Chapter 90: Battle with the Dungeon Boss (2)

And its hp alone… it was more than 10 times greater than the HP of the Cyclops Elite…

At this point, I can only hope that our equipment will give us an edge over the battle… but even then, the fear and awe in my heart remained the same.

Reeflech emerge from underneath the rubble, fully exposing its blackened carapace for all to see. The subterranean was about 2 times larger than the Cyclops elite, but its muscles were more imposing, practically bulging out of its semi translucent skin. There was a dark grey layer of carapace that covered its shoulders and upper thighs.

The monster’s face was like an octopus, with two bulging, almost inflamed eyes, and a beard of wriggling tentacles that were as thick as water bottles. If that wasn’t enough, there were two holes on each side of the Boss’s carapace that constantly emitted out a white colored steam.

And as if the Reeflech wasn’t already intimidating enough, from all around the room, concrete and rubble suddenly exploded upward. The once wriggling sea of debris was upturned and displaced, revealing 7 badly scratched tentacles, interspaced throughout the whole room.

These tentacled did not originate from Reeflech’s main body, but rather, they seemingly popped out of the ground like malicious, grey-colored veins. At its base, each tentacle was as thick as a tree trunk, and continually narrowed as it extended for a total height of 25 meters. 2 of these tentacles had a shelled tip that looked as sharp as it was frightening.

Going by their formation and how they were interspaced throughout the room, there should have been a total of 10 tentacles, but fortunately, 3 of them were directly destroyed by the resulting cave in.

Regardless, all seven of the remaining tentacles shot up from the ground like malevolent specters, ready to pull a devour whatever pray came close. These tentacles raged around haphazardly, flicking debris and slabs of concrete around so violently, that they inadvertently cleared the surroundings free of rubble. At the same time, their awe inspiring violence momentarily stopped the Assault group’s charge forward.

In comparison, Reeflech’s own anger was more subdued. If the tentacles’ wrath was comparable to a sea, then Reeflech’s was like a compressed and sharpened sword.

It stood there, exuding out an aura that could almost suffocate. Its bulging red eyes momentarily scanning the room before they came to rest on the Assault group. It made a noise akin to scoffing before its stomach suddenly started to expand. It took a deep breathe that sent tremors roiling through its beard of tentacles, as its stomach grew larger and larger. At the same time, an ever intensifying red light glowed from the center of its bulging stomach. The red light’s intensity increased the larger and larger its stomach bulged.

Upon seeing this, I inadvertently remembered my time at the passageway. Recalling that violent, superheated column of fire, I immediately began to move.

I leapt through the air, and shot a passing glance towards Kido’s hiding spot. His presence constantly made me uneasy, but I knew that if I did not act now, then Reeflech’s resulting attack would do serious damage to the others. Maybe even completely wiping them out in one go.

<Danger!

You have now entered the territory of the Dungeon Boss - Reeflech, the [cursed] Subterranean. Due to one of the features present in the [Oak Wood High School Dungeon], both parties have been made aware of each other’s presence.

Entrance the Dungeon Boss Territory gives the automatic mental debuff, [Fear]. Within the Dungeon Boss Territory, Reeflech’s abilities have been enhanced by a factor of 1.25 times.

Danger!>

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As I entered the airspace of the refuge, a familiar window panel appeared before my eyes. Unlike last time though, I completely ignored it, hellbent on my assault.

Even before I landed, I immediately pulled out the customized cyclops club from behind me, and used [Shadow Sprint].

My body instantly vanished, and not a moment later, I was suddenly in front of the Boss’s bulging stomach. I twisted my body backwards like a baseball player, before I unleashed all that built up tensions and attacked.

My shoulders heaved, my torso twisted into place, and my arms swung. The club in my hand, zoomed past heated air and hit the Monster directly in its stomach, deforming it to the point where it lost its red luster. From the impact, the Boss’s coughed up heated air, as it stumbled backwards.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kido’s silhouette immediately dart towards the entrance of the passageway, but I could not give chase. A suffocating, and completely terrifying pressure completely weighted down on me, inadvertently causing my knees to slightly buckle.

I focused all my attention on the creature before me. Its blazing eyes did the same, as all of its attention and killing intent drilled into my very being with ruthless intensity.

