“Tsk. If combat is all there is, this’ll be too easy.” He slashes through the boss of the dungeon, without remorse, as it begged for mercy. The man’s deep red eyes stared on with the fire of determination.
There’s a voice speaking up from the token, “The Tower’s not here to Play.”
“Shut up.” The tall man with long brown hair quickly pulls up his cloak hood as he responds in Draconic. He’d long since grown sick of this tower after spending a whole year within it’s seemingly endless challenges.
- Eight Years And Eleven Months Later…
The second floor was a change of scenery, with greenery everywhere. An arrow flies at Pallad, which is quickly deflected by Judine’s dagger. Bariton quickly casts a buff through a short limerick.
“A light shines through
This shining is for you
It should cause Bravery’s instillment
With that it brings forth fulfillment
And will end every issue.”
The party gets closer together, as bandits approach from the dark forest.
“Ha, look at these rich folk, thinking they stand a chance just because they got money to spend!” The bandit in the center speaks up from the center, clearly attempting to bait the heroes’ formation apart.
“Just because we hold more riches doesn’t mean you hold the right to fight!” Bariton speaks, to calm the nerves of his party and to bait the same effect against the bandits.
“Besides that, you have sinned plenty, We shan’t show mercy.” Judine uses her legendary item, casting a debuff upon them for their obscene amount of ‘Bad deeds’.
Sornid snaps their fingers, bringing forth a ginormous fireball, at Level 12 the fireball was close to a spell upon the same level as spells that stop time.
This fireball strikes down quickly, leaving nothing left of these bandits. The stars in the night sky now vanishing quickly, as the forest changes from the light blue of the night to the deep orange of flames.
Stolen novel; please report.
Clara quickly casts the Divine Protection against Flames, to prevent the burning of the forest around from impeding their progress.
Pallad rushes forward for the rest of the party, cleaving the next bandit cleanly in two before he could even plead for mercy. This bandit had a party of three, one of which was hit in the head with Pallad’s flail, killing them instantly with an awful crunch.
The final one was shot down by Judine, with their bow.
The five already had clean roles, with Clara and Bariton being in charge of buffs, with Clara being in charge of protection buffs and healing buffs, and Bariton being in charge of more general buffs, including damage and attack speed.
Pallad and Sornid were in charge of basic attacking, almost as though they charged in without a care in the world to kill in the name of their god/lord. Judine was the Jack of all trades, her skills and proficiency in every weapon helped her be of great help when an enemy needed better planning than just outright attack.
They continued their onslaught of the second floor, as the bandits all screamed for their life. The boss of this floor was also human. But this one wasn’t a simple leader of the bandits, instead it was a martial artist.
“You lot killed plenty of my men, and I won’t let you just get away with this.” The martial artist cracked their knuckles. They get into a fighting stance as does the band of heroes.
“They tried to kill us first.” Judine said, shrugging as she prepared to fight herself.
“I care not, you are far stronger than they’d ever get.” The Martial Artist, in his eyes only disappointment for those in front of him, “They showed no threat, yet you responded lethally.”
“Well then, it’s only right to kill you too, since you show threat.” Sornid pipes in, “You need to understand, if we spared them, would you not come after us?”
“Would you not come after us had we spared them, and kept this forest as it is? Would we not have more threats come up had we responded with sparing?”
“Maybe I would’ve. What are you trying to say?” The martial artist approached, a certain rage in his heart.
“I’m trying to say that you should watch your step, and that Ruthlessness is truly the only Mercy we can afford to give.” Sornid speaks, as they point their wand at the ground of the martial artist’s feet.
The ground opens up, leading straight above the same hole. As the martial artist falls, their falling is cut short as Sornid swaps the second portal’s position, straight above an exploding trap that Sornid and Bariton set up during the running.
There was one slight conditional, it took the energy from the speed of whatever triggered it and output it as an essential multiplier to the size of the explosion. At terminal velocity, the explosion was large enough to shake the entirety of the burning forest.
With that, the loot was there for the taking, this one’s star item being an hourglass which upon letting it upside down would temporarily slow down time until all the sand fell to the other side. According to the item description, it holds one more grain of sand every day it’s held without activation, losing 50% of all grains every activation to completion.
But each grain leads to one millisecond being spread to 5. That is the true value of it, which Judine decided was rightfully hers, as she’d best ‘judge when to use it first.’