As Rosalie rushed forward to score the initial strike—and seize hold of the beast's attention as best she could—Zoey and her two other teammates also acted. Delta flanked to the right of the elemental, Maddy raised her weapon and started to cast her first spell, and Zoey, of course, did the same.

Aided by the specially brewed potion of spell alacrity, Maddy brought to life her first illusion quicker than ever. In many encounters, she would create copies of their opponent to goad or distract their target, but this time, she summoned something smaller: one of the rock-encased orange crystal beasts from early in their adventures. Either creating a copy of the boss would be too difficult, perhaps because it was too large, or Maddy didn't think it ideal in this instance for some other reason. Zoey wasn't sure.

While casting, Zoey also focused on activating Pressure Point. Even more than the average encounter, identifying the weaknesses of a boss could come as an enormous advantage. But as she scanned the four-armed hulking elemental, nothing jumped out at her. She received a number of natural intuitions, but all of them were obvious: that the elemental's rocky armor was highly durable and that its gooey orange interior was what she should target. Its 'weak point'. But there seemed to be no secret critical hit zone. At least none that Pressure Point identified.

Arriving at her target, Rosalie thrust forward. Her spear dove into a gap in the elemental's rock armor, and when she pulled back, globs of molten goo erupted from the wound, dragged along by her spear. The goo splattered both Rosalie's surroundings and the girl herself, who couldn't dance away in time. The blonde cursed and retreated, wiping the material off as she went.

Her attack had done the job though: the beast roared in pain, then retaliated. It slammed both hammer and axe down in rapid succession, shaking the ground with the strength of their heavy metallic impacts. Rosalie dodged both, still scraping lava from her body, seemingly unperturbed despite the frenetic action. As expected from her.

Delta, in the meantime, edged in with her two daggers. She looked tiny in comparison to the hulking beast, but Zoey knew that didn't mean she wouldn't be effective. The moment Delta lunged forward to score her own attack, though, the arm with the spear in hand jabbed toward her in response. Not only did the boss have four arms, then, it had the coordination and awareness to fend off multiple targets at once. Delta at least wasn't caught off guard: expecting retaliation, she aborted the attack and dodged away.

Finally, Zoey's first ice spear finished forming, amplified by Burst. Since she had a full mana pool to work with for this last climactic fight, she would use everything she had. The sizable projectile burst forward and, to her delight, slammed true, burying at least a foot into the lava creature's neck.

In one fluid motion, the hand holding the axe dropped its weapon, ripped the ice spear out, and tossed it aside—before reclaiming its blade, which promptly streaked down toward Rosalie like a meteor. Worse, ripping the projectile out meant lava went splattering down in a wide arc, impossible for Rosalie to dodge. Once again, their team's frontline was briefly doused in the material—and unlike the lava they had waded through to get to the boss chamber, it was much more potent, leaving black smoke curling off the rock wherever it touched.

But Rosalie had several major resistances in both her bodysuit and the potions Zoey had made. By how Rosalie hastily cleaned herself and danced away, retreating, the substance hurt, but was nothing debilitating.

And so the fight continued. Rosalie and Maddy's illusion took turns occupying various arms wielding enormous weapons. Delta snuck in where she could, occasionally pulling out her bow—which was her less-effective weapon, but which she was certainly proficient in. Since she was having a hard time finding openings, she was forced to use it a fair amount.

Zoey and Maddy stood back, benefiting from Rosalie's competence as a frontline. Though perhaps that comfort worked against them. When the elemental suddenly faced them and, with no prior warning, launched its spear straight at Zoey, along with a gout of lava to accompany, the two of them were nearly too caught off guard to respond. They only barely managed to escape the spear itself, and definitely not the wide-spread lava gouts that came with it.

Zoey discovered firsthand how unpleasant the attack was, especially since she didn't have Rosalie's natural fortitude. At least she didn't have to worry about dodging follow-up attacks: Rosalie and Delta dug into the brief opening, forcing its attention back while Zoey cursed and cleaned herself off.

Bit by bit, they whittled the boss down with their combined efforts. Strangely, it was both harder and easier than their fight against the second shard boss. Easier, because Zoey had significantly improved over her time training at Treyhull. Harder, for obvious reasons: shards became exponentially more difficult with each tier up. By all objective standards, this one was miles ahead of the previous. But Zoey's hard-earned experience helped her feel not so out of place.

Then, it finally happened. The pivot in the fight.

Staggering backward after a particularly vicious jab from Rosalie, the elemental released a vicious roar that dwarfed any of its screams prior. Its body started to vibrate with the noise, lava rippling and coursing across its massive form, undulating in an ominous way. Rosalie retreated, sensing danger, and Delta naturally followed.

Its lower left and lower right hands dropped their weapons, the giant metal hammer and axe clattering loudly into the ground. Then, even more to Zoey's shock, the arms themselves detached and hit the ground with a hefty thud. The appendages lost their shape, softening into an amorphous pile of glowing orange liquid with rock mixed inside. Then, like the boss fight had begun, those mounds themselves began to take shape. Slowly, they rose into two humanoid forms.

Add-ons?

It seemed phase two was going to include three opponents rather than one.

Except, as the humanoid forms finished taking shape, with each of them lifting their respective dropped weapons—which seemed unwieldy on them, since the two smaller elementals were dwarfed by the original elemental—Zoey suddenly understood the purpose of their arrival.

Because, unlike their master's bulky, masculine, monstrous appearance, the two smaller lava creatures were … well, the opposite of that.

They were about as tall as Zoey, with thin waists, wide hips, busty figures, and deep onyx eyes set on feminine faces. The immediate impression Zoey received was that they were creatures like Me. Slimes. But rather than actual slime, they were made of opaque, swirling lava. Not see-through in the slightest. And probably not half as gooey.

More relevantly to Zoey's previous revelation: they were nude. Both their chests were bare, with clearly visible nipples. Between one of their legs was a pussy, and the other, a thick girlcock dangling down to mid-thigh.

"Looks like you'll be getting what you wanted," Delta said wryly—who had, along with Rosalie, retreated back to Zoey and Maddy while the boss writhed and reshaped, entering the next phase. "And two of them at once. Lucky you."

As a matter of instinct, Zoey activated Pressure Point as the elementals finished forming, gauging the weaknesses of the two lava creatures. This time, the skill all but screamed it at her: it pointed her attention between their legs. Zoey doubted that meant they were vulnerable there in the traditional sense of phrase. Rather, her class's influence had reared its head.

Like with Mel, they had two options. Fight, or 'fight'.

And probably, the first option would be far more difficult. Beyond that three opponents would be much harder to deal with than one, since Rosalie could only hold so much attention as a front line, but denying the lewder parts of shard challenges always meant spikes in difficulty. Even Rosalie had been defeated by Mel when she'd refused to engage in the slimegirl's preferred combat form. Though Rosalie claimed that had happened because she'd underestimated the slimegirl. And that she'd tried to solo a shard meant for two. Her ego had gotten the better of her.

Regardless, Zoey had no plans to turn down the alternative combat. Like against the reflection in the second shard, this was where she could more than carry her weight. Be as useful as Rosalie was, even, by taking on the two busty elementals.

Though, what was that going to be like?

Especially, Zoey wondered, eyes going to the hammer-wielding one, whose thick cock swung between her legs, still soft, then the other girl, who lacked her partner's girthy member. With the two different shapes.

"Kay," Delta said. "So what's the plan?"

"I take those two, you three take the boss?" Zoey asked. "It's obviously a Mel situation."

"Need help?" Delta asked.

"We need you in the actual fight," Zoey said. Though, the idea of teaming up against the two curvy girls with Delta as backup had obvious appeal. Soloing them did as well, to be fair. "I have skills that actually help with it. You don't." 'Influence,' in particular, though 'Pressure Point' was no slack when it came to lewd fights, more so than even regular ones. Mel had been significantly easier to take apart in their most recent encounter thanks to those abilities, compared to when Zoey'd been first advancement. "You only have combat abilities, so you should be in the real fight." Even if Delta was obviously pretty good at taking girls apart without magic, Zoey had the distinct advantage, supernaturally speaking.

"No need to brag," Delta pouted. "If I could have sex skills, I would. We're just not all so lucky."

"So it's decided?" Rosalie said tersely—like always, more serious than the foxgirl when it came to the reality of the shard. "It's about to start," she said, glancing at Zoey. "Just call for help if you need it."

Zoey nodded. With both the two human-sized elementals and the bulkier one finishing forming, and gaining clarity in their eyes, Zoey's first step was obvious.

She needed to draw their attention and lead them away.

And why not be direct about it?

Putting her weapon away, Zoey grabbed her alternative one. She stroked up and down, eyes on the elementals, and, joined with the anticipation, her thick member started to swell out, filling the tight white latex until it strained to hold her in.

Mel had been eager to 'fight Zoey' right away—but these two lava elementals' serious expressions, and the way they'd claimed their master's previous weapons, had indicated they had been willing to fight the regular way. But seeing Zoey waggle her fourteen inches of girlcock at them, they froze in their tracks. Their expressions morphed, nearly visibly transforming into horny, excited lava elementals rather than combative ones. Both hammer and axe hit the ground with a loud clatter, their priorities suddenly adjusting.

The one on the left started to harden herself—sprouting a massive twelve-inch lava cock. Their eyes latched on Zoey's member, then went up to her face. The girl with the extra equipment looked excited, wide-eyed. The one without looked hungry, and, strangely, even irritated.

Seeing the two girls focus their attention on her, Zoey's heart skipped a beat.

Not only was it a two-against-one, but she wasn't the only one wielding heavy weaponry.

This was going to be an interesting fight.