Chapter 69

Nyle’s fireball caught the lead gorilla in the chest. Lyn’s arrow pierced its other eye. I dodged a swing from the skewered gorilla, the blow wide and weak, as it struggled to free itself. I had eyes only for Alax, his fear burned into my mind, his pleading eyes.

I really had wanted to save him, during the Reaping. However, my training, my instructions, had trumped that. The Reaping was a solo climb. To help another on the climb, was expressly forbidden. Now though, there were no such rules. Alax may have been hostile, he may have done little to help in the last fight, causing me extra pain, sure. But I, wasn’t Alax. That wasn’t the type of Climber I was. I wanted power, I wanted strength, to climb, to get loot, and to protect those who needed it. Obviously that intention was meant for those like Quill, who died permanently within the Tower, but even still, if I could stop a fellow Climber’s suffering, then I would.

The gorilla missing its hands was wailing about, smashing the ground blindly in rage. Its back was clear though, and I had a feeling its senses were all but useless right now. With arrows in both its eyes, its hands missing, and its chest burnt, there was no doubt the creature was likely overwhelmed with pain, and rage, right now.

Which was the perfect time, in my opinion, to put my new daggers to good use. I pushed my mind towards the weapons and felt the tingle of magic. My intention clear, the weapons glowed red in my hands. My mouth opened on its own, and I let cry a bloodcurdling, howl. Red light erupted from me in all directions. Alax, Lyn, and Nyle glowed red. The only ones within fifteen feet of me. I felt my muscles tingle, with the slightest bit of power. It was enough though, I knew, to push my damage threshold over. After all, I’d only been one dexterity away from the needed bonus to push Claw and Fang to an 8-base damage, instead of a 7.

That was only part of my plan though. The moment the roar was completed, I went to work on the Silverback before me. I mimicked the rapid strikes Echo had shown me, the very flurry of attacks he’d claimed the Tower had revealed to him, mentally, when he’d been forging the weapons.

Left, right, left right. Claw grew warm in my hand with each stroke, as I swung the weapon as fast as I could. Fang in my left hand waited, patiently, hungrily. Up, down, up, down, the glow intensified, my arm moving faster now, as if Claw were guiding my blows. The cuts on the back of the gorilla glowed with red light, as Claw grew even hotter. I drew the diagonal line with Claw, from right to left, then, brough it back up, bringing it down from left to right. A glowing ‘X’ of blood and pulsing light appeared as the slashes completed. All of the lines, all ten of them, intersected at a singular point on the back of the gorilla, which pulsed the brightest red of all.

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My left hand moved then, with deadly intent. I felt the hunger, the longing to strike, to taste the enemy, coming from Fang. I slammed the weapon down and into the back of the gorilla, directly where all the strikes had met. The weapon pulsed, the heat fading from Claw, rushing through me, and erupting out of Fang. Blood splattered from the back of the gorilla, and the very force of my blow sent it falling forward. Alax screamed as the gorilla’s body collapsed on top of him, but I didn’t worry. I knew, every part of me knew, that the gorilla was dead. That what I’d just done, had ensured it wouldn’t get back up.

The confidence came not just from the feel of my weapons, as they’d bit into the gorilla, nor the finality, the sense of accomplishment, that had come from Fang driving into that spot, unleashing a hidden skill of sorts, amplifying the damage that had been done. It came, plain and simple, from understanding, in that moment, just how much damage I had done.

Following Echo’s explanation of Claw and Fang to me, and after speaking with Ryker, I’d spent a decent amount of time thinking on the weapons. Particularly, the Unique Traits they had. That is, Relentless Strikes, which increased the damage of Claw by 1 for each continuous strike. The flurry of strikes Echo had demonstrated to me, alone, was a ten-strike combo using only Claw. I’d done the math, back then, of what a combo would be like then, with my Base Weapon Damage at 7 thanks to my 3 points in Dexterity, and the damage scaling down.

The grand total was 115 points of damage. Enough to kill me, at the very least, and any one member of my party. And considering the buff to my dexterity gained from Bloody Howl, that meant my base damage had become 8, instead of 7. Across all 10 strikes, that was an additional 10 points of damage, meaning 125. Then, there was the blow from Fang, an extra 7, or in this moment, 8 points of damage. A grand total of 122 damage without the buff, and 133 with the buff. I didn’t know what completing the combo did, nor understood the extra burst of bloody damage from driving home Fang at the end. But either way, that combo alone, had done a gross amount of damage. Combined with the two arrows in its eyes, the loss of its hands, and the fact my blow had gone directly into its spinal column. There was no way this gorilla, even as a level 4 animal on the second floor of the Tower, was moving after that.

“Stay down,” I said to a whimpering Alax, who was struggling to push the carcass from his frame. My voice was filled with cold confidence. “And we’ll keep you safe.” I turned towards the second gorilla, which had managed to finally rip the spiked log from its chest, creating a massive wound that wept blood onto the ground. “We’ll save you Alax,” I stepped towards the gorilla, brimming with confidence. An arrow from Lyn rocketed past me, sinking deep into the gorilla’s shoulder, impacting with much more force than before. My confidence blazed even more. “Because that’s what teammates do.”