Beastborne: Tower of Blight: A LitRPG Adventure (Beastborne Chronicles, Book 6), page 4
Furthermore, there were monster nests floating far, far above the clouds, resembling maliciously designed wasp hives glittering with icicles.
“Festive,” Hal muttered to himself, rising to one knee and splicing eldritch essence. Orrittam, being a dragon–the natural opposing force to eldritch creatures–grunted with disdain but otherwise did not voice a complaint.
Monster essence surged through Hal’s veins and Spirit channels, begging to be released.
“I must admit,” Orrittam began, confessing his surprise at seeing those monster nests. “It has been some time since I have stretched my wings this far from home.”
“I didn’t know anything even lived up here!” Hal told him. “What are they doing?”
“Migrating,” Orrittam told him. “Those are sleet wasps. During the winter season they launch their nests high above the clouds like tufts of dandelion so they can fall down somewhere else and spread their vile infestation. It would appear we got the drop on them though. Normally there would be thousands of them!”
Hal did a quick count. He could see at least a hundred. “Any clue as to their weakness?”
Orrittam boomed out a laugh. “You are the Beastborne, are you not?”
Frowning, Hal tried to remember what insects were weak to. While eldritch was undoubtedly a potent essence, it wasn’t in direct opposition to insects.
Bugs would be considered Vermin, wouldn’t they? Hal thought to himself. That means Lizard spells would work… which I don’t have.
But Hal had the next best thing. He had Lizard essence. Not a lot of it, however.
His highest was ganor essence, barely Copper Rank, which was almost the weakest measure of power. It would have to do.
It had been a while since Hal was able to splice multiple essences together, and doing so while riding on a dragon was even more difficult, but he managed to splice together Lizard and Outsider.
He wished Val was nearby so he could ask her for further information. He was used to doing Beastborne things on his own, and her appearance had been a dramatic change of pace.
She was the main reason he was able to splice two essences again. Her insistence on training with him had been a catalyst to improve himself beyond what he thought he was capable of before.
Readying himself, Hal stood up and spread the fingers of his hand. The icy wind sliced right to the bones of his fingers, freezing them solid, but he held the pose, ready and waiting for the cloud of icy insects to come closer.
“Any time now,” Orrittam rumbled. “Their sting is quite painful, Hal. I would never hear the end of it from Naitese. Now that I think of it, perhaps you wouldn’t either.”
While the insect monsters were still at a distance, those stingers were larger than Mira’s spear. Getting hit by one of those would be less like a sting and more like being skewered by a Dragoon.
“Just keep flying,” Hal said. They weren’t close enough yet. He was intimately aware of the limitations of Anvil Lightning, his preferred area-of-effect spell. If he was going to get them all, they needed to be nearly on top of them.
Orrittam, to his credit, did not speed up or slow down. He kept the same pace as if he didn’t see the sleet wasps at all.
Hal was grateful for the golden dragon’s confidence in him. Any change, no matter how minor, could have not only upended his tenuous footing on the large dragon, but caused him to misjudge the distance of the monsters.
Now that they were closing in, he could see their malicious dark compound eyes and banded bellies in grays and frosty blues. Down below, with the clouds dark and sullen, you could never see them flying through the sky until they were literally on top of you.
It would be a gruesome death.
Only the darkening purple of twilight allowed Hal to see them clearly. He imagined against the bright blue sky they would be easy to spot as well, but he wasn’t lucky enough to be fighting in broad daylight.
Hal began charging Anvil Lightning, building up its power to greater and greater heights. Arcing lightning buzzed and crackled all along his arm.
The sound of hundreds of buzzing wings filled the air. Their black stingers looked like miniature lances, all poised to spear him and Orrittam.
Not yet.
The buzzing reached a crescendo. The creatures were close enough now that Hal could have thrown a snowball and hit them with ease.
Still, he held the spell back. Sweat broke out across his brow, and instantly froze to his skin. Tiny flecks of sweatcicles formed on his beard.
He could practically hear Komachi say, “That’s not very nachi, man.”
“I do not mean to–” Orrittam began, just as Hal released the built-up pressure of the spell.
Arcing bolts of lightning shot from his hand. Five individual bolts split into ten, twenty, forty, eighty, on and on the bolts split and struck at their targets with impressive concussive force.
Lizard essence lent some extra strength to the spell, but Hal could tell even without it he would have obliterated the creatures. Anvil Lightning tore through their ranks.
Every line of zig-zagging light that struck a wasp caused it to shatter like a crystal sculpture. Tiny bits of glittering shards rained across the sky. But that was not all.
Hal had not gone through all that training with another Beastborne, regained a Monster Core, and learned to master his dragonfire all to repeat the same effects he had once been able to do.
Time for a new trick, Hal thought with a smirk.
Using Goldflame, Hal empowered his Anvil Lightning further, granting him greater control. He gathered up all the loose threads of the spell, weaving them together like a great loom of electric light.
Orrittam gasped as he watched the golden threads sparkle throughout the darkening night sky. Fused into one mighty bolt that would have made Zeus green with envy, Hal struck at the sleet wasp nest itself.
