The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

"What the hell did you do?!" Emma snapped, taking in the absolute chaos she just walked into. Britt had said there might be a lot of monsters within the dungeon, considering how long they've been thought to be myths by the people of Ember, but Emma wasn't expecting to walk right into a boss fight.

"I accidentally aggroed the boss," Nathan said. "I almost fell flat on my face coming through—thanks for the warning on the extra momentum, by the way!"

Britt didn't acknowledge the sarcastic remark; she was frowning at the giant bug and wolf that were battling it out and completely ignoring the conversation.

"The few steps I took to catch myself landed me with one foot in the arena," Nathan finished, still glaring at the inattentive Britt.

This wasn't good. They were huddled in the far corner, trying to get as much distance between themselves and the battling monsters. Emma wasn't sure if the wolf was strictly on their side, but the Orcan Queen was the one with a Health bar above her head, so Emma surmised that she was the boss of the room.

The glowing wolf circled the Queen, his lips peeled back in a snarl. The Queen chittered and hissed angrily, focusing on the largest opponent in the room. Thankfully, that meant she hadn't even noticed the ants in the corner.

"What are we going to do?" Nathan asked. "That thing is five times my level. We don't stand a chance."

"Six," Andrea corrected. "And we're not fighting that thing. We'll get crushed before we even get one spell out. How do we get out of here?"

Britt finally moved her eyes from the battle, turning to try to go back through the portal. She was stopped by an invisible force field and an error message popped up in front of the portal.

The Seran Sabers Dungeon is in a dkeas of overflow. To prevent rde udjje shken from escaping ken sleudke has been placed under dkenslwk. Please defeat the lwhuu and restore the psuneon to working order to bekwmns significant damage to nearby pellrnkesnt.

The dungeon will provide eksnclqod rewards until the kelwclis has been dealt with and players can sokkeit overflow Experience up to ####### even if they have reached an ekcwniosy. (The Experience will be lens for the players and applied as ciin as they Ascend.)

"Tell me we're not trapped in here with that thing," Nathan snapped.

Britt shook her head. "There should be a tunnel out that will lead to a waiting area, or at least another set of lower level monsters. If we skirt around the edge of the room, we can—"

"What's your average level?" a familiar voice called as a woman ran toward them around the arena. Emma couldn't get a good look at her face from this distance, but she seemed to be human—Emma didn't see any antlers or extra limbs.

"Just past the First Ascension," Andrea replied without hesitation.

"Don't just give away our levels," Nathan hissed.

The newcomer finally came close enough that Emma could see her face. "Get to the exit. The Queen is—"

"Patty?!" Emma interrupted. She looked worn out and her clothes were covered in thick purple blood that smelled putrid, but it was definitely Patty.

Patty paused, squinting at Emma despite the fairly well-lit boss room. Had she injured her eyes some time in the past month? Emma was a little dusty from all the traveling through Ashen, but she didn't think she was that dirty.

Recognition sparked in Patty's eyes, and she broke out one of her ear-splitting grins that made it impossible to dislike her. "Long time, no see, Captain. Ready for a boss raid?"

Emma squealed with delight, running over to throw her arms around Patty. "I never thought I'd see you again! Is Tanya with you? Jared? Any of the others? We haven't met up in ages!"

"Just Helga and Bob," Patty said, returning Emma's hug so tightly it hurt. How high was her level at this point? "Not sure where the others ended up. They were on vacation, so last I heard they were going to the opening in Ottawa." She pulled out of the hug, still grinning ear to ear. "What about Lilly, is she with you?"

Emma's smile faded.

Patty's eyes widened, alarm making her smile drop as well. "She isn't—"

"She didn't come!" Emma rushed to clarify before Patty got the wrong idea. "Lilly's safe and sound back on Earth." Emma blinked away the sudden rush of tears that came with thinking about her sister. "It's better that way anyway."

Patty nodded, gripping Emma's shoulders supportively. "She's safe. That's all that matters."

A ball of fire exploded above their heads, raining small rocks and debris down on them. Emma ducked, reflexively activating her healing spells.

"Umm, sorry to break up the reunion," Nathan said. "But we've got Bugzilla and a hellhound fighting to the death a few feet away from our current position and I don't see anyone coming up with a plan to not die in the next few minutes, so maybe we could continue this after we find a way out of here?"

Patty nodded. "Fair. You're all low level, right? Does anyone have any special skills? Bob, Helga and I can play offense but we're only at the Second Ascension ourselves."

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"I've got some decent healing spells, but nothing that'll combat a hit from that thing," Emma said, not quite sure if she was talking about the Queen or the fireball-spitting hellion. "Britt can use runes so she's the most OP in the party, no offense, guys."

"None taken," Nathan said. "It's a fact, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Are you guys bugged, too?" Patty asked.

"Bugged?" Britt frowned. "Is the dungeon throwing more errors than just the System messages?"

"Maybe," Patty said. "Unlimited MP glitch. Helga says it comes with a bit of a headache, but I don't think it'll hurt more than getting crushed to death by giant bug feet."

Emma nodded, briefly explaining about the several times during the escape from the researchers' cave that she had cast a spell with her Mana empty. It wasn't pleasant, but it was possible.

"And you weren't going to share this game-breaking bug with your party mates?!" Nathan asked, real indignation in his voice. "How do you trigger it. Do we need to hop around until we glitch through the wall or something?"

"No trigger that we can find," Patty said. "Just try to use more than your Mana pool. If it works, you're bugged, if not—" She shrugged.

The ground shook as the wolf managed to tackle the Orcan Queen to the ground, snapping its jaws at the back of her neck.

