Chapter 95 - Death Tyrant

The Death Tyrant examined its playing field. The upper half of the giant skeleton’s body poked out from the hole in the ground. Its upper body was over forty feet tall, towering over Vivi. Each one of its fingers was the size of her greatsword. The weight of its limbs would be enough to crush a building.

And that was without taking ether into account. As Lucius found his way back to Vivi’s core, flooding power back to her muscles and returning her sixth sense, she suddenly had the urge to collapse on the ground. Suffocating ether filled the air all around her. Every petrified face in the walls carried thousands of ether each, as if each one of them was a monster.

The boss itself was colossal. Standing next to it, Vivi felt like she was faced with an impending natural disaster. The boss’s ether wasn’t hostile like the other monsters’. Rather, the Death Tyrant was like an ancient behemoth awoken from a slumber. Vivi couldn’t have guessed how many thousands of wisps the boss carried in total.

“Vivi, watch out!” Lucius called. “Run!”

The boss slammed its open palm down at Vivi, as if swatting at an insect. The attack wasn’t fast. Vivi ran to the side and avoided a direct blow. A shockwave erupted from the impact, the ground beneath Vivi cracking. She was knocked off of her footing, crashing against the ground.

“Up, up!” Lucius shouted. He filled her being with ether, spending far more than he ever had for regular monsters.

Vivi pushed herself up. She glanced to her side and met the skeleton’s empty-eye holes. Large wisps of ether rose from the blackness within. Vivi couldn't see sapient thoughts in its head as she had with the Twilight Shaman. The Death Tyrant was closer to a thoughtless colossus.

Aang and Lydi had run to the left to avoid the first attack. Their group was separated. Lydi was charging ether into her staff. The discharge shot forth, hitting the Death Tyrant clean in the skull.

The boss turned its head at Lydi, as if something had tickled its temples. A small scratch was left on the spot the discharge had hit. The boss attacked again, slamming its fist down at Lydi. She ran to dodge the attack.

Vivi gritted her teeth, thinking of strategies. She was positive that a clean hit with her runeswords would cause damage. The boss was colossal, but it wasn’t invincible. Vivi’s runeswords were built to counter skeletons and bones.

Landing a hit would be a bigger problem. The hole in the ground was like a moat that protected the monster from attacks. Vivi would have to run and jump for her to even reach the boss’s rib cage.

She could throw her swords, of course, but what if her swords didn’t kill? Lucius wouldn’t be able to retrieve the sword stuck in the boss's bones.

“Wait for it to hit you, then attack its hands,” Lucius said. “We can brace the shockwave if we focus.”

Vivi nodded. Hitting its hands was their only option for now.

In the opposite end of the room, the boss slammed a fist at Aang. He dodged, then turned around, raising his sword to attack the hand. He had caught the same idea.

The impact ruined the plan immediately. The ground cracked underneath his feet, making him lose his stance. Another shockwave erupted, knocking Aang back with force. He landed on the wall, hitting one of the creepy faces. It was one of the scarier demons with long horns and a muscular jaw. The face’s red eyes looked down at Aang.

The wall around the face cracked, then crumbled. The demonic face turned skeletal. It grew legs and arms. The face popped out of the wall. It bore no weapons, but its knuckles glowed bright with pressurized ether. A punch would hurt.

Behind Vivi, crackling sounds came from the walls. More faces were forming into skeletons. She clicked her tongue. As she had feared, each and every face in the walls was a monster. There were hundreds of faces, reaching all the way to the ceiling.

The death tyrant swung down at Vivi. She jumped out of the way, bracing the shockwave with her feet. Four skeletons were already reanimated near her. One by one, the faces turned to monsters.

“Kill the skeletons before we’re overwhelmed!” Lucius called.

A jab was thrown at Vivi from behind. She sensed the wisps of ether and leaned her head to the left, dodging. She swiped from below with her dark mithril greatsword.

The skeleton jumped back. It joined up with two of its allies. More were being reanimated behind them. Across the arena, dozens were spawning. The faces near the ceiling were being reanimated into flying skulls.

Vivi gritted her teeth and attacked the three skeletons. She slashed wide. The rightmost skeleton blocked with its fist, hitting Vivi’s blade straight on.

For a moment, the skeleton’s fist held, stopping Vivi’s attack. Then a crack sounded, and the crush runes came to effect. Vivi slashed the skeleton in half, crumbling it to pieces.

The two other skeletons attempted to counter-attack. Vivi growled, meeting the fist with her claws.

The fist won, hitting straight through Vivi’s claws. She was blown backward. Her body dragged across the ground, stopping inches from the moat before the boss. Her vision spun, eyes dizzy.

“Vivi, get up! It’s attacking!” Lucius shouted. He pushed a hundred wisps of ether into her head, forcing her awake.

Vivi blinked. Above her, the boss was raising its fists, its black eyes staring at Vivi. Five flying skulls and a giant bony hand were descending down at her.

Vivi jolted to her feet and ran left parallel to the hole in the ground: the only spot in the arena that wasn’t filled with enemies. She boss’s fist crushed the spot she was just in, crumbling the platform. Vivi managed to barely stay afoot.

On the opposite end, Aang and Lydi were barely keeping up with the skeletons. Aang slashed attacking monsters with Skeleton Cutter, while Lydi offered support with her staff. Their teamwork was solid—they’d clearly worked together before—but Lydi’s attacks were only barely strong enough to push skeletons back.

Vivi gritted her teeth, adrenaline and ether filling her thoughts as she slashed at an approaching skeleton. The arena was filling with more and more skeletons. The boss had crushed a few with its fist, and Vivi had killed one. During that time, more than twenty more had reanimated.

This wasn’t working! Vivi had to do something.

She killed one more skeleton, then switched her sword for Abyss Destroyer. She took aim, and threw the sword at the boss’s eye-holes.

The throw was perfect. Abyss Destroyer left behind a trail of light as it flew straight through the black eye-hole, eventually crashing against the inside of the boss’s head.

A cavernous roar echoed as the boss let out a cry. It held a hand over its eyes, screeching in pain. It flailed around aimlessly; dangerously. Its head crashed against the wall, shaking the entire arena. Stone particles fell from the ceiling.

But the boss didn’t die. It grabbed a part of the ground with its free hand, ripping a slab of bricks from the ground. It threw the bricks at Vivi.

Tens of skeletons surrounded her position, forcing her to the moat before the boss. There was nowhere to dodge.

In a split second decision, Vivi took one running step and jumped over the hole. She summoned her sword and drove it into the boss’s rib.

***

“How do you have an inside-carved runesword?” Uundref asked.

The tip of the nix sword grazed Ven’s forehead. A droplet of blood formed. There came the question Ven had been preparing for.

“We, uh, have a runesmith,” Ven said.

“And that runesmith is?”

Ven stayed silent, thinking of what to say. Vivi was still down there. If he revealed the truth, she could be caught. She probably wouldn’t be executed, but her enjoyable days would be over. The Stewards would turn her into a slave.

“It’s… Rensfig. That’s his name,” Ven said. As the words came out, it felt like an arrow pierced his heart. “He’s in the hub right now. He’d be eager to work for you.”

“That's a lie,” Uundref frowned. “The girl is the runesmith, isn’t she?”

Ven raised his head. “What? No?”

“She’s fifteen thousand ether in debt,” Uundref said. “She’s supposed to be weak with not the slightest influence in Zand. Nobody knows where she came from. Not even the guards that caught her. She claims she’s from the surface—the weakest of humanity's levels. Yet, all nimrods chase after her. Your leader has taken interest in her and is personally paying off her debts.”

“It’s not her…” Ven said.

“In our papers, her name is written as ‘Vivian Runeblessed’.” Uundref's look was the most serious Ven had seen. “The girl is your secret weapon. She is the one who created these weapons.”

Ven had nothing to say. He couldn’t admit it. Yet, he also couldn’t lie. Uundref had read the situation perfectly.

Ven’s expression must have given the truth away. Uundref sheathed the nix sword. Ven bit his bloodied lip.

“Where is she?” Uundref asked, scowling.

“She has escaped.”

“That’s a lie,” the torturer said.

Ven chuckled. He let out a laugh. “You’ll die, Uundref. Zand is over. Don’t go looking for Vivi. You’ll die.”

Uundref watched him for a short moment. “Then, it seems we will both witness an expert at work.” He turned to the torturer.

The suitcase opened again, and the smell of rotten flesh came back. Ven's eyes drifted toward the ceiling, head racing with thoughts. Hell, was this even worth it? The last thing he wanted was to reveal the plan to the Stewards. If the slightest of details was revealed, the Stewards could easily form an ambush outside the boss room to kill Aang and capture Vivi.

But Ven would be tortured… Uundref was ready to go to any lengths necessary.

“Let me ask this again,” Uundref said. The torturer was pillaging through his tools, picking his favourite. “Where is she?”

“Rot in the abyss, Uundref…” Ven said.

The Steward let out an exaggerated sigh. “The job is yours.”

The torturer faced Ven with thumbscrews and a handsaw. Ven cursed the gods. When was the last time he had cried? He didn’t even have ether to blow himself up from the inside. What a fool he was for giving his reserves away.

Just as the torturer was performing the final setup before action, rushed footsteps sounded from outside. Ven lifted his head and saw two guardsmen run in with panicked expressions. “Emergency!” the guard called, speaking while out of breath. “We need assistance!”

Uundref faced them with a scowl. “I believe I told you I was busy.”

“A boss is destroying Zand!” the guard said. “Every monster from the forest is attacking all at once! It’s urgent; all guards and Stewards have been called!”

“Then defend it,” Uundref said. “I have more important business to deal with.”

“The walls have been breached!” the guard said. “It’s a Twilight Shaman. The hub is filled with monsters. We’re being overwhelmed!”

Uundref paused. Ven had never seen such an expression on a Steward’s face.

Uundref picked up the two katanas and headed out. “The torture will wait. I won't take long.”

Then he followed the guards to the hub.

Ven’s heart raced out of his stomach. He let out a chuckle. Then he laughed.

I’m saved? he thought. By a boss that Vivi crafted?

Nothing made sense today. Plans had never gone so wrong, yet so right at the same time. Zand was overrun by monsters? There was no way.

Aang, Vivi, Lydi… You better not die down there!