RD 3 Ch 52 (Patreon)

Strength flooded through me as Last Stand activated. My muscles swelled with power, my body filling with speed, and my mind suddenly quickened.

As the pain of my injuries bled away, my awareness multiplied. It had been a while since I'd used Last Stand, yet I quickly adjusted to the new feeling. I threw open my stat window as I rushed back at Boss and the Dracoon, clicking my tongue sighing in disappointment. Unfortunately Blood Rage Ascension and Last Stand did not stack; instead, both only applied to my base stats.

That was fine. I had plenty of power. Gripping my fists tight, I could feel it in every inch of my body.

I jumped forward and didn’t even bother summoning a sword as I slammed my fist into the shoulder of the Dracoon. It destroyed my knuckles, but it had the desired effect.

For the first time since our fight had begun, the massive monster was no longer the strongest creature present. The giant form tumbled to the side from my punch as I landed in a crouch and shot towards its now exposed belly. I was not going to waste time in my final form.

Boss was wailing, screaming in confusion as I appeared next to his chest, slamming my fist repeatedly into the chest of the beast, feeling bones crunch under each press of my fist. The Dracoon began to cough up blood. The wounds that still existed on it squelched, giving out more blood than before. 

I stepped back, grabbing the Dracoon by the fur on its cheek and pulling its head down closer to me.

It opened its mouth, trying to breathe what I assumed was a firestorm breath, only for me to snap an uppercut into the soft underside of his jaw. Its head flipped up, jaw snapping shut as fire spurted out of the edges. The ability was as good as cancelled as I jerked it back down to see Boss cowering and trying to use the Dracoon's fur to hide. 

I chuckled humorlessly as another Blood Blade appeared in my hand.

The dracoon was too weak to get up. Furiously, Boss cursed at me as it failed to respond.

"Don't worry," I told him. "I'll get plenty of rewards from this." My blade stabbed into the crystal between them all.

While Boss and the dracoon were ostensibly the problems before me, Zaydelin’s souls fragments were really my greatest concerns.

“Curse you!” Zaydelin’s voice seeped from the cracks in the crystal. “Curse your incompetence Boss and your tenacity human. One day, we will meet again!”

Not if I had anything to say about it. Hopefully, the general would die for good.

I pushed harder, and the crystal finally shattered, the souls trapped within crushed along with the crystal. I swiped my blade upwards, ending what remained of Boss before switching my grip and stabbing it down with all of my strength into the skull of the dracoon.

As I killed Boss and the instance boss, soft dings echoed to the side, signaling my significant level gains.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[...

Gloria jumped down next to me, with the frozen General Zaydelin.

I placed my hand on the ice, pushing into the inscriptions, but none of them lit up. Despite believing that would be the case, I still felt a wave of relief. The only piece of his soul left was inside.

Whatever Boss had done, he had managed to gather all of General Zaydelin's fragments in one place. With a swing of my sword, I cut the ice encasing the last fragment in half. 

The system's leveling accelerated, and a screen popped up in front of me, and I assumed others had a similar experience given all the eyes that shifted to focus on something in front of them.

"We're done!" one of the Mul Branova shouted before they started hugging each other. The system calculated our contribution for finishing the dungeon, and once again, my levels sped up to a rapid pace of notifications. 

The dirt continued to crumble to the side. Soon the walls of the pit gave way, and gold and loot spilled out into the pit. A wave of gold came crashing into the interior as the bodies melted away.

Those of us nearby jumped to avoid getting caught up in the stream of loot.

Circe let out a soft whistle. "It's a considerable amount..

“Almost makes up for missing a year," Gloria tried her best to cheer me up. 

"Close enough," I replied, trying not to go in too deep. The Mul Branova were already diving through the gold, looking for any items that might have dropped.

Despite the trouble and danger we’d all gone through, it seemed that the allure of loot was too strong to keep any of them down.

"Spatial rings," Amanda announced, popping out of the gold holding SS-ranked rings and waving them in the air. Honestly, once the rings passed S-rank, it became a little ridiculous how much they could hold. I wasn't particularly interested in upgrading the ring that I currently held, yet I found myself with Amanda thrusting them into my hands. 

Someone else emerged from the gold, waving about a bow made of bones shaped like a pair of wings, reminiscent of those that had been on the dracoon's back. 

"That's all you, Nyx," I said, gesturing at the bow. The SS-ranked weapon would serve her incredibly well.

The gorgon shot across the gold faster than I’d seen her move before, taking the bow and looking it over in her hands with excitement reflecting in her eyes.

