Loud crashes and bangs filled the overgrown jungle area. As the highest level being in the forest zone, dodging a single one of Master Thorn’s attacks was impressive. Being able to do so consistently was troubling. The Attack Animals watched on, silent and terrified. They manned the stairs, each watching from a different angle. Their zone’s Claimant battled against the Adversary, and while they didn’t understand why, the gathered amphibian monsters knew his life was important.
A dozen instincts were warring in the watchers at once. Rage, as the human whom their blood demands they kill fought their leader. Hope, as their leader pushed the human back with ease. Fear. For Master Thorn’s victory would change their world in a dramatic way. The dungeon waited with bated breath for the blow which would fell the intruder. They felt excitement at what it might mean for them should their zone’s leader defeat the human.
The most dominant emotion, though, was respect for the choice Master Thorn made to fight the boy alone. Though the System demanded that they involve themselves, initially it had been their high regard for the powerhouse which had stayed their hands. As the battle raged, something else had begun to occur within the magic of the dungeon.
The System’s artefact, the Jingu Bang, fed Thorn a steady stream of power, even now. Spirit from the dungeon’s fallen denizens was transformed into pure strength by the weapon. As the human grew, so did Thorn. The barrier from level twenty nine to thirty was massive compared to the previous levelling costs, but the process was nearly complete. With the human’s defeat, Master Thorn would reach the threshold and evolve. Such things weren’t articulated in their minds, but understood in their souls.
The Attack Animals knew it was early for such a thing, even as the reasons were unclear. The world outside was much more dangerous for them, but with the way the Adversary fought, the dungeon wasn’t much better. Their numbers had been dwindled by the other creatures as everything vied for more strength but the human had been impressively effective, so now only the four Attack Animals remained. Each of them had already set their heart on the matter. Strength was strength, and they would follow Master Thorn into the new world and become strong enough not to fear the humans out there.
Of course, if all the humans of Earth-JMC642 were as powerful as this lone youthful male, it would all be moot. Was that even possible? Outside the dungeon, it was the first night of the Shift, after all. Much like the world beyond, all the Attack Animals could do was wait and see whether it would survive the fallout from this battle. So wait they did, unblinking even as the clashes lit up the forest with light and power. Unmoving as the shockwaves of mana scorched their skin. Even as the System demanded they step in and tip the scales, they stayed, bearing the pain in their heads for the act.
Unable to explain the importance of the moment, they didn’t try. The first time the human’s blade glittered with power and touched the artefact, it swept away some of the bindings on their minds. The workings of the System upon the creatures it creates are invisible. Subtle. Something overt was happening before them, and it pushed away the baser emotions enforced upon them. They revelled in the ability to do as they wished, even though their desire was to remain still.
Stoic, the Attack Animals kept their watch.
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With a frustrated grunt, I punched the floor. I didn’t have time to dodge in any other way. Making use of my new strength, the manoeuvre was quite impressive if I said so myself. I even kept my sword in hand. The ground broke where I hit and I was thrown the other way as I pushed off the world and avoided the downswing of Master Thorn’s staff. The impact I had just avoided then caused me to careen back further.
Every second I could fight without using Haste was another I felt closer to victory. Alternatively, every moment in this battle had me one step away from death. The air sang a dirge as the ratman’s staff whistled ominously past my ears. After trying to meet the attacks in strength only once while the fight was still playful and subsequently losing out, I wasn’t encouraged to try again when Master Thorn began taking the matter of my expiration more seriously.
The magic in that staff was absolutely howling with destructive force. Manasight wasn’t as useful in this fight, not only because Thorn moved too fast for me to read its mana anyway, but now the staff was in play it was genuinely blinding to my magical senses. Relying on pure physical ability, I was pushed further and further into the thigh-deep waters of exhaustion.
