Chapter 9: Enter the Tower

The kitsune stepped forward and started blasting different balls of varying elements depending on which of the nine tails she exhibited was one top. Fire, water, earth, ice, lightning, magma, darkness, and light shattered the forces rushing towards us. The kitsune shook as if this took up more energy than she could handle currently. 

"That should be enough," Seth told the kitsune as she collapsed into his arms. Instantly, information flooded his mind. Dismissing it quickly, he passed her off to the elf, where his hand brushed hers and more information flooded his mind. Once again he dismissed it before bending down and touching the ground again. New golems rose from the ground and surroundings. More pits forming from their formations. They were different. Some were willowy and elegant and moved with speed unlike their earlier counterparts. Others had tails that exhibited one or more elements. Some were even in the form of foxes. The remainder were the blocky giants from before. They all launched themselves forward, creating a narrow pathway and rescuing individuals on the route. A man and woman centered forward on their horse legs. They looked ragged, but seeing the pathway to the tower clearing, began galloping that way. Others began also running and trampling those in their way. People would die from this. There was nothing Seth could do but clear the path and hope for the best. Creating a couple new golems to save those that were being trampled seemed to be his current limit, and he stumbled over into the Banshee, who supported him. Information flooded his tired mind. This time he didn't dismiss it, but neither could he acknowledge it as darkness seemed to be pouring in on him. 

"Quickly," came the Banshee's voice. "He's about to pass out. We need to get him to the tower." 

Other hands reached out and lifted him. Information flooded his darkening mind over and over again, but he slipped into unconsciousness. 

The next thing Seth knew was voices. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious or what had happened, but the voices echoed and the booms of battle sounded distant. 

"—discussed this already!" screamed someone. "We can't move forward without him!" 

"Bullshit! He's useless, we might as well leave him behind. If he deserves to live, he'd be awake right now." A deep voice yelled back. 

A new voice interjected, "And if he had done what you are proposing outside, you'd be dead. Maybe he should have left us all to out demise instead of risking himself." 

"Hmph! I would have managed just fine on my own, even if he never intervened. I was fighting, unlike some of you free riders. As proof, I even leveled up with this new system, did any of you? I doubt it. Pathetic weaklings!" 

Voices began overlapping in outrage, making it difficult to sparse what was being said. 

'Level-up?' Seth thought. He focused and words began filtering across his cornea from the Merlin System. 

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The Tower. That's where he lay. It was cold, dank, and barely lit. Was this our welcome? How was this to be our new home? Jacob said it was meant as both housing and training. How? Were there monsters here? Were they any better than the creatures outside? Fear ebbed inside Seth as he pondered the implications, ignoring the arguing voices as they continued. He sat up still thinking, and a silence coursed over everyone. Seth could feel their eyes. The elvish girl came up and spoke to him. 

"Are you alright? You passed out in the middle of clearing the path you saved our lives, so I brought you here, but I didn't know how to wake you. Do you need anything? There seems to be a fountain of water here. Let me get you some." 

She spoke fast, never giving Seth a chance to answer. She got up and walked away into the dimly lit corridor toward the gurgling in the distance. The lighting was only enough to see a few feet at a time as if the darkness had a life of its own and always wished to devour the light. The lighting was only enough to see a few feet at a time as if the darkness had a life of its own and always wished to devour the light. It felt repressive, but, yet, held back by something. As Seth observed his surroundings he noticed a stone pillar here and there, but no obvious signs of a source of light. Where did it come from? And why did it seem to only illuminate enough for one to see their immediate surroundings but no more? It almost felt as though the darkness was fog. 

"Hey, you!" shouted a horned, red-skinned, tailed, and scaled woman. "What makes you so special we have to save you and let you live? We should shove you back out into that mess of nonsense everything seems to have become. You can survive, unlike the rest of us. You should be out there bringing more in, not safe in here. Only those who need protection should be here." 

"Martha, he is probably too dense, or, perhaps, he used all his strength Just to get here. How pathetic!" A green scaled lizard of a man with golden eyes sneered. 

"You're right Hector. This pathetic man just wasted his strength. Maybe, we should serve him up raw for the beasts," a deep-voiced, hulking, and maned carnivorous man added with a sharped-toothed grin, hungry to see the human bleed. 

"Ivan, Martha, Hector, let's push him out. He's the only human here. We shouldn't let him stay. Humans are weak," this man licked his beak filled with sharp teeth, almost tempted to devour the human. 

"Shut up, all of you!" 

A glowing miniscule woman with wings hovered protectively in front of Seth, her arms spread wide. Her wings fluttered as they kept her airborne.