Chapter 18: Dungeon of Death Mountain

In parts unknown, deep within an ancient building that shadows had claimed, a mysterious, shirtless figure was currently in this imposing building's main bedroom sleeping quietly on his silken bed. The sheer darkness in the room made it impossible to discern this figure's features. Still, there were a few features about this man that the darkness couldn't hide, such as his scar-covered torso and arms, which were also covered in tattoos, his muscular shirtless body, the faint red scar around his neck, and the (dragon-shaped star marking)on the back of his neck. However, the most important thing to note about this man currently was the (beautiful, dark red gemstone he wore on his neck.) The gem itself was glowing hotly, and it was enough to rouse the shadowy man from his slumber slowly.

The room itself was decorated with several items from all over the world, including an antique wardrobe and various other furniture that looked almost like antiques. As for what precisely this room was used for, no one knew. It might have been initially some kind of storehouse or perhaps even a temple, but its purpose was unclear. There was only one person who could answer any questions about the building's history, and that was the owner of this room—

"That… sensation I felt just now…" The mysterious figure said to himself, palming the jewel inside his necklace. The red stone was still shining brightly, and it didn't look like it was going to die down anytime soon. Letting the necklace dangle from his neck once more, the figure got up from his king-sized bed and walked towards the full-length mirror he owned.

"It would appear… that they finally summoned a new king…" The man said to himself before he once again palmed the glowing Jewel in his necklace. "And if my guess is right, then this will be quite troublesome."

After finishing his morning routine, the mysterious man left his room to head downstairs. The stairs weren't really necessary since he could just glide across the floor, but it was always nice to stretch his legs every now and then, so he decided to go down by foot. He reached the basement, where the door leading outside was located. "When was the last time I attack those drunken midgets?… But I must do something about the new king they summoned… Eventually, he will become aware of my existence and come after me…"

The man's mind started racing at the thought of how this new king would try to kill him. He was sure that the new king wouldn't hesitate to try to assassinate him, and even though he knew that the king's power wasn't even close to his own, he still …" The man growled, annoyed at having to deal with this unnecessary complication.

"...I may have to act sooner than I originally anticipated… once my rock dragon finishes off the rock barbarians but until then I'll be forced to send somebody after him…" However, as the man said this, his grimace turned into a smirk.

"...and I think I know just who to send…"

"My lord..." A servant greeted the man as he came down the stairs.

The man in question let out a small sigh. "Yes?"

"A messenger has arrived. They say they bear news regarding the progress of your plans against the kingdom."

"Very well, show them in." The man ordered.

Once the man saw the messenger enter his presence, he immediately recognized her.

"Elvia, you called?" The man asked with a slight grin.

The girl nodded silently and took a seat on one of the chairs in front of the man's desk. The man took a seat opposite the girl and folded his hands in his lap. Elvia glanced around the room, observing the many bookshelves and paintings on display. She was impressed by the wealth of knowledge contained within the man's office. "So, what did you want to talk about, Elvia?" The man asked.

"Thank you, Lord Sion," Elvia replied.

"It's nothing. I'm glad you came. You can tell me everything," the man said with a warm smile. Not that anyone should trust this smile.

"Okay, but first…" Elvia paused briefly. "You've been very busy lately, haven't you?"

Sion's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, but he quickly regained his composure and gave a nonchalant laugh. "I don't see why you'd think that, Elvia. I'm not busy; I'm simply trying to do what needs to be done."

"No, I mean you've been working hard recently. All the meetings we've had and the preparations you've made... They're all for the sake of this war, aren't they?" Elvia continued.

"War? What war are you talking about?" Sion asked, confused.

"This war. Between our country and the Kingdom. We heard the rumours that you were planning on starting one." Elvia clarified further.

Sion frowned. "If you say so. I am merely doing what needs to be done, that much I can assure you."

"I'm afraid those plans may have to wait, my lord," Elvia said.

