178: Reach for the Stars, Part Four

Reach for the Stars, Part Four

Oxygen: 96%

Now that they were aware of the many potential monsters lurking in the area, the pair moved somewhat more carefully. 

[The fact that some of these enemies might only spawn when I'm around is annoying. I'd like to keep moving fast, but it seems like I have to slow down just a bit to stop anything bad from happening.] 

Then again, perhaps dying from being jumped by a monster randomly wasn't the absolute worst way to go. Given her current mindset, a small part of Neve wondered if maybe it would be worth it to wait for the best, most painless way to die and just get things over with. 

Those thoughts were pushed out of her mind, though, as a couple of loud bangs came from up ahead. 

Two monsters, just like the one they'd just beaten a few minutes ago, suddenly appeared, running in from nearby halls. 

[Shit.] 

Level 67

MP: 180/180

Level 65

MP: 170/170

As the antennas on their torsos began to glow, Neve was about to tell Erin to look away, but the lamia did so without needing to be told, avoiding their dangerous ability. As she turned her back, both creatures dashed forward, intending to take advantage of her position. 

Neve cast {Field of Brilliance} under herself and then launched a couple of {Fireballs}, one at each opponent. 

MP: 1205/1300

As the flaming spheres crashed into the opponents, Neve's eyes widened a little. 

[Even with just one enhancement, along with {Field of Brilliance}, {Fireball} really packs a punch now.] 

Before the two monsters could arrive, Neve made sure to cast {Encourage} and {Bolstering Presence} as well. 

As the creatures reached Erin, only one of them engaged her. The other made its way over to Neve, who was a few steps behind her. 

She'd expected this, given how the first one they'd fought had acted. 

Marking herself and then the enemy that approached, Neve first cast {Flash Shielding} on Erin to keep the lamia from getting injured, and then watched as the nearby monster opened its mouth on its chest wide. 

Neve did nothing to stop it from throwing out a glob of acid in her direction. 

It crashed into her chest. 

The way it burned, it felt like Neve only had a couple of seconds to pull this off before the top of her body was reduced to ashes. 

She activated {Equivalent Exchange}, graciously transferring the god-awful damage to the monster responsible. 

"AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!" The creature let out a primal scream. Neve was doing the same, of course, as the acid burning away at her took a long time to heal. 

Both parties were on the ground now, rolling around in hopes that this acid would stop burning. 

For one of them, it did. Neve got up once {Equivalent Exchange} finished transferring the damage. 

MP: 1105/1300

The monster wasn't dead yet, but Neve was about to rectify that fact in a moment. 

Holding her staff out at point-blank range, she cast {Fireball}. 

And then, she cast {Fireball} again. And again, and again. 

MP: 1075/1300

MP: 1065/1300

MP: 1055/1300

Until the monster stopped hanging onto its life and finally let out its last breath. 

EXP Gained: 150

EXP: 400/670

WST Gained: 350

WST: 103340

Neve sighed, looking back at Erin to see how her fight was going. 

She was covered in bites and cuts, though there was blood dripping from her claws as well. Both parties were heavily wounded. Without Neve's help, the lamia wasn't quite able to finish things quickly, but she was holding her ground as well. 

[Let's finish this.] 

Neve walked up to Erin, healing her with a couple of casts of {Great Healing Dart}. 

The lamia only looked over her shoulder for a moment before putting all of her attention back onto her opponent. 

The monster they faced, perhaps knowing that with Erin's body fully repaired it stood little chance of winning, took a step back. Before it could move away any further, Erin rushed over to it. 

The monster spat out a ball of flames. Erin dodged and went to wrap herself around the enemy. Once she'd done so, she used {Rorvan's Flurry}, becoming a cloud of claw swipes.

Rorvan's Flurry

{Cooldown: 30 seconds}

{Skill Req: Dual Wielding - 50}

{Become a whirlwind of steel. Attack all nearby foes with a series of slashes, 

dealing more damage with each hit that lands. The technique ends with the first miss.}

The trapped opponent could do nothing to avoid the attacks, and so, with not a single one of them missing, {Rorvan's Flurry} slowly chipped away at it until the creature joined its ally in death. 

