The red haze coated the edges of his sight, and inhaling deeply, Mul expended some of his [Burning Anger] to blast a roaring, flaming hole through the shroomling before him, and the one behind it as well.

  His [Raging Fist of Fire] was unstoppable, and the shroomlings soft fungi flesh had no defense to its searing explosiveness. Mul laid waste to them, and he had long since realized that Gad was syphoning more and more of the creatures towards him.

  How many of these fuckers are there? He thought, each word demanding more mental effort from him than any one of his punches.

  Between managing his [Burning Anger] and keeping himself in control, he didn’t have enough brainpower to count how many of the blasted things he’d turn to mush, but it felt that rather than decreasing, there were more and more of the shroomlings assaulting their line.

  “That’s all of it!” Sej said. “All the shroomlings are now active and in combat. Updated numbers… Over four hundred of them!”

  “Holy fuck!” Jaz said.

  “There were a lot more than I expected, and the waterfall drowned out more than I could sense,” the guide said, her tone tight.

  “And the bombs?” Calli asked.

  “That should be all of them as well,” Sej said.

  As if to match her words, a muffled boom reached Mul’s ears, evidence that Raf and Mach had managed to send another one of the living fungal bombs over the side of the pillar. As long as they managed to continue doing so without rupturing their sacs while on the pillar, starting a chain reaction, the battle would progress smoothly, even if annoyingly.

  He was fighting alone, his flaming aura spreading around him and forcing him to stand apart from the others. Viy was the same as him, given her troublesome AOE guilt skill, but she was behind him, on her fifth trip to the healers to rid herself of yet another of those nasty status effects, while for him, the spores burned up before they could even get close to him.

  This battle, much more than any previous ones, was a battle where he fought himself even more so than the shroomlings hurtling down the passage, for it was boring.

  It was easy to burst through their bodies, as though they were made of soft dough, his fire charring them from the inside. And since he was immune to their spores, he could fight without needing to rotate to the duo of healers at the center of their formation. He could go on fighting without pause, but the enemy was little more than punching bags, and the more he crushed through them, the more he needed to hold himself back from that red haze whispering to be embraced.

  He used a dual combo of [Raging Fist of Fire] to bring down his [Burning Anger] count, and the redness receded, if only a smidge, and he inhaled deeply once again the damp air that had turned searing around him.

  Mul had made immense strides towards controlling himself, and he was now able to fully utilize his skills and rage management. These days, while he still ended each fight with [Heart of Loss], the effect was nowhere as drastic nor debilitating and long lasting as it had been at first. And while he hadn’t quite figured out how to just jet of flame from his fists, as he had during their mad escape through the Hungry Jungle, he was already capable of emitting small bursts of fire, and knew that it was only a matter of time until he saw the skill in a gains notification.

  However, just as he grew stronger, so did the fiery rage that fueled him, setting his paths and mind ablaze in a haze that cried to be set loose. That was something he’d already realized would never go away. No matter how long passed, no matter how much stronger he got, that rage would always stay with him, frothing and snapping at his leash.

  It had always seemed like the greatest joke in Creation that those who followed a rage path were the ones who needed to keep the most level headed to keep track of counters and to manage a resource in increasingly complex ways as their rage grew. But he was starting to wonder if perhaps there was more at the play.

  Perhaps, it was not a joke, but a safety mechanism.

  His instructor had promised his skills would grow in complexity, and what better way than to keep a rage fueled delver from losing himself to rage, than to make their paths a complex mess of resource management and confusing skills? Always running calculations in their mind in order to keep track of their anger usage as well as its energy and HP cost? Even stamina was thrown into the mix, to the point where his fights were non-stop streams of calculations, requiring him to take every single aspect of battle into consideration. From the number and position of the enemies, to the fact that when the battle’s inevitable end arrived, that he needed to have spent most of his [Burning Anger] in order to keep his [Heart of Loss] at bay?

  If not for all of this, this boring fight would have driven him mad already, no matter how much he struggled to control himself or how much Calli sought to help him to the same end… Keeping his mind busy was the only way to keep in control, otherwise, something other than him would’ve long been unleashed upon the battlefield.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  BOOM!

  BOOM! BOOM!

  Distant bangs reached him from afar, barely making it through the chaos of battle and the roar of the waterfall at their side, and he grasped his [Hearing] fiercely as another chain to wrap around the caged monster inside him.

  “What is that?” Row asked.

  “I think it’s coming from outside,” Medis said.

  “Kur, are you guys alright?” Calli asked.

  Silence dragged in their minds, and even the red haze seemed to recede as the seconds stretched. Mul’s heart began to pound not with wrath, but worry.

  “Kur?” Row asked, hesitant.

  “Sorry!” Kur shouted. “We’re okay!”

  “Fuck’s sakes!” Mul snapped. “Why didn’t you just reply?”

  “Because the boss has entered its true form, and Jul was busy keeping me alive,” Kur said.

  “Oh, damn,” Mach whispered. “So it’s really happened. You were right, Sej.”

