Chapter 45: Take Out the Trash |
Thirty minutes later, the trial finally drew to a close, the island Right stood on little more than a three-by-three rock in the middle of the lake. Water fell like rain from the innumerable times the double had met the blows of the giant, and outright destroyed them.
However, that was where the good news for the party ended.
“Sorry,” Right said, his voice reaching the party even though he hadn’t moved, at the same time the wall separating the factions reappeared. The notification window that followed spelled out what he was apologizing for.
Tower of Dynamic Trials – Fifth Floor
Challenge – Hold Your Breath!
Defeat!
Note: Reward will be announced on the twelfth floor prior to commencement of the death match.
While Right had met – and devastated – every attack thrown directly at him, he’d also been completely unable to actually compete within the boundaries of the trial. Entering the water had directly resulted in the one ‘death’ he’d experienced, and simply existing had garnered the giant treasure after treasure. Every time it had recovered from one of Right’s blows, it’d sucked up more of the lake water and the treasures hidden within.
“Nothing to apologize for,” Seena said. “You did better than any of us would have. That Infested was just the perfect pick for this kind of trial.”
Right growled. “I really thought I’d gotten him that time, too. I just couldn’t find where he was hiding in that body.”
“He either moved around,” Hiral said. “Or he was under the surface the whole time. With how much solar energy was flowing through the giant, I couldn’t tell one way or the other.”
“Obviously he’s a water user of some kind,” Seena said. “If it comes to a fight, we’re going to really have to be careful about where we’re fighting him.”
“I wonder how much synergy he has with the ice guy,” Hiral mused. “Could be a dangerous combination if they can work together.”
“Not as dangerous as us,” Yanily pointed out.
“And even though he technically won,” Seeyela said. “No way he walked away from that without being at least a bit intimidated.”
“And Right didn’t show everything he had, either,” Hiral added.
“That just leaves the ice guy left for the sixth trial,” Yanily said. “While we have three people to choose from. Left, Seena, and Romin.”
“Yup,” Seena said. “Then it sounds like the order will reset for trials seven through twelve. Gives us a bit of an advantage for this one, but maybe a disadvantage for trial number eight, since we’ll only have one choice then, but they’ll have, what, three or four?”
“Then perhaps I should remain the final choice,” Left said. “That way, if it comes down to a battle like this lake trial – without the safeguard of protecting from actual death – we never really have to worry about me dying.”
“You think the tower would do that before the death matches on floor eleven?” Romin asked.
“Better to be safe than…” Seeyela started.
“Dead,” Yanily finished for her.
“Speaking of which,” Hiral said. “Right, when you died, what happened?”
“Teleportation,” Right said immediately. “Something under the water started to crush me – maybe the entire lake, given what that Infested seemed to be able to do – but the sparkles appeared right before it got me. Like the tower judged the attack would kill me, but got me out of there before it happened.”
“Then what? You took about a minute to reappear.”
“White room with a hammock,” Right said.
“A… hammock?”
“Don’t ask me. That was the only thing in the room. I didn’t even get to try it out before the sparkles came and took me away again.”
“It was probably a trap,” Yanily said, like he was talking from experience. “Hammocks are pure evil. Worse than Infested. More dangerous too.”
“He has some hammock trauma from when he was younger,” Seena whispered as she leaned in beside Hiral. “We found him strung up, upside-down, with only one arm somehow not completely tangled. Apparently, he’d been like that for almost an hour when we got to him.”
“So, if we ever want to mess with him, get him a hammock as a present?” Hiral whispered back.
“You both know you have the party chat on – again – right?” Yanily asked as he glared at them.
“Oh, would you look at that,” Seena said innocently. “Sixth floor trial just came in.”
Yanily stared the pair down for another second before he got distracted by the window Seena shared.
Tower of Dynamic Trials – Sixth Floor
Challenge – Take Out the Trash!
Sometimes, it’s not one opponent you need to defeat, but instead a whole horde of them.
