Tower climber 4 a litrpg.., p.27
Tower Climber 4 (A LitRPG Adventure), page 27
The whole place was still filled with smoke, making it difficult to see and figure out exactly what happened, but Elle simply took a deep breath and let her heijo-shin passive get to work.
While others panicked and freaked out and lost sight of what was happening, Elle had a level of battle focus that she could completely disregard such feelings and stay alert to everything around her.
Once on the stage, she took in the body of the auctioneer. There were bruises of fingerprints deeply burned into his neck where he had been strangled.
Folder 68 was nowhere in sight.
Flames and ash flurried around them, a lot of which led to where the third and final explosion had come from.
Elle stepped to the edge of the auditorium and saw a hole in the wall that had been blasted through, leading to an underground passage.
“Follow me,” said Elle. “We’re going after him.”
She sprinted forward into the dark passage, a violent determination pounding in her heart.
I won’t let that bastard get away.
The smoke began to clear and a greater picture of the chaos in the auction hall emerged.
Max looked up to the balcony and saw that his sister and her comrades were no longer there.
“Damn,” he hissed.
He pieced it altogether. The attack had to have been Nicolas Adler. Only he had the ability to craft special mana bombs that could go undetected to kill off the debuffers in the room.
Plus, he was the only one with the motive to go to these lengths.
Elle must have figured it out as well and was now pursuing him.
“We gotta chase after Elle,” Max declared. “We can’t let her get away!”
They moved towards the stage only to be interrupted by a bellowing voice.
“Not so fast,” shouted Ezekiel. “The only gang members walking out of here alive are The Immortal Killers. This is for Leila and all our fallen comrades!”
Ezekiel stretched out his arms and shot out liquid metal bubbles.
The six liquid metal bubbles landed on a bunch of different Tuxedo Devil members and quickly wrapped around their bodies.
“Arghhh!”
“Urghh!”
“Grfgl!”
Screams echoed across the room as the liquid metal first created a binding around them and then suffocated them and then finally burst their bodies into two, killing them instantly.
Ezekiel stared Jimmy the Frog down and snarled, “This will teach you for backstabbing us!”
Jimmy the Frog grimaced at the sight of the six fallen Tuxedo Devils.
Puddles of blood began to expand across the auction hall’s floor.
He didn’t hold that much sympathy for any of them, they were lesser members of course.
But still, the grave disrespect shown by The Immortal Killers could not be ignored.
I tried to avoid getting my hands dirty, Jimmy thought to himself, but these poor bastards are forcing me too.
Jimmy slowly rolled up the sleeves of his tuxedo and took on a fighting stance.
He clenched a fist and shouted, “Gold rush!”
In a split second, he was in front of a random Immortal Killers member, and blasted his head right off with a single punch.
The sounds of jingling coins echoed throughout the room.
Gold coins collapsed on the ground, burned and blackened, then crumbling to dust.
Jimmy didn’t like showing off his trait to his enemies, but he had no choice given the circumstances.
His trait was a special ability called Gold Rush.
He could spend money to deal insanely deadly moves.
He’d just blown up the head of that Immortal Killer with one of his lesser moves known as, “$50 Dollar Punch.”
He cracked his neck and stared down the rival gangs in front of him.
“Your useless comrade only cost me 50 gold coins,” said Jimmy. “Chump change for me, boys, and I’m ready to cash in to remove you all!”
And with that, the greatest gang war in the history of Nightmare City began.
70
Master Asriel stood calmly as guns, knives, and magical weaponry were all unsheathed.
The massive fight had begun.
He stood with such powerful stillness, reading the rhythm and movements of the battle, that he merely needed to tilt his neck slightly to dodge bullets and fireballs as they passed him by.
He inhaled and exhaled taking in the significance of the situation.
The great peace of the rival gangs of Nightmare City was coming to an end.
No, it was over already, and this moment was now the transition into the unknown.
Those who survived and made it out of the ashes of today would rule Nightmare City into its new era.
He smiled as he saw the order within the chaos of the current moment.
I must act, he thought.
I must seize the moment.
If I do, Nightmare City can be mine.
Asriel nodded to Ezekiel.
His captain would handle the riffraff in the auction hall, while he’d go and make sure those who needed to die today indeed did so.
He had some work to do.
With that, Master Asriel jumped from the hole in the ceiling to pursue domination of Nightmare City.
Elle rushed along the underground passage.
She could hear the echo of Kai and Winifred’s footsteps behind her.
“C’mon,” she said, gritting her teeth.
This was it, she thought.
She wasn’t going to let Nicolas Adler get away.
Not this time.
She’d get that folder from him, find out his weakness, and kill him there and then.
I’m finally going to avenge you guys, she thought.
Mom…
Dad…
The underground passage began to widen until they stumbled upon train tracks.
“This must be one of Nightmare City’s abandoned subway lines,” said Winifred. “They only have one working train.”
