[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] (Book 6) Chapter 17

A glowing bar at the bottom of Hal’s vision tried to grab his attention. Hal grinned, realizing something that they had likely all been too tired or wounded to notice before.

Their Ultimates were ready. Hal called it out, pulling every person in the alliance back into a loose defensive ring. The Tower had just played into their hands without even realizing it.

They were clustered together with monsters surrounding them, but that just meant any Ultimate had to be pointed away from the group to kill a swath of monsters.

Mira spun her spear, and jumped dozens of feet into the air, surrounded by a deepening azure energy.

Elora dropped to one knee, readying her greatbow. Golden light covered each member of the alliance as people were readying their Ultimates in a ring of devastation.

The monsters seemed to realize something was wrong. Their cries of victory and bloodlust were stilled as they stared at the circle of expanding golden light.

All around, Ultimates were spinning up.

One Ultimate stood out more than the rest.

It was Komachi’s.

Dozens of spectral pobuls, cats, and wyverns materialized like angelic ghosts, pummeling the enemy with squonking, yowling and roaring noises. And yet, despite the ferocious attack, the spectral Komachis were relatively ineffective. Though, their strikes left a feathery mote-like effect upon each monster they struck that rendered them more vulnerable to every other Ultimate going off.

Amidst the commotion of Komachi’s Ultimate, there was an oddity. A ghostly figure, clad in heavy armor with a giant sword, snuck in. He seemed to be trying to be stealthy, but the big guy was anything but.

He looked around like the world’s worst thief, then effortlessly smashed his eight-foot long greatsword into a few monsters, like he was playing a game of whack-a-mole. He crushed them completely flat before he snuck off again with a bunch of those spectral Komachis on his back.

Another spectral figure, different from the rest, appeared. A young girl with curly shoulder-length hair and freckles sprayed across her nose. She looked familiar, though Hal was sure he’d never met her before.

She was the opposite of the metal-clad warrior. She yelled out insults in a dozen different languages. Despite her tiny stature, she let loose a roundhouse and utterly obliterated a hulking brute of a monster nearly five times her size.

“Sylvie!” Komachi cried exuberantly, but the young girl didn’t seem to hear. She charged forward, grabbed the legs of a monster, and spun it so fast that it blurred as it twisted in the air and slammed hard onto the ground.

And then it was Hal’s own Ultimate. Versions of himself materialized out of the shadows, some he recognized more than others. One familiar shadow even saluted him with his sword before rushing at the enemies.

Hal uses [Ultimate] Echoes of the Damned.

Elora uses [Ultimate] Empyreal Arrow.

Ashera uses [Ultimate] Fulminating Dance.

Angram uses [Ultimate] Blistering Scattershot.

Mira uses [Ultimate] Dragonblaze Dive.

Orrittam uses [Ultimate] Gold’s Bane.

Naitese uses [Ultimate] Prison of Ice.

Komachi uses [Ultimate] Super Mega Ultimate Komachi Ultra Attack Combo Suprimo Triple Threat Voidknight Special.

On and on they went, each Ultimate somehow just as flashy and beautiful as the last. None of them seemed to match the oddly cute ferocity of Komachi’s Ultimate, though Hal’s seemed to come close with countless shadowy versions of himself rushing out to dish pain and death to their would-be killers.

Experience and Levels rolled in.

Hal wasn’t alone as he sagged into a seated posture on the ground. Ultimates were incredibly useful tools, but they were draining. So much power took a while to build up, and now that they had collectively exhausted theirs, they were much weaker than ever before.

However, the monsters were all gone. Not a single one remained standing, or in a single piece for that matter, once the Ultimates died away.

“Gods, that felt good,” Angram said with a weary chuckle. “I can’t remember the last time I fought so much that I actually had access to an Ultimate! It seems to get harder and harder the more Levels I get.”

Durvin nodded. “That’s cause it is, laddie. Ye get a lot o’ them Ultimates early on, helps ye to survive the dangers o’ the world. Once yer strong enough fer the big time, ye got to make it largely on yer own.”

Several of the more knowledgeable dwarves, as well as the two dragons, nodded along. They had lived long enough to see how the world changed as people gained more Levels.

With more Levels under their belts, people took the time to assign attributes. Hal’s skills and his Beastborne Class were each close to another Perk threshold. With 3 more Levels gained in Beastborne–not just from the Ultimate burst, but from the previous battles as well–Hal was finally taking great strides toward the coveted Level 50 advancement.

It felt like forever since he was gaining a solid amount of Experience. Who knew all it would take was a terrible Tower to invade his home with countless deadly creatures?

He wondered what the Beastborne advancement would be, and how it might fundamentally change his Class.

I hope not too much, he admitted to himself. His Class had changed so much that it would be nice if it just got a simple improvement without requiring him to relearn everything all over again.

“Hmm…” Durvin said, then poked Komachi’s furry belly. “What’s a durned ‘Voidknight’?”

“Cool surfer guy,” was all the pobul said.

Though Hal was revitalized from the Level Ups, he was still exhausted. There was more to life than just your HP, MP, and SP. Even his Spirit did not seem to banish the fatigue settling deep in his bones.

And we haven’t even completed the first floor!

Even if the Tower wasn’t larger on the inside than the outside, Hal could easily guess that it was at least 20 floors. If every floor was like this… he didn’t want to think how long it would take to clear the Tower.

I’m going to need a different strategy.

Beastborne reaches Level 39.

You have 15 attribute points awaiting distribution.

Your HP, SP, Spirit, and MP are fully restored.

