Chapter 50: Two More Trials |
With the announcement, the party threw up and their hands and cheered for the victorious double as he flew back in their direction. In the distance – now separated again by the shimmering wall – Mr. Beard glared daggers at them all.
“No mercy, huh?” Gran asked as Left landed in front of the spectators’ seating.
“That was mercy,” Left said with his traditionally straight face.
“Yeah,” Right said. “A quick death.”
At that, Left frowned. “I legitimately did try to send him to his respawn point with that last attack. Even with everything I put into it, it wasn’t enough. The Infested is very tough. I don’t think I will fare quite as well if we face each other a second time.”
“If you do face him,” Hiral said. “You won’t be doing it alone.”
“He’s right,” Seena said, then looked at the other double. “Er, he’s Right, and he,” she pointed at Hiral, “is correct. Whatever. When it comes to floor twelve, we’ll show them what we can do as a team.”
“And we won’t be holding back anymore,” Yanily said.
“Neither will they,” Seeyela pointed out.
“They’re going to come at us hard,” Hiral said. “After we’ve won most of these trials, they’re going to feel like they have something to prove.” Then he smiled at the spearman, feeling exactly the same thing his friend had. It was kind of exciting. A-Rank power was basically singing within his body, his solar energy flowing more smoothly than ever before, the Edicts practically waiting at his beck and call, and the Primal Chord resounding in his ears.
He clenched his fists. The Infested would be his first real chance to go all out since he’d evolved. This twelfth floor would give them a real idea how they would fare against Vorinal when they found him. The Fallen had had time to recover his strength, and they’d barely won in their first battle. Had the gap between their power grown? Or had they finally closed it a bit?
“Before that,” Seena said, though even she was smiling a bit in anticipation. On her shoulder, Li’l Ur had one hand on his hip, and the other on his chin as he quietly laughed. Clearly, the small lich was planning something. Probably more world domination in the name of his Mistress. “We still have two more trials to go through.”
Two more trials, it turned out, the party won decisively.
Deviating from the norm of the previous eight trials, the ninth required four competitors from each side. In this team competition, the four got places on a floating – and spinning – square in an otherwise completely empty space. Well, empty save for the second floating square, and the dozens of ricocheting balls bouncing off unseen barriers.
With the trial called Dodge This!, it had required ranged attacks to deflect the trajectories of the zipping balls. The goal had been to make one of the balls hit an opponent on the other square, while preventing their own allies from getting struck. And, though they had a limited line of fire – each could only shoot from where their edge of the square faced – the party had more than enough ranged options to dominate.
Hiral’s RHCs, Seena’s Cinder, Seeyela with her crossbows, and finally Yanily with his Chain Lightning. On the opposing side, the bearded Infested used some kind of whips of water, while the colorfully-dressed one brought his floating swords back out. Those two did the best, while the final pair – the two Possessed – had little in the way of options to deal with the balls. While each could use ranged abilities, they simply weren’t quick enough to target the speeding balls.
The trial had been scheduled for up to five rounds, and had been over in three.
Utter dominance in the first of the team trials had carried right over into the second one. This one had been a pair’s match for the two remaining members who hadn’t competed in the first one. Instead of trying to dodgeballs, like in the first trial, one of the most important aspects of the tenth trial – Goal! – was to block them. With two goals on either end of a short field, and three balls in play, each team was tasked with scoring as many points as they could within up to five, five-minute rounds.
An interesting quirk of the trial was that only self-buffs were allowed, but they would last the full duration of each round. Though, they had to be off cooldown by the following round before they could be used again. This had allowed the two Infested – the frosty one and the one in snakeskin armor – to use their powerful buffing abilities in the first round. What stood out, however, was that they weren’t able to use them in the second round.
Even in the first and third rounds, however, when the Infested had used those buffs, the rules of the trial had somewhat restricted them. Each team had to have a goalkeeper, and the person on offense couldn’t cross the field’s midpoint. The Infested had chosen the quick-moving woman with the sickles for the goalkeeper role because of that second restriction, and… it hadn’t gone well for her.
Romin had been able to use his Onslaught form for all three rounds, and as soon as he’d realized he couldn’t get a thrown ball past the lightning-quick Infested, he’d gone for a plan B. He’d started putting it through the Infested.
Something else the party had learned from watching the tenth trial was that the Infested’s buff abilities were more concentrated on the attributes they focused on. For the Infested in snakeskin armor, that meant that while her Dex seemed to be more than doubled, her other attributes barely got increased by a quarter. She simply didn’t have the Str or End to block a full-strength throw from Romin. Every time she tried, she ended up in the back of the net along with the ball, resulting in a point.
On the other hand, the Infested who used ice abilities was clearly focused on one of his mental attributes instead of physical. Sure, he was faster and stronger, but not enough to get anything past Gran. The wily old vampire used her movement ability practically non-stop, zipping from corner to corner of the goal to block, deflect, or catch everything thrown her way.
Cackling the whole time, of course.
Sure, the Infested tried changing up their positions, but the Infested woman’s speed wasn’t a big enough advantage since she could only move around half the field. In fifteen minutes, the tenth trial came to a close, the Infested not even bothering to try and stop Romin as he casually tossed one ball after another into the goal in the third round.
“Nice job, you two,” Seena said as the victorious pair approached the seating.
“You whooped them,” Yanily said, then looked at the Runeocerous as the Onslaughtbuff faded. “Or, maybe you walloped them.”
Seeyela punched him in the arm.
“It’s interesting the tower focused so much on these games,” Left said. “Our party’s versatility really gave us an advantage.”
“Not sure how these fit in with Tomorrow’s theme of evolutionary perfection, either,” Right said.
“Several of them could be tied to combat prowess,” Hiral said. “These last two, though? I… don’t know.”
“Maybe she just wanted us to have some fun before the death match?” Yanily offered. “Cause, that one sounds pretty serious.”
“Or,” Gran said. “This has Fenil written all over it. Saw these games – or variations of them – somewhere and thought it would be fun to have somebody here play them. You’re watching us out there, aren’t you? Having a grand old time, I bet, too.” She shouted that last part at the ceiling of the trial arena, but didn’t get a reply.
“These are games from other worlds?” Seena asked.
“Would explain why we’ve never heard of them before,” Seeyela said. “Figured they were just old or from other places, just not other worlds.”
“Either way, that gives us eight wins out of ten,” Right said. “Not bad at all.”
“And just one more to go,” Hiral said. “If the trend of the last two trials continues, what do you think, a full-party trial?”
“Just got the notification,” Seena said, eyes glazed over like she was reading something. “Huh. Interesting. You’re right about it being a group… battle. Sort of. Here, let me just share it.”
A flick of the party-leader’s wrist later, a window floated in front of Hiral’s eyes. Immediately, he noticed how this one differed from previous notifications. It wasn’t the teaser-type they’d gotten before, but instead the full trial description.
Tower of Dynamic Trials – Eleventh Floor
Challenge – Battle of the Bands!
In the arena, sometimes a sword isn’t your best weapon, the crowd is. Control their emotions as you control the momentum of the battle, and anything is possible.
Victory will be decided by the crowd, with their enjoyment of the show directly resulting in points. The faction with the most points at the end of the performance wins.
Note: To partake in this trial, each competitor must accept a “weapon” skill. If any of the party refuse to allow this, their faction automatically forfeits.
Note (2): No other skills – other than the above-mentioned “weapon” skill may be directly used in this trial.
Note (3): Facsimiles of other skills may be used, but will not manifest as normal. These skills will fit the theme of the trial, and will not incur the normal cooldown period.
Note (4): Attacks against the other faction will be prevented.
Note (5): There will only be one round, lasting until the performance ends.
Note (6): Rock on!
Preparation time – 1 minute, beginning now.
Do you accept the “weapon” skill?: Yes / No
“I… have so many questions,” Hiral said.
“Why is weapon always in quotation marks?” Seeyela asked.
“Does it matter?” Yanily asked back as he tapped the air. “We’re not forfeiting.”
“He’s right,” Seena said. “Unless somebody sees a problem with taking the skill?”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“We’re letting Tomorrow put something into our PIMs directly,” Gran said. “But, since she’s not the PIMP, she needs permission.”
