***POV Kettle***

Kettle sat very still in her chair back in her office.

She had allowed herself the small pleasure of seeing Predator in person, scanning every inch of him that she could, cataloging every measurable she could guess about him. Based on all of the data that Kettle had gathered, he really shouldn’t have come this far.

Tapping her fingers on the table, she brought up a display of the 2nd to last path boss event, the bow using woman. Although her calculations had it as unlikely, there was still a reasonable possibility of Predator finding his way out of this one, albeit somewhere around 5% of a chance.

Now, Kettle was extremely confident with her assessments of Predator. She allowed herself a small smile, bringing up the price Predator had paid for the challenge flag: his full stats. Everything that the system of The Great Tower considered important was here.

The results were more disgustingly high than expected, but not outside of the upper range of predicted possibilities. More interesting were the strange stats and attributes that Predator had somehow obtained. That made her hesitate slightly, but a little research indicated they weren’t completely outside of the norm. They were just unusual… for a biological being.

After closing out of Predator’s stats and encrypting them, she leaned back in her seat and buzzed her mother and sister into the room. They rather meekly walked in and sat next to her, both turning their attention to the large screen along the wall of Kettle’s office. It was almost time for the show to begin. Kettle wondered idly what Predator had planned for the challenge.

***POV Predator***

I scratched my cheek. “What do you want me to say? Jen doesn’t know anything about the bow woman, so how could we make up a plan?”

Whipman, Jerry, Turnip, and the Murloc chieftain Haeugh were giving me strange looks. Ashni stood off to the side, aloof and with her arms folded.

While I had been away, Turnip was likely the one who grew the most. Although it wasn’t demonstrated in level, his skeletal wings had grown to almost double their original size, still completely unable to support flight. He had a strange habit of making them twitch in time with his words.

Jerry, too, seemed to have gotten stronger, able to utilize his ability to disintegrate matter with his hands for longer, and against objects slightly farther away. Inwardly, I was glad that I had fought him before he had the chance to develop to this point.

“So…” Whipman spoke hesitantly, finally voicing what they were all thinking. “How are we preparing?”

I barely resisted a yawn. “The connection will be made along the north side, just like the challenge against the bird was, right? Although there aren't as many after the goblin army walked through them, there are still Heart Murmur Shrooms to the western portion. The east is mainly wetland, so the Murlocs can set up there and harry anything that comes that direction. That basically leaves the bulk of the undead forces to hold the middle.”

“But we have three loss conditions, if we challenge another path in the middle of their challenge. Either you are defeated, or the challengers reach either portal upwards.” Jerry pointed out. “How can we fight off the other path and protect the castle, while making sure we don’t weaken their defenses enough for challengers to pounce? Do we really need to issue this challenge?”

Waving my hand, I unfurled the flag and stabbed it into the ground. “I’m sure it will be fine. Jen said it will all work out, so don’t think too much about it.”

***POV Shuusuke***

Shuusuke looked up, annoyed. He had been recording a pretty juicy fight in the 24th floor that he discovered almost on accident. Still, when he saw that it was a notification from the 5th floor, he resignedly switched away to investigate.

After all, with how much money he used from his parent’s credit chip if something went wrong…

What he saw caused the blood to drain from his face. The path boss that he bet on… was challenging another path boss? It was starting immediately, too.

His feathers distinctly ruffled, Shuusuke began breathing heavily.

“My parents are going to kill me…” He whispered to himself. But thenhe flipped onto this recording software, marshalling his camera. At the very least, he might be able to get some high quality recorded material from this situation.

***POV Whipman***

Whipman watched as the forces were arrayed in the manner that Predator had sketched out lightly, the details filled in by Jerry and Ashni, who possessed quite the minds for tactics. Their forces only consisted of 180 odd people, so there weren’t so many to manage. Most of the forces consisted of Skeleton Archers, so most of the forces were stationed around the fort.

The murlocs, seemingly joyful at the prospect of battle, raced off to scout the wetlands. Whipman wondered why they seemed so happy, but he overheard Turnip mention that Murlocs experienced vastly increased fertility when they bred in water mixed with freshly spilled blood. Whipman tried not to think too closely about the entire process.

