Nekesh feels its heart racing faster than it ever has before. Coming from a place with no contact with the sun, Nekesh’s eyes are very sensitive to light, however it focused on one thing when Nekesh was evolving.

Hearing.

Now that they have lost the one thing that gave it the biggest advantages within this cave system, Nekesh can’t help but feel despair for the first time.

“RRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.”

Nekesh lets out a screech so strong that Carl can feel his ears intensely ringing afterwards. Carl winces at the screech but shakes his head back and forth to try and focus.

Carl has never used a spear before, but how hard can it be really? Or at least that’s what Carl thinks to himself.

Carl runs forward while giving a shout of rage. The spear is pointed forward, directly at the chest of Nekesh.

Luckily for Carl, Nekesh is still reeling from the loss of his hearing and Carl can very easily stab the Ghoul with his first try.

As the spear sinks into the mangy flesh of Nekesh, another screech is let out from the Ghoul. Carl smiles widely as he is confident in being able to handle this dreaded monster.

The smile is quickly wiped off of Carl’s face however as Nekesh will not go down without a fight. Opening his eyes from the pain in his chest, Nekesh finds Carl standing in front of him with the spear lodged into the Ghoul’s body.

Nekesh’s eyes are filled with hatred and anger as it looks down at the old man. Carl’s smug smile causes Nekesh to reach a new state of anger, which incidentally makes it forget about the loss of hearing.

Nekesh grabs the spear that is still stuck in its chest and grips the shaft of the spear with a strength that makes the wood creak loudly. Carl feels fear welling up inside of him when seeing the strength of this monster once again, however, the relief of knowing that Gods are behind him comforts the old man.

Carl prays to his deity TheGamblerOfChaos for help in his next move as Carl lets go of the spear.

Nekesh is surprised that the old man let go of his weapon and watches as his prey literally just runs at him.

Nekesh finally smiles again and opens his mouth wide, waiting for his prey to just run into his void-like maw.

Carl pulls back his right fist and dodges the bite from Nekesh. Sending his fist flying forward, Carl punches Nekesh right in the chest.

As Nekesh expected, the damage of the punch was next to nothing, and puts his mouth right above Carl’s head.

Carl, whose eyes are closed and is praying to TheGamblerOfChaos, doesn’t even see his impending death coming.

As Nekesh’s saliva drips on Carl’s head, Nekesh feels something burn where Carl punched. Looking down, Nekesh’s eyes are filled with a bright light and Carl’s fist is engulfed with a holy feeling of magic.

A spear of light shoots out of Carl’s fist and goes straight through Nekesh. Nekesh feels all of his insides burning due to the holy magic spear that Carl blasted outwards. In fact, Nekesh can feel his limbs starting to shut down and his vision getting blurry.

Refusing to die like this, Nekesh slams his mouth shut, trying to decapitate Carl, but Carl drops down to his knees, dodging the attack.

Carl felt all of his energy leave his body and dropped to the ground in response, luckily making him dodge the attack of Nekesh.

Nekesh can feel his limb even begin to burn into ash as the aftereffects of that holy spear are not stopping.

Carl gasps for breath with every second and his limbs are shaking, but the old man knows now is not the time for a break.

Being near the ground already, Carl grabs the bag that had potions inside of it. Nekesh has already taken a few steps back and is disintegrating as each second passes.

Carl doesn’t know exactly what happened, but he does know that he likes the passive of his class. His class, The Paladin of Gambling (Rare Class) has a passive ability where every punch causes a random effect to happen to either the caster or the victim.

Apparently, the effect that happened was lucky for Carl as Nekesh continuously vanishes from reality.

Carl grabs one of the potions from the bag and runs over to Atral as quickly as possible. He pours half of the potion down Atral’s mouth and half of the potion on her body. He did this because Carl has never used a potion before and didn’t know if this one needed to be ingested or poured on the wound.

Luckily, for these potions bestowed upon Champions by the Deities, it doesn’t matter.

Atral’s wounds are rapidly healing with each second as the potions work their magic, but even so, the Dragonkin woman feels her consciousness slipping away as she falls into a deep slumber.

Nekesh falls to the ground as his legs have disappeared at the point. Nekesh tries to crawl away but with each motion of his arms, Nekesh becomes weaker and weaker.

Half of Nekesh’s face is already gone as the holy magic works its way through his system.

Nekesh finally stops moving as the rest of his body disintegrates, only a small orb being left that rolls down the cave into the darkness.

Carl watches the monster that killed his adopted son fade away and he feels an enormous weight being lifted off of his shoulders.

Carl walks over to the bottom half of Harry’s corpse, the bloody pair of legs still laying where Harry was last alive.

Carl falls to his knees and tears stream to the ground. He hasn’t known Harry for more than a year, but this year in a new world has been a horrifying one.

Being taken from Earth a year ago and being put on this hellscape called Galactor. Carl found Harry on the first day and helped the young man calm himself and try to make a new life. Harry was the one who wanted to be a dungeon explorer and managed to convince a reluctant Carl to come down here.

Carl and Harry had been through many trials here together. They slew their first creature together. They found their treasure chest together. They were rewarded for finding a magical forest by the President of the humans together. Even with all of these accomplishments, all Harry would talk about was finding someone to love him.

“I warned you these dungeons would be the death of you.” Carl feels his throat choking up but the old man feels an obligation to say his last words to Harry. “You never listened to this old man, and you always had confidence. You always said you were never wrong…”

Carl gets up and cries his last tear.

“God, I wish that was the case. Stay safe in the afterlife, and try to find that wife you’ve always been looking for. This old man will do his best to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.”

With his final words, Carl walks over to the cart he uses for carrying their camping equipment. Clearing the cart, Carl makes a place to put Atral so he can safely transport her to the surface.

Fortunately, his class gives Carl so extra strength and he barely manages to fight the 7-foot tall Dragonkin lady onto the cart.

Heading for the surface, Carl gives one final thanks to TheGamblerOfChaos for Atral and his survival.

As Carl leaves with Atral on the cart, the small orb that feel from Nekesh's body sits in a corner of the cave. The orb has the soul of Nekesh, and luckily for the Ghoul the holy magic didn't disintegrate this orb.

Nekesh's soul inside of the orb screams out in hatred when he thinks about his defeat by an old man.

'I WILL COME BACK! I WILL DEVOUR YOU ALL!' Nekesh says inside of the orb as they waits for the reformation of their body.