Chapter 115: Boss

“You’ve got to protect me!” The grandmaster raised his orb toward three seraphs of Pestilence: one with a halberd, one with a sword, and one with a short spear. The seraphs were smaller than Andrew remembered, but why should he be surprised by any changes now? Their numbers made up for their strength, even more than the originals. Andrew realized that somehow this dungeon had gotten harder since he was last here.

“Kouki! Deal with the one in the middle. Hain and I will deal with the one on the right, while the knights handle the one on the left.”

“No! You’ve got to protect me! Rally to me! If I’m killed, if this orb is damaged, the god of Pestilence will resurrect!” the grandmaster ordered. The knights fell back toward him, bringing the seraph they had kited toward him.

“Guh! Stupid!” Andrew groaned. Dehlia and the others should be enough to guard the grandmaster, but he decided to order all five knights to protect him. Was the grandmaster expecting Andrew to deal with all the boss monsters by himself?

“Andrew! Support!” Two golden glows clashed. Hain was pushed back as he lost the skill clash. Fortunately, he wasn’t wounded. Not yet.

“Shit! How did he become grandmaster?” Andrew yelled, using his spear skill, Vorpal Charge. His spear lunged at the seraph, hitting it dead center—but it did nothing more than annoy it.

The knights worked together, bisecting the seraph that came after them, but without a fire mage, the seraph stitched itself back with its infection. Andrew leaped back with Hain, shifting their style into a defensive formation. He flitted his gaze toward Kouki, his only hope.

Thanks to the Sword of Khine, Kouki was winning against the sword seraph, but the seraph was no brainless monster. It flew about, dodging Kouki’s strikes. Its multiple hands stretched out, grabbing the floor and propelling itself erratically. If not for Kouki’s sword expertise, which had already reached expert level, he would not have survived.

“Argh!!!” Hain groaned as the short spear grazed his flank. Andrew covered him with another spear skill. His spear was longer than the seraph’s, giving him the advantage over Hain’s sword. When the seraph turned toward Andrew, Hain lunged from the side. They had trained together extensively, but there was only so much teamwork could do. Andrew needed more men who could pull their weight. Moments later, the short spear grazed Andrew’s shoulder. He chose evasion instead of engaging in a skill clash.

Green light enveloped both Hain and Andrew, their wounds mending together with life magic from Hou Yi.

“Should I help them?” James muttered as he reached the throne room and hid behind the door. Andrew had asked him not to escalate things with the knight order, but the situation was dire. They were not winning. Unless Kouki could deliver a fatal blow with his flame sword, they would lose. Ralph, Kouki’s dragon, couldn’t help much; if it used its breath, it might hit Kouki or the others. Unlike James, none of them were fireproof.

“Um…” Sanders turned to the knights who defended the grandmaster along with Andrew’s remaining members. The knights had plenty of leeway. James could see a swordsmaster and an archer idling beside the grandmaster, while the paladin and another swordsmaster countered every strike the seraph launched at them. But with infection holding the seraph together, they couldn’t deliver a fatal blow. There were no fire mages on the team besides Sanders. Dehlia could throw some grenades, but most of the ones she brought were frag grenades. Even if she bought fire grenades, it would take several of them to damage the seraph.

“You should help them. Andrew is struggling. I’ll watch from the side until the knights are gone,” James said. Andrew said he didn’t want James to get in conflict with the knights, so he would sit this battle out.

“On it.” Sanders leapt toward Andrew, firing a fireball at the spear seraph. The green angel recoiled in panic, giving Hain and Andrew the much-needed respite. Fire was the sole weakness of these monsters.

Now that Andrew had support, he pressed the attack.

“Sanders! Where is James?” Andrew’s face lit up with hope, only to frown moments later when Sanders told him James would only watch from afar. But he understood his reasoning once he saw how the knights were faring. He could not afford to let the knights divide their forces toward James now.

“He is hiding. He’s afraid the knights might come for him if he steps out now.”

“What the fuck? We need him now!” Hain shouted, exasperated. Andrew turned to the knights around the grandmaster. Anger flared when he saw two knights idling beside the grandmaster.

“Damnit. We just have to make do with what we’ve got! This will be the last time we meet them. Come on, everyone! Don’t let James babysit us. We can do this on our own! Let’s go!” Andrew fired himself up.

Everything was wrong. The knights were supposed to support him, but they were nothing but a hindrance. Andrew had felt indebted to them in the previous playthrough; he wanted to be loyal, to pay them back for all the help in the previous playthrough. But now, he wasn’t so sure. The knights had been an obstacle from the beginning. They had attacked James, ousting him from the team. They had also almost killed Hain.

The blue light from the globe glowed brighter and brighter. The grandmaster might be useless in battle, but he had a reason for bringing the globe of Mystis here. When the spell activated, Mystis’ power would be enhanced, suppressing the influence of the pestilence.

The swordsmaster of Mystis cleaved the seraph for the umpteenth time. Each moment under Mystis’ gaze slowed its healing. The pestilence’s influence was reduced, suppressed, but not gone. Unfortunately, Andrew and the others missed the grandmaster’s plan; he never told them, expecting their blind loyalty to Mystis.

