Water Oh So Corrupted

Wrock and Akiol paused simultaneously. Their faces frozen stiff as they suddenly became paralyzed! Yielya spotted the anomaly almost immediately. The sound of a small bell ringing twice entered everyone's ears. Akiol and Wrock appeared next to her and she immediately inspected them, "This corruption isn't as simple as we thought."

Kan'na raised several magic circles, "What happened?"

"They were in contact with too much of the water."

"Even mere droplets were capable of effecting them this much?"

"Yeah, be careful!"

"Oh. . . you cannot be here. . ."

Neorvil ruffled her feathers, "This horrible corruption!"

<Warning! >

<Boss is enraged!>

Around the orb the Maiden appeared again. A face full of tranquility. Closing her eyes she whispered, "Forgive me. . ."

Tilia spread out both her arms and a massive bronze mountain arose in front of them. The next moment it was barraged with thousands of water needles! Terwin watched this all and couldn't help but frown, "It seems like this whole Dungeon is designed to be based around trial and error. How are you supposed to react to such a large scale move like that so quickly?"

Hank shook his head, "Because you aren't Second Stage you didn't feel it. That gave off a certain feeling, I was able to tell something dangerous was coming."

"So Second Stages are key to beating this. . ."

Corolla added, "Second Stages are going to be key in most of things from here on out."

"Divert more resources into finding out more of ascending the Stages."

"It's already done."

Kan'na primed several magic circles, "How are those two doing?"

"I can't get rid of the corruption. It's like the Maiden is forcing it to remain.", Yielya replied shaking her head.

"Alright, we'll deal with this ourselves. Jarvis can you do anything?"

"I'll need a bit of time, but I should be able to paralyze her long enough for one of you to finish this!"

"Excellent!"

Kan'na clapped her hands and the magic circles began to glow brightly. Tilia lowered her War Sight and several thin lines extended from the circles. Entwining around the Maiden they restricted her movement. Kan'na raised her hands and manually grabbed the lines, pulling them she tightened their grip.

The Maiden didn't seem to be perturbed by the whole situation, "Oh. . . you're still fighting. . ."

Bullets of water shot towards everyone. Tilia leapt forward and created several kite shields using her War Sight. Holding another in her hand she blocked almost all the water bullets. Approaching the Maiden she slammed the point end of the kite shield into their face.

The moment her War Sight made contact with the maiden a large spear of water pierced through Tilia's stomach. Grunting she stepped back and gripped the spear. Then, her whole body froze.

Yielya quickly retrieved Tilia with her War Sight, "You can't get touched by a single one of those!"

Jarvis closed his book, "Alright! Kan'na I hope you have something. In the meantime I'll restrict her!"

"I'll cook something up!"

Two tames stood on either side of Jarvis. A large wolf shook her head, "Neorvil isn't handling the water?"

Neorvil huffed, "This can no longer be considered water."

Extreok's nose twitched, "My apologies, you are correct."

A deer with a curved horn stared at the Maiden. Jarvis murmured, "I need you to paralyze her with lightning."

"That's easy.", Extreok proclaimed.

Staff's horn began to glow and crackle. Lightning rippled across Extreok's fur. Suddenly two chains of lightning shot forward and connected with the Maiden!

Jarvis shouted, "We're good! Go for it!"

Lightning made the air tingle, crackling across the air and floor. The Maiden lifter her hand and stared at it. As if it was ineffective she raised a hand and pointed it towards Jarvis. A giant lance formed and spiraled, flinging droplets everywhere. Neorvil raised a wing and a wall of water sprang from the bottom of the empty lake and blocked the droplets.

Turning murky and falling apart immediately after Neorvil then informed, "It is as I thought, I will be of no use in this fight. Anything that water touches will become fully corrupt."

Extreok bared her fangs, "I'll try pushing any water away! You should return to the book!"

Neorvil harrumphed, "I will see this corruption until its end!"

Yielya looked towards the horde of Players, "You should leave! We cannot guarantee your safety!"

Terwin shook his head, "We were already told that! I shall watch this unfold no matter what happens. Ignore us all!"

Doubling their output even more lightning crossed the field and landed onto the Maiden! It clearly was doing something since her body was beginning to fall apart, but it wasn't fast enough!

Yielya tapped her staff, "Not enough time. . ."

