Ebony's Fable

Ebony no longer had an advantage over Scarlet. He needed to change the flow of battle. She was going to be really dangerous soon enough. Having no idea how, he had his last resort of using what his Class was supposed to actually do.

He did secretly practise it once in a while but never had enough mana to stably use it in battle. There was also the fact that he didn’t really want to be seen using it. He didn’t find it completely necessary to keep it a secret but that didn’t mean he should go around showing everybody. Scarlet wasn’t a talkative person, it should be fine.

Ebony had 2 choices. To combust the ice mana flowing in his body or the ice mana in his blade. Thinking it was overkill to do that to his body when he was not sure what would happen, he decided to test it on his sword first.

There was over 500 mana in it. It wouldn’t last long. It required constant input of mana. Normal ice mana ‘burned’ away practically instantly, he had to use compressed mana.

At first, he accidentally just let it burst out and it was sent wafting off his membrane. Ebony pulled it back in to conserve mana. With Icebody Enhancement, Chaotic Repulsive Membrane and Sonic Overlay, Ebony still had over 80 mana per minute to let him burn a low, thin flame.

“Challenging me with flames?”

‘Not really?’

Ebony was melting.

In a physical sense.

Frost Mist is just a waste of mana now. He controlled burning flames of frost from his greatsword to flow down to his hand and body. It thinned his flames but kept him from melting. Ebony just increased his output to eat into his mana pool. He lit himself on fire, the chill combating Scarlet’s heat. If another person was here, they would be questioning how the two of them were breathing relatively normally in the oxygen deprived area around them.

As usual, Scarlet was the first to initiate an attack. Ebony was as chillax as usual on both the outside and inside. Forcing ice mana to compress instantly was easier with his skill evolution from Ice Mana Manipulation to Ice Mana Control.

Shows that he had watched were lying about how a fire breath can be cancelled out by another breath of fire. Sure his flames weren’t exactly fire. Without a supply of ice mana his flames burn out like how fire burns out without oxygen. Getting close to Scarlet’s sword had his flames disappear or well, melt or disperse.

Scarlet’s swords were glowing brighter by the second. Ebony didn’t back down. It would be dangerous for him if he didn’t increase his output.

The loud screeches were not something one would expect to hear from two blades colliding.

Scarlet kept raising the temperature of her blades. Ebony kept increasing the ice mana he pushed forth over both his body and his greatsword.

‘Challenging me at mana output?’ He couldn’t help but mentally retort. Like how Scarlet didn’t believe to lose in a battle of flames, he didn’t think anyone could even think of outlasting him in a contest of mana expenditure.

The act of blocking, parrying or evading was not enough to completely break his momentum. Their exchange got fiercer by the second. Ebony couldn’t get burned. Scarlet didn’t freeze.

Ebony had numerous cuts on the sleeves of his robes. Her swords sizzled loudly when it was almost coming into contact with his frozen flesh. No matter what, he was just too slow to match up to the increasingly faster and stronger Scarlet.

In slow motion, he could sense that his flames would mix into Scarlet’s flames but they melted almost immediately after. Like 2 gases meeting each other as a flow or stream.

Unfortunately for Scarlet, her all time high of flames slowly died down. Ebony couldn’t keep his up as well, only enough from his constant regeneration to have the little to keep himself from melting. Both of their flames flickered out.

‘How can his flames rival mine…’

They slowed to a stop. Scarlet was breathing heavily as the violent pounding of her heart eased off. She was worn out from some time back. She didn’t have Ebony’s crazy recovery speed. The body blow she received left her with heavy bruising and extremely sore muscles even after eating a rare healing pill that she didn’t tell anyone about. Every move hurt so badly that she wanted to cry a little. What hurt worse was that her pride had been completely crushed this time. She lost in a battle of flames, fire even had a large advantage over ice.

‘How much mana does she have…’

Ebony didn’t think she could have such an intense output of fire and still last as long as she did. Just how was she so much stronger than him in every way.

