The chat exploded as adventurers tried to coordinate; any semblance of order vanished completely. The destruction of the tower had led to a large swarm of minions spawning from the unmitigated stream of mana, which was causing trouble for the adventurers on the ground, who were already struggling with the increased mana overload debuff.

  Elijah didn’t have time to worry about that, though. As the lift rose higher up the tower, more minions spawned out of the shaft of pure mana. These were miniature versions of Whir, but instead of tank treads on their feet, they had some sort of pulsing blue half-spheres. They flew around the lift at high speed, darting in to attack the three players with their drills.

  Elijah desperately wished he had a shield as he caught one drill against his forearm. He felt the bones shatter in his arm as it hit him. The minion had spotted Bo through his stealth and moved in to attack. He swore in pain as he brought his other arm around to slam his blade into the mob’s core. The force of his swing sent it flying off in the other direction.

  Even with Annika’s healing, he didn’t want to take many more hits like that, but he had to defend Bo. At the moment, the rogue was essentially defenseless. They’d found out early on in their rise that Bo had to keep both hands on the control panel otherwise the lift would plummet back down to the ground floor. They couldn’t afford to lose any more time, so it was up to Annika and Elijah to defend the man until they reached the top.

  Annika, for her part, was doing well to switch quickly between attacking the minions with blasts of flower petals and healing Elijah and herself. Healers had an advantage that Elijah hadn’t thought about in this scenario. They could heal off the damage done to them by the mana overload while regenerating their mana significantly quicker than normal. It was a feedback loop that worked very well for healer classes.

  Elijah summoned a swarm of bats to push back the minion who had been attempting to attack Bo, then countered with a set of bat bombs. The Dragontooth Bats seemed almost excited by the chance to bludgeon themselves against enemies and explode into bursts of magic. That was good at least; Elijah had felt bad about using the scout bats for this purpose. The bomber bats sitting on his shoulders were restless; they wanted to get in on the action too.

  He wondered what it said about him that every summon he had seemed eager to either kill, die violently, or both. Nothing good, he was sure of that.

  “Halfway,” Bo called out, staring up towards the top platform of the tower. They’d been rising for several minutes now, and the lift wasn’t speeding up as it elevated. Another machine came cruising in to ram Bo off the platform or spear him with its drill, and Elijah had to use one of his already summoned bat bombs to knock it off course. His mana filled now that he was down to only four. That was fine; he’d been getting low anyway. He let it get back up to three-quarters full before re-summoning the fifth bomb. He recalled it as it flew away. It came back and landed atop his head, spreading its wings out over his ears like a hat.

  He was about to knock it off when Bo laughed. “That’s a good look on you, man,” he chuckled before his eyes went wide. “Incoming behind you!”

  Elijah turned and saw two more bots, drills forward, speeding in to attack him. He knocked one away with his sword, but wasn’t able to dodge out of the way of the other. The drill caught him in the stomach and rammed through him. He tasted blood in his mouth as he looked down at the drill. It was rotating while stuck in him, and he could see viscera sloshing onto the ground. His health plummeted, but the smothering warmth of Annika’s healing magic kept him from being sent for respawn.

  He almost wished she hadn’t saved him this time.

  He swung his blade, but the angle was wrong, his eyes were watering from the pain and the corner of his vision was going black. Healing magic could restore his body, but it did nothing for the pain he was in now, nor would it help with the memory of the pain. He had to act now, or he risked going insane.

  His swarm spell would push the enemy away, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t focus on summoning the bats from his shadow. A chirping sound from his left shoulder caught his attention.

  He was about to really put Annika’s magic to the test. The four bat bombs on his shoulders detached their talons from his shirt and jumped the short distance to the enemy, and with a mental command he ignited them.

  His world erupted in a fury of fire and pain.

  He couldn’t recall what had happened in the moments after the explosion. He just remembered the pain and the sound of distant screaming.

  Was it his own screams?

  He came too lying on the ground on the other side of the lift as it clicked into place at the top of the tower. Bo released the controls and rushed over to him.

  The rogue was saying something to him, but all he could hear was ringing and a distant thumping. Or maybe it was drumming?

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Bo turned to scream something at Annika. Elijah knew she was healing him. Some part in the back of his mind, away from the pain his body was in, could feel her warm, embracing magic. She was healing him, but his health was still dropping faster than she could recover. It was there in his vision, ticking down dangerously low now.

  His mind was too focused on the pain to comprehend what was going on, but Bo grabbed his head and lifted it. He felt the skin of his neck crunch like chips as the man tilted his head. The pain of moving was unbearable. Bo pulled something out of his inventory and held it to Elijah’s lips. He felt the familiar sensation of a glass vial being pressed to his lips.