Still, I wasn’t the only one. Panting, growing confusion on its face warring with frustration for domination. I could hear the question being asked each time I avoided death and the ratman screeched in annoyance. The pitch deepened, the noise extending each time. For all that the creature acted like a wise old man, it wasn’t. It had been born in the dungeon just like everything else.
Just like me, really.
Reborn, in my case, but I would hardly recognise myself in a mirror if I could be bothered with such a thing right now. I wouldn’t even have been able to follow my movements in this fight, let alone replicate even half of them. The trials of the dungeon had taken a lanky, red-haired manchild and painfully chiselled away my immaturities and weaknesses with haste. I had grasped at the winds of magic and found their gentle caress to my liking.
Now, I just needed to kill a Claimant.
I had dodged for long enough to recover another attack worth of mana. I ignited the runes on Severance’s blade after slowly charging the fifty mana during my desperate dodging. A vicious delight had me baring my teeth as Thorn’s eyes widened in fear. Our battle had been one-sided for the most part. Faster than me, stronger than me, more skilled with its weapon, I stood no chance against Thorn in a fair fight. Luckily, Thorn wasn’t trying to fight fair. Though it jumped away quickly, I was faster when I added everything I had together.
Dragonburn. Any costs would be multiplied by a factor of ten, but so would the power of the skills. As the crystalline feeling crackled through my mana channels, I heard the air around me buzz with power. I absently noted that I must be leaking mana somehow and that there was an efficiency issue there, but it wasn’t the time to worry about that. Though, time was seeming increasingly malleable.
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Haste. I sighed as the noises of the world dampened, indulging myself for a moment. It was hard to catch my breath against this guy. Casually, I threw myself after the rising Master Thorn. A victim of its effects already, Thorn was ready for me this time and threw himself into the air as far and as fast as he could. It wouldn’t be enough, and the slowly morphing expression of true rage was all the reaction the rat would get before the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.
Heavy Blow.
At a cost of nearly all my mana in one go, the move was the only effective one I had found. Compared to everything else I had tried, staggeringly so. In probing tests with my other skills, Master Thorn could easily handle a stealthily tossed Mana Bolt or a normal Heavy Blow. It took something special to push this being back at all. I needed to do more than that to win, though.
The tip of Severance clipped the staff and the resulting keen was like a woman’s screaming. It was my turn to make a crater, happily using the dangerous ratman as my comet. I released the effects of Dragonburn and Haste the instant the attack landed, but the drain on my resource was already monstrous. Still, I had succeeded in my plan. As I landed, I couldn’t help biting my lip in worry.
It worked, sort of. The connection between Thorn and the staff was weak. Another one of those and it might sever it completely. The first time I landed the magical effect of Severance, the overwhelming power difference between Thorn and I dipped. The ratman was receiving some sort of buff from the staff, and my attack interrupted that. The attrition of the battle felt one-sided to me, but as the rat struggled to its feet, I knew that wasn’t the case.
Its left arm no longer held the staff when at rest, its dominant arm damaged. The overwhelming speed had dropped after I had damaged its ankle. The furry snout which extended off its face was bent slightly. Flimsy, its robe had been destroyed and now existed only as a waist wrapping, which I appreciated. For all that I was hurting, I wasn’t the only one.
Except, for all that…
I was losing. Spitting out a small mouthful of blood, Master Thorn chuckled. It stretched, the intimidatingly thick muscles of its chest almost groaning with the hidden potential within. “Impressive!” Its demeanour had loosened somewhat, though it had seemed eccentric to start with. Now it was laughing at me and taking the time for jokes. I couldn’t bring myself to feel hopeful though. I hadn’t hit him hard enough to knock something loose in its head, it was just confident. Thorn had surely worked out how long it would take me to perform another attack like that. Over five minutes of dodging between chipping retaliation wasn’t going to work a third time.
Taking its own moment to catch its breath, I flicked my eyes to my resources.
