Kur missed it all in the space between the blink of an eye.

In one moment, he was searching around him, his heart steady, albeit accelerated, and ready for the ambush he knew was coming but could not avoid. And in the next moment, he had missed it entirely.

Three puffs of pines, moss and dirt exploded around the party, and before he even realized what was happening, Gad had stopped one with her shield, Nar went flying across the party, and everything went heavy and dark blue and purple, as Viy stood in front of him, her spear aimed up to pierce through the mouth of the third snake, which had been aiming at him.

Something pressed into his mind, pulling at threats from the dark corners of his memories, but then the threads snapped into pieces and he was back in reality.

"V-Viy!" Kur shouted, as she turned off her skill.

From his left, with another explosion of dirt and pine needles, Nar blurred through the party once more, snarling towards the snake that had flung him away like nothing.

"Stay there!" Viy shouted, keeping the third snake busy with her spear. "I'll try to push it away from the party!"

A snake towered over her, hissing. The scales of its belly glistened with a wet, pale-yellow gleam, and parts of it were coated with some kind of dirty, translucent fluid of some sort, which was coated with mud and leaves.

Why are there three of them? Kur thought, his mind reeling from the suddenness of it all.

A red arrow suddenly sprouted from the side of the snake attacking Viy, making it shriek, and Viy didn't waste time stepping in and driving the spear into its exposed belly. With a hiss, the snake slithered backwards, and hid behind a tree.

"D-Don't chase it too far!" Kur shouted at Viy, who had leaped after the wounded snake. "There might be others! And Rel, help her!"

"On it!" the crimson armored archer shouted, chasing after Viy.

With that side more or less taken care of, Kur finally looked for their two other enemies.

Gad seemed to have her foe well in hand, and Jul was darting in and out around her shield, a blur of darkness trying to deliver debuffs into the snake, but bouncing harmlessly against its tough scales. On Gad's other side, Mul's flame wreathed fists boomed dully against the snake's gray and green moss covered scales, but his punches seemed to be achieving little against those armored scales.

That one's different! Kur realized. The scales of its belly were a much darker yellow through the mud that covered them, and it looked a good 10-feet bigger than the one Viy and Rel were dealing with it.

Is that the male, then? Kur wondered. Then what's that third snake?

The male snake boss moved a lot better and faster than the smaller, third snake Viy and Rel had driven away, and it seemed to dance in place, offering up nothing of its weak belly to Jul and Mul, and lashing with lightning-fast speeds at Gad's shield. The echo of the snake's tail ramming against that shield loosened deafening bang after bang, but Gad was unmovable.

They're okay for now, Kur decided. But that leaves…

Nar and the female moss-back danced around each other in a dizzying display of movement attributes, and for a moment, Kur simply stared in awe.

The snake moved and blurred so quickly that Kur could barely track it with his eyes, a storm of green fangs and moss-covered stone scales attacking the much smaller Nar with her mouth and sinuous body, but Nar, for his part, after that first encounter that had sent him flying, seemed to be holding his own.

His aura coated sword parried the snake's fangs right and left, and he expertly dodged in between and under and over the snake's twisting, lashing coils and tail. However, he didn't seem to be doing much damage either. Even with his aura, his sword repeatedly bounced off the snake's insanely tough back and side scales, which for the female boss, covered almost the entirety of her long, wide body, leaving barely a thin strip of yellow, soft scales running down the length of her body.

Crystal… Kur thought, as Nar jumped over the snake's tail and brought down his sword on it instead. The force of the attack echoed with a loud boom in the forest, and the snake hissed angrily at him, though otherwise appeared unharmed.

Nar landed, and for a brief second, Kur saw him stumble for a fraction of a moment. And as quick as it was, it was enough to place him at a disadvantage to dodge the next attack.

Was that… Kur shook himself and pulled Tuk to him, who, with Cen, were rooted in place, watching the lightning fast battle unfolding around them without knowing what to do.

"Tuk!"

"Y-Yeah?" he asked, peeling his eyes from Nar and the snake's duel.

"Can you hit that thing?" Kur shouted.

"I-I can!" Tuk said. "But I might hit him too!"

"Then get ready!" Kur said. "Nar almost slipped back there, and he's going to slip again in this muddy mess. When he goes down, hit that snake before it gets him!"

"What?" Tuk asked, his eyes going wide with panic. "Are you crazy? I don't have that kind of [Reflex]!"

