Baldor watched with a grim set to his jaw as Arik, his brother-in-arms, ground the monster's skull under his boot, the eye socket cracking like an egg, its goopy contents spilling out. Tentacles writhed, casting otherworldly shadows around the dungeon's entrance chamber. With a final shudder, the beast's maw stretched wide in a silent, dying gasp, a nightmarish display of needle-like teeth.
"Looks more like some deep-sea nightmare than a bloody dungeon minion." Baldor grumbled, his distaste clear as day.
Arik, unfazed, shook his head. "It's no minion."
Baldor tensed, mana sparking at his fingertips. "Then what in the ten hells is it?"
"My bet? A blood parasite." Arik eyed the carcass with a hunter's interest.
Baldor swallowed hard. "A parasite the size of bear?"
“Yes, Titan spawned parasites are as big as they are ugly.” Arik held up a finger and lowered his voice. "I’ve heard tell, the last elemental Titans are bunkered down in dungeons like these."
Baldor’s face lost a shade, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm. He was a man of spells, a scholar of arcane knowledge, not a muscle-bound brawler like Arik. Titans were the stuff of nightmares, tales told to scare children into bed. So monstrous was their size, it was said they could strike fear in the fiercest champion the most powerful dungeon core could summon.
"Maybe we ought to rally the men before we go deeper?" Baldor found little comfort from the stirring of mana within. The air crackled with energy as he readied his Ripple Shield spell, a conjuration of wind used to defend against powerful strikes.
Arik, still mashing the beast's skull into paste with his warhammer, grunted, "Never too cautious, brother. Blood parasites are as tough as old boots, and sneaky buggers, they know how to play dead."
Baldor swiped at the sweat beading on his brow. "If that thing gets back up, after you splattered its brains everywhere, I owe you a barrel, not just a mug of ale."
Arik landed a final blow.
"I've had my share of adventures since we last fought side by side." Arik’s grip tightened on his hammer, his eyes darkening. "Seen things... things no man ought to."
"Anything more twisted than those pig-men back at Swamp Dungeon?" Baldor forced a smile, a vain attempt to lighten the grim mood. “Put me off bacon for life.”
The two men laughed.
Arik hefted his hammer, poised for destruction. "Draw your arcane blade, brother."
Baldor followed Arik's lead without hesitation—his mana-enchanted sword like molten iron. Arik had been his commander in the last war, leading many a man through the fires of hell and back out again. And while peace had made them rich from dungeon spoils, it had only stoked Arik’s ambition.
This time Arik had the rest of their adventuring party wait outside, claiming it was nothing more than a low-level elemental dungeon—a truth that the sea-salt-encrusted mana crystals seemed to support, casting an ethereal glow around them.
Truth be told, neither of them were spring chickens anymore; the lines on their faces and the silver in their hair betrayed the immortal legends they’d been regarded as. Baldor had grown weary of the chase for treasure; after all, how much could one man spend in a lifetime?
But Arik, he was as relentless as time itself, always diving headfirst into the next dungeon. If Baldor didn't hold Arik in brotherly esteem, he would have retired from dungeon delving a long time ago..
Arik pushed forward, following the steep incline of the dungeon floor. The scraping noise that followed sent shivers up Baldor's spine, but Arik remained unimpressed. "So far, the dungeon's defenders have been disappointingly weak." He boasted, thumping his chest plate with a clang. "My armor's as unblemished as the day we entered."
The scraping noise intensified. A chill swept over Baldor, fueled by the certainty that the minion they were about to face had very sharp claws.
Arik glanced back at Baldor, the tension in his jaw betraying his concern. "Stay close and keep your eyes peeled."
A deep breath filled Baldor's lungs with a stench that made his eyes water.
Arik, acting like he was strolling through a rose garden, led the way into the next chamber. What greeted them was a sight from a lunatic's fever dream. A hunched beast, all eyes and limbs, hissed and twitched like a rattlesnake warning of death.
Baldor's brow knitted in confusion. The thing was an unholy mix of ghost crab and spider, hairy tufts spiking from its shell. He extended his senses, invoking Arcane Eye to identify the dungeon core’s champion, but all he saw was:
[???]
"Another of your so-called blood parasites?" Baldor muttered.
Arik shrugged. He hefted his hammer, a glint of battle in his eyes.
Baldor's hands glowed with mana. "Whatever the hell that thing is, it's best to fell it from a distance." Baldor nodded toward its maw oozing with black mucus. Fat droplets sizzled as they hit the dungeon floor.
Arik, it seemed, had other ideas.