Choose one party member (and their companion, if appropriate) to compete in this challenge.
Note: Chosen member will not be able to compete in any other single challenges until all other party members have competed at least once.
You have 1 minute to choose – 00:59
“Uh… do we even need a minute?” Seeyela asked as everybody looked at the party leader. The one practically glowing from the smile on her face.
“Mistress,” Li’l Ur said. “Your time is now. Show those pathetic Infested your true glory so they may know it is you they should be bowing before, not some wiggly, invisible, squid things!”
“Yeah, you’re way better than wiggly things,” Hiral chuckled.
“You better believe I am,” Seena said. “Seriously, though. Any objections to me taking this one?”
“Nope,” Yanily said. “Sounds like it was practically designed for you.”
“Burn it all down,” Hiral said, reaching around her shoulders to give her a squeeze.
“You bet I will!” Seena said. Then she stood up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek before she tapped something into the air in front of her.
The sparkles came next, and suddenly Hiral had his arm hanging over Right’s shoulder as they all appeared on the sixth floor.
“Hey there,” Right said, looking at him with a sultry wink.
“I’m really glad you didn’t appear in the exact position Seena left from…” Hiral said, doing his best not to shiver at basically seeing himself wink at… himself.
“When you two are finished…” Left – the ever-serious of the trio – said flatly, then pointed to the arena floor.
Similar – in a way – to the fifth floor, two structures dominated the otherwise simple lay out. Instead of the islands in the previous trial, however, these structures were two, plain towers. Each about fifty feet tall, with little more than a platform for the competitors to stand on at the top, they overlooked what had to be a mile of nothing.
No, that wasn’t quite true. The wall of the arena – much like where Hiral and the others watched from – circled the space, with large gates standing every fifteen feet or so. Those had to be where the so-called horde would come from. From the looks of those gates, it wouldn’t be one uniform horde, either, with some of them standing barely four feet tall, while others stretched almost to the limit of the wall, closer to twenty feet.
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“Any time now…” Seeyela mumbled, and the expected notification window sprung up.
Tower of Dynamic Trials – Sixth Floor
Challenge – Take Out the Trash!
An empty field? A field full of foes? A field full of bodies? Which will be left when you finish.
Upon commencement of the trial, the endless horde will be released from its imprisonment, starved and bloodthirsty. While the tower you stand upon may protect you from their claws for a time, inaction will not stop them. Score will be calculated based on the number – and type – of the horde slain.
Note: Attacks against the other faction member will be prevented. Save your fury – and strength – for the horde.
Note (2): The horde will consist of five variations, with the more dangerous being worth higher point values.
Note (3): There will only be one round, lasting ten minutes.
Note (4): Death within the trial will be very real if the horde reaches you.
Note (5): All self-buffs are allowed.
Preparation time – 1 minute, beginning now.
“Ten minutes is a long time,” Hiral said while looking at the numerous gates. “Did any of you notice if you had access to Allied Killing Spree while you were in your trials?”
“Didn’t think to check,” Seeyela said. “Wouldn’t it count as a self buff? It’s part of the Party Interface.”
“For me, probably,” Hiral said. “But since it comes from my advanced class…”
“Rules don’t say anything about not being able to use potions,” Yanily said. “And she’s gotten a few more efficiency bonuses. From the Ashes will do a lot of the work for her, too. She can pull this off.”
“She can, but she won’t be able to go as hard as usual.”
“She’ll figure it out, boy. Trust your girlie,” Gran said.
Hiral nodded instead of saying anything. Gran was right. The note about death being a real possibility bothered him, but it wasn’t like it was the first time any of them had faced the prospect of dying. She could do this.
“Seena, we love you!” Yanily suddenly shouted, then added a hoot and holler in support.
And, if Yan could do it…
“You’ve got this, Seena!” Hiral shouted, with Right and Left chiming in with a chant of Seena, Seena, Seena!
“Shouting and supporting her before the trial is just going to make her more nervous,” Seeyela said. “Nobody else got that.”
“She’s not even listening to these four,” Gran said. “Look at the focus on her face. And the solar energy rolling around her. She’s getting ready to go big and flashy. She’s got a plan.”
True to the vampire’s words, Seena did have solar energy practically boiling around her. Bubbles that defied logic seemed to be popping in the air, while waves of heat warped the light for twenty feet all around her. Even the tower she stood on began to glow ominously.
The party leader wouldn’t go all out – she’d keep most of her tricks, like her Aspect, up her sleeve – but she definitely had something in mind. As did Li’l Ur, with blue script already circling his hands as he prepared.
On the second tower, the Infested wasn’t wasting any time either. He stood with his palms down on the top of the platform, solar energy pounding around him, while sparkles – not the teleporting kind – shimmered in the air. Ice crystals? Beyond that, Hiral couldn’t tell what he was doing, but it almost looked like the domains of hot and cold were spreading toward each other.
The trial notes said attacks against the other faction would be prevented, but he couldn’t help but worry what that frosty field would do.
Before he had long to dwell on it, the one-minute timer ticked down, and the gates lining the arena walls exploded open. Literally exploded. For some, flame and force hurled the gates and doors thirty feet out to go skidding along the sandy arena floor. For others, powerful claws ripped the barriers off the hinges, then hurled them into the air to crash down in the distance. While the violence inflicted on the doors was varied and brutal, the results were all the same – an endless stream of monsters flooding out.
The smallest of the creatures looked like some kind of six-legged mix between a wolf and a lizard – standing nearly three-feet tall – with alternating patches of skin and scales. The long tail ended in a barbed hook, and two eyes sat on each side of the wide, elongated snout. Their claws tore at the sandy ground as their powerful strides carried them toward the towers at an impressive speed.
Behind them, the next smallest creature – standing closer to seven-feet tall – also had six appendages, but these things were more monkey like. Loping along with four powerfully muscled arms and two comically short legs, they were also part lizard, though the scales for them almost seemed to act like armor across their chests and upper arms. Long nails tipped the large hands, though they ran more on their knuckles than anything else, and they hooted from wide, tusked mouths. Their four eyes locked on the two people standing atop the towers, and the beasts somehow alternated pounding on the ground in challenge and running.
In the middle – size-wise, at around nine-feet tall – came something that resembled a stitched-together version of a humanoid. Clearly not the real thing, these monsters had visible lines where mismatched body parts had been sewn together. What the source of those body parts was, well, that was a mystery, because they weren’t anything Hiral had ever seen before, ranging in color and texture from the farthest reaches of his imagination. Some were furry and brown, others a scaly green. More were red, black, and white. Flesh, bone, and even something that looked like melted wax. Still, they had the requisite four arms, two legs, and four eyes to match the motif of the rest of the group. And, while they couldn’t quite keep up with the wolves and monkeys, their long – varied – legs kept them moving at a quick pace.
With the number of each group becoming smaller as their size increased, it wasn’t a surprise to note the fourth type of monstrosity behind the patched-together beasts numbered in only the dozens. Compared to the hundreds – thousands? – of the wolves, these things stood out. Not just because of their height – reaching as tall as fifteen feet – but also in their length. These beasts were some kind of scaled, six-legged, bear-hybrid. And they were huge. Their massive paws shook the arena with each thundering, thudding step. Claws as long as Hiral’s hand ripped through the stone beneath the sand, and their thick hides looked made of metallic bristles in place of hair. Four, glowing, red eyes blazed above the large maws that roared their challenge.
Even as intimidating as those creatures were, it was the fifth and final type that really attracted Hiral’s attention – mainly because it was familiar. Limited to only five of the beasts, the white-scaled, six-legged, three horned, wingless lizards bared a striking resemblance to something the party had already fought.
The Fourth Crusade.
Besides, or maybe because of, being smaller – and not having wings – these five creatures could be offspring of the dragon from the Plateau of Four Valleys. And, unlike everything running ahead of them, they seemed… more perfect.
