Zeke raised his shield, batting aside the heavy blow and sending the flesh golem’s fist crashing into the wall. He followed up with a vicious blow to the monster’s knee, which rewarded him with the sound of crunching bone. However, as devastating as the attack should have been, the undead behemoth was largely unaffected, and Zeke was forced to dodge the creature’s other fist, which came down in a crushing strike from above. It clipped his shoulder, sending him spinning into the tower wall.

His armor screeched in protest as it scraped against the stone, and bits of debris cascaded down upon his head. The books that had been on the shelves lining the walls had mostly been destroyed by Tucker’s entrance, but what few remained were scattered by the impact.

“You two done down there?” he called down the spiraling stairwell. “Because we’ve got a situation up here!”

He didn’t have any time to find out if his call for help had been heard, because in the second it took him to shout, the flesh golem had aimed another punch at his face. Zeke ducked under it, then with a mighty heave, brought his mace to bear in an enormous uppercut that connected perfectly with the monster’s malformed chin. Bits of bone, teeth, and barely preserved flesh sprayed into the air, and the golem staggered back, the lower half of its face entirely destroyed.

Using the small opening, Zeke rushed forward, slamming into the golem shield-first and turning the stagger into a fall. Unable to keep its balance, the monster tipped over and fell to the floor with a mighty thud that sent debris and dust billowing into the air. Wasting no time, Zeke pounced, leaping upon the monster’s prone form and hammering his mace into its already ruined face.

He managed two blows before the enormous creature wrapped its hand around his waist and tossed him aside like he weighed no more than a small rock. Once again, Zeke flew into the tower wall, and his breath left his lungs in a forced rush before he crumpled to the floor. Stars danced before his eyes, and darkness crept into the edges of his vision, but he refused to succumb. He shook his head, then sprang to his feet just in time to meet the monster’s fist with his shield. The monumental force slammed him against the wall, but using the shield forms he’d been taught, he barely managed to redirect the thing’s momentum into the wall next to him. The moment it hit, the tower shook violently, and the stone shattered. Cracks arced out from the point of impact, but luckily, the tower walls were strong enough to bear such destruction. For now. Another few hits like that, and it would doubtless crumble.

In that respect, the tower and Zeke weren’t all that different. He’d never encountered a monster nearly as powerful as the flesh golem, and it only took a single use of his [Inspection] skill to figure out why.

Flesh Golem – Level 25 (B)

Even the drachnid queen had only been an elite. And this monster was an entire tier of power above her. Even though Zeke had gained two levels and a bit of power since fighting the queen, he was not equipped to stand toe-to-toe with a monster like the flesh golem. But then again, what choice did he have? The thing had come charging into the tower without even a hint of a warning, and it wasn’t like the monster wanted to talk it out.

It had also brought friends, which Zeke was forced to acknowledge when a pitch black blade came slicing through the air, aiming for his neck. He got his shield up just in time, but he was caught off balance and was incapable of returning the blow. Instead, he pushed the scythe’s blade aside and retreated a couple of steps while he tried to find his bearings.

The entire tower was in chaos. In the golem’s wake, dozens of zombies had flooded the tower’s interior. That wouldn’t have bothered Zeke if it weren’t for the fact that a pair of reapers – tall, slender forms clad in shadowy black robes and carrying scythes – had followed on the zombies’ heels. These were almost as troubling as the golem, as indicated by another belated use of his [Inspection] skill.

Reaper – Level 25 (E)

Two elites. A score of normal zombies. And a boss-tier flesh golem.

“Fantastic,” he muttered to himself, rolling his shoulders as he faced off against the collected undead. Nothing had been broken, but he suspected that most of his body had become a mass of bruises. So, business as usual.

With [Leech Strike] active, Zeke stepped back into the battle, his mace making quick work of any zombie that got in his way. Meanwhile, he dodged the golem’s thunderous strikes, while blocking the slicing scythes of the reapers. He was only marginally successful, taking almost as many hits as he dished out, but with [Leech Strike] doing the heavy lifting, he was able to keep going far past the limits of his own vitality. Despite his impressive endurance, even glancing blows from the golem were enough to break bones, and the reapers scythes were more than capable of finding the weakest points in his armor. Even the zombies managed to score a few hits. With the Reflection effect on his shield, which increased the speed of his reactions by putting him into a miniature battle trance, he never would’ve lasted as long as he did.

