Like previously, after the initial message at the moment of their arrival, a counter with sixty seconds appeared on the air.
The labyrinth did give them an "advantage" this time, which is the fact that the restraining invisible barrier, only affected the area around the throne where the boss was sitting.
Allowing the challengers to move around and prepare a strong starting combo, but that was only on the surface, Daimon's eyes could see through the fake benevolence of the owner of this ruin, with ease.
He quickly scanned the being sitting on the throne and inwardly smirked, the so-called chief of the goblin nest, was also an ogre, but it had a strange built.
Around five meters of height, yellow rough skin, wide strong arms and legs but with a fat shape, its body was covered in tattoos similar to the ones of the support type hobgoblins and it was wearing metal armor and it was holding a metal spiked club with its right hand, while holding a disaster of meat and blood on the other one, from which it was currently eating as it glared in Daimon's group direction.
But the most eye-catching characteristic of this ogre, is the fact that it had two heads, one was strangely bigger than the other and had a small lump on its forehead but only one eye, while the other had two eyes but no lump on the forehead.
Both of the heads were munching on the bloody mess which the ogre was holding with his hand, judging by the small patches of green skin and the size, it was actually eating a hobgoblin, which explained why the ogre that evolved from the assassin goblin called it "tyrant".
Most humanoid and rational races repudiate cannibalism, even the most primitive or wild ones prefer to eat other races and only rely on cannibalism as a last resort kind of thing, in comparison magic beasts eat each other when they are low rank mindless ones, unless there is an alpha to instruct order on the group.
But this ogre was not hungry, it was just doing it for fun, judging by the disgusting smiling expression it had, the thing also glared at Sarah and Reyne as it breathed heavily, making its intentions clear.
Unfortunately, no matter how it tried to taunt Daimon, it wasn't going to work, this was but a mere trick prepared to deal with hot blooded idiots, luring them to attack so the reflecting property of that bone throne could return their attacks right back at them.
That was the real purpose behind giving them the chance to prepare a strong attack while the boss was "restrained", most people would have fallen for it, especially because the aura that the ogre was radiating, was quite close to the late stage of the Arch rank.
For challengers that were at most late stage Lord ranks, if they wanted to survive the ten minutes required to pass the boss room, then they had to stall for time, and the most effective way to do so, was to hit the boss hard right from the beginning, then set a sturdy defense and keep spamming long distance spells or martial arts with high destructive power.
In other words, this whole thing was a trap, the ogre saw the counter reach less than thirty seconds but its prey not doing anything and it clicked its two tongues.
"Tsk, that idiot Gamish probably spilled the beans before biting the dust, whatever, it's been a while since I have gotten a decent woman with delicious looking flesh, a bit of exercise should make my meal tastier", said the one-eyed head.
"Don't waste time, the faster we get rid of them, the better the reward we will get would be, maybe we can even grow a third head and evolve to the next level", said the two eyed head.
Daimon exchanged gazes with those two and they both took out their weapons, while Daimon summoned his white flame sword, but remained half a step behind of them.
The moment the counter reached zero, the ogre as well as the two girls both disappeared from where they were standing a moment ago.
Daimon knew that the bone throne could only reflect energy attacks, and while he could have burned through that reflect array with his Demon Light, that would attract the attention of the owner of the labyrinth, because even if low ranked and worn out, that bone throne was an item from a system shop, based on the aura it gave off.
So why go through all that hassle, when he could just force the ogre to move if it didn't want to get skewered by Reyne's lance and become a piece of dried meat or turned into a porcupine by the crazy girl's needles to then melt into a puddle of black liquid.
Naturally, to instill the enemies to use energy attacks against it, the ogre was an Archknight, meaning physical attacks would be less effective most of the times, but all the set up didn't work.
"Clang!", a loud metal colliding sound followed by a strong shockwave, came from above as the ogre clashed against both Reyne and Sarah.
The ogre had an unsightly expression on its face, as it was forced to reveal one of its trump cards, which is the fact that it has two set of arms, originally it planned use the metal spiked club to block the attack of Reyne and then take Sarah by surprise by summoning another metal club, which was stored in one of the tattoos in its body, getting rid of that dangerous poison user.
But a sensation of dread invaded him when he felt the strong pressure caused by those two's high vitality, which was radiated the moment they used their battle auras, so the ogre threw all pretensions away and not only manifested its remaining two arms, but wielded a metal spiked club in each one of them.
And so, the two metal spiked clubs in its right hands were clashing against Reyne's lance, while the left ones were defending it from Sarah's needles, needless to say but their weapons were covered in battle aura, so this wasn't just a physical clash but an energy one too.
"Booom!", the result was that sparkles flew all over the place, and their attacks cancelled each other, as their battle auras wore each other out, producing a loud explosion that separated the two parties.
The two girls landed next to Daimon while the ogre was a few meters in front of them, the bone throne had become useless as it disappeared the moment the ogre clashed with Sarah and Reyne.
It was a conditional type of item, and it only worked for the first exchange of attacks, the ogre looked at its metal clubs, the ones on the left had some rust appearing on the part where they entered in contact with Sarah's needles, meaning her battle aura corroded though his and caused some damage to his weapons.
As for the clubs on his right hands, they had small deformations caused by the heat liberated by Reyne's spear, meaning that the ogre's battle aura also lost on that side.
"That thing is quite strong, that arm with which it parried by attack should have melted, but its nature battle aura reduced the effect and the weapon is poison resistant", said Sarah as she stretched her body.
"Mm, the right arms were using ice battle aura to reduce the heat of my attack", added Reyne.
The ogre was actually a dual affinity knight, something rarer than a dual affinity mage, that being said, this ogre was a faker, because it was composed of two beings that merged, probably it evolved from a hobgoblin like the masked one that was killed by Sarah earlier, which is why it could use two different types of battle auras.
"You fucking pieces of meat!", the ogre seemed to feel insulted by the result of the previous clash, a dark green and light blue light exploded out of its body, producing gusts of wind and making the ground below it, crack as it spread its mana pressure.
Daimon shook his head, this ogre might look strong, but it was lacking the strongest ability that an Archknight should have, the capacity to manifest a Battle Avatar, its battle aura was only a bit better than the one of the ogre Daimon killed in the previous room, meaning that in terms of battle aura quality it was a barely an Arch rank, which is why it lost to Sarah and Reyne in the previous clash.
That being said, in terms of quantity he did surpass those two, which was proved by the huge amount of battle aura it was radiating right now.
"Green Carnage!".
"Despair Hail!".
The two heads of the ogre shouted as it used two different martial arts, the first one condensed a large amount of battle aura on the clubs in its left hands, which were then smacked against the ground, making the nearby area explode followed by countless thorns made out of battle aura to emerge from the ground, destroying and piercing everything on their way.
The second martial art made sharp pieces of ice to rain from above, it was a pincer attack from below and above that covered a wide area, hence the large amount of battle aura needed to do it.
"Booom!", the thorns raised a lot of dust which was then increased by the pieces of eyes destroying the ground even more, besides the area nearby the ogre, the rest of the room was affected by the attack.
"Phew, it's been a while since I went all out, I wanted to have some fun with those women, but I guess there isn't a complete part of them left now", said the one-eyed head.
"Don't low your guard, the masked guy looked quite tough, he might have survived and we only have five minutes left now", said the two eyed head.
The next second, the curtain of dust was blown away without the need of a spell, but because of the impulse with which three flashes of light appeared in front of the ogre, a sensation of crisis flooded the heads of the ogre as it swinged its four arms towards the enemies.
But this time the outcome was way different than before, the metal clubs on the right side were pierced through by a blazing spear, just the proximity to it made the arms of the ogre to catch up fire, producing black smoke as the ice battle aura tried to put it out, but failed to do so.
As for the left side, this time it wasn't needles, but a one-edged dark green sword what clashed against the metal clubs, or that would have been the case if the metal clubs along the sword wouldn't have melted, splashing the arms of the ogre with the resulting black liquid, which melted holes in its arms from which its flesh and started to be gnawed away.
"Aghhhh!", the two heads of the ogre roared in pain, the tattoos on its body shone and a shockwave was released by its body, which blew away both Sarah's poison as well as Reyne's flames, pushing the two girls away too.
Unfortunately for the ogre, it didn't have the time to launch another round of heavy attacks, because the moment those two took some distance, a white flame sword slashed through both of his necks, cutting both of its heads at the same time.
And before the ogre who was still alive could do a surprise attack, Daimon pierced the Comet Sword in its stomach, making it scream in pain.
"Arghhhh!", the body of the ogre started to turn into ashes from its center to its limbs, as he suspected, this ogre was formed by one of those masked hobgoblins that could detach its upper body to survive and a support type one.
This time the Comet Sword was completely consumed, because Daimon had to burn through a thick layer of battle aura and also that amor, but it was a low price to pay in exchange of an Archknight's life.
The two girls who had "exhausted" expressions on their pretty faces, approached Daimon, they used quite a bit of battle aura to disable the arms of the ogre, which is why the thing was forced to use its last resort, the ability to dispel any negative effects which could only be used once, and consumed a lot of vitality, just to be decapitated by Daimon.
The counter of before didn't disappear, instead it kept moving as it became a temporizer instead, since they had to survive for ten minutes, now it was almost the eighth minute, and it stopped advancing the moment Daimon pierced the stomach of the ogre with his Comet Sword.
