BT - Book 1 - Chapter 74

“I am not doubting your resolve Micah,” Drekt shook his head in disbelief as the Luoca pinned one shade ogre to the dungeon floor with its barbed leg while simultaneously stabbing its tail through the chest of another.  “I am doubting your sanity.  You said you summoned how many of these abominations?”

“A couple?” Micah replied hesitantly, unable to take his eyes off of the Luoca as it ignored a globe of acid lobbed by an ogre shaman and just cut the creature in half with a wing.  Even as he watched the body began to melt as the daemon’s very presence eroded the very reality that kept it together.

“They’re incredibly powerful,” Micah continued defensively.  “I could clear an entire dungeon with three or four of them without breaking a sweat.  It made leveling up insanely easy.”

The daemon’s human head began to laugh, a shrill screeching sound.  Its wings flicked outward, ripping apart the two remaining shade ogres.  Without turning to look at the cluster of humans and evolved animals, its tail dove into the tangle of limbs and corpses to spear a torso, bringing the mauled body to its mouth to feast.

“I believe you,” Drekt frowned as the Luoca began tearing into the ogre’s flesh, “but the power level of your summons isn’t my concern.  Well, after a fashion it is.  How do you keep even one of those under control?  It’s very presence is twisting and destroying Karell.  It’s clearly unnatural and a threat to everyone.”

“I didn’t have a lot of options in my last timeline,” Micah justified.  He was scrambling and he knew it..

“Just what happened in your last timeline?” Drekt asked, raising an eyebrow.  “If you had a half dozen of those things I don’t imagine you’d lose to anything short of a mountain goliath, dragon, or a contingent of royal knights.  How in the hells did a single Khanate stop you?”

“It didn’t,” Trevor interjected, an impish smile on his face as he leaned slackly against his spear.  “He fought their army to a draw, but the method he used to summon all of the daemons tainted him.  Apparently he started poisoning everything around him.  Just something to remember when he pulls his ‘wise and mysterious master’ routine.  Even if he managed to win last time, it ended up costing him everything.”

They all stopped as the sound of wet crunching filled the chamber.  Micah made a point of not looking at… whatever… the Luoca was doing with the ogres’ bodies.

“That sounds like abject raving madness,”  Drekt nodded sagely.  “I reiterate.  I am not questioning your resolve Micah.  In fact, given the danger you so willingly throw your body and soul at, I don’t really have a choice but to admire it.  That said, are you sure that it’s necessary to take such a risk?  I’m pretty sure that thing would rip me in half in the blink of an eye if you weren’t around.”

The daemon slapped a bone with one of its flickering wings, sending it careening across the room before it dissolved into sludge.

“Probably,” Micah agreed uncomfortably.  “I don’t know if the four of you will even get a chance to run away if I die, but the second it happens my control spell evaporates.  I would suggest being far away from the Luoca the second it becomes unbound.”

A furry head bumped against Micah’s shoulder as Ravi huddled close to him, shivering slightly.

“Ravi no like manbug,” her childish voice echoed petulantly inside Micah’s head.  “Manbug feels wrong.  Feels like disease and pain.”

“It’s all right,” Micah replied, wrapping his arm around the panther’s neck to scratch it under the chin.  She leaned into him, relying upon Micah’s unnaturally high body attribute to keep him stable as the huge cat closed her eyes and purred.  “The Luoca is under control.  Just stay away from it and you’ll be fine Ravi.”

“Look at that,” Trevor chuckled.  “Even the cat doesn’t like the otherworldly perversion of the natural order that almost killed everyone in a previous life.  Maybe there’s something to our concerns.”

“It’s more or less safe,” Micah protested, beginning to walk toward the next room of the dungeon.  “I had a better idea of what I can control this time, and so long as we can keep me from dying there shouldn’t be any major concerns of unfortunate side effects.  Plus, we’ll need it to help us level and get close enough to the Khan to challenge him to a duel.”

