Lifeblood Chaos [LitRPG Apocalypse]

Ray reappeared a second later a few feet behind them all. Bless the power of Temporal Passage taking him where his spell had been a minute ago. His heart was pounding hard enough in his chest for it to feel like it was going to burst free any second now.

Pierce. Pierce had betrayed him. Right at the very end, at the very moment they needed everything to work together.

Pierce, that fucking asshole, had turned traitor.

"You prick." Gritty was having an obvious difficulty lowering her voice. "Now's the time you decided to show your true colours?"

Worse than causing a commotion that would give them away, she and Marcus were both being restricted by Lent. The big alien had reverted to his boulder-like state, causing the whole area around them to shake as earth materialized around them. So he couldn't just manipulate any rocks or earth nearby, he could also create them out of nothing.

"Right," Pierce said, shedding his disguise completely. He was now once again donning the tight leather armour with his spear held aloft. "You guys have come far enough. Time for your ego trip to end."

"Ego trio?" Ray asked.

"You don't think your massively overinflated ego is what lets you think you can actually do something to stop the Tower Lord?"

The way Pierce was talking, the way he stood there, confident in himself and so completely unbothered by what he was doing… it was starting make Ray's whole body itch to punch every single one of Pierce's teeth down his throat.

"I see you're too incensed to even reply," Pierce said. Bastard was actually sneering now. "You're kind of ruining the show…"

A loud laugh erupted from farther off. The air actually pounded with the sheer intensity of it.

At the same time, Ray was starting to be acutely aware of their state. Of where they were, of the fact that they had caused a loud commotion right where they really couldn't afford to.

The Tower Lord. It was the Tower Lord who was laughing.

Sridayne had warned them. She had said that there was something massive being planned and that they had to be careful. But this… there was no way any of them could have predicted that they were being led to a trap.

Ray tried to whirl around to see if Lyvanse was in on this too, but there was no sign of the Sylvan anywhere. He had already dipped.

"Fuck," Gritty muttered.

Ray followed her glance to see that they were the centrepiece of the giant screen in the middle of the field. The one that had been showing the Tower Lord's smug face was now giving a wide view of Ray and his team being confronted by Pierce and Lent. Of the humiliating moment they were being betrayed by people they had thought they could count on.

"There, my good audience," the Tower Lord said. "I have fulfilled my promise. I did say I would begin our proceedings with a surprise. There is your surprise. A display of the naïve audacity of the ones the System chose to raise through this Tower."

More laughter erupted from all around the arena. Ray's face started to burn. He wasn't used to facing so much attention all at once, especially not from such a large crowd.

But it was more the fact that he had indeed been naïve. That he had rushed through his whole plan too quickly, without fully verifying every possible variable.

Sameer gone… Pierce now turned traitor…

"What kind of fucked up shit is this?" Gritty growled.

"Nothing more than your stupidity deserves," Pierce said.

The Tower Lord was still talking, still insulting and humiliating not just Ray himself, but rather the whole human race. How dare they try to oppose the superior Sylvans. How dare they think they could come anywhere close to stopping the destiny of the Tower Lord to claim the Tower for the Sylvans.

"This is insane, Pierce," Marcus said. "You'd give up your own kind? For what? What the hell did the Tower Lord even offer you?"

Pierce tutted, shaking his head. "See? That's what he means by your naivete. What you're asking is between me and the Tower lord, don't you think?"

Sylvans were rushing up to the roof of the bleachers. Several were flying or jumping straight on top, empowered by their Growth Mana. The guards Ray had seen earlier. They were all coming for them. As if dealing with Pierce and Lent weren't bad enough, now they had a small army of Sylvans—most of whom probably hated Ray's guts—coming after them.

Ray's body had tensed. He was still trying to reel his head back into gear. This was a fight. This was probably the worst situation he had ever landed himself in, and that included when the Demon of Humanity had come so close to killing him.

He had to focus. No time to be angry and get himself killed after he had come this far.

It helped that the anger was coursing through him, passing like a tsunami, leaving a cold numbness in his heart. A numbness that at least left his head clear.

"I can take care of the Tower Lord," Ray said quietly. He and his two companions, the only people he could really trust here, were all retreating a step at a time. "That was always the plan. But I can't leave you guys to deal with all this shit by yourself…"

"It's fine," Gritty said. "You don't have to worry about us. We'll find a way to survive. The real problem is that they won't just let you waltz over there and take down their precious Tower Lord."

That was a problem. But honestly, even if that wasn't an issue, Ray wouldn't be satisfied stopping the Tower Lord if it meant sacrificing the only companion who had been constant with him throughout the Floor.

Gritty had been with him since the First Floor. He couldn't just abandon her.

"Watch them squirm and try to run like the ants they are," the Tower Lord was saying. "You see, they are nothing. No threat to us ever. They cannot even work together, willing and able as they are to shed the blood of their own kind. To betray each other as they see fit. Pathetic. That is what humans are. Lower life forms who have no notion of high-mindedness."

