Chapter 32: Do-Osvidania!
**THE FORGE MOUNTAINS - TWO WEEKS AFTER FROST TROLLS**
The mountain range stretched before them like the spine of a sleeping god.
Hexia stood at the vanguard, his crimson eyes scanning the rocky terrain where ten Berserk Mountain Giants had made their territory. Behind him, the rest of Hexagram assembled with practiced efficiency—two heroes, four companions, all preparing for the third S-rank contract.
"Forty feet tall," Nerissa said, her violet hair whipping in the mountain wind. "Strong enough to throw boulders like pebbles. Completely immune to reason."
"Sounds like my kind of party," Lhoralaine muttered, checking her twin swords.
"They've destroyed seventeen trading posts in the past month," Sirenia added, Thunder God staff crackling with anticipation. "Twenty-two adventurers dead trying to clear them."
Hexia's hand rested on Trinity's hilt. "We need their bones for weapon cores. Durgan—what do you need?"
The engineer's gears whirred excitedly in his beard. "Femurs for structural reinforcement! Ribs for flexibility matrices! Skulls for impact resistance plating! Basically everything!"
"Can you be more specific?" Durin rumbled, his massive hammers crossed over his chest.
"I just was! EVERYTHING means EVERYTHING!"
"That's not helpful."
"It's VERY helpful! It means we don't have to be selective!"
"You're exhausting."
"You're boring!"
Nerissa stepped between them before the argument could escalate. "Focus. Ten giants. What's the formation?"
Hexia's mind was already working through scenarios. "Standard hammer and anvil won't work—they're too large. We need elevation advantage and coordinated strikes." He pointed to a narrow valley between two peaks. "We funnel them there. Limited mobility, forced into kill zones."
"And if they don't cooperate?" Lhoralaine asked.
"Then we make them cooperate." His voice was flat, final. "Nerissa and I draw initial aggression. Sirenia provides artillery from high ground. Lhoralaine acts as mobile striker. Durgan sets up killing fields. Durin holds center—nothing gets past him."
"What about me?" Durgan's enthusiasm was palpable.
"You blow things up. Repeatedly. Until there's nothing left to blow up."
"THAT'S THE BEST THING YOU'VE EVER SAID TO ME!"
A roar split the morning air—deep, guttural, the sound of something massive and angry announcing its presence.
Then another roar. And another. Ten voices harmonizing in a challenge that made the mountain itself tremble.
"Contact," Hexia said calmly. "Positions. Now."
---
**WAVE ONE: THE VANGUARD**
Three Berserk Mountain Giants emerged from behind rocky outcroppings—forty feet of rage and stone-like skin. Their muscles were corded steel cables. Their fists were the size of wagons. And their eyes held no intelligence, just pure, mindless fury.
They spotted the party and charged.
The ground shook with each footfall. Boulders bounced. Smaller rocks tumbled down slopes.
"Mine!" Nerissa's voice rang clear.
"**ARTILLERY MAGIC!**"
Six void projectiles materialized—spheres of absolute nothingness that ignored the physical barriers of flesh and bone. They passed through the first giant's chest like ghosts passing through walls.
Then detonated internally.
The giant's torso exploded outward—ribs and organs spraying across the rocks in a grotesque fountain. It collapsed mid-stride, its lower half running three more steps before toppling.
The second giant was smarter—it grabbed a boulder the size of a house and hurled it at Nerissa.
"**LUX!**"
Hexia's hand rose. White light exploded, forming a barrier that encompassed their entire party. The boulder hit the barrier and shattered like glass, fragments raining harmlessly around them.
The giant roared in frustration—
Hexia's sword was already moving.
"**GUILLOTINE!**"
He leaped impossibly high, his blade tracing a horizontal arc at the giant's neck level. The strike was perfect—clean, surgical, absolute.
The giant's head separated from its shoulders and fell, hitting the ground with an impact that cratered stone. The body stood for three heartbeats before collapsing like a felled tree.
"Two down!" Sirenia called from her elevated position. "Eight to go!"
The third giant had learned—it stayed back, grabbing more boulders to use as ranged weapons.
"**STORM CRAZE!**"
A massive hammer of pure electricity materialized above Sirenia's staff and crashed down on the giant. The impact was catastrophic—the electrical discharge fried its nervous system instantly. The body twitched, convulsed, then went still, smoke rising from charred flesh.
"Three down! Seven remaining!"
"Second wave incoming!" Lhoralaine's voice carried warning. "Four from the west!"
---
**WAVE TWO: THE PRESSURE**
Four Berserk Mountain Giants charged simultaneously, coordinating despite their lack of intelligence. They moved to surround the party, trying to overwhelm through sheer size and numbers.
