Ultimate Level 1

“Is that possible? I mean, I know it’s possible, but at this level?”

Tanila turned and looked at Max and smiled. It caught him off guard. Her smile seemed out of place, especially considering the realization that they were trapped in a dungeon until they fought their way out or died.

“Looks like we need to prepare for what we're going to face in here,” Tanila said, her voice steady and calm. “We’ll do what we have always done. Fight and win.”

Max knew his eyes were moving between their mage and Fowl, who slowly nodded.

“She’s right. We can’t focus on what we can’t change. Seth, you and I will do what we have always done.”

“Kill everything while they stand behind us, getting free experience?” Max asked jokingly.

“Exactly!”

Both of their female companions shook their heads and made faces that showed their displeasure.

“As I always say, warriors first!”

Both warriors grumbled as they turned and started walking next to the canyon walls that rose at least two hundred yards toward the sky.

“Two heads…”

Max nodded, noticing the same thing Fowl had. The first monster on this dungeon floor was a single ogre, but it had two heads, black skin, and an axe in each hand.

“It’s taller than the other ones by at least a head.”

Fowl snorted, chuckling at Max’s attempt at a joke, but it was true. This ogre was over eleven feet tall.

“Anything about these in that book of yours you read?”

“The two-headed ogre was a rare spawn. But no mention of the black skin or two weapons. They’re stronger, faster, and smarter than the usual ogre.” Pausing, Max grinned before chuckling. “What’s two times zero?”

“Zero,” replied Tanila.

“So still stupid,” Max joked, ignoring the groans from the others.

“I’m glad we can crack jokes and laugh, but you two need to get serious. That thing is the first monster we are going to face. The gods only know how many more there will be or what else we will find. We have no idea how bad things will get, and we need to focus.”

Fowl and Max both let out a sigh and did their usual warmups. Batrire cast her buff, and Max used his fire enchantment on his sword.

“Not going for reach?”

“No. Against those axes, I’ll need to be close. Besides, the best chance I have is to counter and attack. With the sword, I can parry. I’m scared to think what its axe would do against my spear, magical or not.”

Fowl grunted and moved to the left a little. “Stealth?”

“Yeah. Ready when you are.”

“Hold up!” Tanila called out. “Let me try and ensnare it first. It would be good to know if I can even manage that.”

The snare spell failed to hold for more than two seconds. Fowl moved to block its incoming charge as Max moved to the side, preparing to attack from stealth.

The sight of two axes that were six feet long coming at him made Fowl crouch a little lower as he prepared for an attack of proportions he had never faced before.

The speed at which both axes moved almost seemed like a blur, the strength of the ogre evident as the first blow landed against Fowl’s shield, sending the dwarf tumbling to the right along the black rock.

Max had moved into position as the ogre swung, hoping to strike before it, but the ogre had shifted, moving a step to the side as it brought both axes to bear on Fowl’s shield.

His sword slashed its ankle, slicing deep into it as the creature roared, starting to stumble as its left leg buckled slightly. The force of its attack and spin had put tremendous pressure on the left ankle, causing it to drop onto its right knee. The ogre brought the axe in its left hand toward where Max had appeared after striking it. A snarl appeared on the face of the head closest to him as it tried to connect with the axe.

Using his position and the ogre's inability to make an actual attack at him, Max held his shield out to block the attack, planting his feet and waiting for the blow.

As the axe bounced off his shield, Max swung his sword, catching the hand holding the axe's haft, slicing four fingers off, and sending the axe flying.

Another yell came from the ogre as it snatched its hand back, only its thumb and a few short stubs remaining on it. Blood poured from the wound as it tried to stand and turn. Its ankle couldn’t support its weight, and Max took that opportunity to slash down at its left leg, slicing it open, leaving a foot-deep gash across its thigh.

It tried to roll toward him, lunging at him and dropping the other axe it held.

Both heads were focused on him, and as it moved toward Max, an ice spear pierced the head on the right, hitting it right in its face. Chunks of ice and flesh showered over Max as it moved its arms and hands toward him.

Dodging to the right, Max sliced at the left arm, hitting the bone right below its elbow as he cut through its flesh.

In a matter of moments, Max resumed his butchering of the ogre one strike at a time. Every move it made toward him left it open to his sword, which carved flesh off its body like a skilled butcher's knife. Soon, both arms were gone. Blood poured out from over a dozen wounds he had inflicted elsewhere on its massive body.

Tanila and Batrire stood back, watching Max move like a dancer as he finally slew the ogre, cutting both heads off in less than half a minute.

Only when the ogre was dead did Max turn his attention to Fowl, who was shaking his head as he and the rest of the group came up to join him.

“You ok?”

