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

There was a single, long moment of stillness. A titan of scale glared down at him with ruby eyes of hate. Magic surrounded Katarex like a typhoon, a roil of mana and shaped water that lashed out like a living thing.

The wyrm dwarfed him in every respect.

And yet, Kaius couldn’t suppress the thrilling rush at facing down such a creature. It was moments like these where he felt most alive. Leather squeaked in his grip, his sword clasped with brutal strength. Mana coursed through his flesh, locked in patterns bound to his Will alone. Anticipation rose. This was it. He just had to survive.

A manic grin slid across his face.

It was a taunt that Katarex could not ignore.

The moment passed; violent motion erupted.

Kaius rocketed high and left, the twin cracks of his dual casts of Expedient Shunt cutting through the dragon’s fury. Three beams of pressurised water slammed home, cutting crumbling furrows through the stone. Premonitions of future danger stabbed at his heart. Touching down, Kaius used the secondary burst of Shunt to kill his momentum. Two lancing tendrils missed him by a handspan. The third still came for his neck. A Father’s Gift came down in a brutal cleave, cutting magic itself. It did nothing for the mundane weight of the water. A crushing blow hurled him back, acrid bile burning on his tongue.

Roaring in victory, Katarex lunged after him. Staring down a cavern of fang, he called on Drakthar. Hate erupted from his outstretched hand, wrought into spikes of ripping steel. Blood gushed from the dragon’s throat as his spells landed home, wrenching open flesh with cruel metal brambles.

His assault only incensed the dragon further. A cutting blade of magic snapped into existence, slashing down towards him. Still reeling, Kaius called on Mercurial Reversal, wrenching his own sword onward. They clashed, draconic magic pressing back against the enchantments of his sword like it was hardened steel. Roaring his rebuke, Kaius drew deep on his stamina. Balefire erupted from his weapon, crimson and roiling. He cleaved through the spell. Katarex adjusted, slicing clean through the meat of his thigh with the severed edge of the tendril.

Greater Regeneration surged into action, but the skill wasn’t perfect. It might have allowed him to push past the mortal constraints of his body: to move severed muscle and fight on broken bone — but a wound was a wound. It slowed him. Only by the barest of hairs’ breadths, but that was all that mattered in a battle of such intensity.

Three spikes of shaped water punched through his belly, a fountain of blood erupting from his mouth. Kaius snarled, lurching through a crushing tendril as with Slipstep, the full weight of his Authority and Will behind the Skill.

“Do you feel that, little mortal? Your doom?” Katarex hissed as it smashed him across the cavern with a swipe of their tail. “Your sacrifice will be in vain — none have escaped my grasp, and none ever will. I will ascend to the empty lands above, and raze the place you call home.”

Kaius ignored the wyrm’s ramblings. He didn’t have the time to check, but he could feel his brother hitting the stairs. Just a few more moments and they could bring this creature to its final end.

Drawing on everything he had, Kaius kindled his resources. Twin lights of flaming red and liquid glass erupted from his blade as he charged the wyrm. Erratic cracks rocked their battlefield as Kaius zigzagged through the air, twisting his body to slide around Katarex’s endless storm. Lightning cracked in his grip, smiting the dragons body again and again, arcing between the nails he left studded in its open wounds. Maelstrom roared, sapping the wyrm’s counterattack. So great was his fury that Kaius knew he would run dry of magic in half a minute at most.

Katarex howled, lunging for him with their jaw open wide. Kaius juked low — and rammed his sword into a ragged tear Porkchop had opened in the monster’s throat. Investiture and Dissolution devoured its flesh, even as the wyrm’s boiling blood blistered his own.

“You are pathetic,” Kaius hissed. “A moron too stupid to see the truth in front of your eyes.”

He felt the manic rage surging within the wyrm’s aura. Kaius ripped at the emotion, his temples flaring bright as he called on Compel Obsession — as if the dragon needed any help.

Porkchop hit the top of the stairs right as the dragon reared back, and a wave of magic closed in on Kaius like a lethal cage.

He glanced to his right, casting Fractured Warp. Space shattered, tearing open his flesh as he stood at the mouth of the entry tunnel. Far below, a geyser of shattered stone and water erupted as the dragon’s assault slammed home.

“Katarex the Weak! Katarex the Feeble! Katarex the Halfwit, too useless to kill a group of mortals who walked into their very lair!” Kaius yelled down, a wild smile on his face. He turned and ran, Slipstep hurtling him deep into the tunnel.

The sound of the wyrm’s rage behind him was legendary.

….

“I think you might have overdone it!” Porkchop yelled, sprinting at his full pace.

Kaius just laughed, running as fast as he could. What could he say? The dragon had it coming, and they were an easy mark.

Every scrap of his body ached, the looming spectre of the repeated abuse he had suffered lurking over him. Even his mana channels burned like liquid fire, stressed by the onslaught of power he had pushed through his glyphs in his final stand.

