Disappointment and sadness filled Skitter Nail’s heart as the roach's stomach swelled again getting ready to blast out fire, he did not feel fear as the rat knew that one day death would come for him but he was disappointed that it was happening so soon. He could feel the boney cold grip of the reaper on his furry shoulder as charring heat quickly made its way towards him, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a black blur before he was launched away from the river of fire. Skitter found that he was in the wet arms of his newest companion that he thought had died, it seemed that Mermarc landed in the water down below and rushed back up somehow and was able to grab him out of the way.
It was as he was thinking about what happened that the beast roared as it seemed that Skar was able to land a [Stunning Blow] distracting the boss from him and Mermarc, getting up he started to cast [Mana Bolt] after [Mana Bolt] trying to deal some damage. The freaky frog next to him bolted towards the boss at top speed and if Skitter didn’t already know that Mermarc didn’t have the [Dash] skill he would have thought the freak was using it. Mermarc activated his skills [Rage] and [Retribution] and Skitter Nail watched as his companion went through a transformation he had seen before, the freak’s skin went from its normal oily black to a sickly gray as veins bulge black and his eyes turned red with anger.
Skitter looked at the statuses of his teammate that he always had open and his eyes almost popped out of his head as he looked at how much the freak’s stats were boosted by his skills.
Strength: 9 > 13
Dexterity: 6 > 11 > 16
Vitality: 13 > 19
Fortitude: 3 > 4
The only thing he couldn’t get was why did Mermarc boost his dex until the freak got in melee range of the ugly beast used the [Savagery] skill and watch as he drained 60 sp into the skill, the wasn’t the end as the skill activated and Mermarc became a blur as he landed 60 consecutive punches and with one of his mutations the freak’s hp was almost back to full. Even after the skill had ended Mermarc continued to claw at the beast with no care for himself for that is what it is to be a berserker, the martyr, the hero that died in battle, the avenger, or the necessary sacrifice that is what his purpose is. The roach could do nothing to the monster on its back as it was defending itself from attacks from Skitter Nail and Skar, bolts of mana flow through the air as liquid fire flooded the bridge, insectoid roars of pain cried out with a buzz as wide teeth carved out its exoskeleton.
The beast was losing it was something they all knew, but they also knew that a boss doesn’t lose so simply even a false one wouldn’t die this easily. The beastly roach let out a roar that launched all of away from the boss as the second phase began, the creature's spinal plates blast off its body as the flesh underneath began to boil as Ember Nymphs digged their way out of their host mother. The beast stayed behind its brood as it slowly healed from the warming heat of its children, the small swarm of little over a dozen flaming insects made the already hot stones of the bridge turn a slight red with heat.
The ember nymphs weren’t strong at all as they weren’t even considered level 1 and were a pre evolution of a first evolution monster, but with the amount of them and how they overlapped with heat it was going to make them some real threats. Or it would have been a threat if they didn’t have a madly insane mage and a suicidal berserker, Mermarc seemed to be having fun slaughtering the little baby bugs and Skitter Nail just considered it as aim practise. More and more of the little bugs popped out of the beast’s back to stall for more time so the boss could heal back up, it was a losing battle for the bugs as the trio killed them slightly faster than they could be born.
They slowly made their way towards the burning boss making a game out of the infantile insect massacre, Skitter was in first place as he learned that he could kill up to three of the ember nymphs with a well aimed [Mana Bolt] and as the fight went on his aim just got better. The melee duo had learned to work quite nicely as they started to form tactics that they now want to try using on the boss, but the endless swarm was still in their way so killing babies came first. The boss seemed to be running out of babies as the next batch to come out was half the size and next after was a third of that, this was making getting to the boss easier but it felt to easy and that is when they heard the piercing screech, the deep growl, and the thrumming roar.
[False Royalty The Griffin The Dragon The Phoenix]
The roach’s body shifted as golden scales grew where its spinal plates used to be, its front paws teared themselves off as black talons formed from the ashes of the old, its feathery wings burst into flames as it rose into the air. The majestic beast had ascended to another level of wrongness as it mixed other great legendary beasts into its false authority, it had a sickening blighted fools gold aura around its body as it flew into the open air. But that was the beast’s biggest mistake as it seemed like it had gained the dungeon’s full attention as from the water below a colossal tentacle ripped the beast out of the sky and into the depths below.
