Ultimate Level 1

“Poisoned!”

Max winced as he felt his body burn from the scorpion attack. His sword and shield were doing everything he could to keep their stingers from impaling him, but one had used a skill, its stinger moving twice the speed as usual and hitting him in his right shoulder.

The chainmail had prevented most of the damage, but the sharp tip had still penetrated. A green liquid dripped from its stinger as it pulled it back.

His vision blurred for a moment as he experienced it.

Frustrated, Max backed up, feeling the two scorpions half his size press the attack, claws coming at him as their stingers readied for another strike.

Their carapace was more challenging than the dragonkin scales yesterday, and his attack was doing almost nothing. Each strike that hit only created a small crack or flaked off pieces of it.

The healing magic of Batrire flooded him, cleansing the poison and allowing him to move without being slowed.

“Ten seconds!”

The fourth scorpion was about to be free, and Max knew he had to end this.

[ Power Strike ]

His sword glowed for a half second, and Max swung, aiming for the scorpion on his right. It lifted a claw to block his attack, but the sword shattered it this time, driving through the natural armor, slashing its face, and cutting into its head.

It shrieked as it fell to the side, thrashing on the stone floor.

Two claws came at him from the one on his left, and Max blocked and parried them as he waited for the attack he knew was about to come.

Its stinger struck out, and this time, without having to deal with a second attacker, Max chopped off the tip.

The tail whipped around, green fluid flying everywhere as it reacted to the injury.

Using the moment, driving forward, Max plunged his sword into the creature's eye, sliding the blade halfway into its head before twisting the blade and feeling the creature shudder.

Jumping back, Max watched as this one also did the death squirm, as Fowl had called it.

“Two seconds!”

Leaving the two creatures to die, Max raced toward the one about to be free from its icy prison.

“Tell me why this has to be so much harder?” Fowl asked as he wiped his mace clean. “It is like being back at the lizard dungeon long ago.”

“Says the guy who can’t get poisoned because their stinger can’t pierce his armor.”

Max felt the finger Fowl gave him. He was too busy hacking the stinger off a corpse to reply.

“It’s a blessing and a curse. I can take all the hits but can’t do the damage you do. Besides, do you know how I feel knowing Batrire is healing you so much?”

Rolling his eyes, Max picked up the stinger and tossed it to Fowl. “Yes. But whose idea was it to take on this many?”

Grumbling, Fowl put the stinger in storage and didn’t reply.

“That power strike is handy,” Tanila said, breaking the tension she knew both warriors were feeling. “Only an hour cooldown?”

Max nodded and grinned. “Yeah. For once, I get an ability that doesn’t require a whole day.”

“I’m just glad you remembered you had it.”

Max nodded and scanned the cave system they were in. The grey walls and the stone felt weird, and the green light from the moss that grew along the ceiling and walls made focusing more challenging with only one eye.

“Good to know ensnare doesn’t work on them. You going to try and use your stone cage?”

Tanila shook her head. “No. It has a longer cooldown, and I would prefer to not waste it on these. An hour seems like a long time to wait.”

Max nodded, knowing it would be a while before he could use his ability again.

“How close to thirty-one?”

“I’m almost there. The other two hit it already.”

Max nodded, remembering Fowl's colorful words when he finally reached it.

“Well then, let's see what is further down the cave.”

“Elf tits,” Fowl muttered. “Six of them… there is no way.”

Max grunted. It was doable, but it would be painful.

“I can still kill one from the start. Tanila can ice one again, and that only leaves four.”

“Remember when that one resisted two fights ago?”

Max nodded, glad it had happened when there had only been four.

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“What if I kill one, you tank four, she tries to ice one. If it fails, she uses her stone prison.”

“I prefer not to… we are talking about a three-hour cooldown,” Tanila muttered.

“But if this is our last group for the day?”

Batrire shrugged, and Tanila finally nodded.

“Fine, but if I die, I will make sure my spirit somehow finds its way back to you and never stops tormenting you.”

“Deal!”

Fowl snickered and did his pre-battle combat warmup. “Are you going to wait to engage this time?”

“That last pack wasn’t my fault. They just liked me for some reason.”

“Yeah… you killed one of their kind.”

Using his halberd, Max waited as the pack ran toward Fowl. Thankfully, the ice spell had not been resisted, encasing one completely.

He knew Fowl wasn’t excited about the idea of five creatures coming at him, but there was no other option.

Max stood right in the path of the rightmost scorpion, and when it was in range, he drove his halberd forward, obliterating the creature's head with one strike.

The closest one stopped its advance toward Fowl and started to turn toward Max.

Pivoting, Max planted his feet and waited for the charge he knew was about to come.

One hit… one good hit…

The scorpion came, claws snapping as it raced toward him.

As it advanced and could not adjust its attack, Max swung his weapon at its maximum range, using the momentum to create as much power as possible.

It screeched momentarily as the weapon cleaved through the claw it lifted to protect itself.

