With a roar of fury, the ogre brought down its manablade cleaver— not on Levi, but on the pillar he’d put between them— in a full-on deliberate smash.
Chunks of stone scattered like shrapnel from the impact and dust rose in a cloud. The ogre rampaged on heedlessly while the pillar dropped, tilted slowly, and toppled to the ground with a thunderous crash.
Levi jumped aside to avoid both the falling pillar and the charging ogre. Another burst of stamina sent him hurtling across the room at inhuman speeds that still felt slow compared to what he was used to.
Thick orange goo splashed out in every direction from the broken pillar and oozed out from the pillar’s exposed liquid core through every crack and break, far more than Levi would have imagined it could hold.
He hoped this boss just liked smashing stuff, but he was inclined to believe otherwise. As the third pillar fell, he became convinced. It had decided to reshape the arena to its preferences, done letting its enemy dictate its movements.
It was all Levi could do to stay ahead of the rampaging ogre as it smashed apart the room. Pillars that Levi had assumed were indestructible shattered around him, turning the room into an obstacle course. Levi had to vault or detour around the fallen pillars and pooled corrosive, while the ogre was large enough to jump them in stride without slowing down.
As much as Levi had hoped to tame the ogre, right now he lacked the sheer strength or numbers to force it into checkmate. It would still be deadly dangerous right up until the last moment, and his current resources might not be enough to subdue it safely.
But before he could do anything, he needed to get it out of enrage and into exhaustion so they could do some real damage. Ogres had incredible burst strength, but less endurance.
Unfortunately, it seemed the boss wouldn’t wear out on a timer like normal ogres. Even if it would, Levi was running out of time. If he had to guess, he’d assume the boss’s trigger would be dropping further in health. Dungeons weren’t meant to be run solo, after all. An ordinary group would have mage and ranged support, and certainly wouldn’t consist solely of two fighters. Or, more accurately, one fighter and one scout.
Another pillar crashed down, leaving only six upright. The battlefield hardly resembled its former condition, with bubbling puddles of orange goo pooling around the fallen pillars, chunks of scattered stone littering the ground where the ogre had smashed through, one pillar shattered in the middle, another cratered into the floor around it, a third broken into three pieces.
At least Skarm was still doing damage, clinging to the ogre’s leg and biting down, but the way the ogre was splashing through the corrosive puddles and spattering Skarm with the damaging liquid, the gremlin’s health wouldn’t last much longer.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 47%
Levi took a running jump to scramble up onto a fallen pillar. He ran down its length to intercept the berserking ogre, then with the last of his waning stamina, launched himself into the air as he neared his target.
He slammed dagger-first onto the ogre’s back, wrapped one arm around its neck to anchor himself, then stabbed the back of its head. If the dagger had been a proper manablade it could have sliced right through the bone, but the tiny weapon only skidded across the skull, leaving a deep gash but nothing close to what he was hoping for.
Levi got in two more quick dagger stabs before the ogre slammed the hilt of its cleaver into his skull, jolting him and dropping his health to below half. He clung to the monster, slashing and stabbing to do as much damage as possible.
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Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 41%
With a roar, the ogre jumped in the air, then twisted and dropped. Levi had just time to realize its intention and let go before it slammed down on its back on the ground.
If not for that, he’d have been crushed. Instead, the ogre’s shoulder only caught his legs, pinning him against one of the broken pillars on the ground.
Levi heard something crack. If there was any pain, he was too overloaded with adrenaline to feel it, but his left leg didn’t respond as he tried to scramble free. Levi cursed his low level and tiny stamina pool. He hadn’t needed to worry about physical impact damage for years.
If the ogre was smart, it would have finished him off while he was helpless. Luckily, as an infuriated berserker, making plans was the furthest thing from its mind.
Instead of rolling over and simply crushing Levi beneath its bulk, it jumped to its feet and swung its cleaver up to finish him off as he desperately scooted back away across the floor.
He wasn't going to make it.
Levi instinctively tried to push mana into his feet to boost him away. Spells were expensive and inefficient compared to stamina use but could replicate some of the same effects.
The spell failed. Even a base level Empowered Leap cost far more mana than his tiny pool could hold.
The ogre's blade started to descend in a wide sweep.
Skarm got there just in time.
The brave little gremlin threw himself at the ogre’s arm, impaling it with his horn and clawing viciously enough to throw off the ogre’s aim as it switched priority to dislodging the gremlin. The blade cleaved through the floor with a resounding clang. The attack dug a gouge in the stone as long as Levi’s body, but missed him entirely, thanks to Skarm.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 36%
That bought him a few seconds. Levi took quick stock of his options, which were not looking good. His left leg still refused to move properly; he couldn’t even stand. And the boss still had over a third of its health.
Skarm got in another few scratches before the ogre grabbed the gremlin’s head in one huge fist.
A resounding crack echoed through the room as the ogre slammed Skarm's skull into the nearest pillar, its fist driving right through.
Skarm's struggles immediately ceased, his body falling limp in the ogre's grasp.
The pillar splintered and began to tilt, dripping orange goo in a wobbly line of viscous globs that hissed and burned the floor where they landed.
In Levi's interface, Skarm’s minion information dimmed to gray, but didn’t disappear entirely. He hoped that meant his minion could be brought back, somehow, but right now there was no time to investigate.
He gritted his teeth, let the deep anger at losing yet another comrade flow through him, and pushed aside any thoughts of what came next. Right now, he had only to survive. Fight and win, exactly like every other time.
The ogre tossed aside the limp gremlin, then turned back to Levi.
The teetering pillar slid a few centimeters, stone clattering, and Levi made a sudden snap decision.
Despite his best efforts, he’d underestimated the dungeon. Or, rather, overestimated his past self. But he still had a chance. No challenge was truly insurmountable. He just had to find the way forward.
Levi changed angles, dragging himself across the floor and toward the path of the slowly tilting pillar, drawing the ogre after him. Then he pushed all of his mana into the most directed, focused burst he could muster. He'd never been much of a spellcaster, but there were a few utility spells everyone knew.
The ogre crossed into the damaged pillar’s path just as Levi’s supercharged focused mana ping hit it, knocking the broken chunks loose. With a sudden clatter of crumbling stone, the pillar lurched and fell forward in a cloud of dust.
The pillar crashed down atop the ogre, knocking it to the ground and spraying it — and Levi — with bubbling orange goo.
Level 1+
(Cave Ogre)
Health 2%
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