The first time Elijah attacked one of the ogre guards in the fire wing, he got quite a surprise when it summoned a fireball and tossed it in his direction. Fortunately, he’d kept one facet of his Mind focused on the monster, so he narrowly managed to leap aside before the ball of flame swallowed him. Still, it represented a serious deviation from what he’d found clearing the first half-dozen guards.

Regardless, the addition of spellcasting ability didn’t change his general strategy, so, even as his scales smoked from the near miss, he raced through the corridors to his carefully chosen battleground. He reached it after only half a minute, barreling through the door and slipping to the side just in time to avoid yet another arcing fireball. It splashed against the far wall as Elijah shifted into his human form and cocked back his staff.

The moment he caught a hint of the ogre passing through the doorway, Elijah swung his weapon with all the might he could muster. It cracked against the guard’s kneecaps hard enough that it would have shattered a lesser staff. However, the Staff of Natural Harmony was a Simple Grade item, and so it was unnaturally durable. Still, to Elijah, it felt like he’d just hit a brick wall, and the impact sent incredibly painful vibrations through his hands and up his forearms.

But the tactic proved its viability when the ogre lost his balance and stumbled through door. Already off-balance, the guard couldn’t mitigate the effect of Elijah’s next attack, which came via a blow across the creature’s broad back that sent it into an even more exaggerated stumble. That, in turn, ended with the guard falling flat on its face. Its momentum took it all the way to the far wall.

Elijah leveled his staff at the monster, then cast Snaring Roots. The resulting eruption of vegetation wrapped around the ogre’s entire body, encasing it in a cocoon of thorny vines. That was far more effective than if the creature had remained upright, because it robbed the ogre of any leverage. Even so, Elijah knew it would only last a few seconds, so he acted quickly, casting Swarm, then Healing Rain in quick succession.

He’d shunted the pain from his burning scales into its own facet of his mind, so it didn’t affect his cognitive abilities. However, he was still very much aware of it, so he was even more cognizant of the soothing precipitation that healed the damage.

Elijah got his next surprise when he saw that Swarm hadn’t summoned the biting flies it had in the previous area. Instead, it had manifested hundreds of glowing orange spiders, each one emitting visible heat. They descended upon the prone ogre, their obviously painful bites sending its struggles to a new level of panic.

But Elijah barely noticed it. Instead, he was already shifting into the Shape of the Guardian. The transformation only took a second, but to his impatient mind, it was still too long. In the previous area, he’d come to enjoy the sense of power he felt in the scaled ape form, so he was eager to resume that mighty shape.

The moment he felt his body complete its transformation, he loped forward, covering the ground in a couple of hopping steps before he descended upon the panicked and diseased ogre.

However, the moment he reached the creature, he got his second shock when the guard erupted into flames hot enough to burn the vines to ash. Fortunately, the swarm of spiders were clearly resistant to the fire, because they were entirely unaffected. Unfortunately, Elijah was very much affected as the flames hit him like an exploding bomb.

Even with Ward of the Seasons active, his scales proved to be little protection against the eruption of fire. All along his front, they melted, but his exposure was blessedly brief as he was quickly tossed backward by a shockwave that sent him on a collision course with the wall on the other side of the room.

He hit with bone-crunching force, but his body held up surprisingly well to the blunt force impact. Still, when the back of his head hit the stone wall, he saw stars. Whether it was due to his high Constitution or the ongoing effects of Healing Rain, Elijah wasn’t sure, but he recovered quickly and picked himself up just in time to see the flaming ogre do the same.

It bellowed a challenge, slapping its chest with one fist. Then, it gave its bald head the same treatment, reminding Elijah of some of the more unhinged boxers he’d seen during his years participating in the sport.

Then it charged, once again taking Elijah by surprise, this time with how quickly it moved. But with the extra time afforded by the Sash of the Whirlwind, Elijah quickly got over his shock and reacted by dodging to the side. The ogre was afflicted with the same issues that affected Elijah when he was under the influence of Shape of the Guardian in that it had plenty of Strength to propel it forward at incredible speed but lacked the Dexterity to control that power, meaning that he had no chance of changing direction.

Or stopping.

He hit the wall head-first, knocking himself for a loop. He bounced back, then stumbled, shaking its head. That’s when Elijah leaped forward, his claws lashing out with all the power he could muster. Fire licked at him as his short, stubby claws gouged into the guard’s bare chest. Ward of the Seasons protected Elijah, though, allowing him to continue his attacks against the off-balance creature.

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Once. Twice. Then three times. Each attack dug deeper into the ogre’s flesh until Elijah felt bone. However, it was at that point that the guard regained his wits and, with extreme and explosive speed, he punched out. His meaty fist took Elijah in the stomach with an uppercut that launched him toward the ceiling.

In the air, he lacked leverage to affect his own movement, so he could do nothing about his fall toward the ogre’s follow-up attack that collided with his toothy snout. Once again, Elijah was sent flying across the room, stopping only when he collided with the wall with even more force than his first meeting with the barrier.

His breath left his lungs in a rush, and it felt like iron bands wrapped around his chest. Fortunately, Healing Rain persisted, soothing his injuries just enough to let him quickly regain his faculties. When he did, he saw something that gave him hope.

The ogre was clearly stronger than the guards he’d previously fought. Probably due to that fiery corona surrounding its body. However, Elijah could also see that the ability was a double-edged sword. Blisters had already begun to spread across the ogre’s bare skin, and they were worsening by the second.

That meant that Elijah only had to endure.

That, in turn, meant that he was in for a painful run.

Yet, he didn’t shy away. If he could deal with being eaten alive by an orca’s stomach acid, then he could take whatever the fire ogres could dish out.

In theory.

In practice, the next few minutes were an exercise in torture as he and the ogre went back and forth. Elijah got in a few hits here and there, but most of the work was done by the still ongoing afflictions as well as the fire that was the origin of the guard’s explosive power.

Without any of his advantages – whether it was Ward of the Seasons, his enhancements, or his inflated Constitution – Elijah would have fallen prey to the ogre’s attacks. However, they proved just enough to endure the worst of it until, gradually, the guard wore down. As he did, Elijah’s blows landed a little more often until he felt like he was fighting a one-sided battle.

Still, every time he drew close to the ogre, his body erupted into fiery agony.

So, by the time he finally downed the monster, he was drowning in so much pain that he could barely think straight. Still, every second that passed after the ogre’s flames winked out, he was healed a little more by Healing Rain. That, along with his Quartz Mind, allowed him to drag himself out of that painful abyss. When he did, he shifted back to his human form and started casting Touch of Nature.

It took a few hours for him to return to normal, but he didn’t immediately set off to pull another ogre to his chosen killing field. Instead, he took quite some time trying to center himself. In theory, enduring pain was just about willpower, but every person had limits. Eventually, enough agony would break anyone, and despite the fact that he’d progressed past human limitations, Elijah was no different.

But that wasn’t necessarily true, either. By all rights, he should have been riddled with post-traumatic stress, and yet, once he’d recovered, his mind just skated away from all the worst parts of his ordeal. It had been the same with his time in the first tower, which had been incredibly taxing on his psyche. Now, though, he almost looked back on it with fondness.

Not the part where he’d been eaten alive by a mutant orca. Or when he’d almost lost himself to his feral side. Or when he’d had a chunk of his side eaten by a giant snapping turtle. Or dozens of other life-or-death situations.

When he looked at it like that, he should have been a mess. And yet, he didn’t feel wracked with anxiety. In fact, even now, only a couple of hours after enduring the fire ogre’s attacks, he felt positively optimistic. Clearly, there was something else at play, but he had no idea what that might be.

Nor was Elijah terribly concerned with something that seemed helpful. He couldn’t afford to deal with the psychological effects of his adventures, so it was probably better that something – probably the system or the cultivation of his Mind and Soul – had dulled it.

In any case, once Elijah had recovered – mentally and physically – he embarked on a painful and necessary quest to exterminate the fire ogres. The second was just as difficult as the first, but over time, he developed a viable strategy. It was a little more dangerous, but he found that using his caster form a little more generously made things much less painful. So long as he continuously cast Snaring Roots, weaving Storm’s Fury in, he could remain mostly out of range of the ogres’ flames.

Of course, he still made mistakes, and there were plenty of close calls. After those fights, he ended up looking a bit like Freddy Krueger. Fortunately, his healing spells kept him from scarring, but he did lose most of his hair.

More distressingly, he once again ended up naked when his outfit caught fire and burned to crisp. After that, he stashed his pack in another room before resuming his quest in the nude. After all, he could easily repair his body. His expensive clothes were another story altogether.

By the halfway point, Elijah was more than ready to move on. At first, the pain he’d been forced to endure was counterbalanced by the struggle. However, as it had gotten easier, the process had become an unexciting slog. Or as unexciting as being burned alive ever could be, he reasoned.

Still, he had no choice but to finish it off, and for two reasons. First, he didn’t dare fight the lieutenants while any of the guards still lived. He knew each one would strain his capabilities, so he didn’t want to complicate matters by adding a few extra ogres to the mix. The second reason was just as practical, and it centered on the influx of kill energy he received with every slain guard. He’d already reached level thirty-seven, and he hoped that, by the time he finished off all the guards – in every wing – he would attain level forty and gain a new spell.

But first, he needed to finish the fire ogres. So, once he’d healed from the latest fight, he took a deep, steadying breath, and got back to work.