Ultimate Level 1 - Chapter 187: Willing To Risk Everything

Max caught Batrire and Fowl as they fell, ignoring the grunts, and did his best to be brave.

“Are you certain you are ok with this decision?” Max asked as they waited for Cordellia to commit to this moment.

The archer didn’t reply but just nodded. She knew this was one of those moments where if they turned and left, she might be done. The archer trembled as she waited to drop down into Max’s open arms.

“If we don’t do this, we’ll always quit, hoping for the perfect matchup. That’s not how we are, and you know it.”

Nodding his head once, Max motioned to the stone platform. “We’ll go there. Part of me hopes this is a sand golem, but the other part of me knows I’m wrong.”

He had asked his skill for advice, but nothing was said, not even laughter. Part of that scared Max even more.

***

As they got halfway toward the stone platform they were angling toward, Max felt the sand shifting and knew it had to be another worm.

“GO!” he shouted, pointing at the platform and racing ahead and away from it.

“Seth?!” Tanila called out.

“GO!” he replied, ignoring her.

The four raced toward the stone platform while Max tried to distract the creature that was moving a lot more sand than the other worm they had faced. Judging by the sand being displaced, Max knew it was at least twice as wide, if not more.

It was coming toward him, speeding along the flat tan sand like an arrow aimed at where he was going. It had hesitated momentarily when the other four ran, but Max pulled out his halberd and dragged it behind him in the sand, doing everything he could to attract its attention.

I’m like bait for a fish…

Part of him wanted to activate his haste, but without knowing the full scale of what they were going to be going up against, Max waited, not wanting to use any skills if he didn’t have to.

It was a race to a stone platform, and Max felt he had a slight edge on the worm, his dexterity being what allowed him to move faster than he had ever imagined.

The yards vanished as he covered the two hundred of them, knowing his friends were safe, and jumped onto the stone, seeing the worm coming at him start to slow down the moment he vanished from the sand.

No longer did it come right at him. Instead, it began to slow down and turn, the telltale movement vanishing as it did.

He could see the others watching him and knew they were anxiously waiting to hear what to do. No plan had really been laid out as the only idea besides finding out what kind of boss they were facing and reaching what they knew had to be a small safe spot.

Standing there, all alone, feeling the gazes of his friends a hundred yards away, Max knew what he wanted to do.

Pulling out one of the clubs he had kept in the troll dungeon, Max tied a rope around it, making sure the knot was secure. Getting more of the rope designed for snow dungeons had been one of the best decisions of his life.

Spinning a few times as he let go, launching the club well over three hundred yards off into the middle of the sand.

Without waiting, he grabbed the rope, glad the pouch he wore fed it continuously. Hand over hand, Max began to drag it toward him, sometimes jerking it, other times pulling it slowly, and occasionally stopping.

Soon, what he hoped for happened. The sand began to shift and shake, and the boss appeared at the top of the sand, making its way toward the club. It was still hidden; only a tiny bit could be seen from the cloud it sent up as it moved, yet Max didn’t care about that. Right now, he wanted to see the boss more than anything.

As the boss raced toward the club he had tossed, moving away from Max, he sprinted toward the others, running along the sand and pulling the club as he moved.

Always keeping an eye on the spot as the club drug through the sand, Max was almost to the stone platform when the boss showed itself, rising from the sand and letting the club slide down its throat.

At least sixteen feet across, most likely more, Max saw the boss in its full glory and cut off the rope fed to his pouch. He made the last few yards in a couple of steps and jumped onto the rock platform to join his friends.

“Did you see that?!” Fowl asked.

“We all did,” Batrire replied. “The real question is, what are we going to do about fighting it?”

Max ignored both of those questions, his eyes focused on Cordellia, who was unable to stop the tremors plaguing her. Moving slowly, he got to where she was and reached up, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“We’ll be fine. Just breathe,” Max said softly.

Her breathing was rapid, and after Max repeated himself again, she forced herself to take a deep breath and let it out. After a few more, she started to relax and gave him a nod.

“We’ll be fine. We always manage, but I’m going to need you to give me ideas. Think like an archer or someone else, but come up with what might work.”

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Turning back to the others, Max could see all of them were anxious.

“Can we use our walls of air?” Tanila asked, already believing it wasn’t going to work.” I mean, we’d have to get them perfectly placed, and I’m not sure, even if we did, they would hold.”

Max nodded, watching as the sand returned to its unmoving place, the worm obviously deep enough that they couldn’t track its movements.

“Wish we had some bombs or explosives,” Fowl muttered. “Then we could feed them to it.”

“Where are we going to get explosives from?” Batrire asked, giving her dwarven lover a glare.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Max said. “We don’t have those, but we do have fireballs. Maybe if we can cast them while its mouth is open, they will do damage.”

“It’s a shame you can’t get on top of it and attack from up there,” Cordellia said quietly as she peered across the sand.

“That’s not a bad idea. Is there any way to make that happen?” Max asked as he glanced at Cordellia, who seemed surprised that he had actually heard her.

