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

Kaius drank in the battlefield, every fibre of his being in tune with the moment.

The infernus hound was battered, its coat reduced to a raw patchy mass of oozing flesh and blackened skin thanks to his spells—it’s clear resistance to fire no help against the power of Storm. Rents had been torn open in its hide from blade and claw alike, revealing glistening strands of muscle that bulged and tensed with every move.

Yet its health was burning—the cuts slowly sealing with supernatural vigour. That, and the beast was far tougher than others they had faced. Despite its wounds, despite the ragged state of its body, it fought on unhindered.

He could only count his blessings that it had no additional regeneration abilities. The healing was slow, and they were steadily wearing it down.

Porkchop mauled the hound, falling into a controlled assault. There were no wild, unthinking lashes of his claws. Instead his brother moved with intention. He rolled and flowed with the flow of the battle, always moving just right to take as much of a blow as he could on his heavy plate.

Every opening was punished, snapping jaws smashed shut and clawing limbs batted away as he plunged his own thick natural weapons into the infurnus hound’s delicate flesh.

The beast was barely keeping up. Kaius felt it as his Toolkit thrummed, an opening they could capitalise on.

And as he knew, his brother knew too—the strength of their bond rendering communication pointless.

A deafening crack echoed off the hard stone walls as he raked the beast’s form with another Stormlash. Surprised as it was, there was no moment for it to brace.

**Ding! Resonance Amplification has reached level 30!**

Whining in agony, smoke rose from its body as he savaged its internals.

With a great heave, Porkchop lunged in with supernatural weight behind his steps. Colliding with bone shuddering force, the hound was shoved to the side, unsteady and stumbling.

Already in position, Kaius swept A Father’s Gift into a high-guard. He slashed with everything he had, back engaging as he pivoted through his hips.

Careening through the air, his blade burned with the inner fire of his Bladerite, before its jagged crystalline edge cut deep into the muscles and structure of its knee.

Growling in fury, the hound snapped at him with finger-length teeth.

Transferring his weight to his front foot, Kaius twirled his blade with a twist of his wrists. Honed steel slammed into the beast’s muzzle, slamming it away and scouring bone.

Another flash of burning lightning scoured its flesh, giving him the time he needed to dance back.

Before he could move back into rengage, a burning beam of light appeared within a handspan of his chest. It lanced across the room, stinging his eyes with its luminance before the spell wrought havoc and terror on the infernus hound.

Potent and charged with minutes of channelling, the beam of solar energy lanced straight into the leg he had just injured.

Kaius should have been blinded by the brilliance, but with his True Sight at work, he watched flesh immolate and dissolve, ligaments sear, and bones blacken.

**Ding! True Sight has reached level 39!**

A terrible wound, the worst they had wrought in their battle by far, but far less injurious than he had been expecting. Infused with flaming magic, the beast seemed to have some sort of resistance to the blinding heat.

Regardless, the beast was hobbled, its leg falling limp as every structure in its lower thigh boiled and burned.

The beast whined, lunging away from the beam, before the spell finally winked out.

A potent attack. One that had almost gotten him.

“Cutting it a little close, don’t you think!” Kaius called back to the mage without looking, already racing forward in unison with his brother to press their advantage.

“Best shot in Sunspire!” Ianmus yelled back, his breathing laborious.

Whatever the drain he had felt, the mage was obviously not ready to take his leave of the battle. Before Kaius had made even three more steps, a familiar bloom of invigoration grew within him.

**Ding! You have been Enhanced - Sundrenched Strength!**

Porkchop reached the infernus hound first, a rolling growl reverberating in his barrel chest as a jade wall slammed into the beast from behind, shunting it directly into the reach of his claws.

The hound lurched, tapping into a skill as it blurred back out of reach. Far less agile than before, even with the added speed it was a stumbling run with one of its legs almost completely hobbled.

Fixing them with a furious snarl, mana bloomed within the beast’s chest. With the increased acuity of his mana sight with his growing levels, Kaius knew that it was something different.

Something that needed to be channeled.

Uncanny Dodge screamed a warning.

“Wall!” he yelled to his brother, sprinting to his side.

The sense of danger grew.

Skidding to his brother’s side, he hunkered down behind Porkchop’s flank as a wall of jade erupted in front of them.

Not a moment too soon.

The hound detonated.

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With the beast as the epicentre, an explosion of fire bloomed. As the potent magic hit Porkchop’s Shardwall, the jade rocked back, cracking with the force of the collision.

Even saving them from the worst of the blast, fire washed over it in a spilling wave—draping over them in a cloak of pain and bubbling flesh.

Kaius held his breath as agony assaulted him from every angle. His clothes smouldered, and the metal of his armour grew to searing heats. Even with the magic resistance of his Serellian Scale, he was barely protected.

**Ding! Rapid Adaptation has reached level 29!**

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 32!**

Health tore through his system—spreading itself thin to regenerate burnt flesh. It only served to keep his agony fresh, nerves constantly regenerating to be tortured anew.

In the end, it was Rapid Adaptation that let him persevere. Fire was one of the oldest of his affinities, and with the surging power of his skill battling against the pervasive aspected magic, the infernus hound’s flames struggled to penetrate more than skin deep.

And yet, the fires didn’t end, the hound continuing to channel as his health burned precipitously. It was committed, burning every last scrap of its mana in an attempt to take them out.

**Ding! Rapid Adaptation has reached level 30!**

**Ding! Lesser Regeneration has reached level 30!**

Porkchop didn’t have the same advantages. Oh, his brother weathered the storm with sheer grit, toughness, and health, but it was wearing him down far faster.

