home

search

Chapter Fifty-Six | The Stand (Part Two)

  There wasn’t time to respond.

  The clatter of boots on the [Shield Walls] and Axel’s request to Gigi told me all I needed to. He was running alongside the dragon, trying to align a hit on its weak spot, launching from the platforms the Linnikian had summoned him.

  I couldn’t see the cause of it, but suddenly the dragon’s movements jerked, a trickle of black from one set of its legs beading at the joint of its body. Its speed increased, head spearing forward, feet gouging four-taloned grooves into the soft forest floor, kicking back dirt and leaves.

  Axel had missed.

  He swore into our [Mindlink].

  The beast finally reached Gigi’s defence, piercing through the row of [Shield Walls] xe’d prepared, each of them evaporating into sparkling dust as it plowed on. Luckily, the shields had acted like a crumple zone, absorbing all the inertia and force from its approach, and the dragon skidded to a stop in front of Gigi, its head rearing in intimidation, its one uninjured eye glaring with hate.

  Xe turned a steely gaze to xir opponent and settled into position, Wren huddled up behind xem, shaking. It whipped its head forward, jaw open, and bit into the unyielding metal resistance of Gigi’s wall-like aegis, xir feet not budging, xir arms trembling against the sheer force and pressure. A gust of wind from the impact shot off, twirling away leaves.

  I blinked.

  We really should be utilizing Gigi more effectively.

  Xe could tank.

  For a moment, I considered borrowing Jye’s Hulk to assist, but that could cut off all my other abilities, if it wasn’t just their glitch acting up and was instead a limitation of the ability. Hell, it might even drop my current active skills—I’d lose Mirror. It wasn’t worth it. But what could I do on the outside?

  Within the dragon, I tried to swap back to [Drain], the dim green light of [Healing Hand] doing nothing to help me come up with a plan to hurt its heart, but the thick membrane-like, gooey coating on flesh prevented direct touch, my claws apparently not counting. I couldn’t use the ability anymore. However, Mirror’s HP had to be fine now as they’d been healing for a while. I’d been a bit liberal using abilities, since with [Drain] I could afford that, considering it replenished mana and stamina by siphoning it from my target, but now… I had to be careful. I couldn’t afford to do anything to push Mirror too far.

  It could be the difference between winning and losing here.

  Trying to convince myself it wasn’t much of a loss, I justified that [Drain] would’ve worked achingly slow on a beast the size of the dragon, anyway. Using it through [Channel] already made it weaker than Axel’s version, and as Mirror, weakened again. Yeah, there was no way it would do any damage. No real loss. Sure.

  Unfortunately, right now, I was basically just a thorn in the dragon’s side.

  Well, more like heartburn, really.

  The clarity of that thought made my next action obvious.

  It was a heart, no matter the size.

  I leapt from where I was to it, vision careening, my paws slipping on the slimy and veiny organ. The muscle under me was harder, more dense than the throat flesh, and in a panic, I scrambled to hold on, only barely able to carve my claws in, slowing my fall. I’d sunk about halfway down the juddering organ, pulsing as if to buck me off, and had trailed black oozing slits in my path. My instant reaction was to summon a [Shield Wall] beneath me, but I managed to pull back the thought just in time. No extraneous usage of abilities, otherwise Mirror could be useless! Just like the flesh I’d hopped from, the ooze prevented direct contact. Still no [Drain].

  Instead, I simply activated [Shockshot].

  Surely an electrical attack to its heart would do something. Like a defibrillator.

  Underneath the touch of my ability, the heart jumped violently, and I was rocked backward, taken off guard, my paws thrown loose. Mirror dangled by only four claws dug into the right ventricle, the chamber larger than its opposing side. I had no idea what I’d dropped into if I let go, but it couldn’t possibly be good.

  Swinging my front right limb up again, I sunk my claws back in, clinging on. Though it was barely perceptible, I was sure that Mirror’s hold was losing strength, beginning a gradual descent down the height of the dragon’s heart.

  Outside, the effect of my attack was even more noticeable. As the ability had triggered, the dragon had flinched, a shiver running up the entirety of its body, flushing over its scales, momentarily freezing its actions midattack.

