Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 14 – When the Party Ends (5)

I had already used «Strike», my full momentum was aiding the blow, yet it still wasn’t enough to penetrate through the thick field of energy protecting him.

I either had to do something at that moment granted to me or accept defeat.

There was still an ability I had yet to use, one I wasn’t even sure how to use.

{«Way of the Eruption»}

Rather than simply willing more power into my fist, I imagined my body as a volcano, full of pressure waiting to burst, blood flowing with a power that needed a direction—a power that I directed through my body as it seared through my bloodstream, a burning sensation accompanying it.

I endured the burning sensation, eyes wanting to water from the pain, barely able to do so in that moment of slowed time.

Then, when the energy reached my first, I pushed it again, one final time…

An intense heat warmed my face, and a flash of searing white light erupted from my fist and bridged that last small gap through the energy field between my fist and the Snake’s chest.

A system message emerged from the chaos.

[[Dungeon Cleared

Error: Unable to calculate rewards.

Error: Unregistered dungeon.

Error: Mana interference unreadable.]]

The screen flickered for a moment before vanishing again, and then the world blurred back into motion.

The Snake was launched backward, bouncing off of the lord’s seat and tumbling to the floor.

My forward momentum was slowed by the impact, causing me to crash unceremoniously to the floor, still disoriented by the strange pause and sliding for a moment across the rough stone.

As the dungeon had been cleared, the changes to the castle were undone, the cracks in the walls mended themselves, and the red light suffusing the chamber receded away until there was only darkness…

—A darkness lit by a floating purple orb where I had last seen the creature attack Rhil before I had turned away.

System messages floated at the edges of my vision, However, there were more important matters to attend to first.

“Hello?!”

Rhil’s voice echoed out from the slowly shrinking orb.

“Rhil?!”

I scrambled back up and almost fell over again as I tripped over myself in my frantic run down the dais stairs.

“Aizen? Can you hear me?”

When I reached the orb, by then the size of my upper body and still shrinking, I felt an invisible force that seemed to be pushing me away as if it were a magnetic field of sorts.

“What happened?! Where are you?”

“I don’t know. That monster let the thing in its hand loose after I jumped away. I think it transported me somewhere else…”

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I reached my hand towards the orb again, trying in vain to somehow push my hand through it.

My mind raced. I had no way of knowing where she might be in this huge world—she could even have been in the far unexplored regions outside of what we knew as civilized territory.

“Describe your surroundings for me, where are you? Is there anything that I might be able to use to find you?”

I heard Rhil’s labored breath through the orb.

“I… I’m in a cave. It’s cold and hard to breathe, I think I might be somewhere high up?”

That would make sense. It was probably akin to the feeling one would have after going from sea level to the top of a mountain where the air was less dense, which would explain her labored breathing.

The orb had shrunk to the size of my head.

“Is there anything else?!”

The location she was in was probably a mountain range, though it could have also been a magical phenomenon or some other unknown cause.

“There’s… there’s this occasional shrill cry farther down the tunnel and the sound of something leathery flapping. Something with wings?”

The orb was only going to allow us a few more seconds to communicate.

“Rhil, stay there as long as you can! I’ll find you!”

I wasn’t sure if she had entirely heard me as the orb blipped out of existence and I was left standing in a murky, permeating darkness.

—Cough, cough.

A series of wet coughs from somewhere behind me brought me out of my stupor.

The Snake was still alive.

“Fool…”

His voice rasped out from where I had last seen him, somewhere up near the lord’s seat.

Using the sound of his rasping breath and his voice, I stumbled back up the dais through the inky blackness towards him.

“Can’t be… stopped…”

It was so dim that I almost thought it a specter of my imagination at first, but a hazy red aura still leaked away from the Snake, the last bits of power that he had been trying to absorb from the dungeon.

Tap, Tap.

I don’t know if he saw me or guessed at my presence from the slow steps of my boots on the smooth stone floor, but he continued speaking, his form shaking but otherwise unmoving.

“You thought… this was… bad?”

I didn’t pay much mind to what nonsense he was speaking. I only wanted one thing from him.

“What did you do to Rhil?”

I crouched by his side.

“Tell me and I’ll send you off quickly.”

His body shook again as he laughed at my question.

