The crimson runes pulsed with an almost hypnotic rhythm, casting dancing shadows across the ancient stone. Raven stood before the archway, his hand resting on his sword hilt, feeling the weight of the decision they'd made. Behind him, his party gathered—Ava with her spear held ready, Axel gripping his axe with white knuckles, and Effel checking her daggers one final time.
"Last chance to back out," Raven said, though he already knew what they'd say.
"Not a chance," Axel replied immediately. "We've come this far."
"Together," Ava added, her voice firm despite the tension Raven could still sense between them.
Effel stepped forward, her expression serious. "Boss fights are different from regular combat. The Enhanced Rabbit will be at least twice as strong as the normal ones, maybe more. It'll have more HP, hit harder, and move faster. Plus, it can summon reinforcements—expect four to six regular rabbits to spawn throughout the fight."
"Strategy?" Raven asked, his mind already processing the information.
"Focus fire on the reinforcements first," Effel suggested. "They're weaker but can overwhelm us if we ignore them. The boss itself will be tough, but it can't kill us alone. Death by a thousand cuts from the adds—that's what kills most parties."
"Axel, you're on add control," Raven decided. "Your strength lets you take them down fast. Ava, you and I focus on the boss, keep it occupied and whittle down its health. Effel, float between groups—support whoever needs it most."
"What about when it summons?" Ava asked.
"We adapt. If the adds are too much, we all shift to clearing them. But we can't let the boss recover or reposition. This is going to be about managing multiple threats simultaneously."
They nodded, and Raven felt a surge of confidence despite his nerves. They'd grown so much in just a few days. From three teenagers who'd never held real weapons to a coordinated party that could take down monsters that would have killed them instantly when they first arrived.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready," they replied in unison.
Raven stepped through the archway.
The transition was immediate and jarring. One moment, they stood in a normal dungeon corridor. The next, they were in a massive circular chamber easily a hundred feet in diameter. The ceiling soared overhead, lost in shadow despite the glowing crystals that lined the walls. The floor was smooth stone, inscribed with circular patterns that seemed to pulse with faint energy.
And in the center of the chamber, waiting for them, was the boss.
---
[FLOOR BOSS DETECTED]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA]
[RANK 1 (PEAK)]
[HP: 250/250]
[ABILITIES: SUMMON MINIONS, ENHANCED SPEED, HORN CHARGE]
---
The creature was enormous—easily the size of a small car, its muscular body radiating predatory menace. Where the normal rabbits had looked wrong, this one looked nightmarish. Its fur was darker, almost black in places, and its horn was massive—a spiraling lance of bone that looked sharp enough to punch through steel.
Its eyes glowed a brilliant, malevolent red, and when it saw them, it screamed.
The sound was deafening, reverberating through the chamber with physical force. Raven felt it in his chest, in his bones, a sound that spoke of pure rage and hunger.
The boss charged.
"SCATTER!" Raven shouted.
They broke in four directions just as the creature slammed into where they'd been standing. Its horn gouged the stone floor, sending chips flying. The impact created a small crater, demonstrating the sheer force behind its attacks.
Raven's Sword Mastery activated, analyzing the boss's movements, looking for patterns, weaknesses, opportunities. The creature was fast—faster than anything they'd fought so far—but it was also large, which meant momentum worked against it. It couldn't turn quickly, couldn't adjust mid-charge.
"Ava, right flank!" Raven called. "I'll take left! Tire it out!"
They moved in opposite directions, forcing the boss to choose a target. It chose Raven, pivoting with surprising agility and charging again. Raven waited until the last possible second, his enhanced Agility letting him process the approach with crystal clarity.
Step left. Now.
He dodged, the horn missing him by inches. As the boss thundered past, Raven's sword came around in a wide arc, biting into its exposed flank.
---
[DAMAGE: 15]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 235/250]
---
Fifteen points. Against its massive health pool, it was barely a scratch. This was going to be a long fight.
