Chapter 44

Tower Conquerors (IV)

Emma and Jamal came to an abrupt halt as they stepped out onto a slight opening in-between the tall cliffs, gray, jagged stones giving way to uneven terrain full of scattered rocks and dying vegetation. Their eyes immediately fell upon the group of six standing some sixty feet in front of them, surrounding the corpses of the Spikers.

As soon as the two spotted them, they spotted the two. Alarmed, they spun and faced the duo, weapons out, quickly settling into the formation as the Bard and the Elementalist ran toward the back-end, near the monsters’ corpses.

On the other hand, Emma and Jamal kept their weapons in their inventories, merely tossing up guard as a front. Seeing as Cain hadn’t shown up, it was likely they weren’t in any particular danger.

“... just passing,” Jamal stepped forward and said with a disinterested tone. “If that’s alright with you.”

“... there are creatures ahead.” one of the men, a Paladin, stepped out from the formation and said.

“Uh... yeah?”

“We’re grinding them.”

“Ah...” Jamal sighed, turning toward Emma who merely shrugged, turning around and walking over to a boulder, sitting down and taking out a bottle of water, resting. “How about if we promise not to touch them?”

“Aren’t you here to kill them as well?” the man asked with a strange expression.

“...” What’s the point of killing those weak-ass things... Jamal held it inside, however, merely rolling his eyes stealthily. "We're, uh... yeah, we're not strong enough, and all that. If you guys hadn't cleaned up the path for us, we would have died and all. So, uh, yeah. We'll just hang back and eat the free pass if das' cool with you." not wanting to herald a conversation any further, Jamal also spun around and sat next to Emma, opening up a bottle.

“They don’t look happy...” she commented with a faint smile.

“They can take it up with the big guy,” Jamal shrugged. “I think he stayed up just ‘cause he didn’t wanna deal with them.”

“... are they seriously trying to surround us?” Emma mumbled suddenly, dragging Jamal’s attention to the front.

“... people really are fucked-up,” he sighed, putting the water away. “Leave it to me.”

“You sure?”

“I’ll just whoop their asses like my ma’ used to do me,” Jamal chuckled, cracking his knuckles. “Tsk, I bet they like this ‘cause their mamas didn’t break out an iron paddle every time they fucked up.”

“... you... you wanna talk about it sometimes?” Emma asked with concern in her voice.

“About what?” Jamal asked.

“... nevermind. Good luck.”

Snapping his neck left and right, he began walking forward, causing the party of six to come to a halt. Jamal didn’t say anything, summoning out a sword from his inventory and charging starlight into his fists. Milky-white light erupted from him as he bolted forward, kicking up a storm of dust and tiny pebbles behind him, arriving in front of the six within the blink of an eye. The Paladin and the Bulwark tried to race to the front to act as the shields, but they were far too slow. In their midst, Jamal spun and stabbed the sword into the ground.

An abrupt explosion shook the ravine, milky-white and almost-fire like streams of blade light surging in a ring-like, tsunami fashion and kicking up all the six into the air and tossing them a good ten feet back before Jamal withdrew the starlight. Sighing, he put the blade away and looked up.

“Oi, I went a bit too hard,” he yelled suddenly. “They need healing.”

A few moments later, he saw red-faced Diya slowly descending with Cain by her side, a faint smile on his face. The two came to rest next to him, with Emma joining right after.

“Good job!” Cain exclaimed, patting his shoulder. “Very decisive!”

“... did... did you drink?!” Jamal exclaimed enviously as he smelled beer on Cain’s breath.

“Uh--what, no! Dude, sshshhh!! What the fuck is wrong with you?!!”

“A-ah!” Jamal yelped in surprise as he saw Emma glaring daggers at Cain who immediately hid behind Diya, much to the young woman’s shock.

“Uh... it was just one beer...”

“... look, I don’t care,” Emma sighed in defeat. “Just... don’t get drunk, alright?”

“I ain’t that man no more, Em’!”

“Yeah, you’re just a man who brings booze to a potentially life-threatening expedition into a land of fantasy that’s full of dangers...”

“... hey, you can make anything sound bad if you try hard enough!”

“I didn’t even try, though...”

“D-Don’t be mad, Emma,” Diya interjected. “It... it was my idea. I... I wanted to taste what it is like...”

“...” both Emma and Jamal stiffened their laughter while Cain glanced down at the girl with pride surging in his eyes, suddenly patting her head gently.

“You’re a proper soldier, Diya.”

“E-eh?”

“I’m so proud of you.” He’s... proud of me?

“Alright, enough nonsense,” Emma interjected, staring strangely at the two. His dad energy is too enticing, holy shit... “Heal them, Diya. That attack didn’t seem that strong, though. Why do they look half a breath away from dying?”

“Only two of them seem to be even level 10,” Cain said. “I was kinda scared you might even kill a couple, but you realized it too and pulled back in time. Nice reaction!”

"... God, why do you sound so condescending?!" Jamal asked with a growl.

“Because Gods are supposed to be condescending!”

“...”

“...”

“W-what?! I thought it was pretty funny!”

“I-It was, it was funny...” Diya mumbled to his defense.

"Yes, see!? The smartest one here knows what she's talking about!"

“Shut up, dude.”

“Go sit in the corner, C’!”

