Risen World

Chapter 181: A new Little Ball of Energy and Taking on the Boss

After Lilly's revelation Joshua and the rest headed out of the room and further into the dungeon. They were already nearing the end and they didn't really come across anymore creatures since the sub-boss room. It was just one long path that seemed to keep on going until it came to a split. Joshua no longer had to ask Lilly which direction to go anymore since he could also feel the aura given off by whatever creature was calling out to them for help. It was strong, but not on the same level as Tank or Cinder, it felt more similar to Jade if he were to compare it to one of Lilly's pets.

He led the group down the path towards where the aura was coming from and they came across a room with a door blocking their way. It wasn't locked, but Joshua could sense a lot of creatures on the other side so he knew that they'd be going up against a powerful group the moment they stepped inside. It would be good training for Jayce's group to get used to taking on large groups of monsters at a time, but Joshua had to make sure the beast that was calling out to Lilly was also safe from the upcoming fight. Another thing that Joshua noticed without having to even rely on his aura was the fact that all of the strange bright lines along the walls from the entire dungeon seemed to originate from this room. Whatever was giving the lines power all throughout the dungeon was up ahead and Joshua was interested to see what was causing the main difference between this dungeon and all of the others he had come across up to this point.

Joshua was the first one to make his way into the room along with all of the others following close behind. If he had let Jayce's group go first then they might have accidentally hurt the creature that Lilly could tell was calling out for help so he didn't let that become a possibility. The moment he entered the room he saw several of the wild dog like creatures glaring at him. The room was completely full of them with well over a dozen. The space was big enough to hold all of them, but there wasn't enough room for them to be able to attack all of them at once. It would be a good test for Jayce's group so Joshua planned on allowing them to fight them after he found the creature Lilly could hear calling out.

It didn't take long for Joshua to find the presence that they were looking for since he could see a small figure at the back of the room that was huddled up in a cage. It was giving off a bright light from its body and Joshua could see that all of the lines of light that covered the walls all originated from that creature. It looked like a smaller dog that if Joshua was being honest looked like a puppy. He couldn't see its figure all that well since it was hidden by the light its body was given off, but unlike with all the other creatures in the room Joshua couldn't feel any malice coming from the small dog so he knew he would have to help it. At the moment it was in the line of fire if Julia used any big spells against the large group of creatures so he was going to have to go in and out quickly before the fighting got too far along.

Joshua watched as all of the wild dogs rushed over, but he wasn't planning on taking Jayce's place as a tank in this expedition. Instead he blinked right past the large group of wild dogs as they closed in on him and left the rest to Jayce. Of course he warned Jayce first through the party chat so he was prepared for the situation. He immediately set up a shield wall and blocked off the charge of all of the creatures. There was only enough space for six of them to attack him at once so the rest had to wait their turn. Jayce's group got to work on taking care of the mob while Joshua made his way over to the cage with the little puppy inside. There wasn't any key to open the cage, but Joshua couldn't sense any traps on it either. The room itself being filled with monsters was probably the only protection, plus the cage seemed to be draining the strength from the puppy to power the lines all throughout the dungeon.

Knowing there was no reason to worry Joshua quickly broke open the cage with a few well-placed swings of his scale blade and carried the tired creature out. It seemed exhausted beyond belief as its eyes lulled open and closed. Now that it was free from the cage the light around its body had dimmed down quite a bit and Joshua was able to get a good look at it. He was immediately able to tell that it was a puppy from its size and not only that it seemed to be a puppy of a normal sized dog and not the horse sized ones from the forest outside. It was a white Labrador and as Joshua observed it he could see that it was surprisingly level forty-four already making it a similar situation to Jade. It might have been young, but there was most likely something extremely special about the dog to make it stand out in a dungeon. Plus it was good enough with aura to call out with it which put it at least on the same level as Jade who could emit her feelings through aura.

When Joshua turned around to see how the fight was going he was happy to see that Jayce and the rest of his group had a good set up going and were taking them down slowly. Julia had the flames constantly burning all the dogs while the others focused on one and killed it off. The strategy was fairly effective and it didn't' take them to long to finish them all off. Lilly rushed over the moment the room was clear and snatched the puppy out of Joshua's arms. "I'm so glad you're alright. I was so worried" She said as her hugging seemed to wake the little guy up. Soon Joshua saw the familiar scene of Lilly taming and she smiled brightly as she sent over the information on the dog to Joshua.

