Chapter 332 - A Giant Among Dwarves (Patreon)

The dwarves’ panic only lasted for a few moments, but by that point, Zeke and trio of golems were among them, wreaking havoc. Even as he whipped his hammer around, destroying fortifications with every swing, the dwarven defenders recovered and mounted a counterattack. A hundred different skills fell upon Zeke with terrible fury. Most bounced off of his metallic form, but a few managed to gouge deep wounds into his hardened skin. Silvery blood flew from the injuries, but he continued striding forward with the inevitable gait of a true automaton. Or perhaps a force of nature.

As he progressed, Zeke pulled earthen energy from the ground, fueling [Cambion’s Awakening]. The shallow wounds healed in seconds only to be replaced by more.

“That has to be terrifying for them,” Eveline remarked in his mind.

“Not now,” he growled aloud, surprising a dwarf who’d managed to stand before him. Zeke rewarded that shocked face with a kick that sent the dwarf sailing through the air and into the keep’s wall. Her armor crumpled with the impact, and Zeke heard a piercing scream of agony before she tumbled to the ground in a boneless heap.

“I’m just saying,” Eveline stated. “You’re already what? Four times their size? And this form is pretty intimidating.  Even if they manage to hurt you – not an easy feat, given your endurance – you’re healing in seconds. From their perspective, you must seem an unstoppable calamity. Or maybe a divine punishment sent to atone for their abandonment of their earth-attuned heritage.”

“Does that happen?” asked Zeke, swinging his hammer in a sweeping strike that sent a half-dozen dwarves flying into a nearby crumbling wall. “Divine judgement, I mean?”

“Sometimes.”

For once, Eveline had nothing else to say, leaving Zeke to concentrate on the battle. And it was a good thing, too. Because if he’d been at all distracted, he’d have taken the enormous ballistae bolt in the chest. As it happened, he was only barely capable of dodging the ten-foot projectile. Still, it gouged a huge gash in his metallic chest, leaving freezing corruption behind. [Cambion’s Awakening] attacked it, stopping the spread of demonic frostbite that followed in its wake, but it wasn’t powerful enough to heal the damage entirely. Not quickly, at any rate.

Zeke growled in both surprise and pain, wondering what precisely had just hit him. He only had to look around for a moment to see the culprit. An enormous arbalest, which looked like a giant’s crossbow, stood on the castle’s ramparts.

And it wasn’t alone.

Suddenly, a hundred similar projectiles bathed the small battlefield in shadow. With only a moment to react, Zeke acted on instinct, activating [Unleash Momentum]more quickly than he’d ever used the skill. He swung his hammer in an uppercut, using his Will to force the resulting attack into a narrow scythe that cut upward through the air. It tore a path through the densest clump of descending ballistae.

But it couldn’t get them all.

A dozen huge, spear-like bolts hit Zeke from a variety of directions, but due to his quick actions, none were solid strikes. Instead, they hit him with glancing blows that left frozen and festering wounds behind. Zeke fell to one knee, the pain of the wounds exceeding anything he’d felt before.

He dragged more energy through the earth, and the wounds in his metallic body were largely contained. But they didn’t heal.

“They won’t,” said Eveline, her mental voice coming at the speed of thought.

Zeke responded in kind, asking, “Why? What is it?”

“Holy Fire,” she said. “The polar opposite of Hellfire. That feeling you’re experiencing? That’s your demon side dying.”

“What the…”

“If it’s any consolation, those dwarves handling that enchanted ammunition are probably going to die soon, too,” she said. “Their entire existence is dependent on demonic mana, so contact with Holy Fire…well, they’ll die in agony. Not as quickly as you or me, but they’ll die all the same.”

That was not the comfort Eveline clearly expected it to be. It didn’t matter if the dwarves’ attacks were tantamount to eventual suicide. Their deaths wouldn’t help him survive in the long run.

“The damage is more spiritual than physical,” Eveline provided. Zeke could practically see her winking in real time as she continued, “Hint. Hint.”

“That’s unnecessary,” he muttered inwardly as he shifted his focus. Immediately, his body started to change. Powering [Triune Colossus] with his own, pure mana, the skill changed. His limbs slimmed, and his horns grew while he lost a good deal of his mass. He was still huge and bulky, but next to the earthen colossus he’d been, Zeke knew his new form looked practically thin. More importantly, he changed the form of [Cambion’s Awakening] as well. The skill dragged unattuned mana from his core, and instantly, the wounds wrought by the Holy Fire began to heal. The pain subsided, and the injuries mended slightly.

