Rune Seeker

Tower of Dynamic Trials – Second Floor

Challenge – Field Medic

Victory!

Note: Reward will be announced on the twelfth floor prior to commencement of the death match.

“Gran!” Yanily shouted from beside Hiral. “We love you too! Mostly! When you’re not being mean to us!”

“Great support there, Yan,” Seeyela said dryly.

“It’s true,” the spearman said with a shrug, even as the forest in the strange arena vanished.

Shockingly, the space was no bigger than the range Hiral had his trial in, despite it looking like the contest had taken place over miles of woodland. More of Tomorrow’s interspatial shenanigans.

“Good job, Gran,” Seena said, as the vampire floated over in their direction. The wall separating the two sides had reemerged, and the giant was back over on its side. With the four Infested none-to-pleased with it by the body language. Hiral kept his eye the scene – was there division there? – while Gran responded to the party leader.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” the vampire said. “Giant was a little too handsy to be my type, if you know what I mean. But,” she said before anybody could comment. “There’s something more important you need to know.” The tone of the old woman’s voice had turned serious enough Hiral stopped half-listening to her, and gave her his full attention.

“You learned something?” Seena asked.

Gran’s head tilted to the side for a second before she nodded. “Something, to be sure,” Gran said. “Though I’m not entirely sure what it means. I take it the rules of watching were the same as last time, you all weren’t able to use View?”

“Nothing,” Seeyela said. “Same as the first trial.”

“Well, I got to use it on our big friend there, and its race had a very interesting name,” Gran said.

“Not a Pilgrim then, I take it,” Hiral said.

Gran shook her head. “It was called a Possessed.”

“A similar meaning to Infested,” Seena said. “Some kind of variant?”

Gran was already shaking her head. “I don’t think so. Definitely had the smell of a demon – a Pilgrim – when I got close to it. And it was strong. Not just physically. Deep reservoir of solar energy, and it was holding back on some of its tricks.”

“Which means it’s smart too,” Seeyela said. “Hiding some of its abilities so we don’t know about them.”

“I don’t know about that,” Yanily said. “If it was really smart, it would’ve tried to kill our healer while it had her alone.”

“Maybe one of the Infested told it to hold back, and it was just doing what it was told?” Seena suggested.

“The Fiendish Tree!” Hiral suddenly said, slapping one fist into his other, empty palm. “Remember the flavor text for it? Something about merging power from another realm. And that maybe they should stop doing that. What if…?”

“They didn’t stop doing that,” Seena finished for him. “And these Possessed are some kind of remnant from those experiments.”

“That means one of two things, then,” Gran said. “Either, they’re as long-lived as I am, or those first ones are out there reproducing somewhere.”

“Not sure which would be worse,” Hiral said. “We need to figure out a way to communicate with these people.”

“No, we don’t,” Left said. “I think we already know where they came from.”

“How do we…?” Hiral started, though his eyes started to widen.

“The racial scanner,” Left said. “I assume everybody remembers the large group of purple? One of a shade much like our infernal fire?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Seena said. “The Ritual of Summoning.”

Everybody stopped to think about what she was talking about for a second.

“Our first quest and Mid-Boss, back in Splitfang Keep?” Yanily asked.

“Exactly!” Seena said. “They were summoning something. That’s where we got the Infernal Conjuration ability. What if the Ritual of Summoning, the Fiendish Tree, and these Possessed are all connected?”

“That might explain a few things…” Hiral said, going over the theory. It definitely had merit. The Ritual of Summoning had been a Troblin undertaking, but Dr. Benza and his people had borrowed ideas from other races as well. The Urn of Ur’Thul and how the PIMP mimicked some of its functions being the prime example. Who’s to say they didn’t copy the Troblin ritual as well?

“Either way,” Seeyela said. “We’ll have to figure it out later. Timer for this floor is almost done. Seena, you got the information for the third-floor trial yet?”

“Not yet… never mind, there it is,” the party leader said, then shared the window with the rest of them.

Tower of Dynamic Trials – Third Floor

Challenge – Finish Him!

Sometimes, you need to throw everything you’ve got into a single, powerful attack.

Choose one party member (and their companion, if appropriate) to compete in this challenge.

Note: Chosen member will not be able to compete in any other single challenges until all other party members have competed at least once.

You have 1 minute to choose – 00:59

“Hrm,” Seena started. “Sounds like we might have to show one of our cards. This sounds like a single, big hit. Thoughts?”

“Annihilation of Amin Thett isn’t charged,” Hiral said. “Ah, and I can’t enter anyway.”

“It’s Seena or Yan,” Seeyela said. “They have the most powerful finishers.”

“Right can hit pretty hard too,” Seena said.

“Not as hard as Skyfall,” Right said. “Probably. That thing’s a cheat-level skill.”

“Give Seena enough time to charge up an attack…” Seeyela started.

“Which is exactly why it should be Yan,” Seena said, decisively. “Me charging up is a weakness. No need to let them know about it ahead of time. Skyfall hits hard and fast. It doesn’t really matter if they know it could come, there’s not a lot they can do about it. Especially not with the short cooldown.”

