Surviving as a Broken Hero

‘Is there a secondary boss or minions?’

It wouldn’t be out of place if there were. It was kind of strange for there to only be a single boss without support in the first place, unless the dungeon was even scaling the difficulty of that encounter to just two party members.

Instead of an ice-themed minion or secondary boss as I had been expecting, I was greeted with the sight of a man in tattered remnants of armor that looked worse than my own, dried and caked blood covering him from head to toe. His hands were ragged and zombielike, like they had gone through a cheese grater.

Rather than being surprised at the fact that he had continued to chase me, I was surprised that he had managed to chase me into my own dungeon instance, which should have been impossible.

I began uttering a curse in surprise at seeing the Lion Guild’s scout leader I had met previously, above Krylla’s caves.

“What the f—”

Another arrow loosed at breathtaking speed cut me off mid-curse. I had to raise my hand and move the earth into gauntlet form again to knock away the arrow, which sent my arm reeling back from the recoil even though I had been expecting it that time.

Taking advantage of the momentary reprieve, as Lein had also stopped his attacks to register the new adversary, the Ice King gathered itself and brought its spear down towards me.

I was just barely able to roll to the side, narrowly avoiding another arrow by complete accident in my frantic dodge.

The spear slammed into the ground with a cracking sound, sending up bits of stone where it had destroyed the floor.

Lein, shocked out of his surprise by the Ice King’s continued action, yelled, “Who the hell is that guy?! Friend of yours?!”

I grimaced while avoiding another one of the Ice King’s spear swings, registering a brief explosion when Lein knocked another arrow off course.

We had barely been standing our ground against the Ice King before being interrupted by Koise, so having our attention split between the two put us on the back foot. We were doing all we could just to hang in.

The moment Lein ran out of mana or I got too tired to continue dodging, it would be over for us both.

I needed to end the fight with the Ice King immediately.

“Forget about the arrows for a second, I need an opening!”

It was hard for the arrows to reach me after I repositioned myself to have the Ice King between me and the archer who was so hellbent on killing me anyway, so I would just have to take the gamble.

“Are you—”

“Just do it!”

I shut my eyes, falling into echo sight in between the Ice King’s swings after an arrow aimed at me ended up piercing the Ice King’s back.

The Ice King, registering the attack, still didn’t turn its attention from me—deigning to deal with the closest threat first.

As soon as I felt Lein finishing a snap with his fingers toward the Ice King’s head, I planted myself and struck with everything I had—straight into the Ice King’s chest!

[[«Strike»!]]

{{«Piercing Eruption»!}}

{{«Earth Formation»!}}

[[«Strike»!]]

Separate strikes, one to kick off the ground while I pivoted my waist and another with my gauntleted hand, which I reformed and hardened mid-swing.

A long stone spike jutted from the end of my fist, which was enhanced with the power of another «Strike» and brimming with the power of a «Piercing Eruption» that pulled the energy from every corner of my body and exploded outward with a brilliant flash of light and heat.

It slammed into the Ice King’s chest with the impact of my fist just after Lein’s explosion went off in the Ice King’s face, blinding him for that critical moment.

Boom!

The ensuing impact from the blow shook me to my bones, sending sharp pains through my endurance-enhanced arms, which would have likely been liquidized into fine mist and fragments of bone if I had experienced such a thing before my Awakening.

The earthen spike I had formed was blown to bits by the attack, and the skin on my knuckles was torn away.

I stood still, catching my breath with my hand emerging from the other side of the Ice King’s chest through a perfect hole, just wide enough for my arm.

A rippling shockwave from the blow had continued even past the Ice King, knocking another of Koise’s arrows off course and even causing him to have to brace to keep from being blown away by it.

Glowing blue eyes looked down on me—the Ice King, who was just as surprised as I was by the destructive power I had suddenly displayed.

The monster stumbled away, somehow still alive despite the hole in its chest, and let out a gurgling, bloody roar of pain and anger.

AAAGGGHHHH!!!!

