Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 97: Battle for the Tower

Toren Daen

I neared the island, my senses buoyed by my Will. I could feel the lifeforce of my comrades within, slowly making their way up the one hundred and two stories to the top of the tower. They were going excruciatingly slow, and as I got closer, I finally understood why.

My new inherent sense of heartfire was a difficult thing to describe, but I could just barely feel the many undead within the mock Empire State Building. Where living humans felt vibrant and full, like a man's mood after a full meal, these sources were empty. There was something missing in their heartfire that told me they were no longer human. Sevren and the others were forced into a slog, fighting for every inch of ground they ascended.

I'd have to trust the Denoir heir with that. I reached the beach before the leviathan, the impact of my boots kicking up a spray of sand. Then I bent my knees, building power in my asuran muscles.

I rocketed straight up in a combination of fire, telekinesis, and pure muscular drive. I hit a hundred feet vertically before I reached the peak of my arch. Before I could fall, however, I lashed myself to the side of the Empire State Building, standing at a ninety-degree angle and watching the serpent slowly weave its way through the water.

I clenched Oath tight. The weapon had always been a comfort to me in my ascents. It was the sole constant I had that could rely on: a blade that had cut through everything I'd used it against.

But my saber was a paltry twig compared to the monster that I faced. How could this three-foot blade hope to cut something that must have been a thousand feet long?

That didn't matter. The serpent, like a herald of death, approached me regardless of what I wished. So here I stood.

Wishing to test something, I threw another fireball at the approaching monster. It splashed over the creature's face, failing to damage the bone even further. It let out a guttural roar that seemed to shake the entire zone as the serpent was forced to remember its previous wounds.

Inside its mouth was nothing but charred flesh. Where before there had been innumerable grasping hands waiting to tear me apart, now there was simply bone and ash.

I took solace in that. The wound I'd given it didn't seem to slow it down in the slightest, but despite my earlier fears, it was still pissed.

The serpent finally reached the beach, arching itself up and waving its body rhythmically as it squared off with me.

I wasn't prey to it any longer. Now, I was an enemy. A fellow predator in the same territory, fighting it for what it thought its own. It hissed, its blackened teeth rippling as the noise shuddered through me.

I snarled right back, feeling that primal part of myself that came forward in battle surfacing.

"You think you can get through me?" I yelled in a challenge, my voice booming with sound magic. "You think they are yours? That you can take them for yourself?!"

The serpent drifted closer, at eye level with me. Its catfish-esque whiskers were almost close enough to cut.

"I made them a Promise!" I cried, all the emotion I'd harbored in this zone bubbling forth. I settled into my stance, pointing my saber at the creature in front of me. "That they would escape this place alive! I've fought and bled and died fighting against this cruel world! But no matter what you've thrown at me, I haven't broken! I am a phoenix, and every blow I take only makes me stronger! The ashes you left only served to forge my Will like iron!"

The monster lunged, fangs flared wide. I leapt at the same time, the instincts my Will provided guiding me through this delicate dance of danger. I tried to pull myself to the side, aiming to streak along its jawline as I had before.