I kept moving around the center of the room looking for any opening while dodging the constant fireballs from the Super Cat and its four minions. At least there wasn’t a passage into the boss room for all the rest of the minions from this floor.

Perhaps that would have been too unfair? Still, it mattered not as I kept up the same movement pattern around the room, slowly altering it. I kind of knew how the level 5 Super Cat moved, but it had been quite a while since the fourth floor at the bottom of the tower. Every time after I had managed to get an alpha strike on the monster and end it quickly enough.

The main issue was the middle band of null skill flooring around the center of the room. Even when I raced at the Super Cat it kept to the null skill area. The minions weren’t as careful, but I had no good way to disable the cat monsters. They had too much distance and were too agile.

There was a gap in my fighting skills, one that was biting me in the ass right now. I adjusted my movement pattern to try and understand which way the boss would move, but it always kept to the null skill area of the room careful not to let me use my skills.

“Stupid cat,” I muttered as I kept moving to avoid the constant barrage of fireballs. The lack of tracking or prediction from the monsters was my saving grace. Once the monsters could predict my movements, then simple stalling tactics would no longer work. I wasn’t looking forward to that. I was a thinker, not a battle maniac.

I had no melee weapon on me and was heavily injured. The pain in my gut was hitting me in waves, but if I screwed up or stumbled, I would be roasted in seconds. I had to keep moving, hopping around the room on my right foot. At least in the null zone the monsters couldn’t use their skills, otherwise I would have been struggling a lot more.

Fine! I couldn’t wait any longer. I was getting mentally tired, and I needed to take a risk to end this fight. I hated taking risks in a fight. If I had to take a risk, then that meant I was losing and needed to change things to overcome that loss. I prided myself on being able to outthink the monsters and wear them down. Being in the opposite position was a unique and frustrating experience. This was probably just a taste of how the Divine Empress felt about myself.

I moved in on the boss cat, in a zig zag pattern. It moved to its left initially, then went right. I moved directly at it, and it began to dart to the side to move to the center of the room. I was ready for this. I moved my left foot to the ground and kicked off, reversing my direction instantly, pursuing the boss as it spun and leapt in the center of the room to launch fire at me.

That was something I was prepared for. Air Burst. Air Burst. I went low to the ground, gritting my teeth as my gut felt like it wanted to rip away from my body. I went under the fire attack instead of over. Air Burst. I wasn’t about to let this chance escape me. I needed to end this fight now no matter what.

Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. Unlike the monsters I could track the their trajectory and predict where they would be. The Super Cat was coated in acid quite heavily and began to melt. Air Burst. I moved out of the way of the minions’ attacks as the boss collapsed to dust in the null skill zone. The minions went still as well thankfully.

I hopped to a halt and felt a warmth on my back. I quickly took off my food and water pack, ripping it open and tossing the burning pieces away. The last of my badly bruised and slightly singed food and water supplies well out.

If my gut hadn’t been killing me and bulging out, then I would have avoided that fire attack completely. I tossed out some of the lantern fuel and put my food and water in the pack that had been on my chest. I then swung it around to put it on my back. Slowly hopping, I made my way to the elevator trying to steady my breathing as the pain hit me, in wave after wave.

The pain from my bulging gut was worse than the headache I had from this tower climb. After getting to the safe room on the forty seventh floor, I took off my pack and collapsed in the corner of the room. I pulled out a flask of water. My second to last. I had been going through my food and water much faster than I had anticipated.

Well, the matter had to come from somewhere to make this bomb that was growing inside of me. I let out a sigh as I considered my remaining rations. After I finished this flask, I would have one left and four pieces of fruit. I was running on fumes, grit, and willpower.

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I considered the next floor. The open pit trap floor. It would be a maze of pit traps, but relatively easy Even with the monster cats chasing me, it was simple enough to go over a gap between actual floor sections with pit traps to maneuver around them.

The boss would be a massive headache. The Human Hammer Golem, and it would probably have spawners as well. I would need to really ration my energy carefully while avoiding the monster cats on the floor if I was going to win quickly.

