A worthy opponent

Iris took notice of my shuttering and also looked at the new door before us. Unlike me however, she stayed as cool as ever.

"We shouldn't go down there…, for now. Let's take a look around here, so that we know if we can finally fight a worthy opponent. Even though that bigger room might have been quite the challenge to tackle on, by killing those small fries individually it was way too easy. There should be something like a floor boss around here, I thought it protects these stairs. But doesn't look like it."

Wait, did Iris just say "for now"? I hoped I misheard her there, but I guess when it comes to Iris everything is possible. Although I guess she could try going down these stairs. Not that she's going to make it. A certain someone lurking in the shadows would stop her right away.

We searched the near area for hidden doors, after all around here the stronger monsters should reside. There weren't as many doors as in the front of the dungeon, but all of them happened to be more massive in size comparable to the one of the big monster room with the mage. Also for the first time we found a door where we could spot where it lead us right away.

That one happened to be the nearest one to the stairs and it was clear what it was:

The floor boss.

Unlike the regular which were only like a head taller than me, this one overshadowed us with its massive size. If I had to guess it's around at least four to five meters tall. But apart from the difference in size it looks a lot like the regular ones. Same purple skin, same monster-like aura and the same savageness.

I opened Lisa's book and spot it immediately: a . A massive version of the which relies on its sheer size to overwhelm its enemies. It isn't really fond on using weapons and is ranked C+. A worthy monster for the floor boss one could say. It was also the type of monster what I imagined when I heard C ranked giving off some serious boss vibes.

However unlike the mage, the giant stood lonely in the room, no other monsters nearby. This meant no dirty tricks to weaken it like last time. We would have to take it head on. Not that a certain person beside me was bothered by that, no she got even more excited. The glimmer in her eyes told me that there was no way we wouldn't fight the giant.

"Looks like a strong opponent, we will probably have to face it with all of us. It also shouldn't fall down with a single strike. Julian, Lander and me will weaken it by attacking its joints, Yoru will sweep in and take advantage of its openings to hit it with stronger blows. Emilia and Althaia support us as always but don't hold back this time. I guess we have to show our full strength to win against an opponent this huge."

Iris had a clear plan in mind and not a bad one at that. Gradually weakening it and disabling its movements were the usual methods against such huge monsters. Mr. Black had taught us this back in school or rather he told our group explicitly. He must have known that these type of monsters exist in the upper floor. Maybe he had even taken on this dungeon by himself already back in the day before becoming a teacher. Although he told us a bit of his back story, many things about him remained a mystery to me.

"No objections here, Iris. Sounds like a great plan to me. But we should still be vary of its strength, with its massive size it could crush us like insects. Healing won't be able to fix that. If we mess up things will get ugly quickly."

Iris looked shocked after hearing my warning. Just like always she had only thought about offense not defence. She took a while to think in silent and then she said:

"I will be the one to take its hits. With my claymore I can parry his fits without a sweat. You guys focus on taking it down quickly since I won't be able to defend for too long. If thing really go south we can always just run away since the giant doesn't fit through the corridor to the room. But enough with the pessimistic thoughts, I think we can handle the big guy easily."

She might have lied there in her little motivation speech but I didn't object. The only one really put in danger was her alone and her confidence radiated so much from her that I had to trust her. Iris was strong after all, far stronger than I was. Hopefully I wouldn't regret it one day that I didn't interject with her rough plans.

I left my worries behind and stood up from the floor I sat on.

With a plan in mind we stepped forward towards where the giant sat on the ground and got into a battle formation ready to fight it…

###

I listen in on the kids plan but this time it sounds quite dangerous. Only that reckless girl, Iris, could have come up with such crude strategy. Sure, it likely works against a monster at this calibre but it also instils false hope into them. Actual strong monsters are intelligent enough to attack the real threats in a battle. This makes the job of professional defenders exponentially harder.

I should make sure to reprimand them once they come back to school. For now I watch them and help out once they really got into danger though I'm rather optimistic they can beat the thing without much of a sweat. The kids are strong after all.

No time to spare, I have to position myself as closely to the fight as possible….