The Fractured Tower

Book 2, Chapter 64

Yoru had only been climbing for a few months, but he’d been proud of his progress. Sure, it seemed hollow now that he was working with Sorin, but he was always quick to remind himself of the man’s unfair advantages. It was impossible to compete with someone like that, except that now, miraculously, he could.

Any smart climber knew to cap their anima before challenging a floor guardian. Floor 4 had been a complete mess, however, and he hadn’t gotten anywhere near that. It was only the recall stone in his inner pocket that gave him any measure of confidence when they’d fought that gargantuan fish, but Sorin had easily dispatched it.

That was the point when he’d truly begun to believe this team could really accomplish such unprecedented feats as reaching Floor 20 inside a single year. It wouldn’t really be his achievement, but that hardly mattered. Power was power, and even if he spent a year climbing followed by a second year training to bring his skills up to par, that was still about eight years less than he’d expected it to take.

It was hard to say what exactly had gone wrong. They’d proven their theory about the Antechamber’s strange gift allowing them to break the floor limit to their rank. All of them were now rank 6 while still on Floor 5. Their attempt at farming the ruin and its notoriously resilient monsters was by all accounts a rousing success.

Then Sorin had brought out the soulprint they’d given up as lost and merged it with his already powerful Earth Warder. That was the start of everything falling apart, but Yoru just couldn’t figure out what it was about the new ability that had caused the monsters to become so aggressive. There was no doubt in his mind that it was Sorin they were targeting, especially not after they’d split up.

The team had been completely ignored. Not a single one of the monsters cared about them, not even when they’d grown worried about the sheer quantity streaming out of the ruin and grown bold enough to attack one. It had simply ignored Rue’s opening strike and the follow-up salvo of ranged magic in favor of maintaining its place in the train.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to score some easy kills, shooting monsters that didn’t care enough to fight back, except that they were already worn out from the day’s work. The fact that each individual monster was so hard to actually damage was also a factor, as was their lack of knowledge about what exactly might happen if they did manage to kill one.

So, like cowards, they’d retreated to what they hoped was a safe distance and made camp. Dead wood for a fire was difficult to find, but Nemari’s mastery over her family’s chosen specialization allowed them to at least cook a half-decent meal. It was only after they’d all had a chance to eat and rest that they began to discuss what to do next.

“Do you think Sorin managed to lose all those monsters?” Odric asked.

“Probably,” Rue said, ever cocky. “Wouldn’t surprise me if he walked into camp right now.”

That didn’t happen, of course. The tower wasn’t that kind. Wherever Sorin was, he was probably still running for his life. Yoru hadn’t bothered to voice his suspicions, but there was something strange going on. The beetles seemed to rely heavily on their earth sense to track trespassers, and that wasn’t a sensory ability known for its range.

Sorin should have been able to easily break away from them, and yet they’d trailed him doggedly. Either the tower itself was angry about something, or they’d grossly misunderstood the monsters’ physiologies. The ruin wasn’t well-studied, mostly because nobody wanted to clear it despite its relatively small size and straightforward layout.

“The better topic is what we’ll do if he doesn’t come back tonight,” Yoru said. “I for one would rather not run all the way back to the portal hub, only to turn around and come back here once Sorin meets us there.”

“Agreed,” Nemari said immediately. Of all his teammates, she was the one who’d taken the least to Sorin’s admittedly effective method of speed bursting across the land. Even Vendis had surpassed her eventually, though not until they’d all added Train of Thought to their builds.

“I imagine he’ll come looking for us near the ruin,” Vendis said. “It would perhaps be best to make a camp close enough to it to be easily located.”

“Let him come to us,” Odric said.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t like the idea of risking a camp too close, not until we know what triggered the beetles to act like that. It was Sorin this time, but it could just as easily be Odric’s earth magic that sends them into a frenzy if we go back,” Nemari argued, vocalizing Yoru’s own thoughts before he had a chance to.

“Well, no one said we have to go poke them with a stick,” Rue said. “We’ll just sit outside it for a bit and take it easy until Sorin finds us. If the beetles don’t like it, we’ll relocate farther back.”

“I’m more concerned about them latching on to one of us like they did to Sorin,” Yoru said.

Odric nodded along. “Something strange was happening. I could feel it through Earth Shaping. I think they might use the ability to communicate with each other. They might even have been tracking him somehow.”

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“Wonder what they’d do if he just went up a tree,” Rue said. She looked over at the nearest tree, which they’d agreed not to camp under for fear of monsters up above falling on them in their sleep.

“I suspect enough of them working in concert could knock even one of these behemoths over,” Yoru told her. “No matter how deep its roots go, the beetles could dig away the earth supporting it.”

None of them doubted that the enraged monsters would consider it well worth the effort when compared to the energy they were already expending to chase Sorin across the floor. As it turned out, the lack of a wall on this ruin was a double-edged sword. They’d been able to escape, but so had the monsters. It had felt like a worthwhile tradeoff back when the beetles were willing to stop coming out of the ground as long as the intruders left their territory.

