The massive iron doors had barely begun to groan inward when Brett’s hand shot out, catching Josh by the shoulder strap of. The force of the sudden stop nearly unbalanced the tank, his boots skidding on the soot-covered stone.

  "Wait," the mage hissed. His eyes were wide, glowing with a reflected blue light. Fixed just inches from his nose was a shimmering system notification that only he could see, though the faint hum of its presence was palpable to the rest of them. "Stop for one second. I just hit it. We didn’t kill anything but I got a message."

  Josh froze, his muscles still tensed from the effort of pulling the heavy door. He felt the heat from the room beyond bleeding through the crack, smelling of brimstone and scorched metal. Bhel grumbled, though he didn't release his grip on the iron ring, his knuckles white against the dark metal.

  "Hit what, boy? We’re on the doorstep of a massacre! My blood is pumpin', the axes are thirsty, and you want to have a chat?"

  "Level eighteen," Brett breathed, ignoring the dwarf's bluster. He looked at the others, his face illuminated by the flickering red runes of the gate. "The Juggernaut... that must have done it, and the systems only just recognised it?"

  One by one, the party stood in the sliver of light escaping from the cracked doors. The air in the corridor seemed to hold its breath. "Aye," Bhel muttered, a predatory grin spreading across his face, his teeth appearing exceptionally white in the gloom. "Eighteen it is.”

  "We can't lose the momentum," Josh said, his voice low and urgent. He could feel the heightened state of awareness and tactical clarity they had honed over the last few hours, still humming in his blood like a live wire. "Spend the points now. Don't overthink it, focus on our core builds. We need raw power for what's behind this door."

  Josh closed his eyes for a heartbeat, his mind diving into the translucent interface of his character sheet. He didn't hesitate. He dumped every available point into Strength and Constitution. He felt the change instantly, a subtle but profound thickening of his muscle fibres, his grip on the shield handle becoming more vicelike. Carcan saw his health bar elongated in her peripheral vision, a solid, reassuring block of green that felt less like a status indicator and more like a physical fortress.

  Beside him, Brett was twitching, his fingers dancing in the air as he funnelled his points into Intelligence and Wisdom. A faint aura of static electricity began to snap around the mage’s robes, the smell of ozone competing with the forge-heat. His eyes sharpened with a cold, analytical light, his pupils dilating as his mind processed the arcane Ley lines of the dungeon with newfound speed.

  Bhel, Carcan and Perberos finished their allocations in seconds.

  "Done," Josh said, his voice dropping an octave as his new Strength score settled into his frame. "Lets see how dangerous this thing is shall we."

  They shoved. Together, Josh and Bhel put their shoulders into the iron. The hinges screamed, a sound of ancient metal protesting a violation. The doors swung wide, revealing what the guide book described as The Foundry.

  The chamber was staggering, a cathedral of fire and industry that made the first floor’s boss room look like a crawlspace. It was a hollowed-out mountain, the ceiling lost in a swirling vortex of black soot and orange sparks. A massive central platform, easily a hundred feet across, sat suspended over a churning lake of molten metal. Four gargantuan chains, each link the size of a carriage, anchored the platform to the cavern walls. Great bellows, powered by some unseen tectonic force deep in the earth, hissed and roared in the distance, providing a rhythmic, mechanical heartbeat to the room.

  And in the centre of the platform, silhouetted against the white-hot glow of the metal, stood the Master.

  Josh felt a cold prickle of past recognition. The creature was gargantuan, easily twelve feet tall, with skin the colour of cooled lava, cracked and weeping faint embers. Its horns had been capped in jagged, soot-stained steel. It was armoured in thick worn plates that looked as if they’d been melted directly to its hide. In its hands, it held a hammer that looked less like a weapon and more like a tool for shaping the world itself, a block of solid, pitted iron the size of a tombstone.

  "It’s as big as the troll," Josh whispered, his mind flash-backing to the terrified version of himself that had barely survived the first dungeon. "It’s exactly the same size."

  "The size is the same," Carcan said, her voice steady as she began to chant, her staff glowing with a protective, pearlescent light. "But the intelligence is not. Look at its eyes, Josh. It isn't a beast. It’s far smarter."

