Chapter 1256 – Important Rule For Proper Dungeon Bosses

Mid-flight, the boss abruptly stopped, his movements suspended as the not-quite-so-dead-anyway Risen revealed himself once more. A turquoise aura of pure blight energy enveloped the entire area as the trap was triggered, creating a multi-layered sphere of magic circles enveloping the boss.

Once more, the B-grade released a disruptive wave of energy to free himself, but this time around, it utterly failed to do anything as more and more layers of formations were added continually by the sphere of cursed seals.

Jake had already stopped retreating and promptly pulled out an arrow to start charging an Arcane Powershot while Casper did his thing. The boss erupted with energy once more and, through superior power, managed to move his limbs as he sought to tear himself free.

That’s when Casper truly revealed himself, his body manifesting from pure blight energy as he floated above the seal, his body fully ethereal. The B-grade struggled as he looked up towards the Risen, promptly shooting out another eyebeam that passed straight through Casper’s body.

The Risen didn’t even react, his energy continuing to spike as he spoke, his voice infused with power.

“Seal of Enervation.”

At once, the magic surrounding the Labyrinth Master imploded into his body, forming pulsating dark turquoise runes that stuck not only to his physical self but even to his Soulshape.

Able to move once more, the boss instantly released a slug of exploding shrapnel toward Casper, who quickly retreated in his fully ethereal form that barely had a humanoid shape. Attacking like this only left the Labyrinth Master exposed as yet another Arcane Powershot struck him in the side, penetrating deeply and delivering a good dose of much-needed Aginiansbane Poison.

Jake also instantly felt the impact of the curse as the passive nullification of his poison significantly slowed down. No, it wasn’t just the energy moving to fight the poison that had slowed down; it was all his energy, period.

The curse seemed almost like tar that stuck to the metaphysical veins of the B-grade’s Soulshape, making it harder for him to do anything. What’s more, Jake felt Eternal Hunger resonate with the Seal of Enervation – a word Jake only knew the meaning of due to Casper explaining it before the fight – the energy-absorbing effect of the mythical weapon now feeding the seal rather than Jake’s resource pools.

Casper’s reappearance immediately changed the dynamics of the fight, giving the boss two opponents to deal with again. The Risen didn’t hesitate to unleash a barrage of attacks upon the slowed-down B-grade, Jake doing the same thing as they took full advantage of the Labyrinth Master having to adapt to his newly cursed existence.

Jake and Casper’s plan had gone pretty damn swimmingly so far, though it hadn’t come without a cost. While having his body destroyed didn’t affect the Risen as much as Jake, in part due to his semi-ghost Path with Lyra, he had still taken some significant damage and had to consume a lot of spirit energy to rebuild what was destroyed.

Even so, it was definitely worth the trade as Casper and Jake now faced a weakened and injured boss. The Labyrinth Master struggled with the two of them raining down attacks upon him, his movements sluggish, and his attempts to summon barriers to defend himself always a moment too slow to appear. This resulted in more than a dozen cursed stakes striking his body, all sinking into him to nurture the curse, effectively destroying his soul as Jake’s arrows broke his body with destructive arcane mana and poison.

Realizing things were going south, the boss raised both his hands and yelled. He exploded with energy, once more failing to rid himself of the seal, but he did manage to buy himself a moment where no attacks struck him. This brief moment was enough for him to refocus, and with a yanking motion, a massive wall slammed down from above, aiming to separate Jake from Casper and the boss.

Oh no, you don’t! Jake thought as he quickly used One Step, barely in time to get closer to the boss and not find himself locked away from the fight.

The Labyrinth Master had clearly seen this coming and threw two grenades into the air, Jake finding one on either side as he appeared. Pride of the Malefic Viper was still active, and Jake focused on stopping the two grenades from detonating for just a moment as he forced them both away. He succeeded in delaying their explosions for less than two-tenths of a second, but it was enough for him to push them far enough for his newly summoned wings to block the incoming explosions.

