The light vanishes, obscuring the monsters. Ethan visualizes the sigils of the Flame spell and unleashes a scorching wave upon them. The ones his spell swallows writhe on the ground like spiders, their limbs curling inward. He jumps back and spins in the air, spreading fire in a circle around the three of them.
"You can kill them!" Rowan cries, bewildered. He sheathes his dagger and grabs his guitar. He strikes the chords, unleashing a reverb that echoes not only in the air but also in the Ether. Thunderous drums echo from the air along the distorted, grinding guitar riffs.
A monster leaps above the fire and lands at the edge of the fiery arena. It stands on four insectoid, fleshy legs that bend at two articulations. A humanoid head, with black, faceted eyes and a hundred shark teeth, crowns a bulging body of flaccid flesh and chitinous plate. Its arms bend on themselves, like the folded weapons of a praying mantis.
Each note of Rowan's jagged barrage of sound hit Ethan's chest with the strength of a sledgehammer, nurturing an animalistic drive. Filling with power, Ethan's muscles steam as he triggers Strengthening. He cannot stay in place; the energy within him, the song coursing through his veins, urges him to move, to rip and tear.
The monster extends mantis scythes from its arms, their edges dripping with dark ooze. It lunges and slashes wide, but Ethan moves forward. He places himself behind the monster's reach and blocks its limb at an articulation. It pushes Ethan's back with its inertia, his shoes dragging on the ground.
Too close, Ethan lets go of Phantom Reaver and summons his dagger. He stabs it at the base of its maw with a strength that digs his arm into the wound. The blade juts through the back of its head, and the monster goes limp.
'Something is wrong,' Ethan thinks. His draw on the surrounding Ether is lower than it should be because Strengthening refuses to use up more of it. 'I'm as strong as I ever was without using life force; why can't I go further, at the upmost of my Ether flow?'
Another beast, like an elongated spider, an eight-legged ant with spider eyes and mandibles, jumps in the arena of fire. It bounces off the ground with a speed that catches Ethan off-guard. Its mandibles fall on him, aimed at his shoulders.
Ethan catches them, using his grip to grab the slick, chitinous, dripping spikes. The weight feels like a titanic boulder, his back arching under the pressure held by his abs.
'Those things are much stronger than the golem,' Ethan realizes. He closes his eyes and focuses on the flow of Ether coursing through him. He imagines the threads of Strengthening bulging, forcing them to transport more Ether.
His muscles, already sculpted beyond human capabilities, grow further. His vest tears at the shoulders, back, biceps, triceps, and forearms while his pants hold by a thread. He pushes back, lifting the beast off the ground, before arching backward and pulling its mandibles apart. With the sound akin to crushing a crab's shell, the monster splits in halves along its length.
Black ichor falls from the corpse, and Ethan casts a shield; he will not test the toxicity or acidity of their blood with his own skin. He dashes backward, approaching Russ and Rowan as the fire dies down. A hand to the sky, Ethan summons a fireball and shoots it high, shining crimson light over the island.
The beasts, two dozen in total, snarl and screech as they approach. They drag, like predators playing with their prey. The corpses of the one Ethan killed turn into dust, leaving nothing behind.
Ethan re-summons Phantom Reaver and coats the blade in a Flamme spell. His body screams to rush at them, to tear them to pieces in a mindless rampage. This bard's ability to raise Ethan's strength is great, but the emotions it imposes on the mind are dangerous.
Ethan dashes at the closest beast. His shoes dig into the ground as he explodes forward. Phantom Reaver cuts through a claw-bearing creature, its segmented body splitting and igniting.
Without pause, Ethan grabs and tears off the monster's arm. He swings it, hurling the limb into the ranks of its comrades. It crashes into one closing in on Russ and Rowan, knocking it off balance.
Rowan's music grows louder, its ripples in the Ether swelling into a tempest. Life force seeps into the Bard's aura, elevating it to new heights. The threads lash at Ethan, but instead of wounding him, they nourish his body. His tendons and skin tingle; his heart pounds, vibrating his chest like a mad gorilla beating its own.
