They continued further into the bowels of the castle, wherein the temperature rapidly began to climb, melting the constant ice that clung to the walls and patches along the floor. The best part about the sudden rise in temperature was that they no longer had to deal with korizo. Though in Eijun's opinion, it was a little too late, as they'd already had to fight a total of five groups of the bastards.

If Eijun never had to deal with them again, it would still be too soon.

In place of korizo, they encountered flame sprites, and fortunately, they weren't nearly as troublesome to deal with; though they had their own fair share of quirks, with their penchant to float toward the ceiling and effectively limit those that could hit them. This meant only Tanba, Kawakami, Furuya, and Eijun were able to attack them, which left the rest to cheer from the sidelines; useless. With only four attackers, it took a while longer to kill them all, as they were also tasked with evading the wisps of fire that the flame sprites shot from the safety of ceiling corners. But in the end, Seido prevailed.

So after hours of wandering the endless halls, fighting anything they came across; they finally happened upon the boss room.

They stepped into a large arena-like area with a long staircase that would lead them down to the main stage. The entirety of the room was bordered by rows and rows of stands for a non-existent audience, though they were in the same state of ruin as the rest of the castle. Debris and dust coated everything, while one half had a layer of frost with ice spikes that jutted out along the stands. The other half was charred with wide, singed pits that had blasted through some of the seating.

Of course, however, the focal point was the twin bosses for this raid; Shogun Flame and Shogun Frost. Each stood utterly still on their respective halves of the arena, rather like statues in their stiffness. At first glance, they appeared to be large, unassuming, hollow suits of armor if It weren't for the intimidation that radiated off of them; with the bonus effect that it felt as if they were being watched as soon as they stepped foot inside.

"Ready Yui?" Miyuki asked with a laugh and headed down the many steps before them.

This was the purpose for swapping Masuko out for Yui. While Masuko could act as a minor tank for some standard mobs, holding his own against a boss was a different story entirely.

"Yes!" Yui immediately affirmed, though, in Eijun's professional opinion, he still appeared rather nervous. This would be his first real taste of playing a significant role within the first-string, other than at the very start of Shogun's Keep when they had to split up on different paths. The stakes between that and holding aggro from a boss were vastly dissimilar, as not many ever die from standard mobs unless the tank grew greedy and pulled more than they could handle. More commonly, deaths occur during boss fights than anywhere else.

They make their way down the precarious steps, some of which were so badly damaged, they were essentially nonexistent. Eijun paid extra close attention to where he placed each foot, not wanting a repeat of earlier when he slipped in the snow. The thought of rolling head-first down the stone stairs sounded like a terrible way to start a boss fight.

"We're sticking with the same groups we used earlier," Yuuki announced.

During their debrief for Shogun's Keep, they organized the groups to be best suited dependent on the boss they would fight. Shogun Frost was bulkier, and dealt less damage, while Shogun Flame hit hard, but couldn't take attacks nearly as well as its counterpart. So it was decided that Yui would tank Shogun Frost as his gear still wasn't up to par, and Miyuki would handle Shogun Flame, with his superior equipment and general experience. Then everyone else was decided by those who had a higher DPS rate would also be put on Shogun Frost to drill through its defenses.

Eijun was slightly miffed that he wasn't included as a hard-hitter, yet logically, he understood that currently, he simply wasn't. On the other hand, having a water attribute, naturally gave him a slight additional damage boost against fire, so it made sense.

By the time they reached the bottom, Eijun's excitement had peaked. Up close, Shogun Frost and Flame were immensely larger than they appeared compared to when he had the high ground, looking down upon them. Their armor was a dark, smokey purple with faded nicks and scratches over the surfaces that added to the battle-worn appearance. The gaps in each helmet where a face would be were empty voids, same with the small openings along each joint.

