[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] (Book 6) Chapter 13

Area Discovered: First Floor (Tower of Blight).

You gain 2,000 Experience Points.

Your Exploration Skill has risen to Level 27.

+10% Faster drawing speed.

+3% Discoverable range.

+0.5% Hidden location discovery.

Hal grinned to himself. He didn’t even fight anything yet, and already gained a chunk of experience.

From deep within the folds of Ashera’s cloak, there came a tiny, tremulous voice. “Ma’am…?” Kow asked Ashera sleepily, then suddenly grew more alarmed. “Ma’am! Where am I? Where is this? I fell asleep after making some mini-cakes and then… and then–!”

Ashera reached in and stroked his little furry head. “We’re in a Tower, Kow. Don’t you worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

As calm as she sounded, Hal could feel a tremor of fear through their connection. Kow must have fallen asleep in one of Ashera’s pockets, and she hadn’t realized until it was too late.

“What? Did you say ‘Tower’, ma’am?” the oppa asked urgently. He poked his head out of Ashera’s cloak. Whiskers twitching, he turned his head back and forth, intently sniffing the air. “A Tower! That… that is one of the most dangerous of places to be!”

Hal felt a stab of envy. It was not something he planned on voicing aloud anytime soon, but he wished he had a soul aeder as a companion too. Komachi came close, especially after she started spending more time with him ever since his Monster Core was restored. But Komachi was Elora’s. Besides, she was far fonder of Val and Mira.

It just wasn’t the same. Some part of himself was afraid that because of his Class’s corruption and eldritch nature, he could never fully bond with a soul aeder. An even greater fear was that he might somehow hurt a soul aeder by even trying.

At least Vorax is my companion and familiar. He doesn’t mind my “eldritch stank”, as Komachi might say, Hal thought. He patted Vorax, which felt a lot like patting himself on the shoulder, considering the mimic was in the form of his cloak right now.

The room before them was sizable, though not nearly as large as he would have expected, considering the outward dimensions of the Tower and knowing that the Archmage’s version had far more space inside than it took up outside.

“Anybody else a little… disappointed?” Mira voiced, readying her lance all the same. A number of dwarves grumbled in agreement.

Darkly paneled in cracked and pitted purple stones, the entry room of the Tower gave off an undeniable feeling of foreboding. But there were no monsters. No traps that sprang out at them to kill them.

The distant walls were illuminated with thin cracked lines of light, as if the stones were a shell covering something far more insidious. Something that was trying to break free.

“Fan out,” Hal said, stepping forward and drawing his sword, [Founder’s Folly]. He spliced eldritch and golem, giving himself the sturdiness of golem essence and the magical prowess of eldritch essence just in case he needed a little more spell power.

Though the room was unsettling, it was relatively harmless.

At the far side of the room was a massive door the size of twelve garages side by side. Magical glowing sigils were illuminated in a rough triangle with countless geometric lines connecting them.

As Hal studied them, Bardan called out from the side.

The dwarf had taken out his pick and was chipping away at the stone. The old dwarf had felt there was something behind the wall and, in typical dwarven fashion, had simply decided to attack it with gusto.

Hal was about to ask what he thought he was doing when the last of the crumbling facade vanished to reveal a path ahead.

Unlike the room they were situated in, the tunnel beyond looked less normal. The walls were made of a similar purple stone, but they were oddly geometric and fractal in nature.

They reminded Hal unsettlingly of the Fathomways with their fractal repeating patterns that were almost organic, but not quite. At any moment, he expected the uneven stones and edges of the walls to pulse, but thankfully, they never did.

“After yerself,” Bardan said with a little bow and a twinkle in his eye.

Hal stepped forward, his party right behind him. Everybody stay together, he tried to send to them as he recalled doing way back on his first days.

There was no reply.

He frowned.

“Isn’t there some sort of party communication?” Hal whispered to Ashera.

She shook her head. “That is only for lower Levels, I am afraid we are on our own.”

Hal nodded, keeping that in mind for later. He had hoped that forming an alliance would allow him to use that communication to talk to everybody, keeping tabs on each group as they proceeded.

