Aster

  The arena, because that was the only word for the field of stone pillars and lava in front of me, wasn't the first thing that caught my attention. The first was the throne in the middle of the circular room and the figure sitting on it. The throne's tarnished metal was cracked in multiple spots, and part of its back had been cracked off.

  The figure that sat on the throne looked to be in equally bad shape, but it didn't take away from the fear I got from looking at them. The Fallen Prince on the door had looked imposing and angry, but it had just been an engraving on obsidian. The Fallen Prince I was looking at now was a whole other story. Its red eyes were a deep amber and seemed to radiate malice as it looked at us, even with its seemingly relaxed posture, one taloned hand being used to prop his head up, the other resting on an armrest with deep furrows. His orange scales reflect the light of the magma.

  I wasn't the only one to pause and look as all of us estimated, seeming to realize that we might have made a mistake. That was all we had time to do, though, as the Prince (calling it The Fallen Prince in my head was getting annoying) rose. Wren and Kat were the first to react as they started forward. I looked around for a place to set the packs down and ferr my hands. It took a moment of scanning to find a good spot, the sound of fighting that had only started a second ago causing my heartbeat to quicken. I darted over to a broken pillar big enough to hide half of my body and dropped all of the bags far from any magma. I flinched at the sound of something cracking. I probably should have been more gentle. My attention was pulled away, and my ears turned as a roar sounded out.

  The sound was loud, causing the ground to vibrate slightly. With the packs down, I turned, pulling my bow off my back and an arrow out of one of the loops. I was just in time to see the Prince bring his hand down, claws and all on Wren's shield. Right before it hit the shield, it made contact with an almost transparent white pane of force. The force acted as a gel substance, slowing the hit down but not stopping it. When the claws hit the shield, there was the sound of tearing metal. Wren, who had been using a skill I'd seen before, which caused his shield to glow blue, stumbled back with four grooves in his shield. The attack had given time for Kat to approach from the side, and she sunk her dagger into a spot on its leg where a scale had to be weak or missing. While she was only under half the size of the Prince, it was made clear her size, mixed with some skill that boosted her agility or movement, was acting as an advantage as she ducked under a swipe and moved out of the way of a kick before retreating.

  Pulling my arrow back, I aimed as I moved, trying to get behind the Prince. With there only being one opponent this time and all of us working on trying to take it down, it was better to take my time to aim instead of letting arrows loose as fast as possible. There was also the fact that, unlike the spider I'd fought hours ago, which I could put an arrow into anywhere even if it did very little damage, I doubted my arrows would be able to break through the scale of the Prince at all. The fact that the scales caused Wren’s strikes to practically bounce off confirmed it. My aim was the weak spot almost every creature had: the eyes.

  Not only was the organ squishy, but it also led straight to the brain, which made a kill clean when hunting, saving meat and the pelt. Imbuing frost mana into my arrow, I waited for an opening.

  This style of fighting was something I wasn't the best at and, to be honest, sucked at. When fighting or hunting by myself or with the wolves, it was easy to force an opening, moving around a beast to gain access to its weak spots. This fight was different from any fight that I had previously been in. Not only could I not kill the Prince by myself, but I also was not built for this type of fight. My fighting style and skills were made for open areas where I could wear a creature out, fill it with arrows, and avoid any direct attacks until it gave out, relying on time and preparation to put a creature down. A monster like this wouldn't just keel over and die in time. It had to be put down fast.

  My chance came when Kat took advantage of a clean hit from Wren that caused the Prince to stumble. She switched legs, weaving in between them and sliding under the foot of one and sticking a dagger into the sole. The roar of pain it let out was slightly higher than usual, and as it turned to follow Kat swiping at her, I was given a chance. I was positioned atop a pillar, providing the perfect height for a proper shot.

  Tilting my bow slightly, giving a final adjustment, I let the arrow fly. It was a clean shot aimed at one of the eyes, so when it noticed the arrow and closed its eyelid, causing it to bounce off the small scales, only leaving some frost to show it had even hit, I was surprised. How fast did you have to be to react to an arrow fired less than three dozen feet away with the strength and endurance I had?