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The only evidence of where the beast was being dragged too was its blighting aura as it disappeared into the frighteningly deep depths of the water reserves, after some time they all got the confirmation that the false boss was dead as they got some exp from the kill. The heat of the fight slowly dissipated as the trio didn’t know what actually just happened in front of them, but they do know that it was something that they couldn’t or shouldn’t get involved in. They didn’t know what to do so they decided that they should rest after that hard fought fight, it was so that they made their way towards the hub tower to find a nice place to rest.
Before even our heroes had reached the fourth floor things on the surface had gotten bad, but the worst was just still on the horizon as the eye of the storm had not even glimpsed the city. A large part of the city had already been evacuated even before the monsters started to flood out of the dungeon, a large part of the merchant district was in ruins by now. Most of the monsters that are leaving the dungeon are from the first three floors for now, they seemed to only start leaving the dungeon when they weren't fed the dungeon’s mana anymore.
Barricades were set up around the market square and were manned by large amounts of adventurers of varying levels, it was very easy for them to defend the entrance as even a team of level ones could work together to take down the highest level monster that comes out. The newest problem was the fact that monsters that don’t spawn in this dungeon began to appear which was explained by the fact that the mana contamination of the dungeon is so bad that monster spawns were being rewritten to spawn monsters best for that element. The worst was when a Hell Hound had spawned and burned down a fourth of the merchant district, that was when they moved back the barricades to borders of the district using the already in place stone walls.
Other than the monsters in the dungeon the normal monsters out in the wilds around the city have felt the grand shift in mana and have decided it is best to migrate to other wilds that have more stable mana currants. It is due to these migrations that evacuation has taken so long as the caravans needed guards but most free adventures were busy fixing other problems. All over the continent the news of the fortaled end of the city Whistleton even before the monsters came out of the dungeon so many other neighboring cities accepted any and all refugees.
But even though everyone and their mothers knew that the city was going to fall from the endless waves of ever stronger monsters that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t fight fate, if that was true than the heroes of tales wouldn’t be living legends that forged their own path through destiny. That is why both man, woman, civilian, and adventurers helped each other as they tried to keep a sinking ship from hitting another iceberg. The city did burn, the city did crumble, and the city will die but that doesn’t mean that the people that had once called it home would let it die without a fight and if there is one thing the people of Whistleton knew it was how to fight.
People that had believed that they would never fight in their entire life helped take care of the tired adventurers and guards, the grime and scum of the slums rose to help fight as even if this city’s high and mighty looked away from their predicament this was still their city their home. That is why from the smoldering ruins of despair the ashes of hope have united the city in an effort to protect their doomed home, the ocean of monsters crashed and faltered on the mighty walls of the bastion of hope. Many have grown from being weak and hopeless and into great warriors that would willingly walk into the home of a dragon to protect their city, well also most of the people that have been fighting monsters for the last week have gained more levels than they had in the last month.
If it wasn’t for the fact that such a disaster was befalling the city many would be celebrating the many gained levels but it was levels gained in a way not normal and one that will consume and devour the user as repeated leveling tires both one's body and spirit. Many adventurers teams that had once been happy and dandy have become silent over arguments and many more have split to form different teams, that is what had happened to James as his team had disbanded after a small fight over if they should really stay in Whistleton. Jamse considered himself to be a pretty good fighter as he was a warrior that specialized in spearmanship while also having a light crossbow he used sometimes, but now that he didn’t have a team he wasn’t even allowed to even take on guild missions so he was looking to form a new team.
That is why James found himself in the Hall of Guilds looking around the place for others who had also left their original teams, which wasn’t so hard since every week around two adventurer teams parted ways. The problem is finding people that are close to his level and that will fit well as a team, he had already found a level 3 - 5 tank named Mickeal so he was now looking for some backline support. That is when he had spotted a duo of mages that had recently been removed from their team chatting together, he walked up to the two of them and began to talk “hello my name is james Erbuceni you two seem to be friendly do you wan-”