“There are no good solutions,” he said glumly, “but I think our best bet is to set up a camp that’s easy for Sorin to locate near-ish to the ruins. We’ll keep an eye on things and be prepared to run if our presence stirs the monsters up against us. If it comes down to that, we’ll have to meet him back at the portal hub.”

No one pointed out that their whole plan relied on a rather large assumption. The only proof they had that Sorin was still even alive was the ever-growing line of rock-borer beetles abandoning their ruin to chase after him. Even from half a mile away, they could still see the boulder-like silhouettes rolling across the landscape in groups of five or ten.

And then, abruptly, they all just stopped. Yoru was on his feet in an instant, followed swiftly by the rest of the team. They watched with baited breath, waiting to see what the change meant and hoping it wasn’t the worst option. Once again, Yoru found himself acutely aware of the small stone pressed against his chest inside his pocket.

“The heartbeat changed,” Odric said. “The… vibration in the earth, I mean. That’s what I’ve been thinking of it as. Something happened somewhere in the line.”

“Something like Sorin finally ran out of anima and they got him,” Rue said darkly.

“I think it more likely that he gave up whatever he was trying and fled,” Yoru responded.

Vendis chose that moment to remind everyone of an important fact they hadn’t thought to discuss. “Don’t forget that he still has Liminal Gateway. The beetles aren’t that fast. He would surely be able to gain enough of a lead to create the symbol he needs and pass through it.”

That was most likely exactly what had happened, which meant the beetles had lost their intended target. What will they do now? We may find ourselves running again.

“It might be a wise idea to gather up our belongings just in case we have to abandon this camp,” Yoru said.

The beetles closest to the ruin turned in place and headed back in, drawing a collective sigh of relief from the entire team. That lasted only a moment until they realized the ones that were farther away weren’t returning. Instead, they were digging into the ground and vanishing from sight.

“Maybe they’ll go back home that way,” Rue suggested. There was none of her earlier cockiness left in her voice.

Not stupid, after all. Just full of bravado.

“Maybe they won’t,” Nemari said. “Odric, you’ll be able to tell if they start digging this way, won’t you?”

“I wouldn’t want to bet my life on it. I’d need to be actively using Earth Shaping the entire time instead of just sending out a pulse every now and then. There’s no way I could keep that up constantly.”

Yoru didn’t know how fast the beetles could burrow or how much range Odric had, but he was betting the math wouldn’t work out in their favor. “Perhaps relocating closer to the ruin would be a mistake,” he said.

Nobody argued. They all just quietly gathered up their camp, packed their bags, and retreated deeper into the floor.

* * *

A climber who could move fast enough had the option to avoid a lot of trouble simply by outrunning the monsters trying to cause it. It wasn’t foolproof, of course. Sometimes the monsters were already ahead of the climber. Sometimes they’d long-since laid a trap of some sort and were merely waiting for the first luckless idiot that stumbled into it. Every now and then, the monster was just as fast as the climber and eager to prove it.

But ninety-nine percent of the time, insane speed was a winner when it came to sidestepping confrontation. That was why Sorin had traveled a hundred miles over four hours. It was pitch black out now, this floor’s night sky apparently lacking anything like a moon or stars. Thanks to Clear Eyes, that wasn’t a problem for Sorin, but it was still more dangerous than running by day.

Three times he’d crossed something’s territory that had been prepared enough or fast enough to take a swing at him. He’d put it down easily enough, but the bill was paid in anima, not time. And at the moment, that was both in short supply and huge demand. He’d pushed himself far harder than was sensible the whole way.

That was why, despite his urgency, he’d forced himself to take twenty minutes just sitting in an open, empty field. Anima recovered quickly enough, but the exhaustion of the last day had settled deep into his muscles at this point. Even Blood of the Mountain wasn’t strong enough to counter it.

The whole experience served as a stark reminder that while there were advantages to keeping enough open soulspace to free cast D-ranked spells, he was also forgoing a lot of base power by holding all of his current soulprints back at F- and E-rank. It was an easy tradeoff to make most of the time, but not right now.

I could probably push one of the E’s up to D-rank and still keep enough open space to free cast like I want. I’m going to need to eventually, anyway. Which one, though?

Warrior’s Vigilance was an obvious choice. It augmented his physical prowess in every way. Speed Burst was the most immediately relevant, since ranking it up would make it more efficient and allow him to travel faster during its active window. Blood of the Mountain was both the primary source of his endurance and his regeneration.

All three were good, but he had to consider more than just the next day’s needs. Normally, he didn’t use nearly the full capabilities of Blood of the Mountain. That was out. Increasing Speed Burst would get him back to the ruin faster, but after that, he’d still be limited by the speed of the rest of his team. The extra power wasn’t needed in battle, either. That left just Warrior’s Vigilance. Decision made, Sorin did a sweep of the area with Living Earth, then settled into his soulspace to push some of the loose anima into the soulprint.

Should have done this back at the portal hub, he chastised himself. Could have gotten another ten miles closer for the same amount of time and effort.