Part 19

Since the mini-boss was dead and the loot divided, we continued on our way. We ran into another group of goblins, a couple lizard men, and a giant rat the size of a pony, but none of them dropped any more loot.

At one point, we even saw another champion. However, he took one look at us, saw that he was outnumbered, then turned and hurried back down the corridor he’d come from. We weren’t hunting other champions, and were happy to let him go.

Then we came to another large chamber, that reminded me a great deal of the one we’d found the troll in. Like that chamber, there was a massive creature in the middle of the room. However, unlike that one, this creature was already dead.

“Snakes,” Matt exclaimed with a smirk, while staring at the body of a giant white snake. “Why did it have to be snakes?”

“Another mini-boss,” I said. “And someone beat us to him.”

I looked over the snake, relieved that it’s head was actually separated from the body. If the head had still been attached, I probably would have been worried that he’d come back and attack us. Then again, if it did rez or respawn, that would give us a chance to earn some loot from it.

“At least two of the mini-bosses are dead,” Matt said. “Do we know about the third one, or the big boss?”

“I haven’t seen any popups,” I said, thinking about how I’d received one every time a pillar had been claimed during the last contest. So far, I hadn’t seen anything like that in this one. “I guess they’re playing this one a little closer to the vest, to keep us all guessing.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Cassandra agreed. “The gods running this whole thing are a bunch of fucking pricks.” Nobody argued with that.

By this point, we’d been in this dungeon for a good eight hours or so, and we were all tired and hungry. Unfortunately, none of us had thought to bring any food, and we weren’t about to try cooking up any giant rat. So, we sat back and rested for a bit, then continued our journey, hoping to find either the last mini-boss, or even better, the final boss.

We continued on for another hour before we began to hear some loud noises from somewhere ahead of us. We stopped and listened, but couldn’t make out any details. However, whatever it was, shook the ground a little, which made us all nervous.

“If I’ve learned anything from video games,” I said, “It’s that these are the signs that a big boss is nearby…”

“She’s right,” Matt said.

For several seconds, we all stood there staring at each other, then we hurried down the passageway, towards the source of the noise. We passed two traps, which had already been tripped, and a small pile of goblin corpses. Obviously, someone had been through here before us.

Since most of the obstacles in our path had already been cleared out for us, it only took us another five minutes to reach the next big chamber. It was enormous, well lit, and seemed to be made out of marble rather than the dull grey stone or chiseled rock of every other room. But the thing that made this room the most impressive, was the enormous monster right in the middle of it.

“It’s a DRAGON,” Teri exclaimed with her mouth dropping open.

There was a dragon in the middle of the room, large enough that he made the troll look tiny in comparison. The fearsome creature spat out a blast of flames, though it wasn’t directed at us. Instead, hit another champion, one who was dressed in samurai inspired armor.

“But where’s the hoard?” Matt asked, pointing out the fact that there were no piles of gold or treasures.

“We’re too late,” Cassandra scowled in frustration.

There were half a dozen champions here ahead of us, and they were already fighting the dragon. The first one I’d spotted was the guy in samurai armor, followed by the magical girl. Then I realized that the remaining four champions were Nadine, Robe, and their two partners.

“Crap,” I spat out in frustration. It was bad enough that we’d arrived late to the fight, but what really bothered me was that Nadine and her friends were the ones who’d beaten us.

“Fucking pieces of shit,” Cassandra snarled. For a moment, it looked like she was about to help the dragon by attacking Nadine.

“I don’t think they can claim dibs on the final boss,” Don pointed out with a wry smile. “And remember, the Coordinator said that our performance would be rated partly by how much we contributed to the group effort…”

In spite of the fact that I REALLY wanted to attack Nadine, even more than I wanted to avoid her, I owed it to Maelyne and my team to stay focused. So, I gave a grudging nod, then looked to Teri and Matt. Neither of them looked happy, but they nodded back.

“If I can’t kill that bitch right now, at least I can steal her kill,” Cassandra said.

Since we were all agreed, we charged into the fight, following the same tactics that had worked against the troll. However, before we could get close enough, the dragon blasted the samurai wannabe and turned him into a smoldering pile of ask. I gulped at that, realizing that I was going to have to be on my A game.

Cassandra stood back and began shooting arrows at the dragon, which got the attention of the other champions. Nadine noticed us and snarled, giving me a look of pure hatred. That actually made me feel a little better about this.

Don charged forward to engage the dragon, though unlike with the troll, he didn’t just brace himself to take the hit. Instead, he slammed his mace on the ground and several spiked columns of stone rose up in front of him and poked into the dragon, forcing it to back up a little. Teri and Matt were smart enough to not get anywhere near the dragon’s front half, which meant we faced the back side…and a tail instead of fire.

“Look out,” I exclaimed, forming a shield wall right before the dragon’s tail would have hit me.

