James and the Green-Skinned Ogre made eye contact as the monster rose to its feet.

  The creature seemed to sense there was no point in trying to run away anymore, so it directed all its attention to the human who had killed all its companions.

  It still clutched the axe that it had used to attack James’s Body Double Dummy, holding onto the hefty weapon like a desperate lifeline—or like an anchor. Now that they squared off in the open field in front of the Onis’ house, it was even easier for James to see how heavy the axe was for the ogre.

  The creature held it clenched in both fists, breathing heavily.

  James stood with the other axe carefully gripped in just his right hand. It was a little hefty for him, too, but his Strength was out of all proportion to his size.

  The ogre inched closer to James. It moved literally only an inch or two, just setting a toe a little bit forward—but he took that moment as his opportunity to attack. James leaped across the distance between them, ducked under the axe swing the ogre slowly threw at his head, and embedded the other axe into the ogre’s guts.

  Can I please have the ogre’s soul? Roscuro’s voice insinuated itself quietly in the back of James’s mind. I didn’t ask for any of the others, and this one was a coward anyway…

  All right, James replied.

  The Green-Skinned Ogre collapsed to its knees, eyes watering, and dropped the other axe, fingers moving to clutch at the one embedded in its guts.

  The Soul Eater shapeshifted into a short spear, and James stabbed the Green-Skinned Ogre unceremoniously through the eye socket.

  As the black spear pierced its brain, the creature let loose a horrendous, piercing shriek. Then its body disintegrated, the scream echoing through the air unnaturally long after it had disappeared. The axe that had been lodged in its abdomen dropped onto the ground, the gray and green blood and guts the only indicators that the ogre had ever existed.

  There you go, now you’ve eaten. The others are getting Pillaged when they die, James sent. He was not going to miss out on whatever cool Skills the Onis had.

  Yes, master, Roscuro agreed.

  James glanced up at his audience and was pleased to see that the two Onis looked taken aback.

  “What was that?” the Red Oni asked.

  “Soul Eater Roscuro,” James said, holding up the Roscuro spear and willing it to transform into a short sword. He didn’t intend to strike a finishing blow with Roscuro, but he would probably need some kind of weapon to deal with the Red Oni and its armor. “He was a powerful monster—and he became a shapeshifting weapon.”

  “Ooh,” said the Blue Oni. “Neat. Can I have him if we win?”

  James couldn’t help but smile at that. “Unfortunately, he’s soulbound. That means he and I are stuck with each other, probably forever.”

  Not that I don’t like having you, Roscuro, he added telepathically.

  Hmph, Roscuro replied. In my time, I was a great warrior. Now I am baggage for a human who says he’s “stuck” with me. The whims of fate, I suppose.

  “That’s all right,” said the Red Oni. “I’m the one who’s going to kill him anyway.” The giant red figure cracked his knuckles, opened up both hands, and extended them as if reaching for something that James could not see. Then the axes that James and the ogre had been fighting with flew into his open palms.

  Magic axes, then, James thought. Maybe those will be part of my loot.

  “Are those soulbound?” he asked.

  “No,” said the Red Oni. “They’re a part of me.” He tapped the handle that James had taken for iron. “This came from my bones.”

  “Uh huh,” James said, having trouble picturing it. “So, are you two going to fight me, then? I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Which one of us would you like to fight first?” asked the Blue Oni.

  “It’s not up to him, I’m going first,” roared the Red Oni, taking a step toward its brother. “I won at ro-sham-bo before the fight, so I’m going!”

  “Oh, that’s right,” said the Blue Oni. “Very well, I will watch from here.” He took a seat and glanced down at his book.

  James found the whole situation a bit hard to swallow.

  “I think the two of you are taking me a bit lightly, don’t you?” James said, looking the Blue Oni right in its yellow eyes.

  “Well, if my brother really needed my help, I could jump in,” said the Blue Oni, “but we’re really designed to be final bosses for this Dungeon. The situation would be easier for you if you had a whole team behind you, but I guess they died on the upper floors—or you somehow got lucky and made it through on your own?” The Oni tilted its head to the side thoughtfully, as if trying to figure out which possibility was more likely.

  Okay, so you guys are taking me very fucking lightly…

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Let’s see if your bite’s as tough as your bark,” said the Red Oni, pointing at James with the head of his right hand axe. “You and me, right now!”

  James smiled. “It’s your funeral.”

  He turned his back on the Blue Oni and charged across the distance that separated him from the Red Oni, Roscuro clutched in James’s right hand in short sword form.

  In the space just in front of the central door to the shrine, the two figures clashed. A heavy metal—Oni bone?—axe swung down and collided with Roscuro’s black material.

  James heard the ring of the collision ripple through the air with deafening volume and felt it vibrate through his bones. The Oni’s hit knocked him backward slightly. He didn’t lose his footing, but the superior weight behind the Red Oni caused his feet to slide through the grass, crushing the field greenery beneath him and exposing the soil underneath.

  Not bad at all.

  James lunged forward, and both axes swung toward him. He dodged one and parried the other, though the force behind the blow made him grit his teeth. James thrust the short sword at the Red Oni’s neck—the only places it wore no armor were its head, neck, hands, and feet—but it blocked with the armor on its arm.

  As the Red Oni knocked the blow aside, James stepped back, thinking about his next step. Probably magic.

