Chapter 294 (Patreon)

Enjoy!

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Abyssal Skein is level 48!

It felt like ten thousand eyes were on Felix as he and Pit ascended into the clear night sky. His Void Skill was wrapped tightly about both of them, singing in discordant defiance of the world around it, as if daring anyone to find them. None did, and despite the cacophony at either end of the Tower, the bulk of the horde did not stop in its assault.

The Tower was crumbling, bit by bit. Spectral flames crawled up its side, followed by creeping ice and the loping advance of stone-swimming Wurms. Lattice-like formations of light, nearly solid, formed around the Tower. It quenched the flames and melted the ice, and even prevented the Wurms from gaining purchase with their stone swimming ability. Statues came to grim life, blades in hand, and cut down all those who came too close.

Faster Pit!  He could only hope the wards would let them in.

Felix eyed the levels, counting upward and trying to remember the floor with the murals. The event was long enough that it was well beyond his Keen Mind Trait, but his thoughts had grown sharper and sharper with every stat point in Intelligence and Temper.

There!

Wurms splashed back through the solid stone, repelled by the flashing wards, up and into their path. Pit dove under and through a trio of the segmented monsters, twisting into a tight barrel roll that had Felix holding on for dear life. His wings clipped the craggy carapace of the Wurms, ripping several pinions straight out before Pit could retract them. Though Abyssal Skin was active, the Wurms still reacted instinctively and unleashed a stream of white-hot flame that engulfed the both of them. Pit shrieked in agony as they careened into a lattice of solid light.

The wards parted like a curtain, flashing violent and green-gold. The duo shot through the outstretched blades of dull-eyed statuary and crashed upon the star-tiled flooring of the Tower. Felix was thrown from the saddle completely, and hurtled into and through one of the many inner walls.

Status Condition: Stunned for 3 Seconds

The image of a man's head surmounted by a confused spiral flashed in Felix's vision, but he just sat there until it faded. Slowly, he pulled himself from the shattered remains of a wall-sized sculpture of vines and leafy plants, only idly appreciating their craftsmanship. The sounds outside the Tower were muffled greatly, as if the attackers were far away, but he could still feel tremors shake their way through the walls and floors.

A piteous moan caught his attention.

"Pit!" Felix rushed to his friend's side, finding the massive tenku curled up and nursing several nasty burns across his shoulders and flanks, as well as the damage to his wings. The barding had done its job, preventing a lot of damage but only where it covered him. His wings and rear had been basically defenseless. Felix checked his Companion's Status and saw he was hovering around half Health. "Take this."

Felix pulled out a Healing Potion and tipped it down Pit's throat. It went to work almost immediately, but it wasn't going to be enough, not immediately. "Bud, converge and rest. I got it from here."

Worry was reflected in those giant golden eyes, but so was trust. With a flash of light, Pit joined Felix's Spirit. It was a weight he'd gladly carry.

"Okay. Where the hell are the stairs?"

Felix walked around the chamber, which filled about a quarter of the level, but the only feature aside from the ruined wall, was a sculpture of a Nymean woman holding a bladed staff. As he watched, the marble woman tilted to the side, as if to let him pass, and the alcove behind her morphed into a deeper recess and a set of stairs leading up.

"Asked and answered," Felix muttered.

He passed by the sculpture, but kept his Perception and Affinity firmly extended. That the Tower's wards had let them in hopefully meant he wasn't considered a threat. Still, he braced himself for an attack as he passed the silent sentinel, but it never came. Felix climbed the staircase.

It was almost nostalgic. The Tower, the wall carvings, even the set of smaller stairs carved into the larger steps. Geist steps. It almost felt like he was going to run into Magda at any moment. Felix stopped midway up the steps to peer out of a small window. In the distance, well beyond the monster horde, he could see the brassy knob at the edge of a vasts sinkhole. The Labyrinth. Memories swirled in his Mind, plucking at his Spirit, but Felix shoved them down. He didn't have time to linger.

Every thirteen steps, there was a landing. Upon that landing was nothing more than two armed and armored statues. Most were Nym, very tall and with armored robes and staffs, but a few were Geists. They wore similar robes but also had a number of strange objects strapped around their hands and arms. Like mechanical sleeves and gauntlets. All of the statues watched him, quite literally, their heads moving to track his progress. If he paused, they pointed urgently upward, as if impatiently giving directions.

The Tower was alive, in some fashion. He had suspected that months ago, but it was glaringly obvious now. If he concentrated, he could even hear the faint echo of a Spirit animating the stone around him. Shaping it. It wasn't as strong as Karys, but then, it was diffused across everything.