"Why is that?" Sion asked.

"Because the King they summoned already undid the financial damages, captured and detain all of our merchants... We have no information coming from the Kingdom, my lord."

"What?!" Sion exclaimed, surprised at this revelation.

"Apparently, the new king has managed to capture all of our spies and has taken steps to prevent us from sending more spies in his direction," Elvia explained.

"That's impossible! Why would he do such a thing?" Sion asked.

"We don't know, but it seems that he's been very thorough about capturing the spies and keeping them under his control. As a result, any royals we have turned have been arrested and their assets seized. On top of that, all of our undercover agents have all been arrested as well." Elvia explained.

Sion was stunned. "How long ago did all these events happen?" Sion asked.

"About two months ago into his service, my lord. From what I understand, the new King has been extremely active ever since he ascended to the throne," Elvia replied.

Elvia feels like she can't breathe, maybe because Lord Olaf Sion was choking her. "What have idiots been doing!?" He bellowed holding her up to the wall with one hand.

She struggled to speak, "Y-Your highness, please, calm yourself!"

He released his grip on her throat. "Explain because the last time I checked the Kingdom was losing money, territory, losing influence and losing people. So how in the world are they managed to fight me back If they can't secure themselves to me and my comrades?" He yelled and slammed her face into the wall so hard it knocked her out cold.

"Someone send this bitch to the stables or the orcs I don't care! Her life doesn't matter anymore!" He yelled. "Inform the other three lords that I want them here in twenty moons! If you fail to bring them here, I will execute your families and everyone else connected with them." He said this last part while looking at the shaking servant.

"Understood, my lord," the man answered.

For the longest time, Desmend D. Dylan thought that panic was a word that didn't exist in his vocabulary. No matter how grim, hopeless, or dangerous the situation got, the trickster of the Zulu tribe bloodline almost always managed to devise a plan that ended with him getting the last laugh.

However, as Desmend flew thousands of feet through the air screaming, he began to realize that panic might be in his vocabulary after all.

"HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT!"

Just maybe.

"OKAY, ALRIGHT! Just calm down Desmend! Calm down! You can do this! You're a genius who can think his way out of practically any situation! Just don't think about how you're about to crash into that sea of volcanic rocks any second now…!... Wait… WAIT WAIT WAIT! I'VE GOT AN IDEA!" Wasting no time at all now that he had a way to save himself, Desmend quickly redirected his trajectory towards some of the more clustered trees before curling up into a ball.

How are trees growing in a firey, volcano theme dungeon, probably rock monster-infested place like this he would never know. However, Desmend was thankful for whatever good fortune brought these trees to his rescue.

"I hope this works!"

After doing all this, he also began to let Vespa flow through his body, causing the warrior energy to radiate throughout him. For all intents and purposes, Desmend essentially became a spinning, balled up Vespda conductor.

Which was exactly what he wanted.

Just as Desmend figured, as soon as he crashed into the dense amount of leaves, the Vespa energy that was radiating throughout him spread through the leaves, stabilizing them to the point where they could all support his weight. The basic principle of this technique worked similarly to a hair attack he saw on tv back on regular where the physics are normal safe━earth. By flooding the power of Vespa through the normally frail leaves, they were able to harden to the point that they could hold him up and soften his landing simultaneously.

"God damn! Man! That was a close one!" Desmend breathed out, lying back on the leaves for a moment to catch his breath. As he lied back and looked towards the sky, he saw the sun beginning to set in the distance. "Man, I'm hungry as hell! I wonder if there's any food around here…" Desmend mumbled to himself.

After taking another moment to catch his breath, Desmend decided it was time to move on.

"Alright, now I just gotta get down from-"

*CRACK*

"...here" Desmend finished, cold sweat running through him as the implications of that loud crack sank in for him. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't really using his Vespa breathing anymore… and these leaves did seem a lot less… stable.

...

...

...

