Too Stubborn to Die

He had entered the boss chamber with fury, but Aaron’s initial rampage died down after a bit. He had drained the last of the obelisk’s aether, consuming most of it, but it was mostly because of the hydra heads. In a blind mad flurry, he had destroyed a dozen heads before realizing what he was doing.

“Okay. I think I might have overdone it…” Aaron cracked his neck, eyeing the mess of tangled and whipping heads. “What now?”

“HA! I’m feeling much better now, A-ran.”

“That’s good to hear,” Aaron looked over at Mo’han, who was looking revitalized, with a healthy purple glow to him. “But what about all the heads?”

“Heads? More the merrier, if you ask me! Besides, that big guy doesn’t seem to like being hit in the body.”

“Oh,” Aaron nodded. “That’s good to know,” he added, burying a fist in his palm.

“Shall we then?”

“We shall,” Aaron agreed, taking a step forward.

“The rest of us are invisible, are we?” Voidrin tsked, but neither Aaron nor Mo’han acknowledged him as they marched toward the hydra, chins high.

A fist bump initiated the charge, and the two of them flew toward the massive creature as it engulfed them in a myriad of different, and very much deadly, breath attacks.

Aaron, for his part, phased straight through, landing a haymaker into its guts. While Mo’han raised a shield with his arms, barreling through the different damage types and laying waste with a flurry of strikes to a particularly unfortunate midsection.

“That hurt,” Voidrin winced.

“I’ll say,” Elmira nodded.

The onlookers almost felt bad for the beast as their fists slammed against it in tandem. There was an odd beauty to their attacks. Endless pain and damage being leveled, their attacks landing between one another so as to never give it even a fraction of reprieve.

Soon, the devastating attacks were pushing it back. Claws sank into the ground, and a Skill activated as it tried to anchor itself in place, but nothing worked. Even as powerful as it was, the combination of attacks was far too much to deal with.

Aaron and Mo’han seemed to time each other perfectly. And even the incredibly powerful scales that wrapped around it like mythical armor did little to dampen the damage being leveled upon it.

It was too perfect, in fact. Aaron felt a strangeness. A destructive unity. Perhaps it was the aether that had poured out of the obelisk, because in that moment, Aaron felt as if he could sense Mo’han’s energy on a deeper level, like they were almost bound together as they fought.

What is that?

In his mind’s eye, he could see Mo’han’s attacks. Could feel how they were going to land, and could sense when best to throw his own attacks. It was almost as if their attacks had become part of the same combination, parsing power from one to the other, to form something greater than the sum of its parts.

And as Aaron leaned into this, he felt a truth awakening deep within himself, as if he had touched on something profound.

Trait Awoken: Tandem Assault

You have honed a unique connection with another, empowering your Skills to work together, and strengthening both you and your partner when you fight beside one another.

Provides: Additional Skill damage output when fighting alongside the person with the paired Trait.

Aaron's eyes brightened, and he looked over to Mo’han as he continued to attack, and the asura returned an acknowledging nod.

Huh, interesting. Okay. This works.

He could feel the boost in power the moment he gained the new Trait. There was no doubt that his Skills were hitting harder. He felt flesh and bones break beneath his haymaker, and the pained groan from the hydra had added bite to it.

But he wasn’t satisfied with that. He pushed himself further, leaning into his new Trait as he parsed his attacks through his combinations, trying to draw on ever more power as he laid down a beating of a lifetime.

And it worked. The near C-grade hydra wailed, losing grip and being forced backward as the two warriors seemed to grow even stronger, tenderizing its flesh with each strike.

It was a mighty beast, though, and not one willing to just roll over and die. But everything it threw back at them seemed completely outmatched. Most attacks failed to do damage of any kind, and those that did weren’t doing nearly enough to make up for the damage it was eating.

It wasn’t just the new Trait, though. Aaron had grown. He could feel it. And while his level growth mightn’t have been comparable to when he first left the trials, that was to be expected as he caught up to others. However, when it came to growth in other ways, he had exceeded his own expectations.

His core felt almost natural as it cycled energy. His mana anchors, despite not being fully upgraded yet, were improved as he could increase both output, increasing damage, and feeling more efficient.

And all of this worked to further increase the gains he had achieved in his Skill upgrades, not to mention other Traits and Stat bonuses that put him at a power level far beyond what his actual level indicated.

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A lot had happened since the trials, and Aaron had changed a lot. He wasn’t the same under-leveled guy punching above his weight anymore. But despite that, he hadn’t forgotten the lessons he learned. The way he combined skill with power was monstrous.

And even Mo’han seemed more focused now. Seemingly woken up by the talents of the universe. And to think that was just their universe. What was beyond that?

With renewed vigor, the two worked like smiths, bending the hydra like heated metal beneath their fists. Over and over again, a repetitive beating that could crumble worlds beneath its power.

And the damage was increasingly noticeable.

A Voidrin and Ikran moved to assist, wanting to put the poor beast out of its misery as soon as possible. But the hydra was beyond stubborn. It met their attempt to join the battle with dozens of heads breathing all kinds of elemental attacks upon them.