"You have the [NPR] and the [Accuracy] for it! You can do it! I know you can!" Kur said, squeezing his shoulders.

"I… Okay! I'm on it!"

Tuk dashed a few steps towards the snake, spinning a single shining ring in his right hand.

"Cen!" Kur called to her.

"I'm here!" she said. "What do I do?"

"That thing's almost completely covered in armored scales!" he shouted over the chaos and the booming impacts echoing all around them. "If Nar's sword can't cut through, then our best shot is you!"

Cen paled at his implied suggestion. "You mean…"

"You have to do it, Cen!"

"I'm still practicing it, Kur!" she shouted back, fear tainting her voice. "And I've only managed it a few times!"

"It's our only chance, Cen! Nar's too close for your usual attacks!" Kur retorted. "You can do it! Just wait for Tuk to strike first!"

"I… But…"

"Cen! This is who we are!" Kur shouted. "This is how we grow, not in the safety of the training halls and the aura pods! So, believe in yourself, because we all believe in you."

Cen stared at him a moment longer, then she took a deep breath and nodded.

"I'll do it!"

"I know!"

Light gathered at the tip of her staff, and she braced to shoot off her aura. However, instead of light simply gathering as a ball, it gained a spinning motion instead, shifting and flickering before it settled into the vague shape of a line, about 2-inches in length and half an inch thick.

You can do it, Cen, Kur thought, a smile of pride spreading over his features despite the sudden situation they found themselves in.

The snakes' ambush had worked, but their party had reacted amazingly well. Viy had saved him and the center of the party, and Rel had realized that the spear woman was the one that most needed her help. Gad, Jul and Mul had quickly teamed up to hold down the male Moss-Back, despite that not being their plan at all, and he had no doubt that between the three of them, they were going to get the job done. As for Nar… Well. Nar was Nar, and by now, Kur should be used to his martial prowess and ability to surprise him.

And while Tuk and Cen had hesitated, not knowing what to do, the fact that they had been watching their duel meant that they had correctly identified the battle between the female Moss-Back and Nar as the place where they were needed the most. They had just needed some encouragement, afraid as they were, of hitting Nar by accident.

Two months of training had done their party a lot of good, and while Kur had always known that he was lucky to lead such a talented party, in the weeks aboard the Scimitar, and through the den and the confluence, they had reached a whole new level of capability.

And that includes me, Kur thought, turning on his feet and heading towards Gad, Jul and Mul. I can fight too, now! I'm not just watching uselessly anymore.

It was time to see if he could mess around with a snake boss's mind.

*********

She growled in frustration as she and the snake lashed at each other, fangs and tail against spear, isolated from the rest of the dungeon by the sphere of darkness that Viy had cast around them once more.

The almost black, deep blue and purple that emanated from her could barely be called a light. It sucked and bloated out the light more than it brought it out, so to call it a darkness was far more appropriate, especially considering its origin… And the screams assaulting her mind.

They were cries of agony and despair. Screams of those who sought the relief of death rather than salvation… And the longer she maintained her new [The Weight of Guilt] skill up, the louder they got, and the more the snake's snarling mouth shifted and morphed to the faces of those she would never forget. Beyond her spear, the snake blurred and blended in with the screaming faces of the dying, and her aim failed her again and again.

The spear was the weapon of a clear mind and an unclouded heart, as her master so often chastised her. She was meant to thrust with confidence and aim true, but how could she do that in that darkness, her enemy alternating between a giant snake and the faces of those she had wronged…

With a snarl, she spun, her [Speed] lending momentum to her spear head, and she smacked it against the side of the snake's head. The beast was blown sideways, but again, it's hard scales had protected it from what should have been a critical blow.

A red arrow flew into the darkness, and struck the exposed underside of the distracted snake's neck. The beast hissed in pain, and the soft, yellow scales around the arrow darkened as Rel's [Bloody Penance] took hold, and a thin streak of dark blood leaked down from the wound.

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"You're doing great!" Rel shouted, her voice distant and distorted in the darkness and screams surrounding Viy. "You got this!"

Do I? Viy questioned herself.

She had caught Nar's fight out of the corner of her eyes, and he was practically soloing the real boss! And what was she doing? She had less than half of his [Aura] sure, but she beat him in [Strength], [Agility] and [Dexterity]! And her [Speed] at 34 points was only 4 points lower than Nar's base [Speed]! So why was she struggling so much with that little snake?

