Facing down the djinni

"It's strange that we haven't come across a single boss this entire time." Aethane pushes around another pile of gold coins with her foot, all that remains of the golem that stood in your way a moment ago. "Between the salamander, various djinn, golems, bugs, and that giant fire-breathing lizard the place certainly doesn't lack for monsters, and she's above our level."

"You know, I never really thought about it at the time, since I always just figured that every dungeon was designed differently by the admins to keep things interesting, but that is strange." Selena picks up the treasure scattered across the room, then drinks from the mana fountain that the beast was guarding. "There's always some similarities: for example, these fountains are just like the ones you have, but I don't think I've been in any two dungeons that were totally alike. Maybe it's just the dungeon boss' personalities and choices at play?"

"I don't think I ever really intentionally chose the way my dungeon ended up being." You ponder the situation, never really having thought about it before. "I've never been to another dungeon with floor bosses like mine, whereas for me it was just sort of given as an option when I ranked up."

"Maybe it's all customized to your choices?" Selena scratches her chin and then points at you with a look of inspiration. "Say, you had delegated to monsters way before you had proper floor bosses, right? I remember that from my first raid. I remember thinking that was really unusual at the time: most bosses like to retain a bit more personal control at that size."

"Looks like another staircase, figure we're getting to the end of this place?" This time you wait for Selena to head in front and check the area for traps, the adventurer being the only one with any particular specialty in invading dungeons. "And yeah, I didn't really have much of a choice: once the goblins signed on there were just too many underlings running about to manage, and my champions stuck with me."

"These monsters have been far too high-level for what they ought to be given your dungeon. Romie's even more so: I have no idea how high level she even is at this point, but her minions aren't any stronger than yours." Aethane ponders for a moment, then gives a satisfied nod. "That must be it. The djinni here probably focused on a few powerful minions, and ended up with a dungeon which matches that sort of style. You focused on delegation, and combined with your wizard's tower theme ended up with the split levels. Romie ruled over a horde of kobolds like a queen or a god, and ended up with a fortress. Say, if I still had a dungeon under this new system, I wonder what it would look like."

"Well, what did your old one look like?" Sera idly joins in while she walks down the steps, this time making no complaint towards Selena's careful leadership.

"A tribe of of frost elves first summoned me from the winter court. It was almost like a small town, just underground. I suppose I'd be a baroness or something according to the way towns organize themselves."

"Well, maybe you'd still have a dungeon like the Wyrm's, then? Sounds the same to me. Maybe you'd give adventurers quests and such like a real town." The angel brightens up and turns back to look ahead. "Say, Sel, how common is that anyways? Monsters giving quests?"

"It's pretty rare, although not unheard of. Usually it's associated with some sort of event: the Orcs are going to war with the Centaurs and want you to pick a side, or something. But hey, maybe not enough monsters have tried it out yet? I can see why most wouldn't really aspire to it, given that the main relationship you have with adventurers is having your door kicked in."

"Well, you certainly wasted no time." An imperious voice comes out of the doorway below, and when you reach the bottom you see Sahr'rhazad lying on an indulgently-upholstered couch of red and purple silk. "I myself only got home just over a day ago. I'm not sure whether I should be flattered, offended, or charmed. Did you consider me that much of a threat, or did you just want to see me again?" She slowly and carefully rises to her feet, the crisscrossing red fabrics that make up her clothing sliding over her body as she moves. "I have to say, I'm impressed." She motions to the wall near where you came in, and you step through the door to see Ari's group in a fierce battle against Alastra's party. "I didn't expect your champions to hold up so well against Alastra. Perhaps her boasts of nearly taking your whole group singlehandedly in Fairweather Bay were a bit overstated? Well, I'm sure it will be over soon enough regardless. We could wait for her to join us, but wouldn't it be much more fun if we got started without her?"

The contender claps her hands and the room rumbles, piles of treasure in the corners coalescing into four gold golems. Sera leaps over to one of the forming constructs, slashing at it with her sword, while Selena begins to gather a storm cloud at the top of the vaulted room. You step back towards the door, launching a volley of firebolts at the unoccupied golem to your left, and Aethane advances on the djinni while a sheet of ice covers her body. Sahr'rhazad laughs and claps a second time, her hands lighting on fire as they connect, then begins an intricate dance. She spins around in circles on one foot, then the other, the countless strips of fabric that make up her outfit lifting up and spinning with her, making her seem much larger than she really is. Her flaming hands seem to blur until the djinni is little more than a swirling vortex of fire. The wolf woman facing her starts a solemn battle chant and raises her shield, and you feel yourself toughen as the strange words wash over you.

The golem in front of you roars as it finishes coming together and wastes no time in charging at you. You launch a barrage of rays of golden flame before rolling out of the way as it crashes past, the huge construct unable to adjust its speed in time to match you. Selena ducks past it as well and then holds her hands to the sky, channelling crackling bolts of lightning from her hands into the dark clouds above. The storm clouds begin to spark with electricity and roll with thunder, then a huge bolt strikes the recovering golem with a point of your stormsoul ally's crackling finger, blasting off one of its arms. You follow with a fireball which blasts off its other arm, finishing it off with a round of golden bolts while Selena pours more and more electricity into her cloud. A roar catches your attention a moment later, and you turn just in time to dodge the next arriving golem.

