"What was that?" Lovia asked as they ascended the staircase to the next floor.

"What do you mean?" Zane asked.

"When you just pierced all those goblins, it somehow felt different," she said.

"That . . . that wasn't me, not completely," Zane responded.

"That wasn't you? What do you mean?" "Erebus . . . he did something, just like that day . . ." Zane said. "That day?" Lovia asked.

Zane felt the tears welling up again.

"Not now . . . It's . . . complicated" Zane said, trying to avoid the conversation.

Lovia looked at him with worry. "S-Sure . . ." she said.

It took the four a while to get to the next floor. They emerged from a small opening in the ground and found themselves inside what looked like a cave system. Stalactites hung from the ceiling and stalagmites grew out of the ground like trees.

A cave is next . . . so this is where we meet those fucking things . . .

Zane tensed up a little at the thought of what awaited them.

"Everything alright?" Lovia asked.

"For now . . . but they'll be here soon," Zane said.

"They?" she asked.

"Stalkers."

"Are you sure?" Lovia looked around the tunnel they were in hectically.

"I-Is something wrong?" Rex asked.

"Not yet," Lovia said, still looking around the tunnel, studying the walls carefully. "For now we have no choice but to go deeper."

"T-Then we shouldn't lose any time . . . right?" Rex asked.

Zane nodded. The group proceeded deeper into the cave, following the tunnel. The only thing that lit up the cave was Zane's lantern and the occasional glowing crystal hanging down from the ceiling or sticking out of the walls. The tunnel led them to a natural bridge which had another tunnel at the other end and led them over a raging river that was at the bottom of a large cavern.

They even got a river in here . . . must be trying to go all out for the last floor . . . I hope . . . please let this be the last.

And there it was again, the feeling that someone or something was watching them. But after what happened on the last floor Zane wasn't sure if it was Erebus, looking for the perfect moment to make him pay, or if the stalkers had already found then, waiting for the opportunity to attack them. He tried to sense their presences but besides their's, there was nothing but by doing so he noticed that something about their driver was off, his presence was far stronger than that of a normal person.

Perhaps an Aura user . . .

The light coming from the lantern was barely enough for them to see each other, seeing what was beneath or above wasn't possible. They slowly went over the bridge, Lovia made sure Rex stayed close to them. Zane felt a feeling of uneasiness creeping up inside of him, what made him feel this way wasn't that he didn't know what was coming, it was that he knew what exactly was out there. He twitched at every noise he heard, always preparing for the worst. They reached the other side of the bridge without any incidents, but even on the other side, the feeling didn't leave him.

This tunnel was much wider than the last, stone pillars grew out of the walls and went straight to the other side, like pipes. It was a bizarre sight. They had to duck often to avoid hitting their heads on the stone pipes and Zane even had to crawl at times due to his immense height and at other times they needed to climb over them. The tunnel only led in one direction, there were no splits or anything but there were holes in the wall, large enough for someone to crawl through.

Is this just to tire us out? Or so we can't hide . . .

After a while, they came into a large round cavern. The upper half of the wall was cut off by a small overhang and was filled with holes, just like the ones that were scattered all across the cave. Growling came from the holes above them.

So this is where we fight them.

"Get ready," Zane said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

He flipped open his satchel and opened the containers.

"Blood Hydra!" he said.

Five snake-like heads emerged from the containers and surrounded Zane. He then proceeded to open the other satchel and grabbed two firebombs.

Need to make all of these count . . . I still have five of these . . . let's just hope it's enough.

The growling became louder with each passing minute. The four waited in anticipation, Zane with the blood heads, Lovia with her chain at the ready and Rex, his rapier drawn, standing behind the unarmed driver. A sharp scream reached their ears, letting them know that the fight had begun. The lantern that Zane had put on the floor lit up most of the cavern, all the way up to the ceiling but they still couldn't see their approach.

Creatures with long arms and legs emerged from the holes, some watched them from the overhangs others crawled down the side of the walls and a few were crawling along the ceiling, their claws dug deep into the stone. The creatures' arms and legs were about two meters in length. They had human-like faces but their ears were so long and sharp that they seemed more like horns. Thin white hair was growing from their heads and their skin was of a light grey colour. One that hung from the ceiling looked down at Zane, it let out another sharp scream, showing its sharp teeth, each and every single one looked like the fangs of a snake. The creature's eyes were shut close, making them unable to see. But if the old stories are to be believed then they would be able to hear the slightest movement, smell the faintest smell, could feel the lightest vibration and had a bat-like sonar ability. They were the apex predators of every cave system.