"Not a conversation for right now," Andrea said. "We can test it as we go. I have some taunt abilities and a shield, but it's paper-thin. Britt has speed-reading and wind magic on top of whatever she can do with her runes. Emma is healing and Nathan is ranged physical attacks with a focus on poison."

"Concise and detailed, I like her," Patty said with a grin. "If your spells are long ranged, cast them from the exit so you can make a break for it if you catch the Queen's aggro, but I don't think anything you do will beat the dog. Britt, if you can throw whatever you've got at the Queen, that would be fantastic. Emma, are you willing to play field medic, or would you rather set up shop in the tunnel and we'll run back to you if we need healing?"

Emma blinked in surprise. Patty had always been the strategist, but Emma wasn't usually there to hear her give orders. Emma's part of the plan was always to do her own thing, leaving the cleanup to her number two.

"Field medic is fine," Emma said. "Are the rest of you okay with Patty's role-selection?"

"Sniping from a safe distance is my preferred fighting method," Nathan said with an approving nod.

"I'll play secondary medic," Andrea said. "My spells don't do a lot of damage anyway and Basic Heal scales with subject Vitality, so my lack of stats shouldn't make a difference. I can work on keeping the rest of you healthy while you do damage."

Britt nodded. "And I don't mind playing dealer," she said. "Do you have any info on the boss?"

"The notification was bugged, so not really. My guess is she's strong against physical attacks, judging from the amount of armor she's got on and the way she's tanking all of Fluffy's attacks."

"Fluffy?" Emma asked in an amused voice, knowing immediately who had named the dog. "How did Helga bag herself a familiar at that level?"

"Long story," Patty said. "He's got aggro, so stay as far away from him as possible."

With that last bit of advice, she started running back around the arena, bobbing and weaving even though there were no attacks coming her way. Britt frowned thoughtfully, but Emma had no idea what was going through her head, and she didn't ask.

"Don't take any risks," Emma said to all of them. "We can whittle that thing down over the next few days if we have to."

Nathan grimaced. "It better not take that long."

Emma agreed with the sentiment, but a three day fight with no casualties was better than a five minute total-party-kill.

She ran after Patty, setting up her healing spells so she could run and heal at the same time.

* * *

Britt waited a beat before following the others, not sure exactly how to handle the current situation. The boss had to be low C-level, which was the only reason they had a chance of beating it. There was no way the dog would have a chance at fighting a monster three times its level if they were fighting with the same foundation.

That said, the Queen was probably similar in C-level to humans, given the fact that it was holding its own against the familiar who should be fighting with a bonus proportional to its master's stats, assuming they formed a legitimate contract. Had the System facilitated the contract, or was it something humans could do naturally? There were too many unknown variables; it was giving Britt a headache.

"Emma!" The one Britt assumed was Helga greeted Emma exuberantly as she reached them.

"Come to play healer?" the other one—presumably Bob—asked.

"If you all will have me," Emma called with a smile.

Once again, Britt was blown away by the humans' ability to act so casually in a life or death situation. She had seen them panicking often enough to know that they weren't immune to fear, but when they came up against monsters, they seemed to be in their element.

Britt wished she could be so calm.

She mentally pulled up a list of all the spells that she knew by heart as she avoided running into Emma's healing effects so she wouldn't waste the Mana charge on them. Britt had mostly studied wind runes, and of those spells, most of them were not going to make a dent in the monster's armor. She needed something focused and low-cost.

Britt jumped to the side to avoid one of the boundary cracks that were opening and closing randomly in the large boss room. The dungeon was extremely unstable and getting worse by the minute. The only advantage to said instability was the overabundance of Miasma in the air. It was so thick that Britt had to focus to see through the billowing mass of black energy.

Britt moved to the clearest spot she could find and drew a rune in the air, only stopping long enough to aim at the Queen's back. It wasn't a strong spell; just enough to test the waters. Wind sliced toward the Orcan Queen like a blade, making a small scrape across her otherwise-undamaged carapace. A tiny sliver disappeared from the boss' Health bar, but Britt couldn't tell if it was her attack that had caused the damage or the constant biting and scratching attacks from Helga's familiar.

Britt gathered more of the Miasma and prepared for a stronger attack, focusing on the bugs legs. She couldn't get a clear shot of the Queen's underside, which was likely the most vulnerable area, but she wouldn't do much damage if she kept aiming all of her attacks at the Queen's armor. Britt drew three runes in the air, forming a triangle with them to focus the spell on a single point. She waited for the moment when she would do the most damage.

The Orcan Queen reared up on its back legs, brandishing its scythes at Fluffy.

Britt released her spell and a spear made of solid air zipped across the arena floor, punching through the monster's leg.

The Queen screamed, stumbling backwards and falling onto her back, her legs flailing uselessly in the air. A sizable chunk disappeared from her Health bar as thick purple blood gushed out of the wound.

"Stun state!" Patty yelled. "Go all out but keep your distance!"

A flurry of spells and weapons were launched at the Queen, all aimed for her vulnerable underside. Britt joined in, tossing several of the faster wind blades at the monster, being careful to pause whenever the wolf went in for another attack. By the time the boss managed to right herself, she had lost a tenth of her Health.

"Britt, whatever you just did, keep doing it!" Emma yelled.

Britt nodded, though she didn't think Emma could actually see her, and started gathering Miasma for another attack.

She froze, fear sending a river of ice through her veins. The Queen had thus far been focused on the wolf, who she deemed to be the biggest threat in the room, but now she ignored him as he scratched ineffectually at her heavily armored back.

She was standing stock-still, staring across the arena at Britt, her eyes glowing with calculating malice.

Shit.