Savage Awakening 178. The S-Rank Dungeon (X) (Patreon)

A crowd of pastel sea sponges framed the entrance: a vast hole punched into the jagged pitch-black rock face. They descended into the gloom. Evan’s sword cast a weak, warm light, but it was as though it ran up against a wall—it could hardly budge the darkness.

Soon though the rocky tunnel gave off its own strange light. The walls glowed a sickly green. It came from algae and moss fuzzing up the ceiling, pulsing lightly. They were hazed in essence, but they weren’t treasures. Zane saw some glowing sickly green leaking out of them. Reina said it was toxic. They kept far away. 

They got closer and closer, and soon there came a rumbling from the end of the hall, a deep groaning, a sound like metal shards grinding. And the water only seemed to magnify it, bounce it a thousand times down the tunnel, endless folding in on itself. Making the tunnel an awful echo chamber. 

Evan started getting scared again. He edged closer to Zane and looked up to him and instantly felt safer. Somehow he’d gotten it in his head if Zane was there everything would be okay. 

Soon they were getting real close. The tunnel was opening up. The moss glowed brighter, brighter…

They stepped into a huge expanse of a cavern.

That ceiling went on and on, webbed all the way across with those glowing algae like some demented night sky. It gave the place patchy coverage. Most of it was lost to darkness. Bleak boulders riddled with holes loomed uselessly here and there.

In the distance Zane saw the treasure. It was wreathed in a mesmerizing blue light, the color of sunlight passing through clear waters. A temple studded all over with giant pearly seashells. The walls were mottled with dark- and bright- blues. In front stood a proud statue. It reminded Zane of a Greek god, all bearded and muscular. Its eyes glowed, pulsing faintly. Zane could swear it was staring at him.

That strange blue light flushed out of the roof, streaming across the bleakness above like an aurora sprayed over the sky….

Temple of Tiresias (S+) 

A temple dedicated to Tiresias, the Sage of Endless Fathoms. Within lies a hint of his wisdom. 

Even from all the way out here, Zane felt a kind of pressure he’d never experienced, thick and mighty, weighing not on his body but his soul. It ebbed and flowed like waves of heat… 

It was like no treasure he’d ever seen. 

Then there were the Monsters guarding the place.

King Crab (Monster) 

Essence Level 199

Reaper of the Deep (Monster) 

Essence Level 199

Zane narrowed his eyes, clenched his fists. 

It was go time. 

He was just about to step up when he felt panic spike right next to him. 

It was Avery; she gasped. Then—

“Watch out!” she cried. “Back back back!”

She barreled into him, tried shoving him out of the way. This did not work. She just fell flat on her butt. But Zane saw where she’d been looking. He looked up too, and blinked.

His eyes widened too. 

Just as a third aura, just as big as the others, exploded over them.. 

In another blink he’d scooped her up. Then he Stormfire Stomped as fast as he could, snatched up Evan in the same arm, Reina in the other—

The Blob King came barreling out of its hiding spot. 

It opened its enormous mouth, a mouth that kept widening, and widening, and widening—and in it lay a strange spasming blast, a blast that sent violent ripples through the waters even as it built— 

It meant to take them all out in one fell swoop. 

Zane’s heart dropped to his stomach. 

He had to act very fast just then. 

He chucked his friends as hard as he could manage, whirled around whip-quick. And leaped straight at the beast. Like he was trying to jump down its throat. He spread his arms wide as he could, getting as close as he could. It was the best he could do. 

He took the full brunt of that blast head-on. 

It was an unusual attack. A sonic blast—sound waves loaded with essence, loaded with some brutal vibrating Concept blasted straight through him. Stones rucked up underneath; currents surged all about in a frenzy—but he’d caught most of it with his body.

It was like his whole body was a struck gong. It felt like every atom inside him was trembling so violently it was about to explode; spikes of pain stabbed up and down his midsection. So many soft squishy parts inside him burst open one by one. Reds veined his trembling eyes. Blood spewed out his lips. Two somethings burst to either side of his head—eardrums? 

Dimly he felt himself launched at mach speed through the waters—he couldn’t even see where he was going. He was seeing triple; the world was buzzing before his eyes. He felt himself strike the ground once, twice, thrice, before rolling to a heaving halt.

He coughed heavily. Blinked. That cough was all blood. A cloud of it staining the waters…

Warning! 

Health under 75%

He turned around, all frantic—“Are all of you alright?” he got out. He couldn’t even hear himself talk. His ears were ringing too loud. 

Reina and Evan and Avery all nodded. They looked a little shaken, but unhurt. Reina in particular was pale—looking behind him, eyes gone wide. A sharp burst of relief cut through the hot fog of pain. Then he felt a sudden new warmth as she started streaming in healing as fast as she could, trying desperately to patch up his ruined insides… 

There was a rumbling. It sounded like buildings collapsing during an earthquake—for a second Zane thought a new stampede of Monsters was coming up from behind. Then he really felt his heart skip—skip in a way it never would’ve if he was fighting alone. 

This was the downside of fighting in a party. Fighting alone Zane never got scared. He never really got scared in general. But when he saw his friends in danger he felt all panicked—it was the only time he could remember feeling this way. He didn’t like it at all. 

