Skarm nodded in agreement and sat down, leaning back against Levi’s knee.
Levi’s mana and stamina slowly ticked upwards.
Levi found himself missing conversation. Usually there would be banter, grim and tense, but better than this looming quiet.
“I wonder how smart you really are?” he mused, more to break the silence than to get an answer from his gremlin.
Skarm shrugged.
“You understand speech, clearly. Can you talk?”
Skarm squeaked something unintelligible.
“Say ‘yes.’”
Skarm squeaked again.
“Say ‘no.’”
Same squeak. Or, if different, not enough for Levi to discern.
“Hmm.”
Skarm shrugged apologetically.
“Can you carry out a detailed sequence of instructions? If I told you to run in, stab the ogre to get its attention, then weave it around the pillars to bait it into getting splashed by the corrosive, would you understand that set of directives?”
Skarm tilted his head to the side, peered out into the boss room to assess the layout, then nodded confidently.
Levi was impressed. “Not committing to an answer blindly. And aware of the difference between a hypothetical and a plan to be immediately put into action. Promising.”
Skarm waved one hand modestly, though his chest seemed to puff up a bit.
Levi checked his stamina. Still another fifteen minutes until it reached full.
He looked over his equipment again, what little he had. Still in order. He wished the blade had come equipped with a power stone. He’d forgotten that weapons used to show up without one.
“I don’t suppose you have any ideas how to pass the time?”
Skarm stared down at the sandy floor, scuffing it with one foot.
“Search for more secret passages?”
The gremlin shook his head.
Levi stood and paced. Every minute wasted felt like an irreplaceable loss, but some things were ingrained so deeply that no amount of impatience would overwhelm them. A boss room, you went into as prepared as possible, never underestimating it for a moment.
If only he had some crafting ingredients with him; if he could at least be converting verdium or distilling silvergrass that would feel like progress. But, of course, he had no provisions, no supplies, no requisition rights. Not that there’d be anyone to requisition from at this point in the timeline.
Finally, his last stamina point ticked up to full.
“You remember the plan?”
Skarm nodded.
Levi’s hand tightened on his dagger. Unenhanced weapon, no armor... he felt very exposed.
But his opponent was similarly reduced, without proper clothing, nothing like the fully armored behemoths he'd faced in the high-level dungeons of the future. Level 1, just like everything else in the dungeon. It should be possible. Levi was even technically a higher level, though with monsters that didn’t mean as much as it did with humans.
Levi and Skarm stepped inside. A moment later the boss room door sealed shut behind them, locking them in. Once they engaged the fight, the only escape was victory.
His faithful little minion gamely ran to the center of the room, squeaking at the top of his voice. The ogre slowly raised its head, focusing on the tiny irritating intruder. Before it could get to its feet, Skarm ran right up to it and rammed the monster’s meaty leg with his pointy little horn.
The ogre roared and kicked Skarm away. The gremlin crashed into one of the pillars in an explosion of corrosive goo. Levi winced in sympathy. Skarm’s innate resistance helped a little, but the damage still dropped his minimal health more than Levi would have preferred.
To his credit, Skarm recovered quickly. The ogre stomped toward him, cleaver raised to finish him, but the gremlin jumped nimbly aside just in time. Skarm ran toward the nearest pillar in a flat-out sprint, the ogre close behind.
Levi focused hard, bringing the ogre's status into view. It wavered and flickered whenever the creature slipped out of his line of sight.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 100%
Skarm wove between pillars as instructed, squealing and jumping aside every time the ogre's cleaver slammed down, but his extra Spirit point was showing its value as he managed to remain ahead of the heavier and larger boss.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 98%
Even playing the pillars to their advantage barely dented the ogre's health.
Of course, it would be too easy if things could be resolved by a single gremlin running around the room. Levi waited for an opening, eyes flicking about as he tracked the ogre’s progress and the movement of the pulsating globs of corrosive on the pillars between him and his target.
Once Skarm claimed the ogre’s full attention, it didn’t take long for Levi to find his opening. He sprinted forward and pushed himself into a stamina-enhanced jump to slam himself dagger-first into the ogre’s back.
