Chapter 39: Boss Battle

Chapter 39: Boss Battle

A touch on his back, then Hiral and the Troblin Duke moved at the same time, Hiral’s high Dex rocketing him forward while the duke’s purple flames launched it ahead. Six torches left. Relying on the combination of his Dex and Atn, Hiral dropped to his knees as the axe swung for his neck, sliding through the ashes of the charred wood and barely avoiding getting beheaded.

Yanily’s dagger came out in a fluid motion to drive into the floor and slow Hiral’s momentum as he twisted around and pushed power into his Foundational Split. Right exploded out of him—having been reabsorbed a moment before—and Hiral gave him an extra burst of speed with this Rune of Rejection.

Right’s glowing fist crunched into the duke’s spine with enough force to push the monster forward another step, while Hiral reached for the Troblin’s head and yanked with his Rune of Attraction. Vastly outweighed by the hulking beast, it was Hiral who shot into the air, twisting as he went to dropkick the duke in the face mid-turn. With his respectable 18 Str—and the aid of his rune—Hiral hit the monster hard enough to keep its attention, then immediately pushed off with his Rune of Rejection and flipped in the air to land on his feet.

Then he dove out of the way, as the Troblin Duke had already recovered and resumed swinging. Huge, sweeping arcs from the axe tore great gouges in the floor as the monster chased Hiral, and he flipped, ducked, and dodged, doing everything he could to stay a step ahead of the brute.

Can’t keep this up forever. C’mon, use your flames.

Around came the axe again—another horizontal chop which Hiral easily ducked under—but then the purple flames burst out of the opposite side of the weapon. Completely arresting the axe’s swing in an instant, the eruption of fire also shot the weapon back toward Hiral, vicious balancing spike aimed right for his chest.

Hiral pushed on it with his Rune of Rejection, the meeting of the two forces lifting Hiral off the ground in the opposite direction, but it wouldn’t be fast enough. The axe would catch him, and it came around with vicious intent, only to get intercepted as Spearing Roots burst out of the ground right in front of the sweeping arm.

Though the roots didn’t have enough power to punch through the Troblin Duke’s hide on their own, the mighty swing and jet-like force of the purple flames more than made up for it. Green blood and shredded skin flew into the air as the roots struck the arm at the perfect angle, tearing through muscle and lodging in bone before the roots broke under the weight of the swing.

Roaring in outrage, the Troblin turned its attention to Seena, and its whole arm burst into purple flame.

Four torches left.Hiral hit the ground, then rolled to his feet. N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

A shower of splinters flashed between Seena and the duke, though most of them got incinerated by the flaming right arm, and the few that made it through seemed to bounce off its tough hide.

Yanily charged in from its side. Instead of his usual barrage of lightning-quick spear strikes, the man set his feet and seemingly put all this strength into a blow aimed where Vix had focused his assault.

The spear-blade plunged into the open wound all the way up to the haft before purple flames billowed back out in response, washing over Yanily and driving the man back with a scream of pain. He batted at his face with still-burning hands as he fell, one of the four remaining torches flaring back to life. The spear haft practically disintegrated into ash.

But, there in the wound, the spear blade remained, and the Troblin Duke clawed at it with too-big hands, trying to get a hold of it to rip it out.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

As soon as Hiral’s brain processed the words, the notification vanished, only to be replaced by another immediately.

Splitfang Keep: Complete

New Record

Time: 31:23

Congratulations. Achievement Unlocked – The Trouble with Troblins

You have dealt with the Troblin keep and its inhabitants.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Time until Splitfang Keep instance closure: 59:59

We did it!

Hiral closed the notification to see to the others, but yet another one popped up in front of his face before he could even take a step.

Congratulations. Achievement Unlocked – My First Dungeon

You have completed your first dungeon.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.