Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"I could try hitting it with <Plague Strike>," Mina offered after a moment of silence.

<Plague Strike> was the final move of Asclepius' Needle which was able to inflict the target with a deadly disease. Considering that the plague powers of Sekhmet had worked on the Mushroom Fiddler, she suspected that diseases also had to be one of the weaknesses of the fungus beasts.

"Couldn't you just keep slashing at it with your shadow magic to infect it with diseases?" Mike argued.

<Plague Strike> had a 24h cooldown and her brother was apprehensive to waste it on the first boss they met.

"it's a boss. It would take ages to inflict it with something serious if it works at all," Mina explained.

One of the powers she gained from Sekhmet was that all her attacks and magic carried the plague attribute, but she couldn't use any direct spells to inflict diseases, With just the passive attribute, it was unlikely to kill a high-level boss like this.

" Let me at him! If Fin gets really big, Fin could just stomp him!" the brute suggested energetically.

She seemed still pissed about being targeted. It was true, Fin's strength and endurance also increases with her transformation. The only problem was that her agility and dexterity also tended to lower with size. There was no way to hit the agile boss in that state. But now...

"That's not a bad idea, but we have to hurry and decide. If Fin stomps him now while he is still frozen, she might be able to deal massive damage," Bulko pondered

Mike hesitated for a moment, but nobody came up with a better idea.

"Fine, let's observe when the cursed ice is going to break, then Fin stomps him before he can get free."

This way they could maximize the use they could get out of Mina's freezing skill and afterward, judging by how much damage Fin's rampage would deal, they still had Mina's <Plague Strike> as a backup.

"Booyah!" Fin cheered before her tiny figure started to stretch and turn. The little fairy grew in size, until there stood a giant dwarf-like figure among them, easily breaching the 15m mark.

"Wouldn't it be better if you stayed around the boss's size?" Mina asked a little worried about her lowered agility.

"I know what you are worried about, but I don't know if I could endure the spore when I'm smaller," Fine explained her size.

Since she had not turned into any special big race, she had to become several times bigger than a quarter-giant like Bulko to have a similar, even slightly better, level of endurance and basic defense.

All of them waited for the cursed ice to show signs of breaking, reading their attacks to coordinate with Fin's initial attack. Fin was going to take the role of a tank in this one. Mike felt a little bad since this was originally the job of his and Bulko's pet, but both neither was fit to resist the spore attacks, otherwise, they would have a much easier time.

In this moment of silence, Mike regretted not accepting Seth's offer, to bring golem knights. The walking, talking, armored skeleton automatons would have been the perfect counter to this place. But he didn't want to. Only now he realized that it was in a fit of misplaced pride, that he wanted to overcome the Abyss as Yulecat's Fur, without the help of an overpowered golem to carry them.

If he could change the past, he would love to be carried by an overpowered golem right about now. However, he had no temporal powers, which was why they had to face this danger with what they had with them.

<Hyphae Hound lv.98(Boss)

Status: Frozen, Enraged

740/1000>

As the health of the boss fell below ¾, the cursed ice started showing small crash. The cracking of ice was accompanied by a flash of power, as Fin illuminated the mushroom forest with her royal dignity. She had activated her power as the Melee Queen as her massive figure charged forward, with incredible speed for her size.

Fin's speed was one of the powers of Arke's Chestplate. As the messenger of the Titans during their war with the Olympians Arke had incredible speed, which Fin was now using to compensate for her lowered agility and dexterity.

Her, now massive, knuckle dusters crashed through the fragile ice carapace and hammered the massive boss to the ground. Fin was too experienced in real fights, to let some false sportsmanship get in her way. Mina cast her <Ice Field>, to slow the boss and ease Fin's task.

Chaining her moves and control skills in melee combat, she kept the boss on the ground and hindered it from defending itself, as her massive fists kept hammering like an anvil. She knew that it would get away, the moment she let off.

Her moves were so fast and fluid, that the others had a hard time finding a timing for their attacks. Even without their help, the hound's health quickly started depleting under the fists of fury. Despite the wild and violent image, the fairy still managed to make the brutal and merciless battle seem elegant and regal. Truly, a melee queen.

When the boss's health fell below 1/3 it started emitting a heavy aura. At the same time, many of Fin's buffs had been exhausted. Especially the <Speed of Arke> was only a temporary solution to her missing agility and dexterity.

While the boss entered its third phase, Fin's attack became less fluid and showed more openings for the creature to fight back despite the swarm of frost moths and Mina's field of ice that should have slowed it at a similar level.

The fairy was about to become desperate when the hound was about to escape her grasp when she was reminded that she was still part of a party. Bulko's healing magic slowly closed her wound, while Mike had suddenly appeared in the beast's escape path, forcing it back into the brute's range.

More openings also gave Lyxiss more chances to time her spells. She did not use any attack spells, instead, she used various terrain spells to make it harder for the hound to flee from the giant fairy's "loving care".

The one helping to accumulate damage on the boss was Mina, as she kept sneaking in attacks with her shadow blades while Fin wrestled it to a standstill. As stressful as the fight was for them, it was hard to imagine how frustrated the boss must be feeling as it was constantly slammed, punched, kicked, thrown, body checked, and stabbed. Maybe it had come to regret being so resilient?

If this could go on, they were sure to win this, but things couldn't go on like this. As great as Fin's transformation was, it also cost her a huge amount of resources, in addition to fighting in that form. She had been desperately stacking up damage to defeat the hound before her time ran how, but in the end, she was forced to revert back to her original size when the boss was still left with 5% of its health.

"Fin, get back!" she heard the shout before she felt the shove.

As she was shrinking, she tried to give the boss a last hit, but was rudely shoved out of the way. She was shoved right out of the way of a claw that had bent backward in an unworldly and anatomically harrowing manner, as a shadow domain covered the boss. It was not the skill of Mina's legendary rings, but her magic as a shadow mage.

What none of them could see, as she was fused with her dark domain thanks to Associate of Darkness, the trait given by the Ring of Erebus was Mina evading the claw thanks to the trait and performing the last hit on the boss, by stabbing Asclepius' needle directly into its skull.

The plan was for the Fairy to tank and finish it off, as she would have been able to endure the explosion. Seeing Fin shrink, it was clear that plan was for naught, so Mina stepped in, relying on a single trait of her weapon.

With the assassin's strike, the health of the boss covered in shadows emptied out. Everyone got the message that it died and expected the spore explosion but... nothing happened. As happy as they were, they all questioned why.

It was an ability almost forgotten since most creatures they fought died with a single attack. Her dagger had the enchantment of Elufsiv the Esurient. A power that would burn mana and lock the usage of skills and magic for ten seconds after the strike.

"I wasn't sure whether it would work on the boss... but when I saw Fin in danger, I had to risk it." She explained afterward.

"Stupid, you could have both died in that explosion!" Mike scolded his little sister.

"I also trusted Seth's items. I believed in the chance, that the spored couldn't get me, when I'm fussed with my shadows, in addition to Associate of Darkness."

"Still!"

"Let it go. In the end, everything went well, so she won't listen anyway," Bulko calmed their team leader. With a sigh, Mike could only let it go.

"Fine... let's stay here and recover before we look for the way to the next floor."

Although it was a hard fight, they had not given up on conquering this dungeon. At least they wanted to see the second floor, before making a final decision.