  I wasn't given time to ponder the question as the Prince's gaze shifted to me. Clearly, he didn't like the idea of losing an eye. It took the Prince two long strides to get in range and swipe at me.

  Pulling on Stalker's Movement, I prepared to dodge. Typically, it took a few seconds for enough mana and stamina to build up in the skill for me to use it.

  This time, it was like a bowstring snapping; the skill charged in less than a second. With the slightest movement, I shot out of the way by over a dozen feet to the right as my senses felt overwhelmed.

  I dropped six feet through the air and landed, rolling on the ground before stumbling to my feet. The entire sequence had taken less than a second, and the rapid influx and drain of stamina and mana left me gasping as if all the air had been sucked from my lungs.

  Looking back, I saw that the pillar I'd been on was now nothing but rubble, and Wren had managed to grab its attention again. I took a moment to catch my breath and brought up the skill description.

  [Stalker’s Movement- At the cost of Stamina and Mana increases movement and senses. Increase of effect scales with Party size]

  The last line of text was something I hadn't considered and, to be honest, had forgotten about, but its scaling was ridiculous. The increase had to be over triple what it normally was.

  My thoughts were dragged away from the skill as the Prince let out another roar, drawing my attention. It was full of anger as a force pane slowed his hit again. He tried to crush Wren like a hammer would hit a nail, roaring as he repeatedly slammed his hand down. The force pane started to splinter as Wren raised his shield, taking the blows. It was then I realized the floor boss, as much as it looked like a sapient creature, was still acting like a monster attacking the closest or last thing that had attacked it.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  [PMS: Fernand: Aim for the right leg. If we can bring it down, then it should be like the spider. Aim for the frozen spots that Aster makes Kat.]

  Pulling another arrow out, I didn't bother responding, aiming for the spots where the blood was running free in the spot Kat had struck. It made spotting the openings easier, but hitting them would be just as tricky. The first arrow I pulled back and let loose missed, an expected result with how small the area to strike was, but it gave me the judgment of distance I needed. The next shot hit true, the satisfying noise of the arrow sinking into the flesh making it clear. The flesh around the arrow started to freeze over the scales around the wound, glittering. Then, the frost from the arrow began to revert, the frozen blood beginning to run again as its mana ran out, and the cold was dispelled. I frowned. The creature was giant but not as bulky as the spider had been. The amount of mana in the arrow should have been more than enough to freeze part of the flesh solid. I blinked as my thoughts clicked, and I wanted to slap myself. The Prince was a grade two dungeon boss and had some sort of fire or maga mana affinity that had to be almost the exact opposite of mine. I was still thinking as if it was a grade one and its skills were on par with mine, but both things weren't true.

  Pulling back my bow with a new arrow notched, I relied on Ranger's Aim to hit the same spot again. This time, I didn't stop to watch as I pulled another arrow from the loop and shot again. I only gave myself enough time to fully infuse the arrow with mana before releasing it. Fernand’s idea might not work as well as he hoped, but from what I learned in Fundamentals of Magic, which was quickly becoming one of the most valuable classes for its knowledge, forcing foreign mana into a living being created a conflict. This conflict intensified when the two manas were opposing. While it didn't cause any major reactions since the mana in the body usually overcomes foreign mana over time as it regenerates naturally, the process was painful and hindered the body’s natural healing. The skill I used, Frosted Arrow, transmitted my mana to the Prince and also had the side effect of draining stamina. Needless to say, the arrows that began to turn the scaleless patch of his calf into what resembled the back of a blue porcupine certainly caught his attention

  With a growl of anger and frustration, the Prince whipped around his tail, slamming into Wren, sending him sliding to the side and making Kat leap back to avoid being squished as the Prince gave me his full attention.

  The act of having to crane my neck to look up to meet the eyes of something that wanted to kill me was not abnormal as it happened in the forest, but it was something that, even after five years of having it happen, I had never gotten used to it.

  I continued to rapidly fire arrows, with my aim changing to his eyes as he faced me. At the same time, I started backing up as the Prince started towards me. He raised one hand to block the arrows as he moved like a bull barreling towards me. It was when my back foot almost slipped into the lava that circled the arena that I stopped shooting and infused Stalkers Movement again, bunching my knees as I prepared to leap out of the way.

