Chapter 113: Re-equipping

***Jason Salazar*** “HGRFBLE!” Jason let out a string of consonants as he tumbled backwards and hit his head on the far wall. “What the-,” Jason’s complaint was cut off by a metallic screech as Will’s chest full of gear slid into the white room, the metal corners of the box leaving a faint metallic trail on the otherwise pristine white surface. Jason didn’t have time to roll out of the way, opting to scrunch himself up as the chest slid up to him, coming to a halt only a few feet away from the wall, nearly jamming his knees into his chest. “What the Abyss?” Jason breathed a sigh of relief at not being crushed by the chest as he squeezed himself out and rose to his feet. One second it had been a friendly goodbye, and the next he was being shoved at dangerous speed, with no explanation… A streak of red caught Jason’s attention. There, partly underneath the chest was a human hand wearing Will’s gauntlet. Jason squatted down and pulled out the shortsword Loth had given him, poking the gauntlet. After it didn’t leap up and try to kill him, Jason sat down and considered what it meant and what to do with it. The conclusion he came to was that it had become unsafe back in the underground smithy: Will had seen something coming and pushed Jason through the Door, followed by his chest full of miasmatic ash. It must’ve been Graneshian Climbers, because the natural world simply didn’t have the means to cut Will’s hand off that abruptly. Jason opened the lid of the chest, inspecting the softly glowing ash inside. He was vaguely aware that Will’s Ability took a few weeks, so his best bet was to simply wait until the glow dwindled down to nothing. Jason’s attention turned to the room he’d been shoved into. The Class Creation Room. A white box with three altars, about twenty feet by twenty feet, with white light seemingly coming from everywhere at once. Exactly the way it had been described to him since he was old enough to understand words. It was something everyone went through, so there was no great mystery to it, but Jason still found himself fascinated by the room. The omni-present light, the perfect smoothness of the walls and floor. The altars that rose seamlessly out of the ground. Jason picked up his three Sacrifices and placed each of them in front of one of the altars, nodding in satisfaction. he mused, picturing how he was going to divide up the room. Jason sat down on the chest, dangling his feet over the edge, idly kicking his feet… Jason’s gaze kept being drawn to the severed hand in the center of the room, as if the thing had some kind of invisible current dragging his gaze back to it. Finally, his curiosity wouldn’t let him ignore it any longer and he picked up the hand, tugging it out of the gauntlet. The hand was skin wrapped around bone, with barely any flesh to speak of, cut off about a palm’s length past the wrist. Of course, Jason make it flip the room off first, spending half an hour or so playing with the disembodied hand. Thumb’s up, hang loose, fist, hand-spider, scepter of Power, Sacrifice… “Behold, the Sacrifice of William Oh!” Jason shouted, holding the hand above his head, imagining himself speaking to an audience of thousands of rapt listeners. Jason frowned, bringing the hand back down to eye level. Jason tapped his chin with Will’s fingers as he thought. On the other Hand, Will was kicking plenty of ass using his own hand as a sacrifice. It must be halfway decent. Before Jason could overthink it, he tossed the hand onto the first altar. As soon as the hand touched the Altar, a beam of light descended on it, gradually growing in brightness until a flash nearly blinded Jason. When he blinked tears out of his eyes, the hand was gone. ***William Oh*** “How does an enormous suit of shiny armor keep sneaking up on us!?” Will demanded as the two of them burst out of the hole in the ground, volcanic dust following them out as the tunnel collapsed behind them. “An Ability, obviously!” Loth said, pointing down the mountainside before sprinting at full speed. Will joined her in a heartbeat. A moment later, shouting began to fill the mountainside around them, hunting parties orienting on the plume of volcanic dust serving as a flag marking their exit point. “could use some Charge right about now!” Will shouted as the trees whipped past them. He nearly had Deca-dailies, which was supposed to be some great accomplishment, but that just meant he would have to wait three hours for his next Charge to return. Will and Loth both snapped their heads to look behind them, where a gigantic armored figure emerged from the hole in the ground, hard volcanic rock flying away from him as he sprinted out of the hole. “I don’t think we can kill that guy,” Will said, picking Loth up and running harder. Going downhill made them faster, bounding from stone outcropping to boulder, tens of feet between each one. “Agreed,” Loth said, peering behind them. “But we can slow him down. You remember the Crawling Tar you bought a few months ago?” “Say no more,” Will said, turning mid stride. He’d purchased quite a few consumables from the town of Coalton on the Third Floor, holding them in his Phantom Hand’s dimensional Storage for emergencies when he was low on tricks and needed to dip into consumables to make up the difference. This seemed like an appropriate time. For about the space of a single cannonball, he was able to store his three fireball beads (recovered by Sourdough) the crawling tar, and the bottle of lightning. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Between the one that had exploded on the paladin and the one he’d used without recovering while rescuing Jason, Will was out of them. He still had the Clay Idol that summoned an Immortal Serpent, but that was largely dependent on the miasma of the Floor he was on. If he summoned it outside The Tower, it would only be about six feet long, and unable to do much more than distract a single enemy for a moment. The paladin was charging through the forest behind them, plowing through trees with no discernable effort, not slowing at all as he crashed through several feet of living wood. Will released the Crawling Tar from the Dimensional Storage, straight at the paladin’s dull armor. The little jar burst into a cloud of glass and splatters of black goop that deposited droplets of the living tar on every inch of the man’s armor. In a matter of seconds, leaves, tree branches, clumps of dirt and stone began to adhere to the paladin as he charged through the forest after them. It was subtle, but their pursuer began to slow down as his weight increased and maneuverability decreased. Their lead started growing, until Will skidded to a halt as the treeline ended, revealing two lines of staggered squads, giving each other plenty of space to engage Will as necessary. The line of soldiers wearing the colors of Granesh over their highly polished armor tensed as he came into view. A ripple that spread through the opposing army. Weapons rattled as thousands were leveled towards him. Will thought. The 4th Floor saw the harshest drop in survival rate. If a large organization wanted a lot of soldiers, it would be in their best interest to stop before they started dropping like flies, keeping the rank and file at level 15. Will thought, eyeing the commanders of the squads, wearing the golden tassels that separated them from their squad. At least a hundred of them. Will shrugged his shoulders, relaxing his neck. He could take a bunch of level fifteens, and a typical level thirty. But not in those numbers. Will’s best move against other Climbers was stealing a critical piece of his opponent’s Kit. Typically the rings or necklace. Unfortunately, this took Charge, and Will was tapped out. His next Charge wouldn’t come for another hour or two at best. The army began to move: The inside circle began to close ranks and approach, one deliberate half-step at a time while the outer circle backed off, creating a wider net to catch him if he made it past. S~eaʀᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. “Do you have a way out?” Will asked. “I have a way could escape, but I don’t think it would work for both of us,” Loth said. “It’s been fun,” Will said, setting Loth down. “I think…I think I’m gonna find out if I’m as dangerous as they say I am.” Loth followed his gaze towards the approaching army, eyes widening. “Very well. If you survive, I’ll meet you with the others on the 5th Floor,” Loth said, spreading her arms wide and flopping backwards onto the loamy soil of the volcano’s side. The earth began to churn beneath her as her earthshaping insects drew her underground in a matter of seconds, leaving a kobold shaped disturbance in the soil that was erased a heartbeat later. He could’ve asked to go with her, but Will was the one they were after, and burrowing insects couldn’t possibly be the fastest form of transportation. They would intercept them and pluck him out of the ground in a matter of hours. They weren’t as interested in Loth The Luminary as they were in William Oh, the Deceiver, and they had proved they would never stop chasing him. Will might be able to used that to his advantage. Will turned back to the approaching army. If he charged them right now, they would pepper him with so many Abilities that he would be annihilated in a matter of seconds. Will could vividly picture being paralyzed by a hundred different debuffs landing simultaneously, followed by hundreds of Nuker Abilities, and guided arrows sinking in to his vital organs. Will glanced back up the mountainside, spotting the buildings of Basalt. Some of the paladin’s army had to be in the town as well. Many of them had been taken by Loth’s collapse of the volcano, but there were likely more stationed there. And they likely weren’t as densely packed as the ones marching towards him. If Will bought enough time, he might be able to expand his options and escape. Will turned and began sprinting uphill, diving back into the treeline. In a matter of minutes, he crossed paths with the paladin. Will was faster by virtue of not having living tar covering heavy armor. The paladin turned towards him as he sprinted past, and Will gave the ground a sharp stomp, causing the ridge of earth to catch the man’s toe and send him diving forward, missing Will by inches. Will danced out of the way of the paladin’s dive and kept running towards Basalt, skidding to a halt as he arrived at the town’s edge. “Hey, there he is!” A voice shouted. Five soldiers leaning against the side of a wall were seemingly shocked out of their boredom by Will’s unexpected appearance, straightening and raising their weapons. Will hefted the Shortsword of Perseverance, the