Stella heals the rest of us in the minute and a half that we have left before the final wave spawns. Daniel only had some light damage, and my worst wounds were just some small fractures. Stella is able to quickly get us back into top shape for the final fight of this dungeon.
Right at the fifty-five-minute mark, another clawed foot appears from the fog, the beast it’s attached to following shortly after. It’s another oversized lizard, the biggest yet, and only a single one. It stands about twenty feet tall and looks like a mix between a velociraptor and a T-rex. It’s not quite as bulky and big as a T-rex, but definitely bigger and more muscular than the raptors have been. The mana I feel near its belly and mouth leaves no doubt that it’s a fire breather just like its kin.
As soon as it fully exits the fog wall, its long tail the last part to enter the cavern, it lets out a loud and deep roar, breathing out a stream of fire that reaches almost thirty feet before dissipating. The flames light up the beast for just a few seconds, letting me [Inspect] it.
[Level 55 Flame-Breath Tyrant]
Daniel turns to look at me expectantly, several of his metal projectiles in his hand. “Would you mind opening a few rifts? Might as well soften the big guy up a little bit before he gets here.”
I quickly scan the tyrant, looking for any obvious weak points in its scales. I don’t really know what I’m looking for, so I just end up deciding to send the first one center mass to see if it can even hold up to the shot.
I create the rifts just as I always do, giving Daniel the familiar command as soon as my part is done. “Fire.”
The first projectile, a finned dart about six inches long, shoots off from Daniel's hand and into my rift with the crack of an object breaking the speed barrier. It passes through the rift and flies about forty feet or so into the chest of the beast, hitting dead center. The dart slams into the beast, causing it to stumble slightly before righting itself. The ping of the dart hitting the floor tells me that there was no penetration, but I still quickly check for damage. It looks like a few scales are cracked, but there’s no real damage. It seems to have pissed it off more than anything. The beast lets out another roar and continues its march towards us, the cavern shaking with each step the monster takes.
“Well, that didn’t work out very well, but I have another, better idea now.” Daniel says as he takes one of the projectiles in his hand and starts modifying it.
“You should implement it quickly. We don’t have much time before the fighting really starts.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth.” He tosses me the projectile he was fiddling with, a dart just like the previous one but without a tip. Instead, the end is slightly hollow. “Use your mana to give it a tip just like the javelin you launched earlier, something with high penetration.”
“Good idea.” I say as the beast steps closer, causing Corvax to turn on his rage and Stella to change her stance slightly, ready to move at any moment.
I push out some mana and fill the hollow section at the end of the dart, finding little grooves that lock the mana into place. I form a cone right at the end and use [Concentration] to push more mana into it, and then I start sharpening the tip, bringing it to a fineness that is only possible with mana. I doubt any object on Earth has ever been as sharp and pointy as this dart.
Once the beast is about forty feet away, it stops and looks at us, sizing us up with its reptilian eyes. At this distance I can make out more details on the beast, like its deep red scales, barbed tail, and teeth the size of small swords. Every bit of this creature lives up to my childhood fantasy of seeing a real dinosaur, and a small smile forms on my lips.
Corvax, who is literally shaking with anticipation, probably due to his rage skill, decides that he has been patient enough and charges forward, straight into the beast. Upon seeing this, the tyrant opens its mouth slightly, and I feel mana start to build up inside. Corvax, on the other hand, either has no idea or, more likely, just doesn’t care about being roasted again. I’m pretty sure he’d survive another flame bath, but now’s not the time to find out.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I start forming three rifts, one in front of Corvax and two on either side of the tyrant. It quickly notices my mana forming rifts nearby, and its tail swishes out to dissipate the one on its left side while it still readies its flames for the giant running straight towards it. Just as it releases its breath attack, I connect the two remaining rifts together, stabilizing them into portals and allowing Corvax to suddenly appear right next to the beast, clear of the flames.
Corvax never stops his sprint and readies his axe for a big swing as he closes in, the spatial edge enchantment already on and waiting to get a taste of blood. His axe bites into the side of the beast, sinking probably eight inches deep at its deepest, and causing the beast to recoil in surprise and swing its tail around to swipe at Corvax. The tail comes faster than he can react to and catches him in the side with a powerful swing, sending him sprawling fifteen feet away and causing the axe to rip free with a spray of blood.
