Finn breathed heavily, his left arm was swollen and purple from all the ogre blows he had parried with it and his right arm was trembling, it felt strangely tingly and he could feel it slowly going numb making it more inefficient to fight and move. Finn put his sword away carefully and then wiped the sweat and blood from his face.
Finn turned to look around, seeing the bodies of the dead ogres and then saw Darwin blinding the last ogre with his light magic and then plunging his sword into the ogre's chest.
"Ufff... that took us ten minutes longer than last time!" exclaimed Darwin tiredly.
"I'm super tired, let's rest for a while before moving on to the next zone" recommended Finn and Darwin nodded without objection, he was also very tired.
"Wow, did the ogres dragged you on all the ground or what?" said Darwin mocking Finn's appearance.
"Whatever, I just want to get some sleep" finn replied walking to an area clear of bodies and laying down on the ground.
"We should use some of the potions, once we clean the next area we get back to the town for more" suggested darwin pulling out some healing potions and offering one to finn.
Finn sat down and took the potion, drinking it in one gulp. Just within seconds the potion took effect, his arm began to return to its normal state and the tiredness quickly disappeared from his body, leaving Finn looking almost as if he had never fought before.
Soon after taking the potion, Finn fell asleep, hoping that once he woke up again he would be able to use his magic again.
Darwin saw finn falling asleep almost instantly and then he decided to start playing with his light magic, he felt like he was on the verge of reaching something important, light magic was very important to him and he had decided to improve the most of it.
___
3 hours passed quickly, Finn slightly stood up, still feeling the stinging in his chest. He stood up shaking the dirt off his clothes and then looked at his armband with the slime in it, applying a little magic he tried to use his telekinesis to move the slime, but Finn had to stop quickly as the lines on his chest started to burn again.
'Sigh, I'll have to fight with just my sword until I solve this problem' Finn thought, lightly touching his chest trying to soothe the pain.
Finn looked around, searching the zone for Darwin, he found him looking through the material the ogres had. Finn walked through the corpses to Darwin.
"Did you find anything useful?" Finn asked curiously.
"No, just trash, the usual stuff an ogre would carry with him" Darwin replied, stopping his search through the ogres and shaking his hands before looking at Finn "So, are you ready for the next zone?"
"Sure... the sooner we finish the better" finn replied a little hesitantly, he knew his magic wouldn't help him this time and he wasn't entirely sure he could take on a large amount of monsters without getting fatigued again.
Darwin nodded and the two went to the next zone, they searched around the entire zone they were in until they were finally able to find a small door on the ground. Being careful this time, Darwin slid the door to the left, opening it with no problem this time.
The two entered the dark passageway and slowly descended the most damaged stone stairs they had seen so far. Finn and Darwin could barely see due the few torches that illuminated the passageway with their dim light. After descending for a few seconds, Darwin got tired of barely being able to see and, raising his hand, manifested his light magic, illuminating the entire passageway in an instant.
"Look, this passageway isn't as deep as the other one," Darwin said looking down and seeing the ground a few feet below, "It's not a very long fall," Darwin said before jumping to the ground.
Finn jumped as did Darwin and fell straight down at the end of the passageway just in a moment, realising that this passageway was not more than 10 meters deep, nothing like the previous one which was almost 20 meters.
At the bottom of the stairs, the two saw a wooden door in a bad state, it had several scratches and some of its boards were broken, finn thought that they were due to the attacks of the monsters who wanted to ascend to the upper levels. Rodrick had already told them that the monsters wanted to get out of the dungeon once in the past and it wouldn't be unusual for them to try to do it again.
Darwin, a little anxious to see what monsters they would face this time, opened the door slowly, opening just enough to see the monsters outside. After a few seconds of looking around the zone for the monsters, Darwin gave a small startled jump and closed the door quickly, turning to see Finn with a worried look on his face and breaking out in a nervous sweat.
"What's wrong?" asked Finn curiously seeing Darwin's expression and pale face.
