Chapter Thirty-Two: Aligning Goals

THIRTY-TWO

Roan stepped into the cleared out cul-de-sac and saw the group coming back instantly. Taoya was hard to miss after all. The massive man had strings of amulets dangling from his fingers and his customary wide smile as he saw Roan standing there.

“No kiss needed to wake this one up,” Taoya laughed as he shook the rattling chains around his fingers. Roan felt an instant desire to own them, but kept his face blank as he walked up to them. From behind Taoya’s mass came a flow of strange faces wearing familiar garbs. Sect robes or college uniforms. All of them had the same competent dangerous feel to them that Taoya did.

“Say hello to the rest of our instance!” Taoya said, waving his hand at the seven other fighters.

“This is who we came back for?” A woman asked from the back. She looked Roan up and down and snorted in dismissal before rudely brushing past him to enter the portal to the saferoom.

“Forgive Claire, she’s been having a rough day,” Taoya said, grimacing in memory. The rest of his small contingent pushed past and into the saferoom without saying anything.

“That’s the strike team?” Roan asked, not letting his irritation leak into his voice. Taoya nodded and gently tossed the amulets to Roan with a flick of his wrist. There was a hint of the blue-white energy around the toss, enough that the nine amulets all flew with unerring precision. Roan managed to snag them all out of the air with his free hand, tangling the thin chains around his fingers.

“Most of it. Those who came for a quick rest and healing here. The rest are with Darren at the closest saferoom to the event horizon,” Taoya said.

“Event horizon?” Roan asked with a quick laugh. Taoya shrugged and rolled his eyes as he flopped against a wall and slumped against it.

“That’s what they’re calling it. The point of no return where the corruption overwhelms the amulet. We already tested the twice upgraded amulet and it lets you push further with no problem,” Taoya said. That reassured Roan as he went to a knee and pulled out the repair kit he’d bought and started to feed the amulets into the pot.

“Who went?”

“Darren of course. He’s the best scout with his perception bloodline abilities. Also nobody is worried about him trying to take everything at the end of the hall. Unlike some other greedy people,” Taoya said, staring holes into Roan.

“What? You expect me to sit here and stagnate? Let the rest of you eclipse me? Let you all decide how to steer this climb?” Roan didn’t say any of his thoughts, just looked at Taoya and shrugged unapologetically as the eighth amulet went into the repair kit.

“So…why are you climbing the Unconquered Tower? You’re not like the rest of the locals who this is their only shot. You had a mentor, someone I assume could have sponsored your climb to a less deadly tower,” Taoya asked. Roan fed the tenth and final amulet into the pot and watched as it began the process of repairing the shards again.

“He wouldn’t. Only reason he agreed to train me was so I would enter this tower,” Roan said, dodging the question.

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