Chapter 1251 – Second (Final?) Phase

Perhaps killing the Guard Captain before wiping out all the Elite Guards had been a mistake, but Jake didn’t regret his actions. Even if this decision ended up making the encounter harder than it needed to be, he didn’t necessarily view that as a bad thing. In fact, wouldn’t making it harder only be more fun?

If they were already truly struggling, then yeah, it would have been reckless, but neither Casper nor Jake had gone all-out yet. Far from it.

Casper on the ground below tried to finish off a few more Elite Guards, but as one, they all suddenly retreated back towards the sky beam and the ziggurat. Jake tried to shoot down a few, but the constant wave of energy rushing out from the ziggurat weakened the blow, making it easy for the guards to group and block.

The Risen also didn’t bother trying to attack, but instead flew into the air and grouped up with Jake to watch the phase transition.

“You good?” Jake asked the undead. Casper had taken some damage, yes, but Jake genuinely wasn’t sure how much it appeared, seeing as the Risen’s body didn’t seem that important to him.

“I’m fine,” Casper responded.

“How about Lyra?”

“I’m also fine,” the ghost answered politely. “Thank you for asking.”

“Please, it’s the least I can do when we’re fucking up Minaga’s dungeon together,” Jake said with a smile as he turned his sight toward the ziggurat that was somehow still in the middle of erupting with power.

“Can you see what’s going on inside that beam?” Casper asked.

“Not clearly,” Jake shook his head. “But I have a feeling we’ll find out very soon, seeing as the intensity is decreasing.”

As Jake said, the energy output was decreasing, and within a few seconds, the beam disappeared entirely, revealing the Formation Master, who finally let down their hood and turned around to address the attackers.

Jake was pretty sure she was a woman, though in his defense, differentiating between males and females of this weird race Minaga had created wasn’t that easy. Not that it mattered; their weak point was still their heads, and most of their important remaining organs were still in their chest.

The Formation Master looked at them, all the remaining Elite Guards already at her side. “You are too late, brave adventurers! My work here is complete, and all that awaits you now is death by my hand! Now come! Face a master of formations!”

Minaga’s questionable dialogue-writing remained consistently horrible, to the level where Jake was confident he was doing it on purpose. Casper even looked a little embarrassed, making Jake give him an empathetic smile.

“It’s okay, we can finish her quickly and not give her time to speak too many more lines,” Jake said, trying to comfort the Risen.

“We both know her death dialogue is going to be even worse,” Casper sighed as the surrounding curse energy lingering around his body intensified. “But yeah, let’s finally let loose and hope there’s not a third phase.”

“I doubt there will be,” Jake shrugged. “This is just a mid-tier boss, and Minaga will definitely save a third phase for the final boss of the dungeon.”

“Unless the last boss has three phases and then another hidden phase,” Casper pointed out.

“Nah, something like a hidden phase is something you can only do once, and seeing as this place is part of a series of dungeons, he’ll have saved that for the final boss of the final dungeon,” Jake said with a high level of confidence.

“Good point,” Casper nodded. “You know, seeing you know Minaga so well, maybe you should-“

“Fools, I shall allow you to strategize means to defeat me no longer! Behold, my power!” the Formation Master rudely interrupted them as she yelled from atop the ziggurat.

At least she was true to her word, as her aura exploded outwards, and lines of magical script began running down the sides of the ziggurat. These lines of pure energy entered the gray sand that made up the ground within the room, fusing with it.

Simultaneously, the armor worn by all the Elite Guards began glowing with magical script, and as one, they pulled out guns that seemed to also gain some sort of benefit from whatever the Formation Master was doing.

Knowing what was about to come next, Jake and Casper flew to each side, dodging a rain of bullets aimed at where they had just been standing. Below, the sand rumbled, then moved, shooting towards both of them at once.

Jake and Casper both dodged torrents of sand and hails of bullets as they assessed the situation. Alright, Jake dodged everything, while Casper took a few hits here and there, also blocking quite a few of the incoming bullets.

As agreed-upon earlier, they didn’t take this passive approach for long. Casper went first as his aura suddenly skyrocketed, and he saw that the Risen had used what Jake suspected to be some kind of second boosting skill, separate from the curse-related one he’d already been using throughout the fight.

This second one, Jake had also seen before, as his body began emanating turquoise energy, and his aura even began to slightly resemble that of Lyra. The two of them had fused, and the result was immediate.

Casper stopped dodging as he allowed a wave of sand to pass straight through his body right as it turned ethereal. The incoming bullets also proceeded to phase right through his body, doing some damage in the process due to the energy infused in the projectiles, but Casper barely seemed to notice as he raised a hand.

Ghostly energy gathered around him as he summoned dozens of cursed wooden stakes that instantly absorbed his ghostly energy, the two energies merging as Casper and Lyra had.

With a mental command, the stakes were all shot down toward the ziggurat below, forcing the Formation Master to make a move herself as she took out a staff and slammed it into the ground, a formation appearing below her that summoned a large transparent barrier.

The stakes all hit the barrier at once, making it crack all over as they penetrated halfway through. Casper pushed his hand forward, shooting out a shockwave of energy that pushed the stakes in further, breaking the barrier apart in the process, and sending the stakes straight for the Formation Master.

However, a group of Five Elite Guards instantly moved to defend their leader, each of them holding a shield also filled with magical scripts from the formation master, making them larger in the process.

They successfully blocked Casper’s attack, and the Formation Master responded by summoning a magic circle in the air that quickly warped and wrapped around itself, forming a large spear made purely out of what looked like minuscule runes.

Right as she was about to shoot it, an explosion washed over her alongside a good splash of blood as an Elite Guard just had his right arm blown off. Jake, who hadn’t just been enjoying the show, had continued dodging bullets and sand waves until he found a good chance to take another guard out of commission.

The Formation Master, who was still powering up the spear with one hand, turned toward Jake and waved her other one as even more of the gray sand rose around him. Four pillars ascended and took the shape of hands with magical scripts running across them, turning them more durable and stronger as they tried to grasp Jake.

Stolen novel; please report.

Deciding to follow suit with Casper, Jake also stopped holding back. Arcane Awakening was fully activated, and with it, he also unleashed Pride of the Malefic Viper to address the approaching hands.

When they got close, they suddenly stopped, and with little more than a thought, Jake summoned several arcane bolts that pierced the sand hands and blew them up, allowing Jake to continue taking aim at the actual boss.