Zane's body began shaking slightly and a feeling of helplessness spread inside him. Zane could see about two dozen stalkers, all directing their full attention to the four people in the middle of the cavern.

The first made its move, it pounced at Lovia. She reacted quickly and hurled her chain at it, which wrapped around the creature. Lovia spun around, swinging the chain in the process and slammed the stalker into the wall. The creature let out a scream of pain but there was no sign of injury on its body. The others all began screaming in response, it was loud and left Zane with a loud ringing in his ears. The one Lovia had slammed into the wall began to strain against the chain, which began to squeak as the creature began bending the links and eventually broke them. With a metallic clink, they hit the ground.

“Shit!” Lovia said.

“You have another weapon right?” Zane asked quickly.

He was relieved when he saw her nod. She opened up a satchel she had and pulled out another chain, this one was thicker than the last, but also a lot shorter. She removed the chain she currently had on her gauntlet and connected the new one to it. The stalkers began charging at them.

“Rush!” Zane said.

The five hydra heads rushed towards the approaching stalkers.

“Bite!”

The heads bit down, keeping the stalkers in place but the teeth didn't even get close to piercing their skin. Skin more durable than any armour, more durable than any shield and even more durable than most castle walls.

“Closer!”

The heads began moving closer to each other, dragging the stalkers along, even though Zane used a fairly uncertain command. He let out a short sigh in relieve. It was difficult to move them but easier than he expected since none of them retaliated. He pressed the button on one of the firebombs he was holding and threw it at the now bunched up stalkers. As the bomb it the ground it exploded and created a large wave of flames that consumed the stalkers. In the same moment, Zane had the hydra heads let go of them for a short moment, letting the flames creep up their bodies.

“Bite!”

The heads bit back down, this time cleanly severing their heads.

That's five down, four bombs left. What about the others?

Zane turned around. Lovia was throwing the stalkers into each other, doing no damage but keeping them away. The driver was wrestling with one of them and had been pressed against the wall, his arms being crushed but to Zane's surprise, they regenerated.

So he's was Aura user . . . explains his physical capabilities.

Zane looked for Rex but he was nowhere to be seen.

He must have run . . .

Even though Zane had only looked away for a second a stalker had already appeared behind him. As soon as he turned around he felt a burning pain along his chest and stomach. A long, sharp claw had cut through his armour. Blood began flowing out of the wound. Zane stopped the blood from flowing out immediately. He kicked the stalker, sending the creature flying backwards.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. Guess I have to use that.

“Blood Change!”

Zane felt a sudden pain, worse than that on his front, spreading throughout his body. But as quickly as it appeared it was already gone, instead, he felt fresh, full of energy.

“Rush!” said Zane again.

The five hydra heads rushed towards another cluster of stalkers, three of them were caught by the blood hydra but the fourth jumped over the head aimed at him. Zane redirected the fifth head just in time to catch the stalker midair and avoided getting his face slashed. He slammed all four stalkers into the wall and repeated what he did before. He moved them closer to each other, pressed the button on the firebomb, threw it and waited for the wave of flames to consume to stalkers before he had the hydra heads stop biting.

“Bite!”

Like the time before the heads bit back down, severing the heads of the creatures.

Nine down, three bombs left.

“We need them in one place!” Zane yelled.

“Easier . . . said . . . t-then . . . done,” Lovia answered as she tried to keep the stalkers at bay with her chain blade.

The driver was still pinned against the wall by a stalker, every wound infinitely regenerating but in a fight of strength, he stood no chance against creatures like the stalkers. Again Zane had not paid attention for just a moment and again a stalker had appeared behind him. But this time Zane reacted faster than before, he grabbed stalkers by the arms and swung him into the wall.

Good thing I used blood change . . .

Zane ran over to Lovia, grabbing the stalker he had rammed into the wall with a hydra head on the way, he also ran past the driver and grabbed that stalker as well. In the corner of his eye, Zane saw the driver sink to the ground from the exhaustion of constantly using Aura, coughing up blood.

