Chapter 38: Eloquent And Enraged

Chapter 38: Eloquent And Enraged

“That was eloquent?” Yanily asked.

“Practically a poet,” Vix said. “Nivian, you can go first.”

“Gee, thank you,” Nivian said, but he had his shield up and his whip cocked back to strike.

“Looks like doors between the torches along the walls,” Hiral said, scanning the room for more traps. “Might be reinforcements.”

“Seriously? The duke here isn’t a high enough CR on his own?” Seena asked. “Bah, whatever. If we kill him fast enough, reinforcements won’t matter.”

“Now... fight. Now... die...” the Troblin Duke said, heaving a massive battle axe off its back.

The thing had to be as tall as Hiral was, and likely weighed even more. The notched blade was balanced by a thick spike on the back of the haft, and most of it seemed to be wrapped in leather strips that looked uncomfortably like Grower skin.

“Hit him hard and fast,” Seena said, tapping Nivian on his shoulder, and the tank blurred and seemed to stretch out as he used his movement ability.

A second later, Nivian dashed into the ring of purple torches, skidding to a stop ten feet from the Troblin Duke, and lashed out with his whip. Thorny barbs tore the boss’s skin as the thing stepped forward, then swung its axe up and over in a vicious arc. With its long arms and the naturally large weapon, Nivian was forced to dive aside before the axe crashed into the ground right where he’d been standing. The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

The impact from the axe caused a shockwave that shredded the floor in an outward cone another ten feet long, and then the duke effortlessly ripped its weapon free—which pulled a ten-foot section of floor up with it. Wood chunks flew into the air, and the Troblin swung his meaty fist around in a wide sweep, slapping the debris and transforming it into a barrage of rocketing projectiles.

Hiral’s Rune of Rejectionturned aside most of the dangerous shards—just barely in time—but he wasn’t able to get all of them. Wule took an arrow-like splinter in the thigh, while Left threw himself in front of Seena and got skewered by a spear of wood through the gut.

The double toppled to the ground, solar energy leaking out of his wound like glowing smoke. He wrapped his fingers around the spike as if to pull it out. “Aaaagh,” he grimaced, his whole body twitching from even the slightest movement of the foreign object in his stomach. “That... hurts...”

“I’ll take care of Left,” Hiral said to Seena as he ran over to his double.

Seena nodded despite the look of guilt on her face, and solar energy began to gather inside her at the same time Vix and Yanily vanished.

Must’ve gotten pulled up by Nivian’s Swarm Tactics.

“Not sure if this’ll work, but let’s try,” Hiral said, reaching out his hand to touch Left’s shoulder.

“No! Wait,” Left tried to warn Hiral, but he’d already begun the process to pull his double back in.

The wood clattered to the ground as Left vanished in a puff of solar energy that flowed back into Hiral.

It worked...

All thought left Hiral’s mind as agonizing pain shot through his abdomen, and he dropped to his knees, then fell face-first to the ground. His hand went to his stomach, where his fingers were greeted by warm, thick liquid and a hole where his skin should be smooth and complete.

“Ugh,” he groaned, forcing his watery eyes open. Red stained his hand and the left side of his stomach, more of his blood bubbling out from the wound every time he shifted.

“Hold on, Hiral. Hold on,” Wule said, the sound of more wood clunking to the floor near Hiral’s head. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Sure... feels... like... it... is...” Hiral groaned, his bloody right hand opening and closing while he held the tattooed left over the injury.

“Really, it’s not,” Wule reassured him, and refreshing energy washed across his body, then gathered at his stomach.

You have been healed by Nature’s Regrowth

Minor wounds and damage repaired.

“Oh... that didn’t feel minor,” Hiral said, but the pain from his stomach was surprisingly gone. A glance down at his abdomen showed it still covered in blood, but the hole had vanished.

Dynamic Quest: Update

The Eloquent Duke has absorbed forbidden magic and grown stronger as a result.

Defeat the Enraged Eloquent Duke of Splitfang Keep to clear the dungeon.

“What does enraged mean?” Nivian asked a heartbeat before the duke exploded into motion, purple flames erupting from its back and launching it forward.

Up and over came the axe, trailing its own tail of purple flame like a descending comet. It slammed into Nivian’s shield hard enough to crater the wood floor as it drove the man to his knees beneath the blow. Not even giving Nivian a chance to catch his breath, the duke snapped his free hand around to grab the edge of the shield, completely ignoring the sharp thorns digging into his palm, then hauled the tank into the air so abruptly, his feet left the ground.

“Look out!” Seena tried to warn, but it was too late.

The duke swung Nivian like a flail straight into Vix.

Hiral poured power into his Rune of Attraction, but he was no match for the Troblin Duke’s sheer strength, and Nivian and Vix collided with a grunt of pain from both parties. Releasing its hold on the shield at the moment of impact, the duke let the two Growers go tumbling along the ground, then leapt into the air—clearly defying all physics with the speed and height of the jump—toward Right.

Purple flames dangled behind the leaping Troblin, like streamers in the wind, then suddenly condensed, hurtling the duke at Right with a whoosh of sudden speed. Right, still finding his feet from the earlier shockwave, poured solar energy into the Meridian Lines of his right hand, then cocked his fist back for a counterblow.

It won’t be enough!

There was no way Right would be able to deflect the attack, and trading hits would result in Right getting annihilated, so Hiral did the only thing he could think of: He cancelled his Foundational Split.

WHAAAAAAM. The Troblin Duke hit the ground hard enough to shake the entire keep, a column of purple flame exploding up to scorch the roof, and Right was simply gone. Waves of heat radiated across the room, and no solar energy passed into Hiral to bolster his own stores, though his tattoos appeared on the right side of his body.

Did it work?

Hiral checked his status window quickly to find his Solar Capacity at a measly twenty-one percent, then put half of it into Foundational Split. Right peeled off him a second later, intact and uninjured, but the Troblin Duke turned its attention on them, purple flames licking the wreckage of the floor.

“You got its attention,” Right said grimly.

“Yup, I did,” Hiral said, but something about the scene caught his attention. Several of the glyphs on the Troblin’s axe weren’t glowing anymore. And... and four of the torches in the circle at the center of the room were burning again.

What does that mean?

The Troblin Duke didn’t give him the time to figure out the answer to the question, planting its feet and sweeping the axe around.

No way it can reach me from that far...

A crescent of purple flame peeled off the axe like a tidal wave ten feet tall and thirty feet wide, racing toward Hiral and Right.

Slipping immediately in front of Right, Hiral poured as much power into his Rune of Rejection as he could in the split second before impact, then focused the narrow force straight ahead of him. He didn’t try anything fancy, or to stop the entire wave. Instead, he created a wedge of Rejection, just wide enough to part the roiling flames as they rolled over him.

Sinister heat bombarded him from all around, whispers in the fire clawing at his ears and promising him a myriad of different—but equally horrible—deaths. Then it was past, a cone of wood starting at Hiral and extending behind him amidst a charred and smoking floor.

And, most importantly, a fifth torch was burning again.

“There’s a limit to how many times he can use the flames,” Hiral shouted. “Look at the circle of torches!”

Seven more torches remained unlit. All they needed to do was survive that long, and then the duke should power back down. Simple... really...

The duke’s good eye narrowed at Hiral, apparently understanding his words, and purple flames danced within it.

Now it was just a question of whether they could survive that long.