"How about we go back to the inn and get a good night's rest? We can continue the mission later," suggested Darwin quickly.
Finn looked at him with curiosity, a few seconds ago Darwin was excited to complete the next zone but now he wanted to get back abruptly. Darwin smiled awkwardly, holding the door knob tightly, he didn't want Finn to notice what was on the other side.
"What monsters are out there?" Finn asked, carefully examining Darwin's face as he answered.
Darwin wiped his sweat with his free hand, still smiling awkwardly, his expression was getting worse and worse as the seconds passed.
"uh... you know, nothing important, it's just a monster, nothing serious, for rea..."
Boom!
Darwin couldn't finish speaking when a huge grey hand smashed through the door, entering the passageway. Finn watched in slow motion as the hand smashed the door, then grabbed Darwin before pulling him out of the passageway.
"Darwin!" shouted Finn as he rushed through the door.
Outside the passageway was a huge 4 meter ogre, it has a greyish colour, big head with large lower fangs and 4 huge arms. The ogre brought Darwin close to its face and gave him a great roar, filling him with saliva before throwing him as far as it could.
"What is that?" wondered Finn, looking at the huge ogre.
As he flew, Darwin spun in the air several times before he was able to settle and land to the ground rolling to not hurt himself in the fall. Darwin rolled for a few feet before he managed to slow down and watch the big ogre roar as loud as its lungs allow it, the option of escape was no longer possible, the ogre would not let them escape for any reason.
"A mutant king" muttered Darwin, his hands trembled slightly, he didn't know if it was from the excitement or the fear of facing the mutant ogre in front of him.
Mutant kings, as their name suggests, are very special individuals within their species, as they are the combination of two special states of monsters: king and mutant. A monster king is a monster that is born with superior qualities to a normal one: they can be taller, faster, more agile, stronger or tougher, and often have slightly higher intelligence. A mutant, on the other hand, is a monster born with abnormalities in its body, such as having two extra arms, an extra head or three legs, among other differences from its species.
"Humans... idiots..." spoke the mutant king, his voice was deep and at the same time raspy, he had a rather bad pronunciation, but it was still understandable enough. "You... come... to die!" roared the monster.
"Tch, you can talk...well, it's nothing new, we've faced several monsters that also talked" said Darwin drawing his sword and lighting it on fire "They all died!"
Finn watched in the distance as Darwin's sword burst into flames, understanding that there was no choice but to fight this monster.
"Sigh... This is going to hurt... a lot" muttered Finn drawing his sword and seeing the huge ogre a few feet away from him.
The mutant, as if he were a gorilla, slammed his 4 arms into his chest and then hit the ground with great force causing a slight tremor in the zone. The ground beneath him and finn cracked, splitting the dry earth and unleveling the area where he and Finn stood.
Finn stood as best he could, digging his sword into the ground to help him keep his balance and keep his eyes on the huge mutant. Before his eyes, Finn watched as the ogre flexed its legs and jump into the air with a mighty leap. The mutant soared several metres until he reached the roof of the zone and used two of his arms to pin himself to it.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Finn said incredulously, he didn't know how the hell he was going to reach the ogre from this distance.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Finn tightened his grip on his sword, watching carefully as the mutant began to hit the ceiling causing the roof to begin to release dirt and dust from it. A few seconds later, the ogre thrust his other two arms into the ceiling, pulling out a large mound of earth.
"Wait, don't tell me he will... !!!" Finn couldn't finish speaking when the mutant hurled the large mound of earth towards Finn.
Finn didn't hesitate for a second, running as fast as he could and managing to barely dodge the mound of earth, but it didn't stop there because Finn had to keep running as the mutant kept throwing large chunks of earth at him and Darwin, who was slowly getting closer.
"Finn, throw the mutant with your telekinesis!" shouted Darwin from afar. he knew finn's telekinesis was stronger than his own
"With my telekinesis?..." repeated Finn unsure 'I can't use my magic... what do I do, what do I do?' thought Finn worried, because right now they both depended on knocking the mutant down in order to attack it.
