Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Four - Judgement Day

"Here's what we can expect," Amaryllis began.

She was standing with wings-on-hips, nose turned down so that she could read from the dungeon book. The book was currently being held open by Awen, who had been volunteered for the job by Amaryllis.

"The next floor is the last. The dungeon's boss is there, along with a cadre of weaker monsters to come to his defence. The boss itself should be around levels eight to ten, so not an enormous challenge, but keep in mind that this is a dungeon boss nonetheless. They won't be so easy to take down."

"What kind of monster are we talkin' about here?" Calamity asked.

"His name is the Sue-Chef," Amaryllis said. "He's some sort of imp-goblinoid hybrid. A large winged imp. He uses a cleaver, or a chef's knife, and has several offensive cooking skills, as well as self and group buffing abilities."

"Offensive cooking skills?" Desiree asked. "That sounds peculiar. How does one cook offensively?"

"It's fire magic, mostly," Amaryllis said. "As well as baking magic, which I suppose is closely related. In any case, it would do us no good to underestimate the boss. The boss room is some sort of food court according to these notes, and the additional monsters are called Sous-Lawyer Imps. They'll be a little bit stronger than the imps we faced on this floor."

"If they're only a little stronger, we should be able to take them," Caprica said.

"Yes, but don't forget, they'll be distracting us from the boss, who is undoubtedly a threat," Amaryllis pointed out.

I nodded. "Amaryllis is right. I'd rather we all be as careful as we can be and come out of this without a scratch. Do you think our current formation is good enough?"

"It should be," Amaryllis replied. "Let's keep Booksie in the centre again. No offence, Booksie, but you're both the VIB of this quest and our weakest member."

"VIB," I repeated. "Amaryllis... did you make a bun pun?"

Amaryllis huffed. "You misheard me." She huffed almost silently. A stealth-huff of hidden bird-y humour! But I was onto her. "In any case. Once the boss is eliminated, the imps will stop spawning, so our focus should primarily be on the boss monster itself. I propose that we split our efforts two ways. One group focusing entirely on the boss, and another group to keep the chaff occupied."

"If that's the case," Caprica said. "Then I propose myself, Amaryllis, and Awen focus on the boss. I can hold it off in close range, Amaryllis can apply damage over time with her magic, and Awen's crossbow has a great deal of penetrative power that ought to harm even a boss monster."

"That leaves Calamity, Desiree, Booksie and me to take care of all the little monsters," I said. "Isn't that a little unbalanced?"

"No, I think it's reasonable," Calamity said. "On big hunts, we'd used to have the stronger members' focus on the bigger beasties and the rest would work on clearing out the area around them. We can still open up with a big early strike. Desiree can fling a few fireballs, you too, Broc, and I wouldn't mind planting an arrow or two in the boss."

"Does Booksie need to help with the boss at all?" I asked.

Amaryllis hummed. "Conventional knowledge says that as long as she helps in some way during the overall fight, she should be okay. But other, equally conventional knowledge says that she should help against the boss itself. It doesn't need to be a great contribution, though."

"What should I do?" Booksie asked.

"We can pin the boss down for you to give it a good bonking," I suggested.

"Just throw that mace at the boss," Calamity said. "Wait, no, that'd leave you unarmed. Does anyone have a brick? A rock, maybe?"

"Ah, I don't carry those," Awen said. "But I have, um, this?" She reached under her coat and into the small of her back where she pulled out a small wrench.

Booksie accepted it, then weighed it up and down. "So, I fling this at the boss?"

"Just hurt it a little," Amaryllis said. "I don't even know if it's really necessary, but it's better to be safe than to have to redo the entire dungeon, isn't it?"

"I think I can manage that much," Booksie said.

With everyone more or less ready, we stepped into the tunnel leading to the next floor of the dungeon. This one quickly led to a staircase that we clambered down, then into a small antechamber with a large pair of solid double doors.

The anti-boss team stepped up into the lead, and Amaryllis and Caprica pushed the door open for us. The room beyond was like a food court... court room. More or less.

The space where there would usually be rows of benches for an audience to watch the proceedings was replaced by rows of tables with benches right behind, as if the crowd of onlookers was meant to be replaced by a crowd of eaters.

At the far end of the room, on the little stand where the judge was meant to be, was a large greenish... man? He was almost tall enough to reach my chin, with bulging, muscly arms and an apron that had Kiss the Judge written on it.

The boss glared at us as we made our careful way down the central alley of the room. Then he raised both arms. One held a long chef's knife, the edge dinged and dented. The other held a wooden hammer, with brass rings around the head. "Prepare for your taste to be judged!" he roared.

"Booksie!" Amaryllis said.

"G-got it!" Booksie said. She took off running ahead of the group, which got the rest of us running after her. Then, with an arm pulled way back then flung forwards, she threw Awen's wrench as hard as she could.

The tool glinted as it flipped end over end. The boss moved his knife in the way, and the wrench clanged off of it. "Those are not proper table manners!" he shouted.

"Get your hits in, everynyan!" Calamity said. A split second later, the boss grunted as an arrow buried itself in its burly arms with a meaty thwack.

I concentrated, creating a brace of fireballs and then sending them flying out ahead. They were right behind Desiree's own, which I noticed were both larger, brighter, and flew faster. She probably had a few skills to make them better. Or she was just better at magic than I was.

The boss roared even as he covered his head with both arms and started to charge our way, the mini-fireballs bursting apart against his tough hide.

Caprica darted ahead, meeting his charge with her shield raised and somehow stopping the boss dead, despite being about a third his mass.

Then Amaryllis and Awen started on him, Awen punching bolts into his side while Amaryllis let loose with a powerful burst of lightning magic.

I was sure we were going to win this one very soon when I started to feel a little strange. Warm.

"He's using baking magic!" Amaryllis warned. "Keep moving!"

I was about to start flinging more fireballs when I noticed something moving above. I glanced up and gasped. "Imps!" I shouted.

Calamity shifted, back twisting as he aimed up and fired an arrow that punched through a pair of imps and sent them tumbling down. But there were a lot more where they had come from.

I swung my scythe out above as soon as the imps were in range, cutting one right out of the air. They were weak, but there were easily thirty of them above and they were all coming down towards us.

Desiree grunted and flung out a large ball of fire as big around as she was tall, then she flung a second, much smaller fireball right into the big one. The moment the smaller one rammed into the larger sphere, it exploded above us.

I ducked down, a wave of heat and stray bits of fire slipping past me. "Whoa!" I said. That took out a few of them, but not all. Still, it gained us some time, and distracted from the growing heat I could feel inside of me.

How dangerous was baking magic anyway? It didn't feel that warm, but maybe it didn't need to be. I was already sweating a lot.

More imps came screeching down from the ceiling, and our group spread out to cover the back of those attacking the boss. I made sure to stay close to Booksie, who helped by bonking any imp that smacked into the floor, taking them out of the fight for certain.

There was another big boom as Amaryllis unleashed another spell. I glanced over and saw electrical trails flicking from crossbow-bolt to crossbow-bolt. Their metal bits were acting as lightning rods for her magic, shoving it deeper into the boss.

It stumbled, landing on one knee, which was when Caprica rushed in and hooked the boss around the neck, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Booksie!" Caprica shouted. "Bonk him!"

And so, with very little fanfare, the boss was taken out.

***