Revenge:

The moment Bron got petrified, Rina pulled us all the way to the back with an enormous force. I struggled due to the sudden jerk, I got on my knees and puked everything in my stomach. I felt dizzy and nauseous. The force with which I got pulled was too much for me to handle, but I could feel it, I was recovering fast.

"What happened to Bron!? Why has she turned into s-stone? Is she alive??" Rina asked, her voice cracked.

"There was..." I panted and pointed ahead towards the floor, "... It was mostly hidden by the dust and grime, but there was a gap of about two centimeters.... a boundary separating these two areas... Bron stepped over that gap...." I coughed and wiped my mouth of the puke.

"No way, then i-is she d-dead?"

Emy roared, was she denying her comrade's death, was she grieving, or was it the declaration of revenge? I didn't know.

I didn't say anything. Tears welled up in Rina's eyes.

I could have avoided it. If I had been more careful, if I had been warier then Bron wouldn't have been caught in that trap. I fell for its distractions, I got fooled by its appearance, it took me too late to realize that even if its appearance was similar to the other monsters on this floor, it was still a boss monster. Even if it was too dim to clearly see that boundary, even if that trap was well hidden, I should have taken more time to observe everything. It was my fault! If I had realized it even one second earlier then.....

"Don't think too about what happened, think about what you'd do now." Rina tapped my shoulder.

'Fuck it, I am such a fool!'

*Baaamm* *Bamm*

Still pale from the shock, I looked through the corner of my eyes, the boss monster was punching the floor.

"Is that motherfucker throwing a fit that it couldn't petrify all of us?" Rina muttered agitatedly.

No, it wasn't punching the floor because it was frustrated. That bastard isn't that simple nor even that intricate. That bastard had something in mind for sure...

"Rina! Be ready to intercept." I said.

"Intercept what?" She looked ahead, her eyes widened. The boss monster was readying to throw the debris that it obtained by busting the stony ground.

"Get behind me, all of you!" She yelled out her lungs.

"We already are!!!" I yelled with the same loudness and searched the bag for one of the mana chalks.

It laughed in its same irritating high-pitched voice as it swung its long thin arms wide and launched the debris at us. A series of high-speed projectiles collided and devastated the walls of the cave-like arena. But none of it reached us. They were either redirected or stopped mid-air, like this massive chunk of debris floating right in front of us.

"I think this is yours!" She yelled as she launched all the debris she could back to the boss monster. It didn't dodge, it just shut its eyes with its palm and took all the barrage of debris on him.

I doubt that it will cause him much damage, seeing that it just took it head-on.

Rina's paused her onslaught. The big-headed and big-bellied boss monster opened its eyes and crouched down to pick up the debris that dropped close to it. It got up with some effort and launched the debris here again. Again, Rina returned it with even more momentum and quantity. The boss monster again closed its eyes and took the barrage on him. A catastrophic game of catch was being played in this dungeon.

I needed to calm down, I trusted Rina with my safety and closed my eye to take a few quick deep breaths.

'Why is it not dodging? A better question, why is it not moving from its place at all and coming here to kill us with its own hands?'

It may be likely as it had so much trouble getting up and crouching down. I could think of multiple reasons from my observations so far, but the most plausible ones were... First, if it gets away from that area then the petrifying trap might not activate again, or it could petrify the boss monster itself. The second would be its oversized stomach. Well, it was having some trouble getting up and crouching down, maybe its just lazy...

Anyway, this game that it is playing with Rina. It isn't just trying to kill us with these simple debris. No, as I had thought earlier, this bastard doesn't think that simply nor even that intricately. All the debris this bastard is launching here is also aimed towards the walls, sooner or later they'll crumble and we'll get crushed if we didn't move ahead and if we moved ahead, we'll get turned into stone statues, that is to say, we are dead either way. This area and this trap, all of it favored the boss monster. No, all of this area is a trap constructed by the boss. It was all intentional.

But there must be a way... and I think I have some idea about that.

Back then, it was just for a moment and not even that clear, but I think I saw one of Emy's feet step over that gap too. But for some reason, she didn't get petrified. The fact that her whole body didn't cross the boundary could be one of the reasons but I have to make sure of it, I have to make sure of everything about that trap. I don't like making the same mistakes twice.

I will ascertain each and every detail about that trap, find a way to bypass it, and then kill that bastard.

It took me a whole minute to finish drawing the summoning circle, after that, one after another, I summoned a dozen of sheep of different sizes and herd them towards the trap. The sheep that I had summoned were the variant that existed on this earth, though there were a few differences between the sheep of this earth and the old earth like these were more muscular and had bigger horns, the main behavior remained the same, they followed each other by heart.

I initially thought to make a contract with one of the sheep and let it guide others to the trap, but I didn't have any contract slot left. That's why Fena took the responsibility to guide the flock in the direction I wanted.

The barrage of debris was still being exchanged, the boss monster was starting to launch even bigger chunks of the shattered floor. Rina, although she was powerful, could only do so much at a time. Now, she even had to protect Fena and the flock of sheep I sent from getting crushed by the debris too.

I observed as Fena sat a couple of steps away from the boundary to guide all the sheep to the boundary. The herd as it ran past the boundary got turned into stone one by one. Yes, one by one.

I saw it. A pattern.

There was a delay between any two consecutive petrification, the delay was at least three seconds. None of the sheep could go past six meters, but the distance between the boundary and the boss monster was at least thirty meters.

