by Konrad Ryan
Raekast’s bite. Let’s see what you can do. Text of the ability appeared before his eyes.
*Raekast’s Bite: Absorbs the user’s health to deliver a massive blow for twice the damage absorbed.*
Tad drove the obsidian dagger into his own leg. The dagger gulped down his blood, in an instant his health dropped 200 points as Tad yanked out the dagger. Its obsidian surface now writhed in veins of ruby. The etched teeth glowed with his consumed blood. The ruby veins and fangs brightened with each beat of his heart. Tad felt sapped. His energy drained. His breaths ragged with exhaustion. But this was his last gambit. All or nothing.
“Me or you, big guy.”
The dungeon boss’s massive form gave chase. The hammer howled as he swung the mighty weapon at Tad’s skull. At the last instant Tad sprang toward the lizard, barely dodged the head of the heavy maul, and dove between the legs of the brute. One last jump off an iron spike and Tad spun. Within striking range, Tad imagined a cloud of black smoke.
“Shadow Burst!”
The cloak on Tad’s back exploded in a swarm of darkness. Thousands of black roach titanspawn swarmed, creating a cloud of physical blackness. Kothar-wa-Khasis was right in front of him. Miniature shadow roaches affixed to Tad’s skin as he activated stealth. Darkness kissed his entire body as he drove the black and red dagger into the back of the enormous creature. The cloud of ice shattered. Tad’s movements returned to normal. Suddenly sluggish, his speed buff disappeared.
“Raekast’s Bite!” Tad screamed in fury. His voice sounded exhausted, even to his own ears.
Ice spidered up Tad’s arm, Raekast’s Fang was now a part of him. The singular fang of the dagger opened and transformed. Even in the physical darkness, the red glow of the blade cut through in beams of light, fueled by Tad’s blood. The decorative etched teeth of the dagger turned physical as the point of the dagger widened into jaws. Strings of bloody saliva hung from teeth to teeth as the muzzle of the beast opened, wide enough to bite down on the entire ribcage of Kothar-wa-Khasis in a sickening crunch. The dagger, fused with Tad’s arm, took the form of an inky black panther, who roared like a wildcat as they exploded from the darkness. Tad flexed the jaws of the panther. The force of the blow shot them across the ancient smithy, and straight into the brick adobe walls.
In an explosion of dust, brick, and green blood, a sinister laugh exploded throughout Tad’s head as the damage of the attack doubled.
*Backstab.*
Chapter 27
The lizard boss roared in pain as his health dropped to 0%. Tad sucked air in huge gulps. Where was it? Where was the congratulatory message announcing the death of the dungeon boss? It had come for the mosquito boss!
It didn’t come.
The giant lizard went limp, stuck face first into the cracked adobe bricks of the smithy wall. A deafening alarm played inside Tad’s head.
*Warning! The dungeon boss has activated ‘Will of the Dying.’*
Tad scrambled to his feet. His fingers shook as he brought up more details. Tad sprinted. Sprinted away from the lizard blacksmith, Kothar-wa-Khasis.
*Will of the Dying: invoked by the immense will of a creature that refuses death. For thirty seconds, the creature is immune to damage. After thirty seconds, nothing can save from the chill of the grave.*
Tad ran.
A roar thundered from behind Tad as he ran to the only source of cover in the entire room. The split anvil. His body felt heavy. Gone were the crisp movements he’d experienced while brilliant burst was active.
Tad shot up the spiked incline of the broken anvil. He could feel Kothar behind him. The murderous rage that kept him alive. He was gaining on Tad, and fast! He had to get as far away from it as possible. Tremendous thundering steps exploded right behind him; Tad had no time to look. He sprang off an iron spike as he reached the top of the Anvil. He vaulted over the top to the opposite side of the anvil, away from where Bunta was hanging.
“Tad! You’re alive! What was that panther-”
The gruff voice came from the side closest to Bunta. Tad’s stomach sank as he glanced toward the voice. Gruff stood on the peak of the broken anvil. Tad flew past the man and down the other side of the crevasse. Mid leap, Tad couldn’t change course.
