Chapter 416: Centipede Graveyard Dungeon Part 8

The moment the group got back to the large locked door Joshua brought out the key they had gained going down the last path. The door responded right away as the key floated up into the air and was guided to the last remaining lock. With a loud click the lock fell to the floor the massive doors started to open on their own. Beyond the doors there was another path way similar to all the others they had been through while exploring the dungeon. This path was a bit wider than the others, but still only had two rows of the pillars going down it.

Before they decided to enter Joshua quickly sent out a pulse that reached all the way down the new hallway. It didn't have to go very far before it met another door that had a powerful aura coming from beyond it. An aura that was much stronger than the ones given off by the guardian to the dungeon and the metallic life forms that they had to face while going down the other paths.

"I think the sub-boss is up ahead." Joshua said out loud since there weren't any other living creatures around outside of their own group. There was no longer a need to stay silent the moment they went down this path. "The sub-boss's aura feels much stronger than the ones that were given off by the metallic creatures so we should expect a pretty tough fight."

"Can you sense anything else about it?" Aito asked while switching to a more mid-range gun sense the space up ahead seemed more constrained then trying to fight on a never ending cliff.

"The creature's body seems large, but not to the same scale as the guardian centipede that we had to fight to get in here. I'm willing to bet it's a lizard instead of a centipede." Joshua said as he let his aura pulse slam against the door at the end of the path way so he could get a better feel for the aura of the creature that was behind it.

"Yeah this seems like a dungeon where the big baddy at the end will be a centipede of some sort, so the sub-boss being the other creature found within the place makes sense." Henry said with a shrug. "We'll have to get a close look at it to see what it can do, but be ready for anything."

With that the group made their way down the hall. It only took a few minutes for them to reach the large doors that were big enough for Cinder to fit through. Joshua made sure everyone was ready for the fight ahead before he stepped forward and pushed the massive doors open. Although the doors were large they weren't too heavy which was a bit surprising as they swung open rather easily. The room that the doors lead to was well lit with several large torches along the walls and a large pit of fire in the center of the room that gave off an intense heat the moment they stepped inside. The fire pit was so large that it towered up to nearly as high as Titus was tall.

The moment Joshua spread out his aura once more he could sense the powerful beast that was standing on the other side of the fire pit. Even with how high up the flames reached Joshua could still see a large reddish orange fin on the other side of it that was swaying back and forth as the creature walked around the fire so that it could get a better look at their group. When the beast came into full view Joshua could immediately tell that it was a lizard to some degree although it was a lot different from the other lizards they had come across while making their way through the dungeon.

This lizard had large fins on different parts of its body that seemed edged so that they could be used as weapons if necessary. The fins also meant that the creature would probably be a good swimmer if it came down to something like that, but there hadn't been a single source of water in the entire dungeon so Joshua doubted they had to worry about that. Its body seemed to have the same camouflaging ability that the other lizards had even when it came to the large fins that were currently mimicking the colors of the nearby fire. It was a beautiful sight to see, but the large fanged mouth and the sharp claws that were slowly making their way towards them was a bit more concerning.

The one thing that Joshua noticed that was a bit odd in his opinion was the fact that the giant lizard had chains attached to it. In total there were five chains that were attached to the massive lizard, one around its neck, one for each of its arms, and one for each of its legs. These chains weren't too tight to prevent the lizard from moving around the room at a slow pace, but they didn't allow the massive creature to sprint. Joshua could tell this by how much effort the lizard had to put into each of its movements just so it could move around the fire. It was obvious that the chains were holding it back.

'Why is it chained down? It seems like that will make this fight to easy?' Marcus asked since they still had time before the creature would reach their location. The rest of the groups started preparing for the upcoming fight even before the words were put into the party chat.

'I don't know, but there always seems to be a reason for a dungeon to do something like this. Don't hold back just because the beast is chained up.' Henry explained as he already started casting buffs on the front line so that they could hold the beast off before it could get to the rest of the group.

Lilly quickly had Tank and Flutter come out to help them take the beast head on. Tank and the Lizard were around the same size with Tank's large shell giving him a bit of an edge. Joshua could already tell that this was an opponent that wouldn't give the large turtle any problems. Although the different claws and fins on the lizard looked threatening for most they wouldn't stand a chance of breaking through Tank's shell. The moment Tank arrived out in the open he let out a challenging roar to the approaching Lizard as he grew to full size. He charged forward and crashed into the beast.

Flutter quickly gave a magical boost to everyone in the group to empower the mages so that they could do as much damage as possible from a distance. It was obvious that the tough hide on the lizard would make it hard for most of the melee fighters to deal any real damage to the beast. Magic however would be able to create wounds for the rest of the group to go after. Titus immediately started to create some vines to hamper the lizard's movements even more giving Tank more of an edge. It was clear that he didn't plan on getting up close and personal for this fight since it seemed like Tank was letting out some of his aggression now that he could cut loose and Titus didn't want to get in the giant turtle's way. Cinder on the other hand stayed in her flame form and helped out in the magical barrage department alongside the mages of the group.

Within minutes it was clear to Joshua that this lizard had absolutely no chance of being a challenge to the group with the way things were going. Although it seemed powerful the chained restraints made it hard for the sub-boss to put up much of a fight. The moment it tried to strike at Tank with its claws the chains would tighten up making its movements sloppy and sluggish. Tank was able to easily avoid such attacks and quickly positioned himself around the lizard to where he was able to lock his jaws on the creature's neck. Although the lizard's neck was a bit bulky Tank was able to latch on making it impossible for the lizard to bite him back in return with the giant shell being the only location that the creature could now bite with Tank keeping it trapped in an awkward position.

The wide array of magic spells also slammed into the lizards back. Massive fire balls from both Cinder and Julia slammed against the creature's scales burning them off and exposing the muscle beneath them. Julia would then control the fire to burn the wounds and cause the lizard even more damage. Robin just threw strategy out the window and went straight to shooting lightning bolts at different areas across the lizard's body. Each bolt would tear into the lizards body while paralyzing it and giving everyone else easier access to tearing the beast down. Robin just created a large water ball that she formed around the lizard's head that was slowly drowning the creature out.

The lizard struggles seemed meaningless with it being bombarded on all sides. Things were so one sided that Joshua and the rest of the close ranged fighters didn't even join in on the combat seeing as how things were going. The poor beast wasn't even able to get any good attacks on the group since every time it tried to break free from Tank or avoid one of their attacks the chains would tighten up causing the lizard to be raised in to a position where it was nothing more than an easy target.

As Joshua watched things play out he couldn't help but think that the dungeon actually wanted them to kill the sub-boss. In this case it wasn't for the sake of them clearing the dungeon itself, but it seemed more like the beast was a sacrifice of sorts and they were just there to push things along. Every time a new injury would form on the lizard Joshua could see the blood that dripped onto the floor start to pull together and move towards the large pit of fire in the center of the room. Slowly the fire started to turn more crimson in color until it was starting to look more like burning blood than anything else.

Even though Joshua knew that this situation could have its own consequences he wasn't able to avoid it. There was no other way forward than defeating the sub-boss and the way that it charged directly at the group with so much killing intent rolling off of its body it was clear that the creature didn't plan on talking things out. Even Lilly didn't have a chance of reasoning with it from the get go so they were forced to take it down to see what the dungeon would do next.

After about ten minutes the one sided battle finally came to an end as the giant lizard collapsed and its blood continued to pool underneath its body. It continued to flow toward the hole causing the flames to grow darker and darker making the room have a chilling look to it. All of the torches around the room seemed to mirror the shift in color giving Joshua and the rest of the group a bad feeling of what was supposed to come next.