The first thing he noticed after the transition was the smell. The boss's floor was just as smelly and muddy as Jacob remembered it.
The air was damp and heavy, carrying the unpleasant scent of stagnant water and rotting muck.
It was quite a change from the grasslands they had just left, though he remembered enough of his previous visit that it wasn't really surprising.
The ground was another matter.
His boot sank into the soft earth as he stepped away from the gate, and he had to pull a little harder than expected to free it.
"Watch where you step," he called back. "Some of this looks more solid than it actually is."
Oren emerged behind him and immediately looked down, testing the ground before moving far enough to give the others room.
Ahead of them, the remains of the purple grass thinned out as the ground sloped into a broad, partially flooded basin.
Patches of higher ground rose from the dark water, connected by narrow stretches of mud that Jacob remembered being quite difficult to fight on.
Dead trees stood throughout the swamp, though there wasn't much left on their branches.
They provided a few places where the ground might be firmer, but he wasn't going to find out for himself by walking over to one.
Something shifted in the distance, which pulled his attention from the trees.
Jacob stopped looking at the terrain as he trained his focus on the beast in the distance.
Near the center of the basin stood a large creature, its four legs planted in the shallow water.
Its body had the thick build of a bull, though the moss-green scales covering its shoulders and sides made it look more like an oversized version of the armored lizards.
The resemblance didn't extend to its head, however.
Thick bone plates covered a broad, bull-like snout, and two large horns curved forward from its skull.
Jacob could easily imagine what would happen if someone found themselves caught between those horns and one of the trees.
Its long tail moved through the water behind it, stirring up dark mud with each slow sweep.
"That's the boss?" Caleb asked.
Jacob nodded without looking away.
"That's it," he replied.
For a moment, no one had much else to say. They were a bit awestruck by its size, even after the description given by Jacob before they even began the delve.
The creature lowered its head toward the water, then lifted it again with a heavy snort.
A cloud of black gas escaped its nostrils and spread around its face before slowly drifting across the surface of the swamp, suffusing the entire floor with its rotting stench and withering effects.
Jacob glanced down at his gauntlet. He could feel the power within it already repelling the dark magic around him, reassuring him of its power over the poisonous gas.
He had known they would be dealing with the miasma again, but watching the beast casually breathe it out made the problem seem a little more immediate.
He was ready to trigger his enchantments.
Beside him, Thomas shifted his footing and looked over the narrow stretches of exposed ground.
"We're going to have to be careful where we let it come at us," Thomas said. "I don't want to have to find out how deep that water is while trying to hold it back."
Oren nodded, his eyes following the nearest strip of mud toward the basin.
"Let's make sure we can stand somewhere before we worry about getting its attention," Oren replied. "We'll have to trade off on holding its attention, or its sheer size will quickly overwhelm us. Don't forget that having a ranked-up boss will also make it much stronger than normal."
Behind them, the golem took another heavy step, sinking farther into the ground than any of the others had.
Bran immediately stopped it.
Caleb looked back at the construct's feet, then toward the swamp with a slight frown.
Jacob could understand the concern. The golem had been quite useful on solid ground, but they would have to put some thought into where they positioned it here.
"Jacob," Caleb said suddenly, "could you use some magic to basically give it some shoes? Something wider than its feet currently are to help with its sinking?"
Jacob considered his brother's request, then nodded his head. "I can, but it'll likely slow the construct down considerably."
Bran piped up then, realizing what Caleb was asking for, "It'll be better to be slow than immobile; I agree with Caleb. Lets see if we can give it some shoes."
"Alright," Jacob replied, then quickly pulled up the hardest materials he could find in the muck with his magic and solidified them around the construct's feet, making the legs look more like an elephant's feet rather than spider legs.
After seeing the construct make it through the mud much more easily, though more slowly, Jacob looked toward the boss once more.
It was still standing in the distance, but its head had turned in their direction. It seemed to have felt the shifting of the magic in its home.
Apparently, they wouldn't have to worry about getting its attention after all.
They all tensed, thinking the behemoth was about to charge them, but it instead took a deep breath and let out a dense fog of miasma. Apparently, the miasma suffusing the floor was just from its passive breathing.
Before they knew it, the entire boss room was filled with a dense and darkening fog that made it hard to see the beast in the distance.
"Jacob!" Oren called out as he signaled for their first formation by holding his sword wrist with his left hand over his head while he moved into position.
Jacob activated the primary enchantment of the void gauntlet, which let out a warm light that penetrated the dark veil and caused the miasma to retreat while simultaneously filling the team with a feeling of warmth.
Just when he thought the magic would fully suppress the miasma, the system stepped in to remind them of their choice in dungeon difficulty.
System Notice: Full miasma dispersal impossible due to rank suppression. Maximum dispersion of miasma achieved (94.2%). Partial miasmatic status effects will be attributed to combatants while boss experiences partial boost.
Jacob sucked in a sharp breath while Caleb silently cursed under his breath.
Each of them formed a dark aura around their bodies as a severely weakened debuff took effect, which slightly increased their stamina usage. The effect was too small to notice immediately, but it could cause problems if the fight became a battle of attrition.