The axe blade bounced off the carapace near its head.

Withdrawing his shield from storage, Max blocked the other claw and prepared for the stinger.

He swapped out his weapons, equipping his sword and assaulting the scorpion's left side, which was missing its claw.

Ten seconds later, the creature was down.

“Eight seconds!”

“Go!”

Max didn’t hesitate when Fowl shouted.

Racing toward the frozen scorpion, Max drove his sword into its eye, watching it begin to shake as the ice around it started to shatter.

Without a backward glance, Max took off running, swapping his sword and shield for the halberd.

Coming up from behind, he chopped off a huge section of the tail, the scorpion making clicking sounds as it tried to spin to see what had attacked it.

Two more slashes struck the creature as it spun, each taking off a leg until it only had two legs on its left side.

It began to turn slower, having to work harder, and Max used that time to slam the hammer side of his halberd into the same spot multiple times, weakening the carapace, before turning the halberd and coming down with the axe blade to cleaved a massive hole in it. Guts and goo began to ooze out of the opening, and the creature began to back away, trying to find safety from Max.

Another swing of his weapon took off the third leg on the left side, causing it to fall against the ground. It tried to use its claw and only the remaining leg on that side.

“Poisoned!”

Max spun, hearing Fowl call out.

One of the remaining two scorpions found an opening in Fowl’s armor and managed to pierce him through it.

Three steps later, Max cleaved off the tail on another one.

It began to turn, and Max repeated the same process as before, hacking off legs and weakening the creature as it turned.

“Gods, that burns,” Fowl muttered as they stared at the carnage before them. “I mean, it felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

Max nodded, sighing as he began swapping out his weapon for a tool to harvest the scorpion’s tails.

“I’m ok with being done today. How about you?”

“That would be almost as nice as a beard washing.”

Max turned and looked at Fowl, who nodded and flashed a grin. He pulled his beard out of his armor and stroked it a few times.

“You don’t have hair on your head or chin, so you can’t know how good it feels to have someone scrub your beard. Why there aren’t many things better than…” his voice faded away as he turned and saw Batrire giving him a look. “Anyways… let’s finish this and call it a day.”

Max had watched the three of them leave, waving goodbye after telling them he wanted to do a few more things.

Now, he stood outside a portal. He had been here for about fifteen minutes and couldn’t shake the feeling that had been eating at him for a while.

“You seem lost,” a voice called out from down the hallway that led to the portal.

Max turned and saw a group of four adventurers standing at the end of it, outside his range to detect people.

“Sorry, I’m just considering something stupid.”

He saw the three dwarves in the group laugh and watched the human female smirk.

“So tell me, what stupid thing are you considering?” she said as she walked toward him, the rest of the group following her.

“I was considering going in and scouting out the dungeon. My group is a bit too low for now, but I wanted to see what it might be like. I might have even considered seeing if I could damage one of the trolls.”

Now, all four of the group laughed, and Max couldn’t help but shrug and smirk.

“Seriously? What kind of fool are you?” one of the dwarves asked.

“It’s a troll dungeon. You need fire to kill them,” the other dwarf in a robe added.

“I know,” Max replied. “I just wanted to see if I could damage them. We have a mage, it was –”

“Something stupid,” the female warrior interrupted. “Something real stupid. Should I ask what level you are?”

Biting his lip, Max winced. “Let’s just say low enough to know better.”

She nodded, pausing for a moment and watching Max. “Yet dumb enough to try.”

They stared at each other for a moment, and Max could feel her trying to understand him.

“You pick a faction that your group wants to join?”

Max shook his head. “No, but I have two dwarves and an elf with me so that limits our options.”

The woman nodded and ignored the snickers of the dwarves behind her. “So that tells me you aren’t level thirty-five yet,” she said, groaning. She tapped her finger against her chin a few times. “Tell you what. Let’s consider this a preliminary interview. Tell me what kind of fighter you are, and maybe we will let you join us and see that you don’t die.”

Max saw the dwarves all looking him up and down.contemporary romance

“I’m a damage-based warrior. I can tank if needed, but we have one for that already. He’s a solid dwarf who wears a plate and enjoys getting his beard washed.”

The three dwarves all laughed, each nodding and stroking their beards at that comment.

“I like him already, Dexic,” the one Max assumed was a caster said. “Any human who understands how special that is already earns my vote.”

Dexic groaned and rubbed her eyes for a moment.

“Gods, knowing someone else has to deal with the crap I deal with already makes me feel for you. As you heard, my name is Dexic. And you are?”

“Seth. Seth Pendal.”

Her eyes rolled as he said his name, unable to keep a straight face.

“Seriously? And should I ask about your weapon?”

Max pulled his halberd from storage.

“Gods, I swear it’s been one of those weeks,” she muttered. “Fine, you can join us, but don’t die. Let’s see how you handle everything.”

Max nodded, accepting the group invite when it came.

done.co