> Every battle has a zenith, a critical juncture where you must redouble your efforts to win the day. The zenith’s close cousin is the opposite: the pit of despair, or the moment you are so overwhelmed that no amount of luck can save you.
>
> This is the part where you run away.
>
> — Craven’s Journal, chapter 335, page 2,798
“Well, shit,” said Mallenda. She stood at the suite’s window, gazing at Rin’s triumphant exit of the arena below.
Deeya was dumbfounded. She’d just witnessed her ex-tour guide—a level 6 Cursed potato farmer—take down arguably the strongest noble in the city.
The duel had been lightning quick, much of it faster than she could follow, even from a distance. Rin had employed abilities from a host of different magical disciplines, an impossible feat on its own. Then, he’d risen from the dead—a forbidden art and grade A spell only a Master of the Undead could execute. After casually performing a monster summoning, which was yet another school of magic, he’d topped it all off by exiting the arena on the monster’s back, proving his proficiency at monster taming as well!
It had only been a few weeks since she’d met the boy. She remembered Rin’s struggle against the boss in Bastion’s beginner dungeon. The growth necessary to perform the abilities she’d just witnessed was inconceivable in that amount of time.
Deeya’s breath caught in her throat as she considered the only explanation that made sense.
Has he sold his soul to the Cursed god?
A polite cough interrupted her wide-eyed stare.
“Ahem. Your ladyships, if I may interrupt for a moment.” An attendant wearing a Strathburn city uniform stepped into the suite and gave them an ingratiating bow. “The City Watch has detected a formidable threat approaching the city. All nobility are encouraged to evacuate immediately via the central Gate.
“Evacuate?” The sneer pasted on Mallenda’s face dripped with contempt. “Preposterous. What of the wards on the city walls?”
“They’re operating at full strength, m’lady. Yet the threat is supposedly great enough to overcome them.”
Mallenda’s glare could have melted an iron shield. “What nonsense is this?
“N-no nonsense at all, your ladyship!” The poor man’s voice broke as he held up placating hands. “A huge monster approaches! From over the Steppes is what I heard. A god-level threat!”
The suite’s occupants turned as one to view the majestic Steppe Mountains in the distance. Their vantage point at the arena’s apex gave them an unparalleled view of the city and its surroundings. Before their very eyes, an enormous monster the size of a mountain peeked over the Steppes. It was a titanic crab, a monster of ancient legend come to life.
As they watched, it reared back and uttered a silent roar at the heavens. Like a drop of soap hitting water, the clouds above it fled, blown asunder by the sheer power of its voice. They watched the shockwave of sound race down the mountainside, flattening the alpine forests with ease. The cascading wall of wreckage made it to the city walls, where the wards flared bright blue before winking out altogether.
The shockwave raced through the streets unhindered, creating an enormous cloud of dust. When it finally arrived at their location, the billowing plume slammed into the window, pelting it with grit that pinged against the glass.
From within the depths of the cloud hurtled an errant branch of pine, whittled by the furious storm into a primitive spear. It was aimed right at them.
The tree branch hit the window and shot straight through, knocking Deeya aside and piercing through Lady Mallenda’s chest to exit her back in a mash of bloody viscera.
She gasped.
The wound burbled and wheezed as Mallenda’s eyes dimmed. A mixture of blood and saliva trickled from her open mouth, streaming from the tip of her lolling tongue to paint serpentine trails on the branch’s side.
She died standing on her feet, propped up by the tree limb still wedged in the window. Oddly, the rest of the glass remained unshattered, with a well-defined hole aligned in the precise location of her heart. The sight was unnatural, as if a vengeful god had seen fit to intervene and mete out the woman’s judgment.
The attendant was the first to recover, scrambling to help Deeya to her feet. She clenched the man’s hand in a white-knuckled grip, not giving him a chance to let go. Her expression was ashen, her face covered in dust.
For several seconds, they both stared at Mallenda’s suspended corpse in shock. Then, like a spell being broken, the urgency of the situation came rushing back.
“That Gate you mentioned. Will you take me there?”
The man shuddered before nodding.
On the way out, Deeya tore her gaze from Mallenda’s body and glimpsed the titanic monster in the distance. Another of its legs was over the mountain, planting down with a silent crash to create a massive blossom of dirt that swelled in slow motion.
Gods help us.
***
Rin was riding Rockie alongside the Sonnigs when the city wards fell. They were halfway to the Merchant District when the shockwave rolled toward them as a roiling tempest of dust. On instinct, he activated the Banshee’s Repulsor ability using Partial Transmutation.
The piercing wail canceled out the shockwave, forming a triangular wedge of safety that spanned several hundred yards behind them. Their position at the vanguard of a long column of fans saved countless lives. Their followers were left unharmed, standing with awed faces at the raging winds passing a dozen feet on either side. Many of the fans were Cursed themselves and had watched the duel at the insistence of Bobby Corntassle, the former beggar and Rin’s biggest fan of all.
Once the cloud of dust cleared, Rin received a notification from the Game of the Gods.
Challenge Encounter
“Save the Kingdom”
Note: This encounter has been designated a Challenge Encounter in the Game of the Gods. If you are victorious, it will count as one of three challenges necessary for success in the Game.
Good luck.
A blank stare painted Rin’s face.
Save the kingdom? Is this a joke? I’ve barely had time to catch my breath since the last challenge!
He snapped out of his daze to address Mikka and Horace. “I’m going to find out what’s going on. You two should get to a safe place. Maybe somewhere underground?”
Stolen story; please report.
“We’ve got just the place!” said Bobby Corntassle, jogging up to them. “The Cursed Refuge in the city’s underground catacombs. We’ll take you there!”
Mikka and Horace took off after the beggar and Rin stashed Rockie in his storage ring. He hesitated when he came to store the jewelry he’d taken from Lord Easton. It was a well-known fact that you couldn’t place magical storage items within one another. However, Craven’s ring handled the burden without complaint, and the loot vanished inside.
Another reason why this ring is so awesome.
Darting into an alley, he transformed into the level 32 Wind Fairy and flew skyward. Once he rose above the choking dust, he froze, stunned by the sight of the titanic crab. It was literally the size of a small mountain, having to angle its body sideways to fit into the mountain pass. Its eyes were hidden on stalks so tall they were obscured by clouds.
How am I supposed to defeat that?!
Trixie appeared at his side. “Need any help?”
“What do you think?”
“We could draw it away from the city. What do crabs eat?”
“I have no idea. Worms? Maybe I could transform into the Terracotta Drake and conjure something to make it look tasty?”
“The drake can’t fly, though. You’d be squashed like a bug.”
As they watched, they spotted a squad of high-level adventurers racing from the city to intercept the monster. Rin switched to the Scout of the Undead with its higher Perception and could see the group’s members: several mages, warriors, and rangers, all flying via an ability or an impressive monster mount. The squad neared the crab and loosed an onslaught of offensive spells.
The massive crustacean peered down at them with curiosity, unbothered by their pathetic attacks. Without warning, the space between the monster’s gigantic pincers glowed with a bright blue light.
A massive jet of boiling water hit the squad. The beam was wider than a city—there was no way of avoiding it. When the ability petered out, the adventurers didn’t rise. Their unconscious bodies were lost in the mass of fallen trees littering the ground.
“A water type,” said Trixie.
Rin swallowed. “Let’s make sure we avoid that attack.”
“Meh. I’d be fine.” The ghost grinned at him. When Rin didn’t laugh, she sobered. “So what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know. It’s just so big. Let’s get closer, I guess. Maybe we’ll get inspired or something.”
They set off flying toward the indomitable beast, with Rin switching back to the Wind Fairy and conjuring a tiny Flight Suit to eke out even more speed.
The further we can keep it from the city, the better.
The distance they had to travel was deceptive. The monster was so gigantic that it appeared significantly closer than it actually was. It took them several minutes to get within range, at which point its entire body had jostled free from the mountain pass.
Up close, its size was staggering. The crab’s main carapace alone was several miles across. It even possessed its own ecosystem of smaller monsters living in various habitats. The ecosystem was mainly water-based, spread across countless pools on the crab’s back, each filled with hydro gargoyles and aqua bears splashing about. The conjoining space between pools was a rainbow carpet of mosses, similarly teeming with monsters, from whale centaurs to orca men carrying harpoon spears.
He focused on the monster’s main bulk and triggered Identify.
Level ??? Girgatrike
A Girgatrike? That’s it? No level or type information?
Rin removed the items he’d taken from Easton’s corpse and checked them for anything helpful. Two were storage artifacts holding an impressive arrangement of items, but nothing like the god-ending weapon he needed right now. What they did have were lots of mana potions.
I can use those.
“Definitely a water type,” said Trixie, pointing at the vegetation on the monster’s massive back. “Those are the same kind of mosses that live on your trundler form.”
“Might be a good matchup for the Murder Chickens then.”
Rin flew low over the tilting horizon of the monster’s back, releasing the seven Murder Chickens he’d stashed for the duel in five-second intervals.
He even transformed into a Murder Chicken himself, attacking anything that moved while his Bar Fight buff was activated.
The air was thick with waste mana exuded from the Girgatrike’s body, which helped his Murder Chickens reproduce rapidly. They filled the air in no time, viciously paring down the monster ecosystem surrounding the titanic crab. But predictably, their attacks didn’t harm the massive crab in the least. Its dense carapace effortlessly blocked their lightning bolts.
Rin transformed into the Banshee and unleashed a repeated barrage of Sonic Shatter attacks at the crab’s shell. It took a dozen attempts and several mana potions, but he finally broke through, exposing the briny flesh of the crab at the bottom of a hole thirty feet deep.
Switching to the Bladed Zephyr, he activated Fury of Slashes.
The attack drove deep into the salty flesh, slicing apart the muscle in a bloody tornado.
A massive shudder quaked through the surrounding tissue, reacting to Rin’s intrusion. It seemed his efforts were causing some damage, but it was probably nothing more than a passing tingle to a monster this large.
“It’s not enough,” confirmed Trixie, appearing by his side with the soul of a water gargoyle in her grasp. Her level had soared to 32 with all the monsters she’d been fighting. “You need to get to the heart or brain. Something vital. Otherwise, everyone in Strathburn will be long dead. We’re only a few miles away from the city.”
Rin transformed into a Murder Chicken and lashed out in a flurry of strikes until three more chickens appeared. He left them in the fleshy pit, crackling with lightning and slashing out with Smash Kits, while he retreated to try something more effective. The light show from the deep hole attracted several more Murder Chickens who dove in behind Rin. In response, the carapace quaked, and the monster emitted a titanic moan.
Maybe we’re getting the crab’s attention.
The boy changed to his Wind Fairy form and dashed to the monster’s head. The sheer scale of the crab made it difficult to discern what body part was what. Fortunately, the monster’s towering eye stalks were unmistakable, and Rin approached the nearest one.
Changing to the Banshee, he attacked the base of the stalk with a Sonic Shatter attack, then noticed the column lacked the same chitinous armor as the rest of the crab, and there was nothing to shatter.
Switching to a Murder Chicken, he furiously attacked the stalk, summoning as many other birds as possible with Bar Fight. With the help of several mana potions, fifty chickens soon flew about, attacking the eye stalk in a crazed frenzy.
It’s not enough. I need to get inside.
Rin became the Dungeon Digger and swiped at the towering column, taking out huge hunks of flesh.
Suddenly, the towering eye stalk retracted, sinking into the crab’s enormous head.
“Oh no you don’t!”
Rin switched to the Bog Squirrel and darted inside a cleft created by the missing hunks of flesh.
The receding eye stalk propelled him deep inside the monster’s carapace, an elevator straight to its brain. When the stalk finally stopped moving, Rin had just enough room to transform into the giant skink and trigger its Ash Explosion. The Girgatrike’s water-type environment heavily countered the ash-type attack, but it still created a significant cavity, allowing Rin to slash out with the skink’s claws.
Trixie’s head appeared out of a wall. “You need to head this direction. Its central brain matter is this way.”
Time to get serious.
With barely enough space for the transformation, Rin turned into the Thunder Rhino. After a barrage of Lightning Thrusts and Wind-Enhanced Charges, he charred the surrounding brain tissue into oblivion, enlarging the cavity enough to summon Rockie from his ring to do the same.
With the two of them blasting away, they made immediate progress, creating an impressive cavern in the monster’s brain. Then Rin had the bright idea of equipping them both with metal suits of rhino armor, complete with arrays of spears that jutted out to pierce the monster’s flesh. With every Lightning Charge, the flesh walls quivered, releasing the putrid smell of toasted crab brains.
Rin could hear the distant rumble of the Girgatrike’s roar, but without a way to measure his progress, he had no idea if they were close to defeating the monster.
So they just kept going.
The cavern they’d created widened still and Rin soon had enough room to change into the Terracotta Drake, conjuring a massive set of spiked steel blades that ran along the length of his clay body. Rin rolled and twisted, drilling his way into brain matter to create deep winding tunnels, all while Rockie squelched about in the briny undulating floor, blasting it with lightning. Better still, Rockie’s attack arced onto Rin’s metal spikes, amplifying the damage caused along the drake’s length.
The chamber quaked one last time before a massive shudder swept through the walls. The cavern fell still and quiet.
A notification appeared in Rin’s mind.
3 of 3 challenges completed successfully
“Save the Kingdom”
Trixie’s head rose from the floor. “You did it!” Her face transformed as she caught sight of his environment. “Ugh. Disgusting. I’m so glad I’m a phantom and can’t smell right now.”
Rin was already back in his human form, to his instant regret. “Ugh, yeah, it’s nasty. Smells like something between dead fish and charred dog.” He tilted his head. “But I had no idea you couldn’t smell—”
A bright light overwhelmed their senses.
Time slowed.
Rin Cartwright disappeared.