A thick low fog covering all that could be seen was parted as a bright red light exploded outwards.
When the bright red light dissipated Akira was able to see once again. He quickly scanned the area around him but found nothing near him ready to attack.
Each of the werewolf warriors sniffed the air to scan the surrounding area while the Galena used her wind element skill to scan for enemies in the surrounding area. They also found nothing nearby.
Akira slowly took his time with his second look around the dungeon guardian’s lair to inspect everything he could see.
The thick gray fog that came up to his thighs covered the ground everywhere he looked. The fog was glowing in a way that looked like there was a thunderstorm inside the low foggy clouds. Rising out of the glowing fog were uncountable large gray pillars that continued to rise into the sky only to disappear into the darkness.
There was no wind or other sound save for the breathing of those near him. The slightest noise of someone shifting from one foot to the other could be easily heard although it was a bit muffled by the thick fog.
It was eerily quiet.
Akira swung his sword through the thick fog in front of him, parting it for a few seconds revealing a worn gray stone floor which was quickly covered once again by the glowing fog.
“This silence is even scarier than having to fight a large monster...” said Beater.
“Shhhh!” said Sweety trying to hush him as his voice softly echoed off the pillars and muffled by the fog.
“There''s no point in staying quiet,” said Zundar and he looked around. “Whatever is hiding knows we are here. My skin is tingling from being watched in secret.”
Akira again sniffed the air but was unable to catch any unusual smells in the moist air.
“We won''t get anything done if we just stand here,” said Akira. “We''ll form up into a square to make sure nothing can sneak up on us. Everyone will be responsible for their portion of the wall.”
They quickly formed up with Akira, Dolph, Vilkas, and Fluffball at the center along with the ranged units.
Zundar took up the center rear with the rest of the full moon guild members and other heavily armored melee fighters all spread out evenly around them to protect the Akira and the squishy ranged units.
Since they had no idea where the dungeon guardian was hiding, Akira just pointed in a random direction and everyone started to slowly march forward with the shields and weapons out and ready for a fight.
They walked in silence for over ten minutes but saw nothing. Although they were walking at a slow pace to not trip over something hidden in the fog, they had still covered a large distance and the room did not show any signs that they would be reaching the end any time soon.
“I thought this was supposed to be the dungeon guardians'' lair?” asked Dolph as they stopped and looked around to try to decipher which direction they should go.
Thunk!
“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!” shouted a surprised Beater.
“What?” asked everyone almost immediately as they turned to look in his direction for a second before returning to looking into the fog right ahead of them.
“Something just hit me in the arm!” said Beater as he looked around but found nothing amiss.
“Stay alert everyone. Whatever has been stalking us this entire time has finally decided to play with us,” said Akira.
Thunk!
“Ah! It cut me! I saw it,” said Minion as he held out his hand which now had a light cut across it.
Minion stopped moving before his arms and legs began to wobble. He was dangerously close to falling as if he were severely drunk. One of the members behind him put out a hand to steady him as he started to flail his arms and legs in an odd jerky way.
“Somethings wrong... I can''t ...” said Minion between gritted teeth before his body fell to the ground as his muscles spasmed.
“Yap!” said Fluffball as he pointed out a suspicious object not far away. He did not wait for an order from Akira and quickly transformed into his large ice-armored form.
“Over there!” shouted Zundar as he threw a rock at the hidden object in the fog.
The rock was swatted out of the air by a quick blur before the hidden object, which was as big as a small boulder, started to rise out of the fog.
As it floated up into the air above the fog one of the most ugly monsters that Akira had ever seen before revealed itself to everyone.
Akira focused his attention on it bringing up limited information above its head [Flayr lv 190].
The [Flayr] was a floating big pink blob that looked like a round bumpy boulder-sized pink brain.
Its eyes were rather large and were like shiny gold balls. Underneath its large eyes was a small mouth that had several rows of sharp white teeth. On each side of its round pink body was a thick tentacle that thinned down into sharp red hook needles.
“What an ugly creature,” said Sweety.
The Flayr''s mouth opened and screamed... but no sound came out. A second later everyone took a step back as they felt a sharp pain in their heads when a mental screech rang through their minds!
Seeing the enemy was off guard the [Flayr] launched its whip-like tentacles out at the unprotected skin of a lightly armored ranged unit.
Clang!
Only for Sister Teresa to block the sneak attack with her wooden staff that she held with both hands.
“I know of this creature! It''s a Flayr. It can use mental attacks and if it can draw blood with its physical attacks it can make a connection with its target and try to control their body!”
Akira looked at Minion who was still acting odd.