“I don’t know… I only created it…”

Was he referring to the Amalgamation again? If he had only created it without regard for its abilities, it was believable that he wouldn’t understand what had happened either.

If that was the case…

He was useless to me.

Killing the party that had been trying to rob me initially hadn’t even been intentional—I had felt nothing but panic. Killing the thug when I got back while defending myself from his assault had left me feeling somewhat guilty, it had been another living, breathing person, after all.

The thought of killing the Snake, however, left me with naught but a bitter taste in my mouth. I thought of it as a necessity, only regretful that he hadn’t died sooner.

“From every city… this was… only a trial run.”

He coughed out the words.

“You’ll join me… soon.”

The Snake let out a last shuddering breath before going still for good. The hazy aura around him dissipated completely, and a final string of shimmering energy shot off from him, headed through the walls of the castle to who knows where.

I was once again left in darkness, a resolve building within me.

Finally, I opened the system messages that I had been ignoring.

[[Dungeon Cleared

Reward Calculated…

+2500 XP]]

[[Current XP: 3750/2000]]

[[Level Up!]]

The first window was the experience reward for clearing the dungeon, which boosted me to level three. Considering it took most people half a year or longer to reach level three, reaching it so quickly was almost unheard of.

[[Level 3!

Reward: +2 STR, +2 END

Skill: «Second Wind»

1 Free Skill Point]]

The level-up reward itself appeared next. With the additional +2 to STR and +2 to END, that set my STR at 16+4 and END at 16.

{{Quest Complete!

Save the City!

+500 XP}}

{{Current XP: 2100/2000}}

{{Level Up!}}

Finally, two messages appeared from the second system.

{{Eruption skill tree selections expanded!}}

I put the extra skill point into agility again; speed was still an issue.

{{Eruption Options

Power seeps through every blow, a steady yet constant pressure. The power of your Eruption will be reduced, but it will become easier and less costly to use.

Power comes at a cost, a great blow for great sacrifice. The power of your Eruption will increase dramatically, but your body becomes prone to the forces released by the Eruption.

Power burns, a painful yet constant reminder. The power of your Eruption can be condensed into a piercing blast, but otherwise remains the same.}}

An option for increased use, increased attack, or increased… condensation? I wasn’t sure what the last one could entail. I recalled the brief flash of energy I had seen emerge from my fist and I guessed that it would somehow enable me to condense the force of my attacks within a smaller area, like a sort of invisible spike from my knuckle perhaps.

The battle with the Snake had proven that I needed something to pierce barriers or armor with, which would likely come from the second or third options. While the option of having a sort of “nuclear” fallback as a trump card was appealing, it sounded like it would be able to harm me as well.

The third option, however, hinted at a sort of “armor piercing” effect to my attacks, which would have been helpful against the Snake. I could only imagine the outcome if Eruption by itself hadn’t been enough.

{{You have selected «Piercing Eruption».}}

With that, I completed my leveling, still standing alone in the dark room.

* * *

Reaper Scans

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* * *

Outside the castle…

After emerging from the castle, I was glad to see that signs of battle further into the city seemed to have ceased.

I worked my way through the streets back down to the city central, passing by people frantically putting out fires, resting, or tending to the wounded. The central square of the city in front of the Awakener Association had been turned into a field hospital of sorts, people streaming or being carried in and treated by the healers from the temple.

I sat down near the Association building and took a brief but needed rest.

Shutting my eyes, I bathed in the moment, taking in the smell of fire and soot, the coughs and cries of pain from the adventurers being treated, and the gentle warmth of the sun again on my face.

“Aizen?”

I was interrupted from my brief moment of peace by a familiar voice.

Alikr stood in front of me, still in his Association suit.

“Hey, Alikr… You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had…”

I let out a slight chuckle, thinking back on the events, thinking about where Rhil might be at that moment.

He raised an eyebrow at me and looked around the square as if to say that he would believe anything at that point.

“One moment I was helping newbies register for quests and the next, the sky darkened and transformed awakeners attacked us along with fiery goblinoids. We’re still not sure what happened, but it all stopped all at once…”

I had a long story to tell him, which could be saved for later. I had something more pressing to ask at that moment.

“Have you heard of a fighter by the name of Bernard by any chance? He should be traveling with a mage, Velle.”

I needed to know if Bernard was still in the city, as I had a proposition for him.