"The next boss is the Spider Royal Guard. Be wary of his speed as he is extremely fast. However, his health is much lower than the Spider Tyrant." Jonas said.

[I can probably hinder his speed with my ice magic.] s.h.i.+ro suggested as ice was primarily used to crowd control a situation.

"That's good then. This boss should be quite easy for us. "Jonas nodded in relief.

So far, they have cleared 2 challenges and 1 boss. No losses were sustained, yet.

Taking a moment to discuss the formations, Jonas made sure everyone was prepared both mentally and physically.

After a quick briefing, they walked towards the ravine that laid between the platform and the palace.

There was a rotational switch of sorts as he grabbed it and turned it in a clockwise motion. The more he twisted, the lower the crystals went. A bridge was slowly being constructed with the main material of the bridge being rocks, spider webs and mana threading everything together.

Crossing the bridge carefully, they arrived at the palace doors.

[Do you think there's a chest here or something?] s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Maybe, but at this point, we're just hoping to kill the next boss. Depending on what happens, we might end the raid earlier than expected." Jonas replied. They only had one life. If their firepower didn't cut it, then there was no point risking such a dangerous endeavour.

s.h.i.+ro nodded as that was the right decision to make. Risking the lives of party members made for a bad leader. Especially since they knew they couldn't defeat the boss.

*CRRRRR

The doors of the palace slowly opened as there was a giant hall in their view.

The palace itself was made from a weird hardened mucus type material as it gave the palace a very, insectoid feel to it.

*BANG!

The door closed as the party walked forwards.

In front of them, the Spider Royal Guard stood. Rather than a spider, it was more of a cross between man and spider.

It was around 3 meters tall, a hulking physique, black armour, 4 pairs of eyes and 4 pairs of legs sticking out of his back.

[Spider Royal Guard LVL 20 - Raid Boss]

HP: 200,000/200,000

MP: 700,000/700,000

"Remember! Keep your guard up, protect the healers and most of all, KILL THIS F*CKER!" Jonas shouted as he and the tankers charged forwards.

The royal guard grabbed two of his legs off as he hardened them up into swords.

*CLANG!!!!

Two tankers charged forwards and blocked the strike.

Grinning with disdain, the royal guard adjusted his grip on the swords and moved the tankers s.h.i.+elds away.

'Dangerous!' s.h.i.+ro thought as she quickly flicked her wrist. Two ice s.h.i.+eld erupted out from the ground as it blocked the royal guard's legs from cutting the tankers.

It didn't last long, but just enough for them to pull back.

"Thanks!" They shouted out towards s.h.i.+ro. They were grateful to have such a reliable teammate in the party as it increased their chances of survival.

s.h.i.+ro nodded as she slammed her palm into the ground.

The royal guard crouched down and used his legs to propel himself to the roof.

s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes seeing this as it would be annoying to try to freeze him. The royal guard could move faster than the rate of which her ice froze the area.

She could cover the entire room but the raid team would die also.

[Unless I freeze the entire room, I won't be able to restrain him. I'll act as support his round.] s.h.i.+ro typed out to Jonas.

"Alright. You support the healers and the damage when you can." Jonas nodded.

*BANG!

The royal guard pushed off the roof as it caused cracks to form.

3 swordsman's dashed forwards and used double cut.

Twisting his body, the royal guard dodged the blades as he was about to attack once more.

*BANG!

An ice pillar hit his stomach as it pushed him back.

He glared at s.h.i.+ro seeing that she ruined his guarantee kills.

"Fuuu…." s.h.i.+ro breathed out as a snowflake-like pattern, made from ice, spread out from her. This would allow her to create ice anywhere in the room without needing to be within a certain distance.

"AVOID THE ICE WHEN YOU ATTACK!" Jonas shouted out as he knew they needed this to survive.

Therefore, they had to be the ones to compromise.

The rest of the party nodded as they made sure to step in the gaps of the ice.

The royal guard was enraged as he slammed his swords into the ground. Twisting them, he wanted to send countless webs up from the ground.

'No you don't!' s.h.i.+ro thought as she could tell where the webs were coming from due to the crack in the ground.

Swiping her arm, ice-covered those openings and blocked the webs.

