With the young man stunned and stuck in the wall, the ogre grabbed his kanabō with both of his wide hands and swung the weapon back behind his head, the end of it dropping so low it almost reached the floor. Ready to finish off the brazen young man, the ogre began to swing the wooden weapon back over his head once more. Instead, he was met with a halting resistance. Azim was holding the kanabō by its end with his left hand.
The robot ripped the weapon from the ogre. The force of his grip pulled the monster back along with the weapon, leading it to fall over completely. Azim quickly spun the weapon around so that he was holding the handle, just before the ogre fell onto him. The metal man then swung the giant’s kanabō, cracking it across the back of its head and sending it toppling over to the side. As the others regained composure, they all bore witness to the one-armed, cloaked robot who had knocked the beast unconscious.
As the ogre disappeared from the room, a consequence of having been defeated, and the adventurers walked past the doorway and up the stairs to the next floor, they promised Azim for his success. The knight, in particular, was amazed at how the robot had not been stunned by the loud roar. Of course, he did not know that a “robot” was what Azim was.
Approaching the door to Floor 4 at the top of the stairs, after what felt like five minutes of climbing, the knight stopped. “Alright… we’re here,” he stated slowly.
“There is hesitation in your voice,” Azim called out. “Is everything all right?”
Answering for the armored man, Leone piped up, “Azim! Dude! You gotta be mindful, man. This is the floor he got his ass kicked on! Obviously, he’s not going to be excited about going back.”
The knight did not bother looking back. He was still thinking about what was yet to come. Riva, however, gave Leone another motherly smack upside the back of his head. “Ow! What the— Oh…” Leone muttered, realizing his words hadn’t been any better.
Leone decided to brush past the awkwardness, rushing up to the front of the line and taking charge. “Alright, well let’s not worry about it, let’s find ourselves a champion!”
Before the others could say anything, Leone opened the door and flooded himself and the others with a familiar flash of blue light. Seconds later, the adventurers were in a wide arena, surrounded by several other strangers all battling one another. Some of the characters were familiar as they had been on Floor 2 with Azim and his companions, while others were new faces. All of them, however, were fighting mercilessly.
The adventurers received a personal barrier similar to the one they had been given on the first floor, which lasted just as long. Several of the strangers around them noticed the bubble-covered newcomers, but most did not bother to go after them.
With the addition of Azim and his companions, with Roman to count as an individual in the tower’s eye in place of the robot, there were 22 people in the room. Many were swinging weapons around wildly, others were casting and throwing fireballs across the way, and some were just hiding amidst the chaos. One particular battle between two human fighters was underway directly in front of the group. The two warriors carried similar weapons and wore similar suits of chainmail armor. In fact, other than their distinguishing facial features, the two seemed practically identical, as if deriving from the same knightly calvary. Looking closer, Azim noticed something peculiar. While one of the men was obviously determined, focused on the fight and trying to strike down his opponent, the other was not. In fact, he did not appear to have the will to fight in the slightest. He appeared nervous, as if he did not want to be in the fight he was currently engaged in.
The man’s lack of enthusiasm in the battle at hand eventually got the best of him, leading the driven man to knock the other’s sword away and stab him straight through his chainmail torso. The swordsman leaned on the blade, pushing it downward and forcing his opponent onto his knees. With a final thrust, he delivered the sword another foot deeper into his opponent, before pulling it out and flinging the fresh blood off of the weapon. Azim thought he heard the stabbed knight whisper, “I’m sorry…” before falling to the ground, but could not understand why he would have.
The sword of the fallen warrior flew in the air, landing just shy of Azim and his companions. “Ooh, I’ll take that,” the knight said cheerily, bending down to pick up the weapon. “Ha, Hah!”
Just then, the personal barriers belonging to the adventurers fell, exposing them to the same vulnerability as the rest of the floor. A lizardfolk carrying two small sickles dashed toward the group, abandoning the batten warrior he had been taking on previously. He ran low to the floor, slithering his body as he approached. “Riva, please stand behind Roman,” asserted Azim, making sure the two of them stayed together.
With a quick casting of Scrap Return, the android ripped the two sickles out of the thin lizard’s hands, pulling them with such force that the stranger lost his footing and tripped over himself. The knight jumped forward, swinging down the broadsword he had just picked up. Just before striking the lizardfolk, the reptile rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging the blade. The armored man took another step forward but was surprised to see the thin lizard scurry away in a panic. “Hm…” the knight grumbled, still hunched over. “How the hell did he get this far?”
Azim then turned to Riva and Leone, informing them, “I have noticed several participants on this floor do not engage with one another, going so far as to overcorrect their actions if they come within too close of contact with one another. I suspect there is a sizable number of combatants that are, in some manner or another, working together. This is most peculiar because while an obvious majority of the combatants are vastly different, there are several participants here dressed in similar attire or carrying similar equipment. And yet those individuals do not appear to be on the same side. It is as if they are turning on one another.”
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Before any of them could respond, a half-giant came rampaging toward them. The large man had arrows sticking out of his back and several parallel cuts along his left shoulder, but he did not seem deterred. He was dragging two large bone-made swords behind him, each one serrated along one edge. Azim took guard and prepared for the incoming threat.
From behind the charging hulk, Leone noticed a frail man holding his hand out toward the group. He wondered what he the stranger had to do with the current situation.
