Runeblade

Leaning forwards, Kaius peered around the shattered jewel-encrusted gate that led to the final district of the dwarven city. Like a mountain with its top shorn clean off, the pinnacle of the dwarven city was a flat and open space.

Great stone tiles as large as a house paved its surface, while equidistant ridged stone columns surrounded the edges of the constructed plateau. Nothing linked them, the edge of the rise a simple sheer drop to the administrative district far below.

Masterful dwarven construction it might have been, but the stout engineers clearly had no mind for safety.

Dozens of statues dotted the space, each one twice his own height and an artist's magnum opus in their own right. Stone flowed as if cloth, shone as if polished plate armour, and damn near breathed as if it was living. Each depicted what must have been some dwarven paragon, bastions of their society immortalised in regal sculpture. As was to be expected, most were warriors and artisans, plying the tools of their trades. Yet not all, on more than one occasion he spotted the familiar crook of a magi's staff, or the scrolls and quill of a scholar.

However, despite the sublime creations that put even the masterpieces of the lower city to shame, it was not the dwarf-craft that held his attention. Instead it was another figure—far more mean and terrible—that prowled through the garden of carved stone.

Hulking.

Brutish.

Bestial.

It must have been an easy eighteen strides tall to his six and a half. Its skin was more callus than flesh, grey warts and knobbled lumps marring its off-green complexion. A head too large, too deformed, to look natural - only held in place by an equally grotesque neck. One so short that its chin almost merged with its chest.

A heavy, jutting brow shielded its pinhole eyes from the radiance of the false sun above. Despite that significant cover, the ogre still winced in discomfort every time it faced in the false-sun's direction.

Kaius gulped, staring at their fated challenge with apprehension. It was fucking huge. Big enough that it made the statues look to scale. Still, despite its prodigious size, he couldn't deny the way his heart raced at the thought of slaying such a giant. It would be a feat for the ages.

Not that ogres were traditionally such a great threat, at least for the elites of the frontier. Too stupid by half to ever make it to the second tier with any regularity, nor possessing the aptitude to make it any further than that, at least for the common breeds.

Yet to defeat an ogre as an unclassed? One empowered to the status of Guardian? That was more than worth an epithet. Kaius Ogresbane. He rolled the words around his tongue, tasting their flavour. He found he liked it. The way it made his heart race, sent his blood surging with the potent spice of risk and deadly battle. It would make a fine capstone for his preparations for his class.

Besides, there was no way that something as base as an ogre would stand between him and Father. He would not let a simple fight, no matter how deadly, stop them from reuniting, even if only to perform his final respects.

Thankfully, whatever outfitting the goblin horde had done for the brute, it hadn't extended beyond giving the thing a sheet sized leather loincloth and a crude club fashioned from an entire tree trunk.

He focused his True Sight on the creature, drinking in its status.

Siege Ogre - Level 36:

Guardian, Depths-born, Vanguard, Low Race

At the very least the bastard wasn't level forty, the cap for a Guardian of the second layer. If it had been they would have had to contend with it having a third active skill. Even then, it was a small comfort. A single solid smack from its club would be enough to pulp either one of them.

Kaius pulled back, slinking down the stairs to where Porkchop waited.

….

They retreated further down the staircase. Not too far, just enough that they could discuss the coming conflict without worrying of the ogre overhearing them.

"So? What did you think?" Porkchop asked, the emotions flowing across their bond making it obvious he was eager for their battle to start in earnest.

"We're going to need to ground it somehow, the thing looks to be almost thrice my bloody height!" Kaius explained, looking up from his pack where he was rifling through it to pull out their potions one by one.

"Any major dangers?"

"Below level forty, so only two skills. It's club is going to be a problem though. It looked cumbersome, but it's the size of a small tree. Any good hit will paste either one of us." he said, pulling out a fizzing orange regeneration tonic to set it down beside the silvery one that would boost his magic.

"You want to take point then? You're better at dodging those sorts of things than me." Porkchop asked.

Kaius gave his bond-brother a nod. It was true, even if Porkchop was faster than him in a straight sprint, there was the simple fact that standing upright made it easier to leap away from oncoming blows. That, and Uncanny Dodge would be a powerful equaliser when it came to avoiding the ogre.

A few weeks ago he would have been less confident, before he had received Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus and become Beastblooded. Now, his body thrummed with physical might, and his mind drank in detail faster than ever before. It was hard to quantify, especially because the growth had been even across the board, but he felt significantly more powerful than before. The interference of stats made it all the more confusing, but it was noticeably potent.

"I'll try for a headshot as an opener. I don't think it will actually work, but the potential rewards of crippling it from the get go are too good to pass up. Otherwise I'll unload the rest into one of its knees. Hampering its mobility should be our focus. It'll be too difficult to wear it down if we never get a shot at its vitals." Kaius explained. It was a quick strategy. Simple and devoid of complex plans or manoeuvres. Those had become unnecessary. For one, complex plans often went out the window in the heat of battle, and for two, they no longer needed to rigorously communicate their goals and intentions.

With how they had been falling into sync in each battle, the other would simply know.

