With Azim and his companions, including the knight, having won their matches, they were all in possession of a floating orb of light levitating above their heads. That was, except for Azim. Instead, Roman was the owner of such an orb in place of the robot.
“So what now?” Riva asked the knight, who shrugged, unsure of what to do in their current situation.
“Well, what if I just...” muttered Leone, reaching for his orb with a finger extended as he spoke.
Riva and the knight tried to tell the young man to be careful, but before they could get more than two words out, Leone had already made contact with the ball of light. Upon being poked by the skinny young man’s finger, the orb glossed over with a white shine and darkened in color. After that, nothing seemed to be any different.
“Hm…” Leone humphed, looking up at the new color of the orb.
Before long, the match going on in the arena below concluded. It had only lasted a minute. The travelers had barely paid any attention to the fight going on... or to who the fighters even were. A flash of light shone from down in the arena, sending the loser back outside, while a familiar doorway opened up for the winner. With their back turned to everyone, a figure in a black trench coat walked toward the door. They had steel shoulder pads with a spike on each one over their coat, and a wide-brimmed black hat to match. Clearly, the figure was not traveling with any companions, as they walked right through the door without waiting for anyone. Azim wished he had seen the figure’s face.
As soon as the figure was gone and the fighting area was empty, Leone warped back into the center, alone. The group gasped at what had happened, but Riva quickly noticed that the young man’s ball of light above him was gone. Pointing the fact out to Leone, he looked around the arena and saw that the doorway with the staircase was still visible. “Hmm…” he considered.
“Guys! Touch your balls!” Leone yelled to his companions. “Ah shoot, I mean— Just reach for the light!”
The knight was the first to follow the young man’s prompt, reaching for the orb and transporting to the center next to him a second later. The two nodded at each other in satisfaction. Riva was still irked by the young man’s accidental comment but didn’t let it get to her much. She put two fingers to the light, like a doctor checking for a pulse, and a moment later, found herself next to Leone and the knight.
They all looked up at Azim, who was still waiting with his mosstail. “Come on, buddy,” called Leone. “I know Lemaerk popped us in here, but the barrier is still down. I think it just goes down between matches. You can just jump down.”
Upon hearing the young man’s words, a fair-skinned girl from the crowd jumped out of her seat and ran down to the bottom of the bleachers. She jumped over the short guard rail and into the arena with the rest of the adventurers. Oddly enough, she was the only one in the stadium to do so, almost as if everyone else knew something she didn’t. The girl ran past Riva, Leone, and the knight, dashing straight for the doorway. As she reached the doorframe, with the staircase just a step away, a familiar-colored yellow glow shone along the doorway. As the girl made contact with the door, she disappeared instantaneously, never returning to her seat.
“Oh damm,” Leone commented, unsure what to think of what had just occurred.
“I believe the tower knows who has proven their worth to enter the next floor,” began the man in armor. “And any who try to sneak past without doing so are… escorted out.”
Despite the strange event, Leone still prompted Azim to come join them, reminding him that Roman had an orb of light and would be fine, and the robot himself had not been detected by the floor when entering the arena with Roman. In response, Azim walked his dark green cat down to the bottom of the bleachers and hopped down into the fighting area. The mosstail hopped down just after him.
The knight went first, like usual, walking through the doorway with no issue. He waited, still visible on the stairs, for the rest of the adventurers. Leone followed close behind, wanting to show the armored man that he was pumped for the next floor. Riva followed suit, walking slowly through the door. She couldn't help but be a little nervous that, despite having won a match, she might still trigger the barrier. Finally, it was Azim and his cat’s turn.
Azim tried to walk through the doorway first on his own but could not. He was not being removed from the tower like what had happened with the girl, but he was unable to make it past the door. The group pondered why, the knight especially wondering what was going on. He had been more confused than Leone and Riva when Azim had entered the fighting area, and had not gotten an explanation then. Now, Leone was saying he expected Azim to be fine, which did not make sense to the knight either. The cloaked metalmancer still did not have an orb. So how was he supposed to earn his way through? It made no sense. Yet now, in trying to walk through the doorway, he was not escorted out of the building like the girl had been. It was as if he was being treated as an object, the accessory of an adventurer, who simply threw their sword at the doorway only for it to bounce back. Why?
