Chapter 123: The Grey Tower


    ke moved with the others and pretended to know how to ''sneak''. ''Hunching'' and ''creeping'' were basically so foreign to ke he wasn’t quite sure how to move forward, but he supposed one asionally had to do what one must.


    "Are we close enough?" he whispered a littleter. "Can''t we just...charge?"


    "Not yet," Phuong answered, gesturing the group onward through the terrain.


    They went on like this for an almost offensive amount of time before the party of orcs seemed to perk up.


    "Shit," Phuong hissed. "They''ve spotted us. Let''s go! Everyone move! Attack!"


    And with that the ''sneaking'' phase was over, and the excited yers all rushed to martial glory.


    ke followed at a respectable distance.


    Not having Seul-ki was strange, bordering on diforting. He made due by sticking with Annie, encouraging her onward with a pleasant smile and a small dose of Mentally Influenced trust.


    "You''ll be fine," he assured. "You''re good at killing orcs. Trust me."


    Annie didn''t need much prompting in that department. She raced ahead with her axe held in both little hands, such violent intent from a physically small, eighteen year old girl most bizarre. And also wonderful. ke always did have a penchant for the bizarre.


    Some of the orcs got on their strange mounts and fled. Then there was explosions and screaming and arrows and the riders or their animals were being knocked or pulled down. That giant, purple worm burst out of the ground and grabbed one. Streak pulled over another.


    ke didn''t concern himself further. Instead he watched his yers battle the orcs on foot, watching and waiting with Telekinesis to perhaps do something useful.


    Phuong and Reba led the charge, so coordinated ke was reminded they''d fought together before they came to Nassau. The Vietnamese swordsman let Reba draw the orcs'' attention, then hacked at her attackers after every confused and distracted swing.


    Garet and the silent Jason followed, skewering creatures with phantom spears then taking positions next to Reba.


    Annie, Tomaso, and the new yer Mateo struggled to find a ce in thebat, mostly waiting on the sides for an orc to approach. All of them had some kind of melee weapon and had mostly focused that direction so far.


    ke frowned. They had far too many yers who needed to fight up close. Not enough casters or ranged. And if a life of video games had taught him anything, ranged killers were usually best. The few Nassau had previously they had, rather unfortunately, lost in the...transition.


    Alex stood beside ke, eyes zed with focus as he prepared his defensive powers.


    For their part, the orcs seemed at a loss. They seemed utterly unable to deal with Reba and Alex''s shields, throwing spears and rocks and trying to hack at the Arkansas cowgirl, all with no useful result.


    Then Mason and Carl were finished with their riders and on them from behind. Arrows zipped and streaked into the creature''s backs, sending furious roars of surprise and fear before Carl appeared out of nowhere and started slicing the creatures down.


    "Attack!" ke called, because now seemed the opportune moment. "Kill them all!"


    He sent a little spike of Aggression into Annie, Tomaso, and Mateo, and the trio roared and ran past the unbreakable line of Reba and the spearmen. Swords and axes shed with the orc weapons, and the yer line soon swirled and closed on the orcs. They were outnumbered now, and didn''t remotely match the yers man for man. It was, in other words, a ughter.


    <em>And just the morale boost we needed</em>, ke decided happily.


    [Tower Orc Scout Patrol destroyed. Group experience awarded.]


    To top it all off, ke had more or less saved his mana entirely for the presumably greater challenges toe. When it was over he stepped over the corpses and smiled at the triumphant yers.


    "Well done,dies and gentlemen! Well done indeed! These orcs are no match for you."


    "Yeah." Mason frowned, vanishing his delightful green sword and wiping some blood off his hands. "Why leave so few orcs out here if they knew how many of us there were? We took on a hundred with less yers and less coordination. Now they leave fifteen? Doesn''t make much sense."


    "I agree it’s odd. But we can''t know what they''re thinking, brother," ke shrugged. "Well, <em>you</em> can’t. Anyway it changes nothing. We need to destroy the towers, so let''s go do what we came for, and kill anything in our way. What do you say, soldiers?"


    A half-hearted round of cheers. But still, mostly everyone seemed in fine spirits.


    "Onward," ke gestured towards the tower, and Mason made some typically grumpy noises, but dutifully led them on.


