(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Porkchop watched through the corner of his eye as his bond-brother tore into the achilles of the ogre, working to further disable it. The Guardian didn’t take the assault without a fight, its massive leg kicking and flailing as it tried to shake them off. It clawed at the ground with its massive hands, Pushing itself up in an effort to sit up and gain some measure of defence against them.

The heat of bloodlust rushed through him. Porkchop growled, punching his claws deeper into the Guardian’s joint. Hunger and brutal aggression surged as he felt cartilage give slightly before a wet crunch resonated through his paws.

Letting loose a roar of satisfaction, he drove his other claws into the joint, digging in and savaging the knee as best he could. Chunks of flesh rained free, the air growing heavy with the delectable scent of iron-rich blood.

He lunged in, sinking his fangs into the hardened muscle of its hamstring, feeling them give before the power of his honed bite. Pulling back, his neck strained as he tore free a strip of flesh, tossing it to the side as the acrid tang of its green vital fluid coated his tongue.

To his right, Kaius pulled back from the ogre’s ankle. Finished with hacking through the thick rope that supported its foot, his bond-brother moved, dancing over the Guardians kicking legs to run past him. Porkchop tracked him, watching in awe as he stepped up at the last moment, perfectly timing a launch off the ogres leg as it hefted its trunk-like leg up, sailing upwards and over Porkchop to land on the Guardians back.

As he watched Kaius plunge his sword into the ogres back, Porkchop refused to be outdone. He felt for his amulet. Magical potency thrummed within it; he’d been channelling as much mana as he could into it since its last use, enough that it was ready once more.

Muscles thrummed with barely constrained power as weight settled in on his bones, adding to the violence of his might. Porkchop kicked off, racing towards the ogre’s injured knee. It was already a ruined thing. Flayed and torn muscle stretched upwards, while the knee itself was a crude mass of mangled bone, cartilage, and ligamenture. More held together by hope and unnatural perseverance than any structural integrity, he knew that it was his greatest chance of permanently hampering the ogre.

His claws dug in, biting into the dwarven-worked stone. The potent magics of his artefact bolstered him, empowering him with a barely contained force. It was exhilarating, the air rushing through his fur, and the certainty that whatever stood before him would crumple.

Porkchop impacted the ogre’s knee with a crack, the joint giving way in a snap of bone, its ropey ligaments pulling the knee apart under their immense tension. Primal joy welled within him as the Guardians leg bent inwards, permanently ruined. They wouldn’t give it the time to heal.

His snout curling, he turned immediately to tear another strip out of its leg. The ogre’s flesh was bitter and rich, coating his tongue with vital green.

If its howls had been loud before, now the ogres cry was deafening. It started to push itself up, raising onto its hand and good knee. Porkchop watched as Kaius moved, ripping his sword free from the ogre’s back as he kicked himself off the Guardian, pirouetting through the air to bleed off his momentum in a fast roll. His bond-brother raced out, spinning on his front foot to advance once more, planting his forged blade inbetween the giant depths-born’s ribs, before rocking it back and forth to widen the wound.

The ancestor-blood raged within him, a steady thump sounding in his ears as he quivered, ready and raging to test the ogre’s might. He was a King of the Forest, and he would not be outdone by a two-legged.

An opening, its stomach within reach.

Pouncing forward, Porkchop’s claws burst into a brilliant azure as he tore into the stomach of the beast. Kaius had kindly left its skin torn open for him, the wound his blade had left only half healed as the Guardian’s Health struggled to keep up with the size and number of its wounds.

He tore at the flesh, digging through fat and viscera to tear at the thick wall of abdominal muscles that protected its organs. Blood fell in waves, great globs of flesh shredded beneath his claws. Shaped to cut through earth and stone in the creation of his burrows, muscle parted like water beneath their steely strength.

Through their connection, he felt Kaius move to assault the Guardian from the front, occupying its attention with the stinging kiss of his sword as he danced around a swarm of hamfisted smashes that quaked the ground with every impact.

Another rope of muscle pinged, fibres snapping as he plunged through the weave, reaching desperately for the wet snakes of entrails that they hid from him. He was soaked now, barding drenched and his black-red fur matted and thick with the Guardian’s blood.

That was too much for the ogre. Howling in fury, it shifted, ignoring his bond-brother lancing it through the clavicle as it bent over and reached towards him with unsettling speed.

Porkchop tried to race back, but tall as it was he was left with almost no room to manoeuvre beneath its bulk.

One massive hand settled over his side, latching on to his barding and crushing metal plating into his side. Porkchop gasped, his bones creaking. Even with the strength of his skills and the power of his body, it was nothing to the Guardians titanic might.

Agony, hot and wet, lanced into him as ribs snapped and were driven deep into his chest. His breath rattled free, his mouth filling with iron-tanged foam. Still the ogre squeezed, squishing its hand with crushing might as it let out a baleful roar and dragged him free.

He snarled, twisting as he tried to sink his fangs into its wrist, scrambled with his rear claws at the thick fingers that pressed into him. Something. Anything that would release him from the agony.

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Claws dug in to hardened stone, and still he was dragged free.

Heaving its massive muscles, the ogre pulled him out from under its chest, fingers weeping as streams of blood poured from the wounds he had left in its hand. It hoisted him upwards, bringing him up to stare at him with pinprick eyes filled with hate. Foetid breath, hot and damp with decay, washed over him, stinking of old wounds and rotten flesh. Forgotten quickly as it tightened its grip, crushing his last breath out of him.

Below him, Porkchop could feel Kaius going mad in frantic rage, laying waste to the ogre’s chest and the remaining arm that still kept it grounded. The guardian winced, lips curling as its gaze flicked to his bond brother, frustration evident on its face.

