Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Lexie suddenly started screaming from her seat, "MOOOOOON, BEAT THEM AAAAALL!" It was more of a growl than a scream of a fan.

Nola, next to her, raised her arms and said softly, "Beat them all," cheering.

Behind the duo, another duo entered the arena.

Talia, with the girl she had around previously. "These girls are rather excited," the girl commented, unaware of the current state of the ongoing skirmish.

Talia was also surprised. "Boa, do you know them?" she asked.

The girl called Boa nodded. "I heard of them once. The exited one is a child of the Thorn Clan; the other one is her aide." Boa paused before adding, "All of those in that branch are either lower-floor clan descendants or nobodies."

Talia didn’t speak with anyone regularly. She felt she was rather avoided, considering she was the only one in the branch from upper floor clans, so she decided to approach the two girls first this time. Though before she did, she took a look at the arena, watching Moon, who was still toying with everyone down there. "That one is good," she said, pointing at him.

Boa nodded in agreement. "Indeed, those of the first floor are like battle demons who just happened to crawl out of hell, but it’s always meaningless against great clans’ long legacy of combat arts and arcane arts."

Talia didn’t argue, but started walking forward, trying to get to know the two girls cheering aggressively.

Below, where the battle was raging, Moon’s eyes darted back and forth. He roughly estimated he had taken down around thirteen or fourteen contestants during his Roran Rush Operation.

It wasn’t a bad number, but there was much more to take care of. Those who were truly capable of fighting managed to avoid him during that brief exchange.

Of those he recognized, Colten, Abshi, Dorbish, Barrett, and Kase were still there with him, or rather, facing him in the arena.

He was still being attacked from every possible direction, but like a true monster hunter, he was always finding a way to knock someone out with a blindingly explosive punch to their jaw or sternum.

He also punched Dorbish a few times, though it didn’t land critically. Dorbish was, without a doubt, more durable than almost everyone else.

Some even got disqualified trying to block him with Echo on reflex. Their Echo was somehow instantly disabled, and they were extracted outside, where Uon was standing, surrounded by rows of sleeping and injured ascenders.

Moon heard growls and screams every time a hit landed on Dorbish, but he couldn’t turn his head to take a look under such circumstances. He sure didn’t find these noises pleasant to hear.

At the back of his mind, he sometimes felt his sanity was about to slip away. The urges were growing stronger, but he had still, until this moment, kept himself under control...

This ring, and this fight... it wasn’t a threat to his life in the slightest, so he deemed it an unacceptable place to lose control.

Yet, Fate Alert wasn’t in the slightest merciful.

Abshi ran ahead of everyone in their assault, his leg raised, aimed for Moon’s face while he was still surrounded from both directions. Moon was at his happiest at this moment.

He stepped forward instead of evading. He bent his knees, allowing Abshi’s leg to slide past his shoulder. He locked his arm around Abshi’s led instantly. Then, a punch exploded into the inner thigh.

~Creak

"AUUGGH!" Abshi couldn’t hold back his screams this time. Moon had only punched once, but it was hard enough to push his femur out of his pelvis, fracturing it in the process.

Moon let go of Abshi, who was starting to float. He was getting extracted, and Moon couldn’t allow himself to linger and get surrounded without an exit again. Thus, he bent forward the moment he heard someone’s breath too loudly while throwing an attack.

But another attack came after another. Moon crouched and rolled on the ground. Such actions were unthinkable for formal knights. It was utter madness and humiliation to self and others, but Moon didn’t know of such beliefs. It didn’t mean a thing.

He shifted his rolling direction toward Colten, who was somewhat catching his breath in the back. He ended his roll with a kick aimed at the absent-minded knight’s knee, bending it backwards.

On the spectators’ side, Boa let out a "tsk, tsk." "So undignified," she shook her head.

"I think it’s so cool," Nola said with glittering eyes.

"Just being able to hold his ground against that many is commendable," Talia supported Nola.

Boa wasn’t satisfied with the response. "It’s a knightly thing, I guess."

"Knightly my boot, all the knights got their asses whooped," Lexie retorted, giving Boa a side eye.

Though it’s unlikely for a lower floor clan to do such a thing, they usually work for middle or upper floor clans. A clan can’t exist completely unaffiliated unless it was at the very peak of the food chain.

Talia didn’t mind them. She considered it girls’ talk. She was now an ascender. She also thought it was a good chance to make good friends to climb the Tower with.

Or even build a group to run the second floor’s trial with. Even though she wasn’t worried about anyone inside the branch, she couldn’t be the only upper clan member on the entire floor.

Not under the circumstances of this trial, which brought intact groups into the trial.

While they were talking, Moon threw two more punches at Dorbish that he managed to guard against. Lexie ignored Boa and growled, "LAND A THIRD, LAND A FOURTH!"

Back in the ring, numbers were thinning rapidly, with Moon managing to make good use of them to his advantage and root out the stronger ones before the count dropped too low.

He had to admit, even without Echo or weapons, these guys were far stronger than wolves and goblins.

"No wonder you lot are ascenders as well," Moon spoke to Dorbish and another three half-beaten contestants.

"Did I hit you too hard last time?" Dorbish taunted, wiping the corner of his mouth of the streaming blood.

The last punch Moon threw, he tried to guard against it, but it was redirected, and he found it suddenly coming for his face, his fist colliding into his own face.

"There’s some more blood there to wipe," Moon sarcastically pointed at Dorbish’s face.

"I wish I could say the same to you, but I can’t count," Dorbish mocked.

"It’s fine, I won anyway," Moon grinned, gathering the strands of wild hair dancing about.

"It’s still earl-"

Before Dorbish could finish his words, Moon lunged at one of the remaining contestants, throwing a straight jab into his throat.

Without lingering, he turned around, his jump meeting the face of the second with his knee.

"You were trying to catch your breath," Dorbish laughed, throwing a punch at Moon first.

But he was prepared; he twisted his body, avoiding the attack, and met Dorbish’s incoming face with his elbow.

Dorbish’s body shook, but didn’t fall.

"I don’t want to hear that from you." Moon extended his hand to get a hold of his shoulder and throw the next attack.

Which resulted in more growls and screams far louder at the back.

He ignored it once again and completely ignored the last contestant, who was still panting.

He rained Dorbish’s face with punches without stopping or giving him a chance to defend or recover. Before long, he started floating away from the combo frenzy as well, getting extracted by Uon.

"Damn, you finally know how to get beat," Moon held his panting through gritted teeth. He forcefully controlled it before suddenly

GAAAAH~

Air flooded his lungs without a warning.

"It... huff... huff... It’s over... huff... at last... huff..." He panted heavily.

Suddenly, from the edge of the ring, he heard a rather creaky, as well as a muffled, laugh. It was Dorbish, who was now lying on the ground with the rest of the 50 or so contestants.

"Did you really think it was over?"