13 Goliath

After having descended down the bridge into the 17th floor, more minotaurs had spawned in their dozens from the walls. Lyze was prepared for this however and immediately got to work by taking them out via surprise, sparing no magic on his part.

All that lay before Riveria's eyes was lightshow of various magical abilities as Lyze summoned arcs of lightning and fire using his sword and skewered minotaurs on spears of those particular elements.

He jumped and slashed at their eyes, blinding them so they couldn't fight. Or he would use his legs to wrap around their necks and jerk them until they snapped. However he did it, Riveria just saw minotaurs exploding into smoke wherever the boy went, all dropping their cores on the floor as well as some dropping their horns.

The speed at which the boy was adapting and growing stronger seemed to increase the more he killed.

'It's just...unnatural.' She thought to herself as she pursued him down the corridor. 'Nobody should be able to improve this fast after a few hours of fighting. It just doesn't make sense!'

Lyze finally came to a stop as he used a vertical slash to cleave a minotaur in half. The poor creature didn't even know what happened to him as he died. Lyze breathed heavily as sweat dripped down his face. Sheathing his sword, he used Snatch to pick up every core and drop item he could find before sending them to his hammer-space.

To his disappointment, it seemed that it was becoming full from all the things he kept in there. It meant that cleaning it out was due, and that it meant an entire day of sorting through everything.

"Are you done now?" Riveria asked him.

"Yeah. I think I'm done for today." He panted slightly. "I think I'm nearly out of Mind as well."

"About time it did. I was wondering if you would be able to go on all day firing of that magic all the time. It would seem that even if you have no magic slots, your skills consume Mind."

"No. The skills don't. But when I'm using actual magic though, then yeah I lose Mind just like everyone else."

"Can you use other magic besides elemental magic?"

"At the moment, not really."

"I see. Well then, let's go home. I believe we're done here today." Riveria said as she turned around to walk back to the bridge. Lyze brushed his cloak down, feeling exhausted from all the effort he'd expended today.

He'd definitely killed hundreds of monsters today from different floors, and had harvested an absurd amount of cores as well. Once he'd exchanged it all for Valis, the first thing he was going to do tomorrow morning was get some proper armour.

Before he could turn away though, he sensed an eerie feeling in the air. Trying to find the source, he locked onto a a section of the wall that looked just like all the others...yet at the same time seemed out of place. Casting his eyes to the side a little, he saw a doorway near it which he assumed to be the entrance to the 18th floor.

His eyes widened as he suddenly realized where he was.

'Is this...'

"The Wall of Grief." Riveria said grimly as she returned to his side. "It was stupid of me to lose track of where we were going down here, especially when this is your first time."

"What's so bad about it?" Lyze asked while pretending to be dumb.

Riveria looked back at the wall before grabbing his shoulder and forcibly pulling him along to walk with her.

"The Wall of Grief is the spawn place of the Monster Rex Goliath. Do you know what that is?"

"Judging by its name, I assume its some sort of boss monster?"

"Precisely. Goliath is the first floor boss adventurers will find in the dungeon. It's a giant level 4 monster that destroys everything in its path with its fists and its howl."

"His howl? What does his howl do?"

"It can tear the flesh off of lower level adventurers. As exceptional as you are Lyze, I doubt that you could fight something like that yet."

Lyze knew this as well, and so chose not to comment. He was just as eager to be out of here as Riveria. Running low on Mind as well as being physical exhausted from all the beatings he took from the dozens of minotaurs he'd had to face was not the ideal condition to fight in against something like the Goliath.

"I'm sorry for bringing you down this far Lyze. It seems in my interest to see what else you were capable of, I brought you into a near death-trap."

"It's okay Riveria. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can leave."

"Yes, let's go."

They walked more briskly away from the wall and headed towards the bridge on the other end of the corridor. They had not taken more than a dozen steps before the ground suddenly started shaking and a large crack appeared in the aforementioned wall.

The two of them paused and looked behind to see the colossal titan rip-off burst out of the wall. It landed on its hands and knees before lifting it's giant head and staring at them.

"RUN!" Riveria said as she tried to leg it while dragging Lyze behind her.

Lyze instead grabbed her arm tighter and took to the air, flying them over to the bridge, hellbent on trying to reach the entrance to the 16th floor before the monster could get them. The Goliath set forth in pursuit as it chased them all the way down the hallway.

