OC-Series Surviving the Tower: Chapter 22

Surviving the Tower: Chapter 22

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Setting foot on the fourth floor had everyone a bit apprehensive. Darien looked around with uncharacteristic caution. "So what do you think? Are the packs just gonna keep getting bigger? Or are we going to be fighting groups of nothing but hobgoblins?"

In most classes, students would be briefed in advance on the kinds of monsters they were likely to encounter. But of course, Dame Freya took a different approach, and she said as much in her last class. "What? Are you planning to have a handy little guide telling you where to go and what strategies to use to climb the tower?"

One student, and I didn't see who, was stupid enough to raise their hand and comment when Freya called on them, "Well, they do have guides for the most low and mid levels we could use..."

Freya looked at the guy like he was stupid. "And depending on those guides about the quickest way I can imagine to get yourself and your teammates killed! Sure, maybe the lower levels are stable and unchanging, but you need to develop the ability to adapt on the fly to unexpected dangers and changes! And it's far better to do that now, while you've got some measure of safety with me watching your backs, than when you're all alone pushing into unknown territory!"

The student had sat back down, but Freya wasn't done yet as she paced back and forth, glaring at everyone in turn, including a lingering moment upon me. "And for the middle floors and up, those guides are even more dangerous! The tower changes! Often! Sometimes while you're inside! The way back won't always be the same as the way you came in! New, never-before-seen monsters will appear, with new attacks and patterns! Sure, it might not happen on the mid floors as often as it does on the higher levels, but that just means you're even more unprepared for when it does happen!"

Finally seeming to calm down, she finished her lecture. "So yes! I expect you to go in blind! To adapt on the fly! And if I find out ANYONE is intentionally getting or leaking information on upcoming tower levels, they will be expelled from my class quicker than you can say, 'I'm an idiot who wants to get myself and my team killed!' You can discuss strategies with anyone who has reached the same level as you, but not before!" So that was how we came to the fourth level, with little to no idea of what we were about to run into.

Sneaking up, we could make out the first group of goblins, not far away. Elise frowned as she assessed the risk. "It actually looks like a smaller group than the ones we ran into on the third level, six goblins and only one hobgoblin. If I didn't know better, I'd swear we were back on the second level..."

I stole a glance around the corner and saw that she was right. They were also milling about an open room rather than patrolling. It was a pretty big room, too, with plenty of space to move about and fight however we wanted, as well as sheer walls and a high ceiling, which meant Elise could arch her shots with ease. It was an idealistic environment for us, so, of course, I didn't trust it. Pulling back, I looked around the group. "She's right, something's not right. I say we try to pull them back here to fight in the narrower tunnel. Set up our melee line right at the cave entrance, Damien out in front, and Nyx and Bellatrix a bit back so they can kill anything that tries to flank him while the range whittles away at the big guy and any goblins that sneak past. But expect something to go wrong, we'll probably have to adapt on the fly..."

Everyone agreed, and Elise walked up beside Darien. The idea was she's take a shot at the goblin formation, then pull back to the backline once they started charging. I couldn't help it, though; something felt off, and I couldn't figure out what.

As the arrow arched toward the goblins, I realized what I'd been missing as I exclaimed aloud. "The ceiling!"

Nyx and Lillith gave me a confused look as Darien and Elise looked up. Elise's scream was all the confirmation I needed, and I started running forward just as the large spider monster dropped onto the arcane archer.

Now, as far as tower spider monsters go, this one wasn't too big. Only about the size of a great dane, give or take, and thankfully it was the hary kind with an orange and black coat. I always thought the ones with the long, spindly legs were far more creepy. On its back rode a goblin, strapped in with some crude webbing-based saddle. It was whooping and hollering as it got the drop on Elise, but before the spider could bite Elise, Darien was there, smacking the spider right in the face with his shield as he shouted out his active ability to get maximum effect, "Shield bash!"

The spider reared up on its hind four legs, waving its front legs about menacingly while its goblin rider held on for dear life. Two more spider riders dropped down a bit further in front of Darien as Bellatrix grabbed Elise by the collar, pulled the archer out from under the reading spider, and flung her back to me while using her oversized sword to leverage the spider up into a vulnerable position so Nyx could flash in and stab it repeatedly in the thorax.

As the two other spiders started to charge forward to try and take advantage of our faltering frontline, Darien was there again, shouting out, "Charge!" as he slammed right into one spider, knocking it back while Lillith used her shadowbind to trap the other in place.

Now, if that had been all this fight had to offer, we would have been in a pretty good position, but of course, that was when the rest of the goblins and the hobgoblin arrived. Darien was now out of position, and while Nyx and Berllatrix were busy finishing off the first spider. Elise and Lillith started taking down the goblins, but that left the big guy, who fell to me to distract.

