Death From Above

The Brightborn Antdragons, the gigantic crystalline insects which looked like dragonflies, circled like vultures in the sky.

Down below, Ignatius took a deep breath as he prepared to put his latest plan into action. Usually, this encounter against a swarm of flying monsters was a wonderful challenge for a balanced party. Several ranged characters could attack while the melee characters could help each other avoid being carried away and dropped into the nearby Brightborn Antlion nest.

At the moment, Ignatius and Siegmund were safe on the unbroken portion of the highway leading to the City of Stomrus. The fact that the highway offered magical protection was not explicitly told to players in this level, but was a sort of Easter egg for players who had paid attention earlier in the game.

If Ignatius had recruited a bunch of ranged DPS characters, they could have simply stood on the highway and sniped the airborne monsters over the course of a minute or so.

But he was playing solo to maximize his earnings and hide his true power from other players, so that strategy was unavailable to him.

Instead, Ignatius began with the strategy which he and Siegmund had relied on frequently up till this point in the Eternal Tower. He sent the Onion Knight out on his own to draw the attention of the monsters. However, rather than having Siegmund keep walking toward the city, Ignatius told him to stand a few paces from the edge of the highway and then just walk back and forth.

Sure enough, two Brightborn Antdragons swung away from the main swarm after a few moments. They dove, intending to abduct the Onion Knight!

As soon as they were close, Siegmund threw himself to the ground and dug his huge claymore into the sand at an angle, trying to create an anchor that would make him harder to carry.

The two monsters descended upon him…

…And began slowly, slowly dragging him from his anchored position and into the sky!

Ignatius sprang to the edge of the highway and cast [✧Sacred Fist]. Within moments, the first two enemies were vanquished.

"By the gods, thank you, my friend!" Siegmund gasped, pulling his sword free and rolling with relief back onto the highway. "I am ashamed to have doubted you in my weakness, but when I felt their little grubby arms pulling me away…"

"Don't worry about it," said Ignatius, staring up again into the sky.

The remaining six monsters had shifted their formations. This was the tricky part. From Floor 5 onward, enemy AI would steadily improve. Except for most constructs and undead, enemies would adapt to the strategies players used against them. If a monster saw a player exploit a weakness, that monster would try to protect itself from that same strategy being used again.

Therefore, Ignatius wouldn't be able to trick the remaining Brightborn Antdragons the same way a second time.

In addition, their AI was variable enough from instance to instance that he couldn't immediately predict what their next strategy would be. He had some ideas, but it wasn't as simple as knowing exactly where the antlion nest was based on the standardization of story-based maps.

However, they couldn't avoid the two basic driving forces of their existence: protecting their infant in its nest and giving that infant food.

'Perhaps… yes, that plan might work,' Ignatius thought to himself. 'It's very risky, though. If the interaction doesn't work as I assume it does based on other things I've seen in the game, then I've just thrown away all the time I spent grinding through floors to get here!'

Then he stood and dusted the desert sand off his clothes. It was a pointless gesture, as the hot wind was whipping gritty particles into his face and clothes with every passing moment. "All right," he said grimly. "Siegmund, I need you to trust me on this. No matter what, you can't run out and try to save me, alright?"

"What!?" the Onion Knight asked in disbelief. "Friend, you're asking me to leave you to a horrible death!?"

The corner of Ignatius's mouth twisted up into a wry grin. "You're forgetting that I'm a full-blooded Immortal now."

Siegmund's shoulders drooped. "Oh. Yes. Of course. You have the power to come back from death. I got a little carried away in the moment. Then yes, I swear to hold back, just this once."

Ignatius rolled his eyes as he turned back to the desert plains. Siegmund's programming wouldn't let him realize that he 'also' came back after death. It made for a silly disconnect between the lore of the game and the actual mechanics.

But then Ignatius took a deep breath, cast [✯Trailblazer], and stepped off the highway. He began taking slow, deliberate steps toward the Brightborn Antlion nest.

The monsters above screamed in wary rage. They flew in a more chaotic circle, likely watching to see if Siegmund would run up to defend Ignatius, as the Monk had done for his companion.

But, of course, this didn't happen. Siegmund's hand tightened in fury on the grip of his claymore, but he obeyed Ignatius's command.

Two of the monsters finally swooped down to club Ignatius into submission with their giant antennae. Ignatius had known this was coming, and he stared directly at one of them as it barreled through the air toward him. Ignatius parried its attempt to club him, then riposted, killing the monster at once.

Then the rest of them hurtled through the air together and picked Ignatius up while he was still recovering from his attack animation!

He struggled as best as he could and landed a couple glancing, low-damage hits on the creatures attacking him, though this was extremely difficult while he was in the air and not planted firmly on the ground.

The Brightborn Antdragons, with great difficulty, carried the writhing Ignatius through the air until they were directly above the nest of their infant, the gigantic, crystalline Brightborn Antlion.

Then they dropped him, and Ignatius hurtled through the air to the open jaws of the monster below.