NOVPUB
Chapter 136: Join In, Would You?
The first thing Zayn and the others noticed were the beast corpses.
And not just a few. Dozens.
They were scattered all across the battlefield, many with clean wounds — and some with massive, caved-in chests like someone had just punched the anatomy out of them.
Zayn crouched next to one of the larger ones, poking its crushed ribcage with the hilt of his sword. "I’m half sure Ragnar did this."
"No kidding," Tobias said, arms crossed. "That one’s missing its spine."
"Brutal," Bran muttered.
"Elisse, you okay?" Kara asked.
The busty cleric nodded but held her sleeve to her nose. "I’m fine. Just... so much blood."
Yeah, the stench was everywhere.
Even with the wind blowing, it clung to them — metallic and thick, mixed with whatever gross monster fluids these beasts had instead of normal insides.
Tobias didn’t wait long.
"We’re late," he said bluntly. "Let’s keep going."
And so they did — quietly, boots crunching through ash, charred grass, and the occasional dismembered claw.
For a dungeon break, things were surprisingly... tame.
Maybe the guards had already cleared the way.
Maybe Ragnar went full rage-mode ahead of them.
Either way, Zayn wasn’t complaining.
His headache still throbbed faintly behind his eyes like a hangover from hell.
But they didn’t have to walk far before the real action came into view.
And oh boy — what a view it was.
A wide clearing lay ahead.
Dozens of monsters still stood, snarling and screeching as they swarmed a central figure.
Ragnar.
The Hero of Power was in the thick of it, moving like a goddamn force of nature.
Zayn watched him sidestep a hulking claw swipe with the grace of a dancer, then slam his foot into the beast’s chest.
The sheer impact collapsed its ribcage inward like an accordion — bone and muscle crunching in one satisfying, horrible noise.
The monster hit the ground and didn’t move again.
Another leapt from behind him — fangs aimed straight for Ragnar’s neck.
But instead of piercing skin... the monster bit down with a dull clink.
Didn’t even break the surface.
"...Did it just fail to bite him?" Bran asked.
Zayn squinted. "I think so. Is he wearing armor?"
"Nope," Tobias said. "That’s just his body."
It lowkey made it seem like Tobias was the weaker hero.
Ragnar turned slightly and backhanded the poor creature into the dirt so hard that it bounced.
Like a tennis ball.
"Yep," Zayn muttered. "Definitely him."
Another monster charged.
This one was bulkier — spiked arms, armored shoulders, probably a C-rank dungeon beast.
It roared as it lunged, but Ragnar didn’t even blink.
He let it come.
Then grabbed its arm mid-swing.
And swung the monster instead — full-on flipped it over his shoulder and into three others.
Bones snapped. Limbs flew. One poor bastard landed in a tree.
Ragnar rolled his shoulder and finally turned toward their group, voice deep and casual as if he wasn’t standing in the middle of a monster blender.
"Join in, would you?"
Tobias was the first to move.
He nodded once and unsheathed his blade, soul energy flaring violet around the steel. "Let’s not make him do all the work."
The rest of the party sprung into motion.
Bran darted ahead like a shadow despite his hulking size, vanishing into the tall grass before reappearing behind a wolf-like creature, plunging his axe into its spine with terrifying force.
It cried out as it died — and then Kara followed up with a piercing rock thrust straight through the head of a beast that wanted to sneak attack Bran.
"Clean," Zayn muttered, then turned to Seren. "You ready?"
Seren didn’t reply.
Her answer was in the way she drew her venom-stained blade that she had been hiding God knows where and bolted forward like a flash of lightning.
Zayn grinned. "Guess that’s a yes."
He sprinted after her, already feeling his soul energy hum beneath his skin.
One of the monsters — a snarling insectoid brute with blades for arms — lunged at him with a shriek.
Zayn ducked low and let his momentum carry him into a slide, drawing his soul thread mid-motion and wrapping it around the monster’s ankle as he passed.
He didn’t need swords for these weaklings.
He yanked once, hard, and the thing crashed face-first into the ground behind him.
He turned and stomped its head in.
Another came at him.
Zayn didn’t even wait this time — he wrapped soul thread around his palm and punched forward, releasing a burst of concentrated golden soul energy in a focused shockwave that sent the beast flying back.
"Still got it," he said, flicking his fingers as he took a deep breath.
A flash of movement caught his eye — Seren had climbed on the back of a scorpion-beast twice her size, stabbing it over and over in a whirlwind of vicious strikes.
Green venom dripped from her blade, each stab making the monster convulse harder.
"She’s having fun," Zayn muttered.
Then ducked as a winged abomination swooped down.
It missed — barely — and he leapt up, latching onto its wing with a soul thread tether and pulling himself up like a grappling hook.
’I’m becoming more Spider-man by the minute.’
The monster shrieked, thrashing mid-air, but Zayn was already climbing its back.
"Giddy up," he muttered — and drove his blade into the base of its neck.
It plummeted with him on top.
He landed in a roll, just in time to see Bran impale two beasts with a single spinning axe strike, while Kara — surprisingly aggressive today — smashed a skull with a mace made of rock.
Elisse was with Ragnar and they were walking around, healing guards that had been hurt.
He was glad she was helping out and if she was with Ragnar, she couldn’t get hurt.
A monster then tried to come for Elisse and Ragnar, it closed the distance and leapt into the air, prepared to smash its horns into Ragnar.
Ragnar, meanwhile?
He just stood there casually watching the creature as it leapt.
And then...
He headbutted it mid-air with some soul energy.
It’s horns shattered and it exploded.
