Chapter 58

  Wrestler

  We’re all feeling recharged and refreshed after a quick lunch break around the fountain and its cooler air. I actually put thought into the meals each person got this time to maximize our performance in this second half of the dungeon, at least for a time.

  Leuke tore into a Hamburg Steak with Essence Onions and Essence Mashed Potatoes smothered under Essence Flour Gravy with Mushrooms, completed by a side of Essence Spinach. It’ll give him an hour-long buff to his Strength and Toughness.

  Korrigan initially turned up her nose at her Essence Mixed Nut Curry with Broccoli alongside fish and Essence Blueberries on account of the curry’s strong, unfamiliar smell, but actually seemed to really like it after giving it a try. It’ll boost her Intellect and Spell Power.

  Ayre and I had the same dish - an Essence Garden Salad, featuring a whole host of Essence vegetables, including baby spinach leaf, carrots, olives, nuts, cucumbers, snap peas, tomatoes and onions, as well as shredded cheese, under a creamy, sharp dressing that reminds me of blue cheese. It’s a surprisingly thick meal, and even if the System calls it rabbit food, the boost to our Agility and Stamina will see us through any new challenges this last stage of the dungeon has to throw at us.

  Now, we’ve decided to take the doors in the same order we did above, and we’re standing before the door to the left. Like above, this, too, has lettering carved into its mantle.

  “Arena of Strength,” I read for the sake of Korrigan and Ayre. “Sounds like, instead of a trial, we’re gonna have a fight.”

  Leuke tightens his grip on Ryutaiji Steel. “If it’s a contest of Strength, I’ll make sure we don’t lose to anyone!”

  I grin over at him and slap him on the arm. “We’ll be counting on you! But just like last time, we’re here to support you!”

  He gives me a nod back, and we step toward the door, Leuke taking point and pushing the door open with his hand.

  Sure enough, under the torchlight and leering gaze of the three-eyed mural is a pounded flat circle of dirt, and at the back end of the room is another ogre, just like the iaido master that concluded the floor above.

  Except this one’s waiting in a squat, apparently in the middle of an exercise set. And when it stands up, the torchlight glistens off of well-oiled muscles, a metal-and-wood right arm that reminds me of Zeiya’s prosthetic leg, long, disorderly hair … and a decidedly very female silhouette. When she turns toward us, her piercing eyes stare out at us from a lovely almond-shaped face.

  “Wow, she’s pretty,” I note out loud before I can stop myself. Then, “Is she our only opponent?”

  Ayre elbows me. “What does Identify say?”

  Oh, right, I can do that. I tear my eyes away from the muscle mommy and focus on the spell. “Wrestler Ogre, same level as the Swordmaster Ogre!”

  “Wait, I have to wrestle her?!” Leuke begins to panic a little, though, as it turns out, not because of her size. “I have no idea where I’m supposed to put my hands!”

  I scowl and poke him in the side. “No, she’s going to try to wrestle you. You don’t have to reply in kind, you know. Though it’s definitely going to make it hard to use something as large as Ryutaiji.”

  She turns toward us fully and speaks, much in the same way as the iaido master. “You challengers who have overcome the Trial of Strength, now prove your worth to me.”

  I have no way of knowing if that’s all these ogres can say, but it’s worth trying to find out the rules. “Uh, none of us are wrestlers specifically. Is that a problem? This isn’t an actual wrestling match, is it?”

  Her eyes snap to me, those piercing blue orbs. “It’s a fight. I don’t care how you fight. If you can’t defeat me, then your pilgrimage ends here.”

  “Right, then I hope you don’t take offense if I try to make this quick,” I say as I move my hand to my new holster and unfasten the strap. “This is the Strength of my people!”

  She visibly braces herself for an attack, but there’s no way she can expect what I’m packing. Energy flares around me as I activate Empower, and around the barrel of my gun as I trigger Spiral Shot. I’m putting everything into this as I focus on my quick draw.

  The barrel slides free with buttery ease, and even with my enhancements, I can’t give a segment of time between when it clears leather and when I fire at center mass.

  That metal arm, so close to position already, slides up to protect her chest from attack. The round impacts the limb, creating a loud, ringing reverberation that fills the room.