Nar faced the female, and the one Gad and the others were fighting was much larger than the one she and Rel were taking care of. So why? Why was she struggling so damned much? Why was it like the den all over again, with her just being a burden?

With a snarl, she stepped forward, thrusting the spear right into the snake's abdomen. However, as before, the beast dodged with a blur of coils and twists, seeking to distance itself from Viy.

The spear woman stalked after the snake, and while her breath was still and composed, her heart drumming in the steady rhythm of combat, her mind… Her aim…

It's wrong! Viy thought. It's all wrong!

The spear, the king of weapons, with its precision and elegance did not match her. She needed something she could whirl and throw around, and preferably something heavy. Something savage that could match her frenzied fighting style.

She tried and tried, but every time she fought, every time she sparred with Nar, the lessons of her master drifted out of her mind, and something else emerged. Something fast. Something primal and chaotic.

Something crazy like me… Viy realized. These rules… These truths… They're not meant for someone like me…

She needed… She didn't know what she needed, but at that moment, she knew with absolute certainty that it wasn't the spear in her hands.

I need something else, she thought, gripping the weapon tightly. We… Are not compatible.

However, that was a problem for her to deal with when she returned to the Scimitar, and tried to make her case to her master. For the now and then, she needed to finish that snake, and rejoin the others as soon as possible. And that meant it was time for her to fight like she knew how to.

Abandoning the stances, the steps and the strikes she had drilled into her brain and body for the past few weeks was easy. It was like removing her heavy combat gear boots, and slipping into her light and comfy, old [Climber's Shoes], and in an instant, she was on the serpent, her spear a blur of chaos in her hands.

The beast tried her best to dodge and to run away from the sudden onslaught of the spear, but Viy had the superior attributes, and she was pissed.

The spear blurred in her hands, shifting and changing, almost as though it was made of something flexible, and not whatever solid material their Climber weapons had been forged out of. The spear stabbed, scythed, slashed and swiped, and before long, the beast failed to dodge fast enough in the maelstrom of attacks, weighed down by the might of Viy's blue and purple guilt AOE.

Viy cut a line across its belly, spilling blood and innards, and before her enemy could recover, she spun with her slash, stepping forward, and thrust up through the underside of its jaw, and out the top of its cranium.

The snake spasmed and shifted in its death throes, trying to encircle Viy in an effort to at least take it with her. Viy however, slapped the snake's tail away with a [Strength] enhanced and irritated blow, and pulled the snake's head down against the floor. She kneeled on its neck, and kept the spear head in place, as the beast breathed its last under her.

When at last it stilled, its long body dropping around her, Viy pulled the circle of darkness back into her, and deactivated her skill. At last, the screams stilled, leaving her mind heavy and raw.

So much for trying to be something I'm not, she thought, getting off the dead beast. I should have just done that from the start.

"Viy! Are you okay?" Rel asked, running towards her.

Viy blinked and remembered that she hadn't been fighting the snake alone. "Rel! Shit! I'm so sorry! I got lost in…"

"That was amazing!" Rel said, giving her a tight, one-armed hug. "How in the Pile did you do that? I mean, you were always amazing but this… Radiants! I don't even know what I saw! You moved so fast, and-and, you just slapped that thing like it was nothing!"

"Uh…" Viy looked away, unsure of what to say.

But several booming impacts echoed from the main battle, drawing their attention.

"Shit!" Viy said. "We need to go back!"

Rel nodded. "Let's go!"

*********

Jul bit down on her rising fear and disappointment. She had wanted to stand in the frontline with the rest of them, with Gad, Nar, Mul and Viy, and she had even caused all of that commotion with her master and the Masters of Blades, Aura and Emotions and Hand Combat, dragging Nar into the mess as well, and risking him earning the ire of his masters. And yet, here she was now. Slow, worried, and scared.

The snake towered over her, hissing and ignoring her daggers as though they meant little to it. And perhaps they did… Her blades were not fast enough to catch the snake's soft underside, and she kept hitting the stone-like scales that covered most of its body to no effect. Without drawing blood, she couldn't bring her Debuff/DPS hybrid path to full bear, and her still lacking combat attributes were not enough to bring up her DPS either.

