Chapter 376

The platform at the heart of the dungeon shuddered one beneath Cruader’s feet as she stood rigid, her eyes fixed on Otis’ face. The mask was stripped away in favor of the real ‘thing’ hiding beneath the surface. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she pointed her weapon at him. He stood with a confident slouch, his blue eyes lidded with a smug superiority that made her hands itch to punch right off of his face. She kept her weapon extended at him as she took a side step to the left, and then another while his eyes tracked her. The platform shuddered a second time and she clenched her jaw. “...what did you do?”

He tilted his head, his blonde hair flopping a little as he turned his head slowly to keep his gaze on her. “I’m afraid I have simply no idea what you’re talking about Crusader,” he said dryly. His eyes widening, his pupils shrinking slightly with the promise of violence. “This is just a terrible series of circumstances, isn’t it?” he asked, canting his head to the side as she reached one of the pillars of the portal. She passed it and for a brief moment he left her line of sight. Her senses cast backward, ready, but the attack never came. When she passed the pillar he was still there, still watching. “Worried about something?” he asked with a show of his too-white teeth.

Her eyes narrowed and she gripped her weapon with both hands as she kept up her sideways walk. He didn’t change stance, didn’t even turn fully to face her. He’s invincible, but we’re surrounded by a void. Why is he so confident? She thought as she raised her sword up to her shoulder height, parallel with the ground. He clicked his tongue and she took a deep breath, taking one more step and circulated her inner energy, a single flicker of golden flame dancing on the tip of her weapon. “Open the portal.”

His smile turned delighted. “Or what?” he asked as he lazily popped his neck, turning around finally and opening up his posture. “You’ll kill me? I guess that’s no surprise coming from the woman who put First Wind down like a dog, am I right?”

She wrinkled her nose. “The kill order was given,” she bit out, her muscles coiling beneath her skin. She shifted her weight back a full step then angled forward. “Someone was going to do it, I took it on,” she added. “Better me than anyone else.” Just a little more. She thought, her fingers tightening and readjusting on her weapon.

He opened his mouth in a shocked ‘o’ as his eyebrows shot up. He put his hand on his hips and gestured with his sword like it was a stick he was holding rather than a deadly weapon made of gold and raw mana. “Oh I see, you’re a martyr for sticking something pointy through a man’s throat while he lay beaten on the ground!” he laughed. “I get it, I get it!” he raised his weapon up and rested the sword on his shoulder, tilting his head to the left. “You were just following orders, am I right?”

Her orange eyes blazed, she could feel the burn in them as the incandescence came. He cracked an even wider grin. She didn’t take his bait even as her stomach churned at the way it had been presented. First Wind had not been an innocent man, he’d been a mass murderer who’d attained some kind of monstrous power beyond that of a Mythic. They’d all felt it. He’d fought close to Ishtar’s level for a brief time and was about as sane as a bag of angry squirrels. There was no choice. The only option was to end him and get rid of the threat to every living person on the planet.

He tilted his chin up and grinned. “Oh? No response for me?” He laughed a little. “No show of chivalric positivity from Crusader? And here I thought you were all about standing for what the good guys believe in.” He shook his head with a disappointed sigh as he yawned into his hand. “You aren’t worthy to hold that weapon.”

Crusader exhaled through her nostrils. There was no reasoning with him. He would twist and twist and play with words until you saw things his way. That was the only conclusion she could make about the man behind the mask of Otis. She popped her neck and took another deep breath, settling into her stance completely with a meditative breath. She’d done what was necessary and she’d done it because she had to, not because she’d enjoyed it. The sword in her hand hummed once as if agreeing with her sentiment and she fixed him with a steady stare. “You’re only hardening my resolve, Otis,” she finally said. “Open the portal.”

His grin faded fractionally and his eyes narrowed just a bit. “Ah, gotcha, you really are a tough boss, aren’t you?” he asked, the cold humor in his voice gone. He stood up a bit straighter as he lowered his weapon to his side and fully faced her. “Make me.”

So he is capable of manipulating the dungeon somehow, but what did he do? The portal is impassable, what else has he done that’s made him so confident? She thought as she took a slow breath, filling her lungs. There was no point in pushing to find out from him. He was beyond lost causes and she could practically smell his bloodlust from here. Her lips curled down into a frown. Not bloodlust, disdain, like a boot examining an ant. Just how does he see people? She asked as the arrogant man took a single step forward. 

Crusader unleashed herself.

With a single step she blasted across the distance between them, her strike shifting from an over the shoulder stab to an air-shrieking uppercut in an instant. His eyes widened with a mixture of surprised in delight in the heartbeat before impact, his own weapon snapping up and down in a quick response. She accepted his momentum and let it send her weapon back, pivoting a step and turning her body with it to swing at his throat. He took a step back and flicked his blade towards her strike, a grin on his face. “Oho! You’re going for blood! What would the children say?”

He’s got more technique than he used to have though its barely there, she pivoted and swung again, uppercut from left hip to right shoulder. The clang of metal and metal sang as he took another step back. His eye flicking once to the side of the platform closest to him. She pressed her lips together and went into a quick three move press, a series of sharp strikes that pressed on his weapon rather than him. His eyes widened just a fraction as his weapon was pushed away from her. Her boot snapped out with a crack and caught him in the chest. It was like kicking a concrete wall. A grunt of air shot out past his lips and he took a step back, laughing as the back of his boots reached the edge of the platform.

He opened his mouth to drop another line of nonsense and her weapon rose to his throat in a flicker of gold, the flame burning against his skin. This time his eyes genuinely widened. He might have monstrous strength, but she was the superior swordsman in every way. His eyes narrowed and the grin finally faded momentarily from his lips. “You have something you want to say, insect?” he asked her from his precarious position, glowing blue eyes flickering.

