Force Your Way Chapter 7

With one final stomp, I smashed the skull of the last of the Undead Legionnaires that had spawned on the elevator. I swear, these damned things were like cockroaches; the more you killed the more popped up!

Sheathing the Venger Blades over my shoulders, I waited until the elevator docked with the platform and bolts locked it in place before moving off of it. I half-groaned as I spotted a spiral staircase leading up, but I started jogging nonetheless.

Fortunately, it was quite short, and led me to a small room that seemed to be right beneath the large main chamber. A single crank like what had sent me down to the hippodrome was in the center of the room, with a lever off to the left. At the back of the room, near to the ceiling, was a clamp, the one preventing the gate from opening. Above, carved into the ceiling, was an image of a bearded man in a toga, looking down at the room from the clouds.

That was likely Zeus, if I had to guess.

Advancing to the crank, I tested which way it went before pushing it around until it locked in place and lowered itself into a groove cut into the floor. The clamp released and vanished.

Satisfied with that, I moved over to the level and pulled it. Seconds later, another staircase dropped down from the ceiling…no, it WAS the ceiling dropping down as a staircase! Talk about efficient use of space. I ran up the stairs and, as expected was in the main atrium. The gate was now free of any clamps beneath or on it, so now all I had to do was to find out how to actually open it.

Taking a closer look at it, there were no signs of any levers, cranks, buttons or pressure plates that might make the damned thing open. What was I supposed to do, lift it with my own two hands?!

…

…wait…that actually sounds like something that this crazy place would have me do! You have got to be kidding me! That gate looked like it was made of solid bronze; it had to weigh more than a couple of fully-loaded eighteen-wheelers with how tall and wide it was! Yes, I was super strong, but I've never tried to pick up anything of this size before!

"Gah, I swear, this place is so fucking weird." I grumbled as I reluctantly headed towards the gate. Sure enough, there were a pair oh handholds on the bottom of the gate for me to grab onto. What sadist designed this place?!

Oh, right, it was probably Ziz. Moving on…

Crouching down, I assumed the proper position to life something heavy, for all the good it was likely going to do me, and tried to remind myself to lift with my spine straight.

Counting to three, I heaved with all of my strength, feeling my face going red with the effort. Incredibly, I could feel the gate moving! What the hell?!

Much to my continued astonishment, I continued lifting until I held the entire gate on my upraised hands, even if they strained from the effort. I shuffled forwards slowly and carefully before quickly shoving upwards and then rolling forwards to get away from the gate before it slammed down again.

"Ow, ow, ow…" I hissed. My arms felt like overcooked noodles thanks to that! Fucking ow!

Once I rested for a few minutes until my arms stopped trembling, I looked around. There were two staircases that wound their way up to the same landing, so I guess it doesn't matter which I take.

Flipping a mental coin, I went up the right ones and looked around on the landing. It was barren, aside from a large pair of double doors (made of gold!) leading to the next floor of the tower. Like the doors leading into the bottom floor, there were a pair of slots for me to use the Venger Blades as keys.

Walking over to them, I inserted the blades into their slots and twisted them around, unlocking the doors before withdrawing my weapons. The doors slid open, revealing the second floor of the tower. Stalking forwards, I was unsurprised when the doors slammed shut after me.

Dismissing it for the moment, I continued down the corridor, eventually coming to a wide area, with a fortress of some kind in the center. It was a pretty fancy-looking one too, with marble walls and fancy statues all over the place. What was odd about it was the fact that there seemed to be siege weapons surrounding the walls, abandoned by the looks of it.

As I stepped over the threshold of the large room, a barrier snapped into place behind me, and new enemies appeared in puffs of bloody mist. Unlike the Undead Legionnaires and Cursed Archers I had faced on the floors below, these enemies wore green uniforms and carried odd shields that had two odd areas missing on either side of the long-sides, as well as an odd kind of curved sword made of bronze. The archers used short bows which fired arrows that were on fire.

They were just as dead as the other ones though; the sunken skin and hollow eye sockets kind of gave it away.

To test things out, I started out by not using any of my other powers; just the Venger Blades themselves. Unsurprisingly, these guys went down just as easily as the Undead Legionnaires. They may have even been easier to kill, somehow.

Anyway, once I re-killed their asses, I started looking for a way into the fortress. Luckily, one of the curtain walls had a whopping great hole in it, probably from the huge-ass boulder that was sitting just inside of the perimeter. Sheesh, what the heck was with this place?

The courtyard was full of already-defeated Undead Legionnaires, Cursed Archers, and a bunch of the two new kinds of enemies. So…was this place owned by the Grecian undead and then invaded by these other ones? I'm gonna have to fight both sides, aren't I?

Resigned to being the target of both besieged and besiegers, I started exploring the grounds inside the curtain wall to find a way in. There wasn't much there, aside from a handful of statues, gazebos, shrines and of course, a lot of dead bodies.

"The fighting was fierce here…" I muttered as I looked around. "Aha! A broken door."

To be more accurate, it was like something with a fist as tall as me and just as wide as I was tall had punched the wall where the remnants of a door lay shattered on the floor, amongst rubble from the surrounding wall. Well, a door was a door so far as I was concerned, so I went in.

More dead bodies awaited me, none of them trying to attack me, fortunately enough. Oddly enough, it looked as if something had ripped through attackers and defenders both. There were also scorch marks on their bronze armor, and some of their flesh was charred. A fire-user, eh?

The fortress' lower floor was badly damages, and I kept running into dead ends in corridors. I also couldn't risk breaking through any of the collapsed rubble which made up the blockages in case I brought the whole fortress down on me. Needless to say, it was frustrating.

That being the case, I was very much relieved to see an open hall, which I assumed was the main atrium of the fortress' lower floor. I was not as relieved to see the ten-foot-tall, muscle-bound, legless fire demon ripping apart a wave of Undead Legionnaires with just as much ease as I would have done in the same situation.

"RAAAAAAGH!" the demon bellowed as it slammed its fists down and set off a massive wave of fire that incinerated the last of its undead opponents. Then it turned itself around to glare right at me.

Drawing the Venger Blades, I switched them over to the Lightning of Zeus. Using fire against a fire demon was a stupid idea, and ice was out because it was weak to fire. That left me with either the Lightning of Zeus or the Souls of Hades, and I chose the one I was most familiar with.

Letting out a guttural roar of rage, the beast spewed fire at me, which I dodged by leap-rolling to the right. I charged up the Blinding Rage attack and started laying into the monster with quick, decisive strikes. It was big, but sluggish on the turn, so I could easily dodge its fire breath and claw swipes, but when it used that area attack, I had to backpedal like mad to avoid it. I couldn't do that the second time and got burnt.

Again, fucking ow!

Getting really fed up with this asshole by this point, I charged up the strongest attack of the Lightning of Zeus, the Wrath of Zeus, a massive tornado of pure electricity that engulfed the entire room. That did quite a bit of damage to the damned thing, enough time for me to switch to the Souls of Hades and use Underworld Agony to finish it off.

As the purple flames struck it from beneath, the demon's head came to look me straight in the eye.

"You keep what you kill." it growled.

Blinking in shock, I watched as the body of the red fire demon swirled into a tornado, which vanished, leaving a small sealed urn of brass, about the size of a can of Diet Coke, covered in what looked like Arabic script. The brass object flew into my hand before vanishing, presumably into my hammerspace pocket as words in Ancient Greek appeared before me.

YOU HAVE SUBDUED THE EFREET, A DJINN OF FIRE. ITS POWER IS NOW YOURS TO COMMAND.

The 'Efreet'? I think I'll have some research to do when I get back home. I had no clue what this thing was.

Looking around the room, now that I'd taken care of the Efreet, to see where to go from here. There were two passages off to the side which were sealed shut by debris, and a small staircase in the middle of the opposite side to where I had entered.

Hmmm…methinks I am being funneled here.

Shrugging, as there pretty much wasn't anything I could do about it, I headed up the stairs, coming to a balcony that overlooked the rear of the fortress, which turned out to be built on the edge of a chasm full of lava. What the hell?! I hadn't felt any heat when I was outside! OK, I'll just chalk this up to 'power bullshit' and move on, shall I? Yes, I shall!

Unfortunately for me, it was apparent to me that the way to the next floor was across the damned lava pit. On the bright side, it looked as it there was a retractable bridge a little long and down of my current position. Now all I had to do was find a way to it. Goody…

When I walked into the room that the balcony led out of, I was attacked by fucking statues! Big-ass ones that made Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a weakling and carrying hammers that had to weigh almost as much as the actual statues did. Fortunately for me, they were slow as hell, and let me try out my new Efreet power as well. The most basic attack manifested the body of the demon which followed the actions of my arms pretty nicely.

Hehehe, flaming uppercut rules.

More seriously, the basic area attack, Demon Fury, required me to punch the floor. As I did so, the Efreet copied me and blasted fire out in waves from its point of impact. Although not exactly effective against stone, these boys made good practice dummies to use it on due to how freaking slow they were.

Once I was satisfied with how well I could use the basic attack of the Efreet, I recalled it and switched to the Ice of Poseidon. A couple of uses of the Poseidon Tremble froze the bastards in place long enough for me to use the best attack of my ice powers, Eye of the Storm, a blizzard-tornado of ice and freezing wind that finished off the stone enemies, easy to see due to the spiderweb of cracks that covered them. When my ice vanished, as it always does when I relax my connection with the Ice of Poseidon, they practically exploded into gravel.

Anyone got a driveway I can scatter them onto? Hehe…

I think all of this constant combat was affecting me; I was getting a bit loopy.

Moving on from my potential insanity, I moved through the fortress' corridors until I came to a large room cast in faint red light, with an altar to a man wielding a hammer and with a limp. Hephaestus, god of the forge.

With a jerk, my Venger Blades detached from me and flew over to the altar, leaving me helpless aside from my new Efreet power. I stiffened as a message in Ancient Greek appeared in front of my blades, which writhed and twisted like entwined snakes, looking like a living strand of DNA or something.

Face the foes to come without your weapons. Succeed and they shall be empowered. Fail and you shall die. So challenges Hephaestus.

If nothing else, the old smith god was blunt as hell. While I appreciated the candor, I really hated the fact he took MY weapons! I liked those blades, dammit!

"Fine. You want me to kick ass barehanded? You got it!" I growled, punching my palm with my fist. "Let's go!"

With a nigh-silent roar, the usual force field appeared on the doorway behind me…as well as on something behind the altar. Interesting…

Filing that snippet of information away, I was unsurprised to see a wave of Undead Legionnaires appear next to the altar before charging at me. I activated my Efreet and slammed fiery punches into the first few ones to reach me, switching to the Demon Fury as soon as more showed up.

I was very grateful that the fire around me protected my fists from being hurt by punching the floor, otherwise I'd have bruised and bloody (or would that be bloody and bruised?) knuckles by the time I took out the five waves of Undead Legionnaires, Cursed Archers and stone statue things.

I'd had to go from using the Demon Fury to Demon Inferno, which was basically the exact same thing, except the Efreet blasted twice the amount of fire every time it punched the ground. Undead burn real good.

So when the last statue of stone collapsed onto the ground, leaving me panting, weary and a bit bloody from a few lucky hits, I was so fucking done with this shit. According to the Gravel Voiced Man, whoever he is, I had to ascend three floors. I didn't count the first floor or the basement, so I was still on the first one I needed to conquer! What the hell?! I was gonna be dead before I managed this!

The sight of the Venger Blades coming back to me, with new, intricate carvings on their surfaces, made me smile tiredly. As the chains wrapped around my forearms again, it was as if limbs I'd missed were restored, not weapons being reattached to me. I was ready this time when Ancient Greek wrote itself in mid-air in front of me.

HEPHAESTUS HAS BESTOWED HIS BLESSING UPON THE VENGER BLADES, GRANTING THEM THE MAGICAL ABILITY KNOWN AS INDOMITABLE SPIRIT.

"Huh…Indomitable Spirit, is it?" I mused as knowledge of the ability poured into my mind. Unlike the Fire of Ares, Ice of Poseidon, Lightning of Zeus or Souls of Hades, Indomitable Spirit was a defensive power that transformed my willpower into a defensive shield over my armor. The first level, known as Demigod's Will, would basically let me tank a dozen attacks from Undead Legionnaires before needing time to recharge itself.

Unlike the others though, that was all I had. What the heck?

I blinked as the Altar of Hephaestus sank into the ground, revealing three chests, all with gems gleaming atop their lids. One had a green gem, one had a blue gem and the third had a red gem.

I walked over and opened each of them. When I did, orbs of energy of each color rushed into me. The green orbs healed my wounds, while the blue orbs restored my mental faculties back to how I'd been before I stepped into the tower. When I opened the red chest and absorbed the orbs, I felt the Venger Blades twitch on my back. Drawing them, I saw that the new engravings were filled slightly. Was…was this like a leveling system?! Once I'd absorbed enough red orbs, would Indomitable Spirit become more powerful?!

"Roll with it. Just roll with it, Bia." I muttered to myself. "Powers are bullshit insane, so just trim sails and move on."

Shaking my head at the increasing amount of oddities that this tower was showing the longer I was inside of it, I walked over to the door that was behind the chests and kicked it open, revealing…another set of stairs. This time, I could either go up or down.

I headed down, as I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. As I hoped, the stairs down led to the crank that extended the bridge. Unfortunately, somebody had made off with the crank-handle, and as the only way other than the gaping hole into the hellish heat of the lava outside was sealