Bear Boss
He fell like a stone.
The world howled around him. The black tide of Maldrath churned below, a mass of inky bodies writhing and shifting as their master called on them to continue to fight. The great bear stood at the center, a mound of darkness covered in writhing, twisting snakes. Their mouths opened and closed as if tasting the air, but no hisses came. Instead, the sound of distant wailing filled the space around it—a chorus of voices that did not belong in this world. They sounded like the dead.
The entity within him stirred.
“YES. THIS IS GOOD.” The weapon bellowed in joy. “GO, MY SERVANT. GIVE ME MORE.”
Sabo grit his teeth. “Shut up.”
The entity chuckled, low and pleased. It liked when he fought back. The sick bastard.
The ground rushed up to meet him. He drew aether into his body, letting the still so-new sensation flood his veins. A haptic sensation tingled in the front of his mind as he processed his situation in an instant, letting the aura surging within him fuel him. He activated [Steel Sense].
The notification of silver script flashed in the corner of his vision.
[Skill: Steel Sense]
[Uses Remaining: 8 of 10]
Sabo’s senses came to life with an awareness of the metal fastenings built into the entire side of the airship, holding it together. He willed his mind to focus on all of them at once. The sense was weaker than when he had sensed the steel armor and weapons of the Morduin knight he had fought. It didn’t matter. He mentally slammed the command to use the spell [Push/Pull Steel].
[Spell: Push/Pull Steel]
[Uses Remaining: 4 of 5]
He mentally triggered the Spell four times in quick succession, pushing against all of the iron fastenings built into the massive hull of the airship. The Spell worked as he had hoped. Instead of pushing the fastenings away from him, the weight of the ship acted as a counterweight, instead pushing him midair in the direction of the bear-shaped Maldrath at incredible speed. He was rushing through the air faster than a projectile from an aether pistol by the time he reached the Maldrath.
He twisted his body midair, gripping the maul in both hands, and just before impact, he swung. The God-Eater’s jagged mouth yawned open, and with a shuddering crack, he struck the Maldrath straight onto the flat top of its head.
A shockwave ripped through the battlefield. Bodies of surrounding lesser Maldrath were thrown into the air by the sheer force of Sabo’s strike. Black ichor sprayed skyward, and the bear’s head was slammed down into the earth. The impact cratered the ground beneath him. The remaining lesser Maldrath near the bear shrieked and reeled back, their forms distorting, barely able to hold shape against the weapon’s presence. Sabo could feel the vicious energy beading from the hammer’s gruesome head.
The bear, despite taking the brutal swing head on, did not flinch. It slowly raised its head, to Sabo’s surprise lifting the maul as well. When the movement of its head stopped, its yellow eyes were level with Sabo’s own glare. The two orbs burned with hatred. The bear-shaped Maldrath tossed its head, sending the maul’s head swinging upwards and forcing Sabo to shift his weight to counteract the weight of his weapon, but even still the backswing ended with the head of the maul digging deep into the soft earth of the forest floor.
The bear stood onto its hind legs, massive and grotesque, its burning gaze locked onto Sabo with something that might’ve been amusement. The snakes on its back twitched, then lunged, firing over the bear’s shoulders towards Sabo.
He barely had time to react. He wrenched the maul from the ground and threw himself sideways as the first serpent struck. The impact rattled his bones, sent dirt and shadow scattering into the air. Another snake lashed out. He twisted, barely avoiding its snapping maw, then swung the maul in a wide arc.
The God-Eater bit deep, trapping the snake between its two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
The snake convulsed, its inky flesh twisting and bubbling. Then it shrieked. Not a snake’s hiss, but a human scream—high, broken, full of agony. The darkness writhed around the wound, unable to heal, unable to reconstitute. The maul had eaten something vital, something that could not grow back.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Sabo barely registered the notification flash in the corner of his vision.
[Maldrath (Hydra-Arm) Devoured: 1]
The bear let out a sound that was less a roar and more a hundred voices crying out in pain—a chorus of suffering wails. The ground trembled beneath its weight as it stepped forward, its maw opening wide.
Sabo didn’t need to see what was coming. He already knew.
A massive, writhing mass of darkness spewed from its throat, rushing toward him like a tidal wave. The spear-tip of the torrent of shadow morphed into multiple snake-like heads, each opening its fanged mouth. He dug his heels into the ground, gripped the maul, and braced himself.
He swung the maul. The mouth at its head yawned wide, black ichor dripping from jagged teeth as Sabo felt its ability activate from within his core.
[DEVOUR]
A vortex of inky blackness swallowed the first wave of serpents, consuming them utterly. The very fabric of their being unraveled, their essence sucked into the God-Eater maul, leaving nothing but curling tendrils of acrid smoke in the air.
