Ultimate Level 1

Tom watched them as they sat there in the dining hall, staring at them in disbelief.

“Two… two floors in a day and home for dinner… you all need to slow it down some or people are going to notice.”

Max nodded and kept chewing. The beef today had been slow-cooked and was falling apart when it was picked up. Everything was so tender that a knife wasn’t needed to cut it. Fresh vegetables, warm bread with just a hint of sweetness, and a thick red sauce with brown sugar in it made this a perfect meal to sit down for.

“I’m here to tell you that Everett won’t be hanging around you as much. Some are wondering if we’re giving you five preferential treatment, which is causing your success in the tower.”

“But that’s not the case,” Fowl replied, forgetting his manners as he spoke with a mouth full of meat. “We’ve done this on our own.”

Their trainer cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at Fowl, and made a hammering motion.

“All on your own?”

“Well, until yesterday… okay, fine, we had a little help but nothing more than you would give others, right?”

Shaking his head, Tom frowned at their dwarven warrior.

With those words, he stood up and gave them a quick wave.

“Don’t forget to turn in whatever drops you have tomorrow,” Tom said as he walked toward another table of Faction members.

“He’s right,” Tanila said quietly, her eyes focused on the cup in her hands. “We can’t imagine what kind of pushback they have been getting for how the last month has gone. It will only get worse the more we progress until there is a point where no one can deny our ability, and then things shift even more.”

“But that’s not a bad thing,” Cordellia replied, leaning over the table so she would whisper. “Dexic and her group were similar in some ways, from what I hear. Mind you, they were not as fast, but they were still progressing faster than most. You all do realize she has spent years getting to where she is now.”

“Thirty more tower floors in two years… that seems like a short time,” Fowl joked.

“And how many months ago were we in Rumstant?” Tanila asked. “And before that? Time is passing quicker than you realize, especially if you’re a bald-headed human.”

Everyone chuckled, including Max, acknowledging that time was definitely different for him.

Max had chuckled when he found the sheet to sign up for training, with Tom nailed to his door in the hallways in the morning. He wasn’t sure if the hammer he made for Fowl was the deciding factor in all these changes, but whatever had caused it, there was a reason, and he trusted the man in charge.

Breakfast went fast and everyone stored a few extra servings in their inventory, knowing that it would be fine and fresh when it came time to eat.

Cordellia was bouncing with excitement inside the carriage, and even Fowl didn’t seem to mind the leg shaking she was doing the entire time.

Standing outside of the tower floor, Fowl went first as always, choosing the fifteenth floor and touching the swirling portal.

“That’s a sight to see,” Fowl muttered as he stood on the black, broken ground.

Everyone saw the rolling fields of stone statues, each one in different shapes and sizes. Off far in the distance was a broken colosseum-like structure with massive pillars and arches. One-third of the building appeared to be missing on the right side near the top of it.

“What is this place?” Cordellia asked as they stood shoulder to shoulder, looking at the random hodgepodge of statues.

“Probably a trap,” Max said as his eyes scanned the field. “Something out there must be ready to attack.”

“Or worse yet, maybe they all attack,” Fowl replied.

The clang of a wooden staff against a plate helm rang out, and Batrire gave their warrior a scowl.

“Stop talking like that,” she groaned.

“Well, go slow, and let's see what we find,” Max said as he held back the temptation to laugh.

Covering the seventy yards to the first random statue, Max and the others saw that it was one of four goblins, similar to the ones they had faced a few dungeons ago. They looked lifelike and had weapons and armor on, crafted in a battle pose.

Fowl moved up to one and slammed his hammer into it, shattering off a chunk and causing it to fall apart.

Noise and dust from his action earned him a few grumbles from their healer.

About ten yards behind their main warrior, Max had his weapon out and was letting his sonar run free. Everything in range showed unmoving, yet the sensation of being watched was real.

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Slowing down his step, Max fell back closer to Tanila and the other two.

“Fowl, bash a line through each statue, so there is a path to walk through.”

Without needing an explanation, their warrior set to work, smashing into whatever statute it might be. Within minutes, elves, humans, goblins, wolves, and other stone creations lay in rubble.

As the hammer came toward the next unfortunate statue, it twisted and moved, dodging the strike and sending out a stone sword at Fowl.

His shield managed to make it up in time, the sound of rock on metal ringing out.

Roars came, and Max’s heart sank as the orc image Fowl had been ready to destroy attacked, and a dozen other statues all rushed at them from every side.

“Incoming!” Max shouted, raising an earthen wall in a second, playing toss the healer as his protective barrier went up.

Batrire had screamed for a second as Max’s hand grabbed her robe in the front, tossing her without any warning.

His next move was to hold out his hand and offer it to Tanila, who took the added assistance to reach the top of the wall in a moment.

Cordellia didn’t wait, raining down arrows with a volley shot and easily bounding up the wall.

