A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

It wasn't a stupid creature, though. Throughout the duration of its climb, it didn't turn its back on Oliver once, nor leave itself so occupied by the climb that it would not be able to raise up an arm to fend off an attack. Still, it didn't seem to know quite what danger it was in.

It came up out of the hole, towering over Oliver, and screeching its monstrous obscenities through its bird beak, thrusting the shell on its chest forward indignantly, as though daring Oliver to strike it. He smiled at the invitation. Whilst the Konbreaker continued to posture, Oliver swung his sword in a flash, not even truly needing to set up the attack.

The creature sensed danger and only retreated its arms behind its shell even further. It knew to have absolute confidence in that shield. It was the perfect last line of defence. As long as any enemy were to attack it from the front, a Konbreaker would never be beaten. Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

Or so it thought.

The power of the Third Boundary proved nearly immeasurable compared to the second. What had, at one time, proved to be an obstacle that Oliver could never dare risk his blade on, now became something as crushable as an egg. His blade bit straight through it, making it appear frail and brittle, continuing past the shell, and down through to the flesh and organ that remained beneath.

It hardly seemed to slow the sword at all, as it cut the creature from shoulder to hip, almost going as far as its spine. It opened its mouth to caw again, this time with a hint of dismay, but all that came up with a monstrous green blood, and the viscera of its own chewed-up organs.

The mere effort of the cry used up the last of its life force, so thoroughly broken it was. It collapsed forward in a dazed heap, unable to even think of keeping itself standing.

"Mm," Oliver said, running his finger along the edge of his blade, checking for any chips or rolls. Nothing. "Good," he said, smiling. He'd known it was considerably reckless to wager his blade on an attack that could have been performed to any other part of the body, considering the likelihood of damaging it, but he merely could not help himself.

He was in that perfect place of potential, at the moment, and everything presented a challenge – a new way of testing his strength and measuring his capacity.

Of course, slaying a Konbreaker through its plate brought him nothing but delight, even if he'd expected it, given that he'd managed to slay the Boulder Crab through its similarly tough hide. Still, there was something about dealing with old enemies with new strength that really brought home just how significant the improvement had been.

Though it had cost him a good portion of stability, and almost pushed him to the grave itself, Oliver was beginning to feel confident that the gambit Ingolsol had suggested all those weeks ago had been the right move. After all, he was in a position now where he needed every scrap of power that he could get.

With this sort of strength, he wondered if he might even have been able to defeat Gorm in single combat – should the man by some impossibility have been resurrected.

The odds were at least in his favour more than they had been in the past. It brought together an interesting set of questions, which proved to be all the more exciting when he recalled that he'd be returning to Solgrim that very same day.

Remembering that gave him the urgency that he was previously lacking, though he was quite sure that he didn't need to rush quite as much as he was. The two-hour window that they'd planned for the hunting had been a lenient one – and Oliver had already covered the ground towards the Konbreaker area far faster than they'd anticipated, and slain one just as quickly.

Now, all that was left was to drag it back.

This was the least fun part of the job, giving the blood and the mess.

He ran his hands under its shoulder blades, which proved to be about the only part of the creature that he could grab. His overexcited execution of the monster had proved to be an error, as the gaping wound flapped open, potentially ridding it of valuable material.@@novelbin@@

"Wait… Are those organs going to be intact?" He wondered, with a sudden flash of worry. He was quite sure that he'd at least sliced through a lung… "Right, I think I need to settle down a bit."

He quickly decided that he would attempt to either behead the creatures, or just generally aim for the necks if he were to kill them. He'd already proved his strength. He was quite sure he was strong enough to kill them with ease – and now a further challenge would be to kill them whilst damaging the body the least that he possibly could.

Down the hill he dragged the corpse, the snow helping to keep it from getting caught on anything that it might have, though he was still considerably slower than he had been without it.

It brought to mind the menial strength training tasks that Dominus had given him all that time ago. Lifting boulders, and the like. He smiled at the memory. They were good thoughts. Though it might have seemed arbitrary in hindsight, to see how many times he could lift a random rock, it had proved to be exciting for a boy that had never known progress – and he was still that same boy at heart.

Granted a reason, he would have quite happily have started lifting rocks again. In a way he was, only, today's rock had a beak and bled far more than he would have preferred.

He dragged it back, all the way away from the rocky terrain, back to that snaking path where the Gocks had first begun to bother him. Soon, he found the corpse of the second Gock that he had killed, and he knew that he'd dragged the Konbreaker far further than they had planned he would.

Since he was so sure that he was ahead on time, he dragged it as far as the next Gock corpse, and only then did he catch sight of his retains urgently following along in the distance, with Verdant leading valiantly from the front, spear in hand, thick winter cape fluttering behind him.