Chapter 388 - Circus (Patreon)

During the fight with the skeletal marionettes, Zeke hadn’t gotten a good look at the room. However, as it began to shake, he took the time to do so. It was octagonal, around forty yards wide, and featured walls composed of millions of bones. Some were clearly human, but others were just as obviously monstrous. Every ten feet or so were skulls whose eye sockets glowed, casting the room in pale blue light.

But Zeke was more worried about the four arches, one in each direction, along the walls. Only one of them was open, while the other three were blocked by sturdy gates. However, what really worried Zeke was the creature stepping through the lone open arch.

Zeke used [Inspect]:

Reanimated Behemoth – Level 56

The name was spot on. The creature was undead, though much more intact than any Zeke had seen back in the Radiant Isles. In fact, it looked as if it had been pieced together from a dozen disparate corpses. It stepped forward, the movement jerky and sudden, but its feet barely brushed against the ground. Its mismatched arms hung limp, and its shoulders slumped while its head lolled to the side grotesquely.

“Oh…it’s a puppet, too,” Zeke muttered to himself. The thing had no strings, but the moment the thought crossed Zeke’s mind, he recognized the creature’s unnatural movements for what they were.

Eveline asked, “But where’s the puppeteer?”

Zeke ignored the question. Instead, he glanced at his companions, and said, “Pudge, you’re our flanker. Sasha, stay back. Eta, try to tie it up. Silik, you’re up front with me. If I go down, you keep it off of Sasha and Eta.”

Everyone nodded, and Silik clapped a fist against his chest.

Zeke sent his awareness out, searching for earth-attuned mana. Curiously, he found plenty, which shouldn’t have been the case. The only thing he could think was that dungeons didn’t follow the same rules as the real world.

“Somewhat true,” Eveline said. “It’s more like it creates situations that are completely independent of what came before.”

Zeke didn’t have time to acknowledge her comment. Instead, he snatched at the earthen mana, fueling [Triune Colossus]. He grew, his strength and endurance skyrocketing as his body turned to rock and jagged crystal. Even as he transformed, he strode forward to meet the reanimated behemoth on his terms.

The bulky monster truly lived up to its name, towering over him by at least ten feet. But Zeke had fought bigger and more grotesque creatures, so he wasn’t dismayed. He kicked off the ground, raising his hammer and intending a massive blow that he intended to end the fight before it ever started.

However, when he drew within a few feet, the creature’s torso opened up – its top half tipping backwards far enough to touch the ground on the other side – and a much smaller but equally grotesque creature sprang forward. It moved so quickly that Zeke couldn’t even react before it latched onto him. And then, suddenly, he was yanked off his feet and toward that gaping maw.

He flailed as he flew through the air, but without any leverage, his efforts were useless. Even as the smaller creature ripped into him with oversized talons, Zeke’s companions reacted, attacking through various means. Zeke had no time to opportunity to do the same before he was pulled into the behemoth’s torso.

It closed around him.

And then, suddenly, he was somewhere else.

The smaller creature backflipped off of him, and Zeke got his first good look at the monster. Garishly dressed, the thing was perhaps five feet tall, with thin, spindly limbs and, most distressingly, a ghastly white face paired with a curly-haired, blood red wig. Knowing what he’d see, Zeke used [Inspect]:

Ghoulish Clown – Level 55

The little creature continued to backflip away until it reached an outer ring, where it joined a host of others just like it. If there were less than a dozen of them, Zeke would have been surprised, but it was difficult to get a good count with how they never stopped moving and flipping.

Zeke spared a glance around the new location, and he was unsurprised to find canvas walls and a vaulted ceiling that suggested that he was inside of a huge tent. Looking around, he saw even more clowns. Even more distressingly, familiar carnival music started playing.

Readying himself to fight a horde of ghoulish clowns, Zeke hefted his hammer. However, only a moment after doing so, he heard a sharp clap. The clowns stopped moving, some in mid-flip. Another clap, and they resumed their motion, rushing to a small barrel on the other side of the tent.

Zeke watched as what must’ve been a hundred of the little creatures dove into the barrel, one after another. He had no idea how to react, so he remained motionless as they disappeared into the barrel. Once the last clown was gone, it tipped over on its side and rolled away.

“Welcome, welcome one and all!” came the amplified voice of a carnival barker. Zeke jerked his head around to see a tall, thin man standing upon a dais suspended high overhead. “We have gathered here for a very special performance!”

