Dracul

Water roared like a caged beast around my thighs as Suterusu bared its fangs, cornered at last. Gold dust bled from its flank—Millicent’s scanner projecting shimmering trails that painted its agony across the ferns. Its health bar pulsed crimson, a dying star in the emerald gloom. My turn. RAW-A surged through my veins, Oath trembling with pent-up radiance. Not desperation. Certainty. I remembered Father’s sneer at my first fencing duel: "We do not miss." The panther’s eyes mirrored that contempt—golden pits of divine arrogance. Moss-slick stone shifted beneath my boots. Rapids clawed at

The roar of whitewater was a living thing around us, clawing at my legs as Suterusu paced like caged lightning. Its health bar pulsed—angry orange bleeding into jagged crimson at the edges—a testament to the thorn strike that had shredded its shoulder. Pride wounded, divinity insulted. Good. RAW-A sang in my blood again, that sword art that should have skewered this overgrown cat twice already. Oath trembled in my grip, light gathering at its tip like concentrated sunlight. Brighter this time. Fiercer. I braced against the current, moss-slick stone treacherous under my boots. The panther’s g

Water sluiced down my armor as Suterusu circled, yellow health bar pulsing like a sickly sun. Ariel’s second strike still hung in the air – that shiver in her blade as it recognized divine flesh. My turn. RAW-A thrummed in my bones – the sword art that should spear this beast like a butterfly. "Enough skulking!" I roared, channeling Oath’s radiance into the thrust. Light gathered at the tip, sharp as a stiletto. Now. I lunged, boots digging into moss-slick rock. The panther flowed sideways like ink in water. My strike pierced empty mist where its heart had been a breath before. Oath’s lig

Jungle heat pressed like wet wool against my skin. Acclimated? Ha. This green hell still reeked of peasant labor and rotting orchids. But the lioness’s vanishing act left me center stage. Fine. Let the furball learn true nobility. Focused Howl. I channelled it – not a shout, but a command vibrating in my marrow. "Face me, gutter-born shadow!" The soundwave hit Suterusu like a physical slap. Its golden eyes snapped from the mist where Ariel had dissolved, locking onto Oath’s defiant glow. Perfect. Hold that stare. It flowed down the moss-slick boulders – liquid darkness given form. Cl

The nest vomited knives. Wasps. Giant. Obsidian-armored, stingers dripping sizzling venom. Shrapnel in a tomb. I readied my weapon. Light flared—a guttering candle against a storm. I struck down the first wasp to dare attack us. Chitin smoked. It shrieked like grinding bones. Darius yanked Millicent behind an altar. Ariel flowed toward the swarm, blade bare. Cold steel. No shadowflame. Idiot! "Fall back!" I roared. She pivoted. Shink. A head tumbled. Ichor sprayed where her neck had been. RAW-A. Thorns spat from my vambrace as another wasp slammed into me. The imp

The heart nexus convulsed. Above, Ariel’s second strike had bitten deep. Light bled from the crown like a beacon. Kro’s corruption recoiled, surging downward into the chest cavity – thick, panicked, defensive. "It’s bleeding power!" Darius yelled. "Feeding the heart to heal the head!" No. I wouldn’t be ignored. Not while it funneled its strength away. RAW-A. I called it again. Stamina bled. Crystalline thorns sheathed my arms. The «Memory Fragment» glowed – steady blue. Focus. Not glory. Utility. I didn’t aim for the core. I struck the conduits – the throbbing veins of corr

The Colossus stumbled. Ariel’s second strike echoed through its bones like a death knell. She carved deeper. Again. Kro’s corruption recoiled from the crown, black veins slithering downward toward the heart nexus—toward us. "Sir! The corruption—it’s converging!" Darius pointed. The diseased light in the central nexus intensified, pulsing like an infected wound. Millicent’s frantic warning from above rang in my ears: "It’s trying to heal!" Rage crystallized into cold purpose. Not while I stand here. "Shield!" I barked. Darius braced beside me, burnt arm trembling but unwavering.

The echo of my Howl faded into the Colossus's stone gullet—swallowed by indifference. Darius sagged against the basalt spur, cradling his blistered arm. His stamina bar was a thin gray sliver. "Tenacity, sir," he rasped. "But stone has no ears for noble demands." Fury burned my throat. Ariel carved canyons in its skull. I got echoes. The heart nexus pulsed before us, a diseased sun radiating contempt. Oath's light felt thin. Insignificant. Like polishing silver while the house burned. Then—a spark. Not hope, but spite. Thorns. They'd shattered debris on instinct. Could I make them bi