““You won again.”” They both claimed at the same time.

Before they manage to say anything further a familiar noisy voice yelled.

“Heeey! There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys…What the heck were you two fighting here? Didn’t you say you’ll invite me?! ELL! Wait never mind that, hurry up! We gotta go. The monster horde is coming back again. I already slapped Ryley awake, he found Tuffock and they’re up ahead.” Hector was running towards them, waving.

Scarlet’s killing intent shot up when Hector said Tuffock’s name.

Killing intent was an actual thing that Ebony had learnt to perceive. Perception only heightens the ability to sense it. It was pretty useless. Ebony had heard Hector talking about high level or those that killed lots could scare people shitless with it.

Hector can feel it too. He was trained to recognise killing intent, even though the type he was trained to defend or stay away from was the subtle type. Those that secretly plotted to kill him. He didn’t like politics but his position made it necessary to learn minimal knowledge. Hector thought he intruded on their secret tryst and was fearing for his life for a second before noticing the killing intent wasn’t directed at him. ‘Phew…’

Ebony had realised Scarlet wasn’t under an illusion. It brought about the question of why she suddenly wanted to kill Tuffock so badly all of a sudden.

They started running when Hector urged them to move. Tuffock likely woke up and broke himself out of the ice orb. It wasn’t difficult to escape from the inside so no surprise there.

The fog induced mental hallucinations according to Hector. It was non-intrusive and non-aggressive, making one see either the things or people they have strong feelings towards. The effect of the fog was pretty strong.

They were actually really close to the entrance to the next floor. There was really no mountain peak higher. Perhaps part of the hallucination or some kind of illusion magic making people think the mountain never ended or didn’t have a summit.

Hector stumbled and fell on a step hidden in the fog during his punching of the air fighting his imaginary battle. He woke up when he fell forward and hit the stairs on his head but he didn’t tell either of them that. He then quickly used force and knocked Ryley up. It was pretty fun and stress relieving.

They couldn’t find the other 3 so they came back but they saw monsters appearing here and there. Tuffock was in the middle of holding a gale leopard down with stone mass surrounding its legs and slamming his stone mace into the head of a bear when they found him. He was evidently Tuffock 2, complaining about Ebony trapping him. Escaping to find a bear licking the ice ball. Hector said he was so pissed that Tuffock was still in Tuffock 2 mode.

The fog was still present but it no longer affected Hector for whatever reason. Why didn’t it work on Ebony anyway?

Probably because its nature was mental hallucinations, Ebony’s Core Skill countered that with ease. He didn’t even feel anything off. Like how the calming pearl had little to no effect on him.

Hector brought them to where the stairs were, an angry-faced Tuffock crossed arm and Ryley sitting on one of the steps. His head facing the floor, feet shaking, nervous. There was no fog here.

Ebony grabbed Scarlet’s wrist, which was about to draw her sword. The staring contest went on a short while before she gave up. For now at least.

They started climbing up again. Ebony ate his snacks since he was hungry. Disappointed that he didn't get to eat an actual meal.

The two of them fell back.

“I lost.” Scarlet softly said.

“No. I lost.”

“No. I was the one who lost.”

“I lost.”

It went back and forth. Ebony liked the childish conversation but he changed the topic to what he was curious about. He didn’t forget to soundproof their conversation between the two of them.

“You hypocrite.”

“What?”

“None of your attacks ever mean to harm me either. Even when we first met. Always aiming to disarm me by going for my joints. Wrists, elbows or shoulders.”

“That…”

…

“Why do you want to kill Tuffock?” Ebony changed the subject again.

“...It’s his death or ours.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“You want to kill him for reasons you don’t know?”

“...”

“Where is this coming from? How does his life and death affect ours?”

“...I am sure.”

“Okay. So what you’re saying is, if Tuffock is left alive, we’ll die somehow or the other. But if you kill him now, we won’t?”

