4.28 – Prismatic Stalker

Fortunately, she wasn't ambushed. She collected her payload of erotite—given a decent bonus for utilizing [Risky Excavation]—then dressed herself without problem. The expedition continued.

Natalie and her team worked through the polished marble and glass hallways of the underground labyrinth, slowly racking up kills and monster cores. Eventually, they reached a dead end and backtracked to the original room.

"Should we try the golden door, now?" Sofia asked.

"Could be a boss," Jordan said. "Or a mini-boss. We're ready for that?"

Natalie adjusted her grip on her hammer, appraising the shining metallic doors. "Honestly, I'd say we're in better shape for this one than the others." Geared up and with significant power spikes from progressing to level two, the boss might be comparatively weaker than the ones they'd fought earlier. Though she doubted it would be trivial. No boss fight was easy.

The party looked at each other, then nodded.

"Gold door, then," Natalie said.

They climbed the staircase onto the platform where the doors stood. Resting her hammer on her shoulder, she eased it open and peeked in.

"That's definitely a boss room," Natalie said.

Inside was a grand chamber made of the same polished materials as the rest of the labyrinth. Notably, though, thirteen mirrors splayed out in a circle, surrounding the room. There didn't seem to be another exit. Not a series of hallways and rooms like the wooden door—this golden door led to a single encounter.

"Maybe a mini-boss," Natalie said. "But if I had to guess, a full one."

"Everyone's ready?" Sofia asked.

The party agreed.

Natalie entered first, with the others slipping in after her. Having the encounter seal itself off with only a portion of the team inside would be disastrous, so they didn't dawdle.

"The mirrors mean something," Liz murmured. "Keep that in mind."

Natalie nodded. It was obvious enough. Like the patches of dirt for the dryad, which had acted as safe zones. Boss rooms often had some environmental factor. Natalie wasn't sure how the mirrors would come into play, but she would keep an eye on them.

There wasn't much to say, so Natalie advanced, hammer held at the ready. In preparation, Liz suffused her with the empowering buff, and that familiar wash of energy surged through her.

Entering the room, a glimpse of movement in her peripheral caught her eye. She spun, but saw only a mirror reflecting back what it should: her, with her weapon held at the ready. She hesitated. Had she imagined it? And if she hadn't—then had it come from the mirror itself, or behind it?

A second flash of movement made her spin the other way.

"Did you see that?" Sofia asked.

"If I had to guess," Natalie said, eyes darting across the room, "it's the boss."

"Inside the mirrors?" Sofia asked.

"That's what it seems—"

The shadow reappeared, and Natalie's gaze snapped to it. A hulking beast ripped out of the furthest mirror from her—the one positioned in the back of the room, closest to Liz and Ana. Natalie reacted by instinct: grunting with exertion, she hurled her hammer.

Through some miracle—since Natalie didn't have the best aim, much less when the projectile was a giant warhammer—her weapon hit the crystalline beast lunging from the mirror square in the jaw, just as it arrived at Liz. The huge stone projectile smashed into it, and the sound of splintering glass filled the air, as did a loud yelp.

The beast, deflected by the enormous projectile, veered away, momentum diverted. The bulk of the beast caught Liz on the shoulder as it passed, though, but its snapping jaws missed her. Liz, small and with little to no physical strength, went tumbling anyway. Her wand skittered across the floor, ripped from her hands.

[Prismatic Stalker - Lv. 2]

A wolf. Natalie spared a fraction of a second to identify what they were up against. A huge, six-foot- tall, twelve-foot-long, sleek, alien beast vaguely resembling a wolf. It was made up, like many of the creatures they'd found on this floor, of interlocking geometric shapes of glass, approximating a blocky sculpture. Where most of the monsters prior were clear and see-through, the wolf had glints of prismatic colors shimmering across its body. If she hadn't known the monster was a boss before, its elegant, sparkling composition made it clear. This thing was clearly stronger than the regular mobs they'd been fighting earlier.

Natalie's frantic hammer throw was enough to save Liz, but not stagger the beast. The wolf stood, shook its head to clear its disorientation, then faced Natalie and let loose a hair-raising growl. She had, at least, saved her healer and drawn the boss's attention—her job as the tank. But she also didn't have a weapon, now. Nor a shield. Her eyes flicked to her hammer, which lay a fair distance away, in the direction of the wolf.

Well.

Not a great start.

At least Liz was fine.

The wolf rushed forward, and the fight began in earnest. Natalie scrambled for her hammer, at the same time conjuring an [Illusion]—since, disarmed, magic was all she had. The rest of the team sprung into action too. Liz rushed for her wand, trying to re-arm herself just like Natalie.

Her illusion took hold, and it successfully distracted the [Prismatic Stalker]. It was one of Natalie's larger, but less elegant, creations, a mirage of her entire body scrambling toward her hammer, but placed several feet ahead of her. The wolf rushed for it, passing through the illusion, and Natalie skidded the last few feet, scooping up her two-handed hammer.

The wolf, realizing it had been fooled, kept its momentum—choosing to ignore Natalie rather than spin around. It went for easier prey. In this case, Jordan, who had been edging in from the side for a sneak attack.

Natalie cursed and scrambled forward, working up her hammer's momentum as she traveled, overriding her instinct to make a mad dash to save Jordan. That was the downside of delving with friends, much less—well, whatever she and Jordan were. Trusting that Jordan could take care of herself was difficult, regardless that she knew Jordan was more than competent.

Jordan weaved between rapid slashes of the beast's claws, then side-stepped a vicious lunge. Natalie arrived in the next moment, eager to take the monster's attention back through a vicious attack of her own. The gigantic stone block of her hammer crashed into crystal, and her arms reverberated with the impact, all of the momentum she had been gathering as she charged forward coming to an abrupt stop. The force behind the blow rattled both of them—Natalie, whose arms ached from the impact, and the wolf, who staggered away.

But this was a boss, so even a direct hit couldn't do that much damage. Shards of splintered prismatic glass flew away, leaving an indent in its rib cage, but the attack was far from a finisher. The beast snarled and turned on her, delivering a flurry of slashing claws. Lacking a shield, or an easy way to dodge, Natalie activated [Hunker Down]. The wolf's claws slammed into her, but instead of scoring gouges across her armor, came to an abrupt stop. She held [Hunker Down] for the full duration, the wolf growling in agitation as it failed to scratch her. With the opening her defensive ability brought, her teammate's own attacks finally crashed into the creature—daggers, a rapier, and ribbons of black energy.

Snarling, the wolf leaped backward, putting space between them. Then—to Natalie's surprise—turned and sprinted away, deeper into the arena.

Headed for one of the mirrors?

The monster had come out of one, Natalie realized. So why couldn't it go back in?

And what else?

The giant beast disappeared as it soared seamlessly into the glass, and Natalie understood at the same moment as Sofia. As the entirety of the team did.

"Behind us!" Sofia shouted, spinning to face their backline.

Exactly as the fight had begun, the wolf leaped through the mirror closest to Liz and Ana, having used the glass to teleport across the arena. Natalie finally understood the gimmick of the fight—the purpose of the mirrors. And it was devastating. Healers and mages oftentimes couldn't face off against even normal monsters. Jordan might be able to briefly hold her own, but Liz? Ana?

And this time, Natalie wasn't close enough to intervene—not even with a lucky hammer throw. Even with the team's quick reactions, nobody could save Liz as the giant beast crashed into her, gigantic crystal jaw latching around her torso.