Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

The ground quaked beneath the young woman's feet as the dragon descended from the sky, its massive wings beating against the air like thunderclaps. The sky had turned a strange, sullen shade of orange from the reflection of the fire below on the smoke and clouds above.

Those fires crackled into the distance, consuming the outer edges of the village. Their light flickered across shattered homes and the stone of toppled watchtowers.

The young woman stood amid the run, her slender and graceful form seemed lonely and vulnerable but power radiated from her. Her brown hair was tousled and streaked with soot, whipping in the wind, while her bright green eyes were locked onto the creature above.

There was a brilliance about her, a fierce intelligence and endurance that defied any fear. She wore long, blue robes embroidered with silver threads that caught in the light. The fabric was etched with ancient runes that shimmered faintly with magical power. In her right hand was a staff as tall as she was, crafted from pale wood and crowned with a crystal filled with blue mana.

The dragon circled over head once more, its wings so vast that the leathery membranes that stretched between spiked bone bloated out the sun and left trails of smoke behind with every beat. Its body was a fortress of thick, bronze scales and each was stronger than steel.

When it was close to her, it opened its mouth let out another roar that shook the sky and exhaled a stream of searing flames. It was a white-hot torrent that tore across the sky toward her. The heat rushed ahead of it, wilting the grass, cracking the earth and turning the ground to glass.

But the young woman didn't falter or try to evade. Instead, she drove the base of her staff into the ground, her voice rising into an arcane chant that carried through the roar of flames. Light bloomed around her into a dome of pure mana woven from magic and her willpower. It hummed with energy and shimmered purple and blue.

When the fire struck the barrier, it bent and split apart like a boulder separating a river into two. Inside the barrier, her expression was set in a mask of grim determination and focus. Her jaw was clenched and every muscle in her body was braced against the onslaught.

The ground beneath her feet smoked, but she held firm. When the fire finally waned, she released the shield and raised her staff high into the air in response.

The temperature dropped in an instant. Frost spread across the blackened ground, curling around her boots and swiftly sweeping outward. The wind howled with sudden cold, and the air thickened with her gathering magical power.

With a breath, she said the words that summoned a storm.

Thousands of jagged shards of ice materialized in a wide spiral around her. They floated in perfect stillness under her control and each gleamed with arcane light that was honed into razor sharp points. She extended her staff, and, with a sharp cry, the shards launched skyward in a hail of freezing death.

They tore through the air in streaks of blue and silver before slamming into the dragon's body. Most shattered on impact against its hard scales, bursting into glittering clouds of frost and light. But a few pierced the gaps between the scales, lodging deep and erupting into bursts of cold so intense that frost gathered.

The dragon roared in pain and fury, its massive body twisted in mid-air to avoid some of the shards while blood splattered across the ground, hissing as it hit the heated stones below it.

Villagers hid behind her, clinging to whatever shelter remained. Children huddled in cellars while their elders clutched pitchforks and spears. They shouted their prayers to the gods to save them and to protect the champion that the Tower had sent to protect their homes and lives.

The young woman's heart pounded, and mana thrummed in her blood. Adrenaline pushed the exhaustion and pain away while she gathered more of her magic around her.

The dragon let out a snarl as it righted itself. It's jaws opened and, instead of a stream of fire, it released a pulse of magic that crackled with raw destruction. The energy surged downward in a spiraling vortex that mean to rip her apart.

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The young woman reacted instantly by spinning her staff in a wide arc as she raised her voice to chant loudly. The Blessing she drew upon drained her mana, pulling on her reserves to the point where she felt a sharp pain in her chest from its sudden absence.

But the mana was enough to coalesce a sigil of radiant light beneath her feet that grew until it became layers of circles and runes that intertwined and hummed with power. A burst of mana erupted from the center of the sigil like a geyser, clashing with the dragon's spell in midair.

The two forces collided with a deafening boom, splitting the clouds in a shockwave and sending the young woman staggering backward and the dragon to stop its descent and hover in the air.

