Chapter 375 - Wereterror (Patreon)

The creature stood on two legs, but they were neither dog legs nor comparable to a human’s. Instead, with their cloven hooves, they reminded Zeke of the demons he’d fought in the Mortal Realm. The rest of the monster’s body was a weird amalgamation of the canine horrors and a hulking humanoid. As the pair faced off against one another, Zeke used [Inpect], hoping to identify the monster.

Wereterror – Level 60

It tilted its canine head back and howled. The sound bounced around the courtyard, picking up volume with every echo until it nearly burst Zeke’s eardrums. The moment the noise faded, leaving silence in its wake, Zeke felt the ambient mana stir. Then, the quiet was replaced by a wet plopping sound. Out of the corner of his eye, Zeke saw the remnants of one of the hounds he’d killed begin to stir. At first, he thought it was an optical illusion – or perhaps the remnant muscle twitches nearly every dead thing experienced – but over the next second or two, he realized that he had a problem.

The wet piles of muscle and blood slid together, fusing into something that resembled the old canine horrors. However, it differed in a couple of major ways. For one, it was at least three times the size of even the largest creature he’d killed in the courtyard, which meant that it reached a height that was at least half-again Zeke’s size. For another, everything about it was just a little bit off. From its mismatched legs of differing lengths to the fact that it sported multiple misshapen heads, every detail just made it a little more horrifying. Ungainly and grotesque – even when compared to the skinless canine horrors – it was a creature out of nightmares.

Zeke used [Inspect]:

Reconstituted Horror – Level 60

“Fantastic,” he muttered. He was already fatigued, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. More importantly, he didn’t think he could stand up to the huge monsters. The last set had tested his limits, and this pair of nightmarish monsters was obviously even more powerful. Zeke was strong – inordinately so – but there was only so far he could push. Eventually, he would find himself outmatched.

It had happened many times before, and he’d only survived via luck, his overpowering skills, or by leveraging his Will to wreak havoc on everything he saw.

He expected that he’d have to do something similar if he intended to defeat the pair of creatures facing off against him. To that end, he pushed his fatigue aside and readied himself for battle.

The reconstituted horror was the first to attack, letting out a series of screeching howls emanating from each of its malformed heads as it rushed toward him. Zeke tried to dodge, intending to hit it with a backhanded blow, but the thing put on a burst of speed that belied its awkward frame. An instant later, Zeke felt a pair of slavering jaws rip its way through his side. Metal and earth hit the ground, and Zeke went spinning to the side.

However, he’d been through enough battles to know what was going to come next. So, he turned his off-balance stumble into a roll that allowed him to narrowly avoid the wereterror’s follow-up attack. Its massive claws found only air, and the lack of contact caused the monster to become slightly off balance. Zeke used that to his advantage, and harnessing his destructive Will, he swung his hammer at the comparatively delicate bones in the creature’s ankle.

The sound of cracking bone filled the air, and it was soon accompanied by another howl of agonized rage. The furious wereterror whipped around intending to rip a couple of pieces from Zeke’s body, but by that point, he was already a dozen feet away and sprinting to put more distance between them.

He only got about twenty feet before his senses went wild, warning him of an impending attack. He leaped into the air, letting his momentum carry him into a collision with a tree. Its trunk cracked upon impact, but Zeke narrowly avoided the reconstituted horror’s charging attack.

It slid to a stop and wheeled around for another pass. However, by that point, Zeke had already recovered enough to use [Center of Gravity]. The horror fell toward Zeke, picking up speed at an exponential rate. The sudden change surprised the monster, so it never even braced for the second part of Zeke’s attack. His hammer swing connected with its largest and most central head, shattering its skull with sheer strength and momentum.

But to Zeke’s horror – appropriate, given the thing’s name – it had a few more heads to pick up the slack. The blow didn’t do much to reverse the monster’s momentum, so those extra heads – as well as its sharp claws – were free to wreak havoc on Zeke’s metallic body. The sound of rending metal filled the air as Zeke tried to recover, but the vicious monster was relentless, and by the time he finally managed to free himself from its eviscerating attacks, his colossal body was cracked, and huge chunks of metal littered the ground.

Unfortunately, Zeke’s issues didn’t end there, either.

Already on his back foot, he never even saw the wereterror before it rejoined the fight, raking its own claws across his back and sending him stumbling to the ground.

