Chapter 27: Taking a Rough Pounding from an Ogre!?
The Crimson-Tusked Ogre Champion stepped fully into the light, and the entire arena seemed to hold its breath.
Three meters of solid muscle with skin like cracked stone, deep grey-brown and scarred from countless battles the simulation had apparently deemed necessary to render in perfect detail.
Two massive tusks curved up from its lower jaw, stained crimson but not from blood, Lucien realized, but natural pigment, like the color was simply part of what it was.
Even the spectators went quiet, that particular kind of silence that came from genuine unease rather than polite attention.
’Yeah,’ Lucien thought, feeling the weight of its presence pressing against his chest like a physical hand.
’This is not the Goblin King. This is what the Goblin King wishes it had been.’
Darius’s voice cut through the stillness.
"Begin."
---
The ogre didn’t charge immediately. It rolled its shoulders, testing the ground with one massive foot, and the stone actually cracked beneath the pressure.
Then it moved.
Lucien barely got his sword up in time to deflect the first swing of its studded club, the impact rattling up his arms hard enough to numb his fingers.
’That’s definitely not a hit I want to take twice.’
He backpedaled, circling, looking for an opening and the ogre stomped down hard, sending a visible shockwave of cracked stone rippling outward right towards him.
Lucien jumped it, barely, landing awkwardly and rolling clear of the follow-up swing of its club that would have taken his head off.
’Earthquake stomps, great. Wonderful somehow a very fair fight, both like its supposed to be one, but come on.’
’How fat is this thing, to be cracking the ground just by stomping?’ He sarcasticly thought as he dodged another culb swinging for his head.
He darted in, testing its guard with a quick slash to the forearm slashing right through it and opening a deep sword wound making it bleed violently.
But the wound he opened began closing almost immediately, flesh knitting shut in seconds.
’And off course it has regeneration too. Damn it.’
The ogre roared and swung its club in a wide arc. Lucien ducked under it, drove his blade toward its ribs aiming for where he thought its heart would be.
But instead he caught a backhand from its free hand that sent him tumbling across the arena floor.
Pain exploded through his side, something had definitely cracked.
’That’s a rib, ugh, yep definitely a rib.’
He staggered upright, spitting blood, vision swimming slightly.
’Okay, no more rushing in, it’s time to reassess, this thing hits harder than anything truck, weighs more than a certain streamer from Earth and heals faster than I can damage it conventionally, and I’m already bleeding from the mouth with what I’m certain is cracked ribs, all on round four.
The crowd had gone dead silent by now, watching him struggle back to his feet.
’Ain’t no way I’m losing to a simulation, absolutely not.’
He drew on his stored blood reserves, letting a thin thread coil unseen around the ogre’s ankle as it advanced, not enough to trip something this massive, but enough to slow its next step by a fraction of a second.
It was enough to dodge the follow-up swing cleanly, at least.
The ogre roared, mana gathering visibly around its fists now, crimson light building with each passing second.
’New trick, fantastic. What are you a dog or something?’
It slammed both fists into the ground, and a shockwave of force and cracked stone rippled outward, catching Lucien mid-step and hurling him backward into the arena wall.
While sharp stone pieces stabbed into him, luckily nothing fatal got injured as he managed to block in time.
He hit the wall hard, breath driven from his lungs entirely, sword nearly slipping from his grip.
’Okay, that one really hurt.’
He pushed himself upright, blood dripping steadily from a split lip, ribs screaming with every breath.
’Time to stop being polite about this and end it now, no point keeping abilitieshidden if I can win gaster with it.’
He smiled, very slightly.
The ogre paused, some instinctive part of its programming reading the shift in his expression and it was already too late.
Lucien had burned a measure of his own blood the moment he’d hit the wall, Crucible Overdrive flaring to life beneath his skin, crimson light threading briefly along his veins before settling into something quieter and more controlled with no flashy after effects.
Everything sharpened.
Not flashy nor dramatic. Just stronger, everything about him felt enhanced, as he received an all round boost of about 20% by burning his blood.
Every movement suddenly costing less effort, every calculation arriving half a second sooner than it should have.
The ogre swung its club in a massive overhead arc, all its weight behind the blow.