For the first time I could not move. This was the first time ever since the world changed in which I’ve felt pressure so terrifying. My body refused to act. My legs were locked firmly into place, and for a moment, I could not breath.

For the first time, I truly felt [Fear].

In such a state, I was helpless.

Even as its four fingered hand clenched and rocketed towards me, I could not move much less respond. That blackened fist hit me square in the chest with little resistance, producing an ear deafening sound right before my body shot backwards like a v shaped bullet. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

I flew through the air for a solid 3 seconds, before I fell to the ground and tumbled to an eventual stop.

The moment I did, I immediately heaved in heavy gulps of air. At the same time, I could feel a slight throb in my chest. Surprisingly though, the hit wasn’t as strong as I expected. It left a slight dent in my armor, but unexpectedly, I was fine.

Without a doubt, this was the work of my stacked [Familiarity] bonus from [Equip], which gave a crazy amount of defense. Without it, I would undoubtedly perished from that single strike, or at the very least, been critically injured.

Unfortunately, I could not revel in my momentary luck. Reeflech was undoubtedly angry, and without pause its stomach once again began expanding.

My face turned grim, as I slightly narrowed my eyes to stare at the Boss. Going by its incessance, it was obvious that if it ever did complete that attack’s charge, then without a doubt, the losses would be terrifying.

“Everyone get into formation!” I quickly yelled over the sound of sucking air, as I stood back up. I continually barked out order as I stalked forward.“Prez, you and your group come to the front. Cher you join them. For the mean time, keep the tentacles busy. Hina and Cielle, move back as far as possible, but stay within range. Hina buff the others, including me. Cielle, prepare to provide support.”

Almost instantly, a pleasant feeling enveloped me, and I could feel an instant increase in my attack power and movement speed. Unfortunately, with each passing second, the Boss’s stomach only continually expanded, causing each step I take to hasten.

“Cielle and Hina, try to find somewhere to hide, and stay away from the tentacles. The people from Kido’s group, stick to the Cielle and Hina and protect them.”

They did not have any real use, but they were sturdy enough to survive being temporary meat shields.

After issuing out all my orders, I shot a cold glare towards the direction of the Boss. It’s bulging stomach glowed fiercely as wave after wave of steam continually emitted from the top of its head. With no hesitation, I immediately kicked off the ground and rushed forward.

My body flew passed heated air as the distance between us rapidly diminished, but as I approached, one of its madly wriggling tentacles, slightly contracted before it suddenly bursted forward with energy and struck at me. In response I momentarily bent my knees before they instantly shot forward. My body quickly reached max speed, and my silhouette zoomed through the air. The previous tentacle swiped harmlessly at the space I had previously occupied.

The wooden club in my hand vibrated as I once again struck out towards the Boss’s stomach. It let out a tremendous roar, as its stomach instantly deflated and heated air expelled through its mouth and blow holes.

It shot a furious glare in my direction to which I returned with one of my own. The previous fear and anxiety from before were now completely gone, in its place was cold determination and the confidence I had for the enhancements granted by my [Equip] skill.

Almost simultaneously, the two of us rushed forward. My wooden club held high in the air, while the Boss’s massive blackened fist zoomed forward.

The fight had truly begun.

****

(Perspective Change)

The current battlefield was in complete chaos.

As it all unfolded, the current group was divided into three. On one side, there was Hide, who confronted and fought the main body of the Boss by himself.

His actions were ruthless, and precise. Each step he took was followed by an attack, and each attack was aimed at a vital part of the body. Stab, thrust, slice, pierce, punch, kick - he utilized everything available from his collection of weapons to his own physical body in his attempt to dominate the Dungeon Boss.

Each move he made carried with it a sense of frantic desperation. Hide’s relentlessness was based on his desire to prevent the Boss from fully completing its attack. Every time it took a deep breath, and every time its stomach glowed bright red, Hide’s body would impulsively move forward to interrupt.

Without exception, the battle was filled with both Hide’s tenacity, and the Boss’s frustration.

And as the battle continued, each of Hide’s attacks, from his most insignificant poke to his most ruthless strike, each and everyone one of them began to accumulate.

The Boss’s hp gradually depleted, It dropped by 1%, then to 3 %, 6%, 15 %... Unfortunately, with the Boss’s decrease in HP, Hide’s own stamina depleted at an astounding rate.

