A Devil In The Dungeon: Weathering Malice (Patreon)

[Weathering Malice]

“On your left!”

Rann turned just in time to watch as a thick, meaty fist barreled towards his skull like a swinging hammer. He threw himself sideways and rolled, coming up with his bow at his chest and an arrow already nocked. He took just a moment to aim before letting it loose. It whistled through the air and caught the charging Minotaur in the jaw, shooting straight through the hide at its neck to poke out the other side.

The monster let out a gurgling roar, one hand coming to the arrow sprouting from its neck like a flower, while the other raised its weapon. Its burning eyes were locked onto Rann as it stumbled forward. It was still alive, just for a moment. That moment might have been enough for it to kill him, if it weren’t for the shortsword that burst from its face on the second step, splitting its muzzle in two.

Rann flinched as blood sprayed all over his face, wiping it away with the back of a glove as the monster listed and then fell, revealing Licia standing behind it. She jerked her sword out of the Minotaur’s dissolving corpse, breathing heavily. A deep gash ran along her brow, dripping blood down the side of her face and into the neckline of her armor, but she seemed uninjured apart from that.

“You alright?” She panted, holding out a hand.

“Peachy,” Rann replied, grabbing her forearm and allowing her to haul him to his feet.

The monster dissolved into ash as they took a single moment to rest from the battle raging around them. Dozens of other adventurers were engaging in their own fights all across this section of forest, fighting for their lives against the seemingly endless hoard of enemies. How long had it been? An hour? It felt longer, but somehow Rann knew it hadn’t even been that.

“There's no end to them,” Licia said quietly.

Nodding, Rann bent and pulled his arrow free of the dissolving Minotaur. He held it up to his face and frowned as he saw the head had split against the monster’s tough hide, the ragged pieces jutting in opposite directions. It would be completely useless like this, and it was his last one.

He tossed it away with a frustrated grunt and set his bow against a nearby tree. Unslinging his quiver, he put it beside the bow so it wouldn’t slow him down, before drawing his shortsword.

Licia watched him with a frown. She knew there was a reason he preferred a bow. Pallum’s weren’t exactly great at close quarters combat, adventurers or not. Shorter arms meant shorter reach, and when the average monster towered over a normal human, being half that size didn’t really do you any favors.

“You should fall back to camp,” she suggested, and he sent an immediate scowl her way.

“I’m not just gonna tuck my tail between my legs and run while everyone else is out here fighting and getting killed.” He rolled his wrist, getting a feel for the weapon he barely ever used. “Besides, I wouldn’t make it back anyway. You see how many monsters are out here? Might as well stay.”

Licia frowned but he knew she saw his point, and it wasn’t like she could really tell him what to do anyway. She eyed him for a heartbeat, before the treeline burst open to the right of them and her chance to speak was killed by a pack of Orcs.

Licia turned and was upon them immediately, with Rann only a step behind. Used to waiting in the wings for an opportune moment, the Pallum had to adapt to the situation quickly as he dove into the melee, and by then, Licia had already done away with three and was working her way through the forth.

As Rann reached her, an Orc lunged for him with a rusted cleaver, and he threw himself under the swing, coming up inside its guard. He drove his shortsword up into its ribs twice in quick succession before the monster backhanded him away with a swipe that sent stars bursting across his vision.

He rolled to his feet to see that Licia was faring much better. The girl slipped beneath a wildly swinging club and opened the Orc's thigh with a backhanded strike, twisting past it as it fell. Her dagger found the throat of the next one before it could even raise its weapon, before she turned back to the first and planted her sword into its skull.

She turned to her next target when something suddenly grabbed her hair, jerking her backward. She fell onto the ground with a thud and looked up just as another Orc reared back for a finishing blow. Licia tried to get her sword up, but there wasn’t enough time. The Orc’s sword came down, whistling through the air…

And landed right next to her head as its hand was suddenly cut off at the wrist, diverting the weapon’s course.

The Orc roared in pain and Rann lunged upward, burying his sword to the hilt in the monster's chest. The blade grated against something hard, and the Orc gurgled, blood bubbling up around the steel. He twisted the blade and jerked it out with a brutal motion.