"Spread formation!" Hexia's command was sharp. "Don't let them box us in!"
Lhoralaine was already moving.
"**BLADE DANCE!**"
She became a spinning tornado of steel, her twin swords creating a sphere of death around her. The first giant tried to stomp her—
Her blades traced patterns across its ankle tendons. The cuts were precise, surgical, devastating. The giant's leg buckled, bones no longer able to support its weight.
It crashed down—
"**FURY!**"
Crimson energy flooded Lhoralaine's body. Every injury would make her stronger. The falling giant's hand swept toward her, trying to crush her—
The impact sent her flying, blood spraying from her shoulder where fingers had connected.
Her power multiplied.
She landed, rolled, came up grinning despite the pain. "**RAZOR'S EDGE!**"
Cross-slash. X-pattern. The giant's throat opened in a perfect X, arterial blood fountaining upward in twin geysers. It clutched at the wound futilely, drowning in its own blood.
"Four down! Six to go!"
Two giants converged on Durin's position—massive fists raised to pulverize the dwarf.
Mistake.
"**HAMMERANG!**"
Both hammers flew from his hands, spinning through the air like electrified circular saws. The first hammer caught a giant in the kneecap—bone shattered, the leg bent backward at an impossible angle.
The giant fell screaming—
The second hammer took its head clean off mid-fall.
The remaining giant tried to retreat—
"**MONARCH'S TYRANNY!**"
Durin's retrieved hammers slammed into the ground. Electrical energy exploded outward in a massive radius. The giant's nervous system overloaded, muscles locked in tetanic spasms. It fell like a toppled statue, smoke rising from its body.
"Six down! Four remaining!"
The last giant from this wave was smart enough to grab Durgan's position as a target—the engineer looked vulnerable behind his mechanical constructs.
It charged—
Durgan's grin was manic. "**GATLING GUN!**"
Pandora's Box transformed with mechanical precision. Six barrels emerged, rotating, glowing.
The sound was apocalyptic.
Five hundred rounds per second poured into the charging giant. The creature didn't just die—it was *shredded*. Flesh and bone vaporized under sustained automatic fire. What remained wasn't recognizable as anything that had once been alive.
"SEVEN DOWN!" Durgan's laughter was borderline unhinged. "THREE TO GO!"
"Third wave!" Nerissa's voice carried urgency. "The alpha and two guards!"
---
**WAVE THREE: THE ALPHA**
The final three Berserk Mountain Giants emerged together.
And leading them was something that defied description.
The alpha stood *sixty feet tall*—half again as large as its subordinates. Its skin was darker, tougher, scarred from countless battles. Muscles like bundled steel cables. Fists like battering rams.
And its eyes—
Its eyes held *fury*. Not mindless rage—*focused* fury. It understood that these small creatures had killed seven of its kind. And it was *angry*.
"That's the alpha," Hexia said quietly. "Everyone—focus fire. We take it down fast."
The alpha roared—a sound that triggered avalanches on distant peaks.
Then it grabbed a boulder the size of a building and hurled it at their position.
"**LUX!**"
The barrier held, but barely—cracks spiderwebbed across the white light.
The two guard giants charged while the alpha prepared another throw—
"**ARTILLERY MAGIC!**"
Nerissa's void projectiles found both guards. Internal detonations. Liquefied organs. Instant death.
"Nine down! One remaining!"
The alpha's second boulder hit the barrier and shattered it completely. Hexia staggered, the magical backlash hitting him like a physical blow.
The alpha charged.
Sixty feet of rage and stone moving at terrifying speed—
"**TYRANT'S PLEA!**"
Gravity multiplied around the alpha. Twenty times normal. Fifty. A hundred.
The giant's charge faltered—its knees buckled, bones creaking under impossible pressure—
But it didn't fall.
It *fought* the gravity, muscles straining, tendons screaming, bones cracking—but still standing.
"Impressive," Hexia said quietly.
Then his sword moved.
"**CHAOS METEOR!**"
Black and crimson energy coalesced into a sphere above his palm. It shot skyward, disappearing into the clouds.
The alpha looked up—
And for the first time, fear entered its eyes.
Impact.
The explosion vaporized everything in a two-hundred-foot radius. The shockwave threw everyone off their feet. The crater that formed was so deep it exposed underground mineral veins.
When the light faded, no alpha remained.
Just absence where something had been.
"Ten confirmed kills." Hexia's voice was steady despite exhaustion. "Contract complete."
---
**AFTERMATH - MATERIAL HARVEST**
Durgan was already moving between giant corpses, examining bones with scientific enthusiasm. "These femurs are PERFECT! And the density—Durin, we can forge weapons that could fight Ancients with this!"
