Book 2 Chapter Fifty-Six: Sleeping (Book Finale)

FIFTY-SIX

Roan’s eyes snapped open as his body roared to life, heart hammering in a furious beat, adrenaline singing through his veins. He didn’t move, not instantly, but kept his enhanced senses outstretched, trying to find what it was that had woken him up in such a heightened state.

Roan had stretched out to sleep on the deck of the ship near the pilot’s shack, the only structure on the deck. On the far side of the ship, four shapes slunk toward him, hunched over and moving quietly. There was nobody else on the ship, no sleeping bodies or mobs resting from the day’s exertions. Everyone had slept down in the sanctuary aside from Roan.

“Left yourself isolated. This isn't the city, you have allies dumbass,” Roan chided himself. Slowly he reached for the polearm next to him. The movement was enough to trigger the ambush, the four figures darted forward in a blur of speed.

“TAOYA!” Roan yelled, rising to his feet and swinging the polearm in a wide sweep to clear the air around him. None of the figures slowed down in their mad rush at him. The axe blade sparked off a sword and the figure was thrown to the ground, unable to stand against Roan’s strength.

The other three shot toward him and Roan had nowhere to retreat to, pinned against the shack. A sword shot toward his face and he ducked down and kicked straight out. His heel hit the attacker’s knee with an audible crack, the assassin falling to the ground without a sound.

None of them had made a single sound.

Roan threw himself to the side to avoid the other two falling swords. Chunks of wood peppered him as he rolled over his leathers and came to his feet, back to the railing. He lifted the polearm into a guard position, waiting on his attackers to figure out what they were going to do.

“They’re slower and weaker than me. Shit equipment and no teamwork whatsoever. It's like fighting the skeletons back on the first level again.” He’d already broken them down, one of them dragging a broken leg while the first he’d hit was awkwardly twisted, as if their shoulder was out of joint.

The other two were moving quickly, but in jerking motion, with none of the natural smoothness of a trained fighter. More sparks leapt from where the lead attackers sword was deflected, Roan instinctually riposting and stabbing the figure through the throat.

Heat warmed his hands, his enchantments working. Life steal and his bloodline enhancement. Roan drew the polearm free and spun out of the way of the next attacker who hit the rail and went over it, falling to the ground and hitting it heavily.

“Roan?” Taoya’s voice echoed across the sanctuary and Roan saw a hint of blue light bouncing in the distance. On the far side of the lake.

“OVER HERE! AMBUSH!” Roan tried to keep it short and sweet, ducking another wild swing and slashing the axe blade across his opponent's midriff. Roan couldn’t properly see in the dark, but he heard blood and organs spilling across the deck. He spun further away just in time to meet the first injured killer.

Their shoulder was definitely out of socket, but they tried to attack with it anyway. The arm swung back and forth in a wide swaying attack that lacked any power behind it. Roan saw the counter he needed to do to end the fight. A single thrust as they passed and he’d kill the attacker and have only the crippled one to fight.

“Something is off here. Why is my bloodline activating?” These weren’t corrupted, he didn’t think so anyways. Those monsters had a stench to them and Roan had seen how violently opposed the sanctuary was to the Dreadhawks. They were living as the lifedrain was working on them.

“Not mobs either, those were all archers and taller than whoever this is. The only people here with us are other climbers. Shit.”

Roan stabbed his attacker through the foot and pinned them to the deck. He held onto the polearm and felt his bloodline slowly activate, being drawn out from his core. As did the life drain which was heating the shaft.

“Roan, what’s going on?” Taoya called out, sprinting toward the ship in a blur.

“Healing potions! I think they’re sick or something!” Roan shouted back. He was certain of it, the two he’d dispatched weren’t dead yet, he hadn’t gotten the notification yet. Taoya slowed down, the light he brought with him highlighting the limp body on the ground.

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“Roan, what the fuck?!” Taoya yelled, but he was already pulling healing potions out and turning the person over, pouring the elixir into Melissa’s mouth. Roan winced, but continued to focus on the person impaled on his polearm. They twisted and jerked, but moment by moment they grew weaker until they folded down and kneeled on the deck.