The desperate one sided battle between the immovable giant and the persistent rat had turned into a war of attrition, and sooner or later, someone was bound to give in…

Of the three separated groups, the other two worked intimately close with one another. These two groups were naturally the long distance magic group, which consisted of Cielle, Hina, Mindi, and Saya (of which the latter two acted as defenders), and the close combat melee group, which consisted of the President’s group and Cher.

The situation regarding Cher and the President were no lighter than Hide’s.

In fact, in more ways than one, their situation was in actuality, more difficult to deal with than Hide’s. While Hide went to confront the Boss by himself, the others were left facing the remaining tentacles. On Hide’s side, he fought a desperate battle against the black clad subterranean giant, while the others struggled to maintain a foothold against the combined might of seven muscle clad, violently wriggling tentacles.

Each tentacle held within it strength that far surpassed each of them. By no means was it easy to stand up to this current threat, much less retaliate.

These abominable appendages struck fiercely against their armor and bodies, and with each vicious strike they performed, the tentacles seemingly bulged in excitement, as if they had their own consciousness.

When the melee group did retaliate, it did little to change the tide of war. Each strike and each attempted killing blow was met with fierce resistance. In the face of it all, the tentacles simply pulsed violently, as if shaking off any attacks that the others could muster.

Just from the brief exchanges that already took place, it was apparent that each and everyone of these bundles of muscle possessed some form of resistance to blunt damage, completely opposite of the Gilas they faced before.

In addition, the coordination between these seven tentacles far outstripped anything the ragtag group of survivors could produce.

Each strike seemed to purposely lead the group around, opening up and exposing them for even more incoming attacks by neighboring tentacles. This deadly sense of teamwork was truly fierce, and without Cher and the President’s intervention, if these tentacles had even the smallest chance of gaining ground between Hide’s fight with the Boss, then even he will be left with nothing but a battered and broken body.

In this regard, splitting the forces up into two may have been the smartest thing to do, however, with neither side making much progress, the current situation was bleak beyond compare.

The base of the tentacles rumbled, and each tree trunk sized root slowly moved forward from underneath the ground.

These tentacles weren’t directly connected to the Boss, nor did they stay stationary in one spot. In fact, these tentacles had a fatal weakness of only having a 75 meter maximum range. But as if to compensate for that, the base of the tentacle could move around, acting as a sort of movable vine.

If an enemy was 200 meters away, and each tentacle had a range of 75 meters, then it would simply move 125 meters forward to compensate for that. Within the boundaries of the Boss’s lair, each tentacle was virtually free of restraint and nigh inescapable to those unlucky enough to fall into their trap.

It was through this movement, that the melee group was slowly being encircled into a tight net of wriggling muscle. They could do no more than to keep these tentacles occupied while Hide did his absolute damndest to attack.

Luckily, these wriggling tentacles did not possess higher intelligence. They did not know how to prioritize, but acted on a basis of first come first serve. They simply chased the individual or group of individuals that drew their aggro. Without explicit control from the main body, these tentacles would not prioritize and attack Hide.

But even this slight stroke of luck was negligible under the fierce assault of moving muscle.

If it wasn’t for Cielle’s constant healing, then the combat group would have long since died during the first minute of their encounter. In fact, it was because of Cielle, and Hina’s intervention that kept these guys alive.

Cielle’s heals were always a constant blessing to the group, allowing their battered bodies to get back up and resist even more beatings. The odd thing though was that aside from healing, Cielle did not take any further action. The constant flow of [Black Gemini] that resulted from her numerous heals all slowly congregated a mere 20 meters away from her.

This congealed pool of darkness did not move, but simply floated in the air, slowly growing as more and more people cried out in pain around her.

Because of this lack of action, although Cielle was constantly busy, her mana consumption stayed relatively low, allowing her to work faster and more efficiently as the fight progressed. It was to the point where, even with all the new wounds and grievances flowing through the battlefield, she could still spare the time to assist Hide in healing, although for this to happen, Hide had to receive an injury first...

In comparison, Hina’s mana consumption was far greater, but in return her assistance was much more noticeable.

From the moment the battle started, Hina contributions mainly lied in her use buff and support skills. [Haste] increased the group’s movement speed, giving them a far greater chance of avoiding the incoming spears of flesh that fell down on them like heavy rain.