I couldn’t draw out a fight. One spike of crippling pain, would cause a misstep. One misstep would cause me to die. With my death, my new Empire would fall. I froze as I remembered the saying about for want of a horseshoe nail. How an improperly shod horse, caused a horse to fall, which caused the rider who was a messenger to die, the battle was lost, and then the kingdom.

One defeat, one mistake, that was all it took to lay waste to all my plans and ambitions. Even the smallest misstep would have huge ramifications. I finished off the flask of water. I still felt a bit thirsty, but ignored the feeling and tossed the empty flask aside.

With the blood in my urine, it definitely wasn’t safe to drink or try and reprocess. I had considered it, but I was so close to the top of the tower I could almost taste it. Three more floors, the Astrologer, and possibly the final floor. That was all that stood between me and getting out of this accursed place.

One thing I missed was the large open spaces of the outside zones, where I could run away if I wanted to. If I had actual skill, skills, my strafing skill would have gained a bazillion levels with how confined the tower was. The passages were spacious enough not to trigger claustrophobia, but there was just that crushing feeling I felt, being boxed in and stuck in this death trap.

“I hate this place,” I muttered, talking to myself, which I knew wasn’t a good sign, but the pain, the constant fighting, and the lighting all made my head hurt. If there had been another puzzle floor, I would have probably given up and just died if I couldn’t solve it with brute force.

Well not really, but mentally, my tank was running low. I could grind, but that was mindless. I could think about other things while doing that once I got a rhythm down. This was just unrelenting fighting. Day after day. At least there was an end in sight which was the main motivation that kept me going.

I kept my eyes closed and my breathing steady as I kept waiting for my energy to return. I wasn’t tired enough to sleep, but I didn’t want to move. I remembered reading an article that most people can only push themselves to 70% of their ability, before giving up. Death was at 100%. And special forces training was meant to bring a person up to 90%.

I had no clue where I fell on that spectrum, but right now it was higher than 70% for sure. I would kill for a restoration, just to stop the constant pain I felt. That move with my left foot in the boss room, hadn’t helped things and it was dripping blood and throbbing again.

“Come on Michael, you can do this. Just three more floors then the top floor. You got this,” I said to myself. Not the most motivating pep talk but it would have to do. I slowly pulled myself up and put on my pack on my back and hopped to the one-way exit.

I recalled what I remembered about the floor layout. It was devious, but doable. I could also see where the solid floors were by where the monster cats ran. Honestly, ten or twenty monster spawners it didn’t make a huge difference at a certain point since all the monsters clumped up together.

It was a poor design, but was really was how the layout forced one to move past the monster spawners at the start with various connections to the path to get to the golden key rod. Looping around was doable, but the ends of the solid platforms that would allow me to get close to the boss door or maneuver counter clockwise around the room all had blade traps.

That had almost caught me by surprise on an earlier floor, but I had used an Acid Shot to trigger the trap and two Air Bursts to slow me down and land on the platform without getting minced. That was the kind of trap you saved for the final version of this floor after I had been injured, but the tower and the Almighty System had used that surprise a bit too soon.

Taking a deep breath, I raced out the one way door, checking the platforms in front of me as I went. If the walls moved on the lower floors, the pit traps could have been moved here and I needed to check the initial path. I went South and hit a dead end, before I was forced to back track. The monster cats were already spawned and I observed where they ran.

I get a bit further and finding the route to the East before they came to a halt and started shooting fire at me. I dodged side to side and back, maneuvering back and around the corner. Now all the monsters had caught up. There were twenty four and they were getting in each other’s way.

“You need teamwork!” I called out, but they didn’t respond. Air Burst. I leapt over the corner and landed behind the monster cats. I followed the path to the to the North checking for traps, but I knew there were no pits, allowing me to gain a slight lead.

I knew the path after this, but I made sure to check just in case. I needed to preserve my energy as much as possible for the boss fight. I couldn’t afford to waste it on foolish mistakes like I had on the lower floors. If I fell into a pit trap, I might need four or five Air Bursts which would kill my energy.

As I hit a dead end, the path to the North was gone. I quickly dropped to the ground and poked my head under the illusion floor to take a look where the actual path went.