  The stun had worked this time.

  By targeting its heart, it had proc’d the skill’s proper effect.

  The swish of a sword slicing against scales sounded, Axel going in for the weak spot, about halfway down the dragon’s body, the focused limb twitching in the assault, and a muffled yowl ripped from the dragon’s lungs, its serpentine length rippling in place in pain.

  However, even if [Shockshot] had finally been effective, it was very short-lived.

  Within a second, the dragon returned to true form, folding back on itself to get sight on the opponent attacking its weakness. Its right yellow eye narrowed to a thin slit, slithering its head back and forth, scanning. The blond was still invisible, but just like the lizardfolk, the harpies, and the Ranis, I was worried that it was able to sense him in some other way.

  Another, Axel called. Do it again.

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  [Shockshot] travelled from my paws into the muscle of the dragon’s heart, the zap searing into flesh.

  The beast stuttered, entire body jerking, before freezing.

  He is making good damage, Gigi remarked, staring up at the dragon, consideration on xir face. I have not fought one of this species before, but most of these beasts are capable of hiding their true health. It is likely much more hurt than it appears.

  Another slice from Axel, this time the dragon’s arm was sent flying through the air, dismembered, black blood sloshing to the ground. A knife flung out of nowhere, gaining sharp momentum with a hiss, and then lodged itself into the reptile’s already injured eye, the beast unable to dodge the obvious attack. Jye was somewhere in the trees, then, [Cloaked] up and supporting ranged attack even without their bow.

  The dragon was released from my ability, and it roared, the thunder of it shaking the leaves from trees, the ground reverberating under my feet. Though Axel had been aiming for its weak spot, it didn’t seem like it was going down like the Minotaur had or the scout mordexi. Maybe this creature was simply too large with too much health to be killed by aiming for its weakness alone.

  Suffice to say, the dragon, now absent a limb and a blade lodged into its left eye, was quite angry.

  The marker’s gone! Axel yelled.

  Gone? I echoed, confused.

  You want me to spell it out for you? G-O-N-E. Gone! The irritation was deeply threaded in his thoughts.

  I frowned. What did that mean? If its weak spot had disappeared, how did we kill it?

  It is difficult to perceive, but based on the dragon’s reaction, it is around two thirds health, maybe slightly more.

  That wasn’t bad… Well, it wasn’t good, considering our only way of dealing significant damage had vanished, but it meant this wasn’t a lost cause. We could just whittle it down—but that was much more dangerous. Its attacks were severe when they landed.

  I racked my brain, preparing Mirror for another [Shockshot].

  Gigi, has this happened to you before?

  Before xe could respond, the situation radically flipped.

  The dragon darted its head forward, chomping into what looked like absolutely nothing at all, but as its jaw snapped closed, Axel’s form appeared, wedged between the creature’s teeth, his [Legerdemain] dropping from the damage. Blood spurted out from his wounds, the dragon biting into his abdomen, both upper and lower set of razor teeth sunk deep. The blond let out a stomach curdling scream, and I felt my heart stop.

  Crunching down harder, the dragon showed no mercy, and I saw flesh rend, bone break through skin, several of Axel’s ribs protruding through his chest, and his sword flung out of his hand, clunking to the forest floor. The beast’s jaw widened again in preparation to chomp fully through Axel, a final blow.

  It all blurs… I heard Axel mutter weakly into our connection.

  Jye, please, I begged, my voice strangled even in my own head. Split between Mirror and myself, and knowing how vital the stun was, I couldn't risk myself this time. We couldn’t throw away our current advantage by having me run in. I'd be dooming us all.

  I activated [Shockshot] as Mirror, the electricity zapping into the dragon’s heart.

  As the large reptilian beast was put on pause, Gigi and I flung up [Shield Walls], and, switching my [Saintly Intent] to Axel’s worryingly still form, the mossy green encompassing him, I watched as an invisible force plucked Axel from the dragon’s frozen maw before carrying his broken body towards us, following the walkway of [Shield Walls].

  It was quick, but it wasn’t quick enough.

  The effects of the stun ended.

  Everything unfolded slowly, inevitably.