A howling roar ripped through the tunnel, kicking his chest. With it, came the Fear. It was a leaden blanket, demanding he lay down and die. Authority surged, Essence burning through his pillars in an ever hastening cycle. How in the hells did other dragonslayers do it? Even with a wealth of numbers, and massively overlevelling a dragon, the burden must have been immense without Authority. Sure, the Fear was lesser in quality than the pressure he had faced before the Tyrant — but this was a dragon in the very beginning of the second-tier. What of Blackscale Kalmet? That legend spoke of Mythril might; the pressure must have been immense!

“You scatter like minnows!” Katarex roared. “Nothing but frightened prey, ready to be consumed!”

Kaius’s Skills screamed a warning as mana surged through the tunnel. He turned, slashing with his blade. A storm of magic surged towards them, piercing bolts lit bright by water stolen from the glowing streams that ran down the edge of the passage. Cutting the spellwork of three, one more smashed into his pauldron. Kaius growled, keeping his pace.

The dragon was still out of sight, hidden by the slow rise and fall of the tunnel — but it was gaining on them.

“How much further?!”

“Not far! Just a little more!”

Putting his all into the pounding of his feet, Kaius raced alongside his brother. Through two more dips and turns, he saw nothing. Then, they flew through a leveled section of the tunnel, and he saw them. They were far — at the very end of the next straight rise, ready for war. Ianmus’s keyseal shone with the power of the sun in the middle of the group. Kenva was next to him, her bow at full draw and her teeth bared as more and more energy soaked into her weapon. How much had she sunk into Howl of the North Wind? The damn thing looked like it was going to shatter!

The nobles surrounded them, each waiting ready with their crossbows. All of them had loaded bolts topped with an oversized hunk of blueish metal, packed full of inscriptions that visibly burned with tongues of flame. Of all of them, Adrian screamed of danger. The lord’s massive arbalist was packed full of rising mana, flanked by two ghostly after-images.

There was no sign of Kanmost. The Archivist must have been sheltering further up the tunnel.

“Check the roof!” Porkchop said, nudging his attention to the carved stone ceiling just before the tunnel started to rise.

Dozens of identical bolts had been stuck to it, secured in place with some sort of tar-like sludge. Instead of enchanted metal heads, they were tipped with elongated ampules, making them seem cumbersome and topheavy. Bronze fluid boiled inside the glass, shimmering like molten metal.

Stolen story; please report.

Whatever hell was contained inside them, Kaius bet it was potent if his friends had taken their stations nearly four hundred strides away.

Another roar washed over him; Kaius pushed himself to run faster.

Reaching his allies, Kaius slid to a halt and spun to face the way they had come. He could hear their foe — a constant grind of shattered stone and raging screams.

“It’s coming!”

Hunkering down in front of their formation, Porkchop his armour as he stayed low enough for the nobles to fire over. Warmth flashed through Ianmus’s keyseal, a circle of healing magic surrounding them.

Katarex drew closer.

“We’re firing first to bring down the roof!” Julian roared, focused on the distant ampules. “If you have anything left, join your team in hammering the dragon itself!”

Kaius didn’t question the plan, reaching for his last Spear of Nectus. VOS loomed at the back of his mind, ready to be called upon. He had bare scraps of Redoubt of the Speaker left, but he didn’t care — the dragon needed to die!

Louder and louder the storm grew, an approaching wave of devastation. Kaius’s heart pounded in anticipation, the air so thick he would have struggled to cut it with Dissolution Edge.

Katarex burst into view, crimson eyes manic with predatory hunger. Lashing tendrils of water sprouted from the creature’s body, magic transforming it into a tentacled abomination.

The dragon saw them in all of their preparation, and didn’t hesitate. Hubris to the end, Kaius would make sure of it.

As the wyrm raced towards the rising slope, the nobles fired in a unified crack. Steelroot groaned, his blazing shot splitting into three burning comets of equal intensity. Tendrils whipped before Katarex’s face, shielding them from the assault.

Ampules shattered; fire consumed. There was a single, enveloping crack that blurred the line between sound and strike — then only silence as Kaius’s eardrums ruptured. Launched back by the force of the blast, the very ground bucked like a living thing, shaking his footing as he forced himself to steady.

In that same instant, the tunnel caved in.

Massive chucks of rock smashed into the wyrm in an endless deluge, crushing it flat to the floor as bones shattered and flesh pulped.

The nobles had timed it almost perfectly. Katarex had been engulfed, but his head and neck remained free.

A deep roar of agony and fury erupted from the dragon’s throat.

Hells, they had to put the beast down now!

VOS ripped at his mind, barely constrained by the magic that burned in his throat. Kaius cast, tasting blood. Vicious ice ripped down the tunnel, joined by a screaming typhonic arrow and a burning orb of starfire. Kenva collapsed, overwhelmed by sudden expenditure.

Steam, fog and dust exploded from the point of impact, mana surging with such an intensity that Kaius could barely see through it. The dragon screamed, rocks tumbling loudly as it struggled.

The Fear vanished. There was no chime.

Realisation stabbed at his heart. Breath came faster than he could scream a warning. A cohesive blast of pressurised water tore through the tunnel. Katarex thrashed, raking their attack in every possible direction.

