Rix still hadn’t shown up.

  I could tell that Miel wanted to help, but she kept glancing at her daughter, and I could tell she was debating whether or not to throw Ether over her shoulder and run. The moment she touched one of us, the Dungeon would assume she was helping us and would upgrade the monsters. I had a feeling that continuing to hold Ether would have the Dungeon decide that Miel had gone from ‘help’ to ‘joined’. She could probably grab one more of us, but there would be no way the rest of us would survive a second against a Tier Seven. Which was probably the only reason that she hadn’t done it.

  “GET THROUGH THE GATE!” Miel ran over and started queuing in a destination. She wouldn’t be able to go back to the waiting room because the administrator would have to verify us, and there was no way they’d unlock the gate with monsters chasing us. She’d have to take us to a different floor first, then leave.

  “We can do this! MAGIC ARROWS!!!” Aelin began rapid-firing arrows into the chest of the one that had been chasing her.

  Running was safer, but I knew we’d have to drag Aelin out, and… there went Fray.

  The green swordswoman drew her blade and began hacking away at the humanoid slime. She danced around it, ducking under and away from its swings. Her blade was cutting into it like it was made out of clay, not the gelatin that slimes were usually made out of. These event bosses were also much harder than the regular slime.

  “Justia! Try to keep them healed! Ether! You’re with me!” I holstered my pistol and took the Snakeblade out of my CB. It was a longsword that I’d gotten. It was only level two, but I hadn’t really been expecting to do a lot of physical melee fighting. I probably needed to get it brought up to level four as soon as I could.

  One thing I had noticed was that the moment Fray had gotten in melee range, the humanoid slime had stopped shooting slimes at us. Since I was having trouble with the acid ones, I assumed it’d be best to get in close. Ether tanking it would probably work, but I also wanted to give my mana a chance to regenerate.

  My sword wasn’t making nearly as deep of cuts as Fray’s, but that was understandable. She had more Power than me, and her weapon was a higher rarity and level. I’d be surprised if she weren’t doing more damage than me.

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  “LOOK AT ME!”

  The even boss turned towards Ether and slammed both arms onto her shield. She should have been unmovable except against very strong attacks, and that blow pushed her back a little more than an inch. I couldn’t see her face under that bony helmet, but I knew what she was thinking. Her passive was on cooldown, and the next blow was going to really move her.

  I’d been wanting to save my mana, but now wasn’t the time to be stingy. I stabbed the monster in the back. The tip of my sword barely bit into it, but I pushed anyway. The three cores split into opposite directions. One went to its neck, the other to its left shoulder, and the last one went to its waist.

  “SHIELD ATTACK!”

  Ether rammed into its chest from the other side, sinking the tip of my sword all the way through to touch her shield.

  Before I could say anything, the monster punched her away from it.

  “ETHER!” I finished pushing the sword through; it didn’t want it falling out after that. “JUSTIA!”

  A soft green light enveloped Ether as she started to get up.

  The monster ripped the sword out of my hands as it jumped on her.

  It landed with its knees on her shield and knocked her over on her back.I ran over and grabbed the hilt of my sword as it started pummeling her. Both of her arms were pinned between her shield and her chest as the humanoid slime’s legs seemed to melt around her sides, locking her in place beneath it.

  “FREEZE!”

  I channeled the spell through the sword, using it as a focus. The body of the slime started freezing from the center of its chest out. I saw Miel start moving towards us out of the corner of my eye and hoped that she gave us a chance.

  A cloud of thick green gas erupted from the event boss, and I tried to hold my breath as I kept dumping mana into the spell. The gas stung my eyes, making them water, and burned every part of exposed skin that I had.

  My plan had been to isolate the cores in different parts of the monster’s body, then break those pieces off and destroy them at will. The problem with that plan was I couldn’t see how effective my spell was because of the tears in my eyes and the density of the gas. It also wouldn’t have mattered because I’d also been counting on Ether to be the one to break off the pieces.

  I gritted my teeth as I tried to push the mana out faster. I was trying to remember if there’d been a rock or something I could use to break the thing apart, because I didn’t have faith in using my bare hands.

  I was almost out of mana when the cloud started dissipating. Then the boss vanished, and I fell on top of a gasping Ether.

  “Thirty-three.”

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