Jesús: "Hey Everyone, Extra long delay this time, and I apologize about that. As usual Work and other things to do, especially with the Holydays just passed and Visiting family. In any case I just got another chapter done, so here you all go…" [Disclaimer] "…I don't own RF or any of the Anime/Manga/Videogames referenced in this story. All credit goes to their respective owners."

Ch. 44

Raguna POV

We walked into the dungeon about a half hour ago, and so far…

"Where are All the MONSTERS!" Brodick yelled

"Stay calm. I don't know, but we should keep calm and on guard." Red replied

"I have an odd feeling about this place." I said

"I gotta agree. Usually there are hundreds of monsters trying walking about their business. This time around there is nothing. Not even farming areas…" Dante said

Though this walk we already have made it to the fourth floor, found crates and chest every here and there, we found a couple simple puzzles that we had to solve, but nothing major. And that is what has every one of us on edge. Even Kin has been whimpering for the past few minutes.

"I think we may have reached something…" Red said as he scouted the first room on the fifth floor.

"Any enemies?" Brodick asked

"I believe a yes could be the answer."

"What is it?" I asked

"The Boss Room is up ahead, but considering how the rest of the dungeon has been I recommend we keep our guard up." Red said

"Right on. We don't know what we're up against, but with this "Strike team" I doubt we can't take it." Dante said "Raguna, I believe I heard you can use magic right? If that is the case, I'd like it if as soon as we enter and figure out what we're up against you provide everyone with Support, Buffs if you would"

"I'll do what I can, though I might take a while to gather enough energy for everyone." I replied and we all got ready to open the door and walk in.

Once into the room the door closed and then Five "Spawners" appeared scattered through the room. Many monsters appeared and then the "Spawners" vanished.

"What the…" Dante said and notice the hundreds of monsters standing in front of us; Turtles, skyfishes and many more sea-creature-like monsters were quickly surrounding us.

"Umm…Dante…This doesn't look very good for us…" I said carefully trying not to make any sudden movements that would trigger the monsters to start attacking.

"I know…There's gotta be about 1000 monsters here…" Dante replied also being careful with his movements.

"What do we do?" Brodick asked gripping to the hammer in his hands tightly.

"There's only one way to deal with these guys. Upside: No First forest portals to deal with, so no more monsters will be coming in…Downside: The amount of enemies we're about to face is too great. Raguna, can you load up our weapons with Magic to deal with them faster?" Dante asked

"It'll take me a few seconds for everyone. I can charge everyone, one-by-one, in about a minute." I replied

"Alright, do that as we run in. we're gonna have to fight as hard as we can." Dante said and put his hands on his dual-handguns. "Now!" Dante yelled and we all ran in to attack as Dante barraged the monsters with bullets.

The shots landed on "Vital" points and caused some of the monsters to return to the First forest, but something weird happened. When the portal opened to return them, for about a second usually, water sipped in as the monsters vanished.

"What is that about?" I asked myself as I closed in on Brodick and added fire magic to the Hammer. After Brodick I rushed over to Red and gave his Axe wind magic and lastly I went to Dante and charged his sword with wind magic too.

"Here!" Dante called and tossed me his guns. "Put some magic into those when you get the chance."

Everyone took off to attack and I took a second to charge Dante's guns and reload my own Mana. As I did this I examined the situation. As more monsters were defeated more water sipped in, and more and more. Soon enough we were up to our knees on water and there still seem to be well over 700 enemies.

'What is this about? At this rate we'll fill the room up with water by the time we defeat them all…' I said and finally rushed in to attack. 'There are no holes that would work as windows and the door is sealed so no air comes in or out of it. Surely this place would be just like a fish tank of sorts…'

The monsters started falling quicker and the water rose just as fast. By the time we killed our 100th enemy the water was around our necks.

"What do we do now?" Brodick started "Any more and we'll drown. Some of us have weapons that could sink us even if we can swim."

"He's right. Retreat isn't an option. But maybe we could make a hole to drain the water?" Dante asked

"Impossible, Every dungeon I visited with Raguna had walls as thick as corridors. I doubt even if we started now we would reach anywhere in time to save ourselves." Red said

"I have an idea, though I can't promise it will work at 100%" I said and everyone looked at me. "There is no way for us out of the water, but what we can stay within the water?"

"What do you mean, there's no way we can hold our breaths for longer than five minutes." Brodick replied

"Maybe we don't have to. Buy me some time!" I called and backed away from everyone.

I started concentrating again. This was gonna be quite the experiment, and to be totally honest I was afraid to fail. But Failure wasn't an option at this point, I have to get this right in one go… The others continued to defeat monster after monster and the water kept rising.

"Raguna…" Brodick called

"We're running out of space." Dante added

I was almost done. All I need was a little more Mana.

