Chapter 88: The Boss Lair

The professionals kept the group moving at a pace Bren and Lex could manage. They dealt with two small groups of Splitjaws along the way and another pair of Ridgebacks near another passage, but nothing gave them much trouble.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find any more Return Stones along their path, they didn’t take any detours to search either.

Leon began noticing a stronger current of air as the passage widened ahead. Soon, Gareth raised one hand, bringing everyone to a stop before approaching the opening.

He looked down and remained quiet for a moment.

"That wasn’t in the records." He said.

Leon helped Lex lean against the wall before joining the professionals at the edge.

The passage opened onto a ledge overlooking an enormous chamber. Mineral light spread across the high ceiling, where long cracks had formed between sections of stone. Air moved steadily into the lair, carrying dust towards the openings above.

The chamber floor was covered in monsters.

Splitjaws clung to the walls, crawled across the rocks and moved between groups of Ridgebacks. The larger lizards were packed so closely together that their tails shifted across the little space left between them.

Near the opposite wall rested something much more larger and even more a monster than the others.

It looked like a Komodo dragon grown to the size of an African elephant, with heavy limbs supporting its massive scaled body. Its head rose when the monsters closer to the ledge started moving, revealing thick saliva stretching between its jaws before dripping onto the ground.

Its tail alone looked large enough to send several of the smaller monsters flying with one sweep.

"That’s supposed to be the Grade Four Intermediate boss," Gareth said.

As if listening to what had been said, the boss turned its head towards them.

With a soft, "hmm," Leon stepped back from the edge.

"How many?"

"At least eighty Splitjaws and fifty Ridgebacks from my estimation," Gareth answered after looking across the chamber again. "There may be more behind the rocks."

"They weren’t here when this place was surveyed," the woman said.

"The earthquake probably pushed them out of the damaged tunnels," the third professional added as he looked towards a broken passage high on the opposite wall.

Several hours of monsters leaving collapsed passages had apparently driven most of them into the same open chamber.

That made reaching the boss a problem.

The chamber itself was more than large enough for them to fight in, but the passages behind the ledge had been narrowed by rubble. If they tried drawing the monsters out, the creatures would climb over the rocks and force their way through the gaps along the sides. There was no way eight people could hold a proper line against more than a hundred monsters in a passage barely wide enough for them to move through.

They also couldn’t reach the boss while everything else surrounded it.

The ledge was broad enough for all of them to spread out, with an uneven slope leading down into the chamber at one end. Everywhere else dropped directly into the lair.

"We can’t draw that many into the corridor," the third professional said.

"No. We’ll lose control of them before reaching the first bend," Gareth replied.

"And there’s no reaching the boss with all of those around it," the woman added.

Several Splitjaws had already begun moving towards the bottom of the slope. Farther inside the chamber, Ridgebacks shifted as the smaller creatures climbed over their tails.

Leon looked down at them.

’I don’t need to get close to any of that.’

"I’ll deal with the smaller ones," he said as he turned towards Gareth. "You handle the boss once there’s enough room."

"Leon, there are over a hundred Grade Three monsters down there."

"Your Swordsman is good, but—" Nolan began.

Not waiting for him to be done with whatever he had to say, he called out his summons.

The second Great Swordsman appeared beside the first, and the Mage followed, holding its staff against its robed body, before both Skirmishers appeared with their sickle-shaped blades lowered beside them.

Nolan stopped talking immediately and could only stare in a mix of shock and disbelief.

For a moment, nobody else said anything either. Linda looked between the two identical Swordsmen, while Bren opened his mouth before apparently deciding that he had nothing useful to say.

"Five?" Gareth asked.

"Give him room," Lex said as he eased himself against a broad rock near the wall.

"Mage, here. Barrier across the front, but leave the descent open."

Leon pointed towards a clear position in the centre of the ledge, and the Mage moved there and raised its staff.

