Risen World

Chapter 265: Canyon Dungeon Part 13

'Alright what's the plan Josh.' Aito said as he reached Joshua and Henry. Soon he was followed by Natalie who had rushed her way down as well. At the moment the mages were busy destroying the one arm that was protecting the giant gem on the creatures head, but Joshua knew that if things got dire the boss could easily lift its other hand for some added defense. In the end the boss wasn't in any sort of rush and was basically just trying to keep them all occupied until they were killed off by the deadly trap coming from behind or the spikes up ahead that would trigger if they tried to rush past.

'The plan is to make sure that thing can't defend itself when Amy and I go in to destroy the gem.' Joshua said as he looked up to see his sister and the rest of the close range fighters hurrying down to reach his position. Now that it was clear that the boss wasn't trying to attack Joshua they all knew that it would be safer to come down instead of being so close to the trap that was constantly creeping up their backs.

'It seems like they've already got its biggest defense handled.' Aito said as he pointed to the mages who were constantly tearing up the arm that was starting to look more like a stump at the moment with the amount of damage the mages were doing. All of the mages and healers didn't have to worry about climbing down since Cinder was already carrying them around and making sure they were out of danger. Every once in a while the large spider would shoot a couple of fireballs of her own to add to the flames that Laura and Julia had made. The fire was the main reason the arm wasn't able to reform anymore since the constant damage was draining on all of the glyphs on the creature's body.

Joshua was about to respond to Aito's words when Henry jumped in to point out the problem. 'Sure they've got the one arm handled and are able to chip away at it slowly, but the problem is the creature doesn't need an arm to keep itself on the wall and in our way.' Henry pointed towards the massive creature's legs which were almost too far away to see. From what they could see it was as if its legs were molded into the wall proving that the creature had no issues using both hands to protect itself if it needed to. That would be a massive issue for the group considering how much trouble they were having keeping one arm from reforming let alone two. The close range fighters couldn't go in without being in danger from the spikes and the spells from the mages so they'd need another way to deal with the other arm.

'So I'm guessing you've got the three of us here for a reason then?' Natalie asked as she looked a bit confused. She didn't see how she could help deal with the other arm since her arrows weren't exactly explosive by any means even if they were precise.

'Well were going to have to do this quickly so that the boss doesn't have any time to try to regenerate in between our string of attacks. We also only have one shot since if I get caught up down there around the glyphs while the thing is still alive then I'm sure I'll be forced to use every defensive measure I have to avoid being skewered alive.' Joshua said with a frown before explaining the plan to the three of them. They all looked at him with a bit of surprise at his idea, but they knew it was their best shot for the moment. Soon Amy reached the group and he explained what was up to her and she smiled brightly and nodded along with excitement. In the end the most important part would be on her shoulders, but Joshua knew that he could trust his little sister to pull through. 'Alright let's get started.'

Joshua was the first one to leap down and take the lead since he knew that he'd have to get there in time to help finish things off before the creature could regenerate or figure out a new way to protect itself. There was a large distance between him and the creature, but the distance Joshua would have to travel would give more than enough time for Aito and Henry to complete their part of the plan. Aito pulled out a sniper rifle from his inventory and loaded it with a special piercing round that was meant to break through exoskeletons and heavily armored enemies. On its own that would be enough to do some damage to the boss, but not enough to keep it from regenerating. So Aito took close aim and started charging his next shot with a couple of skills. His rail bullet would increase the penetrative force behind the shot along with his charge ability that would make the one shot strong enough to tear through an armored tank.

Henry wasn't idle either he cast a few buffs on both Aito and Natalie. The buffs would increase the strength of their shots depending on the distance traveled. While also infusing a little wind magic into the attacks to create a small burst on impact that could further increase the damage done. Natalie had taken out a new bow that seemed much larger and heavier. It was a bow designed for long ranged attacks and heavier arrows. She then pulled out an arrow that looked bulkier than the others with an arrow head with a bit of a swirl design to it. At first Henry and Aito had no idea why the arrow had such a weird design to it, but when she aligned the arrow with the string and pulled it back while twisting the string they had a good idea.

