Zeke stepped into the cavern, hugging the wall so that he wouldn’t be noticed. The increasingly rancid smell hit him like a wall of putridity, and it was all he could do not to dry heave. Luckily, he’d left the contents of his stomach at the mouth of the cavern, so nothing came up. Still, the disgusting odor remained, exceeded only by sight before him.

Like many of the troll villages, the cavern itself was primarily circular in shape, and after a twenty-foot lip, it descended into a depression. It was roughly a hundred yards across and at least three times as high, which made it one of the most open areas he’d found within the cave system. Not that he cared about the cavern’s dimensions – not in the face what stood before him.

Over the previous months, Zeke had encountered quite a few appalling creatures. From the troll larvae that seemed to be a combination of a few disparate creatures to the wall creepers, with their transparent skin and creeping tentacles, he thought he’d been inoculated against disgust. However, as he gazed out at the cavern – or more appropriately, the behemoth that lay at its center – Zeke was forced to reassess his assumption.

Judging by its scaly, rat-like face and large, pointed ears, the thing was clearly a troll, but it was far bigger than any Zeke had encountered. It was difficult to be certain, considering that it was almost a hundred yards away, but he judged it to be at least thirty feet long. What’s more, it was misshapen, its bulk bulging against its mottled, green-and-yellow skin to the point where small cracks had appeared in its scales. Once, Zeke had chanced upon one of those television programs where they document the lives of people who’d grown so out-of-proportion that they needed cranes to lift them from their beds, but even they looked positively thin next to the bulbous mound of scaly flesh that was the troll before him. Reluctantly, he cast [Inspection] on it.

The Brood Mother – Level 22

In addition to its massive bulk, it was covered in what looked like tumors. Each one of them oozed pus, which Zeke suspected was the source of the stench that had very nearly knocked him out. Or perhaps the culprit was the nearby piles of refuse and bodily discharge. Either way, The Brood Mother was responsible.

On its torso were twenty or so grossly sagging breasts – or teats, because they more closely resembled what one would find on a cow than on a human – each one tipped with a wrist-thick nipple. And more of the ubiquitous yellow pus, of course. In fact, the monster’s entire body seemed coated in a combination of mucus and pus, making her skin glisten in the scant light. And judging by the gravel imbedded in the disgusting concoction, it was obviously sticky as well.

It took Zeke a few seconds to recognize that the creature wasn’t built like an obese caterpillar. Instead, he saw stubby appendages – six on each side – jutting from its body. All in all, the thing’s disgusting appearance was only exceeded by the rancid odor that felt more like a mental attack than a smell.

And all around the monster were its progeny. The crater was covered in troll larvae, their levels ranging all the way up to four. In addition, spaced throughout the cavern were waist-high, softly glowing sacks that Zeke quickly surmised were eggs, considering that he could see the shadows of the creatures within. It was obvious that he’d found the source of all the trolls he’d thus far encountered.

Luckily, the Brood Mother’s grotesque appearance and smell prevented him from having second thoughts about killing the presumably helpless creature. It was so huge that it probably couldn’t get out of its own way, much less put up a fight, and in another situation, Zeke might have hesitated. Sure, he’d killed plenty of sleeping, defenseless trolls, but murdering a new mother was crossing all sorts of lines. Unless that mother happened to be a grotesque abomination, of course – which was definitely the case with the Brood Mother.

The only question was how he’d go about dispatching the monster along with its many children who were covering the entire cavern floor. Would his club even hurt such a massive creature? Even with his enhanced strength, Zeke wasn’t certain of his chances. It was more than three times his level, after all, and those levels didn’t come without a significant portion of endurance. In fact, Zeke wouldn’t have been surprised if the thing possessed greater stats than he did in every category.

And that wasn’t even considering the troll larva that would doubtless go insane the moment he threatened their mother. And while he had few doubts about how easily he could kill them, Zeke knew that if he ignored them, they would threaten to overwhelm him with sheer numbers – the response of the Brood Mother notwithstanding.

Finally, he felt sure that the Brood Mother would have some sort of ability to protect itself and its children. The lack of guards seemed to support that line of thought, too. So, Zeke had no idea what he was up against, save that he was greatly outnumbered, obviously weaker than his enemies, and entirely lacking enough information to make a plan that had any likelihood of succeeding. The result was that Zeke’s every instinct told him to leave the Brood Mother alone. Perhaps, once he’d managed to gain a few more levels, he could come back and kill her then. It was the smart thing to do.

But he knew he couldn’t do that.

For one, he’d be lucky if he could ever find the place again. The cave system was a veritable maze, and the only reason he’d made any progress at all was because he followed his nose. So, finding his way back would be incredibly difficult if not downright impossible.

For another, he hated leaving an enemy behind him. Certainly, he’d left plenty of intact troll villages in his wake, but they had each of them been death traps where he stood absolutely zero chance of overcoming the overwhelming odds against him. He had grown into a dangerous warrior, but even he couldn’t kill two-hundred-plus trolls by himself.

But most of all, Zeke felt an irresistible urge to scrub the abomination that was the Brood Mother from the face of the earth. If any of the creatures he’d encountered since his rebirth could be categorized as monsters, the Brood Mother certainly qualified. That alone was nearly enough to spur him into action, so, with his every instinct pushing him forward, he didn’t even feel like he had a choice.

The only question was how he could accomplish his goal of killing the thing without being overwhelmed himself. With that in mind, Zeke pushed his disgust to the back of his mind and began to study the scene before him as he tried to come up with a plan. In the end, though, he could only come up with something bare bones – not because he lacked the ability to think strategically, but rather because he didn’t have enough information to make anything more than a basic attack plan.

After almost an hour’s worth of observation, Zeke stood. He discarded everything he didn’t need, including his satchel and spear before hefting his club onto his shoulder. He’d had to replace his favored weapon a couple of times already, but luckily, it was a popular weapon amongst the trolls. Each time he had replaced it, he’d done so with a slightly sturdier and heavier weapon, so the one he carried now weighed at least forty pounds. However, it still felt light in his hands, and he could swing it for hours.

Without further ado, Zeke leapt down into the crater, and as soon as he landed, began to methodically exterminate the troll larva. Each swing felled a handful of the creatures, but there were hundreds of them, so he knew it would take hours to whittle them down enough that he felt comfortable attacking the Brood Mother in the center of the crater. Thankfully, they posed little threat to him; with his increased durability, their sharp teeth could barely even draw blood, and it would take them an eternity to do any real damage.

Zeke was in no mood to give them such an opportunity, and he soon became a whirlwind of death as he plunged into their ranks, leveling eggs and troll larvae alike. The eggs exploded with half-formed troll embryos and the combination of pus and mucus that coated the Brood Mother. To call it disgusting would’ve been a vast understatement, but Zeke paid it no mind as he decimated the cavern’s troll population.

Through it all, he kept [Leech Strike] active, so even on the rare occasion that a particularly strong creature managed to wound him, the constant stream of life force quickly healed him. In addition, it kept fatigue at bay, so he swung his club with the regularity of a metronome as he cleared out the cavern.

But what sort of mother could sit by and watch her progeny be murdered by some unstoppable monster? Certainly not the Brood Mother, who wailed with every death. More, she shifted her bulk until she found herself on her belly, her grotesque teats mashed against the rocky ground. With a heave, she raised herself into the air and let out a piercing shriek that cut right through Zeke like an aural scythe.

He fell to the ground, his club forgotten as he clutched his hands to his ears. The troll larva swarmed over him, their sharp claws and even sharper teeth digging futilely into his skin. His endurance won out, but only barely, and it was clear that soon, they’d wear him down completely. Once that happened, he’d become food for their development.

In the innermost parts of Zeke’s mind, he knew he needed to get up, to throw the creatures off and continue his path of wanton slaughter. However, the Brood Mother’s scream wasn’t just an auditory attack. It was mental as well, scuttling any sense of rational thought. It was as if his entire mind had been shattered into a million jagged shards, then shoved back together in a jumble of mismatched pieces. One second, he thought he was back in the old world, with his father swearing at him for watching a third strike pass him by, and then the next, he was waking up in the cave and fighting for his life.

He was with his brother, well before Tommy’s kidney disease progressed to the point of confining him to his bed. He was happy, then. So was Zeke. But it was all an illusion; eventually, their real lives would reassert themselves. Zeke would go back to his father’s abusive training, while Tommy would disappear into his books while he tried to forget about the fact that his days were numbered.

Then he was sitting in his old room, listening as his father beat his mother because she’d had the audacity to apply for a job at the local supermarket. He’d called it humiliating that his wife thought she had to work. It didn’t matter that they’d just had their electricity cut off due to lack of payment. Or that he clearly couldn’t keep up with their bills, largely because he’d had his hours cut back due to his obsession with training Zeke. No – he didn’t care about any of that. Instead, he only cared about how it looked, and he’d taken his frustrations out on his wife.

Meanwhile, Zeke had tried to work himself up to confronting the man. He’d only been eleven years old, so he knew he couldn’t really make a difference. But that didn’t matter – not to his adolescent mind – and when he couldn’t work up the courage, he considered himself a coward. He thought he’d failed his mother.

