<h4>Chapter 336 Rushing the Magma Floor</h4>


    When the party appeared on the magma floor, they were instantly hit with a wave of dry, face-melting heat. Sweat was leaking from their brows before they had realized what floor they were on.


    "Wee to the magma floor, everybody," Jack joked with a sigh. "Dradich, are you going to be okay here?"


    In response to Jack’s question, frost started to fill the air around the wyrm. It cooled the party and allowed them all relief from the overbearing heat but it never managed to form the icy armor they had seen before.


    "If you hop off my back for a moment, then I can create my frost body to better protect you and myself," Dradich stated, getting everyone toply.


    A few momentster, everyone was back on top of the wyrm, d to be cool andfortable in the face of the heat.


    "Let’s be fast though. I can’t sustain this forever in such a ce," added Dradich.


    "Then let’s hurry southbound. The circle is at the southernmost point of the dungeon," exined Jack. "But everyone needs to watch out for enemies. This floor was usually the most difficult to clear in terms ofbat because everything here wants a fight."


    "Careful! Here theye!" Dradich roared and began his charge into the ming dungeon.


    Everyone looked out to see beasts that they weren’t familiar with.


    "I guess the fiends won the power struggle on this floor," mentioned Jack. "I wonder if any smanders survived."


    "Fiends? Do you mind if I take a fiend, Jack?" asked Vixus. "I’ve never met one before and heard that they have ties with dark magic as well."


    "You’re right, that’s probably how they overwhelmed the smanders and other beasts down here," replied Jack. "Capturing a fiend is one thing, but getting it toply with a seal is another."


    "Just help me catch one that’s at least lv. 60. Then, if I fail to bond with it, let me fail."


    "It will still count as your third beast, so don’t me me when we can’t subdue it," chuckled Jack, readying himself for the horde of fiends following Dradich.


    Squeals and screeches echoed off the cavern walls, getting louder and louder as the fiends got closer and closer. With bony limbs and wings, the ckish-red, devilish creatures hounded the cier Wyrm.


    "Dradich, if me or Bowzer use our me bodies, will we hurt you?"


    "Just don’t hit me by ident. I can take the heat of you standing on my back," replied the wyrm, confident in his abilities.


    Jack then surrounded himself in mes and used them to cast his spells. "Bowzer, not full-size but full strength, okay?"


    With a nod, Bowzer activated his me body to match Jack’s size while maintaining his coat of white-hot fire. Both Jack and Bowzer began to hurl or spit fireballs at any fiends getting too close. Though it didn’t deal much damage, it was enough to buffet the fiends and keep them distanced. And being on the magma floor made it easier to use fire magic and not waste extra mana.


    The other able party members joined in. The cranes who weren’t carrying the cripplesunched des of wind at the fiends while Phorounched small whirlwinds at the devils. Vixus and Argyle both activated a few of their long-range attacks to help keep the fiends at bay.


    "Jack, something else is lying in wait up ahead."


    Dradich’s warning caught Jack’s ears, convincing the hero to turn his attention elsewhere.


    At the same time, Vixus shouted, "There’s one! Let that lv. 63 fiend through, I want him!"


    While the party was focused on keeping the fiends back and Vixus wrestled a fiend with the help of his me Tiger, Jack and Dradich were waiting for the other beast to make an appearance.


    Suddenly, a giant roar filled the cavern,ing from the southwest.


    Out of ava pool emerged a giant lizard, ring back at the party and the fiends with fury. Dark red mes showed themselves as the lizard opened its mouth.


    "Nevermind, the smanders are still alive!" Jack shouted, a bit nervous to take on another powerful foe along with the fiends.


    "Hold on!"


    Just as the Molten Smander spewed a plume ofva toward the giant wyrm, Dradich spitted a plume of ice and frost. An explosion of steam shook the dungeon floor, creatingrge waves in theva pools along the sides of the path.


    Once the attacks collided, Dradich then sped up. With all of his might, he charged the winding path and put all of his energy into his frost body.


    Another giant smander emerged, then another.


    Even if Dradich could avoid the attacks of a single smander, the giant wyrm was unable to do so against five smanders while carrying the party on his back.


    Dradich evaded as many attacks as possible and countered any attacks he was able, but he still received a few attacks against his frost body. However, Dradich never slowed down and continued to barrel through the dungeon floor with great haste.


    Luckily, the smanders also attacked the fiends who dared enter their territory. And Vixus was lucky enough to capture a fiend, albeit still wild and unwilling to remain pinned by the me Tiger.


    "Is that it?"


    "Yes, keep going, Dradich!" Jack shouted. "Bowzer, help handle the smanders!"


    The fox was already spewing white fireballs to counter theva plumes of the smanders. The other beasts and Argyle were doing the same thing, doing everything in their power to keep the smanders from touching the wyrm that dared to charge through the magma floor.


    Another explosion then took ce, but not from steam.


    To the side of the circle, another smander appeared, thergest of the smanders and highest in level at lv. 69.


    "Jack, get ready to activate the circle without any hesitation. I’ll attack that beast with everything I’ve got left, so don’t miss the chance to flee this space."


    "Vixus, you heard Dradich, right?" Jack shouted. "You’d better be ready to activate that circle. The moment Dradich touches it, we need to get out of here."


    "Right! I’ll be ready to go, just help me with the fiend once we enter the next floor," replied Vixus, nodding in agreement.


    With a roar, thergest smander readied his attack.


    "Bowzer, let loose everything against that attack! We need Dradich to hit the smander, not its attack."


    ’You got it!’


    The Hell-me Fox grew slightly as he jumped onto the top of Dradich’s head and stared back at the smander. Bowzer knew the smander could sense his bloodline, but it also shrugged off the bloodline’s typical effects like the cier Wyrms, proving that it too had an ancient bloodline at the seventh level.


    Showing no mercy, the smander’s me-filled maw opened wide andunched a massive river ofva out of the Molten Smander’s gullet.


    Bowzer growled and snarled as his mes gained a hint of ckness. Then, the fox roared. A relentless stream of white mes, with tinges of red and ck, streaked toward the smander.


    Both attacks collided, canceling each other out and making wave after wave in the nearbyva pools.


    As Bowzer’s me body rescinded, the frosty energy in Dradich’s mouth exploded full-force. Like aser, the current of sub-zero ice barraged against the smander, causing it to cry in pain as a part of the magma coating epassing the smander’s body became crust and dried up.


    "Now, Jack!" yelled the wyrm.


    "Vixus, get ready!"


    The wyrm continued his charge toward the circle as the smander recovered from the attack.


    Cracking and flowing anew, theva coating around the smander would be reactive in a couple of seconds, not offering the party much time. It prepared a second attack for the wyrm, not daring to surrender or showing any fear.


    Yet as the next river ofva was aimed at the wyrm, the gargantuan beast suddenly disappeared. Only a giant pulse of purple energy was left where the wyrm once was.