<~> Chapter 131My party and I stood o Jasper in the hallway, we were only a short distance from where all of the miasma on the floor was trated. The door to Baron Morrister's former office was emanating miasma. Now that I'm closer, it felt like there was more than just the demonic miasma I had been sensing so far. My [First Explorer] title was tugging at me in its dire. This was the miasma of a dungeon.

  I turo the mao me. "Jasper, have you ever been in a dungeon before?"

  He raised a brow. "I've never had the opportunity. Why do you ask?"

  I oward the door. "That door is leaking more than just the miasma of a demon. It feels like we're standing outside of a dungeon as well."

  Jasper silently turned and gred at the door for a moment. "What do you suggest?"

  Man stepped forward, uncharacteristically joining in the versation. "We should proceed. If a dungeon is f here, there's no doubt that it will spawn demons. We should intervene now before it grow any stronger."

  "How dangerous do you think this dungeon is?" Jasper asked.

  I turan a her answer.

  "Probably not that dangerous. It's weak and newly formed, if formed at all."

  Jasper gripped his sword and turo me. "Bring your party, I'll select five men and the twelve of us will go in now. I don't know anyone else here that has any experieh dungeons so you may be the key to dealing with this situation, whatever it is."

  He strode away to gather the appropriate men. I turo look at my friends. "Is everyone ready for this?"

  Silva looked at the door. "I've never heard of a dungeon appearing in the middle of a building before."

  Man whed in reply. "I've never heard of one appearing in the middle of a city before either. We don't usually even find dungeons until they've been formed for a while. Midnight Castle was a young dungeon by our standards, seeing ohat isn't pletely formed is unheard of. I have no idea what to expect through there."

  "How about you Mimi? Do you know anything about any of this?" I asked.

  "No idea, I barely uand the differeween the dungeon and the outside. If you disregard the taste of the mana and miasma, I 't tell how you guys distinguish the two in the first pce. Couldn't we just be on the floor of a much rger dungeon?"

  Man looked like she was going to respond but quickly got lost in thought instead. I grimaced, the thought didn't sit well with me. Until retly this world felt like nothing but a game to me, being o another floor of a dungeo eerily simir. Dungeons in dungeons in dungeons. Dungeons all the way dow not to think about it.

  "e on girls, lets not get distracted." I led the group to the colle of guards that was f he guard captain.

  They were a varied colle of guards that included humans a/demi folk. Only two of them in particur stuck out to me. One was a rge... ox man? He was somewhat like huge satyr, mostly human looking but with huge armored digitigrade legs that ended in rge cloven hooves. He was bulky and muscur, he carried a rge metal tower shield and a sturdy looking bearded axe. The giant thing would be a two-handed on for most people but he held it in one.

  The other person that stood out was a tall and thin vulpine woman with light tawny fur. It was easy to see at a ghat most of her stat points were in finesse based on how she moved. She wore a long straight sword on her hip with a simple basket handguard, making me assume it was simir to a rapier. That would make sense if I was right about her build. She also wore lighter armor than most of the uards.

  Ohe group was fully assembled we gathered in front of the door. "Bertrand, you're on point. First we go in, then Lilith's team." He turo me. "Are you fortable following my orders inside of that thing?"

  I nodded. "Within reason. I'm not going to let any of my team die but I have no problem allowing you to coordinate."

  The tall fox beastfolk ughed. "That goes both ways then. Don't be surprised if we focus on our own survival if it es down to it."

  "Naturally. Is everyone ready?" I asked, turning to look at my friends. When I got a plete round of nodding I focused ba the door in front of us.

  "Bertrand, go."

  The tall demi-beastfolk opehe door and pushed in with his huge shield, only barely scraping through the door. The entire group of guards filed in before Silva and I followed, leading our party in after.

  Inside what used to be Morrister's study was a huge library with bookshelves that rose up several stories. The room was much rger than the inal space would have allowed but other than the bookshelves it was mostly empty, a rge open spaihe ter of the room.

  "Boss room. I don't see any other doors," Torien already had her bow out with an arrow nocked.

  Small sparks of electricity started to crackle around Man. "Unana type here, lightning. I also feel shadow mana but I doubt that will be useful."

  Mimi put a hand on my shoulder and poio the far side of the room. "Lilith, I see something. The armor on that wall is alive."

  "Jasper, hold on." I g Mimi. "Is it a Mimic?" I whispered to her.

  Mimi shook her head. "No, Dulhan."

  At her words the armor stepped away from the wall and the closed helm that had been sitting on top of it cttered to the floor. Dark miasma visible to the eye poured out of the armor's ned a long whip made of bleached bone rolled out across the floor o it. It calmly walked toward us without fear, dragging the whip along the floor. As it approached it became more and more obvious how much the thing dwarfed us. The suit of armor was twelve feet tall and even made the 8-foot tall Bertrand look small by parison.

  roup spread out around the approag armor. My hungering cymore felt fortable in my hand, it was the first opportunity I've had to use it in a while. I cast [Bde Waltz] on myself so I would be able to keep up with it in melee. The suit of armor came to a stop in front of us and stood there stoically. That moment dragged on as our entire group tensed.

  A fsh of white suddenly streaked across us but before it hit anyorand pushed forward ahe attack. Unfortunately for him, the whip coiled around his shield and whipped him from behind. Before it could rip the whip through his back, Bertrand twisted his body and repositioned his shield to protect himself.

  Several projectiles flew toward the armor to little effect. Torien's arrow and Man's lightning magic was uselessly deflected by its armor. Bertrand swung his axe low at the armor's legs and even ected with one of them but the hollow g that followed didn't betray any kind of damage it had taken.

  Ihe armor stepped forward and reached out to grab the edge of Bertrand's shield, attempting to hold the ox man ihe whip rolled back out and sshed past Bertrand and cracked toward Jasper. While the attack was ued, Jasper mao block it with his kite shield but he was knocked off bance from the sudden attack. He stumbled back but mao stay on his feet. The dulha his whip bad inteo follow up with atack but was caught off guard by a boulder that crashed into him suddenly.

  I looked over and saw that Man was juring stones from scratch, sihe interior enviro didn't give her anything to pull from otherwise. Bel was also disadvantaged here, there weren't any pnts for her to manipute with her nature magic. Silva and some of the guards moved in with spears and shields, attempting to lock down the armor's movement but the dulhan was wise enough not to let a behind it. As soon as the guards began to encircle it the dulha go of Bertrand's shield and created some distaween itself and roup.

  I roag now too, warm cymore in hand, to attempt to trol the monster's movements. The dulhan tio walk backwards and just as the encirclement would have been plete the moook a stand sshed out with the whip, knog two of the guards to the ground.

  The boss moook the opportunity to escape the encirclement a behind the fox woman. It shed out at her but trary to its expectations the woman was not an easy target. As if she was dang she dodged right uhe whip, stepped into the armor's spad thrust her sword through the armor's knee.

  For the first time sihe fight started it made a noise, a wail of pain that caught everyone off guard. The woman in the armor's space recovered quickly and leaped backwards with superhuman speed. After failing to hit the woman with its left hand, it sshed out with the whip in the right but by then the woman had already gotten out e.

  The armor now had its bae so I took a ce at thrusting my own long cymore at the back of its leg. I didn't quite get the timing right so it just bounced off to the right. The dulhan spun around and sshed its whip at me but I had been ready for that. I ducked uhe attad jumped backwards away from it. Before it had any ce to pursue me, one of the high speed arrows I was used to seeing from Torien struck right betweees of its right arm causing it to wail once again.

  As we fought with it the guards had begun to encircle it again since we were holding it in pce from multiple angles. Bertrand's big shield smmed against it and this time the curved bottom of his axe ed over the dulhan's shoulder and pulled the armor in close. It struggled and jerked trying to get away from the rge man who inning him to his shield but the dulhan was held tight.

  Right as I thought we were going to finally trap the boss i dropped the whip and put both hands on the ox demi's shield. The dulhan pulled o and lifted the ox man up and over its shoulder, freeing itself from the axe that was tying it in pce. Fortuhe maneuver had disarmed the dulhan and the fox woman mao deftly grab its on while it reoccupied.

  The mourned and puhe guard with its steel mitt and knocked him off his feet, making him slide across the floor. Another arrow cttered against its side and the dulhan turned and charged toward Torien. As it approached, Silva twirled her spear like a staff and from a low position, thrust up and into the dulhan, impaling it on her spear. That unfortunately only sted a moment as the monster pulled away and ripped the spear out of itself with another moaning wail.

  It turned once again to Torien and threw the spear at her like a javelin. Torien mao dive out of the way of it just in time, the spear embedded deep into one of the bookshelves behind her. I sshed at the back of its knee again and got purchase this time but it quickly turned and punched me in response. Like the guard from before I was lifted off my feet and thrown across the room. I nded hard on my bad slid across the floor but I felt okay. I staggered bay feet, happy that my new armor didn't cave in like my st breastpte. Despite the direct hit from the dulhan I only had a small scratd some bruised ribs.

  I felt rage pulse through my bond as Mimi jumped onto the creatures back, stabbing it in the armpit with a short bde that she must have formed from her shapeshifting. The armor wailed and tried to reach Mimi but her small figure mao avoid the dulhan's reach.

  The fox woman took advantage of Mimi's distra by stabbed her rapier through the boss' other kneecap, causing the armor to fil wildly at her. Her rapier had gotten stuck so she was forced to abandon it as she jumped out e of the dulhan's wild swings. Ohe fox had fully slipped out e the armor did something no one was expeg, it jumped backwards right onto its bad crushed Mimi into the floor.

  "Mimi!" Bel screamed.

  The armor rolled off of Mimi and started barreling toward the fox woman, now single-mindedly trying to hunt her down, her rapier was still pierced deep into the dulhan's leg. Lightning magic arced out and struck the rapier like a lightning rod and causing the armor to seize up and fall forward. Jasper stepped in and thrust his glowing gold swht through the neck of the armor where its head would normally be.

  I rushed over to Mimi to find that she was pletely fine. She pulled herself out of the Mimi shaped hole in the floor and dusted herself off. Parts of her cloak was torn but other than that she looked pletely unfazed. Her high density and vitality must have protected her from the impact. The only indication anything had happeo her at all was a small nosebleed.

  I turned back to see Silva along with the uards pinning the dulhan down with spears while Jasper repeatedly hacked into the miasma that out of the suit's netil it stopped moviirely.

  Saine

  Hello! I hope you ehat little boss fight. Not as crazy as the big oh all of the soldiers but hopefully it was still enjoyable! ime the party will examihe strange space they're in, see you ime!

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