Casper didn’t stop attacking for a second. Continually unleashing curse attacks that all seemed to only strengthen the seal on the boss. From the grenades, Jake was certain they had just gotten noticeably weaker, and when he unfurled his wings and released another arrow, he was surprised at how easily it penetrated the flesh of the cyborg.

Groaning, the boss finally did something he should have done a long time ago. With his sword, he stabbed himself through his shoulder, releasing an explosion of energy that blew a hole through his own body, yes, but also sent Eternal Hunger and the special cursed stake tumbling through the air.

Without even taking a moment to breathe, the Labyrinth Master raised his gunlance towards the sky. The entire room rumbled, the rising platforms shooting upwards all at once as dozens of black walls shot down from above.

Casper tried to stay close but was cut off by several walls. Seeing this, Jake purposefully retreated to get behind a falling wall, separating himself from the boss, who tried to chase after him. He couldn’t help but smirk as a bullet was blocked by the Labyrinth Master’s own wall, but the boss quickly reacted by retracting it, only for Jake to quickly release a pulse and get a lay of the land as he used One Step to get away.

The boss had effectively brought down a miniature labyrinth upon them, likely in an attempt to single out one person at a time. From a dungeon design perspective, Jake found the concept interesting, if a little too dangerous. If the party trying the dungeon were taken by surprise and had a spellcaster or, Villy forbid, the healer be sectioned off alone, they would be in for a bad time.

For a party of two, it wasn’t too big a deal, though, especially not when one considered who the two were. Jake purposefully started running through the labyrinth, the boss hot on his tail. Even if he controlled the labyrinth, the B-grade couldn’t instantly move or retract walls, allowing Jake to stay one step ahead as he quickly made his way toward where Casper was.

To his delight, Casper wasn’t even trying to find Jake but had instead fully returned to his corporeal form and knelt down, taking the same stance he usually did when laying down a trap. Even though they hadn’t discussed this tactic, Casper confidently gambled on Jake knowing what the Risen was doing and being able to easily navigate to him through the labyrinth. His old pal was naturally entirely correct, and despite the Labyrinth Master’s best efforts, he couldn’t catch up with Jake, who expertly made use of all the tight turns.

The author’s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Jake was already smiling as he quickly pivoted around a corner, used two rapid One Steps in a row, and continued down a hallway. The Labyrinth Master didn’t hesitate to try to make a shortcut, lowering two walls separating himself from the annoying running hunter at the same time, so he could keep chasing at full speed.

Unfortunately, he just happened to try to make a shortcut right across where Casper had just put down a juicy trap. The boss realized immediately, but at that point, it was too late as the ground erupted with blight energy, sending him flying upwards from the explosion.

He slammed hard into the dome-shaped ceiling, coughing up a mouthful of blood from the impact on the far too durable material. Jake also quickly moved to rejoin Casper, shooting an arrow while running, only adding injury to injury.

Teamed up again, the two swiftly moved to capitalize, attacking the boss, who struggled to defend himself. Between the injuries, the Seal of Enervation, and the momentary confusion from being slammed into a metal wall, the Labyrinth Master didn’t muster much of a response right away as he took several more serious blows.

Jake felt his poison ravaging the cyborg’s system, quickly killing everything that remained biological within the B-grade’s body. This was readily apparent, as all his fleshy bits were starting to rot away with necrosis setting in, proving that the inflicted toxins had reached a critical level.

Stabilizing himself somewhat, the boss threw down five grenades at once, making them explode right in front of him. They all released clouds of differently colored smoke that sought to obscure the Labyrinth Master entirely. Jake saw Casper looking around desperately, trying to use some magic to locate the boss, but he wasn’t able to find the B-grade even as a gunlance stabbed for his chest.

Quickly reacting, Jake released a shockwave of arcane energy, blasting Casper to the side as he jumped for the boss. With Eternal Hunger no longer in the Labyrinth Master’s body, he summoned it back to his hand, and together with his Voidblade Katar, he dove in for a bit of a melee brawl.

The cloud of smoke from the five grenades made a powerful combination that the cyborg could seemingly only see through due to his special cybernetic eye; at least it seemed that way based on how he didn’t at all react in time before Jake struck him from the side opposite the eye.