It probably does, boss monsters are bullshit like that. The ice head starts shooting icicles conjured out of thin air at Tom, and the fire head summons a big fireball above its head that it starts making grow slowly. The force effect does hurt it, and it clearly is hurt, but monsters operate more under an HP paradigm than a "has a body" paradigm, so that's not hindering it anywhere near as much as it would the party.

"Shit. Elisabel, do you have Wither?"

"I have it but you guys are having some kind of problem and it takes a while where I can't duck!"

"I can park in front of you and stop stuff, it's just—Tom I'll ignore you—"

"Absofuckinglutely legit, ignore me, I don't know what the fuck is happening or why Elisabel is immune."

Chris leaps back, standing between Elisabel and the monster again, and slams the butt of her axe onto the floor. Unfortunately this is still damp earth so it makes a squelching sound rather than a satisfying clang, but the oval forcefield materializes around the two of them nevertheless. "Tom, distract it!"

"Aye aye, cap'n."

"Okay."

Wither takes a while and anything with a sneeze of magic will fight back the whole time so you can't set it and forget it, but she spent the first months of magic being available in a self-made goddamn immersion program. She breathes it. She draws the sigils and whispers her way through it to eat away at the already-sliced portion of the snake.

The snake realises what's happening quickly, or the dungeon does. Fire head lobs its half-formed fireball at the forcefield and then starts trying to slam against it, using its enchanted poisoned fangs, while ice head switches targets to the shield, too.

"No you don't," says Tom, shooting charged bullets at, again, the eyes. It'll either have to dodge his shots or keep attacking the shield, it can't do both.

Clearly it has decided that Elisabel is the bigger threat right now because it only halfheartedly tries to dodge, and consequently loses an eye. But that's nowhere near as bad as the way the wound Chris started and Tom widened is starting to dissolve like there's acid being poured into it from all directions.

Each hit to the shield makes Chris gasp, but she's holding on, eyes locked on the wound.

Hopefully Chris is with-it enough to tell her when to drop it and bail out of this fucking place with its fucking invisible miasma that takes out nonwitches, or something. Withering, withering withering withering.

It takes a whole minute but then "Ready, Tom—"

"On it!" He grabs a gummy from his pocket, swallows it whole, and then suddenly speeds up like crazy and shoots hard and fast enough that the snake physically can't keep bashing against the forcefield.

Wow, cool. Withering is ongoing over here.

"Elisabel, run in three, two, one—" The forcefield goes down.

She's picked a direction by "two" and interrupted her casting when she's not going to be able to get another push off before that. She bolts.

Chris doesn't give the snake time to react. With a scream she jumps again, somersaults off one of the rearing heads, then lands the final blow on the withered part of the snake, slicing it clean in half.

At which point it starts dissolving from the wound.

"Thank fuck—"

"Parts?" wonders Tom.

"—right, parts, that." She straightens up and grabs the enchanted dagger for monster body parts. Just this last thing and then they're done. She can do this. She can do it.

"I want some scales and the thermal sensing pits if you can dig those out."

"On it."