Corvayne looked at animated warning ahead of the entrance to the fourth floor. The floating image, which he could pass his hand through, was a glowing orange stick figure running from a wall of orange glowing skull symbols. The figure slowed a little and the wall passed through them, then the figure fell over. After that it's dot-head morphing into a skull and the little stick body became tiny orange bones. In a moment the bones sunk into an orange line that must be the ground, and the figure dropped in and started running as skulls faded in to the side of the image, repeating the loop.
Looking out the door, past the holographic warning, he could see what looked like a train station with crumbling walls and a sepia sky. It felt like Cascadia because he saw a graffiti riddled public transport trains roll up to the station, open it's doors for about ten seconds, then zoom off.
Wick watched the warning loop play again. “So wait, the chains and giant bike wheels to oblivion were fine, but THIS floor it needs a warning? Is it random or is it really that bad ahead?”
Corvayne took a step back and sat on the third step. “I want to see if something happens. If the event looks like we can handle it, we will vote to decide if we press on, otherwise we turn back around and try the wheels.”
Seru stepped up to the door, watching the second train arrive. “We can go back the way we came and try the other branches of that ravine. Or like, just do this floor. I mean, there's gotta be good rewards if it's dangerous, right?”
Mister I nodded. “Risk and reward are part and parcel. But, the bold may become the foolish if they push their luck!”
Nyxion sneered. “Is that a yes or a no?”
Wick shook her head. “Why even ask us? The skull means death. What's worth that?”
Lady Blood Claw picked a spot near Corvayne to lean against the wall. “When the tower offers you danger, there's usually a reward for it.”
“I take that as what, four maybes and a probably not?” Corvayne watched as another train left the station. The place looked brighter then last time, and had started shaking. Interestingly, there was no vibration where they were.
“Hey, something's happening.” He pointed. The group stepped back as Corvanye stood and took a step back. The light in the station intensified, then there was a flash of orange as a wall of fire that swept across the station, coiling and stopping at entrance to the stairway as if there was an invisible barrier. Corvayne felt heat even from three steps up.
He heard one of the girls shout out “What the fuck?” just barely over the roar of fire.
The heat vanished and the door was dark for a few moments, showing a seared plain with smoking wreckage and burning chunks of metal. As he watched, things started to grow out of the ground, buildings and track sprouting and ending in the station forming once more, blocking the view. A few more seconds, and the first train rolled in.
Mister I was the first to speak. “Make my vote no, please.”
Corvayne stood up. “I don't think I want to go into that sort of situation unless we had a lifeline out, or we could all fly faster then the wall was moving.”
He started up the stairs. Seru looked between him and the door. “You know, I bet there's really really good loot in there!”
He laughed a little. “Seru, the best armor in the world is useless if you're dead. I vote no. There's nothing that could convince me otherwise.”
He stepped out of the stairway back to the underside of the platform and motion made him look down. A lone figure stood on the white platform below them, perhaps a thousand feet down. But Corvayne knew the outline of Argyle well enough. He saw the monk turn and teleport away from them, but in the direction of one of the wheels going upwards, now jogging. Corvayne could trace with his eyes the path the monk could take to their island.
“Back down. Now!”
He ran down the steps. Wick grabbed his arm. “What the hell? No way! Corvayne!”
He grabbed her shoulders. “The monk is here. He's coming. We don't have a choice!”
Nyxion groaned. “Can we wait until the next cycle at least?”
He ignored him and ran down the steps, two at a time. The station hadn't lit up and wasn't shaking. “We got at least one more train ahead of the wave, if it repeats. Go!”
He didn't wait, moving into the station. It wasn't a one-way portal. The station smelled of smoke, and on closer inspection all the brown bricks and gray floor tiles looked like they had a layer of soot or ashes.. He glanced back at the window facing the direction the wall of fire had come from. He could see something bright, a band of energy on the horizon. A train was also coming along an elevated track above the sandy wastes.
Seru was first into the station, with the others following. A train rolled in, and Corvayne pulled Wick aboard as the others piled in behind him. The doors rattled shut and the train sped forward across the waste with a hum.
