Looking at the broken blade in his hand, Damion cursed his forgetfulness. A D Rank dagger likely would not even be able to pierce a C Rank Demonic Beast, let alone a B Rank. He still had another dagger, but since it was identical to the first, it would not fare any better.

"Hey, my dagger was too weak. Can I borrow someone else's?" Damion called out.

"Catch," Mage Phinn said as he threw his own dagger at the Demonic Beast.

The blade flashed through the air and sank into the stalk of the Seraceae next to Damion and he briefly wondered if the Lightning mage had forgotten that as a Spatial mage, Damion could have just teleported to him and back. Still, he was thankful that Mage Phinn had good aim. Pulling the B Rank dagger out of the stalk, he began cutting through the pod to retrieve the first core.

The process was easy with a quality artifact. Much easier than Damion had thought it would be as the Seraceae did not even seem to want to defend itself. Once he pried the core out and stored it in his personal spatial storage, the Seraceae visibly appeared to die. The greenness of its leaves and stalk began to fade, replaced by browns.

At the same moment the first Seraceae was dying, the second went into a fit. The previously docile plant began to pull its vines, stalks and mouths in, trying to reach Damion. Evidently, it being passive and not wanting to provoke the strange creature that could make parts of it vanish had ended when it realized Damion was there to kill it.

Not wanting to fight with all the vines and mouths trying to entangle and eat him, Damion used Blink and moved a safe distance from the Demonic Beast.

"Not what you were expecting?" Mage Phinn asked once Damion had retreated.

"Not exactly, but I can still handle it."

Damion smiled and pointed his finger to an area well above the pod on the second Seraceae and cast Exile. The small black spot appeared for an instant followed by the middle section of the Demonic Beast vanishing. the top of the plant then collapsed down and cut off from the main plant, began to die just as the first one had when it lost its core.

Using Blink, Damion moved back to where the pod on the second Seraceae was and cut the core out. Once the core was in his hand, the Demonic Beast was finished off and Damion calmly walked back to the group and handed Mage Phinn his dagger back.

"You could have done that earlier you know," Mage Phinn told him.

"I wanted to practice. I don't get to use that spell very much."

"Well, yeah, whatever you use it on vanishes," Peter Beck said. "Where does it go anyway?"

"No idea," Damion answered truthfully.

"Why didn't you use that spell on the Red Rock Golem?" Simon Beck asked.

"Because I didn't know where the golem's core was. I can't exactly bring back what I hit with that spell."

"Oh, right."

"Well, it was most impressive," Mage Abney chimed in. She had never seen a Spatial mage use their tier 5 spell before and was truly impressed with how Damion had wielded it. "Now it is time to head over to the guardian and we still have three hours to defeat it."

"Then let's go," Mage Young roared.

Damion paid no attention to Mage Young and instead checked on the notifications from the Magic System. Once again he had managed to increase the Rank of some of his spells.

*Ding*

[Spell Exile mastery increased to E Rank]

*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]

*Ding*

[Spell Instant Channeling mastery increased to C Rank]

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]

Despite no one else feeling Mage Young's abundance of enthusiasm, the group moved out and headed toward the guardian of the dungeon. On the journey from the champion's crater, the ground turned from hard broken clay to sandy dunes. Not long after they started walking through the dunes the team encountered the guardian.

The final Demonic Beast of the Crimson Waste was a Sand Shark. This creature moved through the loose sand of the dunes like water and had quite a vicious bite. However, unlike most Demonic Beasts, it had no magical attack. Its magic was used to rapidly move through the sand. This gave the team a strong advantage and as long as no one was pulled into the sand by the Sand Shark, they would have no trouble with Demonic Beast.

"If you see it moving towards you, jump. It will either move to someone else or try to jump out of the sand to catch you. If it does that, I will blast it and we'll be done."

Damion was not too sure about Mage Phinn's plan, but the Lightning mage had been in the dungeon before. Still, now that he had unlocked the quest to kill A Rank Demonic Beasts, Damion was excited to get started, unfortunately, he would only be reward 100 experience and 100 credits each time he completed the quest, which meant he needed to get 10 kills, which put the quest at the same level as his B Rank kill quest, though he at least had three B Rank kills now.

