The boss room was arrayed in tiers, like wide descending steps that circled the room completely like a stadium, both down toward where the boss waited and upward toward the distant pitted ceiling, crudely carved of the same black stone as the rest of the dungeon. Levi saw dozens of gremlins standing around the upper circle, all grinning down at the newcomers with pointy-tooth grins.

Below, the champion awaited. A ‘huge’ gremlin, almost as tall as Levi’s waist, easily towering far over the likes of Skarm and Two, stood with legs wide and hands upraised in an open gesture as it waved to its grinning fans.

Level 1+

(Horned Gremlin)

Health 100%

Levi frowned. Higher level dungeons never had gremlins as bosses. He’d neither seen nor heard of any existing gremlin boss. He’d not imagined such a thing would be possible, with them being entry level scouts. But… so were Dire Turkeys, and he’d seen first hand how effective a basic creature could become when amplified to boss levels.

He couldn’t afford to underestimate this adversary, however nonthreatening it may appear.

“Be careful,” he said to his team. “I don’t know what to expect here.”

The boss had dark grey skin, mottled with patches of solid blackness, and stood out quite vividly against the pale sand of the arena floor. Its horn gleamed darkly, like obsidian polished to a deadly scythe point.

Levi felt immediately uneasy. There was nothing particularly threatening about the gremlin, and Levi thought he could probably knock it over by sheer physical size without much difficulty.

Any time you felt confident facing a boss, there was probably something you were missing. He’d had too many of these things go wrong for him to let his guard down, even against something seemingly small and inconsequential.

He continued to descend, while Two and Skarm flanked him on either side, Gordon bringing up the rear.

"Stay back," he cautioned Gordon. "I don't trust this one bit."

"What's wrong? You think the others will swarm us?"

Levi glanced up at the gremlins observing from above. "Maybe. Or they may wait until we win and disperse. Could be anything."

As soon as they stepped down into the sandy floor of the central arena, the gremlins above began hooting and running around, descending the steps to cluster around the layers between the arena and the exit door.

"Dungeon arenas usually have specific mechanics," Levi said quietly. "But I've never heard of one at base level."

"What are they like usually?" Gordon stood at Levi's back, sword gripped in both hands, facing the outer circle of gremlin observers.

"Usually, they have a sequence of foes that you fight through one at a time. Each a bit easier than a normal boss, but the aggregate enough to wear you down over time. I don't see any secondary adversaries here, though, and the audience is decidedly smaller than usual."

The gremlin boss let out a shrill squeal, clearly tired of waiting for them to finish talking. It lowered its horn and charged.

"Left," Levi ordered, leaping aside. The gremlin barreled past him, but Gordon wasn't quite fast enough. The boss's horn skewered him through the thigh.

Gordon bellowed in pain, dropped his sword, and punched the gremlin in the face.

It backed away, the horn dripping thick red blood as Gordon grabbed his leg to try and contain the bleeding, then jumped at his face with its claws extended.

Levi jumped in front of it to intercept, shortsword braced in both hands, its beastly aura springing into life just as the gremlin slammed full force into it. His sword bit down, and Levi used its momentum to swing it around. He grunted under its weight, more than he'd expected, but strained to maintain its flight. Arms trembling, he swung the gremlin-on-a-sword up and over Gordon's head, then released his sword's jaws to let it fly.

Level 1+

(Horned Gremlin)

Health 94%

Its claws left deep gouges down his arms, but Levi ignored them. His regen could outpace the bleeding. He had more important things to worry about.

The gremlin boss slammed into the row of observers, scattering them to either side. With squeals of pain and alarm they shook their tiny fists at Levi.

Then the boss picked up a gremlin in each hand, sighted them like javelins, and threw them screaming through the air at the party.

Levi had just enough time to get his sword up to block, before the first projectile gremlin bounced off his blade with a squeaky thud. The other collided with Skarm, the two immediately transforming into a ball of claws and screeching as each tried to gain the upper hand in the gremlin wrestling match.

Two pounced on the first, distracting it before it could take advantage of Gordon’s weakness.

The boss picked up two more, grinning with all its sharp little teeth. Then it disappeared. One moment it stood there, the next... nowhere to be seen.

Levi froze, sword held ready, then backed towards Gordon. “Did you see where it went?” he asked with urgency.

“I didn’t see anything,” Gordon gasped, his breathing ragged. “Don’t suppose you have a healing potion to spare?”

Levi glanced at him, then shook his head. “You’ll be fine. We don’t have so many that we can use them for every little thing.” Blood dripped down his half-shredded arms as if in confirmation, and Gordon reluctantly nodded acquiescence.

Levi turned slowly, keeping Gordon at his back, eyes darting around the whole arena as he tried to catch a glimpse of the elusive gremlin boss. The spectators had recovered from their shock and returned to jumping up and down, squeaking with upraised hands as they jeered at the humans below.

Skarm still wrestled with his opponent, while Two had decisively finished his battle and stood over the limp remains of his adversary as it slowly faded away back into the dungeon.

Something squealed from above. Levi glanced up, weapon already rising to intercept as he saw the second pair of audience projectiles come flying from the upper tiers of the arena. Phantom cackling surrounded them as the boss’s voice echoed off the slanted stone.

Levi skewered one gremlin through the stomach, swatting the other from the air with his closed fist. It hit the ground and bounced, stunned for long enough that Two could pounce and finish it off. His sword bit down on the first, tearing it almost in half before he hurled it away.

Something collided with his shins, weight slamming into him and throwing him backwards to the ground. The gremlin shadow appeared, arms wrapped around his legs, claws scraping down his armor. It continued laughing as its claws slipped into the gap by the knee joint, stabbing straight into Levi’s leg.

“Oh, bad idea,” Levi grunted, swinging his sword. He’d used about half of his mana on the first two attacks, but still had plenty to teach this overgrown gremlin the error of its ways. He stabbed forward, intent on driving it through the annoying creature’s chest, but in the moment before it could connect the gremlin jumped back and disappeared again. Levi leapt to his feet and lunged for where it had been standing, catching the faintest brush of something against his fingertips before the boss was gone again.

“Coward!” he shouted, hoping to provoke a reaction.

Another squealing audience member was hurled into the fray in response. Levi swatted it from the air with his sword, not bothering to activate its mana function this time. Skarm and Two had both finished their foes by now, and the pair both dove on the hapless creature who’d been flung into their midst, finishing it off before it could more than flail in response.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Levi jeered, turning a slow circle, trying to catch any sign of the boss. “You’ll run out of fans before long, and I can do this for days.”

“Are you sure you want to be provoking it?” Gordon asked. He’d tied a strip of his shirt around his still-bleeding leg to stem the flow of blood, and now stood ready again with his sword in both hands.

“The sooner we win, the sooner we can keep moving.”

“You really do have a one-track mind, don’t you.”

Levi shrugged. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s surviving.”

“That wouldn’t have been my first guess.”