The Orc stumbled, and he turned away, expecting it to fall. Only Licia saved him as he saw her eyes widen and turned around just in time to see a fist the size of his head coming towards his face. He got his sword up just in time to catch the blow on the flat of his blade.

Snap

You’ve got to be kidding me, Rann thought as he watched half of his blade go spinning into the darkness. The thought came a second before the fist slammed into his chest.

He hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. He distantly registered a thick hand wrapping around his ankle and pulling him harshly. Rann scrabbled backward on his elbows, the broken hilt still somehow clutched in his fist, and when the Orc's ruined face loomed over him, he burst upward and drove what remained of his sword into its eye.

The blade snapped off inside the skull as he twisted it and the Orc’s eyes finally went dim. It slumped and Rann rolled out from under it as it dissolved into ash, panting heavily.

He held what was left of his sword up to his face and scowled as he saw the tiny nub of steel sticking out of the hilt. There wasn’t even enough left to use as a dagger. Guess that was what he got for getting a cheap piece of crap.

He tossed it away and climbed to his feet, wiping sweat and blood from his face. Around him, the battle raged on, the sound of shouting and distant explosions adding to the chaos. Licia was a short distance away, fighting a group of monsters all by herself.

He watched her, his chest burning with the desire to go help, but he didn’t have a… weapon.

Rann was suddenly reminded of the weight on his back, a burden that he'd been ignoring since it was put upon him.  He reached behind him, hesitant fingers wrapping around cool leather as his other hand came to the strap slung across his chest. The bronze spear slipped free from its harness, polished metal gleaming in the dim light as he brought it in front of his face and just stared at it.

Artus’s spear was longer than he was, yet it fit comfortably in his hands. The red leather wrapping had been worn smooth and was darkened where Artus usually gripped it. Rann’s fingers slipped around the section and failed to cover it completely, as if the weapon itself wanted to remind him that he wasn’t its actual wielder. That he shouldn’t be holding it in the first place. 

Rann’s chest felt tight. His fingers clenched around the handle, sweaty but firm.

Across the clearing, the woods behind Licia burst open and a pack of monsters came lagging behind the first. Licia didn’t notice them, too busy with mopping up the first bunch, and Rann’s grief ignited into something hot and furious in his chest.

Licia turned with a startled cry as a shape rushed past her blind spot, and her eyes widened as she saw Artus’s spear punch through a Kobold’s chest only a few feet away. Rann’s charge carried both him and the monster for a small distance before he planted his feet and drove the weapon into the ground right in front of a nearby Orc. 

His momentum carried him up and over the startled monster and he thrust his arms backwards as he landed, letting the spear slip through his fingers until he reached the end of the wrapping.  The leaf-shaped blade on the opposite end of the spear sliced through the Orc’s neck like it was butter, killing it instantly.

It felt easy—easier than his sword, at least, but it also felt wrong. He knew from months of watching Artus that his technique was all wrong. His stance was terrible and the spear had nearly slipped from his grip in that last move. He was like a little kid swinging a stick, with the height to match.

But as he turned to the pack of monsters that had finally noticed him, he found he didn't care. The anger burning bright in his chest fed itself into his limbs, and he fought like a wild animal, pouring out all of the grief into the monsters before him.

In Tanya's personal opinion, this world would greatly benefit from the creation and wide distribution of heavy artillery. While conventional bullets may have been near useless against most monsters without the proper formulae to increase their impact, she doubted the same could be said for a 105mm exploding in their faces at near the same speed.

At the very least, it would keep her from having to do anything like this again.

Wind whipped through her hair as she dove past the reaching arm of the Goliath. Her body was small and maneuverable, and it was a slow and lumbering thing that seemed to have some trouble even spotting her flitting through the air thanks to that thick mane of white falling in front of its eyes. That was one of the reasons why she dared straying so close. Well that, and…

Tanya’s Luger barked in her hand, sending a bullet shrouded in an Explosive Formula crashing against the Goliath’s face. It exploded spectacularly and staggered the beast, carving a large chunk out of its flesh, but did little else. Its hide was simply too thick for her formula to completely strip away. Even so, the blast caused a moment of panic which she used to swipe out at its passing arm with her saber. Her Mage Blade split the Goliath's hide and sent waterfalls of boiling blood cascading to the dirt below. The Goliath roared, the ragged flesh of its ruined jaw stretching wide as it screamed towards the heavens.