  He panicked.

  A mana potion was the last thing he needed right now. He tried to fight back, his arm—charred and blackened—reached up to force the man’s hand away from his face. Bo was fighting him, trying to force his mouth open, but Elijah struggled, causing his health to dip faster.

  He saw Annika scream something to Bo, and she took the vial forcefully out of his hands. Through the haze in his mind, he found it so strange that his friend would be trying to kill him, but it was the Celestial who he didn’t trust who recognized that more mana wasn’t what he needed right now.

  She lifted the vial to her mouth before kneeling down next to Elijah and leaning in close to him. Her magic was stronger now, warmer somehow. Her face was close to his own, her blue eyes staring into his. She reached out and pinched his nose, causing him to open his mouth to breathe.

  And she kissed him.

  He wasn’t cognizant enough to fight; the absolute shock and audacity of this woman caused him to hesitate and stop fighting.

  Cold, slightly bitter liquid passed from her lips to his own, and he had to swallow to stop himself from drowning in the liquid.

  [Poisoned]

  Mana Bane Poison

  Tier: Legendary

  Description: Disable all mana regeneration from all sources for 60 minutes.

  He realized immediately what had happened even through the fog of the pain. By using most of his ‘Dragontooth Bombs’ he’d stopped draining his own mana and the area debuff had been damaging him. The damage added to the bleed effect he saw in the corner of his vision had been too much for Annika to overcome, even with her Celestial-tier spells. He was just lucky the bat that had been sitting atop his head had survived the blast as its presence—somewhere in the room—was currently draining his mana away and prevented the debuff from sticking around.

  Her lips parted from his, and he could see his blood now smeared on her face.

  Even though his body was healed, his mind remained uneasy. The trauma was still there, hidden beneath the surface of his psyche. And to make matters worse, the bats were disquieted. They normally passively fed off the steady stream of mana from his natural regeneration, a stream that was no longer there. They were even more furious now, trying to break through the dam to his mana reserves.

  Like overeager parasites wanting to drain their host’s lifeblood.

  There was so much to do, and so little time. To avoid being overwhelmed, he had to compartmentalize and handle things one at a time.

  He stood slowly, feeling his body ache in a way he didn’t expect, since he was nearly fully healed. The ringing in his ears had nearly gone away, but his mind still wasn’t processing words correctly. He looked down at his clothes. His blue hoodie and black jeans. The clothes that he’d been wearing when he’d stepped into his FIVR pod. The game’s default wardrobe for him when he wasn’t wearing armor. They were in tatters, burnt and torn to shreds.

  An idea cropped up in his mind. The bats wanted his mana, wanted to be out in the world. He’d give them the chance to earn it, just like he’d done when he first summoned his Batwing Blade.

  He envisioned what he wanted from them and let them loose. His shadow swarmed around him, a mix of darkness, fur and wings. They wrapped around his body like a second skin. They were tight—too tight—constricting his already sore body. He worried that he had been wrong, that they wouldn’t heed his commands. Elijah focused more closely on his subclass. The Dragontooth King—they would listen to him.

  They bulged outward, finally giving him relief from the constant pressure, and bent to his will. When they finished, he now wore something reminiscent of leather armor that was dyed black. The buckles—deep purple, barely lighter than the black of the armor—were shaped like bats. From each shoulder draped panels that appeared to be a fine gossamer. They didn’t flow like cloth, instead lagging a split second behind where they should naturally be as he moved. The bottom edges appeared tattered, but instead of splitting and fraying, the cloth seemed instead to vanish into speckles of shadow. At his waist, two more panels hung from his hips, obscuring the position of his upper legs. These panels seemed heavier than the two on his shoulders, reacting slightly slower.

  He grinned as he tested his range of motion. The bats that made up the armor shifted and maneuvered as he did, giving him total range of movement. And from what he could judge from the thickness of the armor, they actively moved to reduce the weight.

  [Item]

  Armor of the Dragontooth King

  Rank: Legendary

  Damage Reduction: +87%

  Condition: 100/100

  The armor didn’t have any enchantment slots, but Elijah could sense that it was soul-bound to him. Which made sense because it was made from his own living shadow. He’d have to see if he could wrap the shadow around other armor to amplify its use, but he could worry about that when this entire ordeal was over. He turned to face Bo and Annika, who had watched the whole thing unfold with wide-eyed awe.

  “Dude,” Bo said with a grin.

  Elijah smiled back at him. “I know, right? This is some awesome armor.”

  Bo shook his head. “No man, that’s not it.”

  “That whole thing.” He twirled his fingers in the air. “It looked like a magical girl transformation.”