Ebony's Fable

“Ebony! Stone mage! Hel…”

“Get down!”

Ryley's urgent call broke Ebony’s line of thought on whether he would stay eerily calm if he killed a person.

Ebony heard Scarlet raising her voice for the first time over Ryley’s call, cutting him off. Not willing or perhaps not bothered to ask Tuffock about his rash killings, he quickly sped up. The sound came from both their myriad bracelets. Hector’s was pinging too but he didn’t pick it up, unconscious and all.

Ebony has only gotten better and better at timing and manipulating Chaotic Repulsive Membrane to repel his entire body forward without losing balance or grip.

Both Scarlet and Ryley were faster than him, sure. However, he highly suspected Scarlet couldn’t fight or even move at such high speeds for long. She didn’t even have time to rest and recover. Her body enhancement skill heavily burdens her body. She couldn’t hold up for many more fights. He also doubted he was any slower than Ryley with his increase in level and Agility.

Zooming down the walkway faster than the earthen-topaz golems could appear and stop them. Even if they were already standing in the way, he could either get Tuffock to prepare a spell or just run past them.

Ebony’s grip on his greatsword tightened, he himself not realising the rising anxiety within him.

“Hey ice boy, slow down.”

“...no time.”

“You’re panting.”

“...” Ebony slowed down.

Health: 389/500

Stamina: 83/500

Mana: 554/4710

‘...ha. How pathetic of me. My Core Skill was a scam after all. Difficult to break mental state my ass.’

Ebony didn’t even realise his Core Skill was no longer running. Always having a false sense of calmness. Just because he never really cared about anything. Including getting heavily injured or potentially killed. All those times he never felt like he would’ve died was probably him not giving a shit whether he died there or not. Deep down, he probably thought that if he died then and there, then that was all he was worth or as long as he had deserved to live.

During his ‘Trial’ he probably didn’t kill the bear. His parents left him, either disappointed with him or having given up on him. It was a thought Ebony had been dwelling on. He buried the thought long ago. Hiding it. Running away from it. The fact that, in the end, he was still a weak, weak child. Giving up on himself after his only family had done the same.

Stamina: 85/500

Stamina: 100/500

Stamina: 135/500

Stamina: 280/500

Stamina: 467/500

Stamina 500/500

That wasn’t true anymore. At least, he had been striving to stay alive every moment since he got here. Hardly a moment has passed where he hasn’t been trying to get stronger. Besides, whether his parents gave up on him or not or whether he failed their ‘Trial’ was all his guesswork. Paranoia.

With the suspicions of his arrival here, he could always ask them if he ever saw them again. As for looking for them? Nah. Too much effort, Ebony thought. They could find him if they were the reason he was brought, teleported or summoned here. If it was sheer coincidence and it was his mind playing games on him then looking for them would be a fool’s errand anyway. It wasn’t like he had any clues either so why bother?

Ebony had more important things to do.

‘No need to panic. They’re close by.’ Ebony told himself.

The call came through, they were within range. Their battle where Hector smashed the evolved core golem didn’t take long. Scarlet and Ryley were separated from them by a single wall, then fell into the hole in the ground that opened up. They were slowed down by digging the hole down, few attacks and the party that Tuffock massacred.

On the other hand, Scarlet was exhausted. They would similarly be slowed down by attacks, even if they were lucky and didn't, they should not be much further unless there was some dungeon nonsense going on.

The call for help, Scarlet’s shout and them not being able to pick up the call was concerning but that was all. Scarlet was stronger than Ebony, he didn’t have the right to be worried about her in a fight with golems he could beat.

Despite the logical thinking, Ebony only sped up after he managed to calm down and regulate his breathing, heart rate and mental state. Reality was that they called for help and Scarlet had raised her voice.

Ebony didn’t know whether to be happy or angry to be stopped by a wall in less than a minute. The familiar sounds of battle that penetrated the earthen wall was reassuring. The silence right after was not.