“Then how do we stop it from controlling others?” asked Zundar.
“Don''t get cut. If you do … the only way to stop it is to kill it!”
“Let''s see if this helps,” said Akira as his body was shrouded in a dark mist light as he quickly transformed. His body grew far more muscular while a burst of thick killing aura escaped his body.
He immediately activated [Darkness Domain] covering the area around him in a dark mist that protected them from enemy eyes.
Akira looked over and saw that Minion was still acting odd.
A second screech from the [Flayr] echoed in their ears but the mental attack was slightly muted leaving them with a slight stinging prick poking their minds.
“It''s better than nothing...” said Beater as he smacked himself to stay focused.
“Let''s just cut it down however you can!” shouted Crowbahr.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Several colorful skills were launched at the [Flayr] by Akira, Fluffball, and the [Full moon] guild members.
With the bright skills flying towards it, the [Flayr] used its long tentacles to cover its eyes and received many wounds on its meaty body causing it to let out several mental screams that drilled into their heads.
The large pink blob fell to the stone ground with an odd splatting sound as it was cut to pieces and ceased to move.
Minion, whose body had been flailing about, was now bent over and was breathing heavily as if he had just run a marathon.
“Thanks,” was all he could say between gasps as he tried to suck in air. Trying to mentally fight against the [Flayr] taking control was exhausting.
“Was that the boss?” asked Galena after finishing casting a wind attack.
Akira was not sure but if he had to guess... it would be a No since he had received no notifications...
“Crap there''s another two of them!” shouted Sweety as she pointed to the east side of their square formation!
They continued to dodge, duck, and parry the sharp hook needle attacks sent their way but were constantly hindered by mental attacks from the [Flayrs].
The two [Flayrs] were quickly cut down by the several skill attacks. But another wave appeared! Each time one wave was cleared, a new wave would show up with at least one more [Flayr] than the last wave.
They were pulled into an almost nonstop fight making it hard too not to get wounded.
Even the smallest of scrapes led to several people losing control of their bodies to varying degrees. The quickest way to solve this problem was to kill the [Flayr] that had inflicted the wound ending the control over their body.
With the nonstop fighting their strength and stamina was being sapped away from them. Seeing that this would lead to even more problems, Akira, Fluffball, and Zundar took more responsibility onto themselves, helping everyone stay alive and unharmed.
After another hard-fought battle with a wave of floating [Flayr], Crowbahr''s last fireball that had missed its target flew up into the dark sky above revealing several dozens of [Flayr] monsters floating above them!
With the fire''s bright light blinding them they all covered their gold eyes with their tentacles and let out screeching mental attacks aimed at those below.
The fog on the ground thickened and a new wave of sneaky attacks started to target them as the many [Flayr] monsters above them let out loud mental screech''s drilling into everyone''s heads.
While everyone was dealing with the sneak attacks coming from the fog, Crowbahr would randomly sling a fireball into the air to keep track of the group above them.
What she saw was not good at all... the floating [Flayr] high above them started to mass up into a large group and were fusing together creating an even uglier large blob that had several dozen eyes on its body along with multiple carnivorous mouths and tentacles that lashed out at the air around it.
The [Blob Flayr] let out a powerful mental roar below and the last remaining [Flayr] mobs that were hiding in the fog shot out and flew toward the large blob.
“Shoot them down!” shouted Akira.
Crowbar, Galena, Minion, and Sweety joined Akira and Fluffball in launching attacks at the escaping [Flayr] mobs, managing to kill several of them. The few that did manage to reach the large blob were sucked into the large creature''s body adding even more sharp mouths and tentacles onto its body.
The [Blob Flayr] sent several of its hook tentacles to attack those below. The tentacles stretched out like rubber as they swiped at random targets and quickly snapped back to its body, not allowing Akira and the others to attack the tentacle.
“You &^%$ ugly sky jellyfish. I''m going to #$%$# with this sword!” growled Akira using the skill [Potty mouth] to get its attention focused on him since there were too many hook attacks raining down on the others.
The [Blob Flayr] let out an enraged mental attack targeting Akira as it launched the majority of its hook attacks at him. He gritted his teeth as he fought back against the mental pain and activated the skill [Harden] and stood firm blocking all attacks.
While Akira was soaking up many of the attacks the [Full Moon] guild members all used their skill attacks to target the weaker parts of the dungeon guardian''s body... its golden eyes!
Upon receiving attacks that destroyed and injured several of its eyes, the enraged [Blob Flayr] released a Mental attack targeted at everyone below.
