No wings to stifle the fall, no other spells to control his descent. No wonder that when he hit the rocky floor of the boss room, he was pretty sure he cracked a rib or two.
The pain might have made him gasp, but he got a hold on it pretty quickly. He was fine, really. The more worrying issue was Marcus’s condition, wherever he had fallen. The last Ray had seen was getting stabbed in the gut by Pierce’s sword.
Marcus better not be dead.
At least the last blow had unleashed another dust cloud. The little patter of broken raining rocks came to an end as Ray slowly got to his feet. He made sure to keep his breaths shallow, making sure not to give his position away by coughing.
It probably helped that he had lost the Tower Node in the commotion. Pierce had to be more focused looking for it, which gave Ray an opportunity to locate his teammate.
He started walking, his head a little woozy and jolts of pain needling through his back and shoulders with every step. Pierce’s clanking footsteps were loud but distant enough to not worry him. As Ray tried finding Marcus, the dust cleared a bit, revealing a surprising sight. He actually paused to stare.
What the hell was Eliza doing here? He blinked. Oh. There had been that wash of strange but familiar colours. That weird power that had been almost shaped like a translucent orb.
Now he remembered where he had seen it before. Eliza’s weird time-stopping powers.
She had been trying to help them? Against Pierce? But why?
Ray blinked. Then frowned. Eliza seemed to disappear. His brain was trying to come up with a plausible explanation of what he had just witnessed. Could she have actually saved Marcus? That stab had looked fatally deadly, but it could have been worse.
Deciding to worry about it later, Ray resumed trying to find where Marcus had fallen. He had to be close.
Pierce found what he was looking for before Ray did. The dust cleared as his voice rang out. “Got it!”
Ray grimaced. The bastard had already found the Tower Node. Crap. Where was Marcus? Even with the dust disappearing, Ray still hadn’t discovered the location his teammate had fallen to.
The dungeon started shaking. Ray stumbled, nearly falling to his feet.
He looked around, heartbeats picking up their pace. The thick purple mist was clearing. Beyond it, Ray saw the walls that made up the canyons that bounded the valleys shifting and changing. They were pulling away. But it wasn’t just changing the layout of the dungeon itself like last time.
No, they were crumbling this time. Breaking down. The cliffs shattered, the rocks avalanched down, some of the stony vines breaking and dying.
Ray redoubled efforts to find wherever Marcus had gone. At the same time, he poked his only source of information inside the dungeon.
Ray: Gritty, you got any clue what’s going on? And Marcus, where are you??
Marcus didn’t answer, though Gritty was quick to reply.
Gritty: A little busy here…
She was probably still fighting the Titan. So the dungeon was breaking apart but the monster was still alive. Which meant the boss’s defeat wasn’t what had caused it.
Ray turned to see through the clearing dust, glaring at where a bloodied Pierce stood with his original Tower Node eating the one he had just recovered.
Ah, that explained it.
A massive detonation lit up the distance. Everything shook, and Ray’s head snapped around to stare at the blast of blistering light. It came from the direction he had left Gritty dealing with the Titan.
“Ah, Lent.” Pierce’s words came faint from the distance. “You’re running out of Mana too, I see…”
That had been from the Galiant. Ray was tempted to shake his head in disbelief. He should have figured that boulderlike alien would be similarly powerful like Pierce.
More importantly, Pierce now had a clearer view of Ray himself. But he didn’t seem to care. He ignored Ray completely, which made sense, considering he had fulfilled his objective here. The Tower Node was practically destroyed. Ray couldn’t stop him even if he wanted to.
It almost stung. He wasn’t even deemed a threat any longer.
Or maybe they were both exhausted, more or less injured, and practically out of Mana. Plus, they had bigger fish to fry. The entire freaking dungeon was falling apart around them.
Gritty: Uh, wingman, did you find Marcus yet?
Ray: Not yet. Although, I think I see him now. What’s wrong?
Gritty: The boss is heading straight for you again, assuming you’re still in the boss room.
Ray: It’s still alive? TF?
Gritty’s warning didn’t come in fast enough. The Segmented Titan was almost upon them already. All that shaking that had started with the destructing dungeon continued as the Titan and its many segments barrelled at them over the broken rocks and fallen vines. For all that its home seemed to be dying, the monster itself was well and alive. And angry.
Ray tensed. If Pierce was ignoring him, then he was free to ignore the bastard too. He dashed to where he could finally see Marcus had fallen in a bleeding, wounded heap.
The quakes grew even stronger as the Titan appeared in the boss room. Ray reached Marcus, looking back just to confirm he was safe for the moment. The monster was targeting Pierce only for now, for some reason.
Whatever. As Pierce did his best to defend himself, Ray looked over his teammate. Since he was safe, Marcus was his main priority.
He checked for a pulse. Still alive. Ray’s breaths came a little more easily, though of course, he couldn’t untense his shoulders. No telling when the monster would switch its targeting and attack Ray directly. Although, if his assumption was correct, he should be safe since he hadn’t been the one to destroy the Tower Node.
“You’re supposed to be the healer here, Marcus,” Ray muttered. “You’re the paladin. Not the guy who’s supposed to need healing.”
Thankfully, Gritty had purchased some useful healing supplies with their auction earnings. Ray pulled out some healing patches. He pressed it against Marcus’s gut wound, where it latched on and stayed in place. There. That would stop the bleeding for the time being while Ray got Marcus to some place where they wouldn’t be crushed by the Titan.
Although… getting out of the predicament was going to need some effort.
Pierce was fighting off the Titan’s furious attacks with increasing desperation. The monster’s gigantic weapons slammed in with relentless aggression. It was all Pierce could do to fend off the endless series of overpowering attacks.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
For just a second, Ray felt bad. He remembered the fiercely determined expression Pierce had worn when fighting to get his hands on the Tower Node.
Now, that determination had given way to desperation.
To fear.
But fuck him. If he was that desperate to get his hands on Tower Nodes that he would kill for it, then he could die for it too.
Problem was, Ray would have a hard time not dying for it too. He had thought he could just carry Marcus out of the boss room, sneak away while the Titan was focused entirely on Pierce. But just as he was about to start towards the exit, the others arrived.
First came Sameer. He was wounded just like everybody else now. His robes were torn, revealing a nasty, bleeding bruise on his shoulder. But the expression on his face was almost giddy.
Maybe he was a little too happy at seeing that the Titan was moments away from killing off one of his competitors.
But that wasn’t going to happen. Lent arrived next, bringing with him a storm of gigantic floating boulders that all smacked into the monster the next second. The Titan roared, the sound making the air itself ripple as Ray’s ears cringed. A sharp sting smarted inside his head. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the roar had just ruptured his eardrums.
“You all will just stand there?” Pierce shouted as he dashed away from the monster. He had a small amount of reprieve thanks to Lent coming to his aid. “The Titan will kill you next!”
He probably wasn’t wrong. But Sameer wasn’t moving. Ray could see why Pierce was worried. Moments ago, he had bemoaned that his teammate was running out of Mana, and he has said too. Which meant Pierce himself was probably going to be out of Mana soon as well.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” Sameer said with a vicious grin. “We haven’t died so far. Why would we die now?”
Pierce didn’t get to reply immediately. He was too busy batting away several blows from the gargantuan monster before needing to dodge the amethyst laser shooting in his direction. “You can keep the treasure of the dungeon. I’ll help you defeat the boss, and in return, you get to keep and sell the treasure.”
“We’ll do that anyway once you’re dead.”
Ray let them bicker on. It would be stupid of them to interfere when the Titan was solely focused on Pierce. He was arguably the strongest competitor in the entire Immortalizer Tournament. If the boss of this dungeon would take him out here and now, they wouldn’t have to worry about the auction or the later dungeons anymore.
“Shit.”
Ray turned to see Gritty was hurrying towards him, her eyes on Marcus’s unconscious form. “Don’t worry. He’s still alive.”
“For now.”
Ray cursed. “Don’t tell me things are even worse than it looks.”
“I don’t know what happened here…” She took one look where the Titan was fighting against Peirce while Sameer laughed and Lent attempted to help. “Well, I think I can guess. But shit’s gotten wild outside, wingman. The whole dungeon is falling apart. We need to get out of this place before we get buried under an avalanche or something.”
“Ah, crap.” That’s what Ray had been afraid of. “For a second, I was hoping it was just the Titan coming here that was causing all the earthquakes.”
Gritty shook her head vigorously. “No, it’s bad outside, wingman. We need to go.”
Ray agreed. To an extent. Getting out now would mean they would give up their claim on the treasure and Ray really didn’t want to do that. Not after all the effort they had put in here.
“You want to lose, wingman?” Gritty asked. Her piercing eyes seemed to be reading his mind. “And live to win another day? Or you want to die here trying to claw victory out somehow?”
Ray swore under his breath again. It shouldn’t be a choice like that. Things were spiralling out of control because he was out of options. That was the problem. He had lost control.
When he had started ascending the Tower of Forging, he had always claimed that he would never lose control. And yet, in this dungeon, he had lost control of one of his own fundamentals. How in the world was he expecting to win anything when he didn’t even have a control over his own Mana store?
About a hundred feet or so away, the Titan was unleashing a barrage of devastating attacks on Pierce. But it seemed he was done fighting. After his unsuccessful attempt at gaining Sameer’s aid, he had decided enough was enough.
So now, he ran.
Lent was covering him, raising wall after wall of solid rock from the ground. The unstable ground, Ray had to remind himself. More of the surrounding cliffs were shattering, falling down to crash nearby. Gritty was right. They didn’t have much time.
“You will run?” Lent was asking after Pierce as the Titan tried to crash through the defences to get to them. The monster was tremendously slowed down now, however.
“We’re done here,” Pierce said. “We’ve got what we came for.”
“They killed Estavian.”
“And I killed one of them as well. An eye for an eye.”
For all that Pierce might have run out of Mana by now, he was still strong and fast. It wasn’t long before both he and Lent were disappearing through the exit.
What a bastard. Pierce knew he hadn’t killed Marcus. He would have received a notification otherwise, and since Ray had confirmed that Marcus was indeed alive, there was no way Pierce could have any confirmation that his last blow on Marcus had been successfully fatal.
“Sameer isn’t stopping him…” Ray said, noting how Sameer’s attention was shifting more towards the Segmented Titan. “Which means…”
“We’re all out of Mana,” Gritty confirmed. “He couldn’t stop Pierce even if he wanted to. Not for long.”
Ray sighed. They held back for now. If the Titan passed on, rushing after Pierce and Lent, they’d have an easier time of getting out. Although, the thought of not killing the Titan himself still made Ray’s guts swim uncomfortably.
The monster was hurrying through the exit as well. Sameer was hot on its trail, as were the last of the petrified vines that hadn’t fallen apart yet, bringing with them more of their captured prey.
Ray blinked. The vines…
“Can you take care of Marcus?” Ray asked, his words clipped and hurried as sudden excitement caught him like a trap.
“What are you going to do?” Gritty frowned at him. “I don’t like that look on your face.”
Ray scowled a little. “What look?”
“You look like you suddenly decided barrel riding down the Niagara sounds like a wonderful idea.”
“…just take Marcus with you and keep him safe, please.”
“Yeah alright, but what are you going to do?”
“The main problem here is we don’t have Mana. Not enough to fight against that thing and win and get out of this dungeon. So I’m going to fix that.”
That probably wasn’t the answer Gritty was looking for, but Ray more or less shoved Marcus at her before taking off. Cracks ran across the battlefield and grew wider every second. Things were going to be destroyed in moments. He had no time to waste on conversation.
Gritty understood that, thankfully. Which was probably why her next statement came through the System chat.
Gritty: I’m heading towards the exit. You better not die, wingman.
Ray: I’ll try my best not to. Stay safe.
Ray wasn’t even sure his idea was going to work. It was a gamble. After all, he wasn’t even sure if the petrified vines counted as monsters. Nevertheless, Ray was adamant about killing them and gaining the same ability they possessed.
The power that let them infuse their chosen target with renewed vigour and energy from their surroundings.
One of the nearest was slithering off into the distance, heading after the Segmented Titan and ignoring Ray completely. He paused. The stony vines were slithering almost like serpents. Their rocky bodies made small, grinding noises against the rough ground.
Ray took a preparatory breath. “Here goes nothing.”
This was honestly a trivial task. The problem was that it was also a gamble. The earth underneath him was breaking apart. He was potentially consigning himself to a doomed end on the chance that he could gain a new power that would let him beat the Titan.
And even if he did kill the Titan and gained the treasure, would it be worth it if he ended up dying in the process anyway?
A part of Ray wanted to summon up another construct and send it off along with Gritty. An insurance to teleport to in case things went to shit. Every other construct, even the one he had sent high up above the dungeon, was now gone.
But the lack of Aeon Mana prevented that. Cursing again, Ray raised his arm and lobbed a blast of Timereave and Aeon Devour at the slithering vine.
A ghostly blue version of Ray emerged from his body. It came from Timereave, the new version of Soulstrike. The sensation was like a chill erupting off his skin. Apparition Ray moved fast, striking the petrified vine with a punch that Ray himself honestly could never see himself doing. Come on, he had literal spells to count on instead.
Although, he had to admit that his ghost was pretty strong. The punch broke the petrified vine and immediately stopped it in its tracks. If it had ever been alive, Ray was pretty sure it was dead now.
Aeon Devour did the reverse of Timereave. At the point where the punch had cracked the vine open, the spell drew out strands of blue energy that entered Ray himself.
[Infinite Mausoleum Activated]
Aeon Devour has absorbed the soul of a defeated Petrified Vine. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
- Rock Solidity [Tier 27]: Wreathes body in solid rock, while continuing to allow all original functionality. Greatly boosts natural defences and toughness.
- Soul Suction [Tier 28]: Draws in the power of the local target and converts it to Mana for the caster. The variant of Mana is determined by the natural Mana variant of the caster’s core.
Ray grinned. Yes. There it was. He wasted no time picking the second option.
Just as he had thought. The vines were drawing in the power from their surroundings to suffuse the Titan with energy. And in this world, the only energy that mattered was Mana.
It also made sense that the vines of course ensured the Mana was a variant that was compatible with whoever the vines were assisting.
Ray congratulated his past self for making sure there was an extra empty slot in Infinite Mausoleum. Although, the class evolution had raised the spell’s Tier, so that point was kind of moot. Whatever. He was allowed to feel a little giddy because his bet had paid off. The gamble was a success.
The dungeon might be falling apart, but from what remained of it, Ray could now draw in all the Mana he’d need. It was time to kill the Titan.