Haku nodded, smirking slightly. "This isn't my first time in a dungeon you know," he said teasingly.<br/><br/>"Yeah and I've been itching for a good battle," Reina said, drawing her sword already.<br/><br/>They opened the doors, which were heavy and creaked greatly in protest, and looked inside the room. Like most Boss rooms, it was circular with a magic circle drawn in the middle of the floor. This room, though, was bigger than a lot they'd previously seen, which probably meant the boss here was nothing to sneeze at.<br/><br/>"Well what are we waiting for?" Reina exclaimed, stepping boldly into the room and slamming her foot down on the edge of the magic circle. Rather ironic, considering she was basically the only one injured in their last fight, that she would be the one here most eager to battle again.<br/><br/>A swirling light rose from the magic circle and the boss of this dungeon materialized before them. Haku had thought it might have been that ghost golem they saw earlier, but it certainly wasn't. Before them, was a massive dragon. It was big, with strong, thick muscles visibly tensed under its dark red scales. It had great wings spread out behind it as if it were preparing to take off. Each of its feet were bigger than them and had sharp claws coming from the toes. Its teeth certainly didn't look like something you'd want to encounter, and judging from the steam coming from its nostrils, the thing could breath fire. Spines ran down his back all the way to the tip of his tail, which waved to the sides in anticipation. The thing was so massive it left deep dents in the solid rock where its feet held up its colossal body.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Now this,</span>Haku thought, looking up into its slitted ruby eyes,<span style="font-style: italic">is a Boss.</span><br/><br/>----------------------------<br/><br/>Yami tisked as he hit the boss with his third arrow. The thing was so big compared to his arrow tips that they hardly did any damage. Haku had gotten one good swipe in with his sword, injuring one of the bat's legs and doing some good damage to his health bar. But after that, it took off into the air, which was why Yami had been using his arrows. Now he was starting to think that wasn't the best idea.<br/><br/>Yami caught Roku waving at him out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look at the boy who held up his hands in the "casting" position. The boy didn't have any offensive magic and neither of them needed healing at the moment, so Yami took it as a prompt for him to attack with magic. Well that definitely seemed like their best option.<br/><br/>Yami nodded, raising his hands into the "casting" position and shooting electricity at the bat. Unfortunately, it fluttered out of the way, if "fluttered" could be used to describe the motion. Now he caught Roku waving again and turned to look. The boy made a flapping motion with his arms, then pointed at one arm with the other hand.<br/><br/>Yami took a moment trying to figure it out. "... Aim for the wings?" he guessed. Roku nodded happily. Well that made sense. The wings were the most exposed part of its body right now, and if it couldn't fly it would be easier to attack.<br/><br/>Yami lifted his hands again, but the Boss didn't like that. It chose now to fight back, making a screeching sound which hit them like a shock wave. Yami cursed, seeing their HP drop. He wasted no time firing his next shot at the Boss' right wing. It hit beautifully, the creature squealing in agony and collapsing to the ground. Roku charged in immediately with his sword, cutting up the other wing, which was exposed like a huge weak spot. The beast now had less than a fourth of its full health points.<br/><br/>"Back off a second, Roku," Yami said, preparing a slightly more powerful electrical attack. Roku looked back at him and immediately moved away from the Boss. Electricity flashed and jolted around Yami as he built up power. It was the same attack, he was just putting much more manna into it. This would probably eat up the rest of his energy, but it would be big enough that he wouldn't have to worry about missing. Besides, it couldn't fly and had an injured leg. It wouldn't survive this. The thing about Bosses as opposed to other monsters, they really fought until the end.<br/><br/>Yami saw the Boss opening its mouth to attack again and figured now was the time to unleash his own attack. The electricity burst forth from him. It had just about been too much for him to contain anymore anyway. As soon as the attack made contact the Boss' health bar shot to zero and it pixilated before them.<br/><br/>"Well... that wasn't so bad," Yami muttered just before collapsing. The dungeon around them pixilated away and reformed so that they were standing before the entrance. Roku ran over to Yami to see if he was alright. The boy saw that his health was still at a decent level, he'd just exhausted all of his stamina with that last attack. The boy shook his head, sighing with a smile on his face. The boy worked on dragging his party member off to the side where they wouldn't be in the way. He healed both their wounds and waited patiently for Yami to wake up.<br/><br/>-------------------------------<br/><br/>Galen sighed as he walked on. Emilia was still following just behind him and showed no signs of backing off. When he could take it no longer, the archer turned to face her. "Don't you have a guild to go to?"<br/><br/>Emilia blinked and stopped walking as Galen turned to face her. "Huh?" she said, putting a finger to her cheek innocently. "Well I certainly have a guild, but they don't need me right now." She gave a bright smile, "We're just a treasure hunting guild anyway."<br/><br/>Galen sighed, turning and continuing on. "Hey, where are you taking us anyway?" Emilia called.<br/><br/>"I'm not taking you anywhere," he stated calmly. "You're choosing to follow me on your own."<br/><br/>Emilia huffed. "But where are we going?"<br/><br/>Galen sighed at her insistent use of the word "we". "A task chart," he said.<br/><br/>Emilia stopped walking briefly. "There's a task chart all the way out here?" she asked. Usually task charts were only in guilds or town squares. What kind of tasks would be on a task chart in such a remote place?<br/><br/>"Yes," Galen said, turning his head just slightly to see her out of the corner of his eye. It was pretty clear though that he wasn't going to go into further detail.<br/><br/>Emilia sighed. "Look, we're getting kind of close," she started and Galen had a sweat drop on the back of his head from the sheer falseness of the statement. "So I just gotta ask... What's with the elf ears?" Galen fell over at that.<br/><br/>"Excuse me?" he said, sounding surprisingly indignant.<br/><br/>Emilia blinked in surprise. "Jeez, forget I asked."