Chapter 31: Chapter 31

[Enemy analysis.]

[Fallen Angel, Atsuki. SS-ranked fallen divinity.]

[Warning. You have encountered a SUPER BOSS. Danger!]

 

“Double S ranked, wait, have you guys ever encountered a fallen angel?” I asked.

“We only watched the Lord Ruler and a master magician of a sect team up to fight one,” the hero said. “It was summoned by the Peace Spawner.”

“And only as an experiment as he claimed,” Nuwa said.

“That sounds about right,” the fallen angel said, her voice still upbeat, as she floated down before the party. Wearing a black dress and even matching sandals, she looked like someone attending a party, not someone about to slaughter. No armor, no weapon, just confidence and strange…pressure. “I would know since Ares actually forcefully summoned two of us. One to distract some humans and the other to bind to Lady Wanda’s challenge worlds or what you call dungeons.”

I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to take a chance here. Why? Because not even I stood a chance.

            “If we can unbind you from the dungeon, you’ll get to go home, right?” I inquired. The hero’s party and even Milia looked at me.

            Atsuki’s grin was unfortunately unpleasant. “If I couldn’t break that dreaded binding from the Peace Spawner, then I’m certain not even the hero’s party, that would be you, or…their escorts can. So I accepted the role as dungeon boss sadly. This is supposed to be, what’s that ranking, oh, an A-ranked. It’s just barely strong enough to contain me. I’m a little hurt he didn’t at least stuff me in an S-ranked contraption.”

            “There’s no such thing as an S-ranked dungeon,” Ramon said. “Adventurers make claims all the time.”

            “Are you seriously calling me a liar, child,” Atsuki said, her voice still cheery.

            “Dude, there are S-ranked dungeons,” I deadpanned. “They’re rare and you may have not noticed one.”

I truly understood now why Milia wanted to train before daring to enter the S-ranked dungeon. It may be simply a place meant for the most powerful and master magicians around, adventurers that seek suicide-level challenges. The Axem could probably kick my ass ten ways to the moon.

            “He gets it,” Atsuki said, her eyes glowing brighter. “Now as fun as it is to talk to another being again, I’m afraid the dungeon is calling me to do my job. And being the first dungeon boss to kill the hero will be so much fun, yes?”

I considered devouring a shadow potion, but something about doing that felt wrong. Maybe it was due to the black aura, like some kind of radiation, which oozed from the fallen angel in waves. Like an anime character that’s all powered up and ready to go. It gave me chills. Fallen divinity…

            “You make the first move,” Atsuki said, though she held no stance I recognized. Just casual standing, which meant she was so overpowered, her confidence skyrocketed to the roof.

            “I think waiting for your contact to deliver us the ice crystal in a few months is a better idea,” I told Iris.

            “I agree,” Milia said.

            “Everyone, prepare for a retreat,” I said, not believing the words coming out of my mouth.

Hear me out. I’ve got one spell, can’t use my ace shadow potion, and the hero’s party were either on the verge of crying, making peace with God, looking to beg for their lives or offer me up as a sacrifice in exchange for letting them go. I wouldn’t put it past them. Of course they’d more than likely die to Milia…so yeah, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not that I’m saying they’d actually betray me, I began to understand them a little. One of the realizations that came to me was that they actually didn’t choose to be in the party. Not my problem of course, but everyone could feel slightly bad for someone’s situation every now and then.

Now, I wasn’t expecting everyone, including the fallen angel to be surprised at my words, their eyes wide.

            “What? You’re just going to leave without putting up one last stand before your deaths?” Atsuki said. “As if I’d let you escape. This is a boss area after all. Wanda made it so that you can’t leave easily without defeating me.”
Walls of steel suddenly erected around us hundreds of meters away, but clearly a box-in that maybe I could clear with one leap, but everyone else, Milia aside, would have to climb. Shit.

So much for that. I wasn’t about to leave anyone behind. Also, the fallen angel could just blast me in the back.

            “So much for that,” I said. “Plan B, Ramon put your party leader skills to use. I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to die here.”

Atsuki suddenly laughed. “I like you. Perhaps if you survive, I’ll cage you up and let you be my jester.”

I allowed my aura to leak. “It’s unladylike to call someone a clown.”