Gruff had made it. At the worst time possible.
“Follow me, you lizard bastard!” Tad shouted as he turned to watch in horror. Nothing followed him. Momentum from the tremendous leap in full flight carried him more than halfway down the anvil.
A full blow from the lizard’s hammer had hurt Tad 260 health. Gruff had more than that when full, but his life hadn’t been full. Full of desperation, Tad sprinted faster than he ever had in his entire life up the incline.
The lizard smith’s hammer exploded Gruff’s skull into a bloody mist of bone and brain. The image burned into Tad’s mind forever.
“No!” Tad screamed, his voice was hoarse. His eyes stung. This was a dream, right?
The dungeon boss turned toward the sound. Its black eyes glowed red. The glint of the last burning ember about to extinguish. The boss flexed thick thighs as he leapt toward Tad. He was so fast!
Tad had no time to dodge. He pulled. The giant obsidian axe head of Wraithford’s axe appeared between the two just an instant before the hammer hit home. Wraithford’s axe shattered as the iron maul demolished it. Tad flew across the boss room from the raw force of the attack, most of the damage absorbed by the shattered axe. Tad flipped to his feet just before he smashed into the ground. His feet reached the cobblestone, they slipped and skidded as he struggled to stay upright. He stopped just before he hit the adobe wall of the boss room.
Tad pulled again. Wraithford’s second axe appeared in a puff of black smoke, the axe leaned against the wall, forming a slight shadow. Tad activated stealth. The thin shadow licked his skin as Tad’s form disappeared.
Kothar-wa-Khasis didn’t care. His maul smashed into Wraithford’s axe and adobe wall where Tad had been standing a moment before, but Tad was already gone, moved to the far side of the shadow where he burst out in full sprint. How much longer? Tad was about out of options. Out of time. The dying boss was too fast. Tad had no mana left. His health had dropped below fifteen. All he needed was to buy a few more seconds. Thirty seconds had to be up soon. Right?
Tad glanced behind. The lizard boss was right behind him, Two-handed weapon raised high. Tad was dead. There was nowhere to go. Kothar-wa-Khasis had caught Tad in the open. All his weapons summoned and destroyed. Cover gone. Death awaited.
But not for Tad.
Like a puppet with cut strings, Kothar-wa-Khasis dropped to the ground. The chill of the grave welcomed him. His momentum carried his limp body, rolled it atop Tad like a sack full of gelatin. The two slid across the ground.
Tad’s heart beat wildly in his chest. One second more. Had the lizard blacksmith had just a moment longer, he would have pulled Tad into the grave with him. Had the lizard not gone after Gruff… Tad would be dead. And Gruff would be alive. Brando would be alive. His death had been so meaningless. He’d appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had he come a moment sooner, or a moment later. Had Tad escaped by a different path, into the tunnels, or around the anvil instead of up the middle!
Regret weighed on Tad more than the weight of the lifeless creature atop of him. It took every ounce of his fifteen strength to wriggle out from under the heavy corpse. Multiple electronic jingles rang out, but they sounded hollow to his ears. Rejuvenating power pulsed through his veins as his wounds healed painlessly.
*Congratulations! You have slain the dungeon boss!*
*You have leveled up!*
He sure had.
*You have leveled up!*
At what cost.
*You have leveled up!*
If only he had been stronger.
*You have leveled up!*
He could have protected all of his friends.
*You have leveled up!*
Gruff, and Becca, and even Scar.
*Yo
u have leveled up!*
I’ll miss you guys.
*You have leveled up!*
And especially Bunta, who had always been kind to him.
*You have leveled up!*
*Warning! Boss defeated. Dungeon destabilized. Ten minutes until dungeon collapse.*
Bunta! Bunta wasn’t dead! The thought brought Tad back to his senses as he sprinted away from the boss’s corpse. Tad leapt fifteen feet into the air, grabbed the edge of the slanted anvil and pulled himself up. He vaulted over the chasm and slid down the length of the broken anvil. Still hanging by his ankles, Bunta’s face was deep red. Blood dripped off his swollen hands in crimson rivulets. His breathing was ragged. Weak. Tad wished he could heal him. Why was there a stupid rule that you couldn’t heal unconscious people? That made no sense.
