Monastery [3]

*Graaawwrrr!*

'That's one big boy...'

The skeleton monstrosity was truly massive, his arms being just as thick as my body and his height more than doubling that of Sophie. However, his enlargement hadn't been enough to throw me off, even though his, now, giant staff looked pretty intimidating.

Splitting with sub-me, which I made quickly run to the side in an attempt to get to the boss's back. I yelled out a simple direction to Sophie, who was also still running toward the abomination, now having transformed her body again, "Focus on his legs!"

A simple nod was all I got before she engaged in battle, quickly arriving at the leg of the boss. *Graaa!* Not wanting the human that approached him to get a chance to attack him, he swung his staff at the woman, who for some reason decided to not dodge and instead try and meet his attack head-on.

*Bam!* "Aah!"

The result was obvious, ending up with Sophie flying across the room before rolling on the floor. 'Is she stupid?' It was hard to imagine that the tall girl truly believed that she would be able to parry the heavy attack of the boss, but the proof was right in front of me.

Still, I didn't have time to help her as the priest now switched his sights to me. I didn't think it would be a good idea to just rush in, therefore I waited a bit to see what he would do. And just like I expected, he once more swung his staff.

*Bam!*

Pieces of the floor went flying as he hit the spot I had just been standing in. His wide swing had allowed me to dash in, getting in range to finally land some attacks.

*Tang! Tang! Tang!*

Letting my body take control, I unleashed as many strong attacks as I could at his right leg, making sure to enhance them as much as I could. At the same time, I made sub-me attack the backside of the same leg, though my attacks as a wolf were a lot less effective.

*Graa!*

It was time to disengage, the boss having regained his stance and already started another attack. Though his swings were pretty fast and powerful, they had such an immense drawback that I wondered what kind of idiot would ever try to meet them head-on instead of just dodging and using the opening he had after.

*Bom!*

Another part of the floor was broken when I retreated. Funnily enough, the idiot had seemingly learned her lesson as she was now pretty much flying towards his left leg, letting out a huge punch with her hand on fire.

*BAM!*

Splinters of bone flew through the air as she crushed a part of his leg. With just one attack, she had somehow managed to do more damage than both my bodies did together during our flurry of attacks. She even went as far as to give me a cheeky smile, making sure I saw what she was able to do.

The rest of the fight was pretty simple. Dodge his swing, dash in, and do as much damage as possible. That was until the second phase of the boss fight started.

*Graaawwrrr!*

A wave of dark energy was sent out like a pulse from his body, forcing us to back off and defend ourselves using whatever tools we had available. "Gah!", "Awoo!" Unfortunately, sub-me didn't have any good weapons or draconic hands to fend off the attack, creating an immense wave of pain inside of me.

I didn't take any actual damage, but the pain in itself was enough to stun me long enough for the boss to use the opening. Before I knew it, the staff was right in front of my human eyes, making them close in reflex. 'Fuck!'

*BAM!*

"Get up!"

Opening my eyes, I could see that Sophie had somehow managed to catch the golden staff with her hands, desperately trying to keep it from making me a bloody mess of guts and organs. Getting up, I quickly retreated so Sophie could follow suit.

*Bom!*

Once again, his staff had hit the ground when the draconic woman let it go. Both of us knew what we had to do before he could send out another pulse of energy. "Left leg!" "Yes!"

We both dashed toward the same leg, me swallowing my pride as it was equivalent to admitting that her side had sustained a lot more damage. *Bom! Tang, tang, tang!*

Both of us, and sub-me, quickly used our all to bring down the boss, desperately unleashing our attacks on just one of his legs, until we finally broke through it.

*Graaaawwrr! BOOM!*

The whole room shook from the impact his body made when collapsing to the floor, dropping his staff in the process. However, we were not done yet. Once again, we cooperated in order to blow up the head of the boss. *Tang! Tang! Tang!*

My arms were hurting, and my heart felt like it would explode at any second. Yet, I kept on spinning my scythe, slashing at the head of the boss, while at the same time dirtying the pristine fur of sub-me as I clawed frantically. "James! Back off!"

I didn't need an explanation to understand what she was about to do. Therefore, I quickly jumped a few meters back, awaiting the attack that she was about to unleash.

*ROAARRR! CRACKLE!*

*GRAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR!*

A much bigger sea of fire than what I had ever seen her bring out before was unleashed on the already cracked head of the boss, as it desperately screamed its nonexistent lungs out. In the end, his scream didn't save him when his skull crumbled under the intense flames.

"Huff...huff..."

We both let our bodies fall to the floor, sitting down to catch our breaths. The boss was finally dead, so now we only had to wait for a bit before seeing our reward.

"What did you eat for your stomach to be so unruly?"

"Shut up... Stupid goblin..."

****

"Fuck!"

"Aroo!"

I wasn't happy. In fact, I was fuming. Not only did the boss not drop the item I sought after, but it also dropped an item that was completely useless to me.

[Necklace of Burning Desire]

Description: The necklace of a man whose unending resolve resulted in him being unable to face death.

- Increases the user's potency of the fire element to a [Minor] degree.

The worst part was that Sophie was currently inspecting the dark red orb hanging from the thin chain with the biggest of smiles on her face.

"Cmon, Bobby. We're getting out of here."

The girl's face turned into a frown, as she dashed in front of me to give me another lecture on how a human should behave.

"James! You should be happy that your friend got something useful! It's unattractive for someone to be so small-minded!"

Clicking my tongue, "Tsk!", I just walked passed her, not wanting to recognize my own childish feelings.

"Hey! Wait!"

****

"I'm so exhausted..."

Having spent the entire day inside of the dungeon, we had landed at a small family restaurant to get something to eat.

Naturally, it wasn't my idea. Instead, it was the glutton of a woman who had forced me to follow her, saying stuff like 'If I didn't have to save you, I wouldn't be so hungry'.

As we were waiting for our food, with her ordering five different meals and I ordering a burger, she put her head down on the table to rest her weary mind a bit.

Although I could understand why she was exhausted, I couldn't empathize with her. There was no semblance of any memory inside of me of how I had felt after my first dive, after all.

"But James..."

As I was petting myself, her face turned complicated all of a sudden, "Yeah? What's up?"

With her head still lying on the table, her voice was a lot softer than normal as she spoke, "Are you sure nothing happened last week? I mean, there is... Like there would be something... Shit! I don't know how to explain it!"

Now sitting back up and rubbing her head, it appeared to be hard for her to find the right words.

A polite smile emerged on my face, "You mean that I'm different? Isn't that natural after experiencing a dive for the first time?"

*Pak!*

Putting my right fist in my left hand, I put on a bit of an act, "Oh! I forgot! You have been some kind of battle addict from the start, so there's no way you wouldn't think it was weird!"

Her eyes twitched, as a vein started protruding on her forehead.

"You..! You fucking goblin!"

****

[Theia's Pov]

'Maybe it's not too late!'

Looking at the young man on my screen, the hope that had been extinguished somehow got rekindled.

His actions in the dungeon seemingly hadn't made him lose everything just yet and looking at how he interacted with his friends, it was too alluring to not hope.

After all, the entire world of the mortals had been built on hope. Dreams, aspirations, progress, all of these were built by hope.

So what kind of ruling god would I be if I didn't allow hope to fill my mind, even if it might get ripped away by reality in the future?

Such were the fates of the mortals, and by extension, such was the fate of me.