This was it, the final floor. After climbing and climbing for so long, I had finally done it. The one thing I hadn’t lost count of was the floor I was one going up this stupid square tower from hell. I looked at the stone benches around the edge of the extra large safe room on this floor.

It was tempting to stop and take a break, but first I wanted to take a look. “Astrologer? Anyone home?” I called out. There was no response. Hopefully the floor was already cleared or something and he was just out of shouting range.

I looked out of the one way barrier and my heart fell. I closed my eyes and said a prayer to the Almighty System for some mercy and kindness. I opened my eyes back up. My prayer was not answered. It was not a puzzle floor thankfully and there were only seven boss spawners laid out in a large off set triangle formation in the center of the floor.

There were no minion spawners or traps that I could see. After the forty second floor, I had been quite hopeful that nothing would change or at least the past progression would hold. But that wasn’t the case apparently, since there were no minion spawners.

Seven boss spawners, seven bosses going up the tower. Now the Almighty System could be nice and unleash them one at a time, but I doubted that. It would be a full seven on one brawl. Honestly I would have taken one level 6 monster over multiple level 5 monsters.

I hopped back to the stone bench in the corner opposite the one way gate, putting my pack next to me. I ate the last of my fruit and vegetables and only left a handful of water in the flask. I poked at my fraying shorts and large belly. Seven bosses, what was the priority order.

The Super Cat had to go right away and then the Spider Golem and any Cube Golems. They had range attacks and decent maneuverability. The Human Hammer Golem would have to be next then the Power Prism. The Shielded Core would take too long to kill, and the Donkey was the Donkey and would clearly be last.

No sign of the Astrologer and the elevator was in the far Northeast corner like the previous iterations of this floor. I let out a long sigh as I considered how the fight would go. Ironically the short answer was that the fight would be long. The long answer to that question was that the fight would depend on if I could inflict meaningful damage and if the monsters had teamwork.

The level 5 Cubic Golems didn’t have much teamwork, but there was a change, that all the monsters could somehow combine like a transformer into a level 6 that was supercharged. I closed my eyes as I sat there thinking about the worst-case possibility.

Whatever happened, I needed to make sure my attacks stuck and that I always kept at least 2,000 energy to counter a sneak attack from the Donkey. Since it would pop up at the most annoying time. I slowly loosened up the strap on my left arm. Only a little blood, but not bleeding out. That was good.

I did the same thing for my left leg and put both straps into my pack. “Astrologer, any help?” I called out, but nothing. Dammit, why couldn’t you be here in this saferoom. Or he could be dead and vanished. Either way it didn’t matter. I had a fight I needed to win and it wasn’t going to be easy.

My energy was back and there was no use sitting around anymore. I tossed my pack out of the saferoom into the corner as I took off with a hop, in the general direction of the boss spawners. There was no chance of getting to the closest one in time, since the entire floor was the battlefield. At least there were no traps that I could see, and no pit traps that I fell into.

All the boss spawners lit up at once, with the red light barrier occluding their spawning process. I imagined the Almighty System was like a school girl and the spawning process was like looking up its skirt. It made absolutely no sense, but that image was stuck in my mind of System-chan waving a finger at me going, ‘Naughty, naughty, don’t look, I am shy.’

I brought up my right hand as I was hopping across the floor and gave myself a light smack on the face. I needed to focus. I couldn’t think about stupid things right now. The red light barriers dropped and I let out a groan.

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It was a full on boss rush, all at the same time. “This isn’t fair System-chan! I demand a recount!” I shouted. Why did I say that? I needed to kill them. Focus, kill them. I kept repeating that to myself. At least the boss monsters were all moving in my direction and attacking. They weren’t grouping up to form a mega-boss.

I angled my route to force the Super Cat away from the group and it retreated Northwest to the Cube Golem. Explosive needles and sticky goo hit the floor behind me in my wake, but it didn’t matter. I dodged a barrage of metal bullets from the Cube Golem. Thankfully they weren’t real bullets and supersonic.