Ava struck from the opposite side, her spear finding purchase in the creature's rear leg. Her thrust was precise, aimed at the joint where armor was minimal.
---
[DAMAGE: 12]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 223/250]
---
The boss roared and spun, faster than Raven expected. Its massive body became a weapon, slamming into Ava and sending her flying backward. She hit the ground hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop.
---
[AVA HP: 72/100]
---
"I'm okay!" she called out, already pushing herself up, but Raven could see she was favoring her left side.
The boss didn't give them time to regroup. It charged Axel, who'd been positioning himself for a strike. Axel met the charge head-on with a roar, his axe coming down in a massive overhead swing.
The weapons collided with a sound like thunder. Axel's Mountain King strength was formidable, but the boss's momentum was greater. The impact jarred Axel's arms so hard he nearly lost his grip, and the boss's horn caught him in the shoulder, tearing through armor and flesh.
---
[AXEL HP: 68/100]
---
"Damn it!" Axel stumbled backward, blood flowing freely from the wound.
Raven moved in immediately, his blade seeking the boss's attention. He struck at its face, forcing it to focus on him rather than pursuing Axel. His sword scraped across the creature's horn, the metallic screech making his teeth ache, but it achieved its purpose—the boss turned toward him.
Then the notification they'd been dreading appeared:
---
[BOSS ABILITY ACTIVATED: SUMMON MINIONS]
---
Four pillars of dark energy erupted around the chamber's perimeter. When they faded, four regular Rabid Horned Rabbits stood in their place, their red eyes immediately locking onto the party.
"Axel, adds!" Raven commanded. "Effel, help him! Ava, stay on the boss with me!"
The regular rabbits charged, and Axel intercepted them despite his injury. His axe swung in wide arcs, each strike carrying enough force to send the smaller creatures tumbling. But there were four of them, and he was already wounded.
Effel moved to support him, her daggers flashing. She was faster than any of them, her movements precise and economical. Where Axel used raw strength, Effel used skill—her blades found eyes, throats, joints, every strike inflicting maximum damage with minimum effort.
---
[RABID HORNED RABBIT HP: 18/30]
---
Raven couldn't focus on them. The boss was moving again, and this time its eyes were locked on Ava. She saw it coming and tried to dodge, but she was still hurt from the earlier impact, her movements just a fraction slower than normal.
Raven threw himself between them.
His Saint's Endurance flared to life as the boss's horn caught him in the chest. The pain was enormous, white-hot, all-consuming. He felt ribs crack, felt the horn punch through his jacket and into flesh. But his ability pushed back the agony, kept him conscious and fighting.
---
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 35]
[HP: 52/100]
[SAINT'S ENDURANCE ACTIVATED]
[PAIN RESISTANCE INCREASED]
---
But the attack had also stopped the boss's momentum. Raven was pressed against its massive head, his sword trapped between their bodies. For a moment, they were locked together, and Raven could see his own reflection in those malevolent red eyes.
"NOW!" he screamed.
Ava's spear drove into the boss's exposed neck from the side. She put her full weight behind it, the iron point sinking deep into vulnerable flesh.
---
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[DAMAGE: 28]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 195/250]
---
The boss screamed and reared back, dislodging both Raven and the spear. Raven hit the ground hard, his vision swimming with pain. Blood soaked his shirt, warm and sticky.
He forced himself up. They couldn't afford weakness now.
Behind them, Axel and Effel had eliminated three of the four regular rabbits. The last one fell to Axel's axe a moment later, its corpse dissolving into light.
---
[REINFORCEMENTS ELIMINATED]
---
"Raven, you're hurt bad!" Ava moved toward him, concern overriding everything else.
"I'm fine," he lied, though his Saint's Endurance made it almost true. The pain was distant now, manageable. "Keep fighting!"
The boss was wounded too, blood flowing from the neck wound Ava had inflicted. It moved more cautiously now, recognizing that these prey could actually hurt it. Its red eyes tracked each of them, calculating, measuring.
Then it charged again, but this time differently. Instead of a straight rush, it feinted toward Raven before pivoting sharply toward Effel—the smallest, the one it probably perceived as weakest.
"Effel, move!" Raven shouted, but she was already moving, her alchemist training giving her reflexes most people didn't possess. She rolled under the charge, came up behind the boss, and her daggers found purchase in its rear legs—both of them, deep cuts that severed tendons.
---
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[DAMAGE: 22]
[STATUS EFFECT APPLIED: CRIPPLED]
[MOVEMENT SPEED REDUCED BY 30%]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 173/250]
---
The boss's scream was one of pure rage. It tried to pivot, to catch Effel, but its damaged legs couldn't support the movement properly. It stumbled, just for a second.
That second was enough.
Axel's axe came down on its spine with the full force of his enhanced Strength. The blade bit deep, cracking bone and tearing through muscle.
---
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[DAMAGE: 31]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 142/250]
---
Ava's spear found its eye socket, driving deep into the brain.
---
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[DAMAGE: 38]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 104/250]
---
And Raven, drawing on reserves he didn't know he had, channeled everything his Sword Saint class offered. His Sword Mastery showed him the perfect strike—angle, force, timing, all crystallizing into a moment of absolute clarity.
His sword took the boss clean through the throat.
---
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[DAMAGE: 42]
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 62/250]
---
The boss thrashed wildly, its movements becoming erratic and desperate. But they'd broken its combat effectiveness. It could no longer coordinate attacks, could no longer use its intelligence to outmaneuver them.
It was just a wounded animal now.
They surrounded it, weapons rising and falling in grim rhythm. Each strike took away more health, more strength, more life. It tried to activate its summon ability again, but Effel had apparently identified where the ability originated from—some gland or organ in its chest—and her precise dagger work disrupted the energy flow.
After what felt like hours but was probably only two minutes of sustained assault, the notification finally came:
---
[ENHANCED RABID HORNED RABBIT ALPHA HP: 0/250]
[FLOOR BOSS DEFEATED]
---
The massive corpse began to dissolve, golden light more brilliant than any they'd seen before swirling upward. The light condensed into a shower of items that clattered to the stone floor—far more than any regular monster had dropped.
But more importantly:
---
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 500 XP (SHARED)]
[AVARICE GAINS 125 XP]
[BLOSSOM (AVA) GAINS 125 XP]
[KINGSLAYER (AXEL) GAINS 125 XP]
[EFFEL GAINS 125 XP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[CONGRATULATIONS! AVARICE HAS REACHED LEVEL 4]
[CONGRATULATIONS! BLOSSOM HAS REACHED LEVEL 4]
[CONGRATULATIONS! KINGSLAYER HAS REACHED LEVEL 4]
[ADDITIONAL REWARDS:]
[BOSS DROP: ALPHA HORN (GRADE 2)]
[BOSS DROP: REINFORCED RABBIT PELT (GRADE 2)]
[BOSS DROP: GREATER MANA CRYSTAL (GRADE 2)]
[BOSS DROP: SKILL BOOK - POWER STRIKE (GRADE 2)]
[RARE DROP: RING OF MINOR STRENGTH (GRADE 2)]
---
The moment the notifications faded, Raven's legs gave out. He sat down hard, his Saint's Endurance finally releasing its hold. Pain flooded back in—his cracked ribs, his punctured chest, the dozen smaller injuries he'd accumulated. Blood soaked his jacket, and he was suddenly aware of how close he'd come to dying.
"Raven!" Ava was at his side instantly, her hands hovering over his wounds, uncertain how to help. "You idiot! You could have been killed!"
"But I wasn't," Raven managed through gritted teeth. "And neither were you."
Effel was already pulling potions from her pack. "Drink this. Now."
