How long had it been since the boss battle on floor 21 began? At least half an hour had elapsed since my party arrived on the scene, so adding that to how long the Princess’s Legion had held out on their own, the fight had been ongoing for over an hour now.
The demon was already out of magical energy and could no longer regenerate. An open wound gaped on its back where Force had lopped off its left wing. Its face was smashed in from a blow of Gilbert’s mace. The left half of its body was seared from Erin’s fire spell. One of Mille’s magic swords was still sticking out of its back. Roslia had clipped the claws on both its hands with her holy sword. And Onz had crushed its right foot with his bare hands.
In other words, the boss was spent. It was battered so badly that it would fall with one more blow. But we’d also expended a lot to get to this point. Neme and Roslia only had enough mana left to save for an emergency, and Force could no longer ignore the corrosive effects of Purgatory’s black flames. The Princess’s Legion wasn’t faring much better either. Leyfa had exhausted her supply of magical items, and Mille didn’t have the energy left to create more magic swords. No matter how many healing spells were cast on them, Onz and Gilbert were hitting their physical limits.
“You okay?” I asked the half-elf girl beside me.
She exhaled and clenched her fists. “Yeah. I’m out of arrows, but Erin’s spell helped me recover some magical energy. I can still fight. You?”
“I reloaded my Spell Shots, so I can actually fight now. I’m raring to go too, so let’s do this.”
The Arrivers and the Princess’s Legion were fighting together, hand in hand. Our initial plan had been to rush the boss together with all our might, but after considering its unholy healing powers, we’d switched over to chipping away at its magical energy instead. Since we had the advantage in numbers, we were rotating our active combatants to keep up the pressure and conserve our strength. Several people would take turns fighting while the others regrouped. Force and Gilbert were on the front lines now, and Miya and I would be next in line with the support of Erin’s infinite magical energy.
Each party had been rotating their players differently, so this would be my first round partnering with Miya. Our first real double-team. Both born and raised in Changs, we’d set out into the world to become adventurers together. We’d been separated and reunited, and even done an adventuring stint in the capital with Roslia. This wasn’t our first time fighting a monster side by side, but it would be the first time we’d truly fought together.
Note Athlon of the Arrivers and Miya Line of the Princess’s Legion... Childhood friends who’d unfortunately gone their separate ways, but had never given up on their dream to become top-tier adventurers. Sure, this was a far cry from what we’d pictured as kids. That dream might never come true how we’d thought it would...but perhaps this double-team battle was a gift from God.
It gave us the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder against a formidable enemy of the dungeon’s end floors—something I’d imagined as a kid. If I looked past everything that had happened to get here and clipped out just this moment, it wasn’t too far of a stretch to say that my dreams had come true after all. I didn’t think I was the only one who felt that way either.
Miya looked at me and smiled. “I guess we can play clean-up crew on our turn, then.”
“Yeah, let’s defeat the boss together.”
“Don’t get in my way, you hear me?”
“Right back at you.”
Bantering back and forth with her like this was fun. It felt like proof we were finally on equal footing. This was what I’d so desperately dreamed of achieving in the past.
“Force!” I called.
“Gilbert!” Miya called too.
“Switch with us!”
Our voices echoed through the dimly lit temple. The best dream of all was about to begin.
“Shadow Runner.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A stark black shadow cut across the floor, faster than light. I should’ve been fatigued after fighting for so long, yet my body was light. I felt like I could go anywhere right now. I evaded a horizontal slash of the demon’s arm, then its fire breath. A beam that shot from its eyes and a stabbing thrust from its tail missed me as well.
“Esmeralda-Agua-Flecha.”
I could hear Miya incanting her spirit magic. Water gathered in her right hand and swirled into the shape of an arrow. The boss turned to her, its attention naturally drawn to the mana she was using.
I’ve got this. Not so fast! Stream!
I then activated the art I’d hesitated to use all this time. It closed the distance on an enemy in the blink of an eye. In other words, it immediately threw you into the danger zone. A single misstep spelled doom. And when facing a boss of such physical strength, it was especially dangerous to get close thanks to the shock wave of its colossal attacks. That was why I hadn’t used the art until now, but in the moment, I was brimming with confidence—confidence that paid off.
With Stream, I evaded the demon’s swing at the last second, staggering the monster for a brief moment. And my childhood friend wasn’t about to let even the slightest opportunity slip past her.
“Arrow of Destruction!”
The watery bolt Miya had conjured pierced the demon’s body—a nearly fatal shot. Now was my chance to finish it.
“Hoo...”
I turned my right hand up, inhaling sharply. My back was arced like a bowstring. I focused my mind on controlling my racing heart. Then I dismantled the trap magic in my right glove, firing the spell it contained.
“Spell Shot!”
This was my signature art, combining Palm Shot with Erin’s magic. When the demon took it at point-blank range, the upper half of its torso was blown clean off. And without the ability to regenerate itself, its black flesh simply crumbled away. It was over in a flash, a simple moment for such a long battle.
“Did we do it...?”
It was a little anticlimactic, in all honesty. The room was veiled in silence. No one replied. A cloud of dust dispersed into the air without a sound. Slowly, quietly, realization sunk in on us all. Had we really just felled the boss of floor 21? Perhaps, at long last, we finally had.
This foul creature had stolen one of our own, my mentor Jin. It had cast us all into the depths of despair and almost ended the party for good. This monster had nearly killed my adventuring career entirely...and we’d finally defeated it. The Arrivers could now move on. Past floor 21. Deeper into the end floors. We could finally break new ground for the first time in over a year.
Cheers resounded from both the Arrivers and the Princess’s Legion around me, the door to floor 22 opened...and I realized that my dreams really had come true.