by Ivan Kal
STRENGTH
140
AGILITY
160
CONSTITUTION
200
INTELLECT
51
WILL
70
WISDOM
40
CHARISMA
20
LUCK
20
Morgan whistled, the stats were incredible. He doubted that anyone in the raid group had raw physical stats this high, though maybe the giants used to have something close to it. Morgan’s combat form was a lot larger than his usual body; he was taller than the Shara Daim, Ragnor Raam, who was almost two-and-a-half meters tall. Morgan stood somewhere at three, slightly shorter than the size of a giant. His muscles were modeled on those of the Demi Behemoth, and his bones, skin, organs, and everything else had been greatly improved. He was truly a different beast now.
He shook his head as he realized that his energy had been almost half depleted, so he decided to spend more time practicing before going to sleep.
The rest of the day, he spent flying around the temple. I don’t think I will ever get tired of this.
***
Morgan sat on the floor as he changed back into his Regeneration Form for sleep, looking at the imagery on the walls. The people drawn there seemed to be building a massive pyramid, and then there appeared to be some kind of ritual at the center of the city. Morgan had seen the pyramid drawn there; it was truly massive, since it dwarfed anything in the city and was in its exact center. He figured that it had to be the one.
It looked like the cat people were preparing to do something big, but the story ended there. For a bit he thought that the rest of the imagery had been damaged by time, but then he realized that it had just not been painted. He wondered what that meant.
He knew it wasn’t important enough to waste his sleeping time, so he set up his bedding and closed his eyes. Tomorrow he would head out and go straight for the tower.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The next morning, Morgan headed out of his temple and toward the tower with haste, wearing his Main Form. He ran through the streets, his Nature Seismic Sense and his Night Eye Form scanning his surroundings. He was fast, faster than he had ever been, and this wasn’t even his Combat Form! He sensed a couple monster packs around but he was fast enough to avoid them. He didn’t want to take the aerial route since he had seen a few of the bat-monster packs venture low to the city, and he didn’t want to have his first real battle in his Combat Form in the air in a territory that they would be more familiar in. He still needed to get used to flying more effectively.
He made good time, and in just over two hours, he reached his destination. It seemed somehow anti-climactic, somehow too easy after every setback that he’d had. He had been thrown off course so many times by now that he almost expected some old dude in a robe to jump out and teleport him back to the beginning of the level. But then, when nothing happened, he had to accept the truth. He had arrived at his destination, the tower that his raid group was most likely to come down through, and there was no one there.
Morgan’s face fell as he approached the large arching passage that led inside a massive round room at the base of the tower. But as he got closer, he noticed signs of battle all around the tower and inside. His spirits started rising as he saw dead monster bodies, but as he got deeper in, he found no signs of his people. Morgan grimaced, but looked around, hoping for a clue of what had happened. The stone was scorched in places, and large claw and blade marks marked the rest, which told him that it was likely his people had come through. Judging by the state of the corpses, they had come down recently—yesterday at the latest.
He turned around and consumed some of the corpses to convert to energy and replenish his bracelet, then headed out of the tower chamber. As he was coming out, he noticed something on the ground. He blinked and then smiled. Someone had carved out an arrow mark into the stone as well as written his name. They had passed through, and they had given him a direction.
Morgan turned and headed after them immediately. His feet carried him forward, faster than even during the first leg of his trip, as his excitement grew. He couldn’t wait to see Ves again. His sense and eyes didn’t pick up any monsters around, but that was probably because the raid group passed through. All of them together would be a tough group to crack. The monster had either run away, or were dead.
Finally, after about an hour of running he heard a familiar roar in the distance as his blood froze. He was down on the street level so he couldn’t see much ahead, but he turned immediately and climbed onto a nearby roof. He looked in the direction of the roar and saw two shapes in the air, tiny shapes buzzing around the head of a monster. It was the Mature Demi Behemoth, and its head looked small because of how far away it was, which told him that the two shapes in the air had to be Ta’elara and Lucius, the raid group’s only remaining fliers.
He started running toward them, jumping over rooftops before then activating his Combat Form. Wings sprouted out of his back and his body grew as he ran. He nearly stumbled from the slight change in balance, but managed to stay on his feet. His transformation took almost ten seconds, as his form level wasn’t high enough yet for the time to be shorter. As he felt the form settle in, he jumped into the air and his wings beat at the air. He started picking up speed and crossing the distance quickly, his hand shifting as he activated his bow form and pulled out one of his larger wooden arrows. He started transferring mass from his bracelet immediately, as he nocked it and phased it.
As he got closer, he saw that they were in an open square, and that the monster wasn’t alone. There were four Rzan behind it, and a dozen of smaller monsters covered in red crystals that mutated them into abominations. The mature behemoth looked the same: spikes of red crystals had been pushed between the black chitin plates, and its limbs were grotesquely extended. Undead abominations—under the control of the Rzan.
The raid group was fighting the crystal zombie monsters and the four Rzan. Morgan saw Ves and Nesseya holding the attention of the mature behemoth, which was the size of the surrounding buildings, while Ta’elara and Lucius tried to take it down from the air. The rest of the raid group was fighting the other zombies, two smaller behemoths, and a pack of lammergeier.
Evermou fired his beams from a nearby roof, and Hexna was throwing black fire at the four Rzan, while they shielded themselves and sent red lightning to strike at the others. He saw a pool of blood all around them, and their pouches filled with blood dripping. Ragnor Raam, Vall, Gandiir, and Borodar were trying to take down the zombies, but he could see that they were getting overwhelmed. Sumion was among them, shielding them with barriers and hitting the monsters in order to buff the others up and heal them up.
Clara stood at the back, helping Ves and Nesseya.
Morgan could see that they wouldn’t hold for long. He needed to help turn the tide, and do it quickly. His wings beat once with all of his strength, and he soared up into the air, above Ta’elara and Lucius, who had yet to notice him, above the battlefield.
Time slowed down as he activated Mind Space, and he looked at the situation in front of him. His arrow held almost several hundred kilograms’ worth of mass at the moment, and once he let it fly it would impact the target at a speed just over the speed of sound—maybe more, with his larger body and scaled-up bow. The released kinetic energy would be equal to that of a small missile. He needed to pick his target carefully. Firing at the behemoth would at the very least cripple if not outright kill it, freeing up Ta’elara to help against the other zombies and then the Rzan. He could see that the others were being pushed hard by the undead, and the Rzan were slinging powerful spells at them at the same time. Sumion looked like he couldn’t handle defense for much longer.
Morgan was still not sure if killing the Rzan would stop their minions, but they seemed like the most pressing danger. If he could kill them, or at least a few of them, it could let the others take advantage. If the Rzan couldn�
�t fire at Hexna and Evermou, the two of them could help with the zombies. With a plan in mind, Morgan stopped his Mind Space, and time began speeding up as he positioned his bow arm. He took aim at the Rzan who was getting ready to fire another spell, and as the red energy crackled around him, Morgan let his arrow fly.
The arrow unphased and the air around it expanded in a ring, sending out a shockwave that thundered across the cavern. Morgan saw everyone notice, and glance up—every Rzan, that was. The adventurers were far too well-trained to do something as stupid as taking their eyes of their opponents in the middle of a fight. Shields tinted in red sprang up all around them as the arrow smashed into its target, and the resulting kinetic energy, coupled with the incredible density of the arrow, cracked the shield and passed through, passing through one Rzan and obliterating the upper half of his body before impacting the floor and shattering. The ground rippled and the shockwave spread, sending the three remaining Rzan flying.
The raid group took advantage the moment the Rzan focused on the incoming attack. Hexna unleashed her decaying death fire and a massive pillar came down from the sky, smashing on top of one of the distracted Rzan and burning it to ash in seconds. Ragnor Raam cut down a zombie and then flashed across the battlefield to stab another of the lizard-people through the chest before decapitating it with his other sword. The last Rzan chanted something, and a ring filled with symbols appeared beneath its feet, but Morgan had another arrow nocked and ready. This one didn’t have nearly as much mass in it, but it still packed a punch as it smashed into the Rzan’s shield, cracking it. Evermou then unleashed a red beam that shattered it completely and blew through the last Rzan’s chest.
The monster zombies didn’t stop, and Morgan grimaced but beat his wings and started his dive. The others turned their attention to the smaller zombies, and without the threat of the Rzan, they started taking them down, destroying their bodies or cutting them into smaller pieces in order to make them stop moving.
Ta’elara and Lucius were still fighting against the mature behemoth, and Morgan fired another arrow as he dove. He didn’t have much mass left in his bracelet, so the third arrow didn’t have nearly as much power as the first or even the second one did. Nor did he have many arrows. His attack hit the monster in the head and the arrow cracked the chitin plate protecting it, as it also made the monster stagger. Lucius took advantage and swooped down, wind swirling around him and lightning crackling on his blades. He stabbed between the plates of the monster’s knee, and then let his lightning fill the monster as he cut it open, nearly cleaving its leg clean off.
The monster stumbled as Ta’elara gestured and the ground rose, a pike smashing into the injured knee and snapping it off, causing it to fall onto its cut-off knee. It didn’t seem to be having any issue moving, though, because it snapped at Lucius as he tried to fly away and swatted him with the back of its arm. Lucius flew into the wall of a building and cracked it, but his body shone with the white light of a barrier—Clara had her staff raised high.
Morgan arrived, his bow changing into his sword form. His wings beat one more time and he smashed into the back of the monster’s neck. His blade punched through between the chitin, and his weight and stats pushing the monster forward, its head smashing into a rooftop.
Then he activated Phased Gravitic Shift.
Everything went black for a moment, and when reality returned he was floating in the air, his wings beating to keep him there as the monster and the building next to him collapsed. The monster was on the ground on top of the rubble. The red crystals stretching through and over its body were cracked, but still glowing with energy. He saw it twitch and try to get up, and he grimaced.
Ta’elara summoned lightning from her staff and it smashed into the monster with enough force that most of the red crystals burst apart. The monster still moved, trying to roll over and get its arms under it. Morgan let himself drop on its back and then stabbed his sword into its neck again as he brought the claws from his wings down next to it. They punched deep inside and then he twisted with his sword as he pulled with his hooked claws and separated the head from its body. He grabbed it with his free hand and then threw it away.
Finally, the monster stopped moving and Morgan turned around, seeing Ta’elara floating nearby with Lucius and Clara looking at him with wide eyes.
“What?” Morgan asked as he tried to grin, but his Combat Form had thick skin and it came out more like a pained twitch.
“Morgan?” Clara asked, her eyes open wide.
“In the flesh!” Morgan answered and glanced around, seeing that the others had defeated the rest of the monsters and were heading his way, Ves at their head.
She didn’t even pause as she ran at and threw herself at him. He hugged her close, which was a bit awkward since he was much taller than her at the moment. After a beat, she pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes watering.
“Morgan… What did you do?” she asked.
He tried to smile, but felt his cheeks twitching. “Well… A lot of things happened, and I ended up eating my whole body. Then I kind of made myself into an unstoppable killing machine. You like?” he asked as he saw her studying his wings.
“Oh, yes…” Ves whispered. Morgan looked over her head at the others, seeing them all studying him closely.
Morgan sighed and gently pushed Ves away as he started the change into his Main Form. He had expended almost a quarter of his energy supply by using the body and his abilities in concert, and had burned through half of his body’s energy supplies. The extra mass that he shed went back into the bracelet, and he sighed as he returned to his regular shape.
Ves had her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “You are still too tall,” she said with an accusatory tone.
“Well, I did make some improvements,” Morgan said. “All I need now is a blindfold, horns, and a skull in my hands. Then I can go around yelling: You are not prepared!”
Ves blinked without comprehension of his words, and then she smiled. “I missed you Morgan.”
She hugged him again, and then the others approached, and he finally felt a sense of safety settle around him.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The raid group had set up camp in one of the open spaces between the buildings and some rubble, as most of the buildings around were too small for all of them, and they didn’t want to go through another fight to clear out something larger. Nursing their injuries was a priority, especially since they were conserving their potions and relying more on their two supporters. As they settled around a fire, Morgan couldn’t help but smile—he had almost started thinking that he would never catch up with the others. Most of the survivors were sitting together, except for Gandiir and Nesseya, who were on watch.
“If it hadn’t been for you and your barrier, I would’ve died on impact,” Morgan said as met Sumion’s eyes.
The Nel gave him a small smile. “I’m just glad it worked. I wasn’t sure it would be powerful enough.”
“It almost wasn’t. I think I broke most of the bones in my body despite it,” Morgan said, and Ves leaned in her shoulder into his from his right.
“Is that why you did that to your body?” Ta’elara asked from his left.
“Oh, no, I did that later. After the fight with two of those Rzan,” Morgan said.
“Is that what they are called?” Ragnor Raam asked. “None of us could see their names. We thought that they were ascended at first, but they don’t disappear when they die.”
“No, I can’t see anything either. I used Inspect on them, which gave me information about them that I…I don’t really know how to explain.” Morgan wondered just how much he could say, as he was fairly certain that these Rzan were not a part of the system. But…if they weren’t supposed to be there, then the Guiding Force would probably act, or Oxylus himself. They had to be a part of the floor. “I don’t think that they’re ascended. Maybe just the natives of this floor? Ones who are opposed to us?” Morgan speculated.
The ot
hers nodded their heads at that. It didn’t matter much to them, as they had fought other intelligent races before, like the goblins.
“None of us gained any experience for them,” Borodar added.
“I didn’t either. That might be a test?” Morgan offered.
“It might be,” Ragnor said dubiously.
“So, how did you survive down here?” Vallsorim asked.
“Well, I had to fight a few packs of monsters, run away from one of those massive behemoths that we killed earlier and make my way through a monster-infested city. How about you guys?” Morgan asked.
Vallsorim looked around, and saw that no one else had a problem with him telling the story. “Well,” he started, “after you fell, we had a meeting and voted about if we would try to rescue you.”
“Wait, what? You guys voted?” Morgan asked as he looked around the fire.
“I mean, of course we wanted to rescue you,” Ragnor interjected. “What we voted on was if we would risk sending Ta’elara and Lucius down to the ground by themselves.”
“Oh,” Morgan said. Being their only remaining fliers, they were as important of a resource for the raid group as their supporters. “I guess you voted for the right decision, then.”
“Sorry,” Vallsorim said. “Ves said that if anyone could survive down here alone, it would be you.”
Morgan turned to look at her. “Aww,” he said, and she bumped him with her shoulder. He put a hand over her and kissed her head. Having some trust in you so much felt good.
“So you guys decided to come down as a group,” Morgan added.
Vallsorim nodded. “Yeah, we figured that you would find a way to meet us at the base of the tower, or somewhere around the center of the city.”
Morgan nodded his head. The floor quest said that they needed to reach the heart of the city. Which was the massive pyramid in the center of it.
