Chapter 49: Solo-Fight

The raid regrouped in the broken gatehouse at the front of the city with the stink of chimera blood and sweat still thick in the air. The crumbling walls gave them half a shelter, enough for breath to be caught and wounds to be seen to.

Allie and Myrae were already weaving through the group with their sleeves rolled up and hands glowing faint with light aether as they pressed warmth into gashes and wounds. Cole uncorked potion after potion, his pack of glass vials clinking as he handed them to Allie. The strong smell of alchemical herbs joined the iron tang of blood.

“Drink it,” Allie snapped at Garret, pressing a corked vial into his hand. “Don’t argue.”

“I wasn’t gonna argue.” Garret grimaced before he tipped it back, and shuddered. “But you could’ve at least said please.”

“Please don’t die,” Allie said flatly, moving to the next patient.

Potion corks popped like firecrackers around the room. Henry’s chest wound hissed as the potion sealed it shut, leaving angry pink skin behind. Peter spat out blood before he took another gulp. Kate leaned against a wall, ribs wrapped tightly by Myrae’s glowing hands, sweat streaking her soot-stained face.

When everyone was at least upright, the talk began.

“That wasn’t the same as the others,” Eric said first. “Not like the forest, or the lake, or the garden snakes”

“No,” Henry agreed, shaking his head. His massive shoulders slumped as he drained the last of his healing flask. “The ones before were… beasts. These…” He gestured outside to the city’s crumbling fixtures. “These are killers. Built for death.”

“War-forms,” Ghrukk rumbled. His halberd leaned across his knees, still smeared in dirty blood, he wiped it with an even dirtier cloth. “The hive has them waiting for us now, ready to fight back.”

The words were punctuated by Tom-Tom’s nervous chitter as he mimed the chimera’s claw swipes. The little guy’s attempt at turning fear into humor, Alex assumed. A few weak chuckles rippled through the gathering, but not much else.

“If that’s what waits in those ruins, then pushing into the hive itself is going to be a slog. Every step paid for in blood.” Kate said.

Devon cleared his throat, fiddling with his glyph stylus. “We… we could leave. We’ve got the teleportation tokens now since we cleared all the Hidden Objectives. They’ll take us back out of the Dungeon. We’ve already stripped the hive of its specialized adaptations, got a butt load of points. That’s a win.”

Garret shook his head. “I don’t like running. Not when we’re this far in.”

“Running now just means fighting them later, when they’ve had more time to adapt,” Holly added through exhaustion.

“I won’t ask anyone to stay if they don’t want to. The tokens are an option, as Devon said. But if we leave now, we leave this dungeon unfinished. And we all know the System wants excellence from us, or else…

“Death,” Alex said quietly. He sat with his back to the wall, his elbows resting on his knees. “And I doubt it will just let us walk away. Maybe not today, but eventually it’ll yank us back here sooner or later.”

A murmur of agreement followed. The System would demand they clear the dungeon in one way or another. No one liked it. But they all knew it.

“So, we keep the tokens in our back pocket a last resort. But otherwise…we finish the damned dungeon,” Eric said with a crack of knuckles. The squad nodded, one after another, even Ghrukk and his team.

Alex leaned his head back against the wall once more, shutting his eyes just for a moment. The decision sat in his stomach like first full of iron, but it was the only one that made sense. “Fine, we keep going. Be ready to pull out your tokens, though.”

Everyone nodded.

***

The ruin swallowed them as they pushed on. The silence pressed in closely, broken only by the shuffle of feet and the faint metallic clink of their gear as they walked.

Alex swept the street with his senses, and felt the faint thrum of hostile aether lurking ahead. He raised a fist. The entire line froze. Then the rumble came, a guttural, predatory sound.

From a collapsed building, two shapes emerged. Chimeras, built like raptors clad in blackened carapace, their limbs grotesquely long, tipped with serrated claws. Their eyes glowed with the cold intelligence of an angry predator, and the sound that followed was an insectile clicking that curled Alex’s blood.

“Two of them,” Holly hissed.

“No holding back,” Eric ordered. “Burn them down before they can scream for help”

The beasts struck faster than the typical beasts, faster even than the serpent-spawn of the garden maze. One pounced straight for the healers, a tactic they seemed to like doing. Garret intercepted by throwing up his shield and smashing it against the thing’s head with a clang that rattled the ruins. The impact drove him to a knee, but Allie was spared.

The second chimera darted sideways, using the walls themselves like a spring board. It scaled the crumbling facade in an instant, its claws carving sparks across the walls, before launching itself down toward Kate. Her blade flashed in retaliation, fire crackling across the beast’s head, but the carapace only received a fine cut and didn’t break. The thing jumped back up among the buildings just as quickly as it had come.

“Spread!” Alex yelled.

