As Ray rushed ahead, he sent off quick messages to both the Felds sisters to ask what was going on. He tried not to feel irritated. It wasn’t that surprising Mary had ended up not caring about the point he had brought up and just gone on ahead with the assault. A part of Ray had known this was bound to happen.

It had still annoyingly stung, though, like a mosquito he thought he had squashed coming back to pierce him with its bloodsucker. And it didn’t get better when he received no reply.

Relax, he told himself. They were in the middle of a fight. Most people wouldn’t be in any state to reply to any messages in such conditions. These people weren’t organizers and commanders like Maya, who could remain away from the thick of things, thus free to respond.

Plus, there was no time for frustrations and annoyances. He could deal with that after making sure not everyone died and this whole operation became a failure.

The spire loomed enormously before Ray as he approached. It was veritably the size of a mountain, the sides of which rotated up and up but not at too steep an incline. This ensured that people could traverse its height without even needing to actually climb for the majority of it.

Although, with how much it reminded Ray of the Growth Mana the Sylvans had used, he wasn’t intent on interacting with that spire much.

The eyeball flying farther above provided him with a unique perspective. Whatever plan Mary had concocted appeared to be working. Her group had pushed back the spire defenders. A handful of them lay dead nearer the base, while most of the rest held ground higher up the slope. Two were retreating even farther up, but their motion was too regular. Too disciplined.

Ray blinked. Ah, they were running towards something, not away from anything.

His immediate thought was that they were running off to return with reinforcements, but with the System in play, that should only need a message at most. Not actual people playing the part of messenger pigeons.

Ray had to stop them. Whatever they were up to, it could not be good. As such, he focused on sending his eyeball zipping past the actual battle. If he himself tried to rush through… well, it wasn’t going to be possible through that mess. Everyone was flinging their powers like this was the last time they would get to do so.

Which he supposed was true for some of them.

But where Ray would have been too big of an entity, his flying eyeball could definitely squeeze through.

It gave him a little time to observe the specifics of the fight. Someone powerful, likely one of those who had gone beyond level 25, was leading the charge. He used a huge sword alongside what looked like armour made of stone to beat back the enemy guards.

Their foes were no less powerful, though. Despite Mary and her group having taken care of a few of them, they had rallied. They all seemed to be using the same set of skills.

Translucent, glowing golden armour and armaments adorned all the guards. The armour seemed to be doing an exceptional job of protecting their wearers from other Mana-based abilities while the weapons cut and smashed apart their opponents’ powers without great difficulty.

On one side of the fight, Mary was taking care of the wings by using her ice powers. A miniature glacier was forming around her, which even the guards’ golden armaments were having trouble repelling.

Ray couldn’t spot Alice anywhere, though he did see Jacob in the mix, fighting toe to toe with a guard using a spear.

And then his eyeball was through. Perfect. Rerouting his attention, Ray focused on his next spell just as the two runaway guards grew bigger in this third sight. Then he used Spectral Step.

The world shifted and twisted. He needed a second to recover as soon as he reappeared about ten feet behind the guards, which also granted him time to use up another True Mana shard to top his capacity off. If he couldn’t kill the guards quickly, he might just need it, considering how much trouble the others were having.

But he never got the chance. Primordial Gauge fired at the same time as his third vision went dark. Fully dark, even reverting back to his original point of view.

Which meant that the eyeball had just been killed.

Ray twisted around to see a spiralling spear of Growth Mana jutting out of the ground nearby. Flutters of black-red energy burned away, the last remains of his construct.

Immediately, he moved back, summoning Soaring Wings as he did so. Just in time. Another spear of a similar build cracked in, splitting the ground where he had stood a second ago.

Ray looked up to see a Sylvan descending down the side of the huge spire. He grimaced. Of course, things weren’t going to be that simple. He had to wonder if Mary had known about the Sylvan’s presence. Had she deliberately forgotten to inform him? Not that he couldn’t see why after their last conversation.

“I was wondering when one of you would show up,” Ray said. “All out with the enmity this time, huh? Not bothering with any pretences about killing a Brighthorn or something?”

The Sylvan didn’t reply, only silently staring Ray down. There was something definitely strange about the alien. He moved too stiffly, too purposefully. The eyes too. He had a weird, emotionless glint to them, like he couldn’t even see Ray at all. Only a target to kill.

