Chapter Fifteen
The Sewers III
The monstrosity creeped silently above them, upside down its many eyes fixated on the party as it carefully edged its enormous bulk around them. It used the thick webbing as a beast would scaffolding, the movements from its tree-trunk thick segmented legs so intentional, so careful as to inspire an awful sort of grace. The barrier winked out throwing them all, save Ogre, in darkness.
“I hear something…just barely.” Aida said, looking up
“Sssssh…” Said Orda, “I think we can all hear it.”
“It’s right above us, Call forth your barrier again as soon as you can, Xendaranan.” Ogre said, “We only have a few seconds before it pounces. When it lands on your barrier call forth cleric enhancements and launch your attacks straight up. I’ll attack it’s torso.”
“Understood.” They said, one after the other.
Moments ticked to seconds, and seconds to minutes. The monstrous spider carefully made its way directly above them, the strength in that enormous body made obvious by the ease it which it moved. It stopped directly above them pulling its segmented body tight against the ceiling. It leapt. Ogre tried not to blink. It’s too fast, how? Gravity and the force of it’s entire body flexing? The shield was already up for a full minute before the monster pounced, but the giant spider hit the barrier like lightning through the top of a beast’s skull. The dog was surprised that it held. Without further prompting, Ogre heard Aida and Vedana bellow a battle cry that made the hairs stand up on the back of Ogre’s neck. Other calls sounded but Ogre roared his skills, which drowned out the voices of the others in his ears.
The spider pulled itself up over the barrier, pushed off of it and slammed down once more. The stone seemed to crack under their sabatons. What immense strength! Ogre called forth Battle cry letting it ring out for ten seconds before call it forth again and again, maxing out the additional increases to his stats. The spider shuddered freezing in place. The four otters attacked as one, calling forth skill names that slammed into the massive hairy body of the spider making it quiver in pain.
Ichor flowed and rained upon them in a glutting fountain. It shuddered violently as the barrier winked out throwing the party in darkness once more. The spider crashed down burying them in it’s horrifying bulk. It was thunderous, a blast of air that pressed what felt like tons of force upon their bodies forcing every beast down to their knees. Ogre stood tanking the brunt of the creature’s bulk allowing his strength to surge forth as he heaved the creature up and off them for a few startling seconds. Dismembering Hew, split the great arachnid in half with a triple critical blow, dealing over a hundred million points of damage and tearing open it’s monstrously fat torso and washing them in the acrid sickly-sweet stench of it’s innards, including the half-digested liquid remains of giant roach and rat.
Ogre breathed in and then out feeling the raw might from battle cry leak from his body as the seconds ticked away. The dog spit out the gore from the spider after tasting it and chewing on it for a few minutes to see if he could stomach the meat. The corpse of the monstrous spider twitched as it’s long thick legs curled around its body with a sound like a great tree slowly splitting in half.
Surprisingly Vedana was the first to speak up, “I got soulweight from that spider!”
“Me too!” Said Aida, “Should I level up, I got a lot of insight too.”
“495 soulweight, that seems like a lot!” Xendaranan added, he seemed remarkably thoughtful as he spoke, “Just 2000 is needed to go from Below Ton to Ton right? How much soulweight did it have? Is this just 1 percent of it’s total soulweight…and divided by five?”
“I got over 3,000 insight, from just that spider.” Orda said, “It’s health was ridiculous. How did you do so much damage? What skills was that, captain?”
“It was combination of multiple vp draining skills, Battle Cry, Bloodlust, Berserker Madness, and dismembering hew.” Ogre said. That Borhelm is stealing so much soulweight and insight from me! “We shared the wisdom, insight, soulweight, and loot from the monster.”
“I think I hear something.” Said Orda,
“It took you all long enough.” Said Ogre, grabbing nearly phosphorescent globs of green and yellow gore from his iron-shrouded form and slinging it with disgust at the stone ground, and spitting out the spider’s blue blood. “legions of vermin foster high populations of predators. Get ready they will be a lot harder to fight even as a party than the previous waves of monsters, but they are a lot smaller than this brute.”