Kan'na tapped the ground with her foot, "Just enough!"

A Five-Point Formation formed on the ground. Mana began to swirl crazily towards Kan'na the moment it took shape. Raising her hand in the shape of a finger gun Kan'na aimed, "Bang."

A Magic Concatenation formed in front of her. It pulsed violently for a split second and shot out a small ball. This slowly rotated through the air and moved towards the Maiden. Yielya watched this and commented, "Not enough time! That thing is too slow!"

"That's where you come in!"

Yielya immediately understood. Using her War Sight she felt a pain sprout through her head. A hand bell formed next to her, larger than the one she usually formed. It rang once and the small ball of magic teleported directly next to the Maiden.

The Maiden didn't pay it any mind, instead she raised her hand for the next attack. Kan'na smiled and snapped her fingers, "Shouldn't ignore that."

Briiii~

An annoying high pitched sound formed from the ball as it expanded in an instant. A powerful barrier surrounded the Maiden, even deflecting the lightning provided by Staff and Extreok. Kan'na watched this approvingly.

Light flashed and temporarily blinded those who were watching intently. Colors that varied swirled inside the barrier, blocking sight to see what was happening within. Those of Second Stage felt a powerful Mana leak through the barrier. Hank shook his head, "The power behind that spell isn't something I could live through."

Kan'na believed that an explosion had too much wasted force being spread over a large area. When your target was something much smaller, it was too much wasted energy to create a large explosion. So what if she contained that force?

After quite a bit of experimenting, this was her result! Further optimized thanks to her learning about Magic Concatenations. The barrier was designed to reflect any incoming damage back at its source. Causing anything that happened within to bounce back and forth until it ran out of energy. The results were satisfactory for Kan'na.

In this scenario, it was even more so. As the barrier faded it revealed the Maiden almost completely destroyed. She lifted her hand and raised it to the sky, light piercing through what remained of her fingers. Her expression still full of sorrow she murmured, "Don't. . . fall to the corruption. . ."

Her body fell apart and a rain of loot landed where she once was. Akiol, Wrock, and Tilia all regained their movement. Wrock complained, "My body feels disgusting, I couldn't drive that away with Spirit."

The other two agreed, their own methods also proving ineffective. Yielya dusted off her clothes, "You're here now, and the Boss is dead."

"We could see, or at least I could. Tilia how you holding up?"

Tilia's wound was already cared for by Yielya, now that the battle was over she didn't need to save her Prayer. Inspecting her armor she answered, "Good."

"Then we shall leave the ancient rite of 'dibs' to you."

"I'm already on it."

Tilia fished through the entire pile, inspecting each piece one by one. Upon picking up an item she paused for a moment, "Huh, this is for you again."

A purplish orb was thrown across the cave. Hank reached up and caught it with ease. Immediately handing it to Terwin. Reading it he rose an eyebrow, "Is this what we needed?"

[Orb Of Corrupted Water]

A lake once filled with a pure source of water came into contact with a horrid corruption. Those who sought the corruption's power sipped at the water. Those corrupted would lose a part of themselves, which gave birth to a Maiden. . .

(This is a quest item, it will expire upon death or when leaving the dungeon.)

-End-

Corolla asked, "It's a source of water. Is this the source of the civilian's craze?"

"So it seems like there would be three total bosses to this dungeon."

"To think in a single attempt we've made more progress than months of effort."

Tilia picked an item and stored it in her bag, "Alright, let us take a brief moment to rest."

Terwin nodded, "Of course, let us know when you're finished."

Regrouping the Party began to discuss among themselves. Akiol was the first to speak, "Are we trying to rain the corruption upon the dungeon?"

"It doesn't seem right. Perhaps that's the last bit? A final rush of enemies who became corrupted while fighting the Storm King?", Yielya added.

Wrock scratched his chin, "A wave of enemies? It could be a 'defeat the general' type."

Jarvis shook his head, "Neorvil doesn't agree with this. The corruption is contained within that orb, if we release it there's no idea what might happen."

"Is it a different source of water? We could've just picked the wrong source.", Tilia included her thoughts.

"Corrupted water. . . what if we purified it?", Kan'na spoke aloud.

Akiol looked at her, "You have an idea?"

"A bit, I'm going to relay my thoughts to bossman."

"Let us know the results!"