“Here kitty, kitty!” I called out. I zig zagged towards the Super Cat in the corner dodging its fire, cutting off its retreat. Now your stuck and no stupid null skill floor or area to save you. I leapt into the air. The flames went up towards me. Air Burst. Back to the ground, under the flames and altering my trajectory as I zipped along the floor to close the distance.

Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. I was almost on top of the monster as it swung its clawed paws at me. Unleashing my attack at point blank range to make sure it died without a large energy expenditure. Air Burst. I pushed myself to the side avoiding its attack and was forced to cushion my impact against the North wall with my right arm.

Air Burst. I quickly moved away as the first boss died. I couldn’t afford to stay in the corner, since I would get pinned down. That was why I used another Air Burst to leave this death trap as quickly as possible as ranged attacks slammed into the floor and wall behind me, my danger sense letting me know they had gotten quite close.

No sign of the Donkey. It did not deserve a proper name, ever. I had no doubt it was just waiting for the opportune moment to attack, but with the first boss down and all this room to work with, there was no problem taking on the remaining six bosses.

As I ran South, I noted a stream of dust coming up from near the wall. It was like the dust monsters left behind that quickly disappeared. A quick glance confirmed that the floor was disappearing leaving behind non-illusioned pits traps with close silent spinning saws of instant death. Well maybe not instant, but if I was nicked, with how injured I already was, I would probably bleed out and die regardless of the severity of the injury.

Looking around the floor as I kept circling it, confirmed that the floor was vaporizing. This battle had a time limit.

BOOM!

There was a bit of shaking as a massive explosion of fire and energy went off in the Southwest corner of the room. Ah, that would be my pack with the lantern fluid and crystals I had collected. What a waste. After all that work of lugging it up the tower, it just disappeared like that.

I hopped out of the way of another attack from the Spider Golem. It was remarkably quick and almost annoying as the Super Cat, but not as much. Looking at the rate the floor was disappearing and the remaining 6 bosses, only 5 of which I could see, meant this fight was going to be much closer than I wanted.

The disintegration of the floor was slow enough that I had time to get back my energy. Since the floor was 49 by 49 units big, ignoring the elevator room and the saferoom, I was losing about a unit an hour. A bit less than that if I had to guess.

That meant 24 units, or 12 hours worth of fighting. Not counting the last platform left. If I was stuck on a 1 by 1 platform, the only monster left had better bet the Donkey, or I was dead. I couldn’t fight these monsters in close combat physically with my Body stat. Only my skills gave me the edge I needed to kill them.

Say 10 hours to be safe, that meant 600 minutes, or 60,000 energy. I nodded to myself calming down as I focused on the math. Trusty math, it had never betrayed me. I could always count you. “Math-chan, lend me your power!” I cried out.

I spun in the air dodging a explosive needle that barely missed me. I rushed for another boss. I had energy, so might as well kill one. A silver hammer swung at me, I leapt up, using my right hand to brace myself on it with a handstand. I had to push my Body stat for this one, but it gave me an opening. I was invincible. Math-chan was on my side, she was never going to let me down.

Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x5. Oh, looks like you needed that head. Well you aren’t a Chan or a cute girl hammer golem, just a brute. Off with your head! Leaping off the monster as it dusted I saw a wall of energy forming in front of me.

My left stub struck out, since my right hand was out of position. I managed to push myself away, but a good chunk of burnt flesh and come off. That hurt. I looked at my left stub as I kept hopping away like a bunny. I was a bunny rabbit. A bleeding bunny rabbit. Was that arm really mine? It was hard to say. I wiggled it about in front of me as blood splattered over the floor and let out a giggle.

An explosion behind me pushed me forward and I almost fell. That was close. I was losing it. The blood loss wasn’t helping along with the pain. Was there a gravity trap? Everything was spinning a bit.

What was I doing? I needed to focus. Come on Michael, head back in the game. That was two down, just five more to go until I won the big prize. I just needed to keep fighting. I was winning. I could do this. Just five more monsters.