It was almost a relief to see it was just the tunnel collapsing. Blocking off their last hope of escape. This way was better; at least this way he could keep all of the Monsters in front of him. This way he could still protect them. 

He turned back to face the threat, heart pounding. 

Blob King (Monster)

Essence Level 199

It had been floating in a darkened recess, cloaked and waiting, right on top of the other Monsters. Hidden in wait. 

And now they were all closing in like hunters on trapped prey. The Reaper was smiling a too-big smile with too many teeth. The Blobfish was smiling too, one pale ugly arc stretching from one side of its body to the other...

Not good. 

“Um!” said Evan. He was trembling badly. 

“Shit,” gasped Avery. 

But Zane stayed as calm as possible. He made sure they could see him doing it. He frowned a little; that was all—he could feel all his friends looking to the Monsters, then to him. He stood tall, shrugged it off like half his organs didn’t just burst inside him.

“Zane—” Reina began. 

“We can do this,” he said firmly. “We’ve got this. Fight like we always have, and I will hold them, and I will smash them.”

“I would never fail you,” he promised them. He made eye contact with them one by one. And they could see he meant it.

Slowly they all nodded. He could feel they were scared, even Avery, who was trying quite hard not to show it. But he could feel they trusted him; they trusted he could get it done. That would have to be enough.

He clenched his fists for the second time that fight and braced himself. They were almost upon him now—a Reaper, a King Crab, a Blob King, closing in from all sides… they moved with a deliberate slowness. Closing a net. Their eyes gleamed with that Monstrous hate, with a predator’s glee. They felt no urgency at all. And why should they? 

Zane brought the fight to them. 

He charged them head-on, roaring, hammers swinging. Avery blasted up a mirage; Evan let loose a string of dazzling flashes. And the fight exploded in a violent bloody mess. 

Zane sent his hammers flying ahead of him, streaking like meteors—and their first shots struck true. He clocked the Reaper right on the side of its head, caved in the Crab’s shell right between its eyes, dodged a beam of lightning, whirled, fed the Reaper a second Smash, sent it howling, flying away, smoking like a crashing plane, whirled on the Crab again. Hammers spinning, Smashing that same shell spot, missing, and now it was coming at him full-bore, pincers snapping—

Avery let out a strangled cry. “Behind you!” 

He felt a huge presence blasting right for him—a huge killing intent—he turned, barely had time to brace.

Then the Blob King exploded right into him. Bellowing, Bloodline burning. And it felt like he’d been hit by a train. The vibrations crashed through him, rupturing him.. Everything Reina had just healed exploded again in an instant, and then some—

Warning! 

Health under 50% 

Savage Body Activated

Vitality increased 25% 

Strength increased 25% 

Speed increased 25%

A waterfall of blood spewed out of his mouth; an instant later he smashed into the wall so hard he sank a ten-foot-deep crater. He groaned. His head swam; the world swam; his body screamed bloody murder when he moved.  

But Zane couldn’t afford to stay down for even a second—if he did there would be no one between the Monsters and his friends. Head ringing, world wobbling under unsteady feet, he rose, bellowing furiously. And returned fire.  

Two Smashes forced the Blob King off him, forced it spinning back. But his hammers were the wrong tool to kill it—he’d scorched off a few layers of blubber and skin, but this Monster was built to withstand blows like that. He needed his Axe. But it’d take time to switch… 

A second wispy Zane flickered up in front of him. Mirage. 

 “I’ll distract it as long as I can!” shouted Avery. “In the meantime—um—we could really use some help over here!” 

He looked over. 

Only to the Reaper potshotting at Evan and Reina. And in front of it, even closer, the Crab bore down on them, pincers snapping— 

Zane let out a furious roar. With a Stormfire Step he launched himself back into the fray. 

An instant later he smashed the Crab yet again between the eyes, heard it screech in agony, grabbed it by the pincers, heaved all the way over him, smashed it belly-up into the ground.

Then he made brutal use of Emperor’s Soul. 

He concentrated as much Stormfire as he could into his fists. And detonated three punches straight into its belly as it flailed; his rage inflamed the blows, made the Stormfire spike as hot as he could remember it ever being. 

The first fist crushed through that soft armor. The second ruptured its vital organs. The third shattered its beating heart, sent Stormfire roaring up its limbs, cooking it from the inside—he knew it was all but dead. He felt it a burning spasming wreck. 

Then he heard a strangled cry. 

It was Evan. He’d been blasted to the ground. He was fast but Reina wasn’t. He was trying his best to protect her, even as she tried her best to support him—but without someone to tank the hits… 

Above his smoking, spasming body loomed the Reaper of the Deep, jaws unhinging— 

Pure Electricity rushed out of it. A lightning gone shocking purple. An Electricity loaded with a very familiar concept. 

A concept whose destructive powers Zane knew all too well. 

That thing was about to unleash Plasma on Evan’s head. 

For the second time that fight, Zane threw himself straight in the path of a fully charged Skill straight from a mini-Boss. And ate it at point-blank range. 

The only reason he made it in time, both times, was because he reacted with no hesitation. He saw his friends were in danger so he offered his body as sacrifice. He didn’t think twice about it; to him there was nothing to think about. 

The problem was—even Zane’s body, robust as it was, had a limit to how much it could take…