With a roar, Zeke pushed his pain aside and burst to his feet. At the same time, he swung his hammer in a wide arc that clipped the wereterror and sent it stumbling slightly. Then, he used [Weight of Two Worlds]. The sudden increase in gravity turned the stumble into a fall, and the wereterror ended up on the ground.

Zeke pounced, leaping high into the air. At the apex of his jump, he increased his own weight and let the effects of [Weight of Two Worlds] overtake him. Instantly, his weight increased by hundreds of times, and he fell upon the monster like a meteor. Zeke’s knee took the wereterror in the chest just before his overhand swing terminated in its head.

The ground shook with the impact, and a huge cloud of dust and debris filled the air. But the monster didn’t die. Just like the canine horrors, it was far too durable to fall before a single attack, regardless of how devastating it might be. However, even though it still lived, it could only do so much with that continued life, given that it was missing a head and had a huge crater in its chest.

Unfortunately, Zeke didn’t have the chance to finish it off because the reconstituted horror had finally managed to adjust to the increased weight of [Weight of Two Worlds], tackled Zeke to the ground.

Desperately, Zeke shoved his forearm between the closest set of snapping jaws, but he could do nothing about the others. What ensued was a brutal back and forth where Zeke lashed out with his own Will-empowered fists while trying to endure the creature’s vicious bites. He gave as good as he got, but neither his vitality nor his endurance were up to the task.

Gradually, he found himself slipping further and further behind until, finally, he realized that, if he kept going the way he was, there was no chance he could win.

So, he changed strategies, snatching at the ambient corruption in the air and switching the form [Triune Colossus] took. Even as he transformed, he was infused with unrelenting strength and boundless fury. His fingers lengthened into demonic claws of black netherite which he used to rip his way through the monster’s body. In seconds, he’d turned the tide.

But that was when the wereterror managed to recover enough to rejoin the fight, tackling Zeke and pushing off of the horror. The wereterror’s head was still missing, but it clearly had some other means of sensing him, because it tackled him to the ground and gave him a dose of his own medicine as it clawed its way into his sleeker, demonic body.

Zeke wasn’t going to let himself be outdone, though. With fury racing through his veins, he let out an echoing roar and turned the tables on the wereterror, tearing it to pieces with his bare hands. His hammer lay on the ground, completely forgotten and wholly unneeded as he brough his enhanced strength and the boundless anger of his corrupted form to bear.

The wereterror fought back. It had no choice but to act according to its singleminded nature. However, it was clear from the very beginning that, in a fight between two vicious predators, it was clearly the inferior party.

With another roar, Zeke dug his claws into the monster, then raised it high into the air. A second later, his netherite muscles flexed, and he ripped the monster in two. The pieces came apart with a wet squelch, but Zeke wasn’t finished. Instead, still gripping the individual pieces, he banged them on the ground until nothing but a slurry of flesh and blood remained.

Then, he turned his attention to the battle’s other combatant.

The reconstituted horror had recovered, though only two of its heads remained intact. Still, it was a clearly dangerous creature.

Zeke didn’t care.

He was too angry to do anything but rush blindly at the monster, roaring along the way. It responded in kind, and the two crashed into one another with enough force to send a shockwave across the courtyard. Trees splintered and fell. Clouds of dust erupted into the air. But neither of the combatants could be bothered to notice.

Instead, they ripped into one another with reckless abandon. Both healed almost as quickly as the wounds appeared. Zeke was powered by demonic mana, while regeneration seemed to be the hallmark of the reconstituted horror. So, they fought to a standstill, with neither side gaining an advantage.

Until the corrupted mana in the air dissipated to nothing.

Zeke staggered as his fuel ran out. He tried to switch to his unattuned store of mana, but it happened too slowly. The horror, seeing an opening, redoubled its efforts, ripping into Zeke’s suddenly vulnerable flesh.

His organs were ripped asunder. Bones cracked. And the agony of being literally torn to pieces joined the pain the came in the wake of using so much demonic mana. Then, his transformation completed, and the pain faded. As it did, he aimed a vicious front kick at the monster, sending it skidding across the ground to hit one of the few trees that had managed to remain upright.

Somewhat.

The damage remained. It was soothed somewhat by the pure version of [Cambion’s Awakening], but the skill worked too slowly. If he took any more damage, he would pass the point of no return and perish soon after.

It was inevitable.