  As they stepped onto the platform, the Master didn't roar, it didn’t move, it didn’t even acknowledge them for the first thirty seconds . It didn't indulge in the theatrical fury of the Chieftain. It simply watched them, its eyes glowing like dying coals.

  Finally it raised the hammer, and the molten metal in the pool below him seemed to respond to the gesture, leaping up in fiery arcs like hounds greeting their owner.

  "Spread out! Don't let him catch us in a bunch!" Carcan commanded.

  Suddenly, the boss moved with a terrifying, heavy grace. It crossed the platform in massive strides, the hammer coming down in a vertical smash. Josh dashed forward, quickly gaining its attention before diving to the left at the last moment. The stone floor shattering where he had stood a second ago. A shockwave of heat and pulverized rock blasted outward, the pressure wave knocking Brett off his feet and sending him rolling toward the edge.

  "I’ll keep his attention!" Josh roared, slamming his sword against his shield to draw the Master’s gaze back to him.

  The beast’s follow?up swing tore through the air with enough force to rattle his bones. His newly awakened skill flared in his mind, a hard, instinctive shove, guiding his arm to drag the shield along the hammer’s iron head. The impact screamed up his arm, the wood groaning as the blow skidded across it instead of crushing straight through. Sparks spat where metal scraped metal, and the sheer weight of the strike drove him back a full step, boots carving trenches in the dirt.

  Heat bled through the shield as if the weapon had just been pulled from a forge, searing his palm, reminding him exactly what would happen if he slipped, one mistake and he’d be nothing but a smear under that monstrous strength.

  "Bhel, flank! Perberos, eyes!" Brett’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding.

  The fight became a symphony of violence and heat. Flame Chain erupted from Brett’s outstretched hand, a twisting, serpentine tether of fire that snapped around the kobold’s torso and arms. The creature howled as the burning links constricted, searing into its flesh and locking its movements just long enough for Brett to unleash a barrage of fire bolts. Each bolt detonated against its body, bursts of orange light and scorched flesh lighting the battlefield like a forge in the dark.

  Bhel crashed into the fray with a roar, both axes already mid?swing. The dwarf’s blades bit into the kobold’s flank, carving deep furrows through scaled hide. Each strike landed with a wet, meaty crack, forcing the giant creature to twist away from Josh’s guard. Bhel didn’t give it a heartbeat to recover, he hacked again and again, his axes rising and falling in a brutal rhythm, sparks and blood flying in equal measure.

  Perberos’ arrows hissed past them, each one slamming into exposed joints or soft spots with surgical precision. One shaft buried itself in the beast’s throat; another pinned its ear to its skull. The kobold bellowed, snapping the arrow shafts with a furious jerk, but every shot forced its head to jerk or flinch, fracturing its focus and keeping its rage scattered across too many targets.

  Carcan stood behind Josh, hands moving in tight, practiced patterns. Translucent shields shimmered into existence around the kobold’s limbs, warping its balance and slowing its swings as if it were fighting through thick water. Every time the beast tried to lunge, a barrier snapped into place, redirecting its momentum or forcing its claws wide.

  At the same time, Carcan was channelling healing magic into Josh in steady pulses. Josh’s skin sizzled where the kobold’s earlier blows had landed, angry red welts steaming as the magic fought to keep him from cooking alive under the heat of each impact. Pain flared, then dulled, then flared again as another shockwave from the kobold’s hammer rattled through his shield.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The giant kobold tore against Brett’s Flame Chain, muscles bulging, scales blistering under the burning links. It managed half a step before Bhel was on it, the dwarf moving with a ferocity that bordered on reckless devotion. He ducked under a wild backhand, boots skidding across churned earth, and drove both axes upward in a vicious crossing strike.

  The blades sank deep into the creature’s ribs with a crunch that vibrated through Bhel’s arms. He wrenched them free in a spray of heat?warped scales, pivoted, and hacked again, this time at the kobold’s knee. The joint buckled with a sickening pop, forcing the beast to drop to one side, its balance shattered.

