Dylan was the first to respond to Lohan’s signal.
The boy leaped forward, propelled by a kinetic explosion that Lohan had triggered beneath his feet. At the peak of his leap, Dylan focused all his Magic on the tip of his spear, causing a subtle red thread to seep from his wrist, concentrating at the spear’s tip and transforming the already sharp blade into an even more dangerous bluish-red one.
He descended like lightning onto the roots supporting the monster’s central trunk, ignoring the even more intense exhaustion and pallor evident on his face, and the impact of his spear not only sliced through the wood but generated an explosion that tore the Guardian’s base from the rocky ground for a few moments, throwing the monster off balance.
After that attack, Dylan didn’t even glance at the result of his strike; with the last of his strength, he ran to the rear and collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted, allowing the Slime enveloping his body to restore some of his energy.
Alice emerged shortly afterward from beneath the wooden shell that Dylan had just cracked open, and with her fists glowing with a mixture of gold and blue, due to the constant infusion of vitality that Lohan was pumping into her and the stellar energy, the girl unleashed a twelve-punch combo in less than three seconds.
Each of Alice’s punches was like a cannon shot that shattered the layers of fossilized wood, clearing a path into the Boss’s chest, where a mana heart pulsed desperately.
The Tree Guardian, feeling his life ebbing away, let out a deafening wail.
He abandoned any remaining attempts at defense and transformed what was left of his wooden arms into large, spiked maces, trying to strike Alice and Dylan with hatred.
Lohan did his best to help the two of them absorb the blows; Alice was still able to dodge most of the attacks, sustaining only minor injuries, but Dylan, who lay on the ground completely exhausted, couldn’t move to get out of the way.
Fortunately, they weren’t alone there. Just as Lohan was at a loss for what to do, an image of a large shield appeared in front of Dylan from another vantage point, and a figure clad in menacing black armor helped deflect and bear the brunt of those attacks.
To protect Dylan, Dee absorbed at least 70% of the impact from that furious attack, spitting out a large amount of blood, which Lohan didn’t waste but digested without hesitation, using all available biomass to keep both Players alive.
"LISA! THE PATH IS CLEAR!" Lohan roared mentally, seizing the opportunity that the Boss’s fury had created.
The legendary fox, who had been motionless on the cave ceiling, anchored by Lohan’s viscous energy and waiting precisely for an opportunity like this, let out a howl that echoed like thunder and launched herself into a nosedive, with the two stellar halos above her merging into a single ring of pure destruction.
Lohan, enveloping her body, activated all his passive skills to their absolute limit, coordinating every millisecond of the attack.
In midair, Lohan acted as a massive amplifier for her flames, expelling a massive cloud of organic combustible fluid through his membrane, saturating Lisa’s path, and when the fox unleashed the spiritual plasma sphere, Lohan’s fluid ignited instantly, transforming the attack into a torrent of white, bluish, and golden flames with a diameter the size of a car.
The jet of flames struck the Tree Guardian’s exposed chest, and the sound that followed was that of devastating annihilation.
The Boss’s ancient wood, already severely damaged and vulnerable from Dylan and Alice’s full-force attacks, offered no resistance against the purity of those flames.
Lisa’s flames devoured the plant structure, while Lohan’s fluid and sacred light disintegrated the monster’s mana channels.
Lohan didn’t stop there.
The moment Lisa’s plasma pierced the monster’s core, he fired dozens of web threads from his own biomass, seizing the monster’s moment of weakness and connecting directly to the Boss’s still-burning innards.
He initiated the real-time forced digestion of the still-living monster, harnessing the Hemolymphatic Tissue and propelled by the Star Cry buff, achieving a terrifying digestion rate!
He was literally devouring the dungeon master’s life essence as he collapsed.
"JUST DIE ALREADY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!" Lohan roared, channeling the last remnant of his Mana into a colossal Ice Spike that burst forth from the center of Lisa’s torrent of fire.