“Is there a risk to it?”
“Of course there is,” Gran cackled. “Not one I’d worry about here, though. If Tomorrow wanted to hurt us, she wouldn’t need to use a roundabout way like this. My guess is this is something that’s going to entertain her.”
“And help us,” Hiral said. “After we win. I say we take it.” And, to prove his point, he tapped the floating Yes button. Nothing happened.
Ah, probably need everybody to consent first.
“Agreed,” Seena said. “Let’s win this Battle of the Bands, whatever it is.”
One by one, the others in the party tapped the air – even Left, Right, Li’l Ur and Wallop needing to approve – before teleportation sparkles began to rise around Hiral. The implications of his doubles needing to give PIM-access approval only had a second to linger in his mind before something else slammed its way in there. Like the first weapon skill he’d gotten what felt like ages ago, his body spasmed while his muscles tensed and his fingers crooked.
Years worth of practice and expertise wormed their way through his system, while direct information flooded his mind. It wasn’t just his body learning from this “weapon” skill, with a headache-inducing amount of knowledge coming with it. Still, the pain in his head was nothing compared to the pain in his fingers. Like the tips of his fingers blistered, burst, then blistered again hundreds of times in the course of seconds, it was a shocking – though thankfully brief – burst of agony.
Why did that hurt more than getting my spine punched through…?
With the question trailing off, the sparkles around him faded at the same time his spasming body seemed to complete its upgrade. He wasn’t the only one who stumbled out of the teleportation, the others wobbling, and even Gran bobbing up and down where she floated.
“That was somehow worse than usual,” Seena said, one hand going to her head. “And weapon skills have never been pleasant.”
“Because Tomorrow isn’t the PIMP,” Gran reminded. “She was close, though. That could’ve been so much worse. We experimented a little with indirect dispensation, including outside transference, skills. You can guess from the acronym how well that went.”
Indirect dispensation…?
“Idiots?” Hiral said. “You called the process idiots?”
“No,” Gran cackled. “That’s what we were for trying to do it any other way than through the PIMP. Exploding heads are no joke.”
“Hold up,” Yanily said. “Our heads could’ve exploded?”
“It was on the table,” Gran said.
“You said there wasn’t any risk!”
“And you barely use your head as it is,” Gran said. “Would you even have noticed?”
Yanily paused. “Probably?”
While part of Hiral chuckled at the banter between the party members, the time it filled gave everybody the seconds they needed for their heads to clear. Since they clearly hadn’t exploded, even though Hiral’s had felt like it might. What was left behind though was… interesting.
From the looks on the others’ faces, they were finding the same nuggets of new information stuffed in there as well. Then, as one, they all turned to where their new “weapons” waited for them.
Apparently, Tomorrow classified instruments as weapons, with seven of them standing waiting within a large spotlight.
Looking up, Hiral couldn’t make out the source of the light, but it didn’t really matter.
Time until the show begins – 3 minutes, beginning now.
“This is not how I expected to be spending my afternoon,” Seena said.
“No, not at all,” Seeyela agreed. “Way less stabbing than I planned when I woke up this morning.”
“But, this is going to be fun,” Yanily said, already heading toward his instrument. “Two minutes ago, I didn’t even know what drums were. Now, I feel like they were missing my whole life.” In one fluid motion, the armored spearman dropped only a stool behind the drum set and stood his spear beside him. Through the magic of, well, magic, the spear stayed upright without him even holding it, and he picked up a pair of drumsticks.
Hiral marveled at the fact his brain knew the names of everything he was looking at even as the spearman – the drummer – rattled off a quick beat as he bobbed his head.
“Oh yeah,” Yanily said. “Come one, guys. This is going to be great.Let’s do this!” Another quick beat followed, and Hiral cocked his ear to the side as he heard something else within the sound.
It only took him a second to figure out what it was – the Chord of the Primal Storm. But, as Yan’s drumsticks moved between drums, it wasn’t quite the same Chord Hiral had heard from the spearman before. There was something new in there.
A new movement?
Suddenly far more excited about what this trial could do for the group – expanding their Chords and maybe even connecting Gran and Romin? – Hiral moved to his instrument. Standing upright on a small stand like it was just waiting for him, another small spotlight seemed to highlight the instrument as he approached.
The electric guitar practically glowed under the lights, and Hiral reached out tentatively before wrapping his fingers around the neck. Under his fingers, the strings felt familiar and comforting, like he’d strummed them a million times. Then a million more.
Explains the blisters.
With a smile on his face, he lifted the instrument and looped the strap over his shoulder in a familiar and practiced motion. Left hand on the neck of the guitar, his fingers danced along the frets in an unconscious warmup, while small tips of Rejection formed on his right hand. A pick didn’t give him the same level of control his runes did…
Hiral paused.
Yes, he really was going to use the rules of the universe to help him play guitar better.
Another, bigger smile, and his right hand checked the movement on the whammy bar – smooth as butter – and he strummed his first notes. As soon as he did, the Chord of the Primal Echo sent a shiver down his spine, a movement he’d never heard before dancing between the notes. Another strum, and this time Hiral frowned.
Off key.
His hand immediately went to adjusting the tuners, turning the heads as he closed his eyes and listened to the pitch of each string. It didn’t take long, barely a few seconds with each one, before he opened his eyes again and ran his thumb down the strings.
The Chord practically cheered in his ears. It wasn’t just the guitar that had been waiting for him. The next movement of the Chord of the Primal Echo lurked within the strings of the guitar in his hands. Sure, he had the skill to play it, but he’d never actually played it. Never been part of the music like this.
More than ever before, he had the chance to direct where the music would take him.
Yanily was right. This was going to be great.
Heart already beating faster in anticipation, Hiral looked up from his guitar to see how the others were doing. Yanily was, of course, drumming gently as he warmed up. He’d taken his helmet off, and a sheen of sweat already coated his head.
In front of him, Left and Right stood in front of a pair of microphones, going through vocal exercises to warm up their voices. Back up singers. Then, in front of them, one more microphone stood for their lead singer. Seena stood there, eyes closed and head tilted back. Quiet humming at different pitches escaped her lips, chin bobbing as she went through a song only she could hear.
Hiral didn’t immediately look to the next person, his eyes lingering on Seena and the peace on her face. The concentration. They’d joked Hiral liked to be the center of attention – the center of the party – but, to him, it’d always been her. She was the one who’d accepted him to the group. Who’d made him feel welcome. Who’d argued and fought for him. Who’d reminded him to get his ass in gear when his own self-pity got in his way. Who’d protected him and everybody else.
Of course, they’d become more than that since they’d first met, but her importance to him in that role had never changed. She would always be the heart of the party in his eyes.
And one of the people he would tear down the world to protect if he had to.
That wasn’t right now, though, and he simply enjoyed looking at the woman he was quickly falling in…
Seena’s eyes opened like she felt him looking at her. The humming from her lips didn’t stop as she smiled at him, head continuing to bob in tune. She didn’t say anything – she didn’t need to, Hiral’s heart beating for a different reason – before she closed her eyes again and focused again on her music.
He let his gaze linger a few seconds longer, then looked past the trio of singers to where Gran and Romin stood. Like Hiral, Gran held an electric guitar where she floated. It was almost comical to think of the old vampire playing the instrument… until he saw her fingers positively blurring on the strings as she warmed up. Hood going back and forth as her head rocked to the tune, Hiral was pretty sure her foot was tapping beneath her hanging dress.
Romin stood not far off from her, a similar instrument in hand. Though it was shaped like a guitar, Hiral’s new knowledge told him this was a bass. With four strings instead of the six on Hiral’s guitar, Romin’s fingers moved more slowly. More surely. Just like the man. He was systematically going through every note and position of his fingers – even stopping to jot something down in his notebook – as he tuned out everything around him.
From the pair, Hiral didn’t hear a Primal Chord, not like he did with the others. They’d never gotten to run the Forge of Ur’Thul dungeon and connect with one. But. But! With each movement of their fingers, he did hear something growing within the music.
Maybe it was because Hiral had gotten used to working with the Primal Chords or maybe it was because of his Edicts – there did seem to be a connection between the two – but Hiral could feel something building. And, like he’d done with advanced classes before, he reached out with his runes and Edicts, and he gave that something a little nudge.