The robot gently took the cat’s tail and bent it forward so that it tapped the ball of light floating over its head. Roman twitched for a moment, but otherwise didn’t mind. Seeing the color of the light change, Azim walked Roman forward, this time keeping his hand on one of the mosstail’s shoulders, the way he had done when they first entered Floor 1.
As Roman passed through the doorway without issue, Azim managed to slip through the tower’s detection with his cat, an accessory to the mosstail as far as Lemaerk could identify.
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The first swing of the club hit like a wrecking ball, crashing into Azim and sending him flying into the wall of the building. The third floor was closer in setup to the first, not having a stadium or center area. Instead, the entire floor was one open area, a fighting ground for the travelers to pass through.
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All of the travelers, save for the knight who had already encountered it, were taken aback by the Ogre in the middle of the room. It looked about 10 meters tall, with skin a dull, unsaturated green that was almost gray. The beast had two large snaggleteeth sticking out from its bottom lip, a wide head, and a piercing through its septum made from some kind of bone. It had a wide, hairless belly, wide bare feet, and wide hands, each attacked to skinny limbs. The ogre carried a large, wooden kanabō about the size of a small tree. The weapon was similar to that of a bat, with a thin handle at the bottom that slowly widened as it stretched to the other end. The ogre’s particular weapon was clearly roughly made, as it had rough edges along the whole thing, and various shades of brown in the wood, suggesting it had been bruised through use.
When the adventurers first arrived on Floor 3, they were surprised to not see anyone on the floor with them. Having watched several people walk up the stairs preceding them, the group expected to see people already here, and the ogre already engaged in battle. Instead, they were alone, and the ogre was fresh and waiting just for them.
The knight explained that it was the same as when he had come through the first time around. Walking into Floor 3, the knight had been alone, and just like now, the ogre had been waiting for him as if it had not even encountered anyone else. The armored man shared his assumption with the group, suspecting that when making one’s way up the stairs, the tower placed you in one of several dozen mirrored versions of “Floor 3”, giving each individual who made it to the floor their own ogre to fight. He mentioned how he thought of it like a roulette wheel spitting out a ball into one of many chutes. The adventurers were occupying one, while those that had entered before them were in various others. Once they moved forward, someone would occupy their then-empty room.
“Woah…” Leone sighed, taking in the idea. “If that is what it is, Lemaerk has some powerful magic going for it. Like real primo stuff. I wonder how many other floors past this one have a similar setup, or even something else crazy.”
Their conversation was cut short by the swing of the ogre’s kanabō. The group ducked out of the way, leaving Azim to get smacked across the floor. “Maybe next time, don’t have a conversation like that when there’s a giant monster in the room with us!” Riva yelled to the men. “Azim! Are you okay?”
Pushing himself out of a small indent in the wall, Azim turned his head and replied, “I am all right. The creature’s attack merely took me by surprise.”
“It’s called an ogre, buddy!” Leone shouted. “And I’m sorry for distracting you! That was totally my fault.”
“Speed Switch!”
As the ogre brought down his wooden weapon again, Leone picked up Riva and rushed her out of the way, ending up behind the grayish monster. The knight, standing next to the swung club, jumped on the huge log and waited for the ogre to lift it back up. “Ha, Ha! My turn, beast!” the armored man screamed.
Instead, the ogre slammed his free hand down to slap his weapon in an attempt to squish the knight. The armored man rolled off just before he was squashed, cursing the ogre for not being so stupid.
“Sir, I do not believe it is a wise decision to take on this ogre while unarmed, considering your need for a weapon on the previous floor,” stated Azim.
“Nonsense, kid,” the knight charmed. “I’ve beaten this behemoth before, and we shall do it again!”
“Azim has a point, dude,” Leone chimed in from across the way. “You had your sword then. And you not having one now was why he had to help you. You might want to lay low this round.”
“If the archer that fought you had not gotten so close in the end,” Azim continued, “you would have lost your match.”
