“What is it?” Sorin yelled back to Rue. “One of the monkeys?”

  “No, it’s bigger,” she said.

  He doubted it was the ruin guardian. They tended to lurk near the center, or wherever the seed was. It might be a sort of area guardian though, something that ruled over one particular section of the ruin. Usually, they had some sort of thematic tie to whatever monsters inhabited that section, which meant it was probably a bigger, nastier version of the rat-looking things they were already fighting.

  Kind of surprising, though. I would have called these a swarm monster, and they don’t generally have a singular guardian. Usually there’d be three or—

  That thought was interrupted by a second thump on the ceiling overhead. “Shit,” Sorin swore.

  “Two more!” Rue practically screamed, fear evident in her voice.

  And there it is. Fuck this tower. Why is it so much harder than my old one?

  The first area guardian, what climbers sometimes referred to as a sub-boss, practically flew down the stairs. Odric was there to meet it, but it slammed into him at full speed and bowled the big man over. The two rolled across the floor, the monster biting and clawing at him while he tried to hold its gnashing teeth back from his face and regain his feet.

  Sorin didn’t have much time to spare to even look at the monster, but he needed to know what was behind him in case Odric failed to contain it. Or, more likely, because he’d be fighting two or three more of them in the next few seconds. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Odric desperately grappling with what looked something like a hamster blown up to a hundred times its normal size, except its fur was the same gray as everything else’s, and bristly like a boar’s. Its eyes glowed red and its teeth were razor sharp, forward-curved fangs.

  Not for the first time, Sorin missed having access to A-ranked soulprints. If he’d had a fully empowered ice soulprint, he could have simply sealed off the entrances with sheets of unbreakable ice. Hell, he could have built a shell made of ice anywhere, even in the depths of a volcano, and kept them safe. At only E-rank, however, all he had was a slightly bigger and sharper projectile.

  His soulspace couldn’t hold even a D-ranked soulprint right now, let alone an A. He had to work within the realms of possibility, and that meant death by exsanguination to every single rat monster that dared show its ugly little face in this house. At least, it did until Odric immediately lost control of the stairs. Now, they had a few seconds at most before another of the evil hamsters joined the fight.

  “Od!” Rue screeched.

  Sorin heard her feet slam across the floor as she darted forward in a reckless rush to save her brother. Nemari immediately yelped in pain, no doubt unable to hold the front door by herself. Mentally cursing, he summoned ice blades in a burst of anima to kill every rat he could see, then spun on his heel and shot three more shards into the interior of the house. One of them sank into the back of the monster Odric was grappling with, distracting it long enough for Rue to carve open its flank on the other side.

  The other two slammed into a second of the overstuffed hamsters as it came into view, hitting it hard enough to throw it to the floor. Sorin didn’t have time to see if it was still alive, but the fact that there was no trickle of anima made him sure he’d failed to actually kill it. If he’d had a few more seconds, he probably could have finished it off, but he could already hear more rats scrabbling over the stone.

  Sure enough, there were six of them in the room now with another three cresting the windowsill even as he spun back around. A hail of ice blades erupted out of him, skewering four of the rats where they stood. But it wasn’t enough, and he had to put the sword in his hands to work defending himself.

  Iron Body proved its worth as his newest soulprint a second later when the first monster reached him. Its little claws scrabbled against his skin, tearing the leg of his pants open but failing to penetrate flesh. Sorin’s blade flashed down, its point driving into the monster’s body and flicking it to the side. Tiny scraps of cloth went with it, still clutched in the rat’s claws.

  He killed the other rats quickly enough to prevent another from reaching him, but just as he was getting caught back up, the rest of his team lost control of the other side of the house. A third area guardian bounced down the stairs to join the other two, both of whom were still alive despite their many injuries. Nemari was completely overwhelmed and blew all of her anima burning away the rats that were swarming her, and Odric could scarcely keep up with the mounting injuries he was taking trying to protect his sister.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  We might just be fucked, Sorin thought as he took a moment to survey the situation. Nemari’s down to beating things with her staff, and we’ve got more of those smaller rats coming in. Rue and I are the only ones still killing things, and these area guardians are too tough for her to handle all of them at once.

  Thanks in part to Iron Body, Sorin was confident that he would survive. Having rats crawling all over him, trying to eat him alive, would be unpleasant, but ultimately not a threat. He’d just have to kill the big monsters first, then he could take his time on the rest of the swarm. His companions, on the other hand, were completely fucked unless he came up with something.

  He didn’t have a clever solution to save them. His soulprints were limited to Ice Blade, Warrior’s Vigilance, Acuity, and Iron Body, all of which he was already using to full effect. He didn’t have the room in his soulspace or the time to manually form any other sort of ability, nor did he have the time to kill all the monsters before they started eating the rest of the team.

