[Arc 1] Extra Chapter 3: A Sword to Cut Through Tyranny
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*Thump, thump, thump*

With heavy footsteps, the Glavras Rexus, my former lord stepped forward from his lair. No, he has never been a lord for me, nor any other Glavras Sliprauses. The so-called royal guards are just a bunch of scum, that borrows the name of the Rexus to push around the younger and weaker Sliprauses. 

In the end, the Rexus don't care about any of us. He only cares about having his authority as the guardian over the Dungeon's treasure. We are simply tools to help him fulfill that mission.

While feeling that, the three of us left the herd, only to be hunted down by the royal guard. When we were close to being killed, Master appeared, saving us from the royal guard.

The three of us were ready for whatever demands master would have for us, but to our surprise, instead of demands, we were given names and new powers that the Heaven's Voice calls 'skills'. Master didn't stop with that either. It trained us in our new skills, how to obtain even more of them, how to efficiently gain more skills and strength, how to fight, write, and even gave us a chance to evolve.

Even after we evolved, master followed us on our selfish journey to obtain new comrades. Before meeting master, neither I nor my friends would think the thought of asking those of other races for help. We tried to add the fishmen, the sahuagins, to our cause, but we couldn't do it the same way as Master could. We needed to rely on Master's strength again to join forces with the sahuagins.

It was only afterward that we found out that you wouldn't be able to gather comrades just showing off your strength. I've never felt more embarrassed than that moment.

The other two, now named Sent and Riri, felt the same as me. Maybe not so much for Sent. He was always the more hardheaded of us, so he could endure more of us all, both physically and mentally. That what's making Riri so attracted to him, making her come to me for advice about how to improve their relationship, which ironically, makes Sent believe there's something between me and Riri. It's tough being the middleman...

When we had joined up with the other Sliprauses that shared our cause, we did have a food problem, but Master managed to solve that too. By itself, master lured hundreds of the spider monsters into the tunnels where we ambushed them, resulting in all of our comrades to gain a higher level. Now, we could send our comrades out to hunt the turtles that live in the dungeon, the most valuable source of food.

The sad part is that Master decided to leave us. But, we all had pride in that we had managed to fulfill the expectations master had for us. We vowed to complete our mission, both for honoring master's trust in us, and for our long dream of living on the surface, free from the duty forced on us against our will, by the dungeon's creator.

And now is the time to fulfill that wish, by slaying this tyrant who treats our lives as worthless pebbles, just to entertain his big ego. I swear I will win, on the name given to me by Master. On the name of Virt.

---

The Rexus started the duel with a body tackle. Too slow, way too slow. While I may recite what master said, simple brute force isn't scary, as long as you don't get hit. The Rexus don't have half the speed of myself, so I managed to sidetrack the charge, making the Rexus crash into the wall.

The Sliprauses that were watching managed to jump out of the way. You get used to jumping out of the contestants way after spectating one or two of these duels. The fighters are large-scale monsters, so you need to be quick on your feet to not get dragged into the duel yourself.

The royal guard started cursing me for dodging the attack. According to them, a duel should be a clash of power, was small schemes should not take place. Stupid. That was my thoughts, even before I met master, and that thought just increased in strength. So what if it's not honorable in fighting head-on? It's more stupid to die a dog's death just because you didn't use your head, according to master. I still don't know what a 'dog' is.

The Rexus collected himself and started to charge at me again. This time, he was aiming to bite off my shoulder. But, even if you change your way of attack, that doesn't help if your speed is the same as before. I dodged to the side again, while giving him a slash with the blade at the tip of my tail, coated in poison thanks to my skill. 

The Rexus roared out, not in pain, but anger. He wasn't expecting me to counterattack during a dodge, nor did he want to admit it, so he lashed out his anger at me. Not that it will do any damage.

---

The duel continued in the same way, with the Rexus charging in with foolishly honest tackles, while I dodged them, with a counter-slash added to it sometimes. To think I feared this guy before I met Master. Now, the Rexus is just one big block of muscles. Durable muscles, as he still hasn't fallen despite the two-digit number of poisoned cuts on him, but still, just muscles. 

No plans, no strategy, no preparations. The Rexus just lashes out with his brute strength, while roaring in anger when he misses. He's like a big child, one who is gifted with the power out of nowhere. 

It's not only me who thinks so now. The audience has turned quiet, astonished by the Rexus's immature performance. Even the royal guard has stopped shouting their insults. Guess this guy doesn't have a single ally anymore.

While I was thinking so, the Rexus did a surprising, and stupid move: he ordered the Sliprauses to attack me. No one in the area could comprehend that order, not even the sahuagins with the skill to understand our language.

The duel was a sacred fight, one to determined the leader of the race. Who would follow a leader that just send out their followers in a personal fight? With that move, any trust the Rexus had disappeared like smoke from everyone in the area.

The Rexus, still not understanding how stupid that order was, roared out again. And again. After the fourth time, with a look of anger that could fit the 'ogres of hell' that master once told about in our free-time, the Rexus finally understood that he had lost any chance of staying as the leader.

While it roared one last roar of rage, I prepared to myself to cut off his neck, ending this charade once and for all. Just as I was aiming for his neck with the blades on my arms, the Rexus started to run away towards the wall-.

*BOOM*

What was that?! From the Rexus's feet, a large sound emitted, and the Rexus flew straight towards the wall, no, towards the royal guard that was standing by the wall?! 

