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

Heart pounding in his chest, Kaius raced through hallways soaked in red light. Every turn they took he expected to see a battalion of men waiting for them.

As of yet, his suspicion had been proven foundless, but now that they were on the second floor—which was far above their starting point—the battle raging above had grown into a consuming cacophony.

By now they were getting close to the final set of stairs. Every step they took brought them closer to the chaos above. It made his blood surge, racing through his veins as a hunger started to grow within him.

His time in his cell had made him restless. In all of his life, never had he moved so little in so long. He longed to stretch his legs and sprint. To move in a way that he couldn’t in the twisting confines of an underground hideout.

He supposed he would just have to settle for the clash of steel, and the weight of his blade in hand.

Tension had been building within him for far too long, worming its way into his heart to settle seeds of wary uncertainty. He needed to dig them out with fire and blood—prove to himself once more that he could take his fate into his own arms.

Confrontation was inevitable, and the closer it came, the more his resentments festered in his heart. More than anything he wanted to punish those who had transgressed against him and his.

It took every lesson Rieker had hammered into him to hold onto his restraint.

“Left,” he called ahead of him to Porkchop.

Only a few more turns.

His brother took the corner at speed, only to suddenly let loose a bellowing roar that was quickly followed by a flurry of startled cries.

Rounding the bend hot on his brother’s heels, Kaius was treated to the sight of Porkchop ramming straight into a group of four guards who had just walked out of an open door. Their eyes were wide—and their weapons were already in hand.

A search party.

Prepared as they were, they reacted quickly to the sudden appearance of a threat—raising weapons as they lurched in a desperate and futile attempt to get out of the way of a beast that nearly filled the entire hall.

Porkchop lunged and punched his claws directly through two of the guard’s chests, smashing them flat as his jade claws ignored their chain armour completely.

Kaius raced in, tearing his blade free from its scabbard.

One guard rose to his feet, fumbling for the axe at his waist. He dropped bonelessly a second later as an arrow burrowed deep into his skull—shattering into violent shards a moment later.

Kaius lunged at the last one, his back leg extended as launched himself forwards and thrust his blade out. Heavily armoured and back on his feet, the guard raised his shield, deflecting his stab.

“Invaders!” the man screamed out in a panic.

Heart thumping in his chest, Kaius stepped in and infused his blade with Mystic’s Rend. A whining line of unstable magic flashed into existence—emitting a caustic blue light that flickered and warbled as it battled against the blanketing red of the wardlights above.

Cries rang out from further down the hall around the next right hand bend—right where the stairs lay in waiting.

Stifling a curse, Kaius swung at the surviving guard with a heavy overhead. They took the bait, raising their shield high.

Twisting through his hips, Kaius shifted to spin his blade into a low slash. The cut slid cleanly under the man’s guard, his sword biting deep into his knee. Backed by the new heights of his strength, he cleaved straight through the limb with such ease that nary a tremor reverberated through his blade.

Agonised screams washed over him as the guard listed to the side, blood spraying from the stump of his leg in a great gout.

The high-pitched whine of his Rend collapsing melded with the cries, a discordant omen of his victory.

Carrying through his strike, Kaius struck the inside of the guard’s other leg at the thigh. His skill detonated. A wave of ravenous arcane energy attacked the guards flesh—eating straight through the splintmail that protected them.

Kaius felt his blade come to a rest on the man’s femur. Ripping his blade free, he severed the man’s leg further with his draw-cut, before he slammed out in a stab—silencing the guard’s screams with a blade through the skull.

**Ding! level 82 Human - Iron Defender slain - Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

“Go! We keep moving.” he said to Porkchop, slapping him on his hindquarters as he heard more yells from ahead.

Right as they got to speed, more guards spilled around the corner—a full twenty-five of them. Kaius smashed through the defenders Mask’s with his Truesight, assessing their strength.

Not one was over level eighty-five. He bared his teeth in a savage grin.

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“Kaius?!” Ianmus called from behind him, an unspoken question on his lips.

He could see the looks in their eyes. These weren’t hardened warriors. They were scum, more used to skulking in dark alleyways and only taking fights they knew they could win.

They stared at him and his team—the way they charged directly forwards without a hint of hesitation—and screamed their fear with wide eyes and tense jaws.

Still, he had to give them some credit. They held their position—too cowardly to meet their charge, but too disciplined to break and flee. The front line raised their shields.

“Hold, Ianmus. Not yet.” he called, readying himself for the clash.

Two men lowered spears at Porkchop’s charging bulk, only to drop dead a moment later with weeping holes in their heads as Kenva slayed them with surgical shots.

