Ultimate Level 1

Chapter 186: Overcoming Fear

Max and Fowl didn’t stop their attacks, trying to ignore the fatigue of having been on the offensive side for over thirty seconds.

His flame nova had done nothing besides melt some of the sand for a moment, not even earning a roar or extra attention from the three golems that continued to pound on Fowl.

At least his aura is holding their attention.

Moving behind the golems, Max cut off a leg near the hip, watching the same one he had been fighting for a while stumble into the sand. As a new leg began to form, he repeated the process, hoping to find something to keep these things down.

Fowl took a few steps back, trying to get into a better position on the sand so he wasn’t at an angle on the dune.

Casting frost nova, Max watched as a small bit of ice formed on the ice before melting under the sun. The creature on the ground, rebuilding its feet, slowed for a moment. Slamming his halberd down into the golem's head again, Max’s sonar informed him of something small that had shifted inside the golem with that attack.

Inside the creature, something was moving around, never staying in one spot of its chest. He could barely sense it, but it was there.

Closing his eyes, Max let his sonar guide him, waiting and watching as the object would vanish and then reappear for a moment, closer to the side he was standing on.

Poised and with his feet set, Max held his weapon ready to thrust.

When the object inside the golem showed up on his sonar, Max thrust immediately, trusting his skill and weapon expertise to direct his strike.

The tip of his halberd pierced through the sand and hit the tiny one-inch object, shattering it.

Immediately, the golem started to dissolve, and Max let himself smile.

“They have a core! It moves around!” Max shouted, quickly stepping to the side where the middle golem was still hammering on Fowl.

Another thrust later turned the second golem into a pile of dust, and twenty seconds later, the third golem was down.

“That was like a kick in the nuts,” Fowl complained. “Those things lingered for days!”

“How could you see those?” Cordellia asked as they stood together at the top of the dune, finding a broken core and two yellow gems.

“They moved, and you can almost make it out for a moment,” Max lied. “Thankfully, I’m pretty good with poking the right spot.”

Those words left his mouth before Max realized it, and Fowl erupted into laughter, causing Max to wish his helmet was visible so that his red cheeks weren’t evident.

“I’ll stop asking questions now,” Cordellia declared, shaking her head at how Max’s comment.

Fowl took a moment to catch his breath, still chuckling as they began moving toward the stone area they believed the boss was at.

Two more packs of lizards and another set of golems were taken down. Max and the others took a break, drinking water and splashing a little on themselves. Tanila and Max had combined their stone walls to create a small amount of shade as they rested, getting a small reprieve from the heat that continued to scorch the tower floor.

Scouting ahead, Max gazed down another dune, not seeing anything and wondering if another group of golems would appear soon.

As he started to walk, the sand and ground began to shift, and Max paused.

“Wait!”

The rest of the group stopped their approach, and Max scanned the area with his eyes and sonar. Nothing moved, and no golems came, so he took a few more steps and felt the sand vibrate again slightly.

From the front, coming over the dune, something traveled inside the sand right at him. It was at least four feet wide, moving with a speed he couldn’t believe. The creature didn’t let the sand slow it down, instead barreling through it.

Max tried to move and dodge, but every step he took only caused the creature to turn toward him.

It’s got a damn ability to track me!

“Something in the sand! It can follow as you move!”

The creature finally reached the edge of Max’s sonar ability, and his eyes went wide. It was six feet across, and its body length continued to increase as it rushed at Max. A huge open mouth with teeth all around the inside, sand pouring into it, did not slow down its approach.

Planting his feet, Max prepared, unsure what the creature would do for an attack.

At three yards, the creature emerged from the sand and launched itself at Max. Purple, hard-scaled skin covered the worm, which he finally saw.

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Waiting until the last second, Max’s air wall appeared right before the worm's open mouth. It slammed into it, and its mouth widened. The worm's teeth slid over it as they bent back into its throat.

It’s going to eat my air wall!

Stepping to the side, Max swung with his weapon, hacking into the side of the worm. It made a cut, but nothing that was going to stop the monster. It began to thrash, pressing harder to swallow the air wall so it could be free and back into the sand and

Using his stone wall, Max put it at the base of the ground and the air wall, trying to slow down the worm more as he continued to hack at the exposed side.

The others were running up the dune as fast as they could, and Max saw a giant boulder slam into the exposed creature's top part, shattering the hardened natural armor.

“Keep it pinned!”

Tanila’s stone wall appeared behind his, reinforcing it as Max continued to pound on the creature's side. Fowl was now up next to it, slamming his hammer over and over into the wurm and causing it to thrash from the pain of his weapon’s effect.

Cordellia managed to get a few arrows into the area between the damaged pieces, helping to increase the flow of purple blood that was beginning to stain the sand beneath it.