The golden barrier sprung up, casting a sprawling circle of light all around them. That light reflected in the many eyes of spiders of various sizes of whom the largest were only a fraction as massive as the first monster spider, which meant they were only as big as a cottage, not a three-story inn. They came from the vault before the party, flowing over the rim of stone and earth like monstrous hairy paws, with too long, too massive, extra jointed digits. They were startlingly quick compared to their size, fangs lifting in ferocious anticipation as they slammed into the beasts. The first monster spider bowled over Ogre, surprising the dog with its superior mass and agile strength. It collapsed as it rolled past, slashed open cephalothorax to spinners. Ogre picked himself up, slinging more gore from his black iron cleaver. The monster twitched giant legs curling over its mortal wound, and for the first time Ogre sensed the monster gem being deposited into his inventory.
I cannot afford to hold back here, it’s natural armour…it’s carapace? It’s harder than I expected, thick and tough! The thought barely registered before a trio of the larger arachnids flowed over the silk festooned stalactites and wet stone floor to engage him. They were more cautious than the first, but Ogre’s Visionary skill allowed him to rebuff their attempts to flank him, by severing the appendages holding the pair of black fangs of the one behind and above him, that were so hard that it chipped the cleaver. That monster fell from it’s perch and skittered away so quickly that it knocked down Vedana, who then hopped up and became a whirlwind of violence with his twin black iron axes tearing it apart. The spider in front leapt forward in unison with the spider at Ogre’s right side. Battle Cry made them pause just long enough, for Ogre to use horizontal slash to separate the large spider eyes from maxilla to halfway to its abdomen, then vertical slash to split the spider to his side down the middle of its cephalothorax. The dog ignored the banners that rose and faded before his eyes.
The monsters before the spiders were nowhere near as deadly as the ones they now faced. The giant roaches and even the rats could not penetrate their armour, the bugs only had numbers to try to wear them down, and the rats just mass and creepy long clawed paws that could reach into gaps in the armour. Still, not even the rats stood a chance if they kept moving. The spiders were just so agile, so strong, and their claws and fangs were hard enough to deflect all but Aida’s blows. Ogre was strong enough to slay any number of the spiders if he caught them unawares, but they were more agile than he was, their eight clawed legs dexterous enough that just one of them could make his armour sing, and their blows were too supple for Ogre to deflect or parry them. The otters fared better against the spiders. Their relatively balanced stats included dexterity and agility that was a lot closer to their damage potential leaving fewer gaps than the dog had in their ability to connect their attacks with the monsters. With Battle cry draining from him slowly, Berserker Rage, and Bloodlust, even his tremendous VP was starting to deplete as he had to use the lightning-fast skills to connect with his foes. When he missed the dog would curse, when he connected the giant spiders promptly exploded with gore and hairy carapace showering their many legged companions and Ogre party with their innards.
The monster bodies piled around them. Even with his superior strength, Ogre saw that Orda, who as a tank was the least likely to accumulate a lot of kills had a larger pile of dead than he. The dog ground his teeth feeling his skin writhe under his short fur. More than I dispatched by half! Why am I so useless? The banners came and went denoting the sum that he alone slew. His vigor points dwindled so much so that, Ogre deactivated all but bloodlust, which because of the boost in health and power, gave him the best benefit, in terms of critical as he used dismembering hew on nearly every monster that he could catch. The dog saw that his health dipped and felt his vigor surge, but the fight drew out so long that the constant drain nearly negated the monstrous increases to his vigor. His stomach rumbled loudly. His tongue felt dry in his muzzle, as he leapt on a specimen of a giant arachnid that was nearly a quarter as big as the first. Ogre opened his considerable jaws wide and bit down on the spider’s cephalothorax just behind the last row of eyes, rending and tearing he tore out a chunk of the creature half as large as himself. It went berserk, launching him into a wall that the dog felt crack under his backplate. Ogre grunted, tasting the juices of the spider and licking his lips. By the dog in the sky, am I so thirsty? It tasted like burnt sewage, but I swear I never had sweeter water. Ogre blinked seeing his party slump one by one to the ground. There were holes in their armour where fangs bit deep. They’re poisoned! Please let them still be alive!
