Chaos erupts. In front of the flaming meteor, all the powers and strength and information that Adrian has accumulated is nothing. All the power of the entire floor is nothing.

  All he can do is run, even if it means trampling on some people he doesn’t know.

  Adrian runs with his friends, many of his avatars spread around the group in protection from the tramping forces of others. The giant trees behind them catch fire just from the touch of the heat of the meteor, and shouts erupt once again.

  Adrian focuses, losing the colours of the world entirely as his mind no longer feels connected to his body. Like in a higher place from where he controls his avatar more intimately than he even has.

  The meteor is so near, such that he can feel the heat and pressure push down upon his back, suffocating his breath, but it doesn’t matter at all right now. He looks at the struggling Buren who still isn’t completely healed, and creates an avatar to pick him up.

  But no matter how far they run, the walls still stand at the end of the settlement, and the meteor is almost here. It feels like a lifetime has passed under its red flaming gaze. Just as despair is about to set in on everyone, something changes.

  The earth trembles, shaking and splitting in places. Adrian and the others slow down a little to catch their balances, and that’s when they see it. The wall which had separated the jungle with the settlement is coming undone. Losing its rigidity, it’s once again becoming the liquid metal that it was.

  As all that liquid metal gathers around, it quickly forms into a dome over their heads, covering the sun and pushing darkness upon the world.

  All of them stand at their place, looking at the looming dome over their heads, hearts beating out of their skin as they await. Every instant of the wait feels like an eternity; an itch that is impossible to get rid of; a death which will surely come should the metal dome lose.

  And just an instant before it happens, Adrian feels a prickling sensation inside of him, a sensation which he couldn’t quite place.

  And then a loud gong echoes through the dome.

  It’s a world shattering sound, blasting through the dome, and pushing air away. Climbers are physiologically strong, advanced and often don’t have a lot of the weaknesses of a normal human. But at this moment, everyone present there shuts their ears tightly, feeling the eardrums shaking from the noise.

  The dome itself bends, compressing downwards and glowing red. Before the people inside can suffocate from the heating air, the ends of the dome suddenly lifts like a wrapper, and wraps around the meteor, sealing it into a metal candy.

  A giant fucking metal candy.

  Then the metal compresses inwards, decreasing in size, crushing the meteor until all that’s left of it is fine red sand, which it throws over the giant trees to put out the fire.

  The immediate danger is over, and yet no one stops to celebrate or rest. The world is once again open to them, and there is nothing they can do now except run away.

  “We need to leave this floor,” All the Adrians say at the same time, their voices syncing up perfectly.

  “But the Floor Boss was killed yesterday. It’ll be another day before it spawns again!” Leah shouts over the noise and wind.

  “Why don’t we go down? Escape into our respective clans out of the Tower?” Mark yells.

  “Most of the climbers would try the same. If they are bold enough to attack when the High Ranker is present, then they must have a lot more backup than we expected. If they wanna kidnap low level climbers, then waiting at the gate only makes sense,” Himari says, shaking her head. She is supporting Ritsu with one hand on his back. Seeing this, Adrian creates one more avatar to support the guy.

  She nods at an avatar and says, “Adrian is right, we need to clear the floor and go to the next one.”

  “But what if they are stationed there as well?” Matthew asks.

  “The chances are definitely there. But at this point, we can only gamble. Also, I’ll send an avatar towards the descending gates to see the situation,” Adrian says, splitting himself once again, as the avatar runs in a different direction than them.

  “We should camp nearby for when it spawns. Let’s go and wait by its lair, and hope that when the titans fight, we’ll be able to survive for one day,” Adrians say. No one disagrees, nor do they nod. A horrified and scared expression marring their face, as they all quicken their pace.

  Behind them nothing seems to be happening, but there is a tension present. As if the very air is holding its breath, and waiting for something to happen. The other High Ranker hasn’t made his appearance yet, and yet many of the revolutionaries from the stage are gone. The rest are dead.

  As they run into the jungle, the world once again shakes behind them. Through the holes in the canopy, they can see giant needles of liquid metal converging towards a point in the distance, before rapidly decaying into ash.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Adrian stops looking above, and focuses on the ground beneath them, keeping his focus.

  A part of him still wonders about the battle happening in the air which he couldn’t even see from here.

  A part of him worries about Ji-a who isn’t here. He knows she’s very incapable, and prone to not dying, yet he still fears about what happened to her.

  Not the time.

  Yanking himself out of his thoughts, he once again focuses on the ground and on the running. On the people beside him. But no matter what he does, he can’t help but go back to those thoughts.

  He has already taken off the pendant to remove the extra charge on his avatars, so with a sigh he creates one more who runs in the opposite direction, and towards the settlement, and two more to go look for her.

  As the avatar running towards the settlement reaches the edge of the clearing, he climbs the tallest tree he can find, and looks at the battle happening up there. A battle he can’t see, yet feel the intensity of though the way the air blasts on his skin.

