Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Olivia should have been moving toward the square. Instead, she seemed to have decided that if the objective was to lure the Vestiges away from the survivors, attracting every corpse within several streets technically fulfilled the assignment. Misha hated that she could not even call the logic wrong.

By the time Olivia finally reached the square, the original pack had swollen into a crowd.

Vestiges spilled from the side streets and upper walkways. Some carried rusted tools. Others still held the weapons they had used in life.

Olivia stood in the middle of all of it with Misha’s daggers hanging loosely at her sides. Her shoulders rose with one pleased breath.

"Now this is entertaining~"

Misha floated beside her own body in helpless fury. "I’m never summoning you for a distraction again."

Olivia heard her perfectly, she simply did not care. She ducked beneath a hook. Then she caught the chain connected to it and pulled.

The dead man came off the upper walkways. It struck the street hard enough for the lower half of its body to fold beneath it with a crack that made even Misha wince. The corpse did not. It did not stop him since he dragged himself forward using both hands. The parasite had no reason to care that the legs no longer functioned.

Olivia stepped around another attacker and severed the crawler’s neck without breaking stride. "Persistent little thing."

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

The possession timer continued ticking and Misha could see it. Her irritation gave way to unease. Olivia fought like she had all night.

Misha could see the strain accumulating even if Olivia ignored it. Her borrowed body had become stronger since the lower floors, her attributes were higher, and her stamina far beyond what she had entered the Tower with. But Misha was still Misha.

Every soul that possessed her body brought skill, instinct, combat experience, and whatever amplification possession allowed–but it still worked through Misha’s muscles. They could ignore pain, but she could not ignore the physical limits of the vessel she borrowed.

If this had been two enemies at the level of Hobgoblin Commanders, Misha could have managed even without possession. Three would have been dangerous so thirty was not a fight. It was a scheduling error.

Misha’s anxiety climbed another notch. "If you’re planning to retreat at any point, now would be excellent."

Olivia laughed. "Retreat?"

"Is it not in your vocabulary?"

"I prefer decisive conclusions." She leaned away just enough for the blade to miss her face.

"You prefer decapitation."

"It is very decisive~"

「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Cancer Constellation Soul has reached the maximum possession duration.

Ending Possession...」

Olivia stopped smiling. "Oh."

Misha felt vindicated for approximately half a second. Then the world slammed back into place. She returned to her body halfway through a movement she had not chosen.

「 Capricorn Chamber entering cooldown.

Cooldown Remaining: 00:04:00 」

"Shit–"

Her right foot landed at the wrong angle, her knee buckling.

A spear came for her ribs but she twisted on instinct. The point tore through her side instead of entering her body, scraping skin beneath it before the material tightened around the damage.

Misha ripped Twinfang upward and severed the shaft. The dead guard did not hesitate, it released the useless half and punched her. The fist struck her cheek and pain burst along her cheek, making her stumble.

「 Shock reduced. 」

「 Motor control maintained. 」

There it was, the difference. Olivia had made the same battlefield look almost playful. Misha saw angles while the other woman saw executions.

The Vestiges did not tire, they did not hesitate when injured and they gave her no time to resent the comparison.

Misha blocked a cleaver, the impact nearly tore the dagger from her hand. She released rather than contest the strength, pivoted away, and buried her other blade in the corpse’s neck. She expected the head to come free, it did not. The reinforced tissue resisted.

「 Fear response suppressed. 」

「 Mental focus sharpened. 」

Gritting her teeth, she dragged harder. The blade finally broke through the remaining muscle and the corpse fell.

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

Another came immediately before she had fully recovered, then another. There was no breathing room for her to recover from Olivia’s possession.

The little bell at her wrist betrayed her with every sharp movement.

Chime-chime.

Three heads snapped toward her.

"Oh, fuck off!" She tore the cord free and hurled the bell across the square.

It struck the stones.

Chime.

Half a dozen Vestiges turned toward the sound.

’Finally!’

A hook caught Misha around the wrist. The chain snapped tight and her arm jerked forward.

"Oh shi–"

Her feet left the ground and she hit the street shoulder-first. Pain exploded through the joint.

The Vestige pulled again, dragging her across the ground.

Twisting onto her side, she hacked at the chain with Twinfang. Once, twice, until the links broke.

A shadow crossed her face. Sword.

「 Trajectory predicted. Dodge window: 1.2 seconds. 」

Misha rolled just in time, the blade striking where her head had been a heartbeat earlier. She pushed herself up, her breathing came faster now.