Ethan dashes through the monsters, his speed leaving a trail of fire that cuts through their limbs, torsos, necks, and legs. In an instant, half of them lie dead. Pain surges in Ethan's ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, the impacts of each cut accumulating damage. He lets go of Strengthening to only rely on Rowan's song. With his freed influx of Ether, he unsummons his blade and recasts Flame in his right hand; focusing on his mind, he summons Lightning Bolt in his left.
The unrelenting monsters climb over the bodies of their fallen, drawing ever closer. Russ swells in size, finally regaining control over his Ether. He lunges forward and grabs a neck; he tears off the sickening head along its spine in a series of wet pops.
Ethan swallows the close monsters in fire and pierces the farthest ones with bolts of lightning. Their flesh sizzles and bursts under the spells, bringing them one by one to the ground.
A last one rushes through, immune to the heat and electricity. 'Martial skill echo,' Ethan thinks, visualizing Skysong at the same time. His specter forms in its path and digs his feet into the ground, the spear posed forward. The beast lunges at it, impaling itself in the chest.
Ethan jumps above the creature as he summons Phantom Reaver. In his descent, he cuts through its neck, bringing its head to the ground as its body remains lifted by the spear.
"You leveled up. You leveled up. You leveled up. Russ leveled up. Russ leveled up. Melee Weapon (Dagger) leveled up (x3). Melee Weapon (Long Sword) leveled up (x10). Melee Weapon (Improvised) leveled up (x2). Melee Weapon (Spear) leveled up (x3). Ether manipulation leveled up," the system announces.
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A shiver echoes throughout Ethan's body as Rowan's song ends. Ethan's muscles deflate, and feebleness takes him. He places a knee to the ground as his shoulders fail to hold his arms. Tingles fill his flesh as if blood had been taken from it and then restored. He stands, his strength returning languidly.
'There was a reason I couldn't go stronger, obviously. But I feel like I could do it again even without a bard,' Ethan thinks. 'Does this mean there is a cap to characteristics?'
Rowan lowers his guitar, his jaw hanging at the sight of the bloodied mounts. Russ shrinks down, and Rowan lowers a hand to pet him despite the black blood covering his maw.
Russ snaps his head and bites the hand. He pulls, bringing Rowan to the ground. "Drop it!" Ethan commands as he bursts forward. Russ jaws unclench, dropping his arm; he bites down on Rowan's neck.
Ethan slides his arm under Russ' throat and squeezes. The neck lock will either make him fall unconscious or he will stop biting down. Russ' jaws snap shut, crushing Rowan's spine and squeezing blood out of his body.
Rowan's lifeless body lies on the blood-soaked ground. Ethan's breath hitches, his mind replaying the scene, trying to make sense of what happened.
"I'm sorry," Ethan laments. Russ lets go, but Ethan shifts his grip to catch him by the scruff. The man will come back, but an emotion crushes Ethan's heart. Is it guilt, or could it be that it is fear? This never happened, as Russ was a prolonging of Ethan's intent, trained for years, and intelligent when it came to knowing who his allies were.
Ethan looks down as Russ finishes sizing down, his heart rate slowing down. He looks up at Ethan and whines, confused on why he is held by the skin. His own heart hastening, Ethan doubts he can release Russ. Could he turn on him once again?
Ethan summons dark tendrils from his fingers, paralyzing Russ. He tunes it to let Russ breathe. He lets go and summons his shade drake coat into his hand. Lifting Russ to his back, Ethan ties him with the coat. He triples checks the knots, the improvised devices holding Russ from the bottom and pressing him against Ethan.
"Sorry," Ethan mutters. How long until the curse ends its course? How long until he can cure him? He looks to the ground as a shiver spreads from deep inside. "Just a little longer; I'll help you; I promise."
Ethan breaks into a jog and leaps to the next bridge, guided in the darkness by predator's sight. Monsters manifest along the edges as he lands. 'Martial echo,' he thinks as he bursts forward. The specter runs in before Ethan, aiming Skysong forward.
The monsters claw their way to the island, screeching and thrashing at the air. The specter impales the one blocking the next bridge and pushes it to the side. Another leaps at Ethan. He ducks and cuts the beast's chest while gliding on his knees.
Ethan kicks the ground and leaps to the next bridge. 'Cancel Martial echo,' he thinks, dispelling the specter before the living mass of darkness swallows it.
