[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 270 – Enter the Dragon

New Quest: Enter the Dragon

You have been tasked with restricting yourself to only the dreadfang style. For the duration of the incursion, you must use only that which Master Zahif has taught you. Wielding any weapon other than your fists will invalidate this quest. For every monster you slay unarmed, you will gain a stacking Experience and reputation bonus.

Sam wasn’t thrilled with the quest, but he wasn’t about to turn down free Experience. He just hoped that the bonus he gained would offset the sluggish speed at which he would be able to slay monsters.

With his two greatswords, Sam could cleave dozens of beasts in one single swipe. Even with all that Zahif taught him, Sam would be hard-pressed to be a tenth as effective. He could use his overpowering Strength to great effect, but it was still a far cry from hardened metal with a razor’s edge.

“You will do well,” Zahif told him. “Now go, before you are accused of following too closely in my footsteps!”

Sam didn’t fully grasp what he meant by that. Not that it mattered. Another alarm horn blasted somewhere to the north. Sam understood that the monsters had breached the outer walls.

Odd. From what I’ve learned, they do not usually attack again so swiftly. Even when they do, the Empire should have better defenses. It’s almost like they’re offering token resistance.

By now, Sam knew the layout of the Scarlet Lotus well enough to find one of the three exits to the lower markets. He quickly stood before the standard of the Empire, shoulder-to-shoulder with several dozens of adventurers.

Monsara shot him a dirty look. He could guess easily enough that she felt he stole her chance to train with Zahif. With that lone look Sam knew that whatever friendship might have been gained was all but lost.

Sam reached up and petted Komachi. “Remember, I have [Cover] now. You don’t need to stand right next to me or be inside my armor if you don’t want to.”

Just to prove his point, Sam used [Cover] on Komachi.

A shimmering silvery line appeared between the pair. An opaline bubble blossomed around Komachi and then vanished just as quickly.

“That’s it?” Komachi asked.

“Apparently so.”

She flattened her ears. “Machi still want to stay near you. There’ll be lots of monsters. And they’re big.”

Sam patted her affectionately. “That’s fine by me.”

For some reason, Sam was surprised that the one giving the speech about their enemies was not Lem Ashil. He was the Granserpent responsible for the monster incursions ever since Sam arrived.

In his place was a wiry elf with tanned features and jet-black hair. He looked more like a model than a fighter, though Sam envied the beautiful red-and-gold armor he wore. It was a true work of art. Something a master Blacksmith must have labored over for weeks.

Since he had come so late, Sam missed most of the speech. Judging by the pointedly patient faces of his fellow adventurers, Sam guessed it to be a similar one to Lem Ashil’s.

“Who is that?” Sam asked a young man beside him.

“Il’traz Bounz, Granserpent of the West.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem…” He looked at Sam for the first time. “You’re that guy who beat Monsara at her own game, aren’t you?”

“No, no,” an older woman on Sam’s left said, “he’s the mascot for that fruit company. Y’know, Pineapple Sam!”

“I’m not–” Sam began, but was cut off as more people piled on and started to guess who he was without consulting him.

“Can’t he be both?” Komachi spoke up. For a moment, nobody knew where her voice came from, until they finally realized it was the cat on his shoulder. When she caught their attention, she asked, “You wanna take another bet? Eh?”

Everybody backed away and shook their heads at that. Nobody wanted to place a bet against Sam.

“Dang. Even though he isn’t going to use his swords?”

“What do you mean?” somebody asked.

Sam lifted his gauntleted hands. At least that wasn’t against the rules, as he understood them. Slugging a monster with a fist covered in armor plating would be pretty satisfying.

Training with Zahif had been like his days aboard the Wavedancer, stripped to the waist and with baggy Talmoori pants.

Now Sam was fully armored up and ready to put everything he learned into practice.

“Why?” one person asked.

Sam shrugged. He figured telling the truth couldn’t hurt. “Master Zahif asked me to.”

The silence that rippled out from Sam was deafening. They could hear the howls of the creatures outside the outer walls, clear as day.

“Did he just say Master Zahif?”

“He’s being trained by the Meteor Fist himself?!”

“Who the hell is this guy?”

Several feet to the side, Monsara had clearly overhead and was scowling.

A hand clapped Sam on the back. “She’ll get over it,” the older woman said. “Monsara’s a good sort. Proud she may be, but she knows her duty. It was just a light hazing ritual for newcomers who show promise and need to be knocked down a peg.”

Sam chuckled. “I hold no grudge.” He threw a wink at Monsara. “Though I can’t say the same for her.”

He was almost glad when the monsters came into view. It stopped the whispering and looks of envy and awe that he saw everywhere he looked.

Even the Granserpent was watching him with a curious expression. It seemed only Zarishna regarded him with suspicion from where she stood with the rest of the imperial alchemists.

Well, the quest did say it would increase my reputation…

And then there was no time for thinking or worrying. The creatures were not undead, thankfully. Even in his armor, he didn’t want to imagine what it would feel like to punch through a corpse’s ribcage.

The creatures that howled for Imperial blood were the strangest he’d seen so far. They looked like they were made of natural stone. Some were sculpted, others were sharp with angular edges like chipped slate. While others were made of natural lichen-covered granite.

