Bam. Slash. Bam.
Saya and Dustin kept attacking the creatures, but their numbers just kept increasing. The endless wave of these small creatures forced both of them to back down slowly while fighting for their lives.
The farther they had to back down, the more problematic it was for them. They were already incredibly tight on time. It was almost impossible to destroy the statues from far away because the small creatures were completely surrounding them like a living shield. They needed some very powerful and explosive attacks to clear the area, but none of them possessed a skill like that right now.
During this intense struggle, Dustin was also trying to cover Zac. He was actively protecting the fighter while Zac recovered his burnt stamina. Because of that extra burden, Dustin had to fight many more of these creatures compared to Saya. His own stamina was already running dangerously low.
"Damn it," Dustin cursed.
He opened his system shop while dodging a sharp claw, purchased a bottle of healing potion, and drank it quickly to restore his energy. He then continued his struggle. It felt like a terrible waste to use his hard-earned points like this, but he had no other choice.
"Let us go and crush those statues. Hehe," Zac finally stood up straight after recovering his full stamina.
Having a much faster stamina recovery was one of the major pros of the Fighter class. Just like every other class, it had its own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Seeing Zac getting back into the fight lifted Dustin's morale quite a bit.
"Hey Saya, we will get rid of that horde near the statues! You just focus on destroying them!" Dustin shouted.
He and Zac charged fiercely toward the statues and started massacring the creatures in their path.
Fighting these small creatures was not really a big problem since they were not very strong. They also did not seem to possess any intelligence. They just charged blindly and mindlessly. The only real problem came from their sheer numbers as they attacked from all three sides. Holding them back all alone had been incredibly tiring for Dustin. But with Zac fighting by his side now, it was as easy as cutting a cake. They charged forward together and carefully watched each other's backs.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
Zac once again used his explosive skill and killed tens of creatures with every single blow. Dustin cut down many creatures as well with fast, precise strikes of his daggers.
They had now reached almost near the statues. But when they were just fifty steps away, the ground and the statues started shaking violently. A much bigger, terrifying monstrous figure crawled right out from the stone floor.
It looked very identical to the little creatures, but the differences were massive. It was huge in size. It was better to call it a monstrosity since it stood over fifteen feet tall. It also had a line of sharp spikes of different sizes running down its back. The spikes were glowing with a crimson light.
"Get back!" Dustin yelled.
He quickly scanned the monstrosity in front of him using the system. He did not bother scanning the smaller creatures before because he did not think of them as a real threat. But the massive creature now standing in front of him was clearly incredibly dangerous.
DING.
[ Cinder-fiend ] [ Level 65 ] [ Description: The Cinder-fiend is an evolved species of the ordinary Imp. Their claws and fangs are filled with deadly poison. They can also shoot explosive fire from their mouths once the glowing spikes on their backs get fully charged. ]
"Level 65... Fuck, we are in deep trouble," Zac cursed loudly after looking at the system screen.
He had never fought anything that was above Level 40. But the giant thing in front of him had more levels than his and Dustin's combined. They also had Saya in the background, but Zac did not have any hope in her since he did not know anything about her true combat strength.
Actually, Zac did not know much about Dustin either. But after being with him for a few days, he had grown a solid companionship with him. Even though he did not know his secrets, he was at least sure Dustin would not betray him. At this point, he was also sure that the girl would not do anything stupid either. Betraying your team inside a dangerous dungeon meant no one was getting out alive.
However, Dustin was not completely surprised by seeing a monster above Level 60. He had already fought with two boss monsters above Level 50 at the exact same time alongside Gareth and Arina. What truly surprised him was that this terrifying monster had appeared in a Puzzle Type Dungeon. From the information he had heard, puzzle dungeons were supposed to have less powerful monsters compared to combat dungeons. After seeing this giant beast, he could not even imagine the insane difficulty of the other special dungeons.
"Get back!" Dustin shouted at Zac again as the monster prepared to attack. He backed down by several steps himself.
Dustin quickly bought a few more healing potions just in case, as well as two more poison bottles. This purchase made his points balance drop terribly low once again. He quickly applied the fresh poison onto his daggers and prepared to attack the monster with Zac.
There was no time to waste. Both men attacked the monster. They dealt a few quick strikes while rapidly retreating every time the monster swiped its massive claws at them.
