"How?" The word escaped his lips as a broken gasp. The creature shouldn't be moving. It should be dead. But it was there, a monstrous, staggering figure, its jaws dripping with blood, its eyes flickering with a dim, malevolent light.
His mind raced, a panicked flurry of denial and a chilling acceptance that he hadn't dealt the final blow. That somehow, impossibly, this creature refused to die. That his victory had been a cruel illusion, a fleeting moment of reprieve before the final curtain.
He could feel the lizardfolk girl trembling beside him, her small body pressed against his, a fragile shield against the overwhelming terror that threatened to consume him.
Panic surged through him, an icy wave that made his vision blur, his legs tremble. He couldn’t fight it again. Not now. Not like this. He could barely stand. The poison coursing through his veins was a cold fire, weakening him from the inside. But as he looked down at the girl, her eyes wide with terror, his heart hardening with a desperate, hopeless resolve. He had to protect her. Had to buy her time.
Kael pushed the girl back, stumbling forward, his body screaming in protest. One more fight. Just one more.
He raised his club-hammer, his arms shaking with exhaustion. It felt impossibly heavy, the weight of his own mortality pressing down on him. His gaze met the Blightmaw’s, his defiance a desperate flicker against the creature’s cold, unyielding hunger.
"Stay down. Stay down," Kael gasped, his words lost in the creature's rasping breath. It lunged towards him, clumsy now, its movements no longer fluid, but still deadly. He ducked, feeling the wind of the blow, the scent of rot and decay washing over him as the creature's claws grazed his shoulder.
The pain flared through him, a searing reminder of his frailty, but he ignored it, forced it aside, as he swung his hammer, the force of desperation driving the blow.
"Stay down."
He swung again, and again, each blow weaker than the last. He was a broken machine, his gears grinding to a halt. He could feel the darkness creeping in, the edges of his vision wavering, his limbs heavy. But he couldn’t stop. He wouldn't stop. Not until his body gave out, not until he had nothing left to give.
He saw it then, a flicker of hope amidst the encroaching darkness. The Blightmaw was slowing. Each strike he landed chipped away at its strength, its resilience. It was a shadow of its former self—the wounds he’d inflicted, the lizardfolk's final act of defiance—they were taking their toll.
He could do this. He could finish this.
With one last, desperate surge of strength, he swung the hammer one final time, the muscles in his arms tearing with the effort. The hammer came down with a sickening crunch, shattering bone and rupturing flesh as it connected with the Blightmaw's skull. The impact sent a spray of dark ichor into the air, splattering across his face and chest, the ground trembling beneath the sheer force of the blow.
The Blightmaw’s legs buckled beneath it, its massive body collapsing with a thunderous crash that sent a tremor through the earth.
The world went quiet, and in that sudden, jarring silence, he realized—It was over.
His vision blurred, the edges darkening as exhaustion overwhelmed him. He fell to his knees, the club-hammer clattering to the ground beside him, his body trembling uncontrollably. He could barely see the system announcement:
Blightmaw Killed.
Explosive Power +1
Toughness +1
Metabolism +1
Blunt Weapons +1
Blunt Weapons Rank Up (Apprentice, Level 1)
Skill Requirements Met!
You Have Unlocked The Skill
Shattering Impact (Active)
The user channels force into a single, short-range strike that has a high chance of breaking armor, or bone.
Skill Type: Combat
Skill Rank: Novice
Level Up!
Congratulations, You Have Reached Level 4!
Stat Points Earned: 5
Skill Points Earned: 5
Skill Tokens Earned: 0
XP Until Next Level: 1570
He took a deep, shuddering breath, his entire body a symphony of pain, his head spinning, the world a blur of shadow and light. He wanted to sleep, to sink into the soft earth and never wake up, but the feel of small hands on his shoulders, a low, insistent hiss in his ear, brought him back from the brink.
Looking up into the lizardfolk girl’s eyes, her scaled face pale in the dim light, but there was a flicker of… relief, of hope, in their depths. It had worked. He had saved her, and the exhaustion felt lighter now, a weight lifted from his soul.
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Kael struggled to his feet. His legs were lead, his vision swimming. The world tilted precariously as he stumbled. But the girl was there, her small frame surprisingly strong, holding him steady, guiding his steps towards the shimmering portal that beckoned in the distance. It wasn't much. Not compared to the devastation surrounding them. But he had won. They had survived.
A wave of dizziness overwhelmed him. He reached out, a desperate grasp at the air. “Just… need… to rest.” The words, slurred and broken, the world fading, the girl’s hand slipping from his grasp, her frightened cries echoing in the void. She slapped him. Hard.
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The fog clung to Kael, a wet shroud, as he stumbled toward the portal, each step an agony. The world around him, already blurred by pain and exhaustion, swam, the ground shifting beneath him like a treacherous, living thing. His cheek stung. The taste of blood and bile filled his mouth, the stench of the Blightmaw’s poison a burning ache in his throat. He was dying. He knew it. But the girl, clinging to his arm, her small, scaled hand a lifeline in the fog, needed him.
