CHAPTER 53: “THE WAY DOWN”

The Blood Oaths...Ai had heard snippets of them before while he was researching about the guild systems in the game. The name often appeared when the forums talked about guilds. Not much was said about its actual members but he’d heard that it was a well managed guild that did very well for themselves. 

They didn’t have the superb strength, the incredible brain or the massive numbers, but they were stable and consistent. They members were said to work very well with each other. Their strength was their teamwork and synergy. It earned them a place at the guild rankings.

“Any idea who she might've partnered with?”

Morion tapped his chin a few times and thought about it. “I wouldn’t know their exact identity. Elain and her guild members are not frequent arena players.”

That made Ai slightly more curious about the guild. Despite being a pretty high ranking guild, except for Elain the leader, not much was known about its actual members. Their members didn’t participate in solo PvP events either. Perhaps their individual members, except for Elain, weren’t actually that strong? If so, it would make sense that team PvP events like this were much more beneficial since they could rely on teamwork.

“Since Elain is a melee class, it would be logical for her partner to be a mage or archer.”

Morion nodded in agreement. It made the most sense but it wasn’t completely confirmed either.

“Who is she fighting?” Morion asked.

Ai put his eye through the handheld telescope once more and tried his best to gauge the situation.

His attention was once again directed towards the shiny golden sword Elain was holding, he didn’t want to know what it felt like to be sliced by that weapon. Then he slowly pulled the telescope towards Elain’s opponent.

They didn’t look to be all that special. Compared to Elain, the armor the other player had looked like beginner gear even though they were probably a good few levels above Ai.

“It’s another melee class. Not sure who that is.” Ai gave the telescope back but continued to observe. 

He couldn’t see as well, but judging by the moving glint of Elain’s sword it seemed like the player was slowly making her way towards her opponent.

“I’ve seen that downed player a few times in the arena. They’re an ‘okay’ player but…”

They were nothing compared to Elain of the Blood. By the way she moved, slowly and calmly, it seemed like she was confident and didn’t fear much at all. Morion looked away from the telescope when the glint of the sword slowly swung downwards towards the unfortunate player.

“Do you think you can take her?” Ai asked, his voice almost inaudible.

Morion looked over to him with a complicated look on his face. “I’m not...sure. I don’t know if I could compare her to any of my previous opponents either.”

That was when Ai started to feel really nervous. He was so used to Morion being a strong and reliable player. Now hearing about the other player’s uncertainty, Ai admitted that he wasn’t used to it at all.

“So then what should we -”

The rest of his words were lost when Morion suddenly pulled him down, pushing their heads down from the wall opening they were using. Not a second later, a single blast of magic flew over their heads. It would’ve smashed into the wall and possibly destroyed the tower they were in, but it seemed to flicker out, creating a little spark before it did, before it touched anything.

“What was that?” Ai didn’t recognize the magic.

Morion clicked his tongue. “Her partner is a mage. That’s a high level explosive fire magic.”

Ai frowned. “But it didn’t explode?”

“I think they cancelled the explosion midway because it didn’t hit us. The building would’ve collapsed otherwise.”

Ai processed it in his mind. If they blew up the building...wouldn’t that be advantageous? It had a chance of killing the two of them which meant less opponents in the arena. 

Or could it be that they didn’t want to take any chances. Which meant…

“We need to move.” It looked like Morion thought the same. “We can use the unstable floors to distract them while we escape.”

Ai agreed. Though he was slightly reluctant to leave the city area so soon, escaping back to the forest might be the best bet if Elain was targeting them. Still...he gazed at the spiraling staircase that led up. He still couldn’t let go of the feeling that going up there might provide something useful for them.

“Ai, let’s go.”

Ai looked away from the stairs and followed Morion to the lower floors.

***

It didn’t take long for Elain to appear. The sun was still not completely set, but it was getting dark.