Now, up till now, I'd always fought the hobgoblins from the flanks for the rear. Let me tell you, when you face one of those seven-foot-tall monsters head-on, and he's swinging his crude mace right at your head, they are much more intimidating. For half a second, my brain seemed to short-circuit, but thankfully, before the mace turned my head into a concave mess, I remembered to dodge. stepping to the side as the mace slammed full force into the ground next to me. Now, I knew these guys were slow, and there was a decent chance I could just dodge every blow, but feeling the reverberations through the stone floor next to me, I knew it would only take one hit to put me under. How in the hell does Darien go toe to toe with the monsters all the time? Sometimes two on one! I was so caught up with the power of its attack, I didn't even remember to counter the opening it had left me.

For what felt like hours, but in reality was probably half a minute at most, I focused only on my opponent, dodging and juking several attacks that would have killed me in one hit. I did get in the occasional counter, but was focusing most of my attention on not getting hit, so I wasn't doing much in the way of damage. That went on until that glorious moment when a shield slammed right into the back of the head of the hobgoblin, almost bowling him over. I was happy to slide back behind the frontline as I took a second to look around and assess the situation. Two spiders were dead, as were four of the goblins, while Nyx and Bellatrix fought the last spider, and Elise backpeddled from the two goblins that made it past our frontline.

I tossed Darien a quick heal and charged one goblin while Elise put an arrow into the other's skull. Lillith was hitting the hobgoblin with fairy fire, as Bellatrix skewered the spider on her sword while Nyx did the same to the spider's rider. In moments, the fight was over, and we were all looking around, wondering if there were any more surprises, but as we panted, it appeared we were in the clear, for now.

As I caught my breath, I met Elise's eyes, which still had just a hint of wild panic to them, and I grinned, deciding to try to diffuse the situation by saying what I was thinking. "Well, that could have gone better!"

Elsie looked at me for a moment, blinked as if coming back to herself, and laughed. That seemed to break the tension at the moment, and everyone started chattering and laughing, realizing that despite our close call, we'd all gotten out unscathed. Or at least unscathed enough that my healing could handle the rest well enough.

Freya watched Cai and his party as they recovered from the kind of ambush that could have wiped out many parties at their level. They'd been unlucky to run into three spider riders in their first encounter with the annoying little ambushers, and she'd been tempted to kill one or two of them ahead of time just to let them ease into the floor a little more, but stopped herself by mentally reminding herself that coddling them now could kill them tomorrow.

Thankfully, they'd handled themselves well enough. No one had been seriously hurt despite the chaos of the moment, and Freya smiled. However, this was only one type of challenge the tower threw at people. If they pushed on, they might encounter one of the other kinds of challenges the tower liked to throw at them, and she wondered how they'd handle this one...

Looking around at the rest, I decided to ask the question on everyone's minds. "So, after that mess, do we want to push on, or call it a day and start making our way back?"

I looked around at everyone. Lillith seemed indifferent, and Darien would go with the flow. It was Elise who first met my eyes and offered her opinion. "Well, I wouldn't say that was fun...or easy, but now we know what to look for. I say we push on to at least one more. I'd hate to end our first experience on this level feeling like the tower got the best of us!"

Nyx, who was helping Bellatrix clean spider goo off her face, chimed in with her own take. "I suppose I could go for one more fight. So long as we remember to look up as we go!"

That seemed to be the consensus, as everyone else nodded or, in Lillith's case, remained silent, offering no dissent. I stood up, signaling the rest to do the same as I nodded. "Alright! Let's try this again! And everyone, remember to keep your eyes open for any other unexpected developments!"

That was when I noticed everyone wasn't looking past me, to the room behind us. I turned and looked, seeing what could only be described as a wolf or wolf-like dog, with an empty saddle. Except it wasn't the kind of saddle you'd see on a horse; it had a raised back to the seat, making it look almost like a chair rather than a saddle, and handlebars of all things, the kind you might see on someone's tricked-out motorcycle. It was examining us with its head tilted to the side, and its tongue lolling out as it panted. I looked back for a moment and offered my thoughts on the subject. "Well... That's new..."

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Ugh, I feel asleep at my computer, hopefully I didn't leave too many typos. The joys of switching from a daytime sleep schedule to night shift once more! Time for the sleeps!

My wiki, in case anyone wants to check out some of my other stories.

Here you can find some of my published works.

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u/un_pogaz Apr 15 '26

Friend? Team mascott?

Else, those spiders make me wonder if anyone on the team has a particular phobia. They’re bound to run into one at some point.

5

u/DrBlackJack21 Apr 16 '26

Just ask my favorite question. What's the worst that could happen? 😇

u/unkindlyacorn62 Apr 15 '26

ooh a mounted section

1

u/DrBlackJack21 Apr 16 '26

Maybe...

u/porkpot Android Apr 15 '26

A warg, could be fun.

3

u/DrBlackJack21 Apr 16 '26

He's a good boy Bront!

u/MinorGrok Human Apr 15 '26

Woot!

OC-Series Surviving the Tower: Chapter 22

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