Chương 51: Chapter 44 - The trials (part 2)

"Doesn't matter," I said.

"We're going up." Renn recomposed his face.

"Not with our luck. Give it a bit. We'll roll for you a trial you can't pass." Kael and I snorted. We returned to the waiting area. I wondered how obvious it was that I wasn't from the lower floors. Absolutely, but at the same time, I had a cloak that marked me as a native. Our number already shone above another open door. We walked straight in. A short corridor took us to a smaller, sealed room. We walked in. The door closed. The mana density started rising immediately.

I felt it like a shift in air pressure, a weight settling over everything, the ambient energy growing thicker by the second. Ah, an endurance trial. I relaxed. Kael and Ren both sat in a crossed legs sit, as if meditating. The trial composition was pretty nasty, actually. One needed their own mana to resist the pressure of external mana. With the first trial designed to juice people out, the second one tested the mana reserve without giving time for regeneration.

Except that since I did the previous trial myself, Ren and Kael were at full power. Ren seemed to be fine, breathing steadily. Kael handled it worse. He braced against the wall, Venn pressed tight against his neck. His breathing was controlled but fast. He was used to operating in short, explosive bursts, not enduring sustained pressure. This wasn't his kind of fight. Five minutes passed. The pressure released. The sealed door opened. Ren rose smoothly. He hadn't moved the entire time.

Kael peeled himself from the wall and shook feeling back into his hands.

"You didn't react," Ren said, looking at me. I couldn't help myself but to smirk.

"I would normally say sorry, but I wouldn't hear the end of it if I did."

"Ku ku ku…" echoed from around me, Yushi floating to my side.

"As you shouldn't, Damian-sama. A man of your stature needs to act his role." Even her. Did the succubi put her up to it, or was it her own idea? We had another open door marked with our number. They sure didn't waste time between trials. We walked to the next chamber.

"You know," Kael said.

"We probably should have made some combat plans. This is the combat trial."

"You wish," Ran replied.

"Knowing our luck, we are getting a puzzle trial."

"And then a trap trial," Kael added. I snorted. Merriest bunch I've ever met. I had to make absolutely sure they survived this, if only to savor their misery on the next floor. We walked into a large hall. It looked like the first large chamber, but reconfigured. No pedestals, and walls filled with alcoves. Lighting was also notably less blinding. Ren drew his katana. The blade caught the dim light, clean and well-maintained. He stood in a centered stance, weight even, sword in both hands.

Kael pulled his hood up and drew both short blades. He moved to the chamber's edge, pressing against a wall, Venn leaping from his shoulder to a high vantage on a wall fixture. His form softened, blending with shadows. If I hadn't watched him walk there, I might have missed him. I pulled on my power. Astarielle. Ashy. In a burst of crimson flame, Astarielle appeared, dressed to my pleasant surprise. Fitted black dress, dark heels, horns sharpened.

In a flash of pink light, Ashy materialized, already shifted into sword form. Ren snorted.

"We've known each other for half an hour, and you've already got a replacement for us." Both Kael and I also snorted.

"Ooh," Ashy shouted, floating around Ren and Kael to check them out.

"These are sharp and edgy. I like them!" Kael glanced at me.

"Your floating sword needs glasses." Even Yushi giggled from nowhere. An alarm bell rang through the chamber in three quick rings. The alcoves opened. Wave one. Fourteen constructs poured out, quadrupedal, legs tipped with spikes and blades, no heads, fast, built from the same dark metal as the walls. They split into groups, flanking from three directions. Before I even counted them, Astarielle released four crimson bolts. They landed on one group, exploding.

Only two constructs were shattered, the other damaged, the spell noticeably weaker without the spell power engraving. I stepped toward the largest group of six. Over my shoulder, I shouted at Ren and Kael, "I function as a tank." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Ashy dove at the third group. She caught the first one in a single sweeping cut, hitting another one. Ren joined her. Fast and precise, he sliced a construct in half with a single, perfect horizontal slash.

Ashy covered his side, naturally making up for whatever blind spot he had made. Kael produced a cloud of smoke that sparked with static. The group that Astarielle hit first ran into it. The machines stumbled, crashing into each other. Astarielle started forming another set of crimson bolts, this time taking time to put power into them. That left me with my group. The machines swarmed at me, swinging at me with blade-tipped legs. My shields shimmered, absorbing everything.

With both my combat summons busy, I had to wait. Ashy and Ren dispatched their group, each killing one more before rushing toward me. Astarielle got two more constructs, and Kael slipped in to stab the last one of the group from the top. The machine collapsed. With a sigh, I waited. They finally got to me, incoming with a heavy swing of Ashy, slashes and stabs of Ren and Kael, and good old chain lighting of Astarielle. The machines all collapsed. Ren glanced at me, frowning.

"Why don't you have a tank type?"

"Or your own attacks?" Kael asked.

"And what about the ghost?" Ren added.

"She didn't seem to do anything." A giggle echoed through the air. Two rings of an alarm echoed through the air. The alcoves opened wider. Three heavy constructs, humanoid, armored, each twice Ren's height. Behind them, six fast ones, and something new, two constructs that floated, crackling with stored energy. Different fight. The ranged constructs fired first. Twin beams of white energy lanced across the arena, one at me, one at Astarielle. My shields absorbed mine without a ripple.

Astarielle got blown up to shreds. Ah, I forgot to put her on chain resummoning. Astarielle! The second she appeared, I put both on her and Ashy, the automatic resummoning. Ashy flew over them, turned into tungsten, and dropped straight with the tip. She pierced one, slamming it into the ground. Out of a puff of smoke, Kael landed on the other floating platform, stabbing his short swords into it. The three heavies charged. The ground shook under their weight. I stepped toward them, spreading my arms.