  The dragon aimed directly for Axel as Jye carried him under the cover of [Cloak]. This time it slashed its front claws at them, and even as Jye dodged, leaping off the airborne [Shield Walls], it still caught them both. Another grunt of pain exhaled from Axel’s wounded body, as the dragon’s talons raked through his flesh, the attack connecting with the redhead too. They tumbled to the ground, Jye’s [Cloak] broken from the swipe, both of them kicking up dirt, before rolling to a stop.

  Party member Axel at critical health.

  Party member Jye at critical health.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  Mirror was slipping, its claws dragging down the length of the dragon’s heart.

  Wren!

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  I’m already healing Jye, she cried back.

  Gigi, Light Barrier, now.

  The Linnikian nodded, and the forest whited out as I triggered [Echolate] and clenched my eyes closed, repeating the action as Mirror to focus. I had to assume the ability would blind the dragon, at least this once from shock.

  Running forward, heart in my throat, I tore towards Axel and Jye, following the blueprint of the forest. Axel’s body was slick with blood, and in my panic, my hands slipped once or twice, eliciting a guilt-inducing groan from him, before I was able to succeed in grabbing hold of him proper. After Load lightening him, I snapped over to Jye, and repeated the process. I couldn’t bear to look at either of them too closely, the copper scent of blood heavy, their breaths choked in their chests.

  I gritted my teeth and moved.

  Carrying them both would’ve been near impossible without the giant’s ability, and even with it, their two bodies were unwieldy and awkward. I had them both draped over opposing shoulders as I sprinted hard, snatching up Tam’s unconscious cat form too; my body loaded with downed party members. I travelled to the edge of our battlefield, just within sight, my lungs stuttering, heart hurting, ensuring to keep the downed members of our party in range of my and Wren’s healing.

  As Mirror, losing grip, I activated [Shockshot] again, hoping in my absence it’d grant the others a moment’s advantage. My feline self sank further as the heart bucked under the jolt of my attack.

  Gently, I laid Jye, Axel, and Tam down, hesitating only a moment to take in all three of their statuses. The blond and the redhead looked like absolute shit, Axel basically dead, and Jye near that point too. I don’t know when Jye had gotten so hurt, but it must’ve been sometime between their disappearance and the rejoining in our assault with the knife attack.

  You've both gotta sit the rest of this one out.

  My gaze fell to Axel, and I pushed back my overwhelming concern. Blood seeped from his mouth, frothy and awful, and a darkness clouded his unfocused gaze. I didn’t dare look any further down, glimpsing organ and bone at his torso, lest I buckle. He struggled to stand, but quickly gave up upon meeting my eyes. Though the sight ached in me, I couldn’t stay here, not with Gigi and Wren back in the battle.

  And we couldn’t flee now either. We'd crossed that bridge with the [Cloudeath] vomiting, and then lit it on fire the moment we’d taken the dragon’s leg. I knew by the look in its gaze, it would hunt us down the ends of the Earth, or wherever the hell we were.

  We had to fight, and we had to win.

  Axel let out a pained sigh, accepting his position.

  I love you, Axel said. Don’t die without me.

  I froze, affection as clear as day in his eyes but mired in some of that grief too, and I found myself unable to reciprocate. The three words were caught in my throat.

  Choosing a different truth instead, I replied, I’m always with you.

  And then, sharing a brief acknowledgement with the equally injured Jye, I overlaid Axel’s hands over the other two, trusting he knew I wanted him to [Legerdemain] them all invisible before returning to the thick of it with [Swift Footed]. Axel’s illusion ability could be used with one’s own skills, oneself and that on one’s person, after all.

  Inwardly, I cursed myself for my cowardice as I ran. Despite knowing how I felt about Axel, I couldn’t find the courage to commit, even with the digestion-related introspective regret replaying in the back of my mind. Those three words were barbwired. It was a trap to return them, and I’d only end up hurt. I was too weak, too scared, to take that step. Even now.

  Mirror was clinging on for dear life now, dangling right at the bottom of the dragon’s heart, the slimy ooze coating the organ making it near impossible to claw its way back up. If I let any of my paws loose to try to adjust, I wouldn’t have enough grip to remain on. At this point, I could only get one or two more [Shockshots] off before the violent twitches from the heart that accompanied the ability activation would knock me clean off.

