A Legacy of Blades - An Epic Tower Fantasy

"This forest is a mite more peaceful than the last, eh?"

They'd been climbing slowly for hours now, but the foothills seemed endless. Orion was growing tired of the climb, not from any actual exhaustion, merely the boredom of monotony. From the ground, it looked like the trees thinned as they climbed the mountain, but in the thick of it, the forest felt much grander than he'd imagined.

It had been a quiet few hours for him, rarely voicing any real thoughts in the intermittent conversations. Razhik and Anilith had talked plenty, but Orion had been lost in thought, mainly sorting through his concerns with the girl's favorite skill. It was handy; he couldn't deny it. Something about the way it exhausted her, though, and the fact that she never seemed to notice just didn't sit right with him. She'd felt the wave of powerlessness after demonstrating her newest power, an increasingly absurd concept to begin with. How many powers could one person have, or at the very least gain in such a short amount of time?

But it bugged him, that skill more than the mystery of her magic.

Why couldn't the girl tell how drastically her skill affected her? Was it even his place to say something? Try as he might, he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was just…off about the thing. It wasn't as if it physically exhausted her, more than her exertions would under normal circumstances, more like the skill drained her of something less quantifiable, but intrinsically connected with her. He feared that she might overdo it one day, finally feeling the detrimental effects of the skill, and being unable to protect herself in the moment it mattered most. She was brave to the point of arrogance, showing little regard for her life when she saw an opportunity to lay low an enemy or protect an ally, but she didn't deserve that fate.

She'd never meet it, not if he had any say in the matter.

He'd always, from that first day in the Forest, seen how she moved with an unnatural quickness. He wouldn't have thought anything of it, except she mentioned the oddity herself. And again, she didn't feel the exhaustion she should. At least now, after experiencing the effects of her newest ability, she was aware of how odd this was. It was only in regard to that weird, Tower-protected skill that she seemed blind to the drawbacks.

Gah! He just couldn't make the thoughts stop buzzing around in circles, stinging his brain all the while. His thought-nattered brain recounted the past several seconds, filtering out his grunting responses.

"You're telling me. It's strange how overrun the other forest was," Anilith replied. "You'd think, this being a hidden Dungeon and all, that it would be worse here."

"Then again," she had continued, taking his grunt for what it was, "the one enemy we've found was leagues beyond anything outside. The numbers were nearly our undoing out there, but if that ogre-kin had even a couple of Rares as support, I'm not sure we could have taken him out. At the very least, we wouldn't have had the luxury of probing his defenses, which could hurt us down the line."

His mind having finally caught up to the conversation, Orion replied in a less guttural manner. "Not so wrong on all accounts, but don't be weighin' your treasure yet, kid. It's been peaceful enough so far, but if I've learned anythin' from my time in this place, it's that things ain't ever as simple as you'd like to believe, and the second you think you're safe, well, let's just say that you're likely in for a bad time."

"You don't strike me as the superstitious type; there's no way bad luck is that simple here."

Orion sucked air through his teeth dramatically. "See, kid, there are just some things you shouldn't say, and challengin' the Tower is usually a bad move. You think anythin' it does makes sense? Really think about that, then tell me this place works on logic, at least in the real-world sense of the word. We're walkin' through a pretty massive pocket space inside another pocket world, and you're tellin' me you draw the line at 'bad luck.' You, who keeps doin' things we're ain't quite sure how you manage?"

The girl wouldn't meet his eye, which only made Orion feel giddy with accomplishment, not that he'd show it. Sometimes convincing people that this place was as simple as it seemed, inasmuch as you could always count on never being able to get too comfortable without the Tower shaking things up, was all he needed to brighten his day. It was the little things.

"You're one to talk, Ori," Razhik interrupted with a laugh. "The trouble we've gotten into because of your flippancy…Oh, the stories I could tell. One time, he came out to the Marshlands complaining about how the Tower always..."

Orion coughed. "I seem to remember a certain someone getting us into more than a few tight spots while investigating a promising snack. Remind me, how many of those ended up actually being food?"

"Hey! At least a couple have been actually edible, and that helps me grow, too. Food's relative, you narrow-minded soft-skin!" Razhik huffed and stalked away through the underbrush.