Beyond Gad's immovable bulwark, Mul rained flaming fist after flaming fist on the snake, and he had apparently decided to ignore the Moss-Back's weak spot in favor of simply hitting whatever he could reach. However, even in the rain, Jul was spotting more and more scorched marks across the snake's back, and some of them had cracks radiating from the point of impact.

Even in this rain… Jul thought, her [Sight] catching a particularly deep impact wound, molded to the shape of Mul's knuckle dusters. His fire is so strong! He is so strong!

It seemed that the snake's armor was starting to fail before the relentless assault of Mul's 53 points of [Strength*], and the brawler was relentless.

Imagine when he actually starts using his affinity… Jul thought.

Mul was still forbidden from actually using his newly gained rage and fire skills, both active and passive, stuck as he was with learning to control his rage to a certain degree before being allowed to attempt his true path. But once he was allowed to use them…

Come on, Jul! Get it together! She told herself. Think! What are you missing?

First and foremost, she needed to draw blood. She needed to inflict a proper injury. Without it, she couldn't apply instances of [Insidious Fear], and without those instances, she wouldn't be able to enjoy the fear-numbing benefits and DPS increases of her new passive skill, [To Cast Out Fear].

But how do I cut it?

"There's no such thing as fighting fair or dirty," she remembered her master's words. "Only losers complain about fairness, and everyone just does whatever they have to in order to survive. So do whatever you have to do, and win. Use your strengths, and hide your weaknesses."

Fair? Does that even apply against a beast? She wondered.

Jul shook her head, and pulled back from the fight, her mind working furiously. Weak? My combat attributes. Strong? My debuffs, but those aren't working. So, what else do I have?

At Gad's other side, she heard Mul grunt, and a split second later the snake shook with the violence of yet another flaming punch.

If only I had more attributes… No! She shook her head. I need to use what I have!

Mul grunted again, and again the snake shuddered.

No [Stealth] or [Backstab]. I want those gone… And [Aura Strike] isn't going to do anything if I can't hit… And even if I did, my DPS won't be great.

Another grunt, another hiss.

Wait! I have my senses! A lot of them, even [Awareness] and [Perception]! She realized. Maybe I don't have to do this on my own… If I can time my attacks to the snake's attacks, as well as Mul's punches and Gad's blocks… I think I have just enough [Reflex] and [Agility] to make this work!

She squared her feet and lowered her stance. She was short, and her daggers didn't give her a great range either, but she didn't need to reach the snake's neck or head. Anywhere across its soft belly would do, and she just needed to make the Moss-Back bleed deeply enough to trigger her fear skills.

The snake lunged forward once more, and Mul punched it at the same time, but Jul was too focused and nervous that she missed her chance.

It's okay! It's okay, Jul! You got this! She told herself. Next time! You've got time!

She took a deep breath, stilling her mind even as the battle raged right in front of her, and waited for her opening again. A few seconds later, Mul punched the snake once more, and Jul pushed two daggers forward, aiming for the midriff of the snake, which was holding the beast up from the floor.

"Ugh!" she groaned, as her daggers bounced back. She had cut two pale lines across the beast's scales, but she hadn't managed to cut through before it moved, and she had missed.

"Don't give up!" Gad rumbled from her side. "It's a good idea! Just keep trying!"

How does she… Oh! Her [Awareness]!

"Okay!" Jul shouted, her courage bolstered.

She waited one more time for a chance, and when it arrived, she pushed forward with all four daggers this time, aiming them all at the same spot, and hoping to at least hit with one of them. She was rewarded by the snake throwing up its head and hissing gutturally, and by the spreading darkness that creeped around the wound she had managed to cut.

"You did it!" Gad said.

"Nice!" Mul added, and proceeded to punch the beast right in its exposed stomach while it was distracted by Jul's skill.

In her UI, Jul saw the instance of [Insidious Fear] appear next to the snake's head, and instinctively knew how long she had before it ran out. At the same time, though maybe it was her imagination, she felt a little bit less afraid, and a little bit more confident, as her [To Cast Out Fear] also triggered.

The snake suddenly shuddered and shook its head with abandon, hissing in confusion.

"Yes! It worked!" Kur suddenly shouted from behind them. "My first [Sneer of Contempt]!"

And just like that, another debuff appeared next to Jul's, though she gained no information about its DOT or duration.

"Bahahah!" Mul bellowed. "Take that, you fuck!"

