Beastborne: Tower of Blight: A LitRPG Adventure (Beastborne Chronicles, Book 6), page 45
Hal stepped forward, tapped into his Spirit, and spread a wall of wispy white energy in front of himself, blanketing his allies to either side.
A wave of darkness rolled over them, harmlessly breaking on Hal’s barrier. He winced at the sting it brought, but it had been surprisingly easy to stop despite the drain on his Spirit.
He could have called on the Manatree to aid him, but he didn’t.
This was personal.
“There’s been something I wanted to show you,” Hal said, stepping through the fuming miasma as it shattered on his aura of Spirit. “A new technique I made just for you.” He grinned at the abomination. “I hope you like it, because you’ll be seeing it again real soon.”
Hal drew on his Dragonfire more than he ever had before. Swirling the flames of both gold and white, he infused his Monster Core with all the strength of both a Noble Gold and a Tyrant White. Drawing on the aether that the Shadesblight hadn’t yet corrupted, Hal pulled and the air around him warped with the strength of his Spirit.
You ready Brightlance.
Hal stood motionless as he summoned his wellspring of strength to the fore.
The first attack whipped at him with the creature’s crude hand. The claws raked against an aura of Spirit so dense that sparks flew, and steam sizzled on the creature’s fingertips.
Before it could attack again, Noth and his friends were there to block and retaliate. Mira stuck her lance into its palm while Durvin chopped off a pinky the size of a fridge. Not to be outdone, Noth’s spinning scythe nearly severed the thing’s hand at the wrist.
Golden light suffused Hal as his Spirit took on a hazy image of his Spirit Form. A towering ethereal dragon of white and gold sprang forth from his Spirit like a building-sized hologram that made even the voidwracked abomination appear tiny.
Every eye in the arena turned skyward toward the menacing dragon. Even the abomination stood, stunned by the sheer size of it.
Pulling the Spirit Form into his raised palm, a crackling bolt of condensed gold lightning filled Hal’s hand like a javelin. Before the voidwracked abomination could recover, Hal launched the bolt of lightning at the creature.
Even to his eyes, it didn’t seem to travel right. It didn’t sail through the air, it simply appeared in the voidwracked creature’s Shadesblight core at its middle.
A moment later, the air split with a peal of thunder that shook the entire Tower and broke the cloud cover above Brightsong for miles around with the sound of a victorious dragon’s roar.
Hal’s Brightlance consumed the majority of his Spirit, but it was filled with both his own personal Spirit, and what he had gained from the Manatree. It purified as it destroyed. Nothing of the Shadesblight should have remained.
Light burst from the voidwracked core, first a single crack around the solid bolt of gold lightning, then another and another until it was filled with streaks of brilliant argent and gold light.
The core shattered and a foul wind whipped around the arena. Hal dropped to his knees, struggling to find a grip on the crumbling stones beneath his feet.
Hands grabbed him, lifting him and holding him fast against the buffeting winds. The voidwracked abomination screeched as it disintegrated.
You defeat the [Voidwracked Abomination | Lv.88]
You gain 40,000 Experience.
You gain 40,000 Sparks.
Your Blight Essence (Elemental Family) has increased to Tin III.
You learn Terror.
Beastborne reaches Level 48.
You have 5 attribute points awaiting distribution.
Your HP, SP, Spirit, and MP are fully restored.
New Title: One Shot Hero.
Preparation is key to any success. With support from your party and your settlement behind you, and time dedicated to training to prepare for your duel, you have surpassed your limits. Your battle with the Voidwracked Abomination was unlike any other you have endured, all thanks to your dedication to preparation for the encounter. You have finally learned that natural talent and skill are not enough. Even with training and preparation, one-shotting a creature stronger than yourself is an extremely rare feat.
Increases Experience, Essence, Sparks, and loot gained from creatures you one-shot.
The top floor of the tower was deadly silent in the aftermath. Hal’s Brightlance left a purple afterimage long after it had disappeared.