“We might still die…”

“So killing him won’t do a thing? I thought you were more than that, Scarlet. I fear helplessness. I fear death. Sure. It’s precisely because I fear helplessness that I will never leave my life and death to chance. You don’t have the confidence to survive something Tuffock can?”

“...”

There was a long silence before an almost inaudible whisper came from Scarlet.

Ebony had no reply to her words.

❅❅❅

“Where the heck is the next level?”

“I..I think this is the 4th floor.”

“Really? A one way walkway is the 4th floor?”

The party reached the end of the stairs and reached what could be briefly described as a walkway. It was not lit like the stairway. They had their phoslamps for lightsource.

It was uneven dirt ground, walls and ceiling. Roughly 5 metres wide and tall. Ebony had started casting and compressing his Layered Ice Carapace again, there was more than enough space to bring them in their original shape and size. His ears hurt figuratively from Tuffock 2’s screaming and cursing.

They had already been moving at a reasonable pace for an hour. It had been uneventful as of yet.

They then faced the first trap when he who got around to leading the way again, Hector beside him. Tuffock and Ryley in the middle and Scarlet at the back. A reasonable formation by Ryley. Ebony didn’t know much about formations so he had no comment either way.

Unknown as to who or what triggered it. The cave-ish walkway glowed, brightening a little. Coming from both in front and behind Ebony, he turned to see that the wall was closing in from both the ceiling and the floor with Scarlet’s hand reaching out towards them. She didn’t make it.

About 10 girs or 50m ahead was sealed too. Hector, Tuffock and Ebony were here. Ryley and Scarlet were cut off behind them.

Bang

The walls around them burst open, the floor and even the ceiling too. Hands? It had 3 thick fingers.

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Foot Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Foot Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Foot Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Fist Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Head Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Head Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Core Golem Lvl 100]

Just like how people had level 100 evolution, so do monsters. The difficulty in evolving should be just as difficult for them. Dungeons could just spawn them of course, with much higher costs.

They were much smaller than the mud golems. Ebony would say they looked like buff bodybuilders, humanoid in shape. The fist golems had clenched, yellow crystal-like hands. Their upper bodies were thick and were made of hardened earth unlike the mud golems. As their names suggest, its fists should be made of topaz. It ran up to their forearms.

The feet golems had thinner upper bodies, still a little buffer than Hector who was pretty lean for a self-proclaimed bodybuilder himself. They had thick lower bodies instead, the yellowish glow almost reaching their knees. Their arms were normal hardened earth like it was the other way round for the fist golems.

The head golem was simply a topaz-headed golem with a normal body.

The core golem? Ebony couldn’t see the topaz part of it, likely in its body. Yet, the core golem stood out like a sore thumb. Ebony liked its style. Really really like his style. It was so chill.

The core golem has a much darker coloured body, very dark brown compared to its fellow golems. It was much leaner too. Practically human in size and shape. What made it stand out or rather, sit down was that it was literally sitting down. It had manipulated or conjured a throne for itself, sitting there. A hand, five fingered like humans, supported its ovalish and featureless face or head as it rested against a loosely closed fist. Watching 11 of the unevolved golems surround Ebony and his fellow party members. Bored.

‘Hot. Damn. That golem has style.’ Ebony felt like Hector had infected his mind. At the same time, he had felt himself being more relaxed after his Core Skill evolved. Something about him changed slightly. Ebony didn’t feel anything wrong with himself though. If he had to point out, it was that he was a little more open.

“Now that’s rare shit! Topaz golems, especially that smug core golem. Too bad they're not pure topaz golems. Their topaz are filled with earthen impurities. The core golem’s topaz should be decent enough to sell. We should get it. Be careful, the head ones can likely cast magic. Heheh, leave the fist golems to me. You guys can take the rest.” Hector smashed his fist together.

Hector got into a punching flurry with the other fist golems. Even though he said to leave them to him, there were 6 of them. 2 of them ignored his taunts and targeted Tuffock and Ebony instead. Seeing nothing special with them, Ebony didn’t bother copying Hector to have a kick-off with the feet golem.

