The air shifted; briefly becoming much hotter as if a fire occupied the area before the sound of crackling electricity intensified.
“--!”
A bolt of sublime lightning struck down, narrowly missing the chain-wielder who jumped back. From behind another one of the floating dragons cackled as again, the electrifying element crashed against the forest. It was a numbing experience for his ears; the roaring of lightning mixed with the heckling of the demonic dragons’ laughter.
Dodging one bolt, he jumped to the side, spinning his chain around as he engulfed it in flames before whipping it forth. It cracked the wind, striking one of the twelve beasts as it exploded into fumes.
‘That’s one down,’ he thought.
Again, the cackling resumed much to his surprise as his instincts forced him to begin stepping back before–THWOOM.
From above, a bolt of lightning curved down, striking his chest with an echoing force. It was a powerful enough force to burn flesh black and to melt bone, yet he found himself only receiving a burn mark on his chest. It hurt, though it was nothing he couldn’t manage.
“What?”
“Impossible!”
“A human withstood my lightning?!”
The dragons roared in confusion, panicked by the fact the adventurer remained on both feet with his heart still beating.
This was the body of an “Invictus”--that which was borrowed from the power of the Divine. Perhaps a fleeting strength, but in the moment, he began to embrace the overwhelming gift.
‘So, this is how it feels to be “Blessed”--it’s amazing!’ He excitedly thought while whipping the stygian chains rapidly, gathering wheels of fire once more.
A cloud gathered around the dragons that spiraled in the air, conjuring a storm as golden sparks brewed in the mist. The empowered adventurer continued gathering momentum with his chains, planning on meeting whatever was coming head-on.
Just as he prepared to swing the blazing links, a familiar voice resonated within his head:
[...Bastian, do not lose sight of your goal. Attacking is not the right option here. The demon intends to attack you with everything he’s got. Call upon the flames I used to guide humanity…]
It snapped him back into focus as he stopped spinning the chains, instead bringing a hand in front of his chest as it produced orange flames, which heated up into an azure glow.
‘I get it now,’ he thought.
Holding his arm out, a spherical barrier of the burning, blue flames shielded him, “Coiling Flames of Tomorrow.”
“Burn!”
“Suffer!”
“Crumble!”
“Fall!”
“Vanish!”
“Vanquish!”
“Fade!”
“Die!”
Each of the demonic dragons roared their maledictions as the hellish lightning connected into circular rings, spinning rapidly before gathering into a singular point directly above the human. The condensed bolt shot down with a crimson shine, striking down with a sinful flash.
It struck the flame-forged barrier, rattling it intensely as Bastian kept his hand raised, maintaining the structure of the shield, “Ngh–!”
The protective fire survived the damning fulmination, fading away into embers as the smiting ended. It was clear to him that even with his newfound Blessing, it wasn’t going to be a smooth victory; the guardian of the tenth floor was the bridge that separated normal adventurers from the excellent.
Even then, floor guardians are expected to be fought with entire guilds, not in single combat. Still, the edge was the adventurers as he immediately spun his chains around before allowing them to extend mystically, whipping through the spiraling formation of dragons.
[“Let the Chains of Struggle roar; they’re the manifestation of my will, and now–your will. Ignite your heart and let the flames of origin burn your path forward.”]
The guiding words of the deity resounded in his mind as he let the chains spin above and around him, gathering a swirl of flames that spun the demons’ own storm into that of a tornado. A majestic gale of fire dragged the once cackling dragons into its burning hold.
All at once, he slammed the chains back down, allowing their burning form to carry the heat back down to the forest as a wildfire exploded, briefly expanding with an inescapable heat.
“Nngrah–!”
“Aaaaah!”
“Kraaaa!”
The fiendish reptiles howled in pain with their twisted tones as embers rained down like snow. A single piece of the demonic flesh floated in the air, acting as the rendezvous for the scattered, burnt pieces of its body.
“I won’t let you!” Bastian shouted, whipping the chains towards the reuniting flesh.
The morphing mass of the guardian's body swerved through the air, evading the scorching steel without any eyes of its own. Once more, the demonic fiend twisted and pushed around its flesh, its bones cracking and reconnecting as it prodded the interior of its flesh.
A new form erupted as the spherical shape of the demonic flesh expanded with its back forming into a dome exoskeleton around itself: a shell.
“Human! Are you prepared for your bones to be crushed into powder?!” The demon’s voice howled.
What dropped back down onto the silver grass was a colossal, horned tortoise with a spiked, black shell. The demon’s cackling continued as it withdrew its head and limbs into its shell, beginning to spin rapidly.
Dirt was chucked in every direction as the sharp shell rotated fast enough to blur itself. Bastian readied himself as the spinning beast launched towards him with its overwhelming size and speed.
He sent his chains forth to intercept the tortoise, only for the blazing steel to bounce right off of its gyrating form.
“Damn…!” Bastian clicked his tongue at the futility of the links.
