CHAPTER 28: Capacity Test and Sapphire Arsenal

Heavy doors yielded to the push of telekinesis with a dull grind. Air hit me like a physical wave. It lacked the frost of the previous floors. It was sticky. It smelled of burned iron. I ignored the stench. My mind began the assessment of the surroundings. The weaves in my body woke up to life with a vibrating purr. They did not tear. The renewed foundation kept the reactor in iron check.

Shnee stood behind my shoulder. She released a cloud of steam from her lungs. Her hand reflexively clenched on her rapier. Thin frost began to sparkle around the elf's boots.

"You can feel the difference in density," I muttered coldly.

"Do you see him?" she asked quietly.

I did. A three-meter anomaly kneeled right in the middle of the ruined arena. The tenth floor resembled a black colosseum. A powerful guard stuck in its center. It was a hard blockade. The dungeon placed a mountain of meat here. I took a step into the arena. The sound of my boot hitting the granite carried a loud echo.

Empty eye sockets in the beast's bull skull ignited with a scarlet glow. The Juggernaut raised its head. The sound from its throat resembled the grinding of stones. The beast heaved itself onto its bone hooves. The floor cracked with a groan under its weight.

"Keep your distance," I threw to the girl, shedding my Brazen chill. "Do not waste mana on its armor. Aim for the joints".

"Understood!" Shnee threw. She immediately jumped back, flanking the arena.

The Minotaur did not wait. It roared dully. It charged. Gigantic thigh bones worked like a machine. The granite floor exploded under its steps. The column in its paws dragged on the ground. It struck showers of sparks.

I stood in place. I lowered my hands along my body. Pure logic dictated checking the hardness of the material. I pushed out the gathered mana. I formed an invisible fist of pure telekinesis. I struck the scarlet eye socket of the charging beast with it. I intended to crush its skull from a distance. The effect drastically missed my assumption. The space around the Minotaur's head sparked violet. My telekinesis hit a barrier. It simply slid off. It tore the air with a roar. The beast did not even slow down.

Density barrier, I noted in my thoughts without a shadow of panic. The dungeon charged its bones with such an amount of mana that they form a natural armor. Remote choking will not pass. This must be handled with contact. A sapphire point in my chest flashed. A portion of mana pumped through the modernized weaves. It went straight to my right hand. Space swirled. The crystallized energy immediately took the shape of a massive blade. Orcrist vibrated in my hand. The Minotaur took a powerful swing. It raised the granite column. It wanted to level me with the ground.

I did not dodge. I lowered my center of gravity. Instead of retreating before the charge, I cut brutally forward. I entered the direct range of the beast's murderous arc. Orcrist met the granite column halfway. The collision generated a shockwave. It tore the air with a roar. The force of the push threw clouds of dust upward. The mutated Minotaur roared. Kinetic force stopped its one-and-a-half-ton charge in place. I felt this hit in every centimeter of my body. The impact went from my wrist through my spine down to my feet. The ground under my boots simply ceased to exist. It collapsed into a deep crater.

But I did not even flinch. No crunch in the shoulder. No burning of torn weaves. The new Vessel absorbed the gigantic energy with the smoothness of an oiled engine. The capacity test ended in absolute success. I raised my head. A cold smile bloomed on my face. With the beast's red eyes burning right in front of my face, I pushed harder. Perfectly managed, I assessed in my thoughts with dark satisfaction. It works like a dream. The Minotaur roared. It smelled of old blood. The beast tried to tear the granite column from my block. Its muscles tensed under the armor. It wanted to crush me with pure mass.

I maintained the push. I locked the monster in place. That gave the girl a perfect window. Shnee found herself on the flank. Her rapier hissed. The elf did not aim at the thick bronze. She directed the attack straight at the beast's right joint. She released a wave of frost. The temperature dropped drastically. The air froze. Ice immediately coated the monster's leg. It forced its way into the gaps of the armor. The joint was immobilized. The beast lost its balance. It tried to shift its weight. The frozen knee refused to obey. The Minotaur staggered with a hollow groan. The hoof scratched the granite.

It was my turn. I changed the angle of attack. I shortened the distance. I executed a horizontal cut with Orcrist. The sapphire blade sped towards its chest. I intended to cut it in half with one move. The hit was precise. The sword bit into the bronze. A monstrous grind resounded. The blade passed through the first layer. It stopped on black bones. The mutated skeleton absorbed the kinetic energy of my cut. The beast's Vessel constituted a natural barrier. I tore the weapon from the wound. I stepped back to a safe distance.

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I looked at the smoking gap. The armor was absurdly thick. Pure logic suggested a simple calculation. Traditional fencing was a waste of time. Cutting on the surface wasted my new capacity. The weaves worked perfectly, but the steel on the outside put up resistance. A thick guard requires a different key, I assessed in my thoughts. This boss has too much surface defense. It needs to be blown apart from the inside. The situation on the arena changed drastically. The bone Juggernaut fell into a fury. The beast understood that it did not prevail physically. Flames of black mana burst from its eye sockets. The monster straightened up abruptly. The frozen joint exploded from the inside, shedding the shackles of ice in a cloud of dust.

