A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night
Chapter 119 119: The lavalight dungeon (2/3)

Up ahead, Shiera was no longer holding back.

Her sword spun in sweeping arcs, carving through 5-Tier and 6-Tier flame skeleton warriors with terrifying precision. Heads rolled and limbs flew in every direction.

Archers in the distance barely had time to nock arrows before she was on them, cutting down three in a single breath.

"Too slow," she hissed, kicking the last archer's remains into the lava.

"Too weak."

She didn't even glance back to check if the others were keeping up and just continued to clear the field. The others behind can only crush the remnants of the skeletons that survived her onslaught.

As they got deeper, the corridor widened eventually, and pools of lava turned into small puddles here and there.

However, from those small puddles, more skeletons emerged, but different this time.

These were slightly bigger than your average man, around six feet tall. But they all carried swords in their hands and wore armor.

Tier-7 Skeleton Knights, clad in blackened plate armor, their blades wreathed in flames.

Four of them stepped forward, forming a semicircle.

Behind them, glowing red mage skeletons began to chant, casting pale green light that swirled around the knights.

"Reinforcement magic," Shiera muttered.

The knights' bodies shimmered in green light over the flames, armor started glowing.

Shiera raised her sword again to face them alone.

The Tier-7 skeleton knights surged forward, their blades cleaving through the air with terrifying weight. She blocked the first, sidestepped the second, but a third slammed its greatsword down hard, sending her skidding back across the floor.

"Bit much for a warm-up!" she hissed, dragging her sword across the ground to stabilize herself.

"Nyx: Veil of Shadow."

A pulse of dark magic shimmered beside them. Kael and his spectral wolf vanished from sight in a wisp of silvery fog, gone before the skeletons could even turn.

Mia raised her staff, chanting. "Glacia Volt!"

Bolts of frosted lightning cracked through the corridor, hammering the skeleton knights. They staggered but didn't fall.

Leiza and Orin charged in to flank Shiera, blades clashing against the knights' shields.

Meanwhile, behind the frontline, a faint shimmer appeared among the chanting red mages.

Kael and the wolf.

As Kael stepped down, the spectral wolf lunged at the mages, crushing one's skull with its bite, then swiping its claws at the second.

As the third skeleton mage distanced himself from the wolf, Kael took out a potion from his pocket and threw it.

As soon as the potion hit the ground near the mage's feet, a heavy explosion erupted, destroying the mage into pieces.

With the support gone, the knights on the frontline had their regeneration stopped.

Shiera saw her chance. "Now!"

She dashed in with renewed fury, blade flashing like a comet. One knight fell. Then another, pinned by Orin's shield and struck through the eye by one of Leiza's twin swords.

The last one tried to retreat, only to get hit by Mia's frost spell, freezing it mid-motion before Shiera crushed it with a two-handed swing. "Oraaa…"

As the room cleared, Mia laughed, running to Kael. "That was amazing!" She threw her arms around him, burying her face against his cheek. "That was so cool, Bro! You took out all the mages like nothing!"

Kael chuckled, flushed with a bit of embarrassment. "Nyx is the one who did most of the work."

"Eeeee!" Mia squealed, still rubbing her face against his like a happy squirrel. "But Nyx and you are the same. Don't need to be so modest, bro."

Behind them, Shiera stood quietly, arms crossed, face twitching slightly. "I did most of the work, though," she muttered. Her cheeks puffed, very slightly.

Orin and Leiza stared at both of them. "This brother and sister have a weird relationship." They thought at the same time.

The team moved on, deeper into the dungeon. The corridor narrowed once again, and lava was seen less and less. The temperature has also cooled down quite significantly.

"Looks like the heat's dying down," Leiza noted, hopping over one steaming pool.

"Don't relax just yet," Orin warned, shield still raised. "We can expect ambushes at any time. We need to be wary of those Lava puddles."

As if on cue, the ground ahead rumbled. Then…

pop! pop! pop!

Little Rock golems burst out of the lava puddles in clusters. No taller than a toddler, they glowed faintly with inner magma lines across their bodies.

"Cute," Kael said.

"Trash…" Shiera scoffed, slashing the nearest one…

BOOM!

The creature suddenly exploded in a burst of fire and shrapnel, sending her flying backwards.

"WHOA!" Kael ducked. "Are you okay?!"

Shiera groaned, sitting up slowly with smoke curling off her armor. "They explode. Okay, I should have expected there couldn't be weak monsters when we came this far."

"They all explode?" Mia asked, backing up quickly as two more golems waddled toward her.

"Apparently, touching them does it, too!" Leiza yelled, having just kicked one aside.

BOOM!

"ARGH!"

"Okay… no touching, no slashing, no kicking," Kael muttered, now perched on Nyx's back.

The golems started to swarm, dozens of them crawling over the floor like angry embers.

"Mia, freeze them in batches or attack from far away," Shiera ordered aloud.

"Already on it." Mia swirled around the staff as she chanted the incantation to freeze the incoming golems while her teammates jumped away from her in order not to get caught in that spell.

Once the little rocky exploding golems were taken care of. They took a few minutes of rest, recovering their mana and swallowing down healing potions to heal up any internal injuries they suffered so far.

The corridor opened into a vast chamber, its walls scorched black, its ceiling disappearing in its shadow. There were no lava puddles here or any sort of skeleton monsters or exploding golems.

There was only one monster waiting for them. In the center of the room, there was a large stone golem, nearly fifteen feet tall. Its chest glowed like a furnace with a bright core visible to the naked eye. Two burning arms flexed as it turned its head toward them.

Shiera muttered, narrowing her eyes. "A Tier-8 Boss, huh? I guess we came to the final chamber."

"Uhh… I'm not sure about that…" Kael blinked, pointing his finger into the darkness. As their gaze momentarily followed his hands toward the source, he further said. "You can see a step there, meaning there will be more steps that go further deeper. If this is the last stage, it wouldn't make sense."

"It would, if there is a treasure vault built here." Shiera shrugged her shoulders.

"Is this a man-made dungeon or something?" Kael couldn't help but frown, wondering.