    * * *


    Mason officially expected a trap. He didn''t know why or how but he felt it in his bones. He was tempted to turn the whole group around right then and there, but he knew his ''feeling'' wasn''t enough. So he walked on towards the tower.


    Now that they were close, their view of the entire structure was clear and unimpeded. It became very clear to Mason: the orc ''fortress'' was designed very strangely. There wasn''t a single wall that surrounded the outside as he''d assumed. Each tower was surrounded, as if for whatever reason blocked off from the others, presumably with gates in between.


    But the first tower wasn''t walled off from the outside at all. There was simply a giant gate that led inside, a narrow passage that went on for maybe fifty feet to the smaller but stillrge double doors.


    "Why aren''t there any guards?" Mason said, waiting for arrows to streak down from the walls at any moment.


    ke shrugged. "They might be off fighting somewhere else. Or hiding in their towers. Or having an orc meeting. Who knows, brother, let''s just try the gate." ke walked straight into the tunnel without a care in the world, ignoring Mason''s growls to be cautious until he put his hand right on the door and grinned.


    "Yep. It''s a dungeon. The Grey Tower," he called back. "Now the only question is who goes in first."


    "Yeah that’s not at all the only question." Mason crept forward, mind racing. His feeling of danger was as strong as ever, but all he had was intuition. He fought it down and walked up, putting his hand on the door.


    [Do you wish to enter the dungeon: The Grey Tower? yers allowed to enter at once are limited to four.]


    Four was starting to seem like the ‘standard’ number for a dungeon. But otherwise the thing wasn’t very bloody informative. Mason had no idea if they could leave or not once inside. He assumed yes since it was just a door and it didn''t say otherwise. But with bloody roboGod you just couldn''t ever really know anything for sure.


    "I''d like my team to go first," ke announced. Mason stared daggers until he raised a hand for calm. "That way if we''re ambushed out here, you and yours can handle it. And if you haven''t noticed, brother, this doesn''t look like a natural environment. You might be slightly limited in there."


    Mason winced at the likely truth of that. He looked at Alex, Annie, and especially Carl.


    "Are you ready for this?"


    Carl wiped a little sweat from his forehead, but nodded. "Don''t worry, kid. We''ve got it. If it looks too rough we’ll juste out."


    Mason nodded and tried not to think bringing Annie wasplete insanity. She''d fought very well in the duel, all things considered, probably the strongest and fastest after Carl and Phuong. And ke said he had it under control. But then ke said he had <em>everything</em> under fucking control.


    "Alright.” Mason said with a helpless shrug. “Go in ande right out to make sure you can. Hurry up."


    ke and the others walked up together and touched the door, then in rapid session vanished like in some sci-fi movie. Some of the yers who''d never seen a dungeon gasped or otherwise gawked in surprise. Mason just waited, staring at the door. He tried not to count.


    A few secondster, Carl materialized.


    "No problem." He grinned. "It''s a big, empty hall, basically. An auto objective to find some kind of magic rock popped up. The ‘Holy Grey Stone’. So I guess that''s the point. You good for me to head back in?"


    Mason grit his teeth, but nodded.


    "OK, kid," Carl winked and waved at the group. "We''ll catch you on the flip side." He touched the door again and vanished.


    "Now what?" Reba asked, looking out from the tower tunnel.


    Mason walked to the edge andy his traps, looking out with the same feeling of disquiet at the empty in and undefended tower.


    "We wait, apparently. Though I guess we could look at the towers. Maybe see how we''d get in the others. Up for a little poking around?"


    Reba smiled, then looked back at the others and whispered. "Mmm, I could go for a little poke."


    Masonughed. "I''m slowly corrupting you."


    When she got closer she whispered in his ear. "It ‘ain’t very slow. Nowe on. I''m only kind of kidding. But not really. Maybe if there''s really no one we could do it against a wall…"


    Mason almost instantly said how ridiculous that was, and how dangerous their situation. But actually, that did sound kind of stupidly hot...in every sense of the word.


    "We''ll be right back," he said to the others. "Just hold here. Worst case, zone into the tower."


    Phuong nodded and waved them off, sitting cross legged on the ground. Thest thing Mason heard as he grabbed Reba''s hand and turned the corner, was the old man say:


    "Did anyone bring any cards?"


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