Hal put 5 points into his Vitality, bringing it up to 50. He waited to see if there was a trait like he received with Charisma at 50, but nothing happened.

Just like Mind, Hal thought to himself. Why did Charisma give me something then?

Considering what was likely ahead of him, he was especially interested in boosting his survivability. With the rest of the 10 points, he put them into Mind, increasing it up to a base of 100.

Though he didn’t expect anything, a prompt flashed across his vision.

You learn Steel Mind.

Requirements: 100 or greater MND.

Once per day, you can resist nearly any affliction placed upon you regardless of source or awareness. The success of this ability is modified by your current MND.

Can’t say I mind that, Hal thought with a grin. While he often resisted many afflictions thanks to his Stalwart Soul, having an ability to trigger at will to resist was pretty nice.

More importantly, it clearly stated he could resist something whether he was aware of it or not. Did that mean if he had a secret affliction that he could resist it simply by trying to trigger Steel Mind?

Hal shut his eyes and focused on the ability.

Nothing happened.

Better than wasting it trying to resist nothing, Hal thought to himself. If it worked–which was a big if–then he might be able to use it to check if somebody had ensorcelled him without realizing it.

Overall, a very useful ability.

“What’s that?” Somebody asked, pointing at a glittering rectangle on the ground.

Komachi sniffed at the air, but otherwise didn’t bother to move from Elora’s arms. She yawned and curled up to sleep.

Hal walked over and picked up the strange rectangle. It was the size of a poker card, only it was made of stained glass with an eerily lifelike depiction of that armored creature Hal had killed upon teleporting into this section of the Tower.

There had been quite a few of them in this room.

[Blight Bruiser Monster Card]

(Card) (Heroic)

Tier: 1

Requirement: Armor

Changes the user to Blight element. Dramatically increases Blight affliction resistance, and reduces damage gained from Blight element creatures based upon the Item Level and enhancement of the armor this card is slotted into. For each stack of Blight obtained, your HP and MP increases additively.

+5% HP | +5% MP.

Hal turned over the stained glass-looking card in his hand, marveling at its fractured beauty.

If there was one thing even more rare than gems, it was monster cards. Ever since going to Murkmire, he had seen slots on gear, but never had been able to use them.

Now, he finally had his hands on a card, and it was incredibly useful. His mind ran through the implications of what the card could do to the Blight affliction.

It was shockingly similar to the effects of his Strain corruption. High risk, high reward. Except, he couldn’t choose to avoid taking on Blight stacks while inside this Tower.

Hal couldn’t get afflicted with Blight. Not as he understood it. Which meant that, as rare as the card was… he couldn’t use it.

The 5% HP and MP were useful. He could use that still, but the main effects of the card were better suited to somebody else. A person who would be indispensable to fight alongside him.

It had been a thought weighing heavily on his mind.

If he couldn’t get Blighted, then that would mean eventually he would be the only person who could reenter the Tower at will.

Barring rest and recovery, he might eventually be the last one standing. As much as he was used to it by now, he didn’t like it.

The obvious choice for the card was Noth. With her Dark Knight and Monster Tamer abilities, she was nearly as flexible as his Beastborne. Her slimes could help to heal wounds, and her Dark Magic spells could leech life from enemies to refresh her allies.

Perhaps his preference was selfish. He wasn’t about to voice that aloud, however.

Of course, Komachi and Elora were also excellent choices. However, Hal had the sneaking suspicion that Komachi was faking being afflicted with Blight. He didn’t have any proof, but she didn’t seem to act like everybody else.

Besides, it seemed just like Komachi.

She eyed him suspiciously, as if she knew his thoughts. Likely sensing that something was expected of her, Komachi went belly up, one paw twitching.

It wasn’t very convincing, though Elora fawned over her.

Too bad whatever protection the pobul had didn’t extend to Elora. Ashera was also a good choice. As his Envoy and a Royal Guard to boot, she swore to protect him. What better way than making sure she could continually join him in the Tower?

Even as Hal ran down the list of potential recipients, he kept coming back to Noth as the most logical choice.

Noth’s steri slime bounced between injured people. It seemed the creature had been able to Level Up enough that its healing capacities were a bit more versatile now.

Hal began to wonder. Could that slime grow strong enough to combat the Blight affliction directly? That was, after all, the steri slime’s specialty: afflictions.

The steri slime shut its eyes, going to sleep after using so much MP. Noth scooped the slime up and tucked it away safely.

As useful as the slimes were, they weren’t able to join the battles. They were the weakest creatures on Aldim, and as far as Hal understood, on many other Worldshards as well. They were, however, completely without equal in their ability to specialize in almost anything.

Noth was pioneering some truly wondrous (and strange) uses for her slimes. Steri slimes were the most requested, but they were incredibly hard to create and exceedingly vulnerable. Even with Noth protecting them with all her heart, they were in danger.

That was one of the reasons Hal kept her in his group, where he could keep an eye on her and her slimes.

It didn’t hurt that, unlike people, they seemed to Level Up when they used their specialized powers. They grew even stronger when Noth’s Monster Tamer Leveled Up.

Hal held out the card to Noth. “I can’t think of anybody more deserving of this than you,” he told her.

The tired ex-Reaper’s eyes widened in shock as she realized what she was being handed. “How…?”

Hal hiked a thumb over his shoulder. “It was over there. If we had a healer that could withstand the Tower, I might think to give it to them, but I don’t think we could risk Buffrix in here after seeing it firsthand. Do you?”

Noth clutched the card to her chest and shook her head slowly. She looked up at him. “With this, I might be able to come with you more often,” she said softly.

“That’s the plan.”