You defeat the [Sleet Wasp Swarm | Lv.49].
You defeat the [Sleet Wasp Swarm | Lv.49].
You defeat the [Sleet Wasp Swarm | Lv.49].
You gain 25,000 Experience Points.
You earn 25,000 Sparks.
You gain Sleet Wasp Essence (Vermin).
You obtain:
(4) [Bundle of Sleet Wasp Stingers]
(7) [Sleet Wasp Nest Fragments]
(5) [Sleet Wasp Carapace Sheets]
Hal watched with more than a little surprise at the devastation. He had expected to damage, possibly destroy the nest as it fell to the ground. What he did not expect was the golden light show that lit up the bruised purple sky, raining fractured shards of the once airborne nest.
“You have been practicing,” Orrittam congratulated him. “That was quite a bit of Experience, my boy.”
Iced over with sweat, Hal was surprised by the ferocity of the attack. It had taken a considerable amount of effort, but the quantity of Spirit it took was meager by comparison.
It had been one of the only things he never trained openly. Weaving Dragonfire into his beast magic was difficult work. It demanded the utmost concentration.
He had never been able to gather up the threads of Anvil Lightning like that before. Once the bolts were split, that was it. They weakened with every splitting until they were rather mundane in power.
But if he could weave them back together for less mana than it cost to use the spell in the first place? It was a clear advantage.
And I didn’t even empower it with Fell Magic.
Though he did use Bestial Drive to enhance the spell, allowing him to charge up the spell at the cost of being unable to do anything else at the time.
It was amazing what he could achieve when he wasn’t distracted by deep, internal pain from using his monster essences.
Unfortunately, despite the large quantity of Experience, it still wasn’t enough to get him to his next Beastborne Level. Each Level was getting harder and harder to obtain, and despite the unnerving strength of the sleet wasps, they were still below his base Level.
If only Experience worked based off my Classes’ Level, Hal thought sourly. That’s where the majority of my combat abilities are coming from. So what if Oathforger and Osseochemist are my Classes too?
He knew that wasn’t being entirely truthful, however. Those two Classes contributed to a good portion of his stats, even if they didn’t directly offer traits, spells, and abilities that modified his combat capabilities.
Still, it didn’t seem like that was the way Aldim should work. Perhaps if he really was able to raise the Worldshard’s Level with Fused Quests, some things like that might change for the better.
It was just one more reason to look forward to the future.
Orrittam dipped through the open space around the Cirta ruins. The clouds here could sense the Abyss below, Hal thought, which kept them away from the ruined city.
“What would it take to rebuild this marvel?” Hal wondered aloud as Orrittam took them lower.
What felt like an age ago, Hal had inadvertently slipped into the ruins, deactivating and weakening the barrier that kept the calamity of the place in check.
He could now see that the corruption had spread out a mile in all directions, but no further. It seemed to have weakened in the process, and though the change was sad to see, it did mean that the ruins themselves didn’t look quite so horrific.
“I would not wish to take a stone from this place’s grave,” Orrittam told him with all seriousness. “You do not need to rebuild a city razed to the ground by man’s hubris, Hal. You can make your own monuments.”
“Still, it seems like such a waste,” Hal said, looking at what must have been a sweeping metropolis of fantastical origins once upon a time.
“Their lives were their own to waste and throw away,” Orrittam said, harboring no pity for this fallen civilization of men.
Hal had to remind himself that Orrittam was a dragon who had lived through centuries. He had seen civilizations fall and rise, likely across multiple worlds. His perspective on time and people were dramatically different from his own.
Cirta was a ruined city at least as large as Seattle or any other American city back on Earth. Hal had never seen it from such a high vantage point, and as they spiraled lazily toward the ground, Hal was surprised at just how massive it was.
Orrittam was not shy about the ruined city. He held it in great disdain, no doubt because of the calamity that befell it, but he did not fear it, as Hal would have expected.
The large golden dragon alighted onto a ruined slab of some building’s facade that had fallen over eons ago. If it had stood tall, Hal could imagine it towering over the Space Needle.
“This is as far I take you,” Orrittam told him. “You would do well to be on your way as fast as possible. While no time is safe to be out here alone, the nighttime is likely to be the worst.”
Hal hopped off Orrittam’s back and gave his flank a hearty pat of thanks. “I’ll be okay, Orrittam. I don’t intend to stay aboveground for long.”
“Yes,” Orrittam rumbled, “that is what I am afraid of.” He dipped his head. “Fare you well, Hal. I look forward to your arrival.”
With that, the golden dragon flapped his massive wings and took to the sky once more. Without Hal on his back, he twisted through the air like a gilded corkscrew, gleefully disappearing into the distance.
Hal watched him go. “Probably should have asked for a ride back.”
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Chapter
Six
Aside from his Dragonfire, there was only one other thing Hal did not train openly. And that was his Flight skill.
Truthfully, he sucked at it. Not only because it was impossible to do until recently when he had regained all of his essences and was able splice them to his heart’s content, but because it was just plain hard.
There was no getting around the difficulty of learning new limbs and how to balance himself midair. With so many other things on his plate, his Flight skill always suffered.
