The Pinnacle Warrior

“How long is this damn floor?” Surprisingly, Skandr was the one who complained at this point, not Benedict, who just nodded in agreement of the sentiment as he continued to blow in his flute. Before anyone could answer the question, the Wizard whipped his left hand in an arc down and behind himself, making a three meter long shaft of lightning float out from his fingers and into the pack of inferno wolves that followed the party. The monsters tried to dodge, but with Hasty Rebuke slowing them, the lightning danced between monsters before they could react. 

Bodies twitched and twisted in the wake of the lightning strike, and two of the massive wolves fell, one unlucky enough to slide into one of the thousands of lava pits that pockmarked the ground. Astrid didn’t know if they could survive being in the lava, but the other that was struck didn’t die, though the flames that made their almost leonine manes flickered as they stumbled and tripped. The other members of their pack behind them hopped over the fallen bodies as Astrid planted her right foot heavily, turned, and buried her hammer’s head up to the haft in one of the monster’s heads. Then, she turned and continued sprinting alongside the rest of the party.

Astrid didn’t answer Skandr’s question, she was fighting too hard to fight back the panic that continued to bubble inside of her. Stepping out of the passage from the forty-ninth floor to the fiftieth already had her breath catching in her throat. As it was the inside of a volcano, everywhere they looked, there were little ripples in the air from the heat. They walked out of a small cavern mouth and into a vast expanse with dark stone walls all around, no natural light filling the space, only the ominous light from the magma underfoot. A smoky haze choked the air without making the air unpleasant. Astrid couldn’t say if that was because of the party’s attributes or if the air was somehow still breathable, but the party didn’t struggle with the environment beyond the obvious dangers that magma posed.

With the smog filling the air, everything glowed from the pockets of flowing magma that filled the space between paths. The journey onward stretched over narrow walkways that were surrounded by deep pools of magma. The first monsters they encountered were magma morays, an ambushing eel that struck from under the cover of the lava they lived in. 

Astrid was embarrassed to admit that the first time one appeared, its wide jaws snapping at her ankles, she’d screamed in surprise and genuine fear. In a moment of calm afterwards, she’d realized that she was far from the same person that she’d been back when she’d been momentarily crippled by the flame spitters. Then, she’d only been level 24, and all of her attributes were less than half of what they were now. To weaken her further, she’d only recently been introduced to all of the things she could do with mana that now came as second nature, and the flame spitters had only been able to do what they did to her because she was careless and used Aura stupidly.

Even so, Astrid could feel her ears melting and her eyes darkening as soon as the creatures had burst from the lava. To say her reaction to that had been a bit strong was an understatement, and this wisdom that she had later was only  in hindsight.

Immediately after its appearance, the shattered ground and crumpled body remaining of the flaming beast were enough of a testament to her current relative safety to allow her to gather herself. Despite that, even with her helmet on, Astrid knew that every member of the party could see the blush that colored her face.

The rest of the Wanderers, once they found out what these first monsters were, walked more cautiously, and they all kept a constant stream of Acumen-aligned mana flowing to make sure that they could sense the monster’s approach. With a base 100 in Acumen, they’d learned the most mana-effective attribute to apply mana to. When supplied with mana, Acumen heightened every sense, and Muti confirmed that it amplified her Primal Sense, as it’d been integrated to Ambusher’s Aura. 

The only one of the five whose Acumen hadn’t crossed 100, Felix could only depend on the others, and Muti focused on finding the most direct path through the winding passages, so Skandr, Benedict, and Astrid all kept up constant vigilance to prevent the party from being ambushed. Once they knew where one was coming from, the eels weren’t as dangerous, though they remained monsters at the peak of the penultimate watershed of Iron. Their bodies were annoyingly tough, and their blood was a caustic, acidic liquid that could melt through manasteel if it wasn’t cleaned off. Worse, they once managed to take Felix by surprise and pull his left leg up to his knee into the magma.

The rest of the party quickly bailed him out, and they all quickly learned what a defensive Class with at least 250 in every physical attribute could do against a short exposure to magma. Mainly, if they used a prodigious amount of mana to strengthen their body so that, in combination with their armor, their bodies were basically untouchable, they took negligible damage from the quick dunk. Astrid found some solace in that, though she also remained as far away from the magma as she feasibly could while still supporting her party.