Finn dodged another huge chunk of earth, he knew very well that there was no other way to knock the mutant down right now, but he also knew that as soon as he used his magic the marks would advance again, burning him even more and most likely causing him a horrible death. Finn looked at the mutant with internal conflict and then tightened his grip on his sword.
"... Tsk, fuck it, that's why I was born to, to die!" Finn exclaimed extending his left hand towards the mutant. "Fuck you, mutant!"
A glow emerged from finn's body, the blue lines on finn's body advanced again until they covered his biceps and his entire torso. The red lines began to advance slowly too, burning Finn little by little. The part of the ceiling from which the mutant was holding onto began to tremble before Finn's magic and in a second a large part of the ceiling came off, creating a hole between the second and third levels.
The mutant turned to watch in amazement as the part he was holding onto began to fall, pushing him to the ground at great speed.
BOOM!!
The mutant landed with a thud on the ground and the piece of roof fell on top of him, kicking up a large amount of dirt and dust which created a curtain that prevented Finn and Darwin from seeing what was going on.
"Did he die with that?" wondered Darwin, stopping a few feet away from the dust curtain.
The answer came quickly, and from the top of the dust curtain the piece of roof flew off, landing a few feet away from Darwin. Both Darwin and Finn took the silence that followed as a sign that the mutant was preparing to attack at any moment.
Swoosh!
The mutant came out of the dust curtain at high speed appearing right in front of Finn, his head was bleeding and his lower fangs were broken. The mutant's speed was enormous, Finn knew he had nowhere to run, the mutant was only a step from him and his fist was getting closer to him at high speed. With nowhere to run, Finn simply raised his sword, waiting for the impact of the punch.
Thump!
The punch echoed through the zone. Finn was thrown backwards at great speed, the impact was such that he was knocked out instantly and his body put no opposition to the mutant's strength. Finn's body bounced several times across the dry ground before he lay completely unconscious on the ground.
"Finn!" exclaimed Darwin in concern.
"ARGH!!!" the mutant's cry of pain echoed throughout the zone.
The mutant grabbed one of his left arms, in its fist was sticked finn's sword. The mutant was going crazy, this was the first time he had ever felt such pain, the other ogres had never been able to hurt him like that and the adventurers he faced usually died with a single punch.
Darwin seeing the mutant's crazed state ran towards him as fast as he could, then jumped onto his back and quickly climbed onto the mutant's shoulders.
"Die you bastard!" shouted Darwin angrily and using his flaming sword he thrust it into the mutant's right eye making him scream more in pain.
"NO!" replied the ogre in pain, grabbing darwin with one of his healthy arms before the sword digged in deeper and slamming him to the ground and then kicking him a few feet away.
The mutant cried out in pain again, grabbing the sword by the edge and beginning to pull it out of his eye little by little, when the sword was finally out, a large amount of blood came out of the mutant's damaged eye and cover the right side of his face.
"DAMN...HUMANS!!!" cried the mutant in pain, barely able to utter the words. The mutant saw darwin's sword in his hand, ready to break it, but at that moment the sword flew out of his hand cutting his palm "AGH!"
"I'm still alive, asshole..." darwin said struggling to his feet with his right hand outstretched just where the sword landed.
The mutant growled with great anger on his face as he closed his bloodied hand, the mutant roared again as he beat his chest with his healthy fists, his body began to slowly stretch, his muscles grew more defined and thicker. Darwin at this sight simply spat out some of the blood he had in his mouth and raised his sword showing his determination.
"Come on you idiot, you think I'm going to run away just because you got fat?" muttered Darwin barely able to speak.
A few feet away from Darwin, Finn was slowly regaining consciousness, the pain in his chest was still present and stronger than before, his arms were numb and Finn could see that the blue lines had spread almost to his forearms. Finn rolled over, leaning slightly on his left arm to get up and feeling a constant tingling in it.