“You know I’m game,” Yanily said. “Should I hold back on using my Aspect?”

“I know it ups your damage by a lot,” Seena said after a second of consideration. “But, yes. Let’s not show them that yet.”

“Got it,” Yanily said.

“If they have anything as powerful as a non-AspectedSkyfall,” Hiral said. “That’s still pretty terrifying.”

“We’re about to find out,” Seena said, tapping a window only she could see. “Here we go.”

Like before, there was the unmistakable sensation of teleportation, with sparkling light filling Hiral’s vision as he moved from one stadium to the next. One floor to the next? A question he didn’t have the answer to, so his gaze went to his surroundings. Similar to the previous arena, the mostly-empty, stadium seating only contained the two parties, with a simple arena between them.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The wall separating the sides was back in place – indicating this wasn’t going to be directly competitive like the last trial – and the only other fixture of note was… a large rock. More a boulder, arguably, that stood about ten feet tall, and the same width around, right in the center of the wall. There was a slight aura of magic to Hiral’s senses – telling him it wasn’t a normal stone – but he couldn’t guess more than that, though half of it sat on each side of the arena. Luckily, the notification that popped up gave him some of the information he needed.

Tower of Dynamic Trials – Third Floor

Challenge – Finish Him!

The Aeon Stone may not look like much, but it has survived time and war, where all others have fallen. Can you shatter it? Can you even scratch it? Show your power.

Score will increase based on the amount of damage done to the Aeon Stone (if any).

Note: Upon touching the Aeon Stone with an attack / ability / anything else, you have 1 second to deal as much damage as possible.

Note (2): There will only be one round.

Note (3): All self-buffs are allowed.

Preparation time – 1 minute, beginning now.

On their side of the arena, Yanily paced from side to side while he spun his spear gently around himself, like he was warming up. No thunder or lightning accompanied the motions – for once – but there was definitely a sense of something building. Of a coming storm.

Opposite him, the second Possessed pawed at the ground, like little more than a beast ready to be let off its leash. Each motion of its arms scarred the sand-covered stone of the arena floor, and its jaws parted to release small gouts of purple flame. Like Yanily, there was a sense of building energy within the Possessed. It was already charging its attack.

A quick look again at the notification window suggested it wasn’t against the rules, so Hiral focused on the growing energy. It wasn’t steady – not a general increase in readied energy – but instead bumps and pulses that upped the power stored in the thing’s chest.

“You all feel that?” Seena asked.

“That’s not its own energy,” Seeyela said. “It’s pulling it from… somewhere else. Each time the power level goes up, I feel a pulse of gravity. It’s teleporting the energy in, but it isn’t easy.”

“Not fast, either,” Gran said.

“It could release the energy at any time,” Li’l Ur said. “And the stages of growth aren’t even, with some small, and others ten times more potent. In a battle, a lucky pull on this foreign energy could still be very dangerous.”

“We’re about to see how dangerous,” Hiral said. “Timer is almost up.”

Like the Possessed noticed the same thing, it raised each of its four hands one at a time, before driving them down to stab its fingers knuckle-deep into the floor. When all four limbs were anchored, it then did the same thing with its feet, the claws driving all the way in.

“That looks familiar,” Seeyela said.

And she was right. Just like what The Fourth Crusade had done before using its entropic breath attack. Huh, that dragon had Pilgrims guarding its valley as well, in the dungeon. Could they be connected to all this as well?

“Here we go,” Seena said, the timer reaching zero, even though Yanily barely looked like he was preparing anything other than a leisurely walk in the park.

On the opposite side, the Possessed’s body stiffened as its whole jaw unhinged to practically hang open so much Hiral could see straight down its throat. Only for an instant, though, a gush of spiraling purple flames rushing out with a whoosh that filled the entire stadium. On the ground, the Possessed’s claws tore divots in the stone as its body got pushed backward from the forced ejection of its attack, while the beam itself crashed into the Aeon Stone.

Purple light washed across that side of the stadium, bathing everything in the ominous shade – the other Possessed rising to stand at its full height – while a second sound joined the whoosh. This one, more a grinding, came from where the purple beam met the stone.

Power resonated throughout the room as the breath attack drilled into the durable rock, cracks of purple appearing on the surface. The sheer penetrative force was giving way to…

Flash!

The beam and power vanished in a blink, even the possessed overbalancing forward so much it almost face-planted.

What…? Ah, the one-second rule. Something in the Tower of Dynamic Trialshad the power to cut off their abilities even midway like that. Good to know.

As for the damage to the stone, a window appeared above the stone, showing the extent of it. Surface-level cracks had appeared all along that side of the Aeon Stone, while a hole big enough for Hiral to stick his forearm into had been carved out.

From the feeling Hiral got of the stone as it had originally rebuffed the attack through some kind of natural resistance, the fact it had been damaged that much was actually pretty significant. If his guesses were anywhere close to correct, a normal shot from his RHC wouldn’t even scratch the stone, while a Piercing-Shot-enhanced bolt might chip it. He could probably do a lot more damage with his Greatsword of Amin Thett, and part of him wished he could take his Edict-blade out to give it a go. Now that he was A-Rank again, he might be able to pull off that weapon… for a few seconds.

