(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

The blood-clone sloshed its way up the trunk. Every footfall splashed, droplets of blood spraying away from its silhouette of solid crimson. They froze a handspan from the creature, reversing course to rejoin its macabre body.

Kaius reacted immediately. Stormlash lit up the clearing in stark blue-white, raking across the clone. It sizzled, steam wafting upwards. It didn’t even flinch, launching to the lowest branches that bowed under its weight. Tendrils were already sprouting from its back, snapping as it drew closer.

Ianmus was already sprinting. Arcane magic glimmered close to his skin due to his Mage Armour, and the burning light trails of Starlit Alacrity gleamed on the surface of his branch. He launched himself at full speed to the next tree over. Just in time. Red tendril cut clean through the branch he’d been balanced on.

The branch fell, splintering with a groan as it smashed into the distant ground.

Kenva unleashed Bare thy Heart. The shot vanished into the clone without a trace. A moment later, its semi-liquid body bulged as her Skill exploded. Smoke bubbled from the blood, but the clone reformed unharmed.

“Gods’ blood!” she swore, abandoning her position to join Ianmus in his flight.

Kaius’s mind raced. He flicked between the clone and the original body. Its blood-based skills had vanished, but the beast was still savaging Porkchop — both of them at a standstill. They couldn’t let the clone run roughshod over their back line. Branches screamed as it tore them from the canopy, some sliced clean through, while others broke under the blood-clone’s simple bulk.

It launched itself at Kenva. For a moment, it looked like it would miss — then a terribly familiar ghostly impression materialised in front of the creature. It slammed into the branch the ranger was standing on, shattering it as one of its tusks tore through the archers side. She screamed, before vanishing into a cloud of leaves.

Rotten roots, the clone could still use the main body’s skills. Kaius used Stormlash every time he had a clean shot — but the clone barely even staggered.

Could they even destroy it while the main body still lived?

Kenva reappeared across the clearing, quaffing a healing potion. But Ianmus was exposed, desperately leaping from limb to limb as fast as he could move.

“Leave the main body to me! You need to guard Kenva and Ianmus!” Kaius yelled to his brother, before he projected his voice to his teammates. “Drop down! Porkchop can take the heat while you help me put the main body down!”

Porkchop growled, but pulled back. The gorespike tried to follow, but Kaius dove in its face, his blade burning with the power of Investiture and Rend both. There was no time for him to look back and confirm that his team had managed to follow his plan. He was the only thing standing between them and a raging mountain.

Spinning away from its snapping jaw, Kaius slashed the creature across its snout, ruining the sensitive organ. Stamina ripped through his body, empowering the enchantments of his blade and his Rend. The explosive layer of arcane covering his blade erupted with a shrill whine. Caustic blue energy lingered on the creature.

It squealed. Kaius braced, ready for a ghostly charge, a cutting whip, a shining spine — something. Yet no Skill came. The gorespike simply shook its head, snorting. Dropping its head, it charged — the last, lingering bramble canes snapping free as it launched out of the briars. Ghostly lilies wrapped its limbs, blossoms glowing as they slowed the creature. But it was a titan of physicality. Even slowed, it was too massive — the charge would send Kaius flying if he tried to stand his ground.

Expedient Shunt sent him sailing to the side, away from his team.

His new position offered him a glimpse of the other half of the battle.

Kenva and Ianmus had dropped down from the trees, racing across the muddy field towards Porkchop’s charging form. The bloodclone dived after them, audibly sloshing as it hit the ground. A wave of blood erupted around it, carrying it towards the fleeing pair. Porkchop roared, The Dominance of Claw yanking the clone’s attention towards him. Power flooded his body, and Intercede The Weak sent him hurtling forward. They met in a frenzy, blood coating Porkchop’s armour in a thick paint as they went down in a scramble of swiping claws and gnashing teeth.

The sight of his brother manhandling the clone filled Kaius with relief. Thank the hells it wasn’t entirely liquid — or maybe it was just dense enough that it didn’t matter.

He didn’t get much more time to think about it, the original gorespike bearing down on him. It too accelerated on a wave of blood. Kaius went high, carried on a burst of force. He struck mid-air, raking the creature’s spine as it flew under him. Grey hide split, blood flying from the wound towards the distant clone.

