Joshua and the rest of the group followed the paths that Henry pointed out that would lead them to the boss room faster. They made sure to make quick work of any scorpions that they came across along the way, but in the end the most they ever had to deal with at a time was simply three of the larger variety scorpions which they were easily able to take care of. They had brought their prisoner along for the ride for only two reasons instead of leaving him behind for some other group to find him later on. The first reason was the simple fact that he might have known a short cut to get to the boss room since his group had spent more time in the dungeon than any other group that had come to explore the place. That turned out to be a G.o.d send since Kalvin actually knew some tricks to make their progress to the boss room faster. Although Henry"s way of doing things was the most concrete and safe way to go about things for the most part, it would have taken them at least four or so hours to make it down all the way to the boss room. Instead Kalvin showed them to a platform that lead to a room with four large scorpions guarding it.
At first the room seemed rather pointless and only there to give people a challenge and a way to gain more experience, but after they killed off all of the scorpions Kalvin was able to show them the trick to the room. Although there wasn"t another platform in the room, if you defeated the scorpions a bridge would be created at the back of the room that would lead to another room with a platform. This platform allowed them to skip most of the other platforms that they would have needed to get down to the lower area of the dungeon. From there Henry was able to figure out the rest and they were able to make their way to the boss room without a problem.
The other reason that they decided to bring Kalvin along was the fact that they didn"t trust him enough to leave him alone and Joshua highly doubted that anyone there actually wanted to kill him. If anything they wanted him to pay for his crimes to other groups that they had hurt or scared off from the dungeon. Groups like Martin"s party that was put in a bad position because of his actions. To do that they couldn"t just leave him tied up in a dungeon where he"d either be killed by scorpions or die of starvation. Either way from the look Joshua was seeing from Kalvin"s face at the moment he was certain that the last thing on his mind was how to stab them in the back.
Kalvin was panicking beyond belief and if he wasn"t tied up at the moment Joshua was certain he would have charged ahead to try to get to his group faster to help out. Whatever he had heard over his party channel couldn"t have been good for his demeanor to change so much so quickly. It all came to a surge when they reached the boss room and Kalvin rushed over to the large gate that was blocking their entrance. This place wasn"t like the rest of the dungeon. There wasn"t a floating room or anything for them to walk into and face enemies. There wasn"t any more platforms for them to get on anymore either, that would lead them to other areas in the dungeon. This was the end of the line and there were only two things ahead of them that they could possibly do.
They were standing on a small bridge like structure that lead to the gate way that was currently closed off. The gateway was built into the walls of the dungeon so they weren"t able to see how large the room on the other side of it was. In fact they weren"t even able to see a glimpse of what was happening inside. Next to the gateway at the other side of the bridge from where they stood there was another one of those glowing platforms that would directly send them outside of the dungeon if they decided to quit. This was the last turning back point for them and Joshua could tell that it was a sign that the boss ahead would be far more challenging than anything they had faced in the dungeon up to this point. Not even the sub-boss had an exit to take beforehand.
The gateway was glowing a vivid red color that seemed to be a sign that it was closed for the moment based off of the fact that they couldn"t get the thing to budge an inch the moment they got into the room Joshua was certain that the rest of Kalvin"s group was still fighting on the other side of the gate. A sound that came through for everyone to hear also proved his point, but it wasn"t a sound that anyone of them wanted to listen too.
"Stop! Ahhhhhhhh."
"Someone help, please he…."
"Guild Master we need to get out of here, this monster is to…."
All sorts of shouting and screaming could be heard from the other side of the door and for the most part all of it was the screams of people being slaughtered. From time to time Joshua could here explosions or chanting of spells, but soon after he"d just hear another scream of a person on the verge of death and then the room would once again be filled with shouting of orders to fight back or crying of those who seemed to be to terrified to stay anymore. At one point they could even here banging coming from the other side of the gate, but that was soon silenced with a loud thump as the gate shook for a moment before calming down. At the crack at the bottom where there was a little s.p.a.ce between the gate and the floor they could all see blood start to pool as it spread towards their feet.
"No… this can"t happen." Kalvin said in shock before he struggled as much as possible for a moment before finally gritting his teeth and using some sort of skill that allowed him to vanish for a moment. He then reappeared completely removed from his bindings which were left to fall to the floor as he rushed over to the gate. It must have been a skill he was saving to try to make an escape if he could, but he knew that as long as he was surrounded it wouldn"t do him any good. "Guild Master, hang on! Open this gate so we can help!"
