Limitless Path

The deflection had pushed her back slightly, but she was relieved that she was able to counter the raw physical strength of the boss without being overwhelmed. They engaged in a flurry of exchanged blows, once again showing the truth in Baelvyr's admonishment that strength can become speed. The boss really didn't have much DEX comparative to its overall level, but its massive STR let it swing incredibly fast, even considering the great size and weight of its weapon.

The boss proved difficult for Blood to close on, moving around too much as it dueled with Beth to give the wolf many opportunities to get a strike in. That, combined with the large backswings of the massive club, rather effectively zoned Blood out for large parts of the fight. She was able to slip in and dig her claws into the back of the boss's left leg during a moment that Beth had the advantage, but darted away immediately after noting she barely scraped the skin. This was just a big part of the suppression of levels, particularly the first time through up to level two hundred. Copper level skills and low stats led to long, tough, brutal fights at even relatively low levels.

Beth had known from the start this was going to be a slugfest, and she settled in for a slow and steady progression, getting her hits in where she could. She was more concerned about getting hit and getting crippled, an outcome that could quickly lead to death, both hers and Blood's, than she was about rapidly defeating the boss. That endurance mindset was good, but it was going to be challenged severely by the boss; not just due to its massive STR and END, but also due to the frost and ice.

The boss had an absolutely frigid aura of ice surrounding it, chilling the air and sapping the heat from the girls without the boss even using any ice-based skills. The cold simply continuously built as the fight wore on, sapping her strength, chilling her blood, riming her very bones in frost. The ring helped a little, even a weak enchantment able to provide a nice boost at her current level, but the chill still built over time. She was confident in winning the war of attrition, and getting a few resistance levels in the process, but the war would be long and brutal.

Beth's attacks against the kobold were rather infrequent at the start of their battle, but she was able to increase her chances to strike as the fight ground on. In conjunction with that slowly increasing number of strikes, she focused more on the precision and power of the blows against the kobold's limbs. Her damage output was not particularly high, considering the kobold's END seemed to be incredibly high, though that wasn't the only variable that determined a beast's toughness. Other factors, including the beast's mana type and density, could add or detract from various attributes, especially how tough their flesh was. Beth wasn’t entirely sure what all the factors were or how they interrelated, but she was quite sure the kobold boss had quite a lot of the various factors to make it a particularly tough bastard.

Seconds turned into minutes as the fight progressed, Beth thankful that, so far, the boss really didn't seem to have any other tricks up its sleeve. It swung at her in fairly wide, heavy arcs across its front, able to recover from her deflections quickly due to its massive STR. Beth continued knocking the club down and to the side repeatedly, getting a good feel for the boss's movement patterns and timing. The better she understood the opponent, the more opportunities she not only found but took to deal damage.

As she deflected a heavy swing from the massive chunk of wood in the kobold's hands, she charged up Monstrous Blow at the same time, stepping forward into the boss's guard with her left leg as she brought her blade back around from her right side. She smashed the sword into the left knee of the beast before it had time to recover from its swing or respond to her movement. The strike tore off a hunk of flesh and seemed to enrage the beast, as it screamed and emitted a cone of ice shards and cold right in Beth's face, but it didn't hamper its mobility.

Beth boosted herself using Swift, remembering Baelvyr talking about what a big advantage movement skills could be early on. Even half frozen with shards of ice embedded in her face, she was easily able to get out of the kobold's range, massive club and all. She shook herself free of extra ice and wiped her eyes while she slid back slightly further, glad for Blood darting in at the injured knee when the boss attempted to chase, offering her a bit of a reprieve. She didn't have enough time to meditate as Blood couldn't distract the boss for very long and so she didn't bother with the scraps of ice sticking in her cheeks and simply charged the boss.

She took the kobold mostly unaware, the still relatively low-level beast not the best at splitting its attention or, in fact, remembering exactly how many opponents it was actually fighting. It remembered in a hurry as Beth stepped up next to it, planting her right foot just behind it as it finished another missed swing at Blood. She brought her sword around from low on her left as she burned a little more mana on empowering the strike. She had targeted the knee yet again, chipping away at the joint with every opening she found. This blow didn't deal any critical damage, but it did worsen an already bad situation, tearing apart more flesh around the joint.

The kobold attempted to turn Beth into a scattered mist of pulped flesh for her efforts, but the lack of DEX really hindered the beast. Someone without the girls' slightly boosted stats, high skills, and long hours of practice might have faced much more of a challenge against this boss, but it simply didn't have the stats or skills to pose them a genuine threat. At least, Beth really hoped that would continue to be the case.

She settled back into the rhythm of deflecting the boss over the next minute, not going for any additional strikes as she just parried, giving Blood several chances to get in glancing blows. She shifted to be more active after she didn't get another cone of icicles to face, knocking a strike off course to her left before stepping forward with her left foot and charging her right with Crush, firing off a rapid snap kick to the wounded knee of the boss. She could feel a grinding sensation after her foot connected, smirking as she felt the cartilage in the joint being pulverized.

The beast staggered back half a step before screaming again and charging her, limping slightly when its weight settled on its left leg. Beth made liberal use of Swift as she dodged at an angle, stepping back and to the left. She danced away from the kobold, stepping with her left foot before moving her right to catch up with it, lifting her left again just as she planted the right firmly. She flitted away from the boss, its focus on her allowing Blood to get in and get her jaws on the left knee. She used her powerful new skill to crush the joint as she twisted with her freshly boosted power, the points Beth had dumped in the wolf's STR stat paying dividends. There was a grinding *crunch* and Blood let go just as the kobold swung on her, spinning rapidly despite the wounded leg, its massive trunk of a club whistling through the air. The boss, while lacking grace and finesse, was strong and enraged enough to hit the massive wolf as she backpedaled.

