The Pinnacle Warrior

Usually, when the party had to take some time to recover, Astrid didn’t mind the extra time that she had, since Immortal Warrior’s Body helped her to recover so quickly. Usually, she would eat some more food, practice with Muti, or just get comfortable. Despite the progress that they’d made in largely solving the majority of the problems that the thirty-fifth floor posed, Astrid couldn’t wait to get off. The next floors, even if the monsters themselves were more threatening, wouldn’t have the same “fall to your death” possibilities everywhere. She paced back and forth, unable to master the nerves that filled her body.

“Leader,” Muti summoned Astrid. Astrid frowned and followed the Barbarian as she walked away from the rest of the party. There, Muti grasped Astrid by the shoulders and met her gaze. “You must better master yourself. It is your responsibility to lead, and if you are afraid, it gives fear to the rest of us.”

Astrid barely managed to hold back an angry response, but she nodded. Then, keeping her jaw clenched, Astrid turned and walked away. Regardless of how correct the statement was, it was unwelcome, and, instead of starting a conversation, Astrid sat down on a nearby rock and tried her best to go through breathing exercises. The worst of the nerves were slowly purged, but Astrid was far from calm as Felix and Muti went through weapon forms beside each other. Benedict continued to work on building a good foundation for the new Skill he wanted to get at 36, the one that would recover everybody. Beside him, Skandr meditated, his eyes closed and breathing calmly. Looking around, Astrid found some measure of solace in watching her party. Felix still hasn’t said anything regarding his obvious feelings about Muti, instead training alongside her, but Astrid was excited to watch the slow development of whatever relationship grew between them. Finally, when Skandr stood up, Astrid had regained some measure of calm.

“All right, let’s go.” Astrid‘s command was immediately followed by the rest of the party, and Skandr reached over and patted her on the shoulder while looking up in as comforting a manner as he could manage.

“We’ll be fine. The plan’s good, there’s no need to worry.”

Astrid grumbled wordlessly and looked forward. There was one last stretch between where they were and where they needed to be, and the party could see the distance to the arena. That last strait would be the final time that they faced falling to their death just from walking where they needed to go, at least until the floors that came after the forty-first floor. She allowed herself to think about that for a moment, about how she and the party were level 31, nearly level 32, and still had two weeks. or, more correctly, sixteen days to continue their progress. If they could continue to cross one floor per day, they would get to the fifty-first floor by the end of their time in the Trials.

“Muti, you haven’t sighted anybody on the other three islands?” Astrid confirmed before preparing to leave.

“The only movement visible has been that of flying serpents on the eastern island. They were not fighting, thus I would nearly guarantee that there are no delvers in the east. The further, southernmost island, I cannot see clearly past the arena. There have been no flying serpents that I have seen there, so there is no guarantee.”

“Then that’s the best opportunity we’re going to get, isn’t it?” Astrid took three calming breaths. The worst case scenario for the party was to get almost the entire way to the guardian’s island just for another party to appear and close off their approach. As with every other floor, once a party entered the fight against the guardian wyvern, the entire island would be surrounded by an impenetrable wall. If the party was almost at the island but then trapped between approaching flying serpents and that wall, they’d stand as prey to the flying monsters while on uncertain footing. If that was the case, Astrid was positive that her party would be stuck on the stretch of sheer cliffs between their current island and the final one, surrounded by flying serpents and without adequate space to position themselves and fight.

They hadn’t seen anybody else get close, so Astrid wondered if the Wanderers were in the lead overall, but there was no way to know. They haven’t run into any other parties in days, and the thirty-fifth floor was obviously a location where it was very easy to lose all contact with other parties.

“Skandr, are we going to be doing enchantments for this or your spell?”

“Spell,” he answered simply. “It’s less mana-intensive altogether, and it will be better for me to be as close to full resources when we get to the island to fight the guardian.”

Astrid nodded slowly, looking at the path forward. The bridge of craggy stone stretching between islands was a strange thing, curving like a man-made bridge, but with a thick wall on the right where the party wouldn’t be able to see. There had been multiple times where there were feathered serpents nesting on that other side of the wall, nearly impossible to detect until the party was too close to hope to avoid the enemies. Then, of course, there were other feathered serpent nests underneath the part of the island where the delvers walked. Muti had estimated that this path would bring at least three serpents out of hiding by the time the party got to their destination, so they absolutely needed to get there quickly. 

“Is everybody ready?”

