Chapter 111: It’s All Ogre pt.2

The ogre opened its tusk-ridden mouth wide and bellowed a cacophonous challenge. It stood in the middle of the carved plateau that made up the summit of the dwarven city, surrounded on all sides by a garden of lovingly carved statues.

Shimmering blue walls had sealed in the summit, linking the many columns that lined its edge. Kaius ignored the surprise barrier; it was always going to be do or die, a lack of escape meant nothing.

Like a physical wave, the roar echoed through the massive cavern, punching deep into Kaius’s chest. He was already sprinting forwards. The ogre heaved on its massive iron wrapped club, shattering one of the many statues that surrounded it with a contemptuous swing. Thanks to the Jack Rabbit tonic that he had imbibed, every touch of foot against stone sent him sailing through the air as he rapidly closed the distance – wind whistling past his ears.

Even though he was still at least a good hundred odd long-strides from his target, shrapnel from the shattered statue showered him, plinking off of his cuirass and helmet. A testament to the Siege Ogre’s power.

As he ran, Porkchop peeled away from him, moving through the questionable cover of the widely spaced sculptures to flank the Guardian. If there was to be any hope of it working, Kaius knew he had to hold the ogre’s attention.

Half the distance between them disappeared in an instant, his full sprint eating away at the gap. He gestured towards the ogre with his off hand, aiming for one of its sunken and beady eyes as his hand glittered with the detritus of burnt runes. An azure shard, nearly as big as one of his forearms, crackled with magical potency as it substantiated and then shot forwards. The runic hymn screamed through the air, calling out in violence and hate as its empowered form sparked with arcane discharge, Lunar Wisdom at work.

His heart thumped, a breath catching in his throat as he watched the spell with focused intensity. Howling in fury at his assault, the ogre lifted one torso sized hand to shield its face.

The azure shard slammed into its palm, shattering bones and tearing a ragged hole through its flesh. A small one. As it ruptured through the other side of its hand, it disintegrated, showering the ogre’s face in scintillating shards that gouged into its skin.

A bassy scream of pain and fury echoed out, stinging Kaius in the ears. Dark green blood poured from the wound he had left in its free hand, coating its face in gore as it swatted at the lingering arcane embers that had settled on its face after the dissolution of his spell.

With his enhanced acuity he saw the exact moment it closed its eyes. Explorer’s Toolkit screamed.

An opening.

He thrust out his left hand, aiming for its knee. There was no way he was leaving this to chance. He’d watched his spells eviscerate champions, and even empowered the most violent weapon in his arsenal had done far less to its palm. In moments golden rain fell from his hand as Kaius unleashed a salvo of Arcane Bolts, four crystalline missiles screaming through the air to punch into the joint.

A terrible crack sounded out across the plateau as his bolts slammed home with preternatural accuracy. The ogre cried out once more. It tried to move, tried to get out of the way, but the speed of his pre-prepared casting left almost no gap between his attacks.

Cartilage, bone, and flesh exploded out the back of the ogre’s leg, coating a statue of an enrobed magi behind it in gore.

The Guardian stumbled, but it didn’t fall.

His blood froze. The ogre roared.

Lashing out in fury, it whipped its club into another statue, sending chunks of stone flying towards him. Kaius tracked them with his eyes, sliding to the side and bending at his hips as Uncanny Dodge pinged him with a half dozen warnings. Blurring with speed, Kaius danced through the deadly granite rain, growling in frustration as a shower of lesser shards left light cuts on his exposed face.

Stepping towards him, the ogre stumbled on its ruined leg, barely able to put any weight on its partially shattered joint. It started to limp towards him. Slowly.

Kaius let out a sigh of relief. At the very least its injured leg had massively hampered its mobility. He would have much preferred if it was completely disabled of course, without any remaining spells he had to commit to melee, and a downed ogre was one much less capable of squashing him like a bug.

He could feel Porkchop lying in wait behind the Guardian, ready and waiting for him to begin his assault. They moved as one, racing forwards to challenge their opponent.

Thrumming through his veins with violent intensity, his blood started to sing as the ogre focused on him with a scowl.

Nothing could compare to this, the sheer rush of staring death in the face and daring it to try harder. There was always something bigger, something more vicious, and something more deadly waiting over the next horizon. Kaius wasn’t going to stop until every last one fell before him, and he stood at the summit.

Joy bled across his link with Porkchop, a visceral synchronicity of shared violent delights resonating between them. Kaius grinned, feral and bloodthirsty. He’d always known his bond-brother was a kindred spirit, but it was something else entirely to feel it.

The ogre howled, muscles in its arm and chest rippled under warted and calloused skin as it smashed its club towards him in a great sideways swipe. Multiple skills twinged, all at once. True Vision mapped the path of the club perfectly, while Explorer’s Toolkit and Uncanny Dodge worked in unison to evaluate exactly where and how he was threatened, even as the later joined with Adamant Body to help him move.

Kaius lept upwards, flicking his legs up and out of the path of the hunk of banded wood that was as thick as his shin was long. He leaned back into his vault, feeling the air whistle through the scales of his armour as the club sailed underneath him, missing him by barely a hair as it skitter-crashed its way across the reinforced dwarven stone.

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Feet touched the ground; he dashed in.

In a moment he stood before the ogre, pivoting his wrists to send A Father’s Gift into a blurring arc of a high cut. The point of his blade bit into the Guardians leathery skin, tearing its way through the base of the creature’s belly. Blood spilled free, but no entrails. No viscera. Even with masterwork steel and masterwrought enchantments, he still struggled to pierce the armour-like hide and thick blubber thanks to his poor angle and leverage, only just barely nicking the muscle.

The ogre roared, swiping down at him with its free hand and mana pulsed deep in the core of its chest.

Its first skill.

His senses tuned in, and Kaius danced back with skill-enhanced dexterity, out of the path of the blow. The ogres palm hit the ground in a clap of thunder, spraying dust and spilled green blood. Stone crashed, a wave of force emanating out from the blow and ringing him like a bell. Kaius gasped, whatever skill the Siege Ogre used punching clean through his warded armour to brutalise the soft flesh of his innards. A cough preceded the thick taste of iron coating his tongue.