5.34 – Carnal Boss

A bit dumbly, Leah and her party followed behind the Tenet students as they—with seemingly no concern whatsoever—set off into the sprawling cave mouth. The snow-covered terrain of the dungeon's second-floor forest was quickly replaced with the dark stone of a cave system. Piles of ash covered the floor, alongside decaying bones, the prey of those monstrous wolves that had attacked them.

It didn't take long for those exact beasts to emerge. Where Leah and her team had struggled to defend themselves against their vicious claws and teeth, the Tenet delvers were barely fazed. All five moved with practiced efficiency, making short work of the snarling monsters.

Their tank, Natalie, was especially entrancing to watch. She swung her mountainous warhammer around like it weighed nothing at all, batting wolves wherever stone met flesh, tossing them like ragdolls. Leah almost wondered why this team was even on the second floor. From how fluidly they handled the encounters, couldn't they be on the third?

Were they even level-two delvers, for that matter? Or level three? Higher, even?

Deeper and deeper they winded into the cavern, Leah and her party following behind the Tenet students, the whole situation feeling a bit surreal, watching just how effortless the expedition seemed to them. They barely even needed to catch their breath between fights—as soon as one ended, and they checked that everyone was fine, they continued on.

At one point, the team stopped to mine a vein of iron ore embedded into the cave walls, which Leah had briefly felt like protesting—they didn't know how much time their teammates had—but the complaint dried up, considering the sheer speed they were already working at, and the benevolence of their aid in the first place.

The brief mining break was its own perplexing event, since Jordan had teased Natalie about how she 'should still put her mining skills to good use', and that there was no 'need to be shy', which had drawn a blush from the red-haired girl and some hurried shushing. Leah wondered what all of that was about, and why someone would be shy about mining skills, but she expected she wouldn't be getting any answers.

Soon enough, they arrived at what could only be a boss chamber: an arched doorway with runes inscribed into each stone block. The entrance led deeper into a curved hallway, but they paused outside it.

Leah briefly considered insisting that she and her party help Natalie with the boss encounter since if they failed, it meant their friend's lives were also forfeit. But, again, her argument dried up before she even voiced it. Because if they'd made such short work of the regular monsters of the cavern, the boss monster might pose some difficulty and even incur some injuries in the worst case, but a team wipe? It didn't seem plausible. And the team's one request had been to keep the experience and loot to themselves.

So after briefly conferring with each other, and after Leah passed over the four keys with her teammates' names on them—she suspected they would be found somewhere inside that climactic chamber—she watched the five Tenet students walk, unconcerned, through the arched doorway, headed for a boss fight.

***

Natalie sighed a quick breath of relief as they put the other group of delvers behind her. It had felt pretty weird, being followed around and watched as they cleared the dungeon. Especially considering her state of dress: the total lack of modesty her armor afforded her.

Natalie had known about the possibility of bumping into other people in the dungeon, but still, she wasn't accustomed to the scantily clad armor—much less other people ogling her not-so-subtly in it. Natalie couldn't even really blame them for how many times she had caught them looking. The armor was basically designed to force people's eyes across her body.

She was doubly thankful they hadn't insisted on joining them in the boss chamber, since it would've ruined their goal today. Their use of the [Erotite Arrow]. Obviously, Natalie had no intentions of fucking a boss monster in front of another group of delvers. Even in front of her own team, the idea was rather embarrassing. Though the event with Ana earlier had warmed her up to that particular inevitability, at least.

She set all of those thoughts aside as she strode through the arched entrance. The dungeon was as deadly as ever, and she couldn't afford distractions. Especially when she wasn't fighting for her own team but another one entirely, today.

The four missing individuals worried her. She agreed with Leah's appraisal that the keys probably meant they were alive. But like always, the dungeon couldn't truly be relied upon. They very well might be dead, the keys simply taunting them deeper, however much Natalie had assured them otherwise.

An enormous cavern opened around them as they walked deeper in. Like the rest of the sub-dungeon, bones, ash, and jagged rocks littered their surroundings. A cave-dwelling, a home for the vicious wolves they'd killed so many of.

One structure broke the natural surroundings, positioned directly in their path, a centerpiece of the boss chamber. A throne of carved dark gray stone jutted out at the far end of the cavern. To either side of it sat wolves as least twice as large as any they'd seen so far, with midnight black fur and glowing orange eyes.

Then, the main event itself. Seated in the throne, legs crossed and reclining lazily against the armrest, sat the two wolves' apparent master: a woman with angular, predatory features and orange eyes even more vibrant than her companions'. Humanoid, but far from human, she was half-wolf and half-woman. Her limbs ended with paws for both feet and hands, and her gray skin was covered with black armor. She wore an expression of veiled, predatory excitement, the attention of her orange eyes sharpening on Natalie as she and her party walked deeper into the cavern.

[Hellhound - Lv. 2]

Her status read the same as the actual wolves. That was interesting.

"Jackpot?" Jordan murmured to Natalie. "She's mostly human, at least."

"It's the best we'll get," Natalie murmured back.

They were unsure how the [Erotite Arrow] would work when it came to creating a 'Carnal Boss', but they'd chosen to err on the side of safety. In case it didn't come with any transformation, Natalie would rather not have to fuck a real monster. That would be … weird.

Reaching the center of the cavern, Natalie and her team came to a stop. Neither the two enormous wolves nor the woman on the throne showed any intention to move. Most bosses began the fight themselves—but it seemed this time, they were given a brief moment of calm. The opportunity to act first. Natalie wondered whether that was another signal the dungeon wanted them to hurry up and use the erotite arrow.

"Shall I, then?" Jordan asked.

Natalie eyed the woman and her two wolves for a moment longer. Then, she shrugged.

"Go ahead, I guess."

Jordan eased her bow into her hand, moving slowly and non-threateningly—in case a sudden movement would prompt the fight to begin. She nocked the pink-tipped arrow and pulled the string back, keeping the weapon pointed at the floor.

"However this works," Jordan said. "We're probably going to be down Natalie, while she handles the boss. So it'll be us four against the wolves. I'll take the attention of one, Sofia, you the other?"

Sofia grunted in agreement. "Shouldn't be a problem. The boss is the real challenge. We can handle two add-ons, even if we're suboptimal front liners."

"Then, is everyone ready?"

At a series of nods, Jordan moved. Natalie barely even registered it. Jordan had raised her bow and loosed the arrow before Natalie recognized she had acted.

Jordan, as the team's rogue, had always excelled with matters of finesse and aim. The fragile pink projectile streaked through the air before slamming into the exposed neck of the humanoid boss—a perfect hit, before anyone had time to blink.