The young woman raised her staff skyward once more and used the last of her mana to create another storm of ice shards, this time laced with silver lightning. The shards spun rapidly in orbit around her, like thousands of tiny stars, before she launched them at the dragon once more.

The dragon roared and flailed in the air as the ice struck it. A final bolt, speak-like and larger than the rest, glowed white-got with power formed above her that channeled the last of her strength. With a cry, she hurled it skyward.

The bolt pierced the dragon's chest just below its throat. It let out a strangled, furious roar as flames and frost burst from the wound. Its wings faltered and, with a last flap of its wings, it crashed to the earth that carved a trench into the farmland outside the village, sending up a cloud of dust.

There was a long moment of silence as smoke curled from the crater and the villagers held there breath in hope that the threat had finally passed. The young woman remained standing, breathing hard in exhaustion as she leaned against the staff that trembled in her grip.

Those watching didn't have to wait long before something shifted. The dragon's body, at the edge of sight, shimmered and contorted before it began to collapse. The monstrous shape shrank and reshaped itself until the dragon became a young man kneeling in the middle of the crater.

He looked to be no older than twenty, with pale skin and copper-coloured hair. When he turned to look at her, she saw that his eyes were amber. With a wave of his hand, he clothed himself in a simple white shirt and black pants before walking toward her.

Preparing herself to continue fighting, the young woman was surprised when her stopped in front of her and spoke.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice hoarse but clear. His expression showed a look of regret and guilt.

"You should kill me, I wouldn't blame you." He said quietly.

"You would've killed them all and burned the village to ashes." She replied accusingly, and she tightened her grip on her staff. The young man exhaled, and it came out like a shudder.

"I didn't want to; I wasn't myself. The Aether… It's thicker here in places than it should be. I felt it the moment I crossed into the mountains. It was wild and when I got inside me, I thought I could handle it and potentially ascend. I was wrong." He admitted.

The young woman frowned at the statement.

"You went mad."

"Madness is a kind word for it. Aether can push you towards ascension, but it always has the potential to twist you, warp your thoughts and push you to destroy everything around you. But you stopped me. Thank you." The young man said with sincerity as he bowed to her.

The young woman studied him for a moment longer, then nodded.

"Good."

She turned away and began to slowly walk back toward the village, the distant sound of the Floor notification ringing out as she did so. After a moment, the dragon in the form of a young man followed behind her.

"That's it? You aren't going to make me swear to never harm anyone again? You aren't going to kill me?" The young man exclaimed in surprise.

"No." She responded. She placed her staff back in her inventory, the magical item disappearing out of sight in a moment. The Dragon, seeing her action, blinked his eyes in shock.

"You…you're from the Tower, aren't you!" He shouted before running to catch up to her. Any arrogance he displayed as a Dragon was gone now, and he began to bombard her with questions.

"When did you enter it? Are you an Apostle? What god do you serve?" He asked rapidly, not pausing long enough to allow her to respond.

"No, I'm not an Apostle." She replied when she could. Her tone made it clear that she had no interest in the title, and there was even a bit of scorn at the notion of directly serving a god.

"You must be! No one other than an Apostle could have stopped me. You don't need to lie to me; I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." The young man continued, and she was forced to stop and turn to look at him.

"Look, I'm not an Apostle. And where do you think you're going?" She asked in frustration. She didn't want a Dragon transformed into a young man following her around. Especially one that kept asking her questions.

"What do you mean?" The young man asked. She pointed at the glowing elevator in front of them, which had just appeared. It took him a moment to realize that it was there. The magic of the Tower prevented outsiders from seeing it.

"My job here is done, and I doubt you're going to like where I'm going next." She explained, shaking her head at him in exasperation.

"I suppose not." He replied. When she had one foot inside the elevator, he called out to her.

"Hey, at least tell me your name. I'd like to know who saved me!" He asked, and the young woman turned around just as the elevator doors began to close.

"I'm Emily." She said, giving him a gentle smile.

The doors closed, and the elevator disappeared, leaving the young man standing alone outside the village. People were beginning to leave their hiding places and looking around, only to see a stranger with no sign of the champion sent by the gods.

"Emily, huh? Thank you."