When Zoey and Maddy recovered, Rosalie stood and offered them each a hand. Seeing how flustered the blonde looked after bringing Maddy to climax—and Zoey in proxy—Zoey was highly tempted to return the favor, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, Rosalie huffed and insisted they continue forward. That they had a shard to clear. She'd promised Lucinda that they wouldn't dally.

Zoey supposed that was a fair enough point, but knowing Rosalie, it wouldn't have taken much more 'dallying.' Maybe a minute or two. Regardless, upon Rosalie's insistence, they set back off into the dungeon.

With every monster the team of four put down, their suits crept toward lighter and lighter shades of gray. With the color becoming more pronounced, they discovered with certainty what effect was manifesting. Zoey had noticed early on that the suits provided a buffer against the heat of the sweltering magma cavern, and as her magical clothing fed on the energy produced from killing monsters and—uh, other encounters—she slowly became aware that, despite delving deeper and deeper into the cavern, with obvious signs of the environment becoming hotter, she actually felt cooler than before.

The suits were providing heat resistance the more they were fed. Not just in a casual way that made them more comfortable with the ambient temperature, but against the monsters they were fighting too. With a variety of lava and fire-type creatures assaulting them, flames and globs of superheated magma were being tossed at them constantly. But they seemed to be growing less effective, less harmful when they connected, than the first fights. Their bodysuits were absorbing more and more of the heat-based attacks.

While a welcome upgrade in any capacity, they discovered the ultimate purpose of the feature when they arrived at the antechamber of the boss room, the space preceding the climactic battle. Unlike the previous areas which led to the final encounter that Zoey had seen in earlier shards, this one came with an obstacle. A thematic one.

A lava lake.

The small cavern was empty except for the pool of orange bubbling liquid. It was situated on the opposite side of where they'd come in. Above, on the wall, an arrow pointed down into the lava, accompanied by a diagram of, presumably, what sort of monster they would find should they traverse the obstacle.

And that was how they knew it was a boss awaiting them. The giant, bulky, four-armed lava elemental was by far the most menacing creature they'd seen thus far; it couldn't be anything but a boss encounter. Though an image a few feet tall, the picture gave a sense of scale suggesting that in reality, it would be at least fifteen or twenty—a hulking, muscled beast, a terrible creature suited to a final battle. It wielded a different weapon in each of its hands: a sword, ax, spear, and hammer.

"We're supposed to swim through lava?" Maddy asked. "Is that what it's saying?"

"Guess so," Delta said. "Can't see what else it'd mean."

"That boss doesn't look especially fuckable," Zoey said dubiously, taking in the intimidating mural.

All three of her teammates looked at her.

Zoey paused, then blushed. "Well, just, you know—the other two were. It's a fair point, isn't it?"

"Can I fuck it?" Delta quoted. "That's your first thought, seeing the boss? Of course it is." She looked at Rosalie with amusement. "What were you saying about my standards, again?"

"I'm just saying!" Zoey protested. "I had to fuck the other two bosses, so, you know, it's fair that it comes to mind."

"The shard in general has been more normal than the rest," Rosalie commented, ignoring the exchange, speaking only on the practicality of the situation. "Maybe that's because Maddy is here. Or rather, that a larger party dilutes your influence. You only account for one-fourth of the team, now. The first boss it was just us two, and it was a full sex fight. The second, three of us, with a partial sex fight. Perhaps this one won't have any. Or even a lesser element than before."

Maddy tilted her head. "That would make sense. Maybe it's just random, too. Like any shard."

"Don't be too disappointed," Delta said mirthfully to Zoey. "There'll still be something for you to stick your dick in, I'm sure. You just might have to get creative."

"S-Shut up. I don't want to fuck the boss, I was just saying. The other two were girls." That hulking fire elemental was—well, no defined gender, but the wide shoulders, blunt face, and enormous muscles did give the general impression of being male. "Anyway, we're really supposed to swim through lava?"

She asked the question only half because she was curious—the other half, to get Delta's attention somewhere else than her previous question. Zoey didn't need to fuck shard bosses every adventure: she had just been caught by surprise that this one didn't seem to be shaping up like that.

"I can only assume that's the shard's intention," Rosalie said. "Not much left for interpretation, considering the image." She gestured at the arrow pointing down into the lava, and the picture of the boss.

"How's that gonna work, though?"

"The bodysuit gives elemental protection," Maddy said, eying the lava lake, though sounded doubtful. "So maybe swimming through is possible."

Rosalie grunted in agreement—or tentative agreement, since she didn't sound wholly convinced either. Zoey wasn't as well, since the bodysuit hardly granted them absolute resistance. Submerging into lava was surely beyond the protection it provided.

Rosalie walked up to the shore of the lava lake to put the theory to the test. Kneeling down, she appraised the scorchingly hot liquid. She reached a hand out to hover above the surface of the lake. She didn't flinch away, which suggested the resistance was growing pretty powerful. Then, taking it a step further, she confidently dipped her fingers in, scooping up a glob.

Rosalie cursed, retreating and shaking her hand side to side to detach the molten goo.

"It's hot," Rosalie spat. "Really hot."

"Wait. It is?" Delta asked. "The lava is hot?"

Rosalie glared at her. She blew on her fingers, then shook her hand again, trying to cool them down. "It's not tolerable, I mean. Certainly not to submerge ourselves in."

"The suits aren't done upgrading yet," Maddy suggested. "So maybe this is an external gate on our progress. It's not about finding the boss chamber. It's about farming enough monsters to reach a high enough temperature resistance."

Rosalie grunted. "That seems like a logical conclusion." She wrinkled her nose. "I was hoping we could rush through the shard, though. To collect Zoey's bonus experience and move on, return to Mantle. Of course this is how the shard manifests."

"Shards don't like being convenient," Delta said.

Rosalie sighed in agreement.

"Might not take too much more grinding, though," Maddy said. "They're getting pretty close to white. I assume that's the end. The max. But yeah, that sucks."

"Could I make heat resistance potions to help?" Zoey asked.

They looked at her. Rosalie tilted her head.

"That would close the gap more," she said. "Perhaps save us some time from having to progress the suits fully." She frowned. "Or maybe both will be needed."

"Lava is pretty freaking hot," Delta agreed with amusement. "Don't really wanna go diving down there without some serious protection." She poked at her own cheek. "Especially since our faces aren't as protected as our bodies."

The suit's resistance did extend to their exposed skin, but only partially, at a lesser rate. If Rosalie had been burned touching the lava with her covered fingers, then their faces would be much worse off.

"Yeah," Zoey agreed. "We'll probably need both." The two protections applied in tandem.

"There could also be an alternative entrance somewhere, too. Who knows?" Maddy said.

"Either way," Rosalie grunted. "We can't enter, yet. So we have more hunting to do."

"And some alchemy."

Zoey had wanted to experiment regardless. If at all possible—and it might not be—she wanted to create some health and stamina potions, as well as whatever other beneficial effects she could catalyze before they headed into the climactic fight. She had an alchemy rune after all. Why not put it to use?

Especially since they were heading into a third-shard boss fight. This wasn't like the first-advancement shard or even the second: Rosalie and Delta were being pressed far harder, their talents being challenged. Though they were still handling themselves without any cracks showing. Much harder, but far from crushingly difficult. Still, any advantage they could find should be taken when it was their lives on the line. All it took was one unfortunate slip-up. Zoey's teammates were amazing, but not perfect. No one was.

"And that," Rosalie agreed.

But for now, they had body suits to finish upgrading.