SockySake

  The giant hand gripped hard against the entrance, as if it were trying to destroy the indestructible stone. But it did not yield, even against the power of a tier 6 wraith.

  In a swift motion, the hand pulled along the rest of the ape, and it flew through the air and toward unsuspecting people still scrambling away.

  Before the ape could nd on them, a fsh of light shone. One person in the grouping must have activated the teleporter. But as the light cleared, a few people remained.

  Whoever activated the teleporter had activated it on a higher floor, leaving behind those who hadn't reached it themselves.

  The ape crashed on top of the remaining mortals. They were crushed underfoot and didn't even get to utter a cry of pain. Their deaths were just that quick.

  "Gaaaaggghhh!!!" The ape wraith roared at his successful kills.

  "Teleport to the lower floors if you must!!! Don't leave anyone behind!!!" Damian hollered at the top of his lungs so that everyone could hear.

  But instead of staying to fight, some other adventurers teleported up the Spire right away. Not only did they leave them behind, but they took other willing fighters with them who were standing too close.

  Damian charged toward where the ape nded, already charging up his sword with mana. He pointed it at the beast and fired a fireball that nded right on its nose.

  The wraith wasn't impressed by the dispy and focused on the rger crowds of people who hadn't yet abandoned them. With another leap, it came crashing down toward another group of people; this time, everyone teleported out safely.

  After it nded, everyone in the room started to fire off their skills toward the ape. Frey's beam of fire hit the monstrosity in the middle of the spine, boring into the unnatural creature. But unlike with weaker wraiths, her attack only penetrated a little more than skin deep.

  Damn...

  "Keep up the fire!!!" Damian yelled as he got closer to the ape, but once again, the creature leapt up into the air at another group. This time, people were in the right headspace and spread out across different teleporters.

  The ape nded with crackling lightning that shot out toward all nearby. Again, people were teleporting up to escape the unreasonable threat. The only tier 6 among them was Ms. Sanderson, who was out of commission.

  "Spread out!!! Get Away From The Entrance!" Damian hollered out to the masses. If they were further away, the ape's jump would take longer to reach someone, and they had to be wary of the other wraiths approaching from the wall.

  Some more people here and there winked out of the teleport bay, fleeing from the overwhelming situation. Dammit!!! No wonder Ms. Sanderson built the wall so far away from the Spire! She had taken away the option to flee by teleportation, forcing them to fight.

  Damian went straight to the rge group he expected the wraith's next target to be. As he ran, he could see people spreading out and barking orders to their party members; a few of the people were actually headed straight for the hallways of the dungeon.

  They probably can't teleport up at all.

  Ok, clearly this bastard can be hurt, he's missing an arm after all. Has he not regenerated it because it'd reduce his size... or maybe he can't.

  Actually, this wraith didn't feel so much like a wraith, much more physical, like a dungeon monster. Can that be used? Damian stared at the hole that Frey had bored into it.

  ... If I'm wrong about this, people are going to be livid.

  "Aim for its legs!!! It can't regenerate!!!" Damian screamed at the top of his lungs.

  One of a wraith's defining characteristics was its immunity to disablement. Cut off an arm? Lop of a head? No problem for a wraith. It'll just move its ethereal mass around a bit, and 'Pop', a new one springs out, just at the low, low cost of decreasing their size.

  But if they ever lost this advantage, it would be like taking down a more powerful dungeon monster with skills. That seemed far more feasible than fighting an almost undying monster.

  At Damian's decration, the adventurers and guards changed the focus of their fire. Instead of just trying to whittle the beast down by nding as many hits as possible on the core of the body, they were aiming at the beast's legs and head.

  As the ape bastard was preparing to jump, all of a sudden, one of Alex's javelins was lodged in its right ankle. The creature wasn't able to fully extend for its jump and careened to the right of its designated target.

  "GYAOOO!!!" The beast roared in anger, its voice booming.

  As it was getting up, numerous fighters were slinging spells from all sides. It seemed to change its mind about getting up; instead, it curled up into a ball, putting its one hand behind its neck. The electricity rolling off its body calmed as well.

  Damian was getting closer and closer to nding a hit on the beast. But the back of his mind was in panic. There is no way a wraith would give up. What the hell is its aim? Defend itself until the wraiths outside the tower get here to aid it? Undead aren't supposed to be that smart.

  As Damian was still running toward the creature, he saw a small spark shoot off its lone arm. The danger sense in the back of his mind was roaring. He immediately turned incorporeal, not fully understanding why.

  As his ethereal form was still wafting toward his target, he saw what looked like the top of a tree appear in front of him. Silver blue branches had arced all around the brute in front of him. They were connecting with every person within several paces of the beast.

  As Damian left his incorporeal form, he could see the people within range of the creature turn to ash in front of him, as if they were never there.

  Everyone else in the room was covering their eyes from the blinding light. Damian was the only one who could still see the wraith lying there with its eyes closed... and that bastard... that bastard was smiling.

  Wraiths weren't supposed to feel emotions such as glee! They only hungered to kill the living! What the hell was this thing?!

  Damian felt anger surge through his system as he approached the fucker! Moving faster and faster to stab it. He was right in front of its face when it finally opened its eyes, and Damian's fire-charged sword plunged right in.

  "GYAAAAAA!!!"

  Damian's whole arm dove into the ape's eye. The wraith jerked its head back and screamed, and Damian was pulled along with it. He was pouring his mana into his sword repeatedly, sending as many fire-charged wind bdes as possible to bounce around the giant's eye socket.

  The beast was removing its left hand from behind its neck to crush Damian, but he jumped high into the air, pulling his arm and sword out of the socket.

  As he was airborne, the ape opened its other eye and stared at him as gravity turned against Damian, and he fell back to the ground.

  With a fsh, the ape shot out its arm to grab him, but Damian blended into the wind, flowing between the beast's outstretched fingers. The deadly wind became corporeal again right before the remaining eye, and Damian plunged his sword and arm as deep as possible, firing off as many fire wind bdes as time would allow.

  He could feel that the ape's hand was crashing back toward its head with deadly speed. Damian pushed off the ape's head, leaving his sword behind.

  Damian crashed into the indestructible floor and began rolling away from the monstrosity.

  The beast screamed in anger once again. "GYAAAAAAOOOO!!!"

  It was thrashing on the ground, holding its head, kicking its feet in the air in a fit of rage. Then it smmed its one hand into the ground and righted itself up in a single movement.

  Still blind, it started to swing its one arm around wildly, trying to strike at Damian. It wasn't like a wraith at all, more like a wild animal throwing a tantrum now that it found out that the food it was pying with could fight back.

  Damian was backpedalling out of the bastard's range. It had no clue where he was and started to move toward a group of adventurers that hadn't teleported away.

  It looked like their vision was starting to return, though only a few seconds had passed since the lightning fsh. Many people had already fled up the Spire after being blinded.

  "Over Here You Bastard!!!" Damian yelled to draw the ape away from the people.

  Although he did too good a job at drawing it to him because the beast unched itself in Damian's direction with its good leg.

  To get away, Damian dove to the side, not yet ready to teleport before seeing this bastard's end. As the beast crashed down, he expected it to shoot out more lightning, but the nding only ended in a thud.

  Maybe it used it all up in that rge-scale attack... But you can never be too careful. This bastard has already proven itself to be sly.

  Quickly, the wraith twisted its upper body, swinging its arms... arm around. If it had both still intact, the st swing might have hit Damian.

  More and more people regained their vision and started firing at the wraith once again. But they also had to start paying attention to the Spire entrance.

  The wraiths from outside were starting to pour in. Lieutenant Higgins led that charge, forming a shield wall with her soldiers to block any interference from outside.

  People were throwing everything at the beast. Its skin was starting to wear ice and rock shards like decorations. Fire and water didn't seem as effective. The blunt force of the water shots was dampened by the fur, which was either fireproof or too water-drenched to catch fire.

  What should I do now? My sword is rolling around in that thing's eye socket. I have a dagger, but what use is that going to do?

  As Damian pnned his next steps, he saw Alex light up with Fergus's boost. Her hand was immediately down at her side, and a new javelin was decorating the back of the ape bastard's skull.

  "GYYYYAAAAAAOOOO!!!"

  It roared in anger, clutching the back of its head. The javelin had only penetrated a bit into the head.

  That's a start. Damian scanned the crowd for someone with a one-handed hammer or mace he could borrow. He spotted one on the ground covered in ash.

  Dashing over, Damian swiped the weapon off the ground. Hot to the touch, the hammer was still in one piece, but the leather grip was gone entirely. I'll avenge you.

  "Get its legs!" Damian screamed. That yell was met with another lunge from the beast in his direction. But this time, instead of a complete jump, the ape fell headfirst into the ground.

  At its foot, an illusory bear trap had caught its leg. Then a stack of giant transparent books fell on its head, driving the spike further into the beast.

  Damian didn't let this moment go as he was already running onto its back. Ethereal chains and ropes of water tched onto its legs and arm, stalling it for a brief moment.

  With a jump, Damian brought the hammer down on the javelin, half its length disappearing into the wraith's head. The ape convulsed. He raised his arm again and hammered the javelin. The ape didn't move. Once more, he raised his arm and brought it down. The bastard convulsed!

  Pretending to be dead! You tried it on the wrong person!!!

  "Haaa!!!" Thwump!

  "Haaaaaa!!!" Thwump!

  "Haaaaaaaa!!!" Thwump!

  Damian continued to hammer the javelin into the beast over and over until he was only hitting the monster's skull. But he still wasn't satisfied.

  Wraiths were supposed to disappear upon death. Why isn't this bastard disappearing? Is it the same reason why it didn't heal its form and felt more physical than ethereal?

  Damian didn't care, just kept bringing the hammer down and cracking open more of its skull. At least he'd be doing a service to the hammer's former owner.

  As he brought the hammer down once more, he felt a tug at his back.

  Thud. Damian nded on the ground and began sliding backward toward his party, being reeled in by Alex's tether. He felt all his energy drain away; his mind was like a fog of exhaustion, and strange emotions were bubbling up as he finally let go of his heightened state.

  In his half-addled mind, Damian was feeling a sense of accomplishment. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had done something other than just surviving. His actions actually mattered, right?

  How many lives did he just save? Was Alex right, and were they going to be written about like heroes from the old tales? Being someone like Dalen, who took life by the reins, rather than just reacting to what it threw at you?

  I hope I looked cool, was his st thought as he started to lose consciousness.

  But before he could fully conk out, Damian felt a warm light spread over his body. Then he realized that his right arm and hand had been in searing pain. A vial was violently shoved into his mouth, forcing the liquid back.

  "Cough, cough!" Wrong pipe, wrong pipe!

  Vigorous energy started to flow through him, and he caught the tail end of his hand being healed. It was a bloody mess, likely from using a searing hot heavy weapon without a grip.

  "Ugh, what's happening? What do we need to do next?" Damian was already ready to rejoin the fight.