This time, the four of them pressed much harder than previously, starting to use their Abilities. Axis did not transform but did start using additional strength and speed borrowed from his werewolf form. Jablach started using some of his more basic combat art forms and Duke started using Abilities to a degree. Specifically, he started wielding DARKNESS as he felt that was a long-neglected Ability that was due for a rank up.
While using the Ability, Duke discovered that he could use the creatures’ own shadows as a vector for attacking with his DARKNESS. This completely bypassed the kobold mages’ personal barriers, quickly killing them with blades of pure DARKNESS piercing their hearts or brains.
Oh, that is so fucking cool. I can use their shadows against them. Y’all watch this!
Duke reached out over the field of battle as the kobolds came into range of his Ability and attacked them with tentacles of DARKNESS. The tentacles moved with a fluidity that no movie monster Duke had ever seen could, almost as if they were living beings unto themselves. They snaked into the charging kobolds and grabbed legs and arms, stopping each kobold grabbed in mid-step. Rapidly, he had captured half of the creatures. His unconscious mind took over as he was thoroughly distracted by the alarmed voices all around him.
“What in all the hells is that?” Eihlen shouted from above pointing at the struggling kobolds.
“That’s Duke’s doing.” Aurelia responded as all eyes turned to him.
“What? I used an Ability. TELEPORTING the kobold mages here was one too. What’s got everyone so freaked out?”
“That!” Baslin shouted, pointing at the trapped kobolds.
They all turned to look and saw that the DARKNESS had fully animated based on Duke’s subconscious will and had torn the kobolds apart limb from limb.
“What the actual fuck?” Duke declared.
“That’s your Ability, Duke. Are you saying that that happened without your direction?” Baslin asked.
“I might be.”
“That’s truly frightening, Duke.” Axis responded. “What happened to you that would cause your Ability to do something like that?”
“I’ve been through some stuff. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Duke was interrupted by a gasp from Greslarnier who stared at him in abject horror. “The emotion of what happened to you bleeds through your thoughts. I don’t know what it was, but your mind should not have survived that level of horror.”
“Thanks for the tip. Thankfully, I’m made of sterner stuff than most.” He reached out and a spear of DARKNESS lanced out, impaling the lone kobold who had made it through the towers to reach them after Duke’s Ability killed so many. His further thoughts were interrupted by a notification.
***
Your DARKNESS Ability has ranked up to Practiced 1.
Through a deeper personal connection to the Umbral realm, your DARKNESS Ability has evolved into UMBRAL REAPER. This new Ability taps into your unconscious mind to draw additional power beyond the Mana spent. Your darkest memories and thoughts will be harnessed to devastate your enemies. Beware of what lurks in your darkest thoughts for this Ability will inflict them upon others.
Your UMBRAL REAPER Ability has gained sufficient fuel from your unconscious mind to advance to Adept 1.
***
Duke shuddered as the dark thoughts that roamed his unconsciousness clawed their way to the surface. He felt his MENTAL FORTITUDE flare and fight the thoughts back down. He quickly regained control of himself with a shake of his head and noticed two main things. One, Greslarnier was lying face-down on the tower and two, everyone else was staring at him wide-eyed.
“What happened this time?” Duke asked with no small amount of dread.
“Your shadow came alive and spread all over you, forming a cloaked figure holding a scythe in its hands before the whole thing drained into your eyes.” Aurelia told him, stepping forward as if to check that he was still himself.
“Well, that’s both totally fucked up and must have been cool as hell to watch.”
“Not as cool as you would think. More than a little terrifying is what I would say.” Eihlen said, helping Greslarnier back to its feet.
“And filled with psychic backlash.” Greslarnier waved off Eihlen’s help and sat down. “I am completely drained from the simple contact with it. Your mind is a terrifyingly powerful weapon, Duke. You need to learn how to control it before you unintentionally cause grievous harm to someone you care about.”
“Well, shit.” Duke responded as the next wave began. “How do I control my unconscious mind? What does that even mean?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“It will take work, but I can help you to do so.”
“Right now, let’s focus on killing kobolds. Especially since it looks like they’ve gone through another upgrade.” Axis returned their attention back to the coming wave of enemies that were, once again, ignoring the towers’ effects. This group was radically different. They had wings and were flying. Duke IDENTIFIED what was coming.
*** You have encountered a Lesser Dragonkin. This is a lesser draconic creature.
Tier: 3
Level: 120
Health: 403,248
Mana: 189,700
Special Abilities: Magic Resistance, Tower Immunity, Flight, Breath Weapon
Weaknesses: Avarice
***
“They’re not kobolds anymore. They are now lesser dragonkin with breath weapons. The towers are useless against them so this might just be a real fight. Anyone else here able to fly?” Duke rose into the air as he was answered with headshakes. “Then everyone else get on top of the base and defend the target. I’ll fly out to meet them and engage them in the air.”
Duke prepared himself for arial combat. They are resistant to magic so I might have to go with some kinetic energy attacks to thin their numbers down. Duke quickly rose above the tower, pushing his FLIGHT Ability to the limit of its speed and then flashed down towards the rapidly approaching dragonkin. The repeated sonic booms echoed across the battlefield and as he approached, he emptied his INVENTORY of hundreds of iron and steel scraps he had picked up from all the smithies he had visited in Havenreach. The cloud of projectiles surrounded him, and he stopped his FLIGHT moments later.
The cloud of projectiles continued on their way, expanding as they travelled away from Duke and into the ranks of the dragonkin. The jagged shards of metal tore into the dragonkin, shredding wings and gouging deeply into scales. A handful died in the assault, but Duke’s primary goal was achieved – the entire horde was now earthbound, their wings shredded, useless.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Axis shouted as he jumped back down to meet the charge with Duke. Jablach followed a heartbeat behind. Aurelia stayed up top to protect Eihlen, not trusting that the flying creatures were all earthbound. Duke remained airborne just in case.
The dragonkin came in much slower and unbalanced than they had been when they were in the air. Duke noted that their feet were clawed with a back toe like a bird making it difficult for them to walk smoothly. Axis and Jablach immediately took advantage of their awkwardness and waded into them.
This proved to be a mistake as breath weapons ignited the area bathing the pair in fire, acid, electricity, ice, and other more exotic forms of energy. The dragonkin were not fazed as breath weapons raked through their own ranks to get at the two fighters whose screams of pain tore into everyone’s ears.
Duke reactively TELEPORTED the pair to Eihlen for healing and flew down to engage the dragonkin himself. He smashed the first few with his tonfa before he saw others start to deeply inhale again to prime their breath weapons. Duke TELEPORTED behind the dragonkin and let their breath weapons ignite the area where he had been standing a moment before.
The dragonkin ignored Duke and stumble-charged towards the base tower causing Duke to remember that this wasn’t just a fight, it was a defensive goal. He attacked the rearmost of the creatures but other than the few he struck, none turned to engage him – they were intent on their singular goal.
As Duke waded into the back of the dragonkin horde, a howl of absolute rage echoed across the battlefield. Everything stopped. The dragonkin appeared stunned and even Duke hesitated as his animal instincts told him to run for his life. He quickly recovered as his MENTAL FORTITUDE was working overtime to keep him in the fight. He retuned to smashing stunned dragonkin before dragonkin bodies and parts of bodies started to rain down all over the area. In moments, the dragonkin were torn to pieces and Duke stood face to furry chest with a raging werewolf, its chest heaving while it sucked in massive lungfuls of air.
“Friend, Axis.” Duke said as calmly and steadily as he could.
He was greeted by glowing crimson eyes as the werewolf looked down at him. “I fucking know who you are, Duke. I’m not a fucking out-of-control monster.”
Jablach called out as he hopped down from the base tower. “Yeah, but you are one scary son of a b-“
“Don’t say it if you value your lungs, Jablach.” Axis warned, the aura of barely contained rage emanating palpably from him.
Jablach immediately shut up but still came over to the pair. “You mind doing that cleaning thing, Duke. This place is a bit messy. I don’t want to slip on a pile of intestines.”
“Um yeah. I can do that but they will dissipate in a minute anyway.” He CLEANSED the area before turning back to Axis. “You were holding that in reserve, weren’t you?”
“Yes, but those breath weapons hurt like the hells. When I saw that they had made it past you, I was concerned for the rest of the party and, well, you saw what happened.”
“Yeah. That was something. Excuse me for a minute, I’m going to go loot everything that we have missed over the past few waves.” Duke quickly flew over the battlefield, filling his INVENTORY full of everything that had been dropped by the attackers. He was surprised to find that the scraps of metal he had used in his strafing attack were still largely intact and confined to the battlefield. Smiling, he grabbed them up and returned to the pair.
“All cleaned-up.” He joked.
“We’re a little past the middle of the waves and I’ve already wolfed-out. You weren’t kidding about how hard this was going to get. I am actually excited to see what will happen when we hit the wave of 200 creatures and the next transformation. I haven’t had such fun with a combat challenge in ages.”
“That was fun? It sounded like you were fully enraged and ready to tear the world apart.”
“Like I said, fun.” He smiled at Duke before continuing. “Even in the arena, there was almost never a fight to the death for me. The only fighters that could really challenge me were too valuable to their owners to lose so we only ever fought to submission or unconsciousness. Here, I’m fighting foes that will start to actually push my limits. At least, I hope they will. This last wave was a good indication that the later waves will do just that.”
“So, you’ve been jonesing for a fight?”
“I don’t know what that word means, but by context, yes. I have been yearning for the chance to unleash my full self in the wild abandon of combat.”
“So, I guess you would be happy to know that you could come back here whenever you want to and run the dungeon by yourself or with whomever you want?”
“Truly?”
“Of course. I’ll set up a Portal for you. Maybe a locked door in your house so the girls don’t accidentally step through, but it shouldn’t be too hard to set up.”
“It seems that I again owe Ergo for bringing us together.”
“Speaking of the big guy, where is he?”
“Doing what he always wanted to do – farming. He has a farm outside of Havenreach that he loves working. I’ve never seen him happier.”
“Not what I expected but glad he is pursuing his passion.”
“Indeed. Sounds like the next wave is coming. You two want to cut the chatter and pay attention?” The pair looked over to see a widely grinning Jablach.
“Whatever you say, demon.” Axis chuckled and turned back towards the now approaching dragonkin.