Chapter 42: Different Boss (1)

When Eren and Emily reacted the dungeon for the forth time for Eren and third time for Emily, it was the same place. Nothing changed from the outside and everything was calm.

If anyone other than them found the place, it didn’t look like that.

The last light was going orange on the horizon.

The wolves arrived at the edge of the village roads leading to the dungeon. Cubs always came from the same direction, the older tree line to the east, appearing out of the shadow like they’d been waiting just out of sight this whole time.

The female jumped excitedly to Emily first. Emily grabbed her by the ears and the cub suffered with elf’s hands playing with her face for a full minute. She had a tremendous patience and her tail spinning the whole time.

[I don’t have a name but still evolved. Hrrr!]

Eren translated her words and learned she had a plan for finding the perfect name for herself. If Evon didn’t give one, choosing one for herself was fair game.

The male cub came over to Eren and sat down to dirt beside him, close enough that his shoulder pressed against Eren’s leg. He tilted his nose up and held it there for a moment, reading something in the air.

[You smell like worry..hurrrr.] he said. His ears angled forward, genuinely curious. [Why? The flying death is gone.]

“Thanks. Very helpful.” Eren knew the cub was meaning well and he sounded cute with sunshiny nickname for a dragon but he was too anxious.

[The forest is quieter than yesterday.] He settled his chin briefly on Eren’s knee before pulling back, glancing toward the northern tree line. [The flying death moved farther north. The other animals are still hiding, though. They’ll hide for days after something like that – anything with a working nose or eyes knows it’s still out there somewhere.]

“Good to know. Thank you buddy” Eren reached down and scratched behind it’s ear before walking ahead.

“Let’s go.”

“They’re already awake,” Emily said quietly, bow coming up.

She was right. The clusters near the door were already shifting, wings opening and closing, heads turning. Echolocation. They could feel four warm bodies standing in the entrance without needing eyes.

The bat rain came fast. It was a personal metaphor of Eren. When small disgusting creatures swarm to your place, you get creative for curses real fast…

Not all of them came at once actually, and that wasn’t how it worked. But Eren didn’t give a sh*t about the small details.

The bats nearest the ground detached first, a dozen then twenty then more, spiraling down from the ceiling in a loose funnel shape and moved like kamikaze drones!

The wolves moved without being told. The female swept wide left, the male went right and Emily was already drawing.

Eren raised his bow and started shooting. At least he tried until he was forced to use his blade.

The room fell apart into noise. Bats were everywhere, too many to track individually, so he stopped trying to pick targets and started shooting into density. Arrow after arrow. Hit something every time, couldn’t miss at this range.

Cubs were doing most of the real work. They moved through the swarm like they’d trained for exactly this, which Eren supposed they had, snapping and twisting and never staying still long enough for the bats to coordinate. Emily’s wind arrows carved lines through the tighter clusters, scattering them mid-flight.

By the time the chamber was cleaned, there were bats covering the whole damn floor.

Eren lowered his bow and counted the arrows he’d lost again. Mostly used in vain by the way. He sucked at archery if he had to say it in a polite way.

“How many of them were there?” he said.

“I stopped counting at thirty,” Emily said, already moving toward the next door without slowing down.

The rest of Floor 1 and it’s seven chamber clearing happened the same way like before.

Bat after bat after bat, in corridors and in open rooms, the same creatures as always, responding to the same tactics. The wolves got better at working in tight spaces. Emily’s arrows got more economical. Eren started conserving shots, waiting for angles instead of just shooting.

Room four put them in a narrow corridor where the bats came from both directions at once, which was less enjoyable. The male wolf took a bite to his left ear and made a sound that wasn’t quite a yelp but was similar.

The female clawed the bat responsible in half without breaking stride. The male shook his head once, hard and positioned himself to protect his sister like nothing had happened.

[I’m fine,] he said, before Eren could open his mouth. His ear was bleeding slightly and he was clearly ignoring it with great determination. [Don’t make a thing of it.]

“Sure but your sister is already bigger than you after last night.” Eren said and kept moving.

[She slept and got stronger, class selection she said…hurrr] It didn’t know the details yet but after reacting level 25 today he would also experience the same change.

Eren was suspicious about how the cubs see each other. The male one was more obedient and quiet. The female one was dominant, stronger and maybe even a bit possessive. She clearly didn’t see him as a brother. At least Eren imagined her weird antics this way.

He had a hunch that this poor guy was gonna suffer under her claws if he try rejecting her in the future. Smiled a bit with the image in his head, then concentrated to the dungeon again.

By the time they reached the boss room, Eren had stopped thinking of Verdant Hollow Floor 1 as a dangerous place.

Things were coming together in his head. Maybe if he had a sword and a shield, he would count as much as the cubs now. Just maybe..

The boss door was open, same as it had been every other time they’d come to this floor. Inside, hanging from the ceiling in the center of the high chamber, was the Vampire Bat Commander.

Except this time it looked different.

Eren had fought this thing twice now. He knew the shape of it, the way its wings hung, the particular stillness it held before it flied.

What he didn’t remember was the metallic parts of this one and where the hell they had come from?

It looked more like the bat’s own body had changed, sections of its wing membrane replaced by something darker and harder, the edges catching the torchlight in ways that organic tissue shouldn’t.

The joints of both wings had plates fitted around them, angled back like beetle carapace. The chest had a stripe of the same material running down its center.

Emily noticed it at the same time he did. She stopped just inside the door, held one arm out to keep Eren from walking past her and studied the creature for a full three seconds before she said anything.

“That’s new,” Eren said.

“Very new.” Emily’s hand was already on her katana, her eyes moving over the creature. “It wasn’t like this last time. If I remember correctly some dungeons don’t stay the same and act to stop the challengers. Mostly for the bosses but still it can be dangerous if we clear this floor for ten times more. My mother once said she almost died in a similar dungeon but never told me the specifics. ”

The wolves read Emily’s body language and came back from their flanking positions.

Then the group noticed something new. The elite boss bat was faster. Real fast!

It dropped from the ceiling without warning and changed direction mid-dive, coming at Emily from an angle that should’ve been outside its turning radius. She stepped back instead of standing firm and let it overshoot, which cost her a Wind Slash she’d already started sending like an arrow.

As much as she said bad things about her class, at least it allowed her to use wind slashes with variety and imagination.

She could use windy slashes, small movement boosts with her sword behind her or send big and too fast slashes with her sword.

And her abilities looked badass!

Eren’s eyes were feasting her jiggly body jumping around with cool moves!

God, I love her..

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