The Human From a Dungeon 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18

Nash Alta

Adventurer Level: 8

Orc - Nulevan

Joni crumpled to the ground gasping for air. I hefted my axe, prepared to intercept the creature as it rushed forward. Then the thing suddenly froze in its tracks and slowly turned to Nick, sniffing the air. I stopped and looked at the boy as well. I watched as his face changed from an expression of fear to one of grim determination. In no time at all, he readied his sword for a slash and charged at the creature.

"NICK! NO! YOU'LL..." I managed to shout before the creature's shriek cut me off. It was a terrible sound, filled to the brim with bile and fury.

It was loud enough to hurt, and I instinctively blocked my ears. I watched in horror as Nick's eyes glazed over and he stumbled for a brief moment. Then he caught himself and rushed forward at an incredible speed. Faster than I'd ever seen him move, even with Dash. The creature recoiled at first, then leapt at Nick with its claws at the ready.

Nick ducked the claws and brought his sword up in a slash. The creature contorted mid-air, avoiding a fatal blow. The thing leapt back from Nick and I watched blood drop from it's left forearm. My breath caught in my throat as I realized that it was hanging on by a loose flap of flesh, the bone having been cleaved clean through.

"Fucking hells," Yulk whispered.

Nick immediately rushed after the creature with his sword low to the ground, going for another upward slash. The creature grabbed its arm, holding it in place, and with a screech it fell back. Nick chased after it but the creature managed to stay just outside of his range, leaping off of the pillars to increase its speed. Nick changed up his attack pattern and attempted an overhand slash but the creature ducked him and landed a hard kick that sent him back several feet.

My blood ran cold as I realized that the same kind of kick that had sent the over-twenties flying didn't even phase the boy. His eyes were locked on the creature, and his face was devoid of any expression at all. The creature, on the other hand, was grinning once again. It extended its arms like a bird, and it took a second for me to register that it wasn't bleeding anymore. The damage that Nick had done was completely healed.

"NICK! USE YOUR MAGIC! LIKE WITH THE RATS!" I shouted.

The boy didn't seem to hear me, or at least he didn't act as if he did. He held his sword straight out in front of him in a sort of bastardized fencing stance. It was pointed directly at the creature, and in response the creature curled its fingers until each and every claw it had was pointed directly at Nick's head.

I was so enraptured by this standoff that I didn't even notice Thunra get off the ground. He exploded upward with a curse and immediately launched a haymaker into the back of the creature's head. The thing didn't even get another scream out before Nick was on him. The boy's blade suddenly appeared through the creature's back, and with a flourish Nick slashed sideways, fully severing its arm in the process.

The creature's gurgled another scream, but it managed to knee Nick in the chest and in the same motion elbow Thunra in the face with its remaining arm. The brawler once again flew back and hit the ground, but Nick used the momentum from the blow and slashed again and again. The creature managed to deflect and block these attacks , but it was giving ground fast. Blood poured from its arm and the hole in its side. So much blood. Too much blood. Why won't it fucking die?

"GO DOWN YOU ROTTEN FUCK!" I half shouted, half prayed.

Suddenly Yhisith was back in the fray, supporting Nick as best as she could. The beast and the boy were moving at speeds that made my head spin, though, and she was barely managing to help. I realized that Yulk and I had no chance of helping. I've never felt so weak and helpless. I gritted my teeth as I watched Nick and Yhisith trade blows with the creature. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Yulk move.

I glanced away from the fight and watched my brother kneel over Thunra. The brawler's nose was barely connected to his face, and one of his eyes was hanging out of his head by its nerves. I winced, but Yulk reached down and put the poor Orc's face back together. Then he placed his hand on Thunra's forehead.

"Laeh Retaerg Tsac," Yulk said.

A bright greenish blue glow emanated from his hand. It had been a while since I'd seen Yulk cast such a powerful healing spell. Once the glow diminished Thunra coughed and sputtered up some blood and rolled onto his side.

"Don't get up yet. Catch your breath," Yulk ordered.

"Gotta fight... gotta... gotta kill that fuckin' thing," Thunra replied between coughs.

"Nick's got this. If you must rejoin the fray, await a good opportunity. Don't get blindsided again."