My sister and pretty much every woman I knew on earth would probably call me a clown for saying those words. The distracting words still did their job. I sure as shit didn’t have a 1950s view of things.

Ramon seemed to finally snap out of his daze and issued orders to his party members. We all fanned out. Unfortunately, the fallen angel’s eyes were all on me, amused.

I didn’t like that predatory gleam. The feeling of danger screamed at me, warning that torture awaited. But I kept my cool, allowing the professionals to issue orders. After all, my hidden true purpose for partying with them was to learn. Then pass that knowledge to my apprentices.

I pulled out a speed booster and energy potions and tossed them to everyone while the amused fallen angel simply watched. Everyone devoured the liquid. The hero’s party only had moments to be surprised at the immediate effectiveness of them.

            “Hurry, hurry,” Atsuki said. “Before I decide to make the first move. You know who I’m going for first.” She licked her lips.

            “Sorry fallen angel, but he’s already getting married,” Milia said, her greenish aura erupting around her. “And I don’t share.”

Atsuki simply grinned. “Good. I love stealing men from others.”

I glanced at Ramon, urging him to hurry up with his plan while Milia had her distracted. There was a sense of…warmth there knowing that my fiancée had a jealous side of her. But if I ever wanted to get to the damn marriage, we’d have to make it out alive. The hero’s shout started the battle.

            “Ronica, attempt stun! Nuwa, fallen angels are said to have no resistance against holy magic, strike now. Kelvin to the right. Maxus, you know what to do. Iris, keep your distance, fire only strong arrows. Go, go! Nate, Milia, like usual, we will fight head on.”

            “DPS,” I said, feeling like this was the worst spot for me, but since I wanted to make it out alive, I didn’t give the hero’s party shit about it.

We charged Atsuki. The hero was first to bring down his electric sword, only for it to get blocked with a finger. Milia’s mana sword slashed horizontally, but the fallen angel stepped out of its reach barely, smiling at the dryad.

My fists connected to air. My second punch however struck…only a wing that blocked. It felt like punching into a wall or perhaps a pillow stuffed with bricks.

Atsuki used that same wing to block Kelvin’s sword, Iris’s arrows, and Ronica’s magic. She dodged Nuwa’s golden energy balls entirely.

I didn’t miss that.

However, fighting this way, this just wouldn’t do. This strategy felt too simple, something meant for mindless monsters, not sentient super beings. Judging by Milia’s expression, she thought the same thing. The Lord Ruler or whatever master trained them well, but not for everything. Their political bullshit was likely the cause of it. Keep them just where they could not take over.

Atsuki was still grounded, playing with us.

Unhappy with this simplistic plan, I took inspiration from when I first discovered my superstrength and punched the ground, creating a massive crater beneath the fallen angel. The others were teetering on the edge while the surprised boss monster plunged downward. She did flyback up, but I had already motioned for Nuwa to unleash her holy attack.

It connected.

Atsuki actually yelped. “You little bitch. Die!”

Suddenly the fallen angel’s pressure skyrocketed and before we knew it, she manifested a large longbow, with a glowing black arrow pointed at Nuwa. I pushed the shocked healer out of the way, taking the arrow right on my arm.

The pain was awful, but not enough to put me out of the fight. The arrow itself didn’t seem to be real, just made of energy. It dissipated moments later. Blood still oozed a little from the wound that seemed to close at supersonic speeds.

Wanting to get back at this bitch, I aimed a palm at her, but she didn’t stay in place. She flew around and fired arrows, mostly targeting our healer. Everyone had to keep on the move, dodging. When an arrow hit the ground, it released a shockwave of black energy. It didn’t do much to me, but for everyone else that came into contact with it, they were tossed to the side like ragdolls.

            “New potion idea, portable holy bombs or something,” I said.

Thanks to the speed potions, everyone was able to dodge the arrows. Perhaps being so cocky would be the fallen angel’s mistake. But with her massive strength, she could probably get away with this.

One of Milia’s vines caught her leg and actually slammed her against a tree. The hero’s party fired their magic, only to have it slapped away by the fallen angel’s wings. She quickly recovered to dodge Nuwa’s energy ball.

I was on her, fist in motion, with a follow up and more. But not only did she block them all, she countered with a spin kick, throwing me backward who knows far. The distance came to me when I gave a nice friendly back-facing hug of pain with several trees, shattering them upon impact. Dozens of meters.

