Chapter 19

When Axel exited the cramped tunnel, he found the worshipers already engaged in combat. Rayner, however, was nowhere in sight, meaning he’d gone deeper into the battle to fight more fearsome foes.

Axel knew Rayner was alive because of the way the worshipers fought. They were all under the effects of Rayner’s skill, Battle Cry. It meant Rayner was doing his part and Axel had to do his own.

Since all the monsters were engaged and Colin and Haro were taking up the task of keeping other enemies from bothering them, Axel had a clear path to the ogre.

What in god’s name was he thinking when he gave himself the most critical role in the battle plan? It was up to Axel to defeat the entire horde. Using his malice sealing ability in theory he could seal the ogre’s mana. Without that mana, the monsters couldn’t survive outside the dungeon and the same went for the ogre.

An easy win, in theory.

He should have brought Rayner or Roddrick with him but like the plan to fool the bandits, the serious players were needed to sell the trick. The ogre had to think the battle was serious, and to those fighting for their lives, it was.

To this end, Axel avoided any monster that came across him. His skills would do little good against them, anyway. All he had to do is get close to the ogre and because it spilled forth its mana to cover the horde, Axel could stay just far enough away to go unnoticed.

As the feeling of angry ant bites covered his skin, he knew he’d gotten close enough. Raising his hands in the air as if trying to grab the sky, Axel activated his skill, Malice Seal.

He pulled the mana to him, between the palms of his hands. Using his own mana, he first guided the malicious mana then shaped it so it could be contained.

There was so much of it to pull. Attempting to hasten the process, Axel tugged at the mana. Axel must have tugged too hard because the ogre turned and headed toward him.

He only needed another minute. Once the ball was formed, the skill would act by itself and trap the rest of the ogre’s mana. Axel only needed to start the process so that the skill could finish it.

Then the ogre stopped and from the distance, Axel could swear he saw a smile. The ogre raised his club as if for a swing even though Axel was so far away.

His eyes widened. A ranged attack. The ogre was going to use a ranged attack. But Axel only needed another thirty seconds.

Straining his mana, Axel pushed to seal the ogre’s mana. But he was too late. The ogre swung down its club.

Above Axel, the image of a club made of mana hung above him and fell on him where he stood.

It smashed the earth just as if the orge were present.

Crawling from the mounds of earth and rock, Axel saw the ogre standing above him, still smiling. Axel had used the incomplete ball of malice to shield himself from the strike, creating an explosion that must have knocked him out for a couple minutes. Enough time for the ogre to get close to him.

Dead. He was dead.

“A respectable plan. Using tunnels to surprise me, a distraction to keep me busy, even trying to seal my mana to end the whole battle in one fell swoop. Just like the stories. It would have all worked perfectly if not for one thing,” the ogre said.

“My lack of ability.”

“No. It’s not what you lack, it’s what I have, ability.” Axel stared the ogre right in the eyes and its smile grew wider. “This plan of yours relied on me not having a brain. You thought I was unable to predict or even react to your attempts to thwart me. As if once a plan is made it has to go your way or end up going your way, eventually. So often in history, this is not the case. More often plans fail like yours has. Right about now kobolds are coming to destroy your leftover worshipers while my horde creates clones to replenish their numbers.”

“You were never at risk of losing were you.”

“No. I knew who you were. I’m aware as to why the dungeon is half-formed. It’s because of this sealing ability you have. It’s annoying but easily dealt with.”

Axel could no longer meet the ogre’s eyes and hung his head to the ogre’s great pleasure. He laughed at Axel and took his time doing so. Then he had enough and raised his giant club to finish Axel off.

Until he heard Axel’s own laugh. A laugh of a happy man, not a defeated one.

“Have you gone mad?”

“No, oh no. Or maybe I have,” Axel said, standing once again. “It’s just kinda funny that you knew all that about us and our plans while missing a crucial detail.”

“This is a most pathetic way to buy time. Nobody is coming to save you.”

Axel smiled and brought forth the ball of miasma. “You forgot about this!”

The ogre’s eyes widened and stepped back. “Curse you!”

Axel himself had forgotten about the ball of miasma. It stayed invisible most of the time and even if sensed, people tended to purge it from their thoughts as a self-defense mechanism.

Kata had figured out Axel’s and Rayner’s role in defeating the dragon and sealing the dungeon. So, Axel came clean about it. Kata then informed him that the will of the miasma had authority over the dungeon and could be used to wrest control from the ogre. If the plan to seal away the ogre’s mana failed, the ball of miasma would serve as a backup.

Failing was worth it just to wipe the smug smile from that monster’s face and because he could and would not help himself, he added. “I’m Godless. Curses don’t work on me!”

Axel activated the miasma ball, and it attacked the ogre ruthlessly, immediately trying to rest the control it had over the monsters. Axel was fighting too but with both the miasma and the ogre’s mana. He was a small player in the struggle A battle of wills took place for an unknown amount of time but what Axel did know was that he was losing. He wanted the ogre to fail, but he didn’t want the miasma to win. That would be an even worse outcome.