only Relic he hadn’t tossed in the chest. Will took a deep breath and fell back on Ghoul’s lessons, adding the little half-step hitch to his stride that caused the jutting earth he summoned beneath his feet to propel him forward at outlandish speeds. It was a juggling act he hadn’t mastered: He couldn’t keep it going for long before he lost the rhythm, but it was enough to close the distance with startling speed over three steps. “Oh shi-“ Will landed beside the group, swinging wide to attack them from the side, lining them up and keeping the wall of the building on his left side, and their right. As he landed, Will sent a ripple of earth through the ground. The one in front weathered it well, assuming an over-defensive stance, while the one directly behind him stumbled. Channeling his fighting ‘lessons’ from Lord Bakton, Will overwhelmed the first enemy’s overly defensive stance, charging in recklessly, locking their blades together and giving him a firm shove. His opponent toppled backwards into the stumbling man behind him, and Will proceeded to jam his shortsword into the lightly armored inner thigh while his lower half was unguarded. A shrill shriek filled the air as Will kept going straight forward, stomping down on the first man’s weapon-arm, trampling over him with callous disregard and stabbing the stumbler tangled up behind his first opponent in the neck as their three friends retreated in fear. Will thought, spotting his next target. Will heard a bowstring, prompting him to drop down and roll away from the wall, approaching the hammer-bearer. The archer must’ve had a good Ring of Accuracy, because the arrow twisted in midair, burying itself in Will’s back and tweaking a nerve, causing him to stagger in place, nearly toppling over as the Shortsword of Perseverance slipped through his tingling fingers, sending up a tiny plume of dust in the earth between the feet of his opponent. Warhammer charged Will, eyes white all the way around, screaming in terror and fury mixed together as he saw an opportunity to take advantage of Will’s weakness. His warhammer glowed with an Ability that would surely kill him if it landed. Will’s hackles rose as the visceral sensation filled his body, switching from one finger of the Phantom Hand to another. Will wrenched his tingling arm behind him, tore the arrow out of his back and whipped it across the attacking Graneshian’s leading arm, dealing almost no damage. Almost Warhammer exploded with hoarfrost as mobility hampering ice crystals erupted from all his joints, stopping at his neck and feet. As Warhammer tumbled forward, Will stepped in and snatched the warhammer out of his opponent’s numbed hand, did a quick spin and whipped the warhammer around into the back of the man’s helmet, creating a lethal puncture in the armor. His opponent dropped to the ground, twitching as the wound in Will’s back sealed itself, the tingling in Will’s arm fading to nothing. Will scanned the battlefield. The one he’d stabbed in the inner thigh was losing consciousness, the neck wound had already died, and Warhammer was never getting up again. In about three seconds, all that remained of this group were two Climbers on the ground in front of him and an archer in an unknown location. Will dove back towards the building’s wall, able to dodge the follow-up arrow this time, the curving attack missing his foot by a fraction of an inch burying itself in the packed earth. Will covered his head and smashed through the wall, diving into the house rather than take the predictable path. “Pardon.” Will said, dusting rubble off his shoulders as a terrified woman shrank into the corner of the room. Will heard the sound of boot on rubble and kicked the ground before whipping the warhammer around. The Graneshian climbing through the hole in the wall collapsed as his one foot outside the wall was dragged backwards by the ripple of earth, causing him to dip precariously forward, using his weapon-hand to try and stabilize himself. Will exploited this half-second to deliver a blow to the man’s undefended temple, causing him to go limp, eyed bloody and staring in death. Will scowled. He glanced above the corpse to the last surviving member of the squad assigned to watch the town’s border, framed by the Will-sized hole in the wall. “You’re welcome to try.” Will said, pointing at the last survivor with his newly acquired warhammer. The soldier ran away. Will inspected his warhammer. Will thought approvingly. Will thought. Insectoid enemies weren’t common outside certain floors, which made the hammer of limited use save for its boosts to his stats. Will glanced down and spotted some Relics on the corpse twitching where it lay halfway through the wall. Will could hear approaching troops shouting, but they were still twenty seconds or more away. Will tore the man’s helmet off and grabbed the his amulet and slipped it over his head, the whole process more awkward than it had been before Will destroyed the Ring of the Eidolon. Will tucked the warhammer in his left armpit, tugged the ring off the man’s left hand and put it on with his mouth. The shouting was much closer. It was time to leave. Will glanced down at his bare feet, wiggling his toes. His Resistance was high enough that running through the wilderness wasn’t a real problem, but it would be nice to get some new shoes.