Adventures of the last Wild Dragon-Chapter 218: The First Boss

As the tiger leapt out of the tall grasses it headed straight towards Olivia, she reacted almost instantly. Unlike her sky and nervous demeanour when talking with others, during combat that hesitancy was entirely gone.

Her shield moved into the tigers path, a meaty thud rang out as the dungeon creature impacted with the tower shield. Whilst the tiger was pushed back from the collision, Olivia remained steadfast, unmoved from her stop in the vanguard.

The second to react was Violet, void bolts formed en mass, shooting forward to impact into the tigers side as it tried to regain its footing. Then as it once more reeled from the barrage it was stuck by a bolt of lightning and stabbed with a sword of ice.

The beast roared in pain and defiance, not a fan of having its ambush so effectively reversed. The tall blades of grass suddenly shot forwards towards Luna who was the closest to it, yet before they could reach her a shield of water formed in their path a moment before Olivia rushed in an slammed her shield into the side of the beast.

Once more made off ballence it was unable to dodge the void spear that punched through its shoulder, exploding a moment later and causing the beast to collapse to the ground in a yowl of pain.

The fight was a simple matter with the beasts mobility ruined. A series of cuts, jolts and bolts soon felled the tiger.

[Your group has defeated Grassland Tiger lvl 88 exp rewarded]

"Hmm they weren't very strong." Violet mused aloud. Only for Luna to refute her statement.

"No I think that creature would be a tough foe against any one of us, but we both outnumbered and out smarted it. It had no real chance to counterattack once we foiled its ambush. Also good job Olivia! You reacted really well!"

Said Olivia let out a slight spluttering noise as she turned away in clear embarrassment, even without being able to see her face she was expressive enough for her emotions to show through her armour.

As the girls discussed the fight quickly Violet soon noticed that the corpse appeared to be, fading away. Its body slowly dissolving into nothing, soon the entire corpse was gone, in its place now lay a singular crystal.

"Hu what's that?" Rhyana asked the group.

"I think it's called a beast core. They are apparently only dropped by dungeon beasts and can provide a small experience boost when absorbed." Violet informed her.

Yet Olivia spoke up at that. "Umm you shouldn't just absorbe them." When she noticed that everyone had turned to face her she let out a small squeak before continuing. "You s-should keep them and get an alchemist to turn them into a position or pill. They are not very efficient when just absorbed straight away."

Whilst her tone was still somewhat meek, she did seem to be a well of information so the girls took her words seriously. "Hmm I guess we will just collect them then."

With that decided the group carried on their search for the first boss.

As they walked through the tall grass they were 'ambushed' several times by these Grassland Tigers. Most of the time they attacked from the front, allowing Olivia to easily block the attack, yet some came from the back and sides. The girls managed to either block or counter the attacks for the most part. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Only Violet got slightly injured when two tigers attacked from her side and she failed to prepair for the second one to strike a moment after she blocked the first. Still it was nothing that Susan was unable to heal in a moment.

After the 5th such attack Violet and Luna both leveled up. Each of them now reaching level 89. They did ask Olivia what her level was, and found out that she was currently level 94, so was the highest leveled person in their party.

During this time Violet was also experimenting with drawing runes, whilst she did spend the better part of two full days talking and learning about them from Val. That was no where near enough time to gain anything more than a basic and superficial understanding of how they worked.

She was currently trying to cast a simple spell using her runes. One that Val had taught her and was something of a standard first rune. Its effect were both simple yet useful, it would summon a singular spear from the center of the rune to stab upwards. Much like Vals impressive display, only with a singular spear instead of hundreds.

She managed to get it working a couple of times as they explored, causing a void spear to shoot out of the run that was floating around the battlefield under Violet's control. Saddly whilst she did get the rune to work, getting it to aim correctly was an entirely different matter as she missed both attempts.

That did not deter her however, she simply viewed it as a learning experience and something to improve on.

Soon the girls reached the center of this valley, the tall grass dispersing slightly to create an open clearing of sorts. The girls also noted that they were not alone within this clearing.

For in the center of the space lay a massive green fired tiger. It was easily double the size of all of the other beasts that they had fought up till this point.

As soon as they walked into the clearing the beasts eyes opened and instantly locked onto their approaching forms. The beast slowly made its way to its feet, showcasing its full size of nearly 5 meters long and around 3 meters tall. It was a good match for Luna in her beast form.

A low and threatening growl emanated from the giant beast, its aggression clear for all to hear. Violet had to fight back her own earge to growl right back at it, only just resisting when she saw Olivia step forward and plant herself inbetween it and the rest of the party.

A verdant green glow began to emanate from her shield as thorned vines sprouted along its surface. Luna and Rhyana stepped up too, slowly flanking to each side as their own respective elements came into play. Violet and Lina were last, Violet summoning her usual barrage of bolts and spears whilst Susan began to delve into her role as a support.

A thin film of water began to coalesce around each of the front liners feet, their movements becoming a touch swifter in response.

Yet the tiger was not one to wait, spotting the intruders close in on its position, it instead chose to charge forwards to fight on its own terms.

It leap forwards, but not towards Olivia. Instead it aimed at the smallest target, Rhyana. The beast moved swiftly, closing the distance in a moment, yet it did not move as fast as the small dragon girl imbued with lightning.

She rushed forwards herself, ducking into a slide that brought her under the leaping tiger, as she passed under it her fist shot upwards impacting into the belly of the beast accompanied by a jolt of lightning.

Luna then took a step, appearing besides the beast before her figure split into 4, each of her frozen illusions stabbing forwards into the side of the beast. The tiger twisted out of the way of the attack, only one of Luna's strikes landing true, one was was impacted with the thick tail of the beast, its length imbued with verdant green mana and causing the illusion to shatter into pieces.

Violets barrage arrived at that moment. Her bolts peppering the side of the boss leaving small open wounds that dripped blood. Her spear was entirely avoided by the beast as it swiftly moved out of the way. It then tried to once more leap at the nearest person only to meet Olivia's shield slamming into its face and sending it reeling backwards with a yowl of frustration.

Before it could get its bearings 2 more of Luna's forms rushed in, swinging their swords down onto its sides. As they cut into the side of the beast it retaliated with a rapid claw strike and bite, both illusions shattering a moment later.

A bolt of electricity surged in from the side, passing clean through the beast and locking it in place for a moment, just long enough for a void spear to impact into its side and explode, tearing out a large chunk of flesh.

A pained roar ripped out of the beast then, its volume enough to send the nearest girls staggering backwards as they winced.

Green mana surged around the beast then, thick vines and grasses surging forwards to begin wrapping around the tigers body. At the same time it seemed to be taking a deep breath, a moment later letting out a haunting cry that caused the girls to attempt to cover their ears in sudden pain. A soothing films of water soon covered everyone's ears halting any damage from accumulating.

It was once their healing had been restored that Violet noticed the sound of rustling coming from all around them. She didn't have any time to call out a warning before 5 of the regular sized tigers emerged from the grasses into the clearing, surrounding the girls and making it so that they were now the ones being outnumbered.