Rune Seeker

Nivian would be so proud of me.

That was all the time Hiral had to think before the Rat-King reached him. Far faster on its two legs than the swarm of rats was, the axes came around in a deadly dance to try and take Hiral’s head from his shoulders within the blink of an eye. Behind it, the thousands of swarming rats writhed, almost like the monster had eight massive tails.

Parrying one axe aside with his sabre, Hiral ducked under the second, and pulled his trigger at the Mid-Boss’s chest. A Lost Echo quickly formed and exploded, but the Rat-King managed to pull a tail of rats between them to absorb both the explosion and the shot from Hiral’s RHC. Taking the opportunity to change out his fighting style to keep Ever Changing+ going, Hiral surrounded his fists with Impactand lifted his right hand above his head.

At the same time the Rat-King pulled aside the curtain between them, Hiral jerked his arm down and ignited the Annihilation of Amin Thett. Fully powered and point-blank, the Rat-King’s attempt to bring a second tail of rats in to block the blow was only partially successful; the roar of the death beam drowned out everything but the Mid-Boss’s pained scream.

Shearing through the tail like it wasn’t even there, the Annihilation of Amin Thett blasted straight through and into the Rat-King as it attempted to dive out of the way.

Bone axe spinning through the air—a furry hand still grasping it—the rest of the Mid-Boss’s arm vanished up to its shoulder. The Rat-King’s face contorted in pain as it turned to glare at Hiral, whiskers shivering in fury, but he was already in the air.

Hiral twisted around as he leapt, coating his foot with Rejection, and his kick connected with the axe to shoot it right back down at the monster. With no arm or weapon on that side to protect it, the bone axe drove deep into its shoulder next to the garish wound where its arm should’ve been. Not wanting to give it a chance to go back on the offensive, Hiral landed and extended his right hand at the same time he pulled with solar energy.

As if seeing Hiral standing still was its opening, and despite its injuries—or maybe because of them—the Rat-King brought its other axe around in a hooking uppercut while the sky darkened. Tails coming down like vengeful gods to smite Hiral, victory flashed in the monster’s eyes.

Until a liquid dagger parried the axe.

Until a spear of lightning from the sky pierced straight through two tails, utterly destroying them.

Until a Gravity Well the size of a small house sucked in two more tails, crushing them to nothingness.

Until roaring fire in the shape of two massive wings appeared above Hiral to block the last three tails, smaller rat bodies quickly charring and bursting into flame at the contact.

Until a purple-flame-enshrouded leg swept out the Rat-King’s own legs from underneath it and sent it flying horizontally in the air in slow motion.

And until the greatsword glowing like a falling star slapped into Hiral’s hand, and he chopped straight down into the Rat-King’s exposed chest.

While a tremendous amount of the strange healing power coalesced where blade met flesh, neither the edge of the sword—nor the sheer weight of it—would be so easily denied. Blood spat into the air as the glowing edge drove an inch deep, and then the absolute authority of gravity took over from there.

The Rat-King’s body slammed into the earth with enough force to crater the ground, bones shattering like brittle twigs before the blade continued. Cutting clean through the Mid-Boss’s stomach and spine, the Emperor’s Greatsword drove into the earth beyond, until practically the whole blade was buried. Snarling, the monster glared up at Hiral, and its left arm twitched like it wanted to take a swing at him.

Past it, the tails of oddly connected rats had fallen apart, many of the monsters straight-up keeling over from the damage they’d taken from the party’s earlier attacks. Those that didn’t scattered in every direction, running for their lives or back towards the larger horde.

Part of Hiral wanted to hunt every last one of those small monsters down before they could hurt anybody, but the Rat-King still had a sliver of health left. They’d need to…

A blackened spear drove into the monster’s eye and the brain beyond.

“Status?” Seena asked.

“One dead Mid-Boss,” Yanily reported. “Just a few scratches and bruises. Nothing a potion won’t fix up.”

Just as Yanily said the words, a blue notification window appeared in front of Hiral’s eyes.

Dynamic Quest: Update

Abomination Defeated: 1/1

Researcher(s) Saved: 0/?

Weapon of Legend Secured: 0/1

Well, that’s the tough part, right?

“Same here,” Seeyela said, Bamf’ing to appear beside Hiral as he closed the notification window. “You finally distracted it there at the end.”

“Pretty sure I was distracting it most of the time,” he deadpanned in return.

“Meh,” she said with a shrug.

“Sis, you hurt at all?” Seena interrupted.

“Luckily, no. They caught me once, but my armor protected me. You?”

“I’m fine, barely. One of the swarms caught up to me, but my Molten Shield burst. Gave me the seconds I needed to get away.” Despite her words, she had a few noticeable cuts leaking blood. Like Yanily, though, nothing a Liquid Health potion wouldn’t fix up.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I don’t know why the main body here didn’t stay in the center of the swarm; it would’ve taken us way longer to get at it,” Yanily said.

“Necrotic energy,” Hiral explained. “It was interfering with the healing.”

“The undead sword?” Seena asked, and Hiral nodded. “Good thinking.”

“Thanks.”

“You going to take these?” Seeyela asked, and Hiral looked over to find her holding the Rat-King’s bone axes. Quite a bit bigger than hatchets—more like battleaxes, really—they were right at the limit at what he might be able to wield with one hand. A quick View brought up the weapons’ names.

(Lost) Bestial Axes – A-Rank

Effects: When used as a pair, grants user access to Ability (Passive) – Bleeding Wounds and Ability (Passive) – Hack and Slash

Ability (Passive) – Bleeding Wounds: Injuries inflicted by the Bestial Axes refuse to close up, and cause extra bleeding damage over time based on user’s Str and Dex.

Note: Bleeding Wounds will even affect things without blood, causing whatever keeps them alive to leak from the injuries.

