NOVEL NEXT Chapter 110 - Unexpected Boss Fight
The Smith poked his head over the final step of the staircase, eyes at ground level as he peered down the length of the tunnel. The tunnel appeared to open into a large space, the view blocked by some kind of resplendent multi-colored boulder.
He crept back down the stairs a way, past the point where he needed the [Blind] helmet to be able to see, and after a minute of thinking decided to change into his Light Armor. The [Shadow Concealment] enchantment of his Dark Armor wasn't working in this bright light anyway.
Once changed, he also swapped his Red Iron Round Shield for his Light Tower Shield and his Light War Hammer for his Dark War Hammer.
Finally, he ate a small amount of his dwindling crab monster meat, put the [Blind] helmet back on, and advanced up the staircase and down the tunnel, as quietly as he could. Step by step he approached the end of the tunnel and, now closer, he realized it wasn't a boulder, but a large tortoise monster, a little less than twice as tall as himself, with gems of various colors embedded in its shell. Stubby, thick, short legs poked out of the bottom of its shell, as well as a small tail. It showed no signs of noticing his approach, and James reckoned that its head must be looking towards the other side of the room.
He stopped just inside the tunnel, still unnoticed, and examined the room. A few yards to the right, along the wall, was a treasure chest, and then another dozen or so yards away there was a corner. The wall was white stone with glow stone outcroppings scattered here and there, and the ceiling was an unbroken blanket of the stones, more than twenty yards overhead.
The view of the far wall was mostly blocked by the tortoise monster, and the wall to the left was the same as the one opposite. Overall, the room seemed to be a cavern about fifty yards wide.
A standard boss room.
But James was on the wrong side of it.
Or maybe it was the right side?
He started to get confused, but refocused before he could get distracted. He had a choice: he could fight this boss monster and continue looking for staircases leading up, or he could go back down to the iron door leading to the boss monster of the sixth floor.
The floor full of unusually large rats and spider monsters.
He stifled a shudder and frowned. No, better the devil he knew. James recalled the tortoise monsters from the third floor of the dungeon, the ones that had guarded the ridge between the sand and firestorm areas. The ones that had been on the easier side to fight.
Plus, after fighting the Holy Tiger, how hard could a big, slow tortoise be?
James tightened his grip on his Dark War Hammer and crept forward. He stepped foot into the boss monster's arena, a mere ten yards from the giant tortoise monster, and its legs twitched, startled.
He strode forward in a hurry, shield raised, as the tortoise started to turn, bringing its head to face him. The gems caught the light, glittering beautifully. But the Smith raised his hammer, and as soon as he was close enough to strike–
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
He poured magic power into his War Hammer's enchantment the same as he would with any of his hammers enchanted with [Heavy Blow].
Crunch
His hammer crushed one of the gems, but otherwise didn't physically damage the tortoise monster's shell. Fragments of the emerald fell to the hard packed dirt beneath them, but James' attention was stolen by the spreading patch of darkness that stained the monster's shell.
Hissss!
With a loud hiss that seemed to echo in James' helmet, the tortoise monster managed to turn enough to see him around its own bulk, the one eye glaring at him in hatred.
He raised his hammer to strike again, unsure how much damage he was doing but confident that he was at least doing some damage, given the boss monster's reaction, and he managed to get one more strike in as the monster turned. He didn't break a gem this time, but the dark stain spread, dulling the gems it touched.
He raised his left arm again, preparing another strike, when he saw the boss monster's head rear back. Quickly, he hunkered down behind his Light Tower Shield and the tortoise monster's head whipped around almost faster than he could track, snapping its jaws shut against his shield. The head was wider than his torso, even in his armor, and it took almost all his strength to hold his ground against the force.
But he did hold his ground.
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And he didn't miss his chance to counter in the moment the tortoise monster recoiled from having its own attack blocked.
As fast as he could, he raised his War Hammer and swung it back down, not with any great force, simply relying on technique and Dexterity to ensure he hit his target.
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
He hit the monster in the head and darkness spread all over, even partway down its unnaturally long neck, and another hiss emanated from what was now a round patch of darkness and shadow. The head thrashed around, so wildly that James couldn't line up another strike, but it didn't even seem to be aiming for him.
Or it couldn't aim at him.
Still, the thrashing head was preventing him from getting closer to hit the shell, so he started side stepping around the tortoise monster's bulk and as he did, the monster withdrew its head and legs into its shell.
