Chapter 228: Canyon Dungeon Final Boss Part 2

The speed the boss was moving towards Joshua at reminded him of the bat from the first path which was frightening. It was far bigger than the bat with far more weight behind it so the impact would be devastating if he didn't properly prepare for it. The fact that it also had a large horn that could collide with his scale blade as well made things even more dangerous. Joshua immediately used his aura hardening ability to increase his defense as much as possible while taking a defensive stance. He even went ahead and started surrounding his body in a thick aura with defense in mind just in case the impact was going to be stronger than he was expecting.

Henry helped out just before the clash by giving Joshua the weight buff that would help him hold his ground. Just as the horn was going to slam into him Joshua placed his scale blade underneath it to catch the weight of the creature while redirecting the horn up so that it wouldn't hit the rest of the group. His scale blade slid against the horn until it crashed into the giant head of the monster. The force of the impact sent Joshua nearly to his knees as he struggled to hold the creature up as his body slid back. It felt as if he was stopping the full charge of the beetle from the first path alongside the speed of the bat. The combination would have smashed him into the ground if it wasn't for Henry's support buff.

Before Joshua could disengage from the creature its horn started to vibrate above the group and created a thrumming sound that started to make everyone dizzy. Joshua quickly had Light create a soothing aura over the group to keep the horn's vibrations from effecting them to badly then he pushed back the giant beast and hit it with a sword smash. The blow knocked it back far enough that the horn no longer had a major effect on the group, but at the same time it gave the boss more room to charge in once more. The final boss was far more powerful than the other bosses had been, but it wasn't intelligent like the spider and the snake. It seemed to stick to the idea of smashing Joshua into the ground since he had the most dangerous presence in its eyes.

This was just fine for Joshua as he put all his strength into holding the boss's main body back from the rest of the group. At the moment he was trying to get used to the creature's attacks patterns since it seemed to enjoy coming in from different angles in an attempt to surprise Joshua. Each time it smashed into Joshua it seemed to grow more confident in getting around his defenses, but Joshua wasn't sure why at first. It wasn't until the ground started to erupt into walls around him that restricted his movements that Joshua knew why the boss seemed to grow more confidant with each exchange. At first he thought it had no intelligence whatsoever with its random attacks and never ending rampaging, but it was analyzing Joshua just as much as he was analyzing it.

The wall made it so it was impossible for Joshua to get to the side of the beast that he wanted to and forced Joshua to take the blow out of position. Joshua decided it was time to start responding in a similar fashion to the boss and use some of the weaknesses he had figured out against the boss to his advantage. He had Light create a large projectile shield in front of the boss's path slowing it down for a moment before catching the creature's horn with his scale blade. This time he made sure to infuse both of his arms with aura heavily. He took the blow with his scale bade being supported by only one arm then when the creature's head came close he fused his other arm with an aura blast and punched directly towards its giant eye.

Of course Joshua knew things wouldn't go so easily for him as the creatures eyes closed just before impact. Its eye lid had scales along it that were armored like the rest of its body diverting most of the force of Joshua's punch away. If it had been Amy it could have penetrated through, but with just his aura alone the force of the blast merely knocked the head back while breaking a few of the scales on the creatures face. It reared back preparing to go in for another attack while Joshua once again took a defensive stance in preparation for the next clash.

Meanwhile the rest of the group wasn't able to approach the clash between Joshua and the main body of the boss because of two massive snake heads that were striking towards them from behind. The heads were similar to the previous boss they had just faced so they were used to them at this point, but it came down to Joshua blocking off the strikes the last time around. Now the rest of the group had to figure out how to hold off two of the beast at the same time. When the first head came striking towards the mages at the back the Carsen brothers banded together to hold it off.

Dave took the charge head on by beefing his muscles up and blocking one of its massive fangs with his axe. He didn't have the advantage of Joshua's aura to help him hold his ground so he was forced backwards towards the group. His two brothers however ran along the sides of the snake head and slammed their axes into its neck. The force of the strike was just enough to break a couple of scales and dig in even though they put enough force into their swings to leave a large gash on the previous snake boss. They then pulled back and helped slow the head down alongside Dave.

