Yuki and Owen moved through the remaining kobolds like a storm. Owen's [fireball] would soften targets while Yuki finished them with strikes from her [Gust] skill, enhanced by her newly expanded mana poo. The rest of the party hung back, watching in stunned silence as the duo cleared encounter without breaking a sweat.
Tiffany and Sabrina didn't dare speak. Maxwell could only grip his shield tighter with each display of power. Joseph openly wept every time Owen unleashed a skill, muttering fanatical praises as he witnessed a real dragon in action.
"she's not even using that transformation anymore" Sabrina whispered to her sister as they watched Yuki dispatch another kobold with her [Gust] skill with more control and precision than tiffany had with her [wind blast] skill.
"Shut up' tiffany hissed back, her pride shattering like the armored kobolds. "Just…shut up"
Owen growled smugly. "I could get used to this, you fighting, them watching, while we get all the contribution ratio"
"don't be cocky" Yuki replied, though she couldn't hide her smile. "we still have the boss floor remaining"
"Pfft. We'll destroy it"
After what felt like an eternity of battling, they finally reached the staircase descending to the third floor. The dungeon boss floor.
A heavy pressure emanated from below, denser mana in the air, the unmistakable aura of something powerful lurking in the darkness.
Maxwell stopped at the top of the stairs with his face turning pale. "wait"
Everyone turned to look at him.
He swallowed his words first then started speaking. "The boss on the third floor, it's a B-Rank Kobold King. We weren't planning on fighting it. Out party was only supposed to clear the first two floors and extract whatever drops we can. Fighting a B-Rank boss with a C-Rank party is .... suicide"
Joseph nodded nervous. "You-..you're right, but..but we've got the dragon on our side? I'm sure he can take the boss!"
Tiffany and Sabrina both glanced at each other then picked Maxwell's side and agreed on not approaching the last floor.
Yuki and Owen looked at each other and grinned.
"Don't worry" Yuki said. Turning back to the party. " Owen and I will take care of it"
"are you INSANE?!" Sabrina blurted out. "That's a B-RANK! You just ranked up to C! You'll get us killed!"
Owen snorted, puffing out a small cloud of steam. "Tell them what happened to the last boss we fought, or rather, that I incenerated"
Yuki's grin widendes. "The last boss we fought was a higher rank than me. I was F-Rank then. It was D-Rank. Owen killed it and cleared the dungeon, just by ourselves."
Maxwell eyes widened but he stood his ground. "But, That was a D-Rank, and I'm not sure what rank your dragon is but when it comes to Dungeon bosses From B-Rank Upwards, the power sky rockets and anomalies become common"
"Hah! Whatever" Owen growled. "Tell them to stay back if they're scared. We'll handle this."
The party had no choice but to follow as moving back to the first floor alone would be more than they could handle as the dungeon would respawn monsters if the dungeon boss isn't defeated.
---
The third floor opened into a massive stone arena, a circular chamber with high ceilings and Pillars carved with ancient Glyphs and runes. At the center sat a throne made of bones and scrap metal.
And on that throne sat The Kobold King.
It was massive, easily Ten feet tall, covered in steel armour that shined under the Dungeon's magical lightning. A crown of twisted Bronze decoration sat atop its elongated dog-skukk head. In one hand, it gripped a gigantic war axe that cracked with red lightining. In the other hand, gripped a shield the size of a door, riddled with spikes.
It's eyes glowed red as it fixed its gaze in the party as they entered it's throne room.
The kobold king rose from it's throne slowly, it's amor clinking with each movement. It raised it's war axe and slammed it against its shield. The sound echoech across the room, causing the Air to tremble.
BOoM!
Joseph stumbled backward and fell. "We're all going to die..."
"Stay back." Yuki ordered as she stepped forward. Owen launched off her shoulder, with his wings spreading wide as he flew into the air above her.
The kobold king barked a devious laugh and charged.
Despite it's size, it was fast. The ground shook with each step as it closed the distance in seconds, its war axe raised high.
Yuki activated [Gust], sending a concentrated blast of wind towards the boss's legs. It stumbled slightly but recovered quickly, swinging it's axe in a wide horizontal arc.
Owen responded with [fireball], launching three rapid-fire spheres at the boss's face. The flames exploded against its helmet, forcing it to shield it's eyes.
Yuki dodged to one side, using the opening to strike it's exposed side with another blast of [gust]. But the blow barely delt any damage.
"It's defense it too tough!" She thought as she gritted her teeth.
The kobold king spun faster than something it's size should be able to, it's spiked shield slamming towards Yuki like a battering ram.
She dodged, but her foot caught on a loose stone and she fell.
Time seemed to slow as she watched the spike shield rushing towards her face, close enough to see every jagged spike approach her with a threatening speed.
"YUKI!" Owen's telepathic scream echoed in her mind.
Something inside Owen snapped.
Rage. Fear. Desperation. Realisation that he had been so drunk on power that it had led to the carelessness of putting Yuki in harm's way. His mind raced and without thinking too much, he instinctively reached for one skill he hadn't experimented with yet.
[Sovereignty of Space & time (SSS-Grade) (mastery: 0.01%)]
The world paused. Everything stopped. Or not exactly stopping? Owen's Mana sense kicked in and he reloaded time hasn't completely frozen. Instead it was flowing extremely slowly, the spike shield move towards Yuki at the speed of a turtle crawling. Dust particles hung in the air. The Kobold king's snarl stretched into an Impossibly long moment.
But Owen? He could move a bit faster than they could. But was still subjected to the time distillation a bit Due to his low mastery over this Sovereignty.
But Owen had a fix for that, he didn't waste a single moment and activated his [momentum shift] skill. He accelerated, his small dragon body moving like a torpedo with black and golden streaks, blurring through the distorted timestream. He channeled every mana into his acceleration and rammed into the kobold king's arm that was wielding the shield.
Time resumed.
CracK!
The kobold king's arm broke backwards as Owen's impact which was amplified by both the distorted time and acceleration, stuck with the force of a missle. The boss roared in pain and confusion, stumbling backwards, its shield clattering to the ground.