  I had to make them count.

  Damage, Gigi, what’s our damage?

  During the brief time I was occupied, with no one else to worry about on the battlefield, Gigi had spuriously filled our battle area with [Shield Walls], creating little more than brief annoyances for the dragon as it smashed through them, able to now sense us even through the blinding light of xir barrier, my last stun already faded. With it doing nothing now, Gigi dismissed the bus-sized block, and the forest fell back into balanced shadow.

  It is the same as I noted before. Two thirds. I did not have the chance to answer you about its weak spot. In challenges with greater difficulties, multiple weak spots may appear, but only in succession, though how many is dictated by the Dungeon’s Deity.

  I swore. Of course. Just like a fucking game. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier. Probably the threat of imminent death, I guess.

  Wren, have you seen anything? I asked, the dragon’s violent whipping of its body scattering [Shield Walls] into dust as it approached.

  I’m sorry, I’ve been concentrating on healing.

  And you’re doing a great job, I said, trying to temper my despair.

  Makris, how about you?

  You’re all fucking invisible half the time, how am I meant to know what’s happening?

  I really shouldn’t have been expecting anything.

  The dragon was closing in on us, crashing through the last line of [Shield Walls].

  To buy another second of time, I used Mirror’s [Shockshot], and the monster’s body twitched to a pause, the heart under my paws convulsing, all but throwing me off. Mirror was hanging on by the very edge of its claws.

  I’d get one more off.

  Only one.

  How did we win this?

  My mind span with the open choices, all of them leading nowhere.

  It was impossible.

  In hindsight, this was probably why the Dungeon was recommended to LVL 6 parties.

  Hell, this wasn’t even the clear!

  Maybe we should’ve accepted the Ranis’s help.

  Shit.

  Half our team was down.

  None of the remaining party were made to do damage.

  In mere seconds, the beast would tear through Gigi’s last shields.

  We needed help. Anything!

  Where were everyone’s sponsors when you needed them?

  Granted, Nabu had already intervened. And Jye’s was glitched. And Gigi’s was basically non-existent. But why hadn’t Mumma done anything? Tam would’ve died in that dragon’s stomach, if I hadn’t gone in after them.

  Why were all them so fucking useless?

  Deity Absalom offers Player Lee Bastion Castillo a sponsorship. Accept | Reject

  Well, damn.

  Ask and ye shall receive, I guess.

  There were no other options left.

  No other cards to play.

  Any port in a storm, as they say.

  I selected Accept.

  The sensation of the warmth of a hand filled mine, like we’d just shook on a deal, and as with Wren’s and Jye’s sponsorships, an explosion of light danced before me. Absalom’s sigil, a rotating crown, pulsed for a moment, before dividing into flecks of gold and fluttering out. It was strangely beautiful, so out of place in the forest. But I didn’t have time to question the thematics of that, but it made sense enough. He was a fallen prince, after all.

  Absalom assigned as sponsor.

  Gifted title of Witness by sponsor Absalom.

  Now, why did my new title sound so damn ominous?

  I swung my focus back to the dragon, only vaguely reading the bare title description, wondering how it could even help me in the slightest.

  That was when reality shattered.

  The crash reverberated in my skull, echoing into infinity, pounding a migraine under my brow, and I blinked rapidly to retain focus.

  A kaleidoscope of fractured realms spun about me, pushing my mind to the brink of insanity. My body felt weightless, incorporeal. I was everything and nothing.

  Splinters of the world, fragments, floated by, spinning, gravity-less, as the Dungeon about me froze. Brain still buffering at the bizarre impossibility of everything, I couldn’t comprehend, let alone question, the turn of events.

  All I could do was let it happen.

  My mind boggled.

  A quick movement caught my eye in one of the jagged pieces of timespace near my head.

  In it, a spectre of myself flashed before me, diving ahead toward the dragon with my glaive. The monster shredded me to bits. And I felt every single moment of my body being torn apart, each tooth ripping muscle fibre, the scream strangled in my throat. Death was a relief.

  Unable to move, unsure I was even breathing, I could but stare. My heart rate spiked, drumming into my ears, my hands cold and clammy.

