The Ruby Magician

Wyn winced at the dragon's roar, momentarily overtaken with how loud and powerful the sound was. His head seemed to vibrate from the echoes off the rocky walls, and he thought for a moment that it was some kind of magical ability that caused a sort of stun effect.

But he knew it wasn't. There was no magical aura or wave of energy to be found. It was purely the dragon's might and power.

If it was the floor boss then it was a very short floor. In the back of his mind, though, he knew it wasn't. The path continued on and didn't end, and there was no portal to be seen. The monster could be a guardian for a not-so-hidden treasure room, or just a mid-floor champion serving as another high difficult obstacle.

Either way, they had to act or they would be in serious trouble.

Wyn moved first, hoping to gather himself and the others so they had a chance. The dragon was already flapping its wings stirring up dust, and the others seemed to be frozen in fear or affected by the noise. Wyn activated Sprint and flew forward, using his Ability Link to empower Feeble. He hoped it would help balance the scales in their favor.

The spell formed its usual skull above the dragon's head, being overly large and even more menacing than normal, then flickered. The black smoky aura around the monster dimmed and slightly dispersed while the skull completely faded out of existence.

While the spell didn't fully take hold, it did do its job. The dragon had to use up its own magic to counter the spell. But what it also did was expose more of the dragon itself, and Wyn stopped his advance as he stared in awe of the creature.

It truly was an undead dragon, but it had no flesh or skin. Instead it was completely made of bone, with faint runes coverings each bone and piercing red eyes that were unnatural. It rose to be two stories tall while still on four legs, and each wing was larger than a wagon.

An arrow flew against the dragon and bounced off it despite being lit with a white light. Then a lightning bolt cracked against its large ribcage, but the magic barely left any kind of mark.

The dragon wasn't slowed in the slightest and opened its maw to form a highly condensed, swirling ball of magic that grew to the size of a barrel.

"Run!" Wyn yelled, afraid of what might happen if any of them were to even be grazed by magic that potent.

The others heeded his warning and retreated, flying away back up the path rather than continuing their advance. Tasha erected a barrier behind them that had three layers, and Wyn cast an empowered Shield adding another two layers behind hers.

Another deafening crack erupted from the dragon, but instead of a roar it was the magical ball being unleashed. The attack powered through the barriers in seconds, then slammed against the ground behind Wyn, shaking the cavern. Rounding the corner, Wyn looked back and went wide eyed as he saw the stone floor beneath them completely fall away and tumble into the deep void below.

But really terrified him was the magical beam itself. It was insanely wide and large, dwarfing Tasha's beam that Wyn was used to seeing, and completely eroded the stone around them in moments. Their barriers weren't pushovers, but the attack demolished them without any effort.

That dragon… was an enemy Wyn did not want to face. It seemed to possibly be some kind of challenge worthy of the fourth tier. They hadn't faced anything of that power.

Flying up to continue to evade the magical attack, Wyn saw that someone in their group opened a floor portal. Most of them were gone except for Marcy, who was flying beside it and motioning for Wyn to hurry up.

He obliged.

After their failed attempt at the twelfth floor, they took the rest of the day off to regroup and recover. Wyn decided to attempt it again the next day, hoping to clear it before the guild meeting. It was their last possible chance and wanted the entire day open to try it.

They continued through the first part of the floor, once again flying past the hole trap and progressing past the Spectral Knights. It took them about an hour longer to reach the environmental change, but they decided to go up instead of down.

It was clearly the right call, as they didn't meet the dragon on their upward, spiral climb of the caverns. Instead, they traversed another type of trap that Marcy was able to spot prior.

It was a pushing trap that had pieces of the wall push outward towards the large open space in the middle of the cavern. Quickly and violently, large sections of rock were thrusted away across their narrow path, forcing anyone standing in their way off into the void. Marcy found that it was activated with pressure areas on their path, and avoiding stepping on them prevented the trap from activating.

Not stepping in her designated areas wasn't terribly difficult, except for when more monsters showed up. The Spectral Knights returned, still flying about and causing them to fight on the two-man wide path, as well as another type of flying undead that was more animalistic. They were swarms of bony bats, resistant to magic but weak to physical attacks which was the opposite of the Spectral Knights. They also weren't terribly intelligent and just attacked whatever was around.

Unfortunately the bony bat swarms were annoying enough and dense enough that it made avoiding the stones difficult, and the team tended to overcorrect by spending far more mana and energy typically needed to kill them. Marcy especially would fire several Multishots at the bats just to make sure they would die before getting too close.