But there were too many.
The path of Sabo’s swing continued, carrying the maul’s head off course and the remaining shadow-serpents slammed into him like a battering ram. Fangs colder than ice sank deep into his flesh, his body jerking as if pierced by iron spikes. Sabo gasped, pain flaring bright in his limbs. His vision blurred as whatever venom they had injected—a numbing cold, spread through his veins like liquid night. The force of the attack lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing onto his back.
The impact knocked the breath from his lungs. The world spun, his head cracking against the earth. Distantly, he registered the muffled cries of the battle raging around him—the crackling heat of the white-haired woman’s summoned skeletal behemoth, the howling winds conjured by Maro, the panicked yells of the prisoners. But here, on the forest floor, there was only the sound of his ragged breathing and the slow, deliberate footsteps of something massive approaching.
The bear-shaped Maldrath lumbered closer, its shadowy bulk towering over him. Its glowing, ember-like eyes burned with cruel intelligence. It sniffed the air once, then let out a triumphant roar that rattled Sabo’s bones.
It thought it had won.
Sabo’s fingers twitched. The maul was still in his grip, lying in the dirt at his side. His body screamed in pain, ice crawling through his muscles, but he gritted his teeth against the numbing cold. He had fought too hard, survived too much to be felled here like some cornered animal. An angry fire burned within him, stoked by the thought of the Maldrath. He thought of his home, long lost to memory. Razed to the ground by imperial forces, but only after destruction wrought by a Maldrath horde that had escaped from an un-attended Dungeon.
His fingers tightened around the handle of the god-eater maul. The entity within it stirred, whispering at the edges of his mind.
Sabo sat up, using the support of the gigantic weapon to pull himself up to his feet. He staggered, forcing his legs to steady beneath him as the hulking mass of shadowed muscle and writhing serpents loomed before him. The Maldrath exuded a suffocating pressure, its ember-like eyes locked onto him with a knowing malice. It moved, its colossal frame shifting with unnatural speed, and Sabo barely managed to duck as a claw the size of a wagon wheel tore through the air above his head. Splinters of earth and bark exploded behind him as the beast’s strike carved deep into the forest floor.
Sabo twisted, bringing the maul up just in time to meet a wave of snapping shadow-serpents. [DEVOUR] activated, the gaping maw of his weapon inhaling the tendrils of darkness, unraveling them into nothingness as it had done before. But the Maldrath had more. Always more. Another set of snake-like appendages lunged, their fangs sinking into his arm, his side, his leg. A frostbitten pain surged through him, a venomous cold seeping into his flesh, turning his movements sluggish.
He couldn’t keep up. Despite how much he willed his body to move, to react, it didn’t matter. A swat of the bear’s massive paw sent him careening to the side. He gasped, trying to catch his breath, but it wouldn’t come. Is that venom affecting my lungs?
Sabo spat, gritted his teeth, and prepared to put all of his strength into one more strike. One more strike? I think that is all I have left.
The bear, still towering on its hindlegs, lumbered towards him.
A blur of motion cut across the corner of Sabo’s vision.
The crimson skeletal colossus slammed into the shadowed bear from the side, tackling it with force enough to send a shockwave through the ground. The Maldrath bellowed in outrage, its serpentine appendages thrashing wildly, but the skeleton wrapped its fiery arms around the abomination’s torso in an iron grip. The heat radiating from the creature surged, embers swirling, the air rippling with its intensity. The Maldrath screeched, the edges of its body curling and blackening as the flames licked hungrily at its inky flesh. The skeleton and Maldrath alike blurred with the heat radiating off the demon.
Sabo coughed, forcing his numbed limbs to respond. His grip on the maul tightened. The skeletal demon had left the Maldrath’s underbelly exposed. He saw his opportunity.
He charged.
The maul felt like an extension of his will, its weight a guiding force rather than a burden. He swung, the momentum carrying him forward. The weapon connected with a resounding crack, the force of impact splintering the Maldrath’s underside, shadowy essence flaring outward like darkened blood. He didn’t stop. With a guttural yell, he drove forward, crushing deeper and deeper until the massive creature split apart, the top half still writhing in the grasp of the skeletal colossus.
The Maldrath let out one final, furious shriek—before its form unraveled, dissolving into curling wisps of black dust.
Sabo stood, panting, his arms trembling from the exertion. The battlefield was silent, save for the distant remnants of scattered Maldrath retreating into the void of the forest.
The skeletal demon threw its head back and let out a triumphant roar, its white-hot skull burning against the night like a star set ablaze.
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