In the end the puppy was a white Labrador after all, but it was also a mutated beast in a similar fashion to Jade. While Jade was a creature of shadows this dog was a creature of light. It was funny how they turned out to be polar opposites in some ways. Their stats were fairly similar with most of their stats fitting into to the role of a mage of some sort. The dog's dexterity stat was high as well, but it was clearly not a front line fighter in any meaning of the word, but its abilities were what stood it apart from most creatures.

[Mutated dog of light (child) Abilities:

Aura Merge (Active): This creature can dive into the aura of others and boost that persons stats by twenty percent or weaken the stats of enemies by twenty percent. While being in the aura of an enemy it drains the aura of this creature slowly preventing them from staying in such a situation for too long.

Aura Healing (Active): This creature can heal the person who he is presently residing in. The healing drains the creature's aura, but can be constantly used until the point in which he runs out of aura.

Barrier of Light (Active): This ability will create a barrier around the current host and dampen any attacks that try to go against the barrier. This ability drains the aura of the creature and can only be used for a duration of five minutes with a cool down of ten minutes.

Shields of Light (Active): This ability will create a more direct shield that can nullify incoming attacks of a certain strength or weaken attacks that are too strong to be directly nullified. This ability drains the user aura and has a cool down of thirty seconds.

Radiant Light (Passive): An aura given off by this creature that will strengthen the will of all nearby allies and dampen the killing intent of enemies. It is constantly in effect]

Joshua smiled brightly at all of the abilities of the little dog, but he decided to think more about all of its abilities later on after they finished the dungeon. That might also give Lilly some time to come up with a decent name instead of blurting out the first thing to come to mind. With the room cleared the group took a moment to collect themselves before making their way back towards he path that lead to the boss room. They were coming up on the end of the dungeon run and Joshua was proud of what he was seeing from Jayce and his companions. They were proving that they could be relied on in the future and could do this dungeon on their own up to this point. It would be even easier the second time through so he wouldn't have to babysit them going forward.

By the time they had gotten back to the boss room the entire group seemed to have recovered from the previous fight and were in tip top condition for the upcoming battle. From what Joshua could tell of this dungeon it wouldn't be to challenging for them to handle, but it would probably take some time. After Jayce got nods from his group he marched forward and opened the doors to the boss room. They all quickly stepped inside with Joshua, Amy, and Lilly following close behind although it was clear that the two girls were more focused on messing with the puppy instead of the upcoming fight. Unless something went wrong they weren't going to have to step in anyway so Joshua shrugged it off and took the two girls to the side of the open room.

There wasn't too much to the space with all of the lines having dimmed down now that the puppy had been taken away and the only thing in the large room besides them was the large dog at the center. It was similar to the other wild dogs except it was about twice the size of the sub-boss and had two heads instead of one. It looked like some sort of dog from hell with its deranged eyes, but it didn't seem to have an elemental affinity that would be too dangerous for the group to handle. Instead it seemed to rely on its stats more than anything as it dashed towards Jayce leaving large cracks in the floor with every step. Jayce quickly created a shield wall and blocked the attack, but was sent sliding back almost all the way to the rest of his group from the power of the hit. They quickly gave him more space as the dog leaped towards him once again, but this time Jayce met his charge and the real fight began.

The creature was tough. Its muscles were so thick that all of Allen's attacks were barely slashing into it enough to cause the creature to bleed and he had to start relying on precision to widen the wounds he had already created. The explosions from Julia's fireballs were able to knock it off course, but hardly did any damage while Marcus was busy trying to poison the beast with poison gas canisters from time to time. Seeing that the tactics were doing very little they had to switch over to other forms of attacks with Julia using more powerful spells and controlling her flames to dive into its eyes.

The fight took a long time. The creature's tenacity even after being blinded half way through the fight was no joke. On several occasions it was able to smash into Jayce so hard that it knocked him to his feet and at one point it was even able to bite off a peace of his armor. If Jayce hadn't moved at the last moment he might have lost his arm from the attack, but Monika's shields were able to slow the creature long enough for him to react. It was a tough fight, but a simple one and all it took was time for them to eventually become the victors. All the wounds created by Allen had caused the creature to lose so much blood that it was barely able to stand while the poison was keeping it from being able to sense its surroundings well. In the end it collapsed dying from its injuries and the tired group celebrated their victory.