He rushed to them, Orda was the last otter on his armoured footpaws wielding shield and shortsword to stave off the rush of four giant spiders. He slashed one monster across it’s large front-facing eyes, before slamming his shield into the maxilla of another so powerfully that it sounded like thunder cracking stone, before plunging his sword arm to the elbow into the mandibles of a third. Ogre grabbed the back legs of the last spider and lifted it bodily in the air, before smashing it into the wall as hard as he could. It burst apart like an overripe melon. Orda, fell to a knee breathing raggedly, voice slurring, “I’m…fine, I didn’t…get bitten…I’m j-just…tired. Please…please, see to…the…others.”
Ogre knelt and immediately touched the faces of the otters, wiping the foam from their mouths as he called forth his skill name, Restoration. He then used the ranged healing skill on Orda, as he simultaneously called forth heal, for the three otters that slumped or lay in a heap before him. They stirred opening eyes, whispering numb thanks as they got to their paws and prepared to fight once more. Ogre felt a burst of pride in them. It was a familiar golden feeling. These were warriors. Stout hearted. However, the dog’s leveled up Visionary showed him that no more of the monster spiders moved to engage them. Ogre watched them carefully retreat as he went to his party aid; the monster were missing limbs and fangs, dragging abdomens with entrails hanging, or ichor and faintly luminous blood making hissing fountains as they scrambled and half drug their dying bodies away.
“We did it.” Said Ogre, before he felt fangs sink deep into his neck, puncturing his black iron armour as if it was old dry cloth.
His body instantly seized, muscles rigid, as an icy numbness spread from his neck to the rest of his body. The fangs…the fangs are too small. Blackness enveloped him.
Ogre woke to weeping, moans, the hiss of tough flesh sliding against metal, and slurping that set his teeth on edge. His eyes opened wide, but the darkness did not abate. He felt so weak…his flesh like pudding coiling languidly around bones that might give way to crumbling dust at any moment. A fatigue so heavy that it felt like a mountain resting on his brow, slowly pulled his eyelids close, as a piteous whine climbed its way from his parched throat. Something is wrong. It’s so wrong! Unbridled strength roared through him, turning his veins into rivulets of fire that burned every patch of flesh that it passed through. It was so powerful that the force of that strength alone made his consciousness cling to reality, the way a midday sun might cause a wilting flower to turn to it. The dual, conflicting forces of unnatural weakness and broiling power, drove his mind to limits of his sanity and in that moment…a long horrific moment he realized that this has happened before.
He awoke to both sensations, weakness, a feeling of life being drawn from him, and his strength rising as bonds that had been tight slowly loosened, as if his body were growing smaller. He slipped into a nightmare for what felt like the thousandth time. No, ten thousand? A hundred times that? Horrific creatures made of hollow fangs faces hidden by shadow chased him in caverns deep within the earth. Sometimes the chase was endless. His heart beating terror choked him; madness frothing, the fear too strong to bear. Most times the things caught him and then the true horror began. They drunk him. Sticking those awful fangs into his body he watched as portions of his body were liquified then sucked up into fangs that clustered in a giant feline face. In the end he woke, too dehydrated to sweat, too weak to scream. There was weeping, moans, the metallic sounds that metal made when pressed by tough flesh and that awful, all-consuming slurping.
You are awake now? The voice sounded soft, comforting, like the embrace of his mother after thunder made his chest pound his body tremble.
Ogre blinked. He tried to speak and failed to make a sound that even his keen ears could hear. His eyelids moved as if resisting something. He could see. Strength surged throughout his body. I feel so tired.
I would think so, but you smell strong…exciting. After all of our time together, you still taste like liquid lightning, a nectar too sweet to share. Something was wrong. Ogre tried to move his head. Fatigue screamed at him to stay still, to slip into much needed rest but the fiery energy commanded him to action. He looked around with difficulty. Rough-hewn ceiling, a veritable forest of stalactites as if sculpted by the flow and drip of water over countless millennia made thoughts of impalement loom in his head. He kept turning his head and those thoughts vanished as he saw a monster, staring at him with too intelligent glassy black eyes. It was vaguely shaped like a bipedal beast, with the monstrous head of a spider and six arms and an additional abdomen protruding like over developed glutes from a space that would have been a pelvis on a normal beast. It was mostly white, with black markings over its chest and arms and striking red sigils around its bulbous eyes. A ruddy liquid dripped from its black fangs, smelling of gore and offal and too strongly of the dog. He tried not to scream as the implications made itself known to his slothful mind.
