire to descend from above.
I didn’t even need to wait long before a large shadow appeared from inside the ceiling and dropped down right into the crater with a loud crash that shook the earth we stood on.
There was also a loud squelch as the corpse of the cyclops was crushed under the weight of the newcomer, its body flattened into the ground.
Before the dust cloud settled, I saw a pair of glowing red eyes shine from within before it reared upwards to look down at us.
Was this what I saw in Lisa’s vision?
I was expecting it to happen so I managed to cover my ears in time before an earth shattering roar rocked through the entire cavern.
The roar even caused a shockwave that blew away the dust cloud to reveal the being that came crashing down from the ceiling.
[Name: Fire Drake
Race: Monster
Stats:
550 Strength
200 Dexterity
400 Endurance
500 Magic
Magic Skills:
Pyromancy (Tier 3), Geomancy (Tier 2), Aeromancy (Tier 2)]
I suppose I should be glad that it wasn’t an actual dragon?
“Drake!!” I yelled out a warning to the others who were still recovering from the monster’s roar.
At the same time, I bought time for my party to recover by shooting a [Static Bolt] to stun it for a moment, which really only lasted a moment as the monster broke out from the paralysis almost as soon as it was affected by it.
It raised its foreleg into the air in preparation to swing it down at us to smash us like it did the cyclops.
There was a roar and Odeta charged towards the drake, ramming into its chest and forcing it to drop its upraised claw to the side to steady itself.
The rest of us took the chance to get into our own formation with me at the very back.
With an opponent like this, I wasn’t going to hold back so I immediately called up Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier and Funf.
I was going to call more but then I saw the look on Odeta’s face.
She definitely saw this Fire Drake as a challenge for her to test her strength.
I decided to keep the rest as backup for now while the five I called up will help me make sure that everyone would be getting healed whenever needed at any time.
While everyone seemed to be ready to fight the drake, Emilia was shouting at us from the side, “What are you girls doing?!! Let’s get out of here already!!”
Odeta punched the dragon in its chest before roaring back, “Are you kidding?! It’s a drake!! I’ve never fought a drake before!! No way am I giving this up!!”
Yep, that’s what I thought she would say.
The former merchant turned to look at the others in our party, only to realise that all of us were prepared to fight as though facing a monster like this was something that we had dealt with before.
I suppose that it wasn’t our first time facing an opponent that was stronger and bigger than us but a Fire Drake was certainly a first.
Odeta was already getting its attention by attacking it at the front, Delmare had joined her to attack the drake from the side with her rapier, Lisa was supporting them by shooting out spells at a distance and Katsuki was flitting around the drake and slashing at its vulnerable parts with her daggers.
She turned to look at me, “Aster? I mean… Mistress? Are we really not running?!”
I gave her a smile, “We can beat it Emilia, don’t worry. I even have several tricks up my sleeve that would help us beat an opponent like this.”
She didn’t look very convinced but she wasn’t going to question me directly about it either so she turned back to look at the others.
“Lisa?!!” Emilia cried out, presumably looking for support from my Infrid.
“What? I’m with Odeta on this one! Do you know what kind of potions I can make with Fire Drake parts?! I’m more surprised you’re not thinking about making money from selling its parts! Besides, with Aster here, we can’t lose so this isn’t a chance I’ll let pass!!”
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Emilia drew her own sword and faced the drake with a serious stance.
“Let’s do this!! Be careful not to damage its scales too much!! Those are valuable! And try not to break its horns too! Oh, and don’t cut out its eyes! Or break its bones!
Or shatter its teeth! Or–“
“Emilia, shut up,” Katsuki interrupted. “If you have no interest in fighting the drake and protecting the Mistress, you are free to run back to the others.”
The Nekomata shut her mouth and glared at the Inugami who was pointedly ignoring her after telling her off.
Right after that, she charged towards the drake with her sword held at her side.
Ahem, let’s bring this overgrown lizard down!
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