Max finally shattered the layer of armor, and his weapon was now cleaving through the flesh. It took them almost a minute, with Tanila quickly recasting her airwall inside the creature’s open mouth as Max’s spell expired. Soon, the top half of the worm was removed, a solid section five feet long.

[ 4 Strength Consumed ]

[ 4 Constitution Consumed ]

Max let out a small sigh as the cold rushed over him, relieving the heat from the sun and the sweat of fighting for so long.

“What in the gods is that?” Fowl asked, wiping the purple blood off with a rag.

Max stared at the corpse and the section of the body that was still in the sand, buried underneath, and had no idea how far it went on.

“Smart thinking with the air wall,” Tanila said, moving up to pick up a few pieces of the creature's body that had fallen off and store them. I guess it’s a good thing it couldn’t swallow it all.”

Max nodded and kept a straight face as Fowl snickered.

“Ogre nuts, you are so twenty-five,” Batrire informed Fowl. “Must you take everything wrong?”

“Don’t blame me!” Fowl replied, pointing at Cordellia. “Look at her face! Even she turned red from that comment!”

Cordellia's cheeks had been red, but now they were almost as red as an apple.

Tanila’s face blushed slightly, but Max just smiled and turned toward the stone walls they were moving toward.

“We’re maybe halfway there if we’re lucky. Hard to tell with how the sand seems to shimmer. We need to keep going as it doesn’t appear the sun is going to shift, and the longer we stay in it, the worse we’re going to feel.”

Grunts came, and everyone got into formation. Max set off ahead, scouting while the other four stayed together.

It had taken hours to reach the outer edge of the stone wall. The sand came completely up to it, and there was no opening on the side they were on.

“It’s at least a hundred yards high,” Tanila said. “Thoughts?”

“We can walk around and look for the entrance, or I can try out my cloak ability, which I haven’t tested yet,” Max replied.

“Oh shite!” Fowl exclaimed, beaming like the hot sun above them. “You can climb like a spider!”

“What?!”

Max turned and nodded at Cordellia, who was shaking her head in disbelief.

“I haven’t tried it yet, but I guess now is better than never, right?”

“Unless ya fall,” Batrire stated. “I mean, maybe you could survive.”

Chuckling, Max ignored Tanila’s concerned expression and held out a hand for Fowl to high-five.

“I’ll see what I can find. If I fall, be ready to summon a few walls. It's better to crash into them part of the way than the whole way.”

[ Spider Walk ]

After activating his cloak's skill, Max reached out with his hand and felt it grip. He tugged at it, and it let go immediately. Wondering what kept it from sticking or not sticking, Max used both hands and pulled upward, thinking about his right one, which came free.

“Doesn’t seem too bad,” Max said as he started climbing the stone wall.

After a few first moments over the first twenty feet, Max figured out how to move quickly, one hand moving while the other three points stayed in contact. Once he had the pattern, his feet, and hands moved like he had been a wall climber his whole life.

Reaching the top had been faster than he had expected, knowing he had at least three minutes left before it expired. Pulling himself up, Max gazed at the mountain wall and saw the cliffs were at least fifty feet thick. Off to the right-left, he could see a slight opening in the wall. It didn’t appear to be very wide. Across the mile-wide bowl he could see sand filling it all.

Whatever is inside there isn’t going to be fun.

Standing before the entrance to the bowl of sand Max had found, the five of them gazed through the opening. Stone ran along the pathway. The only stone they could walk on in the entire tower floor so far besides the entrance.

“We ready?” Max asked. “No idea what’s inside.”

Tanila nodded, and everyone else grunted slightly.

They walked in a line, trying to ignore the sensation of walls that seemed to press in upon them. Max was in the front with Fowl in the back as they tried to focus on what might be ahead.

“We can always go back?” Fowl asked Cordellia quietly.

“I hope so,” she whispered.

Max ignored the questions and knew his own heart was everyone else’s, beating faster than he could believe at the unknown.

He came to an edge and glanced down, seeing that the spot they were on was twenty feet up. Below them was a drop into a pile of sand that appeared designed to help soften their landing. A hundred yards away and every hundred yards, it appeared was a small area of stone, just a few feet off the ground. The small pieces of stone couldn’t be any more than ten feet wide, but they ran in a circle along the entire boss area.

Kneeling, he gazed out at the massive opening, studying it for any clues that might be present on what kind of boss they would fight.

“Kinda seems the gods are not going to make getting out easy,” Fowl muttered. “That’s a bit of a drop.”

Nodding, Max’s eyes never left the sand.

“What do you think it is?” Tanila asked, and Max could sense the trepidation in her voice.

“Our first test,” Max replied, motioning to the ground below. Glancing over his shoulder, he looked at each of them in turn. “Are we going to attempt it or turn back?”

The other four exchanged glances with each other, each staring at the decision that required them to take a leap of faith.

“Is it wrong if I said I was scared?” Cordellia asked.

Max shook his head and smiled. “So am I.”