Tad reached down and pulled Bunta upward by his legs and slashed the rope with a dagger from the mist. He cradled the pudgy Asian man in his arms as he leapt off the broken anvil. He dropped the now-twenty feet to the floor. Pain shot up his legs, but Tad didn’t even give it a second thought. He was fully healed from leveling up. Tad sprinted from the boss room. Leaving the orange molten glow of the ancient smithy behind, forever.
Tad turned the first corner and was met with darkness. He couldn’t afford distractions, he had to get Bunta to help as fast as he could. Tad ran faster.
Tad sped through the tunnels of the previously roach infested cavern until he came back to the first room, the one with the rockfang. Tad hadn’t killed it when he’d hunted down all the roaches. He wasn’t sure why. He just hadn’t wanted to. He still didn’t. He didn’t feel like killing anything ever again.
“We’re almost there, Bunta. Hang on.”
Tad sprinted across the mountain of roach husks, tongues from the rockfang whipping out where he ran. As Tad crossed the mountain, an electronic chime played in his mind. Dread filled his stomach as he read the words.
*Congratulations on completing your second quest! You have cleared the dungeon as the sole survivor! You can now-*
Tad swiped the notification away as he looked down at Bunta, fearing the worst. His breathing had stopped. His chest, still. Besides the blood, he looked almost peaceful.
No. This couldn’t be happening. First Becca, then Scar, then even Gruff. But not Bunta.
Tad had been wrong. Anger swelled in his chest. He had been wrong the entire time! He had wanted strength. Craved strength. The strength to prevent himself from being hurt at the hands of others. But in that moment, Tad knew that strength to protect yourself was empty if you couldn’t protect your friends. He hadn’t been powerful enough, and because of it, he’d lost everything.
The physical and emotional pain of being bullied, of being terrorized, was nothing to the sense of loss he felt now. It was like a black void had spawned in his chest. He felt so empty. Was all death this meaningless? Why had they even entered this dungeon? For money? For adventure? To protect society? To pursue strength? All of it seemed so meaningless.
Tad sprinted forward. Moisture fell from his burning eyes. The dungeon door appeared. Black mist awaited. Tad stepped through it.
Darkness took him. The all-powerful being that had met him as he entered the dungeon. Zero was there. Waiting for him. Shrouded in the darkness, hidden by the mist. The power threatened to overwhelm him. To scorch his mind once again.
Not. Now.
Tad twisted and pulled at the same time and banished the figure from his mind.
The darkness dissipated.
People exploded in a flurry of activity as Tad stepped from the dungeon door. The dungeon behind him disappeared in an instant. Twenty figures with official DDD uniforms swarmed everywhere. Tad stood, covered in blood of various colors, Bunta’s corpse held in his arms.
“Can anybody help him? Someone please help Bunta!” Tad yelled over the commotion. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
A severe-looking woman with her hair in a tight bun appeared next to him.
“How long has it been since he died? If it has been less than a minute, I can most likely bring him back.”
“It’s only been a few moments! Do it!” Tad’s voice came out much more harsh than he’d intended. The woman took a step back, startled, before she placed her hands on Bunta’s body.
A soft glow surrounded the woman as she cradled Bunta’s lifeless head in her hands. Bright white light surrounded both of them. The light stung Tad’s eyes. Powerful healing magic pulsed downward into Bunta’s heart. The white magic flowed through Bunta’s arteries, and then veins as the magic returned to his heart, until his entire body glowed with healing energy. Bunta gasped as his eyes shot open.
Tad slammed his entire health pool as he cast ‘heal other.’ Darkness swam before Tad’s vision as blood exploded from every orifice. Screams rang out at the display. The severe looking-woman slapped Tad across the side of the head. It didn’t do any damage, but it hurt far more than it had the right to.
