Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

Chapter 122 – Floor 11: Part 6

Rehn hadn’t been immersed in violence much during her time in the Tower of Avarice.

Her first Floor had involved solving a murder for a local government, something she found simple since the minds of everyone involved were wide open to her. From there, each Floor became more complicated, but she had rarely been forced to fight.

She had killed and had almost been killed; no one in the Tower of Avarice could avoid conflict entirely, but those situations always felt like a step in accomplishing her objective. A criminal trying to silence her before they could be identified, a monster guarding a treasure that she had been tasked to find or a battle for her group of Players after they had finally reached the bottom of an unexplored ruins.

But what she saw on the 11th Floor was unlike anything she had experienced before. It wasn’t just a fight against a monster or a battle against evenly matched opponents.

Mathew was slaughtering his foes with ruthless efficiency.

Each movement was carefully calculated to use as little energy as possible while maintaining devastating results. He was a blur of motion; he never stopped moving, and he left nothing but the dead in his wake.

Rehn couldn’t take her eyes off him, not for the display of violence but because of how out of character it was for someone like Mathew to be capable of it. She had only known him for a short time, but the Mathew she knew was kind and calm, quiet and thoughtful.

The man she saw today was a monster.

Mathew gripped the Anti-Life creature by its front legs and threw it violently at another approaching monster. When they collided, Mathew could hear bones break and crunch. Not slowing, he leapt forward and put the incapacitated monsters out of their misery.

“Earthbind!”

Strands of yellow energy rose from the ground in front of Mathew, tendrils of mana that shot out, ensnared three of the nearest Anti-Life creatures and bound them tightly. They struggled and tried to free themselves, but the harder they fought, the tighter they were constrained.

Mathew didn’t hesitate to finish them off using hands altered by magic until they were nothing like a human. Releasing the Blessing, he continued to fight, and the bodies piled up around him until the ground was soaked with blood that reeked of Aether.

He was getting stronger. The more he used the ‘Alter Self’ Blessing, the better he became at controlling it. Mathew could push himself further into the inhuman, making his skin durable by covering it with scales until he could shrug off some of the grasping claws and biting teeth of the Anti-Life.

Mathew’s muscles bulged, and spikes emerged from his elbows as his arms lengthened. His clawed hands were razor sharp and strong enough to cut steel. But, no matter how strong he became, the Anti-Life threatened to overwhelm him with their numbers.

Despite the changes, Mathew wasn’t invincible.

In the few short minutes he had been fighting, he had already been accumulating injuries. Scrapes and bruises could be ignored, but the Anti-Life was vicious and almost feral in their tactics. He had a wound across his chest and back, while one of the creatures had managed to bite him on the shoulder to leave a bloody hollow.

To compensate, Mathew began to shift even further into his monstrous ‘Alter Self.’ But with each additional change, his mana reserves would deplete even as he became nearly unstoppable on the battlefield.

Flinging the dead body of one of the larger Anti-Life monsters, Mathew used the brief respite to pull out another set of potions from his belt and down them. The green Stamina potion gave him a surge of new energy, while the blue mana potion began its steady work to refill his reserves, and the red healing potion stemmed the bleeding before binding his flesh slowly.

The corpse of the Anti-Life monster disappeared in a flash of blue light, and Mathew prepared himself for the next wave to come around the corner. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Earthbind!” Mathew shouted, ensnaring a few more of the monsters before cutting through them with his altered claws. As he stabbed through the third, a much larger-than-average Anti-Life leapt from over the rise and landed on top of Mathew.

Turning, Mathew had a vision of massive yellowish eyes and glistening white teeth before he was buried beneath the monster’s weight.

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Rehn was shocked out of her inaction and fugue of exhaustion by the large Anti-Life monster that crashed onto the ground in front of Mathew. It was triple the size of any of the others around it and, unlike the typical Anti-Life creature, had large, leathery wings protruding from its back. Elongated horns projected from its head, and it had only one large eye at the center of its head.

The winged Anti-Life bit down on Mathew’s body and began to swing him back and forth violently. With each movement, it kicked up dust and debris. Mathew screamed in pain, both from the vicious attack and the sharp obsidian rock that was slicing into his back and legs, piercing his scaled skin.

Before she knew what she was doing, Rehn was racing across the dusty incline toward Mathew. Drawing on her remaining mana, she pushed through her fatigue to summon her Psionic abilities.

“Psychic Lance!”

Rehn placed her fingertips on both sides of her forehead as a blinding white light shone from her brow like starlight. She could feel the mana inside her coalesce in front of her eyes, the last dregs combined with the scant amount she had regained after forming the protective shield earlier.

Calling out the name of the Blessing, the white light lanced forward like a shooting star and burned through the body of the winged Anti-Life. The creature seemed unaware of what happened at first as nothing remained of its shoulder and half its chest but a burning hole nearly a foot in diameter.

It wasn’t until Rehn lowered her hands and collapsed onto her knees that the monster dropped Mathew and turned toward her. She watched as the grievous injury healed in front of her eyes. First, tendrils of flesh began to stretch across the wound, binding and growing.

As it healed, the creature readied itself to pounce on the defenceless Rehn. If she were in peak condition, she knew she could form a shield to protect herself or use another attack to destroy the Anti-Life. But she had used all of her reserves.

“Mathew!” Rehn called out in fear as the monster’s single, hideous eye focused on her. It leapt into the air, a single flap of its leathery wings taking it over the distance between them. She could feel its fetid breath on her skin, smell the rot and Aether spice.

Raising her hands, she shielded her face futilely as the creature fell toward her. There was a tremendous crash, followed by silence. Rehn slowly lowered her hand and opened her eyes.

Mathew stood in front of her, the Anti-Life beast held at bay by his clawed hands. He had changed even further, and Rehn felt a tremor of fear at the sight of the monster her friend had become.

Mathew had grown taller and more muscular, and his skin had darkened to a greyish-blue like a stormy sky. He towered over her, seven feet tall or even higher, and his boots left deep furrows in the rocky ground as he gripped the Anti-Life.

With a roar, Mathew dug his clawed fingers into the creature's chest and pulled. There was a tearing sound, and Mathew’s face showed a hint of strain as he ripped the monster apart in a shower of gore and blood that coated his shredded clothing and skin.

Tossing the two halves aside, Mathew turned to look at Rehn, and she had her first look at his face.

It was demonic, with red eyes and small horns beginning to emerge from his forehead. Mathew had developed fangs that poked out from beneath his lips and twisted into a scowl.

“Get back!” Mathew said, satisfied that she was unhurt. Reh could do nothing but blink at him slowly in response, stunned by what he had become.

“What…what are you!?” Rehn sputtered in reply, barely able to form a rational thought. Her friend was as monstrous as the Anti-Life he fought!

“I’m what I need to be in order to survive.” Mathew muttered as he turned away from her.

In a burst of strength, he leapt toward the remaining Anti-Life, sending a spray of dust and dirt behind him with a defeating bang. Landing amidst the creatures, Mathew tore through them like a wild animal.

Rehn climbed to her feet and stumbled back to her shelter as the roar of combat continued behind her. Making it safely back to the protection of the overhang, Rehn buried her face in her hands in relief and then shame.

She had thought that she was strong, that she was a survivor. She was the Princess of Ama, a person that an entire nation had put their hopes in. She had entered the Tower of Avarice confident that she could face whatever it could throw at her and endure.

But, after seeing the lengths Mathew was willing to go to live and the sacrifices he was willing to make for the power to protect himself and those around him, Rehn knew she couldn’t compare. Not for the last time, she thought about what a person like Mathew had been through in order to survive.

Could she ever do the same?