Moving through the sand towards them, Damion could see the dorsal fin of the Sand Shark. The tag True Sight assigned the Demonic Beast confirmed it was A Rank, but as much as he wanted to get this kill, he knew the magic power of that beast was at least five times his own. With the exception of Exile, which did not so much damage as move a target, he doubted any of his spells could hurt the dungeon guardian.

"Here it comes," Mage Phinn announced when he spotted the Sand Shark. "Remember, the plan is to lure it to jump to attack you."

Damion and the rest of the team nodded their understanding, their eyes locked on the dorsal fin moving towards them. Once it was within a dozen meters, the Sand Shark suddenly accelerated towards Simon Beck.

The C Rank knight jumped as soon as the Sand Shark zeroed in on him, but the Demonic Beast was too far away for it to try and jump out of the sand to intercept him. With its current target out of its senses, in the air and falling to the ground, the Sand Shark switched to the next closest person, which happened to be Peter Beck.

Like his brother, Peter Beck jumped into the air as soon as the Demonic Beast moved towards him. This caused the Sand Shark to change targets again, this time to Mage Young. However, the brawny healer was not like the two knights, he had no interest in evading the guardian.

Mage Young drove his two shields into the sand between him and the closing Demonic Beast. Unfortunately for him, the Sand Shark did not simply swim headfirst into the shields. The guardian dove deeper into the sand, its dorsal fin disappearing from view. When the fin disappeared below the sand, Mage Young abandoned his plan and jumped into the air as well.

The Sand Shark turned once again, this time back to its first target, Simon Beck, who had returned to the ground. After landing he had sunk knee-deep in the sand dune and was busy trying to pry himself free when he noticed the dorsal fin heading his way.

"Lois," Mage Phinn called out for the Water mage to do something.

To assist Simon Beck, Mage Abney cast Torrent. Spraying a line of water through the sand that cut off the Demonic Beast's attack path. The Sand Shark quickly turned away from the water.

"They don't like water?" Mage Young questioned when the Demonic Beast turned away. "Why don't we just flood the area?"

"Because if we put too much water in the area, the Sand Shark will start running away from us and we will have to chase it around the entire region," Mage Phinn answered.

"Can we cut off its escape paths? Block it in?" Damion asked.

"The sand soaks up my water and disperses it too quickly. Even if I could cast fast enough to encircle the Demonic Beast, it can just jump over the waterline and flee," answered Mage Abney.

"What if we…" Peter Beck started but was cut off.

"Focus on the plan we have," Mage Phinn told them. "Mage Abney and I have done this dungeon numerous times and our plan is simple and effective. Just try not jump so high that when you land you get stuck."

Damion returned his focus to the Sand Shark and saw that after Peter Beck jumped to avoid another charge of the guardian, the Demonic Beast turn its attention to him. Since the others seemed to be evading too soon, he decided to hold his ground for as long as possible before jumping. If he needed, he could always use Blink to escape.

Once the Sand Shark was only a meter or so away from him, Damion jumped. As he launched himself into the air, the Sand Shark followed suit, propelling itself into the air to catch him. A quick cast of Blink moved Damion well clear, and Mage Phinn cast Lightning Bolt, striking the Demonic Beast in its side.

After being hit and missing its target, the Demonic Beast dove back beneath the surface of the sand. Unfortunately, one blow was not enough to kill the guardian. It was certainly wounded, but it would take more than that to finish it off.

"Now that it is hurt, it will move more slowly," Mage Phinn announced. "Lois, if you can hit it with a water attack the next time it jumps, together we should be able to finish it off."

Damion used Blink to return to the position he was in before having to evade and began tapping his foot on the sand. If the Sand Shark was hunting by sensing the vibrations in the sand, he hoped to lure it back in.

A moment later, Damion's plan was rewarded with the Sand Shark's dorsal fin reappearing and heading towards him. Once again, he held his ground as the Sand Shark closed in on him. This time, instead of jumping straight up, Damion jumped backwards, creating more distance between him and the Sand Shark.

When the Demonic Beast burst through the surface of the sand, searching for its target, it was met with a Water Blast followed by another Lightning Bolt. The two spells were enough to weaken and then kill the guardian.

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