  The best he could do was attack the sub-bosses and hopefully kill them while the smaller rats chewed on him. If we’re really lucky, killing the big ones will cause the small ones to flee. It’s a gamble, but it’s all I’ve got.

  Sorin turned his back on the rats pouring in through the windows and the open door and lunged at one of the giant bundles of bristly gray fur. He had just enough time to dodge a white flash of some sort of magic before he felt the first rat slam into the back of his leg. The impact wasn’t strong enough to stagger Sorin, and he ignored the monster clinging to him to ram his sword into the sub-boss’s face. The monster screeched and flinched back but not quickly enough to escape Sorin.

  He twisted the blade and jerked it upward into the monster’s brain, killing it instantly. Ice blades formed around him, lancing through the air to strike another of the sub-bosses. The remaining two had Rue and Odric tied up, while Nemari was doing remarkably well at spinning her staff around defensively to keep herself safe, even if she wasn’t actually killing anything.

  If he’d had a few more seconds, Sorin was confident he could kill a second of the giant rodents. Unfortunately, that wasn’t feasible. The rats he’d let into the house uncontested streamed past him, a few dozen charging at Odric and Rue while another five or ten leaped on Sorin himself. He could feel his anima starting to drain faster as Iron Body pulled on his reserves to keep him safe.

  Shit, maybe I overestimated how much time I’d have to deal with the big ones. At this rate, I doubt I’ve got more than thirty seconds before I run dry, even if I don’t use any more anima throwing ice blades.

  With the weight of what he guessed was at least eight rats hanging off his clothes slowing him down, Sorin moved a bit slower than he otherwise would have. That wasn’t enough to stop him from meeting what he hoped was the last of the sub-bosses as it came down the stairs. He quickly carved it up, but not before Rue joined Nemari in screaming in pain and fear.

  The rest of his team had killed another of the giant rodents, leaving just one more still standing. It was wounded already, and if it was actually the last of them, Sorin was confident he could kill it quickly so they could focus on defeating the remnants of the rat swarm. But it’d be better if they just scattered. So, of course, they won’t. The tower is never merciful like that.

  The last of the four sub-bosses went down with Sorin and Rue both focusing on it, but not quickly enough to save Nemari from completely disappearing under a mound of rats. Her screams could still be heard, and Odric bravely waded in, grasping at the rodents and hurling them away with both hands. He dug through the pile of living vermin and made contact with the fire mage.

  Good, that will keep her alive for another few seconds. With the giant rodents all dead, they turned their attention to saving Nemari. Sorin’s blade flicked out over and over, flashing with expert precision as it killed rats on the top of the pile and swept them away. Rue, perhaps better sensing Nemari’s exact position and more confident in her ability to strike without wounding her friend, brutally plunged her own swords down into the heaving, squirming pile.

  As Sorin had suspected, the rats didn’t disperse with the death of their leaders. If anything, their numbers only continued to swell. “We need to run for it,” he called out.

  “How? We can’t even get Nemari out from under the pile!” Odric yelled back, still frantically hurling rats away with one hand while keeping another clamped on Nemari to channel healing magic into her.

  Before Sorin could break the news that they’d have to leave their team leader behind if the rest wanted to survive, a detonation of light outside the house blinded them all. The rats in particular were affected by it, shrieking in shrill voices. Dazed, they stopped moving for a few seconds, an opportunity Sorin didn’t waste. He swept the stunned monsters off himself and sent out waves of ice blades to slaughter everything around them.

  Odric was too focused on keeping Nemari alive to do anything else, but Rue took advantage of the momentary respite to kill another ten or so rats. Sorin wanted to tell her that it wasn’t worth the effort, but he didn’t have the heart. It was very possible that the three novice climbers were about to die, and if they wanted to remain loyal to the end, well, he couldn’t fault them for that.

  He was going to survive, however. And without Rue’s ability to sense anima keeping him safe from the illusions the ruin’s other resident monsters utilized, he’d have no choice but to try to flee. If I even can, he thought bitterly. Whatever that flash of light was, it was a complication.

  Suddenly, with a bellow, a man burst through the door. Golden light rolled off his body in waves, so strong that it drove off many of the rats and left the ones too close to him insensate. Not one to hesitate, Sorin threw himself into killing everything that was left.

  He wasn’t a moment too soon, either. Within ten seconds, the light started to dim, but by then, the team had regained enough ground to save Nemari. By the time the man’s glow went out, the monsters were all dead, and Odric was hard at work stabilizing their fire mage.

  Sorin blinked in surprise as he studied their rescuer. “Hey, I know you,” he said.