Yellow Bones would be the main force along the road, supported by 15 Skeleton Bears, 10 of which were freshly summoned. Meanwhile, a strange grey creature the size of a tiger with a pulsing yellow glow, who was referred to as Tickles, and the skeleton bear with the 8 vineling legs would roam among the surrounding forest, strong enough in their own right to harry the opponents and escape, raising the alarm if they tried to sneak around.

Whipman watched Predator yawn.

‘I have raised a lazy pupil,’ Whipman thought sorrowfully, shaking his head. Then he straightened and continued to scan around, and was surprised to find Ashni considering him from across the battlements.

She immediately looked away, her eyes shifting to the trees ahead of them, but Whipman felt a small flash of emotion in his heart.

They hadn’t spoken at all since his hasty proposal. Maybe this…

...was a good sign…?

His heart sank as he looked at the flair of her shoulders, the capable forearms that head her spear in a position that seemed relaxed, but that Whipman knew meant she was ready to strike whenever.

...probably not, huh....

A booming voice brought Whipman outside of his revery. “Welcome, challengers and watchers, to the 5th floor of The Great Tower! Tonight we were expecting to have two pulse-pounding story lines as we watched as two groups of challengers struggled to make it through a path, but…”

After a dramatic pause, the voice continued. “One of the scheduled path bosses has issued a challenge to the other, so we will be doing both at once! The rules are simple: Challengers win if they make it to either portal at the heart of either path. If a path boss is defeated, that portal disappears and they are forced to go to the other path to win… Challengers will spawn as they would have without the challenge in both paths, so Path Bosses beware! Without further adieu, let this double header event…”

Whipman glanced at Predator. It was strange, how he could remain so still, and yet seem so tightly wound, every muscle in his body focused on the purpose in front of him.

But more disturbing was that wide, twisted smile that always covered his face when fights began to break out. It was wide and hungry, without any remorse or mercy.

“...Begin!”

At the voices words, the indeterminate, misty area outside of the path abruptly cleared to the east, revealing a sprawling, densely packed jungle. A huge tree towered over the others in the center, at least 4x as high, its foliage spreading out in every direction.

“Shit,” Ashni muttered, rubbing her chin. “Wasn’t supposed to come from that direction. Can the murlocs hold up under a direct assault?”

Jerry looked from Ashni, to Predator, and then back, and then finally said. “...likely not. But they will be extremely effective at slowing them down.”

“Then we need to send some archers over,” Ashni said bluntly, folding her arms and looking at Predator. “If we can get a few volleys off while the opponents are crossing the wetlands, so much the better. Fewer enemies to fight in a brawl. But we need to move fast-”

“That’s fine,” Predator interrupted, speaking for the first time. He cracked his neck. “But I doubt that we have to worry about an attack from the other path boss. What would be the point? Splitting up the forces will just give more chances for the challengers to make it through. Keep forces here, have our wanderers scour around for challengers.”

Whipman watched as Predator’s fingers slowly tightened into fists. “I’m going hunting.”

Shivering, Whipman turned and peeked at Ashni. She was rubbing her temples and glaring at Predator’s back as he stretched. Sighing, Whipman turned back to the skeletons, who leaned on their bows and chatted with each other, barely acknowledging the incoming storm.

Whipman thought this was going to be a long night.

***POV Predator***

I hopped down off the ramparts, landing right past the moat. Although enough time hadn’t passed for all of my mana to regenerate since summoning the bear skeletons, 70% had returned. That should be enough for a quick path boss hunting.

-You are too excited for your own good.

-Which means you are too. Let’s just live a little.

First at a trot, then a jog, until I finally settled into a full out sprint, rushing headlong down the road that lead outward, and then cutting out across the wetlands. I weaved effortlessly between the skeletons milling about, delighting in my ability to cut and turn.

-Probably the balance stat. Some sort of combination of preternatural intuition about momentum, instincts, and insane core strength.

-If it’s this useful, we should level up as this again.

When I arrived at the wetlands, I started leaping, creating huge splashes as I raced across the area. It almost reminded me of my first week of memory. My first week of life in the wetlands, struggling against the frogs. If I could go back there now.

I was chuckling as I hit the jungle line. I made no efforts to slow down, trusting in my reactions and newfound balance to carry me through. Some low hanging vines snagged on me, but I ripped right through them, traveling deeper. I heard some hasty rustling around me, but ignored it.

If they wanted to stop me, I would make them do it by force.

The world became a blur of foliage, strange brightly color flowers, and densely packed trees. Grimacing, I began hopping more diagonally in my strides than forward, cutting among the trees.

Then I had an idea, and began throwing myself wildly forward with more abandon, creating small platforms in the air to touch against and stabilize myself, allowing me to cut more closely through the trees. My speed doubled within a few minutes of trying this. And the mana expenditure was still less than my regen rate, so I wouldn’t be beggaring myself for the fight that was to come.

After a time, I realized that the rustling around me was intensifying, but as I began using air platforms, it abruptly fell away, left in the dust by my mad advance. I grinned; sorry, but your outer layer has been penetrated.

Without any warning, I burst from the jungle proper and arrived in an open area, that sat under the huge central tree. Most trees couldn’t get enough sunlight here to live, so there was only waist high brush. From this distance, the trunk looked huge, probably 50 m in diameter. A wooden wall of stacked logs was built around the base, with a close gate that was likely barred on the inside.

With a single smirk and a burst of leg strength, I leapt over the wall landing in the small courtyard in front of the tree. I quickly gazed side to side, settling into a battle crouch.

Nothing.

I straightened slowly, my extremely enhanced senses straining to detect anything amiss.

Nothing.

With narrowed eyes, I began to walk forward, preparing for the inevitable ambush.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Fury +1

Nothing.

Fury +1Fury +1

I proceeded deeper into the tree, finally reaching a large door carved of fragrant redwood. I smashed it to kindling to assuage my rising temper. What was inside the room made me blink, then frown.

It was very clearly the main hall of this building. Sitting at the center was the floating blue portal, the gateway for challengers to grasp victory. My senses once more stretched as far as they could go as I was wondering what they were playing at.

“Ha, you were right.” A voice behind me made me twist, and I stood still for a moment, staring intently behind me. Then I silently stepped off to the side.

“Like I said,” A female voice answered the first. “Shemara is notorious for going ballistic whenever someone even mentions path boss challenges. Totally thinks it’s a waste of time. She always bragged that if someone did it to her, she would just wildly attack and let the challengers go.”

“Haha, she would rather make sure they both lose, than try to win?” The voices were closer now, approaching the door.

“Yep. And this… yes, this is it. Easy promotion, we got lucky. Looks like someone else got here before us though, the door’s already broken.” Two bulky figures stepped forward, casually walking towards the portal.

I detached myself from the shadow of the doors and crept behind them. Simultaneously, both of my hands flashed forward, gripping and then ripping out their spines.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Sneak Attack Lvl 2”. Chance of success increased. Damage bonus slightly increased. Slight boost in stealthiness leading up to the sneak attack.

The two figures dropped to the floor, dead instantly. Thinking I deserved a treat, I stopped and took a few minutes to rip the flesh off of their bodies and devour it. They were a strange, blubbery race, but the taste was excellent. After licking my fingers, I turned to leave. I would find this Shemara, no matter what it took.

-Based on their conversation, she might be launching an attack on our path even now. But…

-What is it?

-The challenge ends if either of us are defeated, or any challengers proceed through the portal. And if we leave, and no one is here to guard it…

Fury +1Fury +1Fury +1

-...then what do you suggest…?

-You already know the answer, you just don't like it. Based on what Jen said, there were scheduled to be 3 challengers on our path today, and 6 on Shemara’s path. So stick to the area, and wait until you kill at least 6 people, then hurry back and hope for the best.

I closed my eyes and took several breaths. Then I punched the wall, shattering the immediate area to pieces and sending several long, jagged cracks out in all directions.

Fury +1

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“Fine,” I hissed to the air. “Let’s take our time. There’s no rush.”