We had to cover our ears, the sound warbling our eardrums and shaking the room, which began to crumble from the ceiling.

Ding!

[[Retrieve the Relic and escape from the Ice King’s dungeon!]]

A System message appeared. Judging by the way he suddenly halted firing his arrows, Koise received the same message. We all looked toward the boss’s throne at the same moment as it slid back and revealed another secret passage, where the Relic was likely kept and where the exit to the dungeon could be found.

Larger chunks of the ceiling began to fall, and Lein and I, still covering our ears, stumbled toward the secret passageway as the Ice King continued to scream, intent on bringing the dungeon down on our heads.

I looked back upon reaching the passageway. Lein stopped with me and gave me a quizzical look, cringing in pain from the screeching of the Ice King, his hands still over his ears.

I had stopped to look at Koise, who had begun running towards the exit with us upon seeing the System’s message.

The man already looked half-dead when he started attacking us, and a stray piece of falling debris caught his shoulder, knocking him to the floor where a bigger chunk of the crumbling mountain fell on top of him, trapping him beneath it and knocking him out cold.

{{Save Koise!}}

[[Finish the Ice King!]]

More opposing messages. I could theoretically do both, but I wagered that, by defeating the Ice King, the dungeon would crumble even more rapidly. What’s more, I would be out of mana and stamina completely if I did so.

It was either a straight shot to the Ice King or a straight shot to Koise, who had fallen trapped beneath the debris close by.

“Go on without me! I have to do something!”

“What?!”

It was impossible to hear each other over the shrieking chaos. I waved Lein on and stumbled back down the stairs.

I had every right to just let Koise die there underneath the rubble, but our conflict had started from a misunderstanding in the first place. Besides, in his half-dead state, it would be easy enough to defeat him if he tried anything—or so I told myself.

It was as if the Second System was telling me that, if I truly wanted to save people, I had to be willing to save my enemies as well.

The ceiling still crashing all around us, I used all of the strength I could muster and shoved aside the large piece of stone that had fallen over Koise, revealing his crumpled leg and unconscious form.

I picked him up and flung him over my shoulders—he felt as light as a feather compared to the debris that had been crushing him—and moved as quickly as I could back to the exit, leaving the Ice King screaming behind me.

The passageway below the throne was absolutely calm in comparison—still shaking and crumbling, yes, but not nearly as quickly or as dangerously as it had been in the throne room.

Carrying Koise, I walked through where the Relic must have been, an empty pedestal set within the center of a room with intricate carvings of dragons along the walls that I could not stop to observe.

Eventually, the blissful cold air greeted me, and I slogged out into a wide, empty plain of snow. The sky was clear and crisp, the snow crunching up to my mid-shins with each step I took as I tried to distance myself from the dungeon in fear of an impending avalanche or further destruction affecting the area around the mountain while the dungeon within crumbled.

My worries were for nothing, and silence eventually overtook the plain, my labored breathing sending puffs of vapor up with each strenuous step.

Having no better option, snow all around, I eventually let Koise down, face-up in the sun to hopefully absorb whatever warmth he could. It would be useless if I saved him just for him to die after all of that effort.

Lein, of course, was nowhere to be seen. Wherever he had gone, he had gone with great haste. Could I really blame him? I had known the man for not even a full day, after all.

Ting!

{{Quest Complete: Save Koise!

Quest Reward: +700 XP!}}

{{Level Up!}}

[[Quest Failed: Kill the Ice King!]]

[[Dungeon Cleared!

Due to the partial clearing of the dungeon, only half of the experience will be given!

Reward: +12,500 XP!]]

[[Level Up!]]

[[Level 5 Ability Options:

《Quick Steps 》

For a brief moment, move as fast as the wind. Your Agility increases by x3 for 1 second.

《Mighty Shout》

Let out a roar that shakes the air around you, diverting projectiles and leaving your foes off-balance.

《Redirection》

Instantly alter the trajectory of any of your movements, avoiding any backlash that would otherwise occur to the self.]]

[[Level Up…]]

At last, I had leveled up in not just one, but both of my systems.