While in this environment, they followed Muti’s directions for at least a dozen kilometers through winding paths that were visible to each other but too far to jump from one to the next. Everywhere they went, the paths they walked were a confusing maze, but before long, there was a silver lining to the jogging back and forth along different paths as, with every magma moray slain, they each crossed to be level 42. With another 190,000 experience separating them each from their next level, they weren’t going to be able to get to the next level before they finished the Trials, but that was probably for the best, as Skandr had already explained. 

After following through the paths of the volcano, the party had exited onto the outside, where the sky was clearer, but still there remained pockets of lava alongside the precipitous path they followed. It almost seemed like the floor had these two sections for a reason. The labyrinthine interior of the volcano was a test of their orienteering and detection abilities, while once they left the volcano’s interior, it was obvious where they needed to go, but there were plenty of hazards between them and their goal. In some places, the magma seemed to have found a divot where it stayed, not cooling despite magma’s natural inclination to do so. Of course, there was also this much more pressing concern of the inferno wolves.

“I estimate that there yet remain another three kilometers to the peak,” Muti answered. “Beyond that, there is no telling how many more of these monsters will find us.”

“We need to take care of these now,” Astrid cut off any further discussion. After dealing with seven packs of at least six of the inferno wolves, the party had decided to try to hurry the pace and ignore their pursuers, but now there were well over a dozen of the flaming canines pursuing them and the monsters were gaining. None of the nearly horse-sized wolves had managed to land any solid blows on the Wanderers, but it was obvious that, as a whole, the monsters were faster than the delvers, and they would need to continue to expend mana to hope to maintain some distance instead of fighting.

The rest of the Wanderers didn’t complain or even speak as they got into battle positions to take care of their pursuers. Muti crouched as she faded into her stealth while Astrid settled beside Felix and took careful note of where the closest pools of lava were. There wasn’t any more time to take in their surroundings as the first three wolves closed in. Felix squared his stance and, as he activated Tiger’s Pride, a nearly undetectable presence flared behind him. Astrid knew that as his reserves of mana grew, the Skills he used would continue to grow in potency, but seeing that this was one of those Skills that would create a physical presence eventually, Astrid was looking forward to seeing how Tiger’s Pride became something even more miraculous at higher tiers. 

The three wolves pounced towards Felix all at once, and he parried one swiping pair of claws into another wolf standing beside it. The third lowered its head and pointed its flaring, flaming mane towards the frontliner, releasing a gout of flames that threatened to burn Felix down to the bone. He activated Guardian’s Wrath for the additional boost in his resistance as he swung his axe down into the shoulder of one of the two wolves attacking him. Astrid supported him, her hammer falling like a death knell as she killed the beast. The other wolf was quickly dispatched, while the third, standing maybe five meters away, seemed to reconsider attacking all by itself. Another eleven of the beasts followed close behind, mere seconds away from arriving, but the Wanderers didn’t allow them to regroup.

Astrid drew on Alacrity-aligned mana and rushed forward to deal with the final of the first three monsters. She knew that Muti would be more than capable of doing so, but it would be more effective for her to remain hidden to better deal with the backline with Skandr’s assistance when the others all arrived. She lowered her head behind her shield and weathered the burst of flames that flew towards her and sprayed around her shield. The flames stopped as the wolf tried to engage with her in melee, but she caught it in the throat with a swing of her shield, leaving it gagging and wide open to her killing blow. With three dead bodies on the ground, Astrid could feel the moment that Skandr finished summoning a tried and true spell of his. With his summoned cloud’s assistance, the storm that bubbled into existence overhead was the key to the party being able to fight against these beasts when outnumbered by more than two to one.

The party had quickly learned in the Trials that, with four or fewer monsters to face at the same time, they didn’t struggle much, but once Astrid and Felix both had to take on two monsters at the same time, the control of the battle started to slip away from them. Of course, Skandr’s abilities were the great equalizer when it came to numbers, and as he’d grown more comfortable with using Warlock’s Constitution to supplement his mana expenditure, he was even more deadly than before. The cloud overhead flickered mostly blue with regular lightning, but the occasional red bolt warned of the spell’s ability to disintegrate flesh.

Eleven wolves howled in unison as they leapt forward towards the party, and Astrid and Felix were ready. Seven ran in the front while four worked together in the back to begin preparing a hail of fire of their own. Astrid trusted dealing with the fire to her allies as the closest wolves entered Benedict’s sphere of influence. They slowed as if suddenly inside of water, though they still sprinted at a speed that was greater than Skandr’s. Astrid stepped forward as Felix hopped back and, without a second thought, activated Gravity Surge twice. 