“Yes, leader, we are all ready. Now go!”

Astrid allowed herself a smile at Muti’s words while Skandr’s spell washed over them. To help make sure that the party got as far as they could, before the serpents started attacking, Muti’s Ambusher’s Aura spread preemptively over the rest of the party, making their steps fall lighter and their armor rub more smoothly against itself. 

Contrary to how she’d told Astrid to go first, Muti took the lead and basically danced from one stone to the next en route to the final island of the floor. Astrid was more than ready to escape the floor, since the next was basically the exact opposite of it—caves with plentiful monsters that would be slightly weaker than the party. Astrid knew she wasn’t going to enjoy dealing with dozens of cave hobgoblins around every corner, traps laid out every meter and the overwhelming stench that such monsters seemed to curate. Even so, that was far superior to dealing with the omnipresent threat of instant death through falling and nearly unkillable monsters.

Muti’s steps led the rest of the party forward, their focus not on the two feathered serpents that started following them nearly immediately, nor on the third and fourth that joined them halfway across. A full flock of feathered serpents wasn’t something to discount, but, with only a third of the distance left to go, Muti perked up and screamed, “Anything you can do to speed up, do it!”

Astrid knew what that meant, and, despite knowing that she was already drawing on all the mana that could help her hurry in any way, tried to hustle her pace without compromising her ability to not fall to her death. The rest of the Wanderers behind her, for Astrid was the second in line, picked up the pace as best as they could. 

“Carry me!” Skandr shouted, and Astrid didn’t need to turn around to grab him by his arm and haul him over both of her shoulders. Her pace didn’t slow while she continued forward. Behind her, she heard Benedict and Felix do the same before Felix activated Jaguar’s Pride to hasten himself further.

“Muti,” Astrid panted, sprinting to escape death from a fall or four deadly monsters, “if you can get there faster, do it! The Trials should count to the party as entered if you’re there before the other party is! If we’re trapped here against four serpents…”

The Ambusher didn’t answer except to throw herself at the wall beside her and use Shadow Leap to cross 20 meters in an instant. Astrid prayed to anything that would listen that her party be able to reach the island before the others. Fighting four feathered serpents on an exposed face like this could spell death, if not a total party kill.

With her heart in her throat, Astrid watched as Muti used Shadow Leap a second time, getting within 30 meters of their final destination. As soon as Muti reappeared, though, a translucent wall flickered into existence before her. Astrid’s heart fell as Muti saw the barrier appear and turned around with her gaze helpless.

“Everybody,” Astrid commanded, her voice catching in her throat as she felt her hopes shatter, “keep going forward until you can get your backs to the wall bordering on the arena. I don’t know what this will mean for us, but I’ll be damned if I won’t do everything I can to make sure that we all survive this.”

Benedict and Felix both muttered curses as Skandr’s voice was occupied with muttering some new spell. Looking around, right at the edge of the wall was the most defensible position the party could take, with the arena’s wall and that of the cliff providing a somewhat safe corner to hide within. Astrid turned and tossed the Wizard, as gently as she could manage, towards the newly appeared wall. Muti caught him and settled him in a secure stance before stepping forward to stand behind Astrid. They couldn’t get into a good defensive position as a party, having to cram Benedict and Skandr into the corner while Felix stood in the lead. He’d already used the Jaguar’s Pride, and the four feathered serpents were focused on him.

Astrid’s stomach dropped as she was forced to face these near impossible odds, but she pushed her fears aside. Instead, she found some measure of consolation in the fact that the gigantic serpents wouldn’t be able to attack him all at the same time. Even so, to keep their attention on him was suicide.

“Felix, I need you to pass at least two of the serpents off as soon as they’re here. Benedict, focus on Song of Vindication. We need to kill these things fast, and there’s not enough space for them to really maneuver anyways, so Hasty Rebuke won’t work as well.”

Benedict didn’t say anything, but he immediately obliged, the discordant sounds of a Doubletalk layered, Silvertongue boosted, flute strengthened Skill washing out over them. Somehow, the sound was soothing to Astrid, but she saw as the feathered serpents shuddered in a psychic wave of pain. Seeing it was a success, Astrid allowed herself to hope, to pray once more.

Then the first two serpents arrived.

