Unlimited Isekai and Other Unfortunate Magic

Dave accelerated himself right before the flying rock turned him into a puddle.

As time around him slowed to a crawl, the massive boulder stopped in mid-air mere inches from his face, inexorably gliding towards him. He could see every crag and crevice on its weathered surface.

He quickly moved away from the impact, hiding behind a rock formation and deactivated the skill before it drained his mana.

The boulder crashed down with a thunderous impact, sending shards of ice and debris flying in all directions. From his hidden vantage point, Dave contemplated as to what he should do next to avoid death.

Arriving at a plan, Dave dug into his backpack, pulling out the old, blood-stained cloak, pants and worn boots that he had taken from the adventurer behind the waterfall. Pushing everything into Dexterity, he quickly filled them with snow.

Then, he once again stopped time and quickly slipped the half-filled outfit beneath the boulder, cleverly positioning the blood-stained clothes to look as if he had just been halfway crushed by its immense weight.

The illusion of his demise complete, Dave retreated once again concealing himself behind the nearby outcropping of gray, jagged rocks, dropping out of his accelerated state waiting for his killers to arrive.

"Lady Castiss," the bald, bearded man spoke up, his voice a deep rumble. “It is done. The Necromancer is dead. I see his remains.”

"A job well done, Sir Wabbor," Castiss replied, her voice eerily similar to Cedez's but with a cruel, sharper edge to it. "Now, lift the rock so that we can burn his remains to ashes to make sure he won't return to the world of the living. I hear that dark mages can stay alive even if their bodies are crushed.”

As Sir Wabbor began to pick up the rock and Castiss stepped closer to examine the cloak, snow-filled pants and boots, Dave saw his opportunity to strike. With lightning speed, he activated Timelessness and then slid all his soul points into Strength and pulled two small rocks from the ground. Shifting everything into Dexterity for greater precision, he once again switched everything into Strength and hurled the rocks with all his might in suspended time.

As he exited Timelessness, the rocks whistled through the air with two sonic booms.

The first struck Castiss squarely in the back of her head. There was a sickening crunch as her skull caved in, cracking like an eggshell, dark fluid detonating from the wound. Her body crumpled instantly, collapsing onto the fake body she had been examining, smoke-fluid pouring out of her dress.

The second rock, aimed at Sir Wabbor, proved far less effective. It struck the man's broad back digging deep into his armor, but the amplified Champion seemed barely to notice it. He turned slowly, his eyes scanning the area for the source of the attack.

Dave quickly realized his dire predicament.

He had taken out one threat, but the other remained - and this one clearly impervious to physical damage. As Wabbor's gaze swept closer to his hiding spot, Dave once again momentarily accelerated himself and slid behind the rocks, trying not to make any noise.

“My Lady?” Sir Wabbor asked. “Are you… alright? Oh. No, I reckon you’re not… what with your head missing now. Guess I’ll be seeing you… later then.”

He finished lifting the rock. “There is no pulverized body under here. I have been tricked. I see.”

The man dropped the megalithic rock back on the ground.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Necromancer,” he sang. “Your tricks won’t save you. I can smell your sweat with my amplified Hunter skill.”

With a deafening boom of flying snow, Wabbor suddenly appeared in front of Dave. "Found you!" the giant man bellowed. “Time to die!”

Dave's heart leaped into his throat as he stared up at the towering figure before him. He activated Timelessness just as the man’s armored fist flew towards his face.

Ducking under the crawling fist, Dave ran towards the dungeon, turning Timelessness on and off so as not to run out of mana completely.

Behind him, Wabbor obliterated the rock with a thunderous crack.

"Running will only make it worse!" Wabbor yelled, his footsteps shaking the ground as he gave chase.

Dave's lungs burned as he ran, his mind racing.

Judging by how fast the man moved, he knew that he couldn't overpower or outrun this behemoth, plus his Timelessness skill would expire much sooner than that of the Champion’s amplified Attributes.

As he ducked into the yawning maw of the dungeon, Dave pushed everything into Charisma, recalling what Stellaris taught him. He focused on becoming invisible, unnoticeable, a mere pebble among the multitude of other countless rocks of the cave.