Both were fast in their own right, with Ikran appearing beside it, and Voidrin switching places with his clones. But it was relentless, and Voidrin’s clones quickly dwindled, while Ikran barely managed to land an attack before having to move to his ink elsewhere. And meanwhile, his ink was being destroyed by the breath.

After only a few seconds, both had backed off.

“Eh, y’know, I think those two have got it sorted,” Voidrin said.

“I concur,” Ikran said. “Our skills are best suited to finishing off the rest of its minions.”

“Right, yeah. Exactly that!” Voidrin nodded.

“Those two,” Talia shook her head. There were barely a handful of wounded minions left hobbling around.

Meanwhile, as the others recovered, Aaron and Mo’han appeared to be having a blast fighting beside one another, fist bumping between attacks.

“I wish I had beers in my storage!” Aaron said between punches.

“You’re in luck, A-ran!” Mo’han said, opening his storage and tossing a couple to Aaron, before cracking open his own. “My world has a talented brewer who made these up for me.”

“Damn, that is refreshing, cheers mate,” Aaron said, flashing to Mo’han’s side to clash cans before blasting back into combat.

“Hits the spot, doesn’t it?” Mo’han said, struggling not to spill as he attacked.

“Mate, you need to put me on to this bloke. When you figure the wormhole stuff out.”

“Will do, A-ran. I’ll have a shipment ready for you!”

“And I’ll bring the snags!” Aaron said, landing another catastrophic attack.

“Snags?”

“Sausages!”

“BRILLIANT!”

By this point, the beast looked as confused as it did bruised and battered. But there was little it could do. Its exceptional recovery had allowed it to remain alive, but if anything, that was just more time to be brutalized by the duo.

The hydra summoned all of its strength for one last attempt to push them back, drawing all of its energy into a special attack that released a suffocating aura that dropped the likes of Lagora and Draxas to their knees.

But just before the world-ending attack could be fired upon them, Aaron and Mo’han attacked its belly in tandem, and the result was a puff of smoke from its many mouths as the special attack fizzled out.

“Just die already, pal,” Voidrin shied away.

“This is hard to watch,” Talia agreed.

“I have never witnessed a three-way take such a pounding,” Elmira said.

But the attacks just kept coming. Endlessly. Beating and battering until the hydra was finally brought to rest, collapsing between the two as they clashed cans again, and took another long refreshing sip.

“That was something else, huh?” Aaron inhaled as he stood over the corpse. “Such a clean taste.

“Right?” Mo’han said. “Hard to believe they only started brewing after the Integration. Tastes like they’ve been doing it their entire life.”

“I’ll say. Your mate’s a genius.”

Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a beast of a higher level than yourself!

[ Precise Bombardier Pugilist ] has LEVELED UP!

133 → 138

“Huh. More levels too,” Aaron nodded at the notifications.

“That was over too quickly. Oh well. I suppose we’ll catch up again before too long.”

“Cheers to that, mate.”

The rest of the group walked over to congratulate them, but more notifications quickly followed, bringing the conversation to a close.

Quest: Defeat the boss before you are overwhelmed by the undead horde COMPLETED!

250 auction points rewarded!

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE SURVIVED THE DUNGEON UNTIL THE END!

Unfortunately, your team was the fourth to finish, and as such, no additional points have been rewarded.

Hang your head high, delver. Few have ever achieved such things.

“Fourth?” Aaron slumped. “I suppose I get it.”

“Ahh, it’s whatever, A-ran. We are victorious. Don’t let this sour your mood.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Mo’han.”

“Good job, you two,” Voidrin said. “I was about to jump in and give you a hand, but you two looked like you had it covered.”

“As was I. But my skills were needed elsewhere,” Ikran said proudly, chest held high.

Lagora stood away from the others, looking to the side and tracing circles in the dirt with the tip of her foot.

Elmira and Talia sat beside one another, sharing a couple of potions and catching their breath.

While Lord Draxas was already retelling the story of their victory, albeit with Lord Draxas at the center of it all, singing about the dragon who slayed the hydra.

Aaron just smiled as he looked across them all and patted Zero when he came for licks. Additional points weren't the end of the world. Now, after it was all said and done, he didn’t care that much. They had survived the Death God’s meddling and completed a dungeon only the greatest in the universe had any right competing in.

What were a few more auction points in the face of that? Especially when he had already collected many.

However, the final placing did bother him a little. The reality was, as strong as they were, there were serious monsters out there. And that was just within their universe.

And then, as System energy started to wrap around them, he spotted a tusked silhouette in the shadows above them. It was Mala, and for whatever reason, she hadn’t attacked them.

It was curious. It was one thing to let them beat the boss. After all, she still needed to escape the dungeon herself, and there were no extraction zones on this floor.

However, she had a moment after the hydra during which she could have tried to kill them. Light hit her eyes for a second as he looked upon her, and a devilish gleam shone.

Interesting, but I don’t think it means we’re friends…

Please stand by as the Auction House is prepared!

“Here we go, A-ran.”

Aaron nodded, and the group of them was pulled from the dungeon and flung through a space.

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