“About that,” Drekt rumbled thoughtfully, following Micah down the dungeon hallway.  “Your big plan is to challenge the Khan, someone who has earned his third specialization, to a one on one duel.  Even if you gain a couple dozen levels, I’m struggling to see how your endgame doesn’t involve a risk of you dying.  If I’m perfectly honest, it sounds to me like you have over a fifty percent chance of death either during the duel or succumbing to your wounds immediately afterward.”

“Hey,” Trevor remarked in surprise from behind him.  “I never thought about that.  If you bite it in the middle of your big quest to fight this guy, your unstoppable murder daemon is going to go nuts.  Probably while standing right next to us.  I’m not sure I like this plan anymore.”

Ravi growled, an almost subsonic rumble that flowed up Micah’s arm.  He took his free hand from her fur and grabbed his spear in a defensive grip before jumping into the next room.

“And that,” Micah grunted as he unleashed an air knife at an ogre hiding just inside the entryway, drawing a splash of blood from the monster. “Is why I’m training so hard.  Personally I don’t find any plan that involves me dying to be optimal.”

The shade ogre swung a hatchet at him.  The crude but sharp weapon whistling through the air.  Micah didn’t heed the help of an enchantment to sway out of the way.  Skill and his absurdly high agility attribute gave him every edge he needed.

“To be clear,” another air knife slapped into the ogre’s face, temporarily blinding it long enough for Micah to jump past it, green mana flowing down his spear as he jabbed it into the creature’s unprotected flank.  “If I die fighting the Khan, I highly suspect that the rest of you are going to follow me shortly, bloodthirsty daemon or no.”

Ravi stormed past, pouncing on a second ogre that was trying to position itself behind Micah.  The mass of fur, fangs and claws brought it to the ground in a second, slashing the monster unmercifully before jumping free before reinforcements could arrive.

“As I recall the honor rules of a Durgh challenge,” Micah continued, his spear darting deep into the ogre’s lower back as Drekt and Trevor arrived in the room to support him.  “An unsuccessful challenger’s coterie can be challenged to honor duels by any supporter of the victorious party.  This would mean that it would be the two of you up against the entire Durgh army, albeit one at a time.”

“I am not sure I like either of these outcomes,” Drekt replied dryly, bringing his cleaver down on the ogre crippled by Ravi.  “Is there an option where your death doesn’t lead to our immediate and brutal demise?”

“Not really,” Micah’s spear whistled through the air, sliding under the distracted Ogre’s guard and opening its throat to the dungeon air, “but you know what they say.  If your only other option is a painful death, you might as well plan for success.”

“Who says that Micah!?” Trevor shouted, barely backpedaling away from the blow of a flail from a hidden ogre that split the tough stone of the dungeon floor.  “I swear to the gods no one said that.  Who is this ‘they’ you are quoting at us?”

“Me,” Micah grinned sheepishly, muttering a word and making a complex gesture with his left hand to launch a pressure spear over Trevor’s shoulder and into the gut of the advancing ogre.  “Still, it sounded pretty profound didn’t it?”

Telivern charged into the room, catching the ogre that was doubled over from the spell in the shoulders with its bramble of razor sharp antlers.  The force of the giant stag’s charging body slammed the shade ogre back into the wall before forcing the bladelike tines of its rack deep into the creature’s upper chest.

A hail of icicles, the length of MIcah’s forearm and treacherously sharp sprayed at the five of them as an ogre shaman stepped from a shadowed crevice where it had been preparing the powerful spell.

Wind shield popped into place around him as Micah activated the time enchantments in his spear.  Time slowed as his hands blurred, the blade of his weapon plucking the icicles that made it through the planes of angled air pressure.

Next to him, Trevor swiped his spear through the air, green mana pulsing around his biceps before his martial art created a partially translucent hemisphere that blocked the incoming daggers of ice.

Drekt simply stepped into the blizzard, putting his forearm in front of his face and activating the enchantments that Micah had laced into his new armor.  The icicles struck him, many drawing thin lines of blood, but the sudden thickening and hardening of Drekt’s skin under the influence of the enchantment prevented any serious harm.

Ravi pounced, her large jaw snapping shut over the spellcaster’s outstretched hand.  The ogre gawked at her in amazement before the bones in its forearm cracked like twigs, cutting the spell short.

With a muttered word from Micah, a second pressure spear pulped the monster’s knee bringing it down to the dungeon floor.  Without two limbs, it wouldn’t be able to cast magic or fight off Ravi.  It was as good as cat food.

He turned to the remaining two ogres that sprinted into the open.  WIthout a word, Trevor and Drekt broke off to fight one, his brother keeping the creature at bay with his spear and spells while Drekt looked for an opening to deal grievous damage with his heavy cleaver.

Micah simply thrust with his spear.  The attack was timed to coincide with a casting of plant weave.  As weak as the spell was, not having to use a single word or gesture was a tremendous advantage

The spell caught the ogre’s ankle, preventing it from sidestepping Micah’s thrust for a fraction of a second, but that’s all it took for the spearhead to reach it, the sonic enchantment sawing through ribs and deep into the creature’s organs.

It stumbled and Micah whipped his spear out, thrusting three more times.  Gushes of blood fountained from the tottering monster as he exercised his anatomy skill, slashing open its femoral artery, brachial artery and carotid artery in turn.

It stared dumbly at him, its blood slicking the rock floor of the dungeon as Micah cautiously stepped backwards.  It was already dead.  He just didn’t want to get careless and take a blow from the ogre before blood loss stole the last of its strength.

Finally it collapsed, struggling weakly, but unable to understand what was happening to it.  Micah stabbed his spear deep into its skull, using his unnatural strength and the sonic enchantment to punch through its skull and end its suffering.

Turning, he saw Trevor and Drekt engaging the remaining ogre while Ravi and Telivern watched on, ready to intercede with a moment’s notice.  The monster itself was covered in shallow cuts, earning itself another jab from Trevor as it shifted its guard to stave off Drekt.

The big man hadn’t struck yet, but his very presence stopped the ogre from focusing on Trevor.  The two of them worked well together, Trevor eroding its hit points with a million minor cuts while Drekt waited in the wings to deliver the haymaker that would end the fight.

Micah nodded in approval.  It had taken months of practice, but the two of them barely looked at each other as they circled the ogre, Trevor’s spear constantly moving while Drekt held himself in reserve.

Then, it tried to sidestep a spear strike from Trevor only to lose its footing on the loose rocks of the dungeon floor.  Before the ogre could even finish falling to the ground, Drekt’s cleaver slammed into its chest, breaking ribs and pulping organs.

Despite his size, Micah still had a higher body attribute than Drekt, but it hardly mattered when the huge man was swinging around a chunk of sharpened steel that was almost the same weight as Micah.

“There,” Drekt enunciated the word slowly, satisfaction dripping from his voice.  “We handled that encounter just fine.  No need for otherworldly monsters or crimes against nature.”

“I just eclipsed level twenty and I’m almost fifteen,” Micah replied sighing.  “I’m not going to feel comfortable fighting the Khan at anything less than forty, and we both know it only gets harder from here.  The Luoca is a risk, and I am open to strategies that don’t involve opening us to that risk, but for now, I just don’t see how we’ll be able to start challenging the Cavern of Rust without its help.”

“You mean to raid the Cavern?” Drekt’s dark skin paled more than Micah had thought physically possible.  “With just the five of us?  That’s absolute madness!”

“It’s the only unguarded dungeon within a day’s walk of Basil’s Cove,” Micah shrugged unhappily.  “Madness or not, we need to start tackling it and soon.  Earning levels only gets harder from here.”