So, without any other option, Zeke turned toward his loan unused skill, [Unleash Momentum]. He’d kept it in reserve, knowing that if he and his friends were going to make it through the dungeon, they would have to face off against something truly terrifying. For a similar reason, he’d refrained from using Worldbreaker, which would not only leave him completely drained, but it would also wreak havoc on his surroundings. Using either was a last resort.

But it seemed that he’d finally reached the stage where he’d have to play all his cards.

Even then, there was every chance that he was too late.

Zeke gathered his mana, funneling it into his skill, then swung his fist as he used [Unleash Momentum]. The power of a thousand swings erupted from his hand, tearing across the courtyard and into the reconstituted horror. It attempted to dodge, but it was far too injured to do more than shift its weight so it took the hit in its side.

When the skill hit the monster, the impact was explosive. Nothing in the courtyard survived the resultant shockwave. Trees were ripped out of the ground. Low walls were shattered. Clumps of grass were disintegrated.

But more importantly, the grotesque creature that was Zeke’s target went skidding backward, skipping across the ground until it hit the outer wall, where it exploded like a balloon filled with blood and viscera.

Zeke collapsed to one knee, the effects of his injuries mingling with the overwhelming fatigue that came from guiding so much force. But he only let himself rest for a split second before he realized what was wrong.

He still hadn’t received kill energy from either monster.

That’s when something wrapped around his waist and dragged him backward. He tried to react. He scratched and clawed at the fleshy appendage that had encircled his midsection. But it did no good. He’d thrown almost everything he had at these monsters, and it had all been for naught. On top of that, he was barely capable of maintaining consciousness, much less continuing the fight.

He had lost.

And that fact was almost enough to send him spiraling into a pit of despair.

However, Zeke was built from stronger stuff than that, and he quickly suppressed those feelings so he could focus on the problem at hand.

Even as he was dragged inexorably backwards, he realized that there really was only one viable solution. He had one more option, and it was the single most devastating ability he could bring to bear.

The Worldbreaker technique.

He didn’t want to use it because he felt certain that neither he nor the dungeon would survive the aftermath. The few times he’d utilized the technique before had been devastating, turning the area into a mana desert. The first time he’d used it, he’d nearly died. The other instances hadn’t been much better, either.

But if there was one thing it did well, it was kill the unkillable. Its name was well-earned, and Zeke suspected that, eventually, it would be capable of truly breaking the world.

He didn’t want to use it. But he wanted to die even less. So, the choice was clear.

He focused on his attunements, weaving what little earth and demonic mana he could find into a braid. Then, he added his own unattuned mana, fortifying the entire technique with his Will. The disparate powers blazed in his mind, threatening to tear him apart if he didn’t release it.

But just before he did, everything changed.

Even as he’d prepared his technique, Silik, Jasper, and Eta arrived in the courtyard. None of them took long to recognize the dire situation for what it was, and they immediately sprang into action. Silik aimed beams of sizzling light at the creature while Eta coaxed hundreds of thick, thorny vines from the earth. Even as Silik’s [Spear of Memories] tore chunks out the monster, Eta’s vines wrapped themselves around the creature, suffocating it in a living cocoon. Then, when she raised her fist, the vines contracted, ripping through the monster with vicious efficiency.

Finally, Jasper darted forward, his speed enhanced by [Accelerating Crescendo], and slashed at the flesh tendril that had wrapped itself around Zeke’s waist. His rapier wasn’t really a cutting weapon, but its edge was still sharp enough to get through the monstrous appendage. Finally, after five or six hacks, he severed the thing, and Zeke fell free.

“They regenerate,” Zeke muttered, focusing the entirety of his being on unraveling the braid of devastating power he’d concocted. If he simply released it, the results would be catastrophic. Thankfully, his Path of Arcane Destruction as well as his experience gave him the control he needed to pick it apart. Still, it took every ounce of his concentration to keep it from going out of control.

But he managed it.

As he did so, his companions finished the already-wounded monster off. Zeke saw enough to recognize that, if he hadn’t nearly killed it a few times already, they never would have managed. But it had used so much of its available life energy to continuous reconstitute its body that it didn’t have much left over to heal from the fresh set of attacks.

Finally, Zeke received the influx of kill energy that told him that both monsters had finally died. At last, he let himself relax, collapsing backwards onto the ground as he tried to keep [Cambion’s Awakening] active.

“What in all the hells was that thing?!” spat Jasper.

Zeke just shook his head. “Well, it started off as a wereterror. I’m not sure what it was there at the end.”