  None of them is going all out, he realises. Both of them are holding back, letting their people escape the floor before they go all out. Perhaps the Tower itself holds them back somehow, otherwise what is stopping people like them from completely destroying the lower floors?

  Still a part of Adrian continues to watch the fight with admiration in his eyes, and a yearning in his chest. Someday, he’ll reach that level. Someday.

  #

  Adrian and the others huddle up around a cave as the light of the morning is slowly replaced by the dark of the night, a single bonfire bringing them warmth. They are not the only ones though. Dozens of climbers, seemingly having the same idea, have gathered there, all waiting in anticipation for the next day.

  There is not much conversation in the air, despite the camp style situation. Every party stays by themselves, while solo members stay away from everyone, afraid of their own safety in this situation. Every movement in the grass sends the whole group twitching and turning. Sometimes it would be other climbers, sometimes it would be magical creatures looking for a place to call home.

  All of the former are scrutinised intensely, and all the latter are killed with impunity.

  The tremors through the floor keep getting harder and richer with every moment. The sky would brighten up with fearsome powers, and all of them would gather their powers just to avoid being caught in the aftershocks of it.

  Adrian looks at the people around him. His party is here, all of them looking at the fire with intense eyes, sleep approaching them, yet no one can sleep tonight.

  There is also the merchant he bought his artifacts from. The merchants look the most scared, as all of them hold immense power and money in their storage bags, something that many climbers would kill for.

  Some fights have even started, but most of them are very quickly shut down by the surrounding climbers.

  And yet, one can find corpses lying on the ground here and there. Hidden in the dark behind the bushes. The assassins unknown, or already fled. The remaining hold their money and their strength tightly in their grasp.

  There are also those who seem to have lost control of their bodies, as evident from the occasional moaning noises from the jungle. Many of them would stop and never return. Adrian has nothing but disgust for them.

  Adrian will often share his senses with the other avatars still searching for Ji-a, only to return empty. He has been searching for her for hours now, and yet no returns.

  It is during one of his musings when he notices something.

  “Someone is coming,” he says, before the other scouts could. Then the grass around them stirs and rustles. Everyone suddenly stiffens up with their weapons in their hands, looking at the direction of the rustling.

  “It’s a human,” Someone says. Adrina and Buren also nod.

  The weapons still don’t go down, but the stiffened shoulders loosen up a bit.

  The rustling never comes closer, always at the same distance, until Adrian feels that familiar tingling running across his back. At the same time, one of the scouts yells, “On the trees!”

  Suddenly everyone looks up where a man with flames in one hand, and a sword in the other is looking at them. Judging them, with calm eyes. His eyes meet Adrian’s, and suddenly as if deciding they aren’t worth killing, he jumps down, and a smile appears on his face.

  “Forgive me. I was just trying to be cautious. You never know with too many people,” John says, but people don’t easily forget. Some shrug and walk away to their positions again, but some keep an eye on him.

  John turns around and starts moving towards the bushes again, and someone finally asks, “Where are you going now!?”

  “Oh I left my finger behind, just need to get it back quickly, before it dies,” He lifts his hand where the middle finger is missing, then he turns around and quickly brings his middle finger which is producing the same rustling sound they have been hearing earlier.

  He takes the finger, and simply pops it back in, flexing complete control over it like it never left.

  Done with the demonstration, he walks away and sits alone by the fire. He doesn’t do anything dangerous, and yet Adrian can feel how easily the man seems to be wearing a cape of tension around him, weaving in threats and humor to tilt the people around him.

  Adrian leaves him be for now, sitting with his eyes closed, as he toggles between the various avatars he has spread throughout the clearing and the ones he has sent to look for-

  Suddenly something catches his eye in one of the avatars. He looks at Michael who sits beside him and whispers, “Protect me for a while. I’m gonna go numb for a minute,”

  Then he dives in the vision.

  The forest around him changes. It’s no longer a forest, but just ash, burned from the fight going all the way up above. The tremors are stronger here, leading to the conclusion that this place is much closer to the settlement than them.

  But the reason he comes here is not the forest, but the woman who stands in front of him. She wears a black mask, the same one he has worn when looking for the hideout.

  She is the same woman he has seen just before he disappeared.

  “How are you alive?” Adrian asks.

  “I have my ways,” The voice from behind the mask is not one he recognises. It’s like a static radio.

  “Why do you carry that mask? And why did you not alarm the others that day? Or even later on. You had your chance. Days, but did nothing. Why?” Adrian has been thinking about it ever since.

  “I’ll tell you on the next floor,” The voice from behind the mask seems amused.

  “Why would I wanna meet you up the-”

  “Your time is up.” A blade suddenly passes through his neck, decapitating him in an instant, and Adrian wakes up back at the camp, the memories rushing at him. Belatedly, he realises that he’s dangling above the ground, the roar of a creature very near him.

  He looks up in alarm, and there it is. The same beast he has faced early on, radiating under the bright lights which suddenly fill the sky. The floor boss is here, pissed, and yet before the fight can start, it starts to rain fire.

  #

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