The eighth floor of the dungeon was a cavern of echoing drips and shallow, phosphorescent pools. The air was thick with humidity. As they waded in, the water ahead began to stir. A pack of Water Slimes, their bodies clear and vaguely gelatinous, pulsed forward. Alongside them, floating Aqua Jellyfish with tendrils that crackled with nascent electricity drifted into view.
Azazel let out a short, dry laugh. "Oh, great. More Water Slimes. I dealt with the last ones. How about you try?"
Reginleif cracked her neck. "Watch and learn." She didn't run; she leapt, using a gust of wind to propel herself high above the leading slime. For a moment, she hung in the damp air, then dropped like a stone, her dagger pointed down. A vortex of Mythic Wind compressed into a single, devastating point at the tip of the blade. She didn't stab the slime; she unleashed the spell point-blank into its core.
The force wasn't cutting; it was crushing. The Water Slime was slammed into the stone floor by the immense atmospheric pressure, its form flattening for an instant before it ruptured, exploding into a harmless shower of dank water and dissolving goo.
Reginleif landed lightly, not even looking back at the remains. "And that's how you beat a Water Slime."
"By crushing it to death," Azazel summarized, impressed despite himself.
"You and I don't have Fire Mythic. Crushing the core along with the body is an easy solution."
"Yeah. Easy." As he said it, he was already moving. He blurred past her, his longsword a silver arc that cleaved the first Aqua Jellyfish in two. The second one recoiled, its tendrils glowing brightly before releasing a fork of sizzling lightning. Azazel sidestepped, the bolt scorching the damp rock where he'd stood.
His eyes scanned the ground. He snatched up a loose stone, and in the same motion, infused it with a wisp of coiling darkness. He hurled it at the jellyfish. The rock struck its gelatinous body with a wet thud, seemingly doing no damage.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then, the tendrils of shadow he'd infused into the stone erupted, wrapping around the monster's form, immobilizing it mid-air. It was a temporary bind, but it was all he needed. A side effect of the spell was a brief, disorienting pull on his own senses, a slight vertigo he'd learned to ignore. Without breaking stride, he threw his sword like a javelin. The blade speared the paralyzed jellyfish, pinning it to the cavern wall where it sparked and died.
But the commotion had drawn more attention. From the surrounding pools, more monsters emerged—a mix of slimes, jellies, and other, stranger things that scuttled in the half-light. The eighth floor wasn't about a single boss; it was an endurance test.
Azazel retrieved his sword. He and Reginleif fell back-to-back, a silent pact passing between them. There were no more words, only the economy of motion—the slash of his sword, the gust of her wind, the grunt of effort, the sizzle of dying monsters.
They fought until the last creature fell, their breaths coming in ragged pants, the chamber finally silent save for the endless dripping of water.
Without a word, they looked towards the dark archway leading downward. The path to the ninth floor awaited.
The ninth floor was a damp, cavernous space, the air thick with the smell of stagnant water. Their torchlight glinted off the scales of a pack of Dungeon Lizards and the translucent, floating forms of several Aqua Jellyfish.
"Reginleif, focus on the jellyfish," Azazel directed, his hand on his sword. "The lizards are easy pickings for me. Cool with that?"
She cracked her neck, a faint smile on her lips. "Yeah. Plus, I want to fight the jellyfish."
The plan was set. As Azazel engaged the reptiles, Reginleif moved like a ghost. Instead of a direct assault, she used the environment, kicking off moss-covered pillars and the cavern walls to launch herself at the jellyfish from unpredictable angles, striking at their blind spots.
Fun Fact, she recalled from a guild bestiary, most jellyfish have simple eyespots that can only detect light and shadow. Their entire world is mostly a blind spot.
Azazel watched her ricochet through the gloom as he faced the lizards. "Since when does she use the walls like that?" he muttered. "First time I'm seeing it. Anyway, guess I should get started. Come on!"
He weaved his hands, taunting the lead lizard. The creature howled and charged blindly. "Is all you know how to do? Rush in blindly, you fool?"
"Black Ice!"
The ground beneath the lizards flash-froze into a sheet of jet-black ice. Before they could slip, massive spikes of the same dark frost erupted from the ceiling, crushing the reptiles in a brutal, instantaneous collapse.
"Oh, shit," Azazel breathed, looking at the carnage. "That was a little overkill for lizards."
Reginleif landed softly beside the last dissipating jellyfish. "Dude, why the torture?"
"It's not my fault! I was trying to make a bunch of ice spikes from the ground, then I remembered you crushing that water slime and... I did this. Poor bastards."
"Let's collect the materials and rest," Reginleif said, sheathing her dagger. "I'm spent."
Azazel nodded and helped her harvest what they could. They found a small, defensible alcove, and Reginleif set up a campfire.
"Yo, is it okay to camp here? Won't we get attacked?" Azazel asked.
"Of course. I set up an anti-attraction sigil. We're good for about an hour."
"Cool." As Reginleif prepared food, Azazel sat cross-legged and sank into meditation.
Deep within his consciousness, a familiar confusion surfaced. Energy and Qi... are they the same thing? How should I treat these two? She says 'Mythic energy,' and I think of 'energy.' What's the difference?