Cain sighed and moved away to a nearby boulder dispiritedly, sitting down and taking out a cigarette. Diya slowly healed the six who continued shaking in terror, incapable of even looking at Jamal as he seemed more of a monster than the actual monsters at the moment.

"You guys can join us until we get out of the ravine," Emma suggested. "You can have all the items and whatever. We'll basically be your cheerleaders and just jump in if you ever need help. If you refuse, I'll have that man tell you a hundred dad jokes in a row and you'll all have to laugh at all of them as though your life depends on it."

“...” Cain chuckled faintly as the six nodded fervently. Soon after, Diya pulled out another spread and have them join in for a quick meal, where they learned that the six were actually members of the Navy and were from the same unit, which explained their fairly decent progress.

“By the way, what’s that skill that you used, man?” one of the six, a man named Sack, asked Jamal with a fervent expression. “I’m a Blademaster too, but I don’t have it!”

“Uh, it’s not a skill homie,” Jamal explained. “You just use starlight in its raw form.”

“What’s that mean?”

“...”

“...”

"Are they serious?" Jamal turned to Cain and asked with an incredulous expression. Cain realized that the three were really spoiled and that they've set their standards far too high. After all, the 'raw use' of the energy and the resources would only become the norm in six-seven months once people realized that it was inefficient to use skills for everything.

“Hm? There’s someone else in the ravine?” another man, the leader of the group it seemed -- Edward, the Paladin -- frowned suddenly as he looked back toward the back of the ravine.

“Yeah, a group of thirty or so,” the only woman of the group, Jenna, frowned as well. “My Notes were triggered just then.”

“Ah, don’t worry guys,” Emma said, taking a deep bite of a sandwich. “It’s just some idiots following us.”

“Brave or stupid?” Edward asked with a bitter smile.

“Ignorant, I think?” Emma replied.

“Hey, I know you.” Evon, the group’s Elementalist, suddenly pointed at Cain and said. “Weren’t you the first guy who left the Tower?”

“Yup.” Cain nodded, taking a whiff of the cigarette he just lit up.

“Damn! We used to cuss you out hard ‘cause we thought you’d plunge us into another pandemic, man!”

“Evon--what the fuck?!”

“It’s alright,” Cain chuckled lightly. “My own ex-wife cussed me out pretty hard over it, so all’s cool. Besides, who says I hadn’t?”

“H-huh?”

“He’s just fucking around, ignore him,” Emma sighed, stretching lazily. “How long have you guys been in here, anyway?”

“About a week or so,” Edward replied. “We planned on getting out a few days by backpedaling around the ravine once we left, but it turned out to be much longer than we calculated...”

“By the way, how strong is your group anyway?” Evon asked curiously. “I mean, Jamal’s the strongest -- so who’s next?”

“...”

“...” while Emma, Diya, and Jamal glanced at Cain, the latter coughed awkwardly, prompting confused looks from the other six.

“Look, I’m sorry for being shit-ass weak, alright?!” he cried out at the three, startling them for a moment before they gave him another dirty look. “I promise I’ll get better...”

"Ouch, you too?" Evon mumbled, suddenly walking over and patting Cain's back. The young man looked to be at best 19-20, and that was only after taking into account his background. His appearance alone landed him somewhere in his mid to late teens. "They think that just 'cause we can use Magic like those wizards in books and shit, that we can create the same results! If there was a rating of difficulty of Classes, ours would be top-notch..."

“... yeah,” Cain smiled lightly as Evon sat next to him. “They really have zero empathy. Did you know... did you know they wanted to toss me off a cliff into the ravine to see if I can use Wind to fly?”

“Oh my God!!” Evon exclaimed. “That’s terrible, man! Why are you with them?! Are they blackmailing you?!”

“...” meanwhile, everyone else stared at the two with odd looks. The other five of Evon’s group realized that Cain was just messing around and humoring Evon, while Emma and Jamal merely ignored him, used to his nonsense. Diya, on the other hand, felt a bit bitter as Evon jumped in to ‘comfort’ Cain before her.

“It’s fine, Evon,” Cain said with a grateful look in his eyes. “I have six kids they’re keeping hostage, so I have to fight. I have to endure!”

“...” light lit up inside the young man’s eyes as he backed off. “Ah. You’re fucking with me.”

“No, of course not.”

“That hurts man. You, like, hurt my feelings and shit...”

“...”

“...”

“... I’ll teach you some tricks.” Cain said with a sigh, wondering why was the boy making a face as though he was constipated.

“That’s more like it!” the boy’s expression flipped upside down as he sat back down next to him, prompting Cain to chuckle and take another puff of the cigarette.

“Shall we?” Emma said as she stood up, stretching. “There’s likely still two-three days ahead of us till we leave the ravine.”

“Oh? You guys been here before?” Edward asked as everyone slowly stood up.

“No,” Emma shook her head. “A certain someone got trapped here when the Towers first fell.” everyone’s eyes quickly shifted over to Cain who merely chuckled sheepishly, wondering just how many times can he continue to use ‘ah, that first week I was here, I saw this place’ before people genuinely start calling him out on it.

The group packed up and headed off further inside, past a tall curve that bent inwardly. Cain glanced at it curiously as it seemed kind of familiar, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint from where. Eh, better safe than sorry, he mused, charging Body into his ears, nose, and eyes, on the lookout for anything ‘off’. Wait--isn’t that fuckin’ thing Te’gha’s territorial sign?!

“ROAAAAAAR!!!” Ah, for the love of God...