Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Clash of Kings (II)

The group sat in a wide circle, contemplating; everyone looked back at their battle against the hooded, old man, wondering how they could have improved or fought better. Some also contemplated on the man's last words, divining how they were fighting with and without Cain around. He was right; when Cain was with them, their entire attack strategy orbited him, and everyone else was almost faux in their pushes, in a way.

However, when without him in a group, their individualities shone far brighter. The way Emma and Kramer tanked, for instance, differed immensely; while Emma was far more proactive, oftentimes purposefully getting hit to use her weapon's and class' abilities, Kramer was far more passive, often even dodging and rarely, if ever, going on offensive.

When fighting alongside Cain, however, their styles became almost monolithic; their job was simply to either corral the enemies into an easy-to-focus group or to prevent them from breaching any further in. Their small imperfections that made up who they were as the fighters were almost entirely weeded out, leaving them to simply be cogs.

The worst hit one, however, was Senna. Without Cain around, a lot of his responsibilities was shifted onto her. However, it wasn't the group that needed to adjust to her, but rather it was her that had to adjust to the group. She had his job but without any of the conveniences afforded to him.

Nobody wanted to give up their personal quirks, little things that defined them. Sigmund and Jamal, despite bearing the same class, fought entirely differently; however, when Cain was around, their jobs became exactly the same, disregarding their personal preferences. It wasn't his fault, however. If anything, he pointed out on numerous occasions this very phenomenon and warned them against it. Yet, for one reason or another, they gravitated toward it across the board.

Though the answers were plenty, one stood above on: he was simply that stronger than the rest. It wasn't just a case akin to the 'best player in a sport's team' -- it was like putting a grown superstar into a kid's league. Should he adjust to the kids, or should the kids just get out of the way? This lack of balance was the driving factor in the way they fought. After all, if they let their individualities seep out, they'd likely just get in his way more so than help him.

"Look at your droopy faces, it almost seems like you've lost, eh?" a cheery, playful voice that they hadn't heard in a while startled them awake, prompting them to look behind them where they saw two figures emerge from the stairs. Sera was huffing and puffing, clearly exhausted, with Cain's arm wrapped around her shoulder. He was also sweating, and was doing his best not to display too much of it.

"Look at the pot calling the kettle," Emma chuckled, standing up and taking over Sera's role. The girl shot her a grateful glance as she collapsed near Anna and others who quickly offered her a cup of water. "You look like shit."

"Man, that was some climb," he said. "I can finally add 'hiking' to my dating profile like the rest of 'em kids."

"Alright, before he passes out, heal him, Yuki," Emma said, helping him sit down.

"Y-yea," the young boy shot to his feet and quickly cast several skills in a row, healing Cain's health to about 20%. "What the hell?!" frustrated, he kept casting one skill after another, his face slowly shifting into one of horror. By the time he ran out of Mana completely, he managed to heal him back up to roughly 80%.

"Don't be so surprised," Cain chuckled. "Technically speaking, I had around negative 600% Health."

"H-huh?"

"I was using Mana to maintain the wounds," he elaborated. "But system is a bitch and calculates things differently."

"..."

"So, technically, you died six time over?" Jamal said. "Damn, talk about badass."

"Na, just bad ass," Emma sighed, slapping the back of his head. "Did you at least get good rewards?"

"... I got nothin'." Cain replied in a muffled tone.

"What do you mean?"

"What can I mean?" he asked, grumbling. "I mean I didn't get anything. Nada. Zilch. Fuck all."

"..."

"..."

"So, you almost died for... nothing?" Senna said. "Shit, that's literally the most you thing I've ever heard."

"Oh wow, thanks a lot."

"Don't throw sas at the truth," Daniel snickered. "Did you at least learn anything useful from whoever you fought?"

"..."

"Would there have been any difference if you just... didn't fight him?" Emma asked.

"..."

"Pfft, ha ha ha ha," collective laughter ran out throughout the group, surprising the 'outsiders'. Though Lek and Taima understood it to some degree, they, much like the rest, were in the bind over why it was so funny to everyone.

This was especially the case for Anna, Izirdul, and Sera-- the latter had relegated who he fought, shocking the former two. Though they had never personally saw Mael fighting, they saw how timid their brother was around the man. The Proud Prince was cowering and deferring to an old man who looked halfway to being a corpse-- that was enough for them to know Mael wasn't just anybody.

