Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Instinctively the King made a step back, only to feel something scraping his shin. Grimly, he could feel the hot blood soaking his garments and running down his leg. The pests proved stronger than expected and had scattered to attack him from all sides. They didn\'t just as attack as a group, he could also feel someone cursing him.

He only scoffed at their cowardice as he dodge the chop of an axe, using the turn, he activated <Shield Wall> and blew away the pests that were plaguing him, followed by a heal which recovered his cut cheek and shin. The curses were nothing he couldn\'t resist with his body alone.

"Invader, you shall die here and become nourishment for the seal," he said with his booming voice and attacked with <Spear Storm>. He knew the tiny shield warrior was protecting the rearguard and decided to get rid of them first, however, his attack was met with a mighty torrent of water from the back and completely blocked.

Suddenly, with the bellow of a bull, he felt a tremendous pain in his calf, one that almost made his leg give out. He could feel an unholy power and the murky presence of a curse invading his body. Following a sudden impulse he dodged to the side, thinking another silvery spear was aiming for his face, but there was nothing there this time.

Shocked, he felt his unharmed leg slipping away. The ground that had been covered in water from the previous attack was completely frozen, denying him any traction. As he was falling, the mighty spear approached him, this time he was unable to dodge.

The was barely able to activate <Block> and raise his shield in the path of the attack. Only for another two attacks to aim at his ankle, almost severing his feet. At the same time, he could feel his heart racing, the effects of the poison were spreading.

Opposing the pressure of the spear, he swung his shield in a <Shield Strike> to get rid of the tiny spear woman. In his fall, he swiped for his own feet to strike at the two that attacked his ankles.

"Keep pressuring him!" he heard the voice of the woman growing faint, as he catapulted her against the opposite wall. He stabbed his spear into the ground to regain his footing, blood gushing from his wounded feet.

"<All Heal> <All Cure> Your struggles are futile." he spoke using advanced <Healing Magic> to cure his wounds, curses and the poison. Only the curse and wound on his calf stubbornly resisted his magic, this was a curse with more behind it than just dark magic.

Getting ready to cast another spell and wipe out the annoying rearguard, he felt a cut on the wrist he was holding onto the spear with.

"Where are you looking?" he heard the voice.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw the face of cold beauty that had just cut his wrist and spoken to him. Enraptured, he watched as the slender figure danced and twirled along his arm, surrounded by ribbons of his own blood and cutting apart his armor, cloth, and flesh.

When his heart beat again he realized in shock, that he had been charmed and just watched on as his arm was mangled. When he finally wanted to angrily wipe off the beautiful warrior and turn him into a bloody smear on the ground, the figure had already escaped.

At the same time, he noticed, that his other calf had been cleaved into with the painful curse, making the charm of the swordsman even more terrifying, as he had not even felt the pain while looking at his dance. He wanted to cast a heal, but something hindered him, he was silenced.

"Enough!" he thought, using the spear as a crutch on the ice, he kicked away the little tiger with an axe, who was about to attack his shin again. When he look back at the rear, he suddenly saw another human right before his eyes.

"Hello there! I hope you like carnivorous ooze."

The next moment his left eye went blind and he felt an excruciating pain, as if someone shoved a burning stick in his eye to cauterize it.

"They sure as hell like eating your eyes~" he heard her say cheekily from the left, already a distance away. By the time he turned his head, he only saw the back of a Minotaur with the human female under his arm.

"<All Heal>!" he cast the moment the magic that hindered him from speaking vanished. While the wound healed, the creature eating his eye stayed. Meaning his vision did not return and the pain did not leave.

He had enough. This was dragging on for too long and cost too much power. He needed to end this quickly and get back to his throne, or else his people would be in grave danger. The king had held back to conserve energy, but decided ending this in one move was the best way now.

"<Holy Dom-"

"DiMeNsIoNaL RiFt!" he was interrupted by a cackling laughter.

Hearing the shout he tried to dodge by stepping aside, but he slipped. What happened next made him wish he had not tried dodging. It could have been a quick death in a clean split, but now he felt his body being ripped apart into two halves, from his left shoulder down to his left ball.

Leaving him with his right arm desperately holding onto the spear stuck in the ground, while his right leg could not get a grip on the frozen ground, and some beast eating itself through his left eye cavity.

"<A-<Al-"

"No, you don\'t!" A middle-aged man suddenly cut his throat. At the same time, he saw a massive arrow, clad in divine light, aiming for his one functioning eye. He had failed. He had disappointed his people. Now their world would be overrun by darkness. His heart was filled with regrets, as he finally faced his death as a dungeon boss.

…

<Ding! Your party has killed -Colossal King, Marcus the Pure lv.165(Boss)- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.97!>

The party heard the announcements. Bement and Archer had delivered the last hits on King Marcus, but everyone stared at Alison, now that everything was over, mostly thanks to her insane attack. Especially the manic cackling had them disturbed.

"You can use <Space Magic>?" Ray asked exasperated.

"I am a wizard. I have an aptitude for all magic...but I bought the skill scroll in the auction house. I burned through all my savings for it," she answered still a little out of breath. She had put all her mana, that of the armor and the mana the armor had absorbed into the spell.

"The spell was cool, but that laughter, was that the armor?" Shay asked hesitatingly.

"I guess so, I think I have to raise my willpower a little more..." the wizard answered embarrassedly.

They talked as everyone was coming back to the rear to get healed by Lynri. Some were more and some were less hurt. Monique had some broken ribs, and Duhu had a bunch more broken bones. These two had taken the most damage, but in the end, everyone laughed and joked, especially about Alison\'s final spell.

However, their conversation was interrupted as the corpse of the king finally fell to the ground and shook the whole structure. But it was not just the weight of the halved colossus causing it, as it did not stop rumbling for several minutes.

Grimly, they realized that there was also no reward chest, dungeon core, or return formation. That meant the rumbling was not the sign that the dungeon was cleared.

"He... was not the final dungeon boss?"