(James)

Combining Dana's pathfinder skill, and Dom's general smartness, they managed to find their way to the fireplace and the huge fire monster contained within.

James had no idea why they were going for the most dangerous thing in the house, and not just trying to go around it. But Dom insisted that you had to kill every mini-boss to advance. The fact that Dom was insinuating this thing was far from the biggest threat they would face today, was terrifying. But James was also excited by the prospect of the growth he could achieve here.

Maybe by killing the boss, he could finally get a class for his gun. The last time he checked, he barely had 10% of the experience needed. And he doubted the few fire sprites he had killed on the way would change that. They were pitifully easy to kill as they had no ranged capabilities.

So the three of them stood just behind the open area that contained the fireplace. It was a small area, a rectangle of roughly 2 by 3 meters. It would be a harsh fight if they couldn't finish that big fire thing quickly.

Speaking of the big spooky fire face, it wasn't there. The pile of wood in the fireplace was little more than charcoal and gave off no semblance of heat. He was doubtful, to say the least.

"Is it even still there?"

"It must be. We just hadn't entered the boss room yet."

Dom indicated the boundary just in front of them. There was a thin line of light that separated the end of the hallway from the boss room. It indicated a tripwire of mana. Something would happen as soon as they broke it.

"Do we need a strategy?"

Dana asked stressfully as she poured icy white mist from one hand to the other, struggling to get a handle of her ice-based magic as fast as possible.

Dom nodded.

"Yeah. I'm going to be mostly useless because I can only attack close range. Or once maybe. You two need to hit it as hard as you can. Dana?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you use that crystallization spell on your frost attack?"

"Probably. I don't know how effective it will be though."

"Good enough. James?"

James looked always from the low details of the blue box-shaped arena.

"Just shoot at it until it dies?"

Dom smiled at the simplistic version of the plan he had imagined.

"Unless you have anything more effective to use. And not an explosion. It's too big to use in such a small place"

James remembered the two items he had kept hidden from the others, the alchemist's book and the rune disk. Neither seemed useful. He shook his head roughly. Dom shrugged, seemingly satisfied with what he had.

"Good enough."

Still, in the lead, he confidently stepped over the boundary, causing the fireplace to flare into life again. James and Dana hastily followed him in, as the boundary line was beginning to rise and block off their escape route. The rising flames illuminated the area enough that James was happily able to deactivate Mana sight, temporarily relieved.

It took only a few seconds for the face to reform in the fire, and for the roaring flames to drench them with heat. James felt a drop of sweat creep down his spine, though he couldn't be sure if it was from fear, or from the fire itself.

"You dare to face me? You mortals shall burn in my fire."

Despite the harsh reality of a fiery death, the almost stereotypical words were less than threatening.

Enough so that James realised he should learn about their enemy. So he used analyse, pleasantly surprised by the results.

Flarin of the Flames (fire sprite) [mini-boss]

Level: 25

Hp: 867/867

Mp: 158/158

"Flarin prides himself on his imposing aura, preventing all but the strongest of physical attacks from harming him. His aura also reduces the effectiveness of ice type magic, but as it needs constant fuel, he is unwilling to move from his "

Despite the high stats and the warning description, it was not as bad as he had expected. This sprite had a relatively low mana count, so likely wasn't able to use any ranged attacks.

And as he was confined to his fireplace, he was a very easy target for Dana's ice grenade.

What confused James was how Flarin had a personality. His description and even his speech suggested pride.

Dom stepped closer to the sprite and raised his knife. The green sheen to It, obvious in the flickers.

"We challenge you, Flarin of the Flames. For we are The Deckers Blood."

The sprite grinned at the challenge, and then heated up, turning from a warm orange into a violent crackling yellow. The heat increased in the enclosed space, rapidly making it suffocatingly hot.

"Then let us begin."

James couldn't handle the heat, he noticed his health was slowly ticking down, and he backed up to the slightly cooler wall. His health dropped by 1 every 20 seconds, so he had plenty of time before he succumbed to the flames. He had no idea how long the others would have, though.

Dom was backed up to the wall like James, with his arm over his eyes. If Dom hadn't deactivated mana sight, then he was probably partially blinded by the mana given off by the hot aura.

"NOW DANA!"

James watched as she threw a light blue crystal towards the centre of the fireplace. The glowing face expressed surprise before rage as it realised what she had done. Before it could do anything though, the crystal exploded among the burning logs, throwing thousands of shards of ice in every direction.

-356hp

Crippled

The sprite screamed inhumanely as it was temporarily dispersed by the force of the ice, chunks of flaming wood thrown out of the fireplace. They were immediately extinguished by Dom hastily grinding them to black dust before they could be used by Flarin.

James grimaced and groaned in pain as a fresh burst of heat pushed into him. He lost 5hp alone from that, leaving him 9 short. He still had the vast majority of his health, and their enemy had almost lost half, but that by no means meant it was over. He knew Dana had used most of her mana on that ice move, and wouldn't be able to do another for a few minutes. And they may not have those few minutes.

The air was getting harder to breathe beside the heat, and James realised why. They were in a sealed space. There was only a certain amount of oxygen in here, and he was sure Flarin had some way to get around that, possibly by using magic. The humans had no such advantage and would suffocate quickly. By now, this asshole fire had probably used most of the oxygen, so they had to work quickly.

When the fire pulled itself together, it was smaller than it had been but no less hot. It was still burning rapidly, and he watched Dana try in vain to use frost against the boss. A powerful gust of white mist blew from her hands, but it was dispersed far too quickly and didn't cause any damage.

Dom looked helplessly around at James, and James realised he was likely the only one who could finish it.

He began firing rapidly into the glowing mass, but it was like throwing stones into the sea. He was causing only 4 or 5 damage per shot, and the sprite laughed as it increased its intensity again. James recharged his crystals, but before he started firing again, he looked at the partially blown away pile of wood underneath the fire.

Without thinking it through properly, he fired all six shots into the charred wood. It broke down easily under his barrage, and despite not causing damage directly to the sprite, it was reducing the fuel available to it.

Flarin was shrinking. Where he had been as tall as Dom when they challenged it, Dana's ice had dropped that by about a foot, and James was causing it to reduce further. Flarin was now only a meter tall and was trying it's best to output as much heat as possible. It shifted into white flames, obscuring its facial expressions.

But despite the ferocity of the heat, James stepped closer so he could better aim at the wood supply. He felt the backs of his fingers beginning to blister in the heat, but he kept up the cycle.

Fire. Charge. Fire. Charge. Fire. Charge.

The sprite started taking damage every second as a debuff appeared on it.

Starving (--:--)

Every time James fired, the debuff got stronger and Flarin took more damage.

With just over 300 health remaining, it's colour changed, and its eyes and mouth became blue amongst the white.

Instead of the booming low roars, it switched to a squealing screech and shot out bolts of fire in every direction.

James had to dive out of the way as a bolt shot for his head, singing his hair. He couldn't sustain his own assault while avoiding the fire like this, but such an attack must be costing the sprite heavy portions of its mana. It wouldn't be able to sustain this for long. But neither would James. He had to keep rolling ducking and diving to avoid taking any substantial damage. He caught a glimpse of Dana and Dom in the corner as he spun. She had her hands out, but instead of attacking, she had a blue transparent shield out in front of her. It looked flimsy, but every time a bolt of fire struck It, the flames were dispersed, and the shield merely rippled.

Almost too late, James remembered his own shield on his back. It had been intended for Callum, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

He pulled it from behind his bag, not bothering to take off any of the covers on it. Each layer might protect him from another bolt.

He put the shield on the ground on its edge and hid behind it. He felt several small impacts and heard it burning, but was not going to inspect it for any damage. If he stuck his head out to aim, he might be hit in the face. This plan granted him a temporary rest at absolute best, at the cost of what might have been a great shield.

He had no idea what Dana's mana was like, but he was getting she was nearing her limit. Dom likely couldn't do much to help here. James racked his brains for a plan. He could wait out the assault for Flarins mana to run out, but he had no idea when that could be. He didn't even know when the starving debuff would kill it. He didn't think it would finish it any time soon. He was struggling to draw every breath, and the shield could break at any moment.

None of his skills could be used here, and his spells were... his spells!

He knew that using explosion in the room could kill them all, with no certainly that it would kill the boss. But the chimney above it was full of carbon dioxide. A rapid gust of that would put out the fire.

He had more than enough mana for it but was worried about what would happen. Fire would rush past them, and the air pressure would skyrocket temporarily. But it was his only plan.