The royal guard glared at s.h.i.+ro as his aggro was s.h.i.+fted to her.

Seeing that s.h.i.+ro was mostly along without support around her, Jonas' pupils shrank.

"SH*T! HELP HER!" He shouted.

However, it was too late as the boss was already in front of s.h.i.+ro.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom - Illusionary Phantom.

s.h.i.+fting her body behind the royal guard, she grabbed one of the legs and narrowed her eyes.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom - Counter Weight Phantom.

Twisting her body, she swiped at the royal guard's legs and lifted him over her shoulders.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 4th Phantom - Internal Feasting Phantom!

*BOOM!!!!!

She slammed the royal guard's body into the ground as she sent the shock through its entire body, damaging the internals.

Kicking off the royal guard's body, s.h.i.+ro created ice on the joints to hinder it.

The rest of the party was speechless as they just watched a 13 year old girl, move, flip and smash the royal guard in one swift moment.

Flicking her wrist, s.h.i.+ro made a sword above the royal guard and slammed it into the joints.

Making a trail of ice under her, she retreated a safe distance before drinking an MP potion.

"What are you dipsh*ts doing! F*cking hit it!!!" s.h.i.+ro shouted out as her frustration grew. She had no choice but to push her injured body to use the Yin Style Phantom Arts back to back since the boss aggroed to her. Each subsequence use of the Yin Style Phantom Arts would strain the body, especially the 4th phantom and 5th phantom.

With that single use of the 4th phantom, her right arm was occupying most of her mind with the pain.

However, unfortunately for her, her voice couldn't be heard as they only saw her irritated face and wordless echoes.

Jonas was the first one to snap out of it as he readied his weapon.

"BOMB IT!!" He shouted out as his voice reverberated through the room. The rest of the party dashed towards the downed royal guards hoping to get as much damage in as possible.

Stabilizing herself from the pain, s.h.i.+ro looked over at the boss.

"URAHHH!!!" A hollowed scream rang out as the boss pushed the adventurer's away.

The force from his aura exploding out caused slight cuts to the lucky ones and mid to deep lacerations to the unlucky few.

"SILVIA HEAL!" Jonas shouted out.

"ALREADY ON IT!" Silvia shouted back.

Meanwhile, the boss had his eyes fixated on s.h.i.+ro.

'd.a.m.n, I pulled the aggro too hard…' She thought with a frown.

"Fine then big boy. Let's play." s.h.i.+ro grinned as she made a spear with the ice and twirled it with her left arm.

The boss charged towards her as it swung the two blades in his hands.

Kicking the end of her staff, s.h.i.+ro sent it towards the boss who smacked it away.

In the time it took to do this, s.h.i.+ro was already in front of it with another 4 spears aimed at his eyes.

*CLING CLING CLING CLING!

Armour dropped down from behind as it s.h.i.+elded his eyes.

Pivoting on her foot, s.h.i.+ro jumped on the bosses legs and landed on his shoulder.

Crouching down, s.h.i.+ro slammed her palm into the shoulder and ice stabbed towards the helmet.

*BANG!

The helmet was forcefully pushed away as s.h.i.+ro dashed towards the head. Stomping down on the head to get herself a better footing, she plunged her hand into the eyes.

*PUCHI!

Ripping the eye out, s.h.i.+ro avoided his claw as she jumped off the body.

The royal guard had green blood dripping out of his eye sockets as he gritted his teeth.

Crus.h.i.+ng the eye, s.h.i.+ro made a s.a.d.i.s.tic grin and gestured towards the boss with disdain.

"That all you got?"

It was about to attack her again when fireb.a.l.l.s struck its back.

*CRR!!!

Seeing the boss turn his back to her, s.h.i.+ro sent out more ice pillars as they served as restraints.

The bosses rage shot through the roof as he was getting hit from multiple directions.

Deep red aura flared from him as Jonas frowned.

"GET BACK! HE'S GETTING ENRAGED!"

Ignoring this, s.h.i.+ro dashed towards the boss and went under his legs.

"Since you're already infatuated with this miss, doesn't matter if I increase it a little right?" She grinned as ice spears were forming around her.

Seeing this, Lyrica already knew what was going to happen.

"URAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A shouted filled with pain and anguish rang out as his deep red aura dispersed.