Ray scowled. For all that he had acted cordial before, he ultimately wasn't that different from the rest of the Sylvans Ray had dealt with.

"But the time has come for us to proceed," the Tower Lord said. "End it!"

Pierce didn't even have the decency to look mildly regretful. Or even a little repulsed that he was taking orders from a Sylvan.

Instead, he just raised his spear high. "This is the end of the line for you guys."

Ray was about to act, but it turned out he didn't need to. None of his friends did.

A portal appeared between Ray's team and Pierce. As the spear swung down, the rent in space basically swallowed it whole. Pierce jerked his spear back with a curse, but not before the portal snapped closed, cutting off half his spear.

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"What the—" Pierce looked around with rising alarm.

Ray's heart felt as though it was expanding like a balloon. No way. It couldn't be…

Another portal appeared to their right. This one belched out a tidal wave of purplish-black ooze that sparked with flashing energy, forcing them all to separate as the entire roof was flooded. Ray could distinctly hear the screams of those within the bleachers right beneath them.

"You really thought you would start this whole schtick before me, did you?"

Lo and behold, Sameer emerged from another portal just behind the one flooding the roof. The Tower Lord was yelling out at the other Sylvans to rush in and take care of the disturbance, but Ray hardly paid attention to the asshole's blathering. His heart really did feel like it was expanding.

Sameer, that bastard, really had arrived. He hadn't betrayed Ray and the others. Honestly, Ray's mind was being pulled in so many different directions, he was starting to wish he could stop feeling for a second.

The other Sylvans were charging in. A couple of them had wings made of Growth Mana, with which they flew over the waves of liquid to attack Sameer.

Only to be met by Eliza and Karkatrix. They emerged from more portals, shooting in with their chains and time bubbles threatening to rip through the enemy Sylvans.

"You bastards took your sweet time!" Gritty yelled. She had a wild grin on her face.

"We got waylaid," Eliza said. Her expanding orb of rupturing time had pushed the advancing Sylvans back. She glared a little at Sameer. "Thanks to somebody."

Ray wasn't sure what that indicated, but he was in no position to care about details. This was the opportunity he needed. With Sameer and his team here, with them actually acting on their side—Sameer was still belching bolts of lightning and blasts of magma at the Sylvans through his portals—he could focus on his actual goal.

"Alright," he said. "Now I can leave you guys and take care of the Tower Lord."

"That's what I've been telling you." Gritty slapped him on the back. "Go get 'em!"

Marcus nodded. He had to tug weirdly adoring eyes away from Eliza. "We've got this. Just don't die against the Tower Lord."

"I'm not planning to," Ray confirmed.

Heart soaring at the fact that things weren't as shit as had seemed moments ago, Ray cast Temporal Passage.

Appearing an instant later to stand right in front of the Tower Lord.

"—annihilate them while I—" The Tower Lord's angry commands cut short when Ray materialized a dozen feet in front of him. "You. How did you get in this close?"

Ray grinned. He didn't answer at first. The way his nerves were singing, the way his spine tingled, the prospect of stopping the Tower Lord setting his blood on flames… he let himself enjoy the sensations for a moment.

But more than all that, what Ray really enjoyed was the feeling of the stunned and surprised crowd all around him.

"You thought this was going to be a fun little demonstration for your stupid plan," Ray said, his hands clenched into fists and his eyes boring into the scarlet irises of the Tower Lord. "Looks like you're going to have to think again."

"You insolent fool," the Tower Lord said. "You truly think you can stop me?"

"I wouldn't be here if I couldn't."

The most powerful Sylvan in the Tower of Forging stared at him. For a moment, Ray wondered who would have won if he had pitted the Tower Lord against the Demon of Humanity.

Then the ground began shaking.

Ray raised his voice as he took a single step back. "I'm going to prove that you're not invincible, Tower Lord. And I'm going to prove that your little plan of summoning a Paragon is as stupid as you are."

The Tower Lord's eyes flashed. Little points of Growth Mana emerged from the ground, curving upwards. Ray threw himself back with the aid of Soaring Wings just as they emerged from the ground in spiking, spiralling protrusions that would have stabbed through him if he had been a heartbeat late.

Interestingly, where the Floor Lord's Growth mana had been lurid red and sparkling with the lightning, the Tower Lord's was a golden-white. So bright that Ray was forcefully reminded of the sun.

"Stay back where you belong, vermin," the Tower Lord said. "And watch true power manifest."

The Tower Lord walked over to his precious little dungeon treasure, completely ignoring Ray. Seemed he was pretty certain his wall of Growth wouldn't be broken by someone as comparatively weaker as Ray.

But when the Sylvan reached out a hand to the anchorlike treasure, he froze. His head whipped around to Ray, who was hitting the wall of Growth Mana with Mottling Aeonguard and Vengeful Plunder. "What have you done?"

"Oh." Ray looked up and focused on the treasure and its apparent owner. "What, you really thought that was the real treasure?"

