The Ruby Magician

Book 3 - Chapter 28



"How is this possible?" Wyn asked. He looked at the two groups with him, his own and Arabelle's. While they weren't injured, they looked completely spent.

The previous floor's completion of needing to take down an entire army of zombies was an incredible feat. They should all be proud of how hard they pushed themselves, overcoming such vast odds while emerging victorious. The entire floor took about an hour and a half, but it was a hard-fought time that was constant.

And yet Wyn was disheartened.

Was this floor going to be the same since it was another raid floor? Were all of the floors of the second tier going to be that way? He couldn't stand the thought of them organizing to take on three more floors like the sixth, especially with one being the final floor of the tier. Arabelle and her group hadn't even cleared that floor, yet.

"I don't know," Cedric said, still holding his parchment. "But it's clear this floor also has the raid secondary quest feature. I have a strong feeling the rest of the tier is going to be similar, but we won't know until we get to them."

"Damn," Wyn cursed. He looked back to Arabelle and Oren, who were standing dumbstruck. He didn't blame them. They were hoping to advance to the third tier this month, and this was decidedly terrible news.

"How are we going to manage this?" Oren asked, looking around.

Wyn realized he wasn't even asking anyone in particular, as he kept scanning their immediate area. He was likely wondering about their ability to progress.

"Exactly how we've always managed," Adam said, stepping up beside Oren and Arabelle. "Come on, Oren, don't be like that. We can do it!"

"Can we?" Oren replied. "We barely made it through the sixth floor, which we've been able to clear in other seasons far easier! And now that the difficulty just jumped up again?"

"That's not necessarily the case," Adam said. "We won't be alone climbing!"

Oren shook his head and sighed.

"He's right," Wyn said. "You won't be alone. If we need to gather the guild to take on each floor in this tier, we will. Not every floor should be going against an army. Have you known a floor in Alistair to repeat itself like that?"

"No, I haven't," Oren relented. "But just how strong will they be?"

"Reasonably," Marcy said. She was standing off to the side staring in the distance. "I sense enemies not too far away, and they seem strong. Likely a few floors higher in strength."

Everyone suddenly grabbed their weapons and gear and looked around, Wyn included. The portal dropped them on the other side of the castle, as the large structure looked different in front of them. The tall castle walls behind them were cracked and damaged, while small pockets around the castle within the outer walls were smoking and glowing orange, obviously on fire. In their immediate area was an open courtyard with random pieces of stone, wooden splinters, and bodies.

Bodies that weren't disappearing back into the tower. They seemed to be the denizens of the castle and surrounding homes, possibly becoming part of the converted zombie army. But since they weren't disappearing, it meant they were somehow part of the floor's environment. Which was a chilling thought.

The entire area contained in the walls was huge, easily the size of a large village, while the castle was the largest Wyn had ever seen. It was four stories tall and had multiple buildings, as though it was multiple castles built into one massive collection. The perimeter was dense with dozens and dozens of buildings separated by webs of roads, like a self-contained community. A dark, black sky still loomed over them, while the only light was the occasional burning building or bonfire of something in the distance.

Whatever Marcy saw Wyn didn't.

"Can you tell what kind of enemies they are?" Wyn asked.

"Why haven't we used a key to leave?" Oren asked. "We have some answers about this floor already."

"Because we need to push ourselves," Arabelle said, speaking up for the first time. "What if we can fight the monsters here? Then we know it's possible to proceed rather than being afraid."

"How do you all have energy left?" Lydia said, the Aquamarine Wizard in Arabelle's group. "I ran through four mana potions and am exhausted!"

"I can give you some potions if you need," Cal said. "I have enough for everyone to have at least one. Why not try and see what we're up against?"

Marcy drew her bow to a half draw, using a regular arrow, while turning to face one of the several open paths around their courtyard. "Enemies approaching."

Wyn summoned his weapon as a spear and quickly had his group in formation. They mostly moved without any instruction, but Wyn made a slight tweak.

He stayed at the back to talk to, and protect, Arabelle's group.

"If it's too much, we leave," Wyn said, looking at his sister. "I promise you I'm not foolish enough to push all of us into more danger."

Arabelle smiled. "I know. I have a feeling we can do it, though."

Oren snickered beside her, but didn't add further comment.

Wyn turned as he heard Marcy release her arrow, then watched as a zombie growled in pain from being hit in the chest. The monster, still about forty yards away, was wearing armor similar to a soldier - chain mail covering its torso, heavy leather leggings, thick metal paldrons, and a rounded metal helmet. In its hands was a spear.

And it was not alone.

Nearly a dozen more zombie monsters came running beside it, all similarly armored carrying various weapons. They were mostly swords, shields, and spears, but Wyn spotted a large, two-handed axe from one of them, too.