[Fury] allowed each of their blows to deliver almost twice the usual damage, allowing them to, albeit exaggeratedly, exchange steady blows with the wriggling masses of flesh. Its most important factor though wasn’t its actual damage, but the psychological moral boost it gave to the survivors. The concept of stronger attack was a shield in which they hid behind.

[Defense] was a skill that upped their resistance to the attacks, which was especially effective, especially for Cher, whose body was hit almost twice as much as the others.

[Ablative Heal] casted a water shield to form around the melee fighters. The water shield, rather than healing, acted as a dampener and first line of defense against the unexpectedly fierce heat that each strike of the tentacle delivered.

Because of all these skills being simultaneously used, and the need to constantly rebuff her allies, Hina’s mana consumption was great. By the time the battle entered 15 minutes, even with the combined effects of her [Grand Magus] title and [Magic Endurance] stat, Hina had already consumed almost 30% of her total mana.

Meanwhile, as Hide’s own fight dragged on, his stamina consumption actually surpassed Hina’s mana consumption. By now, almost 65% of his total stamina had been depleted, and already he was forced to break out his collection of stamina potions.

Fortunately, his incredible consumption of stamina did not go unrewarded. In these 15 minutes, Hide managed to whittle down 25% of the Boss’s HP.

Panting heavily, Hide instantly jumped back, narrowly avoiding an incoming fist that was aimed square for his head. His feet slid back a meter or two before they came to a complete stop. Hide’s eyes, which could not hide their fatigue, blazed with determination and savage killing intent. A white layer of mist gently wafted from Hide’s exposed skin, which by now, had turned into a shade of flushed red.

Reeflech’s fire affinity was incredible.

It’s body let out a constant stream of heated steam, and each of its fists were not only dense and heavy, but also contained within it a heat hot enough to melt regular metal. Even just getting close to it was enough for one to feel a wave of oppressive and torrential heat.

The heat itself had an adverse affect on Hide. Not only did it cause his face to flush red and his hair to moisten with sweat, it also increased his stamina consumption by almost two fold. For a person like Hide, whose skills all relied on stamina as their driving force, this determinant was by no means light.

As Hide casually pondered this, he forcibly slowed his irregular breathing as he shot another glare at the Boss. His eyes focused in on a recent wound he had inflicted- A knife wound that ran 7 inches deep and had on a constant [Bleeding Effect]. This wound had been inflicted through the use of [Dissect], and it consumed no small amount of Hide’s meager stamina.

Despite this though, deep within Hide’s eyes flickered a faint trace of hope. In actuality, Hide’s gaze wasn’t focused on Reeflech itself, but rather, on the window panel that floated above him.

25%!

Ignoring all the sweat and blood he lost, ignoring the mind numbing fatigue that slowly crept up within his mind, through tenacity and pure effort alone, Hide had managed to deplete close to 25% of its HP down. This achievement was by no means light. 25% represented a fourth of the Boss’s total hp, and that one fourth only took 15 minutes of combat.

At his current rate, it would take as little as an hour for Hide to completely kill the Boss. This feeling of anticipation filled Hide’s heart with a newfound sense of vigor, and it brightened up his already flushed expression.

Hide once again tightened his grip on the two weapons he currently held in his hand. One one hand was his customized boken, cracks and splinters were already appearing on its once sleek surface, but Hide did not have the luxury of repairing it at the current moment. On the other hand, was his trusty obsidian colored dagger, [Efhermet], it’s surface gleaming with a faint trace of red.

Aside from these two weapons, Hide also carried with him an assortment of knives and daggers strapped to his modified utility belt. In addition, behind him was a black long sword, which he had decided to bring along just in case.

Hide could not bring the Pole Arm nor the Giant battle axe mainly because of his role within the infiltration group. Those two weapons were simply too large in stature to bring along on a stealth mission.

As he tightened his grip, Hide bent his knees in preparation. Just as he was about to push of the ground and renew his relentless assault, an inexplicable feeling of danger overwhelmed Hide’s mind. Without warning, he instantly threw himself to the ground. In the process, he felt heated air rush past, its ephemeral tendrils slightly touching his back.

Hide glanced behind him, only to see one particularly muscled tentacle had approached within range and was slowly making its way closer and closer. Looking past the base of the tentacle, he could see the others, but inexplicably, they were caught in what looked like a cage of muscle. The group, outside of Cielle and Hina, were surrounded from the front by six individual wriggling masses of muscle.

