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Chapter 90: Rot

Bounding into the air with aid from [Scourge], Arwin cleared the monster’s leg. He dropped to the ground, slipping past the giantling’s free hand, and landed on the ground behind it. He spun and swung his hammer with a roar.

Strands of shadow wrapped around the giantling’s body and pierced through the holes in its armor to stab at the flesh beneath. Verdant Blaze struck the giant’s leg. Metal warped and caved beneath the blow and the hammer carried straight through it.

A spider leapt from the giantling’s body as it pitched back, its legs going wide as it attempted to latch onto Arwin’s face. He grabbed it out of the air and pelted it into the ground. The impact did little to hurt it, but Verdant Blaze crashing down transformed the Corpse Burrower into a pile of ill-mannered paste on the ground.

[Shieldbreakers] effects ended with the change of targets, but Arwin wasn’t aiming for that leg anymore. He opened his mouth to call to Lillia, but she was already ahead of him. A shadow shot out and wrapped around the leg, launching it into the pool of water.

It hit the surface with a splash and vanished into the murky depths. Watching its disappearance nearly cost Arwin his head. Reya called out a warning and he jerked back. The giantling’s sword ripped past his face, passing so close that its tip scraped against his helm, traces of blue magic flying off it.

If it hadn’t been for the brief instant that Reya had bought him, the strike might have done serious damage.

“Thanks!” Arwin called, approaching the downed giantling. It didn’t have nearly as much reach now that it was on the floor, but it was also harder to get closer to it without getting in the reach of its large hands.

If he’d been fighting the monster alone it may have been difficult to find a way to strike at it. Fortunately, he wasn’t. Rodrick dashed around to the giantling’s back. He kept far enough from its hands to keep it from catching him as he circled it, then sent Arwin a glance and nodded.

They had the giantling flanked. The moment it tried to attack one of them, the other would attack. A second passed before the monster blurred into action. Perhaps it didn’t have the intelligence to determine the threat of its position or perhaps it just wanted to kill the person that had done the most damage to it. Regardless of reason, it dug its fingers into the ground and hurled its body toward Arwin.

[Scourge] ignited in Arwin’s legs and he dismissed Verdant Blaze, hurling himself to the side. He hit the ground in a roll and rose to his feet just as the giantling landed, sliding across the stone and slamming into a wall with a resounding crash.

Some of the crystals jutting from it impaled the monster with several loud squelches. The giantling ripped itself free with a snarl, more spiders pouring out of its body and onto the ground. Rodrick was forced to reposition to keep the attention of the small monsters on himself. The giantling pushed itself up and lunged for Arwin again.

This time, Arwin didn’t dodge. He swung his arms, Verdant Blaze taking shape within them, and the hammer connected with the giantling’s shoulder with a loud crack. The metal chest piece absorbed the brunt of the damage but the strike still knocked it askew. A hand flailed past Arwin’s chest and he jumped out of the way to avoid the pommel of the sword as it whipped over his head.

He pressed his advantage, bringing Verdant Blaze down on the same shoulder as the giantling tried to right itself. Metal crumpled and the monster screamed. A strand of shadow wrapped around Arwin’s chest and pulled him out of the way as the giantling’s hand passed through the space he’d been standing and crashed into the ground.

Rodrick raced past Arwin, jumping over a sword swing and bringing his glowing blade down on a small crack that Arwin had formed in the monster’s armor. Metal shattered as it finally fell under their assault. Rodrick twisted his sword before yanking it free and running back to safety.

A Corpse Burrower pushed its way out of the wound. It only made it a step onto the ground before a shadow wrapped around its abdomen and pelted it into a wall. Even as the spider fell, another shadow grabbed it and shoved it underwater.

Not to be outdone, the giantling swung its sword. Even from its spot on the ground, the blade’s reach was enormous, and Rodrick was too close to dodge it in time. Arwin shoved him back and braced the haft of his hammer to block the strike. He pumped his body full of power with [Scourge] a moment before the blow connected.

A ringing clang echoed out and a vibration ran down the hammer and through Arwin’s body. It felt like he’d been rung like a bell. The sword in the giantling’s hands vibrated as it was repelled, buying him an instant to strike.

Between all the power that [Scourge] and [Shieldbreaker] had drawn, Arwin didn’t have much energy left to work with for this fight. He burst into motion. The giantling’s free hand reached out to grab him and he twisted out of the way.

Shadows pulled at the monster’s fingers and gave him time to slip past without having to waste energy on [Scourge]. Arriving at the monster’s head, he raised Verdant Blaze and brought it down with all his might.

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A hammer blow rang off the metal helm, severely denting it. Arwin activated [Scourge], not to deliver a harder blow but to raise the weapon faster, and brought it down again. A second strike slammed down. This one left a deep dent in the helm that probably would have killed a normal man had his head been inside it.

The giantling was, unfortunately, not a normal man. It let out a garbled scream and brought its arms inward in an attempt to crush Arwin against itself. Bands of shadow wrapped around the monster and blue light washed over it.

Lillia and Reya’s efforts didn’t buy Arwin any more than a second. That was fine. A second was all he needed. The hammer lifted and fell once again. Every last scrap of magical power Arwin had left to spare went into the blow.

It drove into the already-dented helm with a resounding crash. The rusted metal gave way. Bone cracked and flesh splattered as Verdant Blaze tore through it. Sickly brown blood and gore sprayed across the ground and the Rot Giantling’s thrashing arms collapsed behind Arwin, finally falling still.

Achievement: [You can’t do that] has been earned.

[You can’t do that] – Awarded for doing damage equal to or greater than the amount that an opponent just healed. Effects: One skill in your next Skill Selection has been upgraded to Unique. This achievement will be consumed upon choosing your next skill.

A squelch marked the death of the last Corpse Burrower at the blade of Rodrick’s sword. Arwin turned to the others and let Verdant Blaze fade from his grip, dismissing his helm to stop the aura from activating. The bodies of dead Corpse Burrowers littered the ground around Rodrick. It didn’t look like anyone had gotten hurt.

“Everyone okay?” Arwin asked.

“Yeah. That was one nasty monster,” Rodrick said. He flicked the blood from his sword and sheathed it at his side. “I didn’t think smashing the shit out of its head was the way to do it.”

“It wasn’t a true undead,” Arwin said. “Probably a monster on the way to becoming undead but one that hadn’t fully shed its mortal ties. If it had been, we would have been in a lot more trouble.”

“Did anyone else get an Achievement?” Reya asked, coughing into her fist as her cheeks reddened.

“I did,” Arwin said. “Why are you embarrassed about it?”

“Because mine is called Pathetic, and I got it for casting a spell that did so little that my target didn’t even realize I’d done something.”

Lillia burst into laughter and nudged Reya with her shoulder. “That’s nothing to complain about. An Achievement is still an Achievement. Trust me, there are much worse things you can get given. The Mesh isn’t always nice.”

“What did the Achievement give you?” Arwin asked.

“A skill upgrade. I went with [Imprison] to give it a guaranteed half a second against anyone that’s no more than a two whole Tiers above me, as long as they don’t have any form of special resistances to magical control,” Reya said.

“Pretty solid. Guaranteed control is always useful,” Arwin said.

“Do you think I can cook this?” Lillia asked, walking up beside Arwin and looking down at the corpse of the giant.

Arwin raised an eyebrow. “Did your nose fall off at some point in the fight?”

“It might taste better than it smells.”

“And I might grow wings and fly away.”

Lillia scrunched her nose. She thought for a second, then knelt and ripped a small strip of flesh away. Arwin resisted the urge to gag as Lillia stood back up beside him and studied it through squinted eyes.

“It could make a decent steak.”

“That’s cannibalism at best. It was humanoid.”

“It wasn’t human, though,” Lillia pointed out. “Look at all this flesh. Think of how much food this would be if it doesn’t literally taste like death.”

“Do you have any idea how much weight that ‘if’ is lifting?” Arwin asked. “Because I think it might be stronger than the rest of us combined.

“Oh, come on. It could be edible. You don’t know unless you try. Will you try some if I do?” Lillia asked. “We don’t want to waste resources.”

Her eyes enlarged as she stared into Arwin’s. He gritted his teeth and averted his gaze. He’d dealt with far greater threats than a pair of puppy-dog eyes. He definitely wasn’t going to–

“If you can take a bite and avoid turning your stomach inside-out, then I’ll consider it.”

Goddamn it.

“The hardest part is getting over the mental block,” Lillia said sagely. She lifted the piece of meat – if it could even be called that – to her mouth and took a small bite. They all stared at her expectantly. Lillia chewed once. Then she chewed again.

Doubling over, Lillia spat the chunk onto the ground. She retched and coughed, clawing at her tongue as she tried to get the taste off. Still hacking, Lillia straightened up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“I was very wrong,” Lillia said, still scraping at her tongue. “Don’t eat that.”

“Are you really surprised?” Anna asked. “And do you need healing? I feel like that might have poisoned you. Just so you know, I can’t heal the shits. It’s not a wound.”

“Understood,” Lillia grumbled miserably. Her eyes glazed over for a second and her cheeks went bright red.

“You just got an Achievement, didn’t you?” Arwin asked.

“Well, I guess I did just tell Reya that there could always be worse things than a slightly snippy Achievement.”

“What did you get?” Reya asked.

“A Title called Hungry Idiot,” Lillia said sheepishly. “It lets me taste the best flavors in anything edible so I can figure out if it’ll taste good. The Mesh really ripped into me for eating that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Title that’s just a straight up insult.”

“That’s actually pretty impressive,” Arwin said. “Well? Does the flesh have anything redeemable about it?”

Lilli a sent a critical gaze at the strip of meat on the ground, next to where she’d spat up the first bite she’d taken. “I don’t think I want to find out. I’ll try it on something the Mesh won’t smite me on the spot for tasting.”

“Does it really care?” Reya asked. “It’s not alive, is it?”

Arwin grunted. “I wouldn’t be so sure. I don’t know what the Mesh is, but saying it’s not alive might not be entirely accurate. It’s… aware. Not in the way you or I are, but it’s still aware.”

“More importantly, we’re still in the dungeon,” Rodrick said. He looked around the room. “Do we press deeper? I’ve had conversations about the Mesh before, and they always go way longer than I’d planned on. We should figure out our next steps before getting distracted.”

“I think I’d be willing to try and push a little farther as long as I can have some time to rest,” Arwin said after a moment of thought. “I think we can take at least one more room. We’ll have to find the way past this one anyway. There’s probably a way to open the door somewhere. Besides, I also need to see if any of the metal on this monster is salvageable.”

Nobody objected, and so their course was set. They would press deeper – but first, Arwin had a rotted corpse to rip apart.