Chapter Twenty-Nine

Even with his Reflex, Blanik was blindsided by a flurry of vines and sent spinning away from the clearing with a crack. Metrodora called it, picking her way across the unsteady footing of the swamp to reach him, while Will and the others tried to get an attack off on the Core.

Unk used Defender’s Charge and stepped in front of Okembe just in time as the Bog King ripped a tendril from under the surface of the muck holding a heavy rotten tree stump and launching it like a cannonball. It exploded against his armour, causing him to stumble, but thanks to his own Skills and Will’s buff he regained footing and kept pushing forwards.

Okembe landed a spear on the Core, and the Bog King shifted again to hide it once more, but the new location was close to where Will was dodging, so he pivoted and drew into melee range with the behemoth. Spying an opening, he thrust Whisper inside and fired off its’ Skill again, shuddering at the force of using the Skill again so early but thankfully not feeling the other blade break as well. Shout was still usable for defence, but he didn’t want to rely on it for big attacks until it had the time to repair. Only the fact it was a growth item would make even that possible, another reason he’d prioritised the blades so highly.

Thorn tipped vines lunged for Will’s head, and he couldn’t block them all. Before the few that slipped his guard could reach his face and tear him apart, they seized and withered, Will turning to see Metrodora celebrating as she pulled another potion from her bandolier and aimed a throw. He stepped back, grinning to see Blanik bound into the clearing and throw a storm of darts at the Bog King’s torso, causing black spots of decay to appear on the plant matter where they hit.

[Okembe, get whatever that is from Met and cover the thing in it. I’ll try and break through to the Core. Will]

Aside from nursing Blanik, comforting Will and occasionally stealing a moment for a kiss, Metrodora had spent a lot of the rest period hunched over a cauldron brewing some secret weapon, and it looked like she’d finally decided to test it. Some sort of super-weedkiller, by appearances. As Okembe began flinging vials with Telekinesis, Will and Unk stood close to the Bog King using their swords and Unk’s shield to keep it suppressed so it could not use its’ vines to block the impacts.

[That’s all of it. Met]

Huge chunks of plant matter and muck were peeling off from the Bog King as it shifted and writhed, even more tendrils appearing and causing everyone to be forced onto the defensive. Will dropped his buffs on Unk to spare extra Mana for Alacrity, which he felt surging into his thighs and calves as it propelled him across the swamp so fast he didn’t worry about footing and just powered through, leaping into the air and seeing the Bog King’s Core exposed right in front of him.

He laid in with Whisper and Shout, flaring Vigorous Sharpen as hard as possible and willing the energy that overlaid his weapons’ edges to thicken and hone even further. Two spears slammed into the Bog King’s bulk beneath him, and instinctively he allowed himself to land on them, one foot perched on each of the wooden shafts as the thick sticky internals of the Boss kept them firmly in place.

More vines were lashing for Will now, trying knock him from his perch, but he ignored them and continued slashing, leaning further and deeper into the Bog King’s body as the Core tried to wriggle and shift away from him. Some exploded into bursts of ice and snow from Daphne’s snow birds. Others were sliced off by Okembe’s floating sword, burned by a well placed incendiary bomb from Metrodora, or slapped against him without impact as the force transferred to Unk. At this point, Will was half inside the Bog King, barely able to force out a breath inside the mass of sludge, with its’ internal vines grasping and constricting against his neck and limbs.

He powered through, dropping Alacrity and pushing everything he had into Vigorous Sharpen. Whisper was caught by a vine, forcing him to focus all of the cutting energy into Shout and cleave the Core in two. The crack in the blade spiderwebbed through, the blade chipping and fragmenting, and the halves of the Core lit up with sickly green light. Will was launched backwards, magical force searing off his eyebrows and making him feel as though he’d been punched in the chest by a giant. Okembe caught him with telekinesis and lowered him to the floor, where he wheezed and accepted the offered Healing Potion from Metrodora.

“You have defeated [Floor 3 Hidden Boss] [Bog King]

Clear Rating: A

Clear Contribution: 37%

Clear Rewards: 5000 Tower Coins, Swamp Zone Key Piece, Bog King Vine Graft [B], Bog King’s Crown [C], Swamp Soul Bloodline Elixir”

“Ew, why would anyone want this?”

Daphne’s immediate reaction to the Bog King Vine Graft wasn’t unfair, but Metrodora responded with a cutting voice.

“Perhaps someone who would like an extra limb.”

The younger girl blushed and begged forgiveness, Unk laughing at his niece’s foot-in-mouth moment. Okembe helped Will to his feet, dusted him off and gave him a small smile. Before Will could look at the Crown or Bloodline Elixir he’d been rewarded, he noticed Blanik sat on one of the grass patches looking somewhat vacantly at the site of the Bog King’s death. He walked over, leaving the others to converse and recover, and came to kneel beside the teen.

“You okay kid? You did great, by the way.”

The boy nodded, looking younger than he did even normally.

“Do you think I could have some time off now? Just...go back to Earth for a bit?”

The Chancers laid out some sheets from Will’s Spatial Ring so they could all sit without being coated in more muck than they already were, and had a frank conversation about the future.

“Look Daph, that mage nearly burned your face off, and I know because I took the shot for you! I’m just saying that maybe we should take some time off and train before we risk this kind of public profile!”

Daphne shook her head at her uncle, the picture of a petulant child refusing to eat her vegetables. It would have been comic if not for the stricken expression on the older man’s face and the guilty looks he was shooting Will. Blanik and Okembe were a short distance away talking quietly, and Metrodora was leaning against Will in silent support.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“We can take time off anyway, like I was saying. I’ll have a lot of work to do to get the Clan set up, and we’re not in any rush to start pushing for Floor 10 right now. We’ve got 4 and a half years to reach Floor 25, and if the first timeline is any indication we’ll have a year or more before Floor 10 is even Cleared. I want to speed that up, but you’ve all more than earned a break. Daph, Unk has a point. I honestly didn’t think I’d attract assassins yet.”

That set Unk off.

“Yet!? So you did think we’d be hunted by assassins, but didn’t bother to let us know? I thought you were telling us things now kid!”

Metrodora spoke up in Will’s defence quickly.

“He did warn us! He told us all about the Clan, about his plan to be one of the leaders of the Climb, and we all agreed to be part of it. Take time off, talk about it, give up if you want but don’t blame Will!”

Excitement of victory somewhat dulled by the internal strife, the party headed back to the safe area. Blanik was going to head home, see if he could make up with his estranged mother and decide if he wanted to continue Climbing. Unk and Daph were taking time off too, though Will didn’t know what the result of it would be. Okembe and Metrodora were still resolute, thankfully, and he forced himself to focus on the upside.

In his Spatial Ring were all the pieces for the Floor Key, and they still had roughly a month until the Tower would be announced publicly. Getting the first Clans formed before it became a media circus would help ensure that the headstart went to those who’d make good use of it, and if that didn’t then the careful vetting of Will and Brunjar would. Metrodora was considering using the Bog King Vine Graft to give herself a tendril/pseudopod – not a replacement for the lost limb, but a partial accommodation with only a minor aesthetic downside.

“Everybody head back, rest, eat, sleep, whatever. I’ll be opening the portal in two days, and you don’t have to be there if you don’t want to be. Bla-” He corrected himself. “Jan, I’ll come by your hut once I’ve dealt with a few things.”

The boy nodded, stepping through the gate before the rest of them could follow. Unk followed, and Daphne gave Will a long-suffering smile before stomping after him.

“We’re still with you.”

He kisseed Metrodora, ignoring Okembe’s raised eyebrow and knowing glint in the eye. Thanking them both for their support, he reached out and passed through the gate into the safe area. Brunjar and a few others were waiting nearby, anxious to hear the result of the expedition, and as Will and the others entered they noticed and came hurrying over.

“Do you have a way to project my voice?” Was his first question to the bearded man. To his credit, Brunjar didn’t even blink before reaching into his own Spatial Bag and pulling out a Spell Scroll.

“Here. What’s up?”

Will waved a hand to the man in thanks and then sped to the Spawn Platform, burning what little Mana he’d regenerated to cross the distance in just an instant. He stood close to the edge, ignoring the others on the huge stone platform, and looked out at the mass of huts and people milling about. He crushed the Spell Scroll in his hand, feeling the old dry paper crumble to dust, and then spoke.

“Whoever sent assassins to kill me in the Swamp Zone, you have failed. You cowards, afraid to challenge me directly and stand up for your beliefs, fearful of the free spread of information and of Humanity uniting to Climb this Tower, have failed. But listen to me well, whoever you are. If you send more assassins after me, I will leave each of them drowned in the mud as I did this set, and I will continue to fight for Climbers everywhere. But if you threaten my people. If you threaten my Party, my Clan, my allies. If you threaten innocents. Well, then simple death for your puppets will not suffice. I will call in every favour, reveal every hidden card, unearth every secret, and I will destroy you. Towerfall will not be defeated. Oh, and my name’s Pioneer, if you were confused. You’ll be hearing it a lot more in the coming weeks.”

