Phyllis leaned back in the chair waiting. She knew her opponent wasn’t far away, and she was currently the temporary boss of the seventh floor. She knew that the Archpaladin already had the key to the boss room. Being the temporary dungeon boss came with some rather unique advantages. She opened her status and took a look at the new simplified status window. It was very easy to understand.

It was much simpler, and omitted things like regen, and attack, but it still had some of the needed info. Thanks to her temporary status as a dungeon boss her stats had been boosted accordingly. Mostly in health, mana and shielding, but at her level those boosts were huge. The Dungeon Mistress subclass was actually fairly new, and replaced her old one after she had mated with Misaki. It was a pretty good class. So she felt the trade was worth it. As she waited she spent the time composing herself for the fight ahead.

Contrary to her concerns Dewari had barely pestered her about choosing to fight, but the circumstances had changed. Misaki making her a temporary boss helped, but that aura was the real changer. The ability to make a temporary boss was something all dungeons had, but it had a number of restrictions. Most of them managed by the gods. Phyllis had only been valid for the selection because the paladin in the dungeon was so much more powerful than the normal minions. In fact, being made a temporary boss was the only condition that Dewari allowed the fight. Her status as a temporary boss would end in about a day, and Misaki wouldn’t be allowed to select another temporary boss for a month, but it was useful. Another factor in her favor was that her magic had been seriously boosted by that world event, and the paladin’s light element abilities had been weakened. The result was that the match would be far more even and the boosted health and mana pools that came from being a boss just tipped things in her favor.

Finally she heard a clinking sound, and looked up to see the door opening. In walked a man she had only seen once, but not since before her transformation. It was Archpaladin Nathaniel. He seemed to have been a decent man then, but she had never really liked him. While to the masses the church was a beacon of good, she had already seen its dark side then. The fact that Nathaniel was turning a blind eye to that dark side is what irked her the wrong way. His more recent actions though had dropped him quite a bit more in her book. She didn’t expect him to recognize her as she did him, but he surprised her.

“Phyllis Greybeard, I didn’t expect to encounter you here, but I take it that the spectral girl was referring to you when she mentioned an opponent.”

Nathaniel looked around the room after he entered. It looked like a fairly normal boss room, and sitting comfortably in an elaborate chair was Phyllis Greybeard. He had heard her described a few times, but had not met with her when investigating the dungeon. In order to prepare for this trip. She was a small girl with a modest chest and a slender figure. A small silver bra cupped her breasts, and around her waist was a silver mini skirt that stopped halfway down her thighs. The swelling of her exposed midriff made it painfully obvious that she was a few months pregnant. Her purple hair was currently done up in a cute side tail. Overall the clothing was not something he had expected to see her wearing. He had heard that after her transformation she had taken to wearing cute dresses. Then again, he hadn’t expected to meet her down here either and he said so. While taking up a ready stance. Phyllis did the same her chair disintegrating as if it was never there.

“Spectral girl? Was she a bit taller than me with very dark almost black hair and black eyes. Wearing some old decidedly low-quality mage robes that were straining to contain her bust?” asked Phyllis. He found the description fairly accurate even if she omitted the girl’s flawless creamy tan skin. The kind of tan one would get from being outdoors most of their lives.

“That sounds like the girl I saw,” he replied while keeping an eye on her movements.

She smiled, and replied, “Despite the clothing, that was a goddess, the Primordial God Queen.”

He smirked. This dungeon was the territory of the goddess Dewari, and she had clearly been interfering when she had spirited his men away, “I doubt that. It violates divine law for her to even be here.”

Phyllis took a step forward and laughed. He knew there were exceptions to the rules he had just referred to, but he very much doubted applied here. Even if he couldn’t be certain, especially given that he knew nothing about the Primordial God Queen. Then in a blur of speed Phyllis rushed forward, her blade swinging for him.

He parried the blow, and shuffled to the left before unleashing one of his signature combos that ended with a wave of light mana. With equal skill, and speed she parried his blows, and countered with a wave of lightning mana. He felt his own shields weakened from the mana, but he was sure he had gotten a glancing hit in return.

It was not often that he got to fight someone on his skill level, and he realized this battle was going to take awhile. He transitioned from his combo into another with each swipe of his blade a wave of light magic would ripple off, and Phyllis would counter blocking each with the skill of an experienced swordsman. Her sword wreathed in lightning, and sparks flew each time their blades met. To the outside observer, he knew they seemed to be evenly matched, or it might seem that he was winning because he had her on the defensive. That, however, was not the case. Normally he wouldn’t be concerned about the additional magic damage caused by the shockwaves coming from her blade, but they were far stronger than they should be, while his own were weaker than they should be.

After the third seemingly fruitless exchange, he stepped back, and began to circle his opponent and she did the same. Each one was waiting for an opening. A single mistake could decide the victor. Not that he wasn’t aware of who this battle favors, but retreat wasn’t an option. The doors had slammed shut when he entered, and since they were boss room doors they wouldn’t open until the boss was defeated. He considered using the artifact he was carrying, but she was too close for it to be useful. She would easily be able to stop him and wound him if he tried to use it.

That left him forced to engage in swords, but before he could make his next plan of attack. She suddenly unleashed a force barrage with her blade. Powerful elemental shockwaves rippled against his position. He couldn’t dodge them, so instead, he channeled his divine light mana to block the attacks. The results weren’t what he expected. His mana barrier proved far weaker than it should have been and shattered under the barrage. Which then took a massive chunk of his shield. However, it bought him just enough time to jump out of the danger zone before she could wound him. 

