It took a few minutes of walking before the group finally reached Zaher, who was leaning against the wall, pretending to be asleep.

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  He feigned waking up with a yawn on their approach. “Damn. What took you so long? Thought you got lost there for a second, or did Evie need another break?” he said with a cheeky grin.

  Evie, not one to let a jab go, pointed her staff at him, a fireball forming at the tip. “You say somethin’, pretty boy?” Evie questioned with a scary smile that dared him to test her.

  “Woah, woah,” Zaher raised his hands in mock surrender. “Use your words, not your balls.”

  Izzy facepalmed so hard it echoed through the cave, yet that didn’t seem to deter them.

  Evie, for her part, simply raised an eyebrow at his comment, before channeling more mana into her fireball.

  Zaher, sensing the impending doom he had unleashed, corrected himself, “FIREBALL. You know I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just a… language barrier. Yeah, let’s go with that.”

  “Motherfucker, you have the same translation skill I do. I know what you said, and I know you know what you said,” Evie retorted, staring daggers his way, a hair trigger away from incinerating him.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and holding my lacking English understanding against me is extremely racist, I hope you know that,” Zaher responded, crossing his arms and turning his head to the side in mock offense.

  Evie, for her part, didn’t let his words get to her, choosing instead to smile sweetly at him before asking, “Alright… let’s try this again then. What did you say to me?”

  Zaher looked Evie’s way with unrestrained glee before saying the words that Izzy had dreaded. “Nice ba-”

  Not waiting for him to finish the sentence, Evie fired her skill, but the slippery scout had already expected the move and sank into the wall behind him, letting his shadow swallow him completely, easily dodging the exploding fireball.

  “That slippery fuck,” she complained as she charged another fireball surprise for when Zaher showed himself again.

  “Are you done with your foreplay?” Sedky asked, clearly not amused by the interaction and just wanting to get it over with.

  Zaher appeared right next to the unimpressed man, a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, don’t be like that. Weren’t you once young and in love too?”

  “You do realize you are older than me, right?” Sedky raised an eyebrow questioningly while swatting at the offending hand.

  “Young at heart. Yours is that of an old geezer,” Zaher teased, jumping back into the shadow as a punch and a fireball hit the air where his head had been.

  “Yes, because the ambiance of a dark, damp cave filled with skeletons screams love. Not the beach dungeon we were in yesterday, or the forest one the day before. The one filled with death is clearly the ideal place for flirting,” Sedky commented in exasperation.

  “Hey! I’ll have you know, I flirted there too!” Zaher answered, apparently taking offense at the statement that he would miss a chance to flirt.

  Evie facepalmed at the unneeded confession, shaking her head in the process, while Izzy simply raised a questioning eyebrow, but chose to avoid the headache that is Zaher and move on.

  Sedky simply sighed in resignation before passing through the tunnel exit, muttering, “Fucking moron,” as he passed by Zaher.

  Izzy followed behind, with Evie, who chose to smack Zaher on the back of the head, right on her heels.

  “Hey!” Zaher complained, rubbing at his head, before following the trio.

  The party finally appeared in the open rocky cave that was the dungeon boss’s room, and it was just as described in the dungeon ledger. A large hall, 400 feet across, with grey stone covering the floor and walls. White torches illuminated the grim-looking room, each embedded at equal intervals, providing everyone with a clear view of their next challenge, the figure sitting on a throne at the far end.

  The dungeon boss, King Azar.

  Skeleton King Azar (level 12)

  The skeleton king got up from his throne and made his way towards the group, a ginormous greatsword hoisted on his shoulder.

  “Positions everyone!” Sedky commanded, prompting the party to move to their assigned positions around the boss.

  The boss walked the distance separating him from the group at a leisurely pace, before stopping a few feet away from Izzy and Sedky who took the vanguard position, lowering his heavy greatsword off of his shoulder and onto the ground, the tip sinking at least a foot into the thick grey stone, as both hands rested on the pommel in a very dignified and knightly manner, waiting for them to make the first move.

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  That was a common trait in all tier 9 dungeons. They were more like training grounds, the monsters in them nothing but lifeless husks. They took notice of your arrival, and had a semblance of understanding on an instinctual level, but they never made the first move, giving you a chance to back out if you deemed an opponent too strong, or a bad matchup against your class. As long as you weren’t cocky, overconfident, or lacking in preparation, tier 9 dungeons were fairly straightforward, and even safer than hunting out in the open, since it was only you and the dungeon monsters, with no interference from anyone else.

  As they waited for their two backline fighters to get ready, Izzy took a good look at the king standing opposite her. As the name would suggest, the king was a humanoid skeleton. The only piece of clothing he had on was a torn and tattered red and black cape with two tarnished golden clasps securing it from the front. He was easily ten feet tall, with a bent and dented crown lacking in any luster on his head, with a few empty settings where jewels and gems must’ve been embedded in another life.

  His sword was just as large, reaching up to his shoulder. Nothing was special about it aside from the red gem fixed to the sword’s base, near the hilt.