The unattuned version of his colossal form wasn’t as physically durable as the one powered by earthen energy, but it didn’t really need to be, either. What it lacked in strength, it made up for in adaptability.

“And the spiritual healing,” reminded Eveline as Zeke rose to his feet. “Without that, you’d be dealing with that Holy Fire for weeks.”

Zeke didn’t need to be reminded of the differences between his various forms. During his trip from the Spear of Desolation to the dwarven stronghold, he’d experimented often enough to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Demonic energy for explosive strength and rapid healing. Earth-attuned mana for stability and endurance. Pure, unattuned mana for spiritual healing and adaptability. The last wasn’t as strong or durable as either other form, instead falling somewhere in between.

“A suitable choice for all occasions,” Eveline remarked.

Zeke suppressed a groan of annoyance. Perhaps inviting Eveline into his mind had been a mistake. He could’ve just let her die, and then he wouldn’t have to deal with her quips.

“Oh, you don’t mean that. You love and cherish my presence,” she said primly.

Zeke ignored her comment, focusing on the veritable army of dwarves facing off against him. Or more importantly, on the still-dangerous arbalests atop the castle’s ramparts. Decreasing his weight via his racial trait, Zeke leaped, his incredible strength propelling him into a prodigious arc that ended with him crashing into the castle wall just below the roof. He slammed his hand into the sturdy stone, gouging out a handhold so he wouldn’t fall. Then, he kicked off, pushing himself over the lip and into the midst of the doomed dwarves. His hammer arced out, crushing into the siege weapon, but to Zeke’s surprise, it didn’t break under the first swing. So, he followed up with a kick, then a spinning attack that rendered it into a million splintered pieces.

The dwarven operators didn’t fare any better. They were mostly unarmored, so when Zeke swung at the oversized crossbow, they fell victim to collateral damage, their bodies crushed into a pile of rent flesh and broken bones. Zeke was vaguely aware of their blood splattering against his metallic legs, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. Certainly, he wouldn’t empathize with them in the middle of battle.

“So cold,” Eveline said. “I like it. That’s your demon side showing through.”

Zeke disagreed, but he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he turned his attention to the next arbalest. It wasn’t far away, so Zeke raced across the wall walk and leaped upon the rampart to repeat his actions before moving on to the next. Workmanlike, Zeke felled each of the huge weapons, and the dwarves fell in droves before his might. Perhaps he could have left them alive, but under the assault of the remaining siege weapons, Zeke was in no position to be selective.

Before long, Zeke had destroyed the castle’s outer defenses. Unfortunately, they were only the beginning.

Knowing that his task had only just begun, Zeke leaped down into the courtyard and started dealing with the remaining dwarves. These were much more heavily armored, and their attacks were truly dangerous. However, Zeke was well-versed in enduring wounds that would kill lesser men. His armored body was durable, and his willpower was strong enough to keep him focused even amidst the pain of a thousand injuries.

The dwarves fell like wheat before a scythe, their bodies broken and often dismembered by the sheer force of Zeke’s hammer blows. Some resisted more strongly than others, but it was all for naught. None could stand before his might.

Until one stepped forward from the castle gates. Flanked by a dozen other dwarves, this newcomer wore silvery armor inlaid with gold. The vivid red of his beard flowed out from beneath his elaborate helmet, and a sword at least as long as he was tall was strapped to his back. He drew it, and the similarly clad dwarves on either side followed suit. Most were armed with greatswords similar to the one in their leader’s hands, but a couple wielded huge, wicked axes.

“Demon!” bellowed the leader, stepping forward. “I am Briknar, Protector of the Gate! If you are sentient, heed my words and you may survive. If you do not, you will surely perish! Leave, and we will let you go in peace. Persist in your attack, and we will be forced to –”

Zeke didn’t need to hear anymore. Before the dwarf could finish his declaration, Zeke hefted his hammer in a two-handed grip and launched himself in their direction. However, he soon recognized his mistake when the dwarves reacted by pointing their weapons at their leader. In the space of a moment, arcs of pure mana erupted from the tips of those weapons and rushed into Roknag. He screamed, and then an explosion of pure energy erupted out of him.

