“This should be the boss room.” Marcus said as he placed a large hand against the large gates at the end of the massive hall they were in. “Shall I?” He turned back to make sure everyone in the group was ready.
Joseph nodded to give him the go ahead, and Marcus turned back to the gate, slowly putting pressure on it until it swung open with relative ease.
Darkness greeted them on the other side as the group slowly stepped in, their senses primed.
“Wait! I sense something!” All of a sudden, Ling froze and yelled.
Boom!
A terrifying pressure erupted all around them, suffusing the air and sending shivers down their spines. The pressure was not directed at them, but even still, it was scary.
“This is..!” Marcus’ eyes snapped open wide. He had felt this pressure several times in his life. “A B rank monster!” He cried out and everyone’s faces contorted. But no one ran. They were all strong fighters and had already prepared for this scenario.
“WHO DARES?!” A deep, abyssal voice boomed throughout the cavern.
BAM!
The gates slammed shut behind them.
Whoosh!
Torches came to life all through the massive cavern, exposing the multitude of dark creatures for the adventurers to see. The blank eyes of thousands of creatures gazed at the twenty one humans that had stepped into the boss room.
“Heavens…” Marcus gasped. He had not expected this. Who would have told him that the monsters would already be waiting for them here?
“WHO DARES STEP INTO MY MASTER’S DOMAIN?!” Once again, the voice that they had heard earlier boomed aloud, echoing through their ears.
“Ignore the voice. It should be the dungeon consciousness that is speaking. Prepare for battle!” Stewart had expected something similar after reading the many journals left by his predecessors. He turned to Marcus, who nodded his head and held up his greatsword. A few tense seconds passed as neither the monsters nor the humans made a move.
“Fight!” All of a sudden, Marcus roared and swung his sword, conjuring a sharp blade of wind to precede his stunning forward dash. His massive great sword carried his forward as he sliced through over two dozen smaller spiders at once!
A red mystic light lit up around Marcus as someone in the group cast a wide buff on the entire group, increasing the strength of their attacks. Another blue light shone over them, enhancing their man regeneration, followed by another green light that enhanced their defenses.
A dozen warriors dashed forward beside Marcus with a glowing, tiny sword hanging over their foreheads, linking their minds together so they could coordinate their attacks.
Boom! Boom! BOOOM!
Mages sent out heavy, elemental bombardments that shook the entire hall. It looked like doomsday with how many peak C rank mages were pouring out their spells as if it was water.
Quickly, the weaker spiders and millipedes were reduced to ashes.
“Huh? No kill notifications?” Marcus quickly realized a problem. Before he could even think of a reason for the lack of notifications, his danger senses went wild and he jumped out of the way, also grabbing hold of the leather armor of one of the adventurers beside him.
Hummm!
A dark green beam of light tore through the area that they had just been standing in, leaving nothing but the ground and ashes there. The sword that the man had been holding happened to have been caught in the line of fire, and it was quickly decomposing.
“Ah, damn!” The man swore and tossed aside the sword and pulling out the spare he always had on his back. “Cost me a pretty coin.” He glared at the spiders.
“Hold up, is it just me, or are you not getting kill notifications?” Marcus took a moment to ask the man.
“Now that you mention it…” The man took a moment to throw an explosive into a cluster of approaching spiders. “I actually have not gotten any kill notifications.” He replied with a frown.
The two killed a few more spiders before regrouping with the others and sharing their discoveries.
“Yeah, I haven’t gotten a single notification yet!” The mages who had been in charge of bombarding the middle ranks of the monsters agreed with them. They had already reported this find to Joseph, who was already brainstorming a possible explanation.
“Wait! I have noticed something odd. Look at the monsters. There are millipedes, which we did not see before. Not only that, but even the spiders look different. Why? I think these are no ordinary monsters, but Spirit summons! These are the summons of whoever it was that got in here before us!” He deduced, slamming his fist on his open palm.
“Excellent deduction.” A deep voice resounded across the entire cavern, and the horde of creatures suddenly stopped attacking.
Joseph’s head whipped upwards, his sharp eyes fixating on the far end of the wall where a white portal shimmered into existence. From within it, an armored figure stepped out, black fire boiling around him.
“Oh no…” A gasp left Joseph’s lips when he set his eyes upon the figure. He could easily recall the image of that figure. That image had been pounded into his skull many, many times in the past. During his childhood, during his adolescence. Even as an adult, he made sure to never forget that image.
“What is that?” Marcus noticed the change in Joseph and immediately knew that the Undead Skeleton that had made an appearance was bad news.
Kitted in pitch black armor, the skeleton stopped just short of the edge of the raised platform where the portal had appeared. Black fire danced around the shoulders of the armor, forming a sort of cover that looked like black fur on the shoulder pads of the black armor.
A terrifying aura was radiated by the skeleton, and one whiff was enough to let Marcus know that this being was the source of that aura they had felt when they first set foot in here.