"Do you feel that, Karys?" he asked.

I do. I suspect the Geist is in control of the tower. But he is failing. Look.

Felix saw it too. Cracks had formed in the walls, and the stairs were sagging through the center. The more he walked, the more he noticed. Hard surfaces felt flexible, as if they were mere cardboard cutouts or set dressing. Pieces of masonry crumbled from the ceiling, streams of dust with every hit the Tower took below.

If this tower is alive, it is on its deathbed. Hurry, Felix.

He didn't need to be told twice. Felix put on a burst of speed, taking two, three, six, ten steps at a time. He split the stone behind him with each footfall, but the Tower was less important than Vvim's life. And Karys was right. Something was wrong. Now that it had been called out, Felix could feel a horrifying chill in the Spirit around him. He flared his Agility and Dexterity, putting everything into speed and blurred up the endless staircase until he reached the final landing and a wide-open, trefoil archway.

Beyond was a slaughterhouse.

Purple-blue offal streaked the floor and walls, while the smoking corpses bisected Wurms littered the corners. Six more wove through the space, fight three giant ogre statues. The statues were losing, crumbling with each body slam and bite. The Wurms were too agile, undulating through the floor and walls with a wriggling grace Felix hated to see. It raised too many bad memories. Pit shrieked within his Spirit, anger and hate mixed into the noise. Kill them!

He was already on it.

Influence of the Wisp!

You Have Enthralled A Wurm (x6) for 5 Seconds!

All of the Wurms froze in place, Felix's titanic Will overpowering their own. Wurms weren't mental giants, he'd found. The blue-white wispfire of his Skill ate at their stony hide, but it wasn't too effective against them. What was effective were the ogres, which took the opportunity to brain the huge creatures with their immense fists. Stone and dark purple ichor spattered the room, until silence took hold once again.

A slight figure stood at the very center, among the sizzling purple fluid and stained white marble. His robes were ancient and torn, and he was gnarled around a staff of dark, twisted wood. He smiled weakly at Felix.

"Unbound...you have arrived," Vvim said. "Just in time."

The Tower shook hard.

Vvim crumpled to the ground.


* * *


"Alister! Now!" Vess cried and raised her hand. "Before the debris clears!"

The roadway above them had collapsed and dropped twenty or thirty tons of stone, dirt, and monster into the sewers below. Felix's weakened tunnels had primed the ground and her detonating Spears had done the rest. Alister, Kylar, and Davum all threw small, hand-sized stones into the roiling cloud of rock and dirt, making sure to aim for the far side of the pit. The stones hit with loud thwacks and thuds, accompanied by no few monstrous howls.

Vyne stepped in front of everyone, planting his tower shield and shouting a battle cry that turned his Human skin into a dull grey. Vess dropped her raised hand. "Atar! Now!"

"HNG!" The fire mage thrust his own arms forward, and tight spirals of Mana vapor burst from his channels. The spirals shot through the clouds, arcing after the stones. Ghostfire Simians and half-broken Wretches lunged at them from the dust, spittle and spectral flames bared. Atar seized up, unable to move as the magic ripped through him.

Vyne's shield expanded and thickened, taking the brunt of the first few attacks. He yelped as the monsters hit his bulwark, and Vess could almost see his Stamina drop. "Do it!"

"Hah!" Atar shouted wordlessly. The spirals of Mana vapor twisted before winking out completely, and there was a moment of complete silence as even the monsters looked confused.

Then the tunnels filled with wild thunder.

You Have Killed A Ghostfire Simian (x15)!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Lesser Wretch (x6)!

XP Earned!

You Have...

The notifications streamed past Vess' vision, but she let it fade into the background of her Mind, instead focusing on hurling her remaining Spears into the confused fray. The inscribed stones—Felix's grenades, or whatever he called them—had done their job. Though they were cast wide, the explosive payload of the lightning stones took nearly half the already stunned horde out. Vess followed her spears with a powerful forward leap, shouting backward all the while. "Atar, to the cage!"

The dazed fire mage was pulled forward by Alister while the Haarguards formed a defensive net around him. Atar had used a significant portion of his Mana pool, but he should have enough left over to meld the cage. She hoped.

The dust was a swirl of earth Mana to her Elemental Eye, transparent enough that she was not surprised by the sudden appearance of three Simians and two Hoarhounds. Her Spears landed among them, detonating before she even landed and killing two of the giant monkeys immediately. The Hoarhounds were more nimble, but they had to jump away to avoid the blasts.

No no. You do not run!

Dragon's Descent!

