“Oh fuck this,” I shouted, dodging the myriad projectiles which exploded from the walls of South tower the moment I got into range. Naea rolled off my shoulder quickly enough to avoid them, flying back. My own momentum made the arrows punch me even harder before I managed to stop. While I managed to dodge most, I had still been punched in the leg and shoulder hard.
I fell to the sand below, snapping one of the arrows painfully. The barrage of arrows stopped once line of sight was broken. I hissed as I looked at my wounds, cursing at the tower. “You okay?” Naea asked with worry clear in her voice.
“Nope,” I answered, “but I will be. Come help.” The arrow in my leg had broken, while the one in my shoulder punched right through. Well, that’s not good. These wounds would have been lethal just a few days prior, yet now I looked at them with little more than annoyance. Actually, those arrows would have shredded iron, only my increased attributes keeping me from being torn apart. Weird world, I decided.
Starting high, Naea landed in the sand behind me. She grabbed the arrow right under the head while I did my best to relax the muscles. Pain was quickly becoming a choice for me, but there was no ignoring the scraping of wood against bone. As the shot had come from above, the angle was fairly awkward. Not so bad for a fairy, though. She put her feet against my back and ripped the arrow away without a countdown.
I howled like a demon.
I hurried to circulate mana in the area, numbing the pain and speeding up my regeneration. Behind me, Naea looked at the injury, her long finger tapping her lower lip. She had sensed something flicker in my magic and it had given her an idea, unbeknownst to me. “I’m going to try something…”
“Hold on, let’s discuss-” Continuing a trend, I gasped. Naea’s mana flowed into the wound like a cup being filled. My head was filled with birdsong, the heady smell of an undisturbed forest clearing. The pain vanished. Even the arrow sticking out my thigh felt like little more than an itch. In my excitement, I removed it carefully and easily. “Wow!”
Once the second arrow was gone, the pain returned and there was a small thump in the sand behind me. Naea was panting on her back, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. I scooped her up and removed a canned soft drink from my inventory. I had dozens from the fridges at the park café. She sipped the carbonated lemon drink, reminding me of a hummingbird. Have her wings changed a little?
For a moment, I could have sworn they were darker and less translucent but I looked closer and they looked normal again. “Checking out the goods, are ye? Try this one for size.” Naea’s smile was vibrant as she opened a System prompt before me. “I could feel something bubbling since the contract. The hammer frog earlier pushed me to level twenty , so could be anything…”
I was more than a little charmed by Naea’s instant hesitation after excitement. “It’s okay to be proud when you get something right, Naea.” I smiled back at her, trying to encourage more confidence. My words did their work, judging by Naea’s now-smug face. “Is this how learning skills works in general? You reach a threshold and it’ll come to you?”
“Maybe? The System isn’t giving me much to go on when it comes to my own potential.” Naea shrugged, still recovering her mana. For myself, I had mostly just smashed into my mana randomly and come away with a way to use it. It felt like months since I pushed my Mental attribute to 50 and wrested control of the burning river within. Attributes stopped hurting once I managed that, I realised.
Skill Unlocked - Healing Bond (Dragon)
It is the nature of both dragon and fae to give and to take. This is the give.
Effect: For a sizable mana cost per second, heal Patron’s wounds.
For a sizable mana cost per second, Patron may heal familiar.
“Huge fan. Seriously, well done, this is incredible.” I had nothing but genuine praise. Taking serious damage had been the most obvious worry in the Dungeon. While not life-threatening, the recovery time would have been frustrating and potentially dangerous. Anything which would alleviate danger was more than welcome. I hopped to my feet and gave Naea a light high five. It snapped wonderfully.
“Shall we?” I gestured upwards. Naea wisely let me go first, which I smirked at. The speed and power of the arrows above had scared me, planting hesitation in my psyche. Naea’s breakthrough was absolutely perfect for clearing those dark clouds. We moved some distance back up the road before climbing back on top.
The tower didn’t immediately fire. The arrows it fired could easily hit me from here, only a few dozen metres farther away, yet no projectiles? “This really is like a video game,” I muttered. I always hated tower defence games. “Let’s do this.”
As I began my sprint, Naea right behind me, I started sending mana into the Yo Staff. My weapon now lighter than usual, I became a whirling dervish. The staff was a helicopter rotor, punching the arrows away. Knowing they were coming made the situation trivial. I laughed wildly, confidently deciding this was the most fun I had ever had. The pain from before hadn’t even landed in my short-term memory.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
In short order, we reached the sheer grey walls of the tower. At the end of the path stood a singular stone door with a handle. I had spent around a tenth of my mana getting us to the large door. My fears of there being no entrance were cleared, at least. Which only made it feel more cruel when Naea shouted. “It won’t open!”
Of course not. I was about to drop into the sand when a System prompt stopped me. I didn’t abate the whirlwind with my staff as I quickly read the quest which appeared. I finished and shook the window away from my vision before growling and standing my ground. “Get under the road!”
Dungeon Quest Received! - Weather The Storm
Trial Towers hold the opportunity for fate-changing rewards to those worthy. Prove yourself worthy to scale the Storm Dragon’s tower.
Remaining time: 14.49
Reward: Guidance Stone
Perhaps the vague wording was intended as part of the challenge, but it didn’t take a genius to know what storm needed to be weathered. While I had to stay at the door, Naea didn’t. However, she ignored me. To my horror, she started moving out of my sphere of protection. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I got the quest, too!” Naea shouted over the clattering of arrows, “but my timer isn’t going down!” It was taking most of my concentration to avoid being punctured while keeping her safe, so I could do nothing more than trust her. She deserved it, even if it felt like letting a baby bird out of the nest.
“Don’t you dare die!” I roared. “Three… Two… One… Now!” Second over second, the pressure was increasing. Protecting Naea was about to become impossible either way, so I stopped blocking the shots aimed for her and focused on my own. The pressure on me all but vanished. Between Staff Mastery, Infusion and the base strength my body now enjoyed, the speed could even be described as slow.
A quick look at the quest timer told me it had been just over two minutes. Three minutes later, my shoulders were on fire and Naea returned. One of her wings was punctured and the other was ripped. I couldn’t spare a hand, so I stuck out a cheek, knowing what she needed. She made a disgusted noise in her throat but pressed her hands onto my face all the same. I returned her earlier favour and activated Healing Bond for the first time. The mana drain felt like a brain freeze for a moment before it stopped.
“You’re a bloody monster,” Naea whispered. I wasn’t sure if I was even meant to hear it, so I let the comment pass. Then, louder. “Two minutes left on the quest. We got this.” Without another word, she leapt back into the arrows. Was my drive for progression rubbing off on her? If so, I hoped it was a good thing.
Also, it meant her quest was shorter than mine. I had little else to think about for the next two minutes, but there were only so many reasons for that. The System might judge it based on level, strength, or some deeper potential. Maybe something to do with Naea being a familiar? It could be random for all I knew. Like many questions I had, there was no one to give me an answer.
The two minutes passed and Naea returned. She looked more injured this time, and
without asking slapped her hands onto the back of my neck. I obliged, sending a small crystal of draconic magic I had prepared through our connection to heal her. Her hands shot away from my skin like they’d been slapped but I didn’t have time to worry about that. Naea finally went underneath the road and I no longer had distractions.
Just me, the tower and a never-ending storm of arrows.
Minute over minute, the intensity had increased. This was why Naea looked worse after two minutes than the first three. More and more arrows poured down from above, a heavy and deadly shower. I slowly paced my mana out, avoiding its use where I could originally but finding no quarter any longer.
I fell into a trance. I danced along with the rhythm of Weapon Mastery vibrating through my muscles. Half-conscious, I became a being of pure magic. My body existed, but it was only there as a protection for the magical self. I comfortably gave up parts of the outer self to protect my core, betting on myself against the flow of time and the inexorable weight above.
My arms screamed. Mana worked to strengthen the muscles but overuse was overuse. The magic of Infusion acted primarily as a substantial overall boost to my physical attributes and senses. To counteract the damage this extra strength placed on my body, a portion of the river within dove into and soothed my damaged muscles.
With more than five minutes to go, I felt the equilibrium shift.
Understanding the limitations and capabilities of my own mana pool was becoming second nature. As the difficulty stepped up once more, the balance I had barely maintained began to slip. By allowing myself to take superficial damage over the last minute, I recovered some of my lost energy but not enough. With less than three quarters of my mana remaining, I grimaced.
A high Mental attribute could apparently be a curse. Did those with high Fortitude worry about their stamina in this way? Probably not. A dozen calculations and a hundred possibilities danced in my mind, far away from my main concentration. They were simply whispers of certainty and doubt in the back of my mind.
If it costs ten percent of my maximum energy between the sixth and fifth minutes, what level of difficulty can I manage in the final moments? The arrows themselves have been getting faster, so taking one full force will do more damage than before. If I retreat, assuming I even could, would I fail the quest or would it restart?
Enough.
I wrested control of my errant thoughts and focused them to task. If the capability to split thought into so many paths was a hallmark of the Mental attribute, the value of a high Will attribute was controlling them. Once my mind began to harbour doubts, it needed to be shut down. This was a trial, set down by a Storm Dragon, whatever that was. My pride wouldn’t let me back down, and the Aspect of the Dragon within agreed.
I gave up more and more of my body, conserving mana for the final two minutes. Naea’s healing would have helped but reaching me would be impossible at this point. An ocean of arrows fell around and atop me, trying desperately to make me bend. Rage flared in my heart as I realised that was a lie. The ocean did not desperately do anything. It simply was.
And I, a rock in the river, forcing the furious water to part. Spins, dodges, flips and many, many slices and punctures were my reward. The river eroded me second over second, shaving away anything I could allow. My skin was ragged and weeping but so what? When the skin rebelled, trying to avoid pain, I squashed the resistance and powered through on pure will alone.
My mana reserves dwindled to nothing and I raged. The storm had not subsided. So? My arms began to sag and my legs lost strength, but I dodged all the same. Each sidestep or block was agony as I forced my body to maintain the strength for just another moment longer. A System prompt appeared in my periphery as the final dregs of my power waned.
Dungeon Quest Completed! - Weather The Storm
You have passed the entrance trial to the Tower of the Storm Dragon. Congratulations!
Reward: Guidance Stone of Lightning
Sweet, I managed to think, the final word before unconsciousness stole me away again.