by Konrad Ryan
Finally, the creature burst into the bubble of light. Its completely smooth face was worse in person.
Raekast’s Fang burned with need in his fist. Tad kicked powerfully in the water. In an explosion of motion he flew toward the creature and decapitated it in an instant, before it even had time to react. Even in its home habitat, the creature was pitifully slow. No, Tad was just that fast. Was this how all dungeons were going to be from now on? Filled with monsters too slow to put up a fight? At least he could count on the dungeon boss for a challenge. So far bosses had never let him down, at least never because they were too easy. Maybe he should become a boss killer like Bunta, at least for the last few levels until he became warrior. Then it would probably all change, with Tad at the bottom of the food chain.
Above the freshly decapitated corpse, a pool of black blood formed in a cloud, a golden essence fled from the darkness. The essence glowed golden, shone like riches.
Finally.
The last dungeon had been a complete disappointment for essence farming. Elsie pulled a soul lantern from a dungeon pouch and harvested the essence.
A hundred faceless squid men emerged from the depths below. Tad turned and summoned. Swimming was too slow, and he had the feeling that his stone stepping technique would work even better in the water, even without ‘brilliant burst.’ The giant stone appeared, displacing the water in a wave. Tad placed his feet against the sinking rock and shot downward toward his charging foes. It was time to go to work. Raekast’s Fang sliced through the water, and each time it landed, a creature died. Tad shot past the swarm of squid men, slicing where he could, and summoned a second boulder. He kicked off of it and sped back toward the first, killing several monsters in between.
*You have leveled up!*
Ink clouds and golden essence polluted the clear water, even Elsie’s sphere of generated light wasn’t enough to see. But it didn’t matter to Tad. Instead of questing out with tendrils, he stretched his perception around him. It didn’t quite extend as far as the light had, but it was enough. Ruthlessly, Tad cut down monster after monster. Summoning and banishing boulders back and forth, in and out of his equipment system slots whenever they got too far out of position. This was even a better technique than his first! Could he do this in the air too? Maybe if he was going fast enough.
He was a torpedo in the water, compared to jellyfish who died in his wake. Tad’s daggers sliced the last squid man and the water became still. A second familiar ring pealed in his head.
*You have leveled up!*
Tad collected his three enormous boulders. Elsie seemed content not fighting, but swam from corpse to corpse collecting the valuable glittering essence above the faceless corpses. Finally, their eyes met. The woman didn’t even look that impressed with Tad’s abilities.
Well, she would. Eventually.
The pair swam downward even further. Finally, they reached the bottom of the ocean. The sea floor was filled with varied plants and life. The tiny sea creatures looked alien, foreign. He had never seen a fish that looked like a vampire stake before. Or plants that seemed to be fruit trees at the bottom of the ocean. Miniature transparent jellied sharks, with no teeth, nibbled at the fruit, but completely ignored Tad and Elsie. Were these not monsters but the natural inhabitants of this place? Tad stabbed at one with Raekast’s fang as it drew closer. No monster essence appeared above its still corpse. This was a mystery.
A tug on his cloak brought his gaze to Elsie. She was pointing at a large rock outcropping. Tad squinted his eyes in the water, then sent his perception tendril to explore. It was the dungeon boss door. The pair swam to the rocks. The door in front of them was covered in golden symbols that almost seemed to glow in the reflected light of Elsie’s armor. There was just one hand symbol on the door.
Tad checked his buffs. They still had fifty minutes left. The ten minutes had been spent almost entirely swimming.
Elsie gave Tad a look that almost asked, ‘Are you sure about this?’ Tad nodded. She shrugged. It was his funeral, apparently. The woman spun her hands until they glowed in the water. A sphere of white light, far brighter than her armor, filled the water in front of her until a perfect bubble of glassy light floated in place. She then turned to Tad and pointed toward the boss door.
Tad placed his hand against the door. It glowed under his pressed hand, red hot, it scorched his skin without damaging him. The door disappeared, and the current of water sucked them into the boss room. A loud grating followed by a slam. A stone slab had shut behind them, stopping the flow of water. Tad and Elsie both coughed the water from their lungs, getting to their feet. The boss room was filled with air, the only water inside was a small puddle caused by their entrance. Mud dripped down the walls of the boss room, everywhere Tad looked.