Ray would have used Primordial Gauge to try and suss out if there was anything that stood out in his list of abilities, but the Sylvan attacked too quickly.

Ah, what the hell. Ray had faced enough of them to know what to do.

This Sylvan’s curved sword was larger than the ones Ray had seen them use so far. Almost as tall as its wielder. Despite its size, the Sylvan slashed and sliced with it like it was as weightless as cotton candy on a stick.

Ray had no trouble dodging the swings itself. The combination of Soullife Cloak and his wings boosted his speed enough to get away from his foe’s attacks. Both the swings of the sword and the follow-up bursts of Growth Mana spiralling out of the ground.

Of course, this meant hitting the Sylvan was difficult for Ray too, as he was forced to keep moving to evade the attacks. He didn’t have much luck with Soulstrike and even Mottling Spiritguard failed to land any hits. For one, the alien was too fast. For another, his defence was strong too. Whenever he paused, he constructed a ring of rising spires to shield himself.

At one point, Ray managed to carve enough distance to set up his next sequence of attacks.

While the Sylvan was once again hidden behind a bulwark of spiralling growths, Ray summoned a Greater Windbane Maw construct. He made it fly a bit of distance away before making it ready to fire off its compressed laser breath at a signal from him.

Next, he used Spiritblood Stake for the first time. The spell worked almost instantaneously.

A spike of black-red energy materialized over the spot where the Sylvan stood, before driving itself down with the speed of a lightning bolt. It was likely that which forced the Sylvan to burst out of his barricade of spiralling growths.

That was when the maw fired.

The Sylvan was caught directly by the blistering stream of chaotic fire. But even as he was sent flying off the side of the spire, he didn’t yell out or make any sound at all. What was up with that guy?

The problem, though, was that the Sylvan wasn’t dead. Ray would have received a notification and some Essence if so. Even after taking a direct hit from a construct’s fiery breath, the Sylvan had survived. Was his level that high? Surely this random Sylvan on some random mountainous protrusion of Growth Mana couldn’t be as strong as Olgolair the Floor Lord.

But just as he arrived at the edge of the slope, he saw the Sylvan climbing back up. Sure, the alien was wounded and bleeding profusely, a chaotic, pulsating mass of flesh silling blood from higher up his chest, but he was alive.

He was still intent on killing Ray.

The eyeball revealed that the two guards were two-thirds of the way up the mountain. They would reach the top and then the next area on the cliff soon. Ray had no time to waste if he wanted to stop them.

Throwing a quick curse at the Sylvan, he hurried after his real targets. The Sylvan was attempting to come in hot pursuit, but Ray was fast on his wings.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Kiss my dust, you bastard,” Ray threw back.

And then froze in confusion as he spotted the guards higher up turning away from the spire top. What were they doing? Where were they going if not to the next area to call reinforcements? Did they have a redoubt somewhere close by? Ray’s momentary distraction at the sudden change was enough for the Sylvan to get back close enough to be a nuisance.

Cursing, Ray decided to give the Sylvan a taste of his own medicine. He used Lifeblood Soulform once more and created the buzzing monsters he had obtained from the Forest Amalgam.

They were exactly as he hoped they would be. Over a hundred little monster bees, glimmering with chaotic energy, all rushed at the Sylvan.

He attempted to protect himself with his Growth Mana like he had before, but the spiralling growths had large enough gaps between them for the bees to slip through without difficulty. And then they began attacking, their little stings leaving spots of bubbling, blistery, flesh-mutating chaos all over the Sylvan’s body.

Now Ray could rush off without needing to worry. For all that the Sylvan had defences and counters to many of Ray’s spells, fucking bees was not something he knew how to deal with.

Hell, Ray himself wasn’t sure how he would combat them easily. He supposed he had his construct’s flames to retard them with.

Focusing on his current goal, Ray twisted around and around the mountainous exhibition of Growth Mana as he climbed higher. Farther beneath him, the battle was still progressing well. Mary’s group had pushed even higher up the mountain. The guards were now focusing entirely on defending themselves and staying alive, even if they were forced to give ground.

Which made Ray even more suspicious about what was awaiting them all from wherever the two men higher up had gone.

Unfortunately, he didn’t reach them in time. While Ray was about to follow his eyeball and get behind them, he was faced with only one guard. The other had already gone on.