Ren moved forward, katana flashing. He met the first heavy's massive arm swing with a deflecting cut, redirecting the force rather than absorbing it, sliding past the blow and striking the construct's wrist joint. Sparks flew. The joint cracked. Hmph. He was actually good. The fastest heavy targeted me. I stepped in, raising my arms. Its hands drew into the arms to reveal energy grids, and two intense beams of heat hit me. My shields lit up. A tiny bit of heat still slipped through.

Astarielle fired a set of crimson fireballs at the ones in the back. Explosions thundered through the room. Half of the small ones disintegrated. The explosion caught the platform Kael stabbed. It fell, crashing into the ground. Two small ones pounced on Kael, he jumped away. A cold whisper passed my ear.

"Ashy is stuck. You should blow her up." I couldn't see anything under the head beams. But it sounded probable. Detonate. The explosion thundered through the room. The third heavy arrived at my side, also turning the heat laser beams at me. With a fresh set of slashes, Ren cut off the legs of his heavy. Ashy resummoned, just in time to stab the nape of it.

"Ha! Got it!" Astarielle charged a set of eight crimson fireballs. Ren and Ashy attacked my first heavy while the two light ones rushed after Kael. The floor in front of Kael got covered by ice. The machines slipped, delivering themselves to be stabbed in the core by Kael. A giggle passed through the air where the floor froze. Astarielle hit the heavy next to me. All six fireballs exploded in a sequence, tearing through the machine. Ren and Ashy got the other one.

He slashed the joints, she hit the head twice, turned to tungsten, and stabbed it straight from above. The machines all collapsed. I stretched my neck, joints popping. Ran slashed metal fragments off his blade.

"Your fighting style has great variety." Kael joined my other side.

"You should open a dojo." I sighed, just as all my summons laughed. The alarm rang once. The remaining alcoves opened. One construct emerged from the largest one. It was the size of a small building. Bipedal, armored head to foot in interlocking plates that pulsed with stored energy. Its arms ended in blade-like protrusions, and its core glowed through layered gaps in its chest, visible but deeply recessed, protected.

Smaller constructs clung to its frame, parasitic, six of them, each the size of the fast ones from wave one, ready to detach and swarm. Behind it, the remaining alcoves spat out two more ranged constructs, these ones bigger than the pair from wave two. They took elevated positions at the arena's edges, already charging. Ren looked at the thing, then at me.

"We haven't made it here yet. Best we got was surrendering at the start of wave two." I nodded.

"Boss first." With a wave of my hand, I summoned two hundred tentacle worms. A hundred for each of the ranged platforms. The platform weapons spun, sensors confused by worms crawling all over them. They fired massive laser beams, hitting the walls. The back of the boss construct opened up. A barrage of rockets flew out. They started slow, but quickly sped up. Ashy flew into them. I detonated her. Three rockets exploded. Astarielle fired a chain lightning at them. The energy surge blew up a few.

Rockets descended at me, Astarielle, Ren, and Kael. Astarielle got blown up. Kael jumped aside, thrown at the wall anyway. He shouted with pain. Ren slipped backward. The explosions hit him from the front. It pushed him into a wall. Detonate. With Ashy and Astarielle just respawning, all that I had left to mass detonate were the worms. They blew up, sending the platforms tumbling to the ground. The boss's construct bent forward. Its chest opened, revealing a massive energy cannon. Energy gathered into it.

He turned after Ren. I stepped into the way. The cannon fired. The massive beam hit me head-on. My shields instantly got into full glow. The energy pushed me back. Some spilled through, pain searing into my skin. The beam finally stopped, the boss's chest closing.

"All in on chest!" I shouted.

"Astarielle, Kael, Ashy, Ren." Astarielle got it instantly, raising her hands, crimson motes forming around her fingers, third eye popping on her forehead. The boss's chest plates closed, hiding the cannon. I summoned a hundred tentacle worms and instantly exploded them. Astarielle followed up with a sequence of crimson fireballs, the explosions detonating sequentially on the same spot. Ren raised his sword with both hands and slashed.

The blade released a shockwave that slammed into the boss straight across the center. Ashy flew in and stabbed into the blown-up plate.

"I'm in!" Detonate. She blew up, shattering the robot's center. In a blur, Kael passed through the hole and landed by the wall behind it. In his hand, he held a foot-tall power rod. The boss depowered.

"Trial complete," a mechanical voice announced.

"Congratulations. You may now proceed to floor 28. May the Goddess watch over you." I exhaled, mass unsummoning my demons. That cancelled the auto resummons as well. Ren and Kael each raised an arm, pointing upward with a finger. Venn leapt off the wall, landed on Kael's shoulder, and did an imitation of the move. That looked like it meant something. And I was supposed to know what. After an awkward second for me, we headed out through the door. I did my best to act naturally.

"So," Ren said as we entered the hallway.

"Do you have alcohol where you come from?" Ehm, so apparently even the cloak couldn't make up for me not knowing that gesture.

"Yes."

"We will drink a lot of it tonight," Kael added.

"A lot," Ren concurred. We returned to the main lobby. Our team number now shone above a different door. We walked to it, and it opened, revealing an elevator. Ren and Kael exchanged a high five, their eyes watering. We walked in. The elevator shot up. After a short moment, it stopped. A mechanical voice announced, "Welcome to floor 28." Hmph, so the standard trials didn't give any loot. That had interesting implications. We walked out into a lobby.

By the windows to my right, we were above the city, at the first platform of the space elevator. This floor was the inside of the elevator, apparently. Only one hallway led from the elevator. We walked into it. By a window inside the hallway, looking outside, stood Cassandra.