Arabelle felt unease creep up within her looking around the fourth floor just like the first time she stepped inside it. The damned place was eerie, and she wasn’t exactly looking forward to coming back. Adam especially was going to make fun of her for it as she said she was never going to step back into the place with the deadly traps and demented witch boss.

  Her mind quickly changed after Wyn told her about the secondary quest. It didn’t show up for her group as they climbed with a full team, but she knew of secondary quests and how they didn’t follow other logic in the tower. They had been great sources of rewards in the past months, and even helped push her team through the second tier by giving improved equipment that was needed.

  When her brother told her about the potential rewards, she quickly changed her mind about returning to the floor. She only hesitated when he said it would become increasingly harder with fewer members of a group, and hesitated further when he wanted only them two to climb it.

  If they didn’t do well, she already vowed to give him as much hell as possible.

  She recoiled when something touched her shoulder, then relaxed seeing it was Wyn’s hand. His eyes widened at her response.

  “I was only going to reassure you that we’re going to be fine,” Wyn said.

  “Don’t do that!” Arabelle spat. “You know this floor is terrifying!”

  Wyn smiled. “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.”

  Arabelle glared at him, pointing into the dark woods beside them. “Do you want me to throw you in there and portal out of here?”

  Wyn’s smile faded. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. We really will be okay, though. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you could handle it.”

  Arabelle took a deep breath. He was right, of course, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. And she did think she could handle the floor. It just… felt wrong. More so than the other environments she climbed.

  But, that wasn’t about to stop her from completing it.

  She adjusted her pack and strapped her shield on her left forearm. It was always traps for the first length of the floor, so her whip would likely stay on its holder on her belt. Having it close and ready was still important, though.

  The pair started walking, and just like when she had cleared it with her group the traps were the first to present themselves. Wyn was constantly on alert looking for the signs of them, and she gladly let him look. Since he had already finished the floor three times, he knew the signs. She was ready to cast Shield to protect herself at any moment or to leap back as needed.

  Immediately as Wyn activated the first arrow trap to set off in front of them, she nearly lost her footing trying to backpedal. There were nearly three dozen arrows flying across her vision, and they all had left a brief aura trail behind them. She fell onto the ground in a slight panic after they darted across the wooded path.

  “The traps are magical, now?” Arabelle cried. “And there were twice as many as I remember!”

  Wyn tilted his head side to side. “Yea, that happened with the three of us. But Marcy pointed out the signs to look for, so just stay behind me and we’ll be fine.”

  Arabelle grumbled as she stood up and wiped the leaves and dirt off her armor and clothes. She had half a mind to smack Wyn upside the head but thought better of it.

  She did need to focus, after all. And even if Wyn directed them through the traps, there were still enemies before the final boss, however that would look.

  Enemies that showed up on time about two hours later.

  Arabelle was still shocked to see how fast Wyn moved when he used his speed skill, as she could barely see him move. Each swing of his weapon was a blur, and when he moved from one enemy to the next it was so fast it was almost like teleporting. He handled monsters quickly when stacking his spells and utilizing his speed, but she still needed to handle her share.

  She wasn’t going to let him take all of the credit, after all.

  Activating her upgraded Strength Up skill, she bashed the closest monster that was nearly on her. It was a twisted deer the size of a donkey that walked on two large legs and had large, hooved hands that it used to punch. Her enhanced strength knocked it back several feet away and freed her a moment to take out her whip.

  Since her class upgrade, she leaned far more heavily towards using more magic with skills and spells than her base class. She admired Wyn’s ability to continue primarily using weapons and magic to compliment it, but she didn’t have the same years of experience he did with martial combat. Plus, her abilities all leaned towards more magical boosts, which she utilized to great effect.

  Wyn had already taken out four monsters but there were still a dozen left. The nearest one to Arabelle was a goblin-animal with a monster body and bushy tail. It wielded a jagged sword that glowed with a hum of magic.

  She had only seen monsters carry magic weapons on a few climbs, and it was when her group tried to clear the eighth floor. So that meant these monsters were likely around the same difficulty.

  A smirk crossed her face. She knew she should be afraid of them, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was excited for the challenge. It was time for her to prove her capabilities.

  Casting Firebolt through the whip, the weapon lit with a red glow before it culminated at the tip and exploded against the goblin’s body with a loud crack. The goblin was blown back from the impact, smoking but still alive.