Lucien simply wasn’t there anymore, catching the ogre of guard.
He reappeared behind it in the space of a single blink, sword already rising, and the world seemed to hold its breath for exactly as long as it took the blade to complete one clean, precise arc across the back of its neck.
Silence.
The ogre stood frozen for a long moment, as if it hadn’t quite processed what had happened to it yet.
Then it began to fall apart, not collapsing, but dissolving, cracks of blue light spreading across its stone-like skin until the whole massive form crumbled into scattering motes of light and vanished entirely.
The arena erupted.
---
Applause rolled through the stands and not the wild, screaming kind, but the quiet yet impressed one with genuine respect, the sort earned rather than given freely.
"...Who’s that?" someone murmured, somewhere in the crowd.
"Defeating a Peak D Orge as a Beginner D-Rank?"
An older demon near the front, arms crossed, watched Lucien limp toward the arena exit with a thoughtful expression.
"He’s quite talented, I’ll give him that." the man said simply, to no one in particular.
Lucien barely heard any of it, too busy drawing on his blood reserves to knit his cracked rib and various injuries back into place, the pain fading to a dull ache by the time he reached the arena gate.
’Worth it,’ he thought, breathing easier already. ’Very worth it, also I’m never doing that without Furnace warming up beforehand again. Lesson learned th hard way.’
---
Darius was waiting at the exit, tablet in hand, expression unreadable as always.
"Guild Card," Darius said, holding out a fresh badge.
Lucien took it. The card had updated automatically, sleek black surface now displaying a new tier marker.
[Rank: Peak D — Approved]
"Congratulations," Darius said, in a tone that suggested he said the word roughly as often as he smiled.
Which, judging by the total absence of any smile currently on his face, was not often at all.
Lucien pocketed the card. "Thanks."
Darius studied him a moment longer, something almost thoughtful crossing his scarred features.
"I’ve failed people stronger than you, for various reasons" he said finally. "Just as I have passed people weaker than you." He paused.
"Talent? You’ve got plenty of that but don’t let others get to your head"
He turned to walk away, then added, without looking back:
"Keep it up and I’ll expect you back for your C-Rank test in a few months."
Lucien watched him go, oddly warmed by what was, for Darius, apparently an enormous compliment.
’I’ll take it, but a few months, nah that’s to long.’
---
Zalor was waiting by the lobby exit, grinning wide the moment Lucien came into view.
"You put on one hell of a show in there," Zalor said. "I thought Kael was exaggerating. About the Gold Chest, sure, fine, whatever, luck happens. But that fight?" He shook his head.
"He wasn’t exaggerating about that at all. It was an exciting show."
"He usually does exaggerate, though," Lucien said. "Just knowing a little about him, you’d think he’d have been wrong at least once with the way he blabbers."
Zalor laughed, clapping him on the good shoulder. "So," he said, "you free sometime? Wouldn’t mind running a dungeon together, see what you can actually do without a rank cap holding you back. And to test that luck of yours."
"Depends," Lucien said. "What for?"
Before Zalor could answer, the entire guild hall went red.
---
Lights along every wall flared crimson, an alarm blaring across the lobby loud enough to cut every conversation off mid-sentence.
Every guild member’s phone buzzed simultaneously, a chorus of vibration rippling through the crowd.
The massive screen above the main hall flickered, text assembling one line at a time.
[EMERGENCY BROADCAST]
Silence swept the room.
WARNING
Nobody moved.
DUNGEON BREAK RISK DETECTED
People began rising from their seats now, murmurs spreading fast.
DUNGEON MUTATION CONFIRMED
Then, finally, the location resolved beneath it.
Dungeon: Ironfang Caverns
Location: Bloodthorn City
Distance: 7 km
Location: Near Blood Petal District
Estimated Threat Level: C-Rank
The entire lobby had gone dead silent.
Lucien glanced at Zalor, whose earlier grin had vanished entirely.
Darius, who had been walking away toward the back offices, stopped mid-stride.
His expression, for the first time since Lucien had met him which was less than an hour ago had actually shifted.
"This doesn’t look good." Zalor murmured.
"You think so, obviously this isn’t good." Lucien replied catching his whisper.
***************
[A/N: Loving the story so far? Comment and let me know.
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