They walloped on the wall. Unsure if it was on purpose but Tuffock claimed to be low on mana. Ebony’s greatsword with Chaotic Repulsive Membrane and Sonic Overlay at full blast was slicing through the wall that his paranoia was telling him was thicker than the walls that separated them previously with some difficulty. Ebony’s lack of explosive offensive skills irked him yet again.

Bang

Standing too close to the wall, he was knocked flying back by whatever impact destroyed the wall from the other side. He did manage to move the shields Tuffock and Hector were on so they avoided the crumbling debris. Ebony reacted quickly after noticing what flew through. He caught the thing that caused the wall that he was half-way through breaking.

The temperature rose slightly. Lukewarm.

“erghh.”

In his arms was Scarlet, she let out a soft cry. In one of her hands that held her longsword were her fingers barely grabbing onto Ryley’s collar, who was sent crashing into the wall along with her. Scarlet probably took the hit for him.

Her soft cry of pain was registered resoundingly loud in Ebony’s ears. The lukewarm temperature from where Scarlet fought due to her low mana pool blew at Ebony’s face.

“You..you’re here.” Scarlet wasn’t knocked out cold.

“Mmm, I’m here. Rest. I’ll take care of the rabble.” Ebony rested Scarlet’s back against the walkway but not before pulling the unconscious Ryley out of her grip and dropping him aside.

Tuffock had already started engaging the threat since Ebony was pushed back by the exploding wall that Scarlet crashed out from. Ebony didn’t even notice him helping Hector down his shield already.

[Earthen-Topaz Core Golem Lvl 100]

[Earthen-Topaz Core Golem Lvl 100]

This was going to be tricky.

They were side by side. The one on the left had its right shoulder sliced all the way down to its chest, molten. It didn’t seem to be repairing or recovering. The other one looked relatively unharmed. They may have a dent or scratch here and there but nothing major. Ebony was guessing those were where Ryley’s arrow’s ricocheted or bounced off.

There were perhaps a dozen or so broken golems with their topaz limbs around. A few were freshly destroyed or killed by Tuffock who decided that they were in the way. They did see the core golems outright catching Tuffock’s spell, so he didn't aim for the core golems.

The core golems weren’t as relaxed as the ones that Hector pulverised. Barely giving Ebony time to move the 3 combatants who were down for the count.

Ebony had both his shields which were acting as hoverboards for his two party members to smash into the injured golem. The pointy end at the bottom aimed at its neck and hip, slicing through the air. The large cut in its shoulder didn’t affect its movements much even though it didn't recover itself like the mud golems. It timely grabbed both shields before they landed on its body.

Tuffock didn’t let the opportunity go as he let his charging and spinning lance fire off while both the golem’s hands were busy. It was Tuffock’s Piercing Needle Lance.

The other golem glowed a warm dim light as it moved to punch the incoming lance. It backhanded, slapping Ebony’s hastily casted Ice Sword to the side. Not expecting the shadow to spit out a shot right out of the centre of the stone lance, accelerating towards the injured golem.

The injured golem wasn’t stunned just by catching the shields and used the upper one near its neck and slammed the metre-long needle down. Ebony didn’t just let that happen, he resisted with his control over ice mana. The golem overpowered his control.

Perhaps a stroke of genius or perhaps, another one of Ebony’s dumb thoughtless on the spot decision-making. Both his shields disassembled into individual scales. 2 five layered shields had more than enough scales to encase a human sized target. It defended the golem from the needle but kept the golem imprisoned.

Ebony, already fully enhanced with his usual enhancements and spells, had long taken a step, getting right by the golem who was punching the stone lance while his shields disassembled into an orb to trap the injured core golem.

