We all shimmied across. Not too difficult as the majority of our gear had been left at the nearest village.

  The heaviest thing we all had to carry was water. Layla was fortunate to have been gifted a magic canteen that held a couple days water, while weighing only a third of what it should have. Supplies that could stretch to two days and multipurpose travel capes were all we needed. This was meant to be a fairly small and low level dungeon after all; we weren't even sure if we'd need to spend the night here.

  With so many people around, my TrapAware skill was thrown off. Not far from the higher ledge was an entry to a magically lit, opulently decorated room. The threshold wasn't the trigger, Baz vocalised this. I walked past to scout the room.

  The floor was covered in rugs, laid out more like mats, and the walls were decorated with old martial arts weapons. A tapestry showing different fighting moves hung on one wall, while another had a portrait of a goblin in a fighting stance.

  It was a bizarre mix of dojo and throne room. It seemed we'd entered via a rear exit, there was a larger entrance at the front of the room.

  Too late, I realised the trigger, as the final member of our joint parties entered the room. A portcullis lowered to block the rear exit and the large entrance doors slammed shut, locking with loud clicks and a clank.

  The "throne" was a large cushion upon a raised stage area. The air fizzled and sparked as a glowing shape grew, forming above the cushion.

  I shielded my eyes from the glow, desperately using what little time I had to look for clues. A magic skill allowed me to decipher the text above the throne.

  'Cobra the brawling prince of Goblins'

  I looked down to see Cobra fully formed, bad news, he's level 35.

  Pfft Cobra, I'm going to beat the snot out of this wannabe edgelord. First I had to think of how I was going to get everyone else out of here without revealing my identity.

  At least everyone was smart enough to start attacking, Cobra looked hurt at being denied whatever daft monologue he was planning to spout. The tall, and lean for a goblin, prince rolled and jumped up avoiding the wizards fireballs, flying chakrams and Isabelle's arrows.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Audovald was first to go for melee, impressively taking two hits before collapsing, plus landed a useless axe strike.

  Layla is backhanded dead before even digging her claws in.

  Terrence's armour might as well be paper as the front of his helmet and face are caved in, having failed to break the goblin's skin with a sword thrust— should've used the rondel dagger!

  Mohandas landed a couple slashes as does Isabelle, both having attacked at the same time. Mohandas is kicked away so hard his flying corpse kills Lucas.

  Isabelle, with all the stat boosting I could give her, avoided one attack, but was killed by the follow through.

  Baz had tried to sneak around, went to stab Cobra in the back. Baz was decapitated by a hand chop.

  Evelyn is, as clerics often are, further back. I turned on Deception, bracing for a roundhouse kick. I cried out as if badly hurt then crashed against a wall before playing dead as I fell to the floor— quickly switching on VeiledStatus. Hopefully deception worked through performance, so the sudden disappearance of my health bar would be perceived as my health shooting down.

  Evelyn's scream was cut short. I stopped playing dead, streching and rolling my muscles as I got up.

  Cobra had his back turned, he was laughing as I dusted myself off. I allowed him to hear me and or sense my presence, he whipped his top half round.

  "Huh!? Did I not kick you hard enough!" All Show-bra growled.

  "No, please do try again." I taunted.

  "Super Equator Kick!"

  I moved my head back and catch Cobra's leg by the shin with my left hand, the sudden stop was enough to cause him to gasp in discomfort. I twisted his leg so his knee faced up, forcing Cobra to swivel. He squirmed and whimpered. Too shocked to do anything, before he could, I slammed my right elbow down onto his knee.

  Crack!

  "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

  With my right hand I grabbed his shoulder, stepping forward as I did. His leg folded against itself, I let go with a downward push, so it was out of the way. Then used my left hand to palm strike Cobra in the throat so hard his trachea crushed, cutting off his girly scream.

  "Naming your kick and shouting it out, ergh...so fucking lame."

  Unable to even gasp, Cobra starts flailing while falling back. I push kicked him hard enough that he slammed against the wall above the throne. He'd have landed on top of Audovald otherwise.

  Ok, think, how am I getting out of this one... I had maybe fifteen minutes to revive everyone. I couldn't use the 'mystery high level adventurer to the rescue' lie again...

  Cobra's corpse glowed, sparks swirled to the cushion. Edgelord was reforming himself sitting cross legged upon this throne. Huh, he had seemed a little too easy, so this boss has a revival mechanism.

  "Did I not kick you hard enough?" I asked.