  And then the yellow light rushes over her as she seizes up, her every muscle spasming under the effects of the Paralysis round.

  I twirl my pistol and blow on the barrel. “Fool me once, ogres, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me! Leuke, you’re up!”

  The Swordmaster Hero rushes forward, prepared to deal with this ogre just like we dealt with the Iaidoka one. By the time he’s halfway to the ogre, however, something’s wrong. The twitches are getting sporadic.

  “Leuke, look out, she’s breaking–”

  Before I can finish my warning, the ogre throws her arms wide with a battle cry, seemingly breaking out of the paralysis effect by sheer force of will. Instead of being vulnerable to a coup de grace, she reaches out and grabs Ryutaiji by the blade mid-swing, getting into a direct struggle of raw strength with Leuke despite all of his bonuses.

  “Spread out,” I immediately tell Ayre and Korrigan with a wave of my arm before I start changing out my magazine for my overpressure rounds again. This fight isn’t going to be over as quickly as I’d hoped. “Take your shots when you see them, but check your fire! We don’t want to catch Leuke in our attacks!”

  The ogre’s blue gaze shifts off of Leuke to focus on me again. “So you’re their leader,” she observes, almost in a purr.

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  Aw, crud, I get the feeling I just pulled aggro.

  She abandons the direct contest of strength to shove the blade to the side, getting in close and wrapping her supple arms around his torso - and pressing a couple other supple things against him that cause him to immediately lock up.

  “Upsy-daisy,” she says with a grin.

  “What?! No! No upsy-daisy!” But each of their strength is no doubt vastly in excess of their physical weight, and without any leverage, there’s nothing he can do but go up in the air. “Ah, stop, that’s not nice, that’s not nice!”

  His panic seems to make her grin all the more before she tosses him to the ground off to the side, the impact heavy with all of his armor, and Ryutaiji actually clatters out of his grip.

  “Your turn, cute little leader,” she calls out, turning to me.

  I suppress a swallow and raise my gun again, momentarily glad that our other two party members probably can’t understand what she’s saying.

  She raises her artificial limb in defense again. “You may thunder like the master, little one, but you aren’t good enough to get past me!”

  The wrestler charges at me and I squeeze off a few shots, but dive to the side before she can get within arm’s reach of me.

  I’m momentarily taken with the thought of what Zeiya could do with a prosthetic like that. But then, given their similar construction, it’s possible this was exactly where she got it. And, as impressive as this ogre seems to me, she’s still only a Silver-rank monster. Her prosthetic would still hold back a Platinum-rank adventurer. The item just wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demands that would be placed upon it. No, it’s no wonder why the red-headed bartender decided to retire after losing her leg, even if she had a combat-ready prosthetic replacement.

  Two people that aren’t distracted are to either side, however, and the miniboss had surrendered her own cover when she tossed Leuke aside. The moment she comes to a stop after failing to grab me, Ayre and Korrigan open up on her with fire magic and Spiral Shot.

  The attacks crash into her from either side, and I wheel around, firing into her, as well, while she’s staggered. She’s forced to abandon my pursuit and hunker down under our bombardment. One would think this would be a death sentence, but she just brings her arms up to either side to absorb the brunt of it and endures.

  We can’t keep the onslaught up forever. It won’t be long before I’m going to have to reload. Soon after, Ayre is going to need to switch quivers. At some point, Korrigan is going to falter. If this damnable woman doesn’t break before then, she’s going to turn around and break us.

  But it’s enough time for Leuke to recover. Just as our barrage starts to fade and she begins to unwind herself, he slams into her from her blind spot, fist drawn back to slug across her jaw. She tumbles backward from the force of impact and Leuke takes the opportunity to bearhug her low and around the middle.

  The ogress swears at him as she rains blows down on his armored shoulders, but he doesn’t let go. He squints up at her through the pain … and the bastard manages a grin.

  “Upsy-daisy!”

  “YOU LITTLE FU–”

  She goes up and around in a side salto and he slams her into the ground with enough force that we all brace to catch ourselves against the aftershocks.