The blow was hard enough that my shield immediately shattered, though it had done its job and kept me from getting splattered. I threw shields around both of my companions, then surveyed the fight.

Robe was attacking the dragon’s side with his scythe and a blast of purple energy. I guessed that the soul killer thing he’d used on Heather, didn’t do much against dragons. Still, it looked like he was doing a lot of damage, not that I could really be certain since I couldn’t see any health bar. The big guy with the heavy armor and greatsword, was coming at the dragon from the other side, giving the lizard some nasty looking gashes of his own.

The girl in the blue and white dress, whom I’d noticed at the start of this competition, was floating up in the air, seemingly held there by a powerful wind. It almost looked like she had some kind of tornado going on around her, which she then turned and fired at the dragon’s head.

I remembered that during my first competition, one of the people who’d claimed a pillar, had been the champion of some goddess of wind and air. I wondered if this was the same person.

The magical girl was floating up in the air with a golden glow and was firing beams of golden light at the dragon. I wasn’t sure how much damage she was doing, though she was certainly trying to contribute.

And finally, there was Nadine. The dragon spat a blast of fire right at her, and I silently cheered as she was engulfed in flame. However, she seemed almost entirely unharmed, though I should have expected that. Her patron was some kind of god of fire, so of course it made sense that he’d give her some kind of protection from it.

Of course, my own team continued to fight during this as well. Matt rushed forward and slashed at the dragon with both his bowie knife and new dagger, then quickly dodged back as soon as the dragon moved.

Teri rushed forward and tried beating on the dragon wit her baseball bat, though that didn’t seem very effective. I kept throwing shields on her, because she couldn’t move out of the way as quickly as her brother, and the dragon knocked her down several times, apparently unaware that she was even there.

Don was attacking the dragon straight-on, using some stone attacks to add to the damage, though not as much as I might have expected. I could only guess that he just didn’t have enough mana to keep up that kind of attack, which probably meant that he’d slotted all of his spare attribute points into extra health instead of his mana. If I was a tank, that’s what I would have done.

Cassandra was the furthest away from the dragon, and was probably the safest person here because of it. She just kept her distance and fired arrow after arrow, most of which glowed and either exploded on impact, or went deep into the dragon’s hide, doing some nice damage.

Suddenly, the dragon roared and leapt up into the air, or at least tried to. The chamber was too low for the creature to really fly. However, he came down on the other side of the chamber, close to Cassandra. The force of his impact shook the ground and knocked Cassandra back, sending her bow flying.

“Cassandra,” I cried out, immediately running towards her. I cursed the fact that I couldn’t put a shield on her, especially since the dragon was turning around to face her.

“Oh fuck,” Cassandra exclaimed with a look of terror.

She tried getting up and running for her bow, only to fall flat on her face with a wince of pain. I guessed that she must have injured her leg a little when she’d been knocked down. But in spite of that, she got back to her feet again.

When I was in range, I healed Cassandra, though that wouldn’t do anything for the dragon’s fire. It opened its jaws and spat out a blast of flame, right at Cassandra. I dove towards Cassandra, grabbing hold of her and activating ‘Maelyne’s shield’, an instant before we were completely engulfed in flames.

“Holy fuck,” Cassandra blurted out as the fire raged around us. It was getting hot, hotter than when Nadine had blasted Teri and I with her super attack, though my shield held until the flames stopped.

Dropping my shield, I gasped for breath. That had been close. WAY to close. Still, Cassandra was still alive, and that was the important thing.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Just fucking peachy,” Cassandra responded, staring at me for a moment with a strange expression. The she said, “Thanks,” before running for her bow.

Robe, who I still thought of as ‘Robe’, even though I now knew his real name, formed a ball of purple energy in his hands and fired it at the dragon. However, he missed the dragon by a good distance and the ball was coming towards me instead.

Before I could call up a shield wall, Matt hit me and pulled me aside. The purple ball of energy hit the ground and formed a small crater.

“What the hell does he think he’s doing?” Matt demanded furiously.

“Friendly fire,” I answered grimly. He was taking advantage of the opportunity to attack me, while making it look like an accident. I didn’t think that anyone would actually buy that though.

Nadine looked pissed that Robe had failed, and I could almost see the little wheels turning as she considered how she could try it too. But then, she looked around at the other champions and smirked. I could almost see the lightbulb going off above her head.

“This can’t be good,” I said, having a bad feeling about this.

A second later, a wave of flame exploded out from Nadine and hit everyone who was too close to her, which included the magical girl, Teri, and her own teammate, the girl with the blue and white dress. Each of them was hit with the flames and screamed out in pain.

“TERI!” Matt and I exclaimed at once.

I ran towards Teri, cursing the fact that I’d gotten too far from her to use a ‘protect companion’.

Teri was on the ground, crying in pain. Her clothes were a little charred on the edges, and the exposed skin of her arms were bright red, and it looked like a couple blisters were already starting to form. I immediately healed her twice, which took up most of my remaining mana.

