by Shawn Kass
As they passed the fallen crab-squid thing or whatever it was, Sam noticed that none of the other people paid it any attention and simply kept on walking. He could only assume that monsters in the Tower either did not drop gold and loot or that these more experienced fighters had no use for such things. Not knowing which was the case and unable to ask anyone due to his fear of the echo it would cause, Sam decided he would have to follow suit and continue on as well. As he grew nearer the creature, however, he received a message from Tezukayoshi reminding Sam that he would only get stronger if he fed. So Sam paused for a moment near the creature’s corpse and waved Anna on as he proceeded to bend down and began cutting off one of the thing’s tentacles with his sword.
Glancing up as a few of the men passed, he got some strange looks, but he simply shrugged as he continued cutting at the fat tentacle and carried on like it was the most normal thing for him to be doing. Keeping his eyes on his task, Sam concentrated on the creature and found that written along its tentacle were the words:
Lv: 12, Squab Scout, echo. When it finally separated, Sam held the appendage out towards the shadows where he knew his friend would be and jiggled it around a bit. A second later, he felt the familiar nose of Tezukayoshi come up alongside it and sniff at the meat. As Tezukayoshi pulled his head back, Sam thought his effort may have been wasted, but that feeling was quickly replaced with disgust as the thick tentacle was slurped greedily out of his hand like an oversized wet spaghetti noodle.
After wiping his hands on his pants, Sam stood up and turned to follow the rest of the group who had just disappeared beyond the veil of darkness, but before he could take a single step, he was met by the sound of a dozen arrows being shot. Waiting a second and preparing to cover his ears against the onslaught of the echo, Sam was surprised to find that it did not come. In fact, the only sounds he heard were those of more attacks from the group. Realizing that the rest of the group must have passed through whatever zone was causing the echo’s effects, but unsure if he himself had, Sam quickly sent a message to Tezukayoshi through their mental link saying, ‘Sounds like the second course is being served up now. Let’s go,’ and then took off headed towards the new battle with Tezukayoshi close behind.
A hundred feet later the corridor turned right, and as Sam rounded the bend, he found a large room with a horde of the floating squab things descending from every angle on the group of fighters who stood in the center. Not wanting to get in the way, he waited for a second to find an opening where he could join in the fight without catching any friendly fire.
Anna and the rest of the archers were standing in the center, releasing arrow after arrow, doing their best to hold back the mob. Even with some of their numbers dropping, however, the squabs still drifted closer to the front lines. The wizards also did their best to send out spells where they could, but with over a hundred of the beasts present, their efforts weren’t taking enough down. Seeing one of the creatures take nearly a half dozen arrows and what looked like an ice spell before it fell, Sam figured that these were a higher level than the scout Kat had taken out in the hallway.
When the closest of the squabs got within reach, Sam saw Mace step forward swinging his War Axe, and he sliced the thing in two. Upon seeing this, the entire front line seemed to get the same idea and took a step outward, intent on meeting the monsters head on, but Kat, who had been in the center stringing multiple arrows into her bow, raised her voice and commanded, “Front line hold your position,” freezing them in mid step.
Looking back, Mace caught her eye and realized what she had planned. He stepped back and bellowed, “You heard her. Get back, now.” The rest of the group members seemed to take a second to look at one another, each of them eager to take down one of the squabs before they got any closer, but one by one they accepted the Reckoners’ lead and stepped back.
As the last of them rejoined the group, Kat yelled, “Everyone get down,” and the archers and wizards in the center immediately took a knee. The front line of knights and barbarians, never willing to back down, took another second to comply, but once everyone had dropped, Kat was the only one left standing. Raising her bow, she aimed straight up into the air and yelled, “Heaven’s Rain!” as she released her bowstring.
The twenty or so arrows she had strung all flew straight up, but before they reached their apex, they began to split apart multiple times as if they were undergoing mitosis, and within seconds, their numbers had increased to over a hundred, and they began their descent.
Sam had played a couple games in the past where characters had similar abilities, but it usually wasn’t one of the attacks given to a low level player. He thought that Kat probably had to have quite a bit of experience to have earned it. Acknowledging this, Sam recognized that a special attack like this had its limitations. First off, it wasn’t the most accurate attack to pull off, and secondly, it could usually only be done a certain number of times. That being said, it did a great job of thinning mobs like this one.
As the arrows fell, they continued to multiply and spread out. By the time the first of them hit its mark, the air was so thick with them that Sam couldn’t see the far wall. His best guess was that there were somewhere between six hundred and a thousand arrows plunging down, and while many embedded themselves in the floor, it looked like at least half of them impaled themselves into the squabs, usually three to six per monster.
The next sound Sam heard was that of over sixty squishy, tentacle-laced monster bodies slapping into the stone floor. It was both disgusting and gratifying at the same time. The rest of the squabs, many of whom had two or three arrows sticking out of their bodies, were still advancing. Sam knew there wasn’t time for revulsion or celebration, and so he leapt into action. Hoping to draw off a few from the rest of the group and acquire some experience for himself, Sam lifted his hands in front of him and yelled, “America!” sending out twin fireballs from his flanking position, the effect of which was
instantaneous. As the two creatures who were struck fell to the floor burnt to cinders, over half the remaining squabs selected him as their new target and made a beeline for his position.
