“We looked so hard for another desperate soul, and nada,” Ivy grumbled as they made their way back to the battlefield of swarming mini-monsters. “So much wasted time I could’ve used for collecting more cards, but nooooo, we just had to go on a wild goose chase in hopes of finding a new contractor.”
“Well, yeah. That’s kind of one of the big things we do. If not us, who else?”
“Shen Ai?” Ivy quieted for a long moment. “I miss her. I wonder if she’s okay.”
“Shen Ai? Okay? Is that even a real question? I’d like to see something in this tower that can even come close to messing with her until we get way higher than we are right now,” James said, wondering where their friend had wandered off to. Merek had mentioned something about her selling her soul, but he was pretty sure that was an exaggeration.
Then again, in their line of work…
“Even so, it’s weird to go so long without hearing anything from—”
“There you two are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” Jarvick of Ascension called as he lowered himself from the sky.
“You can fly?” Ivy asked, eyes sparkling at the prospect of getting flying power armor.
“Glide, more like. Takes a third tier power armor to be able to imitate true flight,” Jarvick explained, pointing towards a high peak barely visible from where they were. “Was up there using a long range scanner to find you both, then made my way over.”
“I want one. No, three. Actually, twelve. Give me twelve!” Ivy scrambled to inspect the power armor, seemingly optimistic about being able to find several scanners she could simply poach from Jarvick.
“No,” he denied simply, turning to look at James. “Higher ups need a demonstration of what you can do if they’re going to consider your offer. They were very adamant about taking you both on as a pair of talented prospects. They see little value in accepting your sister with the offer of a single day of your time. They’re doubtful you’d be of use to us in only a single day.”
“They’re skeptical, huh?” James shrugged. “I was just about to do a test run of some of my abilities anyway, so you’re more than welcome to watch. Hell, record it if you want, but you only show it to these higher ups. Consider this my audition, if you would.”
Jarvick nodded and dropped a small cube on the ground. It expanded into a table that flipped open to a dozen monitors with indistinct faces. The middlemost displayed a view of the open field in front of them, to which James took front and center.
“Shouldn’t I be the one auditioning?” Ivy grumbled, crossing her arms, though she couldn’t hide her curiosity as she watched James. Even if she wouldn’t admit it, his upgrades had piqued her curiosity, despite her thinking he was a giant cheater.
“First, I’d like to run some tests. I will be sure to let you know when I’m about to really impress.”
Ivy stayed back to watch, while James walked a ways away into the open space nearby. They’d really done a number on the local monster population, so there wasn’t as much of an army to worry about as a handful of scattered groups. However, the demise of their fellows did nothing to make the angry gnomes less eager to rush in at the intruders on their floor.
He waved one hand and a much larger totem rose up from the ground in front of him, pulsing with a brilliant white glow tinged with faint sky-blue.
For a long time, everyone stared at it. It glowed.
James cleared his throat. “Yes, well, it is just a test, be patient.”
Then the glow pulsed and split, detaching entirely from the totem and forming two identical globes of swirling wind. They then unfolded and stood, wispy forms made of tornadoes and flowing clouds in impossible combinations, each tall enough to give the first floor’s twelve foot ogres a solid punt without difficulty.
The glow around the totem immediately shifted to a deep blue and resumed pulsing, while the wind elementals raced across the third floor, tearing up the ground with such violence that even their passage sent deadly shrapnel flying to decimate an even broader swath of enemies.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Are those… greater wind elementals…?” James heard a distorted voice mutter. One of his friendly audition onlookers, no doubt.
While everyone was still enraptured by the sheer destruction being wrought by the wind, the totem activated again. Water flowed out into two blobs akin to a slime, viscous yet dense and magnitudes larger, as they took shape one on either side as before.
James glanced up at the wind elementals, wondering if they would disappear now that they’d been replaced, but it seemed the summoning was additive rather than mutative.