"OH…

Bloody…

HEl-!"

And before Desmend could finish that exclamation, the leaves finally gave out and sent him falling deeper into the orange-red foliage.

*CRUNCH*

"What is this!"

*CRAACK*

"Shizz!"

*SPLINT*

"SANADABEETCH"

*WHUMP*

"NO! MY SEXY IRONMAN HAND!"

As one could likely imagine, falling through so much foliage and colliding with practically every branch made for a pretty terrible landing for the Zulu tribe descendant. However, as Desmend kept crashing through the trees, he saw that he was about to reach the end of the branches and that it was a 20-foot drop to the ground.

"Leather enhanced engraved armour is not SHOCK absorbent!!" That was all Desmend could yell as he fell towards the ground. However, right as he was about to faceplant the ground, he stopped.

"...Wait… what the hell?" It took the Chosen One another moment before he realized that he was dangling in the air, apparently having got caught on something on the way down.

"Did I get gnarled up in something on the way down? What the hell caught me?" However, before Desmend could attempt to look up and see what he got caught on, he suddenly faces planted the ground.

"Well…" Desmend groaned as he got his face off the ground and dusted himself off still wearing the damn mask. "That was a miserable experience." Once he made sure that he was properly dusted off and that his clackers and bag were still tied to his belt, Desmend looked upwards to try and see what caught him. However, to his great surprise, the Shaka Zulu descendant saw nothing aside from a few falling leaves.

The fact the leaves were literally on fire didn't bother him.

"What…? There's no vines or anything! So what the hell happened!?" However, after a moment, Desmend just sighed and shook his head in frustration.

"Y'know what? Screw it, there are more important things to worry about than invisible vines. Like finding that… thing I'm supposed to find." Now that he thought about it, what was Desmend supposed to be doing here? He hadn't really been paying much attention when Clementine and Aura went into detail on that. He knew he was supposed to find… something, he just couldn't remember what.

"Well," Desmend shrugged as he picked a random direction and started walking. "I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go along."

"God, this impossible fire forest sure is dark..." Desmend thought as he continued his walk through the Ironbark Forest. It seemed that the part of the forest he ended up in was far denser than the other sections. He also noticed that because the treetops were so close together, the leaves ended up blocking out any potential rays of sunlight, making it seem like night had come early.

"How am I supposed to find the rock people? It's not like the goddess gave me directions!" Desmend thought as he sped up his pace. It was strange though... despite this part of the forest seeming like the perfect hotspot for the ugly monsters, or ugly monsters that talk to lurk in, he hadn't run into anything since he landed. It was actually very eerie, just how quiet this area was.

After a few more minutes of walking, however, Desmend happened upon quite an interesting sight. Although it certainly wasn't a demon beast.

"Well, well, well... what have we here…?" Desmend said to himself. Strung up between two trees was a thick white string. It was a strange sight that was very out of place in the dark and red-green forest with red fire ground. Deciding to try and see what the string was made of, Desmend grabbed onto the string and felt its texture.

"Urrgh… it's all silky and… adherent…" Desmend grimaced. Deciding he had enough, the Chosen One tried to withdraw his gloved hand from the string. However, he found that the string was still stuck to his hand like glue.

"Noy Jitat! Don't tell this is what I think it is!" Desmend groaned out, doubling his efforts. "GOD! WHAT IS THIS CRAP!? LIQUID CEMENT!?" Fortunately, after pulling with all his strength, the Chosen One was finally able to dislodge his hand from the string, the force from his pulling landing him on his back.

"Urrgh, grof!" Desmend groaned when he realized that some of the silk from the string was still stuck to his hand. "What the hell is that stuff!? It's almost like some… kind of… webbing…"

Once Desmend said this, he began to take a better look at his surroundings, and what he saw was unsettling, to say the least. When Desmend took a better look around, he realized that white string wasn't the only one in the area. He just now realized that he was completely surrounded by the same strings, all of them connected to different trees like some sort of network of webbing.