EXP Gained: 140

EXP: 540/670

WST Gained: 300

WST: 103640

The enemy was reduced to nothing but a pile of flesh and guts. Erin's shoulders dropped as she calmed herself down. 

[Another quick fight,] Neve thought. [But, another one that could have gotten dangerous fast, if my timing was off. These things are no joke, and I'm guessing there are more types of...] 

"Neve." 

"Y-Yeah?" The healer replied, taken out of her thoughts. 

"I... I hear rumbling. Something's coming toward us."  0

"Alright. I'll resummon you right now. Get ready." 

Neve did just that. 

MP: 780/1300

The lamia appeared before her, enhanced thanks to {Field of Brilliance} still being on. 

But, what appeared around the corner up ahead was not something they had any interest in holding their ground against. 

Neve's eyes widened. She nearly dropped her staff. 

A horde. Dozens of enemies just like the two they'd taken down, all running straight at them. 

Erin reacted before Neve did. 

Activating {The Lamia's Hunt}, she grabbed Neve harshly by her arm and threw her summoner over her back. 

Slithering out of that building as quickly as she could, she just narrowly managed to avoid the horde catching up to them. 

Neve turned to look behind her. The massive swarm of enemies was right on their tail. 

[What the fuck? Why are they all so fast?] 

Erin made a beeline straight back to the camp. 

"You told me monsters couldn't come in here, right?" Erin asked as she put Neve down. 

The monsters in question crashed into the barrier separating the Safe Zone from the rest of the floor before Neve could even respond. 

Ravenous creatures bounced their teeth off that ethereal blue shield while Neve and Erin watched. 

A minute passed. Erin disappeared. The monsters clawing at the impenetrable barrier finally gave up and scattered. 

[Hm. So, this Floor has two gimmicks? Shit.] 

---

"Are your voices saying anything about what happened just now?" Erin asked after Neve resummoned her. 

"Nope. We'll have to figure it out ourselves. My guess," Neve began to say, "is that maybe, getting into a fight alerted them." 

"What do you mean?" Erin asked. "Is it not as simple as those creatures running rampant in that building?" 

"I don't think so," Neve replied. "I think they literally appeared out of thin air." 

"Lovely." 

"Specifically," Neve added, "I think that the uhm... The people behind all of this placed those monsters there a little while after we started fighting."

"I'm not too certain I understand what you're saying." 

Neve did find it difficult to explain to someone with no experience playing games. Essentially, what Neve was saying was that maybe the Oxygen counter wasn't the only "timer" in play. Perhaps getting into a fight had triggered a second timer of sorts, and once that timer reached 0, that was when the horde appeared. 

[We got into 2 fights, though,] Neve thought. [So, if my theory is right, the timer started when we fought the first enemy, not the last two.] 

"Well, if you understand what is happening, what do you suggest that we do?" Erin asked with crossed arms. 

"I mean, I'm not *that* sure of what I said, but if I'm right then, basically, it means we're not meant to stay out for too long." 

"The oxygen situation already made that clear, though, no?" Erin asked. 

"It did, but I mean that even when taking that into account, we're meant to basically go in, and go out. How do I say this...?" Neve murmured. "Basically, the monsters are there to act as a hard limit to our time outside of this zone. The oxygen percentage is there to act as a hard limit to how much time we have to deal with this floor overall." 

"Ahh... So, the oxygen is a long-term limiter, the monsters are a short-term limiter?" 

"Exactly," Neve replied with a nod. "That's probably why the Floor is so big, too." 

"So that we have no clear path ahead," Erin said. 

"Yeah." 

As Neve put the pieces together, this level's design philosophy became clearer and clearer. 

It was a race against time, but one in which they had no idea where the race ended. 

Save, of course, for the boss marker on the map. 

[Again, it's on the opposite end of the Safe Zone. So, maybe it's safe to assume that all of the different paths will lead there? Though... No, thinking about it from the Forces That Be's perspective, it's probably the opposite. A ton of paths will lead nowhere. They'd want players to be hopeless. To see the oxygen counter ticking down and get desperate. To make mistakes.]

Neve closed her eyes, balling her hands up into fists. 

[Of course they would...] 

Anger began to flare up inside of her.

[That's what they've always wanted, right? Just to fuck with us...] 

In an instant, Neve was so angry she was shaking. 

[It's not fair.] 

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