He sped forward, his armor clanking with each step. Activating his Earthbreaker skill Arik feinted, then spun, his hammer arcing through the air to crash into the creature's shell.
The monster reeled back, spitting venom, then skittered unnaturally to dodge another deadly blow. Arik was relentless, sweeping its legs from under it, leaving it flipped and flailing, leaking black blood that added a new layer of foul to the air.
“Finish it and be quick." Arik alert, scanned the dark recesses of the cavern ahead.
It didn't take Baldor long to finish what Arik had started, cracking open the monster and relieving it of its legs and revealing its mana core. He sighed in sweet relief as the inhuman screeching finally stopped. The sound of loot hitting the dungeon floor made Baldor frown because Arik ignored it.
Arik never ignored loot.
The reason why, soon became clear.
Arik’s focus was elsewhere, as he cleaned his hammer of the sticky black tar. Baldor, following suit, wiped his blade clean. In silence, they moved forward; idle chatter had no place here.
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Ahead, a vast chamber awaited, revealed through a narrow passageway. Baldor's eyes widened in awe at its sheer size, stretching a hundred feet in every direction.
"Should we summon the other men?" Baldor kept his voice steady, hiding his concern.
Arik arched his brow. "And spoil the fun?" His grin was all teeth as if he was holding something back.
Baldor sensed his brother was looking for something besides the dungeon core. Something of ground-shaking importance that he didn’t trust anyone else to join him but his sworn brother, Baldor.
What the hell could it be?
As soon as their boots hit the stone floor, Baldor got his answer.
The floor beneath them shook, as if in fear.
A massive figure rose up before them. A giant worm made of stone with glowing blue eyes, big as rock pools. It had been there all along, hidden in the hollow of the dungeon floor. By the knowing look on Arik's face, in stark contrast to his own, he’d found exactly what he’d been looking for.
Baldor's mind reeled with ancient tales of elemental titans, those colossal beings said to dwell in the ocean's abyss, beneath fiery volcanoes, and within the earth's darkest caverns.
Legends spoke of their age, surpassing even the oldest mountains, perhaps as ancient as time itself. As this truth dawned on him, a chill akin to the pale, cold light of a winter moon crept over his skin. This quest was not for gold or gems.
Arik hungered for something far more elusive and dangerous.
Immortality.
It would be Arik’s for the taking once he claimed the Titan’s Core.
Dread gnawed at Baldor.
His clan believed immortality came at a cost. It was nothing more than a curse in disguise. Part of him wanted to speak up, tell Arik it was a bad idea. But he kept quiet. Arik might not be his commander anymore, but their history held him back. Deep down, Baldor feared they were chasing something that would cost them their souls.
Despite his lack of experience, Baldor knew a water Titan when he saw one. Arik closed in, hand steady, and only then did Baldor realize he was trembling.
"We should flee, brother." Taking a step back, Baldor pleaded, fixing Arik with desperate eyes. "It's madness to face such a creature, just the two of us." He urged, sword raised and mana coursing through it, tugging at Arik's armored sleeve with his free hand. "While we still can..."
Arik's tone was as blunt as his hammer. "We're not going anywhere." He broke free from Baldor's grip. Arik spoke with a confidence born of one who had already assessed the situation. "It's a water Titan, no match for your mana shield and counter strikes. I won’t turn away from this fight." He strode forward and called out in a mocking tone. "I’m here to turn your eternal reign into eternal slumber."
The Titan bellowed, shaking the chamber, water droplets seeping through the cracked foundations. "You are nothing but an insignificant and bothersome ant. Leave while you still can. You may defeat the dungeon core, but you cannot defeat a being as long-lived as I."
Arik's laughter echoed through the chamber, hammer in hand, gleaming in the ghostly light of the salt crystal chamber. "Small, maybe, but mighty." He grunted, war hammer swinging as he advanced on the lurking menace. "I’ll leave once I've claimed your core and the title of Immortal Titan Slayer."
Embracing the call of battle, Arik activated Earth Smash. He grinned as if relishing the raw power of his hammer and the added protection of Baldor’s mana shield.
The Titan lunged, a serpent wrought of stone and rage, its barbed tail a blur, aiming to cut Arik's bravado short.
But Arik's grin turned feral. He ducked into a forward slide, helmet skimming the stone, tailwind singing overhead. As the tail crashed down, he leapt aside, Baldor’s mana infused spell doubling the damage dealt by his brother's next blow.
Arik's hammer radiated a furious red, smashing into the titan with force enough to shake the earth. The titan recoiled, roaring as blue blood gushed from its underside, baring bone through torn scales.