Kaius hissed, lightning cracking to blacken the wound he’d just opened. He could only assume that every wound he left would empower the blood-clone further, filling it with more vitality.

Undeterred, he dived after the gorespike. Without Porkchop’s advantages, he could only rely on his agility to keep the creature occupied. He stayed as close as he dared, punishing every opening with a slash of his lightning-wrapped blade. Expedient Shunt and Slipstep erupted in an almost constant volley, giving him the speed he needed to stay just a step ahead of the creature.

His defence was by no means inviolate. Mercurial Reversal accelerated his blade to a blurring speed, just barely letting him block a bucking tooth — but the creature’s bulk crushed his guard, the bones in his arm creaking. It pressed the attack, a constant storm that forced him to give ground. Kaius spent stamina like water, his blade ringing like a bell.

Yet savage tusks and ramming spines slipped through. His scalemail caught most, but the sheer, crushing power of the creature ruptured his flesh like overripe fruit. Every wound gushed, Vainblood’s Zone Effect undercutting Rapid Adaptation and Greater Regeneration’s ability to slow his bleeding.

His backline did what they could, the cracking twang of Kenva’s Skill-backed arrows filling the air as the golden light of Ianmus’s spells shone. For all the wounds they left, their progress was slow. Too slow.

Kaius’s mind raced, searching for the path to victory. It existed — it always did. This creature might have been tough and unrelenting, but it was not beyond their reach. He refused to believe that they would be bested by a hog, no matter how demonically twisted it might be.

Their clashes seemed unending, but slowly Kaius started to notice a strange rhythm. The beast’s Skills that had previously come in an unending wave, now came in an unpredictable stutter. A wavecharge here, a sudden sprouting tendril there — but never an onslaught.

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And never at the same time its clone used those same abilities — ones the bloody reflection drew upon often as it tried desperately to punch through Porkchop’s staunch defence.

Kaius gripped onto the discovery like a lifeline, shouting it to his team. But how could he use it? It gave him a certain surety of openings, that much was true. He would have a far easier time striking at the creature when he knew it wouldn’t lead to him being eviscerated by lashing tentacles. But what good was an opening if he could barely use them?

He was running low on Stormlash, only a handful of casts left, and every bleeding wound he left empowered its clone further. Even with Ianmus raking its wounds with his Rays, there was still enough of a time gap for blood to fly across the clearing.

Kaius scowled, thrusting towards the gorespike’s eye with his blade. Rend burned on its tip. Even if the creature’s orbits were tiny, the detonation would wreck the delicate organs. A little blood would be worth it if they could blind the beast.

It lurched, ripping its head down and to the side. Kaius’ blade cleaved through its ear, diminutive compared to the size of its head. The creature roared, blood erupting to form a crimson rendition of the missing flesh.

Kaius felt like screaming. No doubt this new Skill would work just as well on a missing eye at the rate their battle had been going.

He fought on regardless — brutal cuts traded for broken bones and ragged holes in his flesh.

Frustration continued to build within him until, right as he jumped back to avoid the creature’s spines, the bloodclone came into view. His Skill-sharpened vision spotted the difference immediately. It was missing an ear.

Kaius’s breath quickened. Their fight had been going well until their forces had been split between two targets. Up until now, he’d tried to avoid any wounds that might empower its clone too much — but if he could cripple the gorespike…

The blood-clone could grow twice as strong, and it wouldn’t matter if it was missing a leg. It would have to be a perfectly timed blow. Porkchop was already burning his health at an astonishing rate, even with Ianmus fortifying his defenses with the gleaming sheen of Silver Plating. If he messed up, the added power might turn the tides against them.

“Ianmus! Can you cast a Halo?” Kaius asked, leading the gorespike around the edge of the clearing.

“No chance! I’ve been burning every scrap the keyseal gathers on Rays!” The mage replied.

Kaius growled — there went his nice, neat solution.

That left the messy option.

Mind-warping geometry filled his inner eye as Muthryn burned on his throat. He forced himself to stay steady as VOS ripped at his attention, leaning on his recent practice withstanding the great runes temptations. He forced its power into Stormlash.

