Dan opened the heavy wooden door into a spacious, well appointed room. The floor was unvarnished hardwood. The walls were of cut sandstone in two shades, one light and one darker, set in an intricate pattern of tessellations. At the center of the back wall an ornate brass candelabra held three large candles that burned merrily and lit the room. A weapons rack on the right wall held a number of spears and a few swords and daggers. Across from it a large wooden cabinet stood against the left wall. Close to the center of the room, nearer the back than the front, a long wooden table with a tabletop of the same cut stone tessellation as the walls sat low to the ground. The table held only a lit incense burner.

Behind the table coiled the boss of the Dungeon. Dan immediately used System Identify.

Fallen Naga Warden (Aural Adept), lvl 14. Monster Type: Fallen Naga Highblood

It was no larger than the Fallen Naga Jailers had been - if anything, it had a more slender body. That body was covered in alternating green and yellow scales, and widened into a slight hood near its head, referential of a cobra more than similar to one. Dan's senses assessed the creature. Danger Sense confirmed that it was incredibly dangerous. Sense Power ranked it as stronger than Dan and roughly equal to Ray. Sense Aether revealed an incredible density of the same type of aetherial Aura the Goblin Chieftain had wielded back on Dan's Earth, in the initial trial. Sense Life helpfully informed him that the monster was in fact alive. Sense Weakness, genuinely helpfully, pointed out the eyes, nostrils, mouth, a point a quarter down the body, and another point near the tail as relative weak points. It held a large spear and its eyes were sharp, intelligent, and overflowing with malice. All of this information was gathered, processed and understood in a fraction of a second thanks to the frankly unreasonable benefits bestowed by the Chosen Esper Blessing.

In that fraction of a second, the monster reacted and began to move. According to the very simple plan they'd agreed on ahead of time, Dan and Ray blasted the thing with a massive salvo of Dark Bolts, aiming for its head. The bolts flew too quickly for the Fallen Naga to dodge. Instead, the Aura of aether within it surged up and into its head. Aura met Dark Bolts in an energetic collision that sent a visceral shock wave through the room. The Naga emerged unharmed and exploded toward the two interlopers.

Ray flitted aside and Dan dodged for his life. Fortunately, he had quite a lot of tools that helped him in that effort. A Perception attribute of 120 was itself surprisingly helpful for avoiding blows. The Danger Sense and Tactical Precognition senses that were granted at high levels of Perception were obviously invaluable. What was less obvious was the enormous difference that far better than human balance, reflexes, kinesthetic sense, and visual processing speed made when combined. Beyond that, the attribute point he'd earned for reaching level 9 brought his Agility to 36. In the strangely logic and physics defying way that attributes worked within the System, it really did seem to make him 3.6 times faster than a normal, healthy adult human man in the prime of life, without increasing his muscular strength. While it was less than a third of his insane level of Perception, 36 was a lot of Agility. Back when he first reached level one, he'd had a choice of any unlocked attribute to receive a bonus of +5, and had picked Agility. All 9 of his free attribute points from leveling had gone to Agility. He gained another +5 bonus to Agility (and all his other attributes) from the "Test Subject" title, and an additional +5 to all attributes from the "Vanguard" title. All of this meant that his Agility was equal to what someone without his advantages, who had a class focused on the attribute and had prioritized it at every opportunity, would have at level 9. Then added to his attributes he had the perks Enhanced Evasion One, Enhanced Evasion Two, and Combat Instinct, along with the Aether Ability Kinesthetic Enhancement.

It was a very good thing he had all of that, because the monster was a much more skilled warrior. Its spear strikes were fast and precise, and the weapon itself was somehow imbued with the creature's Aura. Dan had little experience in hand to hand armed combat, though he had wrestled as a young man. So it was hard to be certain of his judgment, and the tempo of the fight gave little time to think. But it seemed as if his opponent was holding back, testing his abilities and skills. If Dan were less focused on trying not to die, he might have felt embarrassed about his wanting combat proficiency.

He hadn't forgotten about his new mutation. His plan had been to spit venom at whatever this "Warden" turned out to be as soon as it got close enough. What Dan had not accounted for was his inexperience and simple survival instinct. When a snake monster with a dangerous, Aura infused spear charges at you with Aura boosted speed, it turns out that the imperative to get out of the way takes over and over-rules previously laid plans. That might have been for the best; if he'd taken the time to aim a spit volley at that point he may have been too slow to dodge. Now though, with the monster taking a cautious approach for the time being, he had recovered conscious control of himself and used it to launch venom from his sharp new fangs at the monster's face, guided by the wonderfully helpful Aether Ability Unerring Aim. The Naga's Aura surged again, but the venom was matter, physical rather than the strange Aetherial energy that made up Dark Bolt. It landed. Aura formed a transparent, infinitely thin shield over the scales of the Naga's face and held the acidic venom at bay as it sizzled . Still, it was beads of liquid over the surface of the scales that covered the thing's eyes. This made it difficult for the monster to see, like glasses speckled with rain.

Meanwhile, Ray flew to the back of the room and pooped on each candle, one, two, three. They snuffed out and all was dark. Dan had kinda expected his powerful familiar to take a more, well, traditional approach to the fight. Even so, pooping on candles did in fact make sense. Fallen Nagas seemed to rely pretty heavily on sight, whereas Dan and Ray had other options.

The monster reacted with controlled violence and launched a flurry of spear thrusts at Dan, who dodged just as fast. He could feel the power within each thrust, amplified by Aura. There was every reason to believe a single strike he couldn't dodge would kill, either directly or by injuring him enough that he could not continue to dodge. His best guess was that the monster was strong, durable, powerful in Aura, but had not focused on Agility. That slight weakness in the Naga's attributes kept Dan alive. Tactical Precognition showed a chance, a moment when it was safe to run. He took it, and sprinted for the other side of the room. The Warden turned smoothly and advanced at a steady pace in his direction, apparently able to sense his body heat or else just tracking him by sound. There were other possible senses at play, but those seemed most likely.

Dan's straight line sprinting speed seemed to be faster than the Naga could slither, though it was quite quick in short, Aura enabled bursts. It had not repeated the rush of speed it had shown at the fight's outset, either because it could not for some reason, such as a skill or perk cool down timer, or because it had not chosen to yet. The room was large, roughly 30 feet from front to back and 20 feet from side to side. Dan took the second or two his dash had bought him to whip a sling bullet at the monster, aimed at the center of its body mass. He had other weapons, but was only comfortable with his sling, and so had decided not to weigh himself down with an unfamiliar spear. Better to be able to dodge unhindered. Again the monster's Aura surged and the lead projectile bounced off harmlessly. Dan waited with his weight on the balls of his feet, knees slightly bent, in the form that felt right to his perk granted combat instinct.

The Warden drew within eight feet. Three things happened at once. Dan spit venom. The monster lunged forward and stabbed, scarily accurate given the darkness. Ray launched a Dark Bolt at its left arm. The venom hit the weak point on the Naga's upper body, again blocked by a barrier of Aura. The monster managed to divert some Aura also to its arm, but the protection was incomplete and the limb was injured. Dan successfully dodged the strike, and launched a Dark Bolt of his own in retaliation, aimed at the weakened arm. The monster blocked it with Aura and stabbed again. Tactical Precognition, as useful as it was, did not give infinite time to view every possible iteration of the next few seconds and select the most favorable one. If it did, it probably would have been possible to find some golden moment when the monster's focus slipped and a perfectly placed Dark Bolt could end the fight. As it was, Dan was content with having seen the spear strike before it began, and dodged in good time.

Skill Learned: Dodge Level 1

Huh. Well, that was useful. There was no time to contemplate the implications of the System's message though. Dan continued to dodge. The Warden continued to strike. Ray stayed back and contributed carefully timed Dark Bolts, aimed to disrupt attacks. Disconcertingly, the injury to the monster's arm healed as Aura suffused the area. It had drawn heavily on its reservoir of Aura, which had dimmed in Dan's Aether sense over the fight. But Dan was out of Aether Pool himself, and had to imagine Ray wasn't in much better shape. They'd gone all out in the initial burst in hopes of ending the fight quickly. Now they were each limited by their rate of Aether Pool regeneration to about one fresh Dark Bolt every 43 seconds.

The news was not all bad however. While the monster had seemed to shrug off the opening barrage of Dark Bolts unharmed, Sense Life showed that was not in fact true. It fully repelled the kinetic component of the attack, but Dark Bolt also dealt increased damage to living things. And the life force of the monster was slowly leaking, as if by poison. It was using Aura to fight the drain, and Aura to hold back the acidic venom that clung to its face and body, and Aura to empower its attacks, and Aura for bursts of speed. As deep as its well was, it had limits.

Dan had limits too, mental and physical. He'd not kept count of how many spear thrusts he'd dodged, but it was a lot. The monster, even blind, had learned from his earlier escape and allowed Dan no windows to run back into the open area of the room. It slowly herded him toward a corner of the room, almost as a Rook and King combine to hunt down the King of enemy color in a chess endgame. Dan's muscles and mind were strained and tired.

A sudden wave of clarity and refreshment washed over him. Ray. Ray had an aether ability that they'd described as having a similar effect to a good, long nap. This was the first time they'd used it on him. It helped. It didn't solve the problem of being gradually trapped in a corner before being impaled once he no longer had space to dodge, but it did help. It was morbidly interesting the degree of control the Naga had on its spear thrusts, even in the dark. Not one had hit the wall behind Dan and damaged the weapon, which he'd hoped would have happened by now.

Close to the corner, Dan was forced to play one of his few remaining trump cards. He sent a quick telepathic warning to his familiar and used his Firestone Amulet to launch a large, System created and controlled fireball at the monster. Acting in a way completely dissimilar to natural fire, it flew a short distance through air, without any fuel to carry it, and washed over the Naga Warden. Dan was close enough that it should have burned him, but tactical precognition had already assured him that it would, against all reason, leave him untouched. Even though the floor was wood, nothing lit on fire. Whatever energy the System arbitrarily chose to define as Fire, it had only a distant relation to the real thing.

The Fallen Naga reacted instantly and cloaked its entire body in defensive Aura. Again it seemed unharmed, protected by its aural shield, but such a sudden, broad use of Aura left it greatly depleted. Ray shot another Dark Bolt at the back of its head, and it could only partially deflect it. Dan used the distraction to spit more venom into its face, which was again blocked, and to escape back into the center of the room.

Both sides of the fight were depleted, but Dan hoped that just maybe they were gradually winning. Maybe.