If Zeke’s feet would have been planted on the ground, he might’ve done something to combat it. However, suspended in the air, he had no way of anchoring himself, and so, the shockwave hit him like a runaway train, overwhelming his momentum and reversing his course. Soon, he found himself tumbling away in the opposite direction. His path came to an end when he crashed through the wall and skidded across the killing field, digging a deep furrow into the ground before he came to a stop.

“Graceful,” said Eveline. “Like a dancer. Or a gymnast.”

Zeke groaned aloud, his voice muffled by [Triune Colossus]. Then, he said, “Shut up. This isn’t as easy as it looks. You could’ve warned me about that.”

“I’m not omniscient.”

“You only act like it?”

“Precisely! Speaking of which, you might want to get up.”

Zeke looked up to see the biggest dwarf he could imagine rushing toward him. Just as Zeke regained his feet, Roknag barreled into him, sword-first. Pain bloomed anew as the blade skewered him through the chest, piercing through his metallic body and erupting from between his shoulder blades. Zeke rocketed back until he reached the edge of the killing field and tore his way into the coral forest.

The enormous dwarf – he had to be twelve-feet tall, at least – soon followed.

Before Zeke could extricate himself from the crumbling remnants of the coral that had brought his path to an end, Roknag was once again upon him. The dwarf raised his huge sword – it had grown to suit his new size, both in breadth as well as length – in an overhand strike that should have split Zeke in two.

But Zeke’s reactions had been honed over hundreds of life-or-death struggles, so he narrowly managed to roll free before the wicked blade cleaved him in twain. As he dodged, his instincts took over, and he surrendered to the call of the demonic mana all around him.

Corrosive energy flooded into him, fueling yet another transformation. His muscles thickened, the crystalline spikes all over his body grew more jagged, and his horns adopted an aggressive sweep. More importantly, his body was enveloped by barely-contained explosive strength.

So, when Roknag tried to follow up his failed attack with another, Zeke’s reactive dodge came in plenty of time to avoid any further injury. Moreover, with the demonic mana flowing through him, his previous wounds healed in seconds. The spiritual damage from the ballistae remained – even worsening to some degree – but his previous efforts had healed them enough that they weren’t life-threatening.

After throwing himself out of the sword’s path, Zeke snapped out a quick kick that sent the huge dwarf stumbling away. He crashed into the dense coral, destroying it under the combination of his enhanced weight and the force of Zeke’s hasty attack. Pieces of coral the size of a tree trunk fell upon him, but he shrugged it off as nothing more than an annoyance. However, even that small distraction gave Zeke all the opening he needed, and he stepped forward, mustering all the strength he could bring to bear, and swung his hammer in a vicious, overhand attack that took the dwarf in the crown of his head.

A shockwave of pure force erupted from the point impact, and the sounds of rending metal, cracking bone, and exploding coral filled the air as the dwarf was driven into the ground. For a brief moment, Zeke expected that it would be enough.

But then, another burst of force rolled over him. This time, Zeke maintained his footing, only stumbling back a few yards, but it gave Roknag the opening he needed. Snakes of yellow light flowed in from the surroundings and into the crater, enveloping the enlarged dwarf in a cocoon of illumination. It only lasted a moment before yet another shockwave tore across the landscape, sending the dust of pulverized coral billowing into the air as Zeke was forced into another stumble.

When the air cleared, Zeke saw that the so-called Protector of the Gate had stepped out of the crater, completely healed. He also now towered over Zeke at a height of at least twenty feet.

The dwarf growled, “You have chosen poorly, demon.” He stepped forward, adding, “When you lay dying at my feet, remember that I gave you a choice. Your people and mine need not have come into conflict.”

“I think you’re laboring under a severe misconception,” Zeke replied, rolling his shoulders. With demonic energy flowing through him, it was difficult to remain stationary. Every part of him wanted to explode into motion and rip the dwarf apart. But through a force of willpower, he suppressed the urge. “You think I’m a demon. I’m not.”

The dwarf cocked his head to the side, obviously confused. But before Roknag could reply, Zeke took a step, saying, “You abducted and enslaved me. I let it happen because you had something I needed. But now? Yeah – I’m done pretending you have any power over me.”

And then, Zeke ceased trying to hold the demon inside him at bay.