  The skill was not made to be used in small bursts but was meant to be utilized constantly, and I'd figured that out ages ago when talking with Kulni about the class skills and how they related to her. The problem with the skill was the absurd cost because it was related to a creature so much higher above me. If I kept it active, my pools would only be able to keep it active for a matter of seconds.

  I waited until the Prince started to bring his claws down before pushing myself out of the way. The crack of stone behind me and the pebbles that hit my back told me there would be only a splatter on the ground if I did get hit.

  Bringing my bow up, I infused another arrow, letting it go as a force ball slammed into the back of the head of the Prince, drawing his attention to Fernand at the same time as my arrow hit it in the calf again.

  There was a moment of pause as the Prince stood still, seeming not to notice the other force ball and arrow that hit him as he snarled and took in a deep breath. The temperature in the room seemed to rise even higher as the Prince opened his mouth, and a river of flames left his mouth. Unlike the spiders, the boss gave no moment of warning with his skill, not giving anyone time to do more than take a few steps as he swept his mouth to the side over the entire battlefield. It would've been a disaster for any group who was bunched together or unprepared for a wall of fire, but Fernand had guessed right that there would be some sort of area breath skill, and we had prepared for it.

  I grimaced as the chunk of mana required to pull an item out of spatial storage drained from my mana pool. The feeling was nauseating, but I didn't hesitate as I threw the item on the ground. As Fernand had explained, the vial was a liquid spell or, as nicknamed by Adventures, a spell in a bottle. Fernand had also tried to explain how one was created in the little time we had, but most of it had gone over my head. He had made it clear that there was a limit to how potent a spell could be when created this way and to only use it at the last moment.

  The spell that had been put in the bottle was called Wind Geyser. It was a grade 0 spell that anyone could learn in time, and its effect was simple. It created a massive amount of air that pushed upwards. It was mainly used by people on boats who fell overboard to reach the surface.

  The effect it had on me was creating a circle of flames that were forced upwards by the air. The heat the flames gave off was still scalding, and I could feel blisters forming on my hands as the fire started to dissipate. I nocked another arrow and aimed as mana flowed into the arrow, waiting for a clear view. When the flames lowered and as soon as the Prince came into view, I let my arrow fly. The prince was doubled over with his hands on the ground as he coughed, smoke mixed with embers coming out of his mouth. This was the moment Fernand planned for and hoped for. Big attacks from bosses in dungeons tended to have a trade-off. In earlier grades, it tended to be a cooldown and a weak moment, while in higher grades, it could differ. In the case of the Prince, he was having a backlash, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see we were all ready to take advantage. Letting my arrow fly, I aimed for the spot that the Prince had blocked time after time, his eye. The hacking coughs turned into an agonized scream. That scream was cut off as a force ball flew into his mouth, the Prince's hands going to his neck. Kat was the first to reach the Pince as she lodged a dagger into its side, using it to pull herself up on its body as she started to stab every exposed spot of skin. Wren, however, was the most interesting as he ran to the head, shouting something that took a moment to make out.

  “How do you like it, you misshapen fuck?!”

  He then proceeded to start slamming his shield down on its face over and over. It was probably not the most efficient way to attack it, but as the scales on its face were dented and started to crack, I couldn't fault him. The Prince tried to swipe at Kat and Wren, but its wild swings were met with force shields and easily dodged or blocked. It was a bit of a mess, but the Price was never given a chance to recover, and after a scramble of stabbing and quickly cast spells, the screen we were all waiting for appeared.

  [You have killed a Dungeon Boss - The Fallen Prince - Level 82]

  There was a collective sigh of relief as we all received the notification. A moment later, I had multiple screens fill my vision, but with a thought, I closed all of them. Kat slid down the body, and Wren backed off a few steps, heaving in breaths. I sunk to the ground, relieved, with all of my arm muscles aching. Looking down at my hands, which were blistered and swollen, I regretted not ordering gloves with the suit, something I’d fix when I had time. Looking up, I watched as the Prince's body began to fall apart, its limbs and scales turning into black ash, leaving only four distinct items on the ground. Only one of the items caught my eye: the boss core.