You’re drinking me, aren’t you? That’s…monstrous…it’s… Ogre could not find the words to describe the feeling. It was decidedly an alien contemplation.
The creature shrugged then cocked its strange head to the side to see if the gesture had a desired effect. It chittered and twitched. You were too delicious to let die. And you soul-cursed are hardy food. You last quite long when tenderly cared for. Ogre would have vomited, had he the will and strength. What am I thinking about, I have strength by the ton!
Did you kill my companions?
Its head cocked once more. They are not your mobile food? Are they your offspring, your mates, or the ones that spawned you?
What are you…can you understand me?
Your mind is somewhat clouded to me, the other soft meat in metal skins were easier to understand. However, they too have durable minds. Surprisingly, they get tougher and harder to pierce every now and again.
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Ogre tried not to make his thoughts obvious. So, some of them are alive.
There are four that continue to sustain my lessers, they grow larger than the first you killed.
The dog suddenly jumped, the light, he was not using Visionary, it was the barrier that Xendaranan could call forth. So he is alive! Ogre tried to call forth Visionary, but failed. Vigor and vigor points were so low that he could not use a single skill. However, the webbing that matted him, felt like wet parchment.
Others have tried to come for you. I let the Low, drink the ones that made it past our common meals. Will you try to escape now?
How long has it been? Ogre thought flexing his paws.
We have been able to spawn three broods, since we first drunk you and yours. Will you try to escape now? I want to try these ‘skills’ that I received from you soul-cursed, the others die too quickly.
Ogre considered leveling up with all the insight he had right then but something stopped him. He recalled how close he was to slaying the otters when he just increased his level by one in the sewer. Plus, he could not help but remember the gremlin. Its strength was equal to Ogre. He did not know if that red fog would return, but if it did, could he afford to face a monster that had strength equal to a level 20 plus Ogre? The dog knew that such thoughts were ridiculous, considering the monster sitting across from him, but he slowly felt himself unraveling as he considered what that monster did to him and his party and welcomed any thoughts that could turn his mind from that. His power surged and he flinched. The webbing tore like mist swirling away from flesh and bone.
The dog was on his sabatons in an instant, feeling the world shift and his insides swished as if his insides were not as solid as he last recalled. Forcing down revulsion, he turned his back on the spider and searched quickly for the otters. The spider monster did not attack. It simply watched him. His strength started to fade the moment the spider webs no longer held him; in seconds he was only a fraction as strong s he had been before. He did not have time. He found them after a moment behind some behind some stalagmites, with truly monstrous spiders crouching in cavernous pockets along the ceiling, and wall and floor. They were larger than the first spider by a wide margin, with pale hairs along thick bodies red markings shaped in cruder designs than the spider-thing that spoke to Ogre. The dog stumbled over to them, barely notice the closest of the spider behemoths edging further away from him, as he reached the large bundles of pale silk shrouded bodies and tore the webbing away, headless of the matted glue that bound the strands together.
I will have to endure one level. Ogre thought, panicked, as darkness crashed around him and the weakness of death numbed his extremities with a terrible cold. In an instant bliss flooded his body with warmth for the icy cold and unrivaled power, banishing his feebleness and replacing it with mindless joy. The spider monster stood dropping six arms down to it’s side at it peered curiously at the dog.
Your presence has increased in intensity. You…smell…taste…stronger. If you can do that a few more times than I will have to see you as a rival hunter and not as prey…an oddity to drink at my leisure. Ogre glided past the words in his head, as he would a vapor. His mind clung to the pleasure that screamed throughout his veins, infecting his flesh, and seeping sweet golden goodness into his bones. How could the fetid stench of corpses and monster odors smell so…fragrant? Ogre itched to move and so he did. A thought summoned his chipped black iron cleaver, as he swung his arm, metal encased paw outstretched as it moved, waiting for the weapon to drop into it. Hilt hit gauntleted grip and cleaver struct the spider in one liquid motion, making the cavern reverberate with the intensity of the sound. Ogre blinked away the shower of black iron shards. In an instant his cleaver was reduced to a ragged hilt, as the spider met the short thick blade with it’s black fangs. It used one fang and then the other to brush glittering bits of metal from its face. Ogre smiled.
