Ch 13: The first boss battle [pt1]

As soon as slaves had gone through their respective portals, Baron Luke had sat down on his seat and waited for them to come back. It could take from hours to days but Baron Luke was certain that it would not take long.

The reason he was so certain was that he had gone to a shaman before entering this dungeon. And the shaman had told Baron Luke that this trail would not take long for any of his slaves.

Shamans were special people who had been blessed by the tower to be able to see certain things in the future. However, their ability came at a steep price and every time they used their powers, they lost something precious.

However, the person Baron Luke had sought out had been a slave of his. And Baron Luke did not care what price the slave had to pay to see this future.

The slave had died but at least he had done Baron Luke a favor. The slave should consider himself as lucky in this regard.

“Tsk, but still, this is taking too long. It had already been two hours since those slaves disappeared into their portals. I will have to punish them all once they come back.”

Baron Luke hated to sit around and wait. And now he was feeling pissed off.

He was about to leave the tower room when the light flashed in the centre of the room and dropped four of his slaves. Then, another portal opened and dropped the fifth one as well.

All the slaves were naked at first but then clothes magically appeared around their bodies. It was the tower’s way to confirm that these people had passed their first trial.

‘Finally, these slaves are ready to face the first boss. As long as I bring back to loot, I will become rich and famous. As for these slaves? Well, they would have to die to keep my secret.’

This was a rather common practice in their current world. People often brought slaves in here to clear the tower’s boss room and then killed them off to keep their mouths shut. That way, all the power and glory that came with this position was there to keep.

And there was another reason slaves were needed for the trial and the master did not do it himself. It was because of the ‘irregularity.’

Most of the time, when one cleared the tower, they were allowed to go back out. But some people were cursed and could not leave the tower. Since the nobles did not want to face this situation, they did not undergo the trial themselves and took their slaves.

“You all, wake up now. I do not tolerate laziness in my people.”

Baron Luke struck his whip on the ground. That cracking noise was loud and intimidating. It also served to wake up the slaves and they jerked up in fear.

‘Good. It seems like these fools still know their place. It saves me a lot of time and effort on training them once again.’

Baron Luke sighed as he held his whip tight. His cold eyes looked at the slaves and dared them to disobey him. This was how things were supposed to be.

…………………….

‘Wake up. You have passed the first trail.’

Alex’s eyes opened in shock as soon as that soft voice whispered in his ear. He rubbed his eyes and then heard the loud sound of a whip cracking down on the ground.

That loud voice was enough to wake everyone else as well and they jerked into motion. Even Alex flinched reflexively at the loud noise he heard.

“You fools are finally awake? You all sure took your time to come around. Now hurry up and stand. We don’t have enough time to be sitting around here.”

Baron Luke yelled and it made Alex’s ears ring. The dream he just had felt so real.

That that dream, Alex had become powerful and he had been allowed to do what he desired. It was everything he could ever imagine and more if he ever got power and freedom.

Somehow, that feeling of power and adrenaline coursing through his body felt so real to Alex that he had to physically stop himself from doing anything foolish to get that rush back.

“You all, pay attention to me. Now, I will open this door and you all will face the final boos. Remember, your lives are dependent on you winning this fight. If you fail, then you would be killed off immediately. Do you understand?”

Alex nodded slowly along with the other slaves. The sensation from his dear followed him around and impulsive thoughts made their way inside Alex’s head.

His hands itched to grab hold of Baron Luke’s head and bash it into the ground. It would break that fragile human head for sure and make Alex go free again.

‘What are you waiting for? Go ahead and do what you want.’

Alex impulsively followed that thought and took a step back. But then a horrible feeling took over his body and made him choke on the air.

“Don’t get any weird ideas in your mind, you slaves. You all might have gotten more powerful than before, but that doesn’t mean a thing to me. You all are still slaves and are bound by the contract.”

Alex looked at his arm and the slave brand on it. It shined brightly and send waves of magic throughout his body. It hurt and Alex cursed the day he had been born at all.

‘One day, I will kill Baron Luke and everyone else that put me through this hell. I will get the taste of that freedom and power I saw in my dream before. This is a promise I am making to myself.’

Baron Luke seemed unaware of this poisonous glare being aimed his way. He was looking forward to his promotion as well as the kind of luxuries he would be enjoying in the future.

“Alright, this is the boss room. You all have increased physical strength so you go ahead. I will support you from the back.”

Baron Luke commanded as he watched his slaves follow his every word. But little did they know that the Baron had no intention of helping them at all.

Alex could not help but marvel at the interior of the boss room once he entered it. Alex couldn't describe it with his limited vocabulary.

He had once seen a young noble play a game that had a room like this along with a monster inside it. But when Alex had asked the young noble what that thing was, he had been laughed at.

And then the beating had come his way for daring to ask any questions about that young noble’s habits.

From that day, Alex had never dared to approach a young noble again. It was something that was not worth the effort to do.

There had been two things Alex had remembered from that day - the beating he had received the scale of the monster he had seen in that video that the young noble had played.

Suddenly, a roar was heard from behind the group and they watched a huge beast-like demon looking down at them all. The demon was ten times bigger than any of them and much more intimidating.

Alex had always known that the boss of the tower would be huge and powerful, but he had never imagined it to be this big.

Fear gripped Alex’s heart and it throbbed inside his chest. But weirdly enough, there was the weather emotion mixed inside Alex’s heart. And this emotion should not have been there.

‘Am I feeling…excited? I am about to die right now but my heart would not stop beating this fast. What is happening to me?’

Alex could not make head or tail out of his feelings. He only knew that he needed to face this boss head-on and defeat it. He needed to defeat it and take its power for himself and-

Someone pulled Alex back as soon as the boss attacked. His large fist landed at the place Alex had been standing second before.

“Y-You! What do you think you are doing? Do you want to die or something?”

Alex looked at his fellow slave Ashura. The elder teen looked tense in fear but he also looked worried.

The boss raised his weapon once more and Ashura threw Alex toward 21’s position whole he grabbed Mahiru’s hand and pulled the younger one away.

Kurina was the only one without a partner but her agile movements made her a dodging machine.

“Kurina, we need to coordinate our attack if we want to take that boss down. We need to do the same thing we did in that trail before.”

Hearing the word ‘trial’ brought some memories back to Alex’s head. But something was still blocking him from remembering what he needed to.

“Ah fuck, this boss is much tougher than the one we faced before. Are you sure we can take it out?”

Mahiru asked with a scared voice. But the boss gave her no time to think about it because the boss decided to single her out and attack her. Kurina felt her neck get chipped by the boss's attack.