It was a different experience. Not a game, as it was promised. Every hit made bones creak and viscera groan with pain. Even the healing, though keeping death away, felt sluggish in rebounding them from bad hits. It became all the more important to fight smart, to not take such hits in the first place.
Though they had two combatants that could, and did, dispense healing green glows, Spike's martyrish sharing of the pain proved much more immediately useful to avoid being knocked aside in the first place. The way they fought changed, it had to, but they pushed through it. The monsters did not charge blindly at them, instead attacking with their own cunning. No longer were they satisfied with being a road bump, instead trying their hardest to find the weaknesses of the team, to make them fail.
To kill them.
Despite this, the party pushed higher. Each floor was a small victory, but also a reason to grit their teeth. "If we lose," reminded Garble. "We have to do it all again. 70. We need 70."
"Yeah!" Smolder clapped her hands together, advancing with a dangerously swaying tail-dagger. "We got this."
The foes ahead of them, in a row, were small bulbous headed hoplites. Each held a large circular shield, wider than they were, and had a spear they thrusted with. Their little inarticulate cries were kinda cute, they were kinda ugly too, but the problem is those damn shields made them hard to hit.
And they moved with unerring teamwork, defending each other and striking. More than a few were already gone, but without easy openings making progress was exhausting.
Sandra sent Aiden above to pelt down flames from above, and Smolder lashed forward at the little monster that raised it’s shield up, slashing at it from as far as it can, and it shrieked and collapsed.
The opening was short lived as more flowed around the lost soldier, stabbing at Smolder with vicious thrusts of its spear. She ducked around the strike, her leather sparking as the spear got close enough to strike a stud. She hit the ground on all fours, scurrying back. It had not been in vain, the replacement warrior falling with an arc of red across his chest, delivered with a smart whip of her tail.
"I said no," commanded Sandra, waving forward into that weakened spot of their formation, flame rushing as if both falling and rising, forcing the hole in their formation a little wider.
A pity Tabitha wasn't nearly as fireproof, but she charged anyway with a wild cry, bashing her shield against theirs as if accepting the challenge. She would not be denied so easily.
"They're, oof--" Garble brought down his great sword on the spear that had nicked him, shattering it, but there were plenty more behind it. "We gotta move!" So move they did, against the enemy that seemed without number. It wasn't the first endurance floor they had run into, and likely not even the last.
But they would press through it, even if the enemy seemed stronger than the others they had faced before, rebounding without a pause, even a moment. There was no more room for mistakes.
Another floor had a large puzzle. Large blocks of stone floated in a tangle, with some controls on each that must be pressed. The dragons had a clear advantage, being able to fly up, but the blocks moved surprisingly quickly, threatening to crush someone operating their movements.
"Huh, that's really useful." Tabby watched the dragon trio working vigorously to puzzle through the trap. "The closest I heard someone getting to flying was… basically short bursts." She made a sound of rushing flames, the imagined jets on someone's feet. "Nothing like actual wings."
"Summoners can fly too," noted Sandra with some bit of pride. "Merging with Twilight was the easiest, but Aiden will do in a pinch."
"You are doing everything so weird." She slugged Sandra in the shoulder, but the energy between them seemed light at that moment, absent of friction. "I can't argue how well it's working."
As the dragon trio reached the conclusion, only one or two more movements, the wall began to grind with stone noises, and flying monsters came out of hidden panels on the walls, one immediately hitting one of the switches, sending the puzzle pieces crashing down onto the ground.
“Hey!” Garble shouted. “That’s not fair!” He flew after the imp, who laughed and made rude gestures. “You put that back you piece of crap!”
“Uh oh,” Sandra said, pulling Aiden out. “We’re gonna have to get a bit more serious to finish.” She raised her staff up, fusing with Aiden and flew upward.
Tabitha pursed her lips and put away her sword, pulling out her scepter. “I guess I’ll do what I can from here,” she said, more to herself, as she flung a bit of magic from the scepter to produce a shield around one of her flying party.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"That way!" Spike pointed the way, joining Sandra in a wing, accepting her as part of the offensive without any spoken hesitation. Tabitha kept the magic going, but her eyes were not quite focused on the same spot, watching as they worked as a little machine, trapping and attacking the little thief.
"It's… like they're part of her," she muttered to herself, considering things. "Is that why?"
"Is that why what?" Smolder landed next to Tabitha, arms folded. "What? They got this handled." She waved up at the three others beating the tar out of the would-be thief. "Thought I'd check in with you. No fun being left behind, and you don't have wings."
"I was… just thinking,” She looked away from the flying party, “About Sandra."
"Yeah?" Smolder looked at Tabitha, bidding her continue without a word.