With all of the dangers done, I was shrinking from my Bloodrage Ascension, my skin reverting from the gray that it had been with Last Stand into an incredibly pale complexion. I was forced to sit down, my legs shaking with a sudden lack of strength.

The rebound from both abilities had made me like a frail old man.

Simone saw me falter and abandoned her quest for loot, coming over to sit next to me. She took up a protective atmosphere, daring anybody to mess with me. But I was among allies, no one here was going to make a move. "Do you think they'll finally find a set of armor so maybe you don't get so beat up all the time?" she teased, nudging me with her shoulder.

"It's kind of my thing," I shrugged, trying not to wobble from the nudge. "Besides, spilling my blood is of no consequence. It helps me in battle." 

Simone rolled her eyes. "And that's why you have me. To heal you up after." She put a hand on my arm and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek, using her ability, Soothing Kiss, to heal me and keep the pain at bay.

After using Last Stand, existing was painful at the moment. I couldn’t imagine having more threats around me after using those two abilities.

While the others were looking through the gold, I couldn't help but see its reflection in so many eyes. "Everyone, please feel free to take a portion of the gold. Amanda and Jenny, come here and suck up as much as you can with these two rings." I handed them back the double S-ranked rings. Both of them eagerly went about using them, the two rings becoming giant siphons of gold. 

The final two pieces of loot were pulled out towards the end. One was a wicked-looking dagger, as if it was carved from shifting shadows. It actually had fairly interesting stats for Simone.

However, she immediately shook her head, saying, "That dagger is too malicious-looking." She crossed her arms, refusing to touch the weapon.

"Simone, it's SS. You can put it in a sheath at your hip and you'll get all the benefits. Plus, if someone ever gets close to you, that'll punch through almost anything."

She puffed her cheeks out several times before she snatched it away from a member of the Mul Branova and slipped it underneath her illusion, hiding it at her hip before she smiled and nodded. 

The final piece found was a gauntlet of thin metal. Picking it up and looking it over, my first thought went to Antonio and I held it out to him. "This isn't particularly useful for me. You've done your best to protect the two of them." I gestured at Simone and Gloria. "And you've been a fantastic partner through all of this." 

I held the gauntlet out and at the same time, I snapped my fingers and released the curse on him and his guildmates. "You are now officially free of any obligation." 

Antonio blinked, as did Shen, the ninja who had doubted me every step of the way. "Just like that," he said. 

"Just like that," I agreed. There was no reason to hold them with that curse, if anything it would only create animosity.

Antonio knelt and offered up his rapier to me. "Then with that removed, I wish to offer you my sword, my lord." 

I motioned to Simone to help me stand.

Antonio respected ceremony and structure. I needed to take his allegiance properly. 

I got up on my feet, Simone holding onto my hip, lest I suddenly fall over, and took the sword from him, placing it on his shoulder. "I must warn you, Antonio. Once you join my service, it's not likely you'll get a chance to back out. We're going to push forward, and we're going to push forward hard." 

He bobbed his head. "I'm here to follow you for as long as you live." 

I tapped the sword against his shoulder and then switched over and tapped it against the other shoulder. Unsure of the proper knighting ceremony, but having seen something similar in my past life, I proclaimed, "I hereby proclaim you one of my knights. Rise and claim your title." 

Antonio grinned, getting to his feet as I proffered the sword with two hands. He took it, bowing to me before sliding it back into his sheath with a giant grin.

Shen then captured his attention, and it was then that I realized we were likely a couple. But then that confused me, as I thought he was also with one of the other girls in his guild. Perhaps he had a handful. It wouldn't surprise me with his strength that he could manage a harem. 

Simone bounced excitedly against me before whispering in my ear, "I'm so happy you're taking your role a little more seriously, Lord Bran." She said the last with a certain sexual undertone.

Those words curled inside of my ear pleasantly, my mind began to shift to other ideas on how I wanted to spend my days leading up to the demons attacking our world.

There were certain activities that would be best done before things got too chaotic.

"All right, now the loot is distributed," Circe spoke up, her arms crossed and she paused to glare at me.

I wondered if she was upset that I hadn't offered her the dagger.

"It's time for us to get on our way." Circe continued, reaching up and glancing at her own menu before disappearing. 

I nodded to everyone and left the instance myself. One after the other, our group started appearing next to me in the real world. I turned to Circe, as we all appeared. "Don't suppose we can get a lift back to town, can we?" I grinned.