"...It's like I'm in a big spiderweb…" Desmend uttered, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about this entire part of the forest. This discomfort wasn't eased when he noticed some white bundles of varying sizes stuck to various different strings.

"...I better skedaddle on outta here before the welcoming committee comes to greet me." Not at all eager to find the creator of these webs, Desmend quickly sprinted out of the area, taking extra caution to not get caught in any of the webbings.

"Sweetness!" Desmend exclaimed happily as he was finally greeted with the strange colour sky once again. "Oh sunlight, daddy's missed you! Nice to finally be outta that creepy part of the forest." Once Desmend said this and took in the wonderful rays of light, he then decided to focus on what to do next.

"Well, I still have no idea where to go... so what does that leave me with…" Desmend said to himself, trying to think of a way to find out where he was supposed to go, and more importantly, where this place was even at. However, as he looked around his surroundings, still deep in thought, he took note of just how tall the trees in this forest were. This in turn gave him a pretty good idea.

"Guess I'll just get a good lay of the land and find out where to go from there." Desmend decided, realizing that he would be bound to find something of note while up there, whether it be his objective or monster.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

However, before Desmend could even attempt to climb one of the trees, the sound of something approaching caught his attention. When he turned towards the source, he was greeted with two gigantic black beasts charging towards him.

Taking this in stride, the Chosen One quickly jumped out of the monsters' way. When they finally stopped upon realizing they missed their target, they turned towards him, giving Desmend a good look at his opponents.

In front of him were two gigantic elephant-like monsters. Their bodies were covered in pitch-black fur and they both had a bone-like plating dotted through their bodies haphazardly. Standing 9 ft (2.7 m) tall, oversized hands tipped with vicious claws. Their massive heads resembled those of elephants with smaller eyes, ears, teeth and mouths. They had rheumy, red eyes and a serpentine trunk ending in a long, narrow spike. What caught Desmend's eye the most about these creatures were their faces. Both of them had white, mask-like faces similar to the plating on their bodies. The masks also had a red lining that all led up to eyes that burned with pure, animalistic fury. A fury that was directed towards him. Most normal men and women would usually be cowering in fear during their first encounter with demon beasts, especially with ones as intimidating as the Maelephant.

However, Desmend D. Dylan was not a normal man. Not when he is off his meds.

"YEESH! What a sight! Does the rest of your freaky monster race look so... freaking looking, or are you freaks just the freaky exception!?" Desmend finished lamely, stumbling over his words in an attempt to find the right word describing the snarling, pitch-black monsters in front of him. As if in response to this demand, the Maelephants leading the pack quickly charged towards the muscular brunette roaring. Taking this in stride, he merely threw himself out of the monster's course.

"...Should I take that as a 'yes' then?"

As if in response to this question, the two other demon beasts proceeded to charge him as well. Thinking quickly, the muscular South African used his Vespa to help him jump straight over the two charging beasts.

"Okay okay, sheesh! I guess the stupid, drooling monsters don't wanna talk." Desmend said melodramatically before he looked towards the demon beasts with a renewed smile on his face. "Guess we skip right to the fighting then! I'd say it's high time to see just how well my Vespa burns you fuckers to a crisp!" And upon making this cocky declaration, Desmend quickly got into a capoeira fighting stance, ready to see just how well his warrior energy would fare against the demon beast on his own.

"Congratulations chaps! I give a SWORD OVERDRIVE!"

Once that weird looking elephant tried to attack Desmend once more, he responded in kind. As the beast tried to ram him as it did before, the Chosen stopped it dead in its tracks when his sword, which was radiating with Vespa and Mana, collided with it's freak snake trunk

"GRORAUGHHHHH!" The demon beast wailed in agony, the Vespa Mana-infused attack burning away at its skin, a result that pleased Desmend greatly.