Ray cursed under his breath. He hadn’t used Spectral Step because of how much True Mana it consumed, but that had clearly been a suboptimal decision. Now, the guards had seen his approach and had decided to split up. One to keep him busy while the other completed the goal.

As he reached the guard waiting for him, Ray made sure to use Primordial Gauge.

[Primordial Gauge]

Ash Velan [Denizen]

Path: Path of Golden Oath [Rare]

Class: Hoplite [Uncommon] [Tier 2] at Level 28

Skills:

Golden Armament [Tier 6]: Arm yourself with armour and weapons of sacred gold. Armaments are constructed with Tier 6 Gold.

Spear Storm [Tier 5]: Your skill as a spear-wielder allows you to call upon the sacred spear skills of Golden Oath.

Steady Shield [Tier 5]: Your skill as a shield-wielder allows you to call upon the sacred shield skills of Golden Oath.

Auric Fortification [Tier 4]: The aura of gold around yourself lessens the impact of Man-based abilities. At Tier 4, all such abilities have their effectiveness reduced by 16%.

Marked Armament [Tier 4]: Your armament is now marked by your soul. So long as you are within a certain distance, your armament will return to you automatically. At Tier 4, this spell returns the armament to the wielder so long as it is within 20 meters.

Ray frowned a little. That was only a few skills for someone at level 28. Maybe these people on the Second Floor were different somehow.

“You’ve come far enough, imposter,” the man in golden armour said.

“Imposter?” Ray asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did your friend run off because he was too afraid to face me?”

The poor attempt at an insult was actually a hidden ploy to understand more about what was going on. It was nice the guard fell for it.

“We weren’t aware you were all gathering strength, hidden inside your dungeons and forests,” he said. “I will admit we underestimated you and have paid the price. But do not think for a moment that you will succeed and take your evilness to the Second Cliff. The Lostcaller will stop you.”

Ray’s heart skipped a beat. A Lostcaller? That was one of those monsters in his Objectives. What was one those doing with these people?

Well, he assumed it was a monster of some sort.

“Relying on a monster, are we?” Ray asked. “If that’s what you end up doing, then I don’t see the point in you fanatically protecting this spire against us imposters.”

“And that is precisely why the likes of you need to be stopped.”

“Who are you?” Ray asked. “Are you from a different Tower and just got here early? Or…?”

The man, apparently, didn’t think Ray was worth answering. He decided to attack.

The battle proceeded in a very evenly-matched fashion. Ray hadn’t been worried about the level disparity to begin with, and he was proven right not to. It was his actual skill as a fighter that proved more troublesome.

He had some unique abilities with his spear. Sometimes, he would throw it at Ray. It was easy to dodge, and Ray had pretended to swoop in the first time to take advantage. The man, believing Ray ignorant of his abilities, had stabbed with his free arm, his spar materializing only a moment before contact.

But Ray had summoned Mottling Spiritguard at the same time too. One orb blocked the spear, the rest hammering into his opponent.

That was where the man’s shield skills came into play. It blocked all the orbs completely, leaving no scratch on the glowing golden plate of curved metal.

That was, essentially, how Ray’s battle against the fellow proceeded. No matter how he tricked and swooped and attacked, no matter which spells he used, the guard’s shield was a surefire, impassable barrier. Forget Spiritguard, it even stopped the fiery blasts from his summoned draconic maw construct and even a direct blow from Soulstrike.

All the while, Ray managed to either block or dodge the different ways the guard’s spear attacked. Simple stabs and whacks were easy to stay out of reach of.

Even the ranged skills, while intriguing—the man could summon a storm of them erupting out of the ground or send a flight of them falling upon Ray—weren’t difficult to evade.

It was then that Ray realized that he was being toyed with. That the guard was executing the same manoeuvre his brethren were performing on Mary’s group. Stalling. Holding their ground until this Lostcaller arrived to save them all and wipe out everybody on Ray’s side.

So annoying.

Maybe this was the difference between fighting another regular tower-climbing Denizen versus… whoever this member of a discipled unit was. Ray wasn’t fighting another new Denizen. He was face-to-face with a real soldier.

The guard suddenly jumped back, twisting his shield around to protect himself against a blast of white energy. At the same time, Primordial Gauge fired off and Ray turned too.

Someone was coming up.

