To be fair to the dragon, Chloe honestly couldn’t judge it too hard for still moving around without its heads attached. She was very familiar with the concept herself at this point, considering she’d spent some amount of time surviving while technically missing important body parts too. She still had some sort of fond memories of when she ran away from that fire mage guy in that cave a long time ago.
So really, the giant undead skeletal dragon refusing to die properly was probably just, as Mom used to say, par for the course. But that still left Chloe with a pretty big problem.
How am I actually supposed to kill you? she thought, dodging another massive claw swipe, the dragon’s skeletal hand barely missing her as it tore through the air where she’d just been. Chloe twisted sharply to the side as she avoided getting smacked into the wall, and her eyes immediately locked back onto the giant black crystal glowing inside the creature’s ribcage.
Common sense told her the answer was obvious, just destroy the crystal. That giant creepy thing was clearly the core keeping the dragon moving, and if she shattered it, the fight would probably end instantly. But Chloe wasn’t here to destroy the crystal, she was here to take it.
And that meant blowing it up would be very bad. Potentially extremely awkward too if she came all this way only to accidentally vaporize the thing she was supposed to collect. Wait a minute, I think I got an idea.
“Oh my god,” she whispered excitedly, “I’m actually a genius.”
Another claw came swinging toward her, but this time Chloe ducked beneath it and shot forward instead of away, flying directly toward the dragon’s exposed ribcage. The giant bones rushed past her as she slipped between the gaps, weaving through the skeletal frame until she was hovering right beside the massive black crystal pulsing inside.
Up close, the thing looked even bigger, dark energy slowly rolling off its surface in waves. Chloe stretched a hand at it. Moment of truth.
She closed her eyes for just a second, focusing as magic surged through her body again, pressure building around her hand. Then, Chloe opened her eyes and said the magic words. “Divine Pull.”
The moment Chloe activated Divine Pull, dark energy burst outward from the black crystal as it shook violently inside the dragon’s ribcage, and then, with a horrible cracking sound, the surrounding bones started to give way. The dragon’s ribs bent and snapped apart one by one as the crystal tore itself free.
The crystal ripped completely out of the dragon’s chest, surging straight toward her outstretched hand. Chloe immediately turned and flew away as fast as she could, holding the giant black crystal. Well… “holding” it was maybe kind of a strong word.
Technically, the crystal was stuck to her hand because of the magic pulling it toward her, but the thing was almost the size of her entire body, so it wasn’t like she could casually tuck it under one arm or anything. Instead, she ended up awkwardly flying through the air while dragging this giant floating evil rock beside her.
The crystal pulsed suddenly. A deep, heavy throb of dark energy exploded out from it. “Uh oh.”
The force instantly knocked Chloe out of the air. She yelped as both she and the crystal came crashing down toward the ground, slamming into the stone floor hard before tumbling across it together. Chloe rolled end over end while the giant crystal bounced and scraped beside her, both of them tearing across the chamber floor before finally skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust.
Chloe groaned softly after the fact. “Ugh…”
She slowly pushed herself upright as she shook her head a few times, trying to get her thoughts back in order. The giant crystal was still attached to her hand, being all evil and such.
All Chloe could really do now was hope that ripping the crystal out of the dragon actually counted as killing it somehow, because if it didn’t, then that would be super annoying. So, it was about time for the moment of truth.
Chloe slowly let go of the giant black crystal and immediately looked back toward the massive skeletal dragon. Come on, just stay dead! Or uh, stay not undead? Dunno how that works exactly.
Its giant body suddenly lurched forward as it started charging straight toward her. Somehow, despite losing both heads and the crystal from its chest, the thing actually looked more energetic now, moving with wild jerking motions as dark energy leaked from inside its now empty ribcage.
Chloe immediately stumbled backward and raised both hands as magic surged around her again, a massive fireball rapidly building between her palms. She was not going to lose to some headless dragon after all, so she was more than ready to blast the thing to dust if she had to.
But as the dragon got closer, Chloe noticed how parts of its body were falling apart. She squinted as she toned down the fireball a little. Bones were cracking loose from the creature’s body, pieces of its ribs snapping away and crashing onto the floor while its movements became a lot more shaky.
The dragon staggered again. Its spine twisted sharply, one wing collapsing inward while entire chunks of bone broke away from its body. Dark energy spilled out from the empty ribcage in unstable bursts as the creature shook more violently, like something inside it was finally giving out.
Chloe slowly lowered her hands as she looked around the chamber, only now realizing that the rest of the undead were collapsing too. Skeletal soldiers dropped where they stood, their bodies crumbling apart into piles of bones, while the archers fell apart mid-step and gargoyles rained down from the ceiling one after another.
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Even Z looked briefly confused by what was happening. She had just finished driving a punch straight through a skeletal knight’s head, but the entire undead knight instantly turned to dust around her fist and scattered across the floor.
Meanwhile, the dragon itself took one last heavy step toward Chloe before its massive skeletal body finally gave out completely. The creature shuddered, bones cracking and splitting apart as dark energy leaked from its empty ribcage, and then the enormous undead dragon collapsed onto the floor with a deafening crash.
[You have killed: Necrotyrant Dragon (Level 94)]
[Experience Awarded]
[You have leveled up! 1 >> 5]
[Strength +25, Speed +22, Vitality +61, Magic +69, Resistance +27]
[4 Trait Points Awarded]
Chloe immediately threw both hands into the air, her wings flaring slightly as a huge grin spread across her face. “Yay!”
