Chapter 97

The sun was already low. They needed to kill this thing and now.

“It has telekinesis. It’s fast and strong,” Daniel warned them as he started jogging up the stairs. “Might have weakness to cutting, but crushing force will do nothing.”

The club agreed with him and was encouraging him to flee. Priscilla was right there in agreement. He ignored both of them. There was no running. Occasionally, he would be open to a strategic retreat, but in this case the smart move was an attack.

The monster was already aware of them. Its Life Sense would have picked them up, probably on the floor below. But it was happy to wait. If food was coming willingly to you, then a beast like what they faced would see that as a positive. Daniel was sure that it had unshakeable faith. Nothing as small as humans could threaten it. Conversely, if they were stupid enough to run now, Daniel would have put good money on the fact that it would chase.

Above them, there were the sounds of creaking of wood and shifting of a titanic mass.

“Not the monster,” he told them to deflect any fear that they might be feeling. “It was just using its skill.”

On second thought, he was not sure that his pep talk had helped.

“Next floor.” Daniel kept moving up at the same brisk speed while he could do nothing to hurt this thing.

He was pretty confident that he could help defend the spell casters with his speed and strength. Subconsciously, he shifted closer to Tamara. She, out of their five damage dealers, was the only one that he really knew beyond Dave. As much as he would like to protect the mutated human, Dave would fight in melee range.

They rocketed up the stairs to floor forty-four, then, captured by Daniel’s frequent micro pulses of Animal Sense, the monster moved. They were in time. The humans were also alive. Please help, he pleaded in his head even though he had tried to convey confidence to the others. Shotguns to a knife fight. That analogue was bullshit; they were bringing peashooters to disable a mechanical tank. The attributes Priscilla had extracted rattled in his head. That telekinesis ability, its innate strength and healing. How could they hurt it? Ice. It had to be ice.

He kept moving, projecting certainty. This was the type of fight he explicitly wanted to avoid, not just the fact that he might die, but that he had prepared nothing to counter the enemy. He was rushing, which meant it would be an even battlefield, and that made him furious.

The monster lowered itself through the roof, moving languidly toward them. It was so confident that it did not rush. It moved slowly, casually, and not at all like something worried about the coming fight. All they could hope was that it had screwed up its risk assessment.

Up close, it looked even more fearsome that what Priscilla had shared with her brief glimpse. It was garish. At least ten tentacles, each as big as an anaconda, and a body like an octopus, smallish relative to the tentacles, but still the size of a compact car.

“Magic octopod,” Tamara said behind him even as an ice missile shot out, targeting the main mass.

One arm easily moved to block the shard of ice. It seemed to flinch, but it was probably his imagination. Looking back, Tamara had halted at the top of the stairs.

“Tell me if I am taking you out of range.”

Despite all of his instincts telling him to charge the monster, he did the sensible thing and ferried Tamara backwards. This way she could keep fighting the monster, and he could get her a safe spot. His mind was focused on the fight, but it felt nice to carry her. His entire body was reacting. The apocalypse had clearly scrambled his emotional base. Boyfriend , he reminded himself. Ivey, he corrected after a moment.

There were screams behind him. “Here,” Tamara ordered, and he put her down and spun back to face the battle.

When he looked up, his heart caught in his throat.

Four people had been plucked off the stairs and were flying towards the octopod. Even if he burned his magical abilities, it was too late. They were moving too fast for him to catch. Then his heart dropped further as he saw the girl he had created the swords for amongst the group. The octopod had leant back, clearly intending to swallow at least one of them whole.

The four bodies flew into the space under the octopod, then those tentacles withered, and it rolled over, sealing them underneath. Their screams almost immediately cut off.

Fark, he had not expected that. “Spread out and have something to grab.” Ivey was screaming. He turned and saw that she had looped her own arm around the stair balustrade.

Her words forced him to focus. He grew a vine out of the banister to secure Tamara.

Speed.

Daniel blurred forward till he was next to their second ranged ice user. Just like with Tamara, he picked him up and carried him further away from the monster.

“Stop!” the man he was carrying yelled, hitting his back.

Daniel immediately put him down and touched the wood beside them, and a vine grew out and wrapped tight like a belt, securing him. The ice mage’s eyes widened briefly till he realised what Daniel had done.

Another vine lassoed around his own waist, and then he ran forward.

Speed.

Five steps brought him to Ivey in an explosion of movement that was a blur to everyone else. He gave her the same treatment.

Everyone, he had to do this to everyone. First, the final ice mage. He really shouldn’t have protected Ivey first. After all, he was one who had told everyone to protect the ice users first.

“This is to help,” he told the final ice girl, sending a vine to wrap around her leg.