Blinking a couple of times, Orion continued talking with Anilith. "Yeah, well, point is don't take anythin' for granted here."'

"I guess you're right about that, old man." The girl threw her hands up in mock exasperation. "Figures you'd have so much trivial knowledge, traveled as you are. Gods know I don't want to give this place any more reason to mess with us. It might think I'm learning the wrong lessons, here."

"You're tellin' me you're learnin'?" Orion shook his head. "Hard to say what this hidden Dungeon's even about. Can't be anythin' good, or I'm sure I'd have heard somethin' about them before. Only two reasons I can think for that kinda gap in knowledge. Either someone's gatekeepin' the information, or…"

"...no one's made it out of here," Anilith finished. "You think there's something like this near every Dungeon?"

"Only one way to find out, but can't be getting' ahead of ourselves here. First things first, gotta survive and make it out of here. Then we can figure what this means for the wider world out there. Well, out there, in here, anyway." The man scratched at his chin. "Damn worlds in worlds. Really muddles up my views."

"Oh, it's not so bad!" Anilith replied cheerfully. "It doesn't change a thing in the here and now, anyway. At a certain point, you just gotta accept that nothing makes sense in here and we're dancing to the song of some unknowable Tower, right?"

"Now you're getting' it, kid! Best not to think too hard about these things. Even us seasoned veterans forget that, sometimes!"

"And here I thought you were observan…"

"Quiet!" Orion put his hand up, signaling the group to stop. He focused intensely, trying to identify what set him off. "You hear that?"

Concern clear on her face, Anilith replied, "I don't hear anything: nothing at all. Razhik?"

The creature slunk out of the shadows, screwing up his expression. He looked more focused than Orion had seen his friend outside of a handful of occasions, when he thought he smelled a particularly potent snack. Razhik nearly vibrated with concentration. A moment later, he relaxed as the tension fled his body. "Nope, nothing here. What is it, buddy?"

"I'm not sure. One moment, we were walkin' and everythin' felt…fine; the next, the air felt alive, almost buzzin' with energy." Closing his eyes, Orion turned his head. "It's almost like I can hear the buzz, interlaced with a crackling. Can't say I've ever heard anythin' like it before, but I don't much like it." The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

The three of them stood there for a handful of seconds, no one offering a path forward.

Anilith broke the silence. "Well, we can't stand here forever. What should we do, old man?"

"I'm thinkin', alright? Shit, I don't even know what we're lookin' at, here, but it screams trap to me. Maybe…" Orion pulled a rock from one of his cloak's many pockets and tossed it towards the place he perceived as the sound's origin.

Nothing happened.

"I can't believe the shit you carry around," Anilith said with a mocking laugh. "Well, how'd that go?"

"Yeah," Razhik said earnestly, "we in the clear, bud, or is chaos about to descend on our heads, again?"

"You're one to talk, kid." Orion listened carefully, still hearing a faint buzzing. "Honestly, I don't think that tripped whatever it is."

Focusing more intently on the area ahead of them. An alien sensation overcame him slowly, and the ghost of an image appeared in his sight for a moment. He blinked rapidly, not sure what he'd just seen, but allowed himself to ease back into that foreign feeling. Following the buzzing, he found he could feel an energy in the air only ten feet ahead of them and, as he focused, faint lines materialized in his sight. They wove together, creating a wide lattice that crackled with power. He could feel every intersection where they connected.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

He saw the rock he'd thrown just on the other side of the field. He couldn't say if it had missed entirely or simply not been affected, but, as always, he wasn't willing to leave that up to chance.

"Yep, definitely a trap, and I don't think my little test worked in the slightest. I have an idea, though."

He let the answer hang, a mystery begging to be answered, or so he felt. He never stopped finding enjoyment in the little moments, no matter how long he lived. Some days, he felt they were the only things that helped him power forward.

Anilith, not looking as amused as he felt, broke first and asked, "…which is?"

A grin split one cheek. "Still got some of those bodies? Some of the less valuable ones, anyway?"

"You know I do."