Note (2): Bleeding Wounds duration based on user’s Dex.

Note (3): Bleeding Wounds does increased damage on a critical hit.

Ability (Passive) – Hack and Slash: One hit quickly leads to another, increasing attack speed by 5% per successive hit.

Note: A miss, parry, or block will result in loss of all Hack and Slash stacks.

Note (2): Failure to continue attacking for more than 2 seconds will result in loss of all Hack and Slash stacks.

Note (3): Changing to another weapon will result in the loss of all Hack and Slash Stacks.

Note (4): Hack and Slash can stack up to a maximum of 10 times.

Note (5): On reaching 10 stacks of Hack and Slash, all stacks are consumed to give one stack of Ability (Passive) – Frenzy.

Ability (Passive) – Frenzy: Increases attack speed by 25% for 30 seconds.

Note: Frenzy bonuses are additive with Hack and Slash bonuses.

Note (2): Frenzy can reach a maximum of 6 stacks.

Note (3): Frenzy stacks are not lost when switching weapons.

Hiral blinked at the massive wall of text for the pair of weapons. That was more writing than most of his other weapons combined! But, important points? Lost weapons meant he could probably take them with him from the dungeon. Nice! They inflicted a damage-over-time bleed effect, which would be great in long, drawn-out fights. Most of all, they had some kind of magic that would increase his attack speed.

Something like how my Rune of Time Contraction works?

Either way, the Hack and Slash benefits would only last a short time, and only if he didn’t miss. If he did manage to reach 10 stacks, though, he would trade 50% attack speed for 25% that would last even if he swapped out weapons.

Interesting…

“Stop staring at the axes and throw them in your ring,” Seena said, pulling Hiral’s attention back to more immediate concerns. “Left spotted Dr. Benza.”

“Yeah, Hiral,” Yanily said. “We’ve got a quest to finish.”

“And an island to save?” Seeyela prompted.

“That too.”

“Got it. Sorry.” Hiral followed the party leader’s suggestion and tossed the two weapons into the Ring of Amin Thett. That done, he hauled the Emperor’s Greatsword out of the small canyon it’d created in the ground and slung it over his back. “Mounts?”

Seena shook her head and pointed at one of the small, nearby buildings. Out near the perimeter of the island, structures were fewer and further between, but it didn’t mean they were nonexistent. In Hiral’s time, there’d been some Academics who preferred to live on the edge—literally. They usually focused their studies on the distant clouds or something down below. It also put them quite close to the tower of the Fallen out this way, which stood only five hundred feet or so away.

Hiral briefly looked up to the crystal embedded in the top, the deep orange of it making it completely opaque. That would be the tower named after the Fallen Vorinal.

Not just named after, I guess.

“You coming?” Seena called to Hiral.

“Yeah,” he said, spotting the group already a good thirty feet ahead of him and heading towards Dr. Benza.

“Anybody else notice we fight a lot of monster royalty in these dungeons?” Yanily asked as they jogged in the doctor’s direction. “The Prince, Queen, and King of the Swamp. Then there was the Empress of the Hill from that last one, and the Troblin Duke and Troblin Lord.”

“Ur’Thul had taken over the body of the Lizardman emperor, too, hadn’t he? Does that count?” Seeyela asked.

“Totally counts,” Yanily said sagely.

“Whoever is naming the monsters doesn’t have a lot of imagination,” Hiral said.

“Guys, focus,” Seena said as the party arrived at the squat, one-story building where Dr. Benza waited for them in the doorway.

Dynamic Quest: Update

Abomination Defeated: 1/1

Researcher(s) Saved: 1/?

Weapon of Legend Secured: 0/1

Hrm. Still a question mark. Laseen and Fenil must be around here somewhere. And Catchin said he had the Spear of Clouds. He’s doesn’t seem to be carrying it—unless it’s really small. Inside, maybe?

“How bad is it?” Dr. Benza asked immediately.

“Portal was overrun, but the other parties were arriving to hold the monsters off,” Seena said.

“More abominations like that?” Dr. Benza pointed back where the party had battled the Mid-Boss.

“Not that we saw,” Seena said. “Thousands of the smaller rats, though, and more coming through the portal every second.”

“Which can only mean the other side is already lost,” Dr. Benza said. “Did… anybody make it through before the monsters attacked?”

“Lots,” Hiral said. “Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands. We saw a huge line of people stretching from the portal all the way to the city.”

“That’s something, then,” Dr. Benza said with some clear relief on his face.

“What about the other islands?” Seeyela asked. “Do you think it’s the same over there?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Dr. Benza said. “All of the portals opened at the same time yesterday. If we had monsters coming through here, that means all the islands are compromised.”

“What’s the plan, then?” Hiral asked.

“If we can hold the portals, we can buckle down and finish our preparations to leave in a year,” Dr. Benza said. “As long as nothing else goes wrong…”

KAAAA-THOOOOM!Thunder shook the entire dungeon, and the party looked up at the dark clouds crawling across the sky. Sunlight still shone from above half the island they were on, but the other three were already shrouded in darkness. Even as they watched, thick lightning bolts carved across the sky, flashing in time with the deep bass of the accompanying thunder.

“It’s fine!” Dr. Benza had to shout to be heard over the nearly constant thunder. “The storm is outside the dungeon. We’re fine in…”

WHAAAAAM! The dungeon shook again, but this time it wasn’t from the thunder. WHAAAAAM a second time, and Hiral looked in the direction of the island directly across from them. A third WHAAAAAM, and the whole sky seemed to spider-web as if something massive had struck it.

“It can’t…” Dr. Benza started, but Yanily put his hand over the doctor’s mouth.

“Just stop talking; you’re making it worse,” the spearman said at the same time that side of the sky seemed to shatter.