After Elijah tied the Sash of the Whirlwind around his waist, he looked at his status. What he saw was incredible – a boost of three points to both Strength and Dexterity – but what he felt was even more impressive. It was difficult to explain, but he felt faster and more energetic than even that small boost would have suggested. Indeed, the effect was so prominent that he felt almost as if the world was moving just a little bit slower than normal.

His Predator and Guardian forms both came with significant attribute boosts, so he knew very well what those felt like. This was something entirely different, and unless he missed his guess, it would prove to be life-altering, at least in terms of his combat ability.

Once again, he cursed his inability to inspect his items. Sure, he knew the name, but unlike had been the case with the Ring of Anonymity and the Ring of Aquatic Travel, the label did nothing to hint at its purpose. Even so, if that influx of speed that he felt was any indication, the name still felt appropriate enough.

For a few minutes, Elijah practiced moving with the new sash, but he quickly tired of the game. He wouldn’t be able to properly test it until he found some enemies. So, with that in mind, he once again shifted into his scaled panther form and set off up the moldy stairs and into the darkness beyond.

With One with Nature, he could feel most of his surroundings, but even so, he kept his every sense trained on his immediate vicinity. Like that, he crested the first flight of stairs and reached a small rectangular platform. There was nothing there, so Elijah quickly mounted the set of stairs leading up and in the direction he’d just come. Soon enough, he found another switchback. Then another until, finally, he reached a thick, wooden door banded with black iron.

Stepping close, he tried to extend his senses to the room beyond, but he felt nothing past the door. So, he adopted his human form, then retrieved the Warden’s keyring from where he’d stashed it in his pack. After that, it only took a few tries to find the proper key, which he used to unlock the door. Then, he pushed it open to reveal a dark room filled with crates and barrels.

He stepped inside, and the door slammed shut behind him.

The moment it did, Elijah felt a thousand presences flare to life around him. One with Nature didn’t tell him much about what they were, but he could feel their long, fat, and furry bodies. More importantly, he sensed that they were aggressive, and that they’d targeted him as their potential prey.

Without hesitation, Elijah preemptively cast Healing Rain, then canceled Essence of the Monkey before using Shield of Brambles. Finally, he cast Shape of the Guardian. Shape of the Predator was great for dealing damage, but with the size of the horde bearing down on him, Elijah knew he couldn’t avoid taking damage himself. For that, the scaled ape form was far superior.

Discarding Essence of the Monkey in favor of Shield of Brambles followed a similar logic. A few extra points of Dexterity weren’t going to help him very much in his current situation, but a little extra mitigation and whatever reflective damage came with the spell would be far more useful. In fact, it was just such an occasion – an onslaught of smaller, numerous enemies – for which he’d preemptively decided to use Shield of Brambles. It was just a twist of fate that it had come so quickly after he’d gotten the spell.

Or maybe not. The towers were curated, after all, so there was a good chance that it had somehow noticed the acquisition of the spell and given him a perfect chance to use it. Elijah had no idea, and he was in no position to ponder a question to which he didn’t think he’d ever get an answer.

Even as those thoughts crossed his mind, his transformation into a scaled ape completed, and just in time for him to meet his opponents. The first one launched itself high into the air, clearly with the intention of clawing out his eyes. However, with the seeming time dilation afforded by his new Sash of the Whirlwind, Elijah saw it coming from a mile away. Still, his foresight was only enough to allow him to turn his head before the furry bullet hit him in the side of the head.

Elijah’s scales protected him from the thing’s sharp teeth, but the sheer force of its impact sent him stumbling.

The rodent – and it was definitely a foot-long rat, bulging with muscle – wasn’t so lucky. The second it hit him, a giant thorn ejected from Elijah’s scales, piercing it through the chest. It only went about an inch deep before breaking off, but that was more than enough to send the little monster to screeching in pain as it fell to the stone floor.

A quick but vicious stomp ended that, and he felt the monster’s bones crunching underfoot. He also felt its innards oozing between his talons, but thankfully, he didn’t have any time to think about that before another little rodent hit him. Then another. Dozens came, all at once, but they met the same end as the first. Pierced through by thorns, they all fell to the floor, where Elijah stomped them to death.

None of them were particularly dangerous. Not individually. However, that was mostly because they only got one bite in. However, Elijah knew that, without the extra armor provided by Shield of Brambles or his enhanced Constitution, he never could have withstood the onslaught. Even with all of his advantages – and in his scaled ape form, he was almost perfectly suited for that kind of battle – it was still an incredibly painful fight. The rodents were equipped with sharp teeth as well as enhanced strength, so, while they had trouble getting all the way through his scales, their bites were still anything but comfortable.

But as always, Elijah endured. The small wounds they did manage to inflict were healed quickly enough by Healing Rain, so he was never in much danger. That would have changed had he been in his human or scaled panther forms, though. It wasn’t difficult to imagine being ripped to shreds under that barrage of sharp teeth and claws.

Even in his guardian form, the fight would have gone very differently if Shield of Brambles hadn’t proved its worth by incapacitating the little beasts.

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By the time he squished the last one underfoot, Elijah had long since lost track of how many he’d killed. Hundreds, surely, though he didn’t think the number exceeded a thousand. Regardless, he slew so many that he actually gained another level, putting him at thirty-six. With that last monster dead, he let his shoulders sag in relief and fatigue.

He hadn’t really had to put forth much effort. He wasn’t that tired, either. However, there was just something about being constantly nibbled to death that brought with it an exhaustion all its own. Yet, he couldn’t allow himself to rest for more than a couple of minutes before he moved on, exploring the room in which he’d found himself.