Elle squinted ahead into the dark passage and could see in the distance that it began to open up.
“Damn,” said Kai. “How will we figure out which way he went?”
Elle scanned the dirty ground and saw footprints.
“This way,” she hissed and sprinted in the direction of the footprints.
You won’t get away from us, she thought to herself as her heart pounded and she sprinted further and faster.
I promise I won’t let you escape.
Jimmy the Frog leaped in the air and did a spinning kick.
His webbed feet spun in the air, breaking the spinal cords of lesser gang members, and sending them instantly to oblivion.
“300 Dollar Roulette Kick!” he shouted.
He landed on the ground and looked across the firefight, window shopping.
“Whose demise do I purchase next?” he snickered.
As he looked across the warring gang members, he took in an irritating fact.
Master Asriel had disappeared.
I see, Jimmy thought, piecing together Master Asriel’s plan.
The rival gang leader planned for Jimmy and the other Tuxedo Devils to die in the fighting, while he went and finished off Ren, and took over total control of the city.
Fat chance, Jimmy thought. I’ll kill that fool before I let any of that happen.
Jimmy looked to his captain, the B-ranker Bazooka Terry.
“Terry, I leave this mess in your hands,” said Jimmy. “I gotta go take out Asriel. You take care of everyone in here and we’ll meet up later, got it?”
“Got it, boss,” said Terry. “Leave it to me!”
With that, Jimmy leapt out of the auction hall in pursuit of Master Asriel.
As magical abilities flew across the auction hall, Ezekiel watched Jimmy the Frog rush out of the building in pursuit of his master.
The captain of The Immortal Killers then gave the thumbs up to one of his lackeys.
Jimmy, you fool, thought Ezekiel. We’re going to cut you off from your best fighters now.
As Jimmy ran off, Ezekiel’s lackeys unfurled an inscription scroll.
They placed their hands into the scroll and fed it mana, which unleashed a giant shadow barrier across the entirety of the auction hall.
“Perfect,” Ezekiel said.
The scroll was a rare and expensive item of advanced military mana usage.
It created a shadow barrier that could be used both defensively and offensively against powerful attacks.
The barrier stopped anything from going in or out of it.
It was a way of containing powerful forces from unleashing havoc on huge numbers of people.
All of which meant that right now, as of this moment, no one could leave or enter the battle within the auction hall.
There was no escape.
71
Max and his companions ducked in their seats.
“This is all out chaos,” Casey said. “They’re just ripping each other to shreds. What are we going to do?”
“The best option I can think of,” said Max, “is to get the heck out of here.”
“Agreed,” said Tiberius. “In such a chaotic scenario as this one, our best option is simply to remove ourselves.”
“Great,” said Casey, looking up above their seats to see a huge meteoric fireball fly over their heads. “How the heck do we remove ourselves with all these deadly attacks flying every which way?”
Max quickly assessed the room. There were multiple exit points, but he knew which one he wanted to take already.
The blown out hole in the wall where Elle had chased after Nicolas Adler.
That’s the only option, Max thought. We have to go after my sister.
With the escape route picked, Max had one more problem.
He could easily shadow blink across the room, but his companions wouldn’t be able to.
How could he escort them across the gang fight without them getting harmed?
He grinned as the solution came to him.
“C’mon, guys,” he said. “Follow my lead.”
Shad of The Tuxedo Devils shot out a water blast from his palm.
The ball of water crashed into the giant meteoric flame that had been hurtling towards his head, causing an explosion of magical debris to burst out across the room.
He sighed with relief.
He had not woken up that day prepared for a fiery meteor to fly straight towards his face.
No amount of criminal underground experience prepared anyone for such an ordeal.
The Immortal Killer flamebringer, who had fired the attack, was now sending his blasts elsewhere across the room.
Shad’s orders were to add to the chaos, protect fellow Tuxedo Devils, and make sure no one, except his allies, escaped the auction hall alive.
He then witnessed something that directly threatened the objectives of his orders.
He didn’t even know how to describe what he was looking at.
Running through the middle of the auction hall was the red-haired climber who Jimmy hated and wanted killed, but his whole body was metal and robotic looking.
But beyond that he seemed to be creating an outer metal shield that spun around him and his two comrades, protecting them from the hostile projectiles flying their way.
Incredible! Shad thought. Mecha-Mode Defensive Perimeter!!
Shad was in awe of even his own enemy’s incredible power and strength.
The amazement was put into question, though, as the red-haired climber’s group came into contact with one of the strongest and most powerful Tuxedo Devil sub-captains.
Angelo Angel—an A-rank shocker with hundreds of kills to his name.
No one had ever defeated such a powerful figure in Nightmare City like Angelo Angel before.
Angelo Angel grinned as he stood in the path of the red-haired climber.
Amongst the flying projectiles and blasts, a new smaller arena within the larger skirmish was forming.
“Not so fast, punk,” Angelo said, flexing his muscles.