Clearly the Shard agreed, because despite relearning how to fly once more, he had yet to get past Level 9. However, he did learn one trick that was immensely useful.
One that he planned on using exclusively for his trip into the Abyss.
Hal ranged around the ruins of Cirta, keeping a close eye on the creatures that slinked in and out of the shadows. Monsters by the score were zeroing in on his position, but he was an oddity to them.
Something different to observe, perhaps to fight, but only if they were assured victory.
With every passing second, their numbers grew and eventually one of them would feel their numbers sufficient to challenge him.
Hal swept his senses through them, something he hadn’t remembered being able to do nearly so easily before. It was all thanks to his Monster Core, which steeped him deeply into all facets of monsterkind.
Something was off about them, but Hal couldn’t put his finger on it. There was a sameness to them. Maybe the same race?
No, it’s something else, Hal thought to himself.
Try as he might, he couldn’t figure out what.
It was odd to be utterly alone, and in what was effectively a graveyard, too. He was used to people being constantly around in Brightsong, or whenever he ventured off somewhere else, he had Besal in his head to keep him company.
Now there was nothing but silence. He tried not to worry about his friend, but it crept through anyway.
Ah, there it is, Hal thought, recognizing the structure he had entered the last time he was here. It brought him down in some sort of elevator from hell, a round platform where he had faced off against Renthor, a low-ranking Balesian mage.
Hal flexed his left arm. The Copper Kol’thil was now joined to his Gold Kol’thil, enhancing it and granting him far more power than he could have ever dreamed of.
But it had come at a terrible cost.
Now, however, he was finally freed of his debilitating Kol’thil Bleed and could use his Kol’thil to his heart’s content without wounding himself. And thanks to the instruction by Tristal, the Founder with a Silver Kol’thil, Hal had learned how to properly harness magicite to fuel his Kol’thil sigils instead of relying on his own Experience points.
He shivered at the thought of so many Levels now lost because of his failure to understand there was a better way.
Unfortunately, the only magicite he now possessed was in the form of that small bracelet. Still, having to sacrifice the bigger chunk to take out Hirash was more than worth it.
Hal placed a hand over the Archmage’s tower necklace. He could stop for the night, put up the tower and rest in relative comfort… but the thought brought him no relief.
He wanted this done as fast as possible. He could not wait any longer for answers.
Worse, he lacked the time to explore the tower. He did not know what awaited him inside its walls. Val and Tristal had told him that the tower was his in truth now, and that he was the proper owner.
But Hal did not think a man like Hirash would leave such a treasure unguarded. Even if he was dead, he seemed the sort of petty evil man that would make sure people were finding booby traps for years to come.
How could I sleep in a place like that? Hal thought to himself. That’d just be asking to die. Likely, Noth had only suggested doing so because she did not fully know the extent of Hirash’s horrible magic.
That, or she thinks that highly of me. It was hard for him to wrap his head around that. Noth believed in him a bit too much, but he begrudgingly admitted to himself it was possible.
Splicing Dragon and Arcana essences, Hal formed translucent wings that emerged from his back. Unlike the fleshy variants he had used before, these were pure energy, giving him greater degrees of control at the cost of higher Spirit and mana drain.
Hal grinned to himself. Beastborne didn’t have to be all about manifestations of twisted, corrupted powers.
Flexing his translucent wings temporarily, Hal stepped into the ruined church-like building from so long ago. His Darkvision skill allowed him to see plenty well in the gloom of the building.
There was a large circular depression at the far end where he had gone into the Abyss fighting Renthor. Now, of course, the platform was gone.
But he could glide down easily enough.
Even with his meager control over his wings, Hal was able to step off the edge and float like thistledown into the yawning darkness all around.
A typical man might hesitate before venturing into a bottomless pit. Hal harbored no such reservations. He had fought an artificial drake that revived no matter how many times he killed it and still won. He had gone to the moon and survived those high Level alien creatures. And he had been to the Abyss before. He would return again.
I will have my answers, he promised himself.
The sound of rushing water filled the cavern. Hal’s Darkvision failed to illuminate much. The place was so massive there was no way his Darkvision was good enough to see into the depths.
It was significantly more boring than last time, but before long, he landed gently on a shattered pile of rubble. He looked around for Renthor’s body, wondering if there would be any trace of it… but no.
There was nothing.
In fact, he felt a distinct lack of… anything.
Over the next few hours, Hal scoured the massive underground cavern. A few monsters crawled out, a creature with three giraffe-like heads that spat fire, and another slimy thing that oozed acid.
All were easily defeated with a few spells at range. Leaping into the air and using his Arcana and Dragon wings made dealing with monsters a relative breeze.
He just had to be sure he wasn’t leaping too far out of his detection range. Relying on his monster senses was all well and fine, but they were not precise, like his eyes were.
Finally, Hal had to admit the truth of the matter. The Abyss was gone. This was just a vast, dark cavern, and nothing more.
It made zero sense. It had been right here not even a few months ago. And now it was utterly gone.
“Perhaps breaking the barrier allowed it to escape?” Hal mumbled to himself, kicking over a dark pile of rubble. “Now what do I do?”
