Chapter 43: Different Boss (2)

While Eren was clearly simping after her pregnant mate, the cubs went wide with the same tactic as always. But when the female tried to close on the right side, the bat’s wing met her shoulder with a crack that was clearly metal and she slid back and bumped to the wall.

She planted her feet and shook it off. [It’s stronger than before,] she hrrled, her focus already back on the creature. [The wings are completely different…]

“Yeah, thanks.”Eren was already repositioning before the answer.

After that second, no one interfered Emily and boss’s fight.

The combat and screams stretched. This was the third time Emily had faced this creature and she knew everything about it – every movement pattern, every blind spot, every moment between actions where it was exposed.

The problem was the new metallic sections on its wings were turning what had been clean openings into deflections. Emily struck twice at the joint between the left wing and the body, both solid hits that would’ve killed it last time.

The blade hit into the new plating and skidded sideways both times. She adjusted her grip and tried the neck. The bat pulled its wings in like a shield.

Eren circled to the opposite wall, trying to find a line for his bow that wouldn’t risk hitting Emily. There wasn’t one. She was too close and moving too fast.

The bat tried something at the two-minute mark.

It landed. Not crashed, not fell – landed, deliberately, in the center of the room and opened its mouth. The sound that came out wasn’t a screech like yesterday. It was lower decibel and stronger than that.

A vibration came out through the whole room.

Eren felt it in his back teeth and behind his eyes. The wolves flinched hard. Eren’s arm went briefly unsteady on his bow. The effects of the control attack was stronger.

The female wolf pressed herself flat against the floor, ears pinned back, teeth bared at nothing. The male took three involuntary steps backward and hit the wall his behind.

Only Emily didn’t flinch. But even she noticed this dungeon was messing with the bosses more than they imagined!

She crossed the room in four steps while it was still projecting the sound and drove the katana through the gap between two chest plates where the membrane was still exposed. It was a perfect thrust. She pulled back, angled the second strike upward into the neck joint and the bat dropped without another sound.

Total time was just over three minutes.

Emily stood over the body for a moment, catching her breath without making a show of it. Then she looked up at the ceiling, at the empty hanging spots where this thing had waited before they arrived.

Eren looked over his exp bar and noticed it was so close. But he had enough trouble of understanding stat issues.

“It was stronger,” Emily said as she was coming to them. Her katana was still out. She hadn’t put it away and Eren realized she was checking the room, making sure nothing else had spawned while they were focused on the boss.

“Yep.”

“The dungeon is changing the boss each time we clear the floor.”

“Hım..”

She was quiet for a moment, processing it. “That’s concerning.”

“Very.” Eren walked over to the creature with her and crouched next to one of the wing plates.

Up close it was integrated, not attached – grown into the tissue at the edges, like the bat had been rebuilt from the inside. Whatever the dungeon was doing to evolve this thing, it wasn’t slow at all.

“If it’s making the boss stronger,” Emily said, following the logic before he finished it and he’d noticed she always did that, “the loot should be better too.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

She picked up her arrow from near the far wall, checked the tip and said nothing else about it. Eren decided to let the concerning part stay where it was for now. They’d deal with it when they had to.

The reward chest was at the back of the chamber, same place it always was. This time it was better looking than before but Eren had learned not to read too much into dungeon furniture from Emily. She was it was too flicker and random.

Inside was something wrapped in dark cloth, a chunk of raw meat the size of a large stone and nothing else.

The wolves smelled the meat before Eren got the cloth all the way off. Both of them appeared at his side with the focused calm of creatures who are being very polite about how much they want something. Neither of them said anything. They just watched his hands.

The female’s tail was doing one slow, controlled wag. The male was holding perfectly still except for his nostrils, which were working overtime.

“It’s yours,” he told them.

They took it to the far side of the room immediately and didn’t look back.

The wrapped item was a pair of boots.

They were white or close to it – the leather had a texture that caught the light differently depending on the angle. Not stiff like regular leather, not soft either. Something in between that didn’t have a name he knew. When he turned one over in his hands, the inner part shifted slightly, the way a good glove shapes itself to pressure.

[Item Identified: Wraithstep Boots (Artifact)]

[On equip: Automatically conforms to the wearer’s foot. Cannot be removed by force]

[Agility +3 – Permanent while equipped]

“Agility +3. Meh…” Eren said, holding one of the pairs up in to the air.

Emily looked at them over his shoulder and he could feel her doing the math. “That’s significant,” she said, which from Emily meant she wanted them badly.

“It is.” He turned to look at her. “They’re yours.”

She blinked. “Me?”

“You’re the main fighter here. You need it more than I do.” He held one out. “Sit down.”

Emily looked at the boots. She had the expression of someone about to argue on principle and then deciding against it.

She sat down on the edge of the chest and held her foot out with the resigned air of someone who had learned that fighting Eren on certain points was simply not worth the energy.

He crouched down and worked her existing cheap shoes off carefully. Her foot was pale in the torchlights of the dungeon, smooth in the way that came from good footwear in a forest, not years of concrete and smelly shoes.

He fit the Wraithstep Boots over her feet.

It sealed itself without needing to be tied, the leather parts on edges curling softly around her ankle until it sat perfectly. He ran his thumb along the inner seam to check the edge and Emily made a very small, very undignified sound.

“Did I just tickle you?”

“No.” Her voice was flat. He looked up. She was staring very deliberately at the far wall.

“I think I did,” he said.

“Put the other one on,” she said that but it was clear she was hiding the truth. Maybe Emily has chosen not to acknowledge the last thirty seconds with fear of Eren abusing it.

“So you are easy to tickle huh. Hahahahaha” Eren showed his foolish evil laugh and kissed her hand on his shoulder.

“Fool…”

He put the other one on. His thumb did not accidentally find the same spot again, which was a choice he made consciously and felt was the mature decision given their location. He stood back up and offered her a hand.

Emily tested her weight on both feet, took three quick steps toward the far wall. Something shifted in how she moved, not dramatically, just – smoother, like a correction she hadn’t known she needed.

“Good?” Eren said.

“More than I imagined. I didn’t think good shoes would make a big difference. We should find something for you as well.”

She glanced at him sideways, with a look that said she hadn’t forgotten the tickling. Then she turned to the portal to Floor 2, which was now open at the far end of the chamber. “We’re going through tonight.”

“We are?” he said.

So it was finally time for floor two. And he knew it was because they trusted him to hold on and defend himself on bigger dangers.

I really need to find what is going on with my stats…

Emily was already walking toward the next path but Eren crossed the room and caught her hand, turned her around and kissed her once, quickly on the mouth.

She tasted like a strawberry.

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