"Come on!" Kur shouted from behind it. "Don't let it recover!"

Mul leaped forwards before Gad or Jul could react, landing another powerful blow against its exposed belly.

"Wait! My aggro!" Gad shouted.

She raised her shield, and the snake that was starting to take an interest in the short lengos, snapped her head back at Gad instead.

"I'm out!" Gad said. "That was my second charge!"

30 seconds cooldown then! Jul thought.

"Go!" Kur shouted at them. "And I'll try to hit it again in 2 minutes!"

Gad and Jul stepped back into the fight, joining the wild brawler throwing punches in every direction, and now dangerously encased amongst the shifting coils of the snake.

"Mul!" Jul shouted in warning.

"I'm fine!" Mul shouted back, his voice coming from behind the coils of the snake. "Just scare this fucking beast to death!"

Jul nodded, forgetting that Mul couldn't see her, and leaped forward to do just so.

I can do this! She told herself, dodging around the snake's now wild and erratic trashing. Her single instance of [Insidious Fear] had run out, so whatever was happening to the serpent must be due to Kur's mental debuff now, and without wasting the opportunity that his debuff gave her, she ran to the snake's midriff again, and aiming for her first wound, stabbed in and out of the beast with quick thrusts.

One. Two. Three…

There was no cooldown to her skill. It was a passive, and in itself, it carried no conditions for its application other than requiring a proper wound. So, every time she delivered a significant injury onto the beast, she triggered her skill, and so she kept going, her heart pounding in her chest and her breath burning in her lungs.

Come on, come on, come on!

Seven. Eight. Nine.

The snake hissed directly at her, forgetting all about Gad.

"Jul!" Gad shouted in panic.

Oh no… Jul thought, looking up at the baleful yellow eyes of the Moss-Back, readying to plunge upon her and swallow her lithe, small frame whole.

"Don't stop now! Finish her!" Mul shouted, jumping up to punch the snake higher up its body.

Jul clenched her teeth, taking the snake's momentary distraction, and stabbed one final time. Darkness blasted out the snake's mouth and eyes, and the beast hissed and convulsed, forcing them all to abandon it or be crushed by its wild thrashing coils.

"Holy shit!" Mul shouted, as the snake's head disappeared in cloying darkness. "How much damage does that 10-stack thing of yours do?"

"10 * 95," Jul whispered, blanching at the sight of the agonizing Moss-Back, and having to remind herself that this was no mere beast that she had ravaged, but a dungeon boss, and Mul whistled as the snake hissed in despair.

"Is it enough?" Kur asked, approaching them.

"I don't think so!" Gad shouted, as the cloud dissipated and the snake still stood, its tongue lolling out through its fangs as it stared out in a daze.

"I'm on it!" Mul shouted.

"Wait! I still have no…"

But the brawler was already sprinting towards the immobilized snake, which still had dark vapor emanating from its eyes and mouth. He jumped up at the snake's lowered head, and punched it with such a force that it made all three of them wince. The snake's head whipped against a tree with a mighty crack, and Mul leaped over to it and proceeded to pummel it right on the snout, his fists joined together into one brutal weapon that rose and fell with brutal impacts.

Why isn't it moving? Jul frowned. Oh! The [Insidious Terror]!

The snake could neither move nor sense anything in the immediate aftermath of the ten instances of [Insidious Fear] triggering into [Insidious Terror], and Mul made short work of it, bludgeoning its head in without stopping.

"That's some affinity, eh?" Gad said, smiling approvingly at Jul, even as Mul's hits echoed throughout the forest, bright flashes of orange and yellow accompanying them.

"It's terrifying," Jul whispered.

"That's the whole point, isn't it?" Kur said. "And it's a lot more effective than I thought. We'll need to plan a lot more around it going forward. This is the kind of skill we should be aiming to trigger with every fight…"

"That we do," Gad agreed.

Jul gulped and stared between them, however, both of the much taller than her altei and morsvar stared fixedly at Mul's brutal, bloody ending of their enemy.

"And stay down!" Mul shouted at the bloody remains of what had once been a head. "Crystal! It's good to be angry again!"

The snake's aether rich, green blood sizzled across his fiery armor, and sensing eyes on him, he looked back at the trio of them. With a finger, he pointed towards where Nar was still fighting the toughest of the snakes.

"Why are you just standing there?" he asked them. "It's not over yet!"

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