His bloodline stopped suddenly and left only the life drain continuing. He jerked the spear out and the person groaned, clutching at their head with their one good arm. Their groan quickly turned into a cry of pain and confusion, words pouring out of them.

“What the fuck man? You stabbed me? What the hell?” It was a man’s voice, but Roan didn’t recognize it. Roan felt his stomach drop and summoned one of Amir’s common grade healing potions and hurried over to the person he’d disemboweled, but he was too late.

TOWER CLIMBER

FLOOR 1.03

KAY PORTER

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“Shit,” Roan muttered, returning the potion back to his spatial ring. She wouldn’t be needing it. The last survivor of the fight was still clawing their way toward Roan, their broken leg trailing behind them.

“Hey, Taoya, is Melissa alright?” Roan asked, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Something had gotten into the four of them, something his bloodline was reacting to and cleansing. Stabbing the last one and allowing the enchantment to work would be painful for the person, but it would get the job done.

Roan circled the climber and stabbed them through their already broken leg. He held the climber down while the enchantments came to life.

“She’ll make it, but she’s being weird,” Taoya said, his voice confused.

“Yeah there’s something wrong with them. My bloodline is purifying it, but I didn’t realize they were climbers.”

“How many dead?” Taoya asked wearily.

“Just one.” Roan held down the squirming climber until his bloodline fell silent, pulling the spearhead out of the wound. In moments the climber was crying and holding her leg, asking why Roan had stabbed her.

“You attacked me. Not the other way around,” Roan said, pulling out a weaker poor-grade healing elixir and handing it to her. The woman drank it quickly and continued to cry, sobbing violently and holding herself.

“I remember…I remember it all,” she said, her words nearly indecipherable in the sobbing.

“Remember what?” Roan asked, though he suspected he knew the answer.

“Amir. I remember what he did,” she sobbed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Roan said, patting her shoulder. The woman flinched back from him. Roan backed away and gave her space, turning to look down at Taoya. The man was looking confused and concerned in equal measure, holding Melissa in a tight embrace.

“What is going on?” Taoya asked.

“Amir. I don’t know what it is, but my bloodline purified them and she’s saying she remembers,” Roan said. He threw his leg over the rail and dropped down next to them. Melissa’s blank eyes were locked squarely on Roan and she was thrashing violently in Taoya’s grip.

“You were able to erase Amir’s suggestions? That’s very powerful, Roan.”

“I realize that, but I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do it without the enchantment aiding me,” Roan said, lifting up his polearm and showing the blood on the spear.

Roan pressed the blade against Melissa’s leg and hardly broke the skin. It was enough for the enchantments to start working. It was the work of minutes before Melissa was conscious and crying, begging Taoya to let her go.

“What the fuck is going on,” Taoya said rubbing at his face, leaving the climber on the ground.

“I thought Amir’s suggestions would break with his death. I guess he left some contingencies,” Roan said. All the relaxation he’d felt just hours ago was gone, nothing remaining behind while he looked over the camp the other climbers had set up.

“How many of them have sleeper suggestions like they did? Do you?” Roan asked. Taoya shoved his arm toward Roan without hesitation.

“Get to it. I won’t have any suggestions in my mind,” Taoya said. Roan could relate to the man and gently broke the skin with the tip of his polearm. Roan felt the tug of his bloodline, but nowhere near to the extent he had with the others.

“Done,” Roan said, lowering the halberd. Taoya sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, a shiver rolling through him.

“That was strange. Memories I didn’t realize I was missing came to. Nothing too extreme, but I wasn’t in his care for days at a time. Most of these are suggestions for our tournaments and orders to forget or to obey when I see him again. Nothing…nothing like them,” Taoya said, looking toward the huddled form of Melissa.

“How many people could he have done this to?” Roan asked.

“He’s interacted with almost all of us who went to the tournament and he showed up early to the gates before they opened. He could have laid a suggestion on anyone.” Roan swallowed hard at that. Unless he went around personally and cleansed their mind of any of the bloodline suggestions.

“Well, that’s just great.”