Two more hours of traversing the winding path and a break for lunch in a small cave outcropping, followed by another three hours of progression, led them towards the end of the floor. Wyn was pushing the group hard as he wanted to finish the floor before the guild meeting the following day, and the rest of the team agreed to try.

When they finally found the area, it wasn't as Wyn imagined it would be. Normally boss areas were expansive or intricate, with some kind of setup that made the boss fight unique. But this was similar to the bone dragon encounter, where it was a platform set in the middle of the cavern with a simple building behind it. The building looked like a stone hut set within the walls of the cavern, and the floor portal floated in the open entrance of the hut.

In front of it was a lone figure. Wyn's guard was immediately up as he thought back to the ninth floor boss and how difficult it was. This creature appeared similar with a black cloak around what looked to be a person, except they were larger than Cal and floated in the air. No feet appeared under the flowing black cloak, and the hood obscured their face. The only obvious feature were greenish grey bony hands that protruded from the billowing cloaked sleeves.

"You've finally made it," the figure said, its voice slow and loud despite sounding like a whisper. Each word was drawn out dramatically.

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Wyn froze. The rest of the team started preparing their abilities but Wyn didn't move.

The figure pointed a finger at Wyn but kept floating in the air, not advancing or retreating. "The Patient One has prepared something for you! You are truly blessed to have their watchful eye!"

Wyn shook his head, doing his best to ignore the monster's words. He finally started his own abilities as his emotions continued to surge. A large part of him was afraid at who the Patient One was. Was it some greater entity? Or was it possibly the Avatar trying to get in his head?

But more of him was angry. Angry at his situation at being targeted. At being the focus of the tower's interest but also at the ire of the Faceless Four. What did he do to garner this much attention? It was absurd. And he was past over it.

Tightening his grip on his glaive, he gritted his teeth and eyed the creature. There were no other minions or enemies around. It was just the lone boss floating in the air.

Wyn sprinted forward and cast Feeble as he saw Marcy's familiar green aura surround the boss. The spell surprisingly took hold as the skull stayed hovering over its body. He did his usual strategy of trying to blind his enemy with Flash next, choosing to empower it rather than duplicate it, and the spell lit the cavern as though fueled by a tiny sun. The monster shrieked and held its grey arms over its hooded face.

Moving around it, Wyn slashed out with his glaive. To his surprise, he felt solid contact under the robes.

Then a glowing white arrow pierced the monster in the dark of its hood, and a streak of lightning caught it in the chest. Wyn had to move to the side to avoid the monster's body as it flew backwards from the two powerful ranged attacks.

Casting Drain around himself, Wyn once more attacked the creature. It was still floating in the air, just above him, but he was able to connect easily with his weapon's reach. The spell was working to extract the very essence from the monster, and Wyn kept slicing as quickly as possible at various angles as the creature thrashed in agony.

A beam of light shot out from his group, and Wyn saw it in his peripheral vision. Tasha wasn't even bothering with a Calling, but instead was glowing with divine magic. Stepping out of its way, Wyn watched as the monster immediately started dissolving in front of his very eyes.

He looked around, but noticed no other movements. The black cloak of the monster was already dissipating, and a treasure pile plopped onto the ground in two jingling sacks.

The rest of his group stared in confusion. John and Cal were the closest, nearly beside Wyn and the monster with their weapons readied, but relaxed seeing the monster gone. The three of them just looked at each other.

Wyn shrugged.

"That's it?" Cal asked. "That's the boss?"

The others walked up to the pile of treasure, standing around it in a circle. Lance was there, too, smiling broadly at each of them.

John bent down and picked up one of the sacks. "It doesn't even feel like we earned it."

"Do you think that dragon was the actual boss?" Marcy asked.

Wyn looked over to the portal. It was clear, now, and he pointed to it. "Based on that, I'd say we killed exactly what we were supposed to."

Cal picked up the other sack and everyone walked in silence to the portal. Except for Lance, who was doting on them heavily with their resounding success.

Staring at the spot where the monster died, Wyn had more questions than answers. It truly was strange how weak the monster was, and how it really didn't put up a fight at all. And how the dragon they met the day before, with its magical attack that literally destroyed the floor beneath their feet, wasn't the boss. Which would have made sense for the third tier.

But that was exactly the point. Wyn couldn't make sense of what they found. There was likely some treasure or reward room behind that dragon, that was obviously the stronger threat on the twelfth floor. Though that still didn't explain why the boss was so pathetic. Was it meant to just provide a warning? That this Patient One was some greater threat?