*BOOM*

With another loud sound, the Rexus did a body-tackle at the guards, resulting in an explosion. Different from Master's light magic, this explosion had more force and strength in it. If you had to point out the differences, master's explosions are burst of light, sound, and force, but they don't deal any real damage. The explosions caused by the Rexus on the other hand, have stronger blast force and are accompanied by flames, obviously to damage the opponent, instead of just distracting them.

The guards were killed in an instant. Taking this as a clue, our rebel faction started to retreat to the tunnels leading up the dungeon. The ones who had sided with the Rexus at the beginning of the fight wasn't so fast, either due to their shock, or their immaturity. Most of those who were on that side were either those of the royal guards or young ones.

And now when things couldn't get any worse, all the wounds on the Rexus had disappeared. He must have raised his level with that last attack. I jumped at him, wanting to make a fatal wound of him as fast as possible, but the Rexus stormed at me, resulting in an explosion.

I managed to survive the blast, by summoning the swords I've made beforehand to use as a shield and jumped back by using it as a foothold. Said sword-shield was blown into small fragments, which flew towards me. That's when Sent ran forward, using his tail hammer to knock the fragments back towards the Rexus. Many of them hit home, resulting in the Rexus getting scratches all over him.

The Rexus answered our attack by chomping his jaw, resulting in an explosion in his mouth. Why did it do that, were mine and Sent's thoughts which were unfortunately answered in the next moment? By using the fire generated from the explosion, the Rexus spewed out flames from his mouth, like the 'dragons' that master told about.

I jumped out of the range of fire, but Sent wasn't so quick and needed to endure the full heat of the breath. True to his reputation, Sent came out of it with just some burn marks on his scales. But a direct explosion could spell different, so I told him to protect the Sliprauses who didn't evacuate yet. 

This was my fight from the beginning, so I should be the one who ends it. The question is, how to end someone who can create explosions all over its body? Even that crazy acceleration must come from making explosions happened with his sole. This is gonna get tougher than I expected...

---

I take back what I said before. It didn't get tougher, it turned straight out impossible! 

The Rexus has too great compatibility with his new explosion powers! The already stupid high attack power has risen to new heights, along with increasing the Rexus' range. He can even use it to cover for his low speed, by blasting himself towards his targets.

And then, there is the new recovery skill, which is healing any new wounds that I managed to inflict on him. The flames of the explosion are burning away any poison I manage to inflict on him as well. I've got no legs to stand on here!

I've tried to use Darkness magic to strike back at him, but I'm not good enough with magic to deal out some decent damage. Damn, there must be a way to stop him from exploding back my attacks. If I can just strike his neck, then I win. Not that he's giving me a chance too-! Here he comes for a bite attack! D-dodge, DODGE!

*Jump*

*Chomp* *BOOM!*

O-oh crap. The Rexus' bites have turned even deadlier than the rest of it. The wall it bit has cracks to the ceiling. Maybe if I lure him over to the river, to make him slip on the wet... no, not gonna work. Tch, and here he comes again. Was the berserker human that master talked about like this? My respect for master has increased even more. 

And, dodge!

*Chomp* *gulp*

Eh, I managed to dodge this bite attack as well, but the explosion never happened. Did the Rexus swallow something?

*bang*

Suddenly, a bright light came out of the Rexus' mouth and nose. What gives? And now, he's coughing up blood?! Don't tell me, he swallowed his own explosion? Isn't this a chance? It is! 

While pulling myself together after the surprising event, I rushed over to the Rexus, readied my right arm blade, and used the Blade Art, 'One Line'. A straight, horizontal slash was released, aimed at the Rexus' neck. 

*thwack* *thump*

=====================================================================

EXP has reached the required amount.

Virt has reached LV5

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

 

EXP has reached the required amount.

Virt has reached LV6

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

 

EXP has reached the required amount.

Virt has reached LV7

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

 

EXP has reached the required amount.

Virt has reached LV8

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

 

EXP has reached the required amount.

Virt has reached LV9

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

EXP has reached the required amount.

 

Virt has reached LV10

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

 

Conditions satisfied.

Acquired title [Giant Killer]

 

Conditions satisfied.

Acquired title [Justified Rebel]

Through acquiring the title [Justified Rebel], skill [Judgment LV1] is obtained.

 

Conditions satisfied.

Acquired title [Virtue King]

Through acquiring the title [Virtue King], skill [King LV1] is obtained.

Skill [King LV1] is integrated into skill [King LV5].

=====================================================================

I, I killed him. I managed to kill him. A roar resounded in the area before the voice of the Heavens was finished. All the Sliprauses, sahuagins, even Riri, had watched the duel from inside the tunnels. Some of them moved to different tunnels entrances because of space issues. 

Sent came towards me, both to congratulate me, and also to ask about what happened with the Rexus back there in the end, I didn't have any proof, but I have a hunch about who did it. Sent shared my hunch, but since it doesn't want to come out, we decided to not call out for him. Believe it or not, our master can be pretty shy some times.

We also decided that we should leave the corpse of the Rexus behind, as a final farewell to our master. Riri would say the same. Now that's out of the way, let's get out of this *Crumble* place?

*Crumble, crumble*

The wall that the Rexus bit, is starting to collapse. Take cover! 

*rumble, rumble, rumble*

That was close. We barely managed to get to safety. Well, even well roasted, Sent could handle a few rocks, and I'm fully recovered due to increasing my level. It would be embarrassing though.

*Splash*

Some rock must've fallen into the water. Hmm?

*blob*

Hmm??

*blob, blob*

Hmmmmmm?!?!?!?

*BLOB, BLOB, BLOB, BLOB, BLOB, BLOB...*

... This can't be good.

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