For what felt like the thousandth time, Zeke brought Voromir down in a massive sledgehammer strike that splattered the hunter’s brains all across the stone floor. Yet, only a second later, the thing flared with mana and pulled everything back into place. Of course, the creature had ceased moving. Repeatedly having its brain destroyed had rendered it entirely comatose. However, it simply refused to die.
“This is getting ridiculous,” he muttered.
“You know how to end it,” Eveline reminded him, sitting on an illusory chair, her legs crossed as she picked at her nails. For her part, Adara had already disappeared into the fortress, where she was busy hunting the lower-leveled creatures within. It was good practice for her, and she would assuredly gain plenty of levels following that dictate. That left Zeke entirely alone. At that thought, Eveline cut her eyes at him and asked, “And what about me?”
“You don’t count,” he said, hefting his hammer again. He brought it down on the oft-destroyed head of the hunter, and to similar results as the last time. “And I’ve told you a hundred times, I don’t want to rely too heavily on my Will or my skills.”
“That makes you an idiot. Those two factors are what set you apart,” she said, her statement punctuated by another wet squelch that came from a squished brain. “Mostly. Your ridiculous strength plays a small part as well. But sometimes, strength isn’t enough.”
Zeke didn’t agree with that assessment. To him, it seemed silly to neglect one facet of his power for another, even if, at first glance, physical strength didn’t seem quite as important as the ability to create an implosion of nuclear proportions. Still, the sheer variety of his past battles suggested that, at some point, his survival would come down to an application of his strength and battle prowess. When that day came, he intended to be prepared.
So, he brought his hammer down again.
The fight with the hunter hadn’t been terribly difficult. Sure, the thing was powerful, but not quite on the level where it could truly threaten Zeke. However, his every attack had been stymied by the creature’s incredible self-healing ability. No sooner had he done damage than it mended, often before his very eyes. For a while, Zeke had despaired that he might not be capable of killing the thing, but in the end, persistence won out.
Mostly.
He hit it again.
And again after that.
Over and over, he destroyed the monster’s brain. About halfway through the fight, he’d discovered that doing so was the key. Apparently, it couldn’t completely heal from brain damage, and so, each time it reformed, it did so imperfectly. So, after two or three times, the effects had become clear. And after ten, it had fallen unconscious. Almost a hundred times since then, Zeke had broken its skull open, and yet, it still refused to die.
One small wisp of his Will, and that would change. Or he could use [Titanic Smash]. Maybe even [Hell Geyser] would do the trick. Zeke wanted nothing more than to go down that route, but he’d chosen to beat the thing with the power of his body alone, and he wasn’t going to go back on that decision just because it proved difficult.
So, he kept going until, almost an hour later, he felt an influx of kill energy that announced that the thing’s innate healing had finally succumbed to Zeke’s repeated attempts at destroying it. A sense of relief swept through him, though it was nothing compared to something else he’d come to understand.
One can’t spend hours attempting to destroy a thing without starting to think, and in this case, Zeke’s thoughts centered around the struggle of destruction against regeneration. And the lesson seemed clear – no matter how powerful the ability to regrow, destruction would always and inevitably win. Because it wasn’t just a force. It was the natural course of existence to one day meet one’s destruction.
“So philosophical,” Eveline remarked. “That’s unlike you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re more of an unga-bunga, me hit with club than a philosopher kind of guy,” she said.
Zeke didn’t dispute that claim. The world seemed so much simpler when he could beat it into submission. He liked that. No matter what the problem was, it could usually be solved with the generous application of brutal violence. Or that was his experience, at least. He was intelligent enough to know that it his philosophy – such as it was – probably had plenty of holes, but he wasn’t smart enough to find them. So, he didn’t try.
“It’s not about philosophy. It’s about my path. I think the only way forward is to understand it better,” he said. “The arcane part is easy. It’s just runes and magic, and that’s always made sense to me. But the nature of destruction is different. There’s an underlying truth there that I definitely don’t fully understand. I mean to, but I think it’ll take quite a lot of embarrassingly deep thoughts to get to that point.”
“That’s how it always is,” Eveline said. “Lots of wrong turns on the path to true understanding.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“So sage. So wise,” he remarked with a grin. Just then, Adara arrived. She was covered in blood, but she too wore a wide grin. “You look excited.”
“This place is a gem mine,” she said. “So much kill energy, just waiting to be plucked.”
“I think you’re confusing your metaphors there,” Zeke said. “Plucked implies a harvest.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. Did you kill that thing finally?” she asked.
He nodded, saying, “Yeah. It was tough, though. Any ideas on where to find its boss? I want to get through this dungeon so we can get back to the army.”
He was worried about the state of his city, and no amount of assurance from Eveline or Adara would derail his concern. The reality was that he’d taken responsibility for the kobolds. They were his people, and he looked at them a lot like one might look at children. If something happened to them, he would be absolutely devastated.
