The sub-objective was close now.
All five of them were together again, and that alone had changed the air around the group. Snot looked lighter than he had not long ago, when killing two people had left sothing ugly sitting under his usual noise.
Neo noticed it and kept the thought to himself.
’He hasn’t said it to anyone else. Only . I’ll keep that secret the sa way he’s keeping mine.’
That was the natural thing to do.
Snot was strange. Loud, irritating in bursts, impossible to ignore for long, yet Neo did not dislike him. Sohow, despite being opposites in almost everything that could be asured, they got along far too well.
’Opposites attract. Isn’t that the saying?’
The thought barely had ti to settle before movent ahead dragged all of them back into the present.
A Stoneweb Spider crawled over broken stone first, long hairy legs clicking against rock, swollen abdon dragging low. Beside it, a Soul Beast stepped into view with the kind of presence that made the air shift at once. Four powerful legs. A body long and low despite its size. Black fur pulled tight over muscle. Pale fangs beneath a mouth made for tearing.
Night Stalker.
More shapes followed behind them.
Weapons flashed into existence at once.
Neo’s sword ford in his hand, and the mont he invoked Beast Strength, power ran through his fra in a hot, violent pulse. His muscles tightened, his footing bit deeper into the ground, and the weight of the blade changed with him. With Beast Strength active, the force in his body rose to sothing close to Snot’s despite Snot standing a whole core above him.
The first Night Stalker moved before the others.
It ca low and fast, black fur cutting through shadow like a blade through cloth. Max stepped forward at once, shield raised to take the impact, but Neo was already moving.
He crossed in from the side instead of the front.
The beast hit Max’s shield with enough force to ring through the stone beneath them, and Neo used that instant. He ca in along its flank and drove his sword deep behind the foreleg. The Night Stalker twisted, a burst of savage movent and muscle, but Neo ripped the blade free and cut again across the neck before it could spring away.
[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]
The body crashed hard, skidding over broken stone.
Snot slipped past him with both daggers in hand, cutting into the first Stoneweb Spider as it spat webbing toward Marika. Alice entered the sa opening with her axe and broke another spider’s leg with one brutal swing, forcing it low enough for Marika’s flas to catch its underside.
Neo saw the second Night Stalker before anyone called it.
It had circled wide through the rubble and was already rushing for Marika.
He burst forward, boots grinding over stone, and t it head-on.
The beast lunged for his throat. Neo stepped off line and slamd his shoulder into its side with enough force to turn the leap ugly. It crashed against a half-broken wall, claws scraping for purchase, and Neo’s sword ca down a heartbeat later through the base of its neck.
[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]
He did not stop there.
A Stoneweb Spider dropped from a fractured ledge above, web already gathering in its mouth. Neo snapped his arm up and cut through the strand before it could spread, then closed the distance in two quick steps. The spider reared, legs lifting, abdon twitching.
Neo’s blade punched straight through the front of its body.
Green blood burst across the stone.
[You have slain Stoneweb Spider - Ember]
He ripped the sword free, crouched at once, and consud the Soul Core before the light had even finished surfacing.
[Soul-Window]
[660/1000]
A third Night Stalker ca for him almost imdiately, using the others’ fight as cover. It moved the way predators were ant to move, clean and cold, no wasted motion in it. Neo caught the shift in rubble to his right, turned with it, and the beast t steel instead of flesh.
The impact ran through his arms.
’Fast.’
It twisted away and ca again.
Neo let it.
He gave ground once, drew it into the narrow cut between two broken slabs, and the mont it committed, he stepped in instead of back. His free hand caught its fur for the briefest instant. Beast Strength surged through him, and he drove the sword up under the jaw with enough force to carry the blade half through the skull.
[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]
The thing dropped almost on top of him.
Neo shoved it away, breathing harder now, and consud the core at once.