For a moment there was no response until another thump hit the door. "Kalvin…is…that…you?" A voice struggled to say on the other side with a small amount of surprise in it.
"Yes it"s me, so open the gate and let us in so we can help!" Kalvin continued to shout and plead.
"I...I"m sorry. Its t…too late." The voice said before they could all hear another loud thump against the gate that seemed to be mixed in with a crunching sound. For a moment everything was quiet as everyone was shocked by what they had just heard. Not a second after the crunching sound the red glowing gates turned green. Then a system message appeared.
[Entrance to the boss room is now once again open. This dungeon has not yet been cleared, so the first group to clear it shall gain a bonus along with the territory rewards. It is strongly recommended that you proceeded in top condition before taking on this challenging boss.]
From that announcement alone they all knew that this dungeon boss was going to be far more challenging than they were expecting, and they also knew that the group that was in there must have been all killed off. Kalvin just stood there and stared at the message for a moment before he pushed the gate once again and it opened for them all to see what was on the other side. The sight wasn"t something that anyone would like to see. It was a gruesome scene of several corpses that looked as if they had been torn apart by hand. Some bodies seemed to have been simply crushed completely while others had a giant hole through their chest or a head removed from their body altogether.
The group had to struggle to make sure not to vomit at the scene and the pressure they could feel coming from the room in waves. At the center of all of the slaughter there was only one creature that was sitting cross legged on the ground and seemed to be eating what looked like the arm of one of the people it had killed. When Joshua observed the creature he was able to see five stars appear by the level of sixty which instantly put it in a completely different tier from any other creature he had faced up to this point. It was going to be challenging for multiple reason, but from the look of the creature Joshua knew it was going to be completely different from most of the boss fights he had come across so far.
The first difference Joshua noticed about this creature that made it stand apart from most of the bosses he had faced up to this point was the fact that it was extremely human like in body structure. Based off the way it sat down it"s body was configured like a human with two legs two arms and a head, but the similarities pretty much ended their. It still had an exoskeleton like body that was armored up in places, but not nearly as bulky as all of the other scorpions they had come across up to this point. It"s head looked like that of a scorpion as well with pincer looking things around its mouth that were now busy tearing apart the arm in its hands. Lastly it had a large tail that was longer than its body was tall and was now hovering above its head swaying back and forth.
Unlike the other human like boss that Joshua had faced all the way back in the marsh area this creature seemed to have the best aspects of both a human like body that was filled with both mana and aura along with the strength of a beast based off of how torn apart the room was after its last fight. It gave off a pressure of killing intent without even focusing on them which was a sign to Joshua that he was definitely going to have to stay completely focused on this creature in the upcoming fight.
Before Joshua could even turn to talk strategy with the rest of his group he heard a shout from Kalvin before the thief charged forward and blurred his form for an instant. Kalvin had used his shunpo skill to close the distance between him and the boss to attack it while it was distracted. He was an interesting thief with a powerful ambush like fighting style, but it was all pointless. The moment he got within range of the boss a wave of aura mixed with killing intent poured out of the boss into the surroundings freezing Kalvin in place just for an instant, but that was all it took. The creature"s stinger plunged through Kalvin"s chest killing the thief in an instant.
The boss seemed to turn its head to look at its new prey for a moment before standing up as it crossed its arms over its chest. It then looked around to inspect its next meal with an inquisitive look. The boss wasn"t all that tall by beast standards, but it was still eight feet tall which made it look incredibly imposing. After it finished inspecting its new kill it tossed it aside towards the other corpses in the room before going back to chewing on the arm while staring towards Joshua"s group. The gates once again closed in front of all of Joshua"s group as they were stunned by what they had just witnessed. One thing that Joshua remembered besides the aura and killing intent that rolled off the creature in waves was the smirk on its face when it tossed Kalvin"s body aside.
The boss was intelligent and Joshua could sense that in the aura that was pouring from its body. It had controlled emotions even if they weren"t quite as developed as a humans. That smirk alone told Joshua that the creature enjoyed toying with its prey and the little look it gave them before the gates closed told them all that it was waiting.