No not like that…I have already saw enough of the metal fangs and claws, I want to see what you can do without them. Like this! The Arachanthrope closed one hand into a bony mace and slammed it into Ogre’s cuirass. The metal rung like a tolled bell and the dog flew away from the monster twice as fast as he charged it. He smashed into cones of stone before slamming into a solid wall of rock and earth, sending the giant white spiders that had been feeding on his companions scampering away. His limbs felt like wilted flora, but the horror, focused in his chest as he gasped for breath and could not find it, was nearly all-consuming. Nearly. The bliss overwhelmed even that turning the sounds of his bones shattering into music that made him want to weep. Ogre staggered to his sabatons and vomited blood. His flesh felt so cold that he wondered if frost would form at the tips of his fur, but a raging heat poured from his orifices. Darkness swirled before his eyes and his chest felt as if iron bars were constricting it.
Ogre howled skill names into the vaults of the cavern. His bliss with his recent leveling mixed with the skill Blood Lust, Berserker’s Madness, and Battle Cry.
Ogre returned the brutal attack from the Arachnid, slamming his gauntlet into the creature’s midsection. The movement was perfect, his body felt so fluid that his blow moved quicker than it should have moved. The monster slid a few paces backward, and hesitantly touched where the blow landed as if surprised.
Your metal claw only struck with a fraction of the force that you just hit me with, did you limit yourself when you first hunted me? Ogre considered his options. The longer he waited the stronger he became. His health was so low, Trollblood Vigor would could stretch his ultimate skill into the next day. But if the creature hit him again the dog would die. Choosing caution called forth and downed elixir his health was replenished. His vigor constantly regenerated, but his Vigor points took longer to recover, unless a skill affected it. I am surprised as you are surprised monster. Thought Ogre just as it moved as if to skitter forward to attack. It paused. The dog’s heart pounded loudly in his chest. This was a gamble, perhaps it was foolish. Ogre knew that the arachnid was not attacking with the intent to slay him immediately. He wants to try out new skills, and perhaps new power? How long have we been in this den of torment?
Let us hunt one another, more! The attack came again faster. The dog did not see it, but his body felt charged, anticipatory as it agilely weaved out of the path of an expert combination of over a dozen punches. Jab, hook, Cross, Straight, hook, Jab, Jab, uppercut, haymaker, straight right, straight left, Jab Cross, hook, hook, hook, haymaker, Jab, Jab, and overhand right.
The new skill ran out, Ogre was once again struck so hard that he blacked out from the pain.
Ogre did not think it directly, but he understood that in just over a minute his survivability increased by over seventy percent. Continual damage will allow me to reset the vigor point cost by increasing my vigor pool with Trollblood Vigor. Ogre knew that if he could survive, and if the creature did not get serious winning and surviving was not impossible. Ogre healed his body once more and attacked with the same combination of physical blows that the arachnid used.
The monster dodged most of the blows but a few clipped it making it stumble a half step to the side. Ogre knew that he did not do any damage to it, but his blows were strong enough to give it pause. The monster stretched out its it’s six limbs and trembled slightly as if warming up it’s limbs.
I will hunt you, more, you are harder to break than the others. But first you should see what consuming you have done to me. I was less than the first hunter that you slew, creature. See me now.
Ogre felt the hairs on his body rise. The dog knew that the monster was deadly but seeing it’s stats made it tangible reality. This creature could slay him at any time, with ease. Perhaps, just one more level, surely I can keep my senses, like I did before?
No more…leveling…for you. I cannot have you getting too strong too quickly. I will not be slain after our long time together. I will drink you after our fun. Until then hold out if you can. I will make sure your mobile food do not expire before you. The Arachanthrope lifted its oversized fangs in excitement, black eyes dancing with an inner nigh incorporeal fire. No…I will not die! Ogre screamed inside his own head. But how could he not? It was stronger when strength was his best attribute, faster, hardier, and more dexterous, when dexterity was the cause of the gremlin running rampart through the otter pack. A chill went through him as he set his every intention on destroying the monster before him.
