Ray was a little mesmerized by the monster climbing out of purple depths of the dungeon’s centre. Forget wondering about why the boss was even emerging from the boss room. Its appearance alone took up all his thoughts for a moment.

  The first thing that Ray caught on to was the fact that it was structured somewhat like a centipede. Its body was long and segmented, each part possessing its own, large pair of limbs. Plus, each segment was about the size of a minivan, so the total combination of the segments made the monster pretty long.

  Besides the limbs—which looked a little too human, if Ray was asked—almost every segment had something else that made it perform some other function. A few segments had wings, some had spikes or horns or other projections, others had what looked like feelers.

  A lot had even more arms, each holding an oversized weapon, like a halberd the size of a tree or a sword big enough to cut through a tank.

  Worst was its skull . At the very front of the centipede-like body, the boss had a head that was somewhere between leonine and reptilian, like a dinosaur with a mane of spiky horns. Its eyes glowed with the same deep violet light that the dungeon was suffused with, its maw filled with rows upon rows of sharklike petrified teeth.

  Oh, yes, the whole monster looked like it was made out of stone. Just like the Depthless Gargoyles.

  Ray: I can see that it’s the boss. WHY is it coming out of the boss room, though?

  Gritty: I don’t know. Part of the chamber just kind of collapsed and melded into the monster, and then it started getting out.

  Ray: The room BECAME the monster??

  Gritty: Uh huh. Eliza thinks it’s going to do the same thing, but with other parts of the dungeon.

  Ray only needed a second to understand what she meant. Doing the same thing. As in, ripping apart chunks of the dungeon to add to itself.

  Most likely, what Ray was seeing wasn’t the original size or shape of the boss. It had turned into this form after talking apart the boss room, probably turning it into more segments to add to its body. And now, it was looking to do the same with the rest of the dungeon.

  Ray recalled seeing how the creatures caught in the petrified vines had added to the Depthless Gargoyles’ mass. This boss monster took it a step further, adding different functionalities from the trapped creatures it absorbed. He paused. That almost made the monsters sound… a little like him. Annoying.

  The dungeon was continuing to shake and break apart, but Ray was starting to notice it wasn’t random. He didn’t have to dodge and evade the falling rocks as much. Not anymore, at least. The dungeon walls were pulling apart, the cliffs falling back and withdrawing.

  Essentially, it was making the canyons wider, joining them together to make a far larger valley.

  A far larger boss room for the monster to operate in.

  Ray pressed his lips together. It was coming at him now. The monster was headed in his direction.

  He could still hear Sameer and the Galiant locked in battle farther behind him. Would they stop when the monster finally arrived? Well, he supposed he was about to find out.

  The monster really was approaching now. Ray tensed a bit. It was getting closer and closer, near enough that he could use Eternal Pulse to check how different it was from the Depthless Gargoyles, which turned out to be not that different in the end, apart from a few pesky new abilities he’d need to be aware of.

  [Eternal Pulse]

  Segmented Titan [Monster] [Tier 34] [Level 72]

  The corpse of a dead god will forever remain that—an unmoving shell of a former divinity. But such divine corpses leave their divinity enmeshed in their surroundings. When the time comes, when momentousness threatens inertia, the divinity can regather and reform, reanimating the body. For even a shadow of the former self, of a former Titan’s power, can strike devastation upon all.

  Skills:

  Remnant Body [Tier 33]: Draw on the powers of all other trapped remnants, channelling their attributes. From increased strength to enhanced speed to even channelling the elements of the world. At Tier 33, channel up to 33 different remnants at once.

  Parasitic Growth [Tier 30]: Embed stony parasites in the world around you to ensure you never lack for power. Number of parasites thrown out depends on the Tier.

  Indomitable [Tier 28]: Your internal framework never shatters, so long as you have some skin covering you. Ensures protection up to Tier 28 attacks.

  Tectonic Reach [Tier 31]: Increase your reach and force the world to obey your will, simply with your touch. At Tier 31, your reach can go up to 31 meters.

  Stone Blizzard [Tier 29]: Break apart your body and your surroundings to become a ripping storm that shreds everything caught in your reach. At Tier 29, Stone Blizzard rages in a radius of 29 meters around you.

