She tries not to look relieved. "If you say so. I'll go back down and tell everyone what's going on... Here, take my water and sandwich. You look like you could use them and I can get food back home."

"Thanks. You should get going."

"Yeah... I want to say 'run away if you think you can't do it' but this is really important..." She looks at her feet. "Nevermind. Don't die, Anna, you're brave and good."

"I'm not gonna die."

She forces a smile. "I'll see you at dinner then. Maybe we'll invite Valoo once you rescue his tail, even. Bye!"

She leaps off the cliff and starts gliding down.

Anna goes through the door.

There's another slightly perilous acrobatics test just over bubbling lava. She finds three more butterfly pendants in a treasure chest. (Surely they're valuable in some way, then?) She has to grapple onto a bar hanging from the roof to pull down a pressure switch to unlock the last door.

It's a pretty impressive door. There's a large carving of the upper part of a dragon's head, complete with sharp teeth, hanging over it. This is probably the big boss, as it were.

Anna-

will take a short break to eat that sandwich. She's hungry.

The sandwich is tomato, ham, and something starchy she doesn't recognize between the heavy bread slices.

Tasty. Just what one needs after slaying some monsters.

Okay, now she's ready to open the final door.

Beyond it is a large room, not as big as the huge space of the cavern below but fairly large still, with a pool of lava in the middle. There's plenty of stone walkway around it, and there are grappling-hook spots and raised wooden platforms up above. What must be Valoo's tail hangs from above, swinging side to side gently.

Then the creature appears from the pool with a shower of lava and a roar. Like some kind of giant scorpion.

It dwarfs her.

It gives her a full five seconds to behold its glory before rearing back and slamming down one of those massive claws.

oh wow he's big

No time for sitting around. She's on the move before five seconds are up, heading around the walkway to the side.

The claw misses, then.

This thing is so big she'll at least have plenty of time to react between moves. It's slow. Relatively. The way a whale or other large creature is slow.

Yeah, slow to start quick to finish. Don't hang around too long.

Any weak points visible from this level?

The eye looks like a weak point.

...The big claw at the end of Valoo's tail handing down from above would make a good grappling hook target. Let her get up to the upper level of platforms.

Sorry buddy, it's for your own good.

She waits for a break in the attacks then hooks the claw and swings up.

Valoo doesn't like this one bit.

When she ungrapples from his tail, huge chunks of stone fall down onto the monster, cracking its armor in a few places to reveal a glowing orange core.

Does it seem hurt by that?

It thrashed around in a lot of pain and rage, but continues to swing at her with the same patient implacability.

So probably not really, then. Does she have an angle on the eye from up here?

Not really.

Bleh.

Well. Her sword's too small to do any damage if she can't get at the eye. Making the rocks fall at least provoked some kind of reaction? She grapples the tail again.

More rocks fall, more damage to the armor.

It seems much angrier, but also a little wary. It does its best to be between her and Valoo's tail at all times, now.

Hey, maybe it's working. She starts moving faster to get a clear shot to the tail.