Fury +1

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***POV Whipman***

Whipman watched, almost bemused, as Predator dashed off, hopped most of the way across the wetlands, and then smashed his way directly into the jungle area. He truly had too much energy, and not enough sense. And it seemed like it was getting worse too.

Although to be fair, Whipman hadn’t known Predator that long, but still-

Almost as one, everyone although the wall inhaled sharply. Streaming out of the jungle, quite near the place where Predator had charged in, were what seemed like several columns of purple haired monkeys.

Their hoots carried even the distance to the castle across the wetlands, and they plunged forward. After a few seconds of their exodus, they mostly tapered off, and then came a huge black ape, and upon its back was the path boss, her arms folded.

“Cheh, that idiot. He couldn’t have delayed 2 minutes…” Ashni grumbled, and Whipman couldn’t help but agree. Predator was their trump card. Although he didn’t ever seem more effective than any of them in a 1 on 1 fight, it couldn’t be denied that his plethora of skills lended themselves to larger scale battles.

“Alright fine. Call all of the archers back within the walls. The normal skeleton bears too. Oh, and Yellow Bones, have him crouch in the courtyard. Until we understand what’s going on, we need a reserve.” Ashni began listing of things, and Jerry began nodding furiously, pointing and shouting to accomplish her orders.

Turnip leaned on his bow, tilting his head to the side so his strange wispy hairs fell across his face. “Is this really necessary? They are just a bunch of hot bloods. They all die after enough arrows.”

Ashni spared him a glance, but didn’t answer. Her eyes followed the line of purple monkeys, muttering to herself. Yellow Bones lumbered past, straddling the 10 m wall, careful to not crush anything. He sat down with a huge rumble.

There was only about 200 of the monkeys, but they quickly cut the shortest path across the wetlands, getting onto solid ground before the murlocs could even mount an attack. Then the monkeys began hooting and circling up in the lightly forest area, partially obscured by the trees.

“What are they doing?” Whipman asked, squinting towards the flickering monkey forms. As the group watched, some trees in the area trembled and toppled over.

“...I think they are building a platform.” Jerry said.

***POV Predator***

Fury +1

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Only through a supreme effort of will did I resist the urge to tap my fingers on the floor. The area around me was wet with blood of the challengers that had wandered in here already. Unfortunately, the area was permeated with the smell of death. But my intuition tingled just slightly. Someone was around here.

-Flush them out somehow?

-Nothing has the big of an area of effect. The only way would be to expend the essence… better to save that for Shemara

-You are surprisingly calm about the whole situation.

Fury +1

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“Am I…?” My mouth was twisting, almost against my will. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, the flow rushing through my body, superheating everything. This waiting… was undesirable.

Fury +1

With my cheshire smile, I closed my eyes. My palm pressed against the cool wooden floor.

Almost instantly, I heard a soft tap and sensed that someone had rushed forward through a side door to the room, making a beeline for the portal. My eyes slowly opened, one glowing yellow in the half light of the room, the other a pale blue.

With a single thought, dozens of 10 mana wind blades were summoned into existence. They crisscrossed and blocked the runners path. Then I made another layer. And then another, pressingly them tightly together until it was as if I had stretched razor sharp mesh wire across the path of this runner.

The runner hit it and passed through, now more liquid gore than person. They hit the floor with a wet splash.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Wind Blade Lvl 8”. Sharpness of the blade increased. Control over the size of the blade has increased. When thrown, wind blades will now move slightly faster.Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Air Affinity Lvl 4”. Amount of mana used slightly decreased. You may now control air significantly farther away.

-Oh? It looks like that trick also used Air Affinity. A good haul.

Fury +1

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-And yet we remain here, that was only 5.

-Only one more.

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Congratulations! You have reached 100 Fury. All stats +1 until the Fury degrades.

-After all this time it was only +1 stat? What the fuck?!?! I-

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-....oh….?

-......Well now that we are thinking about it, we aren’t going to get any….

-Do you think it does this every 100? The accumulation gets faster?