Watching his team go through the portal, laughing and celebrating their success, Wyn began to realize something. It was a growing feeling inside him but now was more obvious. Despite all the questions, all the mystery, the unknowns and the confusion, he truly only wanted one thing at this point in his climbing journey.

He wanted his friends and family to be safe. As long as he had that, he didn't care about the details.

*****

Staring down at Devon and William in the infirmary, Wyn's anger grew once more. The one thing he wanted - those close to him being safe - was snatched from him before he even had a chance to prevent it. Both men looked serene covered in their white sheets. The white sheets Wyn had hoped to never see shrouding anyone he held dear again.

"They're alive, at least," Maven said, her voice as soft as a whisper. She sat in the chair between the two beds, beside her two friends and teammates.

Wyn curled his hand into a fist. There was a lot he wanted to say, to yell, to scream, but it wasn't the time or the place.

Both Devon and William looked normal, but that was the work of healing magic. William was in worse shape according to Maven, and was still asleep in a coma. While healing magic worked to heal the body, the brain was a different matter. The healing process was still there but it was slower and more intricate. The medics said he would recover but it would be days before he would be himself again.

All things considered, that was still better than some who had head injuries and took months or weeks to recover, or never did at all.

Wyn sat down on a nearby chair. He took a deep breath to try and calm the raging storm inside of him.

The Faceless Four. Those absolutely vile devils.

After hearing from his guild what had happened to Devon and William, and that someone attacked them in the training hall, Wyn immediately had a hunch it was them. Maven couldn't confirm it, and Wyn hoped one of them would wake up so he could confirm it.

Devon had just shared about his class ability and the Faceless Four were ruthless treasure hunters. It wasn't a hard leap to connect them. Acts of violence don't often happen like that in the city.

"I know what you're thinking," Maven said, not taking her eyes off William.

"What's that?" Wyn asked.

"That they were too… too… too weak to handle themselves," Maven said between small sobs.

Wyn felt another pang of anger rise inside him. Did they really think so little of him? "Why in the hells would I think that, Maven?"

The woman turned her gaze towards him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "We were never really that great of Climbers. Not like you and your team."

Wyn pulled his chair up and tried to keep his voice low. "I have never thought you were bad Climbers. Inexperienced, sure, but I was, too. Not to fighting but with magic. I just wanted you all to learn and improve so you could be safe. Not to tear you down. Never that."

Maven scrunched her face up and wiped her face.

Devon stirred in his bed, turning his head towards Maven. "Don't blame him, Mav."

Maven gasped and hugged Devon. He smiled, then looked past her at Wyn. His smile faded a bit.

"Are you alright?" Wyn asked.

"Healing magic," Devon said with a smirk. "It works wonders."

"That's not what I meant."

Devon's smirk fell. He looked down at the floor, unable to hold his gaze.

"Be with your friends," Wyn said, patting Devon's bed. He understood the man's thoughts without him needing to say more. "Rest, recover, take some time off. Talk it out, especially. It'll help - I promise."

Devon nodded.

"But that's not fully why I'm here."

Maven let go of Devon. "What do you mean?"

Wyn set his gaze again, anger flaring inside him. "Who did this to you?"

Devon pulled the sheet up to his chin. "I'd… rather not say."

Wyn clenched his jaw. "Devon, they hurt you and William. Because of your ability, I assume."

Devon snickered. "I guess I really should have taken your advice, huh? I got a bit cocky, I know. But I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get us higher up in the guild. I guess I should have just kept my mouth shut."

"Someone will pay for leaking the specifics of your ability," Maven said.

"They will," Wyn said. He looked at Devon, pausing for a few moments. "It was the Faceless Four, wasn't it?"

Devon's face went pale as though he'd seen a ghost. Wyn understood that look. A look of remembering demons. That was all the confirmation he needed.

Wyn tightened his grip on the sheet beside Devon's leg. Before he came to Alestead, he was helpless to his injured soldiers. They had been hurt or died without him being able to do anything about it. That was the cost of war, after all.

But this was different. Here, he had magic. He had power. And he had the means for retribution.

Wyn stood up, determination coursing through him. Devon and Maven sat up straighter.

"What are you going to do?" Devon asked. "You can't reason with them, Wyn. I can't explain it, but… they're terrifying. Strong. Ruthless."

"I've met people like them before," Wyn said. "Fought against them. Even killed them. What they did to you and William was unacceptable."

Maven grabbed Devon's hand while he stayed silent. He kept Wyn's gaze this time, his eyes hardening. He gave a small nod.

That would be the last time the Faceless Four hurt anyone Wyn cared about. If the Tower Master wasn't able to do anything to them, then he would take matters into his own hands.