56 Chapter Fifty-Six
"Here, let me heal you," Markus said as he stepped forward. He approached Edward, then crouched down and put his hands on Edward's wound. Edward winced for a moment- the pain was like ten needles were stabbing him all at once- but he was surprised when the pain began to disappear. Hovering above Markus's hands was a large glowing ball of green energy.
Soon enough, Edward's wounds were healed and the pain coming from his leg was gone. There was still blood covering his skin and his armor was still damaged in the shape of a warg's bite, but he had been completely healed. Even his health had returned to full, despite having dipped into the two hundreds.
Edward looked away from the wolves and brought his attention to the wooden chest in the center of the room. For a moment, he considered opening it himself. Instead, though, he turned to Brandon.
'Maybe his luck can help, somehow,' Edward thought to himself. Brandon smiled as he noticed Edward's gaze. Then, without a word between them, Brandon holstered his pistols and began to walk to the chest.
"Yay, loot," Brandon chuckled. He stepped up to the chest and quickly opened it. As the chest swung open, a bright golden light emerged from within. Brandon looked past the glow and reached his hands deep into the chest itself. When his hands emerged he was holding two items. In his right hand was a large pair of boots.
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Winter Warg Boots
+10% movement speed
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"Give them to Markus. He's our slowest," Edward said. Brandon nodded, then tossed the boots in Markus's direction. As he caught the boots, Markus turned to look at Edward, stars in his eyes, "You couldn't reach an enemy in time during one of our battles. Hopefully, the boots will fix that problem."
Brandon lifted his left hand, revealing a black leather tunic covered from top to bottom in leather straps. The tunic looked like something a mummy would wear as a fashion statement. As Brandon lifted the tunic, Edward looked at it and appraised it.
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Tunic of the Winter Warg
9 Defense
+10% resistance against ice magic
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"Who should wear this?" Brandon asked. Edward turned to look at the rest of the party, but Leila quickly spoke up.
"You should, Edward. You were the one most targeted during our battles so far, so a little bit of extra defense will work well," Leila said with a smile. Edward turned to the others and found them nodding to Leila's suggestion.
'It seems the choice has been made for me,' Edward thought to himself. Brandon tossed the tunic to Edward with a wide swing. As Edward caught the piece of equipment, he involuntarily took a step back as he was pushed back by the tunic's weight. Even with his newfound strength, the tunic was almost forty pounds.
"Heavy, right?" Brandon snickered, "You'll have to increase your Power stat a little more just to wear it."
Edward threw the tunic in his bag as he made a mental note to increase his Power with his next level up. Then, he looked to his party members and said, "Let's get going."
Brandon and the others nodded to Edward as they all gathered together. Then, as a group, they left the room and continued with the dungeon's exploration. A few minutes later, Brandon spoke up.
"That room was the last one. It's time for the floor boss," Brandon called out, "Take the next left, Markus."
"We've already gone through the entire first floor?" Leila questioned, surprised, "I thought there would be more enemies."
"Looks like we got unlucky," Brandon sighed. He looked at Edward and asked, "What's the boss for this floor?"
"It's just a bigger version of the enemies we've been fighting," Edward answered, "A level twenty warg along with four level ten wargs. It'll be a tough fight for sure."
"We're ready," Markus whispered as he took a deep breath. He turned back to Edward, "Right?"
"Only one way to find out," Edward replied with a shrug, "We have to fight the boss."
A few minutes later, the group stood in front of a large iron door. The door was as wide as three men and almost reached the ceiling. Across the door's surface- like the craters of a moon- dotted with different symbols and pictures carved into the door itself.
"We're here," Edward silently muttered. Markus stepped forward and put his hand against the door. Then, with a push, the door began to open. A loud groaning noise echoed across the hallway from the door itself- possibly alerting the boss of their presence. As the door finally swung fully open, the group walked into the boss room. Each of their heads swung left and right as they tried to find the boss, but none of them could see through the dark shadow hovering over their eyes. The room was pitch black- not even Edward's flame illuminated it.
The door behind them suddenly closed- trapping them in the room. At that moment, the veil over their eyes faded away, revealing the rest of the room. The room was circular in shape and about the size of a courtroom. As Edward turned to his left, he saw a large moat at the edge of the room, just before the walls began, that dropped into pure darkness. Anybody who fell into that would surely die.
At the center of the room, the group gazed upon their enemies. Four of them were the same type of enemies the group had been fighting all day- the skeleton wargs. However, the fifth enemy was four times their size.
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Frozen Skeleton Warg
Lvl 10
HP: 200 | DMG: 50 | DEF: 50
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Frozen Skeleton Warg
Lvl 10
HP: 350 | DMG: 40 | DEF: 80
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Frozen Skeleton Warg
Lvl 10
HP: 350 | DMG: 45 | DEF: 80
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Frozen Skeleton Warg
Lvl 10
HP: 300 | DMG: 40 | DEF: 70
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"Markus, focus on the summons! You can take their hits!" Edward shouted as he looked at his tank. Markus turned to the enemies with a grin on his face. He slammed the blunt of his blade against his arm and shouted.
"[Perfect Provoke]!" As a red aura surrounded his body, Markus stepped forward and pointed his sword at the four small wargs before him. A red glow appeared deep within their eye sockets as they turned their attention to Markus, though the boss took no notice of him.
'Not good enough? How?' Edward's thoughts were in jambles as he looked at the fifth enemy.
The warg boss's bone body was sharper and more refined- like the bones were imitating muscles of some kind. Edward saw blue marks etched all over its spine and head. As the warg turned to face the party, the blue tattoos began to shine.
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Frozen Skeleton Warg (Floor Boss)
Lvl 20
HP: 500 | DMG: 90 | DEF: 120
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'Holy moly!' Edward thought. He looked at his party members and shouted, "All of you attack the four enemies! Ikarus, attack the boss with me!"
"Got it!" Brandon replied as he dashed forward. Ikarus flew into the air and moved to the boss monster as Markus redirected the smaller enemies to a separate location in the boss room. As everybody separated, Edward looked at the boss monster.
"Alright, big guy. Let's tango!"