"She's really close to you all." She brought her hands together. "Putting aside how… impossible your backstories are, you are really important to her, and I was thinking about that, and it kinda makes sense, really."
"Really?" Smolder adjusted from one hip to the other, watching Tabitha. "Alright, lay it on me, in your words. Why?"
"You changed her life." Tabitha lifted her shoulders. "You took her from zero to hero, literally. You gave her a chance for success, then gave her something worth sacrificing everything for. I… am actually a little jealous, I'll admit."
Smolder looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know she totally blamed herself for falling out with you, right?”
Tabitha opened her mouth, but was temporarily at a loss.
“Yeah, she felt like she didn’t live up to your expectations, and that you gave her tons of chances and she squandered it.”
Pursing her lips, Tabitha retorted, “I did give her a ton of chances. I went through nearly half a dozen groups with her.”
“And how do ya think that made her feel?” Smolder raised an eyebrow.
“I… I dunno.” Tabitha held out her hands in exasperation.
“Like, do you think you were able to bully her in public like that because she was just too helpless to stop you? That she said nothing about it and just let you do it? She felt guilty.”
Tabitha looked back up at Sandra. “Well she doesn’t have a big problem with standing up to me now.”
Smolder looked up too, watching Sandra help out her brother and Spike beat up some imps. “No… I don’t think she’s noticed how much she changed, either.”
“How much she changed... “ Tabitha said, mulling over what’s been said. “Has she, though?”
Smolder's eyes followed as the fight wound down. "It wasn't all easy. We didn't just solve everything. She had to train us. We messed up, a lot. We had to retry floors, a lot. You think she's just been coasting up the tower with us?"
"I didn't mean that!" huffed Tabitha, starting forward. "I think they're done. We should meet up."
They proceeded together, even if Smolder looked unconvinced. Tabitha didn't try to change her mind, focusing instead on resuming their trek. "Good job everyone. Sorry I couldn't help much with this one."
Garble laughed as he headed for the pad that'd take them up. "Hey, we can't all be as awesome, Tabby."
Spike hopped into position. "We had enough help for what we had to do. You did fine, and I bet we'll need you to do your thing right on the next floor."
He wasn't wrong, facing great insectoid creatures with huge mandibles and slicing scythes for arms. "Hey, next floor's the boss," noted Tabitha as she deflected a blow that still send her sliding back from the impact of it. "We can port back and turn in what we've gotten, or make a sprint for it."
Garble grinned a toothy grin, thrusting his sword out at the enemy still reeling from it’s own attack. “We always try the boss first time we come up.”
“But we won’t be doing so this time,” Sandra butted in, directing Crystal to bring up the rear defense . “We’re already at risk, it’s time to go back, see what we can do for new gear, maybe even try some more.”
Garble rolled his eyes. “I shoulda known.”
“You should have, yes.” Spike winced from the martyr damage share. “We’ve gotta be careful.”
“And we were!” Garble pressed forward. “ This wasn’t that bad.”
“Do not say that,” Spike said through grit teeth. “We do not want to tempt fate like that.”
"If…" Sandra paused as she directed her golem to keep one of the great behemoths busy. "If what you said is true… fate isn't some… abstract thing. We could literally be tempting something. Let's just… play it safe. We know the… tricks up to here. If we can grind up to here, we're… ready."
Garble groaned piteously, imagining going right back up the floors they had just finished. "Fine, but we're whipping the floor with these guys first." He brought down his great sword in an arc that severed one of the legs of the beast, sending it crashing to the ground with his great whoop of triumph. "Besides, they could have sweet stuff."
"That's the spirit." Smolder grabbed the fallen leg, determined to make a quick snack of it. "We're all in this, together!"
They finished toppling this enemy, and almost without waiting a second group pressed down on them, a big shielded knight monster with a wizard behind, who was also overly large. A giant magical blast was shot at the party, Spike absorbing the blast, which thankfully seemed to follow all the old rules of damage they were used to. Easy to absorb, easy to heal.
Which was worrying. "We're being set up, or this is a break before the boss."
"Past sixty doesn't do breaks. If it seems too easy, it's because it's preparing for a real shin kicker to follow." Tabitha glanced aside at Garble even as the dragon stampeded against the insects. "I know you're eager, but it sounds like we are definitely not pushing past this floor.
"Yeah, whatever." He leaped back, saving Spike some trouble by avoiding a hit instead of taking it. "You already said that. I want to mash these guys to paste. Hey, how's lunch coming?"
"Served hot!" She sent food flying to restore the vigor of her brother. They were on point, even if they knew they'd be facing it all at least one more time. "She better get us some sweet stuff though," grumbled Smolder, imagining all their catches melting in the great machine of creation.