A cheer sounded, though when Zeke looked around, he saw no source.

“I present to you, the Fearsome Rock Man!” the barker shouted, gesturing to Zeke. “And his challenger, The Strong Man!”

Suddenly, the ground opened, and a giant of a man ascended from steps below. He was enormous, with bulging muscles glistening with oil and a truly impressive beard. He wore a black singlet and nothing else.

He roared, slapping his fists against his chest.

“Truly awe-inspiring. Who will survive? The man of stone? Or the strongest man in the world? Let’s find out!” the barker shouted.

The unseen crowd cheered.

And the strong man, who Zeke had identified as level fifty-four, roared, then charged at Zeke.

He met the charge with an uppercut that sent the man – or monster, given the context – flying backwards through the air. Zeke had no interest in prolonging the fight, and given that the man hadn’t used any abilities, he expected it to be nothing more complicated than a simple brawl.

And Zeke was more than prepared for that kind of fight.

So, when the creature landed, it found the head of Zeke’s hammer descending upon it. One sledgehammer blow after another, Zeke pulverized the man’s face until, at last, it exploded like an overripe melon. But Zeke didn’t stop. Not until he’d destroyed most the strong man’s torso as well.

At that point, the barker shouted, “Incredible brutality! Truly impressive! But that was only the first. Behold, the Herd!”

Horns sounded, and the ground opened up once again. His breath labored from exertion, Zeke watched as a half-dozen skeletal elephants ascended from below. A tiny one even flew around, using bat-like wings attached to its head to keep it aloft.

“Pretty sure it’s magic keeping it in the air,” said Eveline in his head.

“Or the power of self-confidence,” he muttered.

But he didn’t have time to discuss it, because the moment the ground closed, the herd of skeletal elephants charged forward in a stampede. Increasing his weight, Zeke met the first with a shoulder charge that sent most of its bones to scatter across the tent. The crowd gasped as Zeke turned his attention to the rest of the elephants.

A tusk swept in, chipping his rocky torso, but Zeke was far too durable to fall to such a weak attack. He lashed out with his hammer, shattering the tusk before whipping around and backhanding another of the skeletal elephants. He followed that up with a vicious stomp that destroyed the creature’s foot, then lowered his shoulder and bulled through the bony pachyderms.

Once he was free, he leaped high into the air, and descended with a momentous overhand strike that completely destroyed one of the monsters’ heads. The ground shook with his landing, and he started to initiate another attack. But he never got further than cocking his arm back before the small, flying elephant swooped in and knocked him from his feet with a dive bomb attack.

Zeke stumbled to his knees, and that moment of weakness cost him as the rest of the skeletal elephants piled on. They trampled him, swinging their tusks like weapons as they chipped away at his earthen body. Zeke tried to activate [Cambion’s Awakening], but there was no earth-attuned mana to fuel it. Instead, he activated it with his own pool of unattuned mana, though that version of the skill couldn’t keep up with the damage being done.

With a roar, Zeke pushed himself to his feet, sweeping his hammer around to the bones of any monster in range. Then, he looked to the sky, found the little flier, and used [Center of Gravity]. Clearly surprised by the sudden change of gravity, it fell toward him. At the last second, it tried to change direction, but by that point, it was too close.

Zeke pummeled it into the ground, then stomped it into bone dust.

The other skeletal elephants went wild, charging at him with reckless abandon. But that was fine by Zeke. He met them with immovable fury, destroying them one broken bone at a time.

Finally, when they had all fallen, the barker shouted, “Incredible! Magnificent! But can the Rock Man stand against the Cavalcade of Clowndom?!”

“Ugh,” Zeke muttered. “I really hate clowns.”

As he said that, the barrel rolled back into view. Zeke had no idea where it had originally gone. Nor did he see whence it had come. As always, he just shrugged and assumed that the explanation was magic. After all, he was currently inside a circus tent that was itself within a monster’s torso. Logic had long since ceased to apply.

“That’s not true at all. Just because it’s magic doesn’t mean it’s not logical,” Eveline said. “You just don’t know the rules.”

“And you do?”

“Ah…no. Not in this particular instance. But I’m sure it’s all perfectly explicable!”

Zeke just shook his head as he watched the clowns pile out of the barrel. He tried to move forward and attack them before they could assemble, but some invisible force prevented him from moving more than a few feet in that direction. Perhaps he could have shattered the effect with one of his techniques – probably Runebreaker – or his Will, but that would have left him completely at the mercy of the clowns.