The newcomer arrived in a storm of crackling white energy. Ray didn’t recognize the dark hair or the scraggly beard or the lanky build, but he was certain he had seen the man near the front of Mary’s group.

“Looks like you could use a hand,” he said. “Although, I’d rather let you handle this guy and take out wherever his friend went.”

His voice was even. Measured. If he held any feelings regarding Ray, it was difficult to pick them up.

“What about the others?” Ray asked.

“We broke through. Mary, Lottie, Castor, and a few others are all going to be coming up before long. We’re worried these guys are up to no good.”

“You’d be right. They’re trying to call down some kind of monster that’s supposed to stop us.”

The newcomer cursed. “Then you keep him busy. I’ll take care of his friend.”

“Hey, wait!”

Ray’s call went unheeded as the man rushed off. Great. Now he’d have to deal with this idiot of a guard and the Sylvan approaching rapidly form behind. His bees just hadn’t been able to finish the job.

Though, when Ray looked back, he found the Sylvan looked hardly himself anymore. Covered in corrupted sores, oozing blood and flesh, looking all the world like a zombie.

“Ah, you’ve arrived,” the guard said, his spirits clearly lifting. “Good timing. Gut this imposter.”

Ray blinked. A human ordering a Sylvan around? And here he had thought Derrick Orden trying to take control of the Sylvans with a sneaky deal had been audacious.

But Ray was already forming a plan. A way to take care of both of his opponents at once. With no time to waste as the Sylvan was already here, basically, Ray made sure his wings were on his back, then used Mottling Spiritguard. Then he used it again. And again. Thirty-six sparking orbs spun around him like overexcited moons orbiting their planet.

Ray attacked immediately. Having risen to the air, he was free from the Sylvan’s Growth Mana protrusions, while one of his orbiting orbs deflected away the guard’s thrown spear. The rest of them shot to his opponents.

A volley of smashing orbs kept the Sylvan busy as he was forced to erect another barricade of hornlike Growth Mana. This allowed Ray to focus only on the guard.

He slammed two Spiritguard orbs at the man, who had brought up his impassable shield again. But Ray was ready for it. With a little more application of True Mana, he was able to convert both Spiritguard orbs into Greater Windbane Maws.

The draconic heads slammed in and grabbed the guard’s shield and spear. Both constructs were powered by enough force and momentum to overcome the guard’s strength, pushing aside the armaments to leave the man wide open.

Ray grinned. Now, to end this.

He had already created another draconic maw on his arm using Primal Spiritcraft. As soon as the two other maws had pulled aside the man’s arm, Ray fired a compressed laser after raising the spell’s Tier twice with the Mana Infuser ring. For the first time, he actually hit his target. For the first, and last, time.

For the laser breath overcame the guard’s golden aura and armour, tearing through his body and leaving him a chaotically burning wreck, flesh and bone growing wildly out of control.

Immediately, Ray dismissed his first two constructs. He twisted around to face the Sylvan, who was still inside his Growth Mana bulwark. Ray’s grin didn’t disappear. Oh, he knew how to get past that too, now.

He converted another of the chaotic orb. This time, he turned them into Miniature Minions.

It was something he had noticed the last time he had called up that Soul Aspect. As their name implied, they were small.

Small enough to fit through the gaps of the Sylvan’s barricade.

While the majority of the horde of Minions kept the Sylvan distracted, Ray was delighted to find he could attain fine control over his tiny constructs. He made sure two of them flew to either side of the Sylvan trying to swat away the other flies. Then he applied some more True Mana to convert them to draconic maws, which immediately fired off their laser breaths.

The Sylvan was stuck. Stuck fighting off the bees, stuck inside the barricade of his own making, stuck between two giant dragon heads that were belching fire in a compressed beam.

It took only a few seconds for the Sylvan to die.

[Enemy Defeated]

Blade Rifter [Tier 3] Sylvan: [Level 24] x1

Hoplite [Tier 2] Human: [Level 28] x1

Essence: +6,400

Knowledge: +6

True Mana Restored: +520

Essence to Level 25: 11,840/37,500

Knowledge to next Threshold: 699/800

Ray would have been taken a little moment to exult in his victory, but then, a sudden roar ripped out over the entire spire. The sound was loud and eerie, shaking him to the soul.

He was pretty sure that had to be the Lostcaller.