“That spell you did, what was it?”
“Oh, that. It’s a spell called checkpoint.”
Tad gulped, feeling alone for the first time. He realized the truth of her words; her promise that she wouldn’t die. Elsie could leave any time she wanted. As she had promised, only Tad’s life was on the line for this dungeon. But… maybe that’s how it should be? If he could overcome this fight, this boss, then no one had to die. It would be his first dungeon since the slime dungeon with no casualties. If Tad had Elsie and Brian on his team, they could clear dungeons without anyone else being in danger. He would never have to lose a friend again.
Tad examined the boss room once more, this time with a renewed sense of purpose. Mud-slicked walls dripped constantly. A raised dais stood in the middle of the cavern, a throne atop it, with the back of the throne faced toward the pair. The throne spun slowly, revealing the creature that sat poised, wooden spear in hand.
Tad’s blood chilled.
He had seen this before.
Chapter 11
An eight-foot wrinkled prune sat atop the throne. It’s beady, all too-human eyes burned with hatred, its mouth sat agape with thousands of arm-sized glass teeth rotating slowly within. Leather, batwing-like ears decorated its head.
Above the creature, sitting atop its throne, a name was written in a fiery script.
*King of the Toothblenders, Acapacio*
“Whatever you do, don’t let it get your arm caught in its mouth.”
Elsie grunted.
Suddenly the toothblender king’s teeth spun rapidly, much faster than he had ever seen the smaller toothblender do. A vortex of wind pulled at both Tad and Elsie until they lost their footing. They flew toward the open mouth, the glass teeth sprayed reflected light. It would suck them in, shredding them instantly.
Tad waited until the last second, Elsie waved her hands, already mumbling a spell. Tad dove in front of her, not wanting her to abandon him before the fight even started. He summoned the first of his boulders from his inventory slot. Immediately, Elsie, Tad, and the rock dropped to the top step of the dais, crushing the marble step. Before the boulder could roll down the step and crush them, the mouth of Acapacio opened impossibly wide and enveloped the entire rock. Stone dust exploded from its mouth, the boss shredded the rock into nothingness. The corners of the toothblender’s mouth turned upward in a cruel smile. Man, Tad hated these things!
“I don’t know how many more of those boulders you got, but there’s nothing else in this room to hold on to. If he does that again, we’ll be next! Kill it quick!” Elsie charged at Acapacio with an overlarge mace in one hand. Tad didn’t waste time. He didn’t know if there was a cooldown on that vortex attack, but he wouldn’t wait to find out.
“Brilliant Burst!”
The golden threads of Tad’s cloak glowed bright and hot. The Golden symbols shone with absorbed light, Tad’s speed increased by 50%. Tad pulled Raekast’s Fang from the holster at his hip and circled around the toothblender, driving it into the Toothblender’s back. Blood exploded from the wound as a giant hole appeared. *-77 Health.* The Toothblender’s health bar dropped less than 1%. Fine, so you got a lot of life! Tad stabbed twenty times in an instant, its health
bar dropped to 83% from the violent flurry of attacks. The toothblender’s entire throne spun, its thin, wiry arms quivered in pain. It stabbed its spear forward, but the creature was slow. Speed had never been the toothblender’s strength. Tad twisted from the stabbing spear. He was so fast! Brian’s buffs had made him swift and strong. Was this how Bunta felt? Tad’s daggers opened huge wounds along the boss’s arms, exposing bone. The boss dropped the spear from its hands, quivering in pain, and drove both its arms deep into its slowly rotating maw.
A second later, two four-foot toothblenders leapt from the maw of the boss. Their prune-like bodies covered in solid rock armor. Each toothblender’s mouth twisted in their own vortexes, the air pulled at Tad’s cloak. Tad leapt forward and jumped off the forehead of the boss with both feet, knocking its throne to the ground, then he shot toward one of the smaller toothblenders, its vortex only increased his speed. Its mouth opened unnaturally wide to swallow him whole.
That was fine with Tad.