I cracked my knuckles, standing up. Probably deserve to treat myself to a little hunt. This last little shit was going to die painfully.

Fury +2

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***POV Whipman***

For about 10 minutes, the associated forces under Predator considered the strange platform that the monkeys were constructing. The Murlocs fell back from the wetlands to the moat, muttering how this was no fun.

Haeugh joined the other various leaders up on the wall. Whipman couldn’t help but get nervous the more of them were up here, watching the scaffolding come up.

‘If push comes to shove…’ He wondered. ‘Which of us is in charge…?’

Most of the skeletons seemed to be loyal to Jerry, but Haeugh also had his pride as a chieftain. He had obeyed orders so far, but what if that was just some lingering affection?

Ashni stood, her perfect calves twitching as she watched the construction with increasing annoyance. She clearly would prefer an attack to this strange waiting. She had thrust herself into the position of commander in chief during the preparations, but what if she gave an order the others didn’t like?

A small smile stretched across Whipman’s face. ‘I have been here for a while… and the others all respect me… maybe I should step forward and take charge-’

Turnip smashed Whipman’s head with his huge bow, sending him staggering.

“Stop that,” Turnip drawled, returning to his bow leaning. “The smile on your face really creeps me out."

Whipman glared at Turnip, but he didn’t say anything else, because another voice boomed out over the path.

“Challengers! I am Shemara.”The woman with the bright copper hair stood on the platform made of lashed together trees, her voice carrying quite far across the path. Whipman was honestly impressed how steady the platform looked after only 15 minutes of work. Those monkeys must be well trained.

“And that!” Shemara pointed towards the fort where the skeletons were massed. “Is the location of the portal that will end this pointless farce. If you don’t know me, challengers, know that this path boss challenging me is an affront on my honor. I care not whether you pass through, as long as I can rip them to pieces…”

“So I say again challengers! And you, path boss Predator…. I will attack in 10 minutes! Challengers, feel free to make use of my attack to reach the portal. And Predator… prepare to die.” With that, the copper haired woman jumped down off the platform.

There was silence on the battlements for a while. Then Haeugh began chuckling in his strange fishy way, and then Ashni joined him, her eyes glittering like a banshee’s.

“Let then come all at once then.” Ashni muttered, her hands gripping tightly to her spear. “Just means we can kill them faster.”

Whipman gulped, admiring Ashni’s forearms. When he looked up from them, he found that she was glowering at him. He coughed and scanned the horizon.

***POV Predator***

Fury +2

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I barely made a sound as I dropped down off the tree to the group. The scent of my quarry was in the air, a strange, fishy scent.

-Don’t act like you are a trained dog, I mean you smell it, but you have no idea where it is.

Fury +2

Although it was distasteful, other me was right. It was definitely around here though…

I leapt closer to the treeline, landing easily and sniffing. Then I jumped to the side, and sniffed over there. After several minutes of repeating this exercise, my expression brightened; the scent was definitely closer. I sensed a figure on the other side of a suspicious tree, and stuck my arm directly through it, smashing it to pieces.

The tree toppled over with a crash, and I heard an abrupt scuttling behind me. My hand squeezed shut, and I pulled back a damp, strangely human shaped snake skin. My eyelid began twitching.

Fury +2

Fury +2

I turned and sprinted back towards the main building. Yes, this one would die slowly and painfully.

Fury +2

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***POV Whipman***

“They are coming,” Turnip said simply, his eyesight the best of the bunch.

Ashni began relaying instructions to Jerry, who then repeated them to the skeleton archers. The groups hustled about, manning the wall as best as they could with their decreased numbers. Whitman remembered how different it was when there was just less than a 1000 of the skeleton archers, defending against the incoming bird horde. To be fair, those that still lived were a much higher level, but so were the opponents.

It was hard to imagine those birds building a platform made of tree trunks in such a short time.

Squinting, Whipman was just able to make out the streams of monkeys loping in 4 groups, spreading out around the forest area.

“Cheh, their leader isn’t going to make this easy, huh. That’s too bad.” Ashni spoke, while barely suppressing a giggle.