The Arachanthrope abruptly appeared before Ogre swinging all three of it’s arms on the right first, before following up with a grab, hook, and upper cut with the lefts. Ogre slipped among the blows as his passive skill, Blindsight dodge activated once more. After unleashing more than a few hundred blows in the ten seconds that it was active, the monster lashed out with a front kick just as the skill ended.
It hurt badly, but the pain showed that he was alive. And it did not hurt as badly as the first, far less damaging blow hurt.
Ogre snorted twin streamers of crimson and grinned. The madness that came with leveling was gone but the ultimate skill kept the bliss alive. He lived in it, feeling the waves of pleasure rush through him as pain racked him from the monster’s attacks. Ogre stalled as long as he could, feeling his power rise, healing himself as he spared a bit of attention for the otters. They were staggering to their feet, eyes wild, an overwhelming storm of madness and pain swirling in their eyes. Ogre ground his teeth called forth the skill Quick Retreat, to dodge an incredible twelve blow combination attack. Hunter’s Dash, allowed him to startle the Arachanthrope into dashing agilely to the side to escape. Ogre called forth the skill name, Front Kick, and when the monster’s eyes sparkled, fangs trembling, Ogre felt incredible satisfaction.
The Side Kick became a pirouette, as he shifted into the skill Blade Whirlwind. The monster whiffed three powerful left hooks, as the dog pulled his leg back, spun six full revolutions, each faster than the first and then stretched out the opposite sabaton, to serve as his blade and to strike the monster, armoured heel to cheek. It flew away, somersaulting through the air, limbs flailing, filling the chamber with a monstrous keen.
The mock hunting is over. The monster said, somehow making the voice inside the dog’s head seem angry. I have waited too long…I did not know you could grow so powerful so quickly! It stood shakily, phosphorescent blue blood dripping from its shockingly red mouth. Ogre felt his heart pounding his in chest, his breathing was rapid, his fur damp with sweat. Vigor still flowed through him lending him stamina that grew in tune with the rest of his stats, but he felt tired. Was it the strain of the increased stats? Is my fatigue getting too high? The dog did not have the chance to check as the spider monster attacked in a flurry of blows that tore rest of the black iron armour from his torso like the deep-fried skin of a Thrice cooked, Three Shores Duck. His health dipped at the multiple blows and a windstorm of pain and blunt force wounds that made his bones ache and a mewling cry strangle from his throat. A powerful hook to the arachnanthrope’s body, partially blocked by an inconvenient arm as five others pummeled him, struck the monster’s side with a loud crack. It chittered in pain but retorted with a side kick that felt like it shattered every rib in his left side, and then sent a webbing of stress fractures up his spine as his body forcibly made a recess in the cavern wall in an explosion of rock and grit. Numbness doused his lower body in a terrifying wash of nothingness.
Panic. Ogre looked around wildly for help, pain scrambling his mind. He caught the futile movements of four otters as they stuffed their mouths full of travel rations, fur unkempt, eyes wild and unseeing, and spider webs clinging their forms like burial shrouds. They were not getting better. He jolted back to the monster, feeling it hoist him overhead as a beast would pick a flower from a field and hold it to the light of the sun. His fur stood on end and time seemed to slow as he rose a breath higher before a weight like a thousand versions of him slamming into one form turned his body ponderous. The spider monster slammed him down. In an instant, before his body touched the stone floor, he reached terminal velocity. Coupled with the raw power that seemed to draw the arachnanthrope’s full strength, he hit the floor knowing that death and oblivion waited beyond that moment. The chamber exploded with shards of rock, large chunks of stone, and dust from pulverized rock. The sound of it was terror; a cacophony that made every creature nearby scream blood, their last cries made silent by the sheer noise of the attack, fearing a brutal death crushed by stone and earth.
The golden light winked out, the shield either expiring or interrupted by the attack. However, before that golden light transformed the cavern into a deep darkness, a flash of brilliant blue light shot forth from the dog and then vanished just as the shield vanished. Ogre opened his eyes to darkness. Something pressed against his forehead. I’m dead aren’t I? I felt that…there was no way I could survive that. A crushing loneliness, a sense of monumental failure pressed in upon him, chest, head, arms and legs. It killed us all. Wait, I can…feel my legs? They tingled as if a thousand needles were slowly being pressed into his flesh over and over. I can feel my body! Ogre carefully felt around his body, feeling out the slabs of stone that pressed against his torso. He then engaged Visionary. Half the cavern was a mess of shattered stalagmites and stalacites, piles of web clad stone with plumbs of gray dust floating in the darkness. He rested in a crater that was three times his height in depth even filled with crumbled rock, bits of armour, bones, and dank earth. Web-wrapped bodies were half buried along half the edge of the crater, and the crushed legs of a least three giant albino spiders poked out from various spots in the wreckage.