Their topaz parts were even tougher than the bears' hide from the previous floor. Like pushing a knife against a block of steel. Other parts of their bodies were considerably softer.

“SUUPER PAAANCH!! You call yourselves’ fist golems!?” Hector exchanged punches with a fist golem. The golem’s topaz fist shattered into thousands of pieces. Hector continued to challenge them fist on fist. All the topaz shattering was a little noisy.

The head golems adjusted their target from the lone Hector after he constantly dodged the topaz they spit out of their topaz heads to Tuffock, who splattered 2 of their allies into the ground with a huge hammer of stone.

Their ‘magic’ was really disappointing. Just small shards of topaz being shot out of their topaz heads. The only interesting point to note was that the topaz projectiles expanded into spiky mass when it hit the ground. Ebony was guessing it would expand and dig into flesh if it hit or landed. That was if it hit.

“Do..don’t get hit by the head golem!” Tuffock called out. Tuffock’s hammer had a small topaz shard embedded in it. It fell onto the ground as the topaz grew in size. In a short second, the stone hammer burst open from within. A ball of topaz mass taking its place.

Maybe topaz magic was more interesting than Ebony thought. Hector seemed to know about the nature of the magic so he dodged instead of punching them like he would usually do.

The fist and feet golem were protecting the head golem but didn’t manage to stop Ebony, who just stepped past them and decapitated the 2 golems. A single step reaching from one to the other, their earthen necks didn’t stand a chance.

The falling heads didn’t just watch, Ebony also never let his guard down. He knew golems didn’t die from decapitation. Like a tongue or whip, it tried to get a hold of him by having a tentacle shoot out. They faced an Ice Sword that Ebony prepared a second ago.

One Ice Sword each wasn’t enough, Ebony cast another and sent them flying into their heads. Topaz heads or orbs at this point struggled against the freezing, which didn’t seem to do much. His ice swords shattered after Topaz managed to dig into their internal structure.

Ebony had Magnified Gravity Field extended to include them in his range of effect. While the high stats of the monsters and low levels of his skill made it a redundant waste of mana, he had to start somewhere. He had the mana to spare to train them now. The gravitational waves in the dungeon were also higher and strengthened the effect of the spell directly.

The heads constantly struggled at the relentless ice barrage while he was fighting off the feet golems that came to help their ‘mages’. It wasn’t hard to aim for their softer parts. They had no fighting technique and even Tiha, the young Frost Elf, could handle them if she had the stats to take them on.

Ebony was secretly impressed by Tuffock. He said he didn’t have a Sub-Class despite being at the level he was at. If his Sub-Class reaches level 80, close to his main Class. That would be an extra 400 stat points, that was to say his magic could damage these level 100 golems even with such a big stat difference. His Intelligence or likely his skill levels and tiers should be relatively high.

Tuffock was not completely helpless in close range either. He had those stone hands that he preferred to use in close combat. In close combat, he would be in his stone suit completely covering him except maybe his eyes. The hands of the suit will be expanded and he will fight like a martial artist. He had been taking lessons from Hector, the twist was that he was using stone manipulation and not moving his body physically.

Ebony once saw that his stone staff would meld into his suit. Since it was under his robe, Ebony didn’t see where the stone mana core thing went but it was probably melded into his stone armour too. He was practically a hybrid class too.

Even when every other golem was taken down, all the evolved core golem did was sit there. Unimpressed. It didn’t move an inch. Head resting on his arm as it watched the battle on its throne like a statue.

It faced the three of them who were standing together. Looking back at the core golem, Ebony wondered if it was alive. It hasn’t moved at all since it appeared. Watching as its fellow golems got destroyed.

It remained in its lazy position as its free hand on the armrest turned over and beckoned them over with a finger.

Hector laughed as he burst into action after activating his enhancement spell. Tuffock was mumbling with his staff raised and ready. His stone lance started spinning.

