Cath now halfway down the slope with Flo and Max barely a few steps down stared over the edge once more.
Much closer, more details were visible: the tree’s oak was ancient and rippling, the leaves of the tree were light blue decorated with golden patterns; at the bottom of the tree lay a small lump of flesh partly covered by drooping fairy-blue silk.
What covered the rest of the base was a large abyss-black circle covered in large marks like the scars of an old beast.
Flo and Max catch up to Cath as she continues to stare below.
They both joined her as Max spoke, “what do those carvings mean?”
Cath replied with overwhelming knowledge, “the dungeons vault door, the more carving the stronger the door, it’s essentially impossible to get into them, very few people have the skills to unlock such a vault door and no one can do a vault door above master level.”
“So how do people get high-level dungeon cores?” Max continued genuinely curious.
This time Flo replied, “the boss cores reveal themselves as soon as the boss is defeated, what the vault hides is usually skill books that the boss use and sometimes random treasure and gear, where do they come from, we don’t know and most don’t care.
But the most important thing the dungeon vault holds is the dungeon core which without it would cause the collapse of the whole dungeon.”
“Mmmm,” Max acknowledged Flo’s answer as they all shifted their focus back to the slope.
Carrying on the walk, Cath’s pace became more regular as they ventured near the bottom of the path.
The three bodies awkwardly shuttled down the slopey path.
Eventually they reached the bottom.
Now in a more combat ready formation, Flo grabbed his rifle falling behind Max and Cath who each pulling out their signature weapons walked across the vault door and towards the lump of flesh which is finally recognisable.
Flo already began gathering essence on his rifle as the creature entangled itself.
Its large wings spreading, the four wings laced with faint white stars on an ocean blanket.
The figure attached to the wings is a human-like girl but with noticeable differences.
Her lower legs bare and exposed—perfect like no other—a robe draped over her body covering the most sacred features.
Her body is thin and beautiful but her chest is covered in marks of dark purple and finally to her head which is small and cute.
Her eyes’ sclera were a deep green, her pupils the reflection of a vine swing seemingly made for a playground.
Long light green expanded behind her back as she gazed at the unwelcome visitors.
Catherine moved first as she swung her scythe at the bottom right wing of the butterfly-girl, but she swiftly dodged sideways.
A flurry of wind was thrusted from below the girl, catching her off guard as it clipped the edge of her wing, however it did little damage.
Fwish
A black bullet split the air as it arrived in front of the butterfly, lodging itself into her shoulder.
The bullet dissipated and began to dissolve her insides but she reacted quickly as twigs pushed out all the blood.
The wound on her shoulder was branched by the twigs that were gradually emboldened into one large piece of bark.
Flo began to collect another load of essence into his barrel as Max and Cath started to make their presence felt by the boss.
Vines spiked and sliced through the ground attempting to kill the two but missing by only a few inches.
“Stop,” urgently shouted Flo.
Cath came to a halt glancing back at Florian but still keeping most of her attention on the creature.
Whilst Max went a step too many.
His left hand holding tightly onto his halberd lost its two most leftist fingers—the pinky and the ring finger.
A clean slice from a sharp invisible weapon disabled Max causing him to drop his halberd.
His two lost fingers were also on the floor spilling crimson blood.
“She has a needle weapon body,” Flo declared to the two.
The boss monster hearing this no longer hid it as in her hands appeared a purple needle with a spool of blue thread attached to the needle.
“Smart human,” the monster complimented in a sweet ghastly voice
Cath swung her scythe upwards, splitting multiple strings whilst Flo pulled the trigger once again.
Bang!
This time Flo didn’t aim the bullet at the boss but at the tree, straight into where its life core should reside.
The bullet got stuck partway but it began to dissolve the tree.
The butterfly’s gaze shifted to the tree—the corners of her mouth no longer lifted, only impenetrable calmness covering her face.
Once again vines and branches shot from the ground and around the tree helping it heal and to nullify the venomous bullet.
Flo watching this recovery of the tree wasn’t disappointed by the usage of his essence—instead he was pleasantly surprised.
When the bullet smashed into the tree the almost-invisible string in front of him shook violently along with the shuddering of the tree.
Cath stopped swinging through the strings as exhaustion befell her hands, instead she created orbs of water and threw it around her, revealing the lengthy lines of blade-like silk.
Max was frozen in shock staring at his lost fingers.
Florian, ignoring him, pulled out his double pistol and let out a stream of bullets towards the tree.
A cry of alarm was released from the monster as shields of branches and vines attempted to block the river of bullets, however they weren’t enough.
The strings unravelled around the tree as nothing was holding them together anymore.
The strings also fell from the leaves as the sky-like leaves engraved with gold were fake and underneath them lay worn-out and torn green leaves.
The once calm boss’ face began to falter as all the strings around them fell.
Now being freed, Cath charged towards the butterfly, her scythe hanging low as she swiped upwards.
The boss monster fled backwards, and the scythe’s sharp edge missed her chest.
But as she dodged backwards:
Bang!
A splatter of blood burst from the creature’s forehead.
She died.
Her body dropped to the ground, and her wings floated downwards.
Eventually resting on the floor.
The boss core floated from her body ready to be claimed.
With boss or life cores in general there are only 3 three things you can do: take it, make it your companion and claim it or leave it and the core will return to the fallen boss.
Heeding the earlier warning they left the core.
“Let’s go,” announced an exhausted Flo as a purple crack in space opened up for them.
He looked back at Cath who is a bit too giddy and then towards Max whose halberd has been put into his storage artifact whilst his two separated fingers are held in his hand.
He is still staring at them.
“Max you can go get them reattached at the hospital, let’s go before the return port disappears,” Flo says, disregarding his emotions.
Cath doesn’t seem to care that much as she has already walked ahead of Flo and jumped into the port.
Not waiting much longer, Florian heads into the port and in moments appears in the starting open cave.
He didn’t see Cath and waited a few moments before leaving through the creaky dungeon door.
Back into fresh air he glanced around spotting Catherine back with her class and chatting with friends.
Deciding not to bother her he followed a path that veered left leading back to the city.
Following the path he made a mental note of its location for future use as nature forced the path to narrow.
The wear and tear of the path was obvious as some parts were torn up others had holes most likely from fights and some remains of elements like ice and metal.
A peaceful journey it was but for only a few minutes or so as something threatened the tranquility of his walk.
A fallen man leaning back against a tree.
Marks of a fight surrounded the man.
Getting closer, Flo grumbled under his breath.
The man had blonde hair and blue eyes along with a scruffy beard.
A nice face to say the least on a good day but today wasn’t a good day.
It would have been a bad day if it was just the dried blood and crumbs of dirt on his face.
But today was his worst day.
His eyes bulged enshrouded by a generous ruby red and his veins popped from his cheek ready to burst.
The man opened his mouth as Florian’s shadow covered him, “Pl-please help me young man, can y-you car—,” a coughing fit interrupted him, “can you carry me back to Birnam?”
Flo responded in a friendly manner asking an easy question for the man:
“What’s your name?”
“M-m-m-my name… it’s… my n-name i-is…,” the seemingly easy question was for some reason absolutely impossible for the man to answer.