Then from the dust, a blade wreathed in fire came at him. He brought his sword around and parried the blow, and returned a combo of his own. Which was then parried and countered. He risked a quick glance at his status, and while his health was still full, he noted that she had managed to reduce his divine shield by nearly two thirds. He felt a rush of exhilaration as it had been years since an opponent had last pushed him this far.

Then he was forced to parry another flurry of blows, that were accompanied by flaming shockwaves. Some of which burned furrows into the walls behind him. Which made him glad they were having this fight in the dungeon. Anywhere else, and the collateral damage would be difficult to deal with.

As soon as he could he then countered with one of his best techniques. Twelve powerful blows augmented by powerful bursts of light magic were unleashed. Phyllis countered with a spell that augmented her agility, and evaded the barrage. The resulting shockwave shredding the floor and walls behind where she had been standing, and then he was forced to whirl. His attempt to parry her attack failed by the slimmest of margins and her blade connected with his torso just below the ribs on the lefts side. With a shimmering flare of light, the divine shield that protected him failed. Having absorbed most of the blow, the blade then bounced harmlessly off his armor.

Rather than let her try that again, he unleashed a quick flurry of blows intended to knock her off balance, but with her buffed agility she easily countered and parried every blow. Scoring numerous glancing hits to his arms and legs. While he cast several paladin skills to buff his own fortitude. Paladins didn’t get many speed spells, however, so he couldn’t do anything about her enhanced agility. Even with the new spells in play, she was wearing him down more than he was her.

Finally, after one of her blows, he managed to connect a hit to her as she danced away. The blow landing on her thigh was absorbed however by her own shields which were still working, but it knocked her off balance allowing him to score several additional hits before she could recover. Then she spun out of range, and then jumped back for more distance before countering with another force barrage.

He jumped to the left, and managed to evade the worst of it, but took several glancing hits. Which managed to blind him just enough that she managed to get a good hit that flung him into the wall behind him. He groaned and coughed a small amount of blood coming with the hit. He cast another fortitude enhancing spell, and charged. He couldn’t let her keep the distance she had as those force barrages were lethal. Another wave of fire came right at him. A ward of light barely managed to deflect it, and then he was in range for another combo.

He unleashed a flurry of blows, which she danced out of the way from and then she struck him with three quick jabs to the torso. He felt each one, but ignored the pain, and the feinted an attack to the left, and came in from the right managing to score a hit to her torso. This time her shield vanished and she grunted slightly. As she danced away seemingly unharmed as she cast another spell of her own. Then all around him exploded as runes he never saw her place flared to light. His armor cracked, and he could feel mana leak from the cracks. The enchantment weakening as its durability dropped.

He, however, had placed a few traps of his own, and she was moving towards one. So he activated it. A wave of light mana rippled out from it, and yet she emerged completely unscathed. Well at least it looked that way, and he couldn’t be certain he had an effect. He was really beginning to hate this world event, as it had greatly weakened the only magic type he could use. As a Paladin, he had focused entirely on Light magic, but now he was wishing that he had at least learn another element such as fire.

Not that he had much time to grumble as he was forced to defend against another force barrage, but despite his efforts, several waves of mana hit him. Each one draining his health and opening wounds on his body. Only his fortitude spells allowing him to absorb their force. Seeing that he had one last shot at winning he activated his class trump card, A Paladin’s Last Stand. It was a powerful if tricky to use skill, that required his health to be below twenty-five percent to even use, but it would bolster all his stats. He shot forward with all the speed he could muster and unleashed a fury of sword attacks forcing her to defend. Most of his attacks were parried as her already boosted speed allowed her to keep up with him, but a few landed glancing hits. Mostly to her arms and legs as for obvious reasons a good swordsman always protected their center.

This continued for a good ten minutes before his skill started running out of steam, and then she unleashed a powerful counterattack. That caught him off guard. Mana shockwaves flung from her blade with each strike, and one of them sent his sword fly moments before her blade plunged into his neck. Still, as the message popped up he felt he did well as his opponent was covered with cuts as well, even if not a single one had hit her belly which she had guarded more zealously than any other part of her body.

He was not however looking forward to the teleportation. After a couple of minutes wait he feels the magic take effect, and then she appears naked in the dungeon square. A new message box appearing in front of her.

Reading the message she frowned, and then started to take stock of herself. She was much smaller than she used to be. The sign to her left had been about half her old height, but now it was taller than her. Behind her back, she could feel an enormous pair of wings. They were covered with scale-feathers, and the tips were colored a lovely sapphire blue. While the rest of the wing was blue-green. Looking down she had a small pair of perky tits blocking her view, but with a little moving, she could see that her feet had been replaced with powerful looking talons. Probing further she found the slit between her legs, and by touch, it seemed no different from a normal girl’s. She still found herself worried about that laying eggs bit. She found that her hair was now long, and had changed color to match her wingtips.

Before she could inspect herself further, someone from the guild came up to her and said, “Come along sweetie, and we will get you sorted out and some cute clothes...”

Her expression had darkened when she had been called sweetie, as it implied she was a child. She knew she was an adult, but something about cute clothes set her off, and she started screaming at him. It took her a moment after she stopped to sort out why, and realize that she had no problem being naked, and was having difficulty with the idea of wearing anything that didn’t have a protective benefit. In other words, the only thing she wanted was a nice set of armor.