As they reached the center, a massive figure suddenly dropped from above, slamming into the ground with a thunderous impact.
The explosion that followed rocked the chamber, hurling debris in every direction and choking the air with a thick cloud of dust.
Instinctively, everyone shielded their eyes, bracing themselves as a powerful shockwave surged through the room, its force pressing against them like a tidal wave of raw energy.
A dark silhouette began to emerge from the dust cloud.
"High Winds!"
Wind exploded outward from Shidaken's body in all directions, the dust vanished in an instant.
Standing at the center of the chamber was an humanoid monster. It's chilling presence his long hair hung over it's face like a curtain of shadow, spilling down past its feet in tangled strands.
It radiated a menacing aura, so powerful, it could crush the will of even the bravest warriors.
"Ughh!" Linia gagged and vomited. "We can't defeat this thing… We have to run awa—"
She never finished her sentence. Her head was suddenly flying through the air, landing with a soft thud as her lifeless body collapsed.
Everyone froze their hearts pounding, eyes wide with horror.
The monster now stood before Linia's corpse, licking her blood off its fingers. It turned its face slightly. Though mostly hidden by its long hair, two crimson eyes glared through the strands.
It roared a deafening, guttural sound. The sheer force of it tore the ground around it apart.
"AHHHHHH!" Zhou screamed, bending backward in a leap toward the monster.
But in a blink, the creature appeared before him. It grabbed Zhou's head and hurled him like a rag doll. He crashed through a massive pillar, shattering it like matchsticks.
Dust exploded from the impact.
When the dust cleared, Zhou's lifeless body lay crumpled and soaked in blood.
"What do we do, fin?" Kikio asked, his voice trembling.
"fin! fin!" he shouted again.
"Don't bark like a dog," fin growled, gritting his teeth.
"Shidaken, use Firebolt to distract it. Kikio use your stealth to land a killing blow.
Understood?"
"This is suicide" Shidaken snapped. "My fireball won't work on that thing, and Kikio's attack isn't strong enough to take it down. Distract it instead, and you finish it off, fin."
"Shut up and follow orders. I'm the leader here, understood?" fin shouted.
"Yes…" Kikio nodded. Shidaken only glared at fin with eyes narrowed.
Kikio activated his stealth ability, vanishing from sight as he moved into position behind the monster.
Shidaken raised his hand.
"Firebolt!"
A massive fireball formed and launched toward the beast.
As it hit, Kikio struck from behind, but suddenly, his invisibility was dispelled. His body became fully visible and then, he was sent flying.
His upper half landed before Shidaken, twitching slightly, while the monster held the lower half by the leg like a trophy.
Shidaken stared at Kikio's mutilated body… then turned toward fin.
He looked back at the chamber door.
There, he saw fin running for his life.
A flicker of movement in the dust caught his attention, a shadow sweeping over the ground. Shidaken looked up.
The monster was flying.
It landed on fin, crushing him instantly. Blood splattered everywhere.
The monster turned its gaze toward Shidaken.
He didn't even have time to react. His vision twisted, spinning as if someone had grabbed and turned him like a camera.
His head fell. His body collapsed.
The monster slowly began to turn transparent. Its body disintegrated atom by atom each floating upward and vanishing into thin air.
When it was gone, Shidaken's body stood back up. Still headless, it bent down, picked up its severed head, and reattached it. His wounds regenerated.
Suddenly, the entire lair began to shake violently, dust raining down from the cracked ceiling.
After a few seconds, the shaking stopped.
"…What happened?" Shidaken muttered.
"So the myth was true… the lair doesn't get destroyed when it closes after the boss was defeated. It just opens somewhere else."
He approached the massive iron door and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge.
"Something's wrong," he said.
"High Winds."
Now that a surprise, shidaken said.
With a blast, the door opened. But outside… there was nothing only pitch darkness and purplish space, as if the entire chamber had been transported to another dimension.
"I see… everything's gone. Only the boss chamber remains," he said, glancing around.
The door automatically closed after few seconds.
Shidaken sat down in a meditative pose, resting his chin on one hand.
"I've heard stories… legends of people who cleared many dungeons and lived long enough to see strange ones like this. Maybe it's true some lair, once closed, don't disappear. They just… move."
He closed his eyes, slowed his breath, and began to meditate.
Soon, he sensed it, an overwhelming, dark energy.
His eyes opened.
A curious thought… what if I absorbed this energy? It would be a waste not to try.
He turn his head around look left to right and walked to the center.
With nothing else to do, Shidaken resumed his magic training. Hours passed in focused and intense training. He noticed something unusual.
His progress was faster than ever.
So the boss chamber is rich in EP (magical energy) and the dungeon is still producing it. That means it won't run out anytime soon, he thought.
Days passed. The dungeon never opened again.
Every day, Shidaken checked the door, only to be greeted by the same empty, dark void again.
Seven days… and still no sign of the dungeon reopening. Something's preventing it, he thought.
His eyes widened as realization struck.
The dungeon is producing energy, but for what?
It's… creating another boss monster and since I'm absorbing the energy dungeon produce, That mean the lair won't reopened until I stop absorbing the energy.
That's why it hasn't reopened. It won't open until the next boss is born.
His lips curled into a subtle smirk.
"If the world is offering me this opportunity… I have no reason to decline it."