Her horizontal momentum shifted, angling her body slightly so that she would land among the scattering hounds. Her partisan hit the crumbled earth first, casting up a shockwave of blasted stone before being followed by a razor-sharp field of air blades. The Hoarhounds yelped and fell, cut to the quick by her Journeyman Tier Skill.

Other monsters met similar fates. Vess' kata, Seven Steps of the Dragoon, had her seizing control of the flow of air Mana all around them, using it against her confused enemies. She had not yet mastered the kata, but she could feel her control edging closer as she guided the air Mana with her deceptively complex movements. Coupled with Dragoon's Footwork and she tore through the battlefield, a deadly whirlwind of blade and crushing force.

"Folly!"

The shout came from within the snarling horde, and it's stretched vowels grew increasingly intense as it slipped forward. A large Arcid, easily twice Vess' height and bearing a elongated, wedge-shaped head stomped forward. It's body was absolutely covered in metal spikes that dripped with some sort of viscous fluid. A combination of earth and shadow Mana, according to her Elemental Eye.

"Folly and disdain for the Truth!" Its words echoed in the relatively enclosed tunnel like tiny explosions of their own. The Arcid casually batted aside a lance of force Mana that Alister sent its way. The Mana didn't deflect so much as it oozed around the metallic man, in a way Vess had never seen Mana act. "You must all learn to submit!"

"Never!" Vyne declared dramatically. He was the closest to the Arcid and his massive shield was already planted and growing as it fed on his Stamina and Mana. "We're here to stop you!"

The Arcid laughed, a sound like bubbling tar, and surged forward. "A foolish choice!"

The metallic thing flowed toward them, ignoring terrain and its own allies as it smoothly advanced. Vess rushed to meet it, partisan up to thrust, but it slipped around her spear as if it were made of rubber. With a casual backhand, it swiped at her face.

Dragoon's Footwork!

Her movement Skill saved her life. The deceptive movements pushed her head just a hairsbreadth away from the savage spikes on the Arcid's gauntlets, close enough that she felt the tepid heat of the oily substance it exuded. What's more, it didn't stop to properly engage her; instead, the Arcid ran for the Haarguard and mages.

Wyrmling's Call!

A spectral dragon's head formed over her own features and roared with a resounding force. It was almost invisible to her, but she knew to others it was either alarming or simply horrifying.

An Unknown Arcid Is Taunted For 5 Seconds!

Wyrmling's Call is level 53!

Damnation. The Skill had an equal chance to Taunt or Frighten, and while both were useful, Taunt was the lesser option. Fear would have sent it skittering away from Vess, buying them some breathing room. Instead, the Arcid flipped in place and reversed direction, coming straight for Vess again. It's eye fires flared, and she could hear its Spirit rage against the Status Condition she had inflicted. Vess grinned.

Pierce the Sky!

Spear of Tribulations!

Dragon's Descent!

Stamina and Mana were consumed in a flash as she launched herself upwards. She flew so high that she cleared the hole above them, able to see the Tower still being assaulted and a furious altercation happening to the south. Then she came down as seven silver spears manifested all around her body, each of them following her fall and angling toward the Arcid down below. They hit, and she triggered their explosions all at once.

"Seven Tribulations!"

A storm of air Mana shredded the ground for at least ten strides, and more green-white Mana flared at the tip of her partisan just before it slammed into her foe. A shockwave rippled outward, hurling two Simians off their feet and staggering a Lesser Wretch.

"Pathetic," it spat, and Vess only had time to see that her spears—all of them—had missed the Arcid completely. It's body twisted, rotating at the waist like a wagon wheel and propelling its spiked fists into her chest.

Vess was caught, blindsided by the blow. The angle of the movement and spikes grabbed at her half-plate, while the sheer force of it hurled her to the ground hard enough to kill an Apprentice Tier. Vess choked off a scream of pain, muscling back the instinct as she rolled to her feet.

Status Condition: Broken Ribs (Minor)

Grace is level 59!

This is bad. Her Health was dropping and the splintered bone in her chest made moving agonizing. She snatched a potion from her waist, thankful the bottle hadn't broken, and quaffed it back. The Arcid let her, its Spirit burbling with amusement. It's toying with me.

"Is that all you have, Human? Spears and a touch of Mana?" It lifted its arms, spread wide as if offering its heart to her. "I stand here, unharmed! This is what my Master offers you! Submission! And in exchange, you too will be granted power untold!"

Siva grant me grace. I need help. Vess grimaced as she resummoned her floating spears and leveled her partisan at the slowly advancing Arcid. Atar, you better open that damn cage soon!