Chapter 389 - A Small Problem (Patreon)

Zeke stomped on the ground, and the earth cracked. A line of destruction tore across the ground, covering the distance between the two combatants in the blink of an eye. The Puppeteer’s ghoulish eyes widened, and he tried to leap to the side. But before he could move more than a foot, the ground exploded, disgorging a gout of lava at least forty feet across.

It wasn’t just melted rock, though. Woven into the liquid earth were black tendrils of pure corruption that made the geyser of lava infinitely more destructive. The entire lower half of the puppeteer’s body melted as the gout of lava’s momentum sent his blistered torso rocketing to the tent’s ceiling.

The gout of melted rock, flame, and corruption only lasted a second before dissipating, but by that point, the damage was already done. The half-destroyed puppeteer flopped to the ground only a half-dozen feet from Zeke, landing with a wet plop. He wasn’t dead yet, but it was close enough to give Zeke plenty of time to focus on his skill.

Clearly, as the description had indicated, [Hell Geyser] was a powerfully destructive ability. After embracing the skill, activation only required that he stomp on the ground, and the destruction would travel in a straight line. He could adjust the location of the geyser itself, but only slightly. So, it would take a little practice to make sure that he didn’t miss his targets entirely. However, the forty-foot diameter of the gout of magma and corruption made it a little more forgiving than it otherwise would have been.

More importantly, Zeke felt like, if he so desired, he could use the skill again without delay. The only limiting factor was that it required quite a bit of mana, and repeated use would quickly drain his reserves. Perhaps he could allay some of that cost by draining his surroundings, but there were few locations featuring the right combinations of attuned mana. The demon realm would work, and he suspected that he could have managed it near the gate that had once connected Min Ferilik to Hell. But anywhere else, and it would be a stretch.

“How many times do you think I could use it in a row?” he asked, approaching the squirming remnant of the Puppeteer. The ghoulish creature was, at present, trying to claw its way to safety. It had only gotten a few inches away by the time Zeke reached it.

Eveline answered, “Three times. Four if you’re entirely fresh.”

“So, we’ll call it three,” he said. After all, he almost always had one or more of his skills active. [Cambion’s Awakening], [Triune Colossus], and [Bulwark of the Triumvirate] weren’t particularly hungry skills, but keeping them active did require a steady stream of his mana. And rare was the battle where he didn’t use all three.

He stepped close to the puppeteer. The monster had taken the hit as well as could be expected, but few creatures could have survived that attack unscathed. The fact that it had managed to survive at all was a testament to its endurance. But now, Zeke needed to finish it off.

So, without further delay, he hefted his hammer and swung it like a sledgehammer. It descended with world rending force, destroying the puppeteer’s head. Still, though, he didn’t receive the influx of kill energy he’d expected. So, he proceeded to swing again, pounding its torso into paste. Over and over, he swung until, after the fifth, the creature finally died.

“Wow,” he said aloud. The fact that it had taken so many swings to put it of its misery meant that [Hell Geyser] had done even more damage than he’d first thought.

But that really wasn’t surprising. He’d never really had a normal attack skill. In the beginning, [Leech Strike] had been described as minimally damaging, and his experiences in the Radiant Isles had supported that description. Its real usefulness lay in the fact that it healed him based on the power of his own swings. His next attack skill was [Unleash Momentum], which functioned on a similarly convoluted premise by storing a portion of each swing so it could be later unleashed. It was extremely powerful, but it took quite some time to build to its peak.

The rest of his skills were more utilitarian in nature. [Weight of Two Worlds] could do damage, but it was more useful as a means to slow his enemies down. And [Center of Gravity] was just a means to keep his enemies from remaining at a distance.

So, [Hell Geyser] was his first fully dedicated, normal attack skill. And it had far exceeded his expectations in terms of power.

“Putting all those stats to good use,” Eveline said.

“How does that work?” he asked.

“It uses a combination of all your stats to determine how strong each skill is,” she said. “So, with your uncommonly high tiers of each stat, plus the generally inflated numbers themselves, your skills are far more powerful than they otherwise would be. There’s more to it, like a skill’s grade, but that’s the gist of it.”

