278 Chapter 224: Canyon Dungeon Part 26

Joshua was out of position as he had the full weight of the snake's tail on his shoulders at the moment so it was up to the other tanks to stop the snakes attack. They realized the situation and Jayce was the first one to take action. He stepped in front of the snakes charge and used his shield wall to protect the group. That alone wouldn't be enough, but it fulfilled its purpose and kept the snake from being able to swallow any of them whole as it couldn't close its mouth shut with the shield wall getting in the way.

The Carsen brothers were the next to take action as Devin and Dillon got on either side of the snakes head and slammed their axes at full strength into its bottom jaw forcing it up. On the other hand Dave leaped up top and smashed his scale blade harshly onto the top of its mouth slamming it down forcing the snakes mouth shut. Abigail then used a stunning strike to freeze up the snake's body for an instant giving the rest of the group a moment to unleash their attacks on the creature. Since the beast was far more powerful than most enemies they'd come across the stunning effect of her attack wasn't going to last for very long so they all let lose quickly.

Cinder bit into its tail with her powerful fangs that were strong enough to break through the scales and inject some poison. The poison would just cause the snake's nervous system to flare up in pain, but that was better than nothing at the moment. Aito on the other hand was preparing to finish what Laura had started earlier and fired off a rail shot that had been charging since the fighting started directly towards the eye that Laura had slightly burnt earlier. The snake tried to close its eyelid once more, but even so the piercing effect of the shot broke through and plunged straight into the eye. Blood sprayed from the wound as the snake regained its ability to move and screamed in pain while backing away quickly. Its tail flailed and threw off Cinder while knocking Joshua back at the same time.

"You think you're the only ones who know how to use such petty tricks. Fine I'll show you how ruthless I can be." The snake roared out before they all suddenly heard a crushing sound coming from their right. Henry quickly created a light so they could all see what was going on and they found a portion of the snake's body wrapped around a nearby pillar. The snake forcefully broke the pillar while leaning it in the direction of Joshua's group. They didn't exactly know how big these pillars were in the end, but they were wide enough to be hard to avoid. When they tried to rush forward to get out of the path of the pillar they could see a portion of the snake's body block their way and they had no time to try to get around it.

'Amber dig us a hole now!' Joshua shouted out and Amber responded by creating a large caved in hole where the group was standing. Cinder was the only one that couldn't fit in the hole so she had to avoid the pillar, but she could easily climb over the snake's body in time. Joshua and some of the other members could have done the same, but they'd end up leaving the mages and healers behind to be squashed by the pillar. Soon the pillar slammed in the ground right above them and they were forced to dig around the pillar to get out through Amber's earth magic.

"So much fun, playing with my food." The snake roared out as its head came striking towards the group as they tried to make their way out of the ground. They weren't in a good position with the broken pillar making it hard to avoid the attack, but Cinder came just in time slamming into the snake's head and forcing it to land to the side of the group. The snake was still far too powerful for Cinder to hold on her own and she was slapped away by the snake's tail as the group quickly got into position to start fighting once more. The problem was the fact that the snake could continue to use similar tactics and try to bury the entire group underground with the pillars over and over again. It gave the snake opportunities to strike at them while their guard was down and that would eventually cost them.

'Isabella we have to change this fight to our favor and we need to do it now before the boss stops playing around and starts attacking the members of our group that can't defend against it.' Joshua said getting a nod in return. 'Start creating ice in the area quickly. Julia I need you to melt the ice and get as much water in the area as possible. Laura and Madalyn keep up the assault on the snake's body as much as possible. For now you two are our main source of damage.'

The group all nodded along as the boss's head came slamming towards the group once more. Joshua used his scale blade to clash against one of the snake's large fangs. The clash sent Joshua tumbling back, but the snake's strike had been stopped as well. Isabella and Julia got to work fulfilling their part of the plan right away. Isabella created a blizzard in the area which seemed to annoy the snake a bit since it was cold blooded, but was not nearly enough to be a threat on its own. Then Julia got to work using her inferno spell to melt the snow and ice in a large area. Although both Cinder and Laura had more powerful flames neither one of them had a wide range attack on the same scale as Julia. The clash between the inferno and blizzard created lots of steam in the air and soaked the ground quickly. The snake didn't seem to like the sudden change in the environment and tried to strike towards the mages to stop whatever they were doing, but Joshua would always get in the way just in time.

