Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 11 – When the Party Ends (2)

The approach to the castle itself had signs of struggle.

Discarded and scorched pieces of armor, warped by heat and blackened by fire, lay on the road to the castle. Ashes and bits of blackened bone spread out under the debris were all that remained of the previous wearers of the armor.

Ruined weapons and shattered crossbow bolts littered the street as well. Ahead, we saw small, humanoid figures struggling amongst themselves over a bit of metal glinting from in between them.

I recognized them as more of those strange goblin-like things I had fought previously underneath the rainstorm.

When we approached closer, the figures looked up just in time for Rhil to raise her hand and send a bolt of lightning crashing down on them from the clear, orange sky.

BAM!

Rhil lowered her hand and we passed by their fried remains, the odor of charred flesh wafting through the air… It smelled almost like a barbecue, now that I think about it.

In between their bodies, through the ashes drifting down that had been kicked up by the concussive blast of lightning, I caught a glimpse of what they had been fighting over: one of the pendants that the city leaders held, warped by the heat and splattered with a red ichor.

Finally, we reached the gaping maw of that castle, the gates that only appeared to grow more ominous the closer we approached. At that point, looking back, we could see fires over the rest of the city, evidence of further struggles that we could only hope went well.

Rhil and I shared a look of determination, her still in her soot-stained green dress and me in the suit, before we stepped forward through the gates into the castle square.

While I could imagine that the square itself might have once been a lively place for the changing of the guard, guest entrance, and information exchange, it was empty when we entered.

Flickers of red suffused the orange glow of the sun in the sky, the previously chill morning air seeming to weigh heavy on our skin. We stopped when the sound of something scratching steadily over stone echoed from a great distance, ringing louder and louder with each quickening flicker of the sky.

Eventually, the flickers picked up in speed, and the castle grounds themselves warped and twisted around us, morphing into something similar but altogether different. The previously smooth stone walls of the castle cracked and bent, the open square leading to the castle doors seemed to overlay with a light, smoky fog that gave reality to a figure sitting before the iron castle doors that had not been there before.

Then, when the figure solidified into reality and the red sky remained constant, a system message appeared.

[[You have entered the Dungeon of the Snake]]

The castle itself had somehow been transformed into a dungeon area.

It being a dungeon meant that the rules of reality as I knew it could be broken. Things could seemingly appear from nothing, the laws of physics could be broken at will to the dungeon’s whim, and time itself only had whatever meaning the dungeon lent it.

The figure before the castle doors stood, its hands closing around the air while the ash-suffused fog swirled around its hands and solidified into a sword in either hand. The figure looked up and I recognized it.

It was the elf from the party, the head guardsman of the city. His skin had been warped into a charcoal grey coloration and his eyes bore only the red fire of rage instead of the quiet intelligence I had previously observed.

We had enough time to register him as an enemy before he shifted across the square towards us.

I had previously seen his shifting as an almost invisible blue hue, but my increased agility became apparent when I could make out his limbs extending towards us as he approached, attempting to target us separately when he arrived in between us.

While I still didn’t have the speed to fully dodge the blow, the earth from within me emerged and formed a protective barrier against the blade after I instinctively summoned it forward.

The earth slowed the blade enough for me to fully jump back before it was sliced in two and I found I had to resummon it as a gauntlet around my right hand, the sense of fatigue within me less than normal, perhaps because I had leveled up.

Rhil avoided the blade heading her way in a flash of light, the air ionizing and exploding when the blade reached her skin and hit an invisible barrier she had summoned around herself.

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While the creature that the elf had become was strong enough to avoid getting blasted back by the force of it, Rhil was launched backward in the direction opposite the blade, avoiding the cut.

Before he could move properly again, I jumped at him, swinging my fist with the additional power of «Strike», more powerful than ever from my increased agility and strength.

[[Mana: 75/100]]

The elf brought his blades together to form a cross and slid back on the stony ground after my fist made a solid impact against his guards.

Skkkkkk

Before he could recover from the slide, another blast of lightning came down from the sky behind him, knocking him off balance and slowing him enough for me to catch up. Then, right when he shifted in my vision again, moving to the side with his sword raised for a counterattack, I tried something new.

[[«Strike»]]

[[Mana: 50/100]]

Instead of trying to block his blade or hit him with my fist, I used a «Strike» against the ground with my foot, instantly changing direction. His swing narrowly whisked by.

Taking advantage of the opening left by his attack, when his other blade swung to catch me in the side—

[[«Strike»]]

[[Mana: 25/50]]

—I used another «Strike» to counterattack, aiming for his torso. I wasn’t confident enough in my footing to land an attack on his head from my position. I was gambling on being able to hit him before his blade reached me.