The wound was already closing by the time she banked away. Tanya turned and watched the ragged flap of flesh knit itself, her work disappearing in a mere moment. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and pulled back to hover a safe distance away, watching the battlefield progress without her. 

The impromptu army that they’d put together was working on felling the great foe before them, to varying effects. To their credit, they were about as well-organized as a gathering like this could possibly be, attacking in waves and never staying long enough to get trampled or crushed by the giant. Unfortunately, their efforts amounted to about as much as her earlier strike had.

Tanya watched as one burly man with a greatsword lopped off one of the beast’s toes, only for it to grow back before the dismembered limb had even fully dissolved. The man let out a roar of frustration, slashing out at the Goliath’s ankle, carving through meat and bone like it wasn’t even there. The monster stumbled, and he had to be pulled back before he was crushed underfoot.

Tanya tore her eyes away from the battle below as a pressure built in her ears. The Goliath had spotted her and turned his head, mouth falling open as white light gathered in the back of its throat.

Ah. So it can look up after all.

She dove to the side as a scream rang in her ears. The compressed air ripped past her close overhead, close enough that the vacuum left in its wake grabbed at her body and nearly tumbled her out of the sky. Her cloak snapped and whipped around her, nearly tangling her arm. She growled as she fought the draft for control before finally wrenching free and rolling out into open air.

“That's enough of that,” she decided, reaching up and pulling the cloak's clasp open. The garment fluttered off her shoulders and spiraled down into the forest below, leaving her shoulders bare.

“Hey! Come down here!” 

A woman with short blue hair stood atop a rocky outcropping at the clearing's edge, waving one arm overhead as Tanya turned to her. Raising an eyebrow, Tanya descended to her side, landing atop a nearby rock.

“The mages are about to attack,” the woman said, pushing a pair of glasses back up her nose as she regarded Tanya with narrowed eyes. Tanya had a feeling it was her default expression. “You were in their firing line.”

“Thank you for warning me, though I fear it won't do much,” Tanya said as they turned to watch. The other adventures seemed to have received the message as well, running away from the Goliath and dragging their fellows with them. The last stubborn fool had just cleared the monster’s wake, when all hell was let loose. 

They watched as the Goliath was consumed by all manner of incredibly destructive magic. Winds as sharp as any bladder tore at its skin even as fire seared and scorched its flesh and bolts of arcane lightning tried arced across its body. It screamed as it disappeared under the combined might of the converging spells which soon erupted outward, consuming the ground and the forest around it.

A shockwave rolled across the clearing, flattening the grass and rattling in their ears. Tanya rose into the air as the ground lurched underneath them, continuing to observe while the blue-haired woman beside her stumbled and threw an arm out against the rock to steady herself. 

The maelstrom petered out slowly, a cloud of dust and debris lingering for a moment before dispersing go reveal the damage the combined effort had done.

The Goliath was still standing, if barely. Its jaw had crumbled away entirely, lying in shattered pieces in the churned mud below, while its right arm had been seared down to cracked black bone. Its body was a patchwork of deep lacerations and boils that wept blood onto the dirt below. The monster swayed where it stood, then crashed to its knees, supporting itself with its one good arm.

A cheer went up from the adventurers below as they saw their foe on its last legs. Tanya slowly lowered herself back to the ground, shaking her head, while the woman beside her stared.

“No...” She breathed, noticing the same thing that Tanya had.

The Goliath's wounds were already beginning to close.

It started with its skin, mottled and burnt flesh smoothing over like sand in the water. Then what remained of its jaw began to bulge and shift and knit itself back together. By the time the its arm had reemerged from the stump, the clearing was completely silent as everyone present watched in horror as their efforts were undone in moments.

The Goliath rose back up to its full and horrible height, and tilted its newly reformed face toward the crowd of tiny adventurers gathered below. If Tanya didn't know any better, she would say it was smiling.

