Tower of Souls

Circling the perimeter of treehouses and clearing the rest of the Kawe patrols didn’t bring any surprises, with most of them going basically the same as the first group- and the only exception being the fight where one of their Big Bunnis landed two criticals in a row, making finishing that Archer off even faster and easier.

But Cam knew the treehouses would be a different challenge; Even with their strategy in place, just the fact that there were five enemies to deal with, out numbering him even with his summons included, guaranteed a harder fight.

With no better ideas to go with, he and his clone stuck with the tactic that had already proven effective: Burning down the treehouse. While there was some risk that the fire, smoke, and screams of the tower monsters could alert the others in nearby treehouses, he knew the only way to know for sure would be to try it out first; Of course, he and Eron had a very simple backup plan for if things went sideways...

Eron would run distraction while he escaped... and, if that wasn’t enough for him to lose the mobs, he would head straight for the hole under the brambles where they fought the Big Bunni; While the monsters would have an easier time crawling through the hole, the fact that they would still have to go one at a time- and climb up out of the hole while under attack from him and his clone- made it nearly the perfect defensive position... with the lone drawback being that, once there, there was no way out other than to kill all the monsters.

Of course, that was the only way out of the Floor once one had entered it anyway, so it wasn’t that much of a drawback.

With a plan in place, the only thing left was to execute. After summoning the pair of Big Bunnis, Eron waited for his chance to sneak under the treehouse and light it up. From the start, the fight went much as their early attacks on treehouses had; A couple of Fan the Flames started the wood of the treehouses to catch fire- even if the tree itself was still unharmed-, and the Kawe started taking damage. Once the damage reached a certain point, the small, bear looking monsters abandoned their post, leaping down to the forest floor...

But that was where things changed slightly in their plan.

With the addition of their summons, their numbers were nearly equal to the mob of enemies and each of them targeting a ranged enemy apiece, made the follow up fight even easier- with the only complication being the single Kawe Spearbear being able to jump in on the nearest target... And, depending on who drew the short straw and had two enemies on them, the plan shifted slightly. If one of the Big Bunnis got it, Cam and Eron would try to blitz their targets- hopefully before the Bunni could be taken out-, then move over to finish off the rest; If Cam or Eron got the extra, the plan was to pop Iron Skin, focusing down the Archer or Slinger they were dealing with while mostly ignoring the damage from the Spearbear...

Cam being the one to end up with two enemies was, at least in his opinion, the best and worst outcome; While it slightly increased the risk to him, his increased Stats and extra health made it easier for him to manage both of them. Even after finishing the Archer he had gotten, he had barely taken a handful of hits, not even reaching a tenth of his HP in damage before he could turn on the Spearbear...

The fact that Eron showed up to help him against it before he could finish it himself wasn’t really a surprise either; With the Kawe already injured from the fire, and being viciously set upon the second they jumped down, there was no doubt in the outcome of a one on one with the monsters, even for his summons, let alone his clone.

He was pretty sure that, at that point, even a Rare Classer- or possibly even an Uncommon- could solo one of the small bear people.

”That was... just sad.” Eron said, staring around at the slowly dissolving monsters. ”I mean, we definitely handled it well, but shouldn’t it be harder than that?”

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”We’re two Levels up, with a high rarity Class, and fighting normal mobs... Plus, I think the real risk of climbing is in the randomness of the Floors; It’s easy to get surprised and countered by something when you have no idea what to actually prepare for.” Cam responded absently, not letting his guard down as he watched and listened to see if the mobs in the nearby treehouses had noticed their battle... But, after several seconds of nothing, he exhaled softly in relief.

And, despite his flippant sounding words, Eron had been just as tense, his eyes never stopped moving as he watched for anything.

”Yeah, and I think that if we didn’t burn a good chunk of their HP with the fire- heh, get it, burn?- anyway, without the fire, it would have been a lot harder to drop them. I think a normal group that didn’t have a fire spell would have a lot more trouble with them.”

Rolling his eyes at his clones joke- even if he did think it was funny-, Cam nodded towards the next treehouse along the circle. ”Yeah, now we just have to do that nine more times... Then the Boss.”

”I would be a little more excited about it if the XP didn’t suck now.” Eron sighed, shaking his head. ”Being one Level up cut the XP for each mob by a third, but being two Levels up cut it by another third. Even with the XP from the Boss, we’ll still be at least a thousand short of our next Level.”

”More like fifteen hundred or so, I would guess... But we also expected that. It’s why a lot of groups Level slower; Playing it safe by only clearing a Floor below your Level takes three times as long... to say nothing of the fact that they’re splitting the XP among a full group, while I’m getting all of it right now.” Cam pointed out. ”I think maybe we’ve been a little too judgemental of other Classers; Considering how easy it would be for one thing to go wrong and someone dies, playing it safe is kind of the natural choice for most people.”

”I guess...” Eron shrugged, not looking sympathetic to their plight... Which Cam wasn’t either; It was easy for others to make the decision not to push, seeing as they didn’t actually see the Wastes inching closer year after year. None of them actually had to face the possibility that their home could be lost almost at any time.

Just one bad year could see the Waste surge forward, claiming the apartment complex Cam lived in... and the people in the Inner Circle wouldn’t really notice; Sure, there may be some sort of report about it, some change on a map that they would glance at occasionally... But none of them would likely ever see it. None of them had to worry that their home could collapse in front of them any day now.

They were miles away from the problem, and unlikely to feel the urgency that he did. Logically, he could understand the mindset... but, with it right in front of his face his entire life, he could never agree with it. Even if he did see the risks involved.

”And regardless of how easy that felt, we can’t get complacent.” He continued, talking to himself as well as his clone. ”All it will take is one bad surprise, or one Anomalous Floor, or just about anything going wrong... and we would be finished.”

”Yeah, I know. We remind ourselves of that every time things seem too easy... or every time I even pretend to be a cocky little shit.” Eron laughed, elbowing Cam in the side; Both of them knew to take it seriously, and to not get caught up in how easy one fight felt... And they both also knew that they couldn’t get too serious, or they would drive themselves crazy worrying over everything. They were the same person, after all... even if it sometimes seemed that Eron got a little bit more of Cam’s humor mixed into him somehow. ”Now come on, Mr. Serious, let’s go and... what’s that phrase we heard someone say about clearing out adds during a Boss fight?”

”Turn and burn?”

”Yeah! Turn and burn! So... let’s turn left, march our asses over to the next treehouse, and burn it down!”

”That... was terrible. You know that, right?”

”Hey, if I thought it was funny, then I know you thought it was funny too!”

”...Ok, it kind of was, but I was going to go with ’light it up’, or maybe ’we didn’t start the fire’...”

”I still don’t know where those phrases came from...”