Azim ran up to the half-giant and closed the distance between the two of them, keeping him from getting any closer to the rest of the robot’s companions. The large man swung both bone swords in a scissors-like motion, which Azim ducked and rolled to avoid. Popping back up onto one knee, the metal man uppercut the hulking figure in the crotch, stopping him dead in his tracks. The half-giant couldn’t help but drop his beige weapons. Not finished with the assault, Azim sprung up so he was eye level with the half-giant, spinning his torso along his waist axle rod and swinging his arm around. As he met the large figure’s gaze, his spinning arm came back around and crashed into the man’s cheek knocking several teeth out and sending the foe to the ground.
Azim picked up the two bone swords and tossed one of them to Riva. “Leone was correct,” the robot uttered in monotone. “You are in need of something to defend yourself. This is not a permanent solution, but it will serve for now.”
The robot looked back out to the crowd and noticed the same man Leone had a few seconds ago. He was frail, with somewhat dark skin, and had silver piercings in his eyebrows and nose. The man was bald and bore no facial hair. He wore a long black robe with purple highlights trimmed along the entire garb. While his figure was mostly clouded by his garments, Azim could still attest that the man was rather thin, with frail arms sticking out of the sleeves of the robe and the man’s head resting on a thin neck. He held one arm out ahead of him while the other held a scepter of some kind. It was long and made of wood, and resting at the end of it was a glowing purple orb about the size of two hands balled together, which was wrapped in an ornate wooden holding.
“There is someone of possible concern over there,” Azim pointed to the robed man.
“That’s him!” yelled the knight. “That’s the guy that’s playing dirty! Why is he still here? He should have moved up by now.”
“Yeah? I’ll get him!” Leone asserted, wanting to show off to the knight.
Just then, the half-giant stood up, practically unbothered by the robot’s hits, and swung his muscular arm at Leone. The young man narrowly dodged the attack, jumping back as the hulking figure’s fist swung by his face. Azim tried to jump in, slashing the sword he had stolen from the adversary. Instead of striking the giant man, the half-giant grabbed the sword with one hand, smashing the bone into pieces with his grip. Azim tried to punch the large man but was met with the half-giant’s meaty fist knuckled against his, evenly matched. The robot thought. Then, more force began to emanate from the stranger. Azim felt his arm reel back toward him as his opponent pushed his arm forward.
“Spark!”
A flash of yellow and white smacked the half-giant’s face. From a distance, Leone had fired a quick lightning spell to disorient the large man. It was enough. Azim was able to duck back and regroup with the young wizard. Meanwhile, the knight had completely abandoned the group and was running toward the robed bald man.
A feliome berserker and an elf knight rushed the armored human, but unluckily for them, he was taking quite a liking to his new sword. With the use of the gauntlets in his armor, he enhanced his blade to deal more damage, gyrating and swerving to slash both targets back before they could even land one attack. He knew it wouldn’t be enough to keep them down and they would be up soon, but he was not worried about them. He left the two fighters behind and continued toward his prize.
“YOU!” the knight screamed, drawing back his new sword behind his head.
“Why, look who it is?!” announced the black-robed man. “I didn’t think you were still alive!”
“To hell with the rules of this floor or the requirements needed…” declared the man in armor. “I don’t care about moving up. I just care… about striking you down!”
Just then, three strangers blocked the path between him and the dark-skinned man. The knight could see the faint glow of the man’s scepter from behind the wall of fighters, but nothing else. He halted in his tracks and pulled his blade forward, keeping his guard.
In front of him was the terram from before, another berserker class by the look of it, as well as an amphiome wizard and batten hunter, both of which were new faces. As if that wasn’t enough, the feliome and elf that the knight had thoughtlessly knocked away had returned and were cornering him on either side. The armored man was surrounded, and the robed bald man, thanks to the five fighters that had approached the knight for seemingly no reason, was at a serious advantage.
“I don’t know how you survived, but I’m honestly not all that dismayed,” the knight heard the dark-skinned man utter from behind the wall of fighters. “It just means I get to play with you all over again!”
All at once, the five combatants facing the knight swarmed the man, leaving him with no room to fight back.
Azim and Leone had just finished taking down the half-giant when they noticed the knight in trouble. Azim was still thinking about the effort it took him to take down the adversary, and how he even appreciated Leone’s help. For whatever reason, the hulking man before them had harbored the same strange constitution that the borcs had shown, making them tougher than Azim’s own natural robo-strength. He figured he still had a lot to learn about magic in this world, but now was not the time to focus on it. For now, they had to help the knight and clear this floor.
The robot and the young man rushed to the swarm of fighters encroaching on the knight, lining up with him as he walked back from them all. Azim scanned the five enemies in front of them. The large feliome carried a giant sledgehammer. The knightly elf sported a standard sword and shield. The terram in front of him was much larger than Reavius, with many more rocky protrusions erupting from his body. He was barehanded. The amphiome was unarmed as well, though she appeared to be more magical than brutish, as Leone had described the one he had fought in Appilus. Finally, the batten wielded a pair of knives, though the robot could tell she looked out of place, and would fit in better in an environment with more obstacles hiding places.
With not a lot of options in front of him, Azim turned around and scanned the surrounding area. He saw one fighter swinging around a large triangular sword with a hole embedded in it and fixated on it. The robot calculated the trajectory necessary and threw the bone sword from the half-giant and the fighting stranger, knocking them in the head with the weapon, causing them to loosen the grip on their own. With that, Azim commanded the sword to come to him, sending it zipping across the arena and into his hand.
With Azim and the knight both wielding sizable swords and Leone casting Strength Switch, the three of them were ready to take on the enemies ahead of them.