Porkchop looked down to where Kaius placed the last tonic in a line. Five square glass bottles, two orange, two lilac, and one silver.

"Remind me about those again? I haven't really paid much attention to our potion stocks since you have been taking care of them." Porkchop asked, leaning forward to sniff the potent alchemical concoctions.

"Two Solar Revitalisation tonics, which will boost our health and stamina regen by about fifteen for more than twice that many minutes," he swept his hand over the fizzing orange bottles, the ones that tasted of floral sunshine, then to the two lilac potions, "two Jack Rabbit tonics, which will boost our speed by an unknown amount for 'several' minutes, and a tonic of Lunar Empowerment, which will give me some sort of lunar wisdom and boost my magic."

Kaius smiled as Porkchop cocked an eye at the last potion. "Lunar wisdom? Sounds suspicious."

"Tell me about it," he said, picking up the metallic potion and giving it a swirl, before placing it back with the other. "Unfortunately we need every advantage we can get. I will, however, be saving Psychopathic Assault for an emergency. It's strong, but if we can't kill it before it wears off, then the weakness will almost certainly kill me."

Porkchop nodded, satisfied with his explanation, before he looked up and met Kaius's eyes. They were hard. Determined.

"Are you ready?" Porkchop asked, conviction and bloodlust seeping across their bond.

Kaius took a deep breath, feeling the effervescent tension that clung to his spine. Only overshadowed by the racing anticipation in his heart and the song of violence that coursed through his blood. He smiled. "I am."

"Good, then help me drink these tonics and let us get this done."

Kaius nodded and scooped up both a Revitalisation and Jack Rabbit tonic, before quickly uncorking them and upending them into Porkchop's waiting mouth. As the alchemically charged fluids hit his bond brothers tongue, a riot of sensation seeped through their bond. Even muted, it was…intense. A confusing mash of the prickling power of the raw arcane, flavoured with the blurring of the wind and the warmth of the sun.

Tossing the empty bottles into his pack, Kaius scooped up his own potions and started to imbibe them one by one. First came the slow inexorable vitality of Solar Revitalisation, tasting of spring growth and the warm embrace of the morning sun. Then the lilac Jack Rabbit tonic hit his tongue, washing it away in a furious rush of the acidic burn of worked muscles, and the pounding tempo of the chase.

Kaius paused, the Lunar Empowerment tonic half way to his mouth. Where the potions mixed in his stomach he could feel the arcane energies mixing. While it wasn't so contentious as to cause ill effects, he could feel the mana radiating off of the mixture in waves, filling him with a frenetic energy. Like having one too many cups of jappa.

He downed his last potion. Metallic silver coated his mouth, heavy, cloying, and velvety smooth. It clung to his throat with the desperate embrace of an abandoned lover, overwhelming his palate with base notes of secrets long kept, and fortunes long sought.

**Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Solar Revitalisation**

**Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Jack Rabbit**

**Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Lunar Empowerment**

Power thrummed, surging through him as the alchemical mixtures absorbed into his body with arcane swiftness, more condensed conceptual potency suspended in mana than a true fluid.

A soothing heat welled up from his soul space, his Health and Stamina regeneration bolstered, small wisps of energy dissipating into the ether as his full resource pools were unable to capture their power. Frenetic tension set deep into his muscles and bones, reinforcing them for explosive movement. He shifted on his feet, feeling the way his body reacted, the way his reflexes kept up with his empowered motion.

Then his mind expanded, and the ever present glow of mana in his vision became more. Where once it had been simple colours that lay beneath the world, now it became a painting of truth. An insight into the hidden nature of things. There were secrets hidden there, just out of reach. Too veiled to know and understand, but through the power of his tonic they were brought to the forefront. Revealed in just enough definition to barely taste the shape of them.

He felt the resonance in his mana, the way it was tainted by his thought and conceptions. Even locked down as it was, it could be more. Lunar wisdom guided his hands, impressions of hardness, flight, and violent collision seeping into the ridgid runic structures that held his mana bound.

There was so much more he could do, if he had just a little time to contemplate on the hidden world that had been revealed. It took all of Kaius's will to rent his mind away from the temptation, to focus on the task at hand.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to centre himself, and then opened them once more once he had steeled himself. Porkchop was watching him, twitching slightly with the discomfort of standing still.

"You good?"

"Yeah," Kaius sighed. "It's … heady. I've got a handle on it now, let's do this."

They ascended the stairs once more, the shuddering thumps of the Guardian's heavy steps on the stone above setting Kaius's heart ablaze with their aggressive tempo. Pausing just for a moment at the shattered gates, they shared a final look before they stepped through the portal and onto the flattened plateau that made up the summit of the dwarven citadel.

As soon as their feet landed, the grim visage of the Guardian snapped over to them. Warned of their presence by some unknown insight.

It howled. Deep, bassy, and full of rage.

Behind them a barrier snapped into existence, sealing off the gate and linking each pillar that encircled the plateau in shimmering purple.

No way out, it was do or die.

**Ding! You have challenged a Guardian: Siege Ogre!**

**Ding! Good Luck**