Meanwhile...
The rest of the phoenix class has finally reached the boss chamber.
Even standing at its entrance, the scale of it was different from what Ellen's projection had prepared them for.
A hundred meters of circular stone, mana vents bleeding luminous vapor along the walls in slow pulses, the ceiling lost somewhere in the dark above.
And at the center of it all... was the mutant serpent.
Fifty meters of coiled, scaled mass, its body wrapped around itself in overlapping rings, its head lowered and pressed against the dungeon's core crystal, which pulsed an ugly, unstable crimson beneath it.
The mutation was visible even from the chamber entrance.
Its scales had partially separated along the spine, raw mana bleeding through the gaps in thin, volatile streams.
Its eyes were surprisingly closed.
"...It's bigger in person," Thessaly said quietly.
No one disagreed.