For now, there was only one way to go, but he didn’t expect that to last forever.

He glanced at his party menu, thankful that it still worked and that it extended to his alliance as well. He checked his members’ Levels. Unsurprisingly, almost everyone was considerably lower Level than he was.

Mira, Durvin, and Dale were among the highest. Even though Ashera had to practically start over from scratch with Royal Guard, her Class actually wasn’t that far behind from Mira’s Dragoon. Ashera was doing quite well.

Even Kow had a comparable Level to Ashera, which was surprising in itself.

He didn’t plan on ever bringing it up to Elora, but Komachi’s Brewmaster was higher Level than the half-elf’s Class was. He supposed being a crafter-oriented Class, like his Osseochemist, it might be easier for the pobul to find sources of experience points when her services were in demand.

Of course, no one remotely approached the dragons’ Levels, which were greater than even his own. It was hardly a surprise. Dragons were incredibly strong creatures with long-lasting lives. Hal only gained access to Levels after falling through that portal to Aldim what felt like a lifetime ago. Despite that surreal feeling, he knew he hadn’t been on Aldim for very long. It hardly compared to how long the dragons had been around.

They marched down the spacious tunnel. It went on for far too long in one direction, reminding Hal more of a Dungeon with nearly infinite space beneath the crust of Aldim.

He had been expecting smaller floors with bosses, monsters galore, tons of traps, and all sorts of horrible things jam-packed into as small a space as possible.

Not… this.

As if his thoughts prompted the Tower, the hallway suddenly ended. They found themselves in a vast room so large he couldn’t see the walls or ceiling. A thin purple haze filled the room, obfuscating the shadowy shapes moving around just ahead.

Lines of light crisscrossed the fractal-shaped flooring. Here and there, diamond-shaped glowing stones rotated slowly on their axis a full foot or more above the ground.

Hal could detect all manner of monsters surrounding them, aware of their presence and coming closer. Something burned in Hal’s chest and a prompt appeared at the same time.

You are afflicted with (1) Blight Stack.

Blight

A stackable affliction that simultaneously weakens defense and offense. Upon receiving 10 stacks, the affliction changes to Mounting Doom.

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Hal spun up his Monster Core and used his Dragonfire to push at the affliction.

Nothing happened, but a few seconds later his Manatree Marked Kol’thil shone brightly and bathed him in argent moonlight.

Your Manatree Blessing removes the effect of Blight.

Hal could almost feel the Tower seethe as Hal’s affliction was removed. The others in his group were not so lucky.

“Does everybody have this Blight thing?” Mira asked, looking around.

There was a chorus of aggravated voices.

Hal tried to concentrate on his connection to the Manatree to extend it to the others, but even Noth, who was also connected to the Manatree, could not rid herself of the Blight.

“Nothing worse than Blight, right?” Hal asked, as the monsters in their various shapes ambled forward with the interlopers in sight. They picked up the pace as Hal raised his sword. With his other hand, he began to channel Bestial Drive to overcharge Anvil Lightning.

Bestial Drive

Your intimate knowledge of Beast Magic allows you to unravel the Weave of a Beast Magic spell and reassemble it as you see fit. Doing so adds a variable casting time to the spell, the longer you spend casting the more powerful the spell will become. You cannot take another action during your spellcasting and if you are interrupted you lose the spell and the MP used to conjure it.

Thankfully, the corruption of the Shadesblight was unable to pierce the veil of the Manatree’s blessing, but clearly that blessing was weaker on everybody but the Manatree’s original patron.

Hal’s connection to the Manatree was the only thing stopping him from accruing those stacks of Blight, which would eventually render even the strongest among them vulnerable to the lowliest of monsters.

A fusillade of arrows, spells, and thrown axes spun through the air at the coming horde. Hal let loose an Anvil Lightning, keeping his dragonfire out of it for the time being. He didn’t want to exhaust himself too soon.

There was no telling how many floors the Tower had, or when they would be able to rest–if ever.

Creatures died left, right, and center, but still the hordes of monsters came on. Soon they were too close for spells to do much good without risking harming another person.

