Dario stared at the distant ground in utter disbelief. Did he just fall off a cliff, riding an ogre?

In the brief moment he was airborne, his mind instinctively assessed the situation. His first thought included a litany of curses, but he swiftly pushed those aside and focused more on survival.

From what he could tell, the cliff wasn’t completely vertical, instead being slightly angled, so he wouldn’t fall the full height of the cliff. However, he would still hit the quickly approaching cliffside wall and it was at a distance that would severely injure him, if not outright kill him. If he survived the initial impact, he would still continue falling and bounce along the sheer slope before eventually smashing into the ground. Overall, his chances weren’t looking very good.

Luckily, he had options at his disposal to blunt the damage.

Throughout their fall, Dario had to use all his strength just to stay attached to the furious ogre as he was nearly thrown off with its continued struggles. With Gronk still blinded and disoriented, he took the opportunity to maneuver their positions mid-air so that he would be on top. Having twisted around several times during their fall, Dario ended up straddling Gronk’s chest and staring him down face to face.

With the cliffside rapidly approaching, Dario braced himself for impact. “This is gonna hurt,” he muttered.

The pain from the collision came instantly and without any warning. The air in his lungs was forcefully ejected as he smashed onto the meaty body beneath him. He felt some of the bones in his chest crack with a few of his teeth getting knocked loose. Gronk fared much worse and spat out a mouthful of blood as the sounds of his bones being broken echoed around them.

Dario paid none of it any attention as he struggled with his own hardships. Regardless, he was still satisfied despite the agony. He had survived the first and most dangerous part of his plan, so the rest should be a lot simpler — in theory.

Focused entirely on trying to not pass out, he was unable to stop their separation and found himself falling alone. Dario bounced against the slanted wall several more times before he was able to get his bearings and plant the shield underneath him in an attempt to control his descent.

After several painful tries, he was successfully able to maneuver himself into a slide rather than a continually bouncing nosedive. Bits and pieces of rock collided with his face as the shield scraped against the cliffside, but Dario powered through it. It was better than the alternative after all.

He eventually reached the bottom of the cliff where he landed with a loud thud. His slack body rolled along the ground for a dozen meters before slowly stopping under an open canopy of trees.

Dario stared at the clear blue sky feeling thoroughly stunned. Still in shock, he could only moan in pain as the sunlight glared down on his eyes. His breath came out in wheezing gasps and the entire length of his body felt numb as a small amount of blood trickled from his mouth. For several minutes, he lay unmoving, simply trying to recuperate.

Amazingly, his abilities seemed to include swift regeneration as he could feel his ribs mending and his teeth setting back into place. A tear streaked down his cheek from the pain and he wiped it away with a sigh of relief.

“Did that really just happen?” he mumbled in a daze.

His only replies were the chirping of birds and the sound of distant insects.

“I can’t believe that just fucking happened.” He chuckled under his breath. “I got one hell of a story to tell back home.”

Somehow feeling mostly recovered after his short rest, Dario sat up and glanced at the tall cliff he’d plummeted down from. “Damn, I survived that...?” he asked, astonished.

The rock face stretched up somewhere between two hundred and three hundred meters above his current position. Half way down the wall was an ogre-sized crater where the first impact occurred. It was hard to believe that he managed to slide down the rest of the way in one piece. However, that still left him with a dilemma.

“Where the hell am I?”

He looked around and realized that he was in an area completely unknown to him. He had deviated so much from his original path that he may as well be in another country. It wasn’t quite as severe of course, but it was still undeniable that he was completely and utterly lost. His only point of reference was the cliff in front of him, but there was absolutely no way he would be able to climb back up. The only option now was to go around and hope for the best.

He hadn’t brought any real sustenance with him since he'd thought that he would only be gone for a couple hours at most, which was clearly a bad decision in hindsight. Fortunately, he didn’t feel any hunger or thirst at the moment, but that was subject to change. He had to start moving fast and get back to Voirsten before nightfall.

Dario stood up and examined his condition.

The good news was that most of his aching pains had gone away, and his armor seemed to be completely intact, only being dirtied in several places. Bad news was that his shield was missing. That circular piece of metal had saved his skin so many times that he felt like it was an obligation to go and recover it. There was no way he was leaving it behind.

