Climbing the Ranks - Chapter 11 preview (Patreon)

“Gila. Kamu dua gila!”

“A little crazy, yes;” Arthur croaked out. He was surprised that the Malay-man had not moved forwards, either to help his friend or attack him. Then again, as he stood there, hands hanging by his side, his chest throbbing every few seconds, he was a little grateful.

“This is not what I signed up for!” the man said, staring at the two. “This… this is insanity! You killed him.”

“Not yet, but he was going to maim me,” Arthur replied. “Good as killing me, really. I just responded in kind.”

“You’ll, you’ll bring them all on you.” The malay shook his head again, clenching and unclenching his fist. After a second, he shook his head. “No. I’m not doing this. You, you all, do what you want. I’m out.”

Then turning, he strode away.

For a second Arthur waited, knowing the other would turn around. Trick him to lower his guard. It was not until the other was out of sight that he relaxed, only to see the man beneath him stir, try to push himself to his feet, then failing that, crawl away. Cultivator strength gave one a significant level of endurance.

Eyes flat, Arthur stared at the man trying to get away. He weighed the options in his mind, the damage he had done. The possibility – no, the likelihood of retribution – and then sighed.

“I really wish you hadn’t come after me.” A quick bend, his head slipping down to plunge the blade into back of the man’s neck. A quick, efficient kill. Twisting the knife, Tai rooted through the body, finding only a pouch filled with some small chits. Tokens for use as credits for trading when one was in town.

Pocketing it, he cleaned his blade on the body and picked up his own weapon. Noise in the underbrush reminded Tai of the third member of the party, only belatedy arriving. That injury to his ribs must have distracted the other more than he had thought. Either that, or he was just really bad at directions.

For a moment, Arthur considered staying and eliminating the threat. Another breath drawn in sent pain flickering through his body and he grimaced. No, he was injured enough. Best get going. Go out, stay out for a while for the others to calm down and relax.

Nodding to himself, Arthur picked a direction and plunged deeper into the forest. He had best get moving, before reinforcements arrived too. The very last thing he wanted to do was face the rest of the gang.

It would be rather inconvenient.

***

Two hours later, even cultivator reinforced stamina had given way. Arthur grimaced, leaning against a tree and touched his side once more. His feet was wet, his pants too – up until his knees. Wading through a cold forest stream for half an hour and clambering up the stony bank so that he could throw off any tracking had been painful and highly uncomfortable.

Nearly as bad as the pain that shot through him with every breath. He’d broken his ribs before, once in a fight, twice more during training. None of the times had been as bad, and in all such cases he had been forced to be extremely careful about moving for weeks on end.

Yet now…

Another slow breath, carefully so that he did not displace healing bones and aching muscle. Because they were healing. This was Arthur’s first run in with the magical, accelerated healing that was part and parcel of life in the tower. Grateful as anything, he was, that it was a thing.

It wasn’t magical – though certain cultivation exercises took accelerated healing to the next level he heard – but just fast. A broken bone, instead of taking six weeks – or longer – to heal, became something that was fixed in a few days. Maybe a week at worse. Cuts and inflammation of the body, fevers and common illneses were uncommon or incredibly deadly. Not much room in there – anything that could survive the tower’s accelerated healing regime was strong.

For all that healing though, he had a couple of broken ribs and bruised organs and muscles. Pushing himself to keep moving had required strength – strength of mind, strength of will, what have you – and there was only so much one could do.

So, Arthur now slumped against the tree, head leaning against rough bark and breathed. Waiting for everything to calm down, for his heartbeat to reduce, for the twinges to slow. Wrapping his chest would not help – it was considered bad form these days. Though… that was for everyone outside. Not taking sufficiently large breaths meant potential for pneumonia over the weeks of healing.

Did the medical advice change because he was looking at only a week?

A few moments of deliberation and then Arthur shrugged. If it made his life easier, movement now; while things might be dangerous was more important than potentially getting pneumonia in the future. Taking his shirt off hurt, but the roll of bandages in his backpack – one that he thankfully had managed to keep hold off through the entire skirmish – was easy on hand. Getting it wrapped on the other hand…

Well, those were a few minutes he could well do with forgetting. Especially since he could do little but breathe hard. No cursing, since you never know what was out there.

Then, after another deep drink of water, some trail rations and a grumpy set of swearing, Arthur made his way deeper into the forest.

Oh, and one more thing. A glance at the compass he carried, so that he could make his way back. Hopefully. If he had not turned himself around entirely while running away.

***

It was little surprise to Arthur that he encountered the first of his no-human threats soon after. If anything, the fact that he hadn’t found any till then had been more surprising in truth. It showed how picked clean the nearby forest to the village had been. After all, the towers were here to test them; and that meant populating the forest with an unusual number of predatory creatures.

Even if, said predatory creature was a goddamn carnivorous group of golden monkeys.

Three of them, a small grouping that probably had broken off from the larger tribe. They swung down from the trees, using the vines to launch themselves at the cultivator. The first’s strike caught him by surprise, throwing his head to the side. The second glanced off his chest, sending an arc of pain through him. The third missed him entirely as he fell back.

A tug and his weapon swung upwards, pushing forwards. He hit the ground, rolled and twisted, spinning his body around. His staff moved ahead of his body, sweeping ahead and impacting one of the monkey’s that had not expected the motion.

The blow however was not as forceful as it could be. It struck an arm, breaking it but faltered in pushing the monster all the way away. It was the pain, from falling on his back as his still healing ribs have protest. It distracted him, robbed his arms of strength.

Pain rushing through him, Arthur pushed himself upwards at last with much laborious force, his weapon sweeping back and forth as it threatened the other pair. One monkey took to the tree branches, scrambling upwards. The other two threatened the new cultivator, even as he backed himself to a corner with quick jabs and swings.

High above, the monkey that had climbed the branches jumped from one to the next, having grown silent even as the ones below grew louder. It stalked Arthur, waiting for its chance, getting into position. Baring its fangs, it fell, swiping downwards.

Only to be met not with the extended staff, but Arthur sliding downwards, shifting his grip such that the staff’s backend where he normally kept grip of the weapon was extended. It caught the monkey in the stomach, the full force of its drop driving breath out of its body, bones cracking.

“Damn it…” Arthur cursed, having gotten swiped still by a flailing limb. Blood ran down his main arm, even as the monkey finished its fall to tumble, senseless next to him. He mimed a kick, driving one creature back and then brought the foot down, hard onto the monster’s skull.

That, finally, stilled it. A moment later, even as he shifted his footing to something more stable and brought his weapon on-guard, the monster dispersed into light shards and a single core dropped to the ground.

Tower creatures – monsters made up of solely of the magic that powered all cultivators. All of them with a core within their body, much like the cultivators.

Grinning grimly, Arthur flicked his gaze down to the core and then waded forwards, going on the attack finally. Now that the threat from above was gone, he could risk it. Time to finish it.