Cain looked around the circular platform and the ruined columns and pillars, surprised. Wait, don't tell me they fought one of the Sanctified? He continued to inspect them closer while musing inwardly. A lot of the 'fighting ring' had the make of a spiritual circle that the Sanctified used for research and study. Though not an exact replica, it was likely due to the lack of proper materials in addition to the surrounding Mana not being dense enough.

"How was the fight?" he asked curiously as the laughter ceased. The moment he asked, the just-recently laughing expression dropped considerably. Shit, just how unstable are you people?!

"Ugh, don't ask," Emma said, sighing. "He toyed with us, pretty much. I don't think we got in one clear hit. And then, randomly, out of nowhere... he just said 'you win', gave us some pointers, and left. It was the most humiliating thing ever."

"..." Yup, they definitely fought one of the Sanctified. What is he doing on the second floor, though? I know they are queer folk who'd cut their dicks off in the name of research, but isn't this a bit too much? "Ah, so he was a boss version of you guys sparring with me?"

"..."

"..."

"..." though nobody said anything, temperature dropped to the freezing levels as everyone's gazes shot daggers at him. It looked like he voiced what their inner hearts were keeping tightly locked.

"Khm, anyway, just the last one remains, right?" awkwardly coughing to disperse the tension, Cain took out a can of beer from his inventory and cracked it open. "You done well, everyone. Really well."

"Yea, makes you wonder why we take you around, no?" Senna fired.

"Yup, he just hampers us," Daniel added.

"We'd probably be safer and faster if we just left him on the outside," Jamal played along.

"Well, looks like I still have one more battle to convince you guys I belong!" Cain grinned.

"Hm? You're gonna fight with us?" Emma asked.

"Yup," he nodded. "Need the kill and all that jazz. Well, that's that; I wanna hear how other battles went. It can't have all been as hard as that last one, right?"

"Eh, up and down," Emma shrugged. "They were surprisingly... boring, though. Too one note. Every boss, essentially, had one gimmick to it-- so long as we figured that one gimmick, it was just a matter of shaving their HP to zero. While it's true that they were 'phantom bosses', they were... they were nothing like the last one."

"..." Well, duh; he was an anomaly you shouldn't have met to begin with, Cain sighed inwardly, realizing once again how warped their perception of the Tower was. Just like they said, initial 'phantom' bosses were extremely gimmicky. In fact, it wasn't up until 28th floor that the first phantom boss would be someone like Moru'gh. It was also then that people would realize that not having persistent aggro was the least of the worries when it came to the phantom bosses.

Just like the Soulmaker, all phantom bosses past that point were eerily similar to the Conquerors-- they had specific classes, and they had all skills associated with those classes, and had specific gear tailored to those classes, and they fought like Conquerors with those classes would. That was what made them dangerous, and not the fact that their aggro couldn't be held.

After all, past the first Awakening and onward, most classes obtain life-saving abilities, while tanks obtain more direct-damaging skills. While the holy trinity would still remain an absolute necessity in the battles, the roles would blur the more Awakenings a person underwent. Cain was, essentially, a tanking Mage after his Second Awakening, and just one of the numerous tanking archetypes.

He figured that the King might be different-- though it was unlikely he'd be a true 'Phantom Boss', he might be less gimmicky, especially because Cain will be around. He suspected that the fact he's now also considered a 'King' might alter the battle slightly as to follow a multi-threaded storyline.

He looked up into the abyss of nothing, knowing full-well there were eyes watching and quills writing. The strangest aspect of the Tower is how it bent the reality itself for the sake of a specific story. Senna's legend, essentially, began with that-- in her own words, she was supposed to die, but her 'sacrifice' was recognized by the Tower and she was instantaneously given her Third Awakening, enabling her to become who she became.

Despite that, the Tower had a warped notion of the 'heroes' and 'villains'; many banked on their heroics being recognized only to die immediately after. It was largely serendipity that enabled the Tower's fiddling, and not some rules that everyone could exploit through loopholes. Heroes inside here weren't necessarily heroes, and villains were almost never villains. It had warped notion of what 'good' and 'evil' was, and what Mana did to people... was push their morals in that direction.

That was why, within twenty-five years of the Towers' existence, it was worldly recognized that the 'Superstars' had the right to do whatever they wanted. Just by the virtue of their strength, they were heroes. And heroes... heroes were imperishable. .

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