Chapter 191: War of Attrition

Floor-wide Alert!

William Oh has been spotted on Floor 10.

A Bounty For William Oh, the level 52 World Traveler has been posted by the Lord Caddock.

Wanted, Dead.

Reasons given: murder of numerous church members outside The Tower, being an ill-omen, general lawlessness, lack of hygiene.

The Tower will not provide Doors or XP to the subject of the bounty until the matter is resolved.

Bounty: 300,000 gold, 2,000,000XP, to be shared among the party that claims the bounty.

Well, there goes the idea of keeping him at level 45. At least he can’t leave.

• Caddock, High Paladin

***William Oh***

“He can do that!?” Will demanded, hastily setting his food down and shoving his helmet back on. It was too late, but the sentiment remained.

“It’s said that Lordship confers limited interaction with The Tower itself.” Loth replied. “This seems to validate those rumors.”

“Why have I never seen it before?” Will asked, summoning a Phantom Eye and scanning the horizon.

“Why spend valuable Tower resources tracking a single person down when they could have a vassal do it? There are likely many better things a Lord could be doing with whatever currency The Tower operates on.” Loth replied. “But in this case his priority is killing you specifically, not growing his demesne, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t hesitate to spend his resources to lock you down.”

“Hah, lack of hygiene.” Travis chuckled, shaking his head before wolfing down the last of his meal and standing.

“I’ve never seen a bounty prevent someone from moving between Floors.” Will muttered, joining the others as they began rapidly packing up their camp. Now that everyone knew he was here, this Floor would swarm with Parties looking to make an easy payday.

“Maybe he paid The Tower extra?” June asked.

Who knew? They could only guess, and their time was better served moving.

The Tangled split and a few stayed in place, camouflaging themselves and lying in wait, while the four primaries came with Will and the rest of the Party.

The plan was to move fast and leave small groups of Tangled dotting the countryside.

Because each individual copy of Brianna generated her own Charge, the more of her there were, the more of themselves they could make.

Her presence on the Floor could increase at an exponential rate. All they needed to do was drop enough seeds and wait.

Her Anti-Charm Kit drastically increased her Charge as a side-effect, so she could make about fifteen copies a day. And those fifteen could make another fifteen apiece.

And so on.

“There he is!”

Assuming we get the time, Will thought as a Party of Climbers caught sight of them, their heads appearing above the ridge of sandstone they’d been following the last hour.

“The one with the stupid bucket on his head!”

…Gods I hate this set, Will thought, warming up his smashing arms. He currently was about six and a half feet tall, which was awesome, and before this week was over, he’d be getting a whole lot bigger.

“Will, you’re the general.” June reminded him.

Will stopped warming up his arms and frowned in thought.

I need to let them know what I’m thinking, and incorporate them into the plan. I need to learn how to be a leader.

“I’ll smash then withdraw. We’ll run while their heads are spinning.” Will said as he crouched down, bending the earth beneath him. He was leaning on what he had learned about leading from Loth. Give them a goal, then trust they’ll do it.

“Mason, soon as Will turns back, shake ‘em up.” Loth said, pointing. “Then we’ll-

Her next commands were lost to the whistling of wind past his helmet as Will leapt forward and slammed directly into their bulging-eyed vanguard. The man crumpled like a leaf and was blown backwards as Will charged, a hail of attacks raining down on him, each one resulting in a cry of pain from the one that launched it.

Word hasn’t spread yet about the Thorns Build. It was unlikely to last.

Will front-kicked an archer in the chest and glanced up. Beyond the Party he was engaging…dozens more streaming towards them, closing in from the northwest. Maybe he could take all of them, but it was more likely that one of them would get lucky. Better to take them on his terms.

Time to go.

Will thrashed wildly about him and shoved a clingy attacker off his leg before spinning on his heel.

The moment he did so, a bead of fire shot past him and blanketed the entire battlefield in a blinding wave of fire.

Will put his head down and ran, joining the rest of the party as they retreated.

Will watched their back with his Phantom eye, but he didn’t see anyone follow them through the fire.

They darted away as Brianna used some of her reserve of Charge to create a whole Party of Ria to slow their pursuit in the smoke and dust of Mason’s explosions.

They moved unusually quickly as June’s trailblazing Ability kept even the slowest of them – Reggie – moving at a respectable clip.

Behind them, Will heard shouts and the clang of steel on stone and claw.

Individually, Brianna’s copies were only about as dangerous as the average Climber. Despite having outrageous strength and regeneration, they didn’t have what most other Climbers had by this point: Offensive Abilities and Kit that synergized with them.

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Because of this lack of kit it was actually more impressive that they could keep pace with nothing but the ability to shapeshift.

Still, infinite average soldiers could do some good work.

“They’re creating a search net.” Jean said, her expression vacant as she communicated with her copies. “The copies I left behind have run into enemies across a line,” She motioned to the scrublands behind them, pantomiming a line stretching across the horizon.

“Presumably this search net continues this way,” Jean said, motioning ahead of them. “It seems to be tightening now that they’ve spotted us.”

They paused for breath behind a rocky outcropping, and Will used Phantom Eye to look around the stone that sheltered them.

Will turned his gaze to the sky, where dozens of fliers were raking the ground with their gaze. In a matter of moments, they would spot the group and sound another alarm, putting them back on the run.

Will glanced at Travis.

Travis motioned for everyone to move in tight.

Amusing how much of Climbing is packing your Party in uncomfortably close.

They all grouped up tight with zero regard for personal space.

A moment later a copy of their Party manifested just beyond them and started creeping away. A heartbeat afterwards, everything went dark as a hollow rock appeared around them.

Will moved his Phantom Eye outside the illusory rock, and glanced back down. From the outside, the Party looked like nothing so much as a large boulder that had separated from the main wall of sandstone.

It blended seamlessly into the dusty earth, seemingly having fallen there long enough for the rains to cement the earth around it, and little shrubs to emerge from the stone’s shade.

The attention to detail was excellent, but Will would never admit that to Travis’s face.

Will turned his eye back outwards and watched the illusory party create as much distance as possible from where the real one hid.

An instant later, they were spotted by the fliers and broke into a sprint as the net tightened around them.

It was perhaps the result of a lack of training that the other nearby fliers changed their paths to focus on tightening the net around the illusory party.

This created gaps in their vision.

“We’re in a gap,” Will whispered, scanning the skies.

“Drop the rock.” Loth whispered directly into Will’s abdomen.

The rock illusion vanished, and Will’s Party spilled out in every direction.