The first-floor boss was smaller than I remembered.

  The Depion, a scorpion-tailed deer monster, had been tall enough when Sipher had dragged us through that I could have walked under it. The one in front of us was small enough that I could look it in the eyes if I would stand in front of it.

  Not that I wanted to get my face anywhere near the antlers on top of its head. The way it twisted its head from side to side as it snorted at us let me know that I’d be gored if I got anywhere close to those horns.

  “Hey!” Aelin had to jump to slap the back of my head. “Quit daydreaming and shoot that thing!”

  “Sorry.” I blinked as I raised my pistols to aim at the monster.

  The monsters in the Dispatcher’s Dungeon were all nature affinity, which meant fire and ice were the most effective elements. I had a clip of fire in my right pistol and a clip of ice in my left. Even with my passive, my aim with two guns wasn’t as good as my aim with one, but the double damage made up for the drop in accuracy. I rotated to my right as I shot at the charging monster.

  Aelin moved to my left, but neither of us moved very far. We wanted to be far enough on the sides so that we wouldn’t risk shooting Ether in the back, but not so far that we could hit the other with our crossfire.

  The antlers scraped against Ether’s shield as the Depion rammed into our Tank. The scorpion tail stabbed over the top of the shield, only to be deflected by Fray’s sword. I smiled as the green swordswoman covered Ether. With her watching my wife’s back, there was no need for me to worry. I just needed to hit the boss’s core and end the fight.

  Unlike the slimes, there was a way to end the fight without breaking the core. You simply had to kill the monster. Even though the monsters were constructs of energy summoned by the Dungeon, they still had organ systems just like regular animals. Stabbing a monster through the heart or cutting off its head was almost always a sufficient way to end the fight.

  The head was moving around too much as the boss rammed and kicked, plus the skull would absorb a lot more damage than one of the sides. I focused my aim on the space right below the Depion’s front shoulders. The core was located beside the monster’s heart, which meant there were two things I could hit to end the fight by aiming there.

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  “Can you hold it still?” Aelin stomped her foot as the boss reared up, causing one of her arrows to pass through empty air. “I can’t hit this thing with it moving around so much!”

  I holstered my left pistol and pointed at the boss. “BIND!”

  A pair of vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around the monster’s body. The Depion screamed as it twisted in place, kicking at the vines, but it wasn’t able to rear up anymore.

  “That’s not going to hold for long!” I gripped my pistol with both hands and pulled the trigger as fast as I could, holstering the weapon once it was empty, then drawing my other gun. I had to swap out the clip for another, but with the boss restrained, it was easier to hit and near the end of my backup clip, it vanished into dust.

  “You should have done that from the start!” Aelin ran over to the trio while Ether knelt down to collect our loot.

  I noticed Fray holding her hand.

  “Are you okay?” I walked over to the two green women.

  Justia pulled Fray’s right glove off to reveal a nasty cut on the swordswoman’s hand.

  “It’s poisoned.” Our Healer ran her hand over the wound. “Cure Poison.”

  The discoloration faded as the spell took effect. Fray smiled and pulled her hand back. “Thanks. It got me on that last tail strike.”

  “You’re not healed yet.” Justia pulled Fray’s hand back. “Heal Wounds.”

  The green skin knit itself back together. Justia wiped the red blood away, then let Fray have her hand back.

  “Sorry.” Fray looked away as she put her glove back on.

  “It’s fine. I usually only have to heal bruises and scrapes, but this is what I’m here for.” Justia looked at the rest of us. “Is anyone else hurt?”

  “Just some light bruises.” Ether held a brown leather belt out towards me. “Game Belt, it gives a point of Magic, so it’s yours.”

  I took the item and slipped it through the loopholes in my jeans. Most of what I was wearing didn’t have stats on it, which made this a very nice upgrade for me.

  “We need to work on your parrying, but that was pretty good considering you only got hit once.” Gesai swallowed as Fray looked away from her. The two were still awkward around each other after the initial outburst between them back in Tres. It had been weeks since then, but the two still rarely spoke to each other.

  Our teacher turned to me. “The fight also went a lot smoother once you restrained the boss. While dual wielding does give you a damage boost, you were able to provide support better when you only had a single gun in your hand.” The silver woman motioned at the pile of ash. “Crowd control will be worth a whole lot more than damage, especially on deeper floors.”

  I nodded as I swapped out the clips in my pistols.

  “It was still a really good run.” Gesai turned around and twirled her finger in the air. “Let’s knock out the next one.”

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