Chapter 43: Warning

"Ignis! Ignis! Ignis!" Said Ariel as she rained downed spells on the golems.

Ventus wasn't very effective against the golems, so she changed to Fire as we fought. The fire spells weren't that effective either, but it was the only other options. The golems would get hit by her ignis but wouldn't stop.

They were slow but John could tell, getting hit by that thing in our current condition would be game over.

"Fire arrows!" Said Serena.

20 Arrows of flame were formed in the air. Each 2 arrows were aimed at a single golem, she was targeting the 10 in front of her and Ariel. There were at least 15 golems in total surrounding us.

"Ariel!" Said Serena.

"I got it!" Replied Ariel.

As she said that, air began to gather behind each of the arrows. And with the wind as a propeller, the arrows overall strength had increased two-fold.

'Ariel has really good accuracy... To be able to pinpoint and gather air that far away from her... She must have been practising hard.' John realized.

"Now!" Shouted Serena.

As she said that, Ariel propelled the arrows simultaneously at the 5 golems facing each of their directions. The moment there was contact, a small explosion was made and fog was formed thanks to the dust.

"Did we get him?" Asked Serena.

"Why are you raising a flag!?!" John shouted he cut down one of the golems in front of him.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Asked Serena.

"Nevermind. Tonde Flamma" John said as he lept at another golem.

'They're durable... It's taking me two-fold a constant supply of magic to my daggers to just be able to cut them and Tonde flamma for the cut to reach their core. If you don't get their core, they won't die... Which is why…' John decided.

"We're Retreating!" Shouted John.

"Why? And How? We just finished dealing with ours," Said Serena.

"Check Again!" John replied.

She turned around and noticed that despite being damaged; the golems were still moving. Parts of their body were broken, but they were already only around 10 meters away from them.

"Crap... We have no choice! Levite! Velox!" John chanted.

As he cast those John grabbed on to Serena who was the closest, then Ariel and flew them over the golems straight to the giant door connected to the next room. As he did that more rocks which were on the path turned into golems.

There were now over 4 x times the amount they were originally fighting. Around 60 golems formed underneath them. But John didn't stop, he flew straight at the door and arrived there within seconds.

"Why didn't you do this earlier?" Asked Serena.

"Because of that." John said as he pointed over at the 60 golems in heading towards them.

The two hadn't realised earlier because they were more focused on the door rather than what was under them, and the golems blended in quite nicely from above.

"W-Wha-What!? That many?! Isn't that overkill!?" Shouted Serena.

Ariel hastily nodded at what Serena said.

"Tch, looks like we won't get any time to rest at all, our options are either to kill all of these and rest, or fight the boss. We haven't even had our lunch yet, Give us a break!" John shouted at the ceiling.

The golems continued to approach them without showing any signs of stopping.

"Let's fight the boss." Said Ariel with a resolved look.

She's had a different air around her for a while.

"I agree with Ariel, there's no way we're taking that many on. Also, we haven't eaten anything in a while, let's quickly deal with the boss and rest. At least here, we won't have to be worried about drowning." Said Serena.

"Alright, let's go." John said as he pushed open the door.

John was only able to take down 2 Golems, and that took an annoying amount of power. He was in no position to fight.

They entered inside, and the door closed by itself. The room was full of lightning and it was just like most of the first to tenth floor boss rooms. The only difference was that the background was similar to a cave and in the middle stood a weird-looking monster. It faced the entrance to the next room.

John looked around the room and found stone statues, highly detailed statues. 

'How could a person and why would a person make these in the boss' room? It's almost as if-' He thought.

Worry filled his face as John began to realise what happened.

The monster turned around and John felt a horrible feeling. A feeling of fear and disgust. As he felt that, he heard a voice resounding in his head 'Clo-se yo-ur ey-es' Said the voice before fading out.

"SERENA! ARIEL! CLOSE YOUR EYES!" John said as he moved his hands to cover them.

Surprised, they looked over at him, with a worried expression without closing their eyes. It was too late, John wasn't looking but he could tell the monster was looking straight at them.

The moment John walked in, he could tell something was wrong. Sculptures of stone in the middle of a boss room which was designed and looked like people?

No, something had to have happened. These were people that were turned to sculptures. This reminds John of the Medusa myth. There was a woman who could turn people to stone if they gazed at her.

As they were about to turn their head to face the monster, in a hurry John grabbed on to their hands and pulled them towards him. Thanks to that, they were facing the entrance they had just come from.

John then put his arms around them so that they wouldn't turn around. As he was about to whisper in their ear, Serena spoke up

"J-John..?" Said Ariel with a confused tone as she looked up at him.

"Wha-What are you doing?!" Said Serena as she lightly tried to push him away.

John's eyes were closed, so he couldn't tell what sort of expression they were making, but he was sure they were both mad.

"Sorry, but I had no other choice... whatever you do, don't turn around," John whispered quietly in their ears.

He could feel her ear twitch as John whispered that. This was the first time he had been this close to Serena's pointy ears, he kind of wanted to open his eyes.

"O-Okay... What sort of monster is it?" Asked Serena.

"Did you notice the sculptures around us? It was done by it. Judging by the fact that we didn't turn to stone despite being looked at. I'm guessing it only works if we look at its gaze." John said.

There was no need to whisper anymore, they understood the situation. Nonetheless, what a frightening monster. John checked with deprehendre and it hadn't moved from its position. All the other stone sculptures here are from adventurers who were taken by surprise.

"That sounds a lot like a basilisk..." Muttered Serena.

"Basilisk?" John asked

"Yeah, they're monsters which can turn you to stone if you look directly at them. Although their fighting power is weak, their ability makes up for it. its power is that of a C-Rank but it's ability boosts its rank all the way to A rank." Said Serena.

'It's a higher rank than the death knight... This is not good... But that's only with its ability…' John thought.

"If it wasn't for that voice, we might have been dead by now..." John muttered.

"Voice?" Asked Ariel.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I have a plan, but the three of us are going to have to work together. Can you guys please lend me your strength?" John asked.

"Obviously, you don't have to ask." Replied Serena.

"Exactly." Replied Ariel.

"Alright, let's do it!" John said as he whispered the plan to them.

Back then, when they didn't close their eyes and they looked at him, John felt his heart drop. Thankfully, nothing bad happened as they weren't looking at it but...

'Is it testing us? Instead of making the monster face the door and petrify the 3 of us by surprise. It gave us enough time to figure out its ability.' John thought.

'Being led around like this is infuriating, but what's worse is how they're playing the lives of my precious comrades as if it were some sort of game.' John thought

'Whatever is doing this. I hope you're prepared because I won't forgive you.' John decided.