The fight begins with the incoming hail of stones.

  Someone yelled shields, and many voices drowned it with their own panic. People ran, and many ran over each other. It is only the enhanced bodies of the awakened that kept them alive.

  A giant boulder is also coming their way, but Matthew takes charge. Standing with his shield in front of them, he soaks in all the damage. His big figure suddenly hides the enemies in front of him.

  And then Adrian moves. Two avatars by his side, he focuses. His mind at that moment seems to stop existing as a whole, as one. But it feels connected and somehow distributed within all of his avatars. The senses are within his grasp, and yet just a tug away.

  Adrian runs around Matthew and looks at the enemies coming for them. An army of black creatures with raging eyes, and guttural screeches charge them, their small wings giving them extra boost. Adrian feels his empty hands clench and unclench, stuck unarmed.

  And then the first hunter reaches him.

  Adrian moves just a little to the side, his mind working so fast that the charging hunter itself feels slow. He pulls his body to the side, then holds the neck of the hunter, and lifts it with the help of an avatar, before slamming it on the knee of the last one. The hunter dies instantly, its neck breaking in half.

  Adrian moves on to the next, the voice of the Tower blurring in his head.

  The hunter is busy chewing the head of a fallen hunter. The avatars hold the hunter in its place and Adrian comes with a kick on its head, throwing the head a few feet away hitting another hunter, who snarls and comes at him.

  Adrian quickly takes the weapon off the hand of the man who just died. It’s a long sword. Heavier than he’s used to. He’ll have to make it work.

  Adrian moves at the hunter, both hands on the longsword. The hunter swings a haymaker and Adrian throws the sword at his avatar, as he ducks under the hunter, and pushes it on the ground, the leathery texture of the hunter brushing against his fingers. His avatar brings down the sword the next instant, snuffing life.

  A screech, unlike the hunters, brings him out of focus for an instant. Behind him a featherless bird dives onto Buren, who survives by the sheer weight of his speed. The bird has a sharp beak with no skin, its feathers as if made out of wood, and yet it flies, a green glow in its eyes.

  “Necro inflictions!”

  Someone yells, and then simultaneously, thousands of colours fill the night sky, as every attack is aimed at the bird, killing it instantly. And yet the person with the necro inflictions is not completely saved.

  Adrian watches as Buren shrieks, before cutting his own arm at elbow length with his knife. The scene brings him back to his focus, and he looks ahead at the hundreds of hunters still pouring out of the forest.

  Adrian weaves and pushes through the hunters, killing them as efficiently as he can with his avatar. Their coordination reached a level which wasn’t possible before the upgrade.

  And yet his body is starting to heat up. A vertigo coming at him, only saved a little by the level up.

  Feeling a bit more mana flowing through his veins, he quickly creates two more avatars, and pushes the two points into Mystic as well.

  Adrian holds the longsword, sweat dripping down his arms and into his fingers loosening his grip as he swings at the incoming bird. His strike hits one of its feathers, and it staggers. It does not stop, but that much is enough.

  One of the avatars jumps on his longsword. The others come to help, and they push him onto the bird. The avatar plunges its stolen dagger in the bird's head, killing it. Even as a black mark travels across its hand.

  Suddenly the air around him whistles and changes, a new volley of stones flowing past his ears, and hits one of the avatars, reducing it to a pulp. A wave of emotions and memories flow into Adrian, almost staggering him.

  The life lived by the avatar is small, and yet there is so much. The struggle, the pain, the loyalty, and the way his body moves. It’s all there.

  Adrian takes a moment to come to terms with it, puking on the ground, and possibly on his shirt. He doesn’t understand it anymore, except the urge to quickly kill the next hunter. It’s what he chose. He’ll live with the memories if that is what is to be done.

  How much time has passed?

  His Timer quickly comes to his aid. 15 minutes.

  Only 15 minutes. It feels longer. Much longer.

  Adrian can already feel his bones shake, his muscles spasm with pain and exhaustion. He has been fighting all day. He has almost died. And he’s still fighting. The exhaustion is catching up to him, and even keeping the eyes open is a crucible in itself.

  Gotta keep… fighting.

  He takes a moment to look around him, and he sees no familiar faces. He’s surrounded by strangers, fighting monsters, while the settlement behind them burns.

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  Will I get some food after it?

  The touch of food on his lips and the chunks still stuck between his teeth brings him back to focus. He holds a small prison with a single blade of grass stuck between, as another hail of rocks bombard him.

  We need to do something about them.

  Adrian moves as soon as the hail stops, walking over the bodies and the rocks strewn around as he fights his way towards the neverending wave of hunters. Adrian levels up, and quickly puts his points into Body to give him more endurance.

  In the distance a giant blue worm is making its way through the forest. The birds still continue to fly down and spread its inflictions, while the hail of rocks continue.

  “Adrian!” A voice cuts through his head, an avatar facing Ji-a all of a sudden, held back by an invisible force. Adrian quickly switches his senses into the avatar’s body, and looks at Ji-a. “We need to deal with the agropelters! Lend me two avatars. I’ll go deal with them with some more people,”

  The avatar nods, and follows her into the jungle, another avatar quickly joining behind them. Adrian can also see more climbers running into the forest, and he wonders how many will come back alive.