Everyone started climbing onto Red's shoulder's since he was taller and thus the water was barely reaching his waist.

"Raguna, come on forget what your plan is. Raguna!" Dante called and then the water submerged me. "Raguna!" I barely made out his voice while underwater and then I heard a splash, he jumped in.

'Stay where you are. I can hold my breath long enough all I need is a few seconds. Just don't move me…'I kept thinking

I started recalling everything I could from what Cinnamon had been teaching me…

[Magic can be anything. As long as your Imagination can will it, you can do it.] is what she said while I was trying to learn Wind magic.

I burst my eyes open. I screamed and since I was underwater it was muffled. My breath started escaping quickly and Dante kept swimming in my direction. Soon enough…

My breath took shape and made a small layered barrier around me and Dante.

"Made it…" I said and dropped to my knees.

"What the?" Dante said having heard my voice clearly though I was underwater. "You made a wind barrier around us?"

"Yeah, though I don't know how long it'll last. Come, we have to finish these guys. I'm sure everyone will join us soon enough." I said and gripped my sword.

"Alright, now that we can breathe underwater I'm sure there'll be more progress." Dante said and drew his own sword.

Dante and I started attacking the monsters and taking them out rather quickly. Being underwater affected their speed, and the barrier I had put up also acted as gravity support that let us move at normal speed underwater. Soon enough the water engulfed Red and they all realized how they could still breathe underwater and joined the battle.

About five minutes later we finished the monsters and just as expected the water flooded the room completely.

"What now?" I asked

"The room filled up for a reason…but what?" Date replied

"Maybe is the boss?" Brodick asked

"At this point I'd believe anything, keep your guards up." Dante replied and then from the portal that brought in the last bit of water came a gigantic fish, kinda looked like a skyfish just much bigger and fatter.

"I think that's the boss…" I said

"Yup…" Dante replied and the fish rushed at us.

Being a fish it obviously had more maneuverability in the water, so we were at a disadvantage even if we could breathe and move normally.

"What's out!" Dante yelled and everyone jumped out of the way. Everyone but Red, who tried catching the fish and in fact succeeded.

"Attack now! I don't think I can hold it for long!" He yelled

We all rushed right in and managed to deal a good amount of damage before it shook off Red and backed away, that is averaging the amount of damage we all dealt with the amount of damage is taken to take down the other dungeon bosses.

"If I'm right then a little more and it'll enter its "Critical" state. It'll be faster and stronger then." I yelled letting everyone know.

"Can we pull off that strategy again?" Dante asked in Red's direction.

"Not a chance, catching it last time was just luck. It was almost too strong for me to just hold it there." Red replied panting heavily.

"Then I guess we'll just have to counter when it comes at us." Dante said

"Here it comes!" I yelled and we started dodging it's attacks

It started shooting the water-balls that Skyfishes usually spit out and since it was like 20 times bigger so were the water-balls.

"No time to dodge!" I said and covered my sword on wind magic.

I slashed at the ball and slit it down the middle.

"Wind everyone!" I said and backed off to gather the Mana

"Buy him time. I few can all get the elemental power we can take it down quicker." Dante yelled and then they went on the offensive to get it away from me.

'Three…two…one…' "Now!" I yelled and changed everyone with the wind magic from my position.

Brodick jumped at Red and Red tossed him straight into the Skyfish. Brodick began spinning and landed a full force strike right on the skyfish's side sending it straight to the ground.

Dante and Kin took this chance and attacked right away, Kin pounced and latched to the fish's side and Dante started series of Slashes and stabs.

"Red, Slash wave!" I called and Red swung his axe horizontally sending out all the Wind magic I put in it. I followed with a diagonal crossed slash making the shape of an asterisk fly straight at the skyfish.

Dante and Kin saw this and backed away. When they backed off the Skyfish started getting a golden shine to it.

'Come on hit…' I said to myself

The fish attempted to get out of the way but Brodick was still on the…air? And smashed the hammer into its head

"You are not going anywhere!" he said and used the force of the impact to send himself backwards and away from the slash wave.

The attack hit and the fish stayed down. the portal to the first forest opened and took all the water along with the fish.

"Whoa…Finally can breathe normal air." Brodick said

"Raguna that was a big gamble, but a good idea non-the-less. You should keep practicing your magic so that you can create those barriers a lot quicker if necessary." Dante instructed

"Right." I replied

And then we gathered the "Monster drops" before leaving the room and back out to Mr. Kain and Dan.

Jesús: "Sorry for the wait. Truth is I moved back with my parents and I was getting set up. Also work had me busy and with the just passed holydays I didn't have much time to myself for anything; typing, reading, videogames, etc. Anyway, here's the update and I hope you all; enjoyed. Please leave a review telling me what you think and I'll see you all next time."