Flame and Frost both held swords made up of the same material as their armor, further adding to the statue-esque vibes. However, the weapons were where they differed the most. Frost's right hand held a sword with more girth, rather similar to Miyuki's greatsword, but still smaller in length compared to its body size; while Miyuki's, from tip to tip, was probably longer than he was tall. Its counterpart, Flame, held in its left hand a thinner sword, but with greater reach, for —Eijun assumed— rapid attacks.

"Alright, everyone to their places," Yuuki ordered.

They all stuck close to the very edge of the arena as they fanned out to their respective sides. Miyuki, Shirasu, Kominato, Kuramochi, Furuya, and Eijun crept toward the right as they would be faced Shogun Flame. Yui, Yuuki, Azuma, Isashiki, Tanba, and Kawakami went left to position themselves in front of Shogun Frost.

"You remember your role, Sawamura?" Miyuki asked, casting a backward glance Eijun's way.

"Yes," Eijun responded. He attempted to keep the clipped tone in check, but he wasn't sure he completely succeeded.

"Good," Miyuki pulled his sword off his back, "Everyone get ready."

Eijun already had Aoi summoned from when they encountered the flame sprites, so the only thing he was required to do, was to apply his buff, which increased his critical chance with Aoi summoned. Currently, Aoi floated leisurely by Eijun's head, and when he stuck his left hand out, Aoi instantly coiled around his arm; thus making Eijun battle ready.

The rest pulled their weapons out and applied their own self-buffs as they awaited the official countdown. Eijun bounced on the balls of his feet as his anticipation began to overflow. It wasn't often that he got to play an important part during a boss fight, and the extra pressure not to fuck up only added to his tension.

"On go," Yuuki said, his voice echoing and easily carried over for their group to hear.

"Three."

Eijun's heart picked up in pace.

"Two."

Miyuki lowered his stance and inched closer, then halted to peek over at the other group.

"One."

"Go!"

Instantaneously, Miyuki took off, yet not nearly as swiftly as he normally did. Eijun was confused for half a second before he caught on to the fact that Miyuki simply matched his pace to Yui's, presumably, so they both reached their respective bosses at the same time.

As soon as Miyuki and Yui passed the halfway point, Shogun Frost and Flame erupted to life. The process wasn't slow. One moment they were inanimate statues, and the next, their armor began to groan and shake. Fire burst out from all openings in Shogun Flame's plates as if the armor acted as a hearth. Smoke and embers licked up and around its helmet and all its joints. Shogun Flame lifted its sword, and with a practiced flick of its wrist, the blade was engulfed in fire. Miyuki approached soon after with a blazing strike of his own, before he dodged around and behind Flame, to, as always, face the boss away from the rest of the group.

Eijun chanced a quick glance at Shogun Frost and found where fire roared from its counterpart, ice had formed in the hollow recesses as a chilled haze emanated around it. Similar to Shogun Flame, Frost also coated its sword in a layer of ice, which also served to lengthen the weapon as it formed a new tip.

He wasn't able to inspect nearly as much as he would have liked, as Eijun had to return his attention to Shogun Flame quickly, just in time for Kawakami to activate his party buff, Spirit Burst. With the extra boost, Eijun took advantage of the increased attack speed to charge up his best move via Aoi; one that typically took five seconds, but through Spirit Burst launched at around two, with an added upsurge in power as a bonus.

With both hands extended in front of him, Eijun pooled energy to create an orb of water that continued to increase in size and build in pressure. The process was significantly quicker thanks to the party buff, and soon reached max capacity to explode out of Eijun's hands in a forceful torrent. Aoi slithered off Eijun's arm to meld with the stream and warped the water around his form to morph into a larger version of himself. Aoi swiftly crossed the distance to collide against Shogun Flame's back, before he coiled up and around the armored body until Aoi shot passed Flame's cracked helmet. Several meters above, Aoi flipped around, and dive-bombed right back down onto Shogun Flame, crashing onto its head, bursting upon impact in a glorious cascade; effectively drenching it.

As usual, the force of the blast propelled Eijun bodily backward, the toes of his boots sliding along the stone floor to slow himself.

When Eijun first acquired Aoi and experimented with this skill, the initial release always fully knocked him off his feet. It took months of repetition for Eijun to figure out the trick to staying upright, though he had completely accepted the fact that there would always be recoil; that no amount of practice would change that.

With a few steps forward, Eijun easily reclaimed the distance the force repelled him. However, he was required to be the furthest one from Shogun Flame at all times, while on the other side of the arena, Kawakami had to distance himself from Shogun Frost. This would be important later on —Eijun was aware— so currently it wasn't that dire, but Eijun feared he would accidentally relocate to a position that made it so he was no longer the furthest; thus effectively messing everything up.

Eijun quickly chanced a glance around as he awaited Aoi's return, just to take note of everyone's positions. Furuya stood closer than he typically would, but still safely out of range of Flame's weapon; even with its longer sword, each swing created a wave of heat that extended its total reach. Already, Furuya had to evacuate by a few steps to avoid the worst of it. So really, as long as Eijun watched where Furuya stood and repositioned accordingly, he knew it should be fine.

He couldn't help but worry regardless.

Aoi made a beeline directly back to Eijun and coiled himself around Eijun's arm once more. He wasted no time to continue to rain attacks down on Shogun Flame, using the remaining seconds of Spirit Burst to squeeze in as much damage as he could. To finish it off, Eijun raised his arms to begin forming another larger blob of water above his head. He waited until it was big enough to cast its own shadow, practically overtaking Eijun's own, before he took a single step forward to fortify his stance, and, with great effort, flung the liquid sphere toward Shogun Flame. This attack wasn't the swiftest, but regardless, once it hit, the orb burst to soak the boss and a large area around it in boiling hot water.

With perfect timing, as soon as it struck, Eijun felt Spirit Burst fade, leaving him with a temporary emptiness in its wake. He always felt it unfortunate that the party buff only lasted a handful of seconds, unlike a lot of self-inflicted buffs that could last anywhere between thirty minutes to several hours. Though he supposed Spirit Burst would be incredibly overpowered if it lingered any longer than it already did.

Shogun Flame's attack pattern was wild, and Eijun couldn't even begin to comprehend how anyone could find an opening to strike in between attempting to block or evade constantly. From his angle, Eijun couldn't fully observe Miyuki, but considering how Flame hadn't really moved from its initial position, he could only assume Miyuki was holding his own. Nearly every other attack Shogun Flame executed was a long streak of rapid slices that ended with a harsh cleave that caused fire to erupt around its feet. Shirasu, Kominato, and Kuramochi were always quick to back-step out of range before they darted back in; keeping mainly at Shogun Flames' flank; thanks to the length of its sword, even its normal swings reached its sides to render those as dangerous areas.

Every once in a while, Shogun Flame would switch things up by quickly turning to swipe behind it, almost as if it viewed everyone but Miyuki as pests. Eijun got to witness the first time it happened, how it completely caught the melee off guard and sent them tumbling backward with the strength of its slash. A part of Eijun wanted to laugh, while the rest of him was concerned. Kuramochi immediately had to whip out a potion after taking a direct hit from the boss.

Eijun now knew that Assassins are the melee equivalent of Sorcerers, in that they deal heavy damage, but were physically weak. To make up for that, Assassins excelled in evasion to completely avoid as much harm as possible, while Sorcerers had the safety of distance. Even though Eijun saw firsthand that Kuramochi was okay, the knowledge that he wouldn't be able to take many direct hits left Eijun a little on edge. He couldn't let that distract him, however, and returned his focus to discharging a scalding stream of water, followed shortly by, what was essentially, a minefield of bubbles.

On the surface, they may appear harmless, but on direct contact, they instantly detonate in a smoldering burst, to then create a chain reaction of the remaining bubbles. If touch wasn't made, they set themselves off after ten seconds of their formation, so anything within the blast zone would still be affected. And as planned, Shogun Flames' sword sliced directly through several, causing them to burst on impact, and subsequently all the rest.

Generally, Eijun enjoyed this skill and saved it for large groups of mobs, but in cases with a sole, but large enemy, it still had the desired effect. It also wasn't one of his strongest attacks, but it worked great for achieving continuous damage while he focused on skills that have a higher output.

Throughout the beginning phase, he periodically glanced Furuya's way to make sure Eijun remained the furthest; and only a few times was he required to move back or shout at Furuya to relocate when he reflexively began to drift too far.

So when it was finally Eijun's time to shine, he was over-eager. So much so, that he began to shake with nervous anticipation.

Shogun Flame whipped around to face the furthest target, in this case, Eijun. With its free hand, an ember of fire ignited before extending in both directions to form a flaming rod. Shogun Flame wound its arm back and threw the rod with perfect precision. Eijun's eyes were laser-focused on the rod as it curved upward, watched as it dipped down from the peak of its arc, and headed straight his way.

"You've got this, Sawamura!" Kuramochi cheered.

Eijun had spent the better part of a week preparing for this moment, and Kuramochi had played witness to some of the late nights he spent to make sure he didn't flub this.

In theory, Eijun was meant to catch it, but if he missed it and it landed on the ground, the rod would self-destruct with a high probability of taking Eijun with it. The whole point of this was that as soon as both Shoguns threw their respective rods, they put up a force field, and while it didn't negate all harm, it did significantly reduce the damage taken. The only way to break their barriers was to throw the opposite rod of the opposing Shogun, or else they would be in it for the long haul, doing practically zilch —damage-wise.

Eijun raised his arms and shifted in place as he debated whether he needed to back up a little bit or simply hope Shogun Flame's throw was aimed perfectly enough that it'd fall into his hands. The closer it got, the more panicked Eijun became, and he —last second— decided to inch forward instead. Once in range, Eijun jumped and successfully snagged the rod out of the air. Its continued momentum carried him back several meters and forced Eijun to dig his feet into the ground to slow the propulsion.

When he slowed to a halt, it took Eijun a solid second to process his achievement, and once he did, Eijun pumped his fist into the air to showcase his victory with a cheer, "I did it!" Which swiftly evolved to a hiss of pain, "Ow! It's hot!"

Which made sense considering the rod was made entirely out of fire.

"That's great, you idiot! Now run!" Kuramochi jabbed a finger toward Shogun Frost before he quickly ducked beneath Shogun Flame's sword as it rotated into a violent whirl of blade and fire.

Eijun fixed his gaze on the opposite side of the arena and took off. But no sooner than he managed a single step, the entire room began to shake. Seconds later, large icicles rained down from the ceiling to impale themselves through the stone floor. Eijun had a fleeting notion that he was glad they weren't korizo icicles, but normal icicles; when one landed mere meters away, the impact nearly knocked Eijun off his feet.

But of course, that wasn't all.

On top of having to avoid deadly ice, multiple fire twisters kicked up and traveled randomly around the arena. Eijun would dodge around one, only for something else to interrupt his path, and force him to divert in a different direction. Unfortunately, however, the longer Eijun held on to the rod, the more residual damage it dealt to him, so the sooner he could release it, the better.

Eijun evaded an icicle and then danced around a fire twister that intersected his path, all while he chanted, "Hot, hot, hot, hot." As if the more he repeated the word, the less pain he would feel from it.

It was not successful.

On his way toward Shogun Frost, Eijun spotted Kawakami with the ice rod held tight in his hand.

"Good job Sawamura," Kawakami praised as they passed each other. Eijun was only mildly consoled to note that Kawakami appeared to be in discomfort, too. If it had turned out that Eijun drew the short straw with the most painful rod, then he would have been upset, but knowing both caused some form of unpleasantness, he couldn't complain.

"You, too! And good luck!" Eijun belatedly replied, his mind utterly focused on the ache along his palm and the desire to simply let it go.

Eijun ran until he deemed he was close enough to Shogun Frost before he wound his arm back —imagining that he was throwing Ume— and swung forward, to release the rod finally and break Frost's barrier. The rod sailed through the air and pierced the force field, causing it to shatter like glass and expose Shogun Frost to full damage once again.

The same for Shogun Flame once Kawakami threw the ice rod at it.

After his job was done, Eijun spared a quick glance at his hand and discovered it red with irritation and patches of shiny skin that would likely develop into blisters later. "I better get something out of this raid," Eijun grumbled to himself before he turned to run back toward Shogun Flame.

The trip back, fortunately, was easier as the icicles ceased to fall, and the ones that did have since melted away, while the fire twisters burned themselves out; making it blissfully uneventful. Fortunately, the arena was wide enough that Eijun didn't need to skirt as close to the edge as possible to avoid stray strikes from either boss, which gave him a straight shot to rejoin group two.

Upon his return to Shogun Flame, Furuya offered him a quiet, "Nice one," to which Eijun shot him a peace sign and a grin in response before they both continued their assault on Flame, now without the worry of positioning.

It wasn't long after when Shogun Flame fell. It stumbled and staggered as its inner fire flickered before being extinguished entirely, causing the armor to crumble and collapse into a heap; the sword clattered heavily onto the ground, alluding to its weight belied by the rapid attacks its wielder displayed.

Seconds later Shogun Frost followed suit, ice shattered into a fine, crystal powder.

"Everyone regroup!" Yuuki shouted, and as one, they all gathered toward the center, near the bottom of the staircase, knowing full well this fight wasn't over.

Miyuki was quick to usher everyone behind him, right as a blue and orange orb shot out from their respective piles of armor and collided mid-air, dead center of the arena. Their collision created a blinding luminescence that forced them all to shield their eyes as both Frost and Flame's energies merged to form the full-powered Shogun; the controller of both ice and fire.

When the light died down, Eijun lowered his arm to witness an immense oni that now stood in front of them. The oni had two, sizable horns that jutted out from its temples and curved backward with a wide tooth-filled grin. Four of its teeth were significantly larger than the rest, two of which were the bottom canines while the other two pulled at the corners of its mouth in a perpetual smile. A white, wispy mane flowed from its head in an ethereal manner, ill-fitting its hideous face. The rest of it was bisected perfectly down the entire center of its being, where one half was a chilly blue, and the other a vivid amber; a carryover from when Shogun split itself in twain.

Shogun let out a horrific roar and held out both arms, palms on display. The remnants of its armor completely corroded into dust, yet its swords remained unscathed. That was until they began to shudder against the ground for a few beats; then, as if summoned, they flew up into the air and spun wildly toward Shogun. The hilts were effortlessly snagged before the blades could do any damage to Shogun, though Eijun suspected that even if it did miss —which he doubted was possible— they wouldn't have harmed their wielder in any way. With its weapons reclaimed, they were powered up once more, with the long, thinner one erupting into flames as a sheath of ice coated the bulkier counterpart.

Miyuki didn't await a countdown and unhesitatingly dashed straight for Shogun, who was quick to meet the challenge with a downward slice of its ice blade. Miyuki easily countered the strike with his own greatsword before he dodged and blocked his way around it, to comfortably station himself behind Shogun. As soon as the boss turned to confront Miyuki, the rest of them instantly ran in to join the fray.

Yui now played a support role with his minor heals and stood at Shogun's flank with the other melee so as not to get in Miyuki's way. Now, If need be, Miyuki was ever out for the count or simply had to get away to heal, then Yui would be able to step in and temporarily take over until Miyuki could return, or hold the boss off the rest of the party for the remainder of the fight.

Personally, Eijun didn't think that would be necessary, as from what he had witnessed of Miyuki in combat, he was excellent at pacing himself, and efficiently learned attack patterns quickly.

A burst of power surged through Eijun's veins, signaling the activation of Spirit Burst; which had him go through his rotation of attack skills all over again. And now, all four of the ranged got to hang back as opposed to being mindful of who was stationed where or risk standing too close to Shogun's wide reach with his flame sword.

