The Essence reached the corner and took the curve without slowing, then doubled back immediately, its momentum flawlessly redirected.

Drakonias was suddenly glad to be standing this far away, though he’d been eagerly awaiting a chance to close in. Though this might be their chance.

The deadly Essence’s abrupt course reversal closed the distance between it and the pursuing kalvex, which wasn’t fast enough to evade.

The kalvex tried to jump away, but the Essence’s crystal form smashed out with a dozen square-edged icicles that speared straight through the kalvex’s flank. It yelped and twisted, trying to bite at the Essence that had stabbed it, but the spiky ball only closed in.

The kalvex may have been level 19 with twice as much health as any human, but without any way to escape, that only meant the Essence had to work twice as hard to crush it to paste. However, that also meant it was briefly immobile for the duration as it pummeled its way through the wolf-monster’s health pool.

“NOW!”

Drakonias charged, with three of the other warriors close on his heels. His heavy red cloak flowed out behind him majestically, rippling to the cadence of his running footsteps.

All four of them slashed down in a perfect practiced move, none blocking each other, all slicing deep into the Essence and carving away pieces. Drakonias had drilled them on the way over until they could do it perfectly, and that effort was paying off now.

They didn’t risk their victory being turned to defeat by trying to press for more, scattering before the new Essence creatures even had time to finish forming.

“Get to high ground!”

The Essence’s lack of vertical mobility was their one advantage, but in its pure form it didn’t take damage from any source. Only once it had been sliced off into pieces could they even begin to make progress.

These slices had been much better than the tiny bites the kalvexes were doing, dropping the Essence almost 20%. Most of these slices produced Essence Crabs, but Drakonias made the biggest slice of all, his piece forming into a pointy-bearded humanoid with overly blocky proportions and broad shoulders.

Level 2+

(Essence Dwarf)

Health 100%

The effect of the teal Essence substance making up its body was eerie, the almost person-ness of its face combined with its glowing-crystal-statue look, the blank orbs of its eyes the same color as the rest of its body… it creeped Drakonias out, a little bit.

He grinned. “A worthy challenger!”

He accompanied his war-cry with one of his ninja stars flung at the dwarf.

The dwarf’s hand snapped up, faster than he could follow, and caught the weapon well clear of its body.

“Wow.” Drakonias ducked just in time as the dwarf hurled the bladed star back at him.

The dwarf immediately followed up the throw with a charge, its pointed frozen beard clinking against its chest as it ran at him.

Drakonias threw out several more ninja stars, then ran majestically up the stairs to the next floor, definitely not letting his tablecloth - majestic cloak - snag on anything in the way up.

While he was trying to untangle himself, the dwarf reached him and he was forced to abandon his beloved garb and fight to the death instead.

They clashed on the swaying platform, held vaguely to the side of the building by fixtures that had probably been up to code half a century ago, blade against claw, the dwarf trying to tear Drakonias's face off while Drakonias deflected and slashed.

A clicking clatter from the wall beside him betrayed the presence of intruders into their noble duel; one of the Essence Crabs from the chaos below had decided that Drakonias was too powerful to be left with only a single opponent and skittered into the fray.

Drakonias heard it coming, but its speed was too much for him to track. Before he could finish off his first adversary, the crab swiped out with a claw and snapped its pincers down on his sword.

"No you don't, vile villain!" Drakonias bellowed, flaring Destruction energy through the weapon. The orange and teal light of the two elements clashed against one another, warring for supremacy in a battle of wills. Drakonias didn't relent, bearing down on the crab with every ounce of his powerful mind.

The Essence Crab abruptly released his sword just as Drakonias made a great and mighty heave, sending him toppling backwards off balance. The dwarf seized the opening and ran at him.

Drakonias hit the railing hard, painfully, but he was a mighty warrior who only cried a little. He also screamed his rage at those who dared disrespect his strength, snatching up his forgotten cloak just in time to throw it over the dwarf's head like a matador with a particularly short and frosty bull.

