Aster Loka
patreon
Chapter 107
🕑 Added 2022-03-29 16:03:00 +0000 UTCThe ogre stood staring at them, uncrossing its arms as it scowled at the invaders. Its fists were adorned with spiked gauntlets, rusty jagged things clearly made for punching.
"Be careful," Levi cautioned, then they charged into the boss room and the fight began.
The ogre didn't like being surrounded. Levi scored a decent slash across its side with his Destructive Slash, then was sent flying as a fist slammed into his armor and launched him across the room. Henry fared a little better, chomping onto the ogre's leg and keeping hold even as it tried to stomp him free, then ducked and ran away, spinning to fire his acidic spit into the ogre's side the moment it turned its attention to Peter.
Peter slashed it across the knee twice, but as he got to his feet and charged back into the fight Levi could tell the wounds were superficial.
A gleaming bolt of stone hissed across the room, missing the ogre and slamming into the far wall.
Irene cursed and fired again, her eyes coldly determined. This time her bolt took the ogre in the shoulder, too high up to be dangerous, but enough to make it angry.
The ogre roared and smashed its fists out to either side, one clobbering Henry on the head, the other colliding with Levi's instinctively raised sword. Henry let out a thin whine as he dropped, his health dipping to 4%.
"No! Henry!" Peter dropped the sword and ran to his dilo's side.
"Peter! Stay focused!" Levi shouted, even as the ogre's foot kicked out and sent Peter flying.
For a heart-stopping second, Levi thought he'd been over-eager, pushed too far, taken too many risks.
Peter hit the wall hard, but his health remained stable at 40%.
The instant he knew his son would be fine, Levi's panic flipped over into rage. He scooped up the shortsword as he ran at the ogre, the pair of blades feeling balanced and correct in his hands.
It was still heading toward Irene, ignoring both Henry and Peter.
A second stone bolt slamming into its chest, then a third. Irene was clearly getting the hang of using the bow.
Levi jumped into the air, both blades raised, and slammed them down in a dual activated attack. Beast Bite chomped into the ogre's neck; Destructive Slash scored a line down its spine.
The ogre roared in pain, and Levi shoved more mana into his blades, the strength of his attack overpowering the merely level one boss despite its plus status. Its health dropped once, then twice, then the ogre fell to the ground with a thud as its health reached zero.
Levi jumped free, breathing hard, eyes jumping straight to where Peter lay against the wall. Peter was staring as Levi downed the ogre, eyes wide and mouth open. "Wooah..." he breathed, in obvious admiration.
Then Levi and Irene converged on him, checking him over. Thankfully, the injuries were non-extensive: a solid bump to the back of his head, an impact across his chest, but neither dangerous and both easily remedied.
“You were awesome, Dad. I never knew you were so cool.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you everything I know,” Levi assured him, helping him to his feet. “I’m sure you’ll be even cooler than me one day.”
“Soon, I hope!” Peter brushed himself off, then saw Henry struggling to stand and ran to him. "Henry!"
"I'll take care of him," Irene promised, finishing up with Peter. Henry obediently limped over to her. Peter sat down cross-legged on the floor and helped Henry lie down so he could be comfortable while Irene applied the restorative.
Once he was sure Henry would be okay, Peter looked up at Levi again. “I have another minion slot now, what can we catch if not the ogre?”
“You could always get a gremlin. They’re pretty smart.”
Peter's nose wrinkled as he shook his head. “They’re wimpy and lame. If that’s the only option then I’d rather get another dilo.”
Henry raised his head to nod emphatically, hissing dismissively in Skarm’s direction.
Skarm narrowed his eyes at the dinosaur, clearly ready to show Henry his place if he tried anything.
Levi held out a hand to Skarm, signalling him to back off. Skarm sulkily shrugged and looked away as though he didn't care what Henry thought of him, though Levi could tell he did.
"Don't underestimate a gremlin," Levi cautioned, turning back to Peter. "But it's up to you if you’d rather tame something else.”
“I do.”
“Anything you want in particular?”
“A wolf?" Peter asked "Or maybe a tiger?”
“I’ll see what I can think of. Becca is the closest thing to a tiger I’ve found in a dungeon.” Kalvex were a little wolf-esque, though bigger and shaggier, but they were also not going to start spawning in normal dungeons for another several levels. There were Vine Dogs in Nature dungeons, but they were smaller and much lower on the ‘cool’ scale. More fluffy, nearing cute - though still incredibly deadly, he somehow doubted they’d satisfy Peter. "Once we have Gordon back, we can catch you an ogre.”