Crack.

My hit made a solid impact directly on his sternum and he was launched backward, his attack canceled.

Then, before he could even land on the ground again…

BAM!

Rhil sent another bolt of lightning arcing from the sky, slamming the elf-thing into the ground, where it remained unmoving for a few moments before dissolving away into nothing, leaving its blades behind.

Ding!

Multiple system messages passed before me with the defeat of the monster.

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Reaper Scans

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* * *

[[Dungeon Miniboss Defeated!]]

[[XP Gained Based on Contribution: +500]]

[[Current XP: 1250/1000]]

[[Level Up!]]

[[Current XP: 1250/2000]]

[[Level 2!

Reward: +2 STR, +2 END

Skill: «Walk it Off»

1 Free Skill Point]]

I let out a shaky sigh, the adrenaline getting to me all at once after the fight ended. Even a single mistake would have been the death of me. Such worries didn’t go through my head during the fight, I hadn’t felt afraid or petrified, but the aftermath of the battle allowed my mind time to catch up with the reality of what I had been through.

Following the defeat of a miniboss in a dungeon, the vicinity was usually labeled as a temporary safe zone that would allow adventurers to recuperate and divide the loot.

I took advantage of the temporary reprieve to catch my breath. The fog around the courtyard gradually dissipated as well, baring the ruined square fully for the eye to witness.

Tap, Tap.

Light footsteps approached behind me and I felt a slender arm wrap itself around the back of my neck before a softness pressed into me and the light scent of flowers wafted into my nose as Rhil’s hair brushed past my face.

She didn’t say anything, and we remained still like that for a time. I stared blankly ahead and catching my breath with her leaning into me, hugging me from behind.

Eventually, after I caught my breath, she let me go.

“Will you be ok?”

It was the longest life-or-death battle I had experienced yet. The battles against the goblins had been quick, against enemies that were easily defeated, not anything like the blows I had exchanged with the elf-thing.

She probably understood—it was something all adventurers eventually experienced, after all.

I nodded my head, standing back up.

“Yeah… I’ll be fine.”

She approached the twin swords while I looked at my status screen.

“These aren’t too bad.”

She brought up their information displays to show me.

[[Blades of the Corrupted

When wielded together, these blades enhance the agility of the user.

+2 AGI]]

They were a pair of straight swords that were surprisingly light and glinted with specks of dark red infused into the metal of the blades. Even without the stat bonus, I suspected that the blades would be more durable than usual steel.

Weapons that provided more than a +1 stat bonus weren’t necessarily extremely rare, but they were usually found in dungeons experienced by those who were at least level 5.

I wasn’t sure how my ability would work with weapons, but it probably wasn’t the best place to try a combat style I was completely unfamiliar with.

We decided it would be better to store them in her item storage box for the time being, as I had yet to acquire a storage box that didn’t require an external mana output to activate.

Next, I looked over the new skill I had acquired from reaching level 2 and added the free stat point to agility—speed was still something I had found myself outmatched in during the battle.

[[Mana: 100/100

STR: 14+4

END: 14

AGI: 11+4

PER: 10

MAG: 10

MANA: 10]]

Thanks to the level-up, my mana had been restored to the max. Unfortunately the same didn’t apply to the dim sense of fatigue I felt from having used the earth control ability from the second system.

[[Walk it Off

Hardens the user’s body for the next three seconds, giving a +5 increase to endurance.

Scales with level.

Cost: 25 Mana]]

I could see the uses for the ability immediately. Endurance toughened the body, which could turn a deep cut into a surface wound, prevent a bone from breaking from a hard impact, or allow the user to endure the damage from a spell or elemental attack that would otherwise leave someone incapacitated.

My mind went to Rhil again. I knew that she had stopped being an adventurer for a reason, and I was worried that returning to using her abilities in combat again might have been having a negative effect on her.

“How are you doing?”

I asked, still unsure as to why she quit in the first place.

Her lips quirked up a bit at my question.

“Good enough to continue. We have a city to save, after all.”

Our moment of reprieve was short-lived.

As we approached the iron doors of the castle, the ash throughout the air swirled upwards into a column above the peak of the castle and a red beam of light emerged from the apex.

VWOOM.

A dull echo reverberated through the air and the ground of the courtyard cracked further, splitting apart. Hands emerged from the cracks in the earth, pulling behind them withered bodies of skeletal-looking zombies.

The dungeon was expanding.