Besides, Zeke felt confident in his chances.

So, when the creatures finally started to charge him – erratically and with far more flips than was necessary – Zeke cocked his hammer back, then used [Unleash Momentum]. It was the first time he’d used it in quite some time, so he had more than a little weight behind the skill. He swept his hammer forward, sending the force of thousands of swings arcing out. It hit the mass of clowns a second later.

It tore the first few apart, ripping their skin away and tearing their limbs from their bodies. The next few were a little better off, and instead of simply exploding, they were thrown backwards as their bodies twisted in all sorts of unnatural ways. After that, the rest of them were simply knocked from their feet with bonebreaking force.

Even as the skill tore through the gathered clowns, Zeke charged forward, his feet thundering against the ground. He fell upon them with deceptive speed, then used [Weight of Two Worlds]. The injured clowns struggled to rise beneath the force of so much gravity, and Zeke took ruthless advantage of the handicap he’d inflicted upon them.

In moments, the entire group was dead, mashed to a bloody pulp by the combination of Zeke’s skills and his immense strength.

That seemed to surprise the barker, who gave a magnified cough, then said, “Ah…that…that was…incredible! Yes. Incredible! Such a show of strength!”

“Chances that ends this whole thing?” Zeke asked Eveline.

“Low. Very low.”

At the same time, the barker shouted, “I suppose it was always going to come to this! Behold, the Puppeteer!”

And then, he leaped down from his perch. Zeke used [Inspect]:

The Puppeteer – Level 60

The music hit a crescendo. The crowd let out the loudest cheer yet. And Zeke groaned. He’d already used his most powerful skill, and given the level of the monster involved – or more importantly, the fact that he was clearly the boss of the entire scenario – he knew he was in for a tough fight.

Fortunately, Zeke’s efforts had born fruit, and for the first time in a while, he had the opportunity to select a new skill.

The Puppeteer stepped forward, but Zeke held up a hand. “Give me a minute, will you? Just need to catch my breath,” he said.

Ever the showman, the Puppeteer swept his hat from his head, spread his arms wide, then bowed as he said, “A moment, then! I wouldn’t want to defeat you at anything but your best!”

His voice echoed throughout the tent, and the unseen crowed let out another cheer. Zeke heard none of it. The moment the monster – and he was that, looking like an overgrown ghoul in a garish tuxedo – acquiesced, Zeke turned his attention inward.

The first option was called [Hell Geyser]:

[Hell Geyser] (D) – A child of earth and corruption, you have a foot in both worlds. Summon a geyser of corrosive hellfire beneath the feet of your enemies. Upgradeable.

That certainly didn’t sound like the repeatable attack he’d hoped to get. However, from experience, Zeke knew that anything that took advantage of two separate affinities was assuredly powerful. He only had to look at his braid techniques to verify that.

He looked at the next option, which was called [Earthen Armor]:

[Earthen Armor] (D) – You have displayed an affinity for earth mana. Surround yourself with earthen mana, blunting all attacks. Upgradeable.

“Pass,” he muttered. With [Triune Colossus], he already had plenty of armor, and while he could easily see the usefulness of increased defense, he preferred to shore up his weaknesses rather than enhance his strong points. So, he moved to the third and final option:

[Blade of Corruption] (D) – The blood of demons runs through you. Summon a blade of demonic energy, wreaking havoc on your enemies. Upgradeable.

“I know this one,” Eveline said.

“Oh? What does it do?” he asked. The description was vague enough that he would take any additional information he could get.

“Just what it says in the explanation. You can use it to summon a giant sword,” she said. “But the blade’s special. It will spread corruption whenever it cuts an enemy, and it will also allow you to fire gouts of [Hellfire]. Most demon warriors have some variant of the skill, though this one seemed exceptionally powerful, being D-Grade.”

Zeke shook his head and checked The Puppeteer. The oversized ghoul was still waiting patiently, so Zeke didn’t rush to judgement. Instead, he thought about the implications of the skill. It would give him the repeatable attack he wanted. In addition, it would surely increase his offensive capabilities. So, it seemed an easy choice.

“You’ve already made your decision,” Eveline said. “Just make it official.”

Zeke did, and as soon as he felt the rune settle onto his body, he looked at The Puppeteer and said, “Alright. I’m good to go. Let’s do this.”

And then he embraced his new skill.