"Impossible. We would know—"

"You'd know jack shit, pal. I used a fake ticket to enter this whole Immortalizer Tournament." Well, technically it was Marcus who had done so, but Ray was the one who had created it in the first place. "I used a fake Tower Node to trick your precious Fleshcrafter. You think I wouldn't be able to trick you the same way?"

The Tower Lord stared at the fake treasure for a little while. Slowly, he turned to Ray. A spiralling spike of golden Growth Mana burst free from the ground near his feet, stabbing through and destroying the fake treasure.

"Well, someone's not taking the situation well," Ray said.

The Tower Lord's anger had chilled to a colder variant. If looks could kill, Ray would be dead by now. "I will teach you and your simple kind the harsh lesson of why you should never dare to stand against us, the Sylvans."

A shiver wrought through Ray, but he let it take its course. "I'm looking forward to it. You arranged this whole gala to show off your little plan to use the Tower for the Fleshcrafter, didn't you? Well, it's good we have an audience because everyone needs to know that we're not going to be messed with. You won't beat me."

With a growl, the Tower Lord attacked. Ray was ready for it. More Growth Mana burst free from the ground, shooting at him even as he retreated. Even with Mottling Aeonguard, Ray couldn't fully stop the barrage. They came out far too quickly with too much force.

The only recourse left to Ray was to use Resurrect Recollect and craft Impenetrable Shell. Adding more Aeon Mana caused a full Duskshell to materialize with a roar.

That held the Growth Mana projections at bay for the moment. Ray could stand within the spectral Duskshell, which afforded him some space to think. The hard shell of his summoned monster was stopping the Growth Mana for now, though the shell was slowly cracking. It was the same beneath him. More projections emerging from the ground couldn't break through.

"You cannot stop the inevitable," he Tower Lord said. "You will fall like the insect that you are, worm."

He had raised high a gigantic sword of Growth Mana. Ray swallowed despite himself. Getting crushed by a battleship sized sword wasn't going to feel great.

The Tower Lord clearly had no intention of waiting. He wanted to crush Ray to a pulp as fast as possible.

Well, nothing for it. Ray cast Time Veil, then Momentous Domain on the entire area around him. Then Aetheric Trace crafted a Windbane maw around his hand. Just as the huge sword of Growth Mana crushed down on him, he used Temporal Passage.

It was undoubtedly a bold move against someone as strong as the Tower Lord. But none of that strength would matter when Ray had the element of surprise in his hands.

He appeared right next to where the Tower Lord had crushed the fake treasure. His Mimic Mana might not have been active there any longer, but it had been active less than a minute ago, so Temporal Passage worked perfectly.

"Eat this, fucker," Ray shouted as he thrust his Windbane-coated hand at his enemy.

The maw yawned wide and blasted out a stream of compressed blue flames.

But the Tower Lord just disappeared.

"What?"

"Fool."

Shit. The Tower Lord's scathing words came from behind Ray.

With the blast of lasering draconic breath and the crash of the giant Growth Mana sword destroying the Duskshell, it was a little hard for Ray to realize that the Tower Lord was capable of teleportation. Just the same as him.

An instantaneous use of Temporal Passage was all that saved him from getting impaled by more Growth Mana. A ring of spiralling spikes had emerged from the ground where the Tower Lord had reappeared.

"Cease running," he said. "You will die one way or another. And the faster you do so, the faster we all can get on with the true reason we are here for."

Gritty: They're leaving, wingman.

Gritty's message came at a pretty bad time, but Ray was somehow able to focus on both her and on the Tower Lord.

Ray: They as in the Sylvans?

Gritty: Yep. Just like we thought.

They had indeed predicted it. As soon as it was revealed that the Tower Lord didn't possess the Tower Node—had never possessed it to begin with—he would immediately begin hunting where it was.

Though, curiously, he wasn't wasting time trying to learn the location from Ray. Instead, he trusted his followers to root it out, no matter where it was.

"You'll die before you find it," Ray said with a grin.

The Tower Lord's eyes flashed. Golden light popped into existence all around him, calling on more Growth Mana from the ground, from the air, and even from the sky. Seconds later, they rained in upon Ray.

It was far too blinding. Ray did his best to push some Mana into his eyes to make sure he could see, trying the same with his ears to make sure his eardrums didn't burst again at the sound of the impacts. As it was, he still struggled. Even with Impenetrable Shell forming a powerful defence, he was forced to step back before the bursts got him.

The giant golden sword of Growth Mana had once again risen high in the Tower Lord's hands. "Now, die!"

The blade descended. Ray was quick enough to dodge the downward slash, leaping over the following horizontal slice as well.

What he wasn't prepared for was the Tower Lord then continuing to swipe the blade like it was the size of a toothpick instead of an office building. Even worse, a storm of light blades emerged from the sword and arced in at Ray fast enough that they'd make the element they embodied proud.

Cursing, Ray did his best to defend himself. He had to turn the tables. The fight against the Floor Lord and the Demon of Humanity had taught him one valuable.

Regardless of whether Ray was overpowered or underpowered, he was the one who had to control the fight.