Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

Chapter 105 – Floor 9: Part 26

Joseph was in trouble. As the strongest of the Players amongst his allies, it had been his job to fight Mercy. He had thought that maybe someone else would pair with him to even the odds since Mercy was the strongest of all of them, but things hadn’t worked out the way he hoped.

First, Mathew went wild and charged straight at the Lords and Ladies of Lightmore, than, to make matters worse, got himself stabbed. Now, Mathew and Aster were lost in the inferno, and he was left with an enraged Fiend Tainted Mercy, who was out for blood.

Joseph disappeared from sight, his illusionist abilities rendering him invisible to the naked eye, just as Mercy was about to gouge a large piece of his stomach with her claw-like hands. He could only thank the gods that she didn’t have a way to pierce his Invisibility Blessing, or he would have died long ago.

Still, it wasn’t perfect. He left traces on the ground, and his scent lingered in the air, allowing Mercy to track him. At best, it gave him a brief respite and the chance to relocate and strike at her again.

But that strategy wouldn’t last forever. Mercy was getting better at finding him, and it didn’t help that as she grew more frustrated at her inability to kill him, her transformation to a more monstrous form continued.

The young woman, who had been pretty and petite with pale skin and bright red lips, was now a twisted monstrosity that reminded Joseph of the blade-armed Fiends of the Seventh Floor. Her skin was grey, and black horns jutted out of her forehead. Her crimson eyes were filled with hate and fury, unlike anything he had seen before.

Worse, her delicate hands were now freakishly long and sharp, each tipped with a black nail as long as a knife and sharp enough to cut through steel.

Joseph rolled out of the way of Mercy’s attack just in time. Invisible, he reached into his top hat in the hope that he had something stuffed in there that could help. The creature he had summoned, the Fire Elemental, had been killed long before.

Grasping around in the magical hat, where he held his summons, he grasped something squirmed in his hand and threw it out without looking. He felt an intense pull on his mana, a sign that whatever it was he had was powerful enough to need a large portion of his mana.

Joseph didn’t even stop to look at whatever it was he summoned. He was already running away in an attempt to relocate to somewhere to hide for a moment and catch his breath.

He was exhausted; his fight with the Lady of Lightmore had cost him a lot of his stamina, and he hadn’t regained it before Mercy and the others arrived. Joseph was using whatever little reserves of mana he had left, but soon, they, too, would be gone.

A few potions in his inventory could help, but he needs time for them to work! He just prayed that whatever he summoned would be able to slow Mercy down for a few minutes.

Hiding behind a pile of rubble, Joseph let the invisibility Blessing fade and pulled out a bright blue bottle from his inventory. Downing the Mana Potion, he pulled out a green one as well that would recover some of his stamina and stifle his exhaustion and drank it.

Joseph had barely finished the potions when he heard a roar behind him, and there was another pull at his mana reserves. Risking a peek around the corner, he was delighted by what he saw.

It was a Black Ooze, a somewhat common enough monster on the Eighth floor. He had trapped a few of them in his hat when he was exploring a cavern in search of treasure. They were slow-moving and easily evaded, or trapped, for that matter.

But, what they lacked in mobility and offence, they more than made up for it in defence. The Black Ooze couldn’t be harmed, at least not by anything that Joseph had found. It was possible that magic would work, but he hadn’t tested it much.

That didn’t matter to him because Mercy was an all-out physical horror that would stop at nothing to rip and tear her way through anything that tried to stop her or get in her way. In her rage, Joseph had noticed that she wouldn’t do anything to protect herself, mostly because she didn’t need to.

Nothing Joseph had done had even scratched her Fiendish skin, enhanced as it was by her transformation. But her claws couldn’t harm the Black Ooze, no matter how much she tried. And she was certainly giving it her all.

Joseph was delighted to see the Ooze wrapped around her legs, its torso fully embedded into her body, with tendrils reaching up to her arms and hands. The Black Ooze was acidic, although Joseph doubted that it would do a thing to Mercy.

“Oh, thank Christ.” Joseph whispered in relief, sagging against the pile of debris as he heard Mercy scream in rage. Chuckling, Joseph was about to reach into his inventory for another Potion when the ground started to shake.