If Eijun thought Shogun Flame attacked in a rapid flurry before, that didn't compare to the current, dual-wielding Shogun. It would start combos with a whirlwind of strikes that left trails of fire in its wake, only to conclude with a heavy cleave from its frost sword that cracked earth and formed ice spikes in its path. Miyuki was required to avoid most of the attacks from the frost blade as opposed to blocking, as the ice that formed afterward would be directly below his feet if he remained in place and let it happen.

And because of that, Shogun repositioned more frequently whenever Miyuki had to avoid an attack; thus forcing the melee to accommodate the change if they wished to remain at its flank. Being a range, Eijun didn't have to worry about that, though he still tried to remain away from facing a boss head-on, as they would sometimes have long-reaching attacks that could still hit even from a distance.

Shogun let out another roar as it jammed the tip of its frost sword into the ground, "Get back!" Miyuki shouted. Eijun watched as all the melee backed out of range just as deadly spears of ice pierced through the stone at its feet.

"Gather!" Yuuki ordered as they all reconvened into a tight-knit group. The mist around Shogun's head began to condense to form six frozen projectiles. It was said that Shogun randomly targets six people with either ice or fire missiles, so having everyone gathered in a clump would make it easier for Eijun to protect them all with Veil, or worst case scenario, Miyuki's Ward.

The other obstacle, however, was that Shogun also created the same number of fire flowers around it, and once they bloomed, it would reabsorb them to restore its health. To prevent that, someone had to destroy them before the sixth, and last, projectile was launched. And of course, the best option for that role was Kuramochi, since with his speed and stealth, Shogun wouldn't be able to target him, allowing Kuramochi the opportunity to freely cut the flowers from their roots.

As Eijun wasn't positive how long it would take for Shogun to fire off the ice shards, he waited until the first one launched before spreading his arms to activate Veil. Like when he had Ume summoned, a dome formed over them, but instead of wind, it was made entirely of water. The first strike impacted the barrier, the very tip pierced through, but was quickly absorbed by Veil before it could fully penetrate.

Kuramochi used the first shot to signal the start of his role; bud eradication.

The next shard hit not long after, just as Eijun caught sight of the closest bud being sliced at its stem. Immediately, the flower and the root turned to ash and wilted away, leaving one less flower that Shogun could reabsorb. Ideally would be zero, as the more flowers it consumed, the more health it would restore.

For each shard that striked the dome, Kuramochi eliminated one bud as he maneuvered undetected around Shogun. By the time the last projectile struck, Kuramochi had reached the final flower, which was almost entirely unfurled, and hastily cut through its stem and successfully prevented Shogun from healing.

A fraction of a second later, the duration of Veil dwindled and dissolved.

With a growl, Shogun shattered through the ice spears at its feet and charged. Miyuki remained rooted at the front, sword held aloft and blocked the first series of strikes. Once contact between them was made, the rest fanned out to avoid stray attacks before continuing their own onslaught.

By the time Shogun was finally felled, Eijun was left panting as it collapsed to its knees and disintegrated into blue and orange particles. Only its swords remained, motionless and fractured.

Yuuki popped open the chest it left behind and rifled through its contents in silence. All the while, anticipation flourished within Eijun as he wondered if this was where he finally received a legendary weapon. He was almost tempted to go see for himself as the wait was killing him.

Instead, he prompted, "So?" With a little too much excitement.

"Well," Yuuki began, "Furuya will be happy."

At that, Eijun's heart sank, as he desperately fought to bury his disappointment deep within. He refused to let it show.

The shock was written across Furuya's features as he hastily rushed to Yuuki, who rose to his feet with a long staff held delicately in both hands. The staff took after Shogun with a combination of ice and fire elements that intermingled chaotically, yet somehow still appeared natural. Reverently, Furuya lifted the staff with both hands to gaze upon it in awe.

It was beautiful and perfect, and while a part of Eijun was glad for Furuya, the majority willed the tears away as everyone congratulated him.