"It is too strong! Our attacks are not doing much damage to it!" Zac grunted in pain. He gripped his fists and once again charged toward the monster alongside Dustin.
The monster was very big. Its obvious weak points, like its eyes and its face, were too high up and completely out of reach for both of them. Neither of them could fly or jump that high, and neither of them possessed any sort of long-range magical attacks.
Of course, Dustin could throw his daggers to get a solid hit on its face. But if the throw was not enough to kill it, it would be very difficult to get his weapons back. Without his daggers, he would just be dead meat.
In this situation, their only real hope was Saya. But she was already completely busy dealing with the little creatures. After the big monster appeared, the little imps actively avoided the giant due to fear. As a result, their only available target became Saya.
"Hey Saya! Come closer to us!" Dustin shouted over the noise. "These little monsters are terrified of the big one. They will leave you alone if you stand near it!"
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Tens of giant fireballs suddenly shot out of the monster's mouth and landed right near Dustin and Zac. Both men dodged quickly, but Dustin still got his left arm slightly burned due to the extreme, explosive heat.
"Aaahhhh!" Dustin yelled. He took out one of the healing potions and drank it immediately. The liquid healed his burn and restored his drained stamina.
He thought about using his Silent Steps skill but immediately discarded the idea. That skill would definitely make the monster unable to sense him for a moment, but he would not be totally invisible. The second he stepped to the side to flank the beast, he would be swarmed and attacked by the smaller imps running around the edges.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
Many glowing arrows suddenly hit the monster right in its ugly face. Saya had just rushed near them after slaughtering the group of imps that had gathered around her.
"I am short on arrows again," Saya complained inwardly. She quickly opened her shop and used more of her points to buy a fresh quiver of arrows.
A bright crimson flame suddenly erupted across the monster's face. All of the deep injuries caused by Saya's arrows healed and closed up immediately.
"It can heal itself?" the trio shouted in shock.
They could not help but frown deeply. They were already incredibly short on time, and their points were dwindling down to nothing.
"Let us just distract this giant thing and focus on breaking those statues," Zac said. He started moving toward the statues slowly.
"Yeah, you are exactly right," Dustin and Saya nodded at his suggestion.
In fact, both of them were thinking the same thing. Killing this monster was not actually impossible, but it would take a lot of time and effort, which they simply did not have at the moment.
Just as they started moving toward the statues, the attacks from the monster became much fiercer. It started shooting its fire attacks without stopping.
"Did you two see that?" Dustin pointed his dagger toward the monster's back.
"See what?" Zac asked while dodging a fireball.
"The glowing spikes on its back! Some of them have stopped glowing," Dustin stated his rapid analysis. "Maybe it can only attack with those fireballs and heal itself by using the energy inside those spikes. If all of those spikes stop glowing, it will either die or at least lose its magical abilities."
"You might be right, but look at it! It has more than fifty of those spikes on its back, and only five of them have stopped glowing," Saya replied. She shot another arrow directly at the monster's face to distract it. "We do not have enough time to wait for it to run out of it."
After some more intense struggle, the trio finally reached the statues. The smaller creatures near the statues did not run away from the bigger monster like the others did. Instead, they stuck close to the stone statues as if their very lives depended on it.
"Get off of it, you stupid things!" Zac roared.
He started attacking the smaller creatures that were gathered around the stone bases. He punched with explosive force and killed most of them in just a few breaths of time.
All of them had already noticed that after the big monster appeared, no more small creatures came out of the statues. This was actually a very good thing for them. Fighting a single, much stronger enemy was much better than fighting countless weaker ones forever.
After a few more attacks, Zac finally killed all the creatures that had surrounded the right statue. With one more punch, he smashed the stone statue into pieces.
Crash.
The giant monster cried out in pain. It immediately started attacking them much more fiercely.
"It worked! Now let us move to the other one," the trio sighed in relief.
But in the very next moment, the hopeful smiles completely vanished from their faces. The stone statue that Zac had just smashed into pieces magically floated back together. It rebuilt itself and returned to its original, perfect form.
"How? I just destroyed this thing!" Zac could not accept this outcome. "What just happened?"
"I think we need to destroy both statues at the exact same time," Dustin said with a dark expression. It was not guaranteed to be true, but it was the only logical puzzle solution left to try.
Dustin and Saya kept the bigger monster busy while Zac fiercely cleared the smaller monsters away from the second statue.