Ebony moved as he watched Hector punch the smug golem in its face. The golem glowed bright yellow. Lines across its body glowed, like veins. The golem’s beckoning hand smacked Hector’s wrist to the side, his legs struck out like a whip.

“GAAH!” Hector screamed. Kicked in his abdomen, sent crashing into the wall. The wall dented in, Hector didn’t move. His condition unknown.

Ebony already moved right in front of the core golem with his greatsword slashing overhead, diagonally across. The golem straightened up and used the hand that was a headrest to grab onto his blade. Ebony thought he was imagining things when the veins on the golem’s face formed a devilish grin.

Sonic Overlay or his gravity membrane didn’t bother it. Ebony couldn’t remove his greatsword from its vice grip. Ebony’s ice mana was working to freeze its hand. The golem waited for the layer of frost to reach its elbow before its ‘veins’ pulsed with warm yellow light.

The layer of ice crumbled, Ebony felt his greatsword which was imbued with ice mana get intruded by a foreign mana.

“Move aside!”

Ebony shifted his body just in time for the spinning lance of stone to drill into the golem. It released his greatsword. He didn’t miss the fact that the golem accurately grabbed onto the shaft of the stone lance but it wasn’t enough. The lance pierced into its chest and the backrest of his throne was shattered, the golem struck flying back.

It didn’t crash into the wall like Hector. Two legs slid and carved into the ground, stopping itself. Lance in hand. It got into stance.

Easily recognised as a javelin throw stance. Aimed at Tuffock, Ebony didn’t have time to push Tuffock away in that fraction of a second. With only a single shield cast as of yet, he thought it was lucky he practised moving them as fast as possible. It should be strong enough despite not being fully compressed.

It stood in the path of the returned throw. The strong impact blew whatever air, dust and dead earthen-topaz golem parts there were in the straight walkway that peppered the walls,floor and ceiling. Ebony felt his shield break down the centre. The dust settled, Tuffock’s stone lance was left in uneven pieces and fragments with Ebony’s shield having large cracks and a huge dent.

Ebony imagined that his shield would likely be fully pierced if the stone lance was any tougher than it was.

The sound of Hector coughing echoed. The golem didn’t attack them further, just standing there with the crooked glowing smile on its face.

Tuffock rushed to Hector but was pushed aside saying he was fine. His armour had a large chunk gone from the belly area.

“Guys. Leave this smug bastard to me.” Hector wiped the blood off his lips. None of them looked away from the golem as he spoke.

“Mmm.” Ebony sheathed his greatsword. Luckily, due to the layer of ice mana, it appeared relatively undamaged and there was no invasion of topaz.

“Wh..what? No..no. It’s too strong… You got knocked unconscious before I could even blink.” Tuffock’s tone deepened towards the end.

“Hey hey hey. I just didn’t expect it to be so strong with the fist golems being so weak. I will show you my true power.” Hector looked offended but remained confident.

“Mmm.” Ebony agreed again.

“...Can’t you sound or look more excited, interested or impressed? I’m stronger than I look.”

“I know. I am very interested to see your true power.”

“...I can’t take you seriously when it sounds like you’re mocking me. I’ve never heard such a dead tone when someone said ‘very interested’. Forget it. Just watch me destroy that golem.” Hector smashed his fist with power. Hair standing, skin colour darkening, a layer of earth on him while it reddens. His hair and skin sparked.

‘So he can use lightning magic too?’

Ebony was so used to being misunderstood. For some reason, people always thought he was ridiculing them when he was pretty serious. He has confirmed most of the elemental mana he sensed when he used the mana sensitivity potion. It was water, lightning and earth.

Still having no idea what the invisible, colourless elemental mana was. He couldn’t sense that again without the effects of the potion so he can’t confirm it. The other 3 elements were also pretty much too hard to grasp or even feel as of yet but he didn't try too hard to manipulate them either. He had enough on his plate.