The water slimes rolled off at right angles from the routes the wind had taken, sweeping up gnomes and angry elves alike and dragging them along with it in its watery form.
“This behavior, they don’t even see this floor as a threat. Who here has seen what these monstrous creatures are truly capable of?” another voice asked, to which a whole chorus responded with subtle hints of terror. “This is something one would see on—what?—the fiftieth floor? Maybe higher?”
Silence returned as the next elemental spawns joined the party.
Earth was next, forming into a pair of heavyset bull-like creatures with legs reminiscent of ancient tree trunks. Not to mention they were twice as tall as the ogres and far stockier. Literal colossi.
The ground shook with their every step, as though they were echoing against something deeper than the earth and vibrating the world itself. There wasn’t much left for them to do, since the wind and water elementals had annihilated everything and anything with a pulse and begun homing in on any survivors from their initial surges, but they certainly did their best to join the fray.
The totem didn’t stop. Next was fire, then ice. One looked like a stormbird, while another looked like a titanic clayman made of magma. No matter how many elementals spawned, the totem kept at it.
“Ivy, hit the totem,” James called.
She did and hollered in pain as the energy sword dropped to the ground. “Ow, that hurt!”
“Mr. Ascender?”
“I’m assuming that’s me,” Jarvick said, hesitant to step forward. “If you’re recommending I strike the totem, I’d like to try something else instead.” The same cannon he used to help them escape blasted the totem, and all that remained was a little burn mark. “Wow, that thing is sturdy.”
After that display, James grinned and summoned another.
Then another.
And another.
When he tried to press for a fifth, he finally found his limit, as the card failed to activate.
“Four? He can summon four? This can’t be…” At the rate he was going, James feared one of his spectators would die of sheer shock, surprise, and no small amount of horror. “And each one summons two greater elementals?”
“Not only that, these that he’s summoning look to be even greater than what I’ve witnessed… Those were horrifying enough.” A moment passed where nobody moved or spoke. “With this, his audition should be accepted—”
“I’m not finished yet,” James said with a devious grin. The elementals were cool and all, but he still wanted to try two more things.
First, seeing how Totemic Pride affected his Lightning Bombardment Totems. He dismissed the four Primal Fury Totems and began summoning.
The third floor lit up with electric discharge as the first totem fired eight lightning bombs. The impact was greater than previously, and the distance the lightning chained to had increased too. By the time he’d summoned all four, there was a nonstop barrage of lightning bombs killing anything that dared spawn within their range the moment they appeared.
The chatter exploded into an uproar, but James ignored it as he thumbed the spatial pouch to retrieved the Sealed Staff of Revanasa and hoped it worked how he hoped. However, when he didn’t see any improvement in the efficacy of the lightning bombardment totems, he hummed curiously to himself.
Then he dismissed the totems and recast one. Immediately, he felt the difference, not that the giant shining sapphire in the tip glowing in his face made it hard to notice the staff’s activation. Not to mention, he could feel the ability to reactivate the card had halved, just as promised.
In record time, he dropped two Lightning Bombardment Totems and two Primal Fury Totems. For the first time, pride in his skills blossomed in his chest as the two totems put in the same work as four and his elementals came out bigger and better than ever.
The third four was absolutely pandemonium unleashed as his upgrades worked their magic and his tests showed him all he needed to know.
Warning!
Warning!
Relocation occurring promptly!
“Oh shi—”
----------------------------------------
“Did you catch that?” Specter Zero asked, disconnecting from the Ascender’s live stream.
“We need him. See to it.” The connection cut.
“Well, well, this got a lot more interesting.” Specter Zero scratched his chin. “Now, where in the world did he run off to?”
----------------------------------------
One moment James was there, basking in the glory of his new and improved class and abilities. In the next, nada. James was nowhere to be found. Knowing her brother, however, Ivy didn’t panic.
Instead she turned, grinning, toward Jarvick. “So when do I get my new power armor?”
----------------------------------------