Hide could see the look of helplessness written on their faces, but he could not do anything about it as the tentacle swiped at him once more. Hide did not jump back, instead choosing to slightly dip his upper body to the right. The tentacle missed by a hair’s breadth before it started recoiling back to its base.

But Hide was not so kind as to leave behind an opening such as this. As the tentacle returned, Hide fiercely stabbed his dagger into its surface, penetrating deeply. The tentacle continued moving, leaving behind a deep gash that stretched 10 meters and ran all the way to its tip.

By the time Hide pulled his blade out, its night clad surface was coated in a thick film of red.

Hide looked at the wriggling piece of muscle before he used his skill and began to [Identify] it.

<Reeflech, the [Cursed] Subterranean

HP: 196/200>

Unlike his first encounter, when Hide used his skill on the tentacle, the window panel displayed its HP. Surprisingly, the tentacle itself had very little hp, but what gave Hide a shock, was that the 7 inch deep, 10 meter long wound he had inflicted earlier only depleted 4 HP from it.

“Why is it so low?”, he inadvertently thought. “Does this tentacle have an insanely high defense? Not even the main body is this sturdy… could it be because of something else? Another factor that affects its HP loss?”

As thoughts and ideas raced through Hide’s mind, he did not have the luxury to fully appreciate them as the tentacle, and simultaneously, the main body of the Boss moved into action.

The tentacle shot forward, and almost instinctively, Hide rolled to dodge. Surprisingly though, the tentacle had not been aimed at him. Its original target was the hulking mass of flesh that came barrelling forward from a distance of 20 meters.

The pointed tip of the tentacle viciously penetrated the Boss’s right shoulder without any resistance. It drilled deeply into its flesh, while viscous red liquid slowly seeped out from the edges of the newly formed wound.

Much less dodge, the Boss itself accepted the tentacle with open arms, even going as far as unconsciously letting out a pleasure filled groan as the tentacle repeatedly dug itself deeper and deeper into its body.

Seeing all this, Hide’s expression twisted into confusion, before it suddenly paled. His eyes were not focused on the Boss or the tentacle themselves, but rather on the window panel that floated above the Boss’s head.

“75%...77%... 82%... 90! This thing, it’s regenerating!” With a grimace, Hide moved his body into action as he desperately ran in an attempt to stop the current scene that displayed itself in front of his helpless eyes from happening.

All the hp, all the blood and sweat he shedded, all of the painstaking effort he put in into whittling the Boss’s HP down was suddenly gone, reversed and restored in the span of less than 10 seconds.

The tentacle continually funneled its life force into the Boss’s shivering body. As it did so, the Boss’s hp rapidly shot up, while in comparison, the tentacle, starting from its base, began thinning. Soon, the once tree trunk thick base, was now only as wide as a fully grown man’s thigh.

Of course, Hide, who desperately moved to stop all of this from happening, saw this rapid change through the corner of his eye, but his mind was to feverish to care. Right now, all of Hide’s actions, all of his thoughts and all of his intentions, were solely focused on stopping the Boss from regenerating its hp.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Although Hide moved fast, almost to the point of leaving behind after images, he could not stop the current process from unfolding. By the time he arrived at the tentacle, over 95% of Reeflech’s hp had been regenerated. By the time Hide swung his sword, it was back to full health.

It’s hp regenerated at an outstanding rate, and Hide was powerless to stop it.

The instant Hide’s blade met with the tentacle’s surface, the tip of it instantly jutted out from the Boss’s once pierced body. In that instant, the tentacle seemingly contracted within itself, and although it was powerless to fully block Hide’s [Dissect] fueled slash, it did manage to prevent Hide from fully bisecting the tentacle from its base.

Hide’s blade had been stopped almost halfway, and for a brief moment, his sword remained stuck within the folds of its muscular frame. This brief moment was all the tentacle needed. Although it had shrunk beyond measure, the tentacle itself still retained its original fierceness.

The tentacle exploded out with energy, as rapidly started to close in on itself. Its tendril attempted to encircle Hide’s arm, but with a snort, and a rapid shake of his hand, he parted his sword away from the tentacle, and rapidly drew back.

