[Unleash Momentum] ripped into the enormous creature, knocking it backward. It only moved a few feet – which was nothing, given how huge it was – but even that small reaction was enough to give Zeke hope for the coming battle. If he’d leveled the same attack at the necrotic vessel, for instance, it wouldn’t have moved even an inch. The hit also gave Zeke an opportunity to use [Inspect]:

Uko, the God of the Flame – Level 100

As expected, the creature was at the peak of the Eternal Realm. More interestingly, it had a name, which usually meant that it would be more powerful than a typical monster. The creature was not simple, that much was certain. And it proved that when it unleashed a truly massive gout of flame that engulfed Zeke and everything within a hundred feet of him.

That included Adara, but fortunately, she had come prepared with the fire resistance potions created by the Crimson Tower’s alchemist. In addition, she had her own defenses in place, so even that primal column of fire was not enough to do more than singe her hair.

For Zeke, it wasn’t even an annoyance, and he endured it without flinching.

That clearly shocked Uko, and for good reason. With a title like the God of the Flame, the being likely wasn’t used to their attacks being summarily ignored. It was just further evidence that, even though he had yet to reach the peak himself, Zeke’s power had begun to outpace the Eternal Realm. Soon enough, he would be forced to ascend – or in his case, descend – just get a challenge.

But for now, he was focused entirely on the task before him. So, the moment Uko’s attack flickered out, Zeke used [Storm of Hammers], then engaged his twin domains before activating [Colossal Army]. At his side, the familiar portal slashed through the air and widened, releasing all ten of his golems. The expressionless automatons stepped through, their spears at the ready.

Finally, Zeke used [Eye of Reckoning], unleashing a beam of roiling destruction upon the so-called God of the Flame. It hit the creature dead in the chest, gouging and enormous gash into its torso. Boiling blood erupted from the wound, showering Zeke in smoking gore.

But to its credit, the monster was not slain.

Not that Zeke expected it to be. Instead, even if he didn’t anticipate being pushed to his limits – otherwise, he’d have never brought Adara – he did predict a difficult fight. At the very least, the thing wouldn’t die easily. It really was a shame. Against most people, those fires would have been quite lethal, but with Zeke’s near perfect resistance to fire, they were little more than an irritation.

The moment [Eye of Reckoning] winked out, Zeke threw himself forward, activating [Titanic Smash] in mid-air. And when the resultant attack connected with the creature, it did more than simply reel backwards. It bent almost double, and if it had been human, its back would have broken entirely. As it happened, the thing snapped back upright, then clamped its enormous hand around Zeke the second he landed.

That was when it tried to squish him to death.

Of course, that would prove no more effective than its attempts to burn him, but Zeke was still surprised at the sheer amount of physical strength the thing could bring to bear. It wasn’t on par with the necromantic vessel, but it was more than enough to make Zeke uncomfortable.

“Tiny insect! Feel my power!” the thing gloated.

Then, Zeke’s army of golems released their javelins. They slammed into Uko, and for a brief moment, his flames flickered. He roared in pain, and Zeke chose that moment to push against his confinement. He burst free, breaking a couple of fingers on his way out, then fell to the ground. He hit hard, turning his momentum into a roll before wheeling around to fight the God of the Flame.

Zeke was admittedly in a bit of a pickle concerning how to attack the creature. [Hell Geyser] was out because its flames – which comprised much of its damage – would be useless against the giant fire-wrought creature. And he didn’t dare use [Wrath of Annihilation] with Adara around. [Storm of Hammers] was still ongoing, steadily battering the creature with a whirlwind of blunt force. And he’d already used [Unleash Momentum].

“You could just use your Worldbreaker technique,” Eveline suggested. “That would bring it down to size.”

Zeke shook his head. He didn’t like using those techniques as a crutch. Sure, he’d employ them as necessary, but at the end of the day, he saw both Worldbreaker and Runebreaker as weapons of last resort.

Still, it was beginning to look like he might not have a choice in the matter.

“I shouldn’t have brought Adara along,” he said inwardly. She wasn’t dead weight, but he couldn’t’ do the things he needed to do when she was around.

Just as that thought flashed through Zeke’s mind, Adara leaped through the air. Then, at the apex of her jump, she disappeared entirely. A second later, she descended upon Uko’s face, leading the way with her spear. The creature’s head snapped back as if it had been hit by a wild haymaker, but Adara wasn’t finished. She yanked her spear – which was glowing with red light – from the monster’s forehead, then plunged it through one of its eyes.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Before it could respond, she leaped away, backflipping as she soared through the air, hitting the ground almost forty yards away. Then, she leveled that same spear at the monster and let loose with a torrent of blistering red mana that carved a deep wound in its chest. Together with the injury Zeke had inflicted with [Eye of Reckoning], it formed an X upon the thing’s torso.

Uko howled in pain, and Zeke chose to use that moment to once again use [Titanic Smash]. Its mana was still out of sync due to the golem’s spears, so it had no defense against Zeke’s latest attack. The blow, harnessing every ounce of Zeke’s strength as well as his powerful skill, hit with predictable results. The creature crumpled under the weight of it, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy Zeke.

Now that he was fully committed, he had no issues lacing his blows with a bit of his Will, which made them all the more devastating. Because of Adara’s efforts, Uko was incredibly off balance, so it had no defense against the onslaught Zeke brought to bear. He pummeled it repeatedly, and Voromir tore through its fiery exterior with every descending blow. Eventually, the thing managed to dislodge Zeke, sending him skipping across the landscape until he came to a rest almost a hundred yards away. But by that point, the damage had been done.

