JohnWillStab felt his body being pushed against the stone walls of the cavern, they were not as rough as the walls of the first boss' room.

The green light from the torches lit the room up.

"What the fuck, man?! You just doomed both of us!" John exclaimed shadow-stepping behind him.

"Speak for yourself! I'll kill you and the boss myself!" Bolst scoffed.

He turned to face JohnWillStab once more.

From down the stairs to their left appeared a grey mist, climbing the steps like a sentient slime.

"...such loud intruders..." croaked the voice from within the dungeon.

Bolst turned towards the boss's whereabouts.

"QUIT BEING A COWARD! COME FACE ME LIKE A MAN!" he exclaimed.

He took a step into the grey smoke before feeling John grab onto his arm, stopping him from going any further.

"That's clearly a trap! The smoke must be poisonous!" he exclaimed.

Bolst smacked him away causing John to fall over and onto to the ground.

"Don't take me for an idiot, undead!"

"I know that! But I refuse to give in to some spicy air!" he exclaimed taking a mighty breath of fresh air before walking into the thick smoke.

"He'd be admirable if he wasn't so stupid!" John thought.

"I'll be back for your head when I'm done with the boss!"Bolst said as he became fully submerged in the mist.

"I should shadow-step outside and let the others know he escaped!" John thought.

"Damn it... it's too bright here..."

Meanwhile, Bolst marched down the long set of stairs, he couldn't see anything in the thick fog.

It sat in a round room amidst the fog, the boss sat on the stone throne in the centre.

"You approach me alone, human?" asked the boss, it was tall, taller than Bolst himself, dressed in a long cloak that obscured all of its body except the spider-like mandible and five beady eyes that glowed a bright yellow in the dark.

"That's right!" he exclaimed, showing no regard for his oxygen supply.

"I am a true hero, free of fear!" he reached for his blade which clung to his back.

The boss slowly stood from its throne.

With a single, withered finger that was now no less than four times longer than normal, the boss pointed at Bolst.

From the tip of his finger came a violet light that became a needle-like projectile, Bolst dodged the spell and slashed his sword at the foe who melted into the smoke and appeared behind Bolst with a vial of crimson liquid.

"Farewell, hero..." chuckled the boss as it dripped a small amount of liquid from the bottle onto Bolst who was too slow to react.

Instead, JohnWillStab who was now close enough to the darkness of the main chamber used shadow-step to drag Bolst to safety in the last second.

John was so bold as to expect a "Thanks" but was instead greeted with a punch to the side.

"STAY OUT OF THIS, COWARD!"

Bolst kicked John away as he turned to the boss again.

His eyes widened as he realised he breathed some of the smoke in.

"Damn!"

The boss let out a sigh.

"What are you doing?"

"Shut up, I'll get to you next!" Bolst said stomping up to the boss, no longer having the time to retaliate against John's rescue.

Bolst slashed his blade at the boss who once more dodged the attack by fading into the mist and appearing behind him.

Bolst was once more shadow-stepped away by JohnWillStab who shadow-stepped away from him before he could retaliate.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, UNDEAD?!" Bolst demanded.

Again, Bolst charged at the boss.

This time when he slashed at the boss Bolst spun on his heel slashing in a full circle around himself in hopes of cutting the boss.

His hopes of striking the boss were out of reach, but he succesfully struck the bottle of red liquid in the boss' hand, spraying the red liquid everywhere.

John shadow-stepped him away from the splash zone before once more backing away.

As john focused on the boss, waiting for the moment he would teleport Bolst away again he felt a sharp pain in his gut as Bolst' sword flew from his hand and impaled John, pinning him to the wall.

"What the hell!?!"

The boss wiped the red sizzling liquid off its cloak with its long, thin fingers which burned and blistered when in contact with the potion.

Nevertheless, the boss seemed indifferent to the painful-looking process.

"STAY THERE, UNDEAD! DON'T MOVE AN INCH!"

Bolst charged at the boss with his bare hands now.

He swung his right fist at the boss, landing a punch to his gut before he dispursed into the fog.

"Finally... it looks like you lost track of your breathing..." croaked the boss as Bolst's eyes widened again, the whites of his eyes became bloodshot as the blood vessels in his body began to burst.

Tiny blood-cell sized golems gathered in his veins, growing and blacking the flow of blood.

Bolst began to choke as he puked out a mix of blood and vomit.

The boss leaned back as it began to speak.

"Hmm... looks like your time really is at an end... so-called hero..." he let out a cackling laugh as he felt himself get launched across the room by Bolst, a stream of blood flowing freely from his nose, eyes and ears.

"I am NOT like the cowards out there!" he pointed in the direction of the main camp.

"No poison will work on me!" he exclaimed as he fell to the ground.

"Hmm... well, confidence carries little bearing on oxygen distribution in your body..." the boss said sarcastically seeing the man lying in a pool of blood.

JohnWillStab wigged the blade free from his gut as he fell to the ground and made his way towards Bolst.

JohnWillStab moved in to pick the human up when he heard a deep voice bellow: "DO NOT!"

Bolst pushed himself up a little, standing on all fours as he crawled towards John, he grabbed his blade from him, using it almost like a walking stick.

"I REFUSE TO DIE!"

The boss grabbed another bottle of red liquid from within its robes and tossed it at the man, before John could react the liquid flew out and covered Bolst.

Instantly it began to sizzle and smoke as his flesh began to melt.

JohnWillStab rushed at the boss, slashing at it to no avail, as the boss appeared behind him, John countered by doing the same.

As their dance continued, Bolst lay in a puddle of blood and molten flesh.

"This is not how I'm going to die..."

"This is not how I'm going to die..."

He repeated these words in his head over and over, as his muscles finally refused to obey him and as the world around him turned into a blur.

"This... is not how... I'm going to die..."

It would be all too easy now, to ignore the pain of every cell of his body as it pleaded for oxygen.

He could just never respawn.

He could imagine acts of valour and epic battles.

Instead, he would rather imagine his home, back when he played the game like everybody else.

He could imagine his friends.

Everyone he met in the game.

But the dark omen lingered, years of bosses from raids and dungeons alike.

He saw the others, happy adventurers who would go to the inn and get drunk past the point of consciousness every night.

People who chose to live life as normal people, almost like the NPCs used to.

Factions that fought amongst each other ignoring the sightings of loose bosses escaping from their dungeons.

This world didn't need fun adventurers, it needed battle-hardened heroes.

And so even as his eyes glazed over and his heartbeat slowed to a fraction of any healthy human's his fingers twitched as they tried their best to grab hold of the blade.

JohnWillStab threw a dagger at the boss who effortlessly side-stepped it, JohnWillStab appeared behind it as he slashed at the boss once more only for him to move back and toss a vial of crimson liquid at John.

"ARE YOU THAT FOND OF THROWING SHIT AROUND!?" John demanded, his coat burned from all the potions he was splashed with, his flesh still immune.

He reached into his pocket and began throwing bottles at the boss.

The boss stepped to the side, standing clear of the glass bottle only for John to break it mid-air with a dagger throw.

The liquid splashed all over the boss, covering him in a thick layer of...

"Fish oil?" asked the boss sniffing the liquid that covered him.

"AND I HAVE MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" John exclaimed tossing more bottles at the boss haphazardly.

The boss dodged all the bottles, even if the first one was harmless, he knew John was planning to throw a harmful potion at him when the was off guard.

"Your kind is especially annoying..." the boss complained looking at John.

The boss was launched across the room by a sudden punch to the gut from Bolst.

The withered, spider-faced creature flew backwards into a wall.

"What?! HOW!?" demanded the boss.

Bolst wiped the broken glass and spilt antidote-potion off his face.

"He really is annoying..." Bolst remarked looking at John with a bitter look as he grabbed his blade off the ground and turned back to the boss.