The Naga Shaman was hopelessly outmatched, Karl thought as he moved to surround the creature, letting Corbin take the front, while he and Thor took opposite sides. It was six Commander Rank attackers, including the Golems, and one Royal Rank mage against a single Commander Rank Shaman, but the creature didn't seem as concerned as Karl thought it should.

Instead, it surrounded itself with a vortex of water, forcing Karl and the beasts back, then created water tornados that moved erratically around the platform.

Hawk saw that the attacks were only about six metres tall, so he took off from Thor's back and began to bombard the Shaman inside, while the others hurled spells at its protective barrier while dodging the swirling water attacks.

The entire battle was chaos, with everyone running around, attacking the spirits when they got in the way, as the three Awakened Rank members couldn't control them all, and doing their best to land a hit on the Shaman.

The spell would fluctuate with every attack from Corbin, but it wasn't falling, and Karl was unable to tell how effective Hawk's fireball attacks were.

Darryl failed to notice an attack and was hurled most of the way across the platform before catching himself on one of Thor's horns to prevent being thrown down the cliff on the far side.

He wasn't seriously injured, but he was now surrounded by a water barrier that was slowing his actions, and threatened to leave him in the path of more vortexes.

Then one of Karl's strikes managed to cut a notch in the protective spell, leaving the Naga momentarily visible. The next attacks by Corbin and Alice did the same, and they were back in the fight as the barrier fell.

The Spider Golems were on the back of the Shaman the second the barrier fell, and Karl noticed that there was still a faint water barrier over the Naga, which had been whittled away by Hawk's dedicated efforts.

Having to go through those two barriers, one after another, would have sucked, and Hawk had saved them a lot of headache, with the Shaman now hurling offensive spells at them, both water and Ice Magic types.

It was definitely Commander Rank in maximum power, but it didn't seem to run out of mana, and it just wouldn't die.

Over the course of the next minute, the Shaman was hit dozens of times while its barrier was down, and while it was bleeding heavily, it was still fighting. They were doing damage, that was clear, and it wasn't healing unnaturally quickly, but it just wouldn't die.

It was beginning to slow down, and the spells were coming more infrequently, but Karl got the feeling that this was not the end, but the buildup to a larger attack. So, when the creature's mana surged, his first instinct was to order everyone back.

"Big attack coming." He called, unsure what it would look like.

The mana buildup turned into a surge of water, first spiking out, then rotating around the room in curved waves.

Karl began to move, avoiding the waves, which were pulling away from the Naga Shaman as they travelled.

He could see everyone going in, but Hawk and Rae were both thinking the same thing.

[Trap]

"Get clear of the waves, then back away. It's a trap." Karl called as the Naga sent out a shotgun blast of ice pellets around itself.

Karl tanked it with Flame Body, while Alice and the other Commanders absorbed it with their shields. The Awakened Rank fighters hit the ground to get under the attack, while Rae used her golems as a shield and Thor turned his head down so it didn't hit his eyes.

Then the Spider Golems were on the Shaman's back again, and Karl drove his blade deep into the creature's belly as Corbin leapt over him to go for the creature's throat.

The Naga Shaman fell into a slumped pile of coiled body, with its arms toward Corbin in one last desperate attempt to grab and strangle him.

"Well, that went as well as expected. Are there any injuries?" Karl asked as he realized the monster was truly dead, and wasn't reacting to the Golems continuing to stab it.

Rae eventually called them off, and Corbin tapped the body, making it vanish, and a small pile of items appear on the floor.

Tessa stepped up to cast her identification magic, but there was one item that caught Karl's attention.

[Core of Ice]

It was a small crystal, unassuming among the dozens of other small gems, but it was one of the items Rae needed to make a concoction with the moss and crystals she had gotten earlier in the Goblin Cave.

There were multiple piles of cloth, a staff with a blue orb that looked like the one that the Shaman had been using, and an assortment of coins and gems.

Alice picked up the staff and frowned at it.

"That's odd, I can't use it. I can use water magic, though." She muttered.

Then she handed it to Dana, who also frowned and shook her head. She passed it to Lotus, whose eyes lit up with excitement.

"Oh, this is pretty good. I like this stick." She announced.

Once she realized that everyone was waiting for a description, she continued.

"It lets me use the shaman's signature water vortex spell, the wandering tornado things."

The other items were all Ascended rank cloth armour, but the fashion wasn't bad, and the enchantments on them were strong, so they were split between Dana and Rose, who were the only ones who suited the fashion. It seemed that either because it was a female shaman, or the Naga didn't have legs, the armour was created with a long skirt.

When they put the armour, which was a significant status improvement over what they were wearing, which was mostly common and Awakened grade cloth, which was all that the mage class could wear, Karl couldn't help but do a double take.

The Naga style was somewhat modest and elegant, with full flared sleeves, but covered in gold and jewels for decoration, and the robes gave them both a regal look that made them seem more like fashionable debutantes and less like students on a mission.

Rose's was shorter, and slit up one side for mobility with matching cloth pants, while Dana's hung well past her knees, but was folded in the front of the skirt like a Kimono, so it would expand as her legs moved.

"Wait, there's more." Corbin laughed as he held up one last piece of cloth.

Dana laughed as she saw it, but Karl didn't realize right away what it was. An ancient style cloth chest binding, the precursor to the modern sports bra, and it was enchanted.

Corbin was holding it out to Rose, so it must be good for her stats, but Tessa was snickering.

The Spellsword put it on, hanging the cloth over her neck to let the item equip if it was able, and her chest went as flat as a board.

"The chest binding of smooth movement. Now, isn't that better than having to wear an uncomfortable binding and having your chest in the way of your swing?" Corbin teased.

"Darryl has bigger breasts than I do in this thing, do you have any idea what that will do to my fragile pride?

If it didn't add melee range attack damage, I would trade with you. You're getting a bit spare in your old age, you could use it as much as I can." Rose retorted.

Karl walked over and picked up the Ice Core for Rae, and quickly assembled the ingredients needed into a bowl, being careful not to mess up her art exhibit on the floor when he stole the moss and crystals.

It could be used by her, Hawk and Karl, with the chance to grant them a new skill of [Paralytic Strikes], which Karl was eager to find out about.

As the three ingredients settled into the bowl, they quickly turned to a paste, dissolving the moss and the crystals on contact. So, Karl split it into three portions. Each was a large vial, so it should be enough, he hoped.

"We will take a break here and regain some stamina and mana. I suggest eating some trail mix and getting a drink while we have time." Alice announced once everything from the last fight had been distributed.

They were going to need the rest after that strangely durable shaman.