"Agreed." Durin was collecting specific bones, his expert eye identifying the highest quality materials. "The alpha's skeletal structure is particularly impressive. This will make legendary-grade equipment."
Nerissa cleaned her hammer, purple eyes distant. "That was efficient. Twenty-seven minutes from first contact to alpha elimination."
"Four minutes faster than the Frost Trolls," Hexia noted. "We're improving."
"Or getting reckless," Sirenia observed, healing minor wounds on Lhoralaine. "You took unnecessary risks."
"I took *calculated* risks." Lhoralaine's grin was fierce despite her injuries. "There's a difference."
"The difference is whether you die or not."
"I didn't die. Therefore, calculated."
"That's not how logic works."
"It's how *my* logic works."
Hexia watched this exchange with something that might have been amusement. "Save the philosophical debate for after we complete the fourth contract. We still have two Glacial Dragons to eliminate."
Silence descended.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"About that," Durgan said slowly. "I have a proposal."
"No."
"You haven't heard—"
"Whatever it is, no."
"But it involves DO-OSVIDANIA!"
"ESPECIALLY no."
"But the DRAGONS!" Durgan's enthusiasm was building. "They're PERFECT targets! Intelligent! Powerful! Dangerous! And they FLY which means they're hard to hit with conventional weapons!"
"So you want to use a nuclear missile." Hexia's tone was flat.
"Exactly! One missile! Atomic payload! Not even their shadows can escape! Problem solved!"
"Along with the entire mountain range."
"That's a FEATURE—"
"It's a Catastrophe, Durgan. A massive, world-ending Catastrophe!."
Nerissa stepped between them. "What if we evacuate first? Clear the area, let Durgan use DO-OSVIDANIA from maximum range, then return for material collection after the radiation dissipates?"
Hexia stared at her. "You're actually considering this."
"The Dragons are ancient. Intelligent. Powerful enough to level cities." Her purple eyes were serious. "Standard tactics might fail. And if even one escapes, it warns others. We can't allow that."
"She has a point," Durin rumbled. "Dragons are smart enough to flee. If they escape, they'll tell other dragons. Our element of surprise is gone."
"Overwhelming alpha strike capability," Sirenia added thoughtfully. "Hit so hard they die before they can react."
Lhoralaine was grinning. "I vote yes. I want to see what a nuclear explosion looks like."
"That's a terrible reason to vote yes."
"But I'm still voting yes!"
Hexia looked at each of them in turn, seeing genuine tactical consideration mixed with morbid curiosity and Durgan's manic enthusiasm.
"Fine," he said finally. "But with conditions. We evacuate to *five miles* minimum. Durgan gets *one* missile. If it fails, we handle it conventionally. And if the explosion is bigger than advertised—"
"It won't be! I've calculated everything precisely!"
"—then you're building our next headquarters from scratch. With your bare hands."
"Deal! THIS IS GOING TO BE ATOMIC!" Durgan's enthusiastic laughter is manic."Finally! HAHAHAHAHA!
---
**THE STONEWALL PEAKS - THREE DAYS LATER**
The dragon nest was visible from miles away—a massive cave system carved into the highest peak, large enough to house creatures that could level cities.
Two Glacial Dragons. Ancient. Intelligent. Powerful.
About to have a very bad day.
Hexagram positioned themselves five miles away, atop a neighboring mountain with clear line of sight. Durgan had set up DO-OSVIDANIA with reverent care—a launch silo that looked both magnificent and terrifying.
"This is insane," Sirenia muttered, watching through Durgan's enchanted scope.
"This is SCIENCE!" Durgan corrected, making final adjustments. "Beautiful, devastating, atomic science! Where we say GOODBYE to the dragons!"
"Are we sure about this?" Lhoralaine asked, excitement and trepidation mixing in her voice.
"No," Hexia said flatly. "But we're doing it anyway. Durgan—final check."
The engineer's hands moved with practiced precision. "Target acquired. Trajectory calculated. Payload armed. Blast radius confirmed at two miles. Fallout patterns mapped. Everything's perfect!"
"And if the Dragons aren't home?"
"The thermal sensors show two massive heat signatures in the main cave. They're home. Probably sleeping. Won't even know what hit them."
Nerissa's void magic shimmered around her hands, ready to create protective barriers if needed. "This is either brilliant or the worst decision we've ever made."
"Could be both," Durin observed.
"That's not comforting."
"You're welcome!"
Hexia took a breath, feeling the weight of this decision. One missile. Atomic fire. Two ancient creatures ended in an instant.
Efficient. Brutal. Absolute.