The knight confidently refuted, “Oh, see that’s where you misread me, kid. I admit that elf had a few good tricks, but at no point was I ever really scared to lose. I only wanted my sword so I wouldn’t have to rely on anything else. When I fought this beast myself, I used my little saving grace. However this time around, with you folks here, I know I don’t need to!”
Riva and Leone looked at each other with a bit of confusion but didn’t worry about the idea too much. If the knight’s words were any indication, whatever power he was referring to would likely be used soon enough.
With the ogre teetering around, eyeing all the adventures around him, Azim and his companions readied themselves. The robot noticed that nothing on the ogre was metal, nor on its weapon, meaning he had no materials to use his magic on. Furthermore, because the floor was so empty, there were not any scraps of metal anywhere for him to make use of. The metal man figured he would, in time, learn how to conjure up metal on his own out of nothing, but now was not that time.
The ogre swung his kanabō toward the knight, who was pushed out of the way by Leone. “Thanks, kid,” the armored man acknowledged.
“Of course, dude!” replied Leone, proud. “I think I’ll be running support on this one, just keeping you guys safe.”
“I appreciate the assistance.”
Leone paused for a moment, then took out his hidden knife. “Wave Cutter,” he incanted. “Here, take this. I admit It’s not terribly strong, but it’s a good ranged attack.”
The knight nodded in understanding and thanked Leone. Seeing that the ogre was now swinging his weapon at Riva, Leone left the knight to go help her. His twists wavered flimsily behind him as he sped toward the woman, sweeping her off her feet and out of danger just moments before impact. “Thanks, hun’,” Riva praised, combing back her now-disheveled hair.
Dust was starting to pick up from all the drops of the ogre’s kanabō, and the adventurers were starting to have difficulty seeing. The knight was flinging air slashes towards the beats with Leone’s knife, distracting the creature from the rest of the group. Azim was getting in close, punching the ogre’s ankles and making the monster stagger. Irritated by the flurry of attacks, the ogre kicked his foot back, smacking Azim in his armored chest and knocking him back. Getting up from the kick, Azim noticed that he had not taken any bit of damage. The robot looked over to see Riva raising her arm toward him. She smirked. He stared at her for an extra moment, which was all he could do to acknowledge her without a mouth to smile back with.
With Leone running between everyone to keep his group mates safe and Riva doing her best to protect the others with enchantments, the knight and Azim got in close. The former was sending close-ranged wave slashes flying while the latter continued his assault on the ogre’s legs. Roman was asked to stay back by the android, who had adopted a newfound concern for the creature’s safety. Despite the ogre’s best efforts, he wasn’t able to hit any of the adventurers, missing most of his swings due to Leone or finding his attacks nullified by Riva.
“You said you got through this guy yourself last time!” Leone shouted to the knight as he ran. “How’d you get by on your own so easily?”
“Well I wouldn’t say it was easy kid, but like I said, I had my trick last time!” the knight shouted back. “In all honesty, it was the only thing that got me past him. I can’t do it as often as I want though, so because I know you all are with me, I’m saving it for the next floor!”
Soon enough, Leone got antsy and wanted a piece of the action front and center. When Azim knocked the ogre onto his knees at one point, the young man made his move. Interrupting his route between the other 3 adventurers, Leone ran onto the ogre’s bent leg and up his back, scrambling up as fast as he could. “My turn!” The skinny young man shouted as he neared the monster’s head.
“Strength Switch!”
Circling around the grayish monster’s face, Leone came to a halt resting on the ogre’s lip, grabbing his cheek for support. With his free hand, Leone grabbed one of the beast’s snaggleteeth and started to pull. “Mind if I take this, big guy?”
With Leone’s boosted strength, the tooth started to loosen. However, before he could rip it out entirely, the ogre opened his mouth and roared in pain. The cry let out a shockwave so intense it sent Leone flying back, crashing into the wall of the third floor about 10 meters above the ground. Meanwhile, the sheer volume of the ogre’s roar left Riva, the knight, and even Roman momentarily paralyzed, covering their ears the best they could. The only one unaffected… was Azim.