It shouldn’t be located too far from where he landed so he set off in that direction. Soon enough, he came upon the gleaming form of his pure white shield leaning against the trunk of a tree. He went over to pick it up and noticed in the corner of his eye the wobbling figure of a green slime. Dario turned and eyed it with resigned amusement as he picked up his dirtied weapon.

Maybe he could salvage something out of the situation after all.

Dario reattached the shield onto his arm and slowly approached the slime. Upon closer observation, he noted how it seemed to be the same size as the one he had nearly squashed. It was probably the very same one, which made sense since he had led Gronk in the direction he’d thought the slime went off to. It was almost like fate rewarding him for all his struggles, and he wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity.

With a sudden leap, Dario closed the distance between them and swung his shield down, hoping to completely smash it in one blow. The slime was once more too fast and evaded his attack. It seemed to recognize him and immediately wriggled away, opting for retreat over fighting. He gave chase, but unfortunately lost track of the slime as it headed inside a small human-sized opening situated in a nearby rock face different from the cliff he'd fallen from.

Dario peered into the hole and confirmed it to be a cave that was deeper than he'd initially thought. “Damn it, so close that time.” He kicked away a pebble in frustration.

He was extremely tempted to enter the cave in order to follow the slime, but he didn’t know just how far it went. He didn’t want to risk possibly getting lost in a cave system, especially since he was lost enough already. Although, it wouldn’t hurt to do a quick check. Maybe the slime hadn’t gone too far or the tunnel was actually rather shallow. Either way, it probably wouldn’t waste too much time if he took a quick peek.

As he took a few steps into the cave, he suddenly heard the sound of crunching wood behind him.

Dario turned to look at the source of the noise and froze. To his surprise, what greeted his sight was the lumbering form of a heavily injured Gronk. One of his eyes was completely mutilated, but the other was intact with only some minor cuts and bruises. The lone orb was glaring at him with undisguised hostility.

“YOU!” Gronk pointed at him with a newly acquired log, his old club nowhere in sight. “You not dead?”

“Nope, and it’s all thanks to you Gronk,” Dario said with a tired grin. “What say we call it even and we go our separate ways, alright?”

“NO!” he roared. “NOT EVEN! ME MAKE YOU DEAD NOW!” The rampaging ogre began running towards him with his makeshift club ready to swing.

Having nowhere else to go, Dario ran further into the cave. He was just in time as the large wooden weapon in Gronk’s hand slammed through the space he had previously occupied. Fortunately, the ogre was too large to fit into the cave entrance.

“RARGH! COME OUT! FIGHT ME!” Gronk reached inside and swung his club around the interior of the entryway.

“How about no,” Dario said, staring at the club being smashed around the walls in front of him. Bits and pieces of jagged rock dislodged from the walls with the force of Gronk’s blows. “Guess I have no choice but to go deeper, I guess.” He chuckled airily. “I’ve been using that philosophy a lot today.”

Ignoring the roars of outrage behind him, the purple-eyed young man journeyed deeper into the dark depths.

Thankfully, his Physique stat allowed him to see somewhat in the dark so he wasn’t walking around completely blind. There was the occasional small hole in the roof of the tunnels, but the small beams of light that shone through were negligible. It was actually a bit strange how he was able to navigate so easily considering how scant the light was.

The sounds of Gronk’s rampaging had subsided a while back, but the silence that ensued was just as anxiety inducing. Luckily, the cave seemed to be devoid of any small bugs or creepy crawlers and smelled fairly decent. He assumed that it was the result of slimes cleaning up the place over however many years they had resided there. He almost felt bad that he wanted to kill them.

After travelling through the winding tunnels for several minutes, he finally discovered a greater source of light up ahead. Sighing in relief, Dario rushed forward to go check it out. Nearly blinded by the sudden increase in light, he blinked his eyes at what came into view.

He set foot into what appeared to be a large cavern with a sizeable opening in the ceiling that shed light throughout the entire dwelling. Along the edges of the cavern were several other tunnel entryways, most of them much larger than the one he had emerged from. Off to one side was a waterfall that streamed down into a river going through the length of the large cave. There was quite a bit of plant life in the form of glowing mushrooms and the occasional patches of grass scattered around the smooth stone floor.