Sure, she hadn’t gotten as many levels from the fight as she would’ve liked, which was honestly kinda lame considering she had just fought a giant undead two-headed dragon, but wow, the thing had dropped a ridiculous amount of trait points. It was basically giving her one trait point per level, which felt generous and immediately made her forgive the dragon a little for trying to chew on her earlier.
A moment later, Z approached her from across the chamber, stepping over scattered bones and fading piles of dust left behind by the collapsed undead army. “Is the dragon finally defeated for good?”
Chloe turned toward her and immediately patted the giant black crystal beside her with both hands. “Yep! And I even managed to snag this bad boy over here.”
Z nodded. “Then how exactly do we leave this dungeon?”
“Oh, that part’s easy, there should be a portal popping out any second now…”
Almost immediately after she said it, the entire chamber began to rumble. Chunks of loose bone shifted across the floor as the dragon’s skeletal remains started shaking violently. Both Chloe and Z watched as the giant pile of bones slowly lifted off the ground. The remains twisted unnaturally, fragments of ribs and spine pulling together as dark energy gathered in the center, reshaping the massive corpse into a huge circular structure suspended in the air. Then, with a low humming sound, purple light burst to life inside it as a swirling portal formed within the ring of dragon bones.
Chloe immediately pointed at it. “Well, there you go!”
Z looked down at the massive black crystal for a moment, then back at Chloe. “How exactly are we transporting that? Surely you are not planning to drag it through the portal manually.”
“Nah,” Chloe said immediately, waving a hand. “I’m just gonna put it inside Cloaky.”
Z blinked once, then slowly looked between Chloe and the crystal again. “And how do you intend to fit something that large inside your cloak?”
“Don't worry, just watch me Z!"
Chloe walked right up to the giant crystal and placed both hands against its surface, patting it lightly. “Alright, Cloaky, help me store the weird evil rock.”
It took a few seconds, but Cloaky eventually got to work. The fabric stretched outward unnaturally as Cloaky widened and expanded. A moment later, shadowy red hands burst outward, dozens of them unfolding as they reached toward the crystal.
Z watched silently as the hands grabbed onto the massive black crystal from every side, and then they pulled. The shadows dragged the crystal inward piece by piece, the enormous object slowly sinking into the cloak. Dark energy rolled off the crystal while the hands strained and twisted around it, forcing the giant object deeper inside until, with one final tug, the entire thing vanished completely. Cloaky shrank back down afterward like nothing had happened.
Chloe proudly placed her hands on her hips. “See? Easy.”
***
Once storing the crystal was done, Chloe and Z stepped through the glowing purple portal together. The swirling energy wrapped around them for a brief moment before the world shifted, and suddenly they were standing back at the entrance of the dungeon again. Only this time, someone was waiting for them.
A familiar woman wearing a mask stood nearby as she watched them emerge from the portal. Chloe immediately perked up and waved both hands enthusiastically. “Hiya, Iris!”
Iris approached them at a steady pace, her gaze briefly moving over Chloe before settling on Cloaky. “I assume you retrieved the crystal?”
Chloe puffed herself up proudly and patted the front of her cloak. “Yep! Got it all here safe and sound.”
“Good,” Iris said with a small nod.
Then her attention shifted toward Z. “Ah, you must be the angel.”
Z lowered her head politely. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Guildmaster Iris.”
That earned a soft laugh from Iris. “Funny, I don’t believe we’ve met before.”
“My apologies, we have not met each other before. However, I reviewed available information regarding you beforehand, which is how I recognized you.”
Chloe glanced between them for a second, immediately deciding that was an extremely Z thing to say. Surprisingly, Iris didn’t really react to it much. She simply accepted the explanation. “So then, are you ready to begin? It’s finally time to move on and get started on meeting Ishgria.”
“Duh, let’s go save my Mom!”
“Wait, before we do anything, I need to verify something,” Z said.
Chloe immediately walked right up beside her and tilted her head. “Uh, what’s the problem?”
“I… have a bad feeling, that is all.”
That definitely sounded ominous, which immediately made Chloe curious too. She watched as Z magically pulled out a phone out of thin air, except it wasn’t one of those sleek smartphones she remembered. No, this thing looked more like something Mom would use, when Mom was a lot younger.
It was one of those old flip phones with actual buttons on it, the kind Chloe was pretty sure belonged in a museum somewhere. The thing even made a little snapping sound when Z flipped it open.
Chloe stared at it for a second before looking back up at Z with complete disbelief. “Wait. Are you seriously about to make a phone call with that thing?”
Z pressed a few buttons. “No. I am checking my messages.”
“Hold on, you actually get cell service here?”
“I have my ways. And also, I don't remember you questioning whether or not my laptop got a signal either."
"Well… okay, fair."
Chloe decided not to question it too hard because at this point she was pretty sure Z could somehow get a signal inside the void between dimensions if she really wanted to. So instead, Chloe just shrugged and watched Z tap away at the tiny buttons on her flip phone.
A few seconds later, Z suddenly stopped. Then, she looked at Chloe and Iris with a serious look in her eyes. “I am afraid Tartarus is currently being acquired by Divinity Inc.”