Risen World

Chapter 214: Spirit Dungeon Final

Charging forward Joshua made sure he attracted the attention of all of the enemies first. He knew that the Scorpion Prince was rather intelligent and would go for anyone it fancied, but if he angered it enough and kept its attention then that would allow the rest of the group to clear out all of the subordinates before the fighting got to far along. When He got close enough he let out a heroic shout attracting the attention off all of the beast with the two giant lizards being the first to charge over with their bodies glowing from the mimicked Flutters boost ability. Of course Joshua got a boost of his own and that wasn't the only one he had gotten. He also got a boost from both Light and Jade who had both joined him in his charge to the front.

They had come up with a plan through party chat as all of the creatures formed and the planned completely relied on Joshua being able to take on the Scorpion Prince boss on his own while the rest of the group tried to take down the Ant Queen. In this fight the three most important people would be Joshua, Cinder, and Aito. Cinder would be the key to taking down the Ant Queen just like before with her flames overheating the Ant Queens body and making it take constant damage until it got to the point where the rest of the group could dent up its armor and break its body apart. In the past Cinder wouldn't have been able to do that considering most of her flame spells weren't so spread out, but now with her Flame Pyre's and empowered fireballs with the help of Lilly she'd be able to burn down the entire Ant Queen without the help of Tank as long as she wasn't caught by the giant creature.

Aito on the other hand would be key for the simple fact that he had the best chance of taking down the annoying subordinates that could boost and heal the two boss creatures throughout the fight. As long as the bosses had that level of support behind them there was no way they were going to be able to take them down fast enough before the creatures would heal them back up. Plus a higher level Scorpion Prince with a twenty percent boost in stats added on as well was not something Joshua was looking forward to dealing with. Since they all knew what plan they were going with Joshua was the first one to take action.

When the two lizards got close enough Joshua dodged their initial attempts to bite him before slashing across their faces with his aura empowered scale blade completely knocking them aside. They were still low level spirit beast after all even if they had a boost of power from their ally. Joshua also had several boost that put him leagues ahead of them when it came to strength and it showed in that moment as the two beast were cast aside as Joshua dashed right past and headed for the Ant Queen.

Before the two lizards could turn around and try to chase Joshua down they were torn into by Adrian and Amy who quickly took them down with a flurry of attacks. Adrian was able to tear into the skull of one of them do to the large weak point that Joshua had created while Amy's attacks penetrated into the weaker lizard and destroyed it from the inside causing it to break down into spirits that dissipated. After the quick fight the both of them rushed to catch up with Joshua who had already reached the Ant Queen.

The large Queen's attention was currently completely focused on Joshua for the moment as one of her legs moved at blinding speed trying to slam into him. Joshua dodged most of the attack while blocking a bit of it with his blade and angling it away. He then leaped up onto the massive armor while sending a large energy slash towards the Ant Queen's face. The attack didn't do much more than irritate it even more, but by the time it had gotten its sight back it was smacked in the face again with a large fireball that exploded with amped up heat from Lilly empowering it. After that Henry used a few spells to force vines out of the ground to wrap around the Ant Queens lowered arm and prevent it from being able to reach out towards Joshua.

Even with all of the attacks they hadn't been able to do any real damage to the Ant Queen, but they had given Joshua the chance to charge towards the Scorpion Prince that had been standing up on the Ant Queens back. The creature was already paying attention to Joshua do to his heroic shout, but now was the time to force it to fight him instead rushing off towards the others as they tried to take down the Ant Queen. Before the Scorpion Prince could do anything Joshua blinked directly in front of it, lowered his posture and swung directly at its waist with an aura blast charged blade that made the aura field surrounding the Scorpion Prince shimmer from the impact as it was sent soaring further down the back of the Ant Queen and away from the fighting of the others.

Now with the initiative Joshua kept up the pressure charging forward quickly and striking again, but this time his blow was stopped by the tail of the creature as it tried to reach out and grab him. He spun around the clawed hand and kicked the beast in the knee with an aura covered boot sending it down to one knee and then followed that with another slam from his scale blade forcing it back once more. Even with all of the boost Joshua could tell his attacks were having absolutely no effect on the creature outside of knocking it back and annoying it. Its new metallic body made its vitality skyrocket and made it incredibly difficult to actually damage the beast. Of course he'd have to break through the aura first if he wanted to even try to do any real damage, but with the boost the Scorpion Prince was currently getting there was no way he was going to break through its aura.

With an annoyed screech the Scorpion Prince charged over with blinding speed as he nearly cleaved off Joshua's arm with one attack, but Joshua twisted at the right moment making the blow only leave a small gash. He then dodged another strike from its tail before kicking it behind the leg and sending it off balance. He slammed his scale blade into its chest once more causing its aura to shimmer again and sending the boss back to give himself more space. Joshua could already see the injury on his arm healing back up with his high vitality and all of the boost he currently had. It would be completely healed in about thirty seconds, but that was a lot of time for the boss to get more chances to tear into him.

It was before the boss's next charge that Joshua noticed its aura deplete a little bit as its speed seemed to slow down slightly. 'I took out the Flutter and rabbit mimics so it should weaken the bosses for now.' Aito said through the party chat since they wouldn't have been able to hear him with all the noise from the fighting going on at the moment. With the slight slowdown in speed Joshua was able to keep up with the Scorpion Prince, but even so he was still working his way through the creature's massive aura with each blow. It was good that he was able to keep its attention, but until he broke through the aura there was no way he'd be able to do any damage to the boss so that's when the long struggle began.