The stone underfoot shattered as the shelf of stone they stood on began to give away under Astrid’s Skill’s influence. She cursed under her breath as she still hustled forward and smashed four skulls in quick succession. Now that all of her attributes were over 100, Gravity Surge lasted for about two seconds, and though these monsters were more than strong enough to somewhat resist the effect,they still struggled to stand or to do more than force themselves to their feet. With all their strength, those she approached could lean to the side to sometimes make her take two strikes instead of one to deal a killing blow, which prevented her from killing them all before the Skill’s influence disappeared.

As soon as the effect faded, Felix rushed forward and started attacking as well. Since he hadn’t been smashed to the ground like the monsters had, he moved more adroitly than they did. His axe fell again and again as he fought to regain the monsters’ attention while Astrid spent a charge of Body and killed a fifth wolf. That primal fear towards fire  thrashed inside of her and she felt a growing worry as she looked at the flame storm that was growing larger. Surprisingly, a few bolts of lightning fell towards the monsters but were destroyed by thick spears of magma that shot out of the nearby pools of lava. The inferno wolves could control the magma as well as their own flames, and Skandr’s attack was being thwarted at the amount of mana he was currently spending. That was when Muti appeared, and with a single attack, decapitated two of the wolves with a single attack.

The brewing flame storm disappeared as it consumed itself and, in quick succession, the Wanderers dealt with the rest of the monsters. As the final beast was slain, Astrid raised both hands and bowed her head in apology.

“I know, I should have been more patient instead of burning through over half of my mana to make things faster.“

“I don’t know if I agree with that,” Skandr said as he pulled a mostly complete corpse into his spatial pouch. They didn’t have the time to harvest the most valuable parts. “You’re the only one of us who can most afford to do that, and we don’t know how much time is left.” The rest of the party didn’t say anything, instead finding space in their pouches where they could store the valuable remains of the inferno wolves as they turned to continue making their way up the mountain.

Astrid followed suit, and just a few seconds later, she too had collected all she could manage, and knew that, unless they killed the Boss in time, this was the last time she’d harvest something in the Trials. When she looked at Muti, the Barbarian nodded, turned, and resumed rushing up the hill. Skandr grumbled something about his knees and legs as the rest of the Wanderers fell in line. As Astrid looked at her party running uphill after only taking maybe two hours to rest after fighting through the forty-ninth floor instead of having slept, she smiled in pride. 

Every one of her allies was going off of at least 40 hours of being awake, with at least two thirds of that time spent actively fighting or sprinting through hostile environments. Looking at Skandr, the slowest of the party, moving so quickly, Astrid couldn’t help but laugh at her past self. When she’d seen Aleksandr of the Golden Fist manage to move so quickly it seemed like he teleported, she’d been so amazed that she thought it must be something limited to someone in the Adamantium tier. With her attributes right now, though, she could probably move so quickly that her past self at level 5 wouldn’t be able to see her movement. The most impressive part of him moving so quickly was that he didn’t make a sound or leave any residue in his escape.

“Muti,” Astrid asked, not needing to catch her breath, even as she ran, “do you know anything about what the Boss might be?“ Only a shake of her head answered, and Astrid grunted, unsurprised but still worried about this upcoming fight. There was nothing she could do but keep moving, though, and the party continued on their path. Another six infernal wolves made their presence known, and instead of continuing on their path like they had before, the party quickly dispatched them before moving onward. 

The higher they ascended towards the peak, the more magma there was to avoid, and it started flowing down the mountain in thick streams of fiery danger. Avoiding the lava became more and more of a danger, and even the occasional head-sized flaming rock fell from above, giving the party even more to worry about as they considered what kind of Boss they would be about to face. After all, this wasn’t just a floor guardian, but a Boss, and they had no way to know exactly what kind of danger they currently faced. Even so, they continued on their path, and it wasn’t long before they reached the top, where magma roiled and smoke continuously flew into the sky in a thick column. 

As they crested into the crater of the volcano, the enemy they had to face was nowhere to be seen, and, for a moment, Astrid wondered if somehow they’d all been deceived. Were they not meant to come here? Was this just a long, dangerous detour they’ve been brought along with? She looked at Muti, whose eyes flicked one way and then the next before she gasped and stared down into the bubbling center of glowing lava.

“It’s coming!”

Muti’s shouted warning gave the party an extra few seconds, just enough to be in their ready position when a massive head crested from below, and, with magma flowing over its head, neck, and shoulders, threw its head back and arms wide as it screamed a bone rattling challenge.