Time slows down, nearly stopping to a crawl. The lich's shield... Toughness is off the charts. Most of my projections were, unfortunately, correct. My current biological shell is not strong enough to easily overpower this... this impossibility. Change configuration to something more powerful? Illogical. Calm yourself. Everything is fine. The Rangers can handle this enemy. A digital breath in. Okay. Analysis.

My attack was performed utilizing the maximum output of my shell. Output I thought was at least touching upon the C-rank, compared to global data. I was wrong. Increasing that output would require replacing bones, muscles, and tendons, but that risks a curious healer stumbling upon something that would certainly disqualify me from being classified as a human. The strength increase of monsters from grade to grade does appear to be exponential. I am not happy about that.

A digital breath out. Time resumes to its normal flow. My sword strikes at the barrier again, mana tempering and my shell working together. The blade plunges in, starting to deform the purple shimmer. The lich's head snaps in my direction. A sphere of wind sends me careening back, crashing through a column, toppling it like a felled tree. Much better.

Miv, now free from the lightning, shouts out, "Brother!" Then he rears his sword back and does two quick slashes in the air, creating an 'X' in front of himself. The glowing shape somehow transfers directly onto the boss' barrier. The force of the attack sends the monster flying back, crashing into its throne, destroying the blocky seat. Miv turns to look for me in a panic, but calm returns when he sees me already running for the enemy.

Pemik takes a knee. He unbuckles a small pouch on his belt and starts rummaging inside. The archer then pulls out an arrow made out of wood, and with a metal tip. Even with my underdeveloped senses, I can feel the strong enchantments on it. The brimming power is trying to escape from its vessel, threatening to tear it apart.

As I perform another thrust against the recovering monster, Pemik nocks the arrow, and starts drawing his bow with visible effort. Next to him, Sini is throwing spears of ice and freezing an unending deluge of the lich's undead minions.

My attack impacts the barrier again, but instead of stretching the stubborn bubble, the tip of my sword punctures the boss' protection in an eruption of purple wisps.

Pemik's fingers let go of the arrow. I jump back. The projectile simply appears next to the lich. The normal-looking arrow finds the little weakness I created. With a blinding flash, the barrier shatters into purple shards. Miv makes a stroke in the air. A glowing, red line appears on the undead's body.

The monster shudders slightly. The red line is eaten away by clawing, purple energy. The lich waves its hand, and the ground comes alive. A tidal wave of stone originates from the caster, trying to push us all away and into the ever-advancing horde of undead skeletons, toppling columns in its wake.

I make a few platforms of metal and dodge the attack up.

The lich's head snaps to me again. "Tenacious. You will make a fine puppet, pest."

The boss raises a hand. Just as darkness starts dancing around the edges of my vision, a giant chunk of ice drives the undead into the ground. The impact kicks up debris in a thick cloud.

I jump back again and drop next to my team. "Illusions too."

Miv nods and casually sends a few red attacks into the impact site. "Pemik, shoot another and then switch up." He then turns to Sini. "Keep it occupied."

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She drops another ice chunk. Just after, Pemik sends another enchanted arrow downrange and starts engaging the horde, managing its advance.

Ice chunks are raining down on the lich. Plumes of fire start flickering within the growing obstruction.

A fiery explosion precedes the voice thundering from all around us, "I gave you a chance... You disappoint me, pests." In a crackle of purple energy, the lich appears around fifty meters from us and out of the shower of spells, its hand raised and poised to cast.

Miv lifts his sword up. "Blood Moon."

His eyes start glowing a dull red. The lich conjures a fireball big enough to fully obscure the monster's form. Sini creates a pillar of ice right in front of the scorching inferno. The two spells meet in a giant steam explosion. The purple mist clinging to the missing sky gets broken up by a dull, red circle. The lich lifts its gaze, transfixed. A red streak connects Miv's position with the lich's location, continuing on after the boss for around the same distance it took to reach it. The undead's barrier is cut in two, together with its body.

Pemik fires another arrow. This one explodes in a white sphere. The sphere grows for a bit and then collapses into itself. When the dust and steam clear out, there is no trace left of the dungeon's strongest monster.

The dull, red glow high up begins to dim. When a faceted mana crystal thunks to the ground, the red glow blinks out, and the onslaught of undead collapses into more purple mist, consumed back into the rest. A green gate out shimmers into existence.

Miv is breathing heavily, bracing his hands against his knees, Pemik starts walking toward his brother, and Sini stretches her back a few times. Poor lich. Couldn't even give a touching monologue as it was dying. So sad.

I chuckle inwardly and check in on Sini, just as she is also giving me a once over, "You okay, Sini? I didn't expect the lich to counter your spell."

She nods to herself and then answers me, "I'm okay. And me neither. It was a lot stronger than we thought, but nothing we haven't faced before." After glancing around, she points in a direction. "Core's over there."

"I got it. Probably under the throne." I run past Miv and Pemik. The younger brother is offering his elder a drink. The mana crystal flies into Sini's hand, and she stows it inside a pouch. I kick some rubble away, pull some rocks out, and see a gentle glow shining from within some cracks in the stone. "It is here! Everyone ready?" I shout behind me.

Miv sighs with pleasure after finishing a gulp. "Take us out, Luci."

I plunge my sword toward the glow. We appear back into the valley, surrounded by shrubs.

Sini flops to the grass, not even bothering with a seat. "Ten-minute break and then we can teleport." The two brothers hum in agreement, joining her.

I make a fake yawn. "You three tired already?"

Miv sighs out, "To have the energy of youth once more..."

I crash down next to them. "You aren't that old. What are you? Fifty?" Miv's constant smile cracks. I see his soul leave his body.

Come back, Miv's soul, I was just making a joke. At least the other two Rangers appear to enjoy it. Both start laughing, with Pemik smacking his brother's back affectionately.

After collecting himself, getting a bit too much glee from Miv's suffering, Pemik turns to me. "You did well, kid."

I scoff. "You kidding? What was that spell, Miv? You destroyed that thing." I make a swooshing noise with my mouth, gesticulating wildly at the same time.

Miv's smile returns, even gaining some luminance. "Why, thank you, dear Luci. I have worked quite hard to perfect 'Blood Moon'." His eyes glint. "You should see the complete version. Isn't that right, Pem Pem?"

I look amazed. "Wait! A combination spell?"

Pemik actually harumphs. Such a dork. "We got two moons, don't we?" He holds up two fingers and wiggles them around.

"I wish I had a cool spell like that." Damn, I really wish I did. But how can I decide which one to make my signature? The list of potential candidates is already at like... twelve thousand and climbing. But probably half of those won't work. Unfortunately, making and casting a complicated spell like that is incredibly arduous. No wonder the Rangers are all so strong. They might even be close to B-rank.

After some idle chatter, Sini stands up with an exaggerated groan and motions for us to group up. We melt away and appear inside the Guild. She pulls out the singular crystal we earned from the dungeon and hands it to Miv, who in turn spots a free attendant and approaches, reporting on our completed mission.

With that done, we all go grab lunch together. The awkwardness and stiffness from earlier today is close to gone, replaced by some normalcy. I'm really happy that I was able to improve my relations with the Rangers. The happiness almost suppresses the guilt I'm feeling. Almost.

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