In his mind, he dubbed the place as ‘The Grotto’ with how picturesque it looked.

He was so distracted by the beauty of the place that he almost missed the strange sounds coming from somewhere nearby. Startled, he turned his head to the right and discovered what was making the nearly inaudible sizzling noise.

Sitting not too far away from him was a gigantic green slime that was seven feet tall and ten feet wide. Inside its gelatinous interior were a bunch of monster arachnids and what appeared to be a large snake. The sounds he’d been hearing were the byproduct of the Giant Slime digesting its food.

“Holy shit.” Dario froze in surprise.

Right next to the Giant Slime was the smaller slime he’d been chasing. Dario tried to sneakily hide, but there wasnt much of anything nearby. It wasn’t long before the small slime noticed him, upon which it started jumping up and down, seemingly extending a small tendril to point in his direction. Instantly, the idyllic setting was disturbed by a flurry of movement.

Dario leapt away just in time to dodge the Giant Slime’s sudden lunge. It moved astonishingly fast for a creature of its size and shape, but he supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised with how swift the smaller slime had been.

Regardless, wasn’t there a rule that the larger a living creature was, the harder it was to move around? Wasn’t that a thing!?

Dario’s hysteria was disrupted by the sound of a loud roar coming from one of the larger entrances. Entering The Grotto was the bulky form of Gronk with a deranged look in his eye.

“ME FOUND YOU!” he bellowed.

No more words were spared as the large ogre immediately stomped towards him with club in hand.

“COME ON! Seriously?” Dario cursed his luck and started weaving between the dual attacks of the Giant Slime and the ogre. Both of his assailants seemed to ignore the other in favor of going after him. It took all his focus and previous battle experiences just to keep up, but he knew it wouldn’t last.

The constant assault from both sides eventually succeeded as he was bashed away by Gronk and simultaneously swatted by a long green tendril. Dario screamed in pain as the brief moment of contact with the slime left the skin of his arm feeling like it was on fire. He panted on the ground and stared at the approaching figures.

In the background, he could see the smaller slime jumping up and down in glee.

He had to do something fast or he was done for. The two of them were blocking the path to the exits and were just as fast as him so he had no delusions of making a run for it. His only hope was to somehow get them to kill each other, and with how injured Gronk was, he knew that it had a small chance of success.

With a hysterical laugh of someone who had nothing to lose, he stood up and re-engaged his opponents.

Dario ran towards Gronk and threw his shield to distract him, but the giant blocked it and sent it flying away, repositioning for another attack. He was able to dodge the downward swing of the ogre’s club, but was struck by the follow up punch to his stomach. Wheezing through the pain, Dario latched onto the arm and swiftly climbed up onto his shoulder.

“RARGH! NOT AGAIN!” Gronk howled in rage as he attempted to shake the smaller human off his body. “GET OFF GRONK!”

It was almost a repeat of their previous scuffle with Dario nimbly dodging what strikes he could and enduring the ones he couldn’t. The only difference in this instance was the addition of the Giant Slime.

His desperate scrambling to stay on top of Gronk paid off after several exchanges as the Giant Slime decided to make do with a two-for-one meal. Dario was hoping for that exact outcome and immediately jumped off the ogre as soon as he saw the massive slime leap towards them.

Despite the quickness of his action, he was still struck in the face with a small smidgen of green slime. Fortunately, he was able to wipe off the dangerous liquid before it could cause any blistering pain, instead suffering just a minor redness on his skin. Gronk, on the other hand, endured a much more painful outcome.

He watched as the ogre roared out in pain, flailing around in an attempt to get away from the Giant Slime. His efforts were futile, however, and he was slowly engulfed by the larger monster. The ogre’s skin seemed to be holding up despite his predicament and it seemed like he would survive being digested for a long time.

Dario felt a bit bad for Gronk and decided to offer him a piece of advice. Maybe a miracle would happen and they would end up taking each other out after all.

“HEY GRONK!” The ogre’s large head turned towards him. “IF YOU WANT TO KILL THE SLIME, AIM FOR THE BIG RED STONE INSIDE AND CRUSH IT!” He pointed at the core of the Giant Slime.