Glass teeth shredded his arm and a dozen damage notifications appeared in an instant, each between 5 and 7 health, before Raekast’s Fang ripped an exit out the back of the toothblender. The pulling vortex stopped. Its mouth still spun, but with the added hole, it could not generate any suction. Tad’s feet slicked through mud, he dug down, trying to kill his momentum then kicked off with powerful legs. He soared over the open mouth and drove Raekast’s Fang through its skull. Using the dagger like a sword in a sail, he sliced down the entire back of the smaller toothblender. Its health bar dropped from 75% to empty in the one savage cut. The monster split in two, sharp glass teeth gleamed in reflected light.
“It’s starting up again! I hope you can summon another rock like that!” Elsie’s voice was increasingly worried but threw herself into battle with the other, smaller toothblender, its skull was dented inward in several places.
Before either half of the toothblender fully hit the dirt, Tad flew toward the open mouth of the king of toothblenders. Somehow it had uprighted its throne once more. Blood ran down every inch of Tad’s exposed skin. Even though his arm hadn’t been inside the smaller toothblender’s vortex for long, it had caused dozens of superficial shredding cuts, and the wounds bled like mad. The king toothblender’s teeth weren’t so merciful, its mouth not so shallow. Tad knew that flying through the blender-vortex of the king toothblender would only result in his instant death. He had to stop it, no matter what. The mouth of the king spun, Tad summoned his boulder. It smashed to the ground, stopping the pull of air, but this time the king didn’t eat it.
Over the top of the boulder, the king flew, pulled from his own vortex. His throne was left behind. The wind picked up, harder this time, Tad stabbed Raekast’s Fang into the boulder in front of him, his cape flapped violently toward the vortex, but Tad’s immense strength held him still, until finally the king’s vortex slowed, it turned and disappeared over the boulder once more, returning to its throne. Two more toothblenders leapt over the rock a moment later. These were completely naked, with no rock armor to protect them. Did the king summon new toothblenders with every vortex? This could get problematic fast.
Tad yanked his fang from the rock and leapt past the two new toothblenders, and circled the boss in a flash and attacked with a second flurry of attacks, damage notifications fell like rain. Elsie charged the dais from the side, her mace on fire, and smashed it into the boss’s side in a brutal attack. *-248 Health.* The boss stabbed Elsie with his spear. Her armor blocked the blow, but the force of the blow sent her tumbling down the dais, into the mud. Tad slashed again in a flurry. Four deep gashes opened across the right side of its face. Its health dropped below fifty percent with the brutal combination attack. Warning alarms went off inside Tad’s head.
*Warning! The boss has cast the spell ‘Awaken, My Brethren!’*
A burst of energy knocked Tad, the boss, and Tad’s boulder from the dais in a tremendous explosion. Tad stabbed his fang into the bottom stair, not falling to the mud. Hundreds of howls filled the cavern. The mud across the boss room twisted and swirled, finally disappearing completely. Whirlpools of glassy teeth roared across the boss room, each touching the last. Elsie screamed. She tumbled, caught in a toothy vortex. Cruel glass teeth shredded through her metal leggings, ripping holes into her metal armor. Blood sprayed in a cloud around her and her health bar dropped rapidly. Every time it looked like she made it to her feet to escape, she tumbled again, feet ripped out from under her by the spinning glass teeth. It would grind her into hamburger until her certain death.
Her health bar dropped, the vortex consuming her further. An explosion of light rocked the entire cavern, Tad closed his eyes and looked away to not be completely blinded. It only half worked. Tad sent his perception tendril to where Elsie had been, but nothing. No corpse, no armor.
She must have escaped via her checkpoint spell.
He was alone. The step beneath Tad cracked down the middle, then exploded and a new vortex appeared beneath. Tad leapt upward to the cavern roof, slick with mud, but the mud on the ceiling had already begun to swirl. Nowhere was safe! He leapt to another place where a vortex hadn’t begun yet, but the mud disappeared just as fast. He scoured the cavern for any place not spinning. Where could he go?
Only to the throne.
