CH 250

Episode 250 – Boss of the 23rd Layer

“Thrust Buffalo coming from the right. Angry Wolves up ahead, and a pack of Goblin Archers behind. From the left, diagonally in front of you, a Human Owl.” (Rosalie)

“Got it. I’ll deal with the Angry Wolves and the Thrust Buffalo. Rosalie-san, get the Human Owl. Aruna-san, cover us from the Goblin Archers.” (Lewin)

“Mhm. Leave it to me.” (Aruna)

After we had gone down to the 22nd layer, about 2 hours had passed. We had been swarmed by packs of monsters, but it looked like we were finally nearing the end.

Hearing the stream of information, I quickly rattled off combat instructions in response and then immediately stopped the Thrust Buffalo in its tracks with a Sticky Bomb. In the meantime, I kept an eye on the Goblin Archers in the rear as I started to deal with the Angry Wolves in the front.

I lowered my upper body as much as I could to stay out of the line of fire between Aruna and the Angry Wolf and then closed the distance at once. Since Aruna would also be shooting the Goblin Archers for us, we didn’t have to worry so much about them, but it was better to reduce her burden where we could.

Seeing that I was charging towards them from a tight stance, the three Angry Wolves began to close in on me, each from a different direction, in order to surround me, but they were slow. I went for the Angry Wolf that was moving in front on the left and followed up by slashing at it from the side in one fell swoop.

Due to the successive battles on the daily and the frequent ingestion of Dumbbell Weed, I had become noticeably stronger and faster.

I looked down at the Angry Wolf that I had cut in two with a single slash, feeling my own growth palpably in my own hands. Without being fixated on feelings of self-pride, I set out to defeat the remaining Angry Wolves.

While I’d been slashing at that Angry Wolf just now, another one had wrapped around and tried to take me by surprise from the back. Syncing myself with its timing, I got into the stance for an iai slash and then moved to cut off its head in one quick flash. Even though it had flanked me and gotten the jump on me, my sword reached its body first, returning me a perfect response in my hands as my sword cut into its skull.

The last Angry Wolf, who was about to charge in and attack me head-on, suddenly stopped when it saw how easily its companion had been decapitated.

I couldn’t guess what kind of expression it had on since it was a beast-type monster, but I could tell it was frozen with terror. In the next moment, it turned to try and flee. Even if it was a monster, I felt a bit reluctant to cut down a living being that had no will to fight, but… in order to avoid any further grief, I properly took its life.

After defeating all three Angry Wolves in an instant, all that remained was the Thrust Buffalo that was stuck in the Sticky Bomb.

On the other side, the Human Owl was on its dying breaths, and the pack of Goblin Archers was already half-dead. It seemed that they were about to wrap things up too.

After checking on the situation, I walked over to the struggling Thrust Buffalo and cut its head off in one go. I soon went around picking up the drops, and by then Rosalie and Aruna had finished defeating their respective monsters. With this, we had successfully managed to defeat all the monsters on the 22nd layer.

“An undeniable victory. I’m perfectly warmed up right now. I think we’re in good shape to head into the boss battle.” (Lewin)

“Yeah. I don’t feel like I can lose.” (Aruna)

“Strangely enough, I feel the same.” (Lewin)

At Aruna’s confident remark, we both grinned at each other. Meanwhile, Rosalie was hanging her head, fiddling with her hands.

“…Rosalie-san? Are you alright?” (Lewin)

Noticing that Rosalie wasn’t joining our conversation, I called out to her worriedly, but…

“Uhhh… I, I think today might be the best shape I’ve ever been in! Because of the Focus Potion, I don’t feel nervous, and I finally don’t feel uncomfortable when I move!” Rosalie exclaimed, suddenly lifting her head with a bright smile on her face.

It’s true that this was the best Dungeon performance I’d seen from her since we met, but had she been fighting while feeling uncomfortable this whole time?

“That’s great to hear! You’re our main attacker, so please keep giving it your all.” (Lewin)

“Leave it to me! I won’t let either of you two steal the spotlight!” (Rosalie)

With everyone in their prime conditions, we descended into the 23rd layer, without feeling any of that strange tension that most would normally feel before a boss fight.

The atmosphere of the canyon area from before had completely vanished, and our current surroundings gave off an unnatural feeling as if it was artificially created.

The space was about as wide as the Demon Arachnid’s arena on the 15th layer, and the floor was perfectly square.

Seated in the center of the arena was something, sitting cross-legged on the ground with its arms crossed in front of its chest. At first glance, it just looked like a bronze statue, but it was without a doubt the Boss of the 23rd layer.

Its massive torso glittered with a mineral-like black luster, and its arms were even thicker than its torso. Its lower half seemed to be made of a different mineral as it glittered with silver light.

Beside the massive monster, there were gigantic axes, greatswords, and hammers lying around on the ground for its use. Judging from that, it was clearly a monster that used a wide variety of attacks and didn’t rely only on pure brute strength.

Due to its metallic body, it was resistant to slashing attacks, and it had crushed countless adventurers with its gigantic weapons. This Boss was known as the Elemental Golem.

“Looking at it directly like this, it really is ridiculously large. Just from its appearance, it’s hard to believe that we’ll even be able to damage it at all.” (Lewin)

“I remember when I’d fought it before; it didn’t feel like any of my slashes or blows were having any effect. It was hard to tell whether it was receiving damage or not because its movements were always fixed.” (Rosalie)

“It’s alright. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to damage its tough body, but if we aim at the joints and the core, we’ll be able to damage it.” (Aruna)

“…That’s true. As we’ve seen from the projections and discussed in our strategy meeting, let’s aim for its weak points. Here we go.” (Lewin)

After that, we stepped out onto the square arena. In that instant, the Golem began to move as if a switch had been activated, and it started to stand up.

It had been bigger than me even when it was sitting down, but when it towered over us like this, it gave off an even more intimidating aura.

Now that the Elemental Golem was on its feet, it picked up its axe―and started swinging it around with a mechanical, vibrating hum.

And thus began our battle with the Boss of the 23rd layer, the Elemental Golem.