As the beam raked the ceiling, the earth groaned. Kaius’s eyes widened. Breath slashed towards them.

Porkchop surged to his feat, diving back to smash Ianmus out of the way of the blast. Cutting water ripped through his forelimb and Ianmus’s shoulder both. They screamed, blood spraying wide as their limbs fell. Katarex ripped left.

The beam cleaved through Adrian and Julian’s midsections. They fell in half. Viscera spilled from their chests in a wave, flesh already boiling with the revitalising power of the healing magic that surrounded them.

Ignoring his missing arm, Ianmus hurled himself towards the severed lords. He shoved their severed torsos back together.

“Hold your fucking waists in place unless you want to die!” he roared.

The beam ripped up into the ceiling, descending back towards Katarex as a massive stone lurched his head back. Unloading into the already unstable roof, a massive rumble sounded.

Dust billowed as a second mountain fell. The beam cut out. There was still no death chime.

Through the cloud, Kaius saw a single baleful ruby eye, encased in a tomb of stone. Mana still raged within its depths, and water bulged out of the nearby streams. Gods’ blood, Katarex was trying to cast.

“Mana potion!” Kaius roared, flashing to Julian’s side. To his credit, the noble didn’t even flinch, tossing him a tulip bulb of roiling fluid immediately. Kaius was too harried to taste the power.

**Ding! You have imbibed a Tonic: Mercature’s Wisdom!**

Magic slammed into him. He cast his last Fractured Warp, appearing before the gap in the stone that held the eye. Flesh tore as spatial cracks ravaged him from within. Pushing away the agony, Kaius forced every scrap of mana he had into Dissolution Edge. Hungry power burned on his blade.

He thrust deep.

“No!”

Bone butted up against his blade, barring him further entry.

“No! Please! I am a fool, lesser to your magnificence! I could not see! Please!”

Rocks tumbled from the pile of rubble. Kaius pressed harder, his mana burning dry by the second. Bit by bit, he could feel the thin shield of bone give way beneath the gnawing power of his skill.

“Great master, I beg of you!”

Kaius pressed harder, roaring as he drove his blade forth with all of his weight and strength. His mana was burning dry! He had to kill it before he ran out!

The socket broke. Kaius’s blade plunged down to the hilt, hungry arcane Dissolution tearing at the wyrm’s brain.

It stiffened, then fell limp. There was still no chime.

Kaius growled, levering his blade around to destroy what he could. Bloody draconic resilience. If they had to keep its brain a slurry until its health ran dry, so be it.

His mana bottomed out.

“Someone help!” Kaius roared, looking over his shoulder.

Kenva was pale and shaky from her overdrawn Skill, Ianmus was busy treating Julian and Adrian, and Porkchop didn’t have the right skillset — but Kel rose, unsteady but focused.

The lord ran down to him, halting half-way. A bolt appeared in his hand, the same top-heavy explosive that he’d used to bring down the ceiling.

“Give me room.”

Kaius ran back. A small part of him worried that the man might miss — but Kel was pragmatic. Surely he wouldn’t attempt unless he was certain.

A snap sounded as Kel fired. Kaius tracked the bolt.

It slid through the gap perfectly.

Roaring thunder pulsed, brain firing from the wyrm’s eyesocket in a violent jet as the explosive detonated inside its skull. Shattered rubble flew from the pile that buried the dragon, revealing its head — and the massive hole where its eye had one been. Through it, Kaius saw nothing but an empty cavity of scorched and cracked bone.

**Ding! You have slain Deep Wyrm - Level 214 Chosen Master of White-water! Decreased experience for slaying a creature of significantly lower Level! Decreased experience for group size! Increased experience for slaying a draconic creature!**

**Ding! Runeblade Hellion has grown from level 267 > 277!**

**+6 Int; +5 Con, Str & Will; +2 Vit & Dex; +3 Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

Oh, thank the hells.

Kaius gasped, staring at the corpse of their fallen foe as he let his notifications wash over him.

**Ding! Major Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Bane of the Dragon-blooded**

**Ding! Class Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

** Infused Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 304 > 312!**

…

**Hellblade Investiture has reached level 260 > 273!**

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** Infused Glyph of Felmenia has reached level 248 > 257!**

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**Dissolution Edge has reached level 209 > 223!**

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**Latent Glyph of Muthryn, Throat of VOS has reached level 183 > 195!**

**Ding! General Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

**Rapid Adaptation has reached level 307 > 308!**

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**Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo has reached level 319> 330!**

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**Sergeant’s Insight has reached level 282 > 303!**

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**Tempered By Dissonance has reached level 287 > 300!**

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**Truesight has reached level 309 > 314!**

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**Spellblades Harmonic Control has reached level 287 > 295!**

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**Greater Regeneration has reached level 315 > 330!**

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**Moment of Flow has reached level 280 > 293!**

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**Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus has reached level 295 > 304!**

Bane of the Dragon-blooded:

Major Honour

Kill your betters.

Awarded to those who slay a draconic greater beast that is at most 75 levels lower, within the same tier, and with a group no larger than 10. Draconic creatures can sense you have slain one of their own. +10 all stats, +7% all stats.