Were these the stronger varieties of the floor? The monster Marcy hit wasn't dead, and it looked to barely be injured. That hit would have knocked one of the creatures from the previous floor to the ground easily.

At least Wyn couldn't see any magic from them as they approached closer. His lantern showed no extra auras around them, which was also a positive sign.

They approached fast and were about to clash with Cal and John, who were both magically armored from Tasha and covered in their respective Auras. Before they made it across the courtyard, though, both Cedric and Marcy unleashed another series of attacks, which damaged the creatures far more than her nonmagical arrow. Several of the zombies died outright from blasts of lightning, while several more were blown apart from one of Marcy's fire arrows.

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So they didn't look to be too terribly strong, either. Maybe they were just fast and armored?

When the group met John and Cal, there was still a clear difference in power. Both of the Climbers handled themselves well, managing two or three of the zombies each in their engagement. Tasha was standing by for support, while Marcy and Cedric carefully eyed the group to see if they were needed.

"See?" Adam said. "They don't look too difficult! If we find them in groups like that, this floor won't be so bad!"

Wyn acknowledged that he was right, and saw Oren and Arabelle share a look. They had their own team dynamics to work through, and might not decide to continue - but being the leader of their guild Wyn also had a good amount of influence over their decision.

He could tell them to stay and help as the guild's leader. Though he didn't want to set that precedent. It wasn't the type of leader he wanted to be.

Movement out of the corner of his eye pulled his attention, and he looked behind the other group to see more enemies approaching them. At the same time, Marcy rushed over with her bow at the ready.

"More enemies from the other side!" Marcy said, raising her bow to fire a magical arrow.

To their credit, the other group turned and readied themselves to fight. They had their own formations and ways of fighting, but Oren quickly organized them while the new group of around the same number of monsters were running towards them.

Wyn stepped forward with Marcy and set two quick traps down, one his Siphon glyph and Marcy with her chain trap overlapping it to the side so both would cover the width of the running zombies. They then stepped away so the group could fight unimpeded.

It was surreal for Wyn to watch Arabelle fight during the previous floor, helping to take on the entire monster army. She held her ground and did just as well as the other melee Climbers. Seeing her take on the armored zombies beside her own team was equally as inspiring as it was relieving to Wyn.

She was not only holding her own, she was easily one of the better Climbers in her group. Daniel's training and her own determination were a powerful force. It wouldn't be long before she was as skilled as Wyn, and she was already better than him at understanding and utilizing the tower's magic.

"Shit," Marcy said, standing beside Wyn. "I'm sensing more enemies from another side."

"If the whole floor is like this, we definitely need both groups to advance," Wyn said. "Possibly the whole guild if we have to face that many." The number of enemies weren't as high as the army, obviously, but it was still too much for one group. Sure, they could stand their ground, but they'd need to try and progress eventually. Being held down in one spot killing monsters would make that impossible.

As Marcy drew yet another arrow, a portal opened beside them. Both Climbers paused and watched as someone stepped through.

"I knew we'd find you here," Nigel said, grinning as he casually stepped away from the portal. Behind him came the rest of his team.

"What are you doing back?" Wyn asked.

Nigel shrugged. "When we realized you and Oren's group didn't return, we checked our parchments. We saw that all of you advanced but the raid part of our guild stayed, which was odd. Faye put together that the feature extended into this floor, too, so we came back."

Marcy turned and pointed. "Looks like Faye and her group came back, too!"

Wyn turned to see the fourth and final group emerge from yet another portal, casually talking to the rest of his group despite them still killing the last few monsters.

"Looks like we have another floor to clear," Nigel said, looking around and drawing his sword.

Wyn quickly explained the situation and tried to gather the available Climbers, which was the rest of his group and Faye's group nearby.

Arabelle and her team had eliminated their monsters, while Nigel's team dispatched the third group to enter the courtyard. There was a lull in enemies and Wyn took advantage of the time.

"If you all are still willing to climb after clearing out the army, I have a plan," Wyn said, speaking to the entire guild. "Take twenty minutes to rest and recover here first. If enemies come, I can hold them off along with a few others who aren't as spent from the last floor. Eat, drink, get your mana back. Then, as one, we take a path through the floor. And if we don't succeed in three hours, I will personally use a key to leave and try again tomorrow."

Mollified, the rest of the guild took their rest break while Wyn, Marcy, John, and Caryn held off a half dozen more groups during their rest period. Caryn was surprisingly agile and showed no signs of being fatigued in the slightest. It was likely due to his fighting style, which was more akin to a Rogue-like class rather than a Fighter. He fought with twin short swords and dodged attacks with a grace that was even more fluid than Marcy.

The enemies were also more difficult than Wyn thought, especially after watching John and Cal take on two to three each. They were faster, stronger, and more resilient than the other zombies, requiring increased effort and strategy to take them down. The benefits they had against the creatures were that they weren't intelligent and attacked randomly, and were also weak to magic - especially divine magic. That helped tip the balance.

