The feeling of invincibility didn't last long.

With a roar of fury, the ogre smashed its manablade cleaver down - not on Levi, but through one of the pillars.

Chunks of stone scattered like shrapnel from the impact and dust rose in a cloud. The ogre rampaged on past heedlessly while the pillar dropped, tilted slowly, then toppled to the ground with a thunderous crash. Corrosive orange goo splashed out in every direction from the depression at its top, far more than Levi would have imagined it could hold.

Skarm squealed in pain, and a quick glance at his minion menu showed his gremlin’s health at below half and dropping.

The ogre swung its cleaver wide, the tip slicing through his shirt effortlessly and drawing a line of hot pain across Levi’s back. He'd been in too many battles to flinch. Jumping aside, Levi sprinted in a new direction, ducked behind a pillar and continued running.

His momentary distraction had almost gotten him killed.

Warm dampness spread down his back, every movement sending fresh waves of pain, but he couldn't do anything about it now. He didn’t have another restorative elixir to provide a buffer. Any injuries he accrued, he had no choice but to fight through. The best thing to do would be to kill the boss fast and reach level 3.

His pulse raced in his ears, throbbing in his fingers where he gripped the dagger. Another pillar crashed down, turning the room into more and more of an obstacle course. Levi would have to vault or detour around the fallen pillars, while the ogre was large enough to jump up on them in a simple step.

Maybe the boss wasn’t as stupid as Levi’d hoped. It was reshaping the arena to its preferences, done letting its enemy dictate its movements.

Or, he thought as it broke one of the fallen pillars in half before charging on, maybe it just liked smashing stuff.

In the meantime, Skarm’s health continued to drop. If nothing changed in another minute or two, he’d be dead. Levi didn’t know any healing spells, as that would have required subclassing into Healer and nerfing his Swordsman progress significantly, but times like this he really, really wished that they were accessible to other classes.

No time to waste. He desperately wanted to capture the ogre, but he’d really underestimated it. He knew it wouldn’t lie down easily, and right now Levi didn’t have the sheer strength or numbers to force it into checkmate. It would still be deadly dangerous right up until the last moment, and his current resources simply wouldn’t be enough to subdue it safely.

But before he could do anything, he needed to get it out of enrage and into exhaustion so they could do some real damage. Ogres had incredible burst strength, but less endurance.

Unfortunately, it seemed the boss wasn’t going to wear out on a timer like normal ones, and even if it would he was running out of time. If he had to guess, he’d assume the boss’s trigger would be dropping further in health. Dungeons weren’t meant to be run solo, after all. An ordinary group would have mage and ranged support, certainly not just two fighters.

Another pillar crashed down, leaving eight upright. The battlefield hardly resembled its former condition now, with bubbling puddles of the orange goo pooling around the tops of the fallen pillars, chunks of scattered stone littering the ground where the ogre had smashed through, one pillar shattered in the middle, another having cratered the floor around it, the third broken in three pieces.

Reluctantly, Levi admitted he had to change his plan. Kill it now, tame it later once it respawned. Or its cousin in another dungeon; it didn’t have to be that exact ogre.

Levi ducked as one of the pillars he’d been approaching burst a globule and sprayed corrosive, but compared to the deluges when the pillars fell this was hardly worth mentioning. Still, it would have been a problem if he’d taken it full to the face.

As it was, he had some of the nasty goo clinging to his right side, slowly burning away at his arm and leg, leaving uneven holes in his clothing and dropping his health regen into the negative.

Levi instinctively tried to push mana into his dagger as he went on the offensive, but the dagger couldn’t hold or properly utilize it without a power stone. The mana flared uselessly and dissipated.

“Skarm, hit it from behind with everything you’ve got!” Levi shouted, taking a running jump to scramble up onto a fallen pillar. He ran down its length to intercept the berserking ogre, then launched himself into the air as he neared his target.

Level 1+

(Cave Ogre)

Health 47%

At least the splashes of corrosive were having some effect on the boss, though not nearly enough to matter in the long run.