Whipman sighed. ‘If you are going to say that, at least TRY and sound like you aren’t bloodthirsty…’

Still, Whipman reflected, it meant that should would make an excellent maternal figure, never shying away from conflict to protect her young…

The leftmost column of monkeys abruptly slowed, several alarmed hoots emerging that were loud enough to hear, even from this distance. The vineling monstrosity and Tickles burst from the nearby underbrush, smashing into the mass of monkeys. Around them, the 3 other columns didn’t even hesitate, streaming forward towards the fort. Unfortunately, it seemed like the monkeys were strong enough that they could stall the monstrosity and Tickles rampage.

“They work together well,” Jerry said, watching as well as they could through the trees. “They are timing their attacks well to chain together.”

“They should pull out.” Ashni spoke, and everyone gathered around nodded sagely. Haeugh gurgled in an affirmative manner.

Glaring around, Ashni settled on kicking Turnip’s bow out from under him, sending him toppling to the ground. “Let me repeat myself. They should pull out. Send the signal!”

“Ohhhhhh, so soorrrrrry,” Turnip said sarcastically, taking his sweet time hefting his bow and knocking the specially prepared flash arrow. While yawning, Turnip drew the bow and loosed, the arrow shooting out over the trees. It whistled forward, before it smashed into a tree scant feet away from the mass of writhing monkey bodies.

*Crack!*

The gunpowder in the arrow head ignited, making a bright flash and a loud noise. A few seconds passed, and nothing seemed to happen, except more and more of the leftmost column of monkeys were circling in that area.

Then two monkeys were smashed backwards, and the vineling monstrosity surged out of the circle. Most of its ribs were smashed off, and it looked like one of its vine legs on the right side was snapped off, but when it came out it was roaring its fury, lashing left and right at the leaping purple monkeys. They were of a size of the monstrosity, but they were nowhere near as strong.

“Hiierg!” Haeugh gasped, his eyes widening. Two of the vine legs were held above the monstrosities head, holding the wounded body of Tickles. Tears started dripping down Haeugh’s face.

Whipman looked at Haeugh, slightly disgusted by the strange, sobbing, fat murloc. Ashni pursed her lips and looked at Jerry.

Jerry shrugged. “Haeugh and Tickles grew close at the feast yesterday and today. Tickles kept licking Haeugh, and Haeugh thought it felt nice.”

Everyone decided as one to ignore it, and turned back to approaching monkeys.

“Almost in range for arrows,” Ashni said, giving Turnip a pointed look. He yawned in response, but once more raised the bow.

For a second, he was completely still. Then, as if an invisible switch was flipped, his bone hands blurred. A stream of arrows shot outward, each one sinking into the flesh of the approaching monkeys. Within 10 seconds, the 20 arrows remaining in Turnip’s quiver had disappeared.

He swished his wispy hairs across his head. “Whoops. Ran out of arrows-”

Ashni walked up to Turnip and threw him off of the battlements and into the moat. Jerry opened his mouth to say something, but Ashni’s sharp look cut him off. Suddenly, Jerry was coughing, and then closed his mouth without bringing up Turnip.

Whipman’s heart was pounding. That was…

‘She’s so beautiful with her hip throws…’ Whipman thought in wonder.

EIther way, Turnip’s arrows had wounded about a dozen of the middle right column of monkeys, cutting their number by a ¼. The leftmost column was pursuing the vineling monstrosity in a frenzy, and it was managing to carry Tickles, keep ahead of the pack, stop and harry to keep the groups attention, and lead them towards where the large vine monster still slept.

Honestly, in Whipman’s opinion, that creature of Tim’s was quite impressive. Even though Predator wasn’t here, Whipman wasn’t about to go saying that, however, in case it got back to Predator’s ears.

“All other bow units, ready.” Ashni said calmly, ignoring the spluttering Turnip below. His bone wings extended, easily sinking into the walls, and he began to clamber back up. Eyeing Turnip, Jerry relayed the orders.

“Aim!”

The three remaining columns of monkeys were loping closer. Whipman scanned the forest, but he could not see any sign of the larger monkey, or the copper haired woman who controlled the other path.