Then it threw its head back and screamed, raising both arms high before slamming them into the earth. The shockwave erupted outward in a ring of dust and shattered stone, catching the closest adventurers full-on and hurling them like dolls.

“What do we do?” The blue-haired woman watched with wide eyes. “I've never seen a monster regenerate that fast. If that much damage can be healed in seconds, then how in the world are we supposed to keep it down?”

“We'll have to destroy its core,” Tanya said as the adventures below tried to rally. They were shaken by what had just happened, and much more disorganized than before. “No matter how strong its regeneration is, as long as its core is destroyed, it won't come back.”

The woman frowned. “That would be ideal. But we don't have anything that can get through to it. Its hide is thicker than most of our swords can cut, and if those spells couldn't expose it, then...”

She trailed off, but Tanya understood. The woman had clearly been pinning her hopes that that barrage would be the end of it. She didn't have a fallback plan.

Unfortunately, neither do I, Tanya thought. A Penetration Formula could theoretically pierce the magic core, but using it on something that big without knowing where she was supposed to be shooting would just be wasting ammunition. And that was assuming the bullet wouldn't be stopped by its absurdly thick hide and muscles.

The Goliath opened its mouth, light and pressure building in the back of its throat as it angles its head towards the forest. Tanya frowned. Someone had caught its attention. A shame.

It released the attack with a roar. Tanya expected an explosion, and she received one. Though not quite in the direction she'd imagined.

A streak of white light burst upwards from the forest, intercepting the attack and blowing right through it. It slammed into the Goliath's head with a sound like a thunderclap, rocking the monster back on its heels as its head was consumed in a fireball.

When the smoke cleared, Tanya blinked as she saw the damage. The upper half of the Goliath's head was missing, blown apart by whatever that spell had been. 

Impressive, Tanya thought. And it also gave her an idea. 

She lifted off without warning, flying down towards the battlefield, ignoring the woman's distant shout as she grazed the treetops, searching for the one who had been responsible for that attack.

She was only slightly surprised to find none other than Bell standing dumbfounded right where the attack had come from. The boy was looking at his hand like he barely understood what he had just done, and as such, missed the Goliath charging up its own attack in retaliation.

Tanya sped up, grabbing the boy by his collar and lifting him off of his feet. She whisked him away at full speed, ignoring his shout of surprised as she carried him away from the area. She was just in time, as a mere moment later, the ground behind them erupted like someone had planted a bomb right under where his feet had been. The Shockwave nearly shook them out of the air and Tanya grunted, angling towards the forest where they would have at least some semblance of cover.

Tanya looked down to find Bell staring at her, ruby eyes wide. “M-Miss Tanya? Where did you... are we flying!?”

“There's no time for that,”  Tanya grunted, flying into the cover of  trees and dropping him onto his knees. She landed beside him, rolling the arm she'd used to carry him. “Are you injured?”

He shook his head. “I-I've got a few scrapes but I'm fine other than that.”

You nearly weren't, she thought, before saying aloud: “Good. Now, were you responsible for that attack that nearly took the Goliath's head off? Speak quickly, we don't have much time.”

“I-It was.” He blinked in confusion as Tanya smiled widely. “What's going on, Miss Tanya?”

Tanya wasn't given the chance to answer as other voices suddenly joined the conversation. A group of figures burst from the foliage a small distance away, the leader of whom ran up with arms spread wide. “BELL!”

“Goddess?” Bell blinked a mere moment before the woman crashed into him, tackling him to the ground as her arms wrapped around the back of his head and pulled him close into her tiny frame. 

“Are you okay!? You're not hurt, are you!?” She babbled as she buried her face into his chest, and Bell flailed, trying and failing to pry her off as she tried her damndest to suffocate him right there on the forest floor. 

“I-Im fine, Goddess! Please, I can’t breathe!”

Behind the frantic goddess came the rest of Bell’s party. Welf gave Tanya a nod as he noticed her while Lili stared at Hestia and Bell with narrowed eyes and a pout bulging her cheeks. Two more figures trailed after them, one of them, the blue-haired woman that Tanya had left behind only minutes ago, the other, a vaguely familiar Elf woman.