The Arachanthrope sat in a strangely brooding manner, sitting on a pile of broken stone, and staring at Ogre’s body. The dog abruptly realized that he was positioned oddly. His head was pressed deeper into the stone than the rest of him, making his back arch like a fully drawn bow. His knees were bent, the balls of his armoured footpaws flat against the bottom of the crater, even as his arms stuck straight up towards the stone ceiling, paws outstretched. How had he gotten like that?
Are you broken, strange hunter…I thought…I slew you? But I now sense life in you. How did you do it? When I cracked open the heads of others they die very quickly. It has been some time, I do not know if my lower kin has fed on your mobile food. However, as I thought you were dead, I did not want to drink from one already dead. I also kept my lower kin from you. They do not hold to my distaste for dead flesh. The flood of words from the monster was almost too much for Ogre to bear. It killed me. And It likely slew my friends with that attack. With his perception Ogre could easily recall the skill. He could also still feel the waves of pleasure rolling over him. Battle Bliss was still active? How much has my skills been affected? The dog shifted and the Arachanthrope leapt. Before the monster put him in the crater the movement would have only been a blur even to Visionary, but Ogre was able to roll from the monster and leap to his ragged sabatons. The monster skittered along the uneven ground, shifting debris and dead bodies about ruined cavern floor.
You are alive. It’s pedipalps quivering in what may have been excitement or fury. Ogre quickly checked his vigor points. I don’t have much time. Ogre called forth his skill: Heal, half a dozen times, making the monster jump and attack. Blindsight dodge gave him ten precious uninterrupted seconds allowing him to recover with elixir to a now monstrous health pool that was a lot closer to that of the Arachanthrope itself. Ogre leapt back, using his base speed. The dog startled at how fast he was, he skipped away from the crater wall as the fur on his back touched it, with an ease that gave him a chill. He felt so light. Even with his vigor comparably lower than he saw it when he trained with the druegorn armour, it was still more than he ever had before. The vigor points however, were a minute from zeroing out. One minute? Ogre thought. That is a luxury compared to the time I fought the weasels and carcajou in the tower! I will slay this monster and find my friends! The monster attacked him once more, the light in it’s eyes becoming a mad blue luminescence that made streaks in the black cave as it went. A cross snapped it’s head back, making it stumble and slide to the rear, two legs scrambling over the loose stone. It caught itself and charged once more. Two jabs at it’s face diverted it’s attention enough that his side kick, sent it flying over the lip of the giant crater and skidding along the rest of the cavern, demolishing stalagmites before it could right itself and leapt back for the dog to counter attack.
Ogre noticed that two arms on it’s right side were crushed and leaking blue, with deep cracks running over its torso from a gaping wound in its side. I’m so strong now. It’s so easy to wound it…Before I could not even do damage to it! This time the monster reached in to grapple him, likely to perform that piledriver slam that nearly killed him. A feint at its mandibles caused it to block with its two upper arms, left and right. A body shot on its wounded side caused it to curl down in agony, directly into the path of Ogre’s uppercut. He put everything that he had into the blow and unconsciously added the skill Dismemberment to the punch. The Arachanthrope split apart, as the dog’s black iron gauntlet tore to shreds in a shower of orange sparks. A blast of wind from the force of the blow, shot out from the point of contact lifting dirt and pulverized stone and clearing it away from Ogre as the monster struck between stalactites, painting the rock with it’s gore and dismembered body so completely that he could no longer recognize what it had been.
The dog smiled faintly, mind floating, the world fading from his eyes and paws grasping for something to catch himself on as black spots ate at his vision from the corner of his eyes. Ogre stumbled and his knees buckled. The smell of copper filled his nose and his vigor points ticked to 0%, reducing his vigor to zero. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fainted teeth bared in a foolish grin.