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Bloodsworn Ch. 2.21
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 01:57:57 +0000 UTCA/N: Patreon has been butchering formatting lately
21.
Nevia killed the first of the small, gray creatures that came rushing into the hall. She stood by the edge of the doorframe with her sword at the ready and chopped down as the monster ran by her, severing its spine and dropping it to the ground in a clatter of scrap metal, sliding another foot even as its dark blood splattered across the dusty floor.
Corrupted Dwarf lvl. 23
It had been the right size for a dwarf but it lacked the robust nature of Snowbeard or his apprentices. Emaciated cheekbones, armor that was more rust than steel, patchy clumps of hair that could only roughly be considered a beard, and had been carrying a long thick stone club. The club skated up to Erak's foot and he shoved it aside as he took the hammer off his shoulder and held it with one hand.
He walked toward the front of the hall and stood there with his feet spread and waited for the rest of them. He could hear their calls in the rough dwarven tongue coming from deeper in the hall as the sound of rushing feet heralded their arrival.
Sammus drifted off to the other side of the hall to form a shallow triangle with Erak standing at the apex of the group so that those entering the room would only see Erak’s form at first.
They burst into the room with a series of wild cries, feral in their rage as they charged him mindlessly. Erak strode forward to meet them with the slab of a shield to his shoulder. The first of the dwarves thrust a rusty polearm at him and it scraped along the edge of the shield and past his cheek. Erak retaliated with a single overhand blow and the dwarf was crushed under the blow, skull shattering in an explosion of gore. Erak kicked the dwarf to the side and sent the body sailing away into the horde coming through the doors.
Erak stepped forward and let his aura fill the hall even as Nevia boosted him with her own ability. Power filled him as he swung the great hammer in an arc that shattered bone and pulverized flesh, throwing the decrepit dwarves backward. He kicked and used his shield like a battering ram, holding the door even as the horde pressed against him, harder and harder. Nevia and Sammus had lost all semblance of style or skill, hacking down from tables into the swarming heads like butchers.
Pomp leapt up and floated for a moment in the air, sinuous body propped up without a sign of support, before unleashing a wide blast of arctic air that froze the entrance hall. Those closest to the front of the blast froze instantly, beards hardening and a rime of frost covering their features for a brief moment before Erak’s hammer shattered them into a thousand, frozen, red pieces.
Erak continued to lash around him in sweeping blows that sent bodies crumpling to the ground. The hammer felt right in his hands, a solid weight that could not be denied, his strength of arm propelling it in deadly arcs. A cry echoed out, deeper and throatier and the twisted dwarves froze their attempts to climb the ramparts of the dead to get at him.
A figure barreled in through the doors with a harsh bellow that rang his ears. Eight legs churned as it raced forward, climbing over the top of the churning mass of dwarves, and looked down at them. It held the body of a spider and grafted to the fat oblong body was a humanoid torso. Black hair fell in stringy remnants down a skeletal body, flabby lumps of flesh hung from the emaciated frame, and yellow eyes glared at him as the creature screamed again.
Spider Chimera lvl. 31
Foul magiks have been performed deep in the roots of the mountains and these have emerged. A blend of human and monster.
That thing’s creepy. Way too many legs.
Erak hit the closest leg with his hammer, chitin breaking in a wave of yellow, goopy, blood. The smell filled the room, rot and sulfur, and the creature leaned its head back and screamed, this time in pain. Another leg slashed at him, cutting through the air, and Erak had to leap backward as the sharp leg nearly cut him. His vulnerable skin never felt more exposed as that sharp leg nearly split him in half.
Erak slammed the slab of metal against the leg and more chitin broke and a scream ripped from the creature’s spider base. Spittle flew as the secondary mouth opened and a long gray tongue lashed at him. Erak lifted the hammer and used the spike, slamming the tongue into the ground and pinning it to the ground. The creature screamed at him, the upper figure shaking as if consumed by a seizure.
He strode up to the creature as it shook and punched it in the face with the shield. Stretched out on his toes he had to reach toward the creature to hit the monster’s jaw. Bone cracked and the screaming stopped as its shoulders slumped and the remaining legs went limp for a moment. It slammed into the side of the wall and sat there stunned.
Erak put a boot on the muscular tongue and pried the hammer free before looking up at the slumped over chimera. The ability came to his mind with only a thought, Weight of Peace, it took just a trickle of Essence. The hammer dropped out of the air and hit the stone with a tremendous crash as his arm jerked down instantly. Cursing internally with a ferocity that surprised himself, he dropped the damaged shield and grabbed the haft of the hammer with both hands.
Muscles strained for a moment, but the warhammer rose as Erak exerted himself. Raising the massive hammer he froze as the creature looked at him for a split second with fear in its yellow eyes. Then the hammer hit in its face and smeared it across the hall’s walls. The chimera went limp and collapsed to the ground in a mountain of flesh as Erak stood over it, triumphant.
The flow of Essence that poured into him finally pushed him over to the next level, finally. Erak had to repress a grin as he looked over at the stat screen, but the press of bodies hadn’ slowed with the death of the chimera. Sammus, Nevia, and Pomp were being driven backward and away from the doors.
Pomp! To the Vault!
“Erak says retreat to the vault!” Pomp yelled to the others before blasting the line of fallen dwarves with another icy blast. The door to the vault would constrict the dwarves' numbers now that they had lost control of the hall’s doorway. Erak interposed himself between his fellows and the line of not frozen dwarves, hammer held across his chest as the ability faded away leaving the hammer its normal weight.
The trio raced into the vault and spun about to face the hall while Erak slowly stepped back and into the arch of the doorway. More of the spider-chimeras were coming, their many legs allowing them to crawl around the horde along the top of the hall and edges. Dozens came in a flowing wave and Erak stared at them with a predatory grin.
Might get another level from this.