  Perberos seized the opening instantly. Three arrows flew in the space of a heartbeat, each loosed with the crisp, practiced snap of a hunter who lived for moments like this. The first arrow buried itself in the kobold’s exposed armpit as it staggered. The second punched through the soft flesh beneath its jaw, snapping its head back. The third, a heavier, barbed shaft, slammed into the creature’s wrist, pinning its hammer?hand against its own thigh.

  The kobold roared, a guttural, furious sound that shook dust from the cavern ceiling, but Perberos was already drawing again, eyes narrowed, breath steady. Every shot forced the beast to twist or recoil, its movements becoming jerky, panicked, and increasingly desperate.

  Bhel didn’t give it a moment to recover. He leapt onto the creature’s partially collapsed leg, using its calf as a foothold, and brought both axes down on its shoulder with all the strength his compact frame could muster. The impact drove the kobold further down onto its knee, a fresh Flame Chain tightening as Brett poured more mana into it, the fiery links glowing white?hot.

  "He’s got a damage threshold!" Brett yelled, scrambling back to his feet and unleashing a focused Molton Lance. The beam struck the Master’s shoulder, splashing harmlessly against the heavy plating like water against a cliff. "We’re just scratching the paint! This much damage should have done more than knock him down to his knee. We have to break it’s armour first I think! The manual said this is a tough fight if you don’t know what to do."

  “The vents!” Perberos shouted, his voice echoing over the molten lake. The ranger clung to one of the massive anchoring chains, boots slipping on links hot enough to scorch leather, bow drawn to his cheek. “On his back, the armour’s venting heat! They’re glowing! Hit them and he’ll cook from the inside!”

  “I’ll turn him! When I say, hit him with everything!” Josh roared.

  He dug his heels into the stone, every muscle in his legs screaming as he forced the towering Master to pivot. Each hammer strike crashed into his shield like a falling boulder. The impacts weren’t just heavy, they were catastrophic. Shockwaves blasted through his arms, rattling his teeth, making his vision strobe with white sparks. His spine felt like it might snap in half, but he refused to give ground.

  He shoved back with a snarl, his shield flaring with white?hot enchantment light as it absorbed another ruinous blow. The force skidded him half a step, boots gouging trenches in the rock, but he held. He had to hold.

  Bit by bit, Josh dragged the boss’s attention with him, circling, forcing the monster to turn. The Master followed, bellowing, hammer smashing down again and again, each strike a test of whether Josh’s bones or the shield would break first.

  But the rotation worked.

  As Josh pulled the monster around, the glowing vents on its back came into view of the others, pulsing red, heat shimmering off them like the breath of a furnace. The rest of the party surged into position, weapons raised, spells crackling, ready to drive everything they had into the one weakness that might end this nightmare.

  "Now!"

  Bhel, recovering with a roar of dwarven fury, vaulted off a pile of scrap metal. He didn't aim for the legs this time. He went for the glowing red vents between the Master's massive shoulder blades. His axe bit deep, the reinforced edge shearing through a cooling pipe. A spray of black, oily blood erupted from the wound, sizzling as it hit the hot armour.

  The Master let out a sound that wasn't a roar, it was a mechanical shriek of agony, a high-pitched whistle like a steam engine reaching its breaking point. It spun with a speed that caught them all off guard, the hammer swinging in a blind, 300-degree arc of pure desperation.

  "Dodge! Get down!" Josh screamed.

  He raised his shield, tucking his body behind it, but the force of the blow was too much for him to fully redirect. The hammer caught the top rim of the shield, and Josh felt his feet leave the ground as if he’d been hit by a runaway train. He was launched backward, tumbling end-over-end toward the edge of the platform.

  "Josh!" Carcan’s voice was a distant, panicked echo over the roar of the bellows.

  Josh slammed into a pile of jagged iron ingots at the very edge of the platform, his shield arm screaming in protest as the metal clattered against his bone. His vision swam, dark spots dancing in his eyes as he struggled to draw air into his lungs. He looked up, his head spinning.

  The Master was ignoring the others now. It ignored Bhel’s axes and Perberos’ arrows, its glowing coal-eyes fixed solely on the man at the edge of the pit. It raised the hammer high, both hands gripping the haft. The head of the weapon began to glow with an intense, white-hot heat, drawing power directly from the lake of fire below through the iron chains. The air around the hammer began to shimmer and distort, the heat so intense that Josh’s eyebrows began to singe.

  "Josh, get up! Move!" Brett’s voice was cracked with panic.

  Josh tried to scramble back, but his leg was pinned under a heavy, half-melted ingot that had shifted when he landed. He was trapped. He looked at the Master, then at the glowing hammer, then at the lethal drop into the molten iron just inches behind him.

  The Master brought the hammer down with the force of a falling star.

  Everything flashed white.

  For a second, there was only the sound of his own heartbeat, thumping, frantic, and loud in the ringing silence. Josh expected the heat to swallow him. He expected the sensation of being crushed into the stone.

  Instead, he felt a sudden, jarring cold.

  When his vision snapped back into focus, he realized he wasn’t dead, only because something colossal stood between him and oblivion. A towering barrier of green arcane force loomed over him, not a simple shimmer but a multi-layered bulwark of interlocking sigils and runes, each one flickering under the strain. The Master’s hammer was buried halfway through it, the blow having punched through several layers of the shield like glass. Cracks spider?webbed across the surface, each fracture glowing with violent, unstable light.

  “Don’t just sit there!” Carcan’s voice tore through the ringing in his ears.

  She was on her knees, both hands thrust forward, arms trembling violently. Smoke curled from her fingertips and the edges of her sleeves, the air around her warping with heat as raw mana bled off her body in uncontrolled wisps. She’d burned through half her mana in a single, panicked cast, her newest emergency shield, the one she’d hoped she wouldn’t need to use.

  “I can’t do that again!” she choked out, voice cracking under the strain.

  The Master wrenched at the hammer, snarling. The weapon didn’t budge. The force of the strike had fused the iron head into the shield’s fractured layers, molten metal hissing where it met the still?glowing arcane surface. Every tug sent another ripple of cracks racing across the barrier, each one accompanied by a sharp, crystalline ping that promised the shield was seconds from shattering.

  "Bhel! Perberos! The vents are wide open!" Josh yelled, finally wrenching his leg free from the ingot.

  He didn't retreat. Despite the agony in his shield arm, he lunged forward. He couldn't swing his sword with his usual strength, but he didn't need to. He slammed his shield into the side of the Master’s face, a desperate, grinding bash meant to keep the creature’s head turned away from the others.

  "Get in there!"

  Perberos didn't miss. From his vantage point on the chain, he loosed an arrow directly into the ruptured cooling vent Bhel had opened earlier. The arrow hissed as it entered the creature’s internal systems.

  The Master shuddered. A foul, green-black smoke began to pour from its armour joints. It finally wrenched its hammer free, but its movements were sluggish now, its internal temperature skyrocketing as the cooling system failed completely.

  "It’s overheating!" Carcan cried out, casting another heal on Josh to knit his bruised ribs back together. "If we keep the pressure on, the armour will fail!"

  The Master finally understood the trap closing around it. Its burning eyes flicked from the party to the lake of molten iron below, then back again and something cold and murderous settled into its posture.

  Without warning, it drove its fist into the platform.

  The entire arena shuddered. The four colossal chains anchoring the floor groaned, then began to glow a furious orange, heat racing along their lengths like fire through oil.

  “What in the nine hells is it doing?” Bhel barked, still hacking at the creature’s waist, his axes biting sparks from the armour.

  Josh’s stomach dropped as he saw the links stretching, metal softening under impossible strain. “He’s dropping the platform!” he shouted, voice cracking with disbelief. “He’s taking us all into the fire!”

  The Master unleashed a final, guttural roar, a sound of pure spite and the first chain snapped. The break detonated like a thunderclap, a shockwave blasting across the platform. The floor lurched violently, tilting toward the molten abyss. Everyone skidded, boots scraping uselessly against the stone as gravity dragged them toward the glowing lake.

  “Hold on to something!” Josh bellowed as he slammed his sword into a jagged crack in the stone, the blade screeching as it bit deep enough to anchor him. His arm nearly wrenched from its socket as his body whipped sideways with the tilt.

  Then he heard it, a deep, metallic groan behind him. His eyes snapped to the second chain just as it tore apart, links exploding outward in a spray of molten shrapnel.

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