A flashback sparked in his mind: himself, smoking pot out of boredom, scrolling through online comics. He'd stumbled into a colored Chinese manhua, utterly engrossed. "Hey, this one has color," he'd mused, "the other ones are just black and white." Unknowingly, the concepts of Qi and cultivation had seeped into his brain, now clashing with the reality of Mythic energy.
I really should stop smoking that stuff, he thought, pulling himself back to the present.
"Okay," Reginleif announced, dousing the fire. "Let's head to the 10th floor. Should be easy to get through since the boss is already dead."
But as they descended into the tenth-floor chamber, a cold dread washed over them. Standing in the center of the room, clad in half-plate armor tarnished with age, was the Skeleton Knight, its hollow eye sockets burning with a malevolent blue flame.
"Easy, you said?" Azazel hissed. "Then why the hell is this thing alive?!"
"Unexpected," Reginleif admitted, drawing her blades. "It must be undead. It came back."
Expect the unexpected, Azazel chided himself. I don't even understand how this world works. My only frame of reference is from goddamn comic books—oops, I'm pronouncing it wrong—I mean manga. This isn't a game. This is real. Enough overthinking. Action makes everything move. Violence is always one of the choices.
Azazel walked calmly towards the Skeleton Knight.
Reginleif's eyes widened. "What are you doing? Don't stand off against that thing! Remember, it's a boss monster!"
Azazel looked up at the towering skeleton, meeting its empty gaze. "Don't worry," he said, a reckless grin spreading across his face. "We're gonna rob this corpse."
As he spoke, the Skeleton Knight wound up a massive overhead strike. Azazel brought his longsword up in a two-handed block, the impact jarring his bones. "For a corpse," he grunted, "you're pretty strong!"
Reginleif moved like a shadow, aiming for the knight's left arm joint. Her dagger struck the thick armor and sparked, deflecting her back. Seizing the distraction, Azazel and the knight began trading blows, their swords clashing again and again in a storm of steel—ten, twenty, twenty-five times. Azazel felt his blade notching, his hands going numb.
"Black Ice!" he roared, sheathing his own sword in a layer of reinforcing dark ice. He continued the brutal exchange, buying time.
In the chaos, Reginleif saw her chance. She launched herself onto the wall, kicked off the ceiling, and became a living projectile aimed straight for the skeleton's neck. The knight, with preternatural speed, twisted its head, and her blade whistled past empty air. Azazel stared in shock.
But Reginleif had already predicted this. Boss monsters were never that easy. In the split-second opening she had created, Azazel snapped back to focus.
"Darkness Mythic!" Tendrils of shadow erupted from the floor, wrapping around the knight's legs and weapon arm, immobilizing it. "I don't know what your plan is, but do it fast! My hands are killing me!"
"Piercing Feather!" Reginleif unleashed a compressed shot of wind that struck the knight's left shoulder. The ancient armor and the bone beneath shattered completely, leaving the monster handicapped.
They regrouped, breathing heavily. "Nice one," Azazel panted. "Waiting for the perfect opening."
"For a while there, yeah. My first sneak attack failed, but you kept it busy."
"Yep, and my hands are paying for it. But at least this bastard is—" As he spoke, the Skeleton Knight slammed its remaining fist on the ground. From the earth, a horde of lesser skeletons clawed their way out. "Reginleif, did you know they could do that?!"
"Yes! It was in the guild report! Don't tell me you didn't read the report about the tenth-floor boss!"
"Nope, I did not. So they have reports? We're going to have to combo-chain them."
"Combo? What do you mean, combo?"
"Okay, I immobilize everything. I think my power can go that far, right?"
"Yeah, if you don't lose your mind in the process!"
"Whatever. I stop them in their tracks. You do that ricocheting wall-thing you've been showing off."
"Hey, you actually noticed my new moveset!"
"Enough praising yourself. Get in position!"
Reginleif's eyes glowed faintly as she mapped the chamber with her wind sense, creating invisible trajectories only she could see. She began to move, no longer just bouncing off the walls but becoming a blur of motion, her body enveloped in a vortex of emerald energy.
Meanwhile, Azazel closed his eyes, feeling all the shadows in the room. He pushed his Mythic energy out—Is this Qi? Is this energy? Doesn't matter!—and the shadows themselves writhed to life. Dozens of dark hands shot up from the ground, grabbing the ankle of every single skeleton, freezing them in place.
"Now!" Azazel yelled.
Reginleif became a green comet. She shot through the room, following her pre-planned paths, a razor wind extending from her daggers. She zipped past every immobilized skeleton, and with a series of sharp cracks, their skulls were pulverized in a chain reaction of destruction, leaving only dust in her wake.
Only the Skeleton Knight remained, held fast by two massive spikes of Black Ice through its legs. Azazel fell to one knee, a wave of profound exhaustion and a strange, cold numbness washing over him.
Reginleif landed on the knight's shoulders, driving her daggers down through its helmet. The blue light in its eyes extinguished. She stood on its collapsing body, chest heaving. "Azazel, we actually pulled it off. But I think we need more training."
She walked over to him, offering a hand. "Need a hand, man?"
"Yeah," he said, his voice strained as he took it. "Thanks."
Together, they sat against the cold wall of the boss chamber, recovering their strength in the echoing silence, the true depth of the dungeon waiting below.