Since the boss was busy trying to break through Joshua to get to the mages both Laura and Madalyn were able to create two more large explosions along the snakes body which caught fire and made the snake rear back in pain. Amber would then make sure to create a large stone spike to slam into the wound and break it open even more. In the meantime the close range fighter would strike at the scales around the snake's head whenever it came in close to attack the mages and Joshua. Amy's strikes would rattle the snake's skull and cause it to pull away from the unusual feeling while Adrian and Adam would tear up as many scales around the head and neck as possible.

The rest of the tanks in the group were busy holding off the tail that would try to strike the group from behind whenever Joshua was busy holding off the head. Whenever Abigail got the chance to use a stunning strike to freeze up the snake's movements she would. This gave the close range fighters more time to break through the snake's scales and eventually it had gotten to the point where they were starting to actually injure the creature. Even so the damage was minimal and the snake would just pull away whenever it felt threatened. Joshua could feel that the boss was growing antsier as the fight wore on, but he needed as much moisture in the area as possible if he wanted his plan to take down the snake for good to work out. When he felt that it was time to put things in motion he knocked the snake's head away one final time.

'Lilly get Tank out here now!' Joshua shouted through the mental link. They needed to hurry before the snake went in for another attack. He could tell his body was growing tired from all the clashes and he was certain it was the same for the rest of the tanks that were busy holding off the tail. Lilly put away Cinder since they still needed all of the boost they had at the moment before summoning Tank, who appeared right in front of the giant snake's head that was preparing to lunge down. The sudden appearance of the massive turtle seemed to surprise the snake. Tank quickly realized the situation as Joshua explained his idea to him and he smiled before letting out a challenging roar towards the giant snake.

"You think you can challenge me you mindless turtle!" The boss shouted before hissing back as its head dived towards Tank. The snake knocked into Tank lifting his massive body up for a moment as she slithered around his shell and started to squeeze fiercely. The pressure was enough to cause Tank's shell to creak, but not enough to break it any time soon. Enraged by the situation the snake opened its mouth wide as it prepared to swallow Tank's head whole slowly.

"Mindless? You poor thing, I've been around for far longer than you have and have faced far stronger snakes with better tricks." Tank shouted back as the snake stared down at him with its mouth opened wide preparing to strike. That's when Tank started to absorb all of the water from the air and ground. Thanks to Isabella and Julia there was more than enough to give Tank's water abilities a far more powerful punch. Just as the snake started to lunge its head towards Tank it was met with a large torrent of water that went right down its throat. Tank kept pouring in the water forcefully causing the snakes body to bloat up more and more the closer it got to Tank's head.

Madalyn decided to help out as she jumped up on to Tank's head and started to spew a type of acid and poison mixture from her mouth that mixed with Tank's torrent. The duo's attacks started to destroy the insides of the beast yet the giant snake continued to force itself forward with its mouth preparing to encapsulate both Tank's head and Madalyn. It was clearly planning to take them both out no matter what, even with all of the pain it was going through. Joshua could see the inside of the beast mouth melting from Madalyn's acid and new it couldn't be much better going down the snakes throat considering the fact it's insides weren't made to hold such a corrosive acid.

Joshua rushed forward once the snake's head got too close to snapping down on both Madalyn and Tank. He could see all the wounds around its head and throat area and decided to cut through them to finish things quickly. He concentrated his aura around his whole body empowering himself to his full strength before dashing under its head and slashing his aura covered scale blade across the bottom of the creatures neck. The cut went clean through the badly damaged scales as Joshua strained through the tough muscles as blood gushed down followed by water and acid from the inside of the creatures mouth. Joshua got out of the way before leaping above and doing the same to the top of the creature's neck.

The combination of Joshua attack and the burning on the inside of the snake caused the snakes head to go limp as it barely hung to the rest of its body. Tank noticed this and stopped pouring water down the creature's throat. Madalyn quickly leapt off Tank's head as the massive turtle charged forward and ripped the snake's head off ending the battle.