They were all secure. The monster could use its telekinetic powers, but the vines would save them. It was double edged, of course, because if the battle was lost, then none of them would be able to run.

Yet, if the battle was lost, everyone in the tower would die. He had no doubt about that, having seen this thing in action. He needed to keep the critical damage dealers alive for long enough to kill the monster.

“HELP US!” Daniel screamed up, hoping the people in the penthouse would hear. Already four were dead, and they had barely started.

Abruptly, he was yanked off his feet, and he felt himself flying towards the octopod. For a moment, he thought he was completely helpless. All of his struggle was for nothing. Entombed like this in invisible bonds neither speed nor strength would break him free. There was nothing to grab in the cocoon. No way to slow his speed.

He was heading . . .

He was yanked abruptly to a dead stop. The vine around his waist dug into his hips, hard enough to bruise him, potentially even break the skin. It did not matter; he was alive.

For a moment, two forces tugged at him, and he felt like he was the rope in a tug of war between giants. In front of him, a couple more people shot towards the monster, completely unrestrained. They were screaming in terror while his cries were more of pain.

The pressure intensified and was so powerful that he wondered if he had made the vines strong enough to hold.

Then the invisible force vanished, and he yanked backwards by the residual tension in the rope. He landed on his bum with an undignified thump.

Healing hit him, but he was already standing. The girl he had just secured was down like him.

Speed.

The vine grew behind him as he got close enough to encase Dave in a safety harness.

A small part of him was kicking himself.

That was at least six dead. All avoidable with five minutes of preparation.

Daniel focused exclusively on looping people. The more humans who were secured, the less likely it would target the ice users. The problem with what he was doing was that it gave him time to think.

He had known that this monster’s telekinesis was stronger than the Professor. Much stronger, but he had not imagined it could do this. The creature could have picked them up and tossed down the stairs or into a wall. Those sorts of attacks would be more effective, but luckily it was a glutton and was not trying to kill them. Just eat.

Why hadn’t he thought of this? Five minutes was all the time it would have taken to encase everyone in vines to stop the telekinesis.

A mistake. A failure to understand its capabilities. Time as well had been against them. The sun had been setting, and putting useable restraint harness on the entire group would have depleted his mana many times over. Daniel grimaced at logic trying to ride in and protect his psyche.

Stuff logic.

He had failed and now he needed to do the best he could.

Speed.

Let him shoot between spots to save people.

His mana bottomed. No!

Dave got torn off his feet, the harness Daniel had inserted bringing him to halt just metres from the hole the tentacles had made for him. Dave gleefully lashed out with ice coating his claws and club. Each blow sank into the monster and left bloody streaks far wider than those Luke was leaving. And feet too, Daniel realised, seeing how Dave had used being lifted to bring them fully into the battle.

Janice was next to her dad, stabbing with spear, and despite her lower attributes, the spear hummed with an energy that let it cut into the tentacle—not like it was butter but more like it was Styrofoam. She was still weak and did minor damage, but was noticeable versus how little Carly’s dad was achieving. Seed weapons.

Arrows flew by him. Two of three of them glowed with magic that Daniel was sure was ice.

He pushed himself forward to protect Janice, to stand next to her, and then used the tiny bit of mana that had regenerated to extend his harness to include her. A limb lashed out at Dave, and Daniel intercepted it with his club. Long, bloody furrows appeared in Blood Drinker’s wake.

Maybe he could contribute positively to the fight even though he lacked the ice that Dave was conjuring.

A screaming man flew past him, and two tentacles snatched him from the air. Daniel wished he had the power to secure everyone but . . . it was real life. There were no genies to grant wishers . . . or maybe there were. After all, magic existed now. Focus, Daniel told himself, striking away another tentacle that was targeting Janice.

“Come help,” he roared upwards as he started laying into the tentacles. He heard Janice squawk in alarm as he stepped forward to get closer, and she was forced to follow him.

Daniel did not care. There were the banded tentacles all around him and his only focus was on hitting them.

Every second, for the tiniest moment, he enabled speed. It was not much, but it let him move faster than the tentacles. Moving his club or his legs just enough so the strange suckers failed to land. They looked deadly.

One limb hit Dave. The suckers grabbed hold and attempted to drag him into the mass, but the vines held.

Janice leapt forward, her spear moving faster than a twelve-year-old ever had a right to move. It punched a series of holes in the tentacle just above where it had looped around her dad. Blood boiled, and then with the mounting wounds becoming too much, the octopod’s tentacle released its prey and fled before Janice’s devastating powerful spear could do any further damage.

If they had more seed weapons, this would be easier.

The flood of ice magic over their heads was making a difference, but even as he swung with the same ferocity that he started with, the number incoming shards of ice diminished as the casters ran out of mana.

“Penthouse guys. HELP!” Daniel screamed.

He pushed himself closer to get through the tentacles to land blows against the body. They were too thick, and as they lashed back at him, he stumbled away. While his club strikes hurt the creature, Dave’s swings obliterated flesh.

Daniel found himself driven back, so he fell into his original role, which, as the casters were safe, was to protect Dave.

The barrage of ice magic was clearly diminishing.

“We need to push,” he yelled in Dave’s ear.

The zombie’s eyes went wide, but as the man had continually showed he had courage, it did not abandon him now. The man Daniel had thought was a zombie stepped forward to get closer to the withering death, swinging even harder than he had a moment before. Daniel matched the aggression, protecting the other man’s sides. A sucker got him on the calf. Daniel bit down as he felt skin peel off. The armour seemingly did nothing. Janice, tethered to Daniel, had matched his step in. Then there was a crackle of energy, and she vanished.

One tentacle swished through the space she had been occupying. Her damage may have been minor, but it was more than pretty much everyone else in the room. They still had over twenty fighters on Daniel’s count, but only he and Dave seemed to be hurting it.

The rolling limbs felt like they were becoming even more frantic. He was not sure he could survive.

Ice rained down from above, and the tentacles that had been pressing them hard pulled back to cover the body from the unexpected attack.

Dave looked like Daniel felt: exhausted and ready to fall over if the situation allowed. They both lifted their clubs and kept swinging.

“Attack,” Daniel yelled, leaping forward and swinging his club hard as he could at the bulk of tentacles protecting the main mass as ice showered down from above.

Suddenly, three dogs leapt down through the hole it the roof. Fluffy show dogs that fell upon the monster with a ferocity that was not congruent with their looks. An ice bolt rained down, and looking up, Daniel saw three people standing on the edge of the massive gap between the floors.

Now or never.

Daniel kept attacking, swinging the club with all his might. It ripped into the tentacles and tore flesh out. He might not possess the ice cheat, but his mana continually regenerated, and with that power, the club was literally taking bites out of every tentacle that he hit. The mana headache had settled over him, and it would last for a while, as whenever he got a relieving drip of energy, the weapon sucked it up to support a new strike.

Clumps of flesh went everywhere, and despite not having access to its weakness, an entire tentacle dropped off, severed at the base. It was like chomping wood but a lot more bitey.

More ice magic hammered down, and it seemed to inspire the fighters behind him as they suddenly joined in. Tentacles fell away, and suddenly Daniel stepped forward and could hit the actual flesh of the main body.

For him it was slow going, but ice spells swept over his shoulder and tore the creature up. Even a relatively weak-looking ice bolt ripped almost a foot into the blubbering mass.

“Die!” he screamed.

“RAORA!” Dave joined him.

Luke had retreated, unable to do damage with his weapon. Janice had not. She was back, right next to her dad, yelling. How? Then he realised with Dave here, she had not teleported to safety downstairs, just away from the immediate danger. He wanted to push her away because he knew her get-out-of-death cheat was gone, but there was no time, and she was on the other side of her dad, anyway.

Plus, offence was definitely the best defence. They needed to kill the monster before its regeneration healed it back up. Janice’s spear thrusts were more effective than his own strikes, with each of her blows punching almost a foot into the creature.

Daniel hoped they had done enough, but it was not something that he could check. The only option was to swing harder. It was cathartic. Hitting monsters was soothing. Die, murderer , he screamed in his head with each blow. I am king. This is my tower and you are not wanted .

The club kept biting, and chunks of creature went flying.

The dogs were attacking hard. One of them grew to the size of a horse, and ice seemed to fill its mouth. While the other dogs did some damage, this one was ripping the octopod apart.

The monster recoiled, trying to cover itself. Its efforts were futile. Too many insects were biting it at once, and it had no answer. They were winning. Suddenly, there was space to take another step forward, and this time when Daniel swung, he stopped hitting the thick, jelly-like outer layer and instead his club clanged off the internal structure of the monster.

Ice flashed over the shoulder and from above. Abruptly, an invisible force grabbed him and threw back.

“No,” Daniel roared, his voice joining a similar chorus of human throats. It was trying to escape. “Not on my watch.”

Without hesitation, he pushed himself and started running. The monster was rushing to a nearby hole. The smaller dogs were free, but the one that had grown massive was still pinned to the wall by the telekinetic power.

Daniel leapt forward, swinging his club hard. The weapon shivered, and once it entered; he felt its shape change into a hook. It was clear what the intention was. The club latched on, and Daniel dug in his feet and held on for dear life, because he did not want to lose the club, and he did not want to give the monster a chance to retreat and recover. He wanted it to die, right here in front of him. The monster dragged him as it struggled towards a gap in the floor that led downstairs and away from the bugs that were stinging it.