“Your chains can’t stop me! Spin! Spin! Spin!” The eccentric demon’s voice echoed from within its shell.
The spinning creature’s path of movement curved around, nearly catching the adventurer. An attempt was made to thwart the colossal tortoise with flames as Bastian held his right hand forward, unleashing a roaring blaze against it.
The rapid spin of the demon swirled the flames, dissipating them with its unstoppable torque as more cackling came.
‘The flames didn’t work either—?’ He thought.
The cruel tortoise continues to spin towards him, chugging through the forest as dirt spit in every direction.
He cast his chains towards one of the distant trees, grabbing hold of a branch as he pulled himself towards it in a single tug.
“Ke-ha-ha! Run all you like, little man! I’ll turn your insides to paste soon enough! Bakasura’s booming taunts continued.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
It was quickly approaching yet again, with the ground rumbling and the air quaking in the wake of the monstrous beast. Even with his newfound power, the adventurer found himself stumped as to how to intercept the relentless spinning of the beast.
[“Breathe in the flame of origin, Bastian. Allow it into your lungs so that you may breathe its strength through your body.”]
Instruction came from his divine sponsor as Bastian had no choice but to rely on those guiding words. He stood his ground as the spinning tortoise rapidly approached, gathering orange-and-blue flames of a dawn glow into his hand before bringing them to his mouth.
It didn’t burn; the warmth guided over his tongue with the taste of coal. As he inhaled the flames, swallowing it into the core of his body, he could feel the primordial heat extending from his stomach, down to his toes and through his fingertips.
BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP.
Across his body, the tattoos of black ink shined, taking on a fiery glow as heat exuded from his body. Through each fiber of muscle, vibrant fire extended itself into heightened strength.
The name of this phenomena resonated within his mind, carried by embers of inherited knowledge: “Prometheus: Link Origin.”
Arriving within meters of the blessed adventurer, the demon cackled, “—Prepare to be ground to dust!”
However, Bastian calmly planted his feet down and thrust both of his hands forward just as the massive tortoise collided with him. It felt like intercepting a tornado of spiraling steel, though his body burned with strength beyond reason.
Like locking horns with a bull, he let his body lean forward, his boots sliding back and digging into the dirt.
Slowly, flexing the acute muscles in his back, he began slowing the rotation of the spiked shell.
“Hrgh—? What is this?!” The demonic tortoise growled in a struggle, “This strength—it couldn’t be…An Invictus?!”
[“Exhale and release all that strength at once, Bastian!”]
In one breath, he expelled azure flames from between his lips as for a moment, the ink on his skin vibrantly shined to a bright-blue. For that one moment, it felt as if even a boulder of steel could be crushed like a leaf between his hands as he squeezed them together.
Bastian strained his entire body, activating the intricate fibers of muscle in his body like a series of mechanisms, working in unison, “Pheeew-!”
“Grrrh…!” Bakasura groaned.
CRACK
The spin came to a complete stop as the shell was crunched; in a single, crushing motion, the demonic tortoise was squeezed of its magenta blood. Rotten entrails spilled alongside the fountain of the demon’s arterial fluid.
“—!”
Bastian released his crushing hold on the unorthodox figure, jumping back just as the entity quickly morphed. It withdrew its organs back into its body before extending spikes of flesh in every direction.
“Enough! I’ll chew, swallow, and spit your heart back out!” Bakasura’s malignant voice boomed like nefarious thunder as his flesh shaped back into its original form.
This time, what the infamous demon assumed was the stature of a giant, letting his limbs inflate as if pumped with air. There was no restraint from the enraged guardian, whose colossal limbs pounded into the soil like hammers to an anvil.
The stringy hair of the foul entity waves and flickered like hissing snakes, parting his jaws with his countless rows of jagged teeth resembling a valley of crooked hills. It didn’t become clearer to him than at that moment why Bakasura was the “bridge” in the Tower; where the mettle of adventurers was truly tested.
Becoming a suffocating presence within the enclosed forest, bleached of its life, the gigantified demon manifested only the top half of its body, its golden irises breaking away as its eyes became swirls of shifting light.
“Kill! Crush! Annihilate! Consume! Chew! Feast!” The distorted howls of the demon left its gaping mouth as a roaring wind.
In the outstretched mouth of the tusked fiend, a storm spun, perpetually rotating within its chasm of a maw as strands of lightning cackled and flames danced within its supernatural jaws.
The surrounding trees were plucked from the soil, their roots draped like hanging limbs as the boundless inhale of the demon pulled the oak into its deathly mouth.
Absolutely no coherence lasted in the enraged guardian’s besides its own mouth; its arms constantly swirled into the limbs of other beasts–the hooves of a mare, the talons of an avian, the claws of a lion. Even to unnatural shapes, seeming to find its primary meaning for its arms in dark-blue roots that stretched, clutching to the area like the veins of a living forest.
Its nose continuously shifted; spiky, long, short and like a button, or shaped like the snout of a pig.
