Tower of Souls

Tension rose with every heartbeat as Cam watched the Kawe patrol walking slowly towards the spot he had marked, just on the other side of the tree where he and his clone his- with their two new friends, a pair of summoned Big Bunnis. This was the sketchiest part of their plan, taking down the first patrol, and he knew it... but that part was unavoidable if they wanted to push through, and he knew it.

The tree they hid behind was roughly midway between two of the treehouses, just far enough away to be hard to see and with decent cover from thanks to a number of trees and foliage; Technically, Cam and Eron were already inside the circle, and could likely bypass the patrols and treehouses to engage the boss, but both had deemed that a little too risky should the Boss be able to summon help from nearby mobs...

So that was where their new strategy came into play.

When the patrol, an archer and spearbear, was out of his sight around the tree, Cam gave the signal to move, and he and his clone charge out around opposite sides of the tree, each with their summoned Big Bunni moving just ahead of them.... which promptly launched their Horn Charge on command, slamming into their targets and sending them tumbling further away from the circle- and, with how small they were, the Kawe were launched further than Eron had been.

Further than the pair had expected, but still workable.

Rushing out on the heels of their summons, the man and his clone chased after the tumbling pair of monsters, and, just as the Kawe were regaining their feet, they were almost instantly sent flying once more by a pair of running drop kicks; While not quite as effective as the Bunnis’ Horn Charge, and doing less damage, it worked to push the patrol further away from any possible reinforcements... Which was a major factor in Cam’s plan...

He almost felt sorry for the little bear looking creatures- and a little dizzy- when the Bunnis hit them a second time with their Horn Charge, not giving the mobs a chance to recover at all.

Big Bunnicorn’s (Summon) Horn Charge struck Kawe Archer for 20 damage.

Big Bunnicorn’s (Summon) Horn Charge struck Kawe Spearbear for 20 damage.

Forty damage, plus the minimal damage from his and his clone’s kicks, was already a good sized chunk of the mob’s health, but that was a secondary benefit as far as Cam was concerned... the best part being that, with the repeated charges and kicks, they had pushed the patrol further and further away from the defended treehouses... And, without backup and out numbered two to one, it was just a matter of time before the pair of monsters fell.

Kawe Archer(Lvl. 2) has been slain. +66 Xp

Kawe Spearbear(Lvl. 2) has been slain. +66 Xp

”That was... a lot easier. And kind of sad.” Eron said once they had received the kill notifications. ”I mean, we could already handle them one on one anyway, but still...”

”Part of it is having a good strategy, and the other is just numbers- well, that, and the two of us are a Level higher than them, with the Big Bunnis being on Level with them...” Cam added, looking thoughtful. ”I mean, if we were climbing with a full group, these patrols wouldn’t be much of a problem; While we wouldn’t have the Level advantage, it would still be a five on two fight.”

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”Yeah, but how many teams would use a strategy like ours?”

”Most of them that survive would have some sort of strategy.” Cam shrugged, not really considering it worth thinking about; If a full group couldn’t survive the early Floors, that was a failing of their education more than anything. It was a sad truth, but not something he could do anything about... yet. If he ever could. ”I mean, some could just brute force it, but that won’t work for them long term...”

”Not that that really matters to us right now. The patrols are the easy part, even if we do still have to worry about them calling more mobs over; The real challenge will be when we tackle the treehouses. More mobs means more chances for things to go wrong, and I doubt we’ll be able to pull them away as easily.”

”Yeah, but look on the bright side!” Eron exclaimed, pointing at the disappearing monster corpses... and the item that dropped. ”We got loot!”

”Well, we found a bow, at least.” Cam sighed, picking up the -currently- useless weapon. ”Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some arrows soon? That would be awesome, actually.”

Fragile Short Bow

Tower Value=2

Damage = 6

”Honestly, it’s a trash drop... still, it’s better than nothing.” Cam sighed, storing the bow in his Inventory. He knew he shouldn’t expect much of items from the lower Floors; Items scaled as you climbed, so, with the exception of truly rare drops, the items were expected to be weak... But, after getting the Burny Burny Gloves from the First Floor Boss, and the Bunnicorn Helmet from the Hidden Boss on the second Floor, Cam knew his perspective was a little skewed; Most groups would be thrilled at even these trash drops right now!

At least until they climbed another few Floors, then these trash drops would be replaced by better trash drops, with the occasional rarer item being hotly debated by them... assuming anyone in the party got a benefit from it; Otherwise, the item would just be taken out and given to their Family- or traded, though, from what Cam had heard, it wasn’t common for Families to trade between each other out of fear of strengthening people that oppose them... Of course, he didn’t know if that rumor was true or not.

”You know that’s another advantage we have, right?” Eron said suddenly with a grin. ”We don’t have any restrictions on weapons or armor, so we can just use whatever is best- or whatever is best for a given situation; Other Classers... well, it’s possible they’ll be struck with using a trash drop from a lower Floor for a multiple Floors, all because they get unlucky and nothing better drops!”

”True, but the odds that no one in their group can use an item is pretty low... Though, I guess that is also a problem; What happens if the drops trend more towards one or two people in a group while the others get nothing? Will that cause resentment and fights?” Cam added thoughtfully. ”I’m guessing that most groups won’t devolve into a conflict over something they can’t control, but some will. And that would be... bad... in the Tower.”

”Plus, if it went on for too long, the group would get imbalanced, with one person being significantly stronger thanks to equipment than the rest.” Eron shot back in their usual banter. ”Though, the odds of things going to such an extreme is probably pretty low; I mean, that would be like rolling dice and them coming up all ones, like, twenty times in a row, right?”

”Something like that, I guess.” Cam shrugged; Knowing they were getting off target and distracting themselves, he decided to refocus on what was ahead of them. ”Not that it matters. We have advantages, they have advantages... But we still need to clear the patrols before tackling the treehouses.”

”Also, the Big Bunnis we summoned only last for a few minutes, so we need to keep moving if we want to get the most use out of them.”

”Yeah, because its not like we could just wait for the mana to regenerate!” Eron snickered, but didn’t argue; Debating and theory crafting about other teams was fun, but it didn’t help with them clearing monsters and Floors...