"…."

"…."

"…."

Everyone was speechless seeing this.

"Did… did she just dispel the bosses enrage by stabbing it in the a.s.s?" An adventurer asked the same question in everyone's mind.

The royal guard who had an alarming amount of spears pierce his rear could only shake as his movements were hindered greatly.

"Heh, one of the greatest weakness of living beings." s.h.i.+ro said unable to hold back her grin.

The rest of the fight was rather easy since the boss couldn't abuse his speed due to… a certain girl.

In this end, s.h.i.+ro managed to rack up a contribution of 39.5% shocking the team. However, they knew she earned it as she solo tanked the entire time, even though she was a mage.

Lyrica on the other hand, managed to get a 5% contribution. This, however, was mostly due to her taking the advantage and hitting the ice spears that were present in the bosses rear.

[Nice job Lyrica.] s.h.i.+ro praised as Lyrica did well to take advantage of the weakness she created.

"Thanks. But s.h.i.+ro. What is it with you and stabbing monster's b.u.t.ts?" Lyrica asked with a bitter face.

[Well, it's a good weakness. Enough firepower and size and you can hinder their capabilities by quite a bit through stabbing the a.n.u.s.] s.h.i.+ro said bluntly.

"But why do you look like you enjoy it a lot?" Lyrica asked. Every time s.h.i.+ro stabbed a monster's a.s.s, she had this s.a.d.i.s.tic expression on the whole time.

s.h.i.+ro only shrugged as seeing the monster's struggle made her feel a little giddy inside.

[Don't worry about it. More importantly, congrats on levelling up again.] s.h.i.+ro smiled. The EXP gained from killing a raid boss was many times more than that of normal monsters.

With just killing two, Lyrica managed to level up twice leaving her at level 17. Naturally, this could also be attributed to the fact that her contributions were rather high.

As for s.h.i.+ro, her 39% contributions allowed her to level up to level 29. Distributing her points, s.h.i.+ro smiled know that she was a step closer to her 2 ★ advancement test.

[Name: s.h.i.+ro (Weakened 2 days, 5hrs)

Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)

t.i.tle: Shadow Empress

Level: 29

Cla.s.s: Snow Girl★, Nanomancer

HP: 5700/5700 (True Value 17,000)

MP: 29,100/29,100

STR: 150 -> 200 (+85)

VIT: 200 (+70)

INT: 300 -> 350 (+140)

AGI: 240 -> 300 (+75)

DEX: 200 -> 240 (+40)

DEF: 80 (+135)

<> = t.i.tle Bonus

Una.s.signed Points: 0

Balance: 30,300 USD

Equipment (Tap to Display)

Skills -

Snow Girl ★:

Tier 2 Ice magic, Pa.s.sive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.

Nanomancer:

Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation.

Other:

Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]

With her MP just below the 30k mark, s.h.i.+ro wasn't able to unlock her bow creation just yet.

[Say Lyrica, if you're the party leader right now what would you choose. To go ahead and do the last challenge and the last 2 bosses or quit while your ahead?]

"Hmm… I would quit while I'm ahead since everyone is tired. The raid so far has taken a toll on us and without a good night's rest. We won't be in top form to challenge the next ones." Lyrica said as she could tell from that last fight, that everyone was reaching their absolute limits.

s.h.i.+ro nodded as what Lyrica said was correct.

[But you forgot another option. We can camp in the dungeon.] s.h.i.+ro smiled.

"But isn't it dangerous?"

[Yes, but not in the boss room. The boss room is safe as the boss had occupied this area. Once we kill the boss, this place is open for camping.]

"ALRIGHT! Everyone get the tents out! We're camping for tonight. We'll take night s.h.i.+fts and fight the boss tomorrow." Jonas shouted out as s.h.i.+ro smiled.

[See? Come on. We're going share a tent so let's build it ourselves.] s.h.i.+ro typed out as Lyrica nodded with a blush.

'Sharing tents? With s.h.i.+ro? What if I roll over onto her or her onto me?!' Lyrica thought as her blush deepened.

"…"

s.h.i.+ro decided to leave a note telling Lyrica to help her when she snapped out of it.

Walking away, s.h.i.+ro started to set up the tent.