Even as his bones knitted themselves back together and the surgical gashes inflicted by the reapers’ scythes mended, Zeke barely avoided being overwhelmed. But even so, he held his ground, and his perseverance was soon rewarded by a blinding flash of white light.

“Boom shakalaka!” roared the forgotten Tucker. He had taken an early hit from the golem, and he’d been out of the fight until that very moment. A quick glance told Zeke that the dreadlocked man was barely standing, and one of his arms hung uselessly at his side. Even so, his expression was jubilant as the zombies were vaporized into ash. The reapers wailed, their robes disintegrating to reveal slender, skeletal bodies whose blistering flesh hung loose from their bones. The stitches holding the golem’s disparate parts together burst, and green ichor sprayed everything in its vicinity.

“I got more where that came from!” Tucker screamed. Then, he threw the other ball directly at the golem. It shattered upon impact, and another light erupted into being, briefly blinding Zeke. When he blinked his vision back to normal, the golem was on the floor, a giant, sizzling crater in the center of its torso.

“Damn,” Zeke muttered.

“It’s not dead!” Tucker yelled. “You need to finish them off, because that’s the last one of those I have! Anything else I use is going to hurt you as much as it hurts them!”

Zeke acknowledge the man’s words with a quick nod, then fell upon the fallen golem, hammering his mace into the thing’s head with as much force as he could muster. It squirmed, trying to rise, but each blow sent it back to the floor. He was so focused on ending the biggest threat in the room that he very nearly lost his head.

Whether it was his improved senses or his well-honed battle instincts, Zeke looked up just in time to see a scythe slicing through the air. Either way, it was all for naught. He couldn’t avoid the blade. The best he could do was shift just enough that when it hit, it didn’t slice into anything vital. Zeke screamed in agony as the blade bit into his side, snapping his ribs and slicing into his organs. But before he could even react, he saw another blade coming his way.

Suddenly, a pale form crashed into the blistered reaper wielding the second blade, and it took Zeke a second to recognize the figure as Talia. With a bestial snarl, she attacked the grievously wounded reaper, ripping into its flesh with her bare hands. Meanwhile, Pudge thundered past him, tackling the other reaper. Just before the bear hit, a silvery arrow sprouted from the reaper’s throat. It wouldn’t be enough to kill it, but it clearly hurt the monster.

“You going to just stand there with your guts hanging out?” came Abby’s voice. “Or are you going to finish that thing off?”

Zeke shook his head, coming back to the moment. Then, without responding, he turned his attention back to the recovering golem. He resumed his efforts, bringing every point of his strength to bear as his mace thudded into the monster’s head. Each blow gave him a little more vitality, which went to work on healing his wounds. His flesh knitted back together even as his organs reformed, and by the time he’d crushed the thing to a pulp, he’d healed himself back to something approaching workable condition.

In the meantime, Talia had ripped her opponent to shreds while the combination of Abby and Pudge had taken the other one down. Soon, the interior of the tower fell silent, save for the ragged gasps of air from the combatants.

“Are you okay?” Abby asked, stepping close to him and putting her hand on his wounded side. The reaper’s blade had ripped right through his armor, and it had bitten deeply into his torso. Without the armor, he’d have been bisected.

“I’m fine, now,” he said. “Leech strike helped.”

“Your guts were literally hanging out,” she said. “It more than helped. Is your armor going to be okay?”

Zeke looked down at his breastplate, wincing at the damage it had taken. The combination of fighting a horde of zombies, then battling a pair of elites and a boss-tier monster had left its mark. The armor bore jagged gashes and dents, and in places, looked as if it was barely holding together. His shield was no better off, though most of its damage looked to have been inflicted by the golem’s massive fist.

“It’s got a self-repair effect,” he said. “I don’t know what its limits are.”

