Morgan stopped before he stepped onto the stairs leading to the fourth floor. He’d asked Issa to wait for him back on the first floor and assumed that Ykleedra was still in the atrium. He was alone for the moment, and he wanted to pause to gather his thoughts. Was he rushing this encounter for sex? He almost laughed at the idea, but the concern was valid. Issa had said he should hurry up and clear the fifth floor to open up the bedrooms, but she’d been at least partially joking around. He figured if they really wanted privacy, they could use any of the other rooms that had a door. No, Morgan wasn’t rushing this particular fight; he’d been planning on attempting the fourth guardian ever since he’d learned the Azure Burst spell, and since then, he’d improved his swordwork and gotten a fantastic new sword.

Morgan nodded to himself, gripped the hilt of his sword in two hands, held it in a guard position, and mounted the stairs. His third step brought him to the landing of the fourth floor. The landing here was different from any others; no doors were leading away, and the room around the stairs was larger. A warm yellow-orange light suffused the space, seemingly emanating from the smooth plaster ceiling itself. Large black and white tiles made up the flooring, laid in a checkerboard pattern. From his vantage, Morgan could only see about half the room, but along the wall, about twenty feet from the stairs, he saw three ornately carved stone archways that seemed to be placed against the dark iron-like material of the tower walls. In other words, they led nowhere.

The archways were the size of a large door, wide enough for two people to walk through shoulder to shoulder and around eight feet high at their peaks. Morgan cautiously stepped away from the stairs and slowly turned, taking in the rest of the room. He could see that another three similarly carved archways lined the other half of the room. He had almost turned in a complete circle when he noticed movement and an accompanying sound: the grinding clang of a heavy metal foot stepping on the tile. Morgan slowly circled to his right, sidestepping around the central stairway. As he moved, he saw the dark shadow come forth from beside one of the stone archways - It looked like a thin man with four arms, but its movements were jerky and strange, and it rattled and clanged as it moved. “What is this? A robot?”

As he muttered the question, the being’s head swiveled quickly toward him, and Morgan saw the glowing, angular red eyes illuminating matte black sockets and cheekbones. As he cleared the stairwell and squared off with the thing, Morgan could see that it was essentially an iron skeleton, complete with orange oxidation stains. “Oh, great.” He looked at his sword, wondering how well the enchanted blade would hold up against a metal enemy. The skeleton’s four arms moved suddenly, swiveling at the elbows and reaching toward its back. Each of its hands seemed to grab something, and then they jerked outward into a wide stance, four rusty, iron shortswords extending from each hand.

About twenty feet separated Morgan and the iron skeleton, and Morgan decided to take the initiative. He activated his Hollow Charge ability, aiming to the skeleton’s left and swinging his sword in a powerful sideways slash, using his arms, his entire core, and the momentum of his charge to power the attack. The skeleton reacted swiftly, faster than Morgan probably could have countered if he weren’t under the effect of his charge ability. Still, it wasn’t fast enough - two of its swords hit Morgan’s blade and were shattered by the impact. Amid bits of flying iron, Morgan’s sword cleaved on as he flashed past the skeleton, and he felt the concussion of his sword slamming into the iron monster’s ribs deep in the bones of his wrists. He held his sword perfectly, though, and used his momentum and strength to power through the slash, ripping a furrow an inch deep into the iron ribs and sending the skeleton crashing back into the tower wall. Morgan immediately dropped his blade into The Crane Forages, moving toward the skeleton while its limbs flailed and it struggled to gain its footing.

As he got close, he lunged into The Crane Takes a Minnow, trying to stab the sword between the ribs of the lurching, flailing creature as it scrambled to its feet. Midway through his attack, the skeleton moved, and Morgan corrected his angle of attack, but his larger movements were too fast for him to adjust the grip and angle of his blade, and he growled with frustration as it skidded along the iron pelvis of the construct. He was bringing his sword around, about to launch into The Crane Flutters its Wings, when the skeleton got its feet underneath it and burst into motion. Its eyes flared a brighter shade of red, and it stood up tall, swinging its two remaining swords in a flurry of blows and grasping and clawing with its two empty hands.

It was all Morgan could do to parry two heavy slashes, but a clawing iron hand grabbed him around the vambrace of his left arm, pulling him off balance. Morgan swung his arms in a tight circle to break the grip, but a sword skidded over his breastplate, and another punched into his thigh while he was doing that. He grunted in pain and activated Azure Burst. Crackling blue flames erupted from his center, flaring out in a circle and blasting the skeleton away to crash into the iron wall once again. Morgan realized it had left its sword in his thigh, so he pulled it out and stowed it in his ring.

Grimacing and limping, he walked to the skeleton, which seemed to be stunned. The light in its eyes had dimmed, and its limbs were twitching slightly. As he approached, the skeleton moved its head to look directly at him, and then the eyes started to regain their luster. Morgan brought his blade up to his style’s form of a high guard, The Crane Advances, and approached. He was wary because the iron skeleton hadn’t made a move to stand, and its eyes continued to increase in brightness. Morgan was contemplating how he might try to finish the unmoving thing when its eyes suddenly flared so brightly that Morgan had to turn away. He had time to blink once, and then a beam of red fire lanced into his chest.