Spurred by a sudden feeling of caution, he immediately jumped back, but the tentacle fervently persisted. It followed him closely, and with a boom, like a whip, the thin tentacle lashed out and surged forward. Hide leaned his head back and barely dodged the incoming strike by a hair’s breadth.

The tentacle was relentless though. Even after missing its first strike, it repeatedly lashed out several time. In between all this, Hide frantically dodged, his body almost matching in step with the violent heated air that the tentacle seemingly stirred up.

As he dodged, Hide fully understood, that, despite still retaining its speed, the tentacle was much weaker than it previously was before. It simply did not carry the same weight or the same sense of danger from before.

Although Hide understood this, he could not spare even a single moment to rest.

The tentacle’s fierce assault and pursuit was merely a distraction. As Hide shot a glance towards the still stationary Boss, he could see that its stomach was expanding and a faint red glow began to emit from deep within its gut.

Seeing this, Hide could not help but grimace. Deep within his mind, he could not help but comment on the tentacle and the main body’s sense of teamwork. Together it was simply too amazing. If Hide had fought alone and had to face all seven tentacles, in addition to the main body… he shuddered at the mere thought.

The Boss’s stomach had almost expanded beyond unprecedented levels. Although it meant wasting his precious stamina, Hide was left with no choice but to use [Shadow Sprint].

Once he made this decision, Hide’s body almost flickered out of existence, and instantaneously, he reappeared directly in front of the Boss. Hide did not even bother to raise his weapon to attack. Instead, with primal ferocity, he roared as he jabbed his foot straight into the Boss’s gut. The kick sank almost a foot or two deep into its stomach, while the Boss took an involuntary step back.

All the built up pressure and heat that it had been accumulating all came out in disruptive bursts through its agape jaw and through the two holes on top of its head. It was clear that this time, its attack had come dangerously close to completion. The beginning forms of super heated fire shot out from its mouth in weak spurts.

But while it remained incomplete, just the byproduct of heat that it emanated was enough for Hide to fully understand its destructive capabilities.

And although Hide did manage to interrupt its attack, something else he observed from the corner of his eye caused him to pale in frustration.

Throughout his brief exchange with the boss, the slimmed down tentacle monopolized on this opportunity to act. But instead of retaliating toward Hide, it did something much, much worse.

As the fight between the Boss and the survivors progressed, slowly but surely, the remnants of the horde had gathered around the edges of the three holes on the upper floors. When Hide first saw this, his heart raced in foreboding. If these things were to jump down and participate in the current battle, then the group’s chances of success would have drastically diminished.

While outside of Hide’s original expectations though, fortunately enough, the monsters that numbered close to 200 did not attack. Much less move, they simply stood, gathering on the edges of the holes on the upper floors above them. While the sight of such a large congregation of monsters was truly intimidating, they did not attack, which only served to further confuse Hide, and left him wondering why exactly had they gathered?

Right now, this question was fully answered.

The thin tentacle shot up straight into the sky and zoomed towards the hundred masses of monsters that gathered on the 1st floor. It barreled straight towards a particular beast- a minotaur that looked almost twice as big as usual.

The Minotaur, who saw the approaching tentacle shivered in fear, its body quaking uncontrollably. Despite its obvious reaction, the Minotaur did not move, or rather, it could not move. An invisible force like the one that held the rest of the horde in place, kept the Minotaur from moving, practically turning it into a living statue of violently trembling muscle.

Without much fanfare, the tentacle pierced straight into the Minotaur’s stomach. It was at this point, that the Minotaur bellowed in pain. As if the spell had been broken, it fiercely roared and its limbs started to spasm in protest. Unfortunately, by this point, it was all a fruitless effort.

The tentacle began to constrict around the struggling Minotaur, as its tip continually drilled deeper into its flesh. By this point, the tentacle held the Minotaur loftily up into the air, its tendril slowly but surely pulling it down into the refuge below.

The Minotaur’s complexion slowly darkens while its body physically thins. Like a juice box being completely drained of its juice, the minotaur slowly shrivels up. Eventually, those undulating screams from before die down into a whimper, as the monster continually shrivels.

At the same time, the once thin tentacle regains some of its vitality. Its trunk continually expand while the gloss on its surface shines with life. Even the wounds that littered its body slowly closed up as the Minotaur’s life essence drained.

After 10 seconds, the Minotaur has withered to less than twice its original size. It was thoroughly dead, and it's once 3 meter tall carcass lifelessly dropped to the floor with a despondent thud.