  Will of the Many [Tier 30]: Since your body is built through the will and wishes of the thousands interred within your viny tomb, call upon their lost souls to breathe life into every part and parcel of your being. At Tier 30, this ability allows up to 30 segments of your body to work independently.

  Focused Fury [Tier 32]: Concentrate your wrath against your enemies into a single point, devastating everything ahead of you.

  Ray looked back. Lent and Sameer were both fighting each other still. They were hardly even aware of the dungeon breaking apart around them, much less of the monster hurtling in their direction. Too busy still trying to kill each other to notice the onrushing danger.

  Basically, Ray was on his own. With a growl, he turned back to the Titan heading towards.

  Maybe it was for the best that he had to deal with this by himself. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about being backstabbed.

  Gritty: Just hold it for a while, wingman. I’m coming fast.

  Ray: Just you? Where’s Marcus? And what about the other two?

  Thankfully, Gritty got what he meant when he said other two.

  Gritty: Marcus is dealing with them, actually. One of them is injured, so he should be able to handle things for now. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the boss room itself. We looked. We’re going to have to beat that thing if we want to find the treasure, which is easier said than done.

  Ray wondered if they really had been able to look properly while they were busy dealing with the Titan and an enemy team on top of that. But he wouldn’t have been surprised if the treasures from this dungeon came directly from the monster they were supposed to stop.

  After all, if all those petrifying vines could trap creatures in them, who was to say they couldn’t hold treasures too?

  Treasures that had by now been absorbed by the Titan.

  Ray prepared for the fight as the humongous monster drew closer. He cast Time Veil over himself to grant himself a powerful buff, then summoned a couple of flying Windbane maw constructs with Resurrect Recollect.

  Even with all that, he still felt a bit dwarfed. Kind of like when he had faced off against his first Viledrake on the Second Floor.

  An unearthly shriek pummelled down from the Titan as it got closer. It echoed around him, despite the dungeon walls having moved off a bit around him. Ray dragged in a deeper breath, focusing on how best to survive and win.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  For an oversized monstrosity, the Titan moved in way too fast. Ray sent out his constructs to charge in and blast it with blue flames. They didn’t affect the monster much at all. Two of its segments whipped their wings around to act as safeguarding shields, the flames almost bouncing off them.

  Ray cursed. Then dashed off with Soring Wings on his back as the monster counterattacked.

  Two of its segments had pikes about as long as a battleship. They poked in, crunching on the dungeon floor to send broken rocks shooting everywhere as Ray dodged. The monster was smart. It didn’t attack with both pikes at once. One forced Ray to dodge, while the second swung around to catch him in his evasive manoeuvre.

  Thankfully, Ray was agile enough to serve away from the second blow too. His degree of control over his own motion was quite fine.

  It was his turn to counter. Ray aimed his arm at the huge Titan, firing out a lasering breath from the draconic maw around his hand. The blast did absolutely nothing. He wasn’t sure if he even saw a scratch on the monster’s rocky body.

  He cursed. Of course. Ray recalled just how difficult it had been to break through the Depthless Guardian’s defences. It would no doubt be even more difficult here.

  Sure, he had his Mana Infuser ring to count on, but how far could he go before he ran out of Aeon Mana crystals?

  As he tried to formulate a plan where he wasn’t exhausting his Mana supply, Ray continued dodging. The monster was attacking too quickly, too viciously. Its ability to make the segments work independently was coming into play. The way it moved so erratically, the way so many different attacks swung in with no rhyme or pattern…

  Ray growled as he was forced to evade the swipe of the massive halberd before ducking under several pike stabs. The monster’s huge maw chunked out a gleaming beam of amethyst energy, which he evaded thanks to his Soaring Wings.

  Several of the Titan’s wings spread apart, before blasting Ray with a stony storm, a hail of blizzarding rocks that he had to use Mottling Aeonguard to evade.

  All in all, the monster wasn’t giving Ray a second to do anything except survive.