            “She’s a feisty one,” I said as I burst from the debris. Unfortunately, the fallen angel was waiting for me. I ducked under her punch, countered with an uppercut that did jack shit. “I know you guys aren’t watching me solo a super boss monster.”

I couldn’t just run, nor show my back to the fallen angel, but I did not want to be stuck facing her alone. She was just too fucking strong. Perhaps hallow strong? No, the fragment wasn’t in full and so counting that wouldn’t work.

One of Iris’s arrows actually struck into the fallen angel’s arm while I fought her with everything I had. Mixed martial arts knowledge wasn’t as good as what Milia taught me. But no matter what I did, the fallen angel blocked it and just overpowered me.
I needed to take a risk. So I stomped the ground beneath us, which deepened the crater we already created. I also kicked her wing and to my relief, the fallen angel fell for the same tactic twice. That gave me the time to make a mad dash to the others. Thank you speed and energy potions!

I panted at Milia’s side. “Word of advice to anyone, don’t let her corner you.”

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I downed a potion, motioning for Nuwa not to waste her magic healing me. Even if they had mana potions on their person, the body could only take so much before they suffered poisoning. Great things had limitations.

Arrows suddenly shot out of that hole, landing in random places. The fallen angel was hoping to distract the healer so she could fly out without getting struck. Milia and I protected her, batting away any arrow that got to close. Milia used her mana sword and vines to strike them down. I did it with my bare fists.

            “Be ready, Nuwa,” I said.

Note to self, get my apprentices some training from the hero’s party. No, they may try something. I’m not naïve to believe otherwise.

Everyone else dodged or fought off the arrow shower until they at last stopped. As soon as the fallen angel emerged, Nuwa struck her with a holy blast.

The fallen angel almost fell back in, but clearly enraged, she lunged high into the air, her aura like a black star in the sky.

 

[Super Boss phase 2, prepare. Danger! Danger!]

 

Bosses had phases? Now that’s new to me. The danger prompts didn’t ease my nerves.

            “She’s switching tactics, be ready,” I said.

            “You’ve got one hell of a sharp eye, but that should be expected of a master magician,” Maxus said. He threw two daggers toward the airborne boss creature. At first, I was about to ask did he lose his mind until suddenly, the daggers grew. And grew and grew until they were building-sized.

Although the fallen angel didn’t expect them, she only received a grazing, kicking the daggers aside as if they were simply nuisances. She also punished Maxus by firing an arrow so fast he couldn’t fully dodge it. He let out a yell as it slipped past his breastplate somehow, slamming into his side. Despite vanishing, being made of dark energy, it still opened up a nasty spraying wound into the man.

I acted fast, nearly shoving some potion down his throat before Nuwa lost her focus to heal him.

If the wound wasn’t so wide, Maxus would’ve simply patched it up while still fighting. Unlike me, he didn’t appear to have any natural resistance to the dark magic. In fact, a patch of darkness began to ooze from the now-closed wound and slowly engulfed his pale skin. Either it was poison or some kind of curse. We didn’t have time to ponder as Atsuki suddenly began to gather a lot of magic in her palms.

            “Fuck, I’m not keen on trying to find out what that’s going to be,” I said as I also charged mana into my own hands. It seemed to warp the air around me, lighting up everything in red. Something…was different about my attack, but as the fallen angel unleashed her giant energy ball, I had no choice but to counter it with my dragon magic burst. The two collided and exploded, shaking everything, also unleashing what felt like a shockwave or sonic boom.

But it created the distraction I hoped for Nuwa, thankfully a professional adventurer and not an airhead, fired another holy ball, nailing the baffled fallen angel. True to her being, Atsuki did fall.

However, she was back up in a second.

            “Are you able to heal Maxus?” I asked the healer.

            “I can, but it will take a few seconds,” Nuwa said. “The fallen angel’s pretty angry with me.”

            “We’ll keep her busy, just keep the rogue from dying,” I said. “We’ll need more giant daggers soon.”

Nodding at Milia and the hero’s party, we charged Atsuki. Her cocky attitude from earlier was completely gone, replaced by a cold rage. With brightly glowing eyes, she looked as if she blamed her misfortune solely on me. If that didn’t sound like an ex, I don’t know what does. Thankfully I didn’t have a fallen angel or psycho for an ex in this world, else I’d have to sleep with one eye open. Even if I did, I’d run the risk of it getting stabbed.