With the mental attack catching them off guard there were several that were wounded from the quick strikes of the hook tentacles and they fell under the control of the [Blob Flayr] causing the others to have to dodge their wild flailing attacks. Several of these attacks were aimed at Sister Teresa but Rondie quickly stepped in front of her and knocked them unconscious while also parrying several hooked tentacle attacks with her metal fists.
There were still several hook attacks slamming down on Akira''s shield as he blocked them. As the [Harden] skill ended Akira activated the skill [Shadow chains]. Four wolfhead shadows jumped out of the shadows and bit deep into 4 different tentacles, not allowing them to escape or dodge the attacks of others while also holding the [Blob Flayr] in place for at least a short time.
With one of the captured tentacles right in front of him, Zundar used this opportunity to grab it and started to pull down with all his might dragging the main body down towards everyone.
He was forced to carefully watch where he was putting his hands as there were several sharp mouths on the tentacles that were snapping at his hands as he pulled the tentacle down.
Akira and Beater also grabbed one of the other capture tentacles and began pulling them down causing the main body of the Flayr to descend closer and closer to the ground making it easier for the others to target it forcing the [Blob Flayr] to use most of its free tentacles to protect its vulnerable eyes and body.
“Hand me a spear, quick!” shouted Zundar.
A nearby warrior handed him a spear and Zundar wasted no time taking his large warhammer and used it to smash the spear through the tentacle and embed it into the stone floor beneath them.
Seeing this, Akira and Beater also followed suit and took a spear from whoever was closest to them and pierced the tentacle embedding it into the stone floor just as the shadow chains were slowly disappearing.
The [Blob flayr] struggled to get free as it launched several hook attacks at the three who were grabbing its tentacles. But each tentacle was intercepted by the other warriors and knocked away.
Along with the hail of hook attacks, the [Blob Flayr] launched a mental attack towards Zundar causing him to stumble back away from the pinned tentacle that he was keeping pinned down.
Those near the tentacle launched their own attacks at the main body drawing the ire of the [Blob flayr] onto themselves allowing Zundar to recover.
While it was trying to break free, Minion teamed up with Fluffball as he used his water elemental skill attacks to cover the right half of the [Blob Flayer''s] body which was quickly frozen by Fluffball hindering both its sight and movement.
On the other side, Crowbahr and Galena teamed. With their wind and fire skill attacks combined they created even stronger and wider ranged attacks that engulfed the left half of the [Blob Flayr''s] body.
The deadly hot and cold attack! It was too effective!
The Flayr''s large body crashed to the floor no longer having the energy to stay floating.
It did not die without a fight, it lashed out with all its free tentacles slamming into everyone who had rushed forward to try and finish it off.
Akira dodged the hook tentacle that was aimed at him and rushed forward piercing his sword into one of its large eyes and pulled out his sword to repeatedly pierce each golden eye that was still blinking.
With the golden light disappearing from the last eye of the Large [Blob Flayr] its hook tentacles fell to the ground limp.
Everyone looked at the [Blob flayr] and then scanned their surroundings waiting for another wave to show up but...
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Ancient Experimental Labs Dungeon has been completed!
Reward for completion: All curses and mind control have been cured!
Level up! You are now level 223!
Your companion Fluffball is now level 205!
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Akira felt his wounds healing from his level up but the mental exhaustion and phantom pain still lingered in his body making him feel rather sluggish and uncomfortable.
The gray Fog slowly began to dissipate revealing the stone floor that was covered in hundreds of the [Flayr] bodies.
Akira looked at everyone and saw that they were all in a ragged state and breathing hard.
Especially those who had received mental attacks and cursed with body control by the [Flayr].
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Quest [Find That Book] failed! There was no book!
New Title gained: Wild Goose Chaser: One that chased non-existent things.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Akira Realized a real issue after reading the system notification... there was no way to go back to the old man and he must have been controlled by the Dungeon guardian!
“Where is the treasure?” asked Zundar as he looked around only to see a floating white portal.
“I don''t think there is one...” said Akira as he looked around.
Fluffball sniffed the air but found nothing either. With the fog gone, it was easy to see the entire cavernous room that he had thought was endless... but somehow it looked smaller than he expected...
“So we just wasted all our time and strength for nothing?” asked Beater.
“Well, not exactly nothing. We stopped a dungeon outbreak. Just think of what would have happened if those [Flayr] managed to get outside...” said Crowbahr.
“Let''s get out of here, I don''t want to be here any longer than we have to...” said Sweety.
Akira reached out his sword and touched the portal.
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Do you want to Exit the Ancient Experimental Labs Dungeon with your entire party?
Y/N
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
With a bright flash, the portal light covered them and they disappeared from the dungeon...