  What… What was happening?

  In another shard, a ghost of myself ran forward, this time layering down [Shield Walls] to make a path to the dragon’s head, Jye’s bow in my hold already nocked with an arrow, and I activated [Displaced Volley], the ethereal bows surrounding the dragon’s crown entirely. I released the string, and the arrows flew true. But most of them glanced off the creature’s scaly hide. Next, its teeth sank into my body, the pain spearing through my chest.

  I wobbled where I stood, the deaths thundering through me, leaving me reeling.

  Were these possible futures? Was that what [Witness] gave me?

  The following spectre of me, this reality under my feet, [Legerdemained] a copy of myself, taking a similar path to the prior one, as the real one scaled a tree. While the illusionary me fired off an illusionary [Displaced Volley], I dropped from the canopy, activating Tam’s backstab with one of the knives Axel had made me. It skidded on the dragon’s thick hide, barely scoring it. With a snap of its head, it flung me off, and when I was winded, it crushed me beneath its body, the feel of my organs exploding within me unforgettable.

  Woozy, I found I couldn’t question the accuracy of these torturous visions. These were undeniably all things I would do. All things I had considered. I was instead struck with despair.

  Did we really have no shot here?!

  In infinite variations, in the innumerable splinter realms, I watched and felt myself die, each time running valiantly to my death to save my party. My friends. And all my deaths were equally brutal, equally painful, in all sorts of new and horrific ways.

  None of the attempts succeeded.

  Full offense to my sponsor—this title sucked ass.

  In one try, one fragment, I Hulked out Mirror, but the strength of the dragon’s bones ended up crushing it, and in my split concentration, it caught me off guard and killed my real body.

  In another, Mirror [Displaced Volleyed] its heart, but the attack threw my clone into the pit of its chest cavity, the damage killing it, and the arrows weren’t enough. The result was obvious.

  Again. And again. And again.

  I died.

  Most of them were short and sweet, but some… Some drew out for so long I wished I could lose my mind.

  As the nth death played out before me, its jagged home lazily drifting by, despair like an ocean I was sinking in, I realised with each one, I was being erased. My own body was disintegrating, unspooling, threads of my being glimmering away, my skin glistening with lessened opacity, my sight growing ever dimmer with each tormenting passing. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt. In fact, there was a peacefulness to it.

  That didn’t stop it from filling me with dread.

  It was obvious what was happening.

  Every time I had to stand witness to another death, I faded away a little more alongside it.

  I tried to breathe but realised there was no air.

  If I stayed in this too long, if I couldn’t leave it, I’d be gone. But I didn’t know how I’d activated this perk, so I had no idea what would finish it either. I just had to hope that I wouldn’t disappear entirely by the time this was done.

  Fingers fucking crossed.

  More and more spectres of me died gruesome deaths, and I suffered through each one. Occasionally Gigi or Wren would make an escape at my prompting before I went in, but I always died.

  Every single time.

  And then, finally, through my sight so dark I had to squint, I saw it, my real body nothing but tatters of self, the pain of death a strangely distant sensation I was now thoroughly intimate with.

  In this miracle of a temporal shard, I was still killed, grinded into bone and mush by the dragon’s coiling form, granted the mercy of death, but by my own thinking, I’d targeted the next most vulnerable spot in most creatures. Its belly. And so, I’d rushed in, having gotten the dragon to rear up by [Legerdemaining] a copy of myself above it upon a platform of [Shield Walls], and then stabbed my glaive into its stomach. The blade of my weapon had skated right off, of course.

  But in that moment, I saw the dragon’s new weak spots: two barely noticeable perfectly circular scales of a different color under its twelfth left leg and ninth right leg.

  And the dragon was at two thirds life.

  The math checked out.

  I could’ve kissed Absalom, the trauma of going through my own deaths ad nauseum nothing in comparison to this crucial parcel of knowledge.

  Now we had our targets, all I had to do was think about the impossible way we could hit them both with the singular remaining chance we had left with party members who didn’t deal damage.

  Should be a piece of cake.

  Like magnetic puzzle pieces, reality snapped back into place in an instant.

  The world unpaused.

Recommended Popular Novels