Chapter 68: The Sewage Boat (Part 2)

“Another special boss? And this time it’s a multi-form one—talk about luck…” Jeros nodded. “Normally, you’d only encounter something like this once every two or three years in a stable dungeon. How is it that two have shown up in less than a month? Well, never mind. You two go assist Miss Artoria. I’ll handle these two myself.”

Zhao Tianhe and Elay both nodded. With a wave of her hand, Elay summoned the whale-shaped Garuda familiar, which emerged from beneath Zhao Tianhe’s feet and lifted him up, while Elay hopped to his side.

The two rode the Garuda familiar to hover above the boss facing Artoria. With a sweeping gesture, Elay sent her spear and three bird-shaped Garuda familiars crashing down onto the strange monster that sprawled across hundreds of square meters of lake surface.

Artoria had just run out of bullets and was about to close in at high speed to switch into her Holy Sword User form for close combat. But when she saw Elay’s attack, she quickly retreated. In her Archer form, Artoria moved across the water like a speedboat, churning up waves in her wake.

“This foolish woman…” Artoria grumbled, glancing irritably at Elay above.

The three Garuda familiars exploded into the boss, sending up plumes of green water several meters high. At the same time, the scorching spear spun and bored into the creature, piercing it and plunging into the lake.

Meanwhile, Zhao Tianhe casually unleashed Wind Blades—his shortsword’s wind affinity reduced mana consumption, so he could keep up a steady barrage.

The boss, pierced through the middle, seemed to go berserk. Dozens of eyes and mouths erupted all over its body, spewing toxic rays and venomous globs in every direction.

The whale-shaped Garuda familiar, serving as their aerial mount, took the brunt of the onslaught. Hit by two toxic rays and a blob of venom, it died instantly.

Artoria had anticipated this. With a thought, her transparent plastic water gun filled with golden, sacred liquid. She fired rapidly, blasting every mouth and eye facing her to pieces!

Elay, clutching Zhao Tianhe, launched herself into the air, escaping the Garuda familiar as it dissolved under the poison. She shouted loudly, “Guard!”

At her command, a massive turtle-shaped Garuda familiar, two meters in diameter, materialized. Its huge shell shielded both of them, blocking the venom and rays.

“Meslamtaea Impact Slash!” Elay stood atop the giant turtle’s belly. Beautifully crafted cylindrical iron cages—her spear rack crafting skill—appeared at her side. She normally used them to store excess mana, but in battle, they could be freely deployed.

With a surge of mana, her spear, Meslamtaea, glowed red-hot and once again plunged beneath the lake, darting back and forth through the boss, slicing it apart.

Wherever the spear cut, the flesh was vaporized. In a flash, the boss was reduced to over a dozen pieces, each floating on the lake’s surface, sprouting new mouths and eyes that fired toxic rays and venom wildly.

The ferocious barrage posed a real threat even to Artoria, forcing her to constantly retreat and quickly snipe out every eye and mouth that appeared in her direction.

“Stop going berserk! Without a mage’s firepower, all you can do is chip away at it!” Artoria shouted. “Weren’t you supposed to be guarding?!”

“Ah, right…” Elay paused, glancing at Zhao Tianhe with an awkward smile.

“Well, since it’s gone mad anyway, let’s just go all out!” Zhao Tianhe grinned. “The mana in the spear racks is there to be used, so let’s use it!”

“Right!” Elay’s eyes lit up. She took a deep breath and unleashed Meslamtaea Impact Slash once more!

Elsewhere, under Jeros’s assault, one warship had been completely frozen, while the other was blown to pieces.

The frozen warship effectively split the battlefield, preventing the explosion debris from reaching Zhao Tianhe and the others, and at the same time containing the boss.

“Nice gear. It’s not over on that side yet, so let’s quietly finish this one.” Jeros tossed the silver-white bracelet in his hand and pointed at the frozen ship. The gravitational field around them began to shift.

The entire frozen ship started to twist and collapse, the hull crumpling inward from the hold. Shards of ice shattered with a deafening crack. The boss in the hold tried to spew venom and rays, but the poison was sucked back the moment it emerged, and the rays couldn’t penetrate Jeros’s protective spells.

Sixth-level magic—Gravitational Compression.

It was a large-scale control spell, but for anything caught at its core, the damage was devastating—the target’s entire body would be crushed and torn apart by the immense gravity. Other than the risk of strong monsters breaking free at the start, it was nearly flawless.

Once the field compressed to half its initial size, not even a B-class boss could break free.

And this strange, mindless pollutant took the full brunt of the spell. Unexpectedly, its counterattack was ferocious.

Toxic rays erupted in a 360-degree storm under the pressure of the gravity spell.

The ceiling of the second cave layer began to corrode and destabilize. Stalactites and rocks tumbled down in droves…

“Damn…” Jeros’s face twitched. He realized he may have just dragged Zhao Tianhe and the others into trouble.

“Crap! Jeros is even crazier than we are!” Zhao Tianhe frantically refreshed his protective spells, while Elay withdrew her attacking spear and Garuda familiars to defend.

Fortunately, Jeros finished quickly. Once the boss was compressed down to the size of a truck, it solidified and then crumbled to dust.

The boss on Zhao Tianhe’s side, inadvertently weakened by friendly fire, was left completely enfeebled and finished off by Elay.

“Oh, it dropped an Archer-class chess piece. You can upgrade to King of Archers now.” Zhao Tianhe looked at Artoria’s status screen. “Do you want to upgrade Holy Shot as well?”

The last time they were here, the C-class boss had dropped a Berserker-class silver piece, which none of them could use. But Artoria had gotten plenty of conch shells for her skill upgrades, and now with this Archer-class piece, she could upgrade immediately.

“Upgrade Gun God. The agility stat is really useful,” Artoria mused. “Besides, I’ve still got Holy Sword User to handle offense. Perception is more important for solo operations.”

Perhaps it was his imagination, but Artoria seemed to put extra emphasis on “solo operations.”

“Is it because I’ve been getting too close to Elay lately? Is the love triangle about to begin?!” Just thinking about it made Zhao Tianhe’s knees go weak with nerves.