The rest of Joshua's group was in a similar situation with Aito pelting the Ant Queen with explosive rounds from a safe distance. Each attack lowered its aura a bit more and the fact that Adrian and Amy were down in front of it avoiding its attacks and using their counter buffs to full effect made it so the Ant Queens aura was draining at a fast rate. Lilly and Cinder were the ones setting up for the long run though. Cinder was weaving around the Ant Queens legs webbing it up with Cinder's special web that would heat up whatever it entangled if left alone for a long period of time. With its aura up it wouldn't make too much of a difference, but once the aura was broken through the Ant Queen would be quickly on its way to overheating. They also set up several flame pyre traps underneath it that would explode up when triggered by Cinder.

It took a while, but eventually the group was able to break though the Ant Queen's aura after twenty minutes of constantly attacking it and avoiding its retaliation. Joshua on the other hand was able to break through the Scorpion Prince's aura a few minutes earlier since its body was much smaller and his fight with it was a contest of technique. The Scorpion Prince was smart, but its tactics of fighting completely relied on erratic attacks alongside the occasional strike from its tail. At one point it did spit acid At Joshua which was most likely a skill it had taken from the Ant Queen, but it was easily avoided. The entire time Joshua just got into a rhythm of dodging and countering its blows with either his scale blade if it was in the proper position or a well-placed kick or punch filled with aura.

When Joshua finally broke through its aura he could tell that even without its aura all of his attacks were just barely scratching through the Scorpion Prince's new metallic armor. So he knocked it back once more before leaping back towards the neck of the Ant Queen so he'd be in range of Henry's spells. When he looked down he noticed that the group was starting to tear into the Ant Queen since its aura was down, but the main reason they were able to do any damage was because of the fact that Cinder's flame pyres had been set off and the Ant Queens entire body was red hot. Their attacks were now able to warp the queen's armor on impact and that especially became clear when it came to Adrian who was causing heavy dents everywhere he attacked with the elemental buff from Henry alongside his weak spot ability.

'Henry give me the same buff as Adrian so I can take care of the boss up here.' Joshua quickly said through party chat as the Scorpion Prince was starting to get back up with enraged eyes. Its body was starting to glow red as it entered into an enraged state increasing its physical abilities even more and making the fight ahead for Joshua more challenging.

"Here." Henry shouted as a buff seemed to surround Joshua's scale blade. Now the aura around it was covered in flames that would add extra damage on each hit. Joshua knew that Henry wouldn't be able to maintain the buff for too long under the current circumstances so he needed to take the Scorpion Prince down fast. To do that he would need even more power behind his blows so he was going to put his aura to the test now. Joshua's aura shroud started to thicken as he entered the state he had done back while practicing with Garlin. It was more stable then when he first did it, but he still doubted he could last for more than fifteen minutes under normal circumstances, but while fighting he'd doubt he could make it past five.

Joshua took a deep breath as he steadied himself and watched the boss launch itself towards him with steam pouring off its body making it seem more intimidating as its killing intent flooded into the surroundings. It reached a clawed hand straight for Joshua's head which was easily knocked aside with Joshua's increased strength. Although Joshua didn't get as much of a boost from his aura as the Scorpion Prince was getting from his enraged form it was enough to keep up with it and Joshua knew that enraged forms only lasted so long so all he needed to do was out last it without wasting all of his aura.

Under the circumstances Joshua went for a full on defensive style as he parried or dodged any of the creatures attacks before kicking the beast away on occasion and buying himself more time. After a minute passed the Scorpion Prince had fallen out of its enraged state and was heaving heavily from exhaustion. Joshua wasn't to much better off. Even if he had avoided most of the blows a few still connected and depleted his aura even more, but he had just enough left to go all out while the beast was vulnerable. Joshua blinked directly in front of the Scorpion Prince which tried to skewer him with its tail, but Joshua side stepped it and cleaved it off with a swing of his scale blade. He made sure to hit a spot that had been slowly cracking since the boss had lost its aura and ended up cutting the tail off entirely.

Joshua then stomped out the boss's knees sending it down to the ground. It was in that moment he felt the Ant Queen beneath him slouch down as its body started coming apart showing that it was on the verge of dying. Knowing that it was the perfect time to end things Joshua dodged around the Scorpion Prince's attempts at clawing him after being knocked to the ground. He then grabbed its stump of a tail with an aura coated hand to make sure he could grip it and threw the boss over on to the head of the ant Queen. He then used reset to get another blink and blinked directly above the Ant Queen's head and the struggling Scorpion Prince that was trying to push itself up with its injured legs. They would heal soon, but not soon enough.

Joshua concentrated the last of his aura into his scale blade while diving down directly towards the boss and impaling it straight through the back of its neck and cutting its head clean off. The rest of the force of the blow stabbed directly through the melting armor of the Ant Queen and in to its skull. With one last push of effort Joshua forced out the energy with an aura blast and took the Ant Queen out as well. Soon after both bodies faded away into spirits and Joshua tiredly fell down to the floor with a big grin.