I kicked off the tree trunk after the Flexicore Colossus flung its club in response to my request for the dungeon key. The iron club tore through the air beside me—a near miss. To my surprise, the trio of gargoyles zipped up and away, hovering high over their makeshift arena.

  Fine by me.

  I'd eliminate the highest level opponent with negative karma first, then clean up the minions. While I was confident in my stamina reserves, I had expended a chunk on my early afternoon run and hoped to avoid a prolonged engagement.

  The colossus sprang up the hill, skipping past Duskblade. Its stride shook the forest floor as I landed and freed my hand scythe from its harness. I didn't expect to slice through stone, but the scythe’s bottom handle was shaped like a steel glass breaker, making it a better option than my bare knuckles.

  The stone giant moved faster than it had any right to. I waited until it was 10 feet away, then shot through the gap between its legs. I drove the angled end of my scythe high, over my head, aiming for the back of its knee as I passed. But before the tapered steel handle could connect with the stone, the statue's body flashed with a thin amber barrier, bouncing the blow back like rubber.

  Duskblade scurried out of the way as I dragged the colossus back down the hill toward the flattened arena outlined by freshly sprouted columns. Worried by the lack of damage from my attack, I spun on my heels and rolled underneath its swooping shield.

  I jumped off its foot, activating another amber barrier, using its rebound effect to gain air. A deep grinding rumble sounded as the statue’s joints rotated, trying to swat me out of its face. But I was too fast striking at its nose only for the barrier to flash again, negating the attack.

  I stepped off its shoulder and landed atop one of the many ivory columns surrounding the dungeon's entrance. Rather than give chase, the colossus turned its back and stomped through the forest toward its club, which was lodged in the ground.

  Jaxen lay prone underneath a bush, halfway up the hill. Skurt and the rest of Deadly Talon watched another 100 feet away at the top.

  The gargoyles buzzed overhead, their wingspans broad enough to swallow a horse. They played hard to get, and I assumed one of them was responsible for the obnoxious barrier.

  The Flexicore Colossus raced downhill, club raised high and I flicked a throwing knife at its foot and watched the gargoyle's response. The barrier deflected the blade as a gargoyle emitted an amber light from its finger tips. A second gargoyle's fingers shined with a violet light, casting some sort of magic on the first gargoyle. The third gargoyle did nothing but hover, a permanent frown etched across its grubby face.

  I nicknamed them appropriately, Amber, Violet, and Gray, looking forward to the satisfaction of tearing their wings off.

  The colossus thundered into striking range. I jumped down from the column, easily avoiding its basic swing. It demolished the column, releasing an avalanche of chalky pulverized stone. The dust covered my movement as I lurched toward its legs at half speed, baiting a kick.

  It launched its left leg out in a predictable fashion and I turned fast, jabbing at its right ankle, triggering the amber barrier half a dozen times in a second. If stone could embody emotions, this statue was livid.

  Decent speed, smooth movement, and intimidating strength, all fell flat in the face of my swift tempo and devastating precision. The colossus stomped at the ground, clearing the cloud of chalk, missing the bigger picture.

  I was already past the giant, focused on the gargoyles instead. Amber released more golden light from its fingertips, then dipped lower, its flapping diminished. Moments later, Violet unleashed another wave of purple from its stone palms, and Amber rose higher once more.

  A transfer of mana?

  I realized the third one was missing. It swooped in from behind, low and quiet. The gargoyle's shoulder bucked into my chest like a rolling boulder. The impact shook us both, but didn't stop its momentum from carrying me off my feet, charging into the air.

  Its stone-etched eyebrows lifted and its lips scraped apart, likely wondering why the bag of flesh it tackled hadn't ruptured, and why I was now wrapping my legs around its cold waist instead of dying.

  "I'm two levels higher than you, jackass." I punctuated each word with a downward strike, bashing the angled end of my scythe into its face.

  At first the hits only produced uncomfortable reverberations up my arm. Seven blows in, and I saw it scrawled across its nightmarish face: pain.