“Steady…” Ashni muttered, her eyes narrowing. There was a dangerous glint there, a hunger, that reminded Whipman abruptly of Predator. No wonder, no matter how harsh Ashni was on him, they got along so well. They had the same sort of lust for blood.

The monkeys surged forward, their hoots becoming increasingly insistent. True to Tim’s training, all the skeleton archers kept their form, motionless. One of the benefits of the undead was the lack of stamina concerns.

“If we don’t-” Jerry began nervously, but Ashni just hissed through her teeth, her eyes narrowing to slits.

Right as they were about to reach the moat, the monkey columns split off, rushing around the sides of the fort. They continued to hoot as they circled around the sides, completely splitting their forces in half.

Ashni’s eyes were half closed, as if she wasn’t really watching the battlefield. Looking around nervously, Whipman wondered why Ashni hadn’t given the order to fire. The monkeys were practically begging for it…

That thought made Whipman frown. Honestly, their actions didn’t make sense. Was it a ploy to delay? Why would they use this sort of tactic to delay? The close range made them easy pickings for the archers. Their numbers were even, and the monkeys could take a few arrows, but most wouldn’t survive. Then what were they doing-

Faster than he would have believed possible, Ashni’s eyes snapped open and she stepped forward on the battlements, a grin on her face. “Found you.”

Streaking directly towards Ashni’s chest was an arrow, moving impossibly fast. Whipman, horrified, did his best to rush over and throw himself in the way, but Ashni just grinned. Another arrow streaked up from below, hitting the incoming one, sending it just slightly off course. It drew a red line across one of Ashni’s shoulders then fell into the courtyard.

Landing gracefully, Turnip swished his hair. “Hmph, no need to thank me-”

Ashni once more grabbed him and threw him into the moat. “I know how good your control is, you let that one hit me on purpose”

Once more, Turnip splashed around in an awkward manner for several seconds while he got his bearings, then started to climb the wall. In that time, the monkeys continued to circle almost surrounding the entire fort.

“Fire,” Ashni remarked calmly, considering the three arrows now speeding towards her. But the line of her mouth was grim. Whipman scanned the treeline, and couldn’t find the archer either.

At her order, the skeleton archers fired, sending a huge volley of arrows into the circling monkeys. But just as Ashni ordered them to fire, one of the monkeys hooted loudly, and all of the monkeys became to shimmer slightly, their fur filled with a strange energy. The arrows that approached them slammed into their bodies, but didn’t appear to have any effect, skidding off their fur and dropping to the ground.

Jerry’s face became horrified, but Ashni just shrugged. “If they could do it enough to be totally impervious, why bother with this tomfoolery? Or they are playing with us, in which case we shall die.”

“Either way,” Ashni continued. “Continue to fire.”

Roaring, Turnip leapt back up on top of the battlements, drawing his bow and firing three arrows. They shot towards the arrows aiming at Ashni, hitting them and bisecting them. The offending arrows dropped harmlessly to the ground.

Apparently having had enough of trying to phase, Ashni, Turnip leered at the invisible archer. “Psh, you are 100 years to early to-”

Three arrows shot forward, thick and glowing, twice as fast as the previous arrows. The very air they passed through hummed, torn by their passing.

The skeleton archers around continued to fire, fearless in the face of the seeming futility of their shots. Just when Whipman was wondering at the point of it all, the monkeys began leaping over the moat towards the walls. Still in the three groups, they swarmed upwards, their greedy fingers finding purchase in the walls and swarming up.

Turnip shot a single arrows, his skull tilted sideways, an ugly leer on his face. Whining strangely, the arrow spun counter clockwise as it shot forward. It hit the first oncoming arrow, diverting it, and rebounding upwards, smashing into the second. That arrow too, fell astray, and Turnip’s arrow still had enough momentum to nick the fletching of the last arrow, sending it wobbling off target.

“Ha! As I said-” But before Turnip could finishing gloating, a 4th arrow, slight and simmering, slid forward. Turnip’s jaw dropped, having not seen this slim arrow until this point. Hastily, he brought up his bow once more, but it was much too late; the arrow was approaching Ashni. Turnip flexed his bone wings, but the distance was too far.

