Quinn burst forward, running at the black monster at full speed. His eyes bounced between the tentacles as he looked for any movement indicating an attack. He dropped to his knees, sliding under a tentacle, barely dodging it by a hair's breadth.
Alec followed suit, charging in behind Quinn's left side. A tentacle whipped at him, looking to finish him off in one hit, but Alec jumped into the air and over the tentacle. His eyes darted towards another tentacle that quickly approached him. With unbelievable movement, Alec was capable of moving his body in mid air, barely escaping a near death scenario.
Alec rushed forward, using his double edged short sword to stab into the monster's body. It's dark blood spattered across the blade. The blood began to boil up across the shiny surface. Alec quickly snapped the blade down to his side, sending the blood flying to the ground before going in for a successive attack.
Lex ran up behind Alec. A tentacle tried snapping at Alec, but Lex sliced the tentacle through. Quickly after, he began to attack with Alec, trying to do as much damage as they could to the beast. During this time, Quinn joined in on the fight as well. He stabbed at the beast, carving a slice into the oily monster's flesh.
Quinn backed away from the monster, trying his best to avoid a tentacle aimed for his head. After getting out of the monster's range, Quinn noticed something peculiar, “Guys… the monster's flesh is beginning to heal!”
Alec and Lex took a step back from the monster and began to watch as the tentacle Lex had cut off regrew back. The cuts they had made also regrew, causing the damage that they made to be pointless.
How are we supposed to beat a monster that can regenerate that quickly?
Lex smiled, and almost as if he read Quinn's thoughts, he spoke, “I have an idea. Quinn, throw me the torch.”
Quinn looked towards the wall where they had landed before. Sitting there, an unlit torch laid on the ground. Cinders could still be seen on the cloth wrapped around it.
Quinn quickly picked up the torch, tossing it halfway across the room to Lex. With a small laugh, he lit the torch using the fire Winston had made before and began to charge at the Beast as quickly as he could.
The beast, noticing the fire in Lex’s hand, entered a frenzy as it began to focus its attacks on Lex. Lex ran swiftly, dodging tentacles that flew by his head and torso, getting closer and closer to the beast.
The beast, in an attempt to protect itself, used its tentacles to cover its main body. Lex smiled as he watched the monster unsurprised, “You really are just a coward.”
Lex threw the torch to his right, still running at the creature as if he was about to attack. Quinn looked to Lex’s right to see where the torch was going and standing in its path was Cally!
Cally grabbed the torch from the air and with one clean slice she cut open the body of the monster. Using the torch, she shoved the flaming end as far as she could into the monster, burning its skin and causing it to howl and shriek in pain.
That seemed to work! Lex used the torch as a distraction for Cally to get in close. Once the monster rose its guard towards Lex, Cally grabbed the torch that Lex had passed and attacked the spot it wasn’t protecting.
Quinn was astonished by the teamwork between Lex and Cally. Compared to them, he was just an amateur. He felt as if he had much more growing he needed to do.
Lex and Cally stared at the beast as it waved its tentacles and shrieked in pain. They looked towards the spot where the torch was inserted. It didn't appear to be healing.
Lex smiled and made a remark, “The tip of the tentacle that was burnt earlier hasn't seemed to heal back. I don't know if it has any other weaknesses, but it certainly has a weakness to fire.”
Why didn't I think of that? Quinn thought as his head was still spinning from the attack that hit him previously. His brain wasn't working at full capacity, but he was still capable of fighting. He assumed that he must've gotten a concussion from the impact.
Lex yelled out to Winston, “Do you think you'll be capable of using your fire once more any time soon?”
Winston had mentioned he couldn't use his fire for a while, but if he was at least capable of using enough to severely damage the monster, then that was all that mattered.
“It will still take me some time until I can regain enough energy to conjure another attack. If you can weaken it enough, I should be able to use my fire to finish it off.” Winston yelled to Lex and the others.
“I guess we'll just have to do some more damage.” Alec ran towards the monster, hyper focused into the fight. He quickly looked towards the spot that Cally weakened.
He ran forward, jumping over another tentacle that tried to sweep his legs from under him. He ran towards the weakened spot, lunging forward in attempts to stab the weak spot that was created. Before he could, a tentacle blocked the path to the weak spot, keeping Alec from doing any damage.
Alec quickly back stepped away from the monster, looking for a way to hurt the monster, “It's no use for me to attack. Even if I slice its tentacle, it will still be able to block it with another before I can get a direct hit in.”
The beast was beginning to switch from offense to defense, understanding that it was vulnerable to attacks.
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This monster is very cunning. Once again, Quinn and the group had to figure out a way to break past the monster's defenses.
Quinn stepped forward, “If we can attack it together, we should be able to cut the tentacle off and stab it in its weak point before it can block with another tentacle.”
“Good Idea, I guess I will go in first then.” Alec ran towards the monster, dodging a tentacle on his way in. Lex followed close behind him, waiting for an opportunity to arise.
Once Alec was in close enough range, he quickly did a flurry of attacks, cutting up the tentacle enough for Lex to hit the weak spot.
“Watch out, above you!” Cally screamed from behind, causing the pair to look up in shock.