The other head however was caught mid strike by Tank. Tank might have been slow when it came to moving around, but in the case where he struck out with a bite he was as fast as a snapping turtle. His large mouth was barely able to grip around the neck of the massive snake as he struggled to keep it in place as it thrashed around. The rest of the group immediately took action and started to bombard the snake head with spells. The mages focused on the one that Tank was holding in place since it wasn't able to avoid their attacks. On the other hand the close range fighters charged in and went after the one the Carsen brothers were busy holding back. It didn't take long for them to start tearing through its scales, but actually doing damage to the highly defensive creatures took a while.

This situation put the boss battle into two separate fights that both seemed likely to drag on for quite some time. Joshua was busy holding off the main body of the creatures while the rest of the group tried to take down its extra body parts. At first Joshua wasn't having too much trouble since its initial tactics of trying to ram him into the ground weren't too hard to deal with outside of the occasional surprising stone wall that it created to try to hinder his movements. As the fight went on however things started to grow more complicated as the boss started to spread its wings to add more speed to its strikes. It started diving in and fainting attacks before striking with its spider legs instead to take Joshua by complete surprise.

The insane speeds that the boss was able to reach made it impossible for Joshua to counterattack as it passed by too quickly. He even took a couple of strikes from the spider legs that left gashes across his arms and legs because he wasn't able to completely avoid them. His regeneration was in high gear with his aura shroud in effect, but it wouldn't be able to keep up with the damage over a long period of time. Luckily he had the healers throwing him some heals whenever things started to get bad to tide him over.

At one point the main body tried to confuse him with a sonic screech, but thanks to Light empowering his aura it didn't have too much of an effect on Joshua. He used its surprise as an opportunity to slash his scale blade across one of its eyes. The slash was infused with aura so it cut deep and through the scaled eyelid this time around. As blood dripped down his scale blade Joshua could hear the beast let out a mighty roar before backing away in surprise from the pain. Sadly his first victory didn't end up being as big of a victory as he was hoping for. He could see that the eye was actually healing back up rather quickly along with the scales he had sliced through. That being the case he knew that the regeneration speed of the beast was going to be a problem for the rest of the group as well.

It turned out that was the case as Tank had ripped off one of the snake heads that had been torn up by several spells. At first the group seemed happy that they were down to only one snake head to deal with from that point on, but when they saw the stump of the torn snake head start to hiss and fizzle with a weird smoke they felt their blood go cold. The snake head was regenerating at such a fast pace that they could all see its bones reforming along with the muscles and organs. It didn't take long for the scales to reappear and after only a few minutes there was an entire new snake head in its place. It hissed at the group in anger before going in once more while trying its best to stay away from Tank's head.

All of the damage on the other snake head that had been created by Adam and Adrian cutting through its scales alongside Aito's fire power was healing back so fast that they could barely keep the injuries there long enough to matter. They knew they were going to have to do something special if they wanted to put this boss down for good and it most likely had something to do with the main body in the end. When the group tried to focus on helping Joshua out in his fight against the main body things went from bad to worse. The two giant snake heads kept getting in their way making sure to keep the group separated away from Joshua. They were aided by balls of sand that started to form around them and block the groups' path.

The large spheres of sand started to shoot out barrages of bullet like structures that Jayce and Abigail had to block to keep the group in good shape. As the bullets piled up they started to create cracks along their shield walls forcing the two to revitalize the walls over and over again. It made it impossible for them to move and kept the rest of the group from being able to help out Joshua. This was exactly what the boss wanted as the two snake heads healed from all of their injuries and hissed loudly towards the group. This time around though there was something more to their opponent that was on the horizon. The glowing glyphs around the room started to dim making the room darker. The only steady source of light available came from the torches around the walls of the giant room which didn't do much in the way of illuminating the entire space.

Taking advantage of the dimming of the lights in the room four more snake bodies started to appear from different areas of the room that were hard to see. Joshua was going to back away from the main body to join the group before the pace of the battle could suddenly shift, but the boss wouldn't allow it. The giant creature let out a powerful roar before flying over top of Joshua. The wild rampaging aura that it was giving off started to condense around its body like an uncontrollable force for a moment before erupting into the surroundings. It took the form of a black sphere that kept spreading out until it surrounded the entire center of the room where Joshua and the main portion of the boss were located.

The rest of the group couldn't tell what was going on as the black sphere stopped spreading outward before reaching them. It looked as if the boss had created an arena between itself and Joshua while excluding all of them. They didn't have much time to think about it though as four new figures started coming into their sight from around the black sphere.