  “You’re pretty strong,” the Red Oni said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t think there were many strong people out there. I remembered that even after all the time Mom invested in creating me and my brother, she was a little disappointed that no one made it here to challenge us.”

  “We were expecting a bat that Carol mentioned to be the first to make it here,” said the Blue Oni from behind James. “From the looks of it, though, you’re a better beta tester than she was going to be.” There was the sound of a page turning, and James recognized that the Blue Oni was reading the book James had seen it carrying.

  Absolutely ridiculous. Reading, while your brother is fighting for his life?

  “Beta tester?” James asked, eyes locked on the Red Oni for any sign of movement. But the big monster seemed content to let the conversation proceed undisturbed.

  “Yeah, Carol is very interested in making her Dungeon better,” said the Blue Oni. “Her view is that iterative testing can lead to dramatic improvements. Small improvements compounded over time add up to become major improvements in the long run. So, she needs beta testers for the parts of the Dungeon that haven’t had a lot of traffic yet. Some monsters will naturally be too easy for the levels she’s setting up in her head, and some monsters—” The Oni smirked as if it was obvious that he meant himself and his brother—“will naturally be too tough for the challengers to have any reasonable chance of victory.”

  This is so fucking creepy, James thought. It’s just disturbing to talk to monsters that know they’re enemies in a Dungeon. It’s like if “Toy Story” was real, and you were talking to the toys who know their only purpose is to be played with.

  “Does it bother you two that you’re monsters in a Dungeon?” James asked.

  That seemed to set the Red Oni off. It raised its two axes in the air and swung straight down at James with both hands.

  He quickly raised the flat of Roscuro’s blade and blocked both weapons, but now he felt the full, crushing force of the Red Oni’s combined Strength and weight pressing down on him through the physical material of the sword. The Red Oni did not seem to weigh much more than the ogres had, despite being much taller and covered in musculature, but its Strength was another matter. The intense force pushed James’s feet into the soil, slowly depressing the ground as the creature tried to break its opponent’s resistance.

  “Thought we were talking,” James muttered quietly, struggling to keep his sword held upright. He felt his arms shaking underneath the Red Oni’s power.

  “Too much talking,” the Red Oni grunted. “‘Does it bother you two that you’re monsters in a Dungeon?’ Do you think we’re made to feel angst, human? Nonsense. Ridiculous! We’re made to take pleasure in being—and beating—the strongest.” It smiled viciously. “I’ll take a lot of that pleasure from defeating you.”

  An armored knee suddenly swept up from beneath James, and the Red Oni’s foot planted itself in his stomach. He felt it even through the strong spider silk he had used to patch the Royal Exoarmor, and his body flew back under the impact, instantly airborne.

  Ouch.

  He had definitely broken a rib again.

  The Red Oni chased after its target, and James used an Air Strike to maintain his distance and direction of travel. It did nothing to the Red Oni through its armor, but it blew James slightly further away. He didn’t want to let the Red Oni get into close quarters again. Not without a clear plan to deal with its superior Strength.

  Jump on his back and cover his face! James ordered the Body Double Dummy. The creature started edging from the side of the field toward the Red Oni, which had its back turned to the monster, all its attention focused on James.

  The Oni continued to chase James, and he threw another Air Strike at it as his body started to drop toward the ground again. This Air Strike managed to draw a thin line of red blood from the Red Oni’s neck, but it seemed little real harm had been done.

  James began charging his Mana for a magical attack before his feet touched down on the grass.

  As he landed, the Red Oni swept in with both axes, and James fell into dodging.

  Over the next minute, he got into a rhythm with the creature. He repeatedly dodged, occasionally parried, and constantly gave ground as his magic got closer to being fully charged. Despite the Red Oni’s superior Strength, it wasn’t as agile as James. It could not catch him in one of its heavy attacks. James did not run away from the Oni and open up more distance, because by staying close, he could control much of its movements.

  And he needed to be close to use his next Skill.

  As the Red Oni slashed diagonally downward with its right hand axe once more, James released the Mana he had been charging and touched the Red Oni’s right arm with his own right hand. The Oni instantly stumbled, falling almost directly on top of James as its right arm suddenly quadrupled in weight.

  “What sorcery is this?” the Red Oni exclaimed.

  “Mine,” James replied.

  He stabbed at the Red Oni’s neck with his short sword again, but it just barely reacted in time to intercept it, catching the point in the palm of its left hand.

  “Damn you,” the Red Oni grumbled, its face turning a deeper shade of red. “You bloody trickster!”

  “That’s me,” James replied, grinning. He pulled Roscuro out of the Red Oni’s hand and prepared for another strike at its face.

  At the same time, the Body Double Dummy had moved to within leaping distance of the monster’s back. James held off on another stab for a second to let the Red Oni’s face be covered.

  The Body Double Dummy leaped through the air—and a bolt of lightning suddenly struck it down. At the same time, a pale blue glow surrounded the Red Oni, and it hovered slightly off the ground as if weightless.

  James could see a smile blossoming on the Red Oni’s face. It started adjusting the position of its body in the air, straightening up to a standing position—though still not touching the ground—and waving its arms as if James had not multiplied the weight of its right arm.

  What the hell is going on?

  Then James’s eyes spied movement behind the Red Oni, and he understood what was happening.

  The Blue Oni had risen to its feet. This wasn’t a one on one fight anymore.