His bulky greatsword didn’t hinder his movements despite the 5 by 5 metre walkway. Slashing down diagonally on the distracted golem. It had ridiculous reaction speed despite being in the midst of ridding the stone lance, seeing the needle shoot out from the lance and Ebony coming for it. It immediately gave up on helping its ally, seeing it quickly being encased and snapped its leg towards Ebony’s slash.

The dull impact numbed Ebony’s arms. He was knocked back along with his greatsword. Tuffock’s Piercing Needle Lance’s shell skidded against Ebony’s scale orb. The small space in the walkway meant that Tuffock was not all that far away from the golems. The stone lance floated up and spun around, ‘splattering’ onto the golem’s arms while it kicked Ebony away.

His reaction, casting and manipulation speed were inconceivable for a mage his level, and he didn’t even have a Sub-Class.

Tuffock almost signature stone locks or weights around the golem’s hand. It was redundant as the little bit of weight was nothing to the golem. It sort of clapped and shattered the locks. Ebony used this time to stabilise and ground his feet. Not a tiny bit embarrassed that he called them rabble.

A few earthen arms and legs broke out from the walls surrounding them. Reinforcements.

❅❅❅

Meanwhile, Tuffock, who kept an eye on the frozen scale orb was secretly confused. The imprisoned golem was too silent. The first couple of seconds the orb was shaking and the scales pushed outwards, a couple of them unlatched from each other where the golem struggling to break free can be spotted before the scales forcefully pushed themselves back into place. The gaps opened up by the golem slowly decreased, and then the shaking and wobbling got less violent.

Tuffock watched as Ebony engaged the healthy golem. The core golem was level 100 but it already evolved. A single evolution it may be but the difference in strength between one that hasn’t evolved and one that has was huge. A weak creature like the mud golem was hardly a good comparison.

Ebony’s ice wasn’t working well, the main reason being the toughness of this earthen-topaz golem. He couldn’t drive ice mana into it. His gravity spell and vibration spell were insufficient to really break through its defences. The real reason is not just its toughness but its ability and trait of topaz magic. It was essentially enhancement magic. A humanoid monster that can use enhancement magic and fight like a human was rare. Very rare.

While Ebony’s ice-imbued greatsword somewhat counters the topaz trying to destroy his weapon, it would be dangerous to get hit. Well, rather than counter, the ice mana merely took the place of his weapon to be taken apart. It would constantly eat into his mana but Tuffock had already gotten used to the fact that that would hardly be a problem for the madman.

Ebony was still badly disadvantaged. Being slower and weaker and his always working strategy of slowing his opponent down with ice mana. The layer of ice that forms on the core golem never stays for more than half a second before yellow topaz bursts out from it, removing it.

Tuffock watched as Ebony got punched and kicked around.

‘He’s really tough…’

Ebony’s ability to multitask and cast was impressive. A single scale formed in between the fighters right before some attacks landed, protecting him from taking the full brunt of the damage. This was new, he must have just thought of it recently. The scales were just like his shields, just smaller but its cast speed was a lot faster. It seemed to form with a thought. It was obviously much weaker.

Tuffock didn’t hear a single scream or shout from Ebony, he didn’t even see Ebony flinch or even have a single facial muscle twitch. He did hear bones crack. It wasn’t a very familiar sound of bones breaking, must have been because of his ice elemental enhancement that was compressed enough to have physical changes show up.

Tuffock was handling the 2 fist golems that appeared. They were relentlessly pushing him away from Ebony. As a mage without a vanguard, he had little choice but to get pushed back. Of course, he tried his best not to let them push him back to where Scarlet and the other’s were resting. He cast a thin stone wall, separating the battle from his 3 party members. His usual anxiousness was absent.

He retrieved the stone that the core golem shattered and formed hundreds of tiny needles from behind the two fist golems. Piercing the air with a whistle and stabbing deep into the much softer golems. The golems didn’t seem to notice as they jabbed and swung at Tuffock.