The shield-bearers started to join them only seconds later.

A significant chunk of the fighting force was dead, and he hadn’t even gotten into a melee yet. Kaius had known an archer would be a good addition.

The sudden loss of their front line whipped the group into a frenzy. With the illusory safety of distance stolen from them, they roared a wild cry and charged, weapons levelled.

Right before they met in the hall, Porkchop’s Shardwall erupted from the floor to slam into their enemies formation.

The sound of pained screams and snapping bones filled the hall a second later, his brother’s charge flattening the approaching group. Wading into the fray, he mauled those still standing as he trampled the fallen—each swipe of his paws tearing through flesh and bone with ease, and sending bodies flying into the stone walls with sickening cracks.

Kaius moved in behind him, finishing off guards with a smooth and calculating efficiency, tight stabs and cuts blurring as he planted his blade in head after head.

Arrows flew over his shoulder the whole while, the projectiles finding new homes of blood and viscera as each shot took a life.

There was no fight. No true battle that pushed Kaius’s limits. Nothing that forced him to use his spells, or even break a sweat.

There was only movement, and death.

Some guards tried to fight. Tried to slash, cut, and chop their way to survival. With Mystic’s Rend and Glyphic Bladerite burning on his blade, Kaius ended them too.

One, lunged at him—a hoarse cry on his bloodsoaked lips as he raised a hatchet and readied his shield.

Trusting in the strength of his body, Kaius shifted his weight to his back foot and slammed a push-kick into their shield. Shock reverberated up his leg as the guard went flying back—arms windmilling in surprise.

He stepped in, Mystic’s Rend glowing violently on his blade as he slashed upwards. Chain and ribs parted with equal ease before a shuddering bang sent a geiser of pulped innards splattering outwards.

It coated him utterly, painting him in the proof of his superiority.

Another guard charged him, slashing with his blade in a panicked downwards cut. Kaius ripped his sword upwards—catching the weapon edge to edge, before a flick of his wrists sent it careening to the side.

His riposte severed the upper third of their skull.

They were….slow.

Like children.

With how much time and effort he had put into fighting creatures with both naturally strong bodies, and higher levels, never before had he so keenly felt the effects of his levels.

Nor had he been so deeply forced to confront the gap between himself and the average man.

Even when they did everything right—when they executed a perfect parry, or timed a thrust just perfectly—it meant nothing. He slipped through them like the wind; controlled their movements like puppets.

He was just too fast. Too strong.

Nothing they did mattered.

For the first time, Kaius stood on the right side of the tyranny of stats, and his enemies wept for it.

Almost as quickly as it started, they stood silently in a hall of cooling bodies.

Kaius looked around him—his breath barely quickened from the exertion—and knew that he could never rest. Not while there were people and monsters out there that could take his life as quickly as he had taken those of the bodies around him.

“Kaius!” Kenva yelled, yanking at his attention as she skidded to a stop beside him —Ianmus just behind her. “Are we moving?”

He gave her a nod—they’d already wasted enough time on chaff like these. “Let’s go.”

They set off, racing around the next corner—only to come to a sudden halt once again.

A single man stood waiting for them, leaning against the wall of the stairs with casual disinterest. Armoured in thick heavy-plate, he rested one arm on the head of a great-axe.

Everything about him screamed that he was rich and powerful—from the exotic black shimmer of his heavy-plate, to the runes that burned on his chosen weapon.

He smiled as he caught sight of them, straightening as he picked up his slab of a weapon with obvious ease.

Kaius frowned—that much confidence had to come from somewhere. He leaned on his Truesight, ready for his probe to be rebuffed by a Mask.

The contest of wills never came, their opponent too arrogant to try to veil his power.

Human - Level 207

Vanguard

Staring at the notification in disbelief, Kaius eventually flicked his gaze back to the slowly approaching axeman, before looking back at his level in confusion.

Was he a moron?

Had he not been told?

Mistaking his delayed pause for fear and hesitation, their opponent widened their hungry smile and began to heft their axe in a show of intimidation.

Kaius schooled his expression into one of wary resignation as Kenva gave a tense hiss behind him.

“Kaius, we need to run.” she called out hurriedly.

He kept his face calm, eyes still locked on the approaching armoured elite. “No, no. We really don’t,” he whispered.

“Just trust us, ranger-girl. You haven’t seen our limits yet.” Porkchop followed, backing him up.

The guard took another step, and Kaius pushed his intentions to his brother.

“Ianmus, I think now’s a good time.”