“Rally to me! Just a bit more!” the grandmaster called up to Andrew and the others.

“What the fuck does that pig want?” Hain cursed.

“I know you hate him, but without him, we won’t have the blessings. The infections will kill us,” Andrew said. Thanks to Sanders’ magic, they were slowly dealing damage to the short spear seraph before them.

“Andrew, the monster is acting weird,” Sanders observed, watching the fallen angel.

“Shit! He’s coming for the grandmaster! Don’t let him get away!” Andrew shouted to Hain and Sanders, but his voice didn’t reach Kouki. He was too far away, occupied with the sword seraph. He didn’t realize he had been baited away from the others. The seraph took advantage of this and left him stranded, flying straight toward the grandmaster’s group.

Now the knights had to face two seraphs instead of one. Kouki chased after the fleeing seraph, but he was too slow. The seraph beelined toward the grandmaster. With the paladin focused on the halberd seraph, the sword seraph slipped past their defense line. The swordsmaster knight thrust his sword at it, but the monster just went on.

“Rally to me! Defend me! Arghh!!” A sword pierced the globe and right through the grandmaster’s chest. The glass shattered, and the death throes of a god echoed through the throne room. The blue glow surrounding the knights vanished, leaving them defenseless.

“Shit! The blessing is dispelled!” Andrew cursed. “Fall back! James!!”

“Argh!! Damn it!” Kouki, having caught up with the sword seraph, decapitated it with a sword skill. The monster burst into flames, leaving nothing but ashes. But it was too late—the globe was destroyed, and the blessing had been dispelled.

Without Mystis’ protection, everyone became vulnerable to infection. The halberd seraph reached out with a tentacle. Mere contact sent the knights stumbling, screams echoing as black goo spread from their arms into their heads, taking root.

“Shit!” Kouki lunged with another sword skill from the back, but the seraph blocked it with its halberd. Ralph swooped in, breathing fire on the creature as it tried to envelop Kouki with its black tentacles. Kouki leaped away, fire scorching his clothes and leaving him with third-degree burns.

James looked to his left and right. To his left were Kouki and the rest of the team; to his right, Andrew, Hain, Hou Yi, and Sanders. Who should he save? He had only one body, and they all needed help. James gripped his axe in frustration. He should have come sooner. He could use his fire breath or ice axe—but he had waited at the door like an idiot, just because Andrew told him so. Just because Andrew wanted that knight title.

Ice axe? Suddenly, an idea struck James. Blue motes of light gathered around his axe. He aimed at the spear seraph and hurled it with all his strength. Then he dashed toward Kouki. James leaped using his sword skill, Vorpal Lunge. There were over twenty meters between him and Kouki. His skill fell short of reaching them, but the skill had closed the distance.

The axe reached Andrew’s team first. It plummeted straight into the seraph, which failed to notice it as it was busy chasing Andrew and Hain. It thought it was safe since it wasn’t fire damage. As the axe embedded itself into its flesh, the body froze over.

“Sanders!”

“No need to tell me!” Sanders drew a fireball from his mana pool, forcing more and more mana into it until it grew enormous. The frozen seraph thrashed, trying to free itself from the icy shackle. Shards of ice rained down from its frozen limbs, but it was too late. Sanders brought down the massive fireball. A deafening explosion shook the battlefield as flames consumed its body, burning it like tar.

Meanwhile, James lunged toward the last seraph. Activating his firefur, he cloaked himself in flame. The seraph charged head-on, halberd raised. James parried the strike, golden motes of light gathering on his sword. Upon impact, he was propelled forward, passing the seraph.

Before he could counter, James dropped his sword. Normal weapons were useless against the seraph, so he went close and personal. He had never trained in CQC, but grappling a monster was simple enough when he was a flaming monster.

The seraph roared, tentacles flailing, trying to stab him, only to be burned to a crisp by the intensity of his flames. Its halberd was nothing more than a decoration within moments. The monster roared as it dissolved into a puddle of black goo. James then finished it with his firebreath.

Meanwhile, Kouki braced himself. The burns from Ralph’s fire still stung with every move, but there were monsters he had to finish. The knights and the grandmaster had turned into infected creatures. He had to stop them before the infection fully claimed them.

Kouki slashed relentlessly. His sword skills did the heavy lifting, cutting down three infected knights before they could even lift their weapons. They burst into flames, dying not as knights of Mystis, but as infected horrors. The last remaining knight roared as the infection fully consumed them.

Before Kouki could react, a claw slammed onto him, Kouki countered. Fire engulfed the attacker, its shrieks of pain echoing as its infection burned. The guttural cries created a twisted sense of dread and grim triumph. Ralph, Kouki’s dragon, snorted, satisfied after cooking the remains of the infected knight.

As the battlefield cleared, Andrew winced.

They had won the battle—but at what cost? Everything they had worked for felt in vain. It was a pyrrhic victory. There were no more knights of Mystis left.