Then he took a risk. He disengaged and let the two evil forces fight and at the moment the miasma was about to defeat the ogre, Axel resealed the miasma as its orb was still intact. He did the same with the ogre.

As the ogre was flesh and blood, he didn’t disappear once his mana was sealed. The ogre’s body shrunk, deflating, and his bulging muscles withered.

Before Axel now stood a very tall blue ogre puffing small clouds of gas from its body.

To make things even better, Rayner arrived drenched in blood and gore. His smile was that of one hungry to kill. Axel shared Rayner’s expression.

The ogre looked between Axel and Rayner in a position to strike out at both of them at a moment’s notice.

“Any chance you could just lay down and die?” Axel said.

“None.”

“Good. This will be messy,” Rayner said.

Deciding that Rayner was the more dangerous of the two, the ogre struck out at him first. For some reason, the club shrunk along with the ogre when Axel sealed its mana so the ogre still had a usable weapon.

Rayner stepped to the side and let the club smash into the ground and used his own hammer to smash at the center of the club to break it. The ogre withdrew the club before Rayner got another hit in with a more powerful blow.

Axel tried sneaking up behind it but the ogre kicked out and Axel only had enough time to block. The blow still sent him several feet away and left his arms trembling.

A boom sent the ogre on its back. Rayner had used Roar but instead of following up with another attack, he used again, then again. It looked like Rayner would use all his mana shouting at the monster.

Axel got back on his feet while shockwaves of force from Rayner’s mouth kept the ogre at bay.

Axel went for the ogre’s head with his dagger. But the ogre let out a heavy turret of gas, forcing him to back away. Rayner distanced himself as he continued to use Roar.

Distance weakened Rayner’s violent shouts, but it cleared the gas and annoyed the ogre who charged at Rayner swinging the hammer wildly, shattering the ground with each missed blow.

The little mana the ogre had left was used to enhance the strikes of his club making it impossible for Rayner to block without taking significant damage.

Seeing the small amount of mana, Axel remembered what the ogre said when taunting him. That this was no story. It aligned with Axel’s and Rayner’s own advice to remember that the world they now lived in was no game.

The answer to victory was simple.

“Just let him die,” Axel said, relaxing his body.

“What?” Rayner called out, still dodging and countering with Roar.

“Just let him die!”

The ogre turned to show Axel a face of rage. Axel had figured it out. So caught up in the final battle mindset, Axel forgot the obvious.

“He can’t live outside the dungeon, not with so little mana. Look.” Axel pointed to the dying remnants of the horde and the fleeing monsters that the ogre had gathered.

“You’re right. We can just leave him to die.”

The ogre screamed and continued to attack them but they only evaded. They engaged only enough to make sure it did not run off somewhere and kill any of their allies.

But other than that, they watched it wither, its body shrinking into a husk.

In a bout of overkill, Roddrick arrived and showed them his ability to eat corpses. The remaining mana was drawn out of the ogre and the body dissipated.

Roddrick licked his lips. “With all the bodies disappearing, I have not had a good meal in ages.”

A stoic Rayner took a seat beside Axel on a warped log. “Axel.”

“That’s my name.”

“We’ve done this before.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“No, you don’t. Listen. We fought a previously unknown monster on a seemingly unrelated mission while also trying to stop a monster horde intent on destroying Ridgehill. Then after gathering allies from around the land, we organized them into a fighting force to hold off the monsters while we fought the boss. Some things are out of order. Like how we defeated the boss, like sealing their mana instead of using a combination skill to beat it to death, but the core is the same.”

“Are you talking about the dragon over there? The one that made the tunnel.” Roddrick hand pointed to the dragon they had killed.

“This is the same spot as before. What the fuck?”

They all stared at the dragon for some time thinking on the significance of the events but having no idea what they meant. Honestly, Axel didn’t want to.

Axel got up from the log. “Let’s go home.”

The army of the Coalition waited cramped in the streets along with a gathering of terrified citizens. Leyla stood before the gates along with Vera and Genral Parlar. Her priests Ebert and Hewet were by her side.

Grace had informed everyone that Leyla would make a speech to comfort the army and the citizens. It was close enough to the truth.

Making her voice clear, Leyla addressed the crowd. “Today we are going to die!” She let the shocked gasps gather a bit. “By we, I mean the soldiers sworn to protect you. We will charge through the ranks of the kobolds to allow the citizens to make their escape. It is because of me you are in this mess. I turned from my gods and allied with the goblins. I could go crawling back to them and beg them to save us but I won’t. Better to die in the glory of battle!” She felt Hewet shuffling beside her. “With my great knights,” Leyla pointed to Vera, “and the general of Alta’s first army,” she pointed to General Parlar, “we will succeed in making our deaths worth it for you. Our bones may break and our blood might water the earth but yours won’t and that is what matters!”

Leyla turned smartly and marched to the gate. She was the only one.

She kept on marching and soon the other soldiers followed her until all marched forward.