The king toothblender was crawling up the remaining stone steps of the dais, apparently unable to stand under his own weight. Tad realized why a moment later. It was the only structure in the entire boss cavern that wasn’t made of mud, that wasn’t spinning. Tad leapt from his precarious perch before the teeth could penetrate the mud completely. The boss couldn’t weigh more than his boulders. He could lift it. Could throw it. Tad flew past the obese raisin of a boss and grabbed its slack and soft back skin, before it could sit back on its throne. Tad pulled with all his might, grabbing as much of the wrinkled skin as he could. It was loose and soft, sickly soft, lacking the tension of healthy skin. Tad pulled and pulled, grabbing more of the wrinkled skin until finally it grew taut. With all his might he heaved the toothblender king from the throne, directly into a whirling vortex from one of its brethren.
Tad watched with rapt attention, watching in slow motion at the imminent demise of the boss from his own technique. The loose skin of the boss jiggled back and forth, as the momentum of Tad’s throw rippled through the creature. The king of toothblenders landed in the center of a vortex. But it rolled. Then rolled some more. Tad had expected blood, or shredded skin to fly from the blender on the ground, but its slack and loose skin protected the king as it rolled in the vortex. Part of it would stretch out, snagged on a tooth, then snap back as the vortex completed its circle. Acapacio, king of the toothblenders, rolled like a sock in a dryer, but the glass teeth beneath didn’t harm him. His health bar stationary at fifty percent attested to his undamaged state.
Titan’s bunghole! That should have worked! It was supposed to be poetic justice as its own attack ripped apart the toothblender. Instead, its entire body just had to be immune to its own attack.
Tad wracked his mind for options. What could he do? His speed wasn’t an asset here, not where there weren’t any footholds. His second boulder had rolled down the steps and been ground into dust. He had one boulder left. After that, he was a sitting duck.
The vortex beneath Acapacio suddenly stopped. A second toothblender wriggled from the ground. It was as big as the one that Tad had sliced in half. Cold sweat dripped down his neck at the realization. This wasn’t just a spell. The boss had prepared for a fight like this. It had created miniature copies of itself hundreds of times and hid them in the walls, ceiling, and floor. Its spell had just awakened them. If all the copies emerged from their hovels, he would have to fight hundreds of them. But even as Tad had that thought, the toothblender dug back into the ground and waited. Waited for the king to leave, to start the vortex once again.
Tad gritted his teeth. The only safe place in the entire cavern was the throne. But he didn’t like the smile that grew on Acapacio’s face.
The smirk that promised victory.
The throne was a trap.
The realization swept across Tad in a wave. Like a grandmaster’s chess game, Tad saw the attack that the boss would do. It would begin a vortex and swallow the throne whole. Once gone, Tad would have no place to stand, succumbing either to the king’s attack, or falling in one of the numerous vortexes. It was as perfect a plan as Tad had ever seen. And Tad had fallen for it.
He had underestimated this giant toothy prune.
The fang in his hand throbbed. It was hungry. Shouldn’t Tad feed it? Tad shook his head, No. Last time it had burned Sara, burned her in a way that Tad couldn’t heal. The dagger seemed to get stronger the more he fed it. Almost like Tad was awakening the beast it had been made from. He couldn’t rely on that attack. It was too dangerous. What if he transformed into that panther and could never revert?
He never liked how little control he had in that form. How much his hunger for violence drove him, his thirst for blood. He charged at his foe with almost an impenetrable focus. What if a friend crossed his path on the way to his enemy?
No, he would find another way through.
The vortex of the king began once more. The bastard had been waiting for it. Been waiting for its ultimate attack. Tad grabbed onto the throne to stop from being sucked inward. The king of toothblenders sucked harder, then it flew toward Tad like a bullet.
Tad raised both his hands in front of him, Raekast’s Fang banished in a puff of black mist, he pooled his mana to his hands.
“Firebolt!”
Firebolts shot from his arms, sucked straight into the mouth of the boss. His health bar dropped, little by little, but it wouldn’t be enough. It had covered half the distance.
“Icebolt!”
Ice shattered across its teeth, doing a similar amount of damage. It was close enough now that Tad could see chunks of ice and blobs of fire still spinning in its maw.
