The party stared at the boss monster that appeared in front of them. Clearly, this was something that had never happened before. Even Kyla was shocked and confused, and she usually knew everything there was to know about dungeons. While everyone else was left in a stunned silence, there was one member of the party that kept a cool mind in everyone’s stead.

“This changes nothing! Treat it like any other enemy, and we will be fine!” Lynol exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing through the room, making everyone snap out of it. Octer tightened his grip on his shield, and Kyla’s fingers started running over the strings of her harp as she started to play the song of a miracle that the group really needed right now.

Foster could feel the song buff his body. It was like warm water was running through his body, forcing its way around his muscles. He felt stronger as this heat filled every part of him.

— 

[Strength has been temporarily increased by 10% by the Melody of Strength]

[Agility has been temporarily increased by 10% by the Harmony of Speed]

— 

The first to move was of course the first one that was ready. Lynol pushed himself forward and swung his sword at the giant rat staring down at him with those glowing eyes. And for the first time ever, the party saw someone actively block one of Lynol’s attacks.

The skeletons in the other dungeon weren’t physically strong enough to block it, and all other monsters they fought were simply like animals. So as long as Lynol swung at them with his regular precision, the monster was usually dealt an immense amount of damage, if they didn’t outright die the moment the blade cut through them.

But now, the giant rat pulled its spear in front of its body, stopping the blade right in its track. It swung the spear to the side to push the sword away, before trying to stab at Lynol. The swordsman jumped backward to avoid it, but the rock spear was too large, forcing him to have to block the attack using the side of his sword. As Lynol was pushed back behind the others with a single attack, Foster started to run forward at the rat.

It changed its focus toward him, when a loud voice drew its attention, “Look at me, you oversized rodent! I’m your opponent!” Octer yelled out, using his Taunt skill to force the rat to look away from Foster.

While it was distracted, Foster took the chance to attack the rat. It was so large that he had a tough time attacking anything but his legs, so he figured he would go for the most vulnerable area he could think of that was in range. Extending his arm forward, Foster struck the side of the rat’s knee. If he was able to damage anything in there, then that would be perfect. Toppling this giant rat was the most important thing right now.

But even though he attacked the rat’s knee with as much power as he could reasonably show at that point, it was like it wasn’t even bothered. After all, the rat’s skin became as tough as rock. Or rather, it quite literally turned into rock, giving it an immense amount of defensive capabilities. Foster didn’t give up, though. The rat was still distracted by Octer, so he simply continued striking its knee again and again. At some point, it should be damaged, right?

However, it didn’t take long until the rat started to attack Octer, pushing its spear toward the man that taunted it. He quickly tilted his shield to the side, seeing the incoming attack. If he took that straight-on, if he was unlucky, then that attack could pierce through the shield. And even if he was lucky, he would have to use far too much strength to properly hold that attack back. Diverting it like this was the easier choice.

The rock spear slid over the surface of the shield, soon hitting the ground. In an instant, the rat pulled the spear back, and pushed it forward again. But once more, Octer reacted in time and diverted the attack to the side. This continued on, and the rat’s spear sped up with every single attack. It wouldn’t take long until Octer wouldn’t be able to react in time anymore.

But of course, they were hoping that this wasn’t even necessary in the first place. Lynol ran back at the rat as soon as he could and swung his sword at it. While Foster was attacking its legs, Lynol attacked its arms so that it wouldn’t be able to fight back anymore.

Even though Lynol was attacking with everything he could, he barely did any damage at all. How were they supposed to beat something like this?

“Kyla! How was the Cave Golem beaten?” Foster yelled out, and Kyla glanced at them, interrupting her singing. Luckily, these miracles stayed active even a short while after the song stopped, so replying to questions could easily be taken care of.

“They blew it up to expose the core, and then destroyed it!” She exclaimed, quickly returning to singing to keep up the buffs for the party.

“Tsk!” Foster clicked his tongue. They had a source of fire, since Aster was able to simply create it, but they didn’t have anything that could then actually blow up, ‘What else can we do with fire, then?’ He thought, trying to figure this situation out, when suddenly Foster had an idea.

He jumped back, and pulled something out of his shirt. It was a necklace with a small vial wrapped in cloth hanging off of it. Inside the vial was a small blue flower that gave off a constant cool air. Foster had started wrapping it in cloth, since the glass started freezing to his skin when he was sweating too much. And rather quickly at that.

“Aster, I need you to make this some more of these plants grow, alright? Just do it right when I tell you.” Foster told the small spirit that was holding onto his hair, before he rushed right back at the giant rat while pulling the flower out of the vial. Luckily, the rat was still distracted by Octer’s taunt and Lynol’s continuous attacks, letting Foster push the flower right into a small gap inbetween the rocks covering the rat’s knee, before telling Aster to make it grow.

And while it wasn’t all that much considering the rat’s body, it was enough. The roots and flowers of the flower grew all throughout the rat’s knee, already cooling the rocks down a lot, “And now, push as much water into it as you can!” Foster told the spirit, holding him as he started pushing water out through his mask. It flowed into the gasp inbetween the rocks, and it didn’t take long until a loud crunching sound could be heard as the water froze in the gaps between the rock. The rat wasn’t able to move its knee anymore, reducing its range of motion quite a bit.

But of course, it wouldn’t just simply let something like that happen without retaliating, and soon focused on Foster instead. It swung its spear at him, and as quickly as he could, Foster raised his hands in front of his body and hid his face behind them, entering a defensive stance of the Argomna style while using his ‘block’ martial skill.

But even then, with that single attack, Foster was thrown through the room, “Urgh, why the fuck is it always me, huh?!” He let out annoyed. At least his armor wasn’t dented this time, it just had a few scratches.

While the rat was still focused on him, but unable to move well because of its frozen knee, Lynol took the chance to fight against it in a more straightforward way. Standing in front of it, he swung his sword upward diagonally. The rat was forced to defend against him again, but this time, Lynol slipped the sword away to move it above the spear, now pushing down onto it instead.

The rat didn’t want to play along, though, and started to attack in retaliation instead. But Lynol was skilled enough to divert the attack in a similar way that Octer had done, letting him attack quickly instead. The two entered a bout of both skill and strength, and currently, they seemed surprisingly well-matched due to Lynol’s surreal amount of skill with his blade.

This being the case, the rat had to repair the damage done to its knee, and the rocks covering it started to shift slightly, widening the gaps around the knee. At that moment, Foster took the chance and ran at the rat, while Octer once more let out loud screams to try and taunt the rat. 

While it looked over at the shield bearer, Foster reached the rat and pressed his palm onto its knee, trying to force necromantic energies through them with ‘chilling touch’. As if the plants carried the energy through themselves, it flowed onto the rat’s flesh and started making it fall apart. The giant rat let out a scream of pain, falling to its knee.

Lynol and Foster glanced at each other for a moment, quickly understanding each other. Foster jumped up, punching the rat’s torso, this time using both Chilling Touch and Single Strike, forcing the necromantic magic to spread through the exposed patch of skin right above its chestplate. It had been out of range this whole time, but now that it fell to its knees, that was no longer the case.

The rat’s flesh started to rot, and Lynol slashed down at the patch of weakened skin.. Blood spurted out of the gashing wound, as the rat continued to yell out in pain.