"Where are you, little rat?" Wabbor's voice boomed from the entrance. "I can smell your fear!"

Dave held his breath, willing himself to become nothing more than just a rock.

Wabbor stomped into the dungeon, his massive form filling the entrance, demolishing a few stalagmites and stalactites in his way. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he called.

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech filled the air. A swarm of Voidbats flashed into existence around Wabbor, their beady eyes fixed on the intruder.

"What in the—" Wabbor began, but was cut off as the bats descended upon him in a frenzy teleporting all around and biting his exposed skin.

From deeper in the cavern came a low, rumbling growl. A Voidcrawler emerged from the shadows, its segmented body writhing as it sensed the disturbance.

"Back, foul beasts!" Wabbor roared, swatting at the Voidbats with his massive arms. But for every bat he crushed, three more seemed to take its place.

The Voidcrawler lunged forward, its maw gaping wide. Wabbor barely managed to dodge its initial attack, but the creature's segmented body folded in on itself, reappearing behind the amplified champion.

Dave watched, barely breathing as Wabbor battled the dungeon's denizens. The man's strength was incredible, each blow obliterating the void-aligned creatures.

A Voidlancer rushed towards the large man, attracted by his roars, the beast’s body a twisted amalgamation of flesh and void-infused metal. It thrust its wickedly sharp appendages at Wabbor, who bellowed in pain as the void-tainted spears pierced his armor and flesh.

"Enough!" Wabbor shouted. With a herculean effort, he grabbed the Voidcrawler and hurled it at the Voidlancer, the two creatures colliding in a catastrophic tangle of broken limbs.

"Where are you, you vile coward?" Wabbor snarled out between ragged breaths. "Face me like a man! Your pet beasts are no match for my magnified might!”

More monsters rushed from side tunnels heading for the Champion. Only a single Voidbat appeared next to Dave, staring at him momentarily as if suspecting something. Dave tried not to move, thinking only rock-related thoughts. The bat flashed away, attracted by the commotion Sir Wabbor was making.

Dave retreated deeper into the dungeon as the cacophony of battle echoed behind him. The thunderous crashes and bestial shrieks reverberated through the twisted passageways, a symphony of destruction that seemed to shake the very foundations of the earth.

With each earth-shattering blow, Sir Wabbor obliterated scores of monsters. Voidbats exploded in the air, their unearthly shrieks cut short. Voidcrawlers were torn asunder, their segmented bodies torn apart by armored hands.

Dave quickly followed the winding path deeper into the dungeon's dark heart, retracing his footsteps. As he rounded a bend, Dave's foot met empty air, hearing the river rushing beneath. Without hesitation, Dave leaped into the chasm, activating Timelessness. The world around him became silent, the roar of the underground river cut off.

Dave landed on the surface of the time-frozen river, its choppy waves now a landscape of crystalline peaks and valleys. With swift steps, he ran along the water's surface.

He quickly reached the precipice of the great waterfall. With a burst of courage, he jumped off the edge, turning Timelessness off and on and off again to crash into the lake below without injury.

Gasping for air, Dave swam to the shore of the underground lake. His eyes focused on the eerie Voidtree that dominated the small island at its center. He spotted the alcove in its roots that the Sentinel was hiding in.

With a final burst of energy, Dave hauled himself onto the island. He stumbled towards the Voidtree. As he neared it, he concentrated all his willpower, pushing everything into Charisma.

Pulling on the memories of the consumed dungeon Sentinel he focused on becoming an echo of the undead that had guarded this place, visualizing his own body as an emaciated form, picturing translucent flesh pulsating with Void.

Meanwhile, the empowered Champion demolished the dungeon. The caverns above shook, stalactites raining down like deadly spears, as Sir Wabbor carved a path of destruction through the Whispering Depths, trying to locate Dave.

Thankfully, the extradimensionally solid Voidtree protected the ex-programmer, the rocks bouncing harmlessly off its impervious branches and leaves.

Eventually, Sir Wabbor arrived in the massive cavern leaping from the waterfall into the lake. In a few seconds, he emerged onto the island, his hulking form silhouetted against the soft glow of bioluminescent fungi.

His hate-filled eyes, burning like two red flares, scanned the underground expanse until they settled on the Voidtree. There, Dave was crouched between dark roots, trembling and pretending hard to be an essential part of the dungeon.

As Sir Wabbor began his relentless advance towards the island, the waters of the underground lake behind him began to churn and bubble. From its depths emerged more Sentinels, their emaciated forms gliding silently across the surface of the water. Their hollow eyes, devoid of any spark of humanity, seemed to be drawn towards the magic radiating from the amplified Champion.

“Pathetic!” The Champion laughed as the Void-aligned adventurer corpses reached him.

With a roar that echoed through the cavern, he swung his massive fist, connecting with the nearest Sentinel and reducing it to a cloud of dark mist and body parts.

Void-swords pierced his armor and flesh, their dark blades sinking deep into his bulging muscles. With grunts of frustration, Sir Wabbor yanked the weapons free, blood spurting from his wounds. Yet, despite the grievous injuries, he pressed on, refusing to go down.

Suddenly, with a sickening sound of tearing flesh, dozens of void-spikes materialized within his body, creating bulges beneath his skin. Sir Wabbor's triumphant laughter transformed into a howl of agony, his massive frame convulsing as the teleported spikes ravaged him from within.

Spinning wildly, his eyes blazing with pain and fury, the Champion spotted the source of this new torment. Depthknells, their serpentine bodies coiled around stalactites high above, gazed down at him with cold, alien hunger. Their spike-covered bodies pulsed with flickers of silver light, preparing for another devastating assault.

With a roar of fury, Sir Wabbor bent down, his hands closing around the nearest stalagmite. His muscles bulged grotesquely, veins pulsing beneath his skin as he hefted the rock column. In another display of absurd strength, he hurled the jagged rock towards the Depthknells.

The projectile whistled through the air. It struck the cluster of void-creatures with devastating force, obliterating them in an explosion of pulverized rock and dark ichor. The collision dislodged more stalactites, which plummeted into the water.

Sir Wabbor stood panting, his massive chest heaving. He inhaled deep and rotated, becoming fixed once more on Dave's hiding spot.

"You... cannot... hide... forever… I smell your… sweat… Necromancer," the Champion growled, each word punctuated by a wet, rattling breath. “I shall… remove… your… vile… pestilence… from Shandria.”

He took a lumbering step forward, then another, mad determination for unmaking Dave evident in every painful movement. The Champion's amplified body was clearly reaching its limits, pushed far beyond what any normal human could endure. Yet still, he came.

As Sir Wabbor neared the Voidtree its branches began to vibrate and spark with violet coronas. Dave looked up, realizing that the tree was reacting to the approaching threat.

As the invincible man took another step forward, the tree's jagged, leaf-planes began to spark more intensely. Arcs of dark energy leaped from branch to branch, creating a web of shadowy lightning that crackled ominously in the dim cavern. The very air seemed to thicken, becoming heavy with the promise of impending doom.

In a single, blinding flash of released dimensional magic, the tree cleaved Sir Wabbor and several stalagmites around him in half, bisecting him at the waist. The cavern echoed with the sickening sound of tearing flesh, cracking bone, and sheared stone.

As the man’s sundered body fell, more void-spikes materialized within him, piercing through muscle and organ alike from newly arriving Depthknells.

Dave relaxed ever so slightly, feeling thankful for the monstrous defenders of the dungeon.

Suddenly, to his shocked eyes, Sir Wabbor opened his eyes and grabbed his bisected legs. Then, the two halves of the sliced man began to knit back together. Flesh crawled across the divide, bones snapped back into place, and within moments, Sir Wabbor stood whole once more, his Vitality clearly amplified to an unimaginable degree.

The Champion's eyes blazed with renewed fury as he rose.

He threw back his head and unleashed a deafening roar, making Dave’s eardrums explode along with a few nearby Voidbats.

With a speed that belied his massive size, Sir Wabbor swung a colossal fist at the Voidtree, moving so fast that the air around him ignited.