  Arabelle grit her teeth. Her first tier spells were boosted from her class abilities and equipment, but they still weren’t strong enough to kill the monsters here in one blow. Casting the spell again, she whipped the goblin once more while it was on the ground.

  Its body erupted in flames before turning to smoke.

  Two spells to kill them, then. A quick glance showed there were still nine monsters. It would take too long to kill them as efficiently as Wyn, and she couldn’t use her whip fast enough to prevent them from being overtaken.

  So, a new strategy, then.

  “I’ll be the distraction while you clear them out,” Arabelle said.

  Wyn had a spear through a monster, then kicked it off his weapon. “What? No! That's reckless!”

  “I’m not fast enough! Just trust me!” She raised her shield and used her Defense Up skill. Together with her boosted strength, she was as strong and durable as an upgraded Fighter in the second tier.

  Her shield was enchanted with defensive abilities like a shield should be, but her blue rarity Snowcrash had one additional feature that suited her well. It gave her the ability to use the spell Frostpulse, which created a wave of ice all around her that slowed, and even possibly froze, enemies. It was similar to Frostsnap that Wyn had picked up to use, except it was slightly different - it spread out completely around her instead of in a smaller wave, and the range was slightly shorter. The true benefit was that the shield didn’t carry charges of the ability, but rather let her use her own mana to cast it freely. That was helpful when times caused for repeated uses of the spell, like now.

  Another goblin monster swiped at her with a black sword, but she blocked the attack and kicked the creature away with her enhanced strength. A foxlike monster to her left clawed her side, but her armor and defensive aura diminished the attack to where it felt more like a scratch. Rotating, she smacked the monster with her shield causing it to cry out in pain.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  More monsters surrounded her, and it was as good a time as any to use her shield. She cast Frostpulse, creating a circular wave of ice-element magic that engulfed a half dozen creatures in a dense cloud of frost. They all slowed while some even stopped completely.

  “Now!” Arabelle called.

  Wyn smacked one of the frozen monsters with a hammer and it completely shattered. He struck another and it made a loud thunk while being knocked to the ground, still alive and still slowed. Ignoring it, he moved to a third one that was frozen and again destroyed it by smashing it into frozen pieces.

  Arabelle pulled out her whip and used Firebolt to hit a monster that wasn’t affected or around her. It was the lone monster in the current wave, and she was pleased to see it went up in flames after only the one hit.

  Wyn methodically cleared the remaining monsters and the two were then drowned in silence once again.

  “That ice spell really is handy,” Wyn said. He was bending down and picking up the few pieces of loot from one of the monsters.

  Arabelle held a mana potion that was in the loot pile, ready to drink it. She didn’t have Wyn’s ridiculous mana recovery, and she felt it necessary to stay as full as possible. “It’s been a lifesaver at times. My whip isn’t the best too close, so if I’m ever surrounded it works to keep me safe.”

  “Have you thought about a movement ability like teleporting away?”

  “I have, but you know they’re rare in blue rarity items. The set I want has something like that, though I still need a few more items to be able to trade for it.”

  She had mentioned to him about the Warmage set before. While he wore two different sets that provided different effects, and was working on his third, the Warmage set was exactly what she wanted. It fit her abilities well and would be a huge boon to be able to ascend to the third tier if she could wear all of the pieces. She had a few blue rarity items to trade but the set was purple rarity, and the one owner she found in the trading hall wanted to sell the entire set as a package rather than by piece. She needed a half dozen more blue rarity items for an equivalent trade.

  Hopefully clearing this damned floor with only the two of them would provide her with at least some of those very items.

  “I remember,” Wyn said. “It doesn’t have a weapon or shield so you’re free to pick and choose those as you want. How’s the whip going for you?”

  Arabelle stored the mana potion, deciding to drink it when they moved on, and held her whip in her hand, turning it over. It was a green rarity weapon simply called Lash that had an occasional restraining effect on enemies. “It’s… fine.”

  Wyn laughed. It sounded strange without any sort of echo in the dead silence of the forest. “Just fine?”

  Arabelle pushed him. “There aren’t very many magical whips out there, alright? It was a great idea to use one for my Arcane Shatter ability. It really does deliver spells far better than other weapons, and I can hit enemies from further away. But I don’t have a lot of weapon choices out there.”

  Wyn stopped and paused before pulling out his backpack. “I know there aren’t. I was saving this as a surprise later, but now I think that was a mistake. Maybe you should start using it now.”

  Arabelle looked curiously at him, then realized what he was holding. Her breath caught as realization settled in. As he carefully handed over a whip, she held it delicately in her hands. It glowed with a deep purple aura, and felt surprisingly light. The handle was stout and firm but thin enough that she felt comfortable gripping it with one hand. A fanged tip settled at the end of what looked to be finely braided hair, and as she unfurled it the strands elegantly unwound.

  “It’s called Feathered Fang,” Wyn said. “Made from the hairs and fang of a Feathered Wyvern, it’s weighted at the tip to increase its piercing ability and strength, which should make your ability even more potent. Spells have a moderately reduced cost while their power is increased by a moderate amount.”

  Arabelle fingered the four ruby stones set in the handle. “And these rubies?’

  Wyn smiled. “Those are the best part. Each of them can store a spell, up to tier two. They have to be placed by you but they remain until used.”

  Arabelle’s fingers trembled while holding the weapon. It was the first ever purple rarity item she had, and it was as incredible as she hoped. But a spontaneous question tugged at her mind. “How did you find something like this? Whips are so hard to come by!”

  Wyn’s smile turned mischievous. “I had it made. Cara had been itching to make some more gear, and when I told her about you using a whip and your ability, she knew exactly what to –”

  Wyn was cut off from Arabelle nearly tackling him in a hug. She squeezed and embraced him warmly.

  “Thank you,” she said, holding him tight.

  Wyn patted her on the back. “You’ll be better than me one day. You should have a weapon as good as you.”

  Arabelle felt her eyes moisten and she smiled up at him. Then she punched him in the arm.

  “Hey!” Wyn said. “What in the hells was that for?”

  “You were going to wait to give this to me? When you knew we were going to climb this floor?”

  Wyn started to answer but floundered like a fish as his jaw moved without words forming.

  Arabelle punched him again.

  The rest of the floor went similarly to the first monster fight. Wyn would handle most of the monsters while Arabelle provided a distracted defense, slowing or freezing them to help manage the numbers. Despite the vast difference of the pair of them facing a dozen or more monsters of tier two strength at a time, they handled it well due to several key factors.

  The major factor was that they took their time both in preparation and recovery. Wyn’s incredibly high mana regeneration allowed him to provide after battle healing when needed, which was about half the time. He also judiciously used traps and his speed skill to manage multiple monsters at once, laying them out at the start of fights to keep monsters safely spread out and contained. Arabelle didn’t mind using multiple mana potions repeatedly, especially after learning that with her new whip she could consistently kill monsters in only one spell attack rather than two, though she wasn’t nearly as fast as her brother in handling the monsters.

  The second factor was that they both had enough magical support abilities to be able to effectively kill monsters and prevent damage or heal themselves. Arabelle didn’t think most Fighters would be able to do the same with a second or even a third team member, but with her and her brother being hybrid Climbers they had the means to do many things on their own.

  In a short hour, they finally made it to the boss clearing. They both activated multiple skills and spells on themselves before drinking a final mana potion, then stepped into the dark glade with their auras shining bright like dangerous beacons in the night.

  At first Arabelle was afraid when the three witch bosses showed up. She and her group only had to deal with one and their minions, and now over a dozen dirt monsters the size of horses rose from the ground while the three bosses dangerously loomed in front of the cabin. But when her brother started their plan, she quickly fell into a familiar focused state of mind and began working to defeat the obstacles before them.

  The plan was simple but needed constant attention. They’d trap the minions and bypass them to only deal with the bosses, looking to kill or incapacitate them one at a time. If Arabelle was in a bind, she was supposed to activate Regen on herself while he would do the same, and if things looked bad she had a portal key secured to be able to be used quickly.

  To their credit, she never once thought of grabbing for the key.

  Arabelle used her ice spell twice in a row to slow or freeze as many monsters as possible while Wyn used his two trap abilities to secure the rest. It only took a few seconds before they were rushing past them to the three hags. All three of them started to cast some sort of spell, but Wyn was prepared for that.

  He ran forward and hit the first one with his Silence Attack skill and shielded the other two spells fired their way with help from Arabelle’s Shell. With the first attack stopped, they focused all of their attention on the now-magically inept witch.

  Wyn was a blur of movement as he struck her so many times Arabelle could hardly count them. It helped that a large black skull appeared above the boss and then a second appeared above another of the hags. It was Wyn’s Feeble spell that duplicated from his ability, weakening both monsters. With one final strike, he cast an ice spell that puffed a burst of frost, slowing and partially freezing the boss. It was his Frostsnap spell, which he took after seeing her shield.

