Artyom hoped to get a chance to catch his breath with the kobolds’ sudden loud charge, but the boss recognized the real threat.


    The hulking monster looked the man from Earth dead in the eye and ran at him. Arrows and pickaxe swings peppered his scales and even drew blood, but he ignored them all as he sprinted at his real target.


    Artyom cursed to himself and renewed the magic to his speed spell before jumping out of the way.


    When the boss reached the spot Artyom was just at, he turned on a dime and continued his pursuit, barely losing any speed.


    Artyom cursed again when he reached the cavern wall and was forced to swerve to avoid impacting it, but this time loudly as pain rocketed through his shins and knees. Without the armor spell active, his body wasn’t able to handle the stress from turning at such inhuman speeds.


    But he didn’t have a choice.


    The rest of his active magic and concentration was reserved for the aura spell keeping the kobolds functioning.


    “I can’t take much more strain like this,” thought Artyom after making another jump. “I have to reduce how much I need to turn each time, and make each turn count.”


    The man from Earth quickly put his idea into practice, and the next time he reached the cavern wall he began to run alongside it instead of perpendicular to his angle of approach.


    A bloated hand almost grabbed him as he did so, but just barely missed. It was pierced with another three arrows for its trouble. This time however, blood dripped from the wounds just a second longer than usual before it stopped.


    Artyom smiled. “That confirms it, he has a limit! But at the rate I’m going at, we won’t reach it in time. The running force is being distributed unevenly between my legs, so one of them will give out before the boss.”


    The hulking monster’s eyes widened as it looked at its previously injured hand. Rather than let fear, the element it was a master of, get the better of him, he tightened his resolve and threw all caution to the wind as he put everything into his next charge.


    “That’s too fast!” shouted Artyom, seeing that the boss’ path would put him on a collision course with where Artyom was headed.


    It was a tough choice now; jumping out of the way with how fast everything was currently going would absolutely mess up his knees, but staying on the same path would mean death. Maybe not that tough of a choice between those two options, but Artyom hated being forced into making it nonetheless.


    But an idea came to his mind at the very last moment before impact. A third option.


    Artyom jumped onto the cavern wall itself and continued his run, body parallel to the ground and using the centrifugal force to keep his feet attached to the wall.


    The boss’ charge ended just below him, sending rocks and debris flying in all directions, but still missing him.


    “Now this is something I can handle!” exclaimed Artyom with a wide grin.


    The boss grimaced and continued his charge, but at a much slower pace than before, letting the kobolds catch up to within melee distance of him. The constant barrage of small attacks against him, along with the distance he had to jump each time he tried to attack, all of the boss’ attacks went wide.


    Artyom couldn’t help but laugh out loud by the time this continued for half a lap around the cavern. “What, is this too much for you? If it is, you can always-”


    A wicked grin spread across the monster’s face, but it was too late for Artyom to react.


    The rock blocking the exit to the dungeon suddenly enlarged, growing tall enough to block Artyom’s path further.


    All of the man’s strength was put into not running face-first into it, which at his speed, would have at the very least instantly knocked him out.


    Artyom screamed as he went flying from the cave wall onto the floor, feeling the muscles in his legs tear and his knees buckle as he poured every ounce of energy into them. He landed in a roll that ended with him on his back staring up at the slowly approaching monster.


    “Now to finally kill you off and put an end to this little rebellion,” said the boss as he looked at Artyom with sadistic glee. “Maybe I’ll tear your legs off first so you can’t pull any new tricks to run away with.”


    Artyom didn’t react to the taunt. He’d heard much worse over the years from more intimidating enemies, and when he was in actual danger. The man’s hand was wrapped around his flip phone, with his thumb over the emergency recall button. He’d be out of there before the boss could lay another finger on him.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    But the confidence of having a guaranteed lifeline wasn’t in his eyes. Rather, they reflected guilt.


    Artyom looked at the kobolds continuing their desperate strikes against their former boss. The fire of rebellion still shined bright in their hearts, but their strength was waning after having exhausted themselves in the prolonged fight. The damage they did with each strike or arrow was miniscule, not even enough to make the monster react, but they’d already carved out more than twice the total amount of flesh he was made of.


    It still wasn’t enough, they still needed to do more.


    They wouldn’t get the chance once Artyom escaped.