“No,” he bellowed at it, pulling back with all of his strength. He would not let it escape. The vine on his waist strengthened under his instructions. Tightened to hold him in place. His arm muscles screamed. Another couple of points of mana dripped into him. The club took half of the energy, and its handle grew around his hand. They were attached as one. He was no longer at risk of letting go, despite his sweaty palms. His foot hit a skirting board, and instinctively he warped it to support him.

Strength.

“You are . . .” Power flooded through his muscles, and Daniel pulled back with everything he had. “Not getting away.” The wood supporting him creaked alarmingly, but the monster found itself held. Ice magic came from behind him, and then suddenly the big dog was on top of the octopod, joining the smaller ones. Over half of tentacles had been torn off completely, and the rest was tattered.

Daniel had no mana to spare; the club wanted more to finish the monster, but there was none to give. So he held on, preventing it from retreating. Stopping it from running. It felt like he was in a tug of war with a tractor. His breath was heaving, and with no choice, he dropped strength. The difficulty increased. He wondered what would give first—his arms of the vine around his waist.

That giant dog was digging into the main mass of the creature.

“Kill it,” he screamed. No magic went launching over his back, probably because he was blocking them and no one wanted to hit the dogs. Janice was next to him, poking with her spears, trying to hurt the monster through the shifting mass of friendly dog.

When he looked behind, he saw that Dave attempting to free himself, his claws making slow process in cutting through the vine that was now hindering instead of helping. The magic users would be similarly restrained. It was just him, the dogs, and Janice.

Suddenly, Dave leapt past. His clawed feet ripped into the octopod while he started swinging haymakers in a clear frenzy. Something gave. One of them, either the big dog or Dave, hit something critical, and abruptly, the monster was no longer straining against him.

It was dead.

The giant dog backed away, drawing the corpse that was at the point of slipping down the hole. The club sucked one, then two points of mana from him before reverting to its normal form. It came out of the mess with a squelsh .

Daniel’s chest heaved, and he collapsed to his knees, barely able to stay upright. His muscles hurt so much. Tears ran down his face. It was from the pain. Historically, crying like this was an absolute no-no. You could cry because of emotions, but not pain. He couldn’t help it. His arms hung limply, and it felt like all the muscles were torn off the bone. Let them judge if they wished, but most would wrongly assume the tears were from grief. At least seven dead. The physical pain became secondary. Those people were gone . . . forever.

He wanted to yell for healing, but did not have the air to do so. He would heal or someone would help him. Tamara, Ivey, and the others were still trapped by his vines. Once they got free, he was sure Ivey would do her thing. He collapsed forward and almost knocked Janice into the evil corpse.

Dave did his awkward laugh in response, and Janice was yelling at him for being a clumsy oaf, but he did not have the strength to engage with them or the heart to tell Janice that she was already covered in the monster’s slime she detested so much.

Finally, he looked up and then toward where the monster had first come down to their floor. Broken, shrivelled bodies were all that was left of the seven that had flown past him. But for luck, that could have been him, Dave, Ivey, or even Tamara.

Five minutes. Daniel wanted to howl the words to condemn himself. However, he bit his tongue; no one needed to hear that. If he was going to be an effective leader, he had to sell this for what it was. Seven brave people had given their lives to achieve a humongous victory.

The body was jumbled, and it appeared as if a vampire had sucked all the blood out of them before elephants had trampled them. And in a way, that had occurred. Daniel glanced at the weirdly coloured monster. A cursed animal that would eat everything it could find. Then Daniel looked back at the bodies. A pair of blank eyes, the face transformed in a rictus of horror, stared at him. Daniel’s eyes snapped away, but he knew it was too late. Some things could not be unseen. When he slept, that moment would give him nightmares. Sucking in a deep breath, Daniel closed his eyes.

Black eyes stared back at him.

He opened them up, gasping involuntarily. Hairs rose on the back of his neck. It was just his imagination.

There were no such things as ghosts . . . or . . . even if there was, that one would not haunt him. It was not his fault.

Priscilla was on his shoulder. She was excited. A completely different mood.

What? he thought, confused. Her thoughts were so sharp that he needed to deal with it. They had won, but this was a new emotion from her. He looked at her, and her eyes were fixated upon one of the King Charles cavaliers that had helped fight the octopod. She was literally quivering as she watched it.

If he had not just witnessed that same dog tearing into the monster like a savage beast, Daniel would have concluded that it was cute. It was party coloured with white and reddish brown and long floppy ears and silky hair. It looked at them. Priscilla jumped on his shoulder.

What was happening? When was he going to get healed?

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