As Joshua approached the massive creature with Amy right behind him it noticed them both and instantly started to try to raise its other arm to protect the gem on its head. Joshua knew that if he stayed along the wall for too long then the glyphs would start taking effect and he'd have to avoid all of the spikes during his approach. That was exactly what he wanted to avoid in the end so he slowed his pace down a bit giving Aito and the others time to get the plan started. He didn't have to wait long as heard a loud echo from Aito's sniper before seeing a streak of light soar over him and hit the creature's slowly rising arm in the elbow. The shot pieced straight through with a bit of an explosive impact that caused the creatures forearm to fall off completely.

The boss seemed surprised as it realized it didn't have either arm to protect its precious gem. The one that it had been using was still little more than a stump with all of the spells exploding across it and keeping it from regenerating while the other had been for all intensive purposes blown off by Aito's shot along with Henry's buffs. The shot was perfect as it hit a few of the glyphs that had been helping connect that area of the stone beast. Do to that the entire lower arm had been torn off and now the boss was helpless for a moment. It realized that fact and started to generate a far larger shield around the gem with its aura projection, but in the end that was pointless.

Joshua made sure he was the first to charge in since he was the perfect one to deal with the shield and leave the gem wide open for Amy and Natalie. He filed his scale blade with an aura blast before leaping off of the wall and falling down towards the beast head. His leap had sent him soaring over the glyphs and above the danger of the spikes, but the moment he landed on the wall again he knew he'd be in trouble. Joshua blinked directly in to the path of the energy shield and smashed his scale blade directly into it clashing aura with aura. The shield flickered for a moment before the force of the rebound from the shield knocked Joshua away, but at the same time the shield was destroyed.

It wasn't more than a second later that an arrow came swerving around Amy and smashed into the gem creating several large cracks that quickly spread all around the gem. It hadn't broken completely yet, but it was on the verge of shattering from the arrow alone. The glyphs around the head of the ram started to shine brightly as they tried to repair the gem, but it was already too late. Amy slammed her fist into the large gem and allowed the force of her blow to be the final straw. All of the previous cracks seemed to spread and grow until the giant gem shattered into several pieces that fell off of the giant stone ram.

The shattering of the gem was like a chain reaction as all the glyphs on the creature's body seemed to fade away before the stone ram started to crumble apart. Joshua caught his sister and used the scarf to float slowly down as they both watched the giant stone creature fall apart until there was nothing left but a lifeless golden goat that fell down into the abyss. Soon the both of them noticed a surge in experience and smiled as they slowly hovered back over to the wall. Without the glyphs of the creature they no longer had to worry about spikes killing them as they approached the wall.

'That was amazing!' Amy shouted through the mental link causing several others to cheer in response at the defeat of the boss. Joshua had to agree it was definitely a different type of boss fight from what he was used to. He had grown accustomed to bosses being somewhat straight forward and didn't realize dungeons could make confrontations so unorthodox.

'Well it's not over yet.' Joshua said through the mental link as the rest of the group continued to rush down the wall to meet up with them. ' We still have to get all the way down this wall and it doesn't seem like the trap from above has stopped from the boss dying.' They all looked up just in time to see another large portion of the wall above them get flattened as the walls kept slamming into each other. They all knew there was no way they'd survive something like that and started rushing down the wall once more. They weren't sure if the speed of the trap would increase the further along they went like the area before the ram boss, but they didn't want to stick around and find out.

On the way down there were a few things that Joshua noticed. He did see the left over remains of the stone statue that still clung to the wall. This part of the ram didn't have any glyphs remaining so it wasn't dangerous, but the massive size of the feet alone showed how big the boss was. The only reason they weren't squashed like bugs was the fact that it was made out of stone and therefore moved extremely slowly. Joshua imagined having to fight more agile creatures that were of similar size to the ram statue. It reminded him of the giant praying mantis that seemed even larger and could have easily moved faster than the bat boss could have even dreamed of. In the future he'd have to fight such things and he knew he had a long way to go before he was ready for that.

The other thing he noticed as they rushed down the wall was the fact that there were still a few glyphs remaining that lit up on occasion when they passed by. There weren't enough of them to be an actual threat since they could easily see the glowing glyphs ahead of time and just avoid them altogether. They did test one out at one point to see what it'd do and ended up having to dodge around a spike that came shooting out of the wall. After that they just avoided them altogether.

It took them an hour to get all the way down the wall, but the pace of the trap behind them didn't speed up the entire way which made it a relatively safe trip without the boss there to hinder them. Now that they had gotten back down on to solid ground it was time to search for their reward.