Shaking his head, Sam gritted his teeth and said, “Well, that certainly got their attention.” Then thinking of a movie he had recently seen, Sam grinned and said, “Time for Maximum Effort!”
From the center of the group, Kat called out, “Stay in formation. We can’t help him and ourselves.”
Sam had just enough time to see that Anna had bolted from the group and was now headed to his side before he refocused on the next squab and sent a fireball its way. He couldn’t hear what she said to the rest of the group over his own grunts as he swung his sword, but after that, it didn’t matter anyway.
As Anna came up behind Sam, the two of them instantly fell into their old routine. She let loose with her arrows injuring the more distant attackers, while he sliced the closer ones in half with his sword. Once or twice, Sam purposefully allowed a squab who was floating overhead to slip past him. It wasn’t because he was being overconfident, rather he wanted to give Tezukayoshi a chance to train and level up as well. Sending his familiar a message each time, he caught sight of the lizard racing up the side of the stone wall only to launch itself into the air and sink his sharp teeth into the squabs’ soft spongy flesh. This assault took another five minutes as they cleaned up the twenty or so squabs who floated in towards them, and while Sam got a fair share of the monsters’ blood on his sword and sleeve, he managed to avoid any direct hits.
When the last one fell, Sam looked at Anna and Tezukayoshi and asked, “Are you two all right?”
Anna let out a breath she had apparently been holding and replied, “Yeah, how about you? They didn’t get you, did they?”
“No, I’m good. This is all their blood.”
Looking up from the squab body in front of him with a tentacle still hanging from his mouth, Tezukayoshi answered, ‘I am uninjured as well.’
Smirking, Sam sent him the thought, “
Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to talk with your mouth full?”
Slurping the last of the tentacle down, Tezukayoshi replied, ‘You should try one. They’re tastier than they look.’
Disgusted, Sam said out loud, “No thanks, buddy. They’re all yours,” and allowed Tezukayoshi to dart off in the direction of the fallen monsters to help himself to the available buffet.
Walking purposefully across the floor with the rest of the group in tow, Kat red in in the face with a mixture of exertion and anger, stepped up to Anna and asked, “What were you thinking? There was no way we could have protected you as you ran off to help him.”
Meeting the Reckoners’ leader with an equal stare, Anna said, “I know that, but when did looking out for one’s own self become our priority? Sam didn’t have to help us. He was way outside their attack zone. Hell, Sam and I didn’t even have to come into this stupid Tower, but we did. The fact is, I know him a lot better than I know any of you, and while you look to cover your own behind, he steps up and helps people.”
Glowering as she tried to hold back whatever she was about to say, Kat took an angry second before she said, “Look, we would have handled it on our own. He didn’t have to draw them onto himself. It was reckess for him to do so.”
“Of course he didn’t have to, but he did. That’s the kind of guy he is. He was trying to help, and whether you want to admit it in front of these people or not, you needed him.”
Seeing that she couldn’t argue with Anna, Kat turned to Sam and looked him over. Seeing the monster blood on his clothes and sword but that he was fine otherwise, she let out a frustrated sigh and said, “Thank you, but next time, let the larger group handle the hordes. There was no way we could have helped you from over there. Besides having our own monsters to fend off, any arrows or magic we sent this way could have hit one of you just as easily as the creatures.”
“I guess I did pull a few more than I intended, but it doesn’t matter. We took care of them.”
Tapping Kat on the shoulder, an older man wearing a beige shirt with a simple chest plate said, “I think you have some questions to answer. Namely, why are there so many of these damn creatures attacking us? My clan has been coming in here for months, and we have never seen these numbers before.”
From behind him, the red haired kid Sam remembered from the pub added, “Yeah, this is crazy. You can’t say the Reckoners have made it by themselves through rooms with this many monsters before. Are you just trying to get the rest of us killed or something?”
Angry about the accusation, Kat replied, “We have traveled this route many times, and I promise it has never been like this before. I honestly don’t know why we are fighting the creatures in such high numbers.”
Raising her hand, Anna said, “I think I know why this is happening. As many of you know, my mother is Mrs. Emirp, the town mage. Anyway, she once told me a theory she had about the Tower, and why no one has ever completed the first floor.”
With the rest of the group standing quiet and ready to listen, Kat asked, “What was it? What did she say?”
“Her theory was…the Tower… is alive.”
“Alive?” asked Sam, genuinely scared.
“Not like you and me alive, but yes. She thinks it’s magically enhanced.” Catching the eyes of the rest of the group, some believing her words while others seemed skeptical, she went on. “We’ve all heard the stories about this place resetting its traps and monsters every time people leave. The only logical explanation for this is that it must be due to some magical force, but wouldn’t it also make sense that the Tower is also capable of increasing the difficulty of its defenses based on the number of people who enter?”