Tuffock lightly tapped the bottom of his staff on the ground. Two arm thick stone pillars rose from the ground, one of them straight and right beside Tuffock, blocking the wide swing from one of the fist golems. The other rose from in front of Tuffock at an angle and the fist golem coming for a punch from the front rammed its belly into the stone pillar that appeared. It was repelled back by both its own charging force and the sudden stabbing of a stone pillar from the ground.

The fist golem that swung at Tuffock had its attacking arm struggling to break free from the pillar that suddenly became flexible and wrapped around its arm like a snake. The stone pillar thinned and lengthened as thorns grew on it, stabbing into the golem that didn’t feel pain. It jerked the golem forward and whipped it around, slamming it into the ground and wall over and over and over again.

Both golems also didn’t notice their gradually stiffening body. Grey spots appeared throughout their body. The golem that was unable to resist being swung around and slammed like a rag doll crumbled into pieces after a short while. The other golem which was stiffening up was similarly smashed into pieces with a large stone mace.

“E..Ebony! I only ha..have enough mana for one last full powered spell.”

“...Just protect the others.”

‘He’s just enjoying the fight isn’t he?’

❅❅❅

Droplets of icy cold sweat moistened the ground.

Ebony didn’t have enough mana.

He was low on mana to begin with. Casting compressed Icebody Enhancement with Chaotic Repulsive Membrane, Sonic Overlay and Battle Song basically took up almost all of his regeneration. Not to mention the Ice Sword he casted together with Frost Injection.

The core golem was good. It wasn’t just its strength and speed. It knew how to fight as well.

Without enough mana to cast Layered Ice Carapace Ebony, he could only cast small individual scales as he released his left hand from his greatsword. Running ice mana through his casting glove in a manner he had long familiarised himself with.

The walkway wasn’t considered tight but his greatsword was both long and wide. Ebony showed admirable ease in swinging it around by moving his body and feet around but there was a limit to that too.

An earthen fist harder than steel rammed into his hastily conjured scale of ice. It shattered almost instantly, having no skill buff and uncompressed. The fist smashed into his gravity membrane, gravity mana pushing outwards enveloped the fist, unsuccessful at repelling it. It caved in and pushed into Ebony, sending him crashing into the side wall.

Ebony ‘rebounded’ with even more speed and momentum, not unlike slingshotting from a wrestling ring’s ropes. Going back towards the earthen-topaz core golem as he continued his onslaught. His Chaotic Repulsive Membrane didn’t let him touch the walls before repelling him away. The first few times it happened shocked Ebony as he bounced between the 2 walls like an idiot. Fortunately, even the core golem didn’t expect him to move like that and it didn’t manage to take advantage of that.

Ebony had been careful not to place himself in a position that would get him blasted backwards towards where Scarlet was. It limited his attacks a little but it was not much of a concern.

He had no choice but to keep the mana expended on Frost Injection low. It was just enough to counter the topaz that seems to eat and grow into whatever it touches. It didn’t eat into anything limitlessly so that was a relief. But that meant that he hadn’t gotten the core golem to weaken at all. The mana in his robe defended him from the topaz.

Ebony's slashes and thrusts got faster and stronger, he was able to cut an inch or 2 deep into the respectable opponent that didn’t go after his wounded allies.

Ebony would’ve liked to have more mana for a compressed Frost Mist Perception Sphere as the area of effect was pretty nice but he didn’t have leeway for that now. Anyway, he was pretty confident about his victory from the moment he started inflicting damage to the core golem.

Tuffock was done with the 2 fist golems that appeared but with only a little mana left it was better he conserved it to protect the others. There may be more monsters popping up anytime.

As for the core golem that Scarlet injured, that one wouldn’t be a problem since its first couple of attempts to escape failed. Imprisoning it in an ‘easy to escape from the inside’ orb might not have been a stroke of genius but what came after was something Ebony was a little proud of coming up with. He could even consider this like one of the normal mages' pre-prepared spells.

