Leaning forwards, Kaius peered around the shattered jewel-encrusted gate that led to the final district of the dwarven city. Like a mountain with its top shorn clean off, the pinnacle of the dwarven city was a flat and open space.

    Great stone tiles as large as a house paved its surface, while equidistant ridged stone columns surrounded the edges of the constructed plateau. Nothing linked them, the edge of the rise a simple sheer drop to the administrative district far below.

    Masterful dwarven construction it might have been, but the stout engineers clearly had no mind for safety.

    Dozens of statues dotted the space, each one twice his own height and an artist''s magnum opus in their own right. Stone flowed as if cloth, shone as if polished plate armour, and damn near breathed as if it was living. Each depicted what must have been some dwarven paragon, bastions of their society immortalised in regal sculpture. As was to be expected, most were warriors and artisans, plying the tools of their trades. Yet not all, on more than one occasion he spotted the familiar crook of a magi''s staff, or the scrolls and quill of a scholar.

    However, despite the sublime creations that put even the masterpieces of the lower city to shame, it was not the dwarf-craft that held his attention. Instead it was another figure—far more mean and terrible—that prowled through the garden of carved stone.

    Hulking.

    Brutish.

    Bestial.

    It must have been an easy eighteen strides tall to his six and a half. Its skin was more callus than flesh, grey warts and knobbled lumps marring its off-green complexion. A head too large, too deformed, to look natural - only held in place by an equally grotesque neck. One so short that its chin almost merged with its chest.

    A heavy, jutting brow shielded its pinhole eyes from the radiance of the false sun above. Despite that significant cover, the ogre still winced in discomfort every time it faced in the false-sun''s direction.

    Kaius gulped, staring at their fated challenge with apprehension. It was fucking huge. Big enough that it made the statues look to scale. Still, despite its prodigious size, he couldn''t deny the way his heart raced at the thought of slaying such a giant. It would be a feat for the ages.

    Not that ogres were traditionally such a great threat, at least for the elites of the frontier. Too stupid by half to ever make it to the second tier with any regularity, nor possessing the aptitude to make it any further than that, at least for the common breeds.

    Yet to defeat an ogre as an unclassed? One empowered to the status of Guardian? That was more than worth an epithet. Kaius Ogresbane. He rolled the words around his tongue, tasting their flavour. He found he liked it. The way it made his heart race, sent his blood surging with the potent spice of risk and deadly battle. It would make a fine capstone for his preparations for his class.

    Besides, there was no way that something as base as an ogre would stand between him and Father. He would not let a simple fight, no matter how deadly, stop them from reuniting, even if only to perform his final respects.

    Thankfully, whatever outfitting the goblin horde had done for the brute, it hadn''t extended beyond giving the thing a sheet sized leather loincloth and a crude club fashioned from an entire tree trunk.No?v(el)B\\jnn

    He focused his True Sight on the creature, drinking in its status.

    Siege Ogre - Level 36:

    Guardian, Depths-born, Vanguard, Low Race

    At the very least the bastard wasn''t level forty, the cap for a Guardian of the second layer. If it had been they would have had to contend with it having a third active skill. Even then, it was a small comfort. A single solid smack from its club would be enough to pulp either one of them.

    Kaius pulled back, slinking down the stairs to where Porkchop waited.

    Tossing the empty bottles into his pack, Kaius scooped up his own potions and started to imbibe them one by one. First came the slow inexorable vitality of Solar Revitalisation, tasting of spring growth and the warm embrace of the morning sun. Then the lilac Jack Rabbit tonic hit his tongue, washing it away in a furious rush of the acidic burn of worked muscles, and the pounding tempo of the chase.

    Kaius paused, the Lunar Empowerment tonic half way to his mouth. Where the potions mixed in his stomach he could feel the arcane energies mixing. While it wasn''t so contentious as to cause ill effects, he could feel the mana radiating off of the mixture in waves, filling him with a frenetic energy. Like having one too many cups of jappa.

    He downed his last potion. Metallic silver coated his mouth, heavy, cloying, and velvety smooth. It clung to his throat with the desperate embrace of an abandoned lover, overwhelming his palate with base notes of secrets long kept, and fortunes long sought.

    **Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Solar Revitalisation**

    **Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Jack Rabbit**

    **Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Lunar Empowerment**

    Power thrummed, surging through him as the alchemical mixtures absorbed into his body with arcane swiftness, more condensed conceptual potency suspended in mana than a true fluid.

    A soothing heat welled up from his soul space, his Health and Stamina regeneration bolstered, small wisps of energy dissipating into the ether as his full resource pools were unable to capture their power. Frenetic tension set deep into his muscles and bones, reinforcing them for explosive movement. He shifted on his feet, feeling the way his body reacted, the way his reflexes kept up with his empowered motion.

    Then his mind expanded, and the ever present glow of mana in his vision became more. Where once it had been simple colours that lay beneath the world, now it became a painting of truth. An insight into the hidden nature of things. There were secrets hidden there, just out of reach. Too veiled to know and understand, but through the power of his tonic they were brought to the forefront. Revealed in just enough definition to barely taste the shape of them.

    He felt the resonance in his mana, the way it was tainted by his thought and conceptions. Even locked down as it was, it could be more. Lunar wisdom guided his hands, impressions of hardness, flight, and violent collision seeping into the ridgid runic structures that held his mana bound.

    There was so much more he could do, if he had just a little time to contemplate on the hidden world that had been revealed. It took all of Kaius''s will to rent his mind away from the temptation, to focus on the task at hand.

    Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to centre himself, and then opened them once more once he had steeled himself. Porkchop was watching him, twitching slightly with the discomfort of standing still.

    "You good?"

    "Yeah," Kaius sighed. "It''s ... heady. I''ve got a handle on it now, let''s do this."

    They ascended the stairs once more, the shuddering thumps of the Guardian''s heavy steps on the stone above setting Kaius''s heart ablaze with their aggressive tempo. Pausing just for a moment at the shattered gates, they shared a final look before they stepped through the portal and onto the flattened plateau that made up the summit of the dwarven citadel.

    As soon as their feet landed, the grim visage of the Guardian snapped over to them. Warned of their presence by some unknown insight.

    It howled. Deep, bassy, and full of rage.

    Behind them a barrier snapped into existence, sealing off the gate and linking each pillar that encircled the plateau in shimmering purple.

    No way out, it was do or die.

    **Ding! You have challenged a Guardian: Siege Ogre!**

    **Ding! Good Luck**