Thinking about what he had learned about medicine from the long nights of helping Quinn get through paramedic school, Sam said, “What you’re describing is akin to the way the human body fights off an infection. If the Tower is alive, then it is registering us as not only as a threat but as an infection it has to destroy, and the monsters are its form of an immune system.”
“I guess so. I don’t know much about healing,” answered Anna.
“That sounds like some superstitious nonsense to me,” said Mace in his deep gravelly voice. Then looking at Kat, he asked, “Wouldn’t it be more likely that we just walked into a nest of those things? I mean, it happens, right?”
“We’ve seen some pretty crazy things in this place, Mace. I don’t know, they may be on to something here,” replied Kat.
“Well, either way, I know I’ve made my decision,” said the man in beige. “I’m going to head back before I get myself killed.” Looking at some of the other people in the group, he added, “If this place truly is responding to the number of people in our group, then perhaps things will get easier for the rest of you.”
“Us, too,” said a petite young woman, and Sam saw that it was the one from the pub with the pin which resembled an animal paw print. Looking behind her, he spotted the eyes with the vertical slit pupils watching from the dark corner behind her. He recalled wanting to talk to her about her clan in hopes of finding out what they might know about raising familiars. With her leaving the Tower now, he reckoned it would have to be one of those things he wouldn’t get to do unless he revisited the town, but he hoped that this trip into the Tower might be his ticket home.
Stepping up next to her, the mouthy kid from the pub said, “I don’t know if she’s right,” pointing to Anna, “but if she is, you’re going to bring this whole place down on us if we all keep going. I’m headed back, too.”
Nodding, Kat said, “Okay, then. Good luck to each of you, and I hope that you can help your clans with what you have learned here.”
As the group turned to leave, Anna asked Sam, “Aren’t you going to protest? Maybe we should keep them with us.”
“If they don’t feel like they can handle things at this point, then there is no way they’ll be able to handle what’s to come. We’ll end up spending all of our time looking out for them, and someone else will end up getting hurt.”
Nodding, Kat said, “That is very practical of you, Sam, and you’re right. We knew we’d lose a few from the group along the way. It is better that they leave now while they are still close to the entrance.”
“They won’t be the last ones to desert us,” followed by a low grumbling just behind Sam let him know it was Mace who was talking.
Concerned about the ones who were almost out of sight as much as those whom she thought might follow them, Anna asked, “What if something happens to them on the way out?”
“They should be fine as long as they follow the maps. Monsters usually only respawn after people leave.”
Looking around to the rest of the people, Sam counted twenty one remaining before he asked, “Going forward, how do we want to handle things? Do you think we should split up into smaller groups or stick together?”
“There is no proof that the monsters will all multiply like this batch, and even if they do, splitting up might not help. What if a small group comes up against an entire horde meant for all of us? We don’t know if a smaller group will have an equally smaller number of monsters to deal with. Look at your own situation. You fired on two of them by yourself and ended up pulling half the mob. No, I think we should stick together as much as we can.”
“Okay, you know the place better than we do,” replied Sam.
“All right, everyone check your gear and get ready,” said Kat. “The last time we traveled through this next room, there was a pretty strong monster.”
“Just one?” asked the guy named Kai who had been worried about the maps when they entered the Tower.
“This morning, yes, but we’ll have to see what’s waiting for us now,” responded Kat.
“Gotcha,” he replied, and then he stepped back and began sharpening his sword with a smooth looking stone.
“Right then, well, we need to hurry. Raven doesn’t have enough magic in her for us to keep talking everything out,” said Kat. Once a few
of the people closest to her nodded their understanding, she waved her hand over her head and pointed towards the corridor to the left.
Leading the way, Kat ushered the group through the next stone passage where she pointed out two small traps hidden in the floor for everyone to avoid. She explained that the first one would spray a person in the face with some sort of inky substance, temporarily blinding them for awhile and the other was a classic switch which activated spikes to extend out from the wall in hopes of impaling people. Both of them were easy to avoid once people knew what to look for, but Sam assumed by how well they were concealed that it was only after several accidents that people like Kat learned to spot them. When they had all gotten to the end of the hall, they found that unlike the last room, this one had an actual framed doorway for them to enter through.
Keeping his voice low, one of the knights in the group asked, “What’s in here?”
“A beger,” answered Kat.
“A what?” asked Sam.
“She said it was a beger,” clarified Anna who thought Sam simply hadn’t heard Kat.
Having no idea what that was, Sam shook his head and shrugged at Anna, trying to convey that he was unfamiliar with the species, but before she could say anything more, Kat’s voice rang out with the battle cry, “Attack!”
All at once the group surged forward and rushed into the room, leaving Sam, Anna, and Tezukayoshi all standing in the hall by themselves. Each of them took a second to look at each other before Sam finally drew his weapon and said, “Come on, let’s go see what this thing is.”
Upon entering, Sam saw that the room was roughly the same size and shape as the last one with similar torches. Cautiously looking left and right and then finally up, Sam couldn’t find any monsters. In fact, the only things which seemed out of place were the three cave-like openings gouged out of the far wall.
Stepping up to the rest of the group who had formed a huddle in the center of the room, Sam asked, “Are we alone?”