<The Weapon That Chose Its Own Master> Her fighting style is entirely different from before.

〔 FAVOR +50 → Gravekeeper 〕

<The Saint Buried Upside Down> Then it’s probably a skill that summons another combatant into her vessel?

<Prisoner of Floor One Hundred> Possibly.

Misha ignored the live chat. She had no time to read them at all.

Lysa and the others should have enough distance by now. They had better since Olivia’s interpretation of diversion had probably emptied half the neighboring district.

Misha no longer needed to win. She needed to leave. That should have been simpler. Unfortunately, Olivia had transformed the square into a festival for the dead. Every visible street had bodies in it. Misha cut left. Blocked.

When she turned, a spear flashed from the side. Pain sliced across her upper arm as warm blood ran beneath the sleeve.

Misha hissed and kicked the corpse backward, gaining barely enough space to breathe.

Then–

Plink.

Her dagger stopped halfway through another parry.

Pling-plink.

Strings. It was faint and bright, almost jaunty. It was completely inappropriate for a square filled with dead people trying to murder her.

Misha’s brows pulled together beneath the mask. ’What?’

A male voice floated from somewhere beyond the square. "♪ There is absolutely no one here. No handsome Bard behind this stone. Just keep on fighting, lovely stranger. I’m not hiding, I’m strategically alone. ♪"

Misha stared toward the sound for half a second and a knife passed close enough to graze her hood. She snapped back to the fight. "What the hell?"

「 Mental focus sharpened. 」

She ducked, stepped inside the attacker’s reach, and drove Twinfang into its throat.

The music continued. Not only one instrument now. Mandolin formed the center of it, quick strings dancing beneath the rhythm, but percussion appeared behind it where no drummer existed. Then a second line of strings, soft backing notes, and something that sounded suspiciously like an entire accompaniment had materialized somewhere behind the ruined buildings.

Misha would have been impressed if the moving corpses were not currently trying to remove her organs.

"♪ You’ve held those corpses back for minutes, much longer than I thought you would. You’re bruised, exhausted, barely standing– ♪"

Another Vestige swung and she ducked.

The melody skipped upward. "♪ Still somehow looking rather good. ♪"

Misha nearly missed her counterattack. "...Excuse me?"

No response came except a flourish of strings. The voice was warm, and shamelessly pleased with itself despite the fact that its owner was very obviously hiding.

Then warmth spread through Misha’s injuries. She faltered when she noticed. The cut under her sleeve tingled, blood slowed, and the torn edges of skin began pulling together beneath a faint wash of mana.

The ache in her shoulder eased next until it was gone. The heaviness in her breathing receded enough for her next inhale to reach deeper, and her thighs stopped burning quite so badly.

’Healing...’

Another pulse rolled through her body. Her movements felt lighter and more responsive to the point the delay between thought and muscle shortened.

’...And a buff?’

Misha’s attention sharpened, the song was doing it. Whoever was hiding behind the stone was supporting her from a distance.

Another sword came in but Misha stepped aside much more cleanly this time and Twinfang cut across the exposed neck.

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

The corpse dropped. The singer continued.

"♪ You look deadly, I look charming. Between us, surely this is working! ♪"

Misha stared toward the direction where the voice came. For one instant, she saw movement behind a broken section of masonry at the far edge of the square. Brown hair. That was all she caught.

The music immediately faltered.

"♪ No, no, don’t look at me! ♪" The hidden man’s voice jumped half an octave. "♪ Focus on the enemies! ♪"

Misha blinked a few times.

Another Vestige charged and she managed to block it in time.

"♪ Yes, I am hiding behind a wall. That hardly matters now at all! ♪"

<The Saint Buried Upside Down>I want him to survive.

<The Last Survivor of an Unwritten World> For his skill?

<The Saint Buried Upside Down> For my entertainment.

’You’re kidding me...’ Apparently not.

The accompaniment picked up again. The mysterious Bard–because there was no possible universe in which this man was anything else–had chosen a hiding place somewhere along the far side of the square and was now buffing her while singing about the tactical merits of cowardice. Oddly enough, it was working. Warm mana slid over another shallow cut and the wound closed.

The stranger’s skill did not suddenly make her strong enough to beat the Vestiges that surrounded her. It did, however, stop her from collapsing immediately.

She had already attracted Observers, let a homicidal yandere turn a diversion into a district-wide massacre, and discovered a cowardly Bard singing healing and buff magic from behind a wall.

’Ugh... Great, looks like I will be gaining more Observers.’

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