  Arabelle knew this was part of his ability to inflict detrimental effects with spells, and one they practiced with several times.

  As he moved on to the other boss that was impaired, she felt a heavy impact on her chest that knocked her off balance and nearly off her feet. Her breath was caught in her throat, and she hurriedly cast Regen on herself to heal whatever attack just hit her. Looking at the next witch boss, she saw it raise its hands to ready another attack while floating in the air. Not wanting to be hit again, she quickly moved in range so she could hit it with her whip.

  The boss fired its magical attack, which Arabelle mostly avoided by trying to dodge as well as block with her shield.

  It didn't go as well as she hoped. The attack still clipped her side, and she felt her hip crack under the immense power of the magical attack. Thankfully her healing spell was still active, and she felt her body start to recover immediately.

  Maybe Wyn had a point about having a movement ability.

  Moving to retaliate, Arabelle cracked her whip against the floating witch with a charge of Firebolt cast in the second tier, and the boss was washed in flames. While the boss protected itself with its own magical barrier, the spell still seemed to break and hurt it, obvious by its pained shriek. The new whip was monstrous when used with a spell, and one cast at a tier two strength was incredibly powerful. It screamed and burned, clawing at its body as what little flesh it had melted and burned away.

  This was the incapacitate part of their plan. Wyn used Flash to blind the remaining two bosses and again focused on carving up one of the witches. Arabelle didn't hesitate, deciding to attack swifly alongside Wyn.

  It took only one more Arcane Shatter strike from her whip for the witch that Wyn whittled down to disintegrate back into the tower. She used one of her whip’s ruby charges to cast Firebolt at a second tier strength, deciding to save her own mana.

  As the pair finished off the second witch the third boss fired another spell at them. Arabelle tried to block it with Shell and her shield, but it was an incredibly powerful stream of purple energy that blew through her defenses and knocked her to the ground. She felt her ears ring from the hit but didn’t feel any immediate injury. Regen had already faded away, but she was prepared to cast another.

  Working her way to her feet, she saw Wyn glance her way but then teleport to the third boss to use another Silence Attack. His speed skill disappeared, but was activated soon after.

  That was when Arabelle felt her mind rush, and she realized Wyn’s skill duplicated to her. She tried to take advantage by cracking her whip against the witch as fast as possible, saving spells for every third or so hit to best use the rest of her little mana.

  It took less than half a minute for the three witches to perish.

  Arabelle felt like she had been fighting for days by the time the floor was cleared, and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Staring up at the dark, ethereal sky, she thought about how hard the fight was. She exhausted every sliver of mana she had, and then some, consuming the ruby charges of her whip she stored during the preparations before the boss fight. Aches coursed through her body both from exertion and injury that was thankfully recovered from healing magic. Magic that came more often even than when fighting bosses with her own group.

  And yet, she felt more accomplished than not. Along with Wyn, she had done it. She faced a floor that seemed to be in the upper second tier, and with only one other person.

  Her team would be both jealous and happy.

  Wyn stood over her and held an item. It looked to be a plain wooden staff, except it was glowing blue.

  “From the final witch,” Wyn said. “There’s another from the first one’s loot pile, too. It looks to be a cloak.”

  Arabelle took a deep breath and smiled while still lying on the ground. “Those are great drops for a fourth floor boss!”

  Wyn extended a hand and Arabelle took it, standing up. He handed out the staff to her. “For you.”

  Arabelle shook her head. “You already gave me the whip, which was far more than generous. We could split the loot, at the very least.”

  “Don’t you want that Warmage set? Then take the items here, and the rewards for completing the floor, and go get it! We should get at least a blue rarity item each, though I have a feeling it might be a purple rarity one for clearing it with only two of us. Won’t that be enough for the set?”

  Arabelle felt her eyes watering again. She shoved the emotion down, not wanting to lose focus here at the end. She could take her time to be gracious later. “It might be, yes.”

  “Then if it’s not, I’ll make up the rest.”

  “Wyn, don’t -”

  “Don’t what? It’s an easy decision! We found a dozen gemstones during this climb, too, and I already have a few green rarity items for Roscoe. And we’re only a week into the season! Get the set you want, and keep climbing. You deserve it.”

  Arabelle didn’t bother suppressing her emotions. For the second time during their climb, she embraced her brother, relishing the joy of her family.

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