  Izzy grinned, actually excited for the fight to come. The boss was two levels higher than she was, which should present its own set of challenges, and those were challenges she was looking forward to tackling.

  With a quick look, Sedky confirmed that the other two were ready with their skills before making his move. He swung his axe with all his might from side to side, striking at the skeleton king’s sword in an attempt to knock it out of his hand.

  Zaher, not missing a beat, followed up by shooting the nocked shadow arrow at the skeleton’s hand in an effort to catch the boss by surprise and help Sedky.

  A loud ringing clang filled the room as metal slammed against metal like an explosion, sending sparks flying out of the point of impact, but to everyone’s dismay, the greatsword hadn’t budged in the slightest.

  With no need of waiting anymore, King Azar made his own first move, pulling his sword out of the stone ground and stabbing at the axe-wielding warrior that had dared attack him.

  Sedky reacted immediately, taking a step to the side while putting his giant axe between himself and the sword, avoiding the stab as the greatsword only found purchase in stone once more.

  Izzy had used the distraction to circle behind the giant skeleton before making her presence known by unleashing [Flurry Strikes] at its exposed back, a maneuver they had performed a few times now to great success.

  King Azar, being no different, chose to focus on the person who had damaged him the most, turning his body around with a downward swordstrike at the pesky striker.

  Izzy dodged by moving into the skeleton boss’s guard, aiming a [Devastating Strike] at his exposed pelvis bone.

  The blow struck true, startling the boss and forcing him to let out an angry roar before kicking at the one responsible.

  The kick was too fast and too close for Izzy to dodge. She crossed her arms in front of her face and braced in an attempt to mitigate the damage from the incoming blow.

  The boss’s skeletal foot landed with a loud crunch that echoed across the wide hall, shattering all of Izzy’s defenses and sending her flying.

  Izzy slammed into the wall at the far end of the room, a few more bones cracking and breaking under the impact, before dropping on the cold hard stone floor, her body resting in a heap against the king’s throne.

  A massive fireball hit the skeleton king in the back, causing a massive explosion to rock the room, courtesy of Evie, followed by a half dozen of Zaher’s arrows.

  Sedky wasn’t to be outdone, as he arced his axe towards the skeleton’s spine, expecting to at least chip at it, but to his surprise the axe bounced off as if it had hit metal, not even leaving a scratch.

  Izzy groaned in pain, the taste of iron fresh in her mouth. Her head throbbed, left arm hanging limply beside her. At least a dozen bones broke, and a couple of organs ruptured from the kick and the ensuing impact, judging by the pain and her inability to feel her left side. She spat a mouthful of blood before pulling two simple health potions with her one good hand from her pouch, uncorking each with her teeth before downing the cold, bitter red liquid.

  Instant relief filled her as the potion numbed the pain before the healing had even begun. Bone started fusing back together, ruptured organs recovering, and her left arm mending itself. A devastating injury that would’ve meant certain death back on Earth, almost entirely healed thanks to a couple of potions that cost less than the bottles that contained them. No matter how many injuries she had suffered, that was the one thing she could never get used to.

  Feeling noticeably better, she got back on her feet, ready to rejoin the fight. She had a lot of points in Strength for someone her level, which meant her body was both durable and resilient, yet a simple kick had completely shattered her arm and taken her out of the fight.

  Fucker is tough. He could kick a hole through most people with that kind of power, she thought before spitting another mouthful of blood. Her health was almost back to full, and so she started running towards the boss, readying herself to pay him back for the kick.

  King Azar slashed with his sword towards Sedky’s midsection, aiming to cut him in half.

  Sedky understood that if a kick had done that much damage to Izzy, then a swing with this level of power was unblockable, and putting the sword’s length and reach into consideration, he couldn’t dodge either backwards, or to the side, so instead, he spun his axe in his hand a couple of times to build some momentum, before smashing it with all the might he could muster into the sword’s underside while bending to the side as much as he could.

  The clang of metal echoed through the room once more, sending even more golden sparks flying everywhere. The reverberation passed through the axe and into Sedky’s body, causing him to drop his weapon and lose balance, but he had accomplished his goal, altering the trajectory of the strike away from him and towards the ceiling while startling the boss. What he had missed seeing, however, was the glowing red gem at the base of the sword.

  A bright white slash of unrestrained mana was summoned along the sword’s trajectory, aimed at the party’s backline.

  Evie, who was in the process of casting another massive fireball, ceased her casting, letting the skill go at the rapidly approaching mana slash before diving to the side, away from any mana remnants or explosive aftermath.

  The slash cut through the fireball like a hot knife through butter, continuing unimpeded towards the mage, who was now mid-jump, slicing both her legs clean off, before continuing on into the tunnel’s exit, an unstoppable wave of destruction.

  Silence descended on the battle, as all eyes fell on Evie’s legless form, blood pooling beneath her, and a look of absolute horror and utter incredulity on her face, which lasted for but a mere second, before her terrified screams filled the hall.