Sera grunts across the room as another golem joins the one she's already fighting. The battle angel ducks and sways around the fists of the sluggish automaton, hacking with her sword and lashing with her whip at every chance she gets. Aethane can do little but cower behind her shield as her opponent lets out a barrage of flaming punches and kicks against the icy barrier, a cloud of snow forming around her from the shattering impacts. You begin to channel a flame strike above her, but the dancing djinni effortlessly spins out of the way as the pillar forms, the completed spell simply incinerating the floor where she stood a moment ago. Aethane uses the brief pause in the contender's **** to channel another layer of ice over her defences, then touches her mace to the ground to extend a glossy sheet of perfectly smooth ice across the centre of the floor. Sahr'rhazad suddenly spirals out of control and crashes to the ground, leaping up into a crouch with an impressed grin as she eyes the priestess across from her.

You duck again as the golem you're engaged with takes another clumsy swipe at you, blasting its back with half a dozen rays of fire as it recovers from its swing. Across the room there's a crackle and crash as Selena brings down repeated lightning strikes from her gathered clouds, crashing down nearly a minute of accumulated power on Sera's opponents, pulverizing one of them into an explosion of coins and knocking a hole in the side of the other. The angel uses the opening to hack the head off of the staggered golem in a powerful strike, the black blade leaving a smoking wound before the golem crumbles into its constituent parts as well. Sahr'rhazad simply watches from her crouch, an amused grin on her face, as you finish off the last golem with another flame strike.

Seeing her minions smashed on the ground, the djinni claps her hands. Smoke starts to pour out of the coins where the golems once stood, the clouds materializing into four marids. Aethane runs across the ice as if it isn't there, mace raised to strike the ringleader, but the contender effortlessly begins her dance of **** once again, a second ring of fire surrounding her as her feet light aflame as well. Two jets of water strike you in the chest, knocking you back, as the two marids next to you unleash their ****: unlike your last opponents they're fast, nimble, and not easily dodged. Sera winces as one of the marids next to her slashes her with a watery sabre, even the experienced angel too slow to reliably dodge their strikes. Selena releases more and more of her electricity into the cloud, but suddenly a wave of fire shoots her way: the boss kicks out a stream of firebolts from her spinning feet as her hands unleash another **** on your priestess' stalwart defence.

You launch a fireball directly at your feet, the roar of divine flame scorching the two water djinn, then toss back a mana potion as they batter you with jets of pressurized water in response. Sera slashes one of her opponents in two, then is swept off her feet by a huge wave from her other opponent and slams into the wall with a sickening crunch. Aethane groans in pain as one kick then another finds its way past her defence, the lead djinni leaving no openings for a counterattack.

"Any day now, Selena?" You groan as a watery scimitar catches your shoulder after the call, one of the marids now keeping you from casting spells while the other still barrages you. The crackling behind you gets more intense, then a huge boom silences the world, the marids seeming to stop in place. You turn to see another huge bolt of lightning, this one sent up from Selena, gather in the clouds, then a shockwave tosses you against the wall as massive bolts strike all of your opponents, instantly vaporizing the three remaining marids. Sahr'rhazad crunches into the far wall and falls to the floor, then stands, clutching her side with a pained laugh.

"Hah, sorceress, not bad, not bad. Perhaps I recruited the wrong adventurer. Well, no sense dwelling on the past." She claps her hands a third time, and this time the fire creeps up her arms, eventually turning her entire body into a roaring flame, a fire elemental in the vague shape of a woman. Selena cries out in surprise and pain as she's skewered by two obsidian tridents, then collapses forward, utterly exhausted from her spells and mortally wounded by the newest minions. Aethane chants and a huge pyramid of ice materializes around her, suspending her in a frosty prison, her wounds slowly starting to mend as your priestess turns back to confront her foe.

Seeing their target protected and taken out of the fight, the two salamanders turn, one sliding towards you with spear raised as the other bears down on the angel desperately chugging down a healing potion across the room. Two efreeti form from the smoke pouring from their mistress and join the fray, sliding towards you and your angel with volleys of fire as you gather a roiling cloud of flames above the salamander bearing down on you.

Just before the fiery lizard can reach you it lets out a pained hiss as four arrows appear in its neck; one is frozen, one emanates a green miasma, and the other two glow with raw magic. The other salamander lets out a surprised growl as tentacles from a tear in reality wrap around it, and Sera lets out a yell of triumph and stabs it in its scaly stomach. The fiery dungeon boss lets out a roar of anger and leaps clear over the icy priestess and towards you, but a snowy whip curls around her leg and pulls her crashing towards the ground, Ari already waiting for her with frosty sword held at the ready. Flames roar as the icy blade slashes once, twice, thrice through its incorporeal foe, and three more arrows finish off the djinni, her remaining minions falling a moment later.

"About time!" You laugh and walk up to Ari sweep her up in a hug, the ex-adventurer wearing a satisfied grin on her face.

"Well, what can I say; you said you wanted it to look real."

"And real it looked: for all I know, Sahr still doesn't know Alastra and her friends have betrayed her, although that won't last much longer. I was honestly worried we were about to go down before you showed up: she wasn't level 49 for no reason. Speaking of which, doing alright, Selena?" The adventurer groans in response, pouring the red contents of a small phial down her lips as Aethane patches up her wounds. "Well, time to get to work: we should find that crystal before she's back."

"You mean this crystal?" Ari pulls a large, blue crystal out of her pocket, her grin widening.

"Well, guess we have an hour or so to kill until they all respawn. Any ideas on how to kill the time?"

"I can think of a few," Ari briefly claims your lips. "How mad do you think she'll be if we use her throne?"

"Well, only one way to find out!"