The blood pooling beneath the titan congealed. If given enough time would it take the form of a blood parasite? Baldor pushed that thought aside in favor of the bigger more immediate threat they faced.
The titan feigned retreat, then whipped around, tail slamming down, but Baldor was ready, his training kicking in.
Timing was crucial.
Mana shield tight, Baldor rolled beneath the thrashing tail, his enhanced blade slicing clean through the barbed spike. It fell and rolled like a boulder, and the titan's cry shook the chamber's bones.
Arik’s eyes shone with wild glee, a man reborn in the heat of battle. Baldor felt it too, the rush of their past glories surging through him. This was life at its sharpest edge, where it could all end in a heartbeat.
"Come on, Titan." Arik taunted, gripping his hammer. "Show us if you're more than just a legend."
Baldor’s mind cleared, his focus narrowing to the fight. The titan, undeterred, snapped at him, only to meet the barrier of mana. Arik’s smirk suggested the beast was too easy a foe.
Then, the titan’s maw glowed an ominous blue, a deep spell forming, ancient and terrible. Baldor knew the danger, Arik was blind to the titan's power dwarfing their own.
"Down, Arik!" He shouted, diving clear as a beam of blue energy erupted from the titan. The blast shook the dungeon, stone raining down.
When the dust settled, Baldor's heart broke. Arik lay in pieces, his body frozen and shattered by the titan's icy assault. His hammer and breastplate were all that remained intact. Relics of a fallen warrior.
A cry tore from Baldor's throat, grief and rage warring within.
Then, the titan reared again, scales alight with that terrible blue. Baldor faced it, fear clawing at him, but he stood his ground. Seizing Arik's hammer, he charged, mana igniting his vengeance. He dodged the creature’s fangs, casting Zephyr Surge he leapt high, and brought the hammer down upon the titan's skull with all the fury of a storm.
The monster howled as the hammer found its mark, fueling his relentless assault. The titan, struggling to right itself, loomed over Baldor, its massive head casting a shadow of impending doom. It unleashed an icy breath, blue light coursing along its neck like a prelude to death.
Baldor, driven by survival, cast Storm Smash and swung the hammer upward, connecting with the titan's jaw. The impact shattered the stony plates, sending fragments spinning into the dark. Dodging a last-ditch strike, Baldor threw himself aside, using the hammer's momentum to evade the killing blow.
His heart thundered in his chest, knowing the next beat could be his last. He swung back to face the titan. The hammer, ablaze with mana, struck true, a crimson force radiating outward. The titan's serpentine body slackened, its bloody remains decorating the cavern walls.
But Baldor's victory was hollow, overshadowed by the memory of Arik's warning: Titans were known to feign death, harboring parasites within. He couldn't let up. With vengeance as his fuel, he pummeled the monster, standing knee-deep in a morass of gore. His breaths were ragged, his body a conduit of both power and despair.
He stood for a moment, hollow, remembering to claim the Titan's core. Arik, the only man he'd ever trusted with his life, was gone.
And it was his fault.
Baldor had been too slow to warn him, too wrapped up in his own doubt and fears, and now Arik was dead.
In a final tribute to his fallen brother, he aimed to destroy the wretched core.
Immortality was an illusion.
He raised his fallen brother’s hammer.
The blow echoed, a sound akin to the cracking of a colossal egg, and though it sickened him, it also brought a bitter form of release.
"A life for a life." His words, a solemn promise, strained between clenched jaws. Despite the fury of his hammer blows, one after another, the titan's core stood defiant, unmarred by further cracks.
Baldor’s fury had no direction now, his brother’s hammer discarded. It would take a thousand strikes to shatter the titan's core; his first blow had barely made a dent. He hammered at it with his fist, frustration boiling over, until a piercing pain halted him.
The titan’s faded blue blood blended with the bright red of his cracked knuckles. Smearing it with his palm, the blue blood seemed alive as it swirled, leaching its way into his thin wounds. He cried out as the titan’s parasitic leech burrowed deeper, a frigid sensation spreading through his veins.
Flushing his hands with Liquid Healing, the cracks of his skin sealed shut, but the coolness prickled deeper through his muscles. Grasping his forearm, his attempt to stop the slithering failed as the icy parasitic venom leached into his channels, burying itself deep into his mana core.
Time passed in a pain-filled haze.
Baldor sighed with relief as soon as his senses returned. His lip curled in disgust as the titan core absorbed the crimson red splashes as if mocking him with a blood pact. He slammed his hands down. He’d take the immortal titan core and find a way to destroy it for good.