Chapter 313: Hero
Golden light twisted across the smooth stone of the cave, cast by pulsing veins running through the walls and stretching up like fingers to crawl across the ceiling far overhead. The shifting light almost resembled a clear seabed under the noon sun. Shadows danced across the ground and a chittering roar intertwined with yelled orders and the delicate song of a harp.
Arwin’s fingers twitched at his sides. He’d been through more dungeons in his life than he could count, but he’d never just intentionally stood back and done absolutely nothing while people he cared about went up against a boss monster at a higher tier than their own.
The ground bucked beneath Arwin as a huge pincer-like appendage slammed into the ground. Another scream ripped through the cave, echoing against the walls and rolling against his ears like crashing waves.
Two ivory eyestalks topped with molten red orbs swept over the room as the Adept 4 Armored Ripfish spun. It was covered with thick, red plates of pitted chitinous material and stood on ten legs, five on each side of its lobster-like body.
It had a laughably tiny mouth with two far less amusing claws. One was about ten feet wide, while the other was nearly twice that and definitely far too large for the monster’s body.
Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have told the Ripfish that. It swung both of its huge claws like wrecking balls, not even bothering trying to pinch anything with them.
The monster really didn’t live up much to the second half of its name. It did, however, smell strongly of the ocean and rotted seafood. The stench rolling from the monster was enough to count as an extra attack. It wormed into Arwin’s throat and stabbed at his brain like a physical blow.
Another crash shook the room as the Ripfish swung a claw at Elias and narrowly missed smashing the ground and sending fragments of rock flying everywhere. The bandaged man ran to the side, then hopped back as the Ripfish charged forward, thin legs driving into the ground and piercing into the stone where he’d been moments before.
“Shift aggression!” Olive yelled, running past Elias and bounding into the air, Maeve’s magic wrapping around her body and trailing through the air behind her like a shimmering white stream.