“How did I not know this?”

“Because you’re a barely sentient lump of muscle?”

“Ouch,” Zeke said, chuckling slightly. “Got me right in the feelings.”

“Oh, come on. You know I don’t actually believe that. You have…thoughts. Sometimes,” she said, a note of amusement in her tone. “Seriously, though – you’ve never really relied on your skills for damage. Most people do.”

“Good to know,” he said. Then, after looting what was left of the Puppeteer – and getting nothing – he looked around. His eyes settled on a miniature doorway that had appeared in the center of the tent, then asked, “So, guessing that’s the exit.”

“Probably. Could just lead to another challenge,” Eveline said. “Kind of a dungeon within a dungeon.”

“Is that possible?” he asked.

She gave a mental shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine. The few dungeons I conquered back in Hell were much less elaborate than this,” she said. “But then again, I didn’t just rush through any old portal I could find. I actually did research on the dungeons I intended to challenge. Clearly, you do things differently.”

“It’s worked out so far,” he countered. He knew Eveline’s criticism wasn’t entirely serious; sure, she’d cautioned against entering the dungeon, but she also knew they hadn’t had a lot of choices in the matter.

“Until it doesn’t.”

“That’s what ‘so far’ means,” he pointed out, stepping toward the door and letting [Triune Colossus] fade. It was only about three feet tall, and the frame twisted like an M.C. Escher print. Sighing, he got on his hands and knees and squeezed through. The world seemed to shudder as he pushed through, and slowly, a scene materialized.

And for a moment, Zeke’s mind trembled at the sight.

Wooden cabinets the size of mountains rose all around him. A window on the same scale stood on one wall of a cavernous room, while a kitchen table sat in the center.

“Am I tiny?” he muttered to himself. “Or is everything just…huge?”

“Probably the latter,” Eveline said. “Head’s up, though. You’re not alone.”

That was an understatement. Only a few dozen feet away, there were hundreds of enormous ants walking in a line along the bottom of one of the cabinets. And one had veered off, making a beeline toward where Zeke had entered. He turned, glancing at the door through which he’d climbed, but it was already fading away.

“You’ve killed ants before. What’s the problem?”

Zeke shook his head. “I’m not worried about the ants,” he said, embracing [Triune Colossus]. There was plenty of ambient earth mana to fuel the earthen version, but he chose the unattuned form of the skill. He grew, his body morphing into something resembling his bronze golems, though with a bit more rock and crystal involved. He paid his changing body no mind, though. Instead, he focused on the now-charging ant. “I’m worried about whatever lives in a kitchen this big.”

But at that moment, he didn’t have time to think about anything but the coming battle. The ant, which was at least the size of a charging rhino, was almost on top of him. When it finally reached him, Zeke met it with a hammer swing that sent it skidding backwards. However, despite the power of the blow, its chitin was uncracked.

That was okay, though. He charged forward, hitting the insect with a follow up that managed to chip the hard exoskeleton. It screeched – a high-pitched sound that was sure to carry – before Zeke smashed into it with another attack. He leaped atop the creature, then, holding on with one hand, he dismissed Voromir into his spatial storage before grabbing the ridge of its chitinous armor with the other. Then, using every point of strength he possessed, Zeke ripped it free.

The ant’s screeching reached a new level, but Zeke wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he tossed the shell aside and ripped into its soft flesh. The monster only lasted a few seconds after that before it collapsed.

By that point, though, the other ants had heard their fellow’s screams for help, and when Zeke looked up, he saw that the entire line of monsters were charging in his direction.

“Are ants supposed to do that?” he wondered. “I thought they communicated via pheromones or something.”

“I don’t think biology really applies,” said Eveline.

Zeke found himself in agreement, and he leaped off the fallen ant’s back. As he did, he took aim at the front of the line – they were still moving single-file – and stomped on the ground. For the second time in the past few minutes, a line of destruction tore through the ground before ending in a huge geyser of corrupted magma.