A strengthened Connection and Attraction, a touch of Increase and Dreaming to make it more real, and even some Energy if it needed the fuel. He couldn’t be sure it would be enough, but by the way both their hands paused at the same instant – like something had run a finger down their spines – Hiral could hope.
That just left three more members of the party. The first, Hiral found on his side, between where he stood and where Yanily casually drummed. In front of Seeyela was what Hiral’s new knowledge told him was a… piano. A grand piano, apparently. The size was definitely something impressive. As was the beautiful sound escaping the body of it.
For somebody usually so focused on stabbing, Seeyela hands moved almost gently across the black and white keys. Each caress from her fingers drew a perfect note that brought a different image of the moon to Hiral’s mind’s eye. Instead of the crushing gravity Seeyela normally evoked with her Primal Chord, this held an air of romanticism.
Closing his eyes, Hiral was suddenly back on the edge of Fallen Reach with Seena, a glass of wine in his hands as he stared up at the moons hanging overhead. Comfort and peace surrounded him under the stars… until he let it go. That wasn’t quite right. There was a feeling a peace there, and the music Seeyela played could be considered romantic, but that wasn’t the direction the Chord was taking them.
Like with Hiral’s Chord, there was more to it. More they’d need to discover as they played their parts in this coming ‘battle’.
The key to them finding those next movements may in fact lay with the next member of the group. It was Ur’Thul’s dungeon that had introduced them to the Chords in the first place, after all. For his part, Li’l Ur stood on a tall stool next to Seena, the worlds tiniest violin on his shoulder as he ran the bow across the strings. Despite the size of the instrument, its sound wasn’t at all diminished. Long, slow notes peeled off the strings as the little lich ensured the sound was just perfect.
While he didn’t have his own Chord, being that he was now a kind of manifestation of one of Seena’s abilities, Hiral could feel a trace of the Chord of Primal Fire burning within his music. Actually, it wasn’t Hiral’s imagination there were sparks of black flame flickering along the strings as Li’l Ur played.
As for the final member, that would be Wallop, who stood back by Yanily. His instrument was the most interesting of the bunch, in a way, because like all the others, it required fingers. FingersWallop didn’t have.
And yet, as the Rune-o gently stepped from side to side and bobbed his head, music came out of the brass instrument at his lips. The saxophone. As the Rune-o shuffled side to side, head rocking as he improvised long, quiet notes, the plungers on the sax depressed without any apparent contact from Wallop. Hiral got a small sense of Rejection from it, but it was barely a hint. No way the companion was using it with the dexterity needed to play like that.
Unable to resist, Hiral had to ask. “How is he doing that, Romin?”
“Hrm?” the Bonder said, his mind focused on his own instrument. “He got a new skill called saxokinesis.”
At that, all music other than that from the bass and saxophone stopped, every head turning first to the Rune-o, then to the Bonder who’d said the words with a straight face.
“Wallop got magic, invisible fingers to play instruments for him?” Yanily asked.
“No, just the saxophone,” Romin said, his bass silent as he took notes without looking up. “It won’t work for anything else.”
“But the magic fingers part…?”
“Quite accurate.”
“I guess that’s not much different from the rest of us,” Seeyela said.
“Except we already had fingers,” Yanily pointed out. Then he just shrugged like it didn’t matter, and spun the drumsticks between his fingers. “Meh. Whatever. You play, big guy!”
In response, Wallop leaned forward, a long, soulful note echoing out of the sax, before tilting his head back, that same, constant sound rising in pitch. One second turned to two, three, five, as the Rune-o’s lungs seemed endless.
Finally, after almost ten seconds, Wallop jerked his head down and to end with a flourish.
Clack, clack, clack, Yanily clapped his drumsticks together in applause.
“Hope everybody else is as ready as he is to put on a show!” the spearman said.
“Whether we are or not,” Seena said. “Timer is just about up. Good luck, everybody. Let’s rock this tower.”
With her words, all the spotlights vanished, plunging the room into complete darkness. Even Hiral’s sensory domain couldn’t find anything beyond the rest of his party. At least, not until a new notification came up.
Let the show begin!