The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

Michael ceased all movement, electing to study the statue's awakening sequence with his magic sight without attacking. While he watched, he diverted maximum power to his Shield skill, straining the runescript holding it together to the point it glowed.

Then all hell broke loose. There was no warning, just a loud bang and an impact, a stone fist hitting the shield with enough force to send Michael several feet back. His stationary position was disrupted, and he knew that the next impact would break his shield, and it would take a moment even with his immense ability with magic before he could restore it.

Instead of waiting for another attack, he changed gears. Magic of all Tiers began to swirl around him as skills manifested: Distortion Fields deflecting attacks, simulated Fast Reflexes patterns enhancing his agility, Body Enhancement fractals making him more durable and stronger. He danced around the room, chased by bird and statue, the first hitting much harder than its looks would suggest, the latter moving much faster than its bulk betrayed.

Healing Aura began to work, picking up the slack and healing Michael of any damage he was accumulating. The chick was resorting to guerrilla tactics, poking at him while he was forced to defend from the statue's much deadlier blows. All damage was healed in seconds, but it was draining on both his body and magic. At the same time, Elemental energies swirled in an explosive vortex around him, his Aura shredded stone and statue alike, peeling layers off of the gigantic limbs attacking him.

Michael's unexpected ally was Okinawan Mastery, the skill he had chosen not to Sunder gently guiding his feet and allowing him to deliver devastating blows powered by Chi turned into rock-shattering Jing.

Then, as he rolled away from the statue's devastating slam, Michael lost focus for a moment. The bird chick pecked him in the face, bursting an eye that he was forced to heal. Even though he wasn't reliant on sight anymore, the sudden loss of field of vision and the anger such an attack elicited made him slip. Right as he growled in pain and fury, preparing his mightiest attack ever, a blow he didn't see came down like a judgment's sword.

The statue's massive arm slammed down on him while he was on the ground. A single hit was all that it took to completely pulverize his whole lower body, even with his Aura and reinforcements, even with his Tier.

The healing started its work on the damage, but it was going to take a moment.

The shield came back online. Michael breathed in relief, but the moment was short-lived, because suddenly the statue's limbs became empowered with pure Elemental Force coming from the goblin's Gnapticon stone.

Michael wished he could snap that little asshole's body in half, but now he couldn't afford to underestimate his enemies anymore. Slapping the Force shield so hard it broke had taken a lot out of him, despite his early show of confidence.

Empowered by Force, the statue's attacks became faster and faster. Soon, even with his full suite of abilities, Michael was forced on the back foot. His shield was constantly glowing an ominous red, always on the verge of breaking.

The statue wasn't faring much better. Its stone was brittle now, flaking off where Michael's Unbound Foul Water Bullets corroded its monolithic stability. The fight looked to be right about even, and Michael felt confident that he could outlast the statue, which lacked any regeneration.

That's when the mother bird, once again in blur form, made her reappearance. Dodging a blow from the statue, and tanking one from the chick, he managed to restore his shield right in time to defend from the blur's attack. He stopped moving, diverting all energy to defense.

No attack came. It was a feint. Behind him, the statue's massive fist descended like a hammer, impacting the shield and losing what little internal structure it had maintained. Michael expected the shield to break, but it held strong, glowing the deepest red he had ever seen.

[Shield] reaches level 5.

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Michael's eyes widened as a realization hit him. The blur, the mother bird… it had never attacked him. Swiveling in place, he turned around right in time to see it come. Time seemed to stretch, the shield glowing a lighter red, then orange, then…

No impact came. The blur phased through the shield as if it wasn't there, impaling Michael straight through the heart.

Michael was struggling to breathe. He was pumping his lungs, but no air reached his brain. He felt the sharp coldness of death, his heart dead and broken, a foreign beak piercing through its tissues and muscles.

With his last dying spasms, he extended a hand. The mother bird, smug, seemed to let him. His fingers curled around her beak, but there was no strength in his grip. His eyes, unfocused, seemed to cry in defiance as his mouth struggled to form words.

Michael looked at the monster who was about to kill him.

He really looked at it.

Behind him, the call of the Gnapticon stone was strong, but the promise of its element, Force, was locked away behind a manifestation of its very own power. Unreachable.

Suddenly his face morphed into a grin so ugly, people might have fainted from just seeing it. His grip, weak until now, became so strong that the monster's beak cracked and broke. The dark stone, slick and smooth, cracked and gave way under fingers that were like a vice, a hydraulic press.

The bird roared in pain, trying to blur away, trying to escape. Its wings flapped powerfully, but did nothing. The statue threw itself against Michael, but found itself suddenly deprived of the Element keeping it together. It broke down into small pebbles against Michael's green shield.

Michael looked at the mother bird straight in the eye, and released her beak. She tried to phase out of the shield, but only managed to slam into it. It was a larger dome than it had been during the fight, easily several yards across, giving the bird the illusion of freedom with its transparent walls.

The bird's cries when it slammed the shield, trying to blur out and failing, were pathetic. So was the chick, crying as it stood atop a mountain of rubble, formerly a powerful statue. So was the goblin, whimpering at the far corner of the room.

Michael constricted the shield, gripping the mother bird by the throat.

"Didn't you learn anything from your goblin friend over there?" he asked. "Don't underestimate your enemies."

"Besides," he said. The gaping hole in his chest knitted itself together, the only proof of its existence a hole in Michael's clothes and a big red stain of clotted blood. "I'm worse than a cockroach. Killing me isn't as easy as poking a hole through my heart."

With the shield still active, Qi exploded outwards. Forgefire and Hycean Ice followed. The shield reflected the sudden wave of magic, empowering it as it returned to its sender and back again against the shield, a tidal pressure of wave after wave building upon each other and entering resonance. Michael was at the center of the destruction, taking as much damage as the mother bird made of stone, yet looking like he wasn't feeling any of it.

When the magic vortex finally dissipated, a long time had passed and Michael had made sure that the monster was truly dead. The shield vanished.

The chick was crying, but it took only a look from Michael to make it stop. It dropped dead from sheer exposure to the Truth of the world—courtesy of Unity.

"All it takes is a little glimpse into how things really are," mused Michael, walking towards the force wall.

The goblin wasn't even whimpering anymore, petrified like the statue he had hoped would manage to kill Michael.

"Do you think pathetic attempts such as this will kill me?"

The goblin did not move. Michael considered showing him some Truth as well, but changed his mind.

"You're not even worth the effort," he said, plucking the Gnapticon stone from unresponsive hands. He had phased through the Force wall as if it wasn't even there, using his Aura.

He patted down his clothes, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Not even singed. I gotta compliment Johanne, really good job making Aura-tuned clothes."

It seemed like the shift was enough to make the goblin regain his wits. "H-how?" it cried out, "I watched your body destroy itself and then reform! I could see your flesh, your bones! You made a monster scream, and did not utter a single sound. Can you not feel pain?"

"Oh, I can feel it alright. It just doesn't bother me, man."

Michael looked at the goblin. The act made the little creature curl up into himself.

"I'll be taking the Stone, thank you very much. Reparations and all."

"You won't kill me?"

"It was a good fight. Had some really great insights there too. Just gotta find the time to digest them," he laughed warily, "it seems to always be the bottleneck here. Time dilation or no time dilation."

"I—"

"You're not off the hook," Michael's voice was like physical force, "I'll be back, and then we will have a nice, long talk."