The Crimson Tale of Conquest

---Jason's POV---

Raising his hand, Jason unleashed powerful blast of flame. The air and the surrounding rocks of the cavern were scorched from the heat of the white colored flame. The light radiating off the attack was so bright it was almost blinding. The flame spread out in a cone like shape in front of Jason and lasted only for three seconds. After the attack ended the surrounding area was red hot and was even melted in places. The water that once filled the large cavern evaporated leaving the area bare.

"ROOAAARRR!!" The recipient of said attack let out a roar in anger. The large blue Dragon that was taller than a four-story building with its vision impaired thanks to the fire looked around the cavern looking for the one responsible for the white flame.

It's blurry vision noticed a figure moving; not towards it but where the master of the dungeon was located. Panicking the Dragon placed one of its massive Claws in the figure's path. As a result the slash attack meant for the Dungeon Master was instead used on the Dragon, causing its foot to be severed from its body.

"GRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" The Dragon roared in pain, but stayed focused on its task and used its tail to knock the figure away. No blood was spilled from its wound, as a purely magical made creature the dragon won't bleed. They were created as a higher rank Dungeon summon so even if they die here as long as the Master of the Dungeon survives they can always be brought back. So even if it literally kills them, the Dragon won't let a single attack hit the Dungeon master.

Jason flew through the air after being blown back by the Dragons tail. Jane the mage quickly chanted a wind spell to cushion his fall. After landing Jason, without even sparing a glance towards Jane, Charged towards the Dragon again, seemingly unfazed after being hit by its tail. His eyes trained on the Dungeon Master, a being that looked like Wolf beast-folk with Golden fur and Golden eyes that glowed in the dark cavern. They were probably a part of the Beast-folk race once-upon-a-time, but who knows how long ago that was.

The great blue Dragon's vision has cleared up. It watched Jason, who was training his gaze on the Dungeon Master. Golden light could be seen coming from the Dragons throat and mouth, something could be seen building up inside its mouth. Noticing something was up Jason stopped his approach.

As the chamber once again filled with water cooling the hot rock, steam rose around them. Sticking his swords in the ground a glowing blue barrier formed in front of him, not even a second later a large jet of water hit the translucent barrier. The force of the collision caused a shock-wave that shook the whole caver, the three girls behind the Hero jumped out of the way of falling debris.

"Grah!" Grunting with effort, Jason withstood the attack and kept his barrier in place.

After what felt like ten minutes, but couldn't have been more than one, the breath attack the dragon unleashed started to wane, before it stopped completely. Pulling his sword from the ground Jason once again charged towards the Dungeon Master. Pulling his swords up and pointing it towards the Wolf man he gathered magical energy into it. Ethereal blue light shined through the caver as more and more power gathered around the blade.

Noticing that this puny insect was planning something the Dragon prepared to block his attack. Just when It looked like Jason was going to unleash the attack on the Wolf man, he turned his sword towards the Dragons head, a powerful white laser racing towards it. Not expecting them to turn their attack towards them, the Dragon was unable to dodge fully, having a massive hole blown into the bottom side of their head, taking part of their vocal cords with it.

"!!!!!!!" Unable to even scream the dragon flailed about in pain. Still, no blood spilled, but Mana leaked from its open wound. Not one to let an opportunity to escape them, May, the black haired swords woman ran along the Dragons back to the back of its head. Channeling Chi imbued with the fire element through her sword. The orange flame coating the blade Radiated heat and power as May raised it above her head. Bringing the blade down like an executioner, the blade sunk into the Dragons skull, piercing its brain.

The Dragon flailed even more, unfortunately it was losing Mana, its life force, and it has been greatly weakened already. It stomped, crashed into walls and did everything it could to shake off the annoying pest that stuck themselves into its head. Sadly for the Dragon it's struggle was in vain, its movements got weaker and weaker until it finally collapsed, its weight displacing the water and causing it to fly into the air before raining down around them.

With the Dragon occupied, Sara was able to get close to the Master of the Dungeon without a problem. Using some throwing knives she flung them at him. The wolf man was able to evade the attacks easily enough, but that allowed Sara to get even closer. Channeling Wind Chi throughout her legs she increased her speed. Swinger her left arm at the wolf mans side, causing him to side step it before she kicked out her leg knocking him off balance. She quickly knocked him down onto the ground and slit his throat.

"Jason I got it." Sara said as she cut into the Wolf man. She pulled out a perfectly spherical object from its chest, not a drop of blood could be seen on the object. It glowed with a golden light, giving off a domineering aura, it was almost suffocating to look at it. The Dungeon Core, The heart and soul of every Dungeon.

"Let's just grab it and get out of here, without a host for the core this place will collapse in time." After spending two weeks inside the dungeon Jason and the others were itching to get out. "There's probably a teleportation circle somewhere around here, let's find it and get out."

After searching for a bit of time they found a hidden passage behind one of the many water falls. At the end of the tunnel they found a small living area, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dinning area, and a study. This was probably where the Dungeon Master lived. Unlike every other creature found in dungeons, the Dungeon Masters are organic beings that still need food and water, otherwise they are immortal.

There was one other room that was eight meters in diameter. In the center of the room was a complex geometric circle imprinted into the floor, glowing a faint blue. The party of four stepped into the room and stood in the middle of the circle. Pouring mana into the magic circle, activating it.

Finding themselves inside a hidden room next to the Dungeon entrance, they made their way to the outside world. The bright light of the warm sun was dazzling after spending so much time under ground in the dim tunnels of the Dungeon. Looking around, the destruction Jason caused before entering was gone. The dungeon restoring the land to hide itself.

"It will take us about a week to get to  'Prosperty City' from here." Jason said. "Lets get on with it, I want to deliver the Dungeon Core to the Church so we can continue searching for the monster girl."

"Yeah, honestly this thing creeps me out." Jane said. As a mage she could tell that a power much more potent than Mana was contained within and it made her uneasy.

"Makes sense, I heard that unlike us normal people, the Dungeon Master is able to create permanent items from thin air with the power of a Dungeon Core." Jason said. "The power needed to do something like that isn't something one can do with only Mana."

They talked as they made their way down the dirt Highway. Jason looked up to the sky, he thought about his life so far and how it ended up with him hunting some girl who hasn't even done anything yet.  'Well she did attack that one guy, but from what he said after the incident, she apparently just stopped attacking him for no discernible reason.' Shaking his head to disperse his thoughts, the old Hero focused on just getting to the City state that's a week away.