He had orders to add to the chaos. To kill everyone in this room.
If he could be the one to slay the red-haired climber who the boss hated so much, that would bring big promotions and rewards.
He flexed his muscles so hard that the sleeves of his red velvet tuxedo burst into shreds, revealing his ultimate power.
He was a shocker. A climber with the ability to manipulate lightning.
He had lightning course through his veins and muscles, so beneath his biceps you could see the faint glimmer of a lightning storm.
This internalized lightning technique made Angelo one of the strongest climbers in the city with enough power to destroy people with a single blow.
The red-haired climber’s companions ducked to the side as Angelo charged towards them.
“Take this, you weaklings!”
Angelo prepared his fist to slam into Max.
His eyes bulged at what happened next.
The kid was throwing out a punch of his own.
He can’t be serious, Angelo thought in disbelief.
The kid was going to meet MY powerful punch with his puny hand?
Right as the fists met, the red-haired climber’s whole hand transformed into platinum steel armor with pointed edges, creating a truly fearsome punch.
He’s still no match for me, sneered Angelo.
But Angelo was wrong.
It was the other way around.
The mecha fist completely overpowered Angelo’s lightning punch, disabling the man’s ability, and ripping through the flesh of Angelo’s arm, dividing the limb into two like a peeled banana skin.
Angelo stumbled backwards in shocked pain and collapsed to the ground.
Angelo Angel, one of the most powerful fighters in Nightmare City, was obliterated in a single punch.
Max Rainhart had rendered the man to nothing more than a footnote, an insignificant blip in the greatest gang war Nightmare City had ever seen.
72
Soon after, Max had successfully escorted Casey and Tiberius across the auction hall to the podium.
Explosions, blasts, and screams of rage and pain echoed from behind them.
“I am looking forward to getting out of this place,” said Casey, with Toto poking out from her pocket to squeal squeak in agreement.
Max looked around the podium. The folder was gone and the auctioneer lay dead on the ground, strangled from Nicolas Adler’s hands.
Max couldn’t help but think how unnecessary this man’s death was. Adler could have stolen the files and left, but he was so cruel and cared so little about this man that it was a greater convenience just to kill him.
Then, Max considered the fact that this same man murdered his parents.
This man had ripped him away from the life that he should have had.
And was it possible that this man Nicolas Adler—the Arcane Crafter, one of the freaking founders of Zestiris—murdered his mom and dad just because it was easier to do so rather than not? Was his whole miserable childhood created by mere accident of fate? Were his parents just collateral damage to this guy’s madness?
Max sucked in a deep breath.
For a brief second, he thought: this must be what Elle thought every day of her life. Had to confront knowing this truth, while I lived oblivious to it all. If I had grown up brooding on all of this, what would I have become?
He gulped and turned to the blown up wall and underground passage that Elle and her companions had escaped into, chasing after Nicolas Adler.
“C’mon, guys,” he said, running towards it.
He had to catch up with his sister.
If he didn’t confront her now, there was no way of knowing when their paths might cross again.
If they ever would.
Max felt more determined than ever, only to smash right into a shadow wall.
“What the—”
He rubbed his head and placed his hand out to feel a black tinted shadow wall, blocking the underground passage.
He turned to Casey and Tiberius.
“It looks like we’ve been locked inside the auction hall,” Max explained.
At that moment three Tuxedo Devils rushed towards them to attack.
By the time Max and his companions could get into a fighting stance, three darts swooshed across the auction hall into the necks of the fighters and they all collapsed to the floor.
Peter and Moira, captain and sub-captain of The Faceless Association, landed on the podium.
“Thought we might join you for this shindig,” Moira winked.
“We just found out we’re trapped in here,” said Casey.
“Yeah, The Immortal Killers set up a shadow box over the perimeter of the auction hall,” Moira explained. “If we don’t disable it, we’ll be trapped in here for hours.”
“With all this chaos around us, I don’t see how we’ll be able to disable it,” said Max. “I think we need to split up.”
“I agree,” said Peter. “You guys search for a way to destroy the shadow perimeter. I’ll take care of the biggest nuisance in here.”
Peter cracked his knuckles and focused in on Bazooka Terry.
Moira blinked in shock.
She took a step towards Peter.
“You can’t be serious,” she said. “You’re going to take Terry on your own.”
“You say it like he’s stronger than me,” said Peter.
“Well, he’s certainly more psychotic,” said Moira. “Or did you forget that his name is Bazooka Terry.”
“She has a point,” Casey added. “That is a silly, bordering on maniacal, nickname. The kind of thing you’d either name bubble gum after or give to a homicidal maniac. Take your pick.”
“Trust me,” said Peter, “whoever’s going to be guarding the shadow box is going to be tougher than the guys down here. You’re going to need the numbers much more than me. Now go, before more walls cave in and we’re really trapped!”
Moira gave a faint melancholic smile to her captain and mentor.
