Li put a firm but comforting hand on Tia's shoulder, squeezing it ever so gently.

"Ready, Tia?" asked Li as he looked ahead, beyond the disintegrating zombie drake carcass and to the mass of whirling, raging purple winds and energies that formed a natural barrier to the boss arena.

"Always, papa," said Tia with a nod. "Especially with you."

Li smiled and walked forwards, Tia holding his hand as they stepped together into the raging winds of undeath.

Each step they took towards the space between the pillars the zombie drake once guarded intensified the winds exponentially, and by the time they were right in front of the pillars, ready to reach out and touch the layer of condensed purple energy, the winds howled with a bone rattling intensity that surely would have sent the average human flying back.

It certainly had the aura of approaching a boss arena, and to his relief, Li found that Tia approached with eager steps, fangs and claws bared in sheer anticipation of the battle beyond. She had no true sense of fear, it seemed, or at the very least, he had never once felt any true fear from her. Whether that was because he had protected her or whether it was part of her nature was something he did not really want to find out.

"Here we go, Tia," said Li. He held her scaled, rough hand and reached it out to the purple barrier. When their palms touched, there was an immediate chill than ran across their skin – the chill of death.

But Li and Tia were both magic resistant to a degree that the chill was no more than just that. A chill. And they pushed forwards, their hands parting the barrier with surprising ease. As they took steps forward, the barrier closed behind them, enclosing them in darkness.

"Papa will not help you," said Li. "Well, he will help you if you need it and if you ask for it. But Tia, this is going to be your fight. What I want to say is that you should hold nothing back. This will be the greatest challenge you have faced yet."

Tia nodded, tightening her hand around Li's as they parted through the dark. "No worry, papa, I know. I know danger, challenge. I know, and I fight."

Past the veil of undead haze, the two found themselves stepping into a massive circular crater bordered by pillars that each channeled more of the haze, forming a domed barrier that separated the crater from the outside world.

Around the crater, the upturned figures of giant iron carts, some dented, some torn, some melted, lay. The remains of huge, shattered boulders lay scattered among them, and around these corpses of the earth were the countless bones of dwarves. Bones that should have faded away long, long ago but instead remained suspended in time from the undead energy charged in the environment.

And at the center of the crater, there it was. The Oculon.

In the dark, its dozens of bulbous, slit pupiled eyes of gleaming purple and red trained themselves on Li and Tia, the eyes charged with nothing but raw aggression. Its dark, eel-like body, almost as large as that of the zombie drake's, undulated in the air, and it opened a wide mouth lined with teeth that glowed like purple energy constructs.

The Oculon roared, emitting a low, shrill, ear-piercing scream that sounded like an unfathomably alien siren.

Tia blinked. "It dragon?"

Li put his hands behind his back and furrowed his brows. "There should be no relation. Oculon are formed purely from undead energies concentrating in one area. They are their own species. The serpentine body is simply a coincidental form. Do not hesitate, Tia, and fight to your fullest."

Tia nodded as she stretched out her green-scaled wings, and they shone like twin triangles of verdant green light in the dark of the crater that served as the arena for this fight. She leaped up, getting to an altitude even with the Oculon, and pushed her wings back, sending her surging forwards.

The Oculon's many eyes centered on Tia, and dozens of flickering lights emanated from their pupils, acting like tracing lasers that tried to lock onto her. She recognized this and tried to make evasive maneuvers, the tips of her wings folding ever so slightly back to pull her up higher.

However, the Oculon's focus was deadly precise, and the targeting lasers trained on Tia quickly, locking on. Dozens of eyes flashed momentarily before firing off angry red [Destruction Rays].

Li resisted an urge to defend Tia as he saw her eyes widen in surprise, completely unprepared for how fast the rays approached. She barely had enough time to shell herself in her wings, hardening scale growths around them for extra protection before the many beams crashed into her with an earth-rumbling explosion laced with crimson red light.

Tia crashed back into the ground hard, gouging out a sizable crater as she tumbled several times before her claws caught traction on the ground, skidding her to a stop. The flesh on her wings was tattered, singed with fire, and several burns dotted her arms. However, she had largely covered herself from more serious damage, and she looked to the Oculon with fire in her eyes.

Oculon were masters of ranged combat, their eyes capable of firing off a variety of ray based projectile attacks aided by a race specific targeting system that made the rays unavoidable through regular dodging once locked on. Actually dodging an Oculon's salvo was incredibly difficult, but that did not mean it was invincible.

The Oculon blinked its eyes hard, arcs of magical energy crackling as it momentarily rested to charge up its rays again. Ultimately, if one could not avoid the Oculon's gaze, then it was better to tank an attack and retaliate.

Tia noticed this, her eyes narrowing as she quickly began to realize that there was no reason to remain in her small, restricted human form.

For perhaps the first time ever since she had assumed a human form, Tia let it go, closing her eyes as light enveloped her, turning her into a bright, featureless silhouette. That silhouette grew larger and larger – even larger than the Oculon itself, until finally, it formed into the shape of a proper drake.

One with the majesty and presence befitting one of the strongest monsters.

Li himself felt surprise looking at how different she was.

Tia's two wings stretched out in vast arcs of sparkling emerald, the scales reflecting bright light that permanently shone from her chest. Flowers and vines curled around the length of her wings, swaying ever so gently in the wind. Leafy spines lined the curvature of her back, but this was where the greenness of nature ended.

The lower half of her body's scales were thickly plated and black in color, tapering off into roughly hewn edges that flickered with shimmering shadows. Her claws were long and curved like reaper's scythes, and her tail ended in a cross formation of large, spear-like bony spikes that glowed lightly green with venom.

The Oculon opened its eyes and blinked again, this time in mild surprise as its many eyes met Tia's gaze of black and green. She reared her head back, her antler-like horns drawing in specks of green energy as she channeled up a blast of draconic fire.