Distant thunder rumbled and bounced between crevice walls as Corvayne slowly lead the way through the 8th floor. He held onto his cloak, trying to stave off the cold gusts of air. He glanced back at his friends, looking equally cold and uncomfortable as they followed the grassy ledge clinging to an imposing wall of stone. Two huge blue cliff faces made up the entirety of the 8th floor, large enough that every direction they looked the walls gradually vanished into cider colored mist. Everything on the floor either hung on the parallel cliff faces or formed rocky bridges spanning the hundred foot gap.

Wick was following first in line, blue robe fluttering under her backpack as she trudged forward. Seru was next, taking her time and using her walking stick to keep herself steady. Grunt followed closely behind her, perhaps the only member of the team who didn't seem to react to the wind, aside from rubbing his hands together every so often. He had signed to Corvayne he'd keep an eye on Seru, and true to his word he stayed close enough to offer a hand when the woman looked unsteady on her feet. Mister I, about ten steps behind Grunt, had his camo jacket buttoned up and it's hood pulled tight. In contrast to his body leaning into the wind, his expression stayed serenely pleased even when he had to put an arm up to block a sustained gust. Twenty steps behind them, Nyxion had thrown up his shield for himself and Lady Blood Claw and was walking jauntily as if this was a pleasure stroll. Miss Blood Claw at least was keeping an eye out behind them for trouble.

Corvayne didn't vocalize his doubts now about walking into the wind, though from the start he stressed moving slow and to be prepared to stop or seek cover if the wind got worse. He turned back to the trail and saw a gap a mile ahead, appearing as a band of amber in the dark blue walls. A little closer and he saw it was, in fact, an intersection of chasms. There were bridges that connected three of the corners to each other, but he could hear the winds of both intersections coming together into a sort of localized windstorm. He might have been tempted to cross if he was entirely alone and saw a treasure chest, but there was no motivation for him to do anything but turn along the same wall the group had been following. If they needed to cross, he'd stick to a bridge where the wind wasn't constantly shifting directions.

Starting down the path he saw movement on the wall and Corvanye's arms tensed up, side twitching a little as he reached for his spear before relaxing a little as he watched a thin limb ahead of them pushed a ten foot long gray oval further up the cliff.

If there was one blessing to the wind-swept floor it was that the monsters they had passed were not interested in attacking. The one climbing ahead of Corvayne was an insect that looked like giant gray walking stick with a shelled body and ten spindly legs. They looked like dangerous desert fauna he had grown up fighting, but they only seemed to prey on lichen and grass growing on the side of the cliff. Whenever he lead the way near one, it gently moved away from the group, barely looking away from the walls on it's search for more greens.

He didn't relax entirely, as he was sure there was another monster prowling the floor. He glanced down and then up, catching what he thought was movement far up on a ledge. He got the sense of something running at high speed. Earlier in the hike, he was sure he saw some beast leap and glide across the chasm far above them. He had zero interest in finding out what it was given how far he guessed the monster was from them. That was always the worst part of losing an eye outside the itching. The drop in depth perception made it much harder to gauge sizes and distance.

Mindful of danger, he slowed to look ahead and behind and above and below. Whatever direction he looked he saw dark amber light swirling, suggesting if they kept going they'd eventually walk into an amber storm cloud. As of yet, the floor had practically nothing but teal grass, blue cliffs, and thin strips of orange suggesting a horizon. One they should have reached at least three times by now.

An hour after they made a turn, Corvayne spotted a cave next to the path. As he moved closer he smiled and turned back, calling out so he could be heard over the howl of wind. “We found the stairs!”

He wasn't sure if they heard what he said in the back, so he pointed for Nyxion and LBC's sake at the cave, then strode inside. The moment he stepped into the cave he felt warmer, and he reveled at the sudden quiet as well.

“Another down. Two more floors and we are out.” he said, and noted everyone looked pretty happy to leave this floor behind. If he ever did this climb again, he was finding a different route with less needles and cliffs.

Mister I laughed. “I am very happy nothing was trying to fling us off this time.”

“It might be another floor with low monster counts like the third floor was.” Corvayne noted.

Wick sighed. “The third floor was the best one. I am ready for a bath and maybe something that will really knock me out for a solid five hours of sleep.”

Grunt made a gesture climbing, then of pouring something onto himself, then putting his elbows on something, relaxing, and a satisfied unwinding grunt: Maybe the next floor has a hot springs.

LBC shrugged and her skin turned a chalky white. “That would be nice.”

He kept forgetting to bring up what the colors on her skin meant. Next time they shared a watch he'd ask. Assuming no one got attacked by a dune-reaver while peeing just outside the firelight. They would be closing in on two full days in outside time pretty soon, not that he personally had a job or house yet.

He lead them up to the next floor. Cresting the stair, he blinked. From a sort of gloomy, windy storm wracked cliff face they had arrived at what looked like a tropical beach. What's more: the colors had corrected to natural tones for everything. Earth toned rocks, green trees, white sand and blue water. Stepping out of the tunnel carved into a huge beach rock he felt the warm air swirl around him. Oh he had missed the heat.

