Unconquered Tower

TWENTY-EIGHT

Roan dashed forward, leaping with all his considerable might toward the lump in the ground. Black ichor swirled around it, forming into a latticework of tendons and muscles even as Roan flew across the sky. He stretched his polearm back, ready to bring a massive swiping blow down.

In the presence of the corruption his blood began to burn, igniting a fire in his veins that ripped a scream out of him. The chain of his bloodline enhancing enchantment came to life, glowing with power, reaching and covering the head of the axe. Roan started to fall toward the core, time stretching out as more and more of the corruption spun meat together to re-from the dragon.

Spears of rotting muscle surged toward him and he was forced to swipe them away. His glowing axehead ripped apart the spears of blackened flesh with ease, burning light racing downward through the spears and to the core.

With a wet plopping sound the spears fell apart, disconnected before his bloodline ability reached the heart of the roiling mass of corruption. Roan hit the ground early, his swipe having thrown him to the side. He rolled and came to his feet, already racing back toward the dragon core.

“TAOYA! MOVE IT!” Roan screamed as he reached back to hack away at the ball of corruption. More and more pieces of the dragon were being stitched back together by the second, tentacles of corruption snagging anything around it.

Including a series of clumps of soil. Each of them were head sized, full of rocks and scorched grass. Roan was forced to cut them apart as the core threw them at him, trying to slow him down as he got within swinging distance.

More light glowed as his bloodline reacted instinctively, powering the enchantments as he brought the axehead around in a massive, cleaving swing. Black ooze melted away, smoldering as it splattered the broken ground with a hissing screech. The mass of it roiled backward and Roan got a glimpse of the fist sized orb in the middle of the mass. Then flesh peeled away and the protective shell returned, smaller now, but faster as it started to climb out of the crater.

Roan didn’t give it time, hacking back and forth with wild swings, a frenzy overriding his mind. His body burned with a feverish intensity as he leaned down, scything the poleaxe as fast as he could.

With every swipe more of the corruption burned away or was abandoned as the pile of corruption reached the lip of the crater and started to run away. Roan let out a roar and leapt, clearing the crest and brought the axehead down again. This time the ball of corruption erupted like a volcano.

Hardened spikes of corruption smacked against his chest, throwing Roan backward. Pain spiked through him as the needle points dug into his skin and began to worm their way into him. For all of a second. By the time Roan’s backside hit the dirt and he began to tumble, his bloodline roared forth, scouring his body and purging the filth.

He tumbled once and his free hand dug into the dirt, catching himself before he could slide far. Pressure mounted behind his eyes as his heart thrashed wildly, every breath a gasp of desperation. Roan got to his feet, his gaze narrowed at where the ball of corruption was, he could feel it even if he couldn’t see it. A magnetic pull that seemed to scream “FILTH!” in his mind.

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It was a pressure to keep moving, to keep attacking no matter what the cost would be. A madness that burned from his very being, urging him to run toward the corruption and see it purged from this world.

A scream ripped from his mouth as he charged back over the hill and toward the dragon core. The swirling mass of black ichor was hardly larger than a beachball now, slowly pulling itself away with a few tendrils. All around were small spots of darkness, deeper in pitch than the rest of their surroundings.

Roan raced toward the retreating ball, bringing his halberd back once more. A finality filled him as he swung for the final time. This time there were no limbs of corrupted flesh to sacrifice, or chunks of earth to throw. His axe blade sheared apart the tumor and struck the dragon core with the sound of glass striking metal. There was no accompanying sound of shattering though.

Streams of blue-light raced from his axeblade and through the corruption. Foul smelling steam rose into the air, dissipating in moments, and leaving the core by itself on the ground, his axeblade firmly pressed against it.

The blue-light of his bloodline filled the center of the core, burning away the cloudy darkness that had shrouded it. Cold sweat popped out along Roan’s forehead as weakness stole upon him, dropping him to a knee as breaths trembled in his chest. It was as if an anvil had been placed on his sternum, making every inhalation a challenge.

Still more of the light poured out of him, through the halberd's haft, down the blade, and into the core. Deeper and deeper the light pushed until it reached the center of the core, the entirety of it glowing bright blue.

As fast as the madness had consumed him it left. In its wake Roan wobbled, his body stripped of its strength as if he’d been cored, everything of value scooped out and thrown to the side. The anvil finally left and he gasped, drawing in the hot air of the night, the smell of death, burnt flesh, and scorched earth tasting like the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted.

“Oh, lord,” Roan groaned as he fell on his ass, breathing in deeply as fast as he could to the point it was nearly hyperventilation. Thirst clawed at him and it was with trembling hands that he got his canteen and drank as deeply as he could, water sloshing out of the sides and down his face.

“What you’re feeling is bloodline exhaustion. You don’t have enough mana in your body to properly channel it, so it started to consume you to power itself,” Taoya said wearily. The huge man slunk up from the crater and flopped down on the ground next to Roan without a care of the damage around them.

“This is what you were feeling last level?” Roan asked, dropping the empty canteen to the ground.

“Yeah. don’t feel bad though. I trained my entire life to deal with it,” Taoya said, waving a hand lazily at him. Roan looked over and back toward the forest where the rest of the ambush team was supposed to be. They were coming out of the forest now looking lost and disheveled, staggering here and there.

“They took a pummeling,” Roan said.

“We have stronger bodies. And I have my bloodline to help me,” Taoya said.

“You absorbed all the energy of the blast?”

“No, just that which would have hurt me. Still nearly overloaded myself. Will have to take it easy the next few days.” The two of them fell silent as they knew there wouldn’t be time to take it easy.

“So,” Roan began, breaking the temporary silence as he looked over the massive crater.

“The explosives were a little stronger than we thought. Think the others will be fine?” Taoya grimaced and looked in the direction of where the villages were before speaking.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. They’re smart, competent people.”