Alarmed, he turned to look at Mercy and was horrified by what he saw.

The screaming Fiend-Tainted Mercy was howling in fury as her skin darkened further. Her black hair turned white, and her eyes shone crimson light.

The dark horns protruding from her forehead, which had only been a few inches long, grew rapidly until they twisted and formed a crown around her head. A malevolent aura, one that Joseph was familiar with from the Seventh Floor, formed around her like fire.

Joseph knew the moment the Ooze died. The connection between them was instantly severed, and the Black Ooze evaporated from the sheer power of Mana that Mercy was exuding. The ‘Buzz’ that had been a constant ache in the back of Joseph’s neck since Mercy and the others arrived exploded into agony.

“Oh no.” Joseph whispered, looking around at the other groups for help. There was no way he could face this Fiend alone. Mercy’s transformation was propelling her to a level that Joseph doubted their entire group could face and survive.

But everyone was busy with their own problems. Joseph could see that Alivia was in a terrible situation, held in the tight grip of Lucas. Marvin and Aleks were fighting Corinna and Carlie, the sisters working so well together that both of the men showed severe injuries.

As for Kristin, the Prophet wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Which didn’t surprise Joseph at all. If he could have seen the future and predicted this mess, he would have high-tailed it out of here as well.

“Ahh, screw it.” Joseph muttered. Popping the corks off a half dozen potions, he downed them all before standing and leaving his hiding place. Mercy’s crimson eyes locked onto him immediately, crouching low, ready to spring forward.

Placing the hat on his head, Joseph gave a sweeping bow.

“Always end the show with a bang.” He whispered, smiling broadly.

He only had time for one more spell, so he had better make it a good one. Twirling his cane, he watched as Mercy’s feet left the ground. She covered the space between them quickly, propelled forward by superhuman strength that Joseph couldn’t hope to compete with.

Taking in a deep breath, he let it out as he whispered the name of his Blessing.

“Lost in a Dream.”

This was the last Blessing he had purchased, one that he had upgraded the most but had never had a chance to practice. It confused an opponent, tricking their mind into thinking they were somewhere else. Like they were 'lost in a dream.’

Joseph doubted it would work; Mercy was too powerful and too filled with rage to be tricked by and illusion. In fact, she hadn’t fallen for any of his illusions or tricks so far. It was a pity; Lost in a Dream was a good Blessing. It was just that he was mismatched against the Fiend-Tainted Mercy.

He watched as her eyes lost a hint of their focus; they dulled for a moment, and the crimson light of her rage and Fiend-corrupted mana faded just a tad. But, just as Joseph predicted, Mercy shook it off in a moment. She didn’t even stumble or lose any of her momentum.

He let out a sigh as her clawed hand pierced his stomach. Not slowing from the resistance of his magical item or Aether-enhanced flesh, her bloody hand emerged out of his back.

“There’ll be no encores.” Joseph muttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood as the pain hit him suddenly.

Rather than withdrawing her arm or following up on her attack, Mercy froze abruptly as a foreign entity touched her on the back without warning. Turning her crimson eyes at the source, she found herself looking into the sightless orbs of the Prophet, Kristen.

“Blessing of the Divine, Banishment.” Kristen whispered, and her power flared around her like a white hallow. The Fiendish Mercy, so filled with wrath that nothing could penetrate the haze of red, blinked in surprise as she felt the flood of power surround her.

With a loud pop, Mercy disappeared, and Joseph could have laughed at the surprised look on Mercy’s face if he hadn’t been on the verge of death.

Catching him, Kristen lowered him gently to the ground. Pulling out multiple bright red bottles from her inventory, she poured them onto his wounds.

“I don’t understand. I thought you ran away.” Joseph asked quietly as a numbness spread out. The potions were working, although slowly. First, the flow of blood slowed as the pain left him.

“I can commune with the gods, and they give me…advice about the future. It's rather easy for me to be in the right place at the right time.” Kristen explained.

“You got rid of her.” Joseph stated gratefully, and Kristen shrugged.

“Only for a few minutes, enough time for the others to help us. I can’t fight; this is all I can do to help.” Kristen said regretfully.