Aether roared in his channels as he slammed into the quick moving chimera’s flank, [Flare] hammering into its carapace. The beast shuddered as blood-black ichor sprayed from a crack he had managed to create. But the beast twisted around quickly, its claws raking his shoulder before he could react. Pain erupted down his arm, but he didn’t stop. Again, he cast [Flare] and it erupted point-blank, cracking another chitin plate.

Holly blurred past his right to strike at the chimera Garret was tanking. Her sword was a cyclone as she slammed the raptor into the ground. It screeched, tail whipping about, but Garret dropped his shield like a guillotine across its skull. Bones cracked loudly, yet it still thrashed and clawed.

Alex jumped back from his target as Ghrukk came in from across the street, his halberd trailing dark fiery lines as he cleaved into the beast. Peter and Zach boxed it in from the sides, their spears flashing in tandem. The chimera shrieked, backpedaled, then lunged faster than before.

“Fuckers learn quick!” Kate snarled as she ducked under a claw that shaved a lock of her hair clean.

“They don’t learn if they’re dead!” Ghrukk roared, his weapon finding a joint on the beast’s limb, cleaving its arm off with a brutal swing.

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Obby cut into Alex’s mind. “Kill them quick, or they’ll just collect more information on everyone.”

“Already on it,” Alex growled, his aura boiling.

His skin seared hot as a caustic haze spilled into his pores from the [Demon Asura Style]. He slammed a hard left hook into the beast’s body, [Burning Strike] injecting a flash of caustic aura. The chimera shrieked as its carapace began to sizzle, bubbling under the corrosive energy. Holly slammed her sword into its ribs, wind and steel cracking through the weakened armor and sinking down to bone. The chimera reared up, roaring in pain, and Alex drove his newly created knife-hand [Flare] through its exposed throat. The beasts head lulled to the ground in one direction, and its body went the other.

At the same moment, the second chimera’s screech tore through the ruins, cut short by Eric driving a lightningbolt through its skull. Brain-sludge burst from the strike. Ghrukk yanked its carcass off his weapon before hacking once, twice, until the thing lay completely broken.

Alex scanned the ruins, his senses straining. Nothing else moved. At least not yet. He sighed, rolling his aching shoulder. “That’s two down.”

“Yeah,” Garret said, spitting black blood from his mouth. “But tell me that didn’t feel like ten.”

They harvested what they could and moved on before the smell of blood attracted more trouble

The ruins eventually opened at last into something vast. The narrow alleys gave way to a wide market square, its flagstones fractured and uneven, with broken merchant stalls jutting from the rubble like the bones of some long-dead beast. A fortress loomed nearby, its towers were caved in, its walls sagging, and the whole thing slouched like it was tired of standing upright for so many centuries. But what drew every eye wasn’t the fortress, or the collapsed stalls, or the choking weeds.

It was the coliseum.

The massive ring of stone stood tall and mostly intact. Its curved walls were etched with crumbling frescoes. Arches yawned wide, with shadows pooling inside. For a few seconds, the squad stood there, silent, just staring at it, the one building that hadn’t surrendered to time.

“Of course, big scary dungeon wants us to walk into the murder-circle,” Garret grumbled.

“Feels right,” Zach said flatly.

They didn’t walk in blindly of course. Eric raised his hand, and the formation tightened, tanks at the front, healers in the center, strikers and ranged mages fanned along the edges. Alex’s [Aether Sight] burned bright as they crept beneath the archway.

Inside, the air was damp and thick. Moss crept along the walls, and old banners hung in tatters from the high balconies. But the arena floor…

At its center yawned a hole.

Not just a pit, or a small ditch, this was a cavern, the kind that seemed to have grown from the ground by hungrily eating everything around it, including the light. Stale air rose from its depths, tinged with a reek of beast shit. And arrayed around it like sentries were five velociraptor chimeras.

The squad flattened against the arena wall in an attempt to stay out of sight, every one of their heartbeats loud in the relative silence.

“They’re guarding the hive entrance,” Henry whispered.

“Question is,” Lance added, “do we sneak by, or do we take them down?”

“Not much sneaking past those,” Selka murmured. “Not with their keen senses.”

Alex’s eyes tracked the chimeras, then moved to the hole. His pulse thudded in his ears as he thought over their options.

“If we’re going in, we have to hit hard. We overwhelm them completely and don’t give them time to adapt.” He said.

Eric nodded once. “Coordinated volley. Everyone at once.”

The decision settled, they all stood as one and turned back to the cavern and its guards.

Then—all at once—hell broke loose.

Arrows streaked from Rynel’s bow, fireballs from Kate, shadow spears from Zach, drops of razor sharp rainfall from Henry, lightning bolts from Eric, holy light lancing from Myrae, Peter and Allie. The sky above the coliseum blazed alive with magic, and the five chimeras shrieked as it rained down on them, shattering stone, cracking carapace, kicking up blood, and dust.