Morgan used every ounce of his agility to leap to the side, rolling away from the beam, but the skeleton merely had to track him with its eyes. The scorching red beam melted a runnel into his breastplate, and when he rolled, it scorched down, ripping through his enchanted girdle and scorching the flesh of his side and hip into a blistered, blackened mess. The pain and impact of the scorching blast knocked him to the ground. Thankfully, the beam sputtered at that point, and Morgan had a momentary reprieve. He could hear the skeleton clanking and scrabbling against the tile, trying to stand, and he knew he had to do the same. He did his best to ignore the white-hot pain of his side and pushed himself up to his knee, then to his feet.

Morgan limped toward the skeleton, which had just regained its footing. Its eyes were dimmed to a faint red luminosity, but otherwise, it seemed largely unharmed. Morgan was aching, and he felt stiff and slow, but he knew he had to do something. The skeleton must be a creature that was dependent on Energy to function, so he did what he did best: he activated Hollow Charge again, thrusting with his sword, trying to gain purchase between the skeleton’s ribs. Again, his charge was too fast for the skeleton to avoid, so his strike hit home; he felt his blade slide between the skeleton’s ribs, and he immediately activated Energy Drain.

He felt red hot Energy flood through his sword, into his hands, and through his pathways to his Core. He urged his Core to spin ever faster, pulling the Energy in with all his might. The skeleton’s thrashing slowed, and the light in its eyes dimmed to just a faint glimmer. Morgan, meanwhile, felt his flesh regenerating from the stolen Energy and raised his knee, slamming the heel of his boot into the skeleton’s pelvis and sending its weakly thrashing frame off his sword and sprawling to the ground. The skeleton laboriously rose to its hands and knees, and Morgan approached it from behind. He unleashed a flurry of blows with The Crane Flutters its Wings, each mighty angular cleave aimed at its head and neck.

His dark blade carved shadowy arcs through the air, clanging and ripping into the skeleton’s skull and neck. With his fourth blow, he felt the edge of his blade bite deeply into the spine of the construct. He wrenched the buried sword down, dragging the skeleton to the floor, then he stomped on the back of the blade, forcing it through the final portion of the metal vertebrae, shattering the brittle, rusty bone. The skeleton’s head rolled free, the fire in its eyes wholly gone, and its frame collapsed in an ungainly heap.

Large, dense motes of Energy built up around the downed enemy and poured forth into Morgan. He felt his fatigue wash away, and the residual pain of his wounds faded to just a faint ache.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 17 Hollow Guard. You have gained 5 Strength, 5 Will, 4 Vitality, 4 Intelligence, and 3 Agility.***

He pulled the remnants of his girdle off and dropped it, looking to where his flesh had been seared when the skeleton had tried to immolate him. His skin was pink and tender, but he didn’t bear any terrible scars. He sat down on the hard tile, sighing. These fights weren’t getting any easier, and he was worried about his attribute points. He pulled up his status sheet:

Status

Name:

Morgan Hall

Race:

Human - Base 4

Class:

Hollow Guard - Advanced

Level:

17

Core:

Vortex Class - Base 3

Energy Affinity:

9.2

Energy:

1050/1320

Strength:

50

Vitality:

48

Dexterity:

8

Agility:

36

Intelligence:

56

Will:

50

Points Available:

0

Titles & Feats:

Human Champion, First Hollow Guard, Ardeni Friend, Mark of Loyalty, Yovashi Bane, Legacy of the Azure Paladin

Skills:

System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable Animal Taming - Basic Stealthy Maneuvers - Basic Melee Weapon Mastery - Basic Fighting Crane Style - Basic Sword Mastery - Improved Vortex Core Cultivation Drill - Basic Backstab - Basic Energy Drain - Improved Guard Ally - Basic Hollow Charge - Basic Azure Burst - Basic

His dexterity deficit was becoming more and more pronounced. Even before this level, he’d had trouble with his agility and strength being too much for his fine motor skills to cope with. He either had to hope for a class refinement at twenty that allowed him to gain dexterity, or he needed to find another way to improve it. He would rather get started improving it now - he’d theoretically have sixty-five strength at level twenty and still only have eight dexterity. It was already hard to manage his body when he went full out; he didn’t want to hold himself back constantly.

“Congratulations, Morgan! You’ve gained mastery of the fourth floor!” Tiladia’s chime-like voice startled him out of his reverie, and Morgan stood up with a grunt.

“Thanks, Tiladia.”

“Morgan!” Issa’s voice came from the other side of the stairwell.

“I’m here! All’s good.” He started walking around to her, but she beat him to it, practically running around the stairs to grab him into a bear-hug.

“I hate that this tower makes you fight alone!” she said into his chest. Morgan laughed softly and hugged her back.

“It’s alright, I’m not really hurt, but I lost my old Urghat girdle from the Crucible. Also, I don’t think I should try the next guardian until I do something about my dexterity. I had to slow down my attacks in order to aim and maneuver my sword properly.” Issa looked at Morgan’s scorched and parted girdle; then, she traced a finger along the melted runnel on his breastplate and down his side, where his shirt had been burned away. She slipped her hand into the burnt cloth and gently rubbed the pink skin where his burn had healed. Morgan felt himself responding to the warm, gentle caress, and he pulled back, clearing his throat.

“Do I want to know how bad this was before you healed it with your Energy Drain?” She asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Nah, it wasn’t a big deal.” He said, taking her hand in his and walking over to one of the imposing, stone archways. “Tiladia, tell me more about these portals.”