Dungeon Heart 03 - Hell Gate, page 16
Oh, how delicious it was to see the king’s face start to pale.
Smit observed from his room carefully, analyzing the situation with as much calm and control as he could muster. He was no warrior, but he was old enough to know that excessive passion would give way to making mistakes. In this situation, clear-headedness was needed to assess the situation accurately and make the right decision.
The problem was that that vicious sorcerer was making things more difficult for him now, and Smit was now concerned that he was running out of time to think. Those vile tentacles of mana engulfed their prey and pulled them away from the rest of the herd. The magic nature of the tentacles prevented people from seeing what was going on in the cocoons. However, Smit could “see” it clearly thanks to his high affinity with mana.
The tentacles would gather three creatures at a time and tear them to pieces, spilling blood and gore worse than the most violent of butchers might. Then came the second phase. The remains of the abominations swirled in a pool of blood, rent flesh, and bone, and began to congeal into something different. To Smit, it seemed like the vortex of filth and death only took certain pieces of the butchered creatures, leaving behind a significant part of them. However, the creature that was being formed seemed to be far greater than the sum of its parts.
He couldn’t quite tell what was being created, probably because it was still in the process of being built up, but it certainly took an awful lot of resources. The tentacles of magic were pulling in abominations by the dozen, throwing them into one of the three cocoons where the creatures were formed.
“Stop him!” Ikfes shouted, dashing towards the sorcerer, only to be intercepted by a dozen creatures at once. Forced to confront them, Ikfes's advance was halted while the remaining fighters tried to push towards Klax.
“Protect those humans!” Smit ordered mentally, cursing the situation. He needed them alive to be able to bargain with them.
Huffing, Smit turned away from the fight, letting the screams and shouts fade away for a moment as he stared at Pala’s egg. He hated to rely on his son in this situation, for he had no idea how Pala would emerge from his egg. Yet, what choice did he have? That little stunt for revealing all his creatures had drained incredible amounts of mana from his reserves. Worst of all, the situation seemed dire. He had run out of other cards to play, and the timer on Pala’s egg was just reaching zero.
Frowning, Smit resolved himself. As things stood, if he wanted to win, he had to bet everything. Then again, this whole thing was a gamble from the start. Sighing, he reached out with his hand and gathered the ether that surrounded him.
“My son…” Smit spoke, imbued with power. “Awaken.”
CHAPTER TEN
If one could be suspended and submerged in water indefinitely without drowning, then one could more or less understand what Pala was feeling within his egg. He floated ceaselessly in a sea of currents, surrounded by the unknown. At first there was peace around him, a wonderful calm he could not help but admire. The energies surrounding him entered his body delicately, seeming to permeate his scales first, then work their way into the flesh bit by bit until they reached his bones.
Then, in a moment, it all changed. The gentle tides that engulfed him became unstable, violent even. Forces he could not understand seemed to push and pull at him, sometimes going right through him. At times he had the sensation of being dragged down into an abyss so deep that he could not fathom the bottom of it, and at other times it was as if he was being forced towards the edge of a precipice.
Although he didn’t really know why this was occurring, a part of him told him to submit to the currents, to let himself be taken to the source. Something in him wanted to let the currents carry him to wherever they originated. But as enticing as the idea was, he refused to submit to the influence of some unknown force or entity. He would not be a sheep led blindly, for he was Smit’s first son, and his father had not raised a weakling who only knew how to submit.
He attempted to release a mighty roar into the abyss he found himself in, but his voice would not leave his throat. Pala forced himself to struggle with all his might. He fought against these forces that sought to push him away or smother him with their power. He struggled to move, finding that it was as if he was trying to swim through a quagmire. Yet, he did not yield.
The oppressive forces that sought to keep him down became more defined with time, and Pala began to recognize differences between them. Initially, he felt heat and cold struggle against one another, each attempting to overpower the other. Then, beyond these two, he sensed a heavy force that seemed to swirl and churn around without any direction, wild and free in its chaotic dance. Caught in between these three, Pala was buffeted by their struggles.
Unwilling to be a mere victim amidst the storm, Pala instinctively imposed his will on the space around him. He grabbed hold of the eddies of power and pulled them around himself. At first it was a struggle, for the forces only sought to conflict against each other, but by forcing them apart and making them chase each other, Pala created a balance between them. This balance surrounded him like a shield, keeping him from being buffeted by the storm. From the formless forces that seemed to vie for supremacy, Pala used their own power to extend his influence towards them, until it was he who was threatening to consume them.
He extended his reach further, pushing himself to the limit to grab hold of the origin of these forces, until he thought that his head would explode from exertion. His skull throbbed with pain, his heart beating painfully hard in his chest, and his veins felt like they were ready to burst. Yet he refused to stop. It seemed like an eternity had passed, but at last, his will spanned so far that it felt as though he had reached the edge of the world. It was only then that he felt that he had grasped the source of the chaos around him.
He pulled everything in then, compressing it in an effort that was no less strenuous than the initial expansion of his will. Around and around the forces spun, until they became an ethereal ring, with heat and cold at each side and chaos acting as its shell and the thread that bound them. And in the center of it all, Pala stood with his hands in front of his chest, clasped as if in prayer.