Felix stepped back out of the range of the first one’s bite, but its companion followed through to where he was. Muti and Astrid stood behind him and, because of that, Felix made his mistake. Using Guardian’s Wrath, he darted forward to give Astrid and Muti some space to fight. That movement put him in the middle of the four serpents. Two more sets of jaws, eager for his blood and life, found him there. One bit deeply into his left arm while the other lunged for his head. He ducked, forced to sacrifice his left arm to protect his life, and he roared in rage as he turned and buried his axe in the eye of the serpent chewing on his arm. The monster roared, and he lifted his axe again, smashing it down into the crown of its skull. Blood flowed freely from the wound, but the monster wasn’t dead even as its body slumped, and one of the serpents left behind when he had dodged, lunged in and caught his right leg.

“Skandr, do something!” Astrid shouted as she lashed out with her hammer like a madwoman. Scales shattered and serpents screamed in pain while she pushed forward, but one of the four turned towards her. She struck out with her hammer to deal a deadly blow, but instead of committing, the serpent turned and flew back towards Felix. There, four bodies twisted and fought, creating an impenetrable barrier that she couldn’t press through even as she flared her Strength-aligned mana to strike out. 

“If I blow them away, Felix will fall and my lightning doesn’t do anything!”

Astrid knew that, that was why she hadn’t used Gravity Surge, but she couldn’t just stand there and watch. She smashed her hammer into a writhing body, and bone crunched as the serpent flew away from the force of the blow. With a little more space to approach her friend, she, in desperation, designated a place that wouldn’t reach Felix or the two serpents that were biting him as the center for Gravity Surge. Two feathered serpents were pulled back a few paces, and Astrid pushed forward more. With nobody else there to keep them back, one rushed back to Felix while the second attacked Astrid herself. She was about to activate Immortal Warrior’s Aura to protect Felix, but Muti stopped her, smacking the pommel of her sword into Astrid’s helmet. The Ambusher jumped over Astrid as she fought the fourth feathered serpent, Muti slipping through the mass of bodies to rear back and roar as she arrived beside Felix and buried her straight sword in the heavily wounded serpent’s head. The flash of the kill notification pulled Astrid out of her panic enough to see Felix use Whirling Blades. 

That created just enough space for Muti to settle beside him and hope to turn the tides.

In flashes between thrashing coils of monster, Astrid saw as the serpent biting Felix’s legs ground its fangs into the flesh of his thighs. He screamed in agony as he obviously pushed most of his mana reserves into Fortitude to keep his legs from being ripped off. Even so, he wavered and Immovable Stance’s passive failed him, but the Guardian wasn’t finished. He raised his axe and buried it into that serpent’s jaw, and it let go enough for Muti to appear and wrench its jaws open with her hands. Power-aligned mana pulsing obviously from her entire body, the Ambusher roared as she threw the gigantic enemy away. With one of the serpents tied up with Astrid, another dead, and one recovering from being thrown away, the single remaining serpent faced an enraged Muti. She became a whirling dervish of blades as she expended mana with a surgeon’s precision, only spending enough to ensure her blows were deadly without exhausting herself completely.

Muti fought with unbridled fury, the blood of the serpent flying everywhere as she danced along its spine and cut thick gouges in its spine. It went limp, and Astrid finally managed a solid blow on the feathered serpent in her face. With Song of Vindication weakening its defences, Spectre Burst killed it in a single blow, leaving only two serpents alive, but one was flying free and saw a weakened creature as its new prey. Astrid rushed forward, pushing as much Alacrity-aligned mana into her legs as she could manage. Her steps quickened and she extended her shield, but she was too late and Muti was too far. Felix, seeing the attack coming, came to a decision. His mangled legs and left arm hung around him, his blood slicking the cliff. Though Astrid couldn’t see his face through his helmet, his body language screamed his agony to the world. 

His axe rose as the serpent’s jaws reached him, and smashed the monster’s attack to the side. Its body crushed Felix’s left arm, and he screamed in agony as he lost his spot on the cliffside. His blood burst out from his wounds as he slumped and seemed to lose consciousness.

He began to fall into the void.

A shrill, unbearable sound filled the air, and Muti threw herself after Felix. Astrid’s screams nearly matched Muti’s as she watched her two friends tumble into the air. Two feathered serpents remained, one of which was heavily wounded by Muti’s attack. It drooped lower and lower in the air while Astrid turned her attention to the one that’d just wounded Felix. She felt her face twist up in anger. These bastards, first the delvers that’d trapped her and her party here, then the serpents possibly killing her party members… She screamed so loud she felt her vision tunnel and then, with Gravity Surge and Spectre Burst empowering her attack, she drew the serpent’s head towards her hammer, and in a single blow, made its head explode.

