The pounding in my head was only outdone by the piercing pain as my eyes cracked. I hissed and tried to use my right hand to rub my head, but there was something heavy pressing down on it. I wiggled my hand and felt something furry and warm against the back of my knuckles.

“Raiju, I’m alive.” I winced as my own voice felt like I was stabbing them with knives. “Can you please let me up?”

The pressure on my arm disappeared only to reappear on my chest a moment later as she laid there licking my face. “I*lick*thought you*lick*weren’t going to*lick*wake up! It’s been so long!”

I lay there for a moment, just letting my body adjust to the land of the living/awake before speaking quietly. “How long was I out?”

Ever faithful, Ylsa responded quickly from behind where my head rested on my bedroll. “A little more than nine hours. The Party Interface said you were suffering from Mana Burnout and would wake up within twelve hours, so we rested here in the Safe Room at the beginning of the level.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Nodding, I levered myself up and hugged Raiju. “I’m OK, I promise.” She sagged against my chest, which threatened to knock me back over until I hugged her even tighter. Sensing she was about to fall, she straightened up and brought me with her. “Thanks.” I ruffled her hair as I slid out from beside her to stand up and look around the room.

It was pretty typical from what I’d read about Dungeon Safe Rooms, and given the connection between Dungeons and Towers, that made a lot of sense to me. The tell-tale Gold runic floor pattern was only in one place, the ten foot barrier full of white and black smoke with a floating System window in the middle.

[Behind this barrier lies the Mid-Boss of the Chalcedony Tower of Trials. Once all climbers pass through it, the Safe Room will cease to exist. The Safe Room on this floor will remain so for the next 38 hours and 26 minutes otherwise.]

“I guess this place gives you two days to recover from the bullshit that was the second floor… How generous of it.” I snorted mid turn as I checked out the rest of the room. Jaegan was passed out in the corner, covered in blankets despite the temperate climate while Ylsa stood behind the pallet I’d been resting on until a few moments ago.

Ylsa made to bow to me when she caught my gaze and I waved her off. “I’m not fully comfortable with that yet, though I know that’ll need to change. I do ask, howerever, that at least in Towers and Dungeons, please refrain from bowing. We’re just party members in here.”

“I’ll endeavor to remember that, Storm-Blessed.” She hesitated before nodding. “I do have to ask, how are you dealing with your Mana Burnout so quickly? The last time it happened to me, I needed nearly two days to be able to open my eyes, let alone walk and talk.”

I cracked my neck. “It’s all about the difference in our Mana Regeneration rates.” A few quick hops later, I began stretching out my arms and legs. “You need, what, twelve hours to regenerate your Mana pool? Yeah?”

“That’s correct, the same could be said for nearly all goliaths.” She grunted as she began stretching with me. “I know elves regenerate Mana more quickly from your conversation with Jaegan in the ice box on the mountain, but how does that all work exactly?”

“Each race regenerates Mana at a different rate, but they also have vastly different base stats and Class inclinations.” A quick glance around the room revealed Arlian and the [Arcweaver] siblings mid mock duel over on the empty end of the rectangular Safe Room. “I can nearly guarantee no elf, even a Wood Elf, would ever get your [Mountain Tempest] Class unless they had a truly bizarre upbringing. It’s just too Stamina dependent with their low base [Might] and [Toughness]. The same could be said with a dwarf getting [Archer] with how low their [Agility] tends to be, my dad’s Clan notwithstanding, since they mingle with other races each generation.

“I just so happen to be half Gold Elf, so my Mana should fill up in four hours. Fixing the dregs, or the fallout from Mana Burnout, only needs you to regenerate your Mana on top of your full Mana pool. Nine hours is just long enough for me to do that with Arlian, Volta, and Voltaire around.”

I settled my back against the wall and slid down to stretch out my hamstrings. “You know, I haven’t had the dregs since I was a kid? Back then?” I chuckled to myself. “I had them at least once a week, if not more. I guess my bad habit of burning all my Mana at once is still something I need to work on.”

“At least it was effective.” She settled in front of me and we ended up helping each other through a paired stretching routine she introduced me to.

***

With a groan, I stood up and walked over to Jaegan, who was still asleep. I’d checked the Party Interface and nothing had changed, minus the nine hours of me being asleep. [Lordly Aura] didn’t even fail while I slept, at least according to how long it said he had to live. The thing is, I didn’t buy it.

“There’s no way he’d sleep this long if he was actually OK. Something’s up.” I reached down for the blankets covering the old man and gently pried them off of him.

Or, that’s what I tried to do. The second I touched the top blanket, a snake of black and purple energy snaked out from it and tried to impale my hand. With a flex of my calves, I leapt back and quickly had a [Psyknife] in one hand and a trio of [Magic Missiles] floating above the other, Dad’s blade training mixing flawlessly with Mom’s magic tutelage.

The second I released the blanket, the snake of malicious energy retreated beneath the barrier, but not before I caught the Party Interface blinking in my vision.

[Jaegan “Wallbreaker” Toretto is Infected by Unknown Entity]

“Oh, fuck that.” A mental command summoned Arlian, Volta, and Voltaire, where I motioned for them to surround the [Mage] from both sides and above. “I’m going to burn those covering off of him, OK? You three need to do whatever you can to knock whatever comes out down so I can see what we’re dealing with.”

Hopefully Dominus is ready to give me some insight, or I’ll just have to wing it. I hope you’re listening, my party needs you right now.

A quick pulse of Mana into [Elemental Mastery] generated a ball of blue flame that I lobbed onto Jaegan’s sleeping form, trusting [Path of the Scholar] to keep my companion safe. The resulting fire was brief, but revealing as a small, purple, tentacled creature was revealed to be sitting on Jaegan’s chest.

Or it was before my flames landed on its back at nearly the same instant Arlian sent an obsidian spear through it and the [Arcweavers] hit it with blades formed from lightning.

The creature screamed, a sound I’ll never forget, as it was brutally assaulted. Its immediate reaction was to snake a tentacle toward a suspicious black crack in the wall that’d been hidden behind Jaegan’s blankets, but not before [Essence Reading] and [Dominus’ Insight] were able to trigger nearly simultaneously.

[Soul Thief - Rank A Monster

Level: 75

Vulnerabilities: Radiant

Resistances: All except for Radiant and Force

Immunities: Necrotic, Soul]

[Soul Thieves have not been observed by this System. Observe the creature before slaying it for additional experience.]

Yeah, fuck that. This thing is dying now.

[Your instincts are correct. This creature is a construct of Devourer, though it bears some of Wild’s markings as well. Based on previous creatures I’ve observed like this, it is likely physically weak, but immensely fast. It must be destroyed immediately.]

Mana surged out of me for both [Dominus’ Insight] as well as the barrage of [Magic Missiles] I sent into the [Soul Thief]. Dozens of tiny bolts of force leapt from my extended hands after I hurled the psychic blade into the gap the creature tried to escape through. The thing let out another soul-wrenching scream as nearly half of its tentacle was severed by the blade.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

That’s not possible. [Psyknife] can’t cut anything. We’re missing something.

With a thought, I slotted [Sunburst] into my only free slot and didn’t hesitate to pour ten percent of my Mana pool into it. The mid tier radiant spell filled the room everywhere my friends weren’t with the [Path of the Scholar]’s help.

Above me, I heard a far louder scream as the creature I’d seen initially with the creepy black and purple tendrils instead of tentacles was revealed by my radiant assault.

[Master Soul Thief - Rank S Monster

Level: 125

Vulnerabilities: Radiant

Immunities: All except for Radiant and Force]

Fuck.

The creature’s single eye stared down at me with sheer hatred as it sent a dozen tendrils of inky purple tendrils spearing toward me. If it weren’t for the [Sun Armor] and [Arcane Armor] I’d cast when I woke up, that assault would likely have ended me. As is, the [Sun Armor] shattered, but in doing so it cut half of the tendrils apart with radiant energy while the remaining tendrils slammed into my [Arcane Armor] hard enough to send me careening across the room and into a wall hard enough to rattle my teeth.

‘It’s immune to everything but Radiant and Force!’ I gritted my teeth as I messaged everyone through the Party Chat at the speed of thought. ‘The thing on Jaegan’s chest is some kind of psychic construct and it’s resistant to everything but Radiant and Force.’