A million different memories flitted through his mind. Some were traumatizing. Others were pleasant. But they were all designed to distract him from the real world, where he was slowly being eaten alive by a horde of troll larvae. Finally, after an interminable span of time, Zeke gained a foothold of sanity amidst his jumbled memories when one of the monsters finally managed to take a chunk out of his arm. The pain brought a tiny piece of his consciousness back, and he used that to drag himself from the quagmire of confusion that had been forced upon him. Slowly, Zeke regained his sense of self, bit by bit, until he finally felt something else. Something far more powerful.

Rage coursed through his veins as his muscles bunched. With a thought, he triggered [Heart of the Berserker], and he felt the increased power flow through his body. He exploded to his feet, sending two-dozen troll larvae sailing through the air with enough force that when they finally landed a hundred feet away, they burst like watermelons filled with blood, guts, and other assorted viscera.

Zeke hardly noticed as he charged through the sea of infant monsters, swinging his club with terrifying strength. The air whistled with the momentum of each swing, and the force was so great that before the creatures were sent flying into their brethren, the weapon tore huge chunks from their bodies. But Zeke hardly noticed. He had much bigger game in his sights.

The effects of the aural attack hadn’t entirely faded, and Zeke’s mind was still a ragged mess, but he could think well enough to know that he needed to discard his plan. Originally, he’d intended to slowly exterminate the troll larva while destroying the eggs, saving the Brood Mother for last. However, he had little confidence in being able to withstand another of the monster’s mental assaults, so he had little choice but to take care of it as quickly as possible.

Thanks to his brutal, [Heart of the Berserker] empowered swings, the sea of troll larva easily parted before him, and before long, he found himself looking up at the Brood Mother’s disgusting body. His original estimate had been that it was thirty feet long, but upon further inspection, he realized that it was half-again bigger than that. In addition, the pus-filled cysts covering its body had lost their yellowish luster, replacing it with an angry red pulse that gave them an orange cast.

Just as Zeke crashed through the last of the troll larva, his world exploded in pain when hundreds of cysts burst with explosive force, inundating the entire cavern in thick, yellow and red pus. All around him, the weak troll larva screamed in agony as the pus latched onto them, melting through their very skin. In mere seconds, they were reduced to puddles of foul-smelling goop.

Zeke was made of tougher stuff than that, though, and he merely acquired third-degree chemical burns wherever the acidic concoction landed on his body. And considering that he was drenched, that meant nearly every inch of his skin was quickly turned into a mass of unbearable suffering.

But Zeke had spent the vast majority of his new life in some degree of pain. He had endured the acidic combination of the mana water and the blue-spotted mushrooms, even going so far as to seek out more. He’d been riddled with various wounds. He’d been disemboweled. His entire leg had been put through a blender of tentacles and teeth. So, how could something so simple as having his skin melted off stop him?

With a defiant roar, Zeke leapt thirty feet into the air, swinging his club with all the considerable might he could muster. The club almost ignited as it tore through the air in an overhand swing. It hit precisely where he’d aimed – the Brood Mother’s scaly rat-like head.

The snout burst into an explosion of blood, teeth, and spit, and the weapon shattered, sending bullet-like shards deep into the creature’s head. It wailed in agony, but Zeke wasn’t finished. When he landed, he immediately whipped around, half-dissolved flaps of skin dripping from his body, to see the Brood Mother going berserk as it writhed in pain. Ignoring his own agony and disgust, Zeke leapt atop its bulbous form, his feet burning each time they landed in one of the cysts as he ran up the thing’s body. When he finally reached its head once again, Zeke gripped what was left of the thing’s snout, and with a mighty heave, ripped it asunder.

It died with a pitiful gurgle, its elephantine body collapsing onto the ground with a thunderous crash. Zeke rolled free, ignoring the sting of the additional pus he picked up along the way. Even as he felt his body beginning to break down, Zeke dispelled his [Heart of the Berserker]. A wave of exhaustion hit him, but he pushed through, slowly inching his way out of crater and away from the acidic pus.

Eventually, he made his way back to his discarded belongings. Thankfully, his makeshift satchel had been far enough away from the Brood Mother to avoid the pus, so with bleeding fingers, Zeke quickly found some of his stored fish. Despite his nausea, he wolfed it down; without it, he was certain that his wounds would overcome him. Even with the healing associated with eating the fish’s flesh, he wasn’t sure if it would be enough.

But if he did survive, he had reason to celebrate, because he’d gotten a few notifications that he hadn’t expected.