"And you think I carry weird shit, shit. Well, here's my thought. This is a trap, no doubt in my mind, and I don't know what it does, but I'm willin' to bet, a body crosses there," he pointed at the ground at the base of the lattice field, "then the thing triggers, an' I don't think any of us want to risk triggerin' it ourselves."

Anilith just looked at the man before dropping the body of an archer out of her ring's storage. "Huh. Well, that does seem reasonable enough." She grabbed the thing by the feet, saying, "Shall we?"

Orion grabbed the meat-bag's arms. "Thought you'd never ask!"

Moving forward together, they released their charge as Orion added, "Oh, and let's not be here after we trigger this. Gotta be somethin' around keepin' an eye out here." He bolted for cover before the legs had even left her fingers, Razhik nowhere to be seen as the shadows deepened ominously.

"Gods damn that man," Anilith muttered, looking around. Orion snickered as he'd chosen to hide himself from her as well this time.

The moment the body made contact with the field, five feet from where they'd stopped to toss it, Orion saw the field contract on the point instantaneously. The result was more dramatic than he'd expected. A single clap of thunder rolled out from the body, as a searing light illuminated it. Even as it appeared undamaged, the body's limbs began twitching of their own volition, causing Orion to suppress a shudder. He was left with an afterimage of Anilith's back, and he could only imagine the effects the girl must be suffering.

For a moment, he regretted the prank, but then decided that the girl should know better than to not expect him to reach for such low-hanging fruit. Then, he regretted it again, as he noticed what it had done to the girl.

"Shit, you're never gonna live this down if we all make it out of here."

Anilith was blind to the world, white light painting her vision. As alarmed as she was, that paled in the face of her anger.

The girl found herself repeating, "Gods damn that man!" The words were noticeably louder than the last time, although it didn't matter after the deafening thunderclap that must have alerted anything that might have been nearby. "Weren't we just talking about not tempting the damn Tower? He just couldn't resist! Damned fool of a man." Her words sounded off to her own perception, resonating strangely, but she couldn't focus on what was wrong, knowing that time was against her.

Following instincts ingrained in her over the past few months, Anilith fell back upon the Wind in the absence of her eyes. The rhythm of the Earth was hardly as useful in the absence of her natural sight, at least not with her proficiency. The Wind illustrated the world for her, banishing the void her blindness had conjured, and allowing her to do better than stumble around hopelessly.

It also helped her pinpoint Orion, even if he had hidden from her this time. Not wanting to give away his position, even as angry as she was, she moved away from him, shielding herself from view as she felt movement approaching from farther up the mountain. Six creatures were converging on their position, heading straight for the body they had thrown through the trap.

She didn't want to know what would have happened if one of them had triggered that spell, but couldn't imagine it doing less than stunning the unfortunate soul and making them an easy target for elimination.

Through the eyes of the Wind, she watched and she waited, aware that her friends did the same, wishing she could signal them any information about the enemy's numbers. Even after all this time together, there were gaps in their teamwork that needed to be remedied if they were to survive the Tower.

Three large creatures, each strikingly similar to the monstrosity of a goblin they had faced before entering the Dungeon, moved towards the body first. They moved cautiously, slowing dramatically when they recognized the physiology of the prone figure, even with its arms splayed unnaturally from its unceremonious landing. They growled, using no words to communicate with their approaching comrades that something was amiss.

As they each triggered their strange ability, echoing the actions of their deceased predecessor and beginning to grow unnaturally, an arrow took one of them through the eye, ending the beast's threat abruptly. The other two frantically looked around for their ambusher, even as they continued to swell, the rage in their features keeping pace their bodily growth.

Anilith blinked rapidly, her eyes continuing to fail her, before closing them tightly. Left with little choice other than to let her ally face these creatures alone, which wasn't something she'd even consider, she firmed her resolve and stepped quietly from cover, using the Wind to mask her approach. She moved swiftly towards the nearest enemy, aware of its allies closing the distance. She felt the moment the beast entered the radius her Blade Weaving functioned within, allowing her to see the thing in greater detail.

The Wind was useful for tracking enemies, but didn't offer a great deal of other information, aside from a basic understanding of something's size. Blade Weaving filled in the gaps of her other sense, allowing her to see the way the creature easily hoisted a two-handed sword in one hand. The metal of the weapon sang in a way no goblin's had, even in the Dungeon that led them here.

This was a dangerous weapon.

Wasting no time, she capitalized on Orion's distraction, hamstringing the beast as it looked for the man, reducing the threat it posed dramatically. She moved to attack the other enraged beast, moving out of range of the incapacitated goblin as she did, but found her assault blocked. Quickly, she disengaged, knowing that her only advantage lay in speed, doubting that she would survive even a moment if she chose to rely on her newly found strength.

The time for stealth had passed, and she called out to her allies. "Three more are approaching, much smaller than these monsters! Razhik, cover quadrant one! Orion, keep your eyes peeled on quadrant four!" The beast before her lunged, creating an opening in its defenses for a fraction of a moment; a moment that Anilith did not let pass, her senses on high alert and the speed of the Wind coursing through her. "One of the newcomers is staying far back, no telling what it's up to!"

She opened a gash in the creature's forearm, feeling its finesse slip for a moment before its rage overcame the pain. If the liquid flying about was any measure, the beast's renewed assault was doing itself more harm than she had. She moved too quickly, too efficiently for the wounded creature to catch her, even enhanced as it was by its particular brand of magic, and she made sure to stay away from its downed cohort.

A sudden pressure in the air alerted her to an incoming missile, and she danced backwards as she brought her blade around to intercept the projectile. In her moment of triumph, when she moved to cripple the wounded creature further, a spasm of energy rushed through the arm she'd used to block the imminent danger, causing her to drop the weapon she held in that hand.

An involuntary shriek erupted from her mouth, pain overriding her control. The beast before her laughed, a manic thing, and the sound was more muffled than she thought it should be. She felt a similar energy begin to emanate from its blade.

"Razhik, forget what I said, find that last one! It's doing something to enhance its allies!"

It was all Anilith could do, dodging the attacks of her target, dancing around and further crippling the downed monster. She didn't dare try to block the blade that sought her life, and made sure to stay out of the path of any incoming projectile. She had no choice but to bide her time and fight a defensive battle, her options limited by her still numbed arm.

As she finally finished off her incapacitated foe with carefully calculated strikes, she heard an exclamation of some sort come from Orion's direction, followed by a warbling sound. It took her a minute to realize that she couldn't hear as she should, the world around her distorted from the thunderous noise of the trap.

She shied away from the creature, separated from her second weapon, and refocused her efforts on finding the hidden enemies. She could only find three disturbances in the Wind, and that included the one attacking her with unparalleled vengeance. A blur she recognized as Razhik closed in on the furthest creature. Orion moved forward, his movement suggesting he intended to support Razhik in his hunt.

Anilith, dodging a flurry of attacks from the increasingly enraged beast, scored a parting blow on its thigh, turned, and ran. As the fight wore on, the creature had become less and less of a threat, despite its rage, but the goblin launching projectile after projectile at her, in a seemingly endless, if steady, rain, remained a very real threat.

She found herself thankful for Orion's lessons in how to neutralize a ranged threat. Zig-zagging through the underbrush, the flagging giant on her tail, she closed on the creature, which couldn't evade her senses. Before the scrappy beast knew death approached, Anilith was removing her remaining blade from the hole in its chest.

Distantly, she heard the sounds of Razhik and Orion's battle, coming through as a booming warble. She turned to face her pursuer, noticing as she did that the energy had abandoned his blade. Wounded as it was, she dispatched the beast in short order.

She could already feel Orion moving her way, trying to say…something.

"I can't hear you," Anilith said, pointing to her ears.

Orion seemed to look at her strangely, a disturbed look on his face, before he pulled items from his cloak, one in each hand. With one, he handed her a small vial, smaller than the one she had imbibed earlier by far. With the other, he offered her a rag.

Anilith opened the vial and drank it in one gulp before taking the rag. Orion guided her hand to the side of her head, and the cloth came away bloodied.

Her hearing returned with an uncomfortable popping noise. She shouted, surprising herself with the volume she spoke, "What in the gods' names was all that?"

Covering his ears, Orion replied, "Kid, I wish I had an answer for you this time, but you don't gotta yell."