“Holy florking shirt, dude!” Mira said, practically jumping up and down. “How did you do that!? Teach me! You just blew that thing–”
Her celebration was cut short when the creature’s ashes began to shiver and a large, muscular red arm emerged, clawing a new body from the ashes.
“Hold the flork up,” Mira said, turning to the monster. She took two steps forward and looked over her shoulder at Hal. “Just sit right there, Founder. We’ve got this.”
Hal stared, thunderstruck, but not at the monster. At Mira. I think that’s the first time she ever called me Founder and didn’t laugh or make it seem like a joke.
Shouting obscenities, Mira Jumped forward and unleashed an inferno of fire as she dove onto the creature’s rising head.
She wasn’t alone.
All the others that hadn’t gotten to fight the abomination rushed it, hacking, slashing, and peppering it with arrows the size of signposts.
Even Elora’s boar unleashed a blasting wave of lightning from its tusks, and then Komachi threw an explosive keg at it too.
You defeat the [Voidwracked Abomination | Lv.88]
You gain 40,000 Experience.
You gain 40,000 Sparks.
Your Blight Essence (Elemental Family) has increased to Tin IV.
You learn Reaving Wind.
Beastborne reaches Level 49.
You have 10 attribute points awaiting distribution.
You have 1 Beastborne Perk point awaiting assignment.
Hal stared, dumbfounded at the tide of Experience and not one but two spells he gained from killing it twice.
As stunned as he was, Hal still managed to shout a warning. He spun up his Monster Core, threading goldflame Dragonfire into his hand. He fired off a woven Anvil Lightning of golden lightning bolts twisted into a coruscating lance of crackling destructive energy.
The bolt ripped through the rising form of the voidwracked abomination. The ashes were vaporized wherever his Anvil Lightning touched, but Hal could hardly get enough air into his lungs.
His Spirit was nearly filled thanks to the Level Up, but he was drained in a way that Spirit couldn’t remedy. He had used too much Spirit in such a short time, it was like his muscles were fatigued beyond anything he had ever felt before.
Even with a full Core, he wasn’t sure he could do anything with it. Not if the monster rose again.
Surrounding the pile of ashes, each member of Hal’s party–minus himself–kicked and stabbed at the remains until nothing moved anymore. They kicked and scattered them for good measure, but Hal could tell the abomination had breathed its last.
Hal was surprised that the creature had another form, or that it could survive the first strike of his Brightlance technique.
I’ll need to revise my technique. If the Shadesblight can recover from it, I’m not invoking enough Spirit, Hal thought to himself.
You defeat the [Voidwracked Abomination | Lv.88]
You gain 40,000 Experience.
You gain 40,000 Sparks.
Your Blight Essence (Elemental Family) has increased to Tin V.
You learn Calamitous Wind.
Beastborne reaches Level 50.
You have 15 attribute points awaiting distribution.
Beastborne Advancements available.
Your Beastblade Skill has risen to Level 55.
+5% Sword Damage.
+5% Additional Beast Magic Damage.
+2% Armor Shred.
Your Evasion Skill has risen to Level 48.
+1% Evasion speed.
-1% Stamina cost.
+2% Time decay.
Your Leadership Skill has risen to Level 66.
+1% Party damage.
+2% Leadership efficacy.
Your Manatree Skill has risen to Level 35.
+3% Manatree Spell Potency.
You have 1 Manatree Skill Perk point awaiting assignment.
Your Exploration Skill has risen to Level 30.
+10% Faster drawing speed.
+3% Discoverable range.
+0.5% Hidden location discovery.
You have 1 Exploration Skill Perk point awaiting assignment.
Your Intimidation Skill has risen to Level 38.
+1% Intimidation success.
+1.25% Pacification chance.
Your Beast Magic Skill has risen to Level 50.
+5% Beast Magic potency.
+2% Beast Magic spell casting speed.
You have 1 Beast Magic Skill Perk point awaiting assignment.
Your Beast Magic Skill is eligible for Advancement.
Hal couldn’t stop grinning. He’d finally done it.