"Almost there,” he whispered, the lie rasping against his raw throat. Each word an effort, his vision flickering, his legs threatening to buckle. The portal’s light, a faint purple shimmer in the distance, seemed miles away, a cruel mockery of hope.
He felt her panic, the frantic beat of her heart against his side, the tremor of her thin frame against his own battered body. They had to get out of here, had to escape this realm.
But the darkness was closing in, the poison coursing through his veins a wildfire burning him from the inside out. The ground tilted beneath him, his knees buckling.
He fell, landing on the slick, muddy ground, a wave of pain radiating through him. But his mind, even as it began to succumb to the encroaching darkness, was fixed on a singular thought: Save her. Get her out.
Fumbling, his hands, cold and clammy, scraping against the damp earth. His fingers brushed against the portal’s shimmering surface, a faint, crackling energy jolting through him like a spark. A sound, somewhere between a groan and a sob, escaped his lips.
“Come on…” he whispered, a desperate plea to a world that seemed indifferent to his suffering. “Just… a little further.”
He felt the girl's gaze on him, the heat of her breath against his cheek. Her eyes, wide with terror, seemed to burn into him, a silent plea for salvation. He had to get them out of here. But his limbs were heavy, the pain a suffocating wave.
He could feel his consciousness fading, the edges of his vision darkening. Just as his grip loosened on the hope of escaping, the world shattered.
The System’s interface— that familiar, ever-present blue light— flared, the harsh light forcing his eyelids open. A new prompt materialized in front of him, its glow a jarring contrast to the mud and fog that surrounded them.
Do You Wish to Realize The Adjoining Entity? Y/N
Below the question, a simple choice, a single path in a maze he didn't understand.
“Realize? What does that even…?” He tried to form the words, his voice a croaking whisper lost in the rising fog. His mind, fogged with pain and exhaustion, couldn't grasp the meaning of the prompt.
It felt… wrong. The very air around the portal crackled, buzzing with a new, unsettling energy, the warmth of the Shard shifting into a sharp, piercing sensation.
The girl was staring at him now, her eyes wider than ever before, the scales around her pupils gleaming with a strange, ethereal light. He could feel her fear, a frantic heartbeat against his side.
His fingers, trembling, hovered over the system screen. He didn’t understand what was happening, didn’t know what the prompt meant, what consequences awaited him if he chose one path or another. But he knew he couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t let her die in this place, another victim of his failure.
"I… I don't have a choice,” he whispered, the words tasting like blood and bile, but he forced himself to believe them, to act. With a trembling finger, he pressed **Y**.
The moment he touched the screen, the world exploded into a kaleidoscope of light and color. It was like staring into the heart of a supernova—a brilliant, searing white that burned through his eyelids, even as he squeezed them shut, a terrifying and breathtaking display of power that dwarfed even his encounters with the realms. He felt a surge of energy coursing through his body. The pain, the exhaustion, the fear, all faded into the background, overwhelmed by a feeling of something... else.
His senses were bombarded by a cacophony of sounds—the portal's hum intensified, vibrating through his bones, the air around him crackling with energy. He could feel her hand on his arm, a sharp tug as a soft light began to emanate from beneath her scales, a strange, warm luminescence. He couldn’t move, his body frozen as he watched in horror and fascination.
The girl, a faint glow emanating from beneath her scales, suddenly burst into a brilliant, pulsating light. It was beautiful, mesmerizing, terrifying, all at once. The System, usually a voice of clinical, detached observation, was silent.
He cried out.
“I’m destroying you! I’m so sorry!” He wanted to pull his hand away, to break the connection, but his body refused to respond, as if frozen in time.
Her scales seemed to melt away, replaced by a swirling mist of silver light that coalesced around the portal, rising upwards, spiraling inwards, as if being consumed by its shimmering surface. He was a prisoner, his senses overwhelmed by the symphony of color and energy, his will subsumed by a power he didn’t understand.
“What… what did I do?" His thoughts, fragmented whispers, echoed the disjointed patterns that danced before his eyes.
Then, in a blinding flash of light and a roar of sound, the world tilted, the ground beneath him giving way.
He fell forward, his body hitting the ground hard, the impact stealing the breath from his lungs, the world fading to a swirling, hazy darkness. He flailed, trying to support himself, and his arm came into contact with the shimmering portal. The girl’s screams, a mournful echo, resonated in the void before him as the darkness closed in.
Waking to the familiar cold and damp of the basement, the silence thick and oppressive. His mind a jumble of fragmented memories. He pushed himself up to his elbows, the world spinning, his body a canvas of pain.
“What happened?” The question, a whisper of disbelief, formed on his lips, tasting like dust and fear. He’d made it back, somehow.
But the girl…
Panic surged within him, a cold, clawing sensation that constricted his chest. He was alone, surrounded by the echoing silence. He’d killed her, hadn’t he? Destroyed her with his recklessness.