As she looked down to see the results of Felix being crushed and falling, only to see Muti stabbing her sword into the large wounds of the nearly dead final serpent. She stood on that precarious foothold, Felix’s right arm slung around her neck, and smiled up at Astrid.

“I am grateful…” the speech ended as a shadow flickered over the two delvers and they disappeared, reappearing beside Astrid. “that you used Gravity Surge.”

The sole remaining serpent, reorienting itself after they’d been twisted everywhere by Astrid’s Skill, came up at Muti and Felix. Seeing it, Astrid realized that her Skill had, quite incidentally, provided a perfect shadow for Muti to catch Felix and then warp up to. How the Ambusher sagged was a testament to how she’d exhausted herself to save the Frontliner

Her emotions heightened, Astrid screamed and, without mana but pure physical strength, smashed her hammer down into the wounded monster as it approached. Bone crunched and blood splattered as she killed the monster in a single blow. 

“Felix, how are you?” Astrid asked, looking at the limp man. Benedict didn’t stop using Song of vindication, healing the Frontliner as best as they could manage. Astrid saw his limbs straighten out, but his arm continued to hang limp as his legs slowly twitched and recovered somewhat.

“I’ll live,” he grunted. “I can’t feel my arm at all. My legs hurt. At least four broken ribs.”

Astrid winced, but couldn’t help but brush away a tear that threatened to fall. He was alive. The rest could be fixed, so long as he lived.

Then, she turned to look at the party responsible for trapping them on the exposed cliff face. After all, they were still fighting the floor guardian, weren’t they? That was what had kept the party from retreating.

To her amazement, a member of the Human party was there. Not one of Caelum’s or the Five Spears… what was his name… Aaron! However, there were too many bodies in the arena. Nine? Yes, nine delvers working together. Astrid couldn’t understand what was happening, but she watched as the party, with two frontliners working in tandem, was able to keep the wyvern on the ground. Without flying, the greatest threat the monster posed was its venomous tail. The rest of the party stood five to ten meters away, bombarding the wyvern with attacks. While Astrid watched, one of the frontliners was struck by the tail’s stinger and fell. Evidently, it was as dangerous as Astrid had thought.

Even with one of their frontliners out of commission, the party didn’t stumble or slow, and, within a minute, a woman wielding a massive axe jumped forward and, with a single swing, the wyvern was dead. At that point, Astrid saw Caelum step forward from the backlines. If he was there, then two of the other Human parties were represented here. A Healer approached the struck frontliner, and Astrid saw as they used a Skill of sorts on them. Several seconds passed, and the Healer stood, shaking his head. When the fight died down, Astrid could see that, with Aaron there, there was also Paulie. So, all three of the Human parties were present, but missing six of their numbers. What had happened?

At that point, Caelum walked forward, waving dismissively at the Healer. The Healer bowed his head and stepped back to be beside the rest of the mixed party. Caelum looked over at the side where Astrid and her party stood, then made a show of evaluating the heavily wounded Felix. He pursed his lips, then made an exaggerated face. Something about it pushed through the barrier, pulling on Astrid’s attention. She stiffened, feeling something like when Anders had nearly forced her to sign his ledger. 

Seeing her resist the Skill, Caelum shrugged. He mouthed something that she could understand: “Maybe next time.”

Astrid watched as the party, now of eight, left behind their frontliner’s corpse as they turned and walked down the stairs towards the thirty-sixth floor. Some of them seemed to try to look back at her, but they walked with wooden steps into the path down, and the translucent wall disappeared.

“Leader,” Muti spoke, her voice hoarse from her screaming. Astrid turned to look at her as she continued, “I will kill those bastards. They were responsible for this fight.”

With a fury burning in her gut, Astrid nodded, even as she knew that the fight had, largely, only been due to bad luck. Her truer dread came from that faint sense of what she didn’t understand. Why were three parties together, and had they lost another six in such a callous way? She steeled herself, saying “Only if you can get them before I do. I need answers.”

First, the party, bloodied and with a possibly crippled friend, needed to confront the wyvern that screeched below. Translucent walls appeared, and the beast flew around the island. Without Felix’s assistance, and instead being a hindrance, the fight would be a bloody and difficult one, but they could figure out what to do next after it was dead.