To their credit, my summons didn’t hesitate to absolutely obliterate the barely hanging on form of the [Soul Thief] on the [Mage]’s chest, my [Sunburst] having nearly killed it in one shot. When it died, I felt the wave of anguish from the [Master Soul Thief] as it hurled itself at me.

Just as its gaping maw full of needle-like teeth was about to slam into me, I triggered [Mana Slide], and got by with only a scratch on my exposed forearm bearing the [Psyknife]. Pain that defies description ripped through me from just that tiny scratch, making me lose my grip on the psychic construct. Without a connection to me, it faded a moment later.

[Sunburst] doesn’t hit hard enough, even with a vulnerability against something this powerful. I need to think like a [Mage]. What would Jaegan do? A quick backflip off of an [Air Step] over a pair of scything tendrils shook an idea loose. I think it’s time for my best Jaegan impression.

Behind me, Ylsa tried to sneak in a strike, but Arlian held her back. “Let the boss work. I think he has a plan.” While I appreciated his confidence in me, I wasn’t nearly as confident in the idea I had as he was in me.

“[Arcane Cannons]!” I poured another thirty percent of my full Mana pool into the ability, coupled with my [Wits] and [Arcane], that gave me five force constructs floating around my shoulders. With a thought, the constructs started pouring hundreds of tiny blue darts of force toward the [Master Soul Thief]. Despite the deluge of attacks, the creature deftly deflected nearly all of them with a tendril, only reacting when its central body was struck.

It surged toward me with a vengeance, even as my cannons unloaded on it. The creature went from eight tendrils to sixteen in less than a second before unleashing most of them on me. I ducked, dived, and dodged as best I could, but I had some very close calls mere moments into our exchange.

Popping [Haste] bought me some breathing room, but thirty seconds into our newly evened up dance, the damn thing grew another sixteen tentacles and my ability to dodge got a hell of a lot worse. I started catching stray slaps from tentacles, which apparently had some kind of paralytic effect building up. I saw the bar in the corner of my screen growing steadily and knew I had to make a move or I was screwed.

The [Master Soul Thief] was an absolute beast, with far more [Might], [Agility], and [Toughness] than me, of that I had no doubt. In addition to its insane physical Stats, the damn thing seemed to be learning my patterns, causing me to catch even more slaps and causing the yellow bar I was dreading to build up even more. At that point, it was approaching seventy-five percent and, from the looks of the mass of tentacles around me, it wasn’t even close to dead.

Before I could even start to form [Light Arrows] in my palms, I heard a crackling of energy behind me that soon coalesced into the speeding form of Arlian, whose spear was coated in the telltale sheen of force damage. A message slammed into my mind, nearly causing me to get skewered by one of the creature’s primary tentacles.

‘We’ve boosted Arlian as much as we can, but he’s vulnerable now.’ Ylsa’s mental voice sounded reserved. ‘There is something wrong with this creature, it shouldn’t exist in this realm. My totem burns against my chest, but I didn’t know enough to assist more.’

Arlian’s speeding form slammed into the wall next to the writhing ball of soul theft as he ran the thing through with his spear, earning us all a scream as the creature writhed on the end of his weapon. Before he could even pull his spear from the wall, another thirty-two tendrils burst out from its back and all of them dove toward the [Obsidian Knight].

He didn’t stand a chance. No matter how much Volta, Voltaire, and Ylsa did to buff him up, his base [Agility] and [Perception] were just too low for him to deflect even half of the blows headed his way. I fought against the storm of tentacles headed toward me, but all that did was earn me another ten percent on my paralysis meter.

At least he’s immune to Soul damage. Maybe he’ll be OK.

He wasn’t.

In less than ten seconds, I saw a flash in the corner of my vision indicating he was below half health and five seconds later a repeated flash showing he was under ten percent. I did all I could to help, directing my [Arcane Cannons] to shoot at the appendages attacking him and doing all I could to distract the main body with [Light Arrows], but nothing worked.

His black glass armor was all shattered into powder, revealing the cut figure of the elemental knight below. He caught my gaze and nodded as I watched a bright light begin to burn in his chest.

“No!” I screamed in horror as my first elemental retainer detonated his core in a rush of bright red energy.