“That bitch,” Matt snarled, glaring at Nadine with a look of hatred.

However, Nadine was completely ignoring us. Instead, she formed a single ball of fire in her hands, one that I recognized as her alpha strike power, the one Teri and I had barely survived back at the gym.

“She was boosting her powers,” I said in realization.

Nadine fired the ball of intense fire straight at the dragon, while screaming in agony. Her attack struck the monster and flames engulfed half its body. The dragon raged and howled, firing back blasts of its own fire, though everyone scattered before getting hit.

I glared at Nadine, knowing why she’d attacked Teri and her own teammate. She’d been using ‘sadism’ to boost her power, so she could do more damage to the dragon. However, that didn’t mean that I was about to forgive that bitch for what she’d done.

“Time to take that bitch down,” Cassandra said, glaring at Nadine.

For a couple seconds, I thought that she was going to kill Nadine right then and there, in a ‘friendly fire’ accident. However, she shifted position and fired at the dragon instead. A glowing arrow hit the dragon right in the eye, which infuriated it even more than Nadine’s attack had.

We’d been hitting the dragon with nearly everything we had, and it was taking a toll. I didn’t need to see its health bar to know that it was almost dead. A few more attacks was all it took before the dungeon boss finally collapsed to the ground.

“We did it,” Matt cried out triumphantly.

“Yeah, we did,” I responded, knowing just how close we’d come to being killed, and not just by the dragon.

I glared at Nadine, feeling tempted to try attacking her, even if I didn’t have any offensive power. However, I held off. The dragon was dead and the contest was over. Or was it?

“We didn’t get any popups saying the contest was done,” I pointed out.

Cassandra muttered a stream of profanities that I couldn’t quite make out before saying, “One of the mid-bosses must still be around.”

“So, we have to go back and look for that thing?” Teri asked, staring at me in horror.

“Great,” I grumbled. “Just freaking great.”

Since that fight was over, I glanced over to the magical girl, who was injured from Nadine’s attack. She was one of my competitors, but she wasn’t an enemy. After a moment of consideration, I healed her, though my mana hadn’t recovered enough to give her a second healing right away.

“Thank you,” the magical girl said.

“No problem,” I told her. Then, when my mana had recovered a little more, I healed her again and finished the process, which she seemed to appreciate.

“What are you up to, Sievers?” she asked, giving me a look that seemed equal parts gratitude and confusion. I realized that she and Heather might have had a history, but before I could think of what to do about that, she rushed off.

It was only then that I noticed the treasure chest beside the dragon, and the fact that everyone else was already digging through it. There was no calm discussion of what was inside or who would get what, only a mad rush to grab whatever they could.

By the time I reached the chest, it was empty. I grimaced at that and thought about protesting, though I knew it wouldn’t do any good.

Matt came over and said, “I got this for you…”

He handed me a gold metal ball, that was about the size of a golf ball. It wasn’t crystal, like the skill point spheres had been, so I wasn’t sure what this item was for, but I was grateful to Matt for getting it.

“Thank you,” I told him.

I was about to try crushing the metal sphere, but Nadine and Robe were giving me some calculating looks. Matt and Teri positioned themselves beside me, as though they were my bodyguards. And to my surprise, so did Cassandra and Don.

“Later,” Robe told Nadine. “We still have a chance at more points…”

Once Nadine and her group turned and left, I let out a sigh of relief. “So,” I asked Dan and Cassandra. “Did you guys get anything from the chest.”

Cassandra held out one of the larger crystal spheres, though this one was golden in color. I knew what the green, blue, and red ones did, but not the golden.

“This will give me a nice increase in all of my resource attribute points,” Cassandra said as she crushed the sphere.

“Nice,” I said. I considered asking her what my prize was, but didn’t want to give away my lack of knowledge to Don. Because of that, I tucked my metal sphere into my pocket, then suggested, “Let’s go look for that last mid-boss.”

“Good idea,” Cassandra agreed with a smirk. “Maybe we can find it before the bitch brigade.”

With that, we all went back through the door we’d come through, turned into a side passage that we’d only passed coming in, and began our search. We only made it twenty feet down this corridor before the popup appeared.

ALL REQUIREMENTS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. CEASE ALL HOSTILITIES.

Unlike with my previous contest, there was no listing of who completed which requirement, probably because that could have been a long list since we were working in teams. Still, I was curious about who had taken down that snake and that last monster.

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. PREPARE TO BE TRANSPORTED.

“I guess this is it,” I said, not sure what to say to Don since he still thought I was Heather.

“And this didn’t even take the full twelve hours,” Matt added with a look of exhaustion. “I can’t wait to get home and crash in bed…”

“Ditto,” I agreed.

A second later, we all began to spark and sparkle. The last thing I registered before we all vanished, was Matt saying, “Beam me up Scotty…”