As the time ran through, the guild was ready to continue. And Wyn had Marcy lead them forward.

The path for the floor was treacherous for two reasons. One was obviously the monsters they encountered, as zombies seemed to appear from anywhere frequently and in groups of about a dozen. The second reason was that there were deadly traps, all magical in nature.

The guild was able to deal with the zombies easily enough while moving in a large group, as they could team up and take them down. The zombies were still coming every few minutes, which was basically the same as a wave floor.

The traps, though, were far harder, and what actually slowed the guild down the most. They were part of the environment like most floors in Alistair, except they also were deadlier than previous traps. One was a literal building collapsing, which happened several times as they progressed through the surrounding area to work to the actual castle itself. The collapsing trap created large obstacles to navigate around while occasionally separating the group. Another was fiery explosions that came from flaming carts scattered around the wreckage of the walled city, as though the carts held a stash of flammable items that were set to explode when the Climbers went near. Luckily no one had wandered too close, or else their climb would have ended far earlier.

All in all, it was another slog of a floor, just in a different way.

Moving towards the castle was an arduous process, though at least the enemies were manageable. That was the case for the first hour, until the guild found their first monster variant.

A cacophony of shrieks pierced the night sky, coming from an untold number of enemies. The sound was like a knife scraping a stone plate, grating and harsh against Wyn's ears. His Mushroom Lantern was giving of a bright yellow light, and the edges of the light caught the enemies.

The ten or so monsters were flying, hooded human torsos, with thinly rotted arms ending with pointed fingers and ragged black robes that covered the rest of their features. What they didn't have were legs. What they did have were wisps of shadow at the end of their bodies and blue auras around their cloaks.

"Mages!" Wyn called. "Take them down!"

Marcy shot one immediately with a glowing white arrow, which took off one of the monster's arms and knocked it to the ground. It didn't stop screaming, though, and thrashed on the dirt trying to get up. A series of other magical attacks streaked across the sky at the remainder of the group.

Almost half of the monsters made it through the various magical attacks, swiping down over the group with impressive speed. Some of the Climbers slashed up with their weapons, and some protected themselves with shields or magical barriers. One of the Climbers screamed as a monster made it to them and slashed across their body with a fierce swipe of both of its arms.

Wyn moved to intercept it, activating Sprint and changing his weapon to a glaive. He rushed to the monster flying away and slashed over it, tearing away part of its wispy body. A quick followup attack took more of it away, while a third caused it to dissipate.

They were more resilient than he thought. Taking them down in one hit would take a bit more effort, if it was even possible without more enhancements.

To Wyn's surprise, a few piles of treasure formed on the ground under the shrouded monsters. Some of the Climbers collected them while others made sure their teammates and allies were okay.

"Any idea what those were?" Wyn asked Cedric while the guild was readying themselves to move again.

Cedric reached out to a pile and picked up a piece of black cloth. It was square and large, the size of a large napkin folded several times. A blue aura surrounded the monster drop, and Cedric immediately checked his parchment.

"Shade Cloth", Cedric said. "Damn. Shade variants are tough enemies. Highly resistant to physical attacks and fairly resistant to magical attacks, too. They attack in packs and drain life and mana."

Wyn cursed under his breath. Cedric was right. Finding more of those monsters would be a problem.

Determined to forge ahead, Wyn led the group further through the roads and scattered debris of the surrounding area. They found several more traps along the way, as well as four groups of zombies and two more shades.

Their progress took over another hour of careful advancement, and Wyn was about to use a key to leave when Marcy alerted to them to a new development.

Smiling, she pointed ahead down a wide road they had travelled for several minutes. Wyn understood her excitement.

They were nearing the end of the floor.

Giving a rallying cry to the guild, everyone responded with their own cheers of success, and their pace hastened.

Wyn abruptly stopped them at the entrance to what appeared to be the boss area. It was a large open field, something similar to a field in the back of an estate, though had carts and small piles of wood on fire scattered about giving some light. In the middle of the field were three large masses that appeared dark with slight movements.

As Wyn stared at them for a few moments, he felt Marcy's breath hitch beside him. He tried to ignore it to keep studying what seemed was likely a trio of bosses. The longer he looked, the more his fear grew about what they were.

The three creatures were the size of wagons, their bodies a strange combination of dark green and black. There were what looked like pockets of scars and injuries all over them, though they all shifted slightly while resting, revealing their forms more clearly.

"They're damn dragons," Marcy said.

"Excuse me?" Nigel said beside her, his voice low. "You're saying those three are dragons?"

"She's right, Nigel," came another voice behind Wyn. It was a Climber from Nigel's team. "I can see their wings folded over their bodies."

"Except they're not just dragons," Marcy said. "They're undead dragons."


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