Then the ring collapsed into itself.
Unlike the previous trickle of energy that had washed over him and gently worked its way into his body, the energies crashed into Pala with the force of a typhoon. They tore at his body as they fused with it, breaking it down, energizing it, and then rebuilding it in tandem. The process, while painful, felt empowering. He had no fear as he was rebuilt, shaped by an unseen hand, for he sensed the presence of his father now. No, perhaps it had always been there, hidden beneath the chaos.
“My son... Awaken.”
Those glorious words rang through his mind, and Pala opened his eyes anew, and his transformation became complete. The shell that enveloped him, once so sturdy, shattered as Pala burst forth, eyes burning with new life.
Smit had barely spoken the words before the egg that held Pala began to change. It trembled at first, shivering violently, and soon it began fracturing down the middle. The fissure, however thin, glowed with an unknown light that became dimmer by the second. A moment later the fading light gave way to a brief flash of intense light as the egg broke, or rather, it would be more accurate to say that it burst into pieces as Pala punched his way out of it. The remains of the egg started to dissolve into motes of light, which then faded into nothing.
Smit could only stare for a moment, for the creature that appeared was not the old Pala, but a superior version of him. Before him, standing at about two meters in height, was a creature that bore the aura of a powerful predator. His shoulders were broader, the muscles prominent across the body. His legs in particular seemed to be made for speed, with thick thighs that easily doubled those of a normal man. Furthermore, his scales had now a striped pattern similar to that of a tiger, and they had taken on a blue-green hue, reminiscent of the river waters of the mountain.
But perhaps the biggest change was the horns upon his head. Curving up and starting to arch back, the white horns were not terribly long, maybe twice the length of Smit’s index finger at most, but they seemed strong and sturdy. Doing a double take, Smit looked closely and noticed that there were differences in the shape of Pala’s snout and jaw as well, making them look more pronounced. Overall, the new changes gave Pala the look of a fearsome warrior.
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Congratulations! Evolution of [Pala] has been successful
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Special requirements unlocked. Kobold Lord [Pala] has successfully held his ground against the tides of power, resulting in the assimilation of more than one essence during his Great Evolution. Great Evolution changed from [Dragonewt] to [Chaos Dragonewt (Rare Variant)]
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Staring at the windows with wide eyes, Smit glanced back at Pala, whose own eyes stared back at him like pools of gold. Clearly Pala had heard the announcement too, and while Pala might not fully understand the implications of what the Voice of the World had just said, he knew that he had been successful in evolving. The dragonewt smiled, and dropped to a knee, showing respect to his father.
“Father, you called me,” Pala said, his voice now a bit deeper than before, “and I have come.”
Feeling a smile pulling at his lips, Smit walked forth and embraced him. Though Smit’s short and broad frame meant that it might have looked a bit awkward, the former dwarf could not have cared any less. After a second, Smit released the hug, and grabbed Pala’s head with his thick hands, lifting it so that the dragonewt could see his face.
“Well done, my son. Well done,” Smit congratulated him, his feelings heartfelt. But the situation at hand was rather precarious. He would have to save the conversation for a better time. “Later you must tell me how you achieved evolution into a variant, but for now you must go to your siblings! I fear that the situation is far more grim than I had wished it to be. If you do not go to them, then all might be lost.”
Pala’s eyes widened at first, but quickly settled into a strong gaze that was filled with determination. “Yes! I will go at once.”
“Good child. Go to the first floor through that passage; we must not let the king die,” Smit said as he willed fire spirits to illuminate the way. They would act as a guide for Pala, leading him down the fastest route. “Follow the lit path. Oh, and one more thing.”
Smit pulled up Pala’s spear. Their eyes locked as Smit handed him the weapon. “Send those monstrosities to hell, where they belong.”
With a fearsome smile, Pala nodded and bolted towards the secret pathway at speeds that easily doubled that of an excellent racehorse. Grunting in surprise, Smit stroked his beard for a moment, a bit of relief spreading through him. It was truly fortuitous to have Pala evolve not only into a dragonewt, but into a rare variant. Not that regular variants were not rare enough as it was, but a rare variant was often half a step above even the common variants. Rare variants could frequently become dangerous foes to encounter, and the materials obtained from them were often considered to be of superior quality for crafting.
This made him worry in its own way, for he was certain that the king and Ikfes would recognize Pala as a variant. That would surely lead to more people coming to his dungeon to “harvest” materials from his creations, but that was a problem for a later time. At the moment, he could not have wished for a better outcome.
“Now then…” Smit muttered to himself as he took a seat on the floor and closed his eyes, focusing on the battle that was taking place far above him. “Show me what you can do, Pala.”
“Fight my friends, fight! We must stop him!” the king shouted as he shattered the jaw of another monstrosity with his free hand. Extending his qi, the king recalled his sword from the edge of the room, where it had landed after he had thrown it for a second time to protect an ally. His face was covered in sweat, his hair felt mangy and damp from the gore of battle, and yet he pressed on to one of the three dark cocoons of malevolent magic. The king wasn’t sure what was going on within those abhorrent black spheres, but he knew that he needed to destroy them before their situation worsened.
Unfortunately, he was fighting an uphill battle. With so many of their combatants out of the fight from their injuries and exhaustion, they would not be able to reach him in time, despite the aid of the dungeon monsters. Everyone was locked in a deadly struggle of their own. The only ones that were capable of heeding his call were the leaders of the dungeon monsters. The giant white wolf was the first to reach his side, clearing a path for the king by ramming into a group of enemies with his large bulk. The king scarcely had time to look back at the wolf for a second, catching a glimpse of a deadly struggle between it and the six hideous creatures.
Slicing apart the next two creatures that attempted to intercept him, Vas was making progress towards his goal. Never had he had to cross such a small distance and yet exert this much effort to get there. Had there been no enemies, he would have walked over with just a few dozen steps. Now, however, every step was a struggle against the waves of enemies he faced.
The golem of fairy-like beauty was the second to come to his aid, flinging in his direction the carcasses of two abominations she had slain. The carcasses knocked aside and unbalanced his enemies, giving him the perfect opportunity to slay them where they stood. Vas took a deep breath and moved on, parrying a lunging attack from a horned creature. He rotated on his foot and with a flourish of his wrist he decapitated the beast as he exhaled.
Without looking back, he continued on his way. There were only a dozen more steps between him and his goal.
Sidestep, thrust, rotate, and block. Kick, parry, slice, counter. The king let his mind focus on what needed to be done. Two steps away now.
Overhead blow, horizontal slice, side step, qi-infused boot to the eye. Something wrapped around his foot, but without even looking, the king sliced down and was no longer constrained by whatever had grabbed him. Step forwards, stomp on the skull of the dazed foe.
It was within his reach!
The king let out a mighty roar. His sword crackled with electricity as he raised the weapon above his head, activating the skill [Storm lion’s fang]. His muscles flexed and contracted, and the blade came down on that shell of darkness. In a last-ditch effort, a creature leaped in front of his blade, trying to block it. However, the sword only lost a portion of its momentum, cutting the beast in half before slicing into the cocoon.
The mighty sword cut through the haze of dark magic, and a screech could be heard from within the cocoon. Grinning triumphantly, the king’s eyes went wide as a deformed appendage burst through the hole he had made in that darkness. With barely enough time to react, the king could only use his sword to block the incoming blow, which knocked him back thirteen steps.
“Ha! You are too late, your Majesty,” Klax said with glee. The dark shell dissolved into nothingness, revealing what could only be called nightmarish violations of nature. Standing taller than a man and with twice the girth, the creatures reminded the king of deformed ogres. Each creature had multiple eyes of varying sizes scattered across its body. With long arms that were thick as logs, they moved like apes. With twisted and mismatched horns on their heads, these creatures sported two mouths on their bodies, one on their face, and one at their bellies. Both were full of sharp, crooked teeth of varying lengths. With sickly grey skin and snake-like tails, these creatures were clearly meant for sowing chaos and destruction wherever they went.
The most noticeable thing to the king, however, was the fact that they did not seem like they were just randomly stitched together flesh abominations. Instead, though grotesque and unbalanced, these creatures seemed like they had grown like this. He thus deduced that whatever technique Klax had used to create these monstrosities was of a higher tier than the one that created the army of abominations.
“How do you like them?” Klax cooed from his perch, coughing violently. His skin had turned a ghostly white now, his eyes raw red. Yet he grinned with glee and pointed at his new beasts. “Thirty superior sacrifices a piece, these are my greatest chess pieces! Created from both the living and the dead. I give you the artificial chimera ogre! Each has the power to easily tear a normal ogre to pieces in seconds.”
Laughing once more like a madman, the villainous sorcerer started a second coughing fit. The king barely acknowledged what Klax had said, looking down at the marks his feet had left on the ground by resisting the blow of the beast. He had managed to remain standing, but his arms tingled still from the force of the blow. Those aberrations weren’t something that could be underestimated.
“Now then… Destroy them!” Klax shouted.
The chimera ogres released screeching howls, and rushed towards their enemies. A group of dungeon wolves attempted to intercept one, but the chimera used its fists to pound two of them into paste with a single blow each. It proceeded to eat the head of the third, tearing it clean off the body, only slowing down briefly before resuming its course. The chimeras rampaged about them, killing anything that was within their reach. They even trampled over their own allies in their rush to kill enemy dungeon monsters.
“Position yourselves! Prepare to engage!” the king barked out, shaking off the tingling sensation of his arms before getting ready to engage again. His arms felt heavy, his legs ached, and his throat was parched, but all he could do was prepare to mount a final confrontation. While the remains of his human allies rushed to prepare, the king studied the new enemy as it massacred the dungeon monsters. These new chimeras were truly monstrous, capable of taking down hindbears within seconds.
“Ikfes, you and the elites take down one of them. I’ll take the adventurers and fight the one I injured,” the king said as he swung his sword slowly across the empty air. “And let’s hope that our dungeon can deal with the third.”