And the world might not survive what came after that. So, for everyone’s sake, he hoped that they were doing okay. In the meantime, he had a task to complete, and the dungeon certainly wasn’t going to conquer itself. Thankfully, Adara’s campaign of murder had taken her throughout most of the castle, and she had a good idea which way to go.
That was how they ended up passing through the castle and exiting on the other side. There, they were confronted with two things. The first was a moat of magma, through which swam huge reptiles of fire. They were far enough below that they had no idea Zeke and Adara were even looking down on them, but he suspected that they would prove quite deadly if he and his companion ended up invading their territory.
Across that moat, which was at least half a mile wide, was a giant arena sunk deep into the surrounding stone. From their vantage, they could see that the center of said arena was populated by an enormous dais, though there was nothing upon it.
“What do you think it is?” Zeke asked.
“I don’t know. The notes never mentioned anything like this. Every other account of this dungeon said that they boss was another one of those fire nagas that was a powerful pyromancer,” Adara explained. “But you saw his chambers. There was nothing there.”
“And nobody ever saw a giant arena in the back yard,” Zeke remarked.
Yard was a bit of a misnomer, considering the sheer scope of the landscape. However, he didn’t bother amending his assessment. Instead, he focused on how they were meant to get across. In the end, the solution was already close at hand. Just beside the door leading back into the castle was a pedestal, upon which was a red gem.
Zeke picked it up and gave it an exploratory shake, asking, “What do you think it’s for?”
Before Adara could answer, the ground shook as an earthquake tore through the area. Down below, the moat of lava roiled, and the creatures within went crazy. However, Zeke was far more concerned with the bridge that suddenly grew between his position and the far side of the moat. It was made of clear crystal, but because of the light from the lava, it sparkled with orange highlights.
“What the…”
Tendrils of crystal wrapped around one another as the bridge slowly grew from one end to the other, meeting at the center.
“That was unexpected,” Eveline said. “Convenient, though.”
Indeed, it was. Until that moment, Zeke had considered simply diving into the lava, fighting whatever those creatures were, then climbing the other side. The problem with that plan was that Adara wouldn’t be able to accompany him. So, he was happy to have another avenue now available.
He held out his arm, “My lady?”
She took it eagerly, and arm-in-arm, they strolled across the crystal bridge. “Very romantic,” Eveline said. “Except that she’s covered in blood and you’re in a hellscape of lava and soot. And you’re heading to fight a monster of indeterminate power that could very well destroy you both. So, not romantic at all, unless your battle mania is exceeded only by your partner’s.”
Zeke ignored her. Instead, he focused on his surroundings. The bridge looked so delicate that he wasn’t willing to rule out the possibility of its collapse. After all, he’d been through enough dungeons to know that they sometimes liked to pull the rug right out from under people like him.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen in this instance, and they reached the other side of the moat unmolested. The moment they stepped into the arena, a ring of fire erupted all around them, and once more, the earth shook. Zeke reached out to steady Adara, but she didn’t seem to need it. And judging by the look of steely determination on her face, she was ready for whatever threat might present itself.
The ground tore open, and a web of cracks extended from the central dais. The arena itself was at least half a mile wide, with stepped seating that looked like it would accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.
But it was all empty, and it wasn’t just the fires that cast everything in an eerie glow.
Suddenly, the shaking faded, but before Zeke could remark upon the sudden cessation, a creature burst forth, sending a shower of rocks, molten lava, and ash spraying into the air.
“Who treads upon my domain?!” it bellowed.
Zeke didn’t even have the breath to answer, he was so taken aback. The monster was at least as big as the necromantic vessel, though, other than size, the two creatures couldn’t have been more dissimilar. The monster in the center of that arena was more than a thousand feet tall and half as wide, but what really surprised Zeke was that it seemed like it was made of fire and magma.
Shapeless aside from the most basic of humanoid parts – meaning two arms, a torso, and a head – the thing’s lower half remained beneath the ground. In its hand was the largest hammer Zeke had ever seen. The weapon seemed more like an extension of the creature’s body than an item in its own right.
“You seem impressed,” Eveline said. “By the size of its hammer, I mean.”
“You make it sound dirty.”
“I mean, is it not?”
“It’s a nice hammer,” Zeke insisted.
Then, without further conversation, he stepped forward. “I think that’s me,” he said.
The creature took a moment to look around, as if it couldn’t find Zeke. Then, it finally glanced down. Its face was obscured by flames, but Zeke could only imagine that its eyes narrowed. “You? A puny insect? Die!”
Then, it swung that mighty hammer. The air blistered with its passage, and when it descended, it did so with the force of a god’s might.
Zeke reached up with one hand and caught the hammer, stopping it cold. Still, the impact sent a shockwave spreading throughout the arena, and even that ripple of power was enough to knock Adara from her feet. It also cracked some of the nearby stones.
When the monster pulled the hammer back, Zeke said, “My turn.”
Then, he unleashed the power of a thousand swings as he activated both [Unleash Momentum] and Voromir’s projection ability.