The Dungeon Destroyer: A LitRPG Level-Up Adventure (The Dungeon Slayer Series Book 2)

by Konrad Ryan

  “Can you return my friends to me? The friend you so callously wear on your head, can you return him to life? Can you return my brothers that you sent to the deep?”

  Tad felt the threat so apparent in the wolf’s deep voice. He knew he was out of his depth. Fighting this monster was certain death, but he couldn’t abandon Liz and Ethan to their gruesome fates.

  “The girl alone, then. I can’t bring your friends back, but I can give you what remains.” Tad removed the werewolf helmet from his head and held it out as an offering.

  The wolfvoid roared, eyes glinting red with madness. He turned toward the pole from which Liz hung, his three remaining claws tightened to a point.

  “No!” The pair still lived, even affixed to wooden beams. Tad didn’t think they could even escape this place while the boss still lived, since the door from which they had entered had already disappeared. He couldn’t see any way through this without killing this man in front of him. This boss of a void. But what chance had he, when the Defector himself had failed?

  “I can’t bring your friends back to life. I can’t return them. But I also can’t leave my friends. Give them to me and I will go. We will go.” Tad wasn’t sure how they would do that, but it was their only chance. Even if Fenrir’s power was being nullified, suppressed, by the slim golden chains at his wrists, fighting him meant certain death.

  “No.”

  Tad gulped at the finality of the growled word. He knew no way to escape, even if he abandoned his friends. Dread flooded him.

  This is where he would die.

  Tad reequipped his helmet. “Then I fight.”

  Fenrir threw back his head. An earth-shattering howl pierced the silence of the night, filled with madness. The wolf-like humanoid stood at its full height, but still it wasn’t taller than Tad, its boyish face determined. The wolfman stretched its chained hands overhead, exposing its chest to Tad, clawed fingers more human than wolf.

  “Before I lose control, I offer you the same as your friends. Strike me. With your greatest attack. Should I perish, then you and your friends are free to depart.”

  The reality of the situation sunk deep. The sky of fire, it had to have been Liz’s doing. But both her and Ethan’s attacks had only damaged wolfvoid eleven percent. Bosses had an absurd amount of health, even Bunta, in soldier rank dungeons had needed to stab the boss repeatedly, hundreds if not thousands of times to kill it. And here Fenrir was offering him his life, but only if he could finish him in one shot.

  Tad’s mind was blank. It was impossible. Even with his absorbed clone, 2x stat aspect, the gorilla gloves and every enhancement he could think of, it wouldn’t be enough.

  No. That wasn’t completely true. He had just leveled up, was full of health and mana.

  Tad could think of one attack that might perform the deed.

  Chapter 36

  Tad sunk the black obsidian dagger into his thigh. The thin obsidian rod that formed the hilt gleamed in the mysterious silver light of Fenrir’s domain. The glint was beautiful, the exposed black edge of the blade screamed danger, thirsted for violence.

  Raekast’s bite. It would leave him on a sliver of life, but it had risks, dangers. Tad wasn’t fully certain what they were, but the blade had once tried to overpower his will, demanding his blood. It had also left unhealable black burn marks on Sara, the healer from the harpy dungeon. Because of the danger, Tad had stopped using the attack, but here, there wasn’t a choice.

  It was his only hope.

  “That blade… a voidsign?” The boss’s eyes narrowed in recognition. “Ahh… I see it now. You are a void. Like me. And not only that… a vessel?” The wolfvoid pursed its lips in thought, but a glint of madness sparked dangerously. “No, it does not matter. Deliver your attack so I can end this.” The wolfvoid growled the words, but his determination to receive the blow returned once more.

  Raekast’s Fang glowed red, ruby veins sprawled across its surface, Tad’s health had only dropped to 80%. He needed more time. “Wait, you know this blade?”

  “The fang? I once met the beast from which it was made. The chance meeting was aeons ago. How you came to hold that blade in your hand is a curiosity. The beast I knew wouldn’t have given it up so easily.”

  Raekast. He was talking about Raekast. For not seeming to want conversation, he was very talkative.

  Maybe Tad didn’t have to fight. Could he talk his way out of this?

  “Tell me more about this beast.” Seventy Percent. He couldn’t risk sinking it into his chest as he had once before, while it would drink faster, it was riskier. Tad needed precision, he needed every drop of health to turn into a monstrous attack.

  “I know not more than I have said, I met the beast once, its powers were unfathomable, even to me. Had we crossed paths without these accursed chains around my wrists, I may have been able to see the depths of power held within.”

  “How did you get chained up if you were that strong?”

  The wolfvoid took the bait. “Through treachery. Treachery by the six. They feared my strength and tricked me under the guise of testing my might. They brought chain after chain, each I broke. Until this.” Fenrir growled down at the slender chains which bound him, another pulse of power burst from the chains.

  “These chains drain and hold my strength, emitting what it cannot contain, yet still I am stronger than your friends. I cannot die. I will not die. I should have been next to be tested by Titan, to prove my worth, to earn the empty seat of the banished mother.” His eyes gleamed with madness, body trembling with anticipation. “But I desire that no longer. Now all I wish is retribution.”

  The ferocity of Fenrir’s words, mixed with the madness in his voice, raised the hair on the back of Tad’s neck. Tad looked down at the slender golden chains which bound the mighty Fenrir. The chains burned with power, the unfathomable power burned in Tad’s gaze. There seemed to be no end to the depths, it truly was endless, but even the power of the chains were enough to contain all the wolf’s might, leaking brilliant bursts of power. Just how strong was this creature? And to be tested by Titan? Did he not know that Titan was a trap?

  “The six? Like the Alpha Creators? Eve and the others?” Sixty percent health remained.

  The wolfvoid roared at the name. “You… You’re a void like me, aren’t you?”

  Tad took half a step back at that. Had he forgotten already?

  The wolf’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. “That cloak, and that weapon, I should have known, this place, it muddles the mind. It has been so long. I thought the heavens had forsaken me, and yet here you are. I would kill you now and absorb your essence, but instead I offered you a deal, strike me, If you kill me, you may leave.”

  “Come now. I am ready.” The wolfvoid growled the words. “That you haven’t joined with your voidsign shows your lack of promise. But prove me wrong, come. Slay me void.” Fenrir spat that last word.

  Fifty percent, he had so much health, even with the dagger accelerating its feasting. He needed more time. Tad had one more ace up his sleeve, one more way to create time, to let his dagger finish drinking. “Wait, you once met with a creator, a man who looked like me, named Gabriel.” Recognition glinted past the madness in the wolfman’s eyes but Tad pressed on. “You told him of a way to cross the gates you once guarded, to leave the void and join the heavens.” Even now Tad didn’t understand the meaning of the words he spoke, but he recounted them as best he could. “What did you tell him?”

  The wolf’s wheels turned behind his madness. “I told him the truth. If Titan has appeared in the void, then the formation has already started, and the Council’s plan hatched. The spawn will fill the sky, the banished mother will awake, she and all, will be drawn through the gateway to the infinite, where she will be judged for her crimes. To awaken her, requires the life of a void. A void like me. A void like you but stronger.” Madness flooded his eyes. “If you do escape from here, I would be careful of that man. His ambition exceeds his ability, though it d
warfs your own.” The wolfvoid bared his teeth. “I am done speaking. Produce your attack or surrender to mine.”

  Longing filled Tad to know more, and the warning was plain as day. Whatever the Defector was planning was dangerous to Tad personally, and the world secondarily. He wanted to ask more about how to survive, but the wolfvoid’s face now swam with madness, that any control remained was a miracle.

  Tad still had twenty percent health left. Already the blade in hand seemed to writhe and twist, it drank hungrily, almost wriggling in pleasure. He opened up his stats and poured his 35 remaining stat points into constitution. This was exactly the kind of scenario he had saved his emergency stat points for.

  A familiar victorious chime filled his head as his base constitution reached fifty. He pushed through, his base constitution reaching 65 with his last point.

  *Constitution has reached 50! You have learned the following skills:

  You have learned the passive skill: ‘Vitality II.’

  Vitality II: +500 to max health.*

  The heavens hadn’t forsaken Tad either. He needed all the health he could get. With a thought, he brought up his stats.

  *Tad Harrington

  Rank: Warrior

  Class: Fighter/Void Minotaur

  Level: 57

  Health: 1560/3450

  Mana: 600/600

  Str: 360

  Dex: 240

  Con: 285

  Mag: 200

  Cou: 160

  Cha: 40

  Buffs: Enhance Self (42 minutes remaining)

  Debuffs: Silverfang Virus Incubation (30 Days Remaining)

  His maximum health hadn’t increased as much as he thought it would. Tad stabbed the dagger deeper into the fleshy part of his thigh. He realized why it hadn’t increased a moment later. The enhance self buff hadn’t doubled the newly applied points. Ice pulsed through Tad’s veins as the dagger drew the warmth from his blood. The fang thirsted for more. It would have to be enough. Hundreds of health disappeared as the dagger fused to his hand. Shadow climbed painfully up his arm and wrapped into a huge knot of physical darkness around his shoulder. Giant spikes jutted from an armored shoulder pauldron, but the fang hungered for more.

  “Heal.”

  Fresh blood pumped into his veins, only to be swallowed by the fang. The boss puffed out his chest, his eyes were full of madness, hungry for the impending strike, but Tad wasn’t done, not even close. His health bar rose once more above 3000 health, consuming all his mana. Tad opened the floodgates even wider as an icy chill took hold of every part of his body. His bones merged with the shadow, and his body transformed. The dagger formed the head of a panther. Its jaws were filled with teeth of mirrored ice, all reflections of Raekast’s Fang, they gleamed dangerously. The dagger yearned for more, demanded more even as his health was sucked from his marrow. It dropped 1000 again, but the absorption rate sped up once more. Yellow eyes gleamed from above Raekast’s fang, generating their own light in the silvery darkness. The golden chains exploded once more in a burst of power, but neither Tad nor the wolfvoid seemed to give it any notice. Both of them were consumed by the transformation happening before their eyes.

  *Warning, Health Critically Low!*

  Tad felt panic for the first time as the alarm snapped him back to reality. He was under 100 health. Suddenly the absorption rate exploded. Tad’s life was being sucked from him and he couldn’t stop it. Tad slammed the flood gates closed, but it refused to stop. The dagger fought him; it wanted more. It needed more. An entire panther had formed, even before his strike had been dealt. It demanded all of his blood, all he had. Tad pulled back with all his might, but it wouldn’t stop draining his health. It would kill him! If it wouldn’t come out by force, then Tad would use his mind! He frantically opened his equipment system and swapped the dagger from his right hand to his left.

  His health sat at 3 and his entire body shook from the effort it took to keep from collapsing. A stiff breeze would knock him over, but luckily there was no wind in this place. The golden chains threatened to explode at any moment, their glow had reached their peak. The dagger screamed for more, wriggling madly in Tad’s hand, but Tad was finally back in control. White numbers were written on its blade, visible even through the formed panther. 6447. He had fed it all he could. He passed the dagger back to his dominant hand and focused on the boss once more. Concern appeared for the first time, swimming past the madness in its gleaming yellow wolven eyes.

  But it was too late for concern.

  Tad dashed past Fenrir and spun, “Shadow burst!” Roaches exploded in a cloud of physical darkness. Tad embraced stealth, and the shadow roaches crawled across and merged with his skin, hiding him from sight. With all his might, he plunged the dagger deep into the back of his enemy. Tad lost all control, his body leapt forward on its own. The shadow panther bit and clamped down onto the wolfvoid’s entire back.

  *Backstab! -25,788 health!*

  The panther leapt forward in a wave of heat and death. Tad and Fenrir blasted from the hilltop through the endless waves of grain. The wolfvoid roared in pain, twisting in the panther’s jaws to rebuff its attacker. Tad’s teeth tore into the wolf’s skin, ripping open deep trenches filled with blood. The wolf grasped the top two fangs in clawed hands and the two shot through the sky like a meteor. Fenrir fought to push Tad back, but Tad’s hold was too strong. Tad’s jaws bit down on Fenrir again and again, and blood rained from the puncture wounds. Their battle descended to solid ground.

  Fenrir roared once more and dug his feet into the earth. In a flurry of motion, Fenrir wrapped his hands in the thin golden chain, forming a thin layer of protection, then he grabbed the teeth with chained claws. He pushed with all his might. His fur covered muscles bulged from the strain as his hind legs sunk deeper into the ground, but the force and momentum were too much. A cloud of dirt and dust exploded behind them and Fenrir fought frantically to slow the panther, but Tad was too strong. Too fast. Too hungry. Tad bit down into Fenrir’s shoulder. The warm blood felt divine on his icy fangs.

  Fenrir roared in pain. “Let me show you what mastery of a void sign can do!”

  With a mighty howl his muscles swelled, his form grew to twice his previous size. Blood poured from his chest in great rivulets, dropping to the earth as they flew past. A huge dust cloud followed in their wake, but they shot across the landscape further. They sank into the earth as Fenrir dug his clawed back haunches into the earth; the wolfman had almost completely transformed into a half-wolf hybrid, twenty feet tall, his newfound strength overpowered and slowed them. Panic filled Tad’s chest at the sight. Like Gerald had said, transformations were a hell of a power-up, but the momentum was still on Tad’s side.

  Until it wasn’t.

  It was almost an imperceptible change, but they both felt it. The tides of power had shifted. Fenrir finally found purchase on the earth beneath. His eyes shone like mad, hungry for battle, he thirsted at the challenge. Determination shone through his eyes and they shot past wave after wave of grain. The tear in the earth stretched deep, a second, larger scar.

  Slowly Fenrir took control, his legs splayed out and his heavily muscled arms pushed his body far from the fangs which before had found his flesh. Finally, he was out of the reach of Tad’s bite. Their momentum slowed. Anger swelled in Tad’s chest, outrage. How could this wolf match the might of Raekast? The dagger would not be stopped. Tad would not be stopped!

  Black magma bubbled in Tad’s throat. He released it in a roar which twisted into a howl. A black ray of death exploded from Tad’s panther mouth. Fenrir brought up a leg to block the blast, but still took the attack at point blank. For a moment his entire body disappeared in the hot darkness, flesh sizzled and bone powdered from the sheer might of the attack. The wolfvoid howled in pure agony.

  *-22144 health.*

  Tad heard a voice from his dagger. The words were sharp and succinct as they permeated Tad’s hungry mind.

  “Relinquish the last of your blood to me, finish
the transformation and the victory shall be ours. We shall not be stopped by this dog.”

  Tad hungered to comply, it compelled him to comply, the need for victory, for blood was too strong. Three health was all that remained. Ice colder than before shot through his blood. Alarm at what he was about to do raced through him. Tad would die for this victory. He rose his dagger and plunged it toward his chest.

  No!

  Tad could not give the dagger what it wanted!

  They battled for control. The black fang sank closer and closer to Tad’s beating heart. He couldn’t stop it, it was too strong!

  He did the only thing he could think of. He banished Raekast’s Fang to the void.

  In a great cloud of dust and silt, Fenrir and Tad finally came to a stop, their fingers entwined, pressing against each other with all their might. Tad’s arms shook with effort, but Fenrir’s were solid as stone. The mighty wolf towered over Tad, but still Tad resisted. Fenrir’s health bar had dropped below ten percent. Fury and pain shone in the great wolf’s eyes. His left leg was completely missing, turned to dust from blocking Tad’s last attack. Fur and skin were sparse, slick blood now dripped from the wolf’s entire frame. With a snarl, he pulled up his lips into a sharp smile, his eyes dancing with madness.

  “Now it’s my turn.”

  Tad gulped. He hated turn based combat.

  Chapter 37

  Tad was finished. He knew it. He had put everything into his attack and had still fallen short. It hadn’t been enough. He was out of health. He was out of mana. The dagger gone, the shadowy panther that had fought so ferociously, swept across his body, then puffed into mist. It exploded outward, into an immense cloud of shadow that floated away in the gust they had created with their battle. Involuntarily, his body shivered from the cold.

  Great. He was going to die in front of this ferocious wolf, shivering in fear. Fenrir would take his shivers for fear. Despite the humiliating nature of the situation, Tad felt at peace. This wasn’t like other times he had come close to death. He had given it his all, even if he had fallen short. He felt… satisfied.