Gronk’s sole intact eye stared at him balefully before finally following Dario’s line of sight. Close to his submerged hand was a watermelon-sized spherical red stone. After inspecting it for a few seconds, he looked back towards the dark-haired teen.

“Gronk smash red rock and slime die?” He grunted as the slime began crawling up his neck. It wouldn’t be long before his mouth and nose would be covered.

“Yep, smash rock and Gronk wins.” Dario tiredly grinned, giving the slimed ogre a thumbs up.

“Gronk wins?” the ogre muttered with a painful grimace.

“HELL YEAH!” Dario goaded as he slowly backed away. “YOU CAN DO IT! YOU CAN WIN!”

“Gronk wins...” After a moment of hesitation, the giant turned and reached towards the floating red stone embedded deep inside the Giant Slime. With a determined look of rage on his face, he grabbed the stone in both hands and began squeezing. “Gronk WINS!” With a bellow of rage, he crushed the core in his hands into smithereens.

The Giant Slime seemed to shriek in anguish and wobbled dangerously before eventually breaking apart into formless liquid. What was left of it quickly dissolved and seeped into the ground, with Gronk falling flat on his face, groaning in pain.

Dario would have whooped out in joy if he hadn’t immediately bent over and fell on all fours. He gasped as a surge of power suddenly filled the core of his being. The strange feelings coursing throughout his body were both painful and gratifying. Looking deep within, he felt a major change in his inner store of Assimilator Energy, and he could feel something click inside him like he had unlocked some sort of new avenue of power.

He could only shudder on the floor with the changes taking over his system.

Gronk paid no attention to Dario’s struggles and stood up onto his feet. “Gronk WIN!” he yelled skyward in satisfaction. Calming down after a few seconds, he finally noticed the prone form of his once perceived friend. “No. Gronk not win yet.” Bending over to pick up his fallen club, he started limping towards the incapacitated form on the ground.

“Gronk, stop,” Dario grunted through his teeth, still paralyzed and shaking from the changes in his body. “Don’t do this. I didn’t lie to you this time. The slime died like I said, didn’t it?”

“Friend made me do this.” The heavily injured, blistered ogre ignored his pleas and raised his club with an expression of sadness. “Now friend die.” He swung the large weapon downwards.

“NO!” Dario raised his hands up in a useless attempt to fend off the gigantic log barreling towards him. He had never felt the desire to live more strongly than in that moment, and all he wanted was for the ogre to get the hell away from him.

Strangely enough, it worked.

A blast of bright light flew out of his hands and tore through the club, shattering it into many pieces. The beam didn’t stop and continued past the weapon straight into Gronk’s chest. The effect was immediate and the hulking ogre released a soft gasp, stumbling backwards before falling down onto the ground, motionless.

The young man stared at his dimly glowing hands in shock, his sluggish movements gone. “What the…? Did I do that?”

Still shaken by the revelation, he slowly stood up and walked over to the fallen Gronk in a dazed stupor. Looking down, he quickly realized that the ogre was still alive despite the smoldering crater on his chest. He didn't have very long to live, however, judging from the wheezing and the blood dribbling down his lips. Dario was just about to turn and walk away when he felt a hand grasp onto his leg.

Surprised, he nearly raised his arm to finish the job, but something about the look in Gronk’s eye stopped his hand.

“You win little man.” Gronk chuckled hoarsely. “Me lose.”

Dario stared down at the fallen giant and smiled sadly. “Yeah, me win.” He bent down and patted the dying ogre’s shoulder. “You did good though. I nearly died, but… it was fun, in the end.” Dario had many failings, but he was still someone who respected a good opponent. “You sleep now big guy. You’ve earned a long rest.”

“Me thought... you friend.” A tear slid down Gronk’s mutilated yellow eye. “Me was happy... not alone anymore. Me made friend.” The edge of his lips twitched upwards in the ghost of a smile. “But you lie and not friend. Me alone after all.”

He closed his eyes in tearful resignation.

“Me live alone... me die alone. Always alone.” His voice faded down to a whisper. “Always… always alone.” A shuddering gasp escaped his lips and Gronk knew no more.