“There’s no need for that!” The woman put one hand on Bunta, and another on Tad. Warm, soothing, healing pulsed through his body. Not like when he healed. Or when Becca healed him. But it felt more like when the regrower fixed Tad’s hair. His body tingled as warmth spread from his core. In an instant, both he and Bunta were healed.
“How… How did you do that without pain?” Tad was stunned.
The severe woman smirked. “You heal as you envision. Just like spell casting.”
Tad was dumbfounded. His healing had been painful this entire time because he hadn’t envisioned painless healing? He had changed the form of his spells countless times and hadn’t once thought to apply it to healing.
Bunta lay on the ground as he stared into the night sky above. His eyes found Tad. A group had formed, everyone quiet as the man spoke.
“I’m alive. You’re alive. What happened? Did I kill it? Brando. Where’s Brando?”
Tad’s eyes burned. Hot tears cleaned the blood that had streaked down his cheeks only a moment before. Unable to keep meeting Bunta’s gaze, Tad looked at the floor.
“He… Gruff… he didn’t make it. The boss came out of the lavafall… he used those black spikes on himself… I somehow killed it, but it fought on, even dead… I ran from it but… Gruff… it was just bad timing.” The words didn’t feel real even as Tad said them.
Pain filled Bunta’s voice. “I could have killed it… I should have killed it! I could have sacrificed myself in the lavafall and taken that bastard with me. He had to have been close to death with all those wounds. But… I thought it was good enough… I thought I could make it back to you two for healing. That we could finish him together. I didn’t think jumping away like that would knock me unconscious…”
The surrounding crowd parted as a familiar figure appeared. Long white hair with even longer white eyebrows. Gerald. He walked regally as he assessed the situation. His eyes finally settled on Tad. He pressed Tad’s phone back into his hands. The phone Tad had dropped still-ringing at the dungeon entrance. “I got your call. Once I realized who was, I sent the team.” He glanced at Bunta. “Good thing I did.”
Gerald’s face was blank. Whatever the man felt, he let nothing show. He walked even closer to Tad and held him, as if they were in an embrace. The elderly man whispered so quietly that Tad wasn’t even sure he’d heard it.
“It looks like we have some things to talk about after all.”
Chapter 28
Only three days had passed since Tad first sat in Gerald’s office, but it felt more like three years. The same shelves full of books made up the walls. There were so many books it looked more like a library than an office. Had they been here last time too, or had the layout changed? He’d been too intimidated by what was going on in the interview to worry about things like furniture arrangements.
Gerald Smith sat in his executive chair behind his desk, mouth pursed as he studied the two of them. The uncomfortable silence extended for more than just a few minutes. Bunta fidgeted with his mosquito ring nervo
usly in the seat next to Tad, his portly frame sunken, defeated.
How had that dungeon gone so wrong? Tad played the dungeon in his mind over and over. Tad’s warning about other failed slayers. Becca’s capture. Tad’s furious battles. The fight with the other party of slayers. Becca unconscious. Gruff and Scar’s argument. The battle with the roach queen. Gruff’s betrayal. Losing Scar to the lies of the boss. Killing Scar. Trying to defeat a monstrous boss with just three party members.
Tad could only see one person at whose feet the fault truly lay.
Gruff’s.
The anger burgeoned in his chest. Tad had made mistakes. He hadn’t been able to keep up with the group, and he hadn’t killed Becca when she was irrevocably possessed. Even though he’d been told to. When he should have. But the lion’s share of the fault was Gruff’s. He was the dungeon leader. He had been responsible to bring everyone out of the dungeon alive, yet he weakened the party by allowing Tad to join for a bribe. He had ignored Tad’s warnings. Abandoned Tad to save Becca when she had been kidnapped. Allowed Scar to live to assuage his own guilt. As the leader Gruff made poor choices which lead to their avoidable demise.
Tad promised himself. He would become a dungeon leader. But not one like Gruff. Tad would make the hard choices, the right choices, no matter who he had to sacrifice. He would strengthen his party, not divide it. He would become strong enough, not for just himself, but strong enough to protect his friends. His fellow slayers. Slayers that followed him into battle would return. Alive. To face a new day. To fight again.