Health
28/80
1.5 per minute
Mana
14/125
20 per minute
Well, that’s not good. Before the thought had even finished, Thorn attacked. It had not missed my moment of distraction and was no longer messing around. The staff hummed as it parted the air. It was coming for my jaw, and it was going to take the whole lower half of my face with it when it landed.
Heavy Blow. The move definitely cost me some health points, my wrist shattering like a drinking glass from the jarring impact. Severance was smashed from my grip, buried to the hilt in the rock of the arena wall. I found myself skidding across the slightly wet ground before colliding with the circular barrier myself. I crunched into the rock, some of it breaking, but mostly my ribs. Twenty seven damage, and my legs were frighteningly useless. Something important had broken. I wouldn’t heal this quickly.
The laughter died on Master Thorn’s thin lips. From my spot on the floor, I struggled. I could hardly move, and the pain was close to knocking me out as I shoved myself into a sitting position. “Fuck this,” I told the world. I was wholly unwilling to die here. It was too sudden. Out of mana, body almost destroyed, I was nearly out of options. Brushing up against the darkness of unconsciousness had made me acutely aware of my final resource.
Dragonburn.
Thorn stomped towards me with a cautious shuffle. As the skill activated and laced my body with power, I released my mana. Not in an attack, but for the first time since discovering the strange power within me, I stopped touching on it at all. It wasn’t easy, but I was desperate. Not just desperate, I had been training for this without knowing. If I hadn’t learned about the tangible effects of Willpower, I couldn’t have used Dragonburn this way.
If I hadn’t memorised my skill patterns, I wouldn’t have been able to find and flood Mana Bolt’s sigil with Willpower. I felt the System’s attention on me, scrawling and gouging to create something new within me as I, in turn, created the projectile. My hands were no good for throwing, but I grit my teeth and gathered the energy in my palm all the same.
Amber, gold and silver energies flecked with purple appeared in my hand. Like a flowing river directed into a water balloon, the power swelled to immense proportions. I felt the skill’s structure straining against the pressure but I was barely in control of the process any more. Growing more massive by the second, the rich colours tinting the world around me like it was cast in bronze. It almost seemed to solidify the air itself, slowing Thorn’s approach.
As everything froze, the magic in my hand danced. Everything was happening so fast. Without the strength to throw the attack, no mana to activate Haste, stuck in time like everything else, I screamed at the orb. Thorn knew something was seriously dangerous, and his finishing blow was warping the air as it moved at a visible pace despite the slowness.
Like a bolt of lightning, the orb exploded forward. It burst from the front, all of the power within shooting out of the aperture with blinding speed. A great gleam of golden light lingered painfully, and for a moment I thought I was dead, but the pain didn’t recede even as the light dimmed.
The energy which flowed into me pushed me over the level threshold and I sighed in relief as the attributes pushed me further away from death. From my sitting position, I could see the smouldering heap with Master Thorn had landed in. The damage I had done to my Willpower by using Dragonburn to brute force and attack sat over my consciousness like a clingy gargoyle. The pain ebbed away over minutes of drooling, unblinking inaction. I could do nothing but wait, not even able to muster a solid thought.
Lethargically, my faculties came back online one by one. I blinked hard. I felt ragged, like I had been shredded on the inside by a violent wolverine. I held onto that gentle agony as proof I had survived. Each breath which brushed against my bruised lungs and healing ribs was a blessing. The gouges and slices of ignored damage were carefully memorised.
Only when I was able to think clearly and draw my System Windows to view could I believe what had occurred. Between the level up, the unmoving body and the new line at the bottom of the quest description, I finally believed it.
Dungeon Quest - Aspiring Claims
Due to the special nature of the Solo Dungeon, you are its Keystone. Until the first of the three Aspirants are defeated, entry to the dungeon from outside is locked. Only when all three Aspirants are defeated will the Keystone be free to leave, returning the Solo Dungeon to its initial state.
Claimants defeated: 1 of 3