The ice spike, charged with Lohan’s murderous intent, pierced what remained of the monster’s corrupted mana heart.
Suddenly, there was a second of absolute silence, a vacuum of sound and energy where time seemed to stand still. And then, the Stage 2 Arbor Guardian exploded into a shower of energy particles, and shards of charred wood flew in every direction.
The shockwave was so powerful that it swept the sludge from the chamber and hurled all the players against the walls, but Lohan’s residual protection ensured that no one suffered fatal damage.
[Congratulations to Astralis Requiem for conquering the First Level 15 Dungeon!]
[The Level 15 Dungeon Master has been defeated!]
[Experience Gained: +50,000!]
The golden notifications shone on the cave ceiling, but the group barely had time to celebrate.
Moments after the victory message appeared, the five minutes of the Stellar Cry expired.
The stellar halos above everyone’s heads shattered into gray dust, and an overwhelming sense of heaviness and exhaustion struck each player like a hammer.
Alice fell to her knees, barely able to support her own weight; Dylan, who had just stood up, leaned on his spear, breathing short and shakily, while the other players were just as badly off as they were.
The 15% penalty to their stats began to drain the color from everyone’s faces, leaving them in a state of weakness that, though uncomfortable, did not hide the smiles on anyone’s face there.
Lisa collapsed heavily onto all fours, her tongue hanging out and her white fur mottled with ash.
Lohan, reduced to a pale blue, almost translucent sphere on her back, felt his biomass reserves hit the reserve level. He had spent everything to ensure that no other scout would die in that final chamber, so, ignoring his weakness, he forced himself to command the clones to quickly digest the boss’s corpse.
The corpses of the other monsters had long since been digested during the battle, leaving this monster as the only source of biomass available to him now.
Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind, filling him with excitement.
’This is my first time digesting a boss, right?’
Despite the pain, extreme exhaustion, and weakness that now made the group as slow and feeble as if they’d dropped several levels, the silence of the cave was broken by a faint sound that soon turned into a chorus.
Dee began to laugh, a hoarse, weary laugh, as he looked at the wounded arm that Grant was finishing bandaging despite his weakness.
Tunder and Palana sat on the floor, tapping their staffs in silent celebration, while Alice looked at the spot where the Boss had been and then at Lisa and Lohan, with a broad, victorious smile.
"We... huff... we really did it..." Alice gasped, wiping the sweat and dust from his face.
Dylan staggered over to the remains of Richard and VonB, which were now beginning to dissipate into light as the dungeon system processed their elimination from the raid. He gave a brief bow.
They would be rescued by the system and respawn outside the dungeon, but their sacrifice would be shared by all of Astralis.
Lohan vibrated his membrane subtly, feeling the residual heat from the Boss’s digestion.
His biomass reservoir was slowly being replenished, but the mental satisfaction of having coordinated that victory was a fuel superior to any nutrient.
He looked at Lisa, and through the symbiotic link, he felt her pride overflowing.
"Tbh... I think I might get addicted to this feeling..." Lohan transmitted, his mental voice carrying a tone of weary amusement.
Lisa let out a snort that was half laughter, half sigh of relief, not even knowing what to say to this kid.
The group remained there, sitting amid the wreckage of what had been the greatest challenge of their lives so far.
They were weak and wounded, and would have to endure fifteen minutes of vulnerability before they could safely make their way out of there, but no one cared.
They had conquered a level 15 dungeon before all the other billions of players and etched the name Astralis Requiem at the top of the global rankings with the blood and effort of each and every one of them.
As the light from the victory notifications began to fade, leaving the chamber in a peaceful twilight, Lohan gazed at the seed of power they had planted.
The Stellar Weep might have ended, but the brilliance of the Astralis Requiem guild was only just beginning to rise in the sky of Elysium.
And he, the little Slime from the Lower Zone, felt an immense sense of pride as he looked at those faces, once strangers to him, but now burning with camaraderie and passion just as much as he did.