Empress moved the supporters out of the combat zone, protecting them from the stray flares, and gusts coming off from the battle. It was quite the sight to see. Gale, Maxim, and Lyca all doing their best to keep the monster rex focused on them. This was no ordinary battle…
"It is definitely much stronger this time around than it was the last time we fought it. Fortunately, it seems Maxim is handling it quite well for the moment… That Dragon Vanquisher skill is definitely pulling a heavy load right now."
"Huh? A skill? I want that too! Sounds good to have!" Shurry excitedly added.
"Listen up, don't do anything too reckless, in fact, just stay out of this fight as much as possible. I'd be remiss if something happened to you."
"Awe, I wanna hunt it."
"Maybe when you're stronger you can hunt it on your own. But for now, don't push yourself too hard. Stay a cute child for as long as you can. When you're older, it'll be too late."
Empress moved out, leading the level 6s into the battle. One battle where all members were glowing. A perfect chance for Shurry to witness the afterglow technique from so many people, all at once, and from different angles. Of course, he was making sure to put up barriers whenever needed, but his main focus was how much he wanted to hunt…
"If I can't hunt it, I can watch to get better things, then I can hunt more next time!"
"You've got nothing but hunting on the brain don't you?"
"No? I want to see my friends, and play a bunch of games together again."
"I… I see."
A fire ball, launched, knocking Gale a few meters back, spinning as he did, when a platform appeared, he twisted, corrected his trajectory, and used it as a rebound, into landing an after glow enhanced lightning axe right on the monster rex's giant neck.
Responding to this sudden, and unexpected change, Balrog stomped down with all four legs, and slammed his tail, causing a quake strong enough to break some of the ceiling, Shurry protected the supporters. While the fighters just dodged or brute forced their way through.
"Lyca!"
"I got it!" She grabbed the tail, and rooted herself in place using a nature-like skill…
With its rhythm stopped, the rocks stopped falling, as it turned to a powerful cone of fire breath. A breath attack that quickly reversed to inside of itself once Gale slammed its jaw shut. Blowing the monster, and the crystal up into pieces as a result. It was a surprisingly quick end to the fight.
"That was a lot less challenging than I had originally thought?" Maxim noted, as he scanned to see if there was some other mechanic that might happen next.
"Easy for you to say!"
"Well of course, I could have ended that fight rather quickly had I gone all out, but then Thalia wouldn't be a possible fight for today."
"It could have gone sideways real quick if I didn't have that random light platform to quickly make my return." Gale mentioned…
"By the way, have we tried that before? It didn't seem that hard to spawn this idiot." Empress smirked.
"GET OUT HER YOU OVER GROWN LIZARD!" Lyca shouted.
The sounds of cracking once more were heard. And once again the monster rex appeared…
"So that's this mechanic? It doesn't spawn until you accidentally fuck up and insult it. And by the looks of it, the length of time it spends waiting in between spawns, directly determines its strength. It's only level 9 now."
"That is a way more normal fight." Lyca smirked, pounding a fist into her other palm.
"Yeah, let's kill it again."
"You have fun with that… Don't do it too much now." Maxim chuckled.
The second one fell way faster, and way easier than the first. The floor was still quite peaceful, perfect for recovering from the sight of that gargantuan monster.
Then finally, leaving the Supporters in a pseudo safe spot, between the 58th, and 59th floors, Empress, Gale, Lyca, Maxim, and Shurry continued deeper, not too much further, because Thalia was there at the entrance to the 60th floor.
"You see that boss right there. The one looking like a naked woman from the waist up?" Gale pointed out, whispering to Shurry.
"Yeah, is that Thalia?"
"Yes, she controls everything on the floors from there to the 61st floor. She's a powerful floor boss. But she doesn't attack right away, you have to get close to her. And present the intention of passing through. Though there's always something different about her every time we've killed her, she's moved. Her spot used to be on the 61st floor. But now she's up here on the 59th…" He paused to shiver. "Aren't you cold like that?"
"Huh? No, I'm a werewolf, this frosty forest is perfect for me."
"Well be careful there are some monster wolves down here, some even rise to level 7. They won't bow to you so easily. See that's one right now, It seems to be level 6, and there's lots of lower level ones around too."
The pack of wolves stepped closer, then came to a stop. Staring at Lyca, they growled a bit, sensing there was a chance to win with a show of force, but then the alpha in the pack looked at Shurry, and submitted.
"You've got to be kidding me, how did you do that?"
"I dunno? I guess the wolves just like hunting as much as I do?" Shurry laughed, and ran over to pet the new friends he just got. "So fluffy! Huh? You wanna come with me? All of you do?"
"Wait, I thought he had to howl to convey a message?" Gale asked, extremely confused.
"He can, but it's not really needed." Lyca answered, stretching a few times. "Captain, I think we should head home, and rest for a bit before we try taking on Thalia again."
"That's a good idea, fighting her in our current state would be challenging. It's like fighting a spirit of some kind."
Shurry showed off a new ability of his, and absorbed the wolves into himself. "Woah it worked!" That's so cool!"
"Did he… Know what, I'm not even gonna bother asking… Any answer will be unsatisfactory. Let's just head home. Baths are good and all, but a nice hot one is far better."
With the desire to head home as fast as possible, they didn't bother stopping at the 50th floor. Making their way up to the 39th. Then the 28th, to bring more special trees with them. Breaking through to the surface in three days. A record pace that required a lot of people riding wolves to keep up with everyone else.
…