Levi backed up and fired a few quick shots with his bow, aiming for the ogre's big, flat, ugly head. He missed once, grazed it the second time, but the third arrow slammed firmly into its open mouth. It wasn’t enough to damage it significantly, but it certainly kept its attention away from his injured team.

Essence Scarabs swarmed at the downed duo, but Centoo was still capable of slashing them out of the air even with several of his lower legs hanging limply, and Skarm refused to stay down. Screeching furiously, the gremlin jumped up onto Centoo’s head and laid about him with claws and horn. But there were too many scarabs in the air now looking for a target for the duo to deal with them all, especially with Centoo’s mobility so severely hampered.

Levi downed one scarab with three quick slashes, but he couldn’t spare the time to deal with them properly before the ogre was upon him. The scarabs’ slowing venom was dangerous, but less dangerous than being crushed into hamburger.

The ogre grabbed at his head with both hands, rushing straight at him with a too-fast stamina empowered lunge. For a heart-stopping moment Levi thought he was dead, the ogre too close to be evaded. Adrenaline surged through him as he drew frantically on his limited stamina. The world seemed to slow for a moment as Levi ducked aside, and the ogre’s hands slammed together close enough to blow Levi’s hair with the force of their impact.

Unwilling to waste his opportunity, power still rushing through him, Levi turned the same motion into an attack as he whipped his sword upward and twisted to land the strike. Beast Bite slammed home deep into the ogre's hands, trapping them together.

Confused, the ogre tried to pull its hands apart, but Levi pushed more mana into his sword to hold them in place. Instead the force of the ogre’s confused swing pulled him off his feet and into the air.

Disoriented only for a moment, Levi swung himself with the motion then released the Beast Bite’s grip, using the momentum of the ogre's swing to launch him into the air. He hit the wall hard, feet-first, bunched up immediately, and pushed off back toward the ogre's unsuspecting back as it clenched its bleeding but freed hands into fists.

A second Beast Bite let Levi latch into its shoulder, where he clung with one hand and braced his feet against its back while he drew his manabow. A scarab buzzed by, homing in on Levi, and he awkwardly swatted it with the bow, clinging on as the ogre swung around wildly, trying to grab him, but unable to reach.

He had never practiced using a manabow with one hand, but he knew the theory of it. Gripping it by the center, he focused and shoved mana into it, then released mentally. It cost more mana and focus than drawing back the arrow by hand, but allowed him to hold on with one hand while firing off Stone Shot at point blank range into the back of the ogre's head. It still would take too long to overwhelm its health advantage, the bolts doing little against its vast pool, but Levi got off three quick shots before his mana fell too low to fire again.

Level 2+

(Essence Ogre)

Health 58%

The ogre slammed its fists against his back, twisting to dislodge him, but he'd been using this sort of strategy against enough enemies to be wise to their tricks. He released the Beast Bite just as it swung, dropped below its fist, then stabbed the sword in and rode it down, carving a deep gash across the ogre’s back before he dropped off entirely. The ogre roared and flailed, drawing its foot with unnatural speed as it prepared to kick Levi into the wall or ceiling.

Flomper suddenly appeared, just in time to open a hole beneath the ogre's other foot. The softened stone solidified a moment later, but it threw off the ogre’s attempted kick and threw it off balance.

Thank you, Flomper, Levi thought fervently. The opening was just what he needed. He dove at the ogre's leg and stabbed deep into the back of its knee, then followed up with several quick slashes. It wouldn't be enough to cripple it, unfortunately, but it was enough that its leg buckled and it fell to one knee.

Level 2+

(Essence Ogre)

Health 51%

The ogre roared, looking around wildly, then snatched up a nearby Essence Gremlin and threw it at Levi. Again with the throwing monsters at him. These dungeons really had a limited repertoire at low levels, didn't they? He ducked aside, slashing out to deal a deep gash across the airborne gremlin's body as it flew past.

Then Gordon screamed. Levi spun. His ally had failed to keep ahead of the Essence.

Levi could see it already eating through Gordon’s shoes, as it began to contract and bunch up from its more spread out form, drawing in its bulk to envelop Gordon more fully.

Even in the single panicked heartbeat Levi watched, it crept steadily up Gordon’s ankles toward his shins, melting away his clothing and leaving immediate corrosive burns across his exposed skin.

Levi cursed and threw himself at the Destruction Essence. Gordon tried to back away, but misjudged the viscosity of the Essence. His feet remained trapped. Instead of escaping, he lost his balance and fell hard on his back, whimpering as his head cracked hard against the stone. The Essence greedily surged forward, eager to consume its victim at last, about to drown him completely.

Levi got there first, slicing the Essence rapidly, desperately carving away too-big pieces, anything to prevent it from fully subsuming Gordon. Flomper poked her head up beside Gordon’s face, looking between him and Levi with clear concern. Then she dove back into the floor, only to reemerge a moment later directly underneath the Essence. She clawed it frantically from the inside, her little teeth and claws moving in a blur. Levi couldn’t do anything to help her, but her mission was accomplished since the Essence stopped its advance to glob up around this new victim.

He didn’t have time. A pair of the larger pieces spawned into kalvex, immediately rushing at them. Gordon was in no condition to run.

Levi grabbed a health restorative and quickly poured it into Gordon's mouth. Gordon swallowed convulsively, coughing, tears still running down his face.

“Cen!” Levi called, jumping up to fight off the kalvex before they could maul his downed companion.

The ogre stomped in their direction, one foot landing on the Essence. As the blob shrank slightly, Levi knew the ogre’s injuries were quickly regenerating from the contact with its progenitor, but at the moment he couldn’t worry about that yet.

Cen, who’d been fighting off gremlins and scarabs, did his best to rush to Levi’s side, but the countless small creatures who he’d been fighting came with him, stabbing and biting and harassing him, his health already far too close to empty for Levi's comfort. But he needed someone to run interference and protect Gordon long enough for the restorative to heal him while Levi took care of the pair of kalvex.

The thought flickered across his mind, this was going much more poorly than he’d anticipated. How had they won last time? Levels. They’d won because several of his minions had leveled mid-fight from killing all the overpowered Essence creatures.

Time to switch tactics. At this rate of attrition, they’d all die before bringing the Essence down. “Everyone focus on killing as many as you can. Leave the big ones to me!”

He swallowed a stamina restorative, resigning himself to his limited health and no mana recovery for a time, but he needed to keep the ogre and kalvex busy until at least one of his minions could level. There were certainly enough high power creatures around to get them there.

But first, he had to get the essence itself out of the way. He pushed stamina hard, sprinted to the glob just finishing off Flomper, and started slicing.

More kalvex appeared as he chopped too-big pieces, but he didn't have time to waste being more precise. The ogre stomped down, crushing the last of the main essence and healing itself back to 80% as it swung its massive fist at Levi's stomach, and this time he brought his sword up flat in front of himself and let it connect.

The force of the blow threw him into the air and away from the pack of kalvex closing in, slamming him into the far wall, but he was ready for it and crouched to absorb the impact, dropping to the ground with only minimal dip in health.

Six kalvex, one ogre, maybe a dozen gremlins, and at least forty scarabs, but the Essence was fully dispersed now. No more surprises. Just have to survive long enough to finish them all off.

Centoo has reached level 4!

Centoo has 1 stat point available.

Levi grinned through his exhaustion as the centipede restored to full health in a moment, power all but glowing as his injured limbs regained strength.

They could do this.