"Hah! Let's see how you like it!" Drakonias kicked it away, sending it stumbling into the railing. Unlike Drakonias, who was only human in weight and didn't have the strength or innate magical nature to break steel on contact - yet - the dwarf was made of pure Ice Essence. The collision froze the thin metal, snapped it apart like matchsticks, and sent the blinded flailing dwarf toppling to the street below.

The Essence Crab snapped its pincer down on Drakonias's foot.

"Ow! Teme! Omaireehhh--" Drakonias broke into a dramatic tirade as he stabbed the crab over and over with his sword, pummeling the life out of it one slice at a time. Sure, his own health was almost out by the time he finished it off, and the dwarf was already climbing back up the ladder below, and there were three more crabs by now coming up the wall beside him, but he wasn't going to let minor details like that get in the way of his ultimate triumph!

"You didn't even bring my cloak back?" Drakonias reprimanded the dwarf, smacking it in the face the moment it appeared over the edge of the battered platform. "Have you no sense of propriety?"

The blank-eyed monster raised its hand, claw-like fingernails swiping at Drakonias with as little care for propriety as any barbarian of the wilds.

"Then if you live as a savage, you'll die as a savage!" Drakonias kicked it in the head... which was a mistake. It moved with Ice's uncanny haste, stabbing its claws into his ankle just above the armored boot, dragging a deep gouge into his leg and flipping Drakonias off balance.

He toppled over, grabbing the nearest crab as he fell in an instinctive attempt to catch himself. His weight easily dragged the crab free of the wall, not even slowing his fall.

Oops. Well, now he had a crab. Uhh…

The monster flailed and snapped its claws at his face, but since they were both falling in such a chaotic and uncontrolled way, Drakonias leveraged their shared confusion to throw the creature into the dwarf's face.

Which did leave him slightly surrounded, but that didn't matter any more. What he needed wasn't the high ground any more.

Drakonias jumped through the broken railing, landing in a superhero crouch directly over his fallen cloak. With a dramatic whirl, he snatched it up and retied its slightly ragged form around his neck again where it belonged.

Alas, this delay cost him the seconds he needed to escape his pursuit. The crabs jumped the railing and skittered forward. The dwarf crashed straight through the flimsy metal, diving claws-first straight into Drakonias’s back.

It hurt. Not the normal pain he’d grown used to, but something deeper and impossible to ignore. Blood ran down his back and alerts flickered in the corner of his vision.

Warning! Health: 0%

Warning! Mana: 0%

Warning! Stamina: 0%

Drakonias stumbled back. He was surrounded and outnumbered again, this time on the verge of death. His whole body protested, his mind frantically trying to recalculate some route to victory.

He would go down fighting, he would…

His sword flickered lamely, its glow fading as the reality of his impending death became very real to him.

All his fighting, all his training, and in the end the Essence monsters were just stupidly overpowered for their low level.

He smacked back the nearest crab with a wild swing. It hardly damaged the creature. None of them were even under half health.

His frantic swings felt weak and insufficient, as the monsters darted in and snapped or swiped at him. Every injury hit with full impact, no health to mitigate the damage, no stamina to enhance his reactions.

This really would be the last stand of Drakonias. He felt very human, no longer heroic. Mundane and doomed.

He backed away, head whipping from side to side as he searched desperately for a way out, any way out. He didn’t throw himself headlong into the fight, no longer consumed with winning, only trying to find some way to survive.

In all the dungeons he’d run, he’d never felt like this before. It had always been thrilling, dangerous, risky, exhilarating. Not…. this.

And that was the moment when she appeared.

As Drakonias stood reeling at the enormity of his despair...

Riana fell upon the enemies in a whirlwind of power and beauty, as though descended from the very heavens as a beacon of hope.

With his spirits renewed, Drakonias raised his sword with a battle cry and charged back at his nemesis, the evil dwarf that dared stand against their combined glory.

This would not be the last stand of Drakonias after all! He still had plenty of fighting left to do. He just wouldn’t be doing it alone.