As Bell tried to pry his goddess off of his face with the help of Lili, Welf came to stand beside Tanya, watching the Goliath rampage with a tense expression. “So it regenerated after that too, huh? Tch. It’s a freak of nature.”

“Indeed,” Tanya nodded. “Which is precisely why we cannot afford to stand around exchanging pleasantries.”

She turned to Bell who had finally convinced his goddess to give him room to breath. “Bell.” He straightened, turning toward her alongside the woman on his lap. Hestia’s eyes widened as she noticed Tanya, but Tanya moved right past her. “Are you capable of performing that spell again with the same results? I may have a plan to defeat that monster.”

Bell swallowed as all eyes turned towards him, looking down at his hand. “I… think so?”

“Do you think, or do you know?” Tanya interrupted, her voice sharp enough that the boy flinched. “Because I am going to be staking quite a bit on your answer and I’d prefer to have one that isn’t liable to blow away in the wind.”

A roar sounded in the distance, followed by an explosion. Bell flinched, before his entire face hardened and his hand curled into a fist. He nodded sharply, determination leaking through his ruby gaze. “I know I can.”

Tanya studied him for a long moment, before returning his nod. “Good. Then hopefully this won’t be a complete waste of time and energy.”

As she spoke, she drew her Luger and ejected the magazine with a flick of her thumb, glancing down into it. Four brass casings stared back at her and she clicked her tongue. Hopefully, it would be enough.

“Forgive me,” the blue-haired woman broke in, “but what is your plan?”

“As I said before, destroying the monster’s magic stone is the only way we’re going to end this. We need to do enough damage in a single burst to both expose the core and damage it.” She glanced toward the distant silhouette of the Goliath. “I'm fairly confident I can accomplish the former, but the latter might be a bit out of my scope. My mana reserves are... not what I'd like them to be, and my ammunition is limited. Even if I tear that thing open, I can't guarantee I'll have anything left to finish the job.”

“Which is where Bell comes in,” the elf said quietly, and Tanya nodded.

“Exactly,” Tanya said. “His spell has the power to punch through whatever's left after I'm done with it, and enough raw yield to hopefully shatter the core itself.” 

She turned to the others. “In the meantime, someone will have to distract the Goliath. It’s already shown its intelligence, and we can all but guarantee it will target either Bell or I the moment it feels something is happening.”

“We’ll handle it,” the blonde elf agreed. “I just hope this plan of yours works. We’re hinging a lot on one strike.”

“It’s the best chance we’ll get.” Tanya rose a few inches off the ground. “When the Goliath's attention is fully committed elsewhere, I’ll strike and hopefully expose the core. When that happens, Bell will take his shot. Do not miss.”

“Right!” Bell nodded.

A sharp smile spread over Tanya’s face as her heart drummed that familiar beat. “Then let’s get to it.”

Tanya rocketed out of the forest, soaring high above the battlefield and even higher still.

She leveled out only once she was nearly a mile high and eye level with the tree's lowest branches. She turned to look down upon it all, taking in the devastation that this short battle had wrought.

The forest had been scoured to the soil and the ground had been churned into a morass of blood-soaked mud and ash. Bodies of the wounded were being dragged toward the edges by their comrades. The Goliath stood in the middle of it all, massive fists raining down on whatever poor souls strayed too close to its feet.

Frowning in concentration, she swiped a hand through the air, a bright green grid shimmering to life in front of her eyes. Engagements at this distance rarely warranted targeting assistance, but with the battlefield this dense with combatants and her ammunition dwindling down to its dregs, she could not afford so much as a single stray shot.

Her Era 1 glowed hot against her chest as she spooled up a third formula. She then unholstered her Luger and pointing it down as if she herself were a god about to smite some poor sinner form on high.

As if sensing the danger, the Goliath turned. Its dark face tilted upwards, glowing eyes locking onto her comparatively tiny form from behind the curtain of shaggy white hair. It opened its mouth, jaws cracking wide as light built in its throat. Tanya remained right where she was, trusting her companions as she continued to build her magic.

As the pressure rebuilt, a blur of green rocketed up from the forest floor, slamming into the monster's jaw with a sick crack. The Goliath's head whipped to the side and the blast it had been gathering discharged wildly into the canopy of the great tree instead, erupting in a flash of light that sent leaves and shattered branches raining down across the entire Eighteenth Floor.