A half-dozen of the ants were immediately swallowed by the gout of flame and corruption, but to Zeke’s surprise, the others flowed around the expression of his skill. When it dissipated, Zeke saw that, even though he’d managed to kill a few, the death toll wasn’t nearly as steep as he’d hoped. There were still dozens coming, and even if he used [Hell Geyser] as many times as his mana would allow, there was no way he’d get even half of them.

But that was okay. There was always the old-fashioned way, which boiled down to pummeling the monsters to death. So, preemptively activating [Cabmion’s Awakening], he stepped forward to meet their charge.

He dashed ahead, lowering his shoulder, and knocking the first ant aside. He was rewarded with the sound of cracking chitin, which was accompanied by a pained screech, but he didn’t pay it any mind. Instead, Zeke spun, using his hammer to sweep the legs out from under the next ant. It collapsed, then he stomped again, crushing its head as he activated [Hell Geyser]. Another rift sundered the floor before a second gout of corrupted magma swallowed a half-dozen other ants at the back of the line.

Zeke turned his stomp into a leap that took him high into the air. He raised his hammer, increasing his weight at the apex, then descending with the force of a meteor. The ant upon which he landed exploded under the weight of the attack, and a rippling shockwave tore across the floor, breaking tiles and sending more ants tumbling backwards.

Zeke used [Hell Geyser] again, stomping on the ground and sending a third gout of destruction bursting through the ground. This time, the corrupted magma swallowed eight of the ants he’d sent tumbling backwards, and when it dissipated, Zeke had already killed at least half of the monsters.

But he didn’t have enough mana to use [Hell Geyser] again. Fortunately, he still had enough for his other skills. So, racing forward, Zeke leaped over the charred remains of the ant corpses, then fell upon the disoriented remainder. To keep them off-balance, he activated [Weight of Two Worlds], pressing them into the ground. By that point, he automatically adjusted his own weight to accommodate the increased gravity of the skill, so as he fell upon the ants, it felt like they were moving in water.

That was fine by him, and Zeke jumped onto the back of the closest ant, where he proceeded to hammer it with one vicious strike after another. On the fifth, its chitin shattered, exposing its vulnerable innards. It died soon after, and Zeke moved on to the next.

Like that, he continued, losing himself in the heady savagery of the battle. When the ants surrounded him, he switched to the earth-attuned version of [Triune Colossus] so he could take advantage of the increased durability and strength that came with it. They chipped away at his rocky form, one mandible-full at a time, but Zeke kept himself going with a generous application of [Cambion’s Awakening].

A familiar haze enveloped Zeke’s mind as he fought on. He was aware of his actions, but he moved mostly on the instincts he’d earned throughout his time since being reborn. He didn’t have to think. He just had to keep his mind trained on the continued fight. It was a strategy he’d learned at the end of the troll caves where he’d been reborn, and he’d put it to use in every lengthy battle since.

And like that, he slowly whittled the ants down. They didn’t die easily. It wasn’t enough to simply shatter their carapaces. Instead, he had to devote multiple blows to a single spot if he wanted to kill them. So, that was what he did, targeting weakened areas as often as he could and creating them when no other option presented itself.

It was a slog, long and arduous. But in the end, he emerged victorious. At some point, [Cambion’s Awakening] had lost ground, so his body bore plenty of damage. However, he’d won, and in any battle, that was all that was really important.

With that, Zeke let himself relax. His shoulders sagged as he looked around at the carnage he’d wrought. The overlarge kitchen was mostly untouched. Despite the damage he’d inflicted upon the tiles, the effect was localized. But corpses of ants were scattered everywhere, so Zeke took a few minutes to touch each one and loot anything that might be useful. He got plenty of their sturdy chitin and what had to be a ton of meat for his trouble.

“Well,” he said, taking a deep breath. “That was fun. But how do I get out of here?”

At that very moment, it felt like the earth shook, sending him into a stumble. A moment later, a gust of wind knocked him from his feet and sent him sprawling to the ruined tiles. Unsure of what was going on, Zeke rolled over and saw an enormous foot descending on him.