Eventually the escape route appeared in their vision and Lyze tried to pour more magic into his flight spell to make him fly faster. He and Riveria propelled forwards as they drew nearer and nearer to the bridge.

"We're nearly there!" shouted Riveria.

However, they heard the Goliath roar behind them. They looked back to see it dig its hand into the wall and grab a massive boulder out of it. Hurling it towards the bridge, it smashed the stone pathway and plugged the doorway, effectively trapping the two inside.

Lyze managed to land on the ground in time as his trajectory had actually been aimed towards the bridge. They both stared in horror at the entrance, their escape rout cut off leaving them in the same room as a psychotic floor boss.

Goliath reared its head and released its deadly howl. Lyze could see the giant ring shaped shockwaves of sounds racing towards them. Lifting his tired arm, he just in time managed to invoke 'Full Counter' and fire the attack back at the Goliath.

The beast roared at being hit in the face with his own attack, and stumbled back a few steps while clutching his face.

"Looks like we have no choice but to fight it Riveria. It won't let us leave easily." said Lyze.

"How can you fight? You're just level one, and you're nearly out of what strength you brought with you into the dungeon." exclaimed Riveria.

"We also don't have much of a choice. Either we fight or we get slaughtered like lambs."

"I'm stronger. I will fight it, you focus on a way of opening up that entrance again."

"But you're a caster. You'll never finish your chants in time!"

"Let me worry about that! You go do as you're told." Riveria shouted worriedly as she brandished her Magna Alfs, ready to invoke her spells. The Goliath suddenly roared and punched downwards at them.

Both managed to jump out of the way in time as it smashed into the ground where they had just been. Determined, Lyze activated his flight ability and flew down to the arm with his sword drawn. Digging the deadly sharp lade into the skin, he rakes a large cut down the Goliath's forearm.

The monster screamed in irritable pain rather than true pain and flicked its arm outwards to shake Lyze off. Expecting this, Lyze jumped off the arm back beside Riveria.

"Well it seems that option is out of our hands now." he said.

"You cannot fight that thing! You're not strong enough!" Riveria tried to reason.

"I don't have much of a choice." He muttered back to her. Goliath opened its mouth again to howl once more. Lyze saw an opening and released another one of his skills.

"Explosion!" Balls of explosive magic shot out the tip of his sword into the beasts mouth and detonated inside, coating the inside of its maw with fire. Due to this instead of roars of pain, all the two adventurers heard were guttural sounds of agony rumbling from its throat.

It glared down in hatred at the boy who had done this. It was then Lyze knew what was meant to go down. Only one of them was going to leave this situation alive.

"Riveria." He said.

"What?"

"I claim this monster as mine to kill. You understand what that means right?"

Riveria stared at him as if he were mad.

"What are you talking about? Did you not hear-"

"Don't interfere." he said bluntly before rushing towards the giant.

Goliath snarled and stuck out a foot, intending to crush the boy. Thanks to 'Thread', Lyze saw this coming and with a well times jump, vaulted over its barefoot and sank his flaming sword in the meaty part of its ankle.

The skin was extremely tough. Many times more than the minotaurs. When Lyze had cut its arm earlier, he'd only caused a mere laceration. He hoped to do better with fire magic imbued in his attack.

It worked for the most part as the skin gave way more easily, revealing the tendons beneath. Goliath screamed and tried kick Lyze off. But the boy held on although it took all his strength.

"Lightning King Iron Hammer!" He shouted as he filled the foot with arcs of electricity that ran up the leg. The Goliath nearly fell to its knee as it felt its whole leg seize up and it grunted in pain. Lyze jumped off the foot and ran round the back to get at the Achilles tendon.

Cutting that tendon would rob the giant of its ability to walk. Striking down as hard as he could, he tried to slice through, expecting it to give way. To his horror however, the sword only cut the skin that was drawn tight on it. The sword bounced of the tendon. Feeling Lyze presence in that area, Goliath kicked backwards as hard as it could.

At such a close distance, Lyze could not block this attack and took the kick right to his body. His entire front section felt the weight of a few tons slam into him as he was sent flying backwards. His body skimmed over the ground, bouncing every time it connected with the rocky surface.

In a daze, Lyze tried to right himself in the air and upon the last bounce managed to reposition himself and landed in a kneeling position as he skidded backwards a few yards. Coming to a stop, he coughed out a mouthful of blood as some more dripped down his face. Reaching up there, he found this nose throbbing and positioned in awkward manner.