There was only one thing seemingly on the mind of the ageless demon–
“Swallow! Eat! Taste!” Bakasura’s voice rumbled, rattling into high-pitched screams that could shatter glass into low, earthly bellows that vibrated the soil.
The all-or-nothing, crazed mass of elements it gathered within its mouth caused a flash of colorful lights to flicker throughout the isolated forest, leaving the adventurer without much idea how to counter it.
‘...I won’t be able to shield this one. Should I try countering it with a fireball? No, that won’t be enough either,’ he realized.
[“You can overcome it right here. The demon has lost all sense; he has given up on defending himself, instead focusing everything on offense. Take advantage of that and call upon the ultimate embodiment of our chains. Allow your body to be enchained, and conquer your enemy, Invictus of Prometheus.”]
As the divine words resonated through his mind, it felt as though his soul had been ignited with knowledge unseen. In the face of the calamitous uproar of the demon, he felt fearless. Around his body, the markings of chains were born into reality, rising from the blank ink into their physical form as they twisted and caressed the adventurer’s body.
The chains squeezed his body, yet the pain that shot through him was different from the pressure; it was a stabbing agony, as if he was being pecked by the end of a sharp object across his body.
“Ngh…!” He winced, nearly keeling over as he grabbed onto the manifested chains, wanting to yank them off.
[“Endure it. These chains are the origination of my eternal suffering. If you mean to enchain, then you must know the pain you’re inflicting first. Engrave the feeling of the chains into your skin, their unrelenting hold into your flesh. Use that pain and ignite your will.”]
The weight of the tormenting chains was realized; as an extension of his own pain, he held his hand forward as he commanded the ruthless steel to come.
“Murder! Slaughter! Prey! Devour!” The wild, shifting maw of the demon echoed as the swirl of nefarious energy within its mouth was primed and ready.
Bastian kept his hand pointing towards the nightmarish guardian, feeling his own heart being clenched tightly by the chains as he forcibly clenched his fist:
“Enchain.”
Rising from the soil, dipping in through unseen gateways in the wind, colossal links of black steel were reeled into existence. The massive chains surrounded the raging demon, coming from all angles as the sound of metal grinding rang jarringly.
“Kruuuuuu—?!” A sound of perplexion left the elder demon’s maw.
Bastian kept his hand held high, feeling the chains that wrapped around him squeeze tighter as he commanded their colossal counterparts.
The links, large enough to wrap around the enormous upper body of the guardian, bound the demon. Through its flesh, the ends of the chains pierced, locking it in countless ways so that escape proved impossible.
Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, the interlinked steel presented the bound demon.
One more was left; born through embers, a chain rose, slithering downward from behind the maddened entity before sinking into its back.
“Ruuuuuagh….!” Bakasura howled in pain.
The construct of scorching steel went through its flesh, coming out through its chest with its accursed heart gorged by the links. No pity came from the young man as he guided the chains, allowing them to sink into the demon’s flesh with a squeezing hold before he uttered one more word:
“To ash.”
The chains that bound the guardian sprouted fire from their steel, engulfed in a blaze that spread itself to the demon himself. Like a bonfire lit upon a hill of wood, the majestic flames shone through the colorless forest.
“I will return…! I will revive…! Then…I will feast upon…your bloodline!” The voice of the demon howled through the fire that ate away at its form.
In the hold of the blazing chains, the bloodthirsty colossus crumbled away; its inhuman form shattered as the heat came to an end.
Ash alongside embers, glided down in the air, free of the guardian’s malice.
“...Haaah…”
A long exhale was released from his body as he stood there, witnessing the ashes of the dem trinkle down, landing gently against his skin.
[“Those reduced to nothing by the flame of origin will not return. Even an undying fiend like a floor guardian. This is the path in which I’ve entrusted my strength to you with. Vanquish the guardians forevermore; take away the toys in which the gods torment humanity with.”]
Though the words of the deity hardly resonated within the young man’s tired mind as the ink vanished from his skin and his shining irises faded back to their emerald complexion.
‘...Ah. I’m tired,’ he thought.
The adventurer wobbled in place, his eyelids drooping as all of the strength he had grasped evaporated from his body at once. He felt even weaker than before he had awakened his Blessing; consciousness was siphoned from his exhausted mind before–he collapsed.
Not even a simple twitch of his pinky finger could be done. After the agonizing set of trials he had gone through, his body told him “enough”--it’s time to rest. Though he could tell his body was wounded and worn out, he was too exhausted to even register how much pain he was in.
As he began to fade into slumber, the sound of many pairs of footsteps echoed against his ears, soon accompanied by shouts that sounded like nothing more than murmurs of wind.
“...Here! He’s in here…!”
“Prepare for battle! The Tenth Guardian is–huh? But where is–?”
“Don’t tell me he…”
“Enough gawking! We need to get him back! His body is in bad shape! C’mon!”
–Those were the last words that befell the young man’s ears before he fully slipped into a deep, deserved rest. Time was not perceived within such rich slumber; his mind was shut away from any thoughts existing beyond his own body.