"Well~! Looks like you fellows are easy to cut. Time to die!" He declared, pleased with where this fight was going. The ulgy elephant missing it trunk, now enraged thanks to Desmend's attack, charged the brunette at full speed with the intention to maul him. Taking this in stride, Desmend actually charged right back at the thing. However, at the last moment, Desmend managed to quickly get into a kneeling position and managed to slide under the bleeding Maelephant.

Once he made it under the monster, Desmend wasted no time and jumped onto the back of the confused creature. As soon as he got on its back, he brought out his clackers and put them into action. Surging Mana through the repurposed toys, Desmend slammed all four steel balls into the back of the Mealephant's skull, creating four clacker-sized holes in the creature's head. The effects of the piercing weapons were immediate, and after being fatally struck by the Chosen, the thing could only let out a pathetically weak roar before it collapsed, dead.

Feral Weakened Maelephant (D-) | 0 → 524 LP

"That's one down... and it worth 20 AP," Desmend thought triumphantly, almost unaware of the 2nd Feral Maelephant coming at him, its fangs bared.

Almost.

"One more to go! Let's see if anime is dat shizz " As soon as the charging beast got into his range, Desmend turned around and launched a sword strike towards the beast. With the Vespa pulsing through the blade, his sword was able to extend like rubber, allowing Desmend to deliver a Vespa-charged sucker strike right between the beast's eyes.

"Hmph. Now to finish you off!" As the beast was distracted by its burning wound, Desmend took the opportunity to build up some momentum in his clackers. By the time the thing recovered from the dirty attack, his clackers were now bouncing around at a dangerously high speed.

"Eat this you damn moron! CLACKER VOLLEY!" And with that, Desmend released both of the clackers from his grip, allowing them to go flying towards the blind Maelephant. With no time to dodge, the beast could only watch as the steel balls lodged themselves in its head with a sickening CRUNCH! For a brief moment, the entire forest seemed oddly quiet, with Desmend waiting to see the fruits of his labour and the demon beast completely still, for whatever reason. And then, just as soon as the silence came, it left when the Maelephant suddenly collapsed, black blood pouring from the burning holes the clackers created.

"Well~! That was pleasantly easy!" Desmend remarked as he walked up to the fallen beast to retrieve his clackers. "If that's really all these demon beast creatures have to offer, then I'm a bit surprised these Clementine and her knights haven't managed to exterminate them all."

Feral Weakened Maelephant (D-) | 0 → 544 LP

It was at this point, conveniently after making this little remark, that fate decided to shit all over Desmend

"Grrrrrrr….."

As Desmend fished his weapons out of the dead elephant's skull, he began to hear the sound of growling from behind him. Turning around, the South African found himself looking at a rather distressing sight.

"That's… that's a lot of bull… or woolly mammoth, in this case…"

It seemed that the fight between Desmend and the really ugly elephants garnered some unwanted attention because the trickster now found himself facing a hoard of forty Rocky Mastodons, which all seemed to have set their sights on their new prey.

They have four tusk-like horns, so he's thinking they're probably not mammoths anymore. It was going to be tough fighting them all, but what else could he do? His magic would not work against them for obvious reasons. While Desmend had no doubt that he could likely take down one or five of this woolly mammoth-like demon beast with no real difficulty, forty all at once could prove to be a real problem. And so, the Chosen One decided that for the time being, he would rely on his emergency technique until he could come up with something better.

"Time to put my ultimate move to good use!"

With this in mind, Desmend immediately turned around 180 degrees and sprinted back into the dark sector of the Ironbark Forest, a hoard of screeching Mastodons spinning after him.

"Grandma would so not believe me outrunning rock fur covered-elephants," Desmend thought as he sprinted through the darkened forest, taking extra care to not get caught in any webbing as he ran, the Mastodons hot on his trail. Upon hearing the sound of something cutting through the ground and coming right for him, Desmend performed another Vespa-infused vault, allowing him to sail right above a Mastodon that attempted to run him down from behind with its spinning dash attack.