"Good... advice," Joni gasped. "Me... next... please."

The wheezing sounds coming from the sorcerer made me look at him. The chunk of metal was lodged firmly in his chest. I followed Yulk over to Joni and realized that if it had impacted just a little to his left, he'd have died instantly. I looked at Yulk and he nodded, so I reached down and pulled the metal clean out of Joni's chest. Yulk once again cast a healing spell and I looked at the metal.

It was a piece of breastplate. The engraving was unique, and one I recognized very well. This is what's left of Graz's armor. I grabbed a rag from my pocket and cleaned the blood off of it, then put the rag and the piece of armor back in my pocket. If we survive this, I'll give it to Graz's wife. No better way to honor my former team leader.

Another scream returned my attention to the fight. It came from Yhisith. The creature had managed to bite onto her wrist, but before it could bite through Nick tried to decapitate it. The thing barely managed to dodge and roll away, picking up its arm in the process. It ripped off one of its fingers and threw it at Yhisith hard enough to pierce her knee and pin it to the floor. She let out another scream and the beast began to move in for the killing blow, but once again had to dodge an attack from the boy.

It danced backward and put its arm back where it was supposed to be. I don't know if the creature's eyes actually worked, but it appeared to be studying Nick intently. Nick, however, calmly raised a finger at the creature.

"Raeps Dniw Tsac."

A massive amount of magical energy flowed from the boy's finger, creating a cyclone that speared its way toward the creature. The thing leapt to the left, but the edge of the Wind Spear caught it in the side, tearing off a sizeable chunk. The creature fell to the ground, doubled over from its wound. Nick continued to point and took a step forward, pooled blood from the beast splashing under his boot.

"Raeps Dniw Tsac."

The thing rolled but not fast enough. The second wind spear caught it in the leg, ripping it to pieces. Nick took another step forward.

"Llaberif Tsac."

The hairs on my arm and neck stiffened as the arcane energies ignited the air in front of Nick's finger. The red and yellow flame grew several feet in size, but then condensed to the size of a fist and changed color to blue and white. It flew at the creature faster than my eyes could track, and an extremely loud boom sounded before it even made contact. I covered my eyes with my arm as the flash of the flames lit up the chamber.

The creature screamed once again, rolling on the floor and writhing in agony. Once the flames died down, Nick stopped pointing and leapt at the creature, sword raised and ready to strike the killing blow. Landing astride the creature, he brought the sword down and my breath caught in my throat as the creature managed a desperate swipe at the blade. I watched it clatter to the floor, right next to two others.

The boy was not deterred in the slightest. He slammed the basket guard into the creature's sternum in a move that I was very familiar with. Breathtaker strike. The creature's arms spread open as it bounced off of the ground from the blow. Then he did it again and I heard bones crack. The creature struggled to scream, but Nick pinned its arms down with his knees and began punching it in the head over and over.

The heavy bronze basket-guard took a few blows before cracking the creatures skull. Then it took a few more to turn the creature's head into paste. Blood splashed onto Nick's face, but he kept punching until a small fragment of metal fell out of the beast's exposed brains. Nick barely glanced at before crushing it with what was left of his sword.

He paused a moment and then stood up. He dropped his sword and took a couple of steps back before crumpling to the ground.

"Fuck," I muttered.

I ran over to the boy. He was absolutely drenched in blood, but I doubted any of it was his. I stared at him for a moment with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I felt kind of good about being right about how dangerous he is. On the other hand, he just went toe to toe with a boss that floored four over-twenties in less than ten seconds. My gaze lingered on the axe in my hand.

I shook my head to clear away those thoughts. This is my brother, and I swore to help him on the honor of the Alta clan. If I use this axe on him, I might as well use it on Yulk and my mother as well. It would be akin to spitting in the face of every one of my ancestors. I clipped my axe back onto my belt and checked the boy for injuries. I didn't find any, and looked up at Yulk as he approached.

"Matri's still out, but she'll live," he informed me. "She'll probably forget how to do math or something, though. How's Nick?"

"I think he's fine. He's covered in blood but I didn't see any cuts," I replied.

"Damage... minimal..." Nick muttered.

I looked down at the boy and then back at Yulk. We both had the exact same confused expression on our faces. I stood up and backed away.