Every single one towered over the average person, with the smallest being 7 feet tall.

Sam grimaced.

“You’re gonna punch those, Sam?” Komachi asked him over the din of combat.

“Blunt weapons!” Il’traz barked out over the clash of steel on stone. “Slashing and piercing will avail you not! Use the blunt side of your weapon if you must. They are weak to fracturing!”

Sam shrugged and launched himself at the nearest monster. It was a towering black stone thing with a face twisted in rage. Red glowing eyes burned with hatred as they locked onto Sam. The creature grinned with shiny obsidian teeth. “You will taste good!” it cried.

The creature moved with hilarious slowness as it clasped its hands together and raised them over its head. Obviously, it meant to smash Sam into the stone floor. Without realizing what he was doing, Sam was already moving into one of the first movements of the dreadfang style.

He slid his foot forward, followed through with the motion, and focused his power into the tip of his elbow as he drove it into the creature’s exposed middle.

It was too easy. Clearly the monster was feinting to bait him.

Sam tensed, bracing for the twitch of movement that would foretell the counterattack. He held the majority of his power in check for the inevitable counter.

Instead, the creature’s glowing eyes guttered like a candle in the wind. A horrified expression froze on its stony face as dozens of cracks ran out from the impact of Sam’s elbow.

A ringing discomfort was all Sam felt, like his funny bone had been lightly smacked.

The monster shattered to pieces as if it were made of glass.

You defeat a [Blackstone Trall (Level 39)].

You gain additional Experience for slaying a Tough monster!

Several people around Sam turned to look in wonder. Though he was not the only one to kill a trall, he was the only one to do so with such ease.

It took several powerful hits with maces, clubs, and great hammers heavily imbued with magic to take even the weakest trall down.

“This’ll be easier than I thought,” Sam told Komachi.

With mounting confidence, Sam rushed out to the next trall. He twisted on the balls of his feet and launched a powerful kick right at its middle.

The tralls were slow, but Sam was beginning to feel like there was something else at play here. Whenever he attacked, the people around him began to move sluggishly.

If he ever focused on them, they sped up as if it was all in his head, but he was absolutely certain that out of the corner of his eye, people were moving at barely two-thirds of their proper speed.

Komachi seemed immune to the effect. Then again, despite being protected by [Cover], she didn’t want to stray far from Sam’s shoulder.

Sam could use his large, armored body to get between places and people that he would otherwise risk harming if he used his greatswords.

He slipped between a knocked-down fighter and a trall with its massive foot raised. Sam jumped and struck with his fist into the side of the creature’s knee, sending it spinning in place.

Before it could recover, Sam sent three stone-shattering punches into its middle. By the time the trall stopped spinning, it was little more than a pair of legs next to a pile of stone.

Imperials and adventures were fighting the monsters all around the havoc Sam was unleashing. Zarishna’s armored bear wrestled with a towering stone creature while Renni pummeled another one. Every blow formed a deepening crater in the thing’s body. Despite the nelana’s slender form, she was a formidable monk.

Not everyone was faring well against the stone monsters. An armored adventurer struggled to fend off the attacks aimed at his fellow mage. Sam was about to intervene when he suddenly found it wasn’t necessary.

A potion bottle shattered on the trall’s back, unleashing a ruddy mist. The monster went berserk on its ally. The two tralls tore each other apart.

He started to notice a pattern from then on. Soldiers and adventurers that weren’t able to handle the monsters encountered spontaneous advantages as if someone was evening out the odds.

For some reason that was beyond him, Zarishna was the one meddling. She didn’t do so openly, and the powers she used were more than what a mere alchemist should be able to do.

Sam was certain that she was hiding her true abilities from others. Why, he didn’t know.

Maybe that limp is fake too, Sam thought before diving back in.

With every monster slain, Sam’s confidence grew. It was hard not to feel confident after taking out a trio of monsters with a few well-placed punches and kicks.

After fighting against Zahif every single day, Sam was beginning to realize the absolute gulf in power between the martial arts master and these monsters. Though they were a few levels higher than his Legend, they were child’s play.

He didn’t even need to invoke his Void powers to deal with them, something Sam had intended to do initially but held off. He didn’t know if that would violate the terms of the quest and with over a dozen monsters already slain, he didn’t want to reset the stacking Experience and reputation bonuses.

Laughing at his own obscene power, Sam used his full Strength to one-shot a towering 10-foot-tall trall. Driving from the balls of his feet up through his thigh, to his hips, and finally to his shoulder and arm, Sam’s fist went straight through the monster’s stony middle and out the other side.

Everywhere Sam went, there were more people and fewer monsters.

It wasn’t because he was killing them all himself. The monsters were choosing other people to battle, and the adventurers were rallying around Sam like an anchor point.

Wherever he went, adventurers and Imperials followed. The trall forces sought softer, easier targets, but always managed to find Sam and a force of bloodthirsty adventurers there instead.

Before the tralls had been able to breach deeper into the city, the incursion had turned into a full-on rout. Less than a tenth of the tralls who attacked made it out into the wilds beyond the Empire’s walls.

The fear in their eyes was a balm on Sam’s soul.

I’ll be damned. Zahif was right. They are afraid of his style.