Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Fungus Dungeon---

"Is everyone okay?" Bulko asked, vomiting a fountain of blood.

His body was covered in a dashing suit of fire-resistant armor, but his body seemed broken despite the armor being just fine. His eyes, red from ruptured veins scanned the surrounding ash fields. At the last second, he had managed to change his equipment, cast a barrier, and the skill <Damage Mirror>.

The latter was part of his skills as a Mirror Priest. It's allowed him to reflect part of the damage his party suffered, in exchange for him alone suffering greater damage. His skin was parched and ripped with every movement, while his insides felt cooked. Despite the power of the armor, he had taken a huge amount of fire damage.

Currently, his health was teetering below 100, but he didn't care. His soft tissue may fall off, but his thick bones were still fine. He wasn't dying so he started looking for his party.

At his call, a massive amount of ashes started moving as bright rays of light broke through it. The next moment the ashes fell to the ground. Among the ashes was the tiny Fin, unconscious. It seemed like she had grown to giant size and threw herself in front of the priest's barrier, to take the brunt of the explosion.

Her back was covered in terrifying burns and her health was slowly trickling away.

"Fin!" Bulko exclaimed frightened, but his own body was also close to breaking down, only making a few steps before falling on the ground, some distance away from her. He struggled to get up again when he saw what he stumbled over.

Lyxiss also didn't look so fresh anymore. The elementalist had also lost consciousness facing the consequences of her own actions. However, her situation was stable. Before the priest could crawl further, another two mounts of ashes rose, Mike and Mina.

They didn't look good either. The cat assassin's left arm was weirdly twisted, with her hand completely mangled. Her right leg was also pointed in an unnerving direction. Her health had fallen to about a third.

Mike looked a little better. Outwardly only his arm was broken, but his health was at roughly 50% meant that he probably had a bunch of internal injuries that would make it hard for him to fight.

"Shit, Bulko! What happened to you?!" Mike exclaimed.

"Fin? Is that Fin? What happened to you two?" Mina's eyes first focus on Fin, before technically repeating Mike's question in sync.

"Pff, you two are really brother and sister... Mina, didn't you Mention that your blessing could also heal? Could you maybe?" Bulko coughed.

"Oh, yes! Of course!" Mina said hurriedly.

Since they had two healers in their party, Sekhmet's aspect of healing usually didn't get a big chance to shine. Especially since it couldn't really compare to Fin's and Bulko's skills which were specialized in healing. Like the plague aspect only being a side effect of her attacks, the healing aspect was not as miraculous as one would have hoped.

Glowing with golden light, her hands hovered over Bulko and the unconscious fairy, as she kneeled between the two. The dim golden light encased the two and started improving their healing speed. The power could also cure all kinds of diseases, but unlike most system skills, it needed some time to take effect.

"What about Lyxiss?" Mike asked, naturally taking a stance and bringing out his pet to guard the four, while his eyes scanned the ashen desert surrounding them.

"She will be okay," Bulko said and started explaining his own state as his breathing slowly became smoother under Mina's treatment. Fin's back also showed signs of recovery, as her Health stopped falling.

Overall, their party was in terrible shape, with two of the members unconscious and the other three heavily wounded. Still, with some time Mina would be able to help the two priests recover. Bulko could regenerate some of his mana with a potion and help her fix Fin. If only they had that time.

The two heard Mike curse behind them. Mina turned, while Bulko could only carefully try to look in that direction. In the far distance, an ash-gray dune had suddenly started slowly moving... In their direct.

"You have to be kidding me..." Mike mumbled in disbelief, voicing everyone's thoughts.

The boss still wasn't dead and was moving towards them. It had to be the boss. What else would have survived that spell? They all paled. There was no way they could survive an encounter with the three of them, no matter how hurt the boss was.

"Mike, take the girls and run," Bulko tried to stand up. It was clear that he wanted to buy time for Mike and the girls to get further away, however, a soft hand grabbed his forehead and rudely pushed him back to the ground.

"Shut up," Mina whispered and a pitch-black darkness filled the world before Bulko's eyes. He could see absolutely nothing anymore. If it wasn't for the pain in his body, he would have thought his soul had left him for the great void.

Mina had used <Erebus> to hide them in a dome of absolute darkness. They just needed time. The boss wouldn't be able to easily find them in here. With some luck, it would buy enough time for either of their healers to recover enough to help everyone.

Only Mina could see in this place. She could see Mike nervously grasping his sword. She could see Lyxiss, still soundly lying on the ground after creating this huge mess. Her heart ached, seeing the states Fin and Bulko were in through the scope of the dark domain.

In this place, she didn't see with her eyes or other senses, but with something like a Sense of Darkness. It showed her all the cuts, bruises, and wounds her companions had suffered in excruciating detail. If they were the enemy, it would have been great weak points, but seeing her friendly like this... it was hard to endure.

She also saw outside the dome. Mina was able to see the Mold Mound approach. It hadn't gotten away unscathed either. It looked carbonized for the most part. Covered in ashed it limped toward the dome. Its big red eye was gouged out and dark, but there were many tiny ones, all fixed at her, no, at the dome of darkness that had appeared in this twilight landscape.

Bulko and Mike were nervous, The boss was approaching and they had suddenly lost all vision. Both jumped when Mina suddenly laughed out loud.

"Dafug!? Mina, what are you doing? Isn't the boss-"

<Ding! Your party has killed -Abominable Mold Mound lv.97 (Boss)- You have earned Experience.>

They heard the announcement. Mina inadvertently laughed out, when her tense nerves suddenly relaxed. She had observed the boss the whole time, but when it was about to reach the boundary of her darkness, it suddenly flopped over. Like a man that died of thirst, it simply fell over, face first in the ashes, and died from the plague.

The party let out a collective sigh of relief, as Mike also fell on his butt, laughing. Even Bulko couldn't help laughing, even though every laugh hurt. It was the sweet release, right after the tension of almost losing their lives.

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.94!>

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