“Having trouble up there?” Jonathan called out as he ran to join the fray.
Edgar gave him a sharp look as he redirected an attack from the bat, and otherwise ignored him. Jonathan chuckled, and threw himself towards the spider, wanting to cut the head off of the serpent before it was too late. However, he had underestimated its strength. A massive leg came hurtling towards him in a tight arc, slamming into his chestplate. A noise like a titanic gong ringing filled the air, and Jonathan was propelled backwards, skipping across the ground. He let out a curse and rolled to his feet, starting to draw upon his Divinity. He had too little left for Smite, but he did have enough to use his runes. His fists let up with red and golden light, and he charged the monsters once more.
A few of them seemed entranced by the golden light, looking at it briefly, which was enough time for Jonathan to strike. He leaped towards the nearest creature, which was the lobster monster, and slammed his right fist down into a chink in its armor. A charge of energy raced down into the monster’s body, rupturing chitin and organs alike. The lobster writhed, and then snapped its claw at him, creating a sonic boom. Jonathan narrowly dodged the attack, and struck again, this time with the power of the Void. More energy chased down the earlier attack, destroying more of the monster’s insides. It writhed in pain and anger, but there was little it could do.
Meanwhile, the other monsters were still focused on Edgar, caring little about their beleaguered companion. However, as Jonathan expelled more and more energy, the spider finally acted. A bolt of webbing hurtled towards Jonathan, woven out of cotton candy thin strands of crystal. At the Tier that the monster was at, those strands were sharper than razors. It was a new kind of attack that Jonathan had not been expecting.
He still reacted in time however, and ducked. The cloud of string flew over his head, burrowing deep into the flesh of the gorilla monster. It cut deep into the creature’s body, sending a tide of black blood coursing down its torso. The monster let out a thunderous howl and beat its chest in rage. Then it leaped over Jonathan’s head and towards the spider. Whoever had decided to place ten alpha monsters together in a place like this had made a mistake. He supposed that there had been little stress testing of this dungeon, as almost nobody had ever used it.
As the lobster scythed its claws down its own back, Jonathan vaulted off, and landed by the creature. It looked down at him in confusion, before a Void enhanced, stamina propelled fist blasted its head from its body. The corpse twitched for a moment, and then went still, finally giving him the essence for his next level. He really was rather overpowered. However, the challenges would only grow the further than he went. The gulfs within Tiers only widened the stronger that one got. Jonathan was looking forward to that. At this point, only Granath posed a threat to him. He had outleveled almost everything in the Ash Heaps, and was likely one of the strongest beings in this realm of Tartarus as well.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
He ignored the changes in his power and raced towards the other monsters, sensing that Edgar was starting to run into trouble. Many of them were covered in scars from the man's wind blades, but none of them were close to death.
Edgar excelled in large-scale area suppression, but he was weak against elites, and especially if he had to fight more than one of them at the same time. Jonathan was the opposite. With a grim smile, he propelled himself towards the three monsters that were not embroiled in conflict, keeping an eye out to watch the dueling gorilla and spider. Lacerations covered the gorilla from the webbing, and the spider’s crystal was fractured from the monster’s heavy blows.
The dull thuds from the conflict echoed through the cavern as Jonathan ran, causing him to smile. Perhaps this would be easier than he had expected. He started to channel the Void into the air around himself once more, trying to see if he could manifest enough insight to create a new skill. The Void ate away at the air like acid, freeing his path from air resistance. As a result, he not only sped through the world like a rocket, but he also removed the sonic boom that came with moving at such high speeds. Because of this, none of the monsters were alerted to his approach.
Jonathan elbow checked one of the creatures with a thunderous boom, knocking the tentacled monstrosity off its twisting tendrils. The monster was not of any species that Jonathan had ever seen before, and it looked like something out of some eldritch horror story. It was made entirely out of fang filled mouths, chitinous scales and tentacles. It walked on a bed of those tentacles, using them like feet to scurry across the ground. Jonathan felt dirty from just touching the monster with his armor.
As he chased the monster down, a sudden screech echoed through the cavern as the bat monster came swooping down. It opened its mouth wide and projected a cone of sonic force through the air, hammering Jonathan into the ground. He screamed, covering his ears as the attack lanced through his defenses. It was surprisingly potent, and his ears started to bleed. The bat chittered in triumph as it swooped back up, straight into a Void Cannon. Jonathan shouted in rage filled vindication as one of the monster’s wings was torn straight off its body, the energy appendage turning into dust.
The monster tumbled out of the air, straight into the path of a devastating punch. Jonathan put his entire body behind the attack, and used every last point of his Strength to make sure that it was as potent as possible. The monster’s delicate bones snapped under the force of the strike, and its other wing was destroyed. As the broken heap that was the bat collapsed to the ground, Jonathan staved in its head with his foot. Essence coalesced in front of him, and then surged into his body. With a grin, he moved on.