  Adrian creates more and more avatars as his level increases–at 7 right now–as the fight continues. Some of him fight the hunters, while some deal with the giant worms. There’s one of him everywhere.

  And the main body stands in the middle of it all. Tired. Battered. Bloody.

  How many has it been? Are we still going?

  He barely lifts his blade as the hunter charges at him, barely blocking the claws with his blade, before imprisoning it. Adrian angels the blade just near its neck, and cancels the prison. The momentum of its attack takes it through the blade, and it sinks into it.

  Adrian barely holds onto the blade, as a shivering pain creeps through his arm. He’s too tired.

  And then the roar which has started the fight returns again.

  Adrian lazily looks at the edge of the jungle, and with him so does almost everyone.

  It’s a large monster with a bull’s body, and yet a long neck connecting into a bear’s face. It looks down at the ground, unable to lift its heavy head. Its body seems drenched, the fur on the neck dripping with something liquidy. Is it water, or is it blood?

  It roars again as it reaches the clearing, its long tail with spikes swooshing behind it, felling trees.

  Floor wide announcement! The floor boss, Catoblepas, has been engaged!

  Adrian groans as the fight begins once again.

  #

  The catoblepas is a mighty figure through and through.

  Even as several climbers, although tired, charge at it with their own abilities, it roars again, creating a sonic shield in front of it, neutralising most of the attacks.

  And then it moves.

  It’s fast, unnaturally so. Its spiked tail swooshes around it, impaling many, killing others. A sonic shield constantly follows it, stopping any low level attacks, only damaged through the higher ranking climbers on this floor.

  Adrian stays away from that fight, letting people stronger than him handle it, and yet he still sends an avatar to join in the fight, occasionally sharing its senses.

  Things seem to be going well. Although the catoblepas is strong, it is still outmatched and overwhelmed. The climbers here aren’t just duds. They are those who have gone trials which tests their mind and body, and will to fight.

  And they fight. The avatar also notes every ability used in the fight, marvelling at the multitude of powers in the Tower.

  Victors seem to be at hand against the boss, when suddenly it lifts its head.

  Through great effort, it looks up. Those dead black eyes, like the entry to a void, stare into the eyes of people around it, and although many avoid it, some newbies who have engaged into the fight looking for easy exp, suddenly stand still.

  Their bodies solidify, a concrete grey creeps into their body, and with a simple push, they fall and break apart.

  Seeing the fall of so many of their peers, the climbers fight harder in rage. The abilities become more expensive, rage becomes more consuming, and their actions become more reckless. In front of those abilities, the catoblepas, bloody and defeated, tries to run.

  It runs straight at the avatar, and although he is able to avoid a direct hit, its tail moves through the air and hits him in the head, killing him instantly.

  Adrian falls to the ground, his sword impaled in the heart of a hunter while its claws impale his shoulder. This is not the second death he has faced through the avatar, and yet it hits hard. The information and knowledge flows through him, and his broken body can’t stand up anymore.

  The easy level ups are gone, and his mana resources are at the bottom. He has been running through pure grit, pulling his body like a marionettist, but this death breaks his focus and brings him back to the world.

  Back to the world where everything hurts. Where there is blood everywhere, and where the grass feels so sharp at your body like it can cut you apart.

  A shadow falls in front of him, and Adrian subconsciously looks up, and into those dead void eyes.

  The floor boss has been killed!

  The experience will be distributed accordingly.

  The body of the catoblepas fall in front of him, its long head falling directly in his lap. Adrian groans and turns at the weight, and only then does he notice the sudden silence around him.

  He looks up, where a man is currently standing in the air with his hands behind his back. He wears pure white robes, a sagely wisdom in the very way he stands, and an aura of pure dread at anyone who looks at him.

  The man looks at the chaos beneath him, and snaps his finger.

  Suddenly spears of liquid metal materialises out of thin air. They shine bright under the flames of the night, and they dance brilliantly as they move around impaling every monster in the settlement. Not one of them misfires.

  In a single second, the enemies are gone.

  Then he waves his hand, and everyone who ventures outside to kill the agropelters are brought inside, bound by tentacles of that same liquid metal.

  And then he waves his hand for the last time, and a wall of impossible height circles the settlement. The wall is made of the same metal, yet given form and solidified. It’s beautiful. Designs engraved upon the wall seem to tell a story, and yet Adrian is too tired to understand it now.

  The man looks down and opens his mouth for the first time, the most gentle of smiles gracing his face “No need to worry, dear Climbers. The Church of Clarity is here. We will clear this floor of the rodents who inhabit it, and bring back the peace that it deserves.

  “Thank you for surviving till now.”

  Adrian listens perhaps half of it. As soon as the adrenaline leaves his body, he slumps on the ground, his vision blurring, dirt and blood mattring his cheeks, and then he’s gone.

  #

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