Up close, she was much less intimidating. Her face looked incredibly young, the soft lines giving her a deceptively kind face. Still, her eyes were incredibly wary as she slowly stepped onto the sixth floor while Ai and Morion observed her carefully from the seventh floor.

The sixth floor wasn’t the most stable, but it still had some durability. The real clutch of the plan was the fifth floor which had the most unstable architecture. If they could bring Elain down, she would collapse along with the sixth and fifth floor. Ai hoped that the double impact would stun her for a little bit, just enough time for them to escape. 

It sounded like a good enough plan, but Ai was still concerned about Elain’s partner, the mage. They were still nowhere to be seen and Ai also had no clue what kind of mage they were. The spell they used earlier told him that they were an offensive fire mage, but still...there was something about the spell that nagged at him.

“Morion,” he whispered. “Do you think that fire spell could be something else?”

Morion looked at him, his head slightly tilted in confusion. “I felt the heat as it went by our heads so it was definitely a fire spell, but the little spark in the end when the spell died...”

“Could it be two spells at once? One of them was a fire spell but the other…”

Morion’s eyes widened at the realization. “It was a tracking spell.”

Just then, a blast of energy flew from the Elain on the sixth floor. The powerful energy blast was right beneath their feet, which meant they were hit by a tracking spell before. The floor beneath them collapsed, sending them crashing down onto the floor below them. 

Ai closed his eyes instinctively as he felt the ground beneath him disappear. He waited for his body to crash onto the floor, but felt nothing but his feet dangling in the wind. When he opened his eyes, he realized that Athens had morphed into its full beast form and was holding Ai by the back of his clothes. It stood on a small portion of the flooring that didn’t completely break.

Athens slowly pulled its master up then placed him on its back.

Below them, Morion thankfully managed to land safely. He was readily holding his sword towards Elain, his eyes wary of even the smallest of her movements. Ai looked at his status in their party menu and saw that the fall had dealt a little bit of damage.

“I’m fine!” Ai exclaimed immediately so Morion didn’t have to look away from his opponent to make sure that he was safe. He saw the other player exhale relievedly.

The two players didn’t spend any more time and quickly fought against each other. The limited space didn’t offer much maneuverability, which put Morion in a slight disadvantage since he mostly relied on his speed and quick swordplay to deal with opponents. Meanwhile, Elain didn’t need to move much. Her build looked to be on the more balanced side with decent armor and damage capabilities, but not much speed or dodging. Unfortunately in the limited space, she had more of an advantage. She easily parried or even tanked some of the damage that Morion was dealing.

Ai calmed his rapid breath and thought to himself. He needed a way for them to be able to escape now that their plan kind of fell apart. 

Or did it…?

He looked at the unstable floor of the sixth floor that was being further damaged by the heavy pounding of the fight. If the floor collapsed Morion would fall along with it since he couldn’t climb back up the seventh floor as easily as before since the blast destroyed most of it. He needed a way to get his partner back up while leaving Elain down on the floors below.

He looked towards his familiar. Without needing too much instructions, the shadow beast let Ai off its back and perched itself back to the edge of the drop, ready to swoop in and pick Morion back to safety.

Through their party link, Ai sent a quick message. 

Slash your sword against the flooring.

Morion didn’t show any signs that he got a message, but his miasma sword flared to life. The sight of it made Elain stagger just a bit, which gave Morion the opening he needed. With his sword, he made heavy and wide slashes across the floor. Ai watched as the black smoke of the sword slowly made its way in between the cracks of the floors.

Elain, not completely focused, stepped back to dodge the heavy slashes of Morion’s sword and stumbled on one of the new cracks against the floor. Athen jumped down towards the now completely unstable sixth floor and made itself slightly bigger. The impact of his jump and his heavier weight created big fissures along the floor.

Morion quickly grabbed hold of Athens' neck and allowed the beast to carry him up to the remains of the seventh floor. As the two jumped back to safety, the sixth floor completely broke and collapsed, bringing Elain along with it.