More like what they should be.
It was the strangest thing to Hiral’s senses, but while the other four creatures all felt wrong, these five didn’t have that same sort of dissonance. It was almost as if Tomorrow – or somebody else – had taken the image of The Fourth Crusade and tried to combine its power with that of other creatures.
Are these hordes some of Tomorrow’s first experiments that lead to her Chimeras? Or, was it the other way around, and Tomorrowhad something to do with The Fourth Crusade?
A question there was no way he was going to have an answer to now. And, unlike the dragon they fought in the dungeon, none of these creatures in the arena now seemed capable of anything more than unadulterated rage.
Spittle flew from their mouths as they howled and charged. The monkey-types beat their chests in challenge. The wolf-type practically had mad froth spilling from their lips. The humanoids and bears weren’t any better off, madness and vengeance dancing in each of their four eyes. Not only had they been locked away for who-knows-how-long, but whatever process had made them hadn’t been kind.
It was a stark reminder that while Tomorrow – or at least, the fragment of her – had been almost kind to them after The Playhouse, the Progenitor had also spent untold thousands of years experimenting on creating a perfect race. From what Hiral saw in front of him, ‘victims’ would be another word for describing what she’d created. She’d had a goal, and the ends had justified the means. It was… chilling.
And the exact opposite of what waited for the charging masses.
Atop her tower, the boiling solar energy around Seena finally resolved into her signature flames, balls of fire forming above her upturned palms. On her shoulder, Ur chanted in a dark language that seemed to come in sharp cracks and resonating hums like a frozen corpse stirring beneath the ice of a winter lake. From the little lich’s hands, lines of blue script wove their way across Seena’s shoulders, down her arms, and then up from her hands to circle within the spinning fire.
Blight and burn, he’d called it.
There, with seven fireballs floating in a line above each of her hands, Seena paused. From the look on her face, she’d come to a similar conclusion to Hiral about the origins of the masses rushing across the open arena at her. But, were they really what Hiral believed, or were they dungeon creations? Soulless creatures that weren’t actually alive?
Either way, she didn’t have a choice about what she needed to do. They would kill her if they reached her. Face hardening at her task, Seena lifted one foot, then stomped it down on the platform. Five totems wrapped in vines emerged from the edge, like they didn’t just grow out of pure stone. At their tops, instead of skulls with flames inside, fire lilies now capped the totems, veins like lava running along the petals. As one, the five, knee-high totems snapped to ‘face’ the rushing crowd of monsters, then began to spit their payload.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of rapid-fire bolts of flame peppered the front lines of the wolf-like monsters that led the charge. Skin popped and seared beneath the eruptions of the small bolts, while hits to the head – or multiple hits on the same targets – even outright killed the creatures. No sooner had they started falling, than they started getting back up again.
The first rose – flames wreathing it while vines grew from its skin like something within was trying to get out – even as more of its previous comrades rushed past it and into the line of oncoming fire. Shaking its wolf-lizard-head, the beast lunged at the nearest creature as soon as it found its feet, burning jaws closing viciously around the exposed throat. The instant it had it, well, it did what Seena’s pets tended to do.
It exploded.
The explosion of flame consumed a dozen more of the monsters in the blink of an eye, and hurled twice that number away in every direction. Clinging flames licked at their skin like a living predator that refused to give up now that it’d found its prey. And, of course, from the smoldering remains of the initial explosion, more risen wolves charged out, setting off a chain reaction of explosions of From the Ashes.
Even the larger monkey-like creatures weren’t durable enough to survive one of the wolves blowing up in their faces, and the whole scene was like cascading bombs going off deeper and deeper into the enemy lines.
Which wasn’t even the worst of what the horde would face. All of that had started with Seena’s weakest attack. And, as she raised her arms out to her sides, the lich-enhanced fireballs each the size of a watermelon now, she was about to get directly involved.
A step and a snap of her hands forward brought the apocalypse to the arena.