133 The Coming Tempes (2/2)
I banged my chest, “Then their knife will break on my skin before I kick their asses into oblivion.”
Yawm chuckled, “Then we’ll disagree on this.” He peered at the bojokans quivering in the corner of the stage. Yawm rolled his eyes, the glowing green orbs shifting as he sighed, “If I could be candid, they’re not quite right for what we need, are they?”
I shook my head. Yawm walked off, “Do as you will with them.”
Once Yawm turned his head, the bojokans stood up. They skulked towards me, pushing their luck. Drool dripped from their jaws, and they leaned closer, sniffing at me. With each step Yawm took away from them, they walked one step closer. I blinked, flabbergasted at their sheer stupidity,
“Did you guys not see what I did to your boss? I made mincemeat of him in seconds. Do you honestly think you’re any different?”
My words fell on deaf ears. Yawm left the theater, and they pounced. I stepped backwards, the first monster smashing its face into the stage. Another snapped its jaws at me, but I dashed forwards. The wind off its bottom jaw brushed my cheek as the first bojokan raised its head from the stage.
Several planks of wood stuck out of its mouth. I kicked one of them, launching it into the monster’s throat. It choked, leaning backwards and exposing its belly. With a swift overhand right, I smashed a fist into its potbelly.
The swollen stomach sunk in, the monster’s spine erupted from its back. The third bojokan rushed into the body of the first one. It bit into the monster’s insides on accident. With disgust, it spit out the mush from its mouth. I hopped up, planting a foot on its bottom jaw and my arms on the roof of its maw.
I pressed up and stepped down. The monster’s jaw ripped out. It howled in agony, falling backwards. I kicked the amputated jaw, flipping it upwards. The second bojokan pounced at my back, but I grabbed the jaw and swung it in my hands. The edge of the jaw landed into side of the head of the monster.
The jaw bone pierced into its skull, the eyes of the monster deadening. The sickening crack radiated through the theater. It slapped into the theater, cracking boards of wood. I shot out my armor into the corpses, draining them in seconds. They lasted less than two minutes.
After finishing them, I searched around the room, looking for treasure. I found nothing except the dungeon core. I reached my hand into the dungeon core at the center of the stage. The iciness leaked into my hand, but sensation diminished when compared with before.
As I generated more mana, the mana of the dungeon core phased me less and less. I grasped the core with a firm grip, pulling it out of the spiral of white energy. Yawm leaned back into the room,
“Ah yes, the dungeon core. I forgot all about it.”
The familiar blue squares formed all around us, the sign of a cleared dungeon. My armor wrapped around the core. Needles of it pressed against the reddish, black sphere. Moments later, the spines impaled the sphere. Like a drowning child, the core sunk into my armor. My armor devoured the core, leaving nothing behind.
Yawm jogged up, jumped back onto the stage. He tilted his head at me,
“This armor of yours, it engulfed an actual dungeon core?”
I shrugged, “It’s a first for me. I don’t know anything about what it’s doing.”
As the blue squares altered the reality around us, little changed from before. The theater still surrounded us. Once the dungeon completed its subtle transformation, a portal opened beside us. My heart sunk in my chest, a wicked realization dawning on me.
With my jaw opened wide, the overseer stepped out of the portal. He stood the same height as Yawm, the both of them staring at one another. For a while, we all sat like that, soaking in this tense atmosphere. The sudden sharpness of the situation stung, like a bee sting. I grimaced under my helm, a deep unease pressing into my gut.
Yawm opened a hand towards the overseer, shattering the silence,
“Ah, one of Schema’s dogs. I never imagined I’d meet another of your kind so soon, especially not one so familiar.”