Tower of Souls

”Two Shamans and a miner...” Cam sighed. He had hoped to avoid double Shaman groups until he leveled, as there was no way to predict what Ability they may have- and any decent Ability could easily make a fight turn bad for him... But, after a couple hours of slowly clearing down both available halls that they hadn’t checked before, they had only killed five miners.

This was probably the next easiest group they had found- and killing this group would be enough to level finally.

”But we can do it.” Eron reassured himself with a grin. ”I’ve even got a cunning plan!”

”...if you’re plan is for you to rush past the Shamans to attack the miner, baiting out their Abilities and letting me attack them from behind, then I’ve already thought of it.”

”Well, we are the same person.” Eron said, rolling his eyes jokingly. Starting towards the short tunnel with the kobolds, he smirked over his shoulder. ”Just trail behind me like usual... And try not to let one of them escape!”

”Only one of them even came close to getting away...” Cam muttered, annoyed with his clone... and himself... for the near mistake; Having to tackle that one miner before it could run away screaming had been nerve wracking, as he had no idea how far its shouts would have carried, or how many enemies it would have brought down on their heads. Thankfully, it had worked out, even if it had been close.

And he was doubly thankful that the kobolds first instinct was to attack, rather than raising the alarm. If the creatures had been just a little bit smarter- or more cowardly- then there was no way they would have been able to sneak around for so long...

Trailing his clone down the tunnel, the sounds of the kobolds indecipherable screeches- another reason they hadn’t been noticed, as the creatures were almost always yelling at each other for whatever reasons- reached him as he kept his clone just at the far edge of what he could make out ahead. When Eron suddenly went rushing forward, he picked up his pace a little, wanting to be close enough to see what was happening- but hopefully far enough back for his clone to gather the kobolds attention before he became visible to the mobs.

Reaching the end of the shaft, Cam paused in the small opening to watch as Eron sprinted past the Shamans, eliciting squeaks of surprise before he slammed into the still unaware miner that had been being berated by them. Ignoring the pair, he didn’t waste a second before plunging his dagger into the smaller figure he held pressed against the wall- while he was sure whatever the Shamans chose to do in reaction to his sudden appearance would undoubtedly be bad for him, drawing their attacks would work out best for Cam... Which was all that really mattered; He could die over and over again, and Cam would just keep bringing him back.

Without the memories of dying, thankfully.

Cam’s eyes widened in surprise- a glint of greed and hope flickering in their depths- as one shaman raised its hand and a burst of flame shot out to cover the battling pair of clone and kobold; While the Ability clearly didn’t discriminate between ally and enemy, it was obviously effective, as Eron had to clench his teeth not to scream in protest at the burning pain... Though the kobold miner’s screeches of pain only got louder as the brief flash of fire swept over it, and Eron’s dagger continued to plunge into it again and again.

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Even as the miner’s screeches tapered off, and his movements stilled, Cam was ready to act.

While the other Shaman still hadn’t made a move, which concerned Cam a bit, the first was already unleashing another blast of flame on his clone. Quickly closing the distance on nearly silent feet, he chose the obvious threat as his first target- while the unknown could still be dangerous, he knew that the fire could kill him if given a chance, and moved to remove it before that chance came around.

Bringing the greatsword up over his head, Cam brought it down with all the force he could. Ignoring the pained screeches of the kobold- and the clear damage that was being done to his clone- he brought the weapon around again to continue hammering the Shaman, hoping to keep it of balance and avoid getting burned himself...

So, his clone stumbling out of the flames to throw himself bodily at the second shaman managed to surprise him almost as much as it surprised the Shamans- while he knew he was hard headed, and had pushed through plenty of abuse in the past, even he hadn’t been completely sure how he would react to being repeatedly burned like that.

With the second Shaman tied up fighting off his injured clone, Cam focused entirely on bringing down the fire hurler as quickly as he could. Bringing the heavy sword around and into the smaller creature’s side, the force of the blow sent it stumbling, unable to focus on casting its Ability- a common flaw of caster classes, as moving always seemed to disrupt their Abilities... except for some Abilities that could ignore it, or if they picked up a Talent to reduce or negate that problem...

But these kobolds were only level one; It was impossible for them to have a Talent, and extremely unlikely they would have such an advanced Ability.

Batting the Kobold Shaman around the room, he was glad that the creatures were typically weak physically; Not only did it make it easier to knock them around, even with his small frame- relative to the other people of Foundation City, that is-, but it meant they had less health than he did... And, with the higher damage of the greatsword, the monster was dead with only a handful of blows.

Rats and spiders would have taken even less, but they were also smaller and harder to hit, so maybe getting Kobolds for his first Floor wasn’t that bad? Assuming none of them managed to raise the alarm, as he had no illusions about his ability to handle a whole mob of them attacking at once...

Of course, swinging around a heavy weapon like the greatsword wasn’t easy; Even with his greater Strength and Vitality now that he had a Class, repeatedly hacking at an enemy with a weapon like that wore at him. By the time the Shaman dropped, he was almost ready to drop the massive weapon and switch back to his lighter sword... Which, with Eron grappling the other Shaman as it tried to worm its way free, was probably a good idea, he thought.

He didn’t want to accidentally kill his own clone in the middle of a fight, after all; It would just make the fight more complicated... to say nothing of the possible psychological impact of basically killing himself, in a way.

Hurrying over to the scramble, Cam skidded to a halt and dropped his knee on one of the kobold’s arm, receiving a smile of grim appreciation from his clone as that freed his hand to start stabbing. As the Shaman’s first pained shriek rang out, Cam was quick to slam his fist down into it’s throat- while the attack did minimal damage, stopping the loud screaming was all he cared about, Clamping his hands around the monster’s throat, he nearly had to swallow back bile at the raw, visceral feeling of brutally murdering the creature was all to reminiscent of killing Cole...

While he didn’t really regret killing that bastard, the experience was something he had been avoiding thinking about. Thankfully, this time he could at least reassure himself that it was a Tower monster and not a person, which made it easier to swallow...

As the last flicker of life fled the shaman’s eyes, Cam sagged in relief. While Davis had repeatedly warned him of the dangers of climbing alone, the young man hadn’t been prepared for the amount of pressure, or the level of terror, that came from going it alone... But he had already made his decision, and there was no way he would run from it now...

”Ding, bitch.” He muttered softly to his clone as the adrenaline fled and relief flooded his body; He had no idea where the term ’ding’ came from, but it was a common enough reference to leveling among Classers...

And now that he was a level up on the Kobolds, this Floor just got a lot easier- though it did mean they would get less XP for each one they killed.