The Aim-assist upgrade, helped a lot in judging the distances, the color of the target icon paled the farther my target went.

I had to check a few other things like, what if someone didn't step on the floor after crossing the boundary?

To confirm my suspicions, I summoned a few pigeons and tried to make them fly towards the trap, but they didn't go that way no matter what I did. They were too afraid to go in that direction, of course, I understood that, that's why I troubled Rina with one more task. I asked her to take these pigeons over the boundary with her psychokinesis.

'Heck, yeah! They didn't get petrified!'

She moved them further ahead, but the boss monster launched another round of debris. She maneuvered the pigeons, and redirected the high-speed chunks of the floor, she did all she could, but one of the pigeons got smashed by a small chunk of debris. The Bastard laughed for a full whole minute.

'That fucker is gloated, huh. Still, at least the rest of the five are alive.'

*Baaam*

A big chunk crashed with the wall, the wall cracked like glass. 

'The walls were not going to hold up for long.'

Since it was now Rina's turn to launch the debris back to the boss monster, she, while still moving the pigeons forward, swung her arms forward and launched all the debris near her, clearing up some space here.

After moving past about 10 meters ahead of the first boundary the pigeons that were in the air, one by one, started to get petrified. She moved them in a row and quickened the pace and moved them further. The last trio got petrified too, this time simultaneously.  Yes, it meant there were two more boundaries, there could be more further ahead, all with different effects, but all I needed to know was about the first two boundaries, the others after these could fuck themselves.

I tested a few more things, and then I knew all that I needed.

Five meters behind us are the walls of the boss room, three meters ahead, lay the first boundary, ten meters after that is the second boundary, and five meters from it was the third one. And about fifteen meters from the third boundary stood the boss monster readying another launch.

"The first boundary petrified anyone who stepped on the ground, either part or whole body, but there was a delay of three seconds before it petrified the next individual. The second one petrified anyone who was either above or stepped on the ground, it had a delay of about one second." I smiled "The third one didn't have any delay, the good thing is that I don't need to step into the third boundary. But make sure to keep me at least a meter away from it, understood?" I asked Rina, she was sweating profusely, blood trickling from her nose and ears, her sclera was completely bloodshot as if she would shed blood at any instant, her legs and arms shivered, she could collapse any minute. She looked beyond pale, she was barely holding up, but she still nodded in affirmation, there was a will to survive in her red eyes.

"I'll be counting on you, Rina," I said and tapped her shoulder, I was going to trouble her with one more thing before she could rest.

*BAaamm*

The shower of debris thrown by the boss monster crumbled even more parts of the wall behind and above us. A big chunk that was going to fall over us was launched back to the boss monster's face.

"That fucker killed Bron! I wish I could crush this irritating motherfucker's gigantic dickless face, but I ain't powerful enough! I hadn't pushed myself this much in my whole goddamn life!" She said, her voice cold.

I didn't mind the cursing, it was more than usual, yeah. But nothing unusual. Besides, it was only fair. However, her tone... never thought she could speak in such a way. That was too out of character for her? No... it was just... how do I say it? Yeah, it seemed more like her usual character.

I shrugged, pushing herself to this limit must be the cause.

"Slap my face, as hard as you can?" She requested back in her bubbly tone.

"Wha-?" I replied, completely stunned for a moment, but after a brief moment of silence. Thinking she asked that for clearing her mind, I complied and slapped her. I didn't slap her that hard, mind you. Her stats were way above mine anyway, her cheeks had only a bit of redness.

She shook her head and grinned. "Thanks!", she said and all of us rose above the ground and drifted forward. 

The boss monster crouched to pick up more chunks to launch at us.

I looked at the first boundary, the two centimeters gap, it was barely visible. Amid the terror of the boss monster and fear of death, just how was I able to catch a glance of it, I wondered.

In just about an instant we already passed the whole ten meters of the first boundary, I saw another two centimeters wide gap separating the two areas. The second boundary.

The big-headed boss monster got up again, a bit of surprise on its face, despite us getting close, it readied the debris and swung its arms wide. I swung my arms as well and threw a handful of tiny ants, and hovered over the second boundary.

'This would give me enough time to fuck that bastard...'

I aimed my arm forward, with my index finger pointed straight towards the boss bastard. The rubble it threw at me flew past me, not a single chunk even brushed against me.

"It's still a bit further!" I shouted.

A rivulet of sweat traveled down from the cheek to the chin as Rina moved me ahead.

"Perfect now!" I said to myself.

My heartbeat raised...in anticipation. And a faint smile crept up my face...

"<DISINTEGRATE>"

*Baaaaaaaam*

The arm that it was swinging to launch debris at us fell down lifelessly. Its mouth that was laughing at us, slumped. 

The lifeless shell of a giant, weird, big-human-faced monster lost its balance as it dropped to the ground on its face. 

The Boss fell to the ground on its huge ugly face, dust and debris exploded and covered the whole area near the boss monster.

Instantly, at that moment, I felt my whole body being forcefully pulled behind, I was dragged to the back with enormous speed. The goal was achieved, Rina drew all of us back to the rear.

We killed the boss monster.

The revenge was exacted.

It could've been the moment to finally relax, but not yet.

When I was hovering over the second boundary, I caught a rough glimpse of Something.  That Something could be Someone.

We hadn't won yet...