The heart nexus pulsed—a diseased sun searing my retinas, its light bleeding into the Kro-tainted gloom. Darius braced beside me on the narrow basalt spur, knuckles bone-white against the rock. Above, chaos reigned. The Colossus’s skull had whipped sideways in a blur of rage, and Ariel’s health bar had flickered crimson at the edge of my vision like a warning flare before stabilizing. Millicent’s scanner chime echoed down through the titan’s cavernous innards—a tinny shriek of triumph and terror. They struck. They carved into it. The realization was a poison-tipped arrow: pride for the party,

Climbing this walking hell was like scaling a collapsing cathedral drunk. Every step sent tremors jarring up my spine, and Kro’s vapor clung to Oath’s light like tar, dimming its holy radiance to a sickly, jaundiced yellow. Darius moved ahead, unnervingly steady, his butler’s attire now gray with volcanic dust but still impeccably buttoned. "The nexus glows brighter, sir! We approach the crucible!" His relentless optimism was a dagger twist. Below, the abyss yawned—a sheer drop into rivers of molten rock where the Colossus’s "veins" pulsed with lazy, malevolent light. My stamina bar was a thin

Ariel’s orders hung in the stifling air, thick with the smell of scorched earth and that damned Kro-vapor. The heart nexus. A fitting target. Let my light scour its core. Ariel and Millicent were already scaling the inner slope towards the distant skull-crown, nimble as spiders on this impossible geology. Millicent’s scanner beam bobbed ahead of them, a tiny firefly in the titan’s guts. Darius adjusted his torn sleeve, his face serene despite the chaos. “Shall we, Master Dracul? The heart awaits.” His calm was infuriating. Didn’t he feel the leaden weight of this place? The sheer arroganc

Ash. Bloody, relentless ash. It coated my armor like grimy snow, seeped into my mouth, and made Oath’s holy light flicker like a guttering candle. I stepped through the gate into a wasteland that reeked of Kro’s cheap theatrics—sulphur and despair. Ariel stood ahead, a statue in the gray, already dissecting the hellscape with those unnerving silver eyes. Darius fussed with his cuffs. Millicent muttered about "atmospheric corruption vectors." Typical. Then I saw it. The Colossus wasn’t a monster. It was geography with a grudge. A mountain range ripped from Aincrad’s code and set march

Saltwater burned like liquid fire in my lungs. I retched, vomiting brine onto the scarred deck planks while Darius pounded my back. "Welcome back, master," he rasped, his own breathing ragged. Millicent pressed a cool healing vial against my lips, her glasses fogged, face pale. "Oxygen saturation critical. Minor concussion probable. Please, drink!" I batted her hand away weakly, the motion sending fresh jolts of pain through my chest. "The beast... status?" My voice was a ruin. "Gone deep," Borin muttered, eyes fixed on the spreading slick of dark blood and iridescent scales sta

Chaos reigned. The skiff bucked like a terrified animal beneath the leviathan’s shadow. Ariel stood immovable at the prow, a blood-slicked statue wrestling the abomination she’d summoned from the deep. Millicent’s shriek cut through the din: "Biomass exceeding skiff displacement by three hundred percent! Structural failure imminent!" Her glasses were askew, fingers flying over phantom controls. Darius braced against the shuddering mast, his usually impeccable butler’s uniform plastered with spray. "Borin! Starboard oar! Push us off its flank!" The dwarf roared, muscles straining agai

The gate spat us out into a wall of wet heat. Dampness. After the bone-dry, suffocating tomb of Yomi’s Rest, Floor 16’s oppressive humidity was a sodden blanket thrown over my armor, instantly making the metal feel clammy against my skin. Sunlight, harsh and unfiltered, glared off a thousand streams and lakes cascading like liquid mercury down the verdant slopes of the colossal, sleeping giant volcano. Grass-draped stone monoliths, grotesque parodies of trees sculpted by time and elements, dotted the disgustingly vibrant landscape. Mockingly alive. Mockingly wet. Ariel was already moving

Humiliation burned hotter than the numbness in my shield arm. My botched «Mirror's Edge» hung in the air like a bad smell. The Lich free, furious, and Darius taking the hit meant for me… Unacceptable. Rage, pure and bright, flooded my veins, pushing back the fatigue screaming in my muscles. The charm seemed like a dead weight at my wrist, utterly drained. Fine. Raw power would suffice. I raised Oath, gathering every scrap of holy energy left, aiming for a brute-force cleave at that pulsing, mocking red sliver of HP— —And Ariel vanished. Not into shadow. Just… gone. Reappeared inside

The sight was pure poetry. Ariel’s strike landing hard on the paralyzed abomination, that disgusting ichor fountain, the HP bar plummeting into the desperate red flash. Almost. She pulled back, blade dripping, and I saw it – the slight tremor in her arms, the way Nihilim’s Wrath lacked its usual hungry hum. Downgraded. Useless. The core pulsed, weakened but intact. The golden light binding the Lich was flickering, fading fast. My light. My opening. "Hold still, refuse!" I bellowed, surging forward before the paralysis could fully break. Adrenaline and the fading warmth of the fueled me. I

