"You guys can go ahead into the boss room, I'll finish it off." Adonis said flatly.

  'He's just trying to hang back and relax while we do all the heavy lifting in the boss room.' Huffing irritatedly, Roxanne leapt toward the massive floating wooden door and kicked it open.

  "How're you going to break through its body?" Hiram asked.

  "I'll find a way." Adonis smiled confidently.

  "Don't take too long, we'll need you in there kid." Rocco offered his hand to the mage.

  "Okay." Hiram nodded.

  "Thank you." Taking the knight's hand, Hiram allowed herself to be carried to the boss's room.

  After ensuring the rest of his party made it into the boss room, Adonis raised his open palm and pointed it at the entrapped monster.

  {You've already seen that your magic isn't effective on these diamonds, what're you doing?}

  'Enhancing it.' Adonis explained.

  The boy's hand ignited in a stunning ivory flame that danced chaotically.

  Adonis then released a portion of his Earthly Aura, directing it toward the flames.

  Instead of enhancing the flames as it would any other magic affinities, Adonis's Earthly Aura and Inferno magic rejected each other.

  'As I thought, just like Papa's Storm magic my Inferno magic can't be enhanced by Earthly Aura.' Adonis shook his head.

  "What about Wicked?" Adonis's silver eyes flashed with a subtle orange hue.

  SPITTER SPITTER

  'The rejection of the Wicked Aura and Earthly Aura seems to be different, Earthly Aura is just completely incompatible with Inferno magic. While Wicked Aura simply isn't 'matching' my Inferno magic, I wonder if I improve my magic control if I'll be able to achieve the enhancement.'

  {Your evaluation is correct mortal, Wicked Aura is on a different 'wavelength' than Inferno magic, so your magic affinity will have to be slightly adjusted although mere magic control improvement won't be adequate.}

  'Frequency?'

  {There's a large

  "Hmm... Okay."

  {You suspected this would happen, I'm assuming you have an actual plan to kill this thing?}

  "More like an experiment." Adonis smiled.

  'I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull it off though, especially with my current mana reserves.'

  {I warned you!}

  'Yeah, yeah whatever.' Adonis rolled his eyes and covered his entire body in Inferno magic.

  ***

  The 'crystal mine' boss room

  Unlike the rest of the dungeon, the boss room featured rocky terrain rather than a smooth diamond.

  The walls of the room were massive reaching far beyond what the eyes could see, and were made of solid rock with hundreds of clear, white and pink magic crystals protruding.

  Alerted by the ground's violent shaking, Rocco summoned his spear, Roxanne her longsword and Hiram her magic staff.

  "What is that?!" Roxanne scowled.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "It's underground." Rocco announced.

  The revealed itself to the combatants, using its hundreds of legs to burrow out of the ground and erect its gigantic body.

  The monster that flashed its terrifying diamond fangs possessed a massive segmented glossy black body whose majority was still buried.

  "It's huge." Staying on guard, Hiram studied the ten-metre portion of the monster's above-ground body.

  Furious that its home had been intruded on, the monster bent its body and surged forward with extraordinary speed.

  Being the only one capable of even keeping up with the monster's speed, Rocco carried both the young women out of harm's way.

  'What just happened?' Hiram widened her eyes.

  The monster bent its body and propelled toward the fleeing bunch, each individual segment causing a soft clicking sound.

  Unable to keep up with the Crystilipeda's speed because of the increased weight, Rocco was knocked off balance, sending both girls flying in opposite directions.

  "Ahh!"

  Unrelenting, the monster bent its body once more and rushed after Rocco.

  Rocco extended his right hand and summoned his spear from his spatial ring, ready to engage the bloodthirsty .

  Approaching at frightening speeds, the Crystillipeda opened its mouth widely.

  Enhancing his spear with Earthly Aura, Rocco deflected the creature to the side while he was simultaneously pushed to the opposite one.

  Despite losing momentum, the Crystillipeda twisted once more and floated above the knight.