Remaining in his scaled ape form, Elijah loped from one end of the room to the other, surmising that it was a cellar of sorts. He did discover that the crates were filled with foodstuffs – mostly moldy bread and bits of dried meat – and the barrels contained some foul-smelling liquid he took to be beer of a sort. He didn’t taste it, though, so he couldn’t be certain.

Instead, after shifting back to his human form, he retrieved one of his jugs from his pack and drank deeply before satisfying his hunger by dipping into his own travel rations. They were mostly tasteless, but he did savor one of the berries he’d brought from his grove. After almost two months of travel, he didn’t have many left, so he’d resolved to eat them sparingly.

The tart flavor reminded him of home, though, and more than ever, Elijah found himself missing his grove. Certainly, his thirst for adventure hadn’t faded, but he couldn’t deny that he also craved the comforts and safety of home.

Once he’d satisfied his hunger and slaked his thirst, Elijah rose from his haunches and headed toward a stairway he’d found during his previous examination of the room. It was short, ending in a pair of doors embedded in the roof, confirming his deduction that he was in a cellar. However, that presented a problem in that he was quite sure that, on the other side of those doors were enemies. And not the sort he could kill as easily as the rat swarm.

Mentally preparing himself to respond to any threats, Elijah took a deep breath, then reached out to unlatch the doors before pushing one open.

He poked his head out just enough to see the confines of a broad, empty hallway before scrambling through. After slowly letting the door close behind him, Elijah shifted into the Shape of the Predator, then adopted Guise of the Unseen before stepping into a deep shadow near the wall. It was just in time, too, because only a few seconds later, he heard the heavy tromp of boots and the clinking sound of metal clashing against metal coming down the hallway.

A moment later, another ogre – this one clad in black armor – appeared. He already had his weapon out, but he’d nonchalantly let the massive broadsword rest on his shoulder as he marched down the spacious hall. Elijah didn’t dare move a muscle as he hid in the shadow of what he now recognized as a tall, narrow statue depicting another dark elf. This one had the same elven features that the Warden had possessed, but he wore an imperious scowl. Instinctively, Elijah knew that this elf was likely the final foe he’d have to defeat if he wanted to conquer the tower.

First, though, he needed to defeat five lieutenants.

To that end, he waited – holding his breath the whole time – as the enormous ogre stomped down the hall. Guise of the Unseen had proven itself hundreds of times, and he trusted the ability implicitly. However, the close proximity of the gargantuan – and deadly – ogre was enough to send his heart to beating out of his chest. Yet the ability remained just as effective as ever, because the ogre never even glanced in his direction. Still, Elijah didn’t relax until it turned a corner and was out of sight for more than thirty seconds.

For a few more seconds after that, he remained still as he let his heart rate normalize. When it did, he took another deep, hissing breath, then padded forward on silent feet. Staying low to the ground, he practically slithered to the end of the hall, then peaked around the corner. The coast was clear, so he continued on.

As Elijah progressed, he studied his surroundings with a keen eye. The structure itself was much the same as he’d encountered below. Just unadorned stone walls, without much in the way of decoration. However, it was free of the algae that pervaded the sewer and dungeon, which told him that the denizens at least understood the value of cleanliness. Every so often, he’d pass by a tapestry depicting ogres in battle. The style was extremely primitive, but it was easy enough to make out the subjects.

Then there were the statues, each one representing the same dark elf. Some had him standing stoic guard, a giant sword with its tip planted into the ground. Others showed him in the middle of battle, sword raised high and with a snarl on his sharp-featured face. It was a not-so-subtle hint of what was to come.

Finally, after spending quite some time wandering the halls – and seeing more than a dozen ogre guards along the way – Elijah found an unlocked door. It wasn’t the first he’d encountered, but it was the only one that was occupied. He crept through the door, seeing a tall, gangly man sitting behind a desk with his head in his hands.

Elijah slipped around the edge of the room, preparing himself to attack. He used Predator Strike, then Venom Strike for good measure. However, just before he pounced, he noticed the heavy shackles on the man’s ankles. From those iron cuffs stretched a pair of thick chains leashing him to a couple of rings beneath the desk.

That’s when Elijah stopped to really study the man. He was bald, and his skin held a waxy sheen. Upon his body were a collection of rags – dirty, dusty, and frayed. But more than anything, Elijah noticed that the man was weeping.

He was a prisoner, just like the troll had been.

For a moment, Elijah considered attacking anyway, but he discarded that notion as disgusting. The man was clearly human, and the idea of killing an unarmed and helpless man crossed almost all of Elijah’s lines. On top of that, he didn’t sense that the prisoner was very powerful, so he wouldn’t even get much experience for it. So, there was little to gain from killing the man, which gave Elijah two choices.

One, he could simply leave the prisoner behind.

Or two, he could free the man and use him as a source of information.

The former was, on the surface, the smarter option. There were a ton of ways freeing the prisoner could backfire, and Elijah wasn’t so certain of his own strength that he wanted to make the task before him more difficult. However, the second was appealing as well. The possibility of gaining the upper hand through information was enticing, all on its own.

Ultimately, though, the decision came down to one thing. Elijah knew that towers were structured very deliberately. The presence of the prisoner was important, and he suspected that freeing the man would prove, if not necessary, then important going forward. That was enough to push Elijah into the second option.

So, without further hesitation, Elijah backed away – just out of reach of the man’s chains – then let his predator form fall away. With it went Guise of the Unseen, exposing him completely. However, the prisoner was too engrossed in his own misery to even notice the sudden appearance of another human being.

Elijah cast Healing Rain, which encompassed the entire room. Then, even as the first drops fell and the man looked up, he said, “Hello. I’m Elijah. You look like you could use some help.”