A writhing viper of bound energy leapt from his hand, as thick as his leg. It struck the gorespike physically, every muscle in its body seizing as crackling arcs streamed between its spines and jutting tusks. It hit the ground like a felled oak, blood leaking from its mouth — but it wasn’t dead.

That was fine — he just needed it still for a moment. Kaius threw his stamina into Hellblade Investiture — empowering his Hymnfocus. Whirring teeth erupted from the edge of his blade. Flashing to the beast’s side, he cleaved into its knee.

A constant spray of scraps of meat and chunks of bone splattered against him as he grinned, forcing his blade deeper into the sopping wound.

Most of the way through, the gorespike screamed — a tortured sound that stabbed his ears. It started to writhe, shaking off the effects of his empowered Stormlash. He had moments.

Kaius swept his blade up, and cut down. It’s leg came free. A swirling replacement of blood snapped into existence, welling from its stump.

Across the clearing, the bloodclone collapsed. Its body was bulky — too ungainly to support its weight on three limbs to any degree of effectiveness. Porkchop ran — diving across the field to keep the main body pinned.

With his brother back at his side, Kaius let loose a laugh of victory, revelling in the burning heat that surged through his heart.

“Kenva — charge up a Howl of the North Wind! And stay clear of that clone!” Kaius bellowed, rotating around Porkchop’s bulk.

New tendrils sprouted from the gorespike — but they were thin and weak. Most of the creature’s power was invested in its clone, and if it dismissed the Skill, it would lose the use of its leg. They had it dead to rights.

He focused on its thick, heavy skull. It was unbelievably tough, Porkchop hadn’t even cracked it even after dozens of his strongest blows.

But the toughest armour protected the most vulnerable of weaknesses.

“Keep it pinned!” he roared to Porkchop. “I’m going to weaken its skull with Rend!”

Porkchop only growled, flipping the grounded gorespike onto its side as he mauled it’s exposed stomach.

Arcane fury burned on Kaius’s blade. He slashed the struggling gorespike across its brow. The cut was light — barely more than a scratch. The unstable detonation of his Skill ripped the wound open, caustic power coating the glinting pink of its skull.

Dipping back, a quick glance showed the creature’s clone struggling to stand across the clearing. He rushed back in — layering Rend after Rend as quickly as he could. Letting the affliction burn, a Nail rocketed from his hand, slamming into the beast’s skull.

The bone chipped, sprouting a hair-line crack. A chink in its armour.

“Now, Kenva!” Kaius cried, retreating on a burst of force.

A black tangle of twisted vines snapped into existence on the creature’s exposed skull, bubbling with the power to strengthen any of Kenva’s attacks that hit it. Kaius blinked, and her arrow landed — a lance surrounded by cutting winds.

The gorespike’s skull fragmented, sharps whipping through a geyser of pulped brain. It went limp. In the same instant, the blood-clone popped, returning to a puddle of blood that splashed into the mud.

**Ding! You have slain Daeosin Gorespike - Level 342 Everspring Bloodletter! Increased Experience for slaying a creature of significantly higher Level!**

**Ding! Runeblade Hellion has grown from level 254 > 257!**

**+6 Int; +5 Con, Str & Will; +2 Vit & Dex; +3 Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

Kaius straightened out of his guard, his blade dipping to his side. He stared at the carcass of the Gold beast, smiling savagely as new power surged through his soul.

A damned good fight.

Turning his attention inwards, Kaius scanned the waiting notifications that had built over the fight.

**Ding! Class Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

** Infused Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 283 > 285!**

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**Hellblade Investiture has reached level 240 > 242!**

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** Infused Glyph of Felmenia has reached level 234 > 235!**

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**Runeblade Hymnfocus has reached level 175 > 179!**

**Ding! General Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

**Rapid Adaptation has reached level 265 > 267!**

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**Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo has reached level 299 > 301!**

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**Seargent’s Insight has reached level 263 > 264!**

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**Tempered By Dissonance has reached level 256 > 258!**

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**Greater Regeneration has reached level 274 > 278!**

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**Moment of Flow has reached level 244 > 247!**

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**Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus has reached level 270 > 271!**