The Nightfang Nestmother bore down on Arwin like a train. Its scream tore through the room around him with enough force to make the webs covering the walls tremble in preparation of its charge.
Arwin was strong. He knew that. But, in an instant, he realized that he was nowhere near strong enough to knock a monster this large, moving this fast, entirely from its path. Dodging was no more an option than knocking the Nightmother to the side.
Anna and Thane were behind him.
No, he had to stay right here. There were only a few monts to react. Fortunately, that was all Arwin needed. He sent a quick thought inward through the faint connection at the back of his mind.
How long do you need?
Seconds.
That was too long. So Arwin took the fourth option.
Arwin ignored the gathering energy in the air and the stones floating around him amidst arcs of buzzing magic. He banished Caldera and braced his feet as he re-activated [Arsenal] to summon forth a different weapon.
The Wyrm’s Revenge materialized upon his arm within an instant. Emotions drove into his skull. Fury. Hunger. Defiance. And, above all, the refusal to back down before any other monster, no matter how powerful they dared to be.
It had been so ti since Arwin had last used the powerful shield, but it felt right in his grip. He drew on his magic and sent it pouring into the shield. Black energy ignited within it with a roar like that of a Wyrm.
The Nightmother dashed closer still.
Standing still when an enormous monster was bearing down on him rarely felt like the smartest move. That was doubly so when he didn’t even have a proper set of armor. But if the blow never made it through to his skin, it wouldn’t matter.
I just need to block on ti. Which hand will it attack with?
With a screech, the massive Nightmother leapt forward in a streak of black, droplets of corrosive liquid spraying through the air around it in a fine mist. Its claws streaked down toward Arwin.
Arwin swung the shield into place.
A resounding clang tore through the room. Arwin was forced a step back by the sheer force of the strike. Even though the Nightmother didn’t seem like a physically powerful monster, it was still an Expert Tier monster — and it was huge.
But none of that was going to stop what ca next.
[Avenging Strike] activated. The power stored within Arwin’s shield ignited with a furious roar. Scorching black fla erupted from the shield in a gout, slamming straight into the boss monster’s face.
It scread and lurched back, thrashing as its leathery skin was burned by the Wyrm’s Revenge. Arwin felt an instant of smug satisfaction from the shield before he banished it, summoning Caldera back in its place.
He strode forward, swinging the hamr to press the advantage he’d gotten — but the Nightmother leapt back, dodging out of the way of his strike before it could connect.
Surprise shot through Arwin. The monster should have been blinded. At the very least, it should have been distracted. But it had reacted perfectly to his attack even through its pain and confusion.
What? How is that possible?
The electricity arcing between the stones floating around Arwin intensified. More and more pieces tore themselves up from the ground, jerking and twitching around in the air as they tried to slot themselves properly into place.
Out of the corner of his eye, Arwin saw Olive squaring off against two of the Nightmother’s brood. Another one of them had hatched… and more would soon be on their way if they couldn’t find a way to end this fight soon.
Another screech split through the room as the Nightmother charged him once more.
Arwin gritted his teeth. He swapped Caldera to his shield once more, but there was no ti to imbue it with energy this ti around. Arwin barely managed to get it between himself and the large monster’s claws before they slamd ho.
He staggered a step back, digging his feet into the ground to keep from losing his balance.
“Behind you!” Thane yelled.
Arwin spun, reacting to the boys’ warning instinctively. Caldera took the place of the Wyrm’s Revenge just in ti for its head to connect with the skull of an Enfuried Nightfang Hatchling with a loud crunch.
The monster yelped as it was sent tumbling across the ground. Olive dashed over toward it, breaking away from the monsters she was fighting to draw its attention — but it was clear the situation was worsening at a rapid pace.
Arwin summoned his shield once more, predicting the Nightmother’s next attack and raising it just in ti to keep himself from being bisected by its massive claws. The blow still sent him skidding several feet back, but he managed to keep his balance.
Stones floated after him like the slow-moving trail of a teor, still pulling themselves into shape.
Shit. Couldn’t you move a little faster?
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The connection is bad. You are farther than expected. If I move faster, your armor is more likely to explode. The synergy is too low.
Noted. Still, hurry it up. Things are going to go south at this rate.
Arwin spun Caldera in his hands and charged the Nightmother with a roar. He leapt into the air, clearing one of its claws as it carved past where he’d been standing monts before, and brought the hamr down for the large boss’s skull.
The Nightmother lurched to the side. It barely managed to pull itself free from the path of Arwin’s strike, leaving his hamr to strike nothing but air. He landed on the ground with a grunt and swapped Caldera back for the Wyrm’s Revenge. This ti, he managed to inject magical energy into the shield once more.
Claws blurred toward him even as black energy ignited within his shield. The Nightmother was fast. Arwin didn’t get a chance to properly brace the weapon before the blow connected.
The roar of fla tore through the air once more. It scorched across the Nightmother’s face for a second ti, sending the monster lurching back with an agonized cry.
Arwin was moving before the fla had even dissipated from the air. He summoned Caldera back to his hands and drew on [Scourge], empowering his legs as he bounded across the ground toward the boss as it writhed in pain.
“Don’t!” Thane yelled.
Arwin skidded to a stop — and a claw slashed through the air re inches before him. If he’d still been running, the blow would have caught him right in the side.
The Nightmother had seen him coming through its pain. Again. It made absolutely no sense. There shouldn’t have been a way for the monster to react to him while it was blind. Even if it had been using hearing or scent to sll, it should have been distracted.
And how did Thane know it was going to be able to attack?
Arwin skipped back to keep space between himself and the boss monster.
“You’re reading it,” Arwin yelled, not daring to take his eyes off his target. “How?”
“It’s a hive monster!” Thane yelled back. “I’ve read about these! They’re a really rare variant of—”
“Skip to the important bits!” Arwin roared, summoning the Wyrm’s Revenge once again and pouring magic into it as the Nightmother bore down on him. And then sothing odd happened.
The monster stumbled. It seed to trip over its own legs — but it righted itself almost instantly, almost as if its head had shut off for a split second. The boss closed the last of the distance to Arwin in a blur and brought both of its clawed hands toward Arwin’s head in twin streaks of black death.
That second the Nightmother had lost bought Arwin enough ti to activate [Scourge], reinforcing his body as the blows slamd down on him. A resounding clang echoed through the room, but he’d been prepared for the strike.
Black fire erupted from the shield as [Avenging Strike] activated. It poured over the Nightmother, igniting the monster’s already-charred fur. The boss scread in pain. It leapt back and dove for the bubbling pink pool in the center of the room, subrging itself within it — and sending acid spraying everywhere around it in a large wave.
Four eggs instantly started to lt. Their inhabitants thrashed and snarled, adding their voices to the cacophony ringing through the room. Olive had already managed to kill a few of their number, but more kept coming.
Shit.
“It shares its senses with its children!” Thane yelled. “That’s why it can see you attacking! All the monsters share the sa thoughts. You can’t catch it off guard if any of the small ones can see you! At least, I think that’s the case! It could also be a subvariety of—”
“This is not the ti,” Anna said, grabbing Thane by the shoulder. “Weakeness, Thane! Do you know any?”
The lake bubbled. A clawed hand burst back out from within it and dug into the land. Another followed suit, and the Nightmother dragged itself back up from within the lake. Corrosive pink liquid poured off its rough hide as its eyes burned with fury and it let out a bubbling hiss.
Whelp. It’s certainly angry.
A thought cut through Arwin’s mind.
I am prepared. But the connection is bad. These materials cannot properly hold my form. We will have seconds of activation at best.
He grinned.
Then we’ll have to put them to good use.
The Nightmother started toward Arwin again, picking up speed and shifting into a charge.
“The connection is weaker from the child to the parent, but it goes both ways,” Thane called out. “Olive killed one of the smaller monsters when the Nightmother stumbled! If she does it again, you should be able to get an attack off!”
“I’m on it!” Olive yelled.
I need one good blow. That’s all. The Nightmother is strong, but it isn’t going to survive a full strength strike to the skull from Caldera if I can get one off. I just can’t both attack and block at the sa ti.
Then you will have it.
Then the ti they had to prepare was up. The Nightmother was upon Arwin once more.
But this ti, instead of calling the Wyrm’s Revenge, Arwin kept his grip on Caldera. He reared back, pouring magic into the weapon and making absolutely no move to dodge or otherwise attempt to avoid the blow coming for him.
Huge claws streaked toward his skull in a dark blur.
A wave of heat exploded out from Arwin. Black lightning arced through the air around him as it grabbed the stones floating around him and yanked them together like they’d all suddenly beco magnetized.
They slamd into his back, rapidly lding together to create a rough stone tendril. Black Soul Lava erupted within it and rushed through the stones. The tendril lashed out to et the claws descending for Arwin —
And the Wyrm’s Revenge materialized within its grasp.
The Infernal Armory had activated [Arsenal] on its own. Claws rang against Arwin’s shield, bouncing off harmlessly. Intense power coursed along the lone tendril to the beat of a thundering heart. But that power didn’t belong to Arwin. It ca from an entirely different reserve. A far, far larger reserve.
Arwin didn’t pay it or his rapidly heating armor any mind. His full focus was on the magic pouring into Caldera — and into the swing that he was now putting his entire body behind. He let out a roar, letting the superheated head of his hamr streak through the air like a teor.
The crack of wood preceded several pained, dying whimpers as Olive’s cursed arm tore through several of the young Nightfangs at once, killing them instantly.
The Nightmother flinched. A second was stolen from it.
And, in that second, Caldera drove ho straight into the boss monster’s head.
There was a wet crunch. Then the roar of an erupting volcano tore through the room as the hamr unleashed its full might. A wave of black lava poured out from within it, searing any life that remained within the massive boss.
The stone tendril connected to Arwin’s back cracked. A snap echoed out as one of the skeletal pieces in his armor shattered. All the energy running to the tendril was severed instantly as his connection to the Infernal Armory evaporated.
His shield evaporated, returned to [Arsenal]’s safe space before it could hit the ground.
Before Arwin, the Nightmother swayed. The motion in the eggs all around the room abruptly ceased. Small thumps marked the life leaving all of the hatched Enfuried Nightfang Hatchlings.
Then the Nightmother’s legs gave out. It collapsed to the ground, dead.
They’d won.
Golden letters twisted through the air before Arwin’s face before he could even finish processing the boss’ death.
The First Clear of this Low-Expert Ranked Dungeon has been claid by [The nagerie].
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