From above, a tentacle came falling down, attempting to attack Alec and Lex who were vulnerable. However, Quinn had planned for something like this ahead of time and grabbed Alec and Lex, pulling them away from the attack before they were hit.
“Are you guys alright?” Quinn spoke as he watched Lex and Alec quickly recover.
“We're fine… but what about your arm?” Quinn turned to see what Alec meant. The tricep of his arm had been cut deeply. It poured blood down his arm and onto his sword. The blood dripped to the floor in front of him.
“I'll be fine.” Quinn spoke as he held his arm. It hurt more than anything he had ever felt, but even though it hurt, he knew that he had to fight.
Quinn walked out of range of the tentacle and watched it flail, almost as if it was taunting him. Quinn composed himself, trying to push past the pain, “Let go again…”
Alec and Lex stared at his arm, watching the blood roll down it in small drops. They looked at Quinn, but instead of pain, they saw resolve in his eyes and understood what they needed to do.
Alec was the first one to attack, barreling towards the monster at a quick pace. After dodging the tentacles that came his way, he slid to a stop next to the weak spot located behind multiple tentacles.
He began to slash at the tentacles, trying to make an opening once again. Alec joined in as well, ripping and shredding the tentacles until they could open up a weak spot. Once again from above, a large tentacle came slamming down, trying to crush the two before any progress was made.
Before the tentacle reached them, Cally sliced the tentacle in half. It fell limp to the ground beside them, twitching before coming to a stop. In the next second, Quinn had joined in, penetrating the tentacles and stabbing directly into the location of the weak spot.
The monster thrashed and yelled in pain. It tried attacking once again, but before it could, Winston had appeared beside everyone. His energy had finally come back, allowing him to attack once more.
With quick and powerful force, Winston shoved his hand into the beast, ripping away at its insides and damaging it even further. After his hand was firmly placed in the beast's weak spot, an orange light began to shine out of the crevices between the beast and Winston’s arm.
Flames began to form on Winston’s hand and the beast began to thrash and roar as it was being burned from the inside out. The monster's mouth began to emit smoke as the fire burned deeper inside.
The monster shrieked louder than it ever had, but the beast’s yells could not do anything. In less than ten seconds, the beast's insides had been charred and its body had been cremated.
The tentacles that gripped across the walls had fallen limp as its body was destroyed. A smell of fire and ash was transmitted through the air, along with a disgusting odor similar to burnt rubber.
Winston removed his hands from the ashes of the beast after making sure it was dead. The acidic blood from the beast had scarred his arm all the way up to his elbow. His flesh was covered with bumps and cuts from the acid burns. He fell to one knee as he held his arm.
Lex called out to Winston with an empathetic expression, “Are you okay? Did you really need to go as far as sticking your hand into the monster?”
Alec quickly grabbed water and bandages for both Winston and Quinn’s wounds. While Alec wrapped up Quinn’s arm, Lex wrapped up Winston’s wounds while awaiting a reply, “I had enough energy to summon my fire, but it wouldn't have made it deep into the monster unless I had done so. If we didn't kill the beast then, we likely wouldn’t have beaten it. It was a sacrifice worth taking.”
Lex looked at Winston, while he continued to wrap his wounds, “Still, maybe we could have come up with some other way…”
Winston shook his head, “Without my fire, there would have been nothing to harm the beast. Just accept the outcome and learn from it for next time.”
Although Winston gave off a quiet and stern vibe, he was quite wise for a middle aged man. His experience that he has had in the past helped to shape him into who he is now.
Quinn winced in pain as he turned from Winston to Alec, “Ouch, don't pull so hard.”
Alec tilted his head and gave a slight smile, “If you want the bleeding to stop then the bandages have to be tight.”
After Alec finished wrapping the bandages, Quinn stood up and looked towards two girls approaching the group. Liz held Kiara upright as they walked towards the group.
“Although I was pronounced dead only a few minutes ago, I actually feel pretty good… besides the broken ribs and concussion. Is this because of the Echoes?” Kiara spoke.
“Yes, we Echo users, known as Listeners, heal much faster than a normal human. At your current level, you should be healing at three times the level of a normal human. As you grow stronger you will also begin to heal even quicker.” Winston explained, shining more light onto the Echoes and how they worked.
Quinn raised his eyebrows, “Listeners? Faster healing? Why didn't you mention this before?”
“I didn't want to overwhelm you with too much information. There is a lot to learn about Echoes. There are even things I do not know of.” Winston held his arm as he stood up and walked towards a door that was once hidden behind the black oily beast.
“That must be the exit to this level. Once we heal our wounds we can head to the next layer.” Alec spoke as he began to set up a small camp. The others joined in as they began to build a fire and prepare bedding.
“Do you think it will awaken again?” Cally asked in a worried tone.
“I don't think so. Winston burned it pretty good, so any signs of life have been completely destroyed.” Lex reassured her.
Cally nodded and continued to help set up camp. After a short period of time, everyone sat around the fire and began telling stories. As Quinn listened to the stories, he also listened to the echoes that had recently advanced after the battle
[Pass the ninth layer]
The ninth layer must be indicating the ninth layer of the Tower of nightmares. That should be the layer we go to next.
Quinn listened to his Echoes until they slowly faded away into the back of his mind. He sat in silence, listening to the stories being told, feeling stronger than before.