Porkchop mewled, desperate to just breathe, as he clawed at anything he could get his paws on. Snapping in hate, the ogre lurched backwards, Porkchop just barely getting a glimpse of Kaius’s blade nicking the guardian’s throat. His bond-brother stepped in once more, lunging to drive his blade deep into its flesh.

The ogre gave Porkchop a final look of contempt, before it tossed his shattered body to the side. He sailed through the air, fighting against the agony of punctured lungs and shattered ribs as he twisted to land on his feet. Force jolted through his legs, his nerves lighting up with a fury as the weight of his body pulled on his ruined torso.

Gurgling, he retched, red blood spilling out of his mouth as his Health burned like wildfire, sealing internal wounds and shifting his bones back into alignment. Muscle warped, reknitting and bracing itself as his ribs sealed themselves. Kaius might have had his Lesser Regeneration, but he had Boundless Vigour, an eight merge skill. Not even a missing limb would put him down for good.

A deep growl echoed through his chest as he spun, ready to dive back in. He might not have been healed fully, but it was enough to fight. No meles, not even lesser, would let something as minor as pain stand in their way.

Focusing on the fight, he watched as the ogre tensed, its good leg and both hands digging into the ground as it hurled its considerable bulk into a dive, arms sweeping out in an attempt to pin his bond-brother. Kaius was already moving, a strange alacrity surging through him as he threw himself backwards, narrowly avoiding being squashed beneath the ogre’s bulk.

The beast hit the ground with a thump, and Kaius dove in. Flashing silver in the reflected light of the false-sun, his blade punched deep into the ogre’s eye, ramming in before it stuck fast against the back of the orbit.

Porkchop forced his aching body to move, advancing to support his bond-brother. The ogre howled, swatting at Kaius with a frenetic flurry of swipes. Porkchop’s heart leapt into his throat, his brother’s form obscured by the ogres bulk.

A second later he breathed a sigh of relief as Kaius fell back, leaping away from the Guardian’s deadly swipes. Racing away from the ogre, Kaius turned and locked eyes with him, intention flowing bright and clear through their bond.

Porkchop readied himself.

A moment later, Kaius ripped a tonic free from his pouch, hurling it through the air. Orange liquid sloshed as the glass bottle caught the light of the suspended crystal above, glinting. Ignoring the spike of pain in his chest, Porkchop lunged, snapping up the bottle with his jaws.

He bit down, biting through the reinforced glass to release the life giving fluid. Glass shards dug into his cheeks and tongue as the warm embrace of a restful sleep slid down his throat.

**Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Lesser Blooming Rejuvenation**

Alchemy surged through him, rushing to bolster his Health and partially refilling his pool. His body healed, Porkchop spat out the remnant shards of glass and blood. They clinked as they hit the stone. Shifting his attention to his resources, he took in the damage to his pools.

Resources:

Health - 484/720 (4.1/min +15/min)

Stamina - 579/720 (4.1/min +15/min)

Mana - 632/720 (5.6/min)

Feral anticipation flooded him. It was more than enough to see him through.

Snapping back to the fight, he surged forwards, racing over the ground. Kaius had reengaged the ogre, who bellowed in rage as his bond-brother danced through a myriad of crushing strikes. Howling with hatred, it lunged forwards, sweeping its arm to catch him in a wide swipe.

His heart skipped a beat as Kaius blurred back, only to get caught by the tips of the ogres fingers. Even that small brush was enough to dent in his flexible scale, sending him spinning across the ground in a tangle of limbs and crashing steel.

Roaring in fright and fury, Porkchop threw himself at the Guardian as it raised up, ready and prepared to end Kaius with the finality of a crushing hammer fist. Lunging inside the ogres guard, he drove his paw into its armpit, burying his arcane enhanced claws deep into the vulnerable muscle and flesh.

The ogre’s gaze snapped towards him, twisted in rage. One beady eye focused on him shining with hate, its twin nothing more than a ragged mess of bleeding flesh and leaking jelly. Even then, Porkchop could see the signs of the wound closing. The ogre still had plenty of health.

Snarling, he raked his claws down through its arm, tearing as much of the muscle as he could. The barest hint of a glow emanated from the ogre, suffusing it in a slight coloured tint. Porkchop started. Mana.

Abandoning finishing Kaius off, the ogre swiped at him, driving him back. Porkchop threw himself away from the blow. He knew what was coming.

Its fist hit the ground with a cacophonous boom, shattering stone as a wave of force rolled out and kicked him in the chest. Porkchop’s ears peaked to a shattering whine, its flattened on his head as shards of pain stabbed into his mind. Then everything went quiet.

Mana still burned in the ogres chest. He raced back, claws biting against stone as his legs burned with the heat of desperation. Whipping his head over his shoulder, he saw the Guardian locked on him, raised up on its hands and good leg. Braced like he had seen Kaius do for a sprint.

He was too late.

The mana released. Stone shattered beneath the ogres bulk, and it launched forwards at blinding speeds.

Adrenaline spiked through him, Porkchop’s eyes narrowing as he saw oncoming death as the ogre sailed through the air. He didn’t have the speed, the agility to dodge. Panic tore through his bond, but he heard no cries. No nothing.

He dug his claws in, spinning before he threw himself towards his oncoming doom, flattening himself on the ground in the hope that the Guardian would fly over him.

For a moment he thought he succeeded.

Then the heavy reality of the ogre’s hammerfist crashed into his lower back, shattering him.

The ogre kept on sailing, landing in a heap a few body lengths behind him. He screamed. Tried to race forwards. To retreat and heal.

His back legs flopped, dead and numb.