Seru winced. “Why couldn't we just do a beach dungeon every time?”

Wick laughed. “Well, if we find a tower entrance on a beach, YOU can enjoy trying to have a day at the beach with monsters attacking you every ten minutes.”

“Hopefully this is not a floor with a lot of monsters like the first or second floors.” Seru spoke, and Lady Blood Claw's skin turned orange as she groaned then turned to Seru.

“You MUST stop saying things like that!”

A half an hour later, they had made it about 200 feet up the beach. Corvayne used his spear to tap the ground, and another six sand golems and five crabs emerged from the ground. They were a little different then the Crocrabs of floor four, as these little monsters looked like hermit crabs but would hurl their twenty pound shells like dodgeballs at the group. The golems were small, usually waist high to chest high, but took strike after strike if Corvayne didn't use [Sundering Blade] and the airfoil rapier. So every time they found a pack he was burning through his stamina to hack at monsters made of fine sand that exploded into blinding clouds on death. At least they hit about as hard as a pillow stuffed with socks.

Nyx and Grunt were up in front with him, trying to whack as many of the crabs as possible with their maces to keep their attention on them rather then beaning Mister I with a shell, which happened in the first fight. Or hitting Seru and causing her to crawl back to the stairs for a five minute moping session. Or hitting Wick in the chest causing her to swear like crazy and throw out a hazardous barrage of [Disrupt]. He didn't think her reaction was merited. After all, they weren't throwing the shells that hard, though the little buggers did become VERY fast once they ditched their armor. It seemed that [Crescent Blade] was a good way to protect their backline fighters from the fast crabs, as they ran right for the images and would be diced apart the moment they hit them.

He stepped back, airfoil blade darting out to tag four of the golems and batter them with the blade's wind magic. Clouds of sand flew off the monsters each time he connected. Grunt stepped up and used a relatively new trick, [Drumming Blow]. The attack was a barrage of reckless swings that indeed made a sound like a second of a drum solo as it attacked over and over, blurring his arms when he used it. The attack this time hammered three different crabs into paste, leaving two to try to run past Nyxion, only to slow down and hide in their shell as his aura caught them. One of them was brave enough to fight back, but the other didn't help at all, and a single crab wasn't enough to break the shielding.

Corvayne meanwhile dodged a handful of sand and stepped away from three fists swinging in, and used [Sundering Blade] three times rapidly in succession. His sword darted out and each time it touched one of the constructs it blew a good chunk of them away. Sometimes he hit Nyx's shields with the blowback from an exploding golem, making a relaxing slithering sound. Other times he'd hit Grunt's back with a blast and he'd hear some non relaxed noises from his friend getting sand in his shirt.

Two of the golems were close enough that Wick hit them with the same [Disrupt]. She now seemed to be able to cause one explosion then bounce the emerald ball again, causing another impact point that shredded the golems. When she hit them, the golems didn't explode into sand puffs but instead just limply melted into piles. Over the last half an hour he had noticed when the golems didn't explode they left behind tiny silver pyramids that looked to be the only non-sand part of a golem. Corvayne was up to about fifteen in his pack.

Looking at the vast expanse of sand between them and the next rocky area, Corvayne called for a stop then lead everyone back to the stairs. He guessed it was at least ten hours of fighting and resting to move across the beach. LBC had spotted a tree moving on the grassy section. He could only imagine what was waiting in the water from watching things churn under it. Looking at them all covered in sand, with shell-related bruises, and a few crab cuts on everyone's legs... Corvayne knew when it was time to retreat.

“Lets find a different way up.”

Back on floor eight they exited the tunnel and decided to follow the paths along the cliff they were on as they ascended the face. Corvayne had seen wider bridges below them at one point, betting that moving off the same wall might be part of the expected navigation of the floor. He wasn't going to risk being on any walkway narrower then six feet for any reason. Losing someone to tripping and plummeting seemed to be the main threat of the floor and he'd take it as seriously as any monster.

His resolve not to hurry started to fall apart as he felt the pressure dropping and the wind pick up into blustering gusts. It wasn't a hazard to his balance when moving into it, but he felt his jaw clench when he saw a walking stick folding up into a crevice in the rock. On top of that, his bandaged eye started aching like he was an old time farmer who's knee told him when a storm was coming. This was the last place he wanted to be if there were some sort of windstorm kicking up.

He spotted another cave and called out, “Double time!” eliciting a groan from Seru and possibly Wick. Hiking at a jog, he got to the entrance to the cave just as he felt the first fat rain drops. He let the group file into the stairs, with Seru hurrying as rain started to pour. Corvanye let everyone pass and waited by the stairs, curious about how much of an environmental buffer there was on the boundary between floors. He could see the driving rain, but he only heard the wind five steps in. Taking a few steps down, there was a barrier on the third step that when crossed let him feel the air cool and moisten. On the second step he felt the wind tugging, and the last step he heard the full howling of the storm and the splatter of rain being flung at the wall. He returned to the group, and they made their way up to another ninth floor.