“Open. The. Portal. Then you’re going to answer for this, and everything else you’ve done,” she bit out, the heat burning beneath her skin.

His eyes widened and his lips curled up into an inhuman rictus of a smile. She felt a cold lump in her gut form. “I knew it…” he hissed. “I knew there was more to this whole thing than duty. What was it? What’s got your panties in a twist, Crusader?”

Damn it, I said too much, she thought immediately and pushed the blade against his throat, forcing him to lean back slightly over the ledge. “I have nothing to explain to you,” she shot back, “Open the goddamn portal and undo whatever else you did. I’m bringing you in.”

His nose wrinkled into a brief snarl and his sword whipped up the short gap between them. Her free hand snapped out and caught it with her armored fingers, her grip clenching the material tightly. He bared his teeth and glanced down at the point of contact. She fixed her stare on his face, gripping tighter. He was so goddamn strong it was maddening. But she wasn’t weak either and he didn’t have enough leverage to put all his force behind it. He flicked his eyes up towards her as he searched her face for a heartbeat. Then he smiled, his head tilting in a mixture of pity and condensation. “The rocket kid? Really? He was a c-lister at best.”

Rage threatened to explode in her chest as every muscle in her body locked up, restraining herself from delivering the coup de gras she knew he deserved. Her hand gripped so hard on his sword that she felt it begin to bite into the metal covering her palm. “You killed him. I knew it.”

He shrugged, “What’re you gonna do about it? Nobody will believe you, not after I’m done with them,” he said with an easy smile.

Why is he so calm? I don’t get it! She searched his face, then it finally dawned on her. “You’re waiting for something to happen. You did something else to the dungeon.”

His mouth opened in a silent laugh. “Oh you are sharp!”

She cast her senses outward rather than focus them entirely on him. She felt the flow of mana around her, the churning mass of the interior of a dungeon and her breath caught. The ambient mana levels were increasing but she didn’t feel any monster formations. What the hell? She fixed her eyes on him and pushed forward just a bit more. “What did you do? Are you trying to trigger a dungeon break?” she demanded. “We’re inside!”

He just grinned as the floor beneath her feet began to shake. She snarled and tossed pretense aside, if she had to clear out the whole damn dungeon over and over before slaying the goddamn boss, she would. But she was putting him down. There was no way she was going to let him get away after an admission like that. He was too dangerous, too powerful, and too willing to threaten entire cities to get his way. She lunged as the platform shuddered again and he pulled back, hopping off the side. Her momentum carried her forward as he turned and caught himself on the ledge. She looked down as he looked up at her and pulled himself up.

In a blur they’d changed positions, he was standing over her as she fell towards the void below. “Tch!” she brought her fingers up to her lips and whistled. With a cry, Alphonse shot down from above and burst into flame, a corona of fire that made him seem larger than he was. He caught her arm and pulled her up into the air as Otis took a few steps back, looking up at her with wide mocking eyes.

“I knew I should have killed that bird!” he laughed and turned to dart towards the path leading away from the main platform.

She swung her body forward and landed back on the central platform as the ground shook again. Ambient mana levels spiked and she felt it cascade. The energy drawing in faster and faster. She looked around, eyes wide. I need to find a monster to- 

It crossed the line.

She braced herself for cataclysm but it didn’t come. Her momentary wince fracturing as the platform beneath her shuddered violently and the black material exploded outward, the central platform widening, walls rising, surfaces adjusting as the deadly walkway turned into a hallway before her. Her breath caught as she turned in a circle, taking in the changes. Distant roars echoed over her head, the world around her trembled as the Common dungeon turned Uncommon. Her sword drooped at her side for just a moment. “What the hell?” she breathed. “He forced a tier-up of the entire dungeon?”

Her head snapped towards the hallway that had formed and realization struck him. “...the anchor beast!” The energy levels were still rising. She didn’t have time to stand around and be amazed. She whipped her head towards Alphonse. It’s turned into a maze now. “Alphonse! Scout from above! Find him!” she shouted and broke into a run, charging down the passageway. Ahead of her a humanoid creature that looked to part-flesh part stone convulsed and collapsed before letting out a shriek and pulling itself to its feet. As it did, its legs and arms stretched, turning into twisted obsidian spikes. It howled in agony, swinging its useless bladed limbs around before turning its maddened gaze on her.

She blasted past it, the only sound of impact a single click of metal against stone. The gurgle of pain and the burst of mana was her signal that it’d fallen. More shrieks rose around her and she turned, clicking her tongue as more of the twisted things spawned. Their spear limbs snapping out towards her in a blind rage drawn out by their horrific mutations. She shot to the right and smashed the first and then bounded off the spot to the second, cutting it in half before turning in a circle. There were three routes out. “Alphonse!” she shouted.

A cry heralded a golden flame erupting on the path to the right. She charged through it and kept going, turning and kicking off a wall to gain momentum. She had to catch up, she would catch up, and when she did… 

“I’m putting you down, Otis. Even if I have to smash through these damn walls and throw you off myself. Enough’s enough, you’ve crossed the line too many times,” she bit out and barreled forward. “You aren’t getting away.”

–

Otis snapped his hand out and grabbed another of the twisted mutations, tearing its arm off with a lazy gesture before stabbing the limb into its comrade. His lips curled down in contempt. He reached up to rub his neck as he walked down the next passage. In the distance he heard the booms and felt the crackles of Crusader’s power as she carved her way through one uncommon enemy after another. His lip twitched as a feeling in his chest tightened around an uncomfortable thought. He rubbed his throat again and dragged his weapon across the ground as he called up his menu, watching the progress bar towards Rare.

“...there’s more than one way to deal with you.”