'I feel heavy, very heavy' Finn thought as he kneel and felt a strange liquid run down his forehead and down to his chin. Finn wiped his forehead carefully seeing that it was blood, he speculated that the mutant had cracked his head open with the punch or maybe it was one of the many times he had bounced off the ground.
Finn turned to face Darwin, who was barely dodging the mutant's powerful blows, finn, still kneeling, exhaled tiredly a few times before raising his hand again, using his telekinesis to draw his sword back and feeling the burning lines growing in his chest again.
The mutant was doing his best to hit Darwin, but as his musculature increased he had lost too much speed as a result. On one of the times he raised his arms to strike Darwin, he felt the sword in his left fist move causing him slight pain, a second later the sword moved and cut around the mutant's arm before flying off into Finn's hand.
"AHHH!!!"the mutant screamed falling to his knees and clutching his severed arm in half. Finn's sword had opened a large gash from fist to elbow, revealing how both flesh and bone had been torn apart by the sword.
The now nearly shattered and dull sword came to finn's hand, using the sword as a prop to help him stand up faster. Looking at the mutant with a determined gaze, finn raised his arm again, feeling the burning sensation return to his chest, spreading further and further over the lines in his body until it reached his shoulders and abdomen, then a large wave shot out of finn's hand and hit the mutant's arm.
The wave hit the arm, tearing it completely apart and even dragging the mutant backwards a few feet. Seeing the mutant fly a few feet, Darwin smiled knowing it was Finn who did it.
"finally..." Darwin said, glowing his sword back on fire.
The mutant stood staggering from side to side, his vision was blurred and he seemed to see double, this was something that had never happened to him, he had never been so hurt before, then a strange sensation arose that he had never felt before, it was small but the mutant could feel it better than anyone else. Fear, he felt for the first time that he could be killed by someone and it terrified him... but most of all it made him angry.
With his one healthy eye, the mutant saw Darwin approaching him with his flaming sword. The nails on his right upper arm grew into long, sharp claws. The mutant waited patiently until darwin stood in front of it and then moved quickly, swiping at darwin with its claws.
"Kill you... now!!!" shouted the mutant, swinging its claws with great speed.
"What's the matter, do you see double dumb mutant?" sneered darwin also swinging his sword, but for some strange reason, the mutant saw that darwin was swinging his sword the wrong way.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sound of five bones breaking and yielding to darwin's dull sword echoed in the mutant's ears, and with his one eye he watched as his five fingers fell to the ground stained with a pool of his own blood.
"The one who pointed to the wrong side was you stupid mutant," darwin stated as he stood diagonally to the mutant's right side and not right in front of him as the mutant had thought.
The mutant's expression hardened, his lips trembled with the anger and frustration he felt at this moment and turning to darwin he tried to attack him quickly, but darwin was already waiting for him with a very bright sphere of light.
"Let's try this!" exclaimed Darwin, dodging the attack and raising the sphere right into the mutant's healthy eye.
The sphere glowed brightly in front of the mutant's eye, changing its colour from a faint yellow to a bright yellow. The light was so powerful that it ended up burning the retina of the mutant's eye, leaving him completely blind.
The mutant immediately pulled back and covered his eye, but it was too late. As the mutant tried to open his eye, he saw nothing but darkness all around him, then silence. Finn and Darwin didn't move at all or make the slightest noise, watching as the mutant quickly became desperate.
"AHHH" Shouted the mutant in desperation, showing his broken fangs and moving his only two healthy arms from side to side, his movements were no longer as powerful as before and he was getting slower and slower.
After a few seconds of screaming and roaring the mutant began to lose his musculature, returning to his original appearance. His agitation was less and less, as he began to stagger from side to side even more, the loss of blood finally affected him completely, causing him to fall into his own blood.
"It was only a matter of time," Darwin said, looking down at the still conscious but immobile body of the mutant. "It's time to put an end to this fight," said Darwin climbing onto the mutant's body.
Darwin raised his damaged and dull sword, looking directly at the mutant's bloodied face and with a serious look on his face he brought the sword down and thrust it directly into the mutant's forehead, piercing his head straight through to his brain.