He cast the spherical construct and activated Mana sight so he could lead it by looking through the relatively low mana in the shield. It occurred he could have looked through the shield to aim at the wood, but it was too late for that.

Focusing as much as he could on keeping the sphere as far from the glaring flame as possible, he sent it up the chimney as far as he could.

He crossed his fingers, hoping they wouldn't take too much damage from what he was about to do.

Implosion.

He felt his control fail and looked at the corner where Dana was protecting Dom. In the seconds before it exploded, he stared at her, making eye contact as he took in a deep breath and put his fingers in his ears. She did the same, but her eyes still asked what he had done.

Then it happened. A sound like a shotgun echoed from above the fireplace, and a gale force gust of wind blew down. James was instantly blown backwards by the force, covered in soot that had been forced from the chimney. He hit the back wall, hard. His bag saved his head from any severe impact, but he was worried about something breaking in it. He fell to the floor, eyes shut as the soot particles filled the air.

He coughed and felt pain in his lungs. Inhaling soot was probably a bad idea after all, but at least the air was cooler now. And it wasn't getting any hotter. James needed to see what was happening, so he took his remaining two bandages from his pocket and wrapped one over his eyes, and another around his mouth, making a mask. He activated mana sight, seeing clearly through the black cloud.

The fireplace was empty, but there were no notification screens. It must be hiding or maybe sleeping. James didn't know and he didn't care. He had survived with almost no damage and he had been closer to the blast, so the others must be ok.

"What the hell man. Not cool."

James saw Dom lift himself from the floor, he had a sleeve over his mouth, and his eyes shut.

"Sorry about that. It was the only thing I could think of."

"Fair. But your girlfriend took that head-on with her mana shield. I think it used up all her mana at once."

James looked around hastily. He had completely lost his bearings when hehe was thrown against the wall, but he managed to find Dana in a fetal position, taking short shallow breaths. She was in her basic armour and normal clothes, so she had run out of mana and her magical girl outfit had gone.

He knelt down and took the bandage from around his mouth, putting it over hers instead. He analysed her, and the only debuff she had was mana exhaustion. It would last for another 5 minutes.

"I'm so sorry."

He would finish it in one.

With a sleeve over his mouth, he picked up his pistol and walked over to the fireplace. Most of the logs were gone or had become useless powder. Any remaining wood had almost no mana in them, but he was certain that was where Flarin was hiding.

He simply raised his pistol and destroyed the pitiful remains of the fire. There was no sign of the sprite while he did this. It was likely too weak to retaliate.

When he was certain there was not enough solid matter for it to come back, he got a notification.

Flarin of the Fire has been defeated.

The fire guardian released the first key.

Miniboss defeated.

Damage dealt: 511

Exp earnt: 853

Final blow bonus: Heated Space (skill)

The raised walls of the maze started to drop, letting the soot-filled air disperse faster. James looked around but couldn't see Callum or May when the walls passed head height. They must have found another way out.

His attention was drawn back to the fireplace as he heard a loud metallic clank.

"What was that? Describe it to me. I can't see it. I'm blinded."

Dom was panicking. He hadn't seen the notification that Flarin was dead, so he was understandably panicky.

"Relax. It's dead. And you should be good to open your eyes. The maze is gone."

"Oh. Oh!"

James could hear the change in tone as Dom read the same notifications. But he hasn't really helped, so he likely got no xp.

James turned back to the fireplace. There was a single white coin obvious against the black ash. And there was also a red key. It was small, a house key. But when James analysed It, he saw how important it was.

Red dungeon key (Key item)

"The first of three keys required to open the core."

The notification paired with this confirmed that they would have to fight two more bosses to get the rest of the keys, and then probably fight a final boss at the end.

He pocketed the key and the coin as well. He was low on stamina, so decided to analyse it later. They had to get back to the entrance for now. They had been split up after all.

James picked up Dana and carried her like a princess towards the door they had first walked through a mere half hour ago.

"Dom. You mind getting the door?"

James looked back at Dom who was gathering a small amount of the ash and stored it in a folded piece of paper.

He ran to catch up and opened the door ahead of James. The entrance hall was dark, which was to be expected, but at least it was warm. James had the feeling they would end up spending the night here, but he was fine with it. He was exhausted and burnt. He needed a goddamn lie-down.