  'It doesn't give up, does it?' He sighed.

  Confirming Rocco's suspicions, the creature attacked once more by lowering its body abruptly, a cruel attempt to squish him like a bug.

  Taking this as an opportunity to counter, Rocco coated his spear's tip in Earthly Aura and thrust it at the monster's underbelly.

  'It's tough!' Abandoning his spear, Rocco rolled out the monster's path.

  Deeming Rocco as too tricky, the monster switched targets...

  'It's so fast.' Hiram's magic staff's crystal glowed vibrantly as she prepared a defensive spell.

  "Ice magic: Frost barrier." The mage slammed her staff onto the magic circle below, erecting a thick ice wall in the monster's path.

  Rather than crashing into the barrier, the monster maintained its speed and sunk its head into the ground.

  "No..."

  The Crystilipeda created a small tunnel, burrowing to the other side and emerging beneath Hiram's feet.

  Incapable of escaping in time, Hiram was lifted by the monster.

  "Kya!"

  Ignoring the mage's screams, the monster carried her into the air.

  Upon reaching the maximum height allowed by the portion of its body out the ground, the monster flicked its head, flinging the young lady into the air.

  "Huh?!"

  "Hiram!" Roxanne leapt into the air to join the vicious monster and the mage.

  Acting fearlessly, the female magic knight plucked Hiram from the air and carried her to safety.

  "I think we should change our strategy." Hiram muttered.

  "We had a strategy?" Roxanne placed the woman back on the ground.

  "Well, we never had the chance to come up with one." Hiram admitted.

  "Here's one, attack its insides." Rocco joined the two.

  "That'll be difficult." Roxanne complained.

  "It's the only way." Rocco summoned another spear and pointed it at the monster.

  Choosing to be the aggressor this time, Rocco released the full extent of his Earthly Aura and rushed at the monster.

  Sensing the man's bloodlust, the Crystilipeda flashed its fangs and went to meet him halfway.

  Avoiding the monster's diamond jaws, the knight hopped atop its head.

  Flustered by the unusual manoeuvre, the creature shook its body aggressively.

  Despite its effort, the knight barely budged so the Crystilipeda took it a step further and soared into the air.

  "I'm not getting off till you're dead." Rocco intensified the Earthly Aura around his feet and jammed his spear in between the monster's onyx segments.

  The mage and magic knight combined their magical prowess to create a massive Earthly Aura-enhanced spearhead aimed at the monster's belly.

  "Ice magic: Hastae!"

  Surpassing anything they could've been able to achieve on their own, the cold spearhead slammed into the monster's underbelly.

  The monster's underbelly's flesh sunk inwards and turned slightly blue as it was toppled over by the powerful attack.

  Ditching the attempt to sever the monster's body via the space between segments, Rocco flew into the air above its head.

  Capitalizing on the monster's open mouth and falling position, Rocco prepared to throw the spear into the monster's body.

  Three White Rank Cancrilli detached themselves from the mine's walls and leapt at the knight, destroying his hopes of attacking the village-sized monster.

  "What?!" Switching targets, Rocco rotated his spear rapidly, easily eliminating the small monsters.

  Despite the powerful fall, the recovered immediately and used its numerous legs to scurry toward the two responsible for the ice spell.

  "Sorry, that took longer than I thought." Adonis landed on the monster's onyx segmented body, emerging from a small floating wooden door.

  'What the hell took him so long?!' Roxanne used a magic circle to facilitate the casting of a massive wave of magic toward the Crystilipeda.

  "Water Magic: Minor Tsunami!"

  "Ice magic: Concealed torpedos!" Using a magic circle of her own, Hiram propelled tiny shards of ice within the magic knight's spell.

  Rather than succumbing to the overwhelming force of the water and inadvertently consuming the sharp shards, the monster plunged into the wave headfirst, skillfully manoeuvring to evade any harm to the vulnerable openings in its face.

  ***

  *Extra Information: