The fire singed Bjorn’s skin, leaving light burns on his forearm. In comparison, his clothes took the majority of the damage. Infuriated, he infused his leg with earth mana before stomping the ground. The room shook as a crack moved towards the baron, attempting to swallow him. It was to no avail as the baron merely stepped to the side. The smirk he gave Bjorn in return nearly tipped the man over the edge. Fire coated the baron's rapier as he got into a fighting stance. Embers rose from the fire on his sword. The tensing of the baron’s leg muscles was the only indicator of the incoming attack. No matter how Bjorn tried, he was too slow to react to the attack. He watched as the blade angled closer to his face. A sense of hollow acceptance consumed Bjorn as he saw his death draw ever closer.
When the blade was mere inches from his face, a bright light blinded him. Before, a small burning cut appeared on his cheek. Looking behind his opponent, he saw Drakkus stand there with his hand raised. Lightning still crackling on his fingertips. Trying not to waste the advantage he had been given. Bjorn grabbed the baron by his shoulders. He drew more mana from his core than he had ever attempted before. Holding the baron in place, he stomped on the ground once more. The ground began to separate into a large crack. The baron squirmed in his grip, trying to set himself free, forcing Bjorn to focus harder on restraining him.
With his focus solely on the baron, he did not notice how the crack split a pillar as well as the Farum rune carved into it. The room began to shake uncontrollably. The space inside began to expand and contract, as space itself became unstable. The delicate balance established through the runes had been shattered. Bjorn stared with wide eyes as one second, the crack on the ground was normal, and in the next, it consumed the ground where Drakkus stood, causing him to fall. Completely forgetting about the baron, he dropped him to the side as he fell to his knees. The realization of what he had done ate him up inside as guilt consumed him. “Nooooo,” he screamed to no avail.
Meanwhile, the baron did not stick around to see how it all ended. He ran for his life, exiting the room and eventually the tomb entirely. Large cold hands grabbed Bjorn by the arm, dragging him away from the destabilizing room as melancholy consumed him.
—-
One moment, I watched as Bjorn grabbed the baron. Relief building inside me as I had almost been too late. And in the next, the ground underneath my feet vanished. Just as I was about to scream, I struck the side of the wall, stealing the last of my breath as something in my chest cracked. My freefall did nothing to dull the pain of my broken rib. I began to reinforce my body with aura in an attempt to lessen my eventual fall. Just as my entire body was coated, I struck something solid with my outstretched arm. Even with the aura strengthening me, I felt the bone give as it broke unevenly. A muffled scream escaped my lips as the pain soared through my arm. The break was bad; the bone protruded from my skin in a skewed manner. I just lay there for five minutes waiting for the pain to subside. But even then, it hardly did. My vision was filled with the same black basalt pillars, with the only light being the dull grey glow of Gha runes.
“Uueeeeeegh!” An ear-splitting screech came from my left. Accompanied by the sound of footsteps drawing nearer. Knowing that staying still would result in my death. I pushed through the pain. Trying and failing to get back on my feet. With a sigh, I began to infuse my body with prana. Feeling as my disease began acting up once more. Suppressing the cough building in my chest, I stood up facing the ghoul charging at me. With my nodachi nowhere in sight, my dominant arm broken. I had nothing but my body and my magic to protect me. But the grotesque creature moving closer to me was a behemoth. Unlike the ghouls from the upper floors, this creature stood taller than Jurgen. His limbs looked to have been stitched together with large glowing green claws dripping with poison, making up most of its fingers.
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Facing the beast that could very well be my end. I met its disfigured eyes with defiance burning in my chest. Through the pain and suffering of two lives only I have remained. The mere thought of accepting my fate made me boil over with rage. Calling forth the mana in my core, I began to change it to spatial mana. The spatial mana coursed through me, but I did not stop there. I coated the claws of my right hand in spatial mana. Reality seemingly bent around them as a strange red energy coalesed my claws. Lightning shot out of my feet as I lost myself within the raw sorcery. It felt like trying to swim through muddy water. Meeting resistance at every step. But I could not deny the raw power held within my fingertips.
The ghoul roared in mockery of my defiance as our claws met. Even with all my power stacked together, it was nowhere near enough to match its sheer physical might. I managed to hold out for a single second before I was thrown back directly into a pillar. My breath once more leaves me in a pivotal moment. Yet the ghoul did not charge to finish me off. The creature walked with slow, measured steps as it approached. Only now did I see the unnatural intelligence within its eyes and the sadistic grin showing of rows of razorsharp teeth.
Pain wreaked havoc in my body as I once again got to my feet. As things stood, a direct confrontation with the ghoul would only lead to failure. The world seemingly slowed as my mind worked in overdrive to come up with any solution that would at least allow me to survive. My eyes darted across the room, looking for anything that could give me an advantage. My eyes landed on the Gha runes as a plan formed in my mind. The ghoul was still walking menacingly towards me. But instead of focusing on the ghoul, I turned to a pillar to my left. The light from the Gha rune bathed the area in grey light. Running at full speed, I reached the pillar within seconds. Mana coated my claws once more. With my claws, I made a single cut, changing the meaning of the rune from light to fire. The dull grey light gained a warm hue. But other than the visual difference, nothing happened.
At least so it seemed, because by changing the meaning of the rune, I also cut it off from its power source. The ghoul realized that something was wrong and abandoned its slow approach. My instincts flared, warning me of danger. A split-second blink was the only thing that saved me from poisonous claws digging into my back. Appearing at another pillar with a Gha carved on it, I repeated the process. But in doing so, my focus diverted from the ghoul for a second. More than enough time for the creature to shoot a bone projectile deep into my left thigh. Blood spurted from the wound as pain flared from the wound. Without caring for conserving mana, I blinked once more. The process repeated itself four more times before I appeared in the center of the six-pointed area I had created from the tampered runes.
My mana was dangerously low at this point. Having only enough for two more skills. But for what I wanted to do, it was more than enough. The ghoul was absolutely furious at this point, and it charged at me with reckless abandon. The only thought in its false mind was to rip me to shreds. That recklessness played to my advantage when the ghoul entered the focal point of my six-pointed formation. My final blink brought me out of the effective area. A perfectly timed lightning bolt struck the edited rune, causing a chain reaction to unfold. Where the lightning jumped between the various affected runes. The warm glow of the runes began to gain intensity as the heat inside the room grew. The heat continued to grow to the extent that the runes began to melt the basalt pillars they were carved in.
The worst of it was within the central area where the ghoul was trapped. Fire blossomed like a raging inferno, consuming the ghoul whole. The heat grew so intense that the basalt turned to molten slag. Nothing but ash remained of the greatest adversary I had ever faced in this life. Seeing my enemy so thoroughly defeated caused the adrenaline to fade from my system. All of the built-up wounds coalesced into a singular wave that overpowered every other sensation in my body. For who knows how long, my entire world was devoid of anything except the all-encompassing pain.