  I waste no time, reaching into my bag as fast as I can to throw a quiver in one direction and a vial of apple juice in the other. Each of my fellow ranged combatants grab their respective item and either swap it out or down it as appropriate as I am changing to a new magazine.

  Leuke staggers back to his feet, glances over his work, turns back to us and gives a flick of his chin. “... Like flipping goats back home,” he says with a weariness that suggests maybe he’s overstating. I’d be mildly surprised the wrestler’s initial throw didn’t break his back if I didn’t have a good idea how ludicrously high his Toughness was, but it still must have hurt.

  But that’s not the problem.

  I stare at him like he’s gone crazy. “Stop bragging and go get your sword, you idiot!”

  My insult confuses him in his moment of pained elation. “Huh?”

  “That trick didn’t put you out of the fight,” I remind him even as she, indeed, starts climbing back to her feet. “Why do you think it would– Leuke, look out!”

  He wheels around, but the ogress grabs him by the shoulder with one hand.

  “You want to play pattycake, pretty boy?” she asks with a wide smile on her face. “Fine, let’s play!”

  Her other hand comes back in a fist and pistons down into his face, but her grip keeps him from going anywhere. Another fist. And another. And another. They keep raining down, and Leuke is grappling for the woman’s arm, trying to pull himself free.

  I circle around for an open shot at her back, and she cries out, her assault breaking as red blood trickles down from the hole I placed there, but she pauses to turn to look at the source of the attack.

  “Put him down,” I shout as I stare down the barrel of my pistol at her.

  She gives a dark chuckle. “Fine.” And casually tosses the Swordmaster Hero aside. “He might actually stay out of this long enough this time.”

  Again, Ayre and Korrigan unleash their attacks, but she charges through them, now determined to get her hands on me.

  I dive to the side again, recalling back to my first day in Dabun Village, when I was told how the body responded to percentile damage, and couldn’t help but wonder where this amazonian powerhouse’s numbers are sitting at. Maybe ogres got to ignore those responses, because I can’t bear to think we’ve done so little to her unarmored form.

  Another brace of attacks as she misses me again staggers her, but she rips a statue from the ground and hurls it at Ayre, catching the wall beside the archer and causing it to crumble dangerously close to him.

  I can’t spare a moment to check on him, but the other half of the damage, Korrigan, breaks off to do so without even thinking about it, cutting off both sources of damage. I can’t even call after her to hold position, or I’d just make her the next target.

  Instead, the wrestler slowly maneuvers me back against the wall with what almost sounds like a giggle.

  “Now, little one, how about a hug?”

  I try to tumble away again, but she grabs me by the ankle and swings me back into the wall, stunning me for a moment as I cry out in pain before she grabs me up into her arms.

  My face is momentarily crushed into the same soft surfaces that had caused Leuke to panic, but then she squeezes and all thought of anything but the pain evaporates from my mind as I scream into them.

  “Remmi!”

  I vaguely hear Ayre’s voice shout from over by the rubble, but it’s quiet behind the popping of my ribs. The pressure keeps on growing, never relenting, only tightening. Each new milestone causes me to cry out again as my chest cavity gets a little narrower. I can’t reach my sword or crossbow, and at some point, my pistol fell out of my grip. Reflexively, I flare Empower, but it doesn’t do anything against her powerful build.

  And then it all stops and everything falls silent as something rips through my belly, from my sternum to my pelvis. It’s an odd feeling, there’s enough pain in my everywhere else that it just feels like getting my insides pushed around at first. But then there’s a coldness that settles into my torso, and my belly starts to feel wet.

  The ogress and I both look down, and, incomprehensibly, there is a slab of sharpened steel connecting us. For her, I can see where it passes through her own abdomen. The tip that is passing in my front and out of my back is narrower, but with her organs shoved into me and my fluids trickling back down into her, we’ve inarguably shared a transplant.

  It’s forever and a moment that we’re both standing there staring, and then her grip slackens and we fall. I slide off the tip as her knees collide with the floor.

  And behind her, I can see Leuke with Ryutaiji Steel, drawing the blade back out of her, and I just stare blankly as he rears back and takes her head off.

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