"GET OUT OF MY FACE YOU STUPID FREAK NATURE!" Wasting no time, the trickster of the Zulu tribe bloodline punted the elephant-like monster to the side with a Vespa infused kick once it slowed down. The kick was more than enough to send the fur-covered thing off squealing and bouncing off various trees. Desmend couldn't take any time to slow down and appreciate his brief victory, however, with the rest of the Mastodon hoard right behind him.

"Heh... what these things don't know is that they're all walking right into my trap! Just need to get a little further…!" And after a few more moments of sprinting, the Chosen one quickly slid under something before he came to a halt.

"Made it." And with a triumphant grin on his face, Desmend turned around to see a Mastodon leaping towards him, ready to maul him. But before it could reach Desmend, the demon beast suddenly came to a halt mid-charge. The creature seemed to be very confused by its current predicament and tried to move out of the position it was currently in, but it seemed that struggling only made it harder for the elephant to move. Since it was so preoccupied with catching its target, the dumb demon beast failed to notice or avoid the large line of webbing that was set up between the trees.

"You guys don't get out do you?" Desmend asked rhetorically as he looked past the strung up elephant demon beast. Just as he figured, the rest of the hoard got strung up in the rest of the webbing located in the area. Pleased with the results so far, Desmend moved over to a part of the string unoccupied by the struggling hoard and grabbed onto it to enact the final phase of his plan.

"Before I left this part of the forest, I noticed something very interesting about the webbing in this area. Once I got a closer look and checked the corners of the trees, I found out that all this webbing is connected. What I mean is that there aren't multiple strings like I initially thought, just a gigantic one that covers this entire area!"

"Rahhhaaa...!"

As Desmend mentally gloated, he began to charge the power of the universe through his entire body, readying himself for his final attack. Once his body was positively radiating with heat and life, he knew he was ready to fry every single ensnared Rocky Mastodon.

"And since this webbing is a naturally produced substance, that makes it a perfect Vespa conductor! Which mean you boys are all essentially ensnared in live wiring! Now enjoy my special electric Vespa treat!"

"Super Hero Static Shock!"

And with that hot-blooded statement, Desmend surged his electrical Vespa through the web, lethally frying the entire hoard in one go. Once the Vespa had run its course, all of the Mastodon had been fried to ash. The only evidence that they were even there in the first place was the small piles of ash that littered the entire sector.

Feral Weakened Maelephant (D-) x40 | 0 → 1,324 LP

"Oh yeah! (woo woo)" Desmend sang, triumph clear in his voice. Half kid, half amazin'>--"

*click-click-click-click*

However, before Desmend could even finish the next verse. He heard a very odd… clicking noise.

*Click-Click-Click-Click*

What…? What the hell is that noise…!? Where's it coming from!?" Desmend thought aloud, an unpleasant sensation beginning to run through his spine. For some reason, this clicking seemed to be coming from every direction, making pinpointing its source very difficult.

*ClackClackClackClack*

Now, the noise just seemed to be getting louder with no clear source. 'Damn! This isn't good…! I'm out in the open, and I have no clue where this enemy is!' Desmend knew that the smart move would be to book it out of here as quickly as he could, but he found that he couldn't bring himself to move his legs. It was like he was glued to the spot.

*Clack

Clack*

And just then, the clicking suddenly began to come from one direction,

which was right behind the Chosen One…

Desmend didn't want to, but he knew he had to look towards the source of these noises. And so, mustering up his courage, the South African Dylan slowly turned around, coming face to face with a gigantic, pitch-black lava drooling spider monster with smouldering red eyes, its long, pincer-like legs clacking against the bark of the tree.

"I should have listened to all those horror movies! Each time a brother goes off to the woods, he doesn't even sort of come back."

-To Be Continued

Here is unfinished drawing of Desmend: