Risen World

Chapter 259: Canyon Dungeon Part 7

Frozen in place Joshua knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid the attacks of the two boss level monsters, so he prepared to take the brunt of the blows. In his aura hardened state he'd be able to survive the assault, but he'd definitely need the healers to get him in top condition quickly since he doubted any of the other tanks could halt the beetles charge or keep up with the bats swift movements. Joshua could feel that his body was loosening up and that the poison was fading quickly, but not fast enough as the bat was closing in for another bite that would keep Joshua stunned in place for the beetle to stomp him into the floor.

Luckily the rest of the group reacted quickly to the situation. Light who was in Joshua's aura quickly cast two projectile shields to slow down the bat's dive. Since it was impossible for Light to keep up with its movements he created the shields in different spots hoping to buy as much time as possible for Joshua. The bat swooped around both shields, but the brief amount of time it took for the bat to get around the shields was enough time for Jayce to leap in front of Joshua with an energy shield already up and ready to protect him. Abigail had stayed back and was protecting the back line just in case the bat decided to change targets at the last moment.

When the bat crashed into Jayce's shield the blow knocked him off his feet and sent him crashing next to Joshua. Even so the bat was knocked off course and forced to fly back up into the air. At this point the poison in Joshua's system had been neutralized and he was able to move once again just in time to grab Jayce and leap out of the way of the beetle's foot. The force of the stomp shook the whole room, but the group had already braced themselves for the impact so they wouldn't give any openings for the bat to take advantage of.

When Joshua got back up and prepared to take on the bat and beetle once again he noticed that the first exchange did not vote well for his side of the battle. The bat was too fast to keep track of and the cold wasn't slowing it down in the slightest with its ability to keep its body heated up. The beetle on the other hand was easily tanking all of the attacks thrown its way with its heavily armored body. Any cracks that formed on its exoskeleton would just heal up to quickly for the group to take advantage of. Both of the bosses were difficult to handle just off of these two facts alone, but Joshua had a good idea of how to take care of the bat problem at the moment. He just needed to be able to see it to get to work on his strategy and he knew the best way to do just that.

'Natalie cut the feed of Becca's sight and take the night vision potion instead. The bat is too fast for her echolocation to keep up. Just feed what you can see to the rest of us through the mental link, it should come through much better for us all.' Joshua explained quickly knowing the group didn't have much time before the bat would come in for another attack. 'It may take a few passes for me to get used to the bat's speed even with vision, but I should at least be able to avoid its attacks without much trouble.'

Natalie nodded before cutting the mental link for a moment and taking the potion. Within seconds everyone in the group was able to see their surroundings even if it had a very dark tint to it. Since the vision was coming straight from Natalie the mental link was far more crisp and the bat no longer looked like it was teleporting all of the time. The only time it looked like it was moving too fast to keep up with was when it went full speed and dive bombed towards Joshua. Even so Joshua was able to avoid its attacks now that he could somewhat keep track of it. The only problem was the fact that he wasn't able to counter attack fast enough so he'd need to figure out another way to take the bat down. As long as it was able to attack them while they were going after the beetle then things would never progress and the fight would be stuck in a deadlock.

That's when Joshua had an idea as he thought back to the image on the outside of the door to the room. The image depicted the bat and beetle fighting one another which might just be the key to winning the fight. With a small smile Joshua watched as the bat came swooping down to attack him again. He knew that he had the bats attention for now since the heroic shout was still in effect, but that would soon fall off and then it might turn its attention to the healers of the group since the beast could tell that the healers were the reason why no matter how often it landed a blow on Joshua he'd be in tip top condition the next time it came around. Joshua didn't have much time before things started falling apart with his heroic shout fading so he took a defensive posture showing the bat that he wasn't trying to dodge this time.

The large bat dived down avoiding any stray spells that were aimed for the beetle before trying to chomp Joshua in half, but it didn't realize that it had fallen into a trap. Joshua blinked slightly to the side to get better position at the last moment causing the bat to be surprised, but it was already too late. Joshua knocked its head to the side with a sword smash and the blow not only disoriented the giant bat, but also knocked it on course to crash into the beetle. The heavy body of the bat in all its size still wasn't enough to knock the beetle back, but the bats large fangs and claws scratched up the beetle's body a little bit sending it into a rage. The beetle responded by slapping the bat aside with its horn causing it to tumble across the ground, but soon the large bat reoriented itself and was once again flying in the air above everyone. It was glaring fiercely at the beetle as the beetle glared back at it.

It was the perfect timing in Joshua's opinion since his heroic shout had just run out and the two giant creatures were now free to go at each other's throats. The bat let out a loud roar before sending what looked like a sonic shriek towards the beetle. It was hard to see with the night vision that Natalie was providing them, but Joshua could tell the beetle was annoyed by it and started vibrating its horn in return. The two sounds crashed into each other causing a loud shrieking noise that disoriented everyone in the group. Joshua nearly lost his footing and he could see many members of his party behind him down on their knees gritting in pain from the sound.

Joshua knew that he had to do something fast so he had Light let out a soothing aura that calmed the group down and dampened the effects of the two beast sound attacks on the party. When the two powerful bosses realized their attacks weren't having a great enough effect on one another they decided to make things more physical. The bat swooped down and attacked from above continuously while the beetle would try to spear the large bat with its horn anytime that it passed by. The problem with this was the fact that the bat was too fast for the beetle to keep up with so it easily avoided any danger, while on the other end of things the bats attacks were too weak to do any real damage to the beetle as it healed too quickly. The two creatures were stuck in a deadlock and Joshua had a good idea that it was meant to be this way.

'We have to break this dead lock and tip the fight in favor of one of the beast. Otherwise they will go on forever and we'll be here forever.' Henry said with a frown.

'Then what should we do? If we go on the attack they'll both turn their attention on us again.' Laura said with a frown.

'We'll do what we did with all of the other bats and beetles we've come across so far, kill them.' Joshua said as he started looking towards the ceiling he knew he didn't have too much time since the night vision potion would only last for an hour and twenty minutes had already gone by in the fight yet they had made no progress. 'We need to take the bat out of the air. The bat can't harm the beetle fast enough, but if the beetle can actually get in a clean shot then it can gravely injure the bat. That's the opportunity we need.'

'How do you plan on doing that? We can't freeze its wings with the way its body seems to generate heat.' Isabella responded as she continued to keep control of the cold spell hoping the bat's speed would eventually slow.

'Then we'll just have to damage its wings then.' Joshua said as his eyes brightened as an idea came to mind. 'Madalyn start feeling the ceiling with a cloud of poison, make it as big as possible.'

'You plan on poisoning it?' Henry asked as he recast a few different buffs on the members of the group since they were about to start fighting again.

'That and then some. Laura and Julia, the both of you need to be prepared to send a large flame into the poison cloud we want the explosion to be as powerful as possible. Amy you're with me, it's up to us to knock the bat up into the cloud of poison in time.' Joshua explained getting a nod from his little sister in return. 'Alright let's get started.' Joshua said as he used heroic shout once again getting the attention of both of the bosses. The three Carsen brothers and Abigail rushed over to the giant beetle to hinder its movements and keep its attention away from the group. Jayce stayed back to protect the back line just in case while Joshua stepped forward and glared at the bat.

The large flying rat dived down towards Joshua once again, but he avoided its attacks like before as best he could. He would occasionally get hit, but he made sure to block the brunt of the damage with his scale blade while avoiding the bats fangs so that he wouldn't get paralyzed. He was buying time for Madalyn who was almost done feeling the ceiling with a cloud of poison. At the moment the bat was flying too low for that to matter to it, but that would soon change.

The bat dived down towards Joshua once more, but its twirling and erratic movements would make it hard for Joshua to position the bat where he wanted so he had to get creative. He sent out an energy slash to get the bat to dodge it and twist its body to the side. He then followed that with a reset and another energy slash to get it in the proper position. Now the bat was too close to change positions again and Joshua had it right where he wanted it.

Joshua smirked as he charged his scale blade with an aura blast while also preparing to use his knock back skill once again at the same time. He dodged to the side at the last second while swinging at the spot he knew the bats head would be due to the position he had forced it into. The blow rattled the bats head before forcing it back up into the sky nearly reaching the poison gas do to the force of the aura blast. Joshua simply smiled as Amy leaped on to his shoulder before using it to launch herself towards the bat up in the air. She reached it before it could reorient itself and punched it directly in the center of its chest.

The punch was not a normal one as it penetrated into the bats internal organs causing it to open its mouth wide. Then the knock back effect took place sending the bat higher into the air directly into the poison cloud. It was in that moment that Laura and Julia both sent powerful fireballs into the poison gas causing it to explode shaking the entire room. Amy had fallen back down to the ground away from the explosion and stumbled do to the shaking of the room, but the flames didn't reach down all the way to the floor even thought they could all feel the heat.

For a moment things were quiet as even the beetle seemed shocked, but soon they heard the screeching coming from the bat as it fell out of the smoke cloud from above. Cinder acted fast and made a net of web underneath the spot that the bat was falling to which only tangled it up even more. The net was made in Cinder's ice form so it would hinder the bat from its fast movements if it were to try to get back up. When everyone looked at the large bat closely they could see that although its body was only slightly burnt in places with some hints of poison spreading on its skin, its wings had been torn up completely. The creature wouldn't be able to fly in its current position.

The timing of the bats fall also matched up with the timing for Joshua's heroic shout effect to end and the large beetle seemed to break free as it noticed its longtime rival on the ground struggling to get up. The beetle seemed to brighten up at this before it started to charge over with its horn aiming to pierce the bats head. The large bat noticed this and tried to leap up into the air and fly quickly, but didn't notice fast enough that its wings were badly damaged. It couldn't get any lift and its position made it seem as though it was urging the beetle to spear it right through the chest. Not more than a second later that was exactly what happened.

The beetle's large horn pierced directly through the center of the bats chest as it let out a roar of victory. The large bat seemed to try to struggle as it started bleeding out to get off of the beetle's horn, but everyone could see that its life was quickly vanishing. Joshua noticed this and leapt forward close enough so that he could blink to above the bats head. He then pierced his scale blade through its skull and continued to hack away until he felt a surge of experience. There was no way he was letting the beetle take a boss worth of experience from his group, not after all the work they had done.