When Zeke picked himself up, he saw that the monster’s entire ribcage had been destroyed. If it had possessed normal organs, it would have already been dead. However, it was a monster of magic, and because of that, it clung to life. Zeke intended to put a stop to that.

Adara beat him to it, though, sending another blistering ray of red mana at the thing. It tried to dodge, but with its lower half still stuck in the ground, there was no chance of that. Its howls of agony echoed across the fire-strewn area, and they only grew in volume when Zeke once again threw himself into the fray.

That was the thing about monstrously large creatures. They were powerful, but if one could stand up to their incredible strength, then they stood little chance against a much smaller foe. Especially when it was someone like Zeke, who could pack so much power into a much smaller frame.

Of course, standing up to such a creature was impossible for most. Zeke, however, had a unique constitution that allowed him to endure when most would have been destroyed entirely. That, coupled with his massive strength, gave him the ability to stand toe-to-toe with such a powerful monster.

Still, it wasn’t as if it was easy.

The battle went back and forth, and Uko managed to get more than a few heavy blows to land on Zeke. More than once, Zeke was forced to use [Hand of Divinity] to heal himself. However, none of those attacks carried with them a fraction of the power the necrotic vessel had leveled against him, so he had no issues with taking whatever the so-called God of the Flame could level in his direction.

Even so, the battle couldn’t be won in a hurry, and in the end, it raged for more than a day. Uko fought with every ounce of primal fury it could muster, and yet, it was nothing compared to what Zeke could wield. On top of that, Adara added her own flavor of damage to the proceedings, and together, they overcame the massive monster.

In the end, Adara got the killing blow, spearing it through the heart – which was more of an elemental core than a beating mass of muscle – shattering it into a million pieces. They’d been at it for hours, hammering away at that hunk of gem-like crystal, so the moment they received the kill energy, their shoulders slumped in relief.

“Damn,” Zeke said, collapsing in the creature’s chest cavity. It wasn’t as grotesque as it might’ve sounded, considering that Uko had been composed of rock, fire, and magma. Still, it was a bit macabre, even by Zeke’s lofty standards for such things. “He was tougher than I expected.”

Adara had no more compunctions about the setting than he did, and she plopped down right next to him. Wiping sweat from her slightly green-tinged brow, she beamed at him as she said, “That was amazing! Did you see how I hit him with that spear strike?”

To accentuate the point, she thrust her arm forward. Her spear had long since shattered, but Zeke got the picture. “Is that a new skill?” he asked.

She nodded. “It’s called [Fatal Strike]. Kind of a misnomer, but it got the job done for sure,” she answered. “Were you holding back?”

Zeke shrugged. “I can’t use my most powerful skill with other people around,” he said. “They’ll get caught in the wash, and there’s no way anyone else would survive. I can barely endure it myself.”

“Well, even if you held back, the way you manhandled him was really something.”

Zeke nodded and said, “Thanks. You weren’t so bad yourself.”

“Aww,” said Eveline in his mind.

“Shut up.”

“I’m just saying – it’s sweet. Bonding over a shared experience. I mean, it’s a bit creepy that you chose a fire god’s chest cavity for the setting, but I suppose to each his own,” she said. “Next thing you know, you’ll be making love in the entrails of your enemies. Coincidentally, that is one of the more obscure mating habits of a particular race of demons called corpsefu –”

Zeke flexed [Bulwark of the Triumvirate], then said, “Don’t you have a tower to run?”

“Oh, I don’t run it. I supervise. Besides, I can do two things at once. Do you want me to recite the ongoing meeting I’m currently attending? If you wait a few minutes, I can probably even create an illusion – only visible to you, sadly. It’s a bit boring, but if you insist on –”

“Just stop. Please.”

The last thing Zeke wanted to think about was the minutiae of running the tower. Sure, he very much cared about those people who’d put their well-being in his hands, but he was honest enough with himself to admit that actually tending to their needs was well outside his wheelhouse.

“Not to push my luck, but aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked.

“Uh…”

“The natural treasure. You need to search the area,” Eveline reminded him. “It shouldn’t be hard to find now that the creature’s dead. Just follow your mana nose.”

“Mana nose?”

“Sense?”

“That sounds better,” Zeke said.

After that, he pushed himself to his feet and informed Adara of his intentions. For her part, she was at least as eager as he was to find the item. Apparently, hunting for treasure was universally enjoyed. So, they quickly set out, but initially, their efforts were stymied by a simple lack of direction. Because of that, they were forced to wander around, retracing their steps until, at last, Zeke caught wind of something. He would never have felt it if he hadn’t been working diligently on his mana senses, but now that he had, it was obvious.

Following that trail proved easy enough, and over the next hour, they trekked across the landscape until, at last, they found it. The treasure itself was an orchid the size of Zeke’s head, and it emitted a level of fire mana that made being in its presence extremely uncomfortable, even for him. For her part, Adara was forced to remain more than a hundred yards away, lest she be burned to a crisp.

The fact that it affected her so strongly – even when she was still under the influence of her fire resistance potion – boded well for the treasure’s quality. So, Zeke quickly dug it up, then stashed it away inside his spatial storage. And sure enough, the second he did, he saw that his quest had been updated to show his progress.

Now, he only needed a few more steps, and the Hall of Affinities would be his.