Sera looked at Jacob with worry, but he shook his head and focused on the boss, which was starting to move towards them at a modest pace.
The time to worry was past; they knew they now needed to listen to Oren for tactical commands.
"Thomas, with me!" Oren called. "Bran, bring it forward and hold the middle. The rest of you, wait until it commits!"
The behemoth was already picking up speed.
Its heavy feet sank into the mud, but not as far as one would expect, and it pulled them free with seemingly little effort, pushing through the shallow water without slowing down.
Jacob watched its approach with a growing appreciation for how much the terrain favored it.
They had needed to give the golem new feet just to keep it from getting stuck. The boss, however, seemed quite comfortable moving through ground that would leave most of them struggling to stay upright.
Oren and Thomas moved ahead of the construct, separating a little as they approached the beast.
Jacob felt the urge to tell them to get out of its way, but he held his tongue. They knew what they were doing, and distracting them now would be considerably less helpful than preparing a spell.
Jacob realized that he needed to learn to trust that his teammates were just as competent as he himself was.
Oren reached the beast first.
He stepped close enough to slash at the side of its lowered head, his blade scraping across the bone plating before he immediately turned and ran toward its flank.
The behemoth started to follow him, but Thomas rushed in from the other side and struck near the base of its jaw.
That got its attention.
Its head swung toward Thomas, who was already moving away in the opposite direction. One of its horns passed through the space he had just occupied, close enough that Jacob found himself holding his breath and clenching his fists.
Neither attack had done much damage, but that hadn't been the point.
While the beast was trying to decide which of the boys to chase, Bran brought the golem into reach and swung its heavy arm into the front of its shoulder.
The behemoth turned back toward the much larger opponent.
Jacob reached out with his force magic as it started to lower its head again. Instead of trying to stop the creature entirely, he pushed against the side of its jaw, adjusting the direction of its movement just enough to keep its horns from catching beneath the construct's body.
The impact still made him wince a little with worry.
The behemoth drove into the golem with a heavy crash, forcing it back through the mud. Its widened feet dragged along the ground before catching, and Bran tightened his grip on the scepter as the construct leaned into the beast.
For a moment, neither of them moved much.
Then the golem lifted an arm and brought it down against the boss's shoulder again.
"Now!" Oren shouted.
Caleb and Mira were already moving.
With the behemoth occupied by the construct, they slipped around its sides without much difficulty. Caleb kept his pitchfork close as he moved toward its rear leg, while Mira passed farther around, watching the movement of its thick tail.
Jacob could see why Oren had wanted to start this way.
The golem could take a hit without needing to catch its breath or wait for Sera to heal a bruise. It was also large enough that the behemoth couldn't simply push past it while ignoring the heavy arm repeatedly striking its body.
That gave the others room to attack without standing directly in front of those horns.
Caleb drove his pitchfork beneath the edge of a scale near the beast's hind leg.
The tines caught, and he shifted the weapon's weight as he pushed with the assistance of his enchantment, forcing them deeper before pulling back and stepping away.
The behemoth let out an angry bellow.
Its head immediately started turning toward him.
Jacob was already watching for it. He pushed against its jaw once more, while Oren stepped in from the front and slashed across its snout.
The combined interference brought its attention back toward the construct, which Bran used to smash a blunt arm across the boss's turning face, using its own momentum against it and stunning it slightly.
Jacob let out a breath.
He realized that he couldn't afford to simply hold the beast in place. Even his brief attempts to redirect its head took considerably more power than he had expected, and he could feel it resisting his magic through the spell.
However, he didn't need to control every movement if his friends kept pulling its attention to the golem.
The less time it spent focusing on his friends, the more time he could spend spinning up a more powerful spell.
Thomas darted in as the behemoth shifted its weight, striking from the side before retreating beyond the reach of its horns.
The beast took a step after him, exposing more of its flank to Mira.
She moved in silently, placing a blade into a gap behind its foreleg and withdrawing before it could turn far enough to see her.
Once again, Jacob caught its movement with a push of force.
The behemoth stamped angrily in the mud, apparently quite unhappy with the number of things hurting it and its inability to reach any of them except the construct in front of it.
Unfortunately for the golem, that meant it received the next blow as well.
The boss shoved forward and swung its armored head against the construct's body, making something inside it rattle loudly.
Bran flinched, but he kept it in position.
"Let it give a little!" Caleb called from the flank. "You don't have to hold it in the same spot!"
Bran adjusted his commands, allowing the golem to take a short step back before bracing again.
The next shove moved it instead of forcing its joints to take the entire impact.
Jacob watched the adjustment with relief, then returned his attention to the boss as Sera's soothing song reached him from behind.
The warmth of the gauntlet's light was still surrounding them, but there was an unpleasant darkness beneath it that hadn't gone away.
The small amount of miasma the enchantment couldn't disperse was starting to make him feel nauseous, but Seras timely song worked to dispel most of that feeling.
While it seemed she was unable to completely remove the negative effects of the miasma, just as the enchantment of the gauntlet was unable to, it seemed she was capable of at least reducing the side-symptoms by combining her abilities with those of the light magic.
As a result, everyone was still moving well, and the grimaces that had started to form were fading as everyone could put their full focus on the fight.