Looking around, he could see that the stations were brown tiered towers dotting a tan and gray desert. Multiple train tracks seemed to come and go in and out of each, some of them veering off to the side. As far as he saw, no trains were heading backwards, but some of them went sideways, which meant riding them would slow them compared to the wall of fire. There were also stairs down to the wastes. He saw a chest out on the sandy wasteland. Oh yeah, probably full of really great stuff. Hopefully something he could use while dead. They reached the next tower after two minutes, the train starting to slow. Wick started to move to the door but Corvayne put a hand on her shoulder.
“Wait, let's see what the stations look like.”
He turned around and addressed everyone else standing in the train car. “This place is a death trap. We wait until next station go up and find a higher line.” Corvayne looked out the open door at the station inside the tower they had. He saw weird figures with swords wake up as the train pull in, drawing blades. They were far enough away he didn't bother attacking, as the doors closed and the train was back to moving in moments.
Wick squeezed his hand. He blinked, and looked at her. He hadn't seen her really scared like that in a few weeks. He squeezed the hand back, letting himself get angry. This was why he had to fight.
“It's okay Wick. He's gotta get through me first.”
Mister I patted his bow. “I want to test what happens when I use the good arrows with this thing. I can think of no better target!”
Nyxion folded his arms. “I want better stuff before we fight him.”
Corvayne saw the next station coming up. “Next station, look for a stairway up. We aim to kill anything fast or just knock it over and run away.”
The train bored into a four story tall station, gray and sepia tones defining the otherwise ruined area. Corvayne practically pushed his way out of the door, holding his spear and ready when the piles of 'garbage' unfurled into corpse-like monsters. He didn't wait for it to them to draw weapons, just stabbed it then kicking it away, running to the stairway where another monster was putting it's blades in position to attack.
He didn't have time to fight it properly, so he used [Storm Thrust] to push forward and knock his enemy in the wall at the same time, shattering tiles at the back of the stairway, then kept charging forward and the monster was split in half, top half falling off. He kept moving up the stairs, more of the weird monsters coming to life. He decided not to be stingy with stamina, using [Thrust] to kill one with a head shot as he bound up the stairs, then turning to the next platform and using [Flows-Like-Water] to slide across the tiles towards the gap with the track, killing two more monsters. A third one he used [Thrust] again, blasting the monster to slam into a pillar.
He turned and looked to where he was. There was one more gray humanoid monster coming from an office. No train yet at the tracks, pillars and benches on tan walls. He glanced back out a broken window and saw the growing gleam across the horizon of the fire, broken up by train stations. The next train was still a ways away.
He turned back to the slow moving monster and fired off a [Cross Skill: Whirling Axe] at the monster, green spear hitting it and knocking it over. He stepped up and stabbed it quickly, then walked up the steps and looked in the office. A chest there. He stepped out of the office and used his shadow hands to open it and grab a bunch of packages out of it. He stuffed it all into his ring, vowing to look later.
Everyone was piling up to the station. The train was coming too, so he leapt off the stairs and watched as it pulled in, and he stepped aboard, making room for everyone else to get in. There was a hooded figure at the other end of the train, but he set himself between the figure and his friends piling on.
The doors closed and the figure held a hand up. His skin was blue, even though Corvayne couldn't see his face. “Peace. I'm just enjoying a floor where I can ride forever.”
Wick was looking behind her. “What about the fire?”
“This line never turns... the trains moves a little faster then the fire.”
Nyxion looked around. “Where's an exit? Or does it change?”
The figure shrugged. “I don't know. I've only seen a handful of people since I found this floor. Nobody ever came back to talk to me.”
The next station was coming up. Corvayne did have a question. “Don't you need to eat?”
“Oh no! I live on ambient mana. This floor has enough for me to sit and watch the scenery fly by. Of course, it's a little bland, but I like trains. So this is enough for me, thank you.”
Corvayne looked at the rest of the group. “Okay. Just be careful if a monk shows up after us. That guy's dangerous.”
“Ah. Thanks for the warning, but I'd not worry. I am good at making friends.” The figure waved at them as they tensed at the slowing train. The station they were in was larger, with a platform extending across the way to a track that was bending from entering the station to running perpendicular to the fire wall's path. More of the strange humanoids started to stir. They looked like mummies, sort of. Corvayne switched to his two handed sword, just battering them out of the way as he lead the charge across the station.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Wick was huffing and yelling behind him as he barreled across the station. “That train goes sideways! We could get cooked!”
“There's no stairway down here. I don't know how good the tracking is, but I want him to get stuck.”
“He can just teleport!” Wick called out.
Corvayne brought his blade low and swept it up, through part of a bench as he hit the side of a monster and sent it flying into the air, hitting a rafter. His shadow limbs darted out to another monster and jabbed it through the neck. Corvayne was burning through his stamina but it payed off as they hustled to the next track.
He huffed as he stopped running near where the track was, the way clear for the moment. “He can't do it without limits. You saw him running between teleports, right?”
Corvayne put his sword back on his pack as he checked the line. A train was coming. Looking forward, he saw the track went upwards as well as sideways. If they didn't find an exit there, would they keep going sideways until they got cooked? Was he taking another stupid risk? The fire wall was a thickening band of white light under the dark brown clouds on the horizon. He could see it swallow up a building as he watched.
Mister I brought up the rear with Seru, who was sweating. Corvayne saw that Nyxion looked worried too, and Lady Blood Claw was a light gray, face stuck in a frown. It was odd to see her skin match her silvery hair.
The next train pulled up, blessedly empty. They got aboard in the ten seconds the train was there. The car shot out of the station then went flying around the corner and up a ramp, nearly knocking him off his feet. He saw Wick about to fall and grabbed the hem of her robe, while his shadow hands wrapped around a bar and kept up upright. He pulled her close after a moment and she jabbed him a few times with her fist before she stepped back, embarrassed.
“Sorry! Habit! Thanks for the save Corvayne.”
He rubbed his ribs. “Any time. You're getting stronger.” He turned back, staring at the line of burning white, parts of it shining from the clouds. It was hundreds of feet tall, and he had a feeling it'd cook him all the same no matter how high up on a station he was. His only hope was the monk wouldn't be able to follow them.
The train reached another station. This one was floating in mid air, but otherwise was similar to others. Inside, a squad of weird dry humaniods stood ready. Behind them, Corvayne saw what looked like a lit stairway upwards where there should have been a wall or window to nothing. He felt the ground starting to tremble, and the windows were getting brighter.
Wick opened fire with her wand, two disruption bolts flying out and slamming the first of what must have been twelve of the monsters. Nyxion clapped a hand on Corvayne's shoulder and strode forward past him, glaring as he unleashed his aura, slowing the first attackers. The noble's shields and fear effects did a lot to neutralize the monsters already pitiful offense. Nyx somehow was directing his belt to bounce the monsters off their feet then walking past them to slam his mace down on them as they tried to get back up.
Mister I fired a few arrows, one of them triggering the weird bugstorm again. The swarm swelled for a moment and killed two of the monsters in the back. Corvayne and Lady Blood Claw were a little slower to act but each took one of Nyxion's flanks and used two handed swords to swat and slice the monsters. As soon as the last one dropped they broke for the stairs, even as the station started rumbling. The air had started to warm up as they ran the last stretch to the stairs.
It was a clean looking tile stairway, but Corvayne knew it was an exit from the orange arrow pointing upwards with a stick figure climbing up and over a line of skulls. He didn't want to risk the stairwell not being entirely safe and bounded up the stairs, slowing only to see his friends were with him as he came to a landing and ran up side stairs. He noticed as he ran the air had cooled and the trembling had stopped by the time he was on the second landing.
Wick and Nyxion were right behind him, with Mister I and Lady Blood Claw next. Seru came last, huffing.
They had beat the wall of fire, but they still were in danger from the monk. If the wall hadn't been as close as it was, he might have taken them another station sideways.
Seru coughed. “Okay that was bullshit. We didn't get any loot even!”
Corvayne started up the next white stairway. It smelled like strong chemical cleaner. “I got a chest on the first station we got off on. Not going to check it yet. Gotta keep going. If he has a way of tracking us, he's going to keep chasing us.”
He stepped up to the next floor and blinked. The view of the next area was blinding white buildings, many of them resembling smoothed trees with dome topped branches. Mixed in with these white structures were blue windows and tinted glass tubes. Unlike most floors, he saw barely any mist limiting his view of the superstructure in the far distance, bridging the plane he was standing on to one that extended upwards into the clouds. The horizontal space had white lines that were probably cities, but also patches of green forest and blue water. A few spindly lines extended from the ground to vanish into the blue sky. Looking off to the side of the immense form they were standing on, he saw a faint hint of part of another ring.
Wick tugged his shoulder. “It's a ring world! Do you think they have two headed aliens? I wanna see one!”
Nyxion looked at the clean looking plaza and fountain. “Do you hear music?”
As they stopped talking and started walking, Corvayne could hear soft wind chimes, or music that evoked them. A breeze carried the scent of the ocean. He tensed a little as they came around a building and saw an open area with white robed figures walking around. They didn't look human, with some having bleached white skin, others blue. Some of them had umbrellas for the sun, and a few looked like they were playing crystal instruments. The old fear he had about killing with the goblins on the first floor returned. They were not acting like monsters.
Wick stepped ahead. “More aliens!”
Nyxion tisked her. “The murder monk is chasing us.”
Wick stiffened a little, realizing that she had for a moment let the reason they were here slip her mind. She looked around wistfully. “Okay. If we can bury this guy and clear our names... I'd like to come back here.”
A pair of the white robed beings walked past the group, nodding but otherwise heading to wherever it was they were going.
Lady Blood Claw gestured. “They are people. That's good, this might be a town floor. At least that usually means it's safe zone. From monsters, at least.” She glanced back over her shoulder.
Wick pointed at her. “Quick, how do you ask tower-folks to tell you where the stairs up are?”
LBC looked confused, but approached a blue skinned person wearing a white robe. “Pardon me. We're travelers, can you tell us where the up stairs is?”
The person raised their head and said “Ah! I thought you were cosplaying travelers! I was right.” He smiled and gestured past the fountain. “Library, the large building with white and blue bands. The third door on the far left leads to a stairway. Find prosperity, wanderers. May you succeed at your quest.”
Wick patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks! If I ever come back, I owe you lunch!”
They rushed past a few lingering people in the plaza, climbing steps to a raised pedestrian bridge giving them a better view of the nearby landscape, including an ocean dotted with white and blue crystals. The library was about a mile distant but recognizable for it's banded lines of white and blue, changing thickness and direction on the side of the building to outline a book in a wood-carving sort of way. They had to just go down a hill and through a park.
Corvayne turned to Lady Blood Claw, who had shifted to charcoal gray as she ran. “How good is the ability to follow us? If he was forced to another floor... could he reroute?”
She spoke between big breaths as they ran down the broad steps. “I think it points him to the exit he needs to take to find us. The train stations on that floor might actually help us... if he tries to line up with our station expecting to climb to the exit he needs to get to, it might force him to get creative before he can find the right way to go. Even so, he moves much faster then we do. He might be able to keep pace with one of those trains, and even a wrong exit means he can probably find a different way to us.”
Corvayne was focused on going down the stairs and avoiding people in white robes to the point he didn't notice until he was right by them that one person, sitting on the steps between them and the last stretch to the library, was wearing a black suit.
Corvayne stopped himself before getting too close. Even the non human tower residents on this floor felt more human then the pale woman sitting there. There was something wrong about the woman in front of him, something that warned him to stay away. Her black suit was... off. He couldn't say if it was too old, or too new and stiff, just that it was wrong. As was the way she stood, unfolding with her arms sort of snaking upwards to where they folded above her head, which rose too smoothly moment later to meet them as the rest of her unfurled. The pose was very human, but something about the thing in front of him just struck him with a desire to run. It didn't help that she was about 8 feet high.
“You shouldn't be in here.” The woman said. The delivery had a sort of hissing steam pipe aspect to it.
“Men in Black! We don't got TIME! Just go around her.”
Nyxion shook his head. “Wick that's clearly a woman...”
If the woman wasn't using [Flows-Like-Water] she had something else like it as she in an eyeblink slid in front of Corvayne.
The woman in black reached out for him. “You. How did you get in here?”
“We walked in!” He ducked under a grasping arm, bringing his spear around to stop the other hand coming for him. The woman closed her hand around the tip, then the hand jerked back like a serpent. She hopped in Corvayne's way then looked at her thrashing limb.
“You wounded it.” the suit wearing woman frowned showing her hand off, dripping orange blood that changed to neon blue as it poured from her. Corvayne swerved away from her, right as the blood itself formed links like a chain then snaked out of the puddle at him. His own shadow limbs grabbed the chain, and he felt one retract and vanish to avoid being ripped apart as the blood-chain formed a lasso and snagged a shadow limb.
An arrow slammed into the thing's neck, but the creature just pulled it out, even as the arrow exploded into a swarm of insects, concealing the woman for a moment before vanishing, leaving her unharmed.
“Should I fight? Ah. I suppose I'm still on lunch. Hmm.” Instead of responding she looked thoughful.
Corvayne had spun, ready for the next attack, but saw that it had instead sat down on a bench to eat a sandwich, letting Seru and Mister I edge around it as it pondered, apparently, it's lunch break.
The library was close. He spared a glance back and saw a familiar figure at the crest of the hill, metal staff gleaming for a moment before the figure appeared a quarter of the way down the hill. A mixture of fear and annoyance raced through him. Didn't this guy ever take a break?
“He's here! Go!”
Corvayne saw Wick trip and sprinted back, picked her up and throwing her over his shoulder while his shadow hands grabbed his two handed sword, then ran for the door. He beat Nyxion to the tinted blue glass door off from the main entrance. Throwing it open, he saw a clean tile stairway leading up. He stepped in, setting Wick down.
Running back out, he saw Seru lagging behind, with Mister I trying to encourage her. Argyle was jogging through the park now, almost to the woman in black eating a sandwich. He'd overtake Seru before she got to the door. Corvayne gritted his teeth. He didn't need to win. He just had to buy them a few seconds.
That's when he thought, when Argyle teleported and in the same moment appeared with the woman in black laying him out with an arm-bar. The monk, running into the arm and falling over, had a look of shock on his face that made Corvayne, for a short moment, actually grin.
Any levity was knocked out of him when he felt something like a string of cruise missiles detonating. The force knocked him off his feet and triggered his body armor's defensive mist, creating a wall of water that was knocked across the ground behind him as compressed air blasted across the plaza. It took his scrambled brain a moment to process that the noise had been the woman in black crying out in rage.
“HOW DARE YOU!? YOU CHEAP KNOCK OFF!”
Glass rained down as windows shattered. Corvayne pushed himself to his feet, all sounds dulled. He saw Seru was screaming, holding her ears with blood coming out. Mister I was sitting on the ground, blinking. Corvayne ran to Seru and pulled her up, and with her leaning on his shoulder leaned over and helped Mister I get his feet back under him.
He looked behind them to see that Argyle took a swing at the woman with his metal staff. Corvayne saw her catch the staff with no injuries, then punch the monk in the jaw, hitting him hard enough to send him rolling. He saw Lady Blood Claw clutching the door with one hand, her head with the other. He was in the door frame when another sonic blast came. He felt the words in his bones. Seru was screaming and crying, and even Mister I looked miserable.
“NO YOU DONT!”
Corvayne managed to keep himself from being knocked over and grabbed a very dazed Seru and Mister I then dragged them through the door. As they entered the stairway, he turned and saw that Argyle had tried to slip past again, but got caught mid teleport again. He didn't push his luck, instead turning and helping Seru and Mister I up the steps. He couldn't quite hear Wick, as his hearing now had been replaced with a constant buzzing.
He stumbled up the last step and felt something like relief as he fell onto a waxed wood floor that smelled a little like booze before passing out.