"Saya, go and work with Zac while I keep holding this big one back," Dustin commanded her.
He was much faster compared to the other two, so he was definitely a better choice for distraction. Also, after the long fight, the poison on his blades had finally started slowing the beast down.
"It must have some sort of strong poison resistance," Dustin thought while dodging the heavy claws.
Bam. Bam.
Zac and Saya both attacked the two statues at the same time. But their strikes were not perfectly lined up. They hit the stone just a fraction of a second apart. This slight timing error resulted in the rapid rebuilding of the statues and made the giant monster even more furious.
Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.
Zac and Saya tried a few more times, but they failed to launch a perfectly timed attack. As a result of the constant damage to its statues, the monster became almost completely mad. Dustin was not able to hold it back safely anymore.
"Damn it, what are these idiots doing?" Dustin cursed inwardly. He was huffing heavily due to extreme exhaustion.
"Get back and help me! I have another plan that might just work," Dustin yelled to them. He quickly formulated a crazy idea.
"What plan?" both of them asked in unison. They quickly fell back to help Dustin.
"Since we cannot synchronize two attacks perfectly, we can just destroy both of them at the exact same time with a single massive attack, can we not?" Dustin told them his plan.
"You mean..." both of them understood immediately what Dustin was talking about. Their eyes shined brightly. "We are going to use the monster's own attack to destroy the statues."
"It should work, or at least I really hope so," Dustin said.
He started moving carefully toward the middle space right between the two statues, trying to lure the monster into position.
The fire attacks from the furious monster were incredibly fierce. They could not even imagine taking a direct hit from those flames and coming out alive. They dodged constantly. But the giant fireballs did not hit the exact middle of the statues, resulting in the magic rebuilding the stone again and again.
During these several dangerous tries, the trio got themselves burned many times. They quickly healed themselves with their expensive potions. If it was not for the healing potions, they would have been dead a long time ago.
Finally, after dodging tens of explosive attacks, the trio and the monster hit the jackpot. The giant beast shot a massive fireball that landed exactly in the middle space between the two stone figures. The explosion was huge, destroying both statues completely simultaneously.
"Finally," Dustin said. He could not hold back his grin of relief.
For a second, nothing happened. Then suddenly, the giant monster along with all the remaining smaller creatures started crying in agony. Different colors of blood started flowing rapidly from their eyes, mouths, and ears. They all collapsed to the ground and died after a brief, violent struggle.
The trio finally took a long, heavy sigh of relief at this horrific sight.
They all took a look at their sand clocks simultaneously. They found out that just a few tiny pinches of sand were remaining before the time ran out completely.
"Let us go!" Zac and Saya yelled. They ran toward the exit room with their chests heaving heavily.
"What are you doing? Let us go, the time is almost up!" Zac called out to Dustin, who was slowly walking toward the giant monster's dead corpse.
"I am coming, just wait a minute," Dustin replied. He climbed right onto the bloody chest of the dead boss.
He took out his daggers and plunged them deep into its chest. He cut a rough circle through the tough flesh as hot blood spilled outward.
"I really do not want to do this," Dustin mumbled in disgust.
"What the hell are you doing? Ew!" Saya frowned in disgust looking at his messy actions.
"Oh man," Dustin groaned. He pushed both of his arms into the bloody hole he had just made and pulled out the massive heart of the monster. It was huge in size, but surprisingly, it was not very heavy.
"Come out. Your food is ready," Dustin said softly. He called out to his cicada, which was safely hiding under his clothes.
Buzzzzzzz.
The cicada flew out and started hovering happily around Dustin's head. It then landed softly on top of the bloody monster heart.
Dustin and the other two watched in confusion. They were wondering how it was going to eat it, since the cicada was just the size of a finger while the heart was more than thrice the size of a watermelon.
Sluuurp.
A strange drizzling sound echoed in the quiet room. Suddenly, the massive heart became totally dry and crisp. It looked as if every tiny drop of liquid it held was instantly sucked out. The tiny cicada had drank all of the high-level blood in just a single moment. It flew happily around Dustin's face before darting back into the safety of his clothes.
Dustin, Zac, and Saya could not help but open their mouths wide in shock at this terrifying action. But they immediately controlled themselves, remembered the ticking clock, and ran as fast as they could toward the exit room.
DING.
[ You have successfully cleared Layer 1 of the Dungeon. ]