“Yan looks ready to go,” Seena said. “Maybe I should’ve let him use his Aspect. That rock is way sturdier than I expected it to be.”

“Look at his face,” Seeyela said. “He’s got this.”

Following the woman’s suggestion, Hiral did exactly that. The damn spearman was smiling like this was the most fun he’d had in weeks. His spear – the new and improved Tempest Roar – was practically a blur around him, and that sense of something building – even though there was no noticeable energy – surrounded him like a storm cloud. Arcs of electricity sparked along his limbs, then Yanily stepped forward and swept his spear in an uppercut motion.

Even as the swing finished its arc, Yanily transformed into the familiar bolt of lightning which shot to the ceiling and rebounded. As it bounced, it massively grew in size, going from the general shape of the spearman, to a column of white lightning thirty-feet across. The whole room resounded with a KRA-KA-THOOM of thunder exploding along with Skyfall+ striking the stone.

A vicious CRACK echoed as the rock, the screen above it, and even most of the wall separating the sides of the arena all vanished within the flash. In less than a heartbeat, the white light that suffused the room – that filled it from end to end – disappeared. No, it didn’t disappear, it got absorbed. Faster than even Hiral could snap his fingers, Yanily stood against the side of the stone with his spear driven haft-deep, cracks running from top to bottom, while chunks of the nearly unbreakable rock littered the floor.

None of that was what Hiral had his eyes on though. In front of the spearman’s mouth, already prepared and ready, Yanily unleased his Shock-and-Awe­-empowered Dragon’s Breath. The blast crunched into the already weakened stone, shredding it as the room went monochrome. Flakes got torn off and annihilated within the same fraction of a second as the breath attack chewed through the stone like it was aimed to wash over the opposing party. And, as it ripped apart the half of the stone on Yanily’s side – the man practically just hovering there as the energy from his mouth continued to expand – that looked like exactly what it was going to do.

Even the feral Possessed on the other side of the Aeon Stone tried to back away, but found its claws still embedded in the ground. A look of sheer panic crossed its face as the cracks it had put in the stone itself glowed with the power of Yanily’s breath attack boring through. Another great CRACK echoed across the arena, the first shard of stone launching off the far side of the boulder like the top off a kettle boiled too long.

A second CRACK and… nothing.

It all vanished – Yanily’s power, the Aeon Stone, and the space in the barrier wall – in the blink of an eye. The spearman dropped to the ground, his storm-cloud cloak fluttering behind him, and he spun his spear with a flourish before driving the butt of it into the floor with a BOOM like thunder.

Nobody needed a notification to know who’d won that trial, and Yanily stared down the entire Infested party like he was ready and willing to take them all on by himself. After the display he’d just put on, none of them seemed keen to take him up on that offer. Not for a few seconds, at least, until they seemed to remember who – and what – they were.

These were Infested, and the thought of anything lesser intimidating them was ludicrous. They were just surprised. That was all. Yup, that was totally all it was.

Hiral watched the emotions flash across four of the six faces in an almost comical manner. There was no hiding their feelings at all. The two Possessed, though? Feral or not. Towering giant or not. They looked at Yanily with no small amount of fear.

“Knucklehead!” Gran shouted. “That wasn’t half bad! You didn’t destroy the stone though.”

Yanily seemed to wilt a little as he turned around.

“I was so close!” he groaned. “So. Close. A few more levels, and I’m sure I could do it.”

“I think you did enough with this one, Yan,” Seeyela said. “How’d you know you’d be able to Dragon Breath too?”

“I didn’t know.” Yanily shrugged. “Just thought I’d give it a go. Worked out okay.”

“Only Yan,” Seena said for just those around her.

In the next instant, they all got a notification that surprised literally nobody.

Tower of Dynamic Trials – Third Floor

Challenge – Finish Him!

Victory!

Note: Reward will be announced on the twelfth floor prior to commencement of the death match.

“Good job, Yan,” Seena said, louder this time, as the spearman jogged over to the foot of the wall where the seating was.

“No problem, Boss,” Yanily said. “Just doing my part.”

“Even with the win,” Hiral said. “We should be careful to watch out for that attack the Possessed used. Like Li’L Ur said, with the randomness of how it builds up power, it could still be very dangerous as a quick attack.”

“I was hoping it would show a buff or two,” Seena said. “We really don’t know too much about our opponents yet.”

“Maybe in the fourth trial?” Romin suggested.

“Speaking of which,” Seena said, eyes glazing over like she was ready something. “This one came quickly. Here, take a look for yourselves.”

With a flick of her wrist, a window opened in front of Hiral’s eyes.

Tower of Dynamic Trials – Fourth Floor

Challenge – Tag, You’re It!

What’s more valuable – catching or avoiding being caught? Time to find out!

Choose one party member (and their companion, if appropriate) to compete in this challenge.

Note: Chosen member will not be able to compete in any other single challenges until all other party members have competed at least once.

You have 1 minute to choose – 00:59

“I’ll take it,” Seeyela said without hesitation.