  “Fuck. I wish I wasn't,” the guide muttered.

  True form, Mul thought. They’d been taught about it during Slaying, but it was not something they should’ve had to concern themselves with so soon, given it wasn’t their goal to fight in the War Quest. True form was something that bosses would have increasingly from that point onwards, with some of them having several forms before eventually being pushed back enough to reveal their true form, which was their mightiest.

  “How are things down there?” Kur asked. “Any chance of sending up some help? This thing is burning spores everywhere, and Jul can’t get close anymore.”

  “We can send all the auramancers melee ranged,” Row said. “Without the boss here, this has turned into a battle to see who lasts longer, our healers or our enemy.”

  “You sure you can spare them?” Kur asked, though Mul could hear the hopeful gratitude in his voice.

  “Yes! And we can send Mul up as well,” Row decided.

  “Really?”

  “I agree,” Calli said. “Get up there and burn that mushroom to ashes!”

  “But the frontline…” Mul said, his tone strained. It was getting harder to speak as the red haze advanced once more.

  “We’ll be okay,” Row said. “Take Jaz, Lim and Rel with you, and please watch over them. Actually, you might as well take Cen too, since down here, she’s constrained by how much aura she can use.”

  “That would be a great help, but are you sure?” Kur asked.

  “Yes!” Row said. “But we can’t spare any tanks just yet, though.”

  “We’ll make do! Stay safe!” the domain leader said.

  “You too!” Row said. “You heard him! And Mul—”

  “On it!” he growled.

  Without further ado, he emptied his [Burning Rage] onto a flurry of [Raging Fist of Fire], so that exiting combat didn’t trigger his [Heart of Loss].

  “I’m ready!” he said, his mind much clearer a few moments later.

  “Gad, open a path,” Row asked their controller tank.

  Gad tugged at her flows, and soon cleared a path through the horde of ambling shroomlings, letting Mul, Cen, Jaz, Rel and Lim through at a run.

  What a powerful path, Mul thought, eyeing the shroomlings packed on either side of them, fully ignoring the delvers running through their midst.

  The opening closed behind them, and they sped up the rock pillar.

  “Do you want me to carry you, Cen?” Rel asked.

  “Please! The faster we get there the faster we can help!” Cen said, reaching her arms up to the archer.

  Mul would've offered to carry his sister, but if anything surprised them in transit between coverage of tanks, it would be up to him to stand up to it and keep the others safe.

  Soon, the roaring of the waterfall swallowed the battle behind them, and Mul’s ears buzzed with tinnitus in the comparative silence. At his side, the waterfall shimmered in endless flashes of muted light, their shadows stretched across the green-purple dimness.

  Though he didn’t often give voice to it, especially not when compared to the loud mouth that was Tuk, Mul’s eyes devoured each and every fabulous sight that he’d encountered on his journey since they’d found themselves outside in the broader Creation. The open skies that stretched on forever in the Endless Labyrinth, and the golden light shimmering through the foliage in the forest dungeon, as well that light blue outline of the mountains in the distance. He’d even savored the wind-swept dunes of the easy cluster of dungeons they’d train in, inhaling deeply that biting, salty air.

  Even the Brightnight, with all its pains, insects, and dangers had yielded him with a stream of memories he would never forget, and this shimmering passage with its waterfall would be another one of them, burned into his memory with that green-purple rush.

  Maybe the life of a delver really is for me, he thought. Besides, I doubt there’s a place for a rage auramancer in the Nexus.

  “I see the exit. We’re almost there!” Jaz said.

  Right. Focus, Mul, the brawler told himself. He took a deep inhale, readying his mind for the assault of rage that was soon to slam into again.

  They emerged from the twilight into a gloom of falling white. Before them, the white dead trees and mushrooms of the Gloom barred their path, and Mul tried not to think of what awaited them within that silent jungle.

  “Over here!” Kur called uselessly.

  “Where do you want us?” Mul asked.

  “Ranged, keep your distance and start hitting that thing with all you got. And Cen, just use your [Aura Projectiles] for now. If there’s a chance for your bigger skills, we’ll use them,” Kur said. “Mul get in there if you can, but be careful! That thing is crazy fast!”

  “Should I use some distractions?” Jaz asked, as Mul cautiously approached the whirlwind that was Nar and the towering nightmare.

  “No. Between that thing’s [Speed] and [Strength], the spores and the fire, I think Nar is barely hanging in there,” Kur said. “The distractions could affect him too.”

  “Go it,” the archer said.

  You can say that again, Mul thought, eyeing the much leaner, taller and more agile beast. So this is a true form.

  The fungal nightmare shivered in between attacks and Jul cried out in warning before several explosive fungi popped into the air.

  “Split!”

  They didn’t wait to be told twice and scattered around the beast. The explosions weren’t as deafening as they had been within the tunnel, but now Mul knew the origin of the banging sounds that had been echoing down the passage.

  Right. Two million health points, uh? Let’s see what we can do about that, Mul thought, calling upon his rage as he approached the two combatants.