The monster flailed and spun, trying to grab him with its giant hands, but Levi had already thrown himself backward, disengaging in the instant after contact.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 93%
Skarm took advantage of the ogre’s distraction to rush back in. The gremlin slashed at its legs with his long claws, biting it in the ankle for good measure.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 91%
Judging by the percentages, the ogre probably had close to three times Levi’s health. He couldn’t afford to let it force a straight fight. It spun its cleaver in a sweeping arc that left orange light lingering behind, targeted at a diagonal aiming to slice off Levi’s head before chopping Skarm in half.
Both reacted at once. Levi ducked and dove forward, while Skarm turned and ran.
Neither fully escaped the blow. The cleaver clipped Levi’s shoulder, sending a sharp jolt down his arm, while Skarm took the very tip of the blade across the back in a curved line that would have surely severed his spine if the gremlin had been a split second slower.
Levi spun with the momentum of the strike and jumped on the ogre’s back to get in a few more hits with his blade.
He instinctively tried to push mana into his dagger as he attacked, pulsing it in practiced brief surges for maximum efficiency but, without a power stone, the dagger couldn’t hold or properly utilize the energy he fed it. The mana flared and dissipated, useless, the inactive manablade barely more effective than a mundane weapon.
The ogre seemed to have learned from its previous attempt. Instead of trying to grab Levi, it spun to put Levi in the path of one of the corrosive-covered pillars just as its blob exploded. Levi jumped off a moment too late, his reflexes still off after his unexpected trip to the past. He stumbled, taking the brunt of the splash across his lower back. The destructive goo burned through his shirt and into his skin, health immediately dropping to mitigate the damage before it could worsen.
Levi cursed and surged stamina to jump back a second time as the ogre spun its cleaver in a two-handed smash right where he’d been a moment before.
The pillar cracked under the heavy blow, sending a brief spray of dull orange corrosive blobs bursting from a liquid core before bubbles started forming even faster along the gash.
Skarm stabbed the ogre’s leg, since his initial job as bait hadn’t worked out so well. Alas, the boss had recognized Levi as the bigger threat, and no amount of minor gremlin attacks would convince it otherwise.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 83%
Levi glanced back just long enough to verify everyone’s positions, already running as he did.
My turn to play bait.
A charging ogre could build up a lot of speed, but the pillars let him break up that momentum. Perhaps the corrosive traps were there to make it a riskier proposition to hide behind the pillars rather than to make them a useful weapon against the boss.
Levi wove between the pillars, luring the boss in close, forcing it to change direction often before it could build up speed. It grew more and more infuriated as Levi and Skarm traded aggro between them — as soon as it stopped chasing Levi and turned its attention to the gremlin, Skarm would flee, and Levi would take up the attack.
Both took minor damage from the corrosive, and more than once the boss managed to get in a glancing blow but, on the whole, Levi and Skarm were more nimble and managed to stay ahead of it.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 51%
The ogre would go truly berserk once it hit half health, spinning its cleaver in all directions in blind fury. The next time they performed their coordinated attacks, Levi motioned for Skarm to retreat to shelter behind a depleted pillar that hadn’t had time to become dangerous again. Even a glancing blow could finish off the gremlin with his health this low.
This next part, Levi had to do on his own.
He darted in with one more quick slash, and the ogre’s rage reached the tipping point.
The boss bellowed loud enough to shake the ceiling, dropping sand through shafts of artificial sunlight, and lashed out in a sudden spinning flurry of blows.
It hit no one and nothing. Levi had already leaped away. He ran, weaving through the pillars, and the boss chased furiously after him.
The ogre moved faster than it had before, but as long as Levi didn’t let it build up too much momentum, he could keep ahead.
His heart thundering in his chest, Levi grinned despite himself. There was a certain thrill to this, the challenge of it. Without armor or proper weapons, only an inert dagger between him and death — in its substance, this fight was intimately familiar. He’d spent half a decade fighting endless life-or-death battles against stronger, larger, and far more deadly foes.
The steps might be different, but he knew this dance and could play it to perfection.
If he made a single mistake he’d probably die. But right now, running one step ahead of the infuriated boss, he felt untouchable.
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