His first view, as he crested the stairway, was of a golden yellow sky with a huge orange sun setting behind a jagged line of buildings. It didn't seem to be a real star, as he could look directly at it and not be blinded. Stepping up the last few steps, he saw what looked like a clearing with a stream reflecting the light from above. The stairs had a high vantage point that let him follow the water as it stretched across ground clear of buildings, snaking between blue and orange ferns and titanic blue stone buildings or cliff faces. Orange-red roots and trees with turquoise leaves grew around dark blue concrete paths that seemed to have built over roots and shattered normal concrete structures.

Wick looked over. “Looks like a huge ruined city. I can tell you this as someone who watches a lot of movies: I don't like it.”

Corvayne nodded. “Let's try to stay in the shadows until we know what the monsters on this floor are. Looking at them, we might get a sense of what they can do.”

He was wary of a place that looked like it was set up to play hide and seek. The sixth floor had demonstrated to him that the tower had floors that were better suited to different approaches, and he wanted to keep the risks low especially after having a team member nearly die. Shading his eyes from the sun he could see the vine covered buildings were full of carvings of ordinary objects. Some were things like staplers arranged around a throne. Yet another mural was a sort of complicated snake made of spoons. A two story high carving of figures bowing on either side of a halo marked fire hydrant was his personal favorite out of about fifteen he could see in the plaza. He focused back on the ground level and visible roof line. No movement.

While he was pretty sure there wasn't a welcoming committee, he lead them down the stairs into the plaza then off to the back streets running between buildings. The party had been quiet since the beach, and looking back at them he saw clear worry. Maybe it was because the only sound was wind blowing down empty streets. Or the slight chill of standing in the shade. In stories these sorts of lost cities had a habit of going from creepy to overrun with monsters at the drop of a hat. Could that be what they were worried about?

The path mostly was flanked by one to three story tall square homes in various levels of disrepair, draped with vines. When they passed tall pillar-like buildings it felt like they were viewing the backsides. Most of them formed large featureless walls, save the few that had indents that allowed for passing through them. Given how dark the passages were he had no intention of going inside to try to find a shortcut. Granted, the pillars were the kinds of places in books a plucky treasure hunter would find all the treasure. It's also where they'd get eaten by all the monsters.

He heard faint footsteps far ahead and held up a hand for silence then lead the group to a thick tree root with the perfect height to let them crouch and look at the next intersection. The gold light of the psudo-sun lit up buildings on the far side of a plaza. Across the still dark portion, Corvayne saw short shadowy forms marching in lockstep. He could hear the faint clicking of chainmail, and as the moved along the root to a better viewpoint of the square he counted 10 goblins. These ones had helmets and spears and armor and scabbards on their sides. One of the leaders had a silver eagle on his shoulder pad and a red cape that was either tattered or battle worn depending on what had rent cuts in it.

Great. Organized monsters this time. He put his head down behind the tangled roots and half cracked wall and looked at his group, all doing their best to stay out of sight. He heard a goblin hiss from afar, then more hissing. There was a shout in a shrill voice of something like “Wall up!” and the clatter of weapons as more goblins hissed.

Corvayne looked over their cover and was confused: The little group of soldiers had formed a semi-circle shield wall but not at the side street they had been entering the plaza from. He followed what they were looking at as they put themselves into a corner between a building and a tree: another group of goblins was swarming out of a building across the shaded plaza, scampering on four legs and hissing, with nothing but their claws. Neither party even looked their way.

Wick tugged his arm to direct him back the way they came. “None of our buisness.” She whispered.

True. How many goblins did he kill on the first floor? Then he looked at the ten, and the now swarm of at least two hundred goblins pouring out of the dark hole. He saw one of the soldiers, not too much further then a hundred feet away, gulp and close his eyes to pray.

The leader drew his sword and thumped his shield. “No warrior dies alone!”

He looked at Wick. She lifted her glasses and rubbed her eyes with her palm, sighing. Corvayne smirked. “I'd rather they win then the horde. Right?”

Grunt nodded and smiled.

Nyxion snorted. “I'll be right here, guarding US humans if you want to go pick sides in a monster fight.”

Lady Blood Claw hefted her two-handed sword, looking at the two already clashing. “Why save them Corvayne?”

“One of them was scared. They also have a language. So I'm going to help my fellow warriors fight monsters.”

“Tch.” Nyx threw back his cape. “I'll guard our rear.”

Wick nodded. “Fine. Go. Just don't start pulling this bullshit because you see a 20 foot tall roach or something getting bullied by a 30 foot tall one.”

Corvayne and Grunt hopped over the wall of roots, with Lady Blood Claw surprising him by leaping over along with him. She saw his look and just yelled. “I can't just let you two hog all the killing!”

He smiled then turned to the horde of goblins. “All right, let's get to work.”