"BLOOD!" Beth cried, hearing her companion's ribs break from the force of the club even after the wolf had tried to dance away. Beth flooded her entire body with mana as the kobold boss turned back to her, her arms and torso emitting popping sounds as her muscles swelled then condensed. The next swing of the boss came immediately, and Beth moved with it, meeting the club with her sword and pushing up and away. The kobold was unable to counter so much raw power being poured into its own swing and went wildly out of control, taking a step to the side while the club soared around and slammed into the ground halfway behind it.

Beth took a step forward with her left leg while dumping nearly half her total mana into her right, snarling as she felt the bones start to crack and her muscle tissue shred from just how far she was overcharging Crush. With her left leg planted, she lifted her right and twisted her hips, pivoting on her left foot to snap her right foot up and forward, delivering a whipping kick into the boss's stomach. She watched as, even through the armor, the kobold's stomach caved in like an air cushion hit by a wrecking ball, a sound like the boot stomp of an angry god ripping the frigid air apart.

The massive boss staggered five steps back, nearly dropping its weapon as a massive fountain of blue blood sprayed out its gaping maw in a huge arc. Even considering how tough it was, the damage Beth had just delivered directly to its internal organs was enormous, most of the beast's digestive tract and part of its lungs pulped from impact. Beth herself was in bad shape, feeling the fractures in her right leg from the excessive strike, but she ignored them, leaping at the enemy with a determined grimace.

The strike had, as its name suggested, thoroughly crushed the armor over the kobold's stomach, and Beth didn't miss this chance. She dumped another insane burst of mana into her body, nearly bottoming her reserves out, as she lined up on the boss. She stopped in front of and just to the left of the tall kobold, continuing to utilize Swift even as she swung her massive blade in from the left, the middle of the blade ripping through the crushed armor and into the stomach of the beast. Beth didn't stop, didn't let up, didn't hesitate in the slightest as she twisted her torso with all her might, contracting the muscles in her arms and back as she tore the boss's stomach open, shredding organs and muscle as her blade bit deep. The swing impacted near the center of the beast's stomach and shredded everything in its path, tearing across the gut until it emerged from the creature's left side in a welter of blood and a shower of organ chunks.

The boss was still not dead yet, but it was certainly in very bad shape. Not that Beth and Blood were much better, with torn muscles and cracked bones, but they weren't ones to let a few small injuries slow them down. Blood reappeared like a red shade from the dark as Beth finished her strike, clamping down on the injured knee of the boss again. The boss attempted to recover and strike Blood, but Beth responded before the strike could be completed, deflecting the blow before taking a large step forward with her right foot and shoulder checking the boss. Her shoulder slammed into the massively wounded gut of the boss just as Blood bit harder and pushed forward, twisting the boss's leg in her jaws and moving around to her right behind the boss.

The combination of the two toppled the kobold over Blood's back, who lurched forward with an even stronger shove, tearing apart the knee of the boss as it slammed into the ground. Blood darted away with the bottom of the boss's leg as Beth stepped forward and lunged toward the boss, sword digging into the rend in the boss's gut and traveling upward. She blocked a weak blow of the beast with her left arm, feeling the heavy plate dent further, but never let go of her blade or stopped. She hit the heart a moment later, returning her left hand to the hilt of her sword and stepping forward again, smashing the kobold's heart apart. With a final paroxysm of ice and anger, the beast died as a turgid wave of blue blood surged out of its wound.

Panting, with a heavy grimace on her face, Beth staggered away from the boss's ice encrusted corpse before falling on her ass, dropping her blade next to her. Blood staggered over and lay down next to her, the two silently pushing comfort and warmth to each other through their bond. Beth ignored the messages and alerts from the Path, dropping into meditation alongside Blood. The giant wolf began healing her wounds immediately, but Beth had to spend some time resting to restore her mana. Blood was mostly healed by the time Beth started her own recovery, working on all the cracked bones before she eventually moved on to the torn muscles.

It took quite some time, enough for Blood to have torn her way into the boss's chest cavity, retrieving what was left of the heart before devouring it. The huge wolf coughed a little at the frigid cold the organ contained, trying to warm her throat and stomach back up a little. Eventually, she moved on to scanning the rest of the room, utilizing her keen nose to see if she could detect any hidden caches.

Beth finished her healing and rested for a time more, mostly to top her mana up before shifting around to a kneeling position. The first thing she did was take out the canteens so they could have a drink before she got to work cleaning her equipment as best she could. She made sure both her and Blood were fed and watered before they were ready to move, finally getting to the last and best part of the dungeon, the loot.

Kobold Labyrinth completed. Calculating rewards.

Already this was new, as apparently the system was going to do some kind of post action report with a grade. It seemed they would be rewarded based on their performance.

Labyrinth cleared in under ten natural days. Bonus points awarded.

Labyrinth cleared solo (Bonded companions are not counted in instance clear numbers). Bonus points awarded.

Labyrinth boss defeated at lower-level solo. Bonus points awarded.

One elite variant enemy defeated. Bonus points awarded.

Calculating final score based on a matrix of variables and appending bonuses.

Calculating…

Final score calculated at a B+. Disbursing awards.

Beth watched as two pillars appeared out of thin air before her, Blood jumping back and snarling at the sudden, unexpected change. "It's alright, girl. I'm going through the rewards for the dungeon now. I guess we didn't find anything because this type gives everything at the end."