The entire team ran for four hours more before finally reaching the end of the path. It was a long journey, but finally, the end was in sight!
"Well then, we, the Dragon's Roar Teams 177 and 178, will be facing the boss! Everyone else who doesn't want to get dragged into the fight, back off!"
As soon as they arrived, the spearman that Tina and Kali had beaten up before announced in a loud voice immediately. Of course, it was the same as before, on the third floor, but this time, they sounded more desperate to hold everyone back.
'Do they need to kill the boss monster for some quest or something?' Aster hypothesized.
The same as before, everyone moved an appropriate distance to watch the fight. Aster's team didn't want to get dragged into it, so they made doubly sure to stand quite a distance away.
"How long do you think it'd take them to defeat the boss this time?" Cassy asked Aster with a hint of curiosity. "Before, they defeated the dire wolf within a minute, so I guess it's a minute this time too!"
Aster placed a hand on his chin, thinking about it seriously. "That'd depend on what monster comes out, I guess. If it's a slime type, then for sure, they would end up wasting more time."
"Ugh, don't remind me of that Mega Slime bastard, you weakling!" Kali grunted. "I still haven't gotten over the fact that it destroyed my favorite daggers!"
"In my estimate, it should be at least a minute, and five minutes at most, for the Dragon's Roar teams to finish the boss." Liz nodded, giving her own opinion on the matter.
"Haha, that's cheating, Liz." Aster laughed. "If you're betting, you need to pinpoint an exact time. For me, I'll bet they wouldn't be able to defeat the boss!"
"Hey, don't jinx them, Star!" Cassy scolded him a little. "What'd you do if they really failed to defeat the boss!"
"What? There's no other choice but to defeat it, is there?"
Hypothetically, if the Dragon's Roar failed to defeat the boss, the other parties couldn't simply retreat. They don't have enough supplies left after all. If they don't retreat, then they only have the choice of rushing back to the entrance with empty stomachs. That was nothing but torture!
"Well, there's no way they would fail, though." Aster shrugged. "They're already at level 8 before even coming up to the third floor. So they must be level 9 or 10 by now, after defeating that many monsters."
The power between a level 9 and a level 10 is like heaven and earth, as with every ten levels gained, one would get a "Life Upgrade" and earn an extra 5 distributable stat points separate from the one stat point earned per level up.
Unless they're idiots who don't know how to distribute their stats effectively, then there's no way they would lose against the boss of the fourth floor.
The female cleric of their team called him and quickly cast her buffs with shaking hands. Light fell over their captain, Seiji, which increased both his attack and defense.
"Priodis Sirreo cura! Minor Heal!"
She even cast a healing spell just in case, making sure that even if Seiji's muscle fibers snapped, they would be fixed immediately.
"MOVE AWAY, BASTARD!"
At the same time, the spear user quickly smacked the sword, trying to push it away, but it didn't even budge an inch. The sword was too heavy!
"Kuh...!"
In the end, Seiji tilted his sword to where nobody was, allowing the blade to slide down. As it went, the sword managed to chop off a large chunk of his shoulder, but with the Minor Heal still in effect, he quickly returned to full health.
"Everyone, fire!"
At that moment, right as he tried to regain distance, he also shouted a command, letting everyone else in their party fire their long-range attacks. Bullets flew, raining on the armored enemy, along with a few spells like flame spears and icicle barrages.
"Did we get it?!" The spear guy called with excitement.
However, the moment the smoke settled, they could see the Azure Knight was still the same as before. Its blue armor didn't seem damaged at all, making it clear that it was immune to missile attacks. To add to that, even the spells didn't leave a scratch, meaning they were also immune to magic attacks!
"Shit! Only Melee will work on this bastard!" Seiji cursed. "Everyone, switch to melee armaments! Tanks, take their attention! Don't let its sword hit you; you won't survive it!"
As expected of a team from the top clan, their response was quick.
In just a single command, everyone switched armaments, from guns and wands to maces, swords, and spears. Everyone armed themselves and moved to formation in a flash!
"Attack!"
And then, a fierce battle began.