Daniel starts aiming a projectile at the tyrant, probably trying to distract it before it can focus on Corvax again, but Stella beats him to the chase, taking advantage of the distraction Corvax caused. I can see now that she’s easily the fastest of us as she nimbly moves toward the beast from its blind spot with her hammer ready for a surprise blow. Instead of going for a blow somewhere potentially lethal, which would probably fail anyway due to the toughness of the scales, she decides to smash her hammer down directly on the foot of the beast, its left foot to be specific. The hammer connects with the crack of bone and scale, the smile on Stella’s face only slightly worrying.
The beast lets out a surprised roar of pain at the sneak attack and tries to chomp down on Stella, but she’s already backed away, out of the beast's range with a few leaping steps. At this point, I finally finish the point on Daniel’s dart and hand it back to him. He looks at me and gives me a nod.
I start creating another few rifts, lining up the shot to hopefully kill it in one blow. I'm fairly confident that this dart should be able to at least get past the scales. If the javelin could go through three entire lizards, then this one should be able to get into one big one, right? Eh, it works or it doesn’t. Nothing new there.
“Fire.” I say, just as the tyrant steps into place and the shot lines up. I’m planning on hitting the upper chest and neck area while it’s distracted on the other two. Daniel launches the shot, and it rips free, flying true on its way to our target.
The tyrant reacts almost instantly, its tail flicking out faster than I can track, getting in the way of the projectile before it can find its target. The dart impacts the tail, about five feet from the tip, and does its job perfectly. The last five or so feet of the tail get blown off by the dart as it pierces the scales before the kinetic energy of the dart blows through the weakened section. The dart is knocked off course after that, but it still managed to do plenty of damage.
Daniel tosses me another modified dart, and I get to work on creating another tip. The beast lets out another ear-deafening roar and then turns its attention towards Daniel and me, rage and hatred in its eyes.
“Hey, does it look super pissed off to you, or is that just me?” Daniel asks rhetorically.
“Yeah, this thing’s no stupid animal. It knows we just did that.” I say as I start working on a portal while simultaneously making the dart tip and also paying attention to everyone in the cavern just in case I need to help out somewhere.
The tyrant starts charging towards us, only slowed slightly by its wounds so far, with more mana building up inside of it, a clear sign of what it intends to do. I open up a portal right next to Daniel and tackle him through just as the creature's flames start to spew from its maw in our direction. It isn’t until after I get up that I realize my mistake. The flames' target was never us, but the obelisk instead. The stone protection around the crystal pillar is slowly melting under the heat of the flames, and I have no idea how long it will last.
I push my mind to its limits with [Concentration] to create three portals all at the same time. One for Daniel and me, one for Stella, and the last for Corvax, all bringing us behind the beast as it bathes the obelisk in flame. I also make a new addition to the dart, adding a spatial edge to the very tip, anchored to and feeding off the mana in the tip of the dart. It’s a hastily created enchantment made entirely out of mana, but it should work. I feel
I toss the dart to Daniel and tell him to make it count as Corvax, Stella, and I all move in on the beast. Corvax is the first to reach the tyrant and swings his axe with all the strength he can muster, driving it into the back of the right leg. The beast stumbles but continues spraying flames into the stone, almost halfway through. The intensity of the flames keeps rising as it releases more and more. It’s almost like it’s putting everything it has into burning through this stone.
Stella and I reach the beast at the same time and attack simultaneously. My sword sinks into the beast's lower back as Stella’s hammer smashes down on its other foot, breaking it as well, but the beast still focuses on the obelisk. It knows that’s the win condition. Does it not think it can kill us?
Just as the beast's flames are about to break through the stone barrier around the obelisk, I feel a burst of mana from Daniel and notice him lining up his shot. A moment later the dart with my spatial edge launches toward our target, hitting it in the middle lower back and completely entering the beast.
In the moment after the dart pierces the beast’s internal organs, right where the concentration of mana is the highest, I feel a massive surge of fire mana from inside the beast but get no time to react as a massive wave of flame rips the beast apart from the inside and washes over me in a split second. I try and buy myself time by expanding the space all around me, giving myself a bit more time to react, but it’s only enough to allow me to move some mana internally, bracing myself for what comes next. I let out an agonizing scream as the flames bathe me in searing heat, the following shockwave causing me to crash to the floor and black out just as I get a notification.
[You have completed the dungeon]