The cave was warmer.

  That was already a difference compared to what we’d been used to. Considering the entire Dungeon was an underground tunnel system, the safe zone by the gate looked very similar. I had a feeling the low red lights near what must have been the edges of the room were lava flows, which were probably on the fourth floor, just further in where we hadn’t seen them.

  “That’s cool!” The outline of Aelin was over by one of the streams. “We’ve got light!”

  “Atlas, here.” I shook my head, not that anyone could see me. “Aelin, don’t touch that.”

  “I’m not Pixie!” The short woman fired back. “I don’t touch something just because it’s pretty!”

  “Fray, here.”

  “Just come away from the edge.” Ether called out. “Once you’ve been here for a moment, your eyes start adjusting, and it’s kind of nice.”

  “Justia, here.”

  “I’m coming!” Aelin shouted as she ran towards me. “And that’s everyone, Justia; light it up!”

  “LIGHT!” The Healer shouted as she moved next to Ether.

  My eyes stung as the low light that they had been adjusting to became a lot brighter. As soon as the pain diminished, I moved towards the Tank in the middle of the room.

  “Where…” I looked around, even scanning the ceiling for the monster.

  “SHIELD WALL!” Golden light spread out on either side of Ether’s shield as the ivory woman moved in front of me and slammed her shield into the ground. A pair of fireballs crashed into the barrier that she’d created.

  A pair of burning red tendrils snaked out of the lava river on the wall behind me. The bubbling molten rock rose up as the boss monster made itself known.

  Another pair of fireballs crashed into the barrier as the monster slid over the lava to my right. It moved faster in the lava stream than any other monster we’d fought so far.

  “You’d think Gesai would have mentioned that it would stay in the lava flow!” I looked at the floating eyeball above us. My CB buzzed.

  You triggered a special room fight. Be careful of the add wave.

  “Gesai says we’re doing a special fight and that there’s going to be an add wave at some point!” I looked at Ether. “Hold its attention the best you can—”

  The pair of arms flipped up the lava, sending a wave of hot liquid at us.

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  “WAVE!” I pointed my free hand at the lava.

  A wave of water rose out of the ground and crashed over the monster’s attack. An odd-shaped rock formation was left behind after the two area attacks mixed.

  “LOOK AT ME!” Ether moved forward, cancelling her barrier as she charged the monster. Fireballs slammed into her shield as she positioned herself between me and the monster.

  “THAT’S HOT!” The Tank took two steps back.

  “I’ve got you.” Justia pointed her staff at the other woman. “Minor Heal Wounds!”

  “Stone Arrows!” Aelin moved to Ether’s left side and fired at the boss.

  The monster stopped moving to the left and turned to ride the lava to its right, in Aelin’s direction.

  The room was only a one-hundred-foot square, which boxed us in a lot considering I’d stopped the lava wave thirty feet from the edge. The fireballs were having no problem reaching us, and I had a feeling that the arms dripping molten rock as they moved weren’t something that Ether or Fray wanted to have connect with their weapons or armor.

  “Ether, try to hold its attention; Aelin and I will try to break its core as soon as we can. Justia, keep healing Ether. Fray…” I eyed the other three walls. “Keep an eye on the lava. I have a feeling we’re going to get ambushed before this is over.”

  “We’ve got a problem!” Aelin pointed at the monster. “It’s got two cores!”

  “These things have been having three.” I followed her finger to see what she was talking about. The Giant Slimes had one core in each arm and a third one for the main body. But Aelin was right; this one had a fourth core.

  “How much you want to bet that breaking one of the cores is what triggers the add wave?” I grumbled as I targeted the higher core. “Let’s focus on this one!”

  “Atlas!” Ether slammed her shield down again as another lava wave surged towards us.

  “Wave!” I threw out my empty left hand to cast the spell. At 8 mana a cast, it drained my mana fast, but at the moment, that was our best counter to the move.

  Green light was covering most of Ether while she held her shield with both hands. The steam rising off of her shield as well as the new rock formation in front of her was concerning.

  “We’re going to get boxed in if we don’t finish this fast!” I pointed my pistol at the monster moving to the wall on our left side.

  “I’m doing my best!” Aelin rotated to her left as she kept firing.

  “Just…” It was harder to aim through the arms. Without Fray in front of it to keep the arms occupied and down to only one, there was an extra layer that we were having to shoot through. “Let me try something... WAVE!”

  A column of water crashed over the monster. Steam hissed as the outer layer of the molten-filled slime hardened into a rocky shell. The effect halted the movement of the boss, but it also cut off our ability to see where the cores were.

  Cracks formed in the shell as the monster struggled against its restraint.

  “Don’t stop shooting!” I continued to blast holes in the rocky exterior. Red liquid dribbled out of the holes, melting away the outer shell.

  The main thing that it bought us was a reprieve from the lava waves and fireballs. Justia worked on healing the burns that Ether had earned from splash damage while Fray kept her eyes on the lava bubbling behind us.

  “Got it!” Aelin cheered.

  The rocky shell crumbled as the monster sank into the lava. All around the edge of the room, the molten rock boiled in earnest.

  “What’s going on?” Fray tightened her grip on her katana.

  I didn’t need to look at my CB to know what the message Gesai had just sent me read. The tiny fire slimes sliding out of the lava told me what it would say.

  “Phase two.”

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