"What are you planning?" Gareth asked as he watched the spell begin forming.

"A hot and fiery approach. Keep everyone up here until it’s clear."

The first Splitjaw had almost reached the top of the descent when Linda summoned her Yeti beside Leon to protect him.

It took position with a clear view of the slope, leaving enough room for the Mage.

"I’ll stop anything that gets up," she said.

Leon nodded.

The barrier formed across the open side of the ledge, separating them from the chamber while leaving the descent usable. The Mage then turned its staff towards one of the crowded groups farther inside, keeping its aim away from the ledge and the paths along the walls.

"Burn the nearer and middle groups. Keep it away from the ledge and the side paths," Leon instructed before looking towards the others. "Swordsmen, take the Ridgebacks outside the fire. Skirmishers, deal with anything that tries to escape. Stay together." He instructed.

The four fighters jumped from the ledge.

Both Swordsmen landed upright on the chamber floor, while the Skirmishers dropped closer to the descent. The first Splitjaw turned towards them, only for one Skirmisher to catch its front legs while the other passed beside its snapping jaws and cut through the throat.

The creature dropped just as the Mage released its first spell.

A Flaming Whirlwind rose among the crowded monsters, spreading across the floor before twisting upwards through the group. Splitjaws tried climbing over the Ridgebacks blocking their escape, while the larger lizards pushed against one another with nowhere to go, their screams filling everywhere, monster screams.

The arrangement that had made the chamber almost impossible for the others to clear was now working against the monsters.

Leon felt the heat against his face, but the current of air pulled most of it away from the ledge. Smoke and dust rose towards the fissures overhead, while the bodies caught inside the whirlwind began blackening almost immediately.

A burning Ridgeback forced its way out along the left side, but it only met the nearest Swordsman that stepped into its path and drove its blade through the raised jaw. It pulled the weapon free as the creature dropped before turning towards the next monster trying to escape.

The Mage kept its staff raised.

Several seconds passed while the first whirlwind continued burning, then another column of fire rose behind it and caught the creatures that had tried retreating.

Screeches filled the chamber.

Near the far wall, the boss pushed itself onto its feet. Its heavy tail dragged across the ground as it moved towards the disturbance, but the fire rising between it and the nearer monsters caused it to stop.

It moved sideways instead, remaining along the far side of the lair and well beyond the burning areas.

Below the ledge, the Skirmishers moved together along the edge of the fire. Whenever a Splitjaw tried to escape,they’d skewer it swiftly and return to another. Even when a creature came from the side, they separated around its jaws and met again behind it once the fight was over.

Neither stepped into the flames.

The Swordsmen did the same on opposite sides of the chamber, cutting down the Ridgebacks that managed to force their way out while avoiding the boss as leon had ordered.

Leon remained behind the barrier and watched without giving them another order.

Once the Mage finished preparing the spell again, it waited until the undead had moved away from another crowded section before raising a third whirlwind there.

"They’re not even slowing down," Nolan said.

Bren leaned forward to look and forgot about his injured arm until the movement made him wince.

Linda looked from the burning chamber to Leon.

He hadn’t raised his voice since giving the first instructions. The Swordsmen found their own openings, while the Skirmishers adjusted whenever the fire forced more creatures towards them. Even the Mage waited for the fighters to clear an area before targeting it.

Her Yeti remained beside her, ready to stop anything that reached the descent.

So far, nothing had.

Lex watched the open ground spreading beneath the ledge. He had already seen Leon controlling five summons, but seeing them fight together against this many monsters was something else entirely.

With several beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his face, "Let him clear the middle," Gareth told the other professionals. "We move on the boss once there’s a path."

Leon glanced towards him before returning his attention to the chamber.

Another Ridgeback stumbled out of the fire and fell to one of the Swordsmen, while the Skirmishers cut down the Splitjaws trying to escape along the wall.

Behind them, the whirlwinds continued burning, and the open space across the chamber floor kept growing.