With no other warning, mid-step, every un-darkened gem on the tortoise monster's shell suddenly shined so bright that it dazzled James even through his helmet, and beams of light shot in all directions. Several of the beams struck him and were instantly [Reflected], chunking down his mana, but otherwise not affecting James in the slightest.
The walls of the cavern weren't so lucky.
A beam of red light swept across the wall, leaving a line of fire that quickly extinguished itself, but left a line of molten stone glowing and dripping. Another beam, this one pale blue, cooled the air and left a line of hoarfrost along the ground, up another wall, and even froze some of the glowstones on the ceiling. A beam of white light was reflected and refracted and reflected and refracted, filling the room with a rainbow of color that, other than momentarily dazzling James, didn't seem to do anything else. Green and brown beams of light also played about the room, and in the span of a breath over a dozen of the beams struck James and were [Reflected] even as he continued to move into position for a new strike.
His Light Armor was proof against it all.
The Smith struck again with his Dark War Hammer, and the light show paused as a new patch of darkness spread on the monster's shell, darkening several more gems and eliciting a new angry hiss, but then the beams of light started again.
The tortoise monster remained withdrawn in its shell.
Over and over James struck, and over the next minute, the darkness spread over the shell, small patches growing larger, merging, and darkening, until even in the bright light of the cavern the tortoise now looked more like a boulder of dark, nearly black stone than a monster.
The beams of light, which had been lessening in number as James darkened the shell, stopped, but the monster stayed withdrawn, and for all that his hammer was changing the monster's color, it wasn't physically damaging the shell other than occasionally crushing a gem here and there.
James swapped hammers with a thought, and his left had tightened around the handle of his trusty Earth War Hammer.
[Hammer Strike]
[Heavy Blow]
BOOM!
The deep sound of his strike echoed throughout the cavern.
Hissss!
The tortoise monster hissed in pain from within its shell, but didn't come out.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Crack!
The shell finally cracked, and the tortoise monster poked its head out, closer than James had expected, but still blinded, and it snapped at empty air unable to see where he was.
Carefully, he lined up his swing, and at just the right moment–
[Hammer Strike]
Crunch!
The spike on the end of his hammer pierced the tortoise monster's leathery skin, then its skull, and then into its brain tissue as the mass of the hammer forced the head into the ground.
And then the Smith continued to swing his hammer.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
The head was an unrecognizable mess of gore and bone fragments in a small crater when the intrusive thoughts came and James finally stopped.
[Enchanter] Class has reached level 12.
[Smith] Class has reached level 12.
James allowed himself a small grin behind his helmet's visor. Victory.
A pang of hunger shot through his stomach as the adrenaline started to wear off and he breathed heavily. Immediately, he refocused on a very important question:
How did tortoise monster meat taste?
An hour later, James had his answer: not great. But better than mole monster meat, and although the tortoise monster was so big, most of that bulk seemed to be shell. The total amount of meat he was able to collect was slightly less than the three serpent monster's he'd killed on the fifth floor of the Dungeon.
He paused in the middle of adjusting his smoker. Was this the fifth floor, again? Or was it the seventh floor?
The shell he had smashed to pieces with his hammer in his spirited disassembly of the monster's corpse, and over time the lux essence in the air had overcome the darkness from his hammer strikes, and the shell fragments had regained their luster.
[Appraisal]: Glimmering Tortoise Shell Fragment
James idly considered that he might be able to work them into a shield, but he wasn't sure how, and anyway, his Light Tower Shield was still in great condition. So into the magic bag they went.
The organs and bones went in a pile, and the monster had a large Light Jewel full of lux essence embedded in its heart, which also went into the magic bag.
James was far more interested in the meat, and it wasn't until after the last batch had been smoked and he was putting away the smoker that he remembered the treasure chest near the tunnel leading to the stairs back down to the sixth floor.
He conducted his usual check for traps and opened it, and found it full to the brim with perfectly formed ingots of White Iron, completely free of essence. He gazed upon the treasure for a moment, and then quickly stored it all away in his magic bag. He couldn't find it in himself to be super excited, since he could easily mine out all the White Iron Ore he wanted and smelt it down, and he had a large stockpile already, but still, this was what treasure should be!
The Smith smiled, stood, stretched, and rolled his shoulders. Feeling confident, he strode across the arena, crossing the hundred yards to reach the ten steps leading up to the familiar iron door. He climbed up, grabbed the handle, and pulled fruitlessly, the iron door stubbornly refusing to budge.
James frowned, tugged again, and his heart started racing until he remembered. He pushed, and the door swung open without any resistance, revealing a small room of white stone, glow crystals, and hard packed dirt.