The Goliath staggered and roared down at the small figure that had landed nimbly before it. The elf woman from before spared only a single second before bracing her knees and launching herself backwards into the forest, disappearing from sight.

It lunged after her but didn’t make it a single step before magic swelled before it. A veritable tornado of flames roared up behind it, fire and wind twisting together into a spiraling column that consumed the monster whole. It bellowed in agony, an arm's silhouette flailing uselessly against the flames.

Tanya watched the flames consume it, continuing to pour magic into her formula as she flicked her Luger’s safety off with a thumb and waited for her moment to strike.

The flames lasted a few moments longer before petering out slowly. The Goliath stood within the settling smoke, blackened flesh cracked and oozing yet more blood onto the soaked earth. It’s jaw was already back in its proper place, and though it had to have been in immense pain, it still turned back to Tanya, sensing where the real threat was.

Tanya frowned, breaking her concentration for just a moment. Her computation orb grew even hotter against her chest as the monster’s mouth split open and light gathered in its throat once more. A blur rocketed out of the forest once again, slamming into its side, but it was just a moment late as the blast lanced upwards a heartbeat before the woman made contact.

It crossed the distance between them in the span of a breath. Tanya didn’t move an inch as a glittering green shield flared to life around her body. Her Active Shell met the blast head on and stood strong for a single moment before cracking and then shattering against the force of the attack, as Tanya simply did not have enough mana to allow it to withstand it.

Still, even in failure, the formula did its job and ate the worst of the attack. A ribbon of compressed wind carved a line across Tanya’s cheek and whipped her hair around her face, but she did not flinch. Her glowing eyes peered through the smoke, keeping her target in view as her magic crested.

In another life, this moment would have been sullied by a prayer. A plea for success in the face of adversity brought upon her by the very creature she begged for salvation. But not this time. And not ever again.

Four shots rang out in quick succession, and four glowing comets glowed through the night as they streaked down upon her foe, clustered close enough together that they might have been a single projectile trailing four tails.

They struck within milliseconds of each other, within inches of each other. The usual yield of a single formula-enhanced bullet was quadrupled and then doubled beyond that thanks to the mana Tanya had fed into the spell. Flesh flowered from the blast site. The shockwave alone was enough to stagger the monster's massive frame, and the adventurers below threw themselves flat as chunks of the Goliath rained down across the clearing. Its arms went spinning off in opposite directions, trailing arcs of dark blood, and while its head simply ceased to exist.

Its torso was stripped away layer by layer, and through the billowing smoke and ash, Tanya saw it. A massive purple crystal sat cradled in the ruin of the monster's abdomen. It was easily the size of a small cart, glowing with a baleful inner light. That was the source of all of their problems.

Unfortunately, just as she’d expected, Tanya was not in the state to solve it. Her arm dropped back down to her side as mana exhaustion set in. She listed to the side as her eyes drooped and her vision swam. She forced herself to remain aloft, eyes fixed on the ruin of the Goliath's torso which was already beginning to knit back together. Just as she’d expected, even that wasn’t enough to kill it.

A streak of brilliant white light erupted from the edge of the forest, cutting a path up and through smoke and ash. It sheared through the center of the exposed crystal. The monster's core cracked and chipped as it punched through to the other side, detonating somewhere behind the monster's ruined body in a flash of ruinous light.

The Goliath's knees buckled. Its colossal frame swayed for a moment before pitching forward and crashing into the ground one last time, sending a final tremor rolling across the Eighteenth Floor.

As it began to dissolve, flecks of charred skin drifting listlessly into the air, a cheer went up through the survivors, marking their victory. Tension drained from Tanya’s frame and she let out a sigh, leaning her head back to stare at the fake ceiling which already seemed to be growing lighter. 

Another crisis dealt with. Well, mostly. The main threat had been dealt with, but there were still some fires to put out. Licia and Rann were still fighting out there—hopefully still alive. She felt compelled to find them.

No rest for the wicked, then. Tanya regarded the celebration below for a moment longer before turning away and drifting down towards the forest where fires and bloodlust still burned.