  A break. Ray needed a damn break. Temporal Passage did the trick. Ray continued dodging and defending for a while, even using his more attack-oriented spells like the Windbane heads around his arms, to protect himself. Meanwhile, he had sent out a Windbane construct to find an open space. As soon as it had done so, he teleported away.

  For a tiny instant, Ray considered pausing. Resting. The idea was as appealing as it was completely foreign. He couldn’t rest.

  It was now or never.

  Ray summoned up several more of the flying Windbane heads. He was reaching the limit of his Mana, but he didn’t hesitate, bringing up a whole squadron of his constructs.

  Then he made them all fire at the monster. Each head fired out a blue beam of compressed flames, the lasers combining together into a geyser of erupting energy. It was probably one of the most powerful blasts Ray had ever shot out, and he was making sure it all converged to one point on the monster. Made sure that it would overwhelm his enemy.

  But it didn’t matter. While the huge blast that made the entire battlefield glow blue did indeed get past the Titan’s defence, Ray had discounted just how effective its segments were.

  As soon as the combined lasers struck, the Titan broke apart into several parts. The point where Ray had struck remained as a single, lone segment. It was promptly destroyed, the explosion sending up a cloud of dirt and dust into the air.

  But the rest of the monster, now divided into multiple parts, was perfectly fine. That independence…

  Ray cursed. He should have figured it would be capable of something like that. Even worse, the segment that had been destroyed was being replenished. The dungeon walls might have pulled away, but the petrified vines were still crawling on the floor.

  Bringing with them reinforcements. A resupply of the frozen creatures they held trapped within their clutches.

  Ray couldn’t focus on it, though. The segments were everywhere now. If he concentrated on one, he was bound to be struck by another. He had to keep up his guard. But even then, there were just way too many of them. Which was what allowed the segment with the Titan’s head to attack with Focused Fury.

  Honestly, Ray was surprised he even recalled the name. Although, there was nothing else that attack could be anyway.

  The head of the Titan yawned its jaws wide. Deep purple energy compressed within, frothing and bubbling and sparking like it couldn’t wait to explode out. And then it did burst out, shooting outwards in a gargantuan laser beam that split in multiple directions.

  Ray was dodging already, throwing up Mottling Aeonguard. Even though that wasn’t really enough, the couple of times an amethyst laser got close enough to strike him didn’t actually do any damage. Instead, Soul Sacrifice just meant that two of his constructs were vaporized instead of him.

  Nevertheless, the state was terrible. Forget finding an opportunity to counter, even after evading the storm of purple lasers, Ray was immediately forced to contend with other segments rushing him down.

  He was forced to dodge more oversized pikes, halberds, and swords. Ray was still on the back foot.

  The only potential upside was that he was no longer the only one affected by the monster’s rampage.

  “Really?” Sameer was shouting from someplace behind. “You can’t even deal with one lousy monster?”

  One was really an understatement. Ray was mobbed by three segments at once, one throwing rocks at him with Stone Blizzard while the two others attacked directly with huge, petrified weapons.

  He used Temporal Passage to catch a break. At this point, Ray was using his constructs to give himself a lifeline to escape the relentless onslaught rather than to fight back.

  It was starting to feel like a Tier 35 dungeon held nothing less than a raid boss as its final obstacle.

  Ray looked around to find that Sameer was having somewhat of an easier time dealing with everything. His portals. Those were key. The glimmering openings to other worlds swallowed up everything the Titan threw at him. They were especially effective against the oversized weapons, as the portals would just swallow the weapons and snap closed.

  Even the Titan’s segments seemed momentarily confused when its overlarge pike was reduced to an overlarge toothpick.

  Sameer took full advantage of the confusion, summoning more portals to blast the Titan’s segments he was facing with a wide variety of attacks. A torrent of flame shot out of one glowing portal. Another spewed what looked like oil, but it turned out to be alive, a slimy substance that took over its target and started suffocating and digesting it.

  For all that he had been fighting against the Galiant, Sameer didn’t seem tired or even slightly injured. How many Mana crystals and shards did the guy even have?

  Speaking of which, the Galiant was similarly standing his ground against the horde of Titan segments now attacking him. Like with Sameer, he was almost completely immune to the monster’s attacks.