Acid-mist seared my armor as I broke contact, lungs burning. Stamina bar flickered crimson - too many holy amplifications. Then the «Memory Fragment» bracelet warmed against my wrist. Its blue crystal pulsed, flooding my veins with cool energy. Claudia's voice echoed: "Endurance is nobility's armor, master." Marginal restoration, but enough. The Leech Lich regenerated before us, tendrils knitting shadow-flesh. Ariel's command cut through party chat: "Bait the tendril strike. Expose the core." Last time I'd failed this dance. Not today. I raised ≪Guardian's Oath≫, channelling holy ene

Ariel’s shadow vanished, leaving only her command hanging in the toxic air: "Maintain its aggro with your light." The Leech Lich pulsed before me, tendrils coiling like serpents ready to strike. Fine. If light was what it craved, light was what it would drown in. I raised the Oath high, the blue rose etchings blazing like captured starlight. "Eyes on me, septic tank!" The Focused Howl tore from my throat, amplified by the sword’s holy resonance. It wasn’t just sound—it was celestial authority. The skill’s golden harmonics slammed into the Lich, searing its shadow-flesh. Its central cyst s

The Leech Lich’s shriek scraped against my skull as four new Stygian Warriors materialized from the river’s toxic mist, spears crackling with fresh necrotic energy. Pathetic reinforcements. I charged, holy sword blazing. "Darius! Flank left! Millicent, harry their rear!" My blade arced toward the lead warrior’s corruption-crusted neck— —And passed through empty air. The warrior phased, dissolving into shadow before reforming behind me. My momentum carried me straight into a spear thrust from its companion. I twisted, shield deflecting the blow, but the impact jarred my teeth. Damnabl

The Stygian Warriors surged toward me like a tide of shattered nightmares, necrotic spears humming with death-energy. I planted my feet deep into the bone-dust, bracing as I had against Kumatetsu's charge. Let them come. ≪Guardian's Oath≫ shows its holy radiance beside my shield, blue rose etchings blazing like captured starlight against the cavern's gloom. The warriors' corrupted eye sockets fixated on me, drawn to the light like moths to a fatal flame. I tightened my grip until the leather creaked, muscles coiling for impact— —And then the shadows behind them stirred. Ariel coalesc

The cavern narrowed into a razor-edged labyrinth. Crystalline shards jutted like broken teeth, swallowing light only to spit it back in fractured rainbows. Our footsteps crunched unnaturally loud in the suffocating silence. Millicent flinched as her shadow stretched forty feet up a crystal wall, morphing into a hunched predator. This floor delights in psychological torture. We reached a precipice. Below, the Stygian churned - a river of liquid darkness fringed with dissolving skeletons. Its vapours coiled into shapes that teased the mind: Darius froze, staring at the mist where Claudia

The beast changed. It wasn't evolution; it was a grotesque unravelling. Muscle swelled like infected tumours, bursting through fur crusted with glowing green shrapnel. Its defensive hide sloughed away, revealing raw, pulsing meat beneath – a horrifying vulnerability masked by terrifying, hulking power. It focused solely on me, the crimson eye promising oblivion. It’s dying. Finish it! Hubris screamed. Ariel’s “Hold!” was a shackle. Kumatetsu charged. Not the controlled fury of before, but a blind, earth-shattering rampage. Trees snapped like twigs in its wake. The sheer, mindless mom

The beast came at me like a landslide fuelled by hate. Black ichor sprayed from Ariel’s handiwork, steaming where it hit moss. Good. Let it bleed. My reflexes sang – online cohesion granting near-prescient clarity. Kumatetsu’s good eye burned with murderous focus. Forepaws raised, claws gleaming with Kro’s poison, aiming to crush me into the blighted earth. "Predictable!" I spat, already moving. Darius’s Keysi training flowed through me – not learned, but observed through countless hours watching him drill. I dropped low, not away, but under the descending claws. 'Swaying Bamboo!' Th

Focused Howl wasn’t mere noise – it was a geas woven from sound, a command etched directly into the monster’s aggression protocols. The skill ripped from my lungs, layered with harmonics that bypassed reason and burrowed straight into primal fury. It struck Kumatetsu like a physical mallet between the eyes. His thunderous charge faltered mid-stride; ember-eyes dilated, consumed by pure, red-filmed hatred. Target locked. Aggro secured. “Come on, you overgrown doormat!” I roared, brandishing my shield as I braced for the iminent impact. “Let’s see if you hit as hard as you stink!” Darius bl