  I tightened my legs around the gargoyle's rockbound waist as one of its hands tried prying me loose. I caught its right hand with my left and we locked into a squeeze-off, both of us aiming to crush the other's hand. I concentrated every spare ounce of strength into my palm. Stone cracked, Gray shrieked and fumbled its movement, dropping out of the air fast.

  A warm liquid covered my hand as the pulverized stone squelched the flesh and bone that was apparently underneath. A pained howl escaped as I stabbed the handle of my scythe into its mouth, chipping jagged teeth.

  The creature spun out of control, spiraling toward the Flexicore Colossus. I pushed off him, landing away from the colossus next to one of the ivory columns. Meanwhile the other two gargoyles hovered out of reach.

  Gray barely pulled off a successful landing on the colossus's shoulder. Its right hand dangled loosely, blood dripping, broken bone exposed beneath its cracked flesh. The towering statue stood over 30 feet away, but was no longer trying to mindlessly run me down.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  In the distance, Jaxen joined the rest of Deadly Talon at the top of the hill, watching the show. Skurt struggled against his comrades, who held him back from storming in. Duskblade remained a mere 12 feet behind the colossus, peering over a splintered log with a pair of guilt-ridden eyes.

  For Christ's sake, Duskblade hold it together.

  "These bastards can bleed," I announced to the forest with my stage voice.

  My echo set the Flexicore into motion. It charged at me with its shield raised and club hidden behind its back. Gray swooped off the statue's shoulder and went wide, circling around me, throwing desperate hand signs up at Amber and Violet, who shook their heads, keeping to the sky.

  Mere steps away from striking range, the colossus stomped its foot. Balance shaken, I watched as its club came hurtling for my body.

  Dagger Step.

  I teleported behind it, and mined away at its back heel with my scythe's blunt end. The glowing barrier flared up, absorbing another dozen blows. It lashed its leg backward, but I danced around the counter-attack, hammering at the same spot faster and faster until the barrier finally failed.

  My scythe’s handle finally connected with the statue’s raw, negative karma filled leg. A boom echoed as its ankle exploded like a planned demolition.

  Amber fell from the sky, screeching in short bursts. I went for the kill, lunging toward the off-balance colossus only for Gray to pull off a second dive-bomb tackle.

  "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’ll tear your goddamn wings off."

  As Gray tackled me away from its stumbling ally, I saw Violet zap Amber with its purple spell, restoring its mana once more.

  "Cyprus, the purple one's draining my mana!" Duskblade shouted.

  Great. Not only was Duskblade useless, he was actively providing the enemy extra juice. I considered tossing my scythe in his face then stopped and asked myself how that would sound in a tale retold for generations to come.

  Anomaly? Yeah, they were great. Except their leader split a veteran adventurer's skull open in front of his boy scout troupe to save his own ass. No, Anomaly needed a respectable origin story.

  I grabbed Gray's burst open stone hand, and twisted it back, peeling the stoneskin from its arm. It scraped flesh from my shoulder with its good hand and I planted the tip of my scythe through its wingspan. All of my scythes' 25% bonus armor penetration came into play as I dragged the blade down through its thin stone webbing, shredding its left wing.

  We crashed into the hillside. Blood stung my eyes. The wounded gargoyle squirmed underneath me, as I wrestled with it on the ground. I wrenched back it's damaged forearm, snapping the exposed bones in two. The gargoyle shrieked as I disengaged, regaining my footing and my fallen scythe in one swift motion. Meanwhile, the colossus hopped toward us on one leg.

  Amber and Violet swooped down—an all at once gambit. Sore, and sick of their shenanigans, I delivered a final "fuck you" kick to the side of Gray's head. I stubbed my toe and cracked its noggin backwards, but somehow it lived.

  I activated Invisibility, Agility Burst, and Dagger Step's second charge, teleporting on top of Amber's head. In most cases, I never relied on the strength boost Agility Burst provided, which increased my strength stat equal to 25% of my agility.

  Now that niche had a purpose, and it was central to my planned takedown. I landed atop Amber and put the gargoyle into a triangle choke, squeezing my thighs tight around its chiseled neck. Violet shrugged, still staring at my last known position while I choked out the annoying bastard responsible for the barrier.

  I drove my weapon's heel into the top of its head. Two taps drew Violet's attention. A third tap split rock. Amber let out an extinction burst of a shriek which blew out my ear drums. I ignored the blood dribbling past my ear lobes and rammed the weapons shaft through the top of Amber’s skull, striking blood like oil. I had never been more pleased to sully a cloak.

  The downside to killing Amber—I crashed. Again.

  Gray raised its only good hand, pointing toward the crash site and dispelled my Invisibility. I shoved Amber's heavy corpse off me just in time to dodge Violet's dive bomb attack. The colossus hopped toward me, unaware I'd happily one shot the antique once it was in range.

  Now that this shit show had shifted farther southwest of the dungeon entrance, Deadly Talon rushed back down the hill and dragged Duskblade to safety.

  I had a raging migraine, a bloody nose, and my right arm was buzzing numb from the relentless rock bashing.

  Left. Right. Left.

  I bobbed out of Violet's short hooks, leaving my scythe behind in Amber's brain. Down an arm, Gray came in from the side with a surprising roundhouse. But Agility Burst made evasion a simple feat.

  These statues know karate?

  I ducked Gray's initial attack, then caught a follow-up kick, locking my arms around its cold slab of an appendage. I ripped its balance out from underneath it, and wrenched its sculpted leg back at a mean angle, pressing its back to the ground.

  Snap. Crackle. Pop.

  Blood poured through cracked stone, as its snapped leg hung loose from the hip–the entire joint rendered useless. Violet rang my bell with a clean right hook just as I finished the maneuver.

  Worth it.

  The Flexicore Colossus finally finished its hop-a-long course, arriving with a heavy shield slam.

  It missed.

  I jumped on the edge of its bronze shield and lunged into its face. One punch and its coin slotted eyes disintegrated with a satisfying burst of rubble. The colossus crashed backward and Violet intercepted me in the middle of my flip landing, like it knew there was no chance of catching me unless I was in the air.

  The gargoyle latched onto me and plunged to the ground. I couldn't remember if it was the third or fourth time I had crash landed, but it was certainly the last.

  Violet squeezed me from behind, pinning my arms to the side. Gray squirmed across the dirt like a snake and bit into my ankle as I rose from the ground.

  I stared into Violet's shallow carved eyes and could tell the creature wished it could scream. Its sockets didn't shift, but tiny fractures crept outward from their edges, strained under the weight of fear.

  I slammed my forehead into the gargoyle's nose and it loosened its grip. A second headbutt stunned it, and drew fresh blood from my forehead.

  "You're supposed to be my weakness."

  I drove my skull into its face again, shattering its features. My fingernails bit into its back, shearing open from the pressure of hugging the squirming cold mass. A fourth and final headbutt burst its skull, and blurred my vision.

  Violet went limp in my grasp, suddenly feeling too heavy, I let the dead weight fall to the side. Meanwhile, stone teeth tore through flesh and scraped across the bony bump on the outside of my ankle.

  Gray stopped biting when the gargoyle realized it was the last standing. Well, standing was a relative term. I dropped my heel on the little bastard's head, noticing the brutal strength stat drop off when Agility Burst expired.

  What felt like 100 head stomps later, Gray's stoneskin broke down like the rest of them, covering my boot in brain blood goo. I sighed, wincing as I picked up my scythe.

  It wasn't the most glorious victory. If anything, it was a cold reminder of how insignificant minions could ruin my day based on a stupid number.

  +650 XP

  +30 Karma

  I found the dungeon key in the center of the colossus's chest behind a neat little slot. As soon as I pocketed the key, the quest completion text appeared.

  Quest Complete - Defeat the Dungeon Guardian

  +2000 XP

  +500 Karma

  As I limped past the dungeon's entrance, I heard some cheers and shouts from the hill, but a low grumbling voice from within the dungeon eclipsed them all.

  "Nooooo! Not my void points! You miserable little…”

  The bellowing voice dissolved as I hobbled into the daylight.