CHAPTER 158: THE NEXT BOSS

Melayne shrugged a little and gestured to a sword she was holding. It took Jax a moment to realize it wasn’t her sword.

""Is that..."

"Boss’s loot. It has decent weight, sharpness and runes. You should take it. Even has a spell slot for you to use."

Jax stared at the weapon, but before he made a decision, he had something else to do.

"Actually, let me try something first."

He reached into his inventory and pulled out an axe. It landed on the ground with a resounding thud. The impact being felt from all corners of the arena floor.

"What in the world..." Melayne started, walking toward it. Jax hadn’t shown her this axe yet.

She looked at it, its black body from edge to shaft, made up of a crystalline material that she had never seen before. She tried to lift it and give it all her might, but she couldn’t do it. The weapon barely budged despite her considerable strength.

"How heavy is this thing?" she complained. "I’m a damn blacksmith. I have more strength than regular Warriors."

Jax grabbed the handle and lifted, his muscles straining visibly. It felt like lifting several hundred slimes of dead weight. "Heavy enough," he grunted, setting it back down. He could probably hold it up for a few minutes if he strained, but fighting with it was an impossibility.

"Six runes," Melayne said, examining the weapon’s surface. "I’ve never seen six runes on a single weapon before. And look at these spell slots—there are six of them too."

She pointed to the runic inscriptions. "I can only recognize two of these. This one makes the weapon heavier, and this one... it stores momentum for devastating attacks. The others are completely foreign to me."

"Where did you get this?" Lucille asked, her curiosity overriding her exhaustion.

"Back in the 10th Carriage."

"In the 10th Carriage? This?" She found it hard to believe. "And what’s that?"

Lucille noticed text etched near the handle. "Courtesy of the RBB. What does that mean?"

Jax shrugged. "No idea. It was always there since I found it."

He explained how he came by the axe. When they heard about the old man they had fought in the forest, they remembered Jax saying something about his axe. None of them still understood anything about that old man at all.

Ning tried to lift the axe next and easily gave up.

"It’s like it’s made for you specifically," Melayne said. "If only you could lift it."

"I can’t fight with it," Jax confirmed, putting the massive axe back in his inventory. "Not yet, anyway."

He picked up the black sword from the boss’s loot. It felt impossibly light after struggling with the heavy axe. Three runes lay along its blade, which according to Melayne enhanced slashing power, increased critical chance, and a small probability of dealing shadow damage.

"Better than the broken axe or my whips, I guess," he said, giving it a few practice swings. The weapon moved like air in his hands, almost too fast for his liking.

Round 31 began before they were fully ready. A scaled beast emerged from the gates, smaller than the bosses but still formidable.

Jax engaged it with the new sword, his movements adapted to the lighter weapon. The blade bit deep, the shadow rune activating on his third strike and leaving dark energy crackling along the wound.

’It’s effective,’ he thought, dodging a claw swipe. ’But I hate it.’

The sword felt wrong in his hands. Too light, too quick. He’d grown accustomed to the weight and momentum of an axe, the satisfying impact of each blow. This sword, despite its superior enchantments, felt like fighting with a feather.

Still, he fought on. The team continued their relentless progression through the rounds, each bringing new challenges.

The pattern had shifted dramatically. Of the nine rounds they fought after the boss, only one contained a single monster. The rest brought waves of two or three creatures simultaneously.

"The monsters are still weaker individually," Ning observed during a brief respite.

"But there are so many of them," Roman added, wiping sweat from his brow. "It’s like they’re trying to wear us down through sheer numbers."

He was right. The constant influx of enemies was taking its toll. There was no time to fully recover between fights, no chance to catch their breath.

Before the next boss round, Melayne pulled out her own potion. "I can’t take it anymore," she admitted, drinking the stamina-restoring liquid. "My arms feel like lead."

The effect was immediate and dramatic. Her shoulders straightened, her grip on her weapons steadied, and the exhaustion lines around her eyes faded.

"Right as rain," she said with renewed energy.

Roman looked up at the sky, where fewer and fewer names remained visible. "Are we the fastest fighters in the trial?" he wondered aloud. "Or is there another party out there moving faster than us?"

"No way to know," Lucille replied. "We can only focus on our own battles."

Her water octopus arrived around her. "At least I can contribute more directly now.".

The fourth boss emerged from the gates, and immediately took to the sky. The creature was magnificent and terrifying, a giant bird with feathers that seemed to crackle with electric energy. Its wingspan cast a shadow over the arena.

Lucille used her Analysis spell immediately.

The bird’s body began to glow with intense blue light. Electric energy danced along its feathers as it reached the peak of its flight.

Then it folded its wings and dove straight down like a living thunderbolt. The glow around its body intensified as it accelerated, becoming a blur of blue light and crackling energy.

The impact was devastating. The bird slammed into the center of the arena with the force of a meteor, creating a crater and sending electric bolts scattering in all directions like a deadly spider web.

Jax and Ning were caught in the discharge, their bodies shocked by the attack. They both fell to their knees, feeling pain coursing through their bodies.

The boss had barely even showed itself and it was already hurting them.