And then the first stone fell, nearly turning him into a grease stain on the arena floor. Another followed it, shattering a piece of the already crumbling arena floor. The baleful light deep below reached a crescendo, shining like spotlights through the gaps in the floor.
The entire Tower trembled as if it might come crashing down any moment.
Hal looked frantically for an exit but couldn’t find one. Not even a Manatree fissure.
The Tower might claim them after all.
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Chapter
Sixty-Five
“E.Z. Clap!” Komachi cried, clapping all four paws together even in the midst of the final floor’s ceiling collapsing all around them.
“Good thing Naitese isn’t here,” Mira said sardonically.
“I don’t know. Wouldn’t mind a flying dragon right about now,” Elora said, eyeing Hal meaningfully.
They had all witnessed his Spirit Form. Technically, that was a dragon. The question was, could he carry others using that ethereal shape? It wasn’t exactly the same thing as a dragon in the flesh.
“It was amazing,” Noth remarked, watching Hal with a tender smile.
Hal spun up his Monster Core, trying to tap into that Spirit Form. Even with all the rage and hatred he had at his beck and call when he fought the Shadesblight to save the Manatree, it had been nearly impossible.
Everything he had done had been pure instinct. And now… what choice did he have? They needed to get out.
“Look!” Ashera said, pointing at Hal.
Hal could feel his Spirit rising. A swirling form of faint pale steam formed over his head as his aura began to generate. The ground shuddered and splintered under his feet as he let loose a bellowing roar in High Draconic.
Just as Hal was reaching toward his Spirit Form, he faltered. He had used up too much Spirit. It didn’t matter that he was back to full, his Core wasn’t willing to cooperate with him. His channels were strained, like they might just burst.
“Well, that was underwhelming,” Mira said, putting a hand on her hip.
“Hmm, not so E.Z. Clap?” Komachi put forth.
Hal collapsed to his knees, bracing himself with his palms. He stared at the cracking stone directly beneath him. They shone with moonlight as the stones quivered and pulled together.
The Manatree is trying to hold the Tower together, Hal thought.
It didn’t take the sting out of his failure to transform, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on it. He needed solutions.
Everybody was staring at him, as if he was the one that would get them out of there. He had been the one opening up the fissures. Without that, he didn’t know how they could possibly get out in time.
For the first time in a long while, Hal felt like a total failure. He had beaten the Shadesblight, purified the Archmage’s Tower, and completely claimed it as his… but the Shadesblight had still won.
He, along with his friends, would be dead in just a few moments. The Manatree couldn’t keep the Tower from breaking apart forever. Not only was it reverting to its pre-corrupted form, but after all the Spirit the Manatree just expended to get them here? There was no way it had much left in the tank.
Pressing his hand to one of the fissures, Hal tried to wrench it open, but his channels wouldn’t respond with the flow he needed. A trickle of Spirit was all he could manage, and even that caused a fair amount of pain.
Hal’s Copper Kol’thil Sigil, Pathway, would allow him to safely arrive down in Brightsong, but he would be the only one. He had tried to take somebody before, and it didn’t work. It was a personal translocation ability.
That was if it even would work. He had never tried it to leave the Tower or even a Dungeon.
There was one other option, though he didn’t know if he was close enough for it to work. The top floor of the Tower was much higher than he would have expected. As the pillars and outer wall crumbled away, he could see over the tops of the surrounding mountains.
“Everybody gather together!” Hal called out over the crumbling doom all around them. Just as he was about to close his eyes to focus, he saw something glinting in a small pile of ash like a cooling ember.
The arena platform rumbled and tilted sharply. Hal could see the jewel tumbling over the edge and once it did, it would be lost. He felt drawn to it.
Before he knew what he was doing, Hal burst forward with all the speed he could apply with Convergence and a mixture of disara and shadow essence spliced together.
His form took on a shadowy haze as he blurred and leaped, skidding the last few feet on his chest as he watched the fragmented jewel tumble over the lip. His hand closed on it just as it was about to fall into the ruby abyss below.
