Ultimate Level 1

Alexander had food ready for the four of them and a few other patrons who had gone to the bouts. they took place every month, and the majority of the population attended if they could.

“What are your thoughts about tomorrow?”

Max finished chewing the smoked beef that was so tender you could pull it apart with a fork.

“We go back to the dragonkin and see what we can do. I think we will have a lot more success than last time.”

Fowl nodded as he chewed, agreeing with Max’s answer to Batrire’s question.

“Well then, I’m going to bed,” Batrire said.

Max watched as Fowl saw the look Batrire gave him and slid out of the booth, taking one more bite before following her toward their room.

“You going to tell me what is going on?” Max asked, looking at Tanila, who sat there trying to ignore what had transpired.

“She is dealing with something right now. It’s raw, and I doubt she wants to talk about it, so I wouldn’t ask her or Fowl. For now, just give her room.”

Max nodded, choosing to let it go. Glancing down at his plate, his exhaustion outweighed his hunger.

“I’m going to bed. You staying or coming?”

Tanila nodded, hiding a yawn behind her hand. “Lead the way.”

“Seven seconds!”

Max smiled as he slammed his weapon into the head of the dragonkin he had just sent to the ground. A crack of bones and scales told him the creature wouldn’t get back up.contemporary romance

Running toward the frozen dragonkin, Max drove his halberd’s spiked tip into the creature's eye, piercing its brain and killing it before it was freed from its prison.

Fowl was fighting the last one. His mace had almost broken its right knee and it stumbled, trying to fight against the combination of Tanila’s spells and the dwarf’s steady blows on the same spot on its leg.

Coming up from behind, Max leveled the beast with a blow to the back of its head. After it landed on the ground, Fowl took the chance to finish it off, ensuring it was dead.

“Seven… we did a pack of seven,” Fowl said, panting after all the exertion. “I was a bit hesitant at first, but–”

“A bit hesitant? You were completely against it,” Batrire declared, interrupting Fowl’s attempt at lying. “You’re the one who wanted to turn back.”

“Let’s focus on what we know,” Max said, wanting to stop the fighting that had been going on all day between the dwarves. “We can keep going and still have time to move to the scorpion dungeon if you want.”

Fowl grunted, knowing what was about to come from Batrire’s mouth.

“I say we do it.”

Tanila nodded, keeping quiet, as she had most of the day when not in combat.

“Let’s do it,” Max replied.

“What the hell is that?”

Max shrugged. “I have no record of that in any of the books I have ever read.”

“Are you serious?” Tanila asked as she pointed at the monster. “No books had a record of that?”

Max shook his head. “Nowhere did a three-tailed, purple scorpion twice the size of any other scorpions appear in any books I read.”

“What do you think it is? A boss like the skeleton?”

Pulling a backpack from his storage, Max ignored Fowl’s question and dug through it till he found the book he wanted. Flipping through a few pages, he kept shaking his head, unable to locate anything about this creature.

“If it was listed, it would be here. This has to be a rare spawn, or possibly a chest is back there, but the way the canyon walls box it in, we can’t see behind it.”

“And we don’t want to stealth check it, do we?”

Max laughed and put his book back into the backpack before storing it. “No, I don’t want to stealth check that just in case it can see through stealth.”

Chuckling, Fowl started his warm-up routine and nodded. “So we are doing this either way. Right?”

“I think we should,” Batrire replied, talking for the first time in a bit. “Obviously, this showed up because of Seth, and we would be stupid not to attempt it.”

Wincing, Max struggled to agree with Batrire’s recommendation. The three tails each had their own stinger and were easily twice the length of the usual scorpions. The carapace on the thing looked twice as thick, and its claws had edges that appeared far sharper than normal.

“I’m guessing this thing is at least level thirty-five, if not higher,” Max said. “I’m not sure how bad this fight might go, but you know I’ll do whatever you want.”

“You’re scared?” Tanila asked.

Tsking his tongue against his teeth, Max slowly nodded. “Can’t you see how different it is from the others?”

“Seriously?” Batrire replied, her tone expressing her displeasure with Seth. “You, of all people, suddenly want to play it safe?”

Max turned and looked at his friend and healer and saw something in her eyes that he couldn’t read. Tired of the day and the constant fighting between her and Fowl, he spoke out.

“Listen. I’m unsure what is happening with you, Batrire, but you have been on edge for the last two days. You and Fowl have been fighting non-stop and pushing us to run into situations you normally would caution us about. Even now…” Max held up his hand as she started to open hers. “Even now, you are telling us to rush in against something we do not know its skills, abilities, or strength. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me what I’m missing.”

Grunting, she tugged on her beard and glanced at Fowl, who stood there, not moving or flinching from her gaze. Turning to look at Tanila, she saw her friend nodding just slightly.

“You wouldn’t understand!” she exclaimed, snorting as she turned away.

“I can’t understand if you don’t tell me. I shared everything about me. I haven’t held anything back from you all, even when what I share scares me because of my skill. Now you suddenly think I’m not worthy of the secret you have or the pain you feel?”

Max’s statement cut her to the core, and she winced when Max came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not saying I need to know everything, but I need you to know I don’t want to risk you three if everyone doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

Her head began to bob, and Max realized she was sobbing quietly. Moving around her, he saw the tears in her eyes running down her wrinkled cheeks and into her beard.

Wrapping his arms around her, Max pulled in the stocky dwarf and felt her embrace him.

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After a minute of her letting out whatever was inside, she patted his back three times and then broke the embrace.

“Gods, I’m such a pansy,” she muttered, wiping her face with her thick fingers. “It’s because of this time of year and… because we lost a friend to the arena, and that is why… we left our land and came to your land. It is why we moved to Rumstant.”

“He was the one who taught me how to fight,” Fowl said, having moved beside the two of them. “A prize was offered, and he wouldn’t listen to reason. He wouldn’t listen to us… it cost him his life and…”

“He was my brother,” Batrire said quietly. “I tried to warn him and pleaded with him not to, and…” She had to take a deep breath and then, after letting it out, wiped the other tears that had appeared. “He said he couldn’t pass it up. He was closing in on level forty and needed the money to raise his skill’s rank. The way he…”

She shook her head, unable to talk, and Max could only imagine what she had witnessed.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to tell me,” Max said, touching her shoulder again.

“Tell me again, is this the right move?” Max whispered to Fowl as they prepared for the boss.

Fowl nodded slightly. “She won’t back down, and we can fight her, but it won’t go well. Just do what you need to. I’ll protect them.”

Grunting, Max moved to the side to prepare for whatever might come.

Holding his halberd in his hand, Max took a deep breath, knowing he had one chance to do any real damage before this went bad.

Fowl moved ahead and threw a rock like usual to get the creature's attention.

It shrieked in a loud wail that overwhelmed his sonar detection for five seconds while it raced toward Fowl.

Max saw its middle tail pull back, then thrust forward as it ran. It launched a massive glob of green poison at Fowl from thirty yards away.

“Ranged!” Fowl shouted.

The glob hit Fowl’s shield and splattered everywhere, the sounds of hissing and burning acid coming from where it landed on the ground and his armor.

“Poisoned!”

Max began moving toward the boss, thankful it was still racing toward Fowl, who was moving out of the circle of green liquid on the ground around him as quickly as possible.

When it was ten yards from Fowl, the tail on the boss’s right side surged forward, and a black stream of liquid raced at Max’s dwarven friend.

Fowl raised his shield, blocking the solid stream of black ooze that splattered around him.

Max moved as quickly as he could, wanting to do some damage and try to salvage a fight he knew was turning against them.

A scream, unlike any Max had ever heard from Fowl, filled his ears.

Risking a brief glance at Fowl’s health bar in the party display, he saw it dropping past the three-fourth mark, and the boss had yet to reach him.

“Big heal!”

Crap… thirty seconds…

The newest spell Batrire had acquired from improving her healing skill granted a massive heal but had such a long cooldown timer it couldn’t be used repeatedly. Combined with a four-second casting time, it had some rigid limitations as to when it could be used.

Max focused on the boss after seeing their tank's health moving back up.

Unsure what the third tail did and with only a few yards left before it reached Fowl, Max didn’t hesitate.

[ Power Strike ]

[ Berserker Activated ]

The world went red, and Max was not even aware of the spray of gore covering him.

Later, Tanila would tell him what that first strike had done, but at that moment, there was only one thing in his mind, and it was taking this creature apart.

The first tail and a solid three feet of flesh came off its back left side when Max popped out of stealth, connecting his first swing with the boss's body.

His rage wouldn’t let him aim, but he had been close enough to hope it would do what he wanted.

The blade of his halberd sliced through the carapace as if it were paper, sending the tail to the ground and staggering the boss.

It roared and shrieked, using an ability that Max shrugged off in his enraged state.

Fowl ran away, unable to resist the fear caused by the scream from the boss.

Max continued his attacks, getting three more in before the boss realized its ability had no effect on the person cutting off swaths of its natural armor.

By the time it spun around to face Max, two legs and the entire left side of its body were exposed, not an ounce of carapace left.

It brought its claw up to defend with, but Max’s halberd was a blur of death and destruction.

A giant cloud had appeared above the boss, lightning bolts raining down as an ice spear bounced off its shell.

Two hits shattered the three-foot claw and took it off, sending it flying.

Trying to get some room away from Max, it attempted to retreat, only to find a wall of stone appearing behind it. Shifting directions, it moved again and this time, was blocked by a wall of air.

The boss’s beedy eyes locked with Max’s and, had it been able to demonstrate fear, the darkness in them as they glowed red would have made its heart stop.

Max made a frontal attack at the boss, and it was put on the defensive while the halberd was thrusting and slicing with pure power.

The fact that Max’s strength was currently over one hundred with berserker had turned him into a force well beyond this creature's power and ability.

Its other claw was gone seconds later, and massive gashes appeared along the left and right sides of its face as it tried to protect itself.

Gore was leaking everywhere from the wounds Max had inflicted upon the boss, and Tanila was sending every spell she could to keep it pinned in place and add damage to it.

Each strike of Max’s halberd sent a jolt through the boss, small stuns causing it to be unable to react in time.

The world shifted, and Max’s vision returned to normal. He stumbled slightly as the power and speed of his skill vanished.

The boss was pushing itself against Tanila’s walls that still held it in place, legs not working. Only one remained on its left side, and the front one on its right was gone.

Then Max heard the voices of his team.

“Finish it! Batrire is poisoned!”

Max drove forward, his mind focused, and saw the chance to attack. He put the halberd where he wanted with each strike. Max drove the pointed tip into the boss’s eyes.

With no claws to deflect his blows and unable to retreat, Max finished the boss off, driving the halberd’s tip into the same eye multiple times until he eventually reached the brain, causing it to shudder and crash to the ground.

The cold wave of power hit him, and Max felt the knowledge of something massive filling his body in a way he had never felt before.

[ 73 Hit Points Consumed ]

[ 4 Strength Consumed ]

[ 3 Constitution Consumed ]

[ Consume has — ]

Max ignored the flood of messages filling his mind and turned to see Batrire on the ground.

She was unable to stand, and Max saw that her health bar was below fifty percent.

“She can’t cure herself of poison!” Tanila shouted. “It’s something about the spell!”

Max nodded, seeing everyone gathering around her.

“Potion up. I’ll take her!” he shouted as he ran toward her, storing his weapon.

Batrire’s eyes went wide for a second, and then she nodded. Tanila pulled a potion out and pulled off the lid, helping Batrire to drink it. Her health rose to two-thirds, but Max could tell that the poison was limiting her ability to heal.

“Loot it and harvest, and meet us outside!” Max shouted as he grabbed Batrire and slung her over his shoulder.

She yelped a second, and Fowl started to protest when Tanila grabbed his shoulder.

“Do it!” Max shouted as he activated his skill.

[ Haste Activated ]

The canyon they had been fighting in was a blur. He knew Batrire was being jostled around, but there was no other option.

If Max remembered correctly, the portal was a mile away, and with every step, he could see her health bar ticking lower and lower.

“Hold on!” he shouted, unsure if she could hear him as he felt her body going limp against him.

The timer on the haste spell was ticking away, and he knew it would be close. He still had to get from the dungeon entrance to somewhere in the hall where he could find a healer.

The blue portal came into view, and Max willed his legs to pump. Batrire’s health was now below one-fourth and quickly dropping.

I swear to whoever you are, keep her alive, and I will do what you ask…

Max prayed, unsure who he was praying to but making the plea anyway.

Max ran through the portal without slowing down, unsure what would happen if one ran into it this fast.

The hallway flooded his senses. His eyes hadn’t adjusted, but his sonar told him everything he needed to know.

Running toward the hall, Max began shouting at the top of his lungs.

“HEALER! I NEED A HEALER!”

Over and over, he shouted it as he covered two hundred yards in seconds, his haste buff wearing off a few yards before he came out of the hallway into the bustling room.

“I NEED A HEALER NOW! POISONED! ALMOST DEAD!”

His voice carried across the room, and every person who heard stopped what they were doing and turned to see his frantic face, gore covering him, and the slumped body of his healer over his shoulder.

Dozens of people rushed him as he gently set Batrire down on the stone floor.

Five percent… four percent… three percent… two percent…

Time stopped as Max saw the light of his friend's life start to leave her.

Only then did he realize there were tears on his face.

One percent…

The bar blipped.

Max felt a hand on his shoulder as he sobbed.

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