She pressed a vial to his lips—not one of the weak Grade 1 healing potions they'd been using, but something darker, thicker. Raven swallowed, and warmth exploded through his body. He watched in fascination as his chest wound began to close, flesh knitting together at visible speed.
---
[GREATER HEALING POTION CONSUMED]
[HP RESTORED: 45 POINTS]
[HP: 97/110]
---
Wait. His maximum HP had increased. The level-up must have raised his base Stamina, which increased his health pool. He pulled up his status screen:
---
ID: Avarice
Name: Raven Hayes
Jobclass: Sword Saint (EX)
Level: 4 (23%)
Title: N/A
Attributes:
Strength: 11
Agility: 11
Stamina: 11
Magic: 5
Charm: 10
Unallocated Attribute Points: 6
Class Abilities:
- Sword Mastery ( E Rank)
- Saint's Endurance (E Rank)
Skills:
- Inventory
- Basic Meditation (E Rank)
---
Six more points to allocate. His EX rank continuing to provide that crucial advantage. He'd distribute them later, once they were somewhere truly private.
"That was insane," Axel said, slumping against the wall. His own wounds were being treated by Effel, who worked with professional efficiency. "We actually did it. Killed a boss monster."
"A Rank 1 Peak boss," Effel corrected, though she was smiling. "Most parties our level wouldn't even attempt it. You three are legitimately skilled."
Ava had moved away from Raven once she was certain he was healing. She stood near the boss drops, examining them without touching. "This skill book. Power Strike. What does it do?"
Effel glanced over. "Exactly what it sounds like. Grants the ability to channel extra force into a single strike. Common skill for warrior-type classes, but grade 2 is rare. Most people only ever see grade 1 versions."
"Who should take it?" Axel asked.
They all looked at each other. The skill would be valuable for any of them.
"We vote," Raven said. "Or we sell it and split the money. Either way, majority decides."
"You take it," Ava said immediately. "You're our main damage dealer. It'll be most effective in your hands."
"Agreed," Axel added. "No offense, but you're the most skilled fighter among us. That skill will do more good with you than with me."
Effel nodded. "I'm an alchemist. I don't need combat skills. And they're right—your Sword Mastery will synergize perfectly with Power Strike."
Raven wanted to argue, but the logic was sound. He picked up the skill book—a small tome bound in dark leather that pulsed with energy.
---
[SKILL BOOK: POWER STRIKE (E RANK)]
[ABSORPTION WILL GRANT POWER STRIKE SKILL]
[EFFECT: CHANNEL MANA INTO WEAPON FOR DEVASTATING SINGLE STRIKE]
[COST: 10 MP PER USE]
[COOLDOWN: 30 SECONDS]
[CONTINUE? YES/NO]
---
He selected YES.
The book dissolved into light that flowed into him, and suddenly he understood. Not just intellectually, but instinctively. He knew exactly how to channel his mana, how to infuse his blade with energy, how to release that energy in a single explosive strike. It felt natural, like remembering something he'd always known but forgotten.
They divided the other drops. The Alpha Horn and Reinforced Pelt would be sold—both were worth significant gold. The Greater Mana Crystal was absorbed by Ava, who needed to build her mana pool for her fire abilities. The Ring of Minor Strength went to Axel, whose class benefited most from the +2 Strength bonus it provided.
"Fair distribution," Effel observed. "Most parties would fight over boss loot. You three work well together."
"We're friends first," Raven said simply. "Party second."
They rested in the boss chamber for twenty minutes, eating food and recovering. Raven used his Basic Meditation skill for the first time, entering a focused state that accelerated his healing and mana regeneration. It was remarkably effective—within fifteen minutes, he felt almost completely recovered.
---
[FLOOR 1 COMPLETE]
[ACCESS TO FLOOR 2 GRANTED]
[RECOMMENDED: REST BEFORE PROCEEDING]