Tower of Souls

Holding the Haunted Cudgel and shield that his clone had passed him, Cam kept his focus mostly on the Boss. At first, the Boss made as if to rush over and attack, only for it to hurriedly pull back at the sudden burst of flames from Eron's hands; Even if the Ability wasn't aimed at it, the Boss seemed to have an instinctive understanding that its mount's thick fur wouldn't do much against the intense flames.

Without any words needing to be said, Eron's thoughts aligned with Cam's- which wasn't unexpected-, and the clone focused his attempts at burning away the grass to the area between them and the Boss... and every time the monster shifted its position, the clone followed, keeping the fire between them, effectively holding back the Boss monster while leaving behind patches of burnt, dead grass...

But, as their patch of claimed ground expanded, Cam knew this stalemate wouldn't last; Sooner rather than later, his clone would run out of mana- and that meant either swapping places so Cam could pick up burn duty, waiting for Eron's mana to regenerate, or-

"I'm tapped out!" Eron exclaimed far sooner than Cam would have liked... but, considering Eron's stats were lower than his- and, naturally, his mana pool was as well-, seven casts of the Ability were his limit; Less than a dedicated caster, more than most others, it seemed like a drop in the bucket to their situation. "Switching to plan 'fuck, this is going to hurt'!"

For a bewildering moment, Cam almost didn't understand what his clone meant, but there was only one idea he had come up with that seemed to fit Eron calling it the 'fuck, this is going to hurt' plan...

Not waiting for a response, Eron charged forward, using the small space he had cleared to get a running start, and, just before stepping into the grass, launching himself at the Boss... to predictable effect, as just seconds after his feet left the ground, Cam witness his clone being skewered by both the Bunni's horn and the Boss's spear, his few remaining HP wiped out in an instant...

But, before the Boss could even shake his spear to dislodge the corpse weighing it down, Eron reappeared beside Cam, his cocky grin looking more like a grimace as he went right back to burning away grass.

As the cycle repeated itself, with Eron burning through his mana as fast as he could burn away the grass, then hurling himself to die and be resummoned over and over again, Cam could see the path to their victory just as surely as he could see the ground burned clear inch by inch... and he also knew that their victory could be attributed to two major factors: How overpowered his Clone Ability was... and the very limited intelligence of monsters at these lower Floors.

If this was a higher Floor, and the Boss had a bit more intelligence, he had no doubt that the monster would eventually see through their trick and simply back away the moment Eron attacked, waiting for him to land before binding him in place and going for the true threat: Cam.

But this wasn't a higher Floor, but Floor 2... which made the strength of this Boss even more strange, in Cams eyes; Aside from the lack of true intelligence, its only weakness was that it had no resistance to magic of any sort... but those resistances wouldn't show up until higher anyway, and a monster at this low of a Floor being so incredibly tough, fast, and strong- to say nothing of it having a control spell- was already more than he would expect to see. He had never even heard of an early Boss being this comprehensive...

With his clone sacrificing himself over and over again, Cam couldn't help but wonder how a normal group would even manage this. The tank wouldn't be able to keep up with the Boss, leaving the mob free to go after the weaker members... Maybe they could huddle up like he had done while waiting for their mage to slowly whittle the Boss down? It could work, but any mistake would have disastrous consequences... and that was assuming the Boss's Root spell didn't prevent them from doing so in the first place.

And, Cam realized, he was lucky the Boss had been preoccupied with killing his summons, allowing him and Eron to regroup without being bound by the spell out in the open- it was either that, or the mob was limited in some way as to how often he could use the spell... though whether that was from the mana cost or some sort of cooldown, he couldn't even guess.

Their burned out domain grew rapidly, until it covered nearly a quarter of the once pristine clearing, and the number of times Eron had sacrificed himself had grown to a point that Cam was nearly sick of the sight... but, worse than that, Cam was starting to notice a problem with his Clone ability.

At first, everything seemed fine. Even after summoning his clone five or six times in a short period didn't have any issues... but, as the number of times grew, quickly passing a dozen, he started to notice some sort of...strain, as that was the only word he could think of for it. It wasn't pain, exactly, and his HP never moved at all...

But as he summoned his clone over and over again, his head began to pound, and a feeling of nausea welled up inside him. Worse, as he summoned Eron once more, he could see that those symptoms weren't limited to him, but affected his clone as well.

"Any clue what the hell is going on?" Eron gasped, for once not rushing off to continue the pattern of burn and sacrifice.

"Same person, jackass." Cam gasped, as the last summoning of his clone also left him feeling short of breath. "Just... take it easy and hold the Boss back for a second while I think..."

Snorting in amusement- which Cam took as more or less a good sign-, Eron moved forward a bit, positioning himself between the Boss and Cam, ready to cast his spell once more to ward off the Boss, but not taking any offensive actions...

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He was giving Cam a chance to think about what was happening... and also to maybe recover a bit.

