Arwin’s arrow screamed through the air, wreathed in a cloak of swirling green, and slammed into the side of the Life Constrictor’s head. It punched through scale and bit into the flesh beneath with a loud crack. The snake hissed in fury and thrashed, sending large droplets of blood splattering across the ground. Crystal bit at its skin and worked its way into flesh, consuming as much magical energy as it could hold. It wasn’t the first strike to hit it in the past few minutes. There were four other large wounds clustered around the same area. It was actually a little bit sad. The snake just had no way to actually dodge his attacks. It could wrap around the tower, but that just exposed new areas for him to shoot at. There was nothing the Life Constrictor could do. It really wouldn’t have been much of a problem in most cases. Any normal Journeyman entering the dungeon would have been unlikely to have a way to cause significant damage whilst remaining out of the snake’s range. Arwin summoned the arrow back to his hands and started to draw the bow once more. Prism’s Reach was practically singing in his hands. The bow was having the time of its life, and it wasn’t shy in drinking in power. Between everything it was taking from him and the power its crystal growths were gathering from the Life Constrictor, Prism’s Reach was eating well. Magic swirled within it with enough intensity to make Arwin’s fingers prickle. The bow creaked and [Scourge] pumped through Arwin’s muscles. He gritted his teeth, drawing the string back and letting magical energy flow from his body into Prism’s Reach to supercharge the arrow. Come on. How long is it going to take? Am I doing something wrong? Prism’s Reach should have activated by now. It’s been drinking energy from me and the Snake for so long that I’m starting to wonder if the stupid bow is just somehow eating it instead of using it. He let the arrow fly. It screamed through the air and slammed into the snake’s side. Reya winced at the impact and the snake hissed once more, but that was all it could do. Even growing closer to try and fight back against them would have just made it an even easier target. “I swear I’ll tell you once we get out of the dungeon. For now, we need to keep moving before anybody shows up,” Arwin said, letting Prism’s Reach fade from his hands and blowing out a breath. He was nearly completely drained of magical energy, but they’d spent so much time standing around that more people could show up at any second. Olive pressed her lips together but gave him a nod. They all hurried down the side of the hill and over to the base of the tower. Arwin spent a flicker of energy to activate [Dragon’s Greed]. He doubted he would need much, and he was right. The bands of energy that rose up told him that the strongest source of magic was coming right from the tower in front of them. If there was anywhere that the key went, it was here. It was time to see just what Jessen had left behind.