[Soul-Window]
[662/1000]
Off to his left, Max was holding the front exactly where he needed to, shield planted like a wall no beast had the right to move. Alice fought beside him with her two-handed axe, every swing carrying enough force to split bodies apart instead of rely wounding them. Snot flashed in and out of bad angles, both daggers working with quick, dirty precision. Marika’s flas ca in sharp bursts, controlled and vicious, burning open the gaps the others needed.
But the center of the fight had already shifted toward Neo.
The last Stoneweb Spider tried to retreat after seeing two Night Stalkers and one of its own kind already dead on the ground.
Neo did not let it.
He ran it down over broken stone, vaulted a collapsed stretch of wall, and landed almost on top of it. The spider spun, legs scraping, web building again.
He cut across the mouth first.
Then downward.
The abdon split open with a wet crack.
[You have slain Stoneweb Spider - Ember]
The core surfaced. Neo consud it without wasting a breath.
[Soul-Window]
[663/1000]
The last Night Stalker saw what the others had beco and chose speed over caution. It ca straight for Neo, a black blur tearing over the ruined ground.
Neo smiled without warmth.
’Good.’
He t it in the open.
The beast’s claws flashed. Neo turned aside by the smallest margin, felt air tear past his chest, and struck once across the ribs. Not enough to kill. Enough to stagger. The Night Stalker twisted back around at once, but Beast Strength was already flooding Neo’s body again through every line of muscle.
His second strike was heavier.
His third ended it.
The blade carved through the neck so cleanly the head rolled twice before stopping near Max’s boots.
[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]
Neo consud the final core while the body was still twitching.
[Soul-Window]
[665/1000]
By the ti the last corpse hit the ground, the fight was already over.
Snot looked over the battlefield, then at Neo, and let out a short breath through his nose. "You really decided to show off there, huh?"
Neo flicked green blood and black fur from his blade. "They got in my way."
That earned a laugh from Snot, quick and alive.
They moved on soon after.
The ground began to rise, and before long the hill stood in front of them with the tower waiting at its summit, ancient and vast enough to make everything around it feel smaller.
Marika slowed slightly. "Stay alert. There might be monsters around it."
Max raised his shield at once, ready to throw himself into the front and take the aggro the mont sothing appeared.
Neo remained watchful, though not as tense as before. He saw no webs, no dragged silk, no signs that spiders had nested around the tower. Snot seed much the sa, and Neo guessed he had sensed sothing through his blood.
A mont later, Snot spoke.
"Desummon the weapons. There are people ahead. We’re close now, so it’d be better not to make a bad first impression."
All five dismissed their weapons and finished climbing the hill.
The full base of the tower opened before them.
It was enormous, wide enough that a thousand people could have sat in a great circle within it without crowding each other. Vines and wild growth clung to parts of the old stone, but the entrance stood open.
That was not the surprising part.
The surprising part was the number of people.
More than fifty had gathered at the tower’s base. So sat alone. Others had ford groups. Campfires, supplies, makeshift shelters, bedrolls, and little territories marked out by whoever had claid them first.
’So so of them really did appear near the tower.’
A voice rang out from ahead.
"Stop there! The newcors don’t move!"
Snot blinked. "That’s for us?"
Neo answered dryly, "Yes. We’re the newcors here. It’s us."
Snot scratched his cheek. "Ah. Right. When you put it like that, yeah."
Six people approached.
Two n were first, both close to two ters tall, broad and imposing in knight armor with their visors open. Behind them ca two more n and a woman, all carrying themselves with enough confidence to make their classes hard to guess at a glance.
And at the center of them walked what was clearly their leader.
Compared to the two armored towers at his sides, he looked almost ridiculous.
A man.
One ter fifty tops.
Snot saw him and failed first. A laugh slipped out of him before he could stop it. Marika did the sa.
Neo looked at the man, felt the laugh rise, and crushed it before it escaped.
If he laughed now, they would be starting on the worst possible foot with everyone in this place.
User Comments
0 comments from readers