The room trembled and the wall behind the area where the ogre was sitting earlier, crumbled apart to reveal a golden door, which opened the next second.
[Congratulations, you defeated the boss, enter the reward room to obtain your prize!]
A message appeared above the golden door, urging them to advance to the next room, which they did, naturally both Sarah and Reyne held onto Daimon's arms.
The scenery changed from the previous lugubrious room, to a perfectly ordered and shiny one, there were many shelves exhibiting different kinds of treasures, from shields, swords, armor to more complex things like rings with spells stored on the gems embedded in them, as well as recipes or potions, it was quite a haul.
[Welcome to the treasure room, you can choose one thing from the high level treasury, you'll be transported out of the ruin after that, if you wish to obtain more rewards, come and participate again, good luck]
Besides the condescending message, which Daimon ignored, a portal appeared at the other side of the room, it's obvious they will be forcefully transported once they take their reward.
"You two choose first, I will look from here", said Daimon to the girls.
"Mm", those two nodded while Sarah stole a gaze at Daimon, before she went straight to the potion area, to see if there was a poison that caught her attention.
'It should be happening anytime now', thought Daimon as his eyes glowed behind his mask.
…
At a different part of the ruin, in a poorly illuminated room, a figure covered in a black mantle, observed a black cage placed in the middle of the room.
"Did you see, your savior even allied himself with one of those human eating monsters, I wonder if your "reunion" would be as sweet as you expect, especially because those two companions seem to be quite a lot to handle", said the black mantled figure with a mocking genderless voice.
The girl inside the cage, remained silent and limited to coldly glare at the one who captured her, which made the black mantled figure click its tongue.
"Tsk, you are no fun, whatever he should be picking his reward soon, I wonder what his expression would be when his group is taken to the real boss room, despite all the effort that was needed for them to defeat that failure of an ogre lord!", shouted the black mantled figure as it left room.
The moment that figure disappeared, Jasmine who remained silent and static, changed her apathic expression for a smiling one, even in this dark room, everything seemed to be illuminated by that pretty smile of hers.
She then touched her wrist and a bracelet that previously "wasn't" there, became visible, though the design was quite refined, it had many scratches on it.
"Just a bit more", she mumbled as white halos appeared in her pupils.
…
Back at the reward room, Sarah and Reyne had chosen their rewards and returned to Daimon's side, Daimon didn't just laze around, he evaluated the things from which he could choose and took a majestic looking sword with jewels embedded on its hilt and a refined scabbard, it looked more of a ceremonial sword than one created for battle, and yet it was actually a dangerous weapon.
The moment he took his reward, the shelves disappeared and the portal at the other side of the room, grew bigger and started pulling them towards it, meaning it was time for them to leave.
The same scene happened at another two places at the same time, and the participants were all dragged into the portals, meaning that their time in the ruin had ended, at least for some of them.
Outside of the ruin, the humans and flesh-eating demons were still clashing against each other, roaring their spells and martial arts as they killed each other, above the battlefield the strongest of their respective sides, observed the situation when they suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted from their chests.
"Well, it seems our little children had finished playing, I wonder if you'll be able to react on time before we turn them into mincemeat, starting by that little girl!", said Emily's aunt from the side of the flesh eating demons.
Emily and Jeanne got up their chairs at the same time as old Ben, because they were the first ones to feel the space waving at a particular place, apparently the participants weren't coming from the entrance of the ruin, so this was indeed a race to see who was faster at protect and attack.
Old Ben and his friend, Jeanne and Emily took the defending role, while Oliver, Dorothy and the couple of elders from the church took the offensive, since their light spells would have an extra effect on the enemy.
There were two space movements at the same time, and no one knew who was who, so the two sides eyed each other, the moment that someone finally appeared, Emily's aunt had turned into a red light that shot towards that direction, only to be blocked by old Ben.
At the same time, the other female Archduke from the Ghoul side, bypassed them, but was contained by Jeanne and Emily, only to smile when Dilan's ancestor appeared in front of the returning humans, just to be blocked by old Ben's friend, which allowed the other human high echelon to let out a sigh of relief.
But then the ground split, to reveal Felix's slightly burned figure coming out of an undercurrent of magma, just in time to cast a darkness corrosive spell.
Jeanne pushed the female Archduke away and then proposed to use her vampire form, to reach that place in time, as Emily was about to do the same to be able to fight with the Archduke on par even if it was a momentaneous boost, when they both saw a small golden shield appear out of nowhere.
Felix's attack was fully negated, making a sepulchral silence to fall in the area, followed by a pained scream as the elderly couple from the church, managed to behead one of the ones who returned from the Ghoul side.
The shield remained floating in front of the ones standing on the human returning spot, which after a second were revealed to be just two girls, Reyne and the granddaughter of the elders of the church, Claudia, who was in a really bad state by the way.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l