The fires gutted out, and with the storm of fire gone, Porkchop’s injuries were revealed in their full gorey details.

Green jade was scorched black, and the leather padding beneath was completely ragged and scorched. His brother’s fur had almost entirely burnt free, his entire body left one weeping exposed sore.

Fighting against the agony, Porkchop pushed himself off the ground. Empowered by his healing skill, his skin rippled, sealing itself whole as a thin blackish fuzz erupted from his pores.

Kaius’s own skill went to work, healing his own injuries at a pace that was only moderately slower.

The warmth of the sun graced their flesh, soothing their injuries and bolstering their reserves of health as the spell Ianmus must have been preparing enveloped him and Porkchop.

**Ding! You have been Healed - Solar Manipulation!**

His body still hurt, still cried in protest with every movement, but pain had always been easy to shove to the back of his mind. He focused on their target.

Across the hall, the infernus hound lay waiting. Exhausted and spent, it watched them cautiously as its chest heaved. Taking a single cautious step towards them, it growled from deep within its chest.

Kaius didn’t miss the quiver in its legs. Nor the way its eyes seemed to be glazed.

Mana burn, he realised.

They had to end this now, before it recovered.

He pushed himself to his feet, working through the pain as he forced himself to take step after shaking step. As skin and flesh healed, his steps grew steadier—his grip on his blade, stronger.

**Ding! Lesser Regeneration has reached level 31!**

Soon he was running, a ragged battlecry on his lips.

Porkchop arrived first, a storm of flashing green claws and hammering walls of jade.

Kaius wasn’t far behind, falling into a blur of carving steel and flashing lightning.

The infernus hound tried to fight back—to capitalise on the injuries that it had wrought—but it was useless.

Snapping bites and savage claws were beaten back with tight pivoting parries and nimble dodges, punished in turn with scorching storm and a blade empowered with stamina and soul.

Slowly, the hound collapsed before them. With a lame leg, and two opponents of similar physical strength, there was little it could do.

Its wounds grew numerous, bone and muscle alike exposed to the air as they carved into its flesh with claw, blade, and spell. Even Ianmus took part in the final execution, finger width beams of light piercing deep into open wounds.

**Ding! Latent Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 26!**

Where once its wounds writhed with vitality, now the beast’s wounds healed at a crawl, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of injuries.

Inevitably, it gutted out completely.

The infernus hound collapsed, its monstrous strength finally giving out.

There was no pause, no moment of ceremony. As soon as it fell, they were already moving. Sweeping his blade up, it flared with internal fire before he brought it down on the beast’s neck in a heavy chop.

Porkchop didn’t let him do all the work. He plunged his claws down into the hound’s skull with the full weight of his prodigious bulk.

Blood sprayed, and bone crunched.

The battle was won.

**Ding! level 87 Infernus Hound - Smouldering Mauler slain - Experience Gained! Bonus Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!**

**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 40!**

**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

…

**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 48!**

**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

**Ding! Class skill available for selection!**

Kaius stood over the cooling body of the infernus hound, pounding heart slowing with every passing second.

As power rushed through him with the stack of levels he had just gained, he felt his class direct the growth—aiding him in rapidly adjusting to the changes. Far more smooth of an experience than it had been without a class.

Despite the sting of his almost-healed burns, a wide grin slipped across Kaius’s face.

That had been a good fight. That last desperate attack had been a deadly thing. If it wasn’t for his and his brother’s potent defensive skills and powerful healing, they would have been toast for sure. That, and Ianmus had topped off their health right when they needed it most.

And as a reward? His next class skill, ready to be claimed. He couldn’t wait to see what they were.

Loud claps interrupted his train of thought, drawing his attention over to Rieker. The guildmaster was smiling at them widely, cutting through the post-battle haze with every slow and lazy slap of his palms.

“Bravo, great showing!” he called loudly, waving them over.

Kaius sheathed his sword, and made his way over with Porkchop. Neither of them rushed, not with the stinging burn of their remnant wounds, or the weariness of exertion leaning on them.

Rieker waited patiently, still leaning against the same wall he had been when they first started their fight.

“You know, I had high hopes for the three of you, but you managed to kill that pup even more decisively than I expected.” Rieker said once they had all gathered before him.

Kaius grinned at the man’s praise. Though he had always known that they would impress him—after all, it would be pretty embarrassing if they couldn’t—it meant a better chance of gaining benefits if Rieker thought they were worth investing in.

“Listen—I want to wait until you’re fully sharp for our spar, that means at least a couple of hours. Why don’t you look through the skills you’ve earned, and have a chat as a team, while I go and fetch us some lunch?” Rieker asked. A moment later he waved his hands, and three chairs and a plush rug appeared on the stone floor surrounding a low table.

They were plush things, padded and upholstered in rich fabrics. Kaius stared at the seats longingly, but was loath to rest his bloodsoaked and sootstained body on such rich pieces.

“Gods, the looks on your faces.” Rieker snorted. “Sit, I can get them cleaned.”

Nearly collapsing in relief, Kaius dragged himself into the chair.

Rieker smiled down at them, still standing. “I’ll be back in half an hour—make your choices then. It’ll be far more exciting if you have a few surprises for me when we fight.”

With that, the guildmaster swept off, leaving through the heavy steel door as he made his way back to his chambers with a casual haste only possible to the powerful.

Kaius groaned as soon as the man left, melting into his chair for a moment, before he met his team members’ eyes.

“Me first?” he asked.