"Broken." He growled to himself. Thundering footsteps that shook the ground approached him, which made him look up to see the brute half running and half limping. It reached him and tried to slam a fist down.

The speed of it was unbelievable to Lyze as he dodged it by a hair's breadth. But dodging did not shield him from the shockwave of the impact and he was sent tumbling again as his blindfolds filled with dust and rubble.

'This is bad. Its physical stats are leagues above my own. If it keeps attacking like that, I'm going to get squished eventually.'

Lyze was almost out of magic and he'd tired himself out earlier on the monsters, so he wasn't fighting at his hundred percent. There could have been no worse time to be attacked like this by such a creature.

'I have two trump cards up my sleeve.' He thought to himself before glancing back at Riveria who returned the gaze. 'But I can't afford to reveal either in front of her.'

His attention was snared again as Goliath hurled a boulder at him. Taking to the air he narrowedly avoided it before suddenly seeing a giant fist in coming his way. He tried to muster a 'Full Counter' again with Libur but could not draw it in time. Goliath caught him with its punch and smashed him deep into the rock face.

"LYZE!" screamed Riveria, her heart jumping violently at what she'd seen.

But Goliath was not done. The lingering pain in its leg and its burnt mouth reminded him of how much he wanted to make this puny human suffer. Taking his fist out, he didn't hesitate to grab the small body between his fingers and throw it down into the floor.

A small crater was formed as Lyze was slammed again on his back, blood spurting out of his mouth. Goliath lifted its injured foot and stamped down right on top of him.

Riveria slammed her staff in the ground and began chanting, her eyes blazing with worry and fury as she stared the titan down, he stared right back at her in an almost leering manner.

'This is my fault' She thought to herself as she tried to finish her chants as quick as possible. 'If I wasn't so fixated on having him push the limits of his magic just so that I could see it, we wouldn't be down here, facing a monster rex on his first run.'

However, the ground began shaking a little as bits of smoke began appearing under Goliath's foot. The monster looked down to see this and tried to pull back its foot as it registered the pain. It wasn't in time however as its foot was suddenly engulfed in black flames.

It jerked its foot back screaming in pain as it backed away from the indent made by its foot. It revealed Lyze to Riveria's eyes, his entire front smeared in blood that he spat out with most of his clothes in tatters. But something was different this time.

The air around him had suddenly become very cold, and the light around him seemed to fade, as if he were absorbing it. His arms and parts of his body seemed to be covered in some sort of black-purple mist as his sword blazed with the same black flames. But because his back was mostly turned to her, she couldn't see the true difference in him.

Or rather what was on his forehead. A round, swirling black mark, nearest to a tattoo had appeared on his face, near his temple. His arms were coated in the same dark substance save for some of his fingers.

The Goliath stamped its foot repeatedly, shaking the ground and slapping at its injured foot as it tried to put out the flames.

"Don't even bother." Lyze said quietly. His voice had changed, taking on a darker and more malicious tone. And even though his voice was quiet, the air itself seemed to shake with his voice. Hearing it made Riveria feel a cold sense of dread as the hairs on her neck stood.

Lyze stood up stiffly revealing his other arm to be twisted and broken although hidden from Riveria's view. Darkness swirled around the arm as it mended itself back together. Lyze puffed his chest out a little more as he felt the broken ribs knit themselves back together again.

"The Flames of Hell cannot be put out so easily." he said in an even quieter tone. "Here, let me help you."

He lifted his arm and the darkness that covered his arm began to un-whirl and grow in quantity as it grew bigger in size. It took the form of a giant fist with sharp claws on the tips of its fingers.

The dark hand lashed out and wrapped around the Goliath's flaming ankle and with a bit of a struggle, wrenched the foot off and dropped the burning mass on the floor. The giant roared and fell back on it rear at the loss of its right foot.

"I've never liked using this form, partly because it feels cringe and partly because its extremely difficult to control." said Lyze as the dark substance dissipated and he returned to his normal self. "That being said, it's not like I don't still have a few tricks left in my normal form."

He brandished Libur which was still covered in the blazing black flames as pure unadulterated hatred burned in Lyze's heart at what the brut had put him through.

Feeling humiliated that he had done so well to get this deep with all his magic and his techniques, only to be so effortlessly and 'literally' stomped on by this meat-headed 'Attack on Titan rip-off' before he could even use the easiest of his skills really made his blood boil.

This beast was going to die. That was something Lyze vowed then and there as he felt himself growing in strength yet again.

"No more games."

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Read ahead on my P@treon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi