)+\( Hugo )/+(

Seven sets of footfalls crunched and scraped against the dirt. Their soft sound echoed off the tunnel's dark walls and joined a tense chorus of heavy breaths, shifting equipment, and whispers.

His attention flicked back to the group that trailed him.

He had agreed to let Tal shadow this beast hunt, but he was still worried for the boy. He had so much promise. But Tal also carried the anger of his situation, guilt at his 'causing' the death of his family, self-loathing for the same reason, and - now that he knew to look for it - the hope that Hugo was somehow the answer to sidestepping all of those problems. There would be more talks, lessons, and learning before he was truly ready to stand on his own and make good decisions - and before he would be on a path to overcoming his xenophobia. For now, Hugo would ensure he did not go beyond their agreement in an attempt to prove himself or his usefulness.

They neared another fork in the tunnels, and Hugo ran his hand over the walls. One side was slick with a fresh layer of mucus that confirmed a worm had gone this way. Hugo motioned for the guarding group to come forth and confirm his find. They were one scout with abilities that let them 'sense' residual energies of living things, a stealth-skilled fighter who could all but disappear if a beast were not looking directly at them, two warriors who had general defense and endurance builds, and one noncombatant who was capable of basic emergency medicine. Hugo was more than a little distraught that they had not come across a healer in the rescued groups so far. It spoke to something targeted and intentional from the invaders in finding and separating people with those skills. It also bode poorly for their combat strength in a drawn series of battles. Conviction alone was not enough to win a war, and he knew he would need to address those issues eventually.

For today, he would remain focused on his own growth.

His encounter with this guardian worm was already going much better than the last. Now that he knew what to look for and where to apply pressure to deal the most damage, Hugo had fairly quickly tracked down the worm - and caused it real damage in their first engagement. His attacks lasted longer, and tore away dozens of sections from the guardian's glowing soul, even as it tried its best to flee. That same slow, spinning portion of its soul was a critical point, and produced results when torn asunder. Damage - and panic. The beast responded to that particular bit of destruction by going wild enough that Hugo lost his grip on it and had to take a step back to avoid getting himself - or those with him - injured.

Similar to the first guardian, this worm too fled upwards when it began to feel endangered. He would need to progress further in the questline or find the domain lord in order to prove it, but Hugo theorized the worms were attempting to lead a potential threat far away from their leader. It was an effective strategy - either they would win and return, or die and leave the enemy far from where it would be able to harm their master.

As he crested an incline in the tunnel, Hugo saw daylight far ahead, and the very end of the guardian's tail disappearing onto the surface. Threads of his soul magic whipped forward in an ultimately futile attempt to drag the beast back down. They barely hooked into the last sections of the beast's glowing soul before pulling out of his range with the full force of its entire body. He was stronger, certainly, but added strength was not some miracle that would allow one to simply overpower a beast this large and this highly leveled. Well, that was at least true for most.

Hugo had a long way to go before he would be a match for his alien friend.

He sprinted forward, the group and Tal close behind. When he reached the opening, Hugo climbed up some of the debris broken off from the street, and used it to get halfway up to the surface. With a small boost from one of the warriors, he managed to jump clear of the opening, and landed on the surface once again.

This time, he was cognizant of the potential threat from Belar goons lurking elsewhere in the vicinity. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed no visible souls, aside from the worm. It was currently, ineffectively, flopping around atop what had once been a lovely elementary school and its recreational outdoor spaces. Hugo thought he saw a set of swings mangled and stuck to the creature's side. He popped his head back towards the hole and shouted.

"Clear of all but the worm. Stay cautious."

His legs carried him swiftly forward as the rest of the group slowly followed him onto the surface. He was on the guardian again half a minute later, this time close enough to properly grapple with the beast's soul. His cables of energy sped forth, lashing into and coring out sections of glowing light. He used each wound as a foothold to plunge deeper and deal yet more damage. The worms did not move well above ground, and the one he currently fought writhed without tangibly changing its position. Minutes ticked by as Hugo continued his methodical, exhaustive work. It was half an hour later that the guardian let out its last gasp, twitched, and fell limp.

-

You have defeated Domain Lord's Guardian - Deep Hammerhead Worm - lvl 49. Experience Awarded. Questline Updated! You have defeated two of the Domain Lord's Guardians. Finish off the remainder of his strongest protectors, or challenge the lord himself.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Objective 1: Defeat the Domain Lord's Guardians: ( 2 / 5 ) Objective 2: Defeat the Domain Lord

-

His five followers - and Tal - excitedly rushed over to him. The boy practically jumped with excitement at Hugo's kill, and slapped the dead beast once before realizing its skin was still covered in mucus. Hugo smiled, and collapsed into a convenient set of waiting arms as he read the notifications.

Another step taken. It felt like just yesterday that he was slaughtering his way through the 'Elite' worms, and now he was nearly halfway through the guardians. The experience was also steadily bringing him closer to another threshold, E Grade. The gaps between levels were nearly doubled each time, and Hugo understood that nearly all would be glacially slowed by those experience chasms.