Must have sacrificed part of his life energy . . .

Lovia was still swinging her chain around so Zane couldn't approach her fully. There were about ten stalkers gathered around her.

“Over here!” Zane yelled.

Lovia changed the direction of her swing, hitting multiple stalkers along the way and send them flying towards Zane who jumped up to avoid them. Once the stalkers hit the wall he had the hydra heads ram them to keep them in place, he also threw the two stalkers that he had in the grasp of his blood hydra to them, adding to the cluster of creatures. Zane grabbed a new firebomb, pressed the button and threw it. The flame consumed the stalkers and he had his hydra heads bite of their heads. But there were more stalkers than heads, two charged at him. Zane drew his katana and slashed one of them while avoiding the hit from the other. The two went past him and where caught up in Lovia's swinging chain. One got cut by the chain blade at the throat and fell to the ground the other got his lower jaw cut off. Zane ran to that one and cut off its head with a clean strike.

Sixteen down, two bombs left. There should be about eight more . . .

Zane looked around the cavern. Lovia was still holding three stalkers at bay but there was no sign of the other five.

“I-I need some help here,” Lovia said.

Zane looked over to her, one of the stalkers had managed to catch her chain. He rushed over to Lovia.

“Rush! Bite!”

The hydra heads went towards the stalkers and caught them. Zane threw another firebomb at them and severed there heads once the flames had engulfed them.

Nineteen down, a single bomb left. Shit . . . this might end badly.

“Some are still alive,” Zane said.

“I have no idea where they could be,” Lovia said. She sank to the floor. “By the way . . . where's Rex?”

“Probably ran away, we should look along the tunnel that led us here,” Zane said.

Lovia nodded. Zane picked the lantern back up and the two went to the exit. The driver was already waiting for them. All three of them went back into the tunnel, looking for Rex.

They heard groaning coming from not too far away. And there he was, sitting on a stone pipe and leaning against the wall. He looked at them as they approached. One of his arms was missing and he used the other to press down on a wound on his stomach. The driver immediately ran towards him.

Shit . . . a miracle he's still alive.

“A-Ah, Z-Zane . . . misses L-Lovia.” Every few words he coughed up blood. “I-I think . . . t-this is i-it for me.” Rex's voice became weaker.

He looked to the driver.

“T-Thank you f-for staying . . . for staying loyal, B-Boma.”

Zane could see some tears running down the drivers face, his mouth was open and it seemed like he was trying to scream but not a single tone came forth.

Gods must have taken his speech for that regeneration ability of his.

The life within Rex slowly disappeared. Zane concentrated for a moment. Rex's presence was fading quickly.

Yeah . . . this is it.

He smiled at them a last time before he closed his eyes. “So sleepy,” he said before he lowered his head to his chest.

The driver was shaking him but there was no response. With a saddened look on his face, the driver walked over to Zane, grabbed his katana and slit his own throat.

Lovia looked a bit shocked. “You didn't stop him,” she stated.

“Who am I to interfere with another person's wishes,” he responded.

Zane walked over to Rex's corpse, searching through his pockets. He found a pouch filled with gold coins.

“It's no two thousand but still better than no payment at all,” he said. “Let's split it once we're outside.”

Zane put the pouch in his satchel.

“Well then, let's look for the way to the next floor,” Lovia said.

“This is probably the last, according to the old tales most towers have seven floors . . . only one had more if I remember correctly. But that's only tales. Besides the three that got conquered a few centuries ago no one ever managed to get through one of these,” Zane said. “I don't need a lesson on old tales,” Lovia said. “O-Oh . . . sorry.”

Zane looked at the ground searching for something he could count, to no avail.

The two began going back to the cavern.

“How come none were ever conquered after that?” Lovia asked. “No clue . . . I guess most people don't see much reason in doing it . . . even the old tales never spoke about a reward and since they are the only accounts of the conquered towers not much choice but to believe them . . . wait I thought you didn't want to know more,” Zane said.

Lovia looked away for a few seconds

“Still . . . seems a bit strange.”

They reached the cavern again. On the other end was another tunnel. They listened for a few seconds but there was no sound besides their breathing. The two went into the tunnel, continuing the journey to the top of the tower.