  The only difference was that he didn’t need portals. Lent was just built different. The melee attacks left little to no mark on his rocky body. Those laser blasts that Ray had done his best to avoid did leave cracks and scratches, but Lent shrugged them off like they hardly mattered.

  Ray soon had to turn his attention back to his own battles. There were so many segments from the Titan. He was once again being pelted with a hail of broken rocks from a few segments armed with wide, stony wings. This was getting annoying.

  But there was a difference. He wasn’t fighting alone this time. As with a raid boss, Ray had others fighting the thing by his side.

  Not that he was about to call any of them his “party”. Both seemed like they’d much rather kill Ray than ever work with him, if they were given a choice in matters.

  Thankfully, Ray did have someone he could count on.

  Gritty: Yeah, makes total sense why you haven’t asked where I was yet.

  Ray barely dodged several boulders cannoning in at him.

  Ray: What?

  “I’m here, wingman!”

  He looked down. Gritty had indeed appeared, unsurprisingly covered in blood with bones poking out of her body here and there.

  It would have been distracting had she not dealt with the distractions herself even as he called out. Several of the segments that might have attacked him were now trapped in a pool of bubbling blood. Spikes of white bone were thrusting out here and there, stabbing through the monsters’ stony bodies and keeping them busy.

  “Good timing,” Ray said. “Now we can turn the tables on this thing.”

  He had long foregone the idea that he could take down the Segmented Titan on his own. Maybe, if push came to shove, Ray could have found a way to kill it on his own. A part of him even relished the challenge. The same part that had conquered all those dungeons on the Fist and Second Floors by himself.

  But the situation was vastly different here. He wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t admit that this dungeon was far too strong for him to be tackling alone in any reasonable length of time.

  “Don’t be so sure,” Gritty said. They dodged together as another purple laser storm scoured through their former location. “We ended fighting it together back in the boss room, and it was still way too big of a handful.”

  “How did it even get out of the boss room?”

  She shrugged. Some of the blood sloughed off her shoulder. “Beats the fuck out of me.”

  Gritty was right to be hesitant. Ray took a quick glance at the rest of the battlefield again, noticing how despite both Sameer and Lent standing their ground against the Titan, they hadn’t done anything to it.

  They might survive whatever the monster threw at them, but conversely, they themselves failed to land any lasting blows.

  Ray frowned. It was the exact same as had happened to him. Even when Sameer or Lent somehow managed to destroy a segment, the petrified vines would just bring in a replacement. This was turning into a war of attrition, and Ray was pretty sure they wouldn’t win something like that.

  “We need to—”

  Ray’s attempt at planning was cut short by Marcus.

  Marcus: Any of you guys close to the boss room?

  Gritty provided Ray with some cover, allowing him to chat with Marcus without worrying about getting hit by a blow from the Titan.

  Ray: Anything wrong? You okay?

  Marcus: Nope. I think this is it for me. The guy, the Albatross guy, is insane.

  Ray’s heart skipped a beat. Messages through the System Chat didn’t reveal emotions and tone very well, but the way Marcus was talking…

  Ray: Get out of there, Marcus. Now.

  Marcus: Did you get the Titan yet?

  Ray: We’re working on it.

  Marcus: Then work on it faster. I’ll hold this son of a bitch off for a little longer. But I won’t last long. Especially with the other two bailing.

  Ray: No, I told you to get out. You can’t fight Pierce on your own, you’ll die.

  Marcus: Like I said, I’m pretty much done for already. The last thing I can do is just hold him back. Hopefully, I’ll last just a bit longer. Make it count, Ray. And say goodbye to Gritty for me.

  Gritty: Don’t die on us, Knight Guy!

  There were no further messages from Marcus. Even when both Ray and Gritty sent further inquiries, Marcus remained silent.

  Ray stared at the Titan segments fighting against Gritty, Sameer, and Lent. He knew real victory lay in defeating the monster. He knew this was where he had to fight, ideally.

  But he left it behind.

  “Beat that thing for me, Gritty,” he said as he flew off. “I’m going to save Marcus.”