We stepped through the door one by one, and it shut behind us leaving us in darkness. I could just barely see that we were all together before the space illuminated and the world started to build itself around us.

“This one’s pretty easy, just fighting off the enemies and making sure the wall isn’t breached.”

Sailhin started stretching her arms a bit as Paeris continued.

“Dot and I will stay at the top of the wall for long range support and attack. If Mezu wants to stay with us he can, or you can take him with you. Lefty and Sailhin can stay closest to the wall entrance to stop any who get through and the three of you can go off and do whatever you want.”

The world finished and a ding with a banner appeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to the 27th Floor!

Description: Defend the abandoned northern checkpoint from the onslaught

Completion Requirements: Kill both ice elf commanders

Failure conditions: breached defense reaches 50%

Completion Progress:

Breached Defense 20%

Ice Wolves 0/320

Ice trolls 0/30

Ice giants 0/15

Corrupted ice elf commanders 0/2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The banner disappeared and there was a long thunderous sound of a battle horn.

“Alright, we’ll locate the commanders if you haven’t found them otherwise let’s make this quick.” Dot said grinning.

“Before you go, let me cast a cold buff,” Paeris said holding his bow like a staff now.

“You can just fire it at us, let’s go,” Dodger said.

And the two of them simply vaulted over the wall whereas Lefty and Sailhin headed for the stairwell.

“What a pain.”

I hesitated a moment, I checked the drop, and it wasn’t very far so I jumped down. I landed and saw Dodger’s markings glowing softly as she unsheathed her axe and ran towards the oncoming hoard of wolves.

Brick shook his head softly before pulling his mace off his hip and following her.

“Why don’t you find the commanders?” Alcoroth suggested.

I put Mezu down looking around before responding.

“You make it sound like it will be easy.”

“Well, if you run ahead, they’ll most likely be at the back. Let the goliath have her fun and try to find a way to the back.”

He wouldn’t give me all the answers it seemed, only basic suggestions.

I started running and felt something hit my shoulder softly, before feeling my body warm up a decent amount. In front of me, I saw two other small arrows hit Dodger and Brick ahead of me.

It must have been the buff that Paeris mentioned.

Brick and Dodger met up with the ice wolves and started fighting with them. They could only interrupt a few of their running paths, and the ones that weren’t interrupted simply kept moving.

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I headed to run along the edge of the path. The area looked like a tight valley between two large mountains. The checkpoint thing we were meant to be guarding was built to fit right between the two mountains so that nothing could go through without passing it. The mountains were more like walls than gradual slopes upwards. It was more like a cliff instead of something that you could hike up.

Due to the nature of the terrain, there was only one path for them to come along. But also, since it was so tight, I couldn’t really just run along the edge without having to fight my way through. I looked at the walls more intently and saw that there was a ridge line running along the left side only a couple hundred meters up.

I headed towards the wall at a diagonal. The wolves that had avoided Dodger and Brick at the edges were coming towards me quickly. There were three of them in between me and the wall now. I pulled my sword out and with my aura I quickly made my way through them.

I had to put my sword away to start climbing and got tackled by one of the wolves before I could get started. I guarded my face with my arm and its jaw wrapped around it, gripping me tightly. My aura stopped the teeth from piercing through my skin and I simply smashed its head in with my other hand.

I threw it off me and started climbing up the wall. I almost slipped at the start because Mezu jumped onto me instead of climbing on his own.

The climb wasn’t too long but I kept having to spit as the brain matter and blood from the wolf was sliding down my face mixed with sweat. When I made it to the ridge line, I properly wiped my face off before running along the path.

I looked down to see the pile of defeated wolves grow and start to block the pathway. The wolves moved around it and Brick and Dodger had split up to fight on opposite sides.

I saw the end of the hoard of wolves and that was where the Ice Trolls were gathered. Behind them were the giants. I was worried about them since I seemed to be at a similar height.

I was right because as soon as I had gotten closer to them one of them stepped out towards me and slammed its fist into the rock wall behind me just missing.

I stopped in my tracks and turned jumping onto his arm and sprinting down it towards his shoulder. My eyes narrowed in on the part of its neck I knew would bleed the most and I slashed through it. The blood shot out at me with quite a bit of pressure, and I flew off its shoulder.

I fell downwards landing in the thick snow. I had to get up quickly though as the giant I had slashed was taking a step back, stumbling from my attack.

It wasn’t good that I was back on the ground. I needed to get back up to their heads if I wanted to fight them efficiently.

But with the foot so close to me, I just tried slashing at the thin slightly protruding part of its ankle. If I cut through its neck that easily, slicing through this even though they were bigger should be easy too.

I was right, the snap I heard though was much louder than that on the kobolds and the ground shuddered slightly. Its other leg stepped back to brace itself from falling, and I dashed to it quickly slashing through it as well.

Even if fighting at this height would work against a couple, there were a lot of them. I wouldn’t be able to dodge all of their feet that easily.

Only one of the others seemed to notice me though. I got away from the falling giant first and then dodged as another one stabbed a spear down at me.

I tried getting on the spear and running up it.

Right as I made it to its hand, it had dislodged the spear and I just managed to stab my hand into its finger holding on as I lost the ability to stand upright.

I looked up as the other hand started swinging towards me to slap me off and threw myself with all my might over to its wrist.

I used my aura like blades and climbed like I had with the boss on the first floor, but faster.

I made my way up its arm to its shoulder. Once I was there, I caught another giant’s attention.

To make sure I didn’t get thrown off by the blood this time, I dug my feet into its skin before slashing through its throat.

The first spray did cover me with blood, and I had to move it to avoid drowning in it. I’d have to rethink my position next time.

I sputtered and wiped my face to look for the other one.

“Don’t waste time clearing your vision, look for the mana.”

Was that Alcoroth’s voice?

Not the time to think about it. I did as I was told and turned my sight on.

It wasn’t as detailed as I would have wanted but I saw the general build of the next one.

The one I was currently on started to stumble backwards. As it started to fall down, it was falling towards the next one and once I was close enough, I launched off its shoulder.

I felt the flesh beneath me give way slightly as I jumped making me feel a bit unstable in the air. I reached out to grab onto anything since I didn’t think I’d make it to the same position I had been, hoping to at least grab his upper arm.

I actually overshot it though just managing to grab onto the giant’s ear. I looked quickly below me to see if I could drop down.

I could and did, my feet lodging themselves into the lower part of its neck. I slashed again, this time side-stepping barely in time to avoid the blood.

I took the time to wipe again hoping to get most of my eyes clean.

I opened them and saw the next one I’d have to get to. My vision wasn’t completely clear though. There was blood dripping from my bangs.

I yelled cursing, annoyed as I leapt to the next giant.

I didn’t notice it before but now there just happens to be a time that my hair is bothering me? Maybe I should just cut it all off?

The fourth giant guarded against its neck this time. It shook its shoulder trying to throw me off and I flopped around a bit before lowering my center of gravity. My feet kept me on, but my upper body having nothing to grab onto wasn’t pleasant.