Chapter 41- Trapped In A Skelatal Palm

I should've expected it. The Minotaur was a famous boss and an extremely common one. 

One of its traits was becoming enraged, gaining a boost to its physical attributes at the cost of its mind. It was also common for it to be a 'second' phase kind of boss. Often the first you'd encounter with the ability in an rpg setting.

I put my self to blame but really we should've been paying more attention, the excitement of a new class and practicing our abilities merely set us up for failure.

Why didn't we think? The body was never absorbed by the tower, that should've been our first clue. The statue of Icarus disappearing? Obviously there was a reason for that. 

I barely reacted as the stone floor around us quaked, my head snapped towards the beast in slow motion. His calf and quad muscles were bulging to an extreme degree. My eyes moved up and all I saw was the air being cut to ribbons as the beast's axe slammed into the floor.

Creating massive fissures that covered the entire room. 

"Ace!!" I heard Ivar scream out to me but it was much too late for he or I to do anything to help the other.

I tried to yell out to my comrades but I was already falling, deeper into the tower. I barely caught a glimpse of both running from the beast as he chased after his stunned and surprised opponents.

But I had more to worry about, because I had already fallen long enough to cover what I thought was a whole floor. But given how odd the size of this tower was I could've barely moved the equivalent of a few steps on a set of stairs. The worst part? I didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

I tried everything, reaching out praying to feel bricks or anything that could slow my descent but there was nothing around me.

I used more than a third of my mama to send balls of fire in every direction in the vain hope I would see something other than darkness.

Falling endlessly in a vague space between these floors, given the tower's magical nature there was no telling where I'd end up.

Yet things had to come to the end as I could only fall so far. I vaguely spotted a flicker towards the corner to my left. It took me only a moment to notice the light source and a second later for me to begin blasting off fire balls to push my momentum toward it.

I used over half of my mana to angle myself so that I felt I would fall right towards it. A couple minutes later I realized what it was, a crack that glowed in a rainbow like that pattern. It radiates mana to the point that even my untrained senses could sense it pulse every few seconds.

'There's my exit!' I righted myself and tried my best to angle myself so I'd fly through it and hopefully not clip the sides.

Despite the chances I flew perfectly through the crack and was almost blinded by the other side.

I felt the wind on my back, my raggedy mane flowing in the wind. The smell of fresh air hit me the worst and I realized I was still falling except now I was picking up speed.

The air howled around me as I blasted through it, luckily my sight returned as a vague blur of blue was under me. 

I hoped and prayed that it was a body of water becuase if not I was surely dead.

Another moment and pain took over all of my other senses.

Seconds passed as I tried to scream out in a small attempt of relief, it was a bad idea as water tried to choke me of the little oxygen I had left.

I began flailing in a futile attempt to escape before I got my wits about me and began swimming for the surface. 

A flash of relief passed through me as J noticed the sun in the sky and I would've mentally sighed in relief.

If not for the black gauntlet clad arm that grabbed by my neck and threw me out of the small lake I had landed in. 

"Ughh…." I groaned as I slid down a brick wall that I was just bodily thrown into as if I was a child.

'Holy shit….. I'm alive!' I realized with joy as I felt I got very lucky. Falling between floors in a magic tower? Probably more dangerous than skydiving with a blindfold on. 

Despite my elation and relief something was bugging me. Something major I was missing.

That came to me not even a moment later as a pair of thick restraints were strapped on my arms.

"What? What the hell are you….." first came confusion then came anger then confusion again. A flurry of emotions passed in moments as I looked up at the skeletal figure that bound me with cuffs that covered my wrists up to my elbows. 

"Quiet, chosen." Raspy, extremely so, but magical in a way. Given the fact that the skeleton thing could talk at all, even if it did sound like a lifelong smoker.

So surprised by the skelton speaking I didn't realize he held a chain that connected to my cuffs and a rough tug forced me back to my feet.

"Follow or die." It seemed that this creature was limited to one word repsonces but as I looked into the purple flames that were it's eyes I felt it was smart to comply.

I noticed a few more things as we began walking. This skeleton was no mere low level undead. Blackened bone armor with spiked vambraces, shoulder guards and a bonfire of dark flame that resonated in the creatures chest.

'A revenant' a special type of ended monster that was usually created through necromancy. A fusion of a normal skeleton and ghost. Granting the creature increased intelligence and even magical abilities. Along with the cool flaming chest aesthetic.

'Could this floor's boss be this skeleton's master? A real necromancer…..' despite having a class rated above epic I still felt fear of going up against such an entity.

Without a doubt, necromancer would always be a 'broken' class. No matter the system that it's in, being able to raise skeletons and zombies and possibly have access to other types of offensive magic is dangerous to go up against. 

Death, shadow, blood and bone magic were all too common to be found in a necromancer's arsenal. Making said person extremely dangerous on his own if you manage to deal with the minions.

And at its pinnacle? It was almost incalculable. Whether they became a superior undead themselves like a lich. Or they had armies in the millions with several powerful generals. Some even had both and then some.

"You'r creator wouldn't happen to be nearby would they?" I asked curiously as at this point I felt no fear that I couldn't eapave these bonds and torch this bony bastard.

A small halt in his gait was the only tell the monster gave that he even heard my question. 

"He serves, the same as I" Almost a minute later the revenant finally responded. Turning my small smile into a deep frown. Now I had to get out of these cuffs, immediately.

I summoned my mana with a fever as I wanted to be nowhere near a real necromancer. But as the first drops of the lava that felt like my mana moved the cuffs sparked and the mana halted.

"The first is a warning, there won't be another. Follow meat, quietly" The Skeleton monster spoke even more fluently than before but his warning left a pit in my stomach. Mana dampening cuffs with an electrocuting function for those more bull headed of prisoners.

The situation just became a hundred times worse. Now I really was a prisoner, in fact I always was.

But that left another slew of questions.

What floor am I on that has a necromancer as the most likely candidate for a boss? Am I in the eighties now? Or possibly even further down?

In the beginning I would've rejoiced, I'd already theorized that in the best case scenario it would take two weeks per floor. Meaning I'd spend a decade in this damn tower. Now if I was on a floor in the eighty's or possibly even the seventy's? That would've saved me nearly two years.

Now with a hint of bad luck I was now alone, unaware and blind to whatever danger I fell into.