"Launch when ready."
Durgan's grin was radiant. "**THIS. IS. ATOMIC!**"
His hand slammed down on the activation rune.
DO-OSVIDANIA roared to life.
The missile rose on a pillar of flame, accelerating impossibly fast. It arced across the distance, a streak of fire and death painting the sky.
Five seconds.
The missile entered the dragon's cave system, penetrating deep into the mountain before—
*Light.* *God Damn ATOMIC LIGHT!*
Not an explosion. *Light*. Pure, absolute, god damn atomic light that turned night into day, that made the sun look dim by comparison.
The mountain didn't explode—it *vaporized*. Stone became gas. Rock became vapor. The cave system, the Dragons, everything within two miles simply *ceased to exist*.
The shockwave hit them even at five miles distance—a wall of force that knocked everyone flat, even through Nerissa's hastily erected void barriers.
The sound came next—not noise but *pressure*, a wave of compressed air that made ears bleed, that temporarily deafened, that felt like being hit by an invisible fist.
Then came the mushroom cloud.
It rose from where the mountain had been, climbing toward the stratosphere, a pillar of smoke and fire and atomized matter that could be seen from the neighboring continent.
Silence.
Absolute. Stunned. Awed.
"Holy. Fucking. Gods." Lhoralaine's voice was barely a whisper.
"Did we just..." Sirenia couldn't finish the sentence.
"We did." Nerissa's face was pale. "We absolutely did."
Durin was staring at the mushroom cloud with something like religious awe. "That's... that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Durgan was *crying*. Actual tears streaming down his face. "It worked! IT WORKED! Do you SEE that?! DO YOU SEE?! HAHAHAHA! DO-OSVIDANIA DRAGONS!"
Hexia stood slowly, staring at where the mountain used to be. Where two ancient Dragons had been sleeping. Where a piece of geography had existed.
All gone. Erased. Atomized.
"Contract.... Complete," he said quietly. "Two Glacial Dragons confirmed dead. No bodies for proof, but I think the crater speaks for itself."
"The guild is going to have QUESTIONS," Sirenia managed.
"Let them ask. We killed two Glacial Dragons in under six seconds. That's a record that's never getting broken."
Nerissa was using her void magic to sense the destruction. "The thermal signatures are gone. Completely. Nothing survived. Not even bacteria."
"Material collection?" Durin asked hopefully.
"There's nothing left to collect," Hexia said. "The Dragons and everything they owned was vaporized. We'll have to rely on the materials from the first three contracts."
"But we completed all four contracts!" Durgan's enthusiasm was undimmed. "IN RECORD TIME! We're LEGENDARY!"
"We're insane," Lhoralaine corrected. "But also legendary. I'll take it. Hahaha!"
---
**IRONFORGE - ONE WEEK LATER**
Guildmaster Thorin stared at the group standing before him. Then at the proof they'd brought—Dire Hound fangs, Frost Troll blood, Mountain Giant bones.
Then at the report from witnesses who'd seen the mushroom cloud.
"You used a NUCLEAR WEAPON to kill the Dragons."
"Technically, Durgan used a nuclear weapon," Hexia corrected. "We just gave permission."
"That's not BETTER!"
"It was efficient," Nerissa said calmly. "And effective. The Dragons were eliminated with zero casualties on our side."
"You VAPORIZED A MOUNTAIN!"
"The mountain was in the way," Durgan said cheerfully. "Collateral damage happens!"
Thorin opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. No words came out.
Finally: "All four contracts. Completed. In four weeks. Sixty six confirmed kills."
He stamped their contracts with trembling hands. "You're either the greatest adventuring party in history or the most dangerous. I can't decide which."
"Can't we be both?" Lhoralaine asked innocently.
"GET OUT OF MY GUILD HALL, BEFORE YOU BLOW SOMETHING ELSE UP!"
They left, their legendary status now cemented not just through skill but through sheer destructive capability.
Behind them, Thorin collapsed into his chair, wondering how he'd explain the mushroom cloud to the continental authorities.
And in the streets of Ironforge, people whispered about Hexagram—the party that killed Gods-damned *Dragons* with a single missile.
Heads had rolled. Mountains had vaporized. Legends had been born.
And they were only getting started.
---
**TO BE CONTINUED...**
*Four contracts complete in record time. Sixty six confirmed kills. One vaporized mountain. And materials enough to forge weapons worthy of fighting Ancients.*
*But first— two months of rest. Festival preparations. Weapon crafting. Hexia cooking for the festival And the slow, careful work of being human between the violence.*
*Because even heroes need to remember what they're fighting for.*
*Even the broken ones.*
*Especially them.*