With 18 people, there was a high chance for friendly fire, and Hal was more than glad to see that only the Rangers with their keen aim were still firing at a distance.

Komachi let loose a sonorous cry, shielding his party in a thin pearlescent bubble.

Komachi casts Moxie: Fierce Pobul Shout.

+10% Defense | +5% Magical Defense

The protective spell apparently didn’t go past the immediate party.

Hal watched as several other spells and buffs followed the same rules. Only those in the immediate party were able to receive the benefits.

Orrittam cast a flame shield around his party members, while Naitese did something similar with an icy aura that chilled the air and pushed back the thick miasma swirling around them.

Forced into melee range, Hal worked his sword methodically, saving Rending Steel for the bulkier targets that could benefit from the weaponskill’s defense lowering affliction.

Goring Blade triggered a hefty Bleed effect and doubled its duration, which naturally proc’d from Hal’s Cruel Blade Perk. He dashed around, using Convergence to enhance his speed, switching his essences around as needed to grant him either the sturdiness of a golem, the speed of a disara, or the unsettling nimbleness of a spider.

Thankfully, he didn’t actually change form whenever he spliced his essences, or else Hal didn’t think he could stand to use half the essences at his disposal.

Aberration, an Undead family essence, made him incredibly sturdy. When mixed with the defensive prowess of a golem, he could shrug off the most powerful strikes, using his single-handed sword to deflect and block monstrous strikes from creatures well over ten feet tall.

But he couldn’t be everywhere.

The monsters raged through his alliance, but each party held their ground, pushing back and dividing around the monsters to swallow them whole.

Arrows sailed overhead, striking soft targets that were hidden behind the bulkier creatures. Hal’s Spellshaping Perk allowed him to precisely hit creatures no matter how many of his allies were around them, but there were so many monsters. He could never get them all.

Even if he had the aether to use Dominate, the Sigil wasn’t strong enough to take all of them. Worse, he had the sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t work. Not on these creatures.

It’s like something else is puppeteering them, Hal thought as he stared into the eyes of a giant gangly creature with black oily skin and four arms, each holding a different cruel implement of torture.

Lifting a huge barrel of brew over her head, Komachi threw the thing that was more than thrice her size onto the ground.

The vessel shattered and foaming amber liquid rushed out. It flowed across the ground around the Alliance, enhancing them all with an unusual effect. It sharply raised magical critical hit rate, while imbuing physical attacks with a water element damage over time.

Suddenly attacks that could hit rapidly became dramatically more effective. Notably, the Rangers’ arrows.

Anvil Lightning crashed into another horde of creatures, blasting them apart and awarding him a long-awaited Level in Beastborne, but he dismissed the prompts. He needed to be aware of his surroundings, not be distracted by skill increases or Level Ups.

Even if the savage critical strikes from hitting water-logged creatures with lightning were rather satisfying.

Dragonfire roared through the space, ice and fire intertwined to create devastating destruction amongst the back line of the monsters. Dozens of creatures were wiped out with those attacks.

Hal paced himself, using his weaponskills where and when appropriate, holding back his spells until they were absolutely necessary, and taking full advantage of having all his essences at his disposal once more.

Seconds felt like minutes, and minutes felt like hours, but eventually the constant roar of battle dulled to a low background rumble and then faded away completely.

Though Hal would have liked to say that it was a hard-fought victory and he would never wish to see so much bloodshed and battle again… he couldn’t.

He loved it.

It made him feel alive in a way that nothing else could ever remotely come close to. Standing in front of his slaughtered enemies, the Experience rolling in like a tide of power, the essences filtering in untold quantities… Hal was in his element.

“Shashshasha!” Vorax agreed with him wholeheartedly.

Only seeing his friends and allies wounded tamped his desire to run off and find another monster to battle. The battle was won, and by the sound of it several people had Leveled Up.

For now, Hal cleaned off his sword and slid it back into its sheath, nearly buzzing with excitement. At the center of the room, three chests appeared and beyond them, a blue swirling pad of stone.