Seeing the three working on getting to safety, Max focused his attention on the incoming attackers. He began to cast Fire Nova while staying in the center of the horde of different stone statues coming at them.

A human statue with two swords reached him first, falling to his weapon right before the fire nova pulsed out from him. The flames did nothing, washing over the attackers.

“Fowl!”

Their dwarf had managed to remove a leg from his current foe. Turning, he saw the monsters coming at his party.

Running as fast as his short legs would go, he drew close and activated his Taunt.

All but three of the statues turned and changed their direction, charging Fowl.

Max ran at the other three, those far enough away from Fowl that they hadn’t been in range, getting himself between his team on the air wall.

An empowered shot from Cordellia took the head off a goblin statue as an ice spear from Tanila tore through a stone elf, causing the monster to crumble.

Swinging his weapon at the wolf that had leaped into the air, trying to get to the three softer targets, Max’s blow shattered the statue into almost a hundred pieces. As the rocks fell to the ground, bounding off the soil, he spun to see Fowl taking out the group on him.

Each swing of the dwarf’s hammer either destroyed or crippled one of the monsters, while his shield and armor deflected most of the damage they tried to inflict upon him.

A boulder fell on the group on the left, crushing two of the attackers outright and knocking another one to the side.

Fowl continued to wade through the group, laughing as he swung his new weapon, roaring with excitement at what he could now do.

In less than a minute, all of the statues were down, shattered to pieces that littered the soil at their feet.

“So that wasn’t fun,” Batrire said after they got back on the ground. “Tossing a dwarf like that without warning isn’t appreciated.”

Max laughed and looked at Fowl, who was grinning from ear to ear.

“You seem to be enjoying this. Perhaps we should all just wait and let you do the work from now on.”

“I’d be happy to, but we must wait for my taunt to come off cooldown. At least now we know that they attack like that.”

It took almost eight hours to reach the outside of the coliseum, and they found themselves in the shadow of its massive size.

Stone gargoyles were perched on the ledges, eyes staring down at them, almost daring the party to get closer and risk getting bitten by their massive teeth.

“I’m not saying I’m afraid, but this thing gives me the creeps.”

Max nodded, agreeing with Fowl.

“It seems weird that we’ve done graveyards and other stuff, and yet right now, I’m not sure how I feel about this.”

Tanila pointed to a massive walkway a bit down to the right.

“Looks like that might be the entrance, except there are a lot more statues in the way.”

Everyone saw their mage was right. Statues of people crowded much closer together, carved with details showing their outfits and attire. Each one pointed at the entrance.

Fowl moved closer, weapon at the ready, and got to the first one, smashing it with his hammer.

“Not a monster.”

Without waiting, their warrior continued his movement through the stone crowd, destroying one masterful work of stone before beginning to crush another, clearing a wide berth for them to walk through.

“Seth… do you see this?”

Tanila’s eyes were wide, and her mouth hung open as she approached one of the statues and stared at its face.

Max turned and saw that every statue had the same expression. Eyes wide, mouth open, fear and pain craved into the stone.

“Fowl, wait!” Max shouted as the dwarf destroyed another statue.

As he spoke, thick metal gates rose up from the ground at the edge of the coliseum, rising to the top thirty feet above. The sound of metal clanging against stone rang out all around them as gates everywhere moved into place with a speed that was unnatural, sealing them inside.

“Oh goblin shite,” Batrire cursed. “Don’t tell, it's already started!”

Fowl spun, saw the concern look on Tanila’s face, and frowned.

“What am I missing? What are we facing?”

“A gorgon… something that turns people to stone.”

“Those are myths… aren’t they,” Fowl replied, his voice cracking at the end.

“Nothing is a myth in the tower,” Cordellia said, holding an arrow ready as she frowned. “If it’s a gorgon, we’re in trouble.”

Max nodded as he considered what they were dealing with.

“All those other floors,” he said in a hushed tone. “They were pointing to this.”

“You mean…” Tanila said and stopped herself as she understood what Max was implying.

“Dark, impossible tunnels, running from what we don’t want to see, creatures and monsters that feared the light or were made of stone. It was a warning of what we were going to face.”

Their ranger sucked air in through her teeth, wincing as she scanned the area they were at.

“How do we fight something that we can’t look at?”

“That’s not a problem for Seth,” Fowl replied as he grunted. “The real problem is, what will the rest of us do?”

“I’m not certain he can take one down by himself,” their mage replied. “We’ll need to back him up, but the other problem isn’t just you can’t look at a gorgon when it's close.”

“The poison,” Cordellia added. “It can turn you to stone in time as well.”

“Mother of dragon shite,” Fowl cursed.

A loud screech came from the inside of the colosseum and everyone turned toward the entrance they had been planning on going through.

“We need a plan and fast,” Max said.

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