Atsuki ripped through Milia’s vines, blocked Kelvin’s ice shards and chilling blasts of ice magic, blocked Ramon’s lightning, dodged Ronica’s pink magic bursts, and eventually her fists collided with mine.

My C-ranked brass knuckles…shattered.

Grinning at the small victory, Atsuki surprised me with an open palm and blast of energy. Not wanting to risk getting poisoned like Maxus, I dropped to the ground, then pulled her leg. The fallen angel became a clutter of wings and fists, which hit nothing, because I wasn’t stupid enough to tangle with death.

I did return her nice gift from earlier with a dragon magic burst. She dodged it, but an upward leap took her right into Nuwa’s holy ball.

Milia finished charging her own golden energy ball and nailed Atsuki with it. It wasn’t exactly holy magic, but somehow, I could sense a divine edge to it. The fallen angel’s screaming meant that it did something.

 

[Atsuki’s darkness shield has shattered!]

 

My eyes widened at the extremely useful prompt. The fallen angel taking notice of her lost protections, began to launch in the air, as if preparing to flee.

            “Maxus, do it,” I said. “Aim up.”

Atsuki slammed right into giant daggers as she tried to take flight. As she fell back, everyone’s attacks were upon her.

Yet, that still wasn’t enough. The fallen angel blocked everything, even my dragon magic burst, then manifesting her bow, began unleashing volley after volley of energy arrows.

            “Iris, counter as many as you can,” I said.

            “I’ll do better than that,” Iris said while charging her magic. I noticed a floating tome beside her. “Arrow storm!”

The rest of the hero’s party also manifested their spell books, not wanting to let the opportunity like this slip out of their grasps. They soon took out the arrows and rained everything they had on the fallen angel.

This time, she couldn’t block everything, and was forced to dodge. However, there needed to be a finisher or eventually the hero’s party would simply run out of mana. Mana potions or not, the fallen angel would capitalize on their moment of weakness.

That’s why I charged her, shrouded in red light that seemed to respond to my anger. Now, I wasn’t a professional fighter and without my brass knuckles, the damage I’d do would be significantly lower.

So I greeted Atsuki with a sneak dragon magic burst. Honestly, I was kind of surprised I managed to get out a house-sized blast, given how drained I felt. The exhaustion bared down on me harder as I delivered death to the fallen angel.

The hole in her stomach, followed by blood pouring from her mouth was the signal I needed. Somehow she still managed to speak.

            “You…divine master magician,” she said. “Next time, I’ll win.”

            “If you think I’m ever coming back in here, you’re crazy,” I said, then fell back on my ass, covered in sweat, panting heavily.

The fallen angel hit the ground and didn’t move. I waited a bit to see if the hero’s party would foolishly try to attack me while I was drained.

I felt not even the slightest intent from them. In fact, Nuwa’s healing struck as she hugged me.

            “If it weren’t for you, we’d be goners,” she said.

            “I don’t think I deserve that much credit,” I said. “You do.”

            “But it was you who took her head-on most of the time,” Nuwa continued, letting me go. She hugged Milia next. “Are you sure you don’t have any more apprentice slots. I’d love to sign up.”

I shook my head and then glanced at the party. They were on their backs panting way heavier than me. They were also much sweatier. Even Milia was sitting down.

A solid gold chest the size of a small electric car appeared in front of us from the burst of a bright white light.

            “Wanda, if you’re hearing this, give me a break,” I said.

The moment of truth awaited as I opened it, surrounded by the others who looked curiously. Milia squeezed my hand, nodding.

            “Please give him the ice crystal,” Ronica said. “He’s earned it a million times over. I’ll forgo all of my rewards.”

            “I’m with her,” Kelvin said.

            “Absolutely,” Iris said. “I was also first for the apprentice list.”

I was not about to take any more apprentices. Just customers and they knew it but decided to mess with me anyway. They had no idea just how close to death they were moments ago. One sign of betrayal and I wouldn’t have shown any mercy.
Thank fuck it didn’t have to end in violence. I’ll give them discounts on some expensive goods instead. Well, maybe not discounts, but we’ll see.

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