“Uh… not really,” she stuttered. “I mean, do the worms go back into the ground when they attack? Once they show themselves, we have always pinned them in. Can one of these platforms do that?”

Tanila was tapping her chin and looking at the other stone platforms on either side of them. While everyone but Max and Cordellia took ten to fifteen seconds to get across one hundred yards, only Max might be faster than the boss.

“Do you think these stone things can actually stop that thing? I mean, we’re packed onto this, and I’m not certain how thick the stone is. It might just be a rock sitting on the sand, or it could be a long column.”

Max grinned and moved to the side closest to the wall of the bowl. Using his weapon, he shoved the haft down and along the edge. Eventually, his blade was about to be buried when he stored it and stood back up.

“It’s at least eight feet long, maybe more. Which is good to know,” Max stated. “The worst part is that even if this is a ten by ten-foot rock, we’re looking at something that would still fit within the boss’s mouth. Maybe if we added the stone walls, we could make it wide enough for a moment, but then what?”

“Could we shoot fire then?” Fowl asked.

“That would require us standing on this thing while it tries to eat us!” Batrire exclaimed, narrowing her eyes at Fowl and glaring.

“You’re both right,” Max said. “Attacking the boss from the outside might be impossible, even if I was on top of it. Maybe I could damage it with everything, but if not, then what. The injury I’d create wouldn’t be that impressive.”

Tanila was tsking her tongue, considering everything the party could do.

“How bad do we want this kill?” Tanila asked.

Everyone gave Tanila their attention.

“More than anything,” Cordellia said quietly but firmly. “If we give up… I’m not sure I can do this again.”

Max nodded, and soon the other two agreed.

“Ok, this sounds like a stupid idea, but I think this might work.”

Max pulled on the rope, watching as the boss raced toward them on the platform.

His heart was pounding, and everyone felt the moment when Tanila’s plan would either work or they would all die.

The boss came full bore and locked onto the dancing club, and Max continued to give sharp tugs with the rope. It was only about ten yards away, and if they timed this right, the only chance they had came from this moment.

“Ten seconds! Be ready to cast!”

Tanila took control, and no one said a word. Everything depended on their working as a team, and that meant no mistakes.

Max and Tanila both began summoning their fireballs, letting them grow and burn as hot as possible, stuffing every ounce of mana the spell would allow them to pour into it before they would have to unleash it.

The boss lunged up from the sand at the weapon and the pillar as Max yanked the club once more, bringing it just a few yards from where they were.

Its massive maw opened up, revealing at least a thousand teeth or more all surrounding the inner lining that led to its stomach.

As it approached the five of them standing on the platform, time almost slowing down, Tanila shouted, “NOW!”

Max and her both let their fireballs go, watching as the two spells raced down the boss’s dark gullet. It fell upon them, about to swallow them and the rock whole, when Batrire activated her shield.

A shimmering ball of protection immediately sprang up around them, catching the boss as its sides were about to pass along the top half of the stone platform.

Everything shook as the boss’s momentum came to a halt. Like a fish that had swallowed something that suddenly expanded, it was stuck, unable to swallow the shielded group or the large piece of rock it had its mouth around.

Max didn’t hesitate. His Fire Nova was already preparing to be cast. He had created an air wall in the middle section of the ten yards of teeth. Running forward and dashing out of Batrire’s protective shield, he leaped off the stone pillar, crossing the space over the two-foot-long teeth, and planted his foot on the air wall, propelling himself past the dangerous teeth that dripped with green ooze.

His fire spell went off, sending waves of fire traveling down the creature’s already burnt flesh. It pulsated from pain, and a howl of air came at him, but it couldn’t do anything, blocked by the shield their healer had gained from those blessed elixirs.

As his feet prepared to touch down on the flesh of the beast, Max let himself go, his weapon poised for his first attack.

[ Regeneration ]

[ Rampage ]

[ Power Strike ]

[ Armored Warrior ]

[ Magical Strike ]

[ Berserker ]

There was no time for his eyes to adjust to the red hue that normally came. Max didn’t notice the massive ice spear that flew past him, impaling itself into the creature’s already damaged insides. The arrows that had exploded before he plunged head first into certain death for most had helped to weaken the part of the creature that never experienced attacks like this.

His weapon cut through the creature’s flesh, sheering the inside until the blade of his weapon cracked the protective outer layer of defenses from the inside.

Max’s weapon didn’t stop, striking two more times in the same moment, rendering flesh from the boss’s throat.

It tried to lift itself up, wanting to break free, but the orb was unmoving. Batrire was held tightly by Fowl, his ability keeping her in place and the protective barrier firmly wedged in the boss’s maw.

Max moved deeper inside the creature, not able to control himself, not willing to allow the decrease in damage to take place. Flesh tried to press against him, to squeeze and crush him, but his defense and strength held, slashing and cutting off swathes of flesh as his weapon was like a tornado made of blades, cutting the inside of the creature to pieces.

At that moment, Max felt pain, even through the red rage of the berserker’s skill.

We’re in acid!