It took 100,000,000 experience to rise from level 47 to level 48. And now that he had reached level 48 himself, Hugo saw it would be 200,000,000 experience to crest level 49. An expected 400,000,000 experience gap to then reach level 50, and E grade. It had taken him the entire tutorial, and now more, just to crest his first 100,000,000 F grade experience. Anything faster - through honest means - seemed entirely outlandish. Hugo knew that to most of his people, his own growth was outlandish in itself.

Even the troops with him - who were some of the most skilled individuals his generals could reasonably find available or peel off other duties to send in his shadow - would likely not see level 47 for years. Maybe not for decades. How much farther would Hugo rise in those years it took his normal soldiers to catch up to him? He would not cease his attempts to gain power, of course. He needed strength to protect his people and his planet. But there was a growing chasm between him and the rest of his people. Even the elites. Even Vidita.

Power was an oddly lonely proposition.

His smile turned sad. Maybe this odd, creeping sense of loneliness was what Serroc felt all the time. Maybe that - more than his offered explanations - was the true reason behind why the man had chosen such a solitary path, and why he was so reluctant to open himself up to connection, and friendship. The potential truth of his idea weighed heavy on Hugo's mind, and made him worry for his friend.

A scraping rumble snapped Hugo's attention back to the space around him. His scout was climbing the dead worm for a better viewpoint, and the stealth fighter had separated himself enough to use his skill. One warrior held out a hand, and thick pieces of bark grew and overlapped into a rough wooden shield. He heard Tal swallow hard, and caught a glimpse of magic as the boy tried to covertly grow himself a set of silver needles.

Hugo stood, and readied himself. Part of him was still processing and absorbing the dead guardian worm's soul - he would need to make do with the rest of his available power.

The scraping drew closer, and a leg as tall as Tal emerged around the corner of a five-way intersection, wrapped in armor.

Another leg followed, dragging a barrel-thick torso into view with an oddly stuttered gait. It looked almost identical to a normal set of Belar guard armor - except the center of the torso was lit with an intense glow. That was odd by itself. The normal sets of power armor they had encounter until now were fueled by single mana crystals, and while they gave off light when in use, that was nearly impossible to see unless the armor was damaged. This set of armor, instead, had three bands of perforated metal that glowed and pulsed with every movement.

Another pulse lit the enemy as its hulking form lifted an arm in their direction. The wrist was ringed by rifle barrels.

Time itself seemed to slow.

His stealth soldier had pressed forward towards the new target, hidden in the shadow of tattered shop awnings as they attempted to close for a strike. The warrior with the bark shield shifted to place himself between the armored enemy and Hugo. The warrior he was still leaning on was dragging Hugo back so they could use the worm corpse as cover. The scout was shouting as he dropped down to grab their medic and Tal. The ends of the arm-mounted barrels barked as a hail of projectiles spewed forth.

The medic let out a choked gasp as their stealth solider - and the set of columns he tried to duck behind - were ripped apart. The hulking enemy kept firing into the space for another two full seconds before their gunfire lessened. That was enough for most of them to make it behind the worm corpse. Most.

One of the warriors had an arm clasped tightly around Tal as the boy tried to wrest himself free and fly forward into the fight. Into an unknown enemy.

"TAL!" Hugo's shout was short. Angry. The boy's head whipped around as if to argue, but he closed his mouth at Hugo's face.

He stopped struggling, and made a step towards cover before rifle fire barked again. Tal stumbled and fell as the warrior shoved him, hard. Hugo was thankful he fell face-first, if only to prevent him from seeing what happened next.

A hail of projectiles ripped apart the warrior who just saved the boy, turning body parts into a fine blue mist as if the undercity-crafted armor he wore were made from paper. The fire again continued on longer than it should have needed to, leaving only a pair of stumps that could be roughly identified as legs, and a semi-solid outline of gore on the ground. Tal picked himself up, turned, and screamed.

It was a cry full of anger, despair, and self-loathing.

Hugo grabbed Tal by the scruff of his shirt. It drew taut against his arms and his armor as Hugo lifted the boy off his feet and turned him around. "Stay. In. Cover. You are not a combatant here."

The boy's eyes darted between Hugo and the ground in crazed motion. A few moments passed, then Tal showed he still had enough sense left to nod his head in assent. Hugo gently lowered the boy to the ground, and leaned him up against the worm.

The scout put a hand on Hugo's bone-crafted gauntlets, and he stepped a few feet to the side. "My king, that thing-"

Hugo held up a hand. "I know."

He had realized something was wrong with this enemy from the moment he witnessed it. He then confirmed that knowledge when he reached out with cables of energy while the squad brought him into cover.

Their enemy was no beast, and no soldier.

There were a wealth of potential explanations. It could have been some kind of robot or automaton. Something more magical in nature, like a golem, or possibly an undead being - at least two of his generals were fully convinced necromancy had to exist as a school of magic, and constantly railed on about finding effective countermeasures to stop such a foe. As it turned out, there was a threat far more mundane that they should have taken into account.

The enemy glowed with crystal light - and only crystal light. His cables of soul energy found nothing. Nothing to touch. Nothing to tear. Nothing to harm.

No soul.

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