Somebody had grabbed his ankles and was pulling him up. “Ye durned daftee!” Durvin bellowed as he pulled Hal up to his feet. “Ye would lose yer life over a pretty bauble!?”
Hal clutched the item in his hand tightly. “It’s important, Durvin.”
“Machi isn’t going to like this,” the pobul said, looking towards the edge.
“Nobody is,” Mira added. “Better than being crushed by tons and tons of rubble, though. I might come back, but I don’t know about you all.”
“You can come back to life?” Ashera asked. The lamora activated one of her Royal Guard abilities, Unity: Surge, enhancing Hal’s attributes along with Ashera’s. It wouldn’t do much for his Spirit channels, but it helped to soothe him.
“Link hands,” Hal told them, pocketing the jewel and putting his hand on Durvin’s shoulder. “Everybody needs to be touching.” He wanted to tell them that he couldn’t guarantee it would work, but that was pretty much a given at this point.
Any chance, no matter how slim, would be taken. They trusted him. He could see it in the way they responded to his will without questioning or delaying in the slightest.
His Spirit channels were fried. He could feel them fray and crack as he forced more Spirit through them than was wise, but if there was ever a time for risks, it was now. They would all be dead if he didn’t pull out all the stops.
I hope this works.
Shutting his eyes, Hal focused on the fissures all around him. They began to pulse with a brilliant argent light. The Manatree reached out, trying to take them into its embrace, but as the Manatree focused on them, the floor shattered.
Without the Manatree holding the Tower together, they were free falling.
Their only hope, the Manatree’s fissures, were now dozens of feet above them, and rapidly distancing themselves.
Miraculously, nobody let go. They tumbled into the ruby haze until it surrounded them. Chunks of corrupted stone burst above their heads, tumbling end over end and barely missing them by inches.
Come on! Hal thought furiously, trying another tactic. A wispy aura of steam pushed back the caustic ruby haze, spreading to include each of his allies, but he wasn’t close enough.
“Any moment now would be fine with me!” Mira shouted, her eyes wild with fear, but she was somehow still grinning like a madwoman.
“Have faith,” Ashera said calmly. She smiled at Hal, that same sad smile that brought him back to the first day when he had met her in that jail cell beneath Fallwreath castle.
Komachi had no such reservations. She grabbed Hal’s hand with not just one paw, but the other three as well, preparing soul aeder equip.
It gave him a pitiful 2% boost to his Spirit channeling capacity.
She must be out of energy, too, Hal thought.
It was too bad she couldn’t whisk them away to another world again, but Hal wasn’t sure they could even come back from that anymore. If she didn’t have much energy for soul aeder equip, then she definitely didn’t for a portal to another Worldshard.
“It was nice knowing you all,” Elora said, swallowing hard. “I do not regret a single moment of it.”
Tears gathered in Noth’s eyes. “I love you, Hal,” she said.
Swallowed by the ruby haze, they plummeted as Hal frantically pushed his Spirit beyond the breaking point. If he released it, the caustic haze would likely kill them before they ever hit the ground. If he kept it shielding them, they would crash to the ground.
Not even Durvin’s high Vitality could withstand that.
A dark, all-encompassing shape came into view, and Hal knew that even through the bloody murk, it was the floor.
“Hold on!” Hal called. He focused his Spirit into a spear and launched it away from himself toward his target.
Please let this work!
Immediately, the ruby haze began to sizzle and burn them. Hal could see, even with his eyes closed, as his HP dropped by 10%, 15%, 25%. Just a few more seconds, and they wouldn’t have to worry about the ground.
Hal’s Spirit formed a hole through the haze. He had only just then realized the haze was obfuscating his senses. It was a small gap, but it had to be enough.
I’ll only get one chance.
The world shifted as Hal focused, bringing all of his soul to bear. He pulled with all of his considerable might. There was the familiar sensation of movement at speed, crushing darkness, and a tug behind his navel.
At the last moment, he pushed, and their momentum slid sideways.