Cam's mind raced, as he had never heard of something like this happening. It wasn't possible for a Classer to overdraft their mana, spending more than their mana pool contained; If the caster didn't have enough mana, they just couldn't cast the Ability, simple as that...

But Clone didn't require mana in the first place...

His first thought was that there was some sort of cost, even if the description didn't expressly state it.

While that was a little strange, it wasn't impossible; One of the things he had learned in school was that Ability descriptions didn't necessarily tell you everything about the Ability. Fan the Flames didn't say it could burn grass- or treehouses, for that matter-, but it could. The description for Iron Skin only mentioned coating the skin in metal, but didn't mention that it also protected the wearer's clothes- which it did, somehow...

The description explained the Ability, but didn't cover every incidental aspect. It was up to the Classer to understand their Abilities and use them properly...

For a second while glancing over his Abilities once more, Cam wasn't really sure what it could be. Nothing in the description for his Clone Ability suggested a cost. Everything it said was fairly straight forward, too; Summon a clone, reduced Stats, all Abilities-except Clone and Soul Harvest, of course-, and completely identical except for equipment... The ability to subsume the clone...

Ignoring the screech of pain- and mostly ignoring the notification of his Clone hitting the Boss's mount with Fan the Flames-, Cam's eyes wandered up to his first Ability, Soul Harvest... and a new idea formed... one that incorporated a theory he had only vaguely heard of before...

"Souls are real... and someone once theorized that Abilities are tied to the soul- even if most people don't believe the theory or that souls exist..." He grimaced, not liking where his train of thought was going... even if it seemed plausible. "If that's the case, then summoning Eron... maybe the cost is a small fragment of my soul?"

Shuddering at the thought, Cam couldn't help but wonder if he was slowly destroying himself every time one of his clones died; While he had lost a few before this Boss fight, it was only a small fraction of how many had died here...

But he also knew he wouldn't figure this out quickly, and definitely not in the middle of a Boss fight. Not if he wanted to actually kill the Boss and keep climbing.

"Try to bait it into charging the hut!"

"What about... whatever is going on with us?"

"We'll figure that out after!" He shouted back at his clone, shifting to give Eron space to back up... which was all the opening the Boss needed, as it launched itself towards the pair.

Diving in opposite directions, Cam and his clone barely got out of the way as the Boss flashed past... and his mount slammed headfirst into the wood building, nearly unseating its rider. Scrambling to their feet, neither hesitated to hit the pair with Fan the Flames, nearly simultaneously.

Your Clone's 'Fan the Flames' burned Bunnicorn Alpha Mount for 16 damage(Fire).

Your Clone's 'Fan the Flames' burned Kawe Shaman(Boss) for 16 damage(Fire).

Fan the Flames inflicted Burn condition on Kawe Shaman(Boss).

Your 'Fan the Flames' burned Bunnicorn Alpha Mount for 20 damage(Fire).

Your 'Fan the Flames' burned Kawe Shaman(Boss) for 20 damage(Fire).

Before they could capitalize further, the mount spun in place, its back feet kicking out at Eron and its horn scraping across Cam's shield, pushing the pair of them back- which Cam felt almost thankful for, as it pushed him just out of reach of the shaman's spear.

Instead of continuing to fight the two to either side of it, the Boss and its mount bounded away once more...

"I think we found its attack pattern." Eron grunted, and Cam agreed; For early Floors, the Bosses lacked intelligence and tended to follow simple attack patterns- in the case of this Boss, it used Root to limit the climber's mobility while it bounded around, charging from different angles before disengaging, only to repeat the same approach over and over...

Higher Floor Bosses were smarter, and would deviate from set patterns- or not have a set pattern at all... but, for now, it learning the Boss's pattern was good enough.

Especially with so much area cleared of grass, removing its spell from the equation. And with the hut at their back to momentarily halt its movements, of course.

Eyes widening, Cam saw another advantage of their strategy- even if losing so many clones still had a clear downside. As the Bunnicorn Mount bounded away, it landed on one of the many Eron corpses littering the burned ground... and the body shifted under its weight and momentum, rolling the mount's ankle and sending the pair tumbling.

Almost in imitation of the Boss's attack pattern, Cam and his clone rushed forward to hose down the mount in another wash of flames, before hurriedly darting back to their position near the hut... and Cam grinned at the sweet, sweet notification that popped up.

Bunnicorn Alpha Mount has been slain! +75Xp

A part of him wanted to curse at how little XP the incredibly tough monster gave... But it wasn't the Boss, just the Boss's mount... and, technically, he was two levels higher than it.

More importantly, though, the Boss no onger had its incredibly mobile- and tough- mount.

As the Boss climbed back to its feet after its tumble and charged- though it was more like a shuffling run compared to the speed its mount had possessed-, Cam handed off the shield and cudgel to his clone before pulling his greatsword out once more; A stand up fight against a caster Boss that appeared to only have one Ability?

Yes, please!