One after the other, he crosses every island, each time opening a path to rush to the next bridge. Bodies litter the place, left untouched once dead. The monsters' goal is only to kill; they are not starved predators, but executioners.
Landing on the last island before the largest one, Ethan sees a man sitting on a rock, a last monster vanishing near him. He's breathless, holding himself upright by leaning on the shaft of his glaive. The weapon freezes the air around its blade, creating a descending curvature of the dim light.
He spares a glance at Ethan before looking back down. He wears heavy armor made of chainmail, cloth, and plates covered in the scaled leather of a large, blue reptile. His lungs struggling, he says, "I'm one bridge away from the end. I hope you don't plan to attack me; I wouldn't go down easily."
"Why would I even try that?" Ethan asks.
"You don't know?" the man growls. His lips draw to a line. "That's good. Perhaps you'd agree to help me with the next part then."
'I don't know… Is there an advantage to gain from killing another man? A way to remove the shackles?' Ethan ponders. He approaches but leaves several meters between them. "I guessing you're referencing the beast living there."
"I am," the man growls. He stands and motions towards the city-sized island. Moldings of humanoid figures cover the tower's surface; it reaches high into the sky, above a layer of opaque, black clouds. The rest of the island is nothing but a barren land, devoid of life. "I haven't fought it yet; hell, I haven't seen it yet. Let me catch my breath, and then we'll go."
Ethan glances over his shoulder at Russ. His dark eyes look back at Ethan, painful. He unties Russ and lays him on the ground. "Rest," Ethan commands, even though Russ ignores the meaning of the word.
"Wounded?" the man asks.
"Sick," Ethan answers. He sits down on a rock beside Russ and locks gazes with the man. His eyes shift to the dark tendrils linking Ethan and Russ before coming back to Ethan. "If you are strong enough to kill those monsters, I welcome working together. But understand that betraying me or my companion will earn you nothing but a painful end. One your mind will not heal from, shall you come back to life."
The man swallows hard. Pushing against his glaive, he straightens his back to meet Ethan's eye level but fails, his torso short a good ten centimeters. "I won't attack you or the dog. I've never betrayed anyone, and I don't intend to start today."
Some of the lord's condemnations contained twisted secrets; what did this man do? "Why are you here for then?" Ethan asks.
"I'm not proud of it," the man begins. He looks away from Ethan's cold stare. "But if you must know, I spent years drinking away my pain. I'm here because of my sloth, because I wasted time – time I should have spent with the ones I had left."
The lord made another such judgment during the game for Grant. Ethan realizes he forgot about the man; he must be somewhere below, lying dead for the night.
"I guess you won't tell me why you're down here with me," the man says. "The name is Anders, by the way."
"The lord used him to anger me and condemned me for my wrath," Ethan says, nodding towards Russ. "Otherwise, I would have killed them."
"So, you tried to fight them too," Anders says. "I think my party succeeded; I'm the only one they could use their power on."
"When did you enter the labyrinth?" Ethan asks.
"Right when it was announced," Anders answers.
"You didn't even think about it?"
Anders snorts. He glances at Ethan and explains, "Most people don't know, but if you are the first to do something grand, the system rewards you with pretty good rewards. So yes, we didn't think about it."
"What kind of reward?" Ethan asks, feinting ignorance.
"Unique titles and abilities, sometimes characteristic points," Anders answers. He extends his hand, and frost falls from it, dripping like liquid hydrogen. "I got the Permafrost ability by being the first to absorb ice Ether. The funny thing is that the Ether would have killed me if I hadn't used the ability to control it."
"A bit oversharing," Ethan comments.
"If we are to fight together, we should know each other's strengths; it will improve our chances," Anders retorts. His gaze falls on Ethan, expecting him to return the favor.
Ethan motions towards Russ. "I can cast a hex that saps a target strength. Otherwise, I am a melee fighter, and I can cast flames."
"I would expect someone strong enough to climb here to have cleared a few dungeons," Anders says. "Very well. Now, let me sleep in peace. We'll handle whatever is waiting for us when the light comes back."
Before Ethan can argue, he senses Anders falling asleep; the fight must have exhausted him. Ethan's body is spent, but his mind stays awake. He sits back, letting his muscles rest as he keeps watch of the island.