Growling, Whipman leapt forward, throwing himself in the path of the arrow.

*BOOM*

Ashni clapped her hands with the force that only a practitioner of Thunder Stance could muster. The arrow snapped and fell to the ground, destroyed by the sonic boom she had created. Tumbling backwards, Whipman inwardly was thankful that he had responded so slowly to the incoming crisis; had he been faster, he would have taken some serious damage from the shock wave.

The skeleton archers were standing up at the walls shooting down at the lithe monkeys, doing their best to injure as many as possible. Ashni scratched her cheek, thinking.

“Have the skeleton bears assist with repelling the monkeys on the walls. Yellow Bones, you take the one at the rear. Jerry, the northwest opponent. Whipman…” Ashni hesitated for a second, then shook her head. “Just hold out as long as you can against the eastern one.”

“What…?” Whipman asked. He was going to fight monkeys…? But as he scanned the area around the fort, his eyes widened. A huge abomination of swollen flesh and a hundred arms clambered over the rear wall, roaring, its one bulging eye oozing a yellow puss. A bird made of blue crystal swooped from the Northwest, shrieking and spitting icicles down at the skeleton archers.

To the east, a hunched individual with dusky skin floated towards the fort from the treeline, seemingly riding a whirlwind.

“Ma’am… what are you going to do?” Jerry asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ashni snorted. “Naturally, she will be my opponent.”

From the treeline, a huge, black haired monkey emerged, and on its back, smirking, was the copper haired woman. Her pupils narrowed to slits, she knocked another arrow and took aim.

Baring her teeth, Ashni leapt down off the battlements towards her opponent.

***POV Predator***

The last challenger was dragging himself with his arms, his innards dragging behind him, my ice knives sticking out of him by the dozens, making him look like a strange, blue porcupine. He was scant feet away from the portal, sobbing, his blood marking the long trail he took to get here.

Just as he was reaching for the portal, I flicked a knife at him. It severed his spine, and he fell over dead, he goal just out of reach.

Grinning, I rubbed the back of my neck. Wow, that was such a stress relief.

-But also a time waste. You know what our minions are like. Absolutely useless.

I grimaced. Other me was right, but I definitely needed to work off some of my aggression. As I allowed it to grow for an extended period of time, I realized that fury, in a way, was literally fury. I was mad. Mad enough to waste time torturing some pitiful challenger.

My Cheshire grin stretched across my face. My next target would also be murdered. And while I was killing her, there would be no one to distract me, no pressing business that demanded my attention.

That copper haired woman would regret crossing me.

Fury +6

Fury +6

Congratulations! You have reached 100 Fury. All stats +6 until the Fury degrades.

Fury +7

I began jogging back towards my fort, my blood feeling hot as it raced through my body.

“Shemara….” I whispered. “I’m coming.”

****Author's Note****

Business talk first. I betrayed your trust! I'm cutting this last battle into two chapters xD. And I've taken FOREVER to get it out...

Well, I'll say that after taking the bar, I deserved a break, and I needed it a lot more than I thought I did. I think I just recovered from my hangover yesterday. Also, my laptop broke >=(.

In other news, although this might be a disappointment to some, I am tentatively planning on starting a lighter series on the side, that I'll try doing by word count, as opposed to this just blob until I feel like stopping. The chapters will be shorter, but it will mean I can fit in writing in at more times, and hopefully mean more words. I have a few ideas, and I'll solicit some feedback on which I should do after Day 36 finally ends.

Still, I want to have proofreaders, and I'm actually a conscious human now, so if you are interested, just comment on this. I'll send you a PM. I have some unpublished nonsense that you can proofread, just so I know that you can at least spell check me. I want two, just so I don't need to worry about waiting too long for a response.

Just so I know you can reliably follow directions too, any parties interested should include the following information in their posts to be a PR.

1. What you would like to be called

2. Whether you have PR experience

3. How busy a life you have

Feel free to also include anything else you would like to say/ask me. I'll probably respond...?