“Luigi does good work,” was her response. “I’m sure it’ll be fine in a few days. I thought it would hold up better, though.”

“I think you underestimate how many times I got hit,” he muttered to himself. “I think we–”

“We need to go,” Tucker cut in, having approached. He was clutching his arm, which was clearly out of place. “Micayne doesn’t care about the zombies, but those golems and reapers, they ain’t easy to create. He’ll notice that they’re gone.”

“You alright?” Zeke asked, nodding at the man’s out-of-socket shoulder.

A red-tinged vial appeared in the man’s hand, and he downed the contents. “I will be,” he said. “Mind helping me get it back into place? The potion will take care of the rest.”

“Sure,” Zeke said, grabbing the man’s arm. Tucker winced, then let out a grunt when Zeke yanked it back into place.

Over the next few seconds, the man’s expression softened, then he rotated his arm, saying, “Ah, that’s better.”

“Give me a second to cure everyone,” Abby said, her hands already bearing the telltale blue glow of her [Cure Disease] skill. “Then, we can get out of here.”

Over the next few seconds, Abby banished the zombie contagion from both Zeke and Tucker; Pudge was unaffected, protected by something inherent to his being an animal, monster, or soulbound companion. Zeke didn’t know which it was, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

“None of my skills work,” came the still-unfamiliar voice of Talia. The pale girl had been so quiet and still that Zeke had forgotten she was even there. “They’re all different…”

“What?” Zeke asked.

“I…I was a healer…and now…I just tried to use my skill, [Purify], but…it…it didn’t work,” she said. “It’s been replaced.”

“How is that possible?” asked Abby.

Tucker said, “It happened with the twins, too. And the paladin.”

“W-what paladin?” Zeke asked. “Never mind. There will be time for all of that later. For now, I think we need to get out of here. Now.”

“I agree,” was Tucker’s reply. “I just –”

“You’ve gone too far this time, alchemist!” came a chilling voice from outside the tower. It cut through Zeke like a knife. “Come out, and beg for your worthless life. Perhaps I will be persuaded to spare you.”

“Oh, shit…”

“What…who was that?” Abby asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

“Oh, God…it’s him,” Talia said, visibly shaking.

“Who?” Zeke asked, barely holding it together. His every muscle was clenched, and wild terror stampeded through his mind. It took him a long few seconds to realize that he was under the influence of a skill. With a force of will, likely aided by his resistances, he managed to push the terror to the back of his mind. When he did, he asked, “W-what is that?”

“It’s Micayne,” Tucker said. “And we’re all going to die. Goddamnit! I knew I shouldn’t have used both of my Blessed Grenades. Now, we’re sitting ducks.”

“How do we fight him?” asked Zeke.

“We don’t!” Talia screeched. “He’s…he was one of the most powerful people in the world, even before he became a lich. And now? Now, he’s going to rip us apart, and…and…he’s going to send me back to the Abyss. I…I won’t go! I won’t…I c-can’t…”

“Calm down,” Abby said, crossing the room and putting her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “We’ve gotten out of tough situations before, and we’ll get out of this. I just…I just don’t know how.”

“This ain’t some monster,” Tucker spat. “This is a person. We don’t stand a damn chance.”

“I…disagree,” Zeke said. “Besides, we don’t have a choice, right? He’s going to kill us. We’ve got to fight. If we go down…well, I’ve died before, and it wasn’t so bad.”

“It was for me,” said the still trembling Talia. The girl was terrified, and she probably had good reason to be.

“We won’t let it come to that,” Abby assured her. “We just need a plan. Starting with you, big guy – what can you do? You have any more of those flashy grenades?”

“No,” Tucker said. “I’ve got other options, but nothing that’ll do more than piss that son of a bitch off. Maybe we’d stand a chance if I’d saved one of the Blessed Grenades, but…”

“Yeah,” Zeke said. “Maybe. But I think you’re underestimating us. Either way –”

“Come out now, or I’m sending my children in after you,” came Micayne’s scything voice. “If I have to do that, I promise you, you’ll regret making me. You’ve got thirty seconds.”

Zeke sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Here’s what we’re going to do…”