    “Maybe buy them more time? Anything…” thought Artyom as he pulled out his gun with his free hand and began firing into the boss’ head. No longer running, he was able to switch out the speed spell back for his armoring one, allowing the man to easily handle the recoil of each shot.


    Of course, mundane bullets flew through his flesh, which regenerated almost as fast as it was damaged.


    Twenty feet, ten feet, five.


    The monster’s laugh only became louder and more taunting the closer he got to Artyom. And when he was right above the man from Earth, they were replaced with a scream.


    Artyom quickly looked to his gun to make sure Gus hadn’t actually given him something enchanted, but soon realized that wasn’t what made the boss wail.


    At the monster’s feet, a kobold’s pickaxe had swung clean through his heel, exposing bone and sinew that spurted out blood at an alarming rate before it began to slowly close up.


    Even the small army kobolds paused at the sudden massive damage they’d somehow inflicted.


    “What are you ding dongs waiting for, keep hitting him!” shouted a voice from the other side of the cavern.


    Everyone turned at once to see a single kobold standing tall with their pickaxe pointed towards them.


    “[Strength of our Burdens]!” The lead kobold shouted the Skill’s name, and a jolt went through the room. The others of their species no longer looked as diminutive as before, and while the world still weighed on their shoulders behind their looks of surprise, they now stood with the newfound strength to carry it.


    The next kobold to attack was an archer, whose arrow flew clean through the boss’ arm with more force than Artyom’s bullet.


    Two more of them swung their pickaxes just after, each ripping out a massive chunk of flesh.


    The boss jumped away from the crowd behind him reflexively and looked at them, for the first time Artyom had seen from the monster, with fear. But that emotion was short-lived as it soon gave way to rage, and this time directed at the kobolds’ leader.


    Artyom was completely forgotten about as he rushed towards the “true” threat with a murderous glare. Somehow the boss was even faster than when chasing Artyom, maybe being fueled by desperation with his regeneration running out, but this time the actual leader was ready.


    They jumped out of the way with half a second to spare as the boss rocketed past and only stopped shy of the cavern wall. It wasn’t a casual dodge, as it left the leader looking a little haggard afterwards.


    “My fellow kobolds!” they shouted. “Position yourself around me so you’ll get a hit when he tries charging again!”


    The others lit up with realization and did as instructed, forming a loose net around their leader.


    A few more arrows peppered the monster in that time, and he took a few more seconds to heal from them before charging again, but by then the kobolds were in position.


    One more desperate charge, one more quick dodge, and many more gaping wounds inflicted. The macabre routine continued several more times, with even more damage beginning to pile up. However, partway through, Artyom began to realize something.


    “His healing rate isn’t slowing down any more, is this his base state? How is it still this fast?!” The man from Earth shook his head. “If this is as bad as he gets, then one more decisive attack should be able to finish him off. Hmm…”


    The lead kobold was definitely approaching their limit, with the latest charge clipping their arm and sending them spinning in the air. When the leader landed, they held their arm with a wince. It was obvious the kobolds wouldn’t be able to finish the job at this rate.


    Artyom focused even harder on his aura, no longer having to worry about supporting additional spells, and created a second casting infused with all of the fear and pain he could muster. There was only one target for this emotional assault, and he would have to face the full force of it.


    The magic was set loose, and in only a second, the boss felt it wash over him.


    The monster stopped his charge and looked at Artyom with realization. “Oh that’s right, you’re the aura user out of this sorry bunch. This other idiot is making everyone strong with that Skill, but if I kill you first, everyone will fall.”


    “What are you doing?!” shouted the lead kobold, too far away to do anything more.


    “Did you really think your feeble ability would work on me?” the boss asked with an arrogant grin as he began to run towards Artyom. “I was created to wield aura, none are greater than me!”


    Every archer shot at once, turning the boss’ back into a pincushion, but he kept moving. However he was moving slower now, as even his desperation gave way to exhaustion. In fact, he was slow enough that the archers would have had enough time to launch another volley before he reached his target.


    But not another arrow came at him.


    The monster’s arm flew out towards the man from Earth, and just as it was about to reach him, Artyom flashed him a fiendish grin. Gotcha…


    “Sonic Waverider, Tungsten Body,” he said, as he jumped off the ground and deftly sidestepped the outstretched hand.


    The boss’ eyes went wide as he was for the first time too slow to react.


    Artyom came up to his face and placed a palm on his forehead and spoke a single whisper.


    “Gravity Blender.”