The beasts staggered and screeched, but they didn’t fall. Their forms blurred as they scattered about, insectile limbs moving in impossible patterns and claws flashing as they tried to close the distance to the squad.

Alex didn’t wait for them to come to him. He surged forward, [Demon Asura Style] bright around his skin with corrosive heat. Every instinct in him screamed to stay with the group, to strike in tandem. But this time… this time he wanted to know.

Could he face one of these things alone?

He wanted to find out his limits, and the arena’s field gave him enough room to let himself go and not worry about his friends getting caught up in the battle.

His boots cracked stone as he closed the distance, his eyes stinging from the wind resistance. “Come on, let’s see what you’ve got.”

The nearest chimera turned toward him with its mandibles clicking. Its claws were raised, carapace gleaming in the spelllight. And Alex met it directly. The chimera lunged, claws slicing the air with the speed of falling axes.

He ducked under the first swipe, pivoting low, his aura hissing dark-azure across his skin. His fist whipped forward, the crackling blow slamming into the chimera’s chest. The impact rattled its carapace as corrupted energy crawled across its armor, a large crack running down its front.

But its second claw caught him before he could reset his stance.

Pain leeched across his ribs as he was flung sideways, skidding hard against the stone. The beast was already on him again, its insectile body folding and unfolding with terrifying speed, its claws even tore gouges into the arena floor.

[Shield] was cast on instinct, a burst of blue aether sparking around his body. The first claw was deflected—barely—but the second slammed straight through, shattering the barrier and sending him back a step.

“Too fast,” he hissed.

The chimera chittered madly, its mandibles clacking, its own aura flickering with primal ferocity. It was Early Adept tier, Alex sensed it, but its physical stats were the main threat. As an arcane beast, its stats were far beyond the average mage.

This was what Obby had warned him of: beasts built for death, given endurance and strength in place of magical finesse. But, his body was hardened by trauma and pain as well, and boosted by wrath.

He planted his hand on the cracked stone and pushed himself up. His aura grew darker and hotter, his veins prickling as the [Asura Bloodwrath] passive skill stirred to life. Each drop of his blood spilled, every wound torn into him, stoked the passive skill’s effect. His pulse thundered in his ears as it began its work, his strength notching higher.

The chimera struck again. Alex dove to meet it.

His fists blurred, each wrapped in azure heat. Small controlled casts of [Flare] detonated with each impact, concussive bursts hammering into the chimera’s chest and limbs. He spun with a vicious elbow, then dropped low to drive a [Wind Lance] through its abdomen. The beast guttered a cry as the bullet of energy punctured through its middle, blood spraying across the stones.

Its defensive chitin was already crumbling under Alex’s blows. His sheer strength added with his spells sent spiderweb cracks over every part of its body that took his hits. Blood seeped from every crack.

He caught the beast’s strike, his hand wrapped around its forelimb, his own arms trembling against the force. He brought up his foot and injected a [Burning Strike] directly into its chest with a kick. His aura latched onto it, siphoning raw vitality in a violent surge as his [Wrath Siphon] skill now also activated. The chimera’s limbs faltered and it stepped back, its strength bleeding into Alex’s body instead.

“Yeah,” Alex growled, with a bloody, toothy grin, “now we’re even.”

The two clashed again.

A blow glanced off Alex’s forearm, and another across his thigh. [Asura Bloodwrath] stirred in his veins as it began reaching its peak boosting power, vitality gathering tighter in his muscles.

Alex raised his palm, and [Shield] sprung up just in time. Claws slammed against the barrier, sparks and aether showering outward around him. His arm jolted from the impact, but the barrier held long enough for him to counter attack.

“Not enough,” he growled and thrust his other hand forward.

[Flare] detonated at point-blank, blasting the creature’s head to the side. Pieces of its mandibles were blown off and were sent splattering to the ground.

It lashed at him with both claws. Alex stepped back to dodge the swipes and released the aether pattern to [Earth Bind]. Azure blue chains erupted around the chimera’s legs, slowing its motion for a precious seconds.

Alex spun, and began another assault, his fists hammering like pistons.

Boom! Crack! Snap!

The chimera reeled under Alex’s barrage, its armored body collapsing inward under the relentless rhythm. Alex howled, planted his feet and drove the last couple blows into its chest until the shell gave way entirely. The chimera crashed to the coliseum floor in a quaking heap. Dead.

The entire battle only took around ten seconds.

Energy from his martial art style dissipated as he stumbled back, panting hard.

Obby’s dry voice buzzed in his head, and it sounded equal parts insulting and impressed. “Well, congratulations. You took a risk. But I’ll admit… you did it. You out-bruted a brute.”

Alex brought up the kill notification…

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