The blast wave swept through the half of the room we fought in. Ironically, the [Master Soul Thief]’s multitude of tendrils served to be its undoing as they absorbed nearly all of the energy released from Arlian’s core. The creature’s scream was louder than ever and I knew I had to capitalize. All but the eight core tentacles were gone, obliterated by Arlian’s sacrifice, and the creature fell off the wall in shock at the loss.

[Light Arrows] clenched like blades in each hand, I used [Elemental Surge] to appear above the creature in a puff of air. “For Arlian!” I buried both light constructs in the creature’s back, triggering both [Backstab] and [Rapid Strike] as I punctured the monster repeatedly with the only radiant stabbing implements I had.

The creature sagged against the ground, appearing defeated, but I didn’t let up my assault, pouring a concentrated barrage of [Arcane Cannon] blasts into its form as I continued doing my best impression of a woodpecker on its tiny round body.

Nearly a minute later, my voice hoarse from screaming, I sagged back against the wall opposite my friends, feeling utterly defeated despite having won a prolonged battle against a creature nearly five times my own level. My gaze flicked to the corner of my vision, where I saw a single message waiting for me. Before I could do anything but see it was from Arlian, something slammed through the [Arcane Armor] on my chest and bored straight through my right lung.

Ahead of me, the [Master Soul Thief] had a single tentacle that stretched between the two of us. Blood poured from my mouth as I went into shock at the savage wound. The creature started to wobble onto its tendrils, but before it could even move a foot, Ylsa’s glowing blue fists crashed down on it in a hammerblow and splattered it all over the floor.

Without hesitation, she hauled the tendril from my chest and snatched one of my remaining [Megara’s Healing Potion V]s from my bandolier and poured it half in the wound itself and the other half down my bloody gullet. I’m pretty sure I blacked out, because the next thing I remember is her laying me down next to Jaegan on a bare bedroll.

Struggling against her efforts, I managed to lever myself up into a seated position against the wall. It looked like she wanted to talk, but I needed to know what Arlian’s last words were. I shot her a glare that would have scared a dragon and opened up Arlian’s message.

[Boss,

I want you to know I was prepared for this, which is why you got this message just before I died. I started writing it the moment you decided to honor our deal and take me on permanently. I’ve been around a long time, far longer than even your eldest relatives, and I have to say the time with you has been a huge highlight. You never treated me like a servant, even when I was just some summoned elemental you brought in because I was immune to fire, and that was the first time I ever truly felt needed.

Elementals lives on our home planes are dreary, dull things. We do whatever our Duke or Monarch tells us endlessly, with only the very upper echelons ever being granted what you would call time off. I wasn’t there, but I served the son of my Duke for a few millennia and got to enjoy a single day to myself in all that time. Because of that, we live for the moments we get summoned to planes like Genovia, where we get to fight new things and see new places, even if our summoners usually treat us even worse than our rulers, at least it’s something new. You were new, and I relished getting to know you.

I’m hoping I went out in a blaze of glory defending you, because that’s how I always wanted to go. If I’m gone, I ask you to take care of my spear, because it’s the only thing I own and it’s been with me a very long time. It isn’t fancy, but it’s my only real possession and that means something to me.

Your Knight in Obsidian Armor,

Arlian

P.S. I’m adding this as my core goes critical. I do not blame you for this, I chose this end. If you feel guilt, pour that feeling into taking care of your friends, including Volta and Voltaire. Those kids want to serve you like I did, even if it makes a death like this possible. Trust me, they’ll serve you and your family until the rock you call home stops spinning if you treat them right.

Aw shit, that’s starting to hurt.

Last thing, as long as you always keep to your word, I’m sure things will work out for you and Dominus in the end.]

Tears streamed freely down my cheeks as I read his message over and over again, beating my fist into the wall repeatedly. “I should have been stronger, faster. If only…”

My head blasted to the side as Ylsa’s huge hand crashed into my cheek and sent me spiraling to the ground. I looked up in shock to find her glaring daggers at me.

“Arlian died a hero’s death, defending you, our liege. To dishonor his sacrifice by claiming you could have saved him is an insult to his memory. This spear, stained with the blood of the enemy, serves as a reminder of his ultimate loyalty. It is a testament to the noble path we both chose.”