With a hollow roar, the Minotaur raised the granite column high above its head. Dark energy flowed down its bones. It saturated the weapon with destructive power.

"Dave! It will crush the whole arena!" Shnee shouted, forming a thick shield in front of herself.

I saw the charging of the attack. The beast was preparing to strike the floor, which would level everything within a radius of dozens of meters with the ground. Blocking this missed the point. Pure logic suggested one solution. Annihilation.

I dismissed the sapphire sword. The blue blade dispersed in the air. Instead, I unlocked the barrier in my mind. I reached straight into the abyss of regenerated weaves. I concentrated a powerful charge exclusively on my left hand.

The Juggernaut lowered the column with a roar.

I shot forward. Raw momentum under my soles threw me towards the monster like a projectile. I ignored the falling pillar of granite. I entered straight into the death zone. With a perfect slide, I bypassed the column, which hit the floor with a crash. The stone exploded, causing a local earthquake. I ignored the sharp fragments. I was inside the beast's guard. Right under the rusting armor of the chest. I bounced off the monster's bent knee. I ran up the massive rib and propelled myself into the air. I stood face to face with the bull's head. The beast's scarlet eyes widened in shock.

"Time to sleep, trash," I growled with an icy tone.

I drove my pulsating hand deep into the burning eye socket of the Minotaur. I pushed my arm so far until I felt the calloused structure in the center of the skull. It was a hard core. I detonated the charge from the inside. There was no great explosion of fire. Only a ghostly squeal resounded. A flash of blinding light followed, which x-rayed the beast's skull. The blue glow exposed the outline of every rib. A sapphire lightning was born inside and blew the monster apart in all directions at once.

I fell on my right knee. The sapphire plasma around my hand went out with a quiet hiss. I took a deep breath. The air slowly returned to normal. The weaves did not suffer damage. I did not feel burning. The new capacity worked flawlessly. However, I noticed another problem. I felt a sudden drop in my reserves. Devours mana like a black hole, I noted in my thoughts. I got up from the ground. I brushed the ash off my black coat. Only for the final strike. At least until the capacity is increased. Shnee approached closer. She stepped carefully on the smoking granite. Her weapon fell alongside her body.

"That was not any of your previous tricks," she noted quietly. "It threw even me to the edge of the arena".

"A new acquisition," I answered calmly. I straightened my fingers. "I must be careful with it".

We went down to the largest pile of rubble. The Juggernaut's body ceased to exist. The mutated skeleton turned into smoking slag. In the center of destruction pulsated a gigantic core. It had a scarlet color. It emanated raw power. I picked up the loot. The heat of the mineral pleasantly tingled my hand. I felt the temptation to absorb this energy. Pure logic, however, suggested a different calculation. Elena in the base will make much better use of it. I threw the stone into the pouch.

"Are we going further?" Shnee asked. She looked at the opposite end of the chamber.

A heavy wall was just sinking into the floor. Granite gave way to a new descent. A stale wind blew from the depths of the corridor. I felt a dark chill. I adjusted the collar of my coat. The new weapon survived a difficult test. The real verification was still ahead of us.

"Sure," I threw coldly. I looked into the darkness. "We are taking on the eleventh floor".

The heavy plate sank into the floor with a hollow rumble. The sound of the impact was immediately muffled. Instead of an echo bouncing off the stone, we heard a wet squelch.

We went down the dark stairs. A wave of hot air hit us from the breach. It lost its former crispness. It had the density of thin jelly. I frowned, smelling the sharp stench of sulfur and deep rot. My stomach reacted instinctively to this stench. Sterile granite ceased to exist. The surroundings underwent a drastic transformation. The corridor ahead of us resembled living entrails. Purple mycelium covered the walls. Thick veins pulsated in its structure. Fleshy vines hung from the ceiling. Corrosive acid dripped from them, burning holes in the ground with a quiet hiss.

I took a step forward. The floor bent under my boot. It let out a disgusting squelch. Shnee stopped right behind my shoulder. Her chest rose in an accelerated rhythm. Thick mana choked the lungs. The elf's frosty aura sparked reflexively, trying to repel the toxic moisture. She felt confident in the cold granite. This pulsating cesspool completely disoriented her sharpened senses. Pure logic suggested a simple truth. The dungeon changed the rules of the game. It abandoned hard armors and blunt strikes in favor of pure exhaustion. It intended to devour us alive using toxins.

I turned slowly to the girl. I grabbed her by the arm. I let a short impulse of my aura into her weaves. The blue energy cut her off from the corrosive air. Shnee breathed a loud sigh of relief.

"Change your attitude," I threw coldly, letting go of her arm. "Ordinary fencing fails here. Cold steel will get stuck in this tissue upon the first thrust. Stay close to the walls and look up. The acid from the ceiling will burn through your skull."

She nodded in silence. Her hand rested firmly on the hilt of her rapier. Fear disappeared. Murderous readiness replaced it.

I slipped my hands deep into my coat pockets with Brazen chill. I shooed away an intrusive fly with my hand. The halfway point of the zone had closed, but the real marathon through the eleventh floor was just beginning. We entered straight into the pulsating gloom.