He let the Spell fade and then stepped down from the Platform, walking through a stunned crowd to where Brunjar, Okembe, Metrodora and the few others who’d came to greet them waited.

“Sorry about that. Brun, can you get the group together? Everyone from the meeting, and whoever the highest representatives are of whatever Government efforts you can find that aren’t corrupt bastards. Day after tomorrow, the location we discussed in Zone 2, we’ll go to 4. Ask Dane to come see me tomorrow as well, I want to ask if some of the military and law enforcement Climbers he knows would be willing to join Towerfall to prevent conflict breaking out when we hit Floor 4.”

The bearded man nodded, not even questioning Will’s announcement, and walked off with his men. He turned back quickly and gave Will a quick smile.

“I’m glad you survived, by the way. I wasn’t looking forward to fighting those Bosses myself to get to the next Floor!”

An evening of furious planning and discussion followed. Will was reunited with Julian and the Explorer team from back at the very beginning of his Climb, with the man himself having been promoted to the head of the EU’s in-Tower forces. He was planning on forming his own Clan with their backing, and was more than happy to ally and work with Towerfall. Not all of the other people Will was planning to take to the next Floor were as willing, but he felt obligated. Some of the other Government representatives, especially those from America, seemed more interested in mining the lower Floors and funnelling Items to Earth for businesses to reverse engineer than Climbing.

Though that was largely futile, given that if they didn’t hit Floor 25 within 5 years Earth would be destroyed anyway, he couldn’t exactly tell them that. Thousand Sword Arakan, though he wasn’t yet known by that name, was as arrogant and smug as ever and seemed to believe Will owed him a trip to the 4th Floor, but at least he had agreed that the Chinese would not oppose Towerfall's efforts.

He talked logistics for hours with Sand Snake Colby and Treasure Dave, suppressing his internal fanboy as Dave revealed hints about his special Bloodline that the past Will would have been reading about on Tower gossip sites. Eventually, the preparations were all made and he had just one final obligation before he could spend the next day resting and mentally readying himself for the storm that would begin on Floor 4.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

Jan shrugged, his usual belts of knives and daggers abandoned in a heap on the floor as he sat on the bed with his knees hunched to his chest.

“I didn’t think I’d be killing people. Or that people would be trying to kill me.”

Will nodded, offering a compassionate shoulder pat with slight awkwardness.

“You shouldn’t, and they shouldn’t. We’re more prepared for it now though. Dane’s got some friends who are going to keep an eye on you and the others whenever you’re in the Tower. Once we’ve got the Clan, we can build ourselves a proper safe area on Floor 4, for a while at least. I won’t let it happen again.”

Jan shook his head.

“You can’t promise that. I understand. I was a fan of you before we met, you know? Pioneer, the best informed Climber out there, the Solo Climber who took out Scream Queen Mira after she killed half a dozen other people. Then you beat up Boss and his gang, handed them over to the police and offered to help me out even more. I want to repay you for that, but I don’t know if I can handle the pressure of this place. It’s not like a game or an adventure as much as it was at first.”

That was fair. Will couldn’t offer any persuasion, so just made clear to the teen that he would always be ready to accept him if he wanted to come back, and even if he didn’t Will and the others would do anything and everything they could for the boy if he requested it.

“You’ve more than repaid me, anyway. You tried to save my life before the Jungle Temple, you saved me and the others several times against the Serpent, and you almost died taking on an Assassin that was sent to kill me. I know you’re still dealing with the emotions from that, and I can only hope Okembe’s advice helps because I don’t know what to say. You did the right thing, but if you can’t bring yourself to face it again then you don’t have to.”

That earned him a more real smile, and he favoured the boy with a strong bear-hug before they said their goodbyes. Jan had already spoken with all the others, and so he just waved to Will, promised that he’d write via Brunjar to keep them updated, and faded away. Daphne and Unk left the next morning, with her promising she’d be back in a few days and him promising he’d let Will know when he was coming back. That wasn’t quite as sad a parting, since he was more confident in the pair’s return. Even if Unk couldn’t take the risk any more, he wasn’t going to be able to stop Daphne, and Will wasn’t sure he could let her Climb without being there to tank. He passed the final day chatting and laughing with Brunjar, Dane, Kat and Okembe as they de-stressed before the big day.