Fowl nodded, only grunting a response. They stared at the pool of blood that covered the black rock floor. Where the blood touched the blue crystal light, it turned the glow a purple color, matching the sky above. “That’s not weird at all,” Fowl stated as he pointed at the blood. “Good work, though. I think I would have been fine if only one axe had hit me. Two was more than I could handle. It literally lifted me off the ground.”

“I saw that. Sorry, I couldn’t attack before it did. It moved from where I had expected it to be.”

“Happens. Now tell me, what do we harvest off this thing?”

Max stored his sword and pulled out the notes from Bardunac and the ones he had copied from Sam’s book.

“Uhh… before I answer that, can we decide who will harvest everything?”

Max grinned as he saw the three of them giving him perplexed expressions.

“That sounds bad if you preface it that way,” Tanila stated, getting a grunt of agreement from Batrire.

“Oh, it is… we need the heart, eyeballs, and…” Max paused, coughing once and then pointing at the ogre’s loincloth. “Its balls.”

“Oh, hell no!” Fowl exclaimed. “I’ll gladly get the eyes and heart, but there ain’t no way I’m going ball hunting on an ogre.”

Storing both heads in his storage and the heart in a backpack Bardunac had given him, Max shivered after Batrire handed him the two balls the ogre had once owned.

“Someone is going to owe me big time for that,” she said with a snarl. “And when I mean big, I mean ogre nut size big.”

Fowl chuckled, nodding as he wiped his blood-covered hands on a cloth before storing it. “One down, and who knows how many left.”

The subsequent three encounters were a single two-headed ogre, just like the first. Each carried two axes, and they repeated the same process each time. Only once did Tanila’s spell hold the creature; the other two times, each broke it within a second or two.

Max found the best attack came from using one of the axes from stealth and then switching to his sword and shield a few seconds later. The power of the strike he could deliver with the massive axe was impossible to compare to a much shorter blade. Each time, the axe had taken the entire foot or knee out, sending the ogre to a quick death.

“I don’t suppose you have gained anything from them?” Tanila asked as they continued to move through the canyon.

“Not a thing. I had hoped, but I still don’t know everything about the skill. I would assume my current stats are above every one of the ogres. They use an axe skill, and I have my weapon skill.”

“So nothing to actually consume.”

Max shook his head. “Nothing I can see, and the book my dwarf friend gave me mentioned no other skills.”

She nodded, letting out a sigh. “I guess I was hoping for something out of all this.”

Max laughed, his voice echoing along the walls of the canyon. “You mean besides ogre heads, hearts, and balls?”

Tanila chuckled, nodding. “Yes, besides those.”

“Two of them. Seriously?” Fowl asked, even though everyone knew it wasn’t a question. “How do we want to handle them?”

“How long can you hold one off?”

“Not long. You and I both know I’m the weak link against these things. They overpower me, and it will take everything Batrire has to keep me up.”

Max cast the fire enchantment on the axe he was using and nodded. “So Tanila tries to ensnare one. If she succeeds, we take out the other first and then move to the second. If she fails, I’ll injure the second one and then come help you with the other.”

“That's a lot of pressure on me,” Tanila stated as she moved into position.

“Well, the day I have earth magic, I’ll do what I can to help ease that burden.”

Fowl began to laugh, and Batrire joined him a few seconds later as Tanila scowled at Max.

“What bothers me the most is how soon that might happen,” she replied.

“Casting!”

Max moved toward the ogre on the right. He knew how Tanila had felt and believed she had made that statement earlier to let him know she knew the pressure he was under. They were in this situation because of him. This dungeon had to have shown up because of something a god or some other power decided to mess with his life. Without him, they wouldn’t survive.

Peter's words echoed in his mind… their lives depended on him.

“Resisted!”

Cursing under his breath, Max kept moving at the one he was focused on. He planted his feet and set his legs, watching as it ran right toward Fowl. It didn’t see him standing there with his axe, the back of it resting against the ground.

Everything he had went into this strike. There wasn’t time to play with these ogres. He needed to take this one out and move to help Fowl.

The ogre ran right at him, unaware of what was hidden before it. Max timed its stride, its momentum. With every ounce of power in his legs and hips, he swung the axe toward its chest, the steel edge appearing as it sliced into the ogre's sternum. The sound of flesh being cut, bones being broken, and a roar that never reached its curled lips was lost as the ogre fell forward, crashing into the ground, the head of the axe buried in its chest.

Letting go of the axe handle, Max barely ducked in time to avoid a face full of the ogre’s crotch as it fell. Coming out from that and seeing the second ogre changing its focus from Fowl to him.

It had been two steps behind the first, the spell buying them seconds, and now he stood there with two axes coming at him.