“Okay. That sounds good. I can wait.”
“How you holding up?” Levi asked, crossing to Irene. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, holding her close. “I know this is probably terrifying.”
“You’re absolutely certain this is necessary?”
“Absolutely.”
"I can't say I like it, but Peter seems to be enjoying himself, and you seem... more at ease, oddly enough."
Levi chuckled softly. "Trying to talk to people, that's a mine field. Give me a boss fight any day."
"I don't like this, but I understand that it's necessary, and I'll do my best to support you."
"You don't know how much that means," Levi said, threading his fingers through hers. "Thank you."
"For better, worse, or demonic invasion." Irene's laugh sounded a little forced, but she was smiling now. "I know how strong the temptation was, to just walk away. A lot of men wouldn't have bothered coming back at all, or would have only made lip service to it. Even with everything that could have gone wrong, you came back to us. That matters."
“I’ll always come back. And I don’t plan on leaving again any time soon.” Levi kissed her again, spent a long moment just staring down at her face, the tiny details in the color of her eyes.
He still had to remind himself that this was real, that she wasn’t gone. There were moments when it still felt like an impossible dream, even as the presence of his long-lost beloved ones filled in the empty pieces of himself that he’d long since resigned himself to carrying forever.
Finally he pulled himself away. "I suppose it's time I debrief our son on dungeon procedures and proper caution."
A health and mana restorative, a Destruction power stone, and a set of leg armor much like that Levi was wearing. Peter had picked it up, but set it down hastily when Levi came in.
"No need to hesitate." Levi waved a hand at the treasure table. "You've earned it."
Peter grinned. He didn’t need to be told twice. He immediately slipped off his shoes and tugged the armor on over his jeans, fitting perfectly despite the added bulk just like dungeon items always seemed to do.
"Now that you've finished your first dungeon, there are a few things we need to go over before moving on to the next."
"Okay. What do I need to know?"
"First, spatial awareness. You need to know what's going on around you at all times. Especially in a dungeon. It's probably the most important thing that will save your life time and again."
"I am, I'm watching everything."
"Not everything. Did you see the three gremlins Skarm and I killed?"
Peter hesitated, looked back toward the boss room, and slowly shook his head. "When was that?"
"While you and Henry were rushing along without looking behind you. Henry is an important part of your arsenal, but if you're fixated on something it's easy for him to be fixated on the same thing. You have to train yourself to send his attention in a different direction than your own. You were both very attentive at the beginning of the dungeon, when you were looking at everything, but once you started fighting you stopped double checking and ran ahead to the next fight and that focus translated to Henry as well."
For Levi himself, he'd almost subconsciously kept his minions on a high alert from the very start. After his initial brushes with distraction and lack of focus, mainly caused by the loss of stats he'd come to rely on over years and years of fighting, he'd regained much of his situational awareness over the first week. He was still far from his past peak, but after weeks of fighting within his severely limited newly-Awakened self, he was no longer as vulnerable as he had been at the very start. He’d acclimated.
"I knew you'd take care of everything," Peter said after a pause, a bit uncertainly. "You did promise to keep me safe."
Levi gripped his shoulders. "I need you to treat this as deadly serious," he said intently. "This is not a game. I will protect you, for now, but the time will come when we must fight side by side and not with me as your protector. You need to be able to protect yourself, or you'll have to stay back and out of the fighting."
Peter blinked, eyes wide and concerned. "I want to fight, I can do it. Really. Promise."
Levi exhaled and forcefully relaxed his grip. "I know you can. And we'll see to it that you do. But first you need to understand that before we're done you will make mistakes, and you need to acknowledge and learn from those mistakes, rather than try to make excuses or deny them. Understand? If you can't accept and learn from failure, you'll never get to where you need to go."
"I understand."
And Levi could see that he did. Already, Henry's previous doting behavior was shifting. Instead of standing beside Peter and staring up at the treasure with the same single-minded focus as Peter himself, the dilo had turned away to keep watch, head darting from side to side.
"Good work. Keep practicing like this and you'll be ready in no time." Levi smiled encouragingly to his son. "Grab the rest of your treasure and let's go. We should be able to fit in another dungeon before dinner."