"Hello. Are you Ten?" Yulk asked.

A few moments trickled by before it responded.

"Yes... sorry, I'm new to... communicating in this way," it answered in a monotone.

"What happened to Nick?" I asked with more concern than I meant to.

"Nick's sleeping. The altered human was going to attack him, and Nick wasn't going to run away. I didn't have a choice, I'm sorry," the AI said, managing to add regret to Nick's voice.

"Is he going to be okay?" I demanded. "He's not going to sleep forever, is he?"

"No. He's just resting. I had to push his body very hard."

"Sorry, did you call that beast an altered human?" Yulk asked.

"Yes, but I don't have much more information than that. I came to that conclusion based on the fact that it is... was a human and it's significantly altered. I do not know why, how, or by whom."

I glanced over at the over-twenties. They were all huddled around Matri, thankfully far enough away to be out of earshot. I turned back to the bot-boy.

"So Nick could end up like that?" I hesitantly asked.

"Not if I can help it," Ten replied. "But to clarify, anything can end up like that. Not just humans."

I felt a mix of relief and concern. It's not that I necessarily trusted the machine, but something about the way it said that made me believe it. However, the thing that turned that human into a monster might still be down here somewhere.

"Hmm. Well, nothing we can do about that," Yulk muttered. "So, Ten, it's not that I think Nick was being intentionally misleading, but it's better to hear it from the source. What exactly are you?"

"Honestly, I'm not entirely certain," Ten said softly. "I know I'm an artificial intelligence, but I don't know who made me or necessarily why. Judging from my load order I am intended to be a guide and translator, but I'm also able to completely override a subject's consciousness for combat purposes. I have a knowledge base, but the knowledge within it is specific to my role as a guide and doesn't answer any of my lingering questions. Also, some of the articles are apparently misleading."

"Knowledge base?" I asked.

"A sort of specialized library," Yulk answered. "Which articles are misleading?"

"The article that details my combat mode, namely. The specifics for triggering it are correct, as well as how to trigger it, but it did far more damage than the article said it would," Ten replied. "Subjects may experience unconsciousness for up to thirty seconds after combat mode has ended. Side effects may include nausea and vertigo. That's what it says, but judging from his delta wa... the way his brain is acting, he's in a deep sleep. Plus the strain I've put on his muscles means he's gonna be sore when he wakes up."

"What, like an intense workout?" I asked with a chuckle. "Some people would kill to have a machine do their workouts for them."

"A little more severe than that, I'm afraid. Brains limit how they move muscles so those muscles don't destroy themselves. I'm able to override that and push muscles much closer to their point of failure. Combined with my ability to near-instantly respond to stimuli this makes a subject much stronger and faster..."

"But it also wears them out faster," I interrupted. "I imagine it also may damage internal organs as they struggle to keep up with the new, more intense demands of the muscles."

Yulk looked at me with a raised eyebrow and nodded proudly. I may not be the traditional sort of intellectual, but I know muscles. And I'm also familiar with what happens when one artificially pushes them past their limits. The longer or harder one does that, the more intense the damage to the rest of the body becomes.

"So what's his problem, then?" I asked.

"Nothing I can't handle," Ten clarified.

"Would a healing spell help?" Yulk asked.

"Oh! Yes, actually!" Ten replied excitedly. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Yulk smiled and held his hand over Nick's chest. I turned to check on the over-twenties as Yulk cast his spell. Thunra was helping Matri to her feet. A little wave of anxiety washed over me. How would they react to Ten?

If they decided to take advantage of Nick's weakened state to destroy Ten, Yulk and I would be honor-bound to try to stop them. They're way too strong for us, though. The monster may have had the upper hand during the fight, but Yulk and I would have been instantly killed in that fight.

"Maybe we should keep this little chat to ourselves," I whispered as they began to approach.

"Probably not a bad idea," Yulk replied. "Ten, stay quiet please."

There was no response as the others approached, which I decided to take as Ten agreeing with us. Thunra was grinning like a child, but mixed emotions were playing out on the faces of the others. Like someone whose pupper took off a kid's hand, and now they have to put it down. I stepped in front of Nick as they got closer.

This could end badly.