Levi slammed dagger-first onto the ogre’s back, wrapped one arm around its neck to anchor himself, then stabbed the back of its head. But, he’d again forgotten that this dagger didn’t have a power stone equipped yet, so instead of slicing through bone and into the ogre’s brain, it skidded across the skull leaving a deep gash but nothing that couldn’t be healed in time.

Skarm’s attack coincided almost perfectly, skewering the ogre with his horn through the leg.

Level 1+

(Cave Ogre)

Health 41%

Levi got in two more quick dagger stabs before the ogre slammed the hilt of its cleaver into his skull, jolting him and dropping his health to below half. He clung to the monster, stabbing the back of its neck, trying to get past all its muscle and to a vulnerable point, but ogres were much sturdier than humans.

With an angered roar, the ogre jumped in the air, then twisted and dropped. Levi had just time to realize its intention and let go before it slammed down on its back on the ground.

If Levi had still been on its back, he’d have been crushed to paste.

As it was, the ogre’s shoulder slammed down on his legs, pinning him on the ground.

Levi heard something crack. If there was any pain, he was too overloaded with adrenaline to feel it, but his leg wasn't responding as he tried to scramble free. Levi cursed his low stamina's inability to protect him. This was exactly the sort of thing that he'd never had to worry about in years.

If the ogre was smart, it could have finished him off while he was helpless. Luckily, an infuriated berserker, it was past the point of making plans.

Instead of rolling over and simply crushing Levi beneath its bulk, it jumped to its feet and swung its cleaver up to finish him off as he desperately scooted back away across the floor.

He wasn't going to make it. Levi automatically tried to push mana into his feet to boost him away, but Empowered Leap cost far more mana than his tiny pool could offer and the spell failed.

The ogre's blade started to descend in a wide sweep.

Skarm got there first, just in time.

The brave little gremlin threw himself at the ogre’s arm, impaling it with his horn and clawing viciously enough that the ogre’s aim was thrown off. The blade cleaved through the floor with a resounding clang, leaving a gouge in the stone as long as Levi’s body, but thankfully missing him entirely.

Level 1+

(Cave Ogre)

Health 36%

That bought him a few seconds. Levi took quick stock of his options, which were not looking very good. His right leg still refused to move properly, he couldn’t even stand. And the boss still had over a third of its health.

Skarm got in another few scratches before the ogre grabbed the gremlin’s head in one huge fist.

A resounding crack echoed through the room as the ogre slammed Skarm's skull into the nearest pillar.

Skarm's struggles immediately ceased, his body falling limp in the ogre's grasp.

In Levi's interface, his minion information dimmed to grey.

The fact that it didn't disappear entirely gave Levi hopes that his minion could be brought back somehow, but he didn't have time to worry about it.

He gritted his teeth, let the deep anger of losing yet another comrade to pointless death flow through him, and pushed aside any thoughts of what came next. Right now, he had only to survive. Fight and win, just like every other time.

The pillar splintered at the impact and began to tilt, dripping orange goo in a wobbly line of viscous globs that hissed and burned the floor where they landed.

The ogre tossed aside the dead gremlin, then turned back to Levi.

The teetering pillar slid a few centimeters, stone clattering, and Levi made a sudden snap decision.

He wasn’t going to make it if he fought fair. He’d underestimated the dungeon, or overestimated himself. But he still had a chance. There was always something that could be done. No challenge was truly insurmountable. He just had to find the way forward.

Levi changed angles, dragging himself across the floor and toward the path of the slowly tilting pillar, drawing the ogre after him. Then he pushed all his mana into the most directed, focused mana burst he could muster. He'd never been much of a spellcaster in his past life, but there were a few utility spells everyone knew.

The ogre crossed into its path just as Levi’s supercharged focused mana ping hit the already-damaged pillar, knocking the broken chunks loose. With a sudden clatter of crumbling stone, the pillar lurched and fell forward in a cloud of dust.