The tentacle seemingly shivered in excitement. It now had the thickness of an oil barrel, but it was far from its original size. With gluttony and greed as its driving force, the tentacle once again shot up into the sky. 2 more monsters were drained and killed the same way before the tentacle completely thickened to its original size… no, in actuality, it was now slightly larger than before, and its tip was slightly sharper as well.

Hide, who saw all this while evading Reeflech’s heated fists, had a cold grimace plastered onto his face. He finally realized why the monsters had gathered but had not joined in on the battle. The Dungeon Boss had complete control over them, and he had no intention of letting them attack.

To the boss, these things were subordinates nor were they an actual fighting force for him to maneuver. Whether it be due to pride, or preference, Reeflech treated these things as mere commodities. To the boss, the 200-300+ horde were just simply extra health potions. The horde itself probably realized this fact, but they could do nothing to escape. Their uncontrollable shivering and their hollow howls of despair was a clear enough indicator of the fear and anguish that swept through their numbers.

Despite that though, they could not run away, much less retaliate. The invisible force that compelled them to stay was too strong. The Boss's control over the dungeon and its inhabitants was simply too great.

While this sudden realization brought a damper to the situation, it wasn’t like everything was completely hopeless. For one thing, the Boss’s vitality drain and transfer had an obvious limitation. Hide, who saw the same scene repeated itself in front of his eyes at least three times, came to this obvious realization in a heartbeat.

The tentacles were probably vulnerable when they drained. This was apparent by the fact that the tentacle only shot up to the sky to regain its luster after Hide became preoccupied with the main body. In addition, the tentacles did not use this method of vitality drain on the survivors within the refuge. This either meant that the tentacles were too cautious to use such a vulnerable attack on its enemies, or they simply could not use that sort of method to retaliate.

Hide who realized all these weaknesses, regained some of his earlier confidence, but in the end, that did not stop the current situation from occurring.

Even knowing what he did know, he could not stop the tentacle from thickening. If he separated to attack it, the Boss would gain the opportunity to charge its damnable attack. Hide, who had only experienced a mere fraction of this attack a few weeks ago, had subconsciously placed preventing it as his top priority.

At the same time, the more he tried to interrupt the Boss, the more it would restore its vitality. To Hide, this was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. And even with all this floating in the back of his mind, he knew that this wasn’t the worst of his current situation. As long as those tentacles existed, the Boss would never die.

Unless he is able to destroy every single one of the tentacles, this fight will be pointless. With the total amount of monsters above them taken into effect, then the Boss virtually had an unlimited amount of HP.

Hide knew, he bitterly knew that the most crucial thing to do was to kill of all the tentacles first before attacking the main body. Right now, apart from the one tentacle that greedily sucked in the vitality of the surrounding monsters, there were six others.

Those six were currently being confronted by the others, but up until this point, their progress was negligible. Of course, for Hide who had basically wasted the last 20 minutes all for the Boss to regain all of its HP back, could not say anything to them. The fact of the matter was, their current situation was really shitty.

Behind Cher and the President’s group, were Hina and Cielle who acted as support throughout the duration of the battle. Cielle was probably the most busy out of the two. She stretched herself thin in order to compensate as the group’s sole healer.

A constant influx of [Blue Gemini] constantly seeped out from her open hands and flew towards the battlefield. At the same time, there was a steady stream of [Black Gemini] that was continuously expelled out from the pores of the survivors who were in mid combat. Controlling this myriad of blue and black took a considerable toll on Cielle’s mind.

In addition, while the swirls of blue constantly flittered in between Cher and the others, the haphazardly floating pieces of black coalesced and gathered in the middle of the room. It formed a giant floating orb of darkness. It was three times as big as a basketball, and it released such a baleful aura to the point where, even though the tentacles did not necessarily feel pain, they still avoided it with unhindered prejudice.

Just from this scene alone, it was apparent that Cielle was building up her fighting strength all in order to prepare for a counterattack, but with the maintenance of the orb, plus the constant supply of [Blue Gemini], all of these factors combined produced a tremendous strain on her mind.

Her skin had become white as paper, her whole body trembled, while a dribble of blood slowly flowed out from one of Cielle’s nostrils. All in all, only 20 minutes had passed, but already, Cielle had used up 45% of her total mana.