- Chapter Twenty Five -

I asked everyone to gather around before we hit the boss room. With Sampson's new skill, we now have another weapon at our disposal.

"Everyone take health potions and get back up to 100 percent."

Freya agreed then said, "We can definitely use that new skill in the boss room."

"I'm thinking he can help you guys with whatever else is in the room." I replied. "And HOPEFULLY…we won't encounter more archer skeletons."

The good news is there weren't more archer skeletons. The bad news? The boss room was twice as big as the others, and there were a dozen dire wolves staring straight at us as if they expected visitors.

At the far end of the room stood a giant boulder, easily 10 meters high. White hair seemed to protrude from behind it. The owner of the white hair? You guessed it. A massive white wolf. It didn't have blue eyes like the rest of them, but it towered over everything in the room. It's canine teeth seemed to be made from some type of metal. It stood both front legs up on the boulder and bared its metallic fangs at us with a snarl. Floating next to its head showed 2 green health bars and its name, "Steelfang".

"Holy fuck." Parks said as he took aim.

The room erupted into battle. Mine and Thad's parties took point as we charged towards the boss. Freya's party was stopped by 5 wolves about half way down followed by Gojira's party a few steps later with another 5.

Parks, Callisto and Ivy took higher positions along some rocks closer to the walls and started raining fire down on the boss.

Sampson, having already vanished from my side when we entered, came whistling down at one of the last 2 wolves between us and the boss.

"Sampson, up!" I yelled, right as the blue shards faded and the last wolf lunged for him.

He seemed to vanish before it had the chance to attack, so we charged it.

Freya and Gojira's parties looked like they were having trouble keeping theirs at bay, which was NOT a good sign. They only managed to kill two.

I yelled for Sampson to go help them while we took care of the last one on our end before the boss.

Ronin turned to us and yelled, "I got this!"

We all gave him a puzzled look and stopped. He then vanished, appeared in the wolf's shadow, sliced across its neck twice then reappeared next to me. All in under a second.

Normally, that would've killed it. It didn't. It howled and jumped straight for Thad. THAT was its last mistake. Firefly and Cherry dissected it before it even touched the ground. Poof.

The arrows from Parks and company were apparently not doing shit to the boss because it's health hadn't even dropped a tenth. I turned around and motioned for them to start helping Freya and Gojira. That's when it charged.

It struck us with immense power. Ronin and the twins must have flown 30 feet before landing. The rest of us slid back on our asses almost as far. No one had time to get up. Well, no one but Thad.

"Here it comes!" Thad yelled, being the only one not caught off guard.

He charged it and swung Filigree as hard as he could, hitting it square across the nose. Thank GOD he landed the hit. That gave us just enough time to stand and regroup.

It's health bar barely moved.

By this time, Freya, Parks and Gojira's parties managed to take out another 4 wolves.

That loud, familiar whistle started ringing in our ears and another wolf vanished.

I thought things were starting to look up because they only had 3 wolves left. I was wrong. As soon as the shards of the wolf Sampson killed had vanished, the bosses eyes started glowing red along with the 3 remaining wolves.

Then, hell opened its doors. The remaining 3 wolves, just like in the last room, started growing.

After about 5 seconds, they were the same exact size as the boss.

Four...MASSIVE wolves...stared back at us.

We were frozen. Just moments ago, one hit from the boss sent everyone almost literally flying back. Now there were four of them.

Thad seemed to be the first to snap out of it. "Riggs!" He yelled, waving to one of the tanks in my party. Riggs nodded and they both took off running towards the boss.

Sampson landed at my feet and looked at me for directions. "Kill!" I screamed as I pointed towards the boss. He vanished into the air as Thad and Riggs collided with it.

Gojira and Warbride were doing all they could to hold off the wolf that had them pinned down. Freya, Dozer and the other two tanks, Ivan and Ironclad, were each holding off the last two.

Ronin and Raven were Shadow Walking from wolf to wolf trying to do as much damage as possible without taking any damage themselves.

It was an absolute warzone. What the fuck was Kayaba thinking putting a battle like this on floor 1? Is there actually a way out of this? Should we retreat? All of this was going through my head as we literally fought for their lives.

Sampson was finally able to hit the boss with a Fury Wind that sent it's remaining health bar into the yellow.

I saw an opening and took it. Thad was mainly aiming for its face because he was really the only one tall enough. I noticed every time he'd swing at it now, it would flinch to the other side before he could hit it.

I yelled for him to hit it again. Then, I shot to the opposite side and plunged my long sword deep into the side of its face as soon as it flinched my way.

Blood red shards started falling away as I took out my blade. It howled in pain as it's health bar finally dropped into the red.

Then, it jumped clean over all of us and landed on top of the boulder it came from. That's when I saw it. A white and blue dagger sticking out of the top of the boulder. The wolf howled again, louder this time, and another dozen smaller wolves appeared from behind the boulder running straight for us.

Parks' party instantly saw the new wolves and started to fire. They managed to take one out before the first one reached us, then the door to the entrance of the room swung open.

"TO VALHALLA!!!!" Thor screamed, his hammer raised above his head and his entire guild entering the room.