After forcing the individual scales shut, Ebony had the innermost layers to sort of dissolve into icy mist. With how damn much mana in every compressed scale it easily started to freeze the poor golem. But the golem was already pretty damn resilient to cold so it didn’t do much. Once the golem didn’t manage to break an opening in the orb, Ebony had another bright idea. It wasn’t much of a secret but he didn’t really want to go around showing his frostflames. It was mostly Gen’s intentions and Ebony obliged.

With the orb completely encasing the golem, and the entire spell being made out of compressed ice mana, it was not too difficult to combust the ice mana inside it. Ebony was able to tell when the golem was completely frozen and unable to move, it was essentially a Frost Mist Perception Sphere inside the orb. It wasn’t dead but he didn’t want to waste the mana in the Layered Ice Carapace’s scales.

From time to time the golem would break a limb or two free where Ebony would just combust some more ice mana. Ebony was guessing it was doing the glow from its body thing. Magic of some sort.

Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours.

The glowing from the core golem gradually extinguished. Ebony was unable to completely cut down the monster. Momentum only brought him so far, the small space didn’t help. Without excess mana, he could only break even and not lose to the core golem with his ability to evade. Ebony also slowly got down its attack pattern. The number of attacks he received decreased quickly over the course of the fight and he started to be able to block them, then deflect them and finally counter.

Scarlet and Ryley had already woken up long ago. They didn’t join in to help, either because Ebony wanted to take it down or they weren’t in the condition to help. All of them watched the repetitive battle. Tuffock and Ryley got bored watching after a good amount of time passed but Scarlet never looked away.

Ebony couldn’t survive many hits. She noticed a scratch of yellow topaz on the edge of Ebony’s robes partway through the long exchange. He never got hit after that. But he also landed fewer attacks, getting more cautious.

The battle consisted of Ebony dodging most of the time but it was an intense exchange in Scarlet’s eyes. She didn’t know why, they were moving so slowly. Why did she think it was intense? Why did every narrow dodge cause her hands to move towards her swords? Why did a ball of lightning mana condense in her body, ready to pulsate anytime? Scarlet didn’t know but she could feel how calm Ebony was and it wasn’t just his facial expression or undisrupted heartbeat. It was infectious.

So she did what she wanted to. She took her cooking tools and ingredients out. Hungry.

Of course, Ebony wasn’t getting any of her food. She would have slain the disgusting golems in minutes if she wasn’t so tired from fighting him that raising her arms hurt. She didn’t even have enough mana.

As luck would have it, Scarlet was glad she didn’t have to fight the golems. They were inedible. Not even considered an ingredient to her Combat Chef Profession or more accurately, her skill. Nothing in the dungeon should be eaten anyway, those uneducated Imperials didn’t even know such common sense. Sadly.

Scarlet softly hummed along with Ebony’s soft tune. It was originally pretty noisy, his music reverberating through the very ground yet, silent enough that it wouldn’t attract anything from far away. It slowly mellowed out to a soft tune when he got the hang of the dirty monster’s attack pattern. Fighting Ebony was infuriating but watching him fight was kinda relaxing. It was so…rhythmic. Soothing.

Was what Scarlet thought as she cleaved off the head of an unknown creature in a single chop. Scarlet is extremely irritable now, she kept blaming her Core Skill. It started many hours back, after they slaughtered thousands of bears, kobolds and leopards. She originally forced her Core Skill to lower in intensity with her newer Blood Mana Manipulation after she felt her veins rupturing. It hurt so much she almost cried out.

Then they survived the fight and she wondered if the thousands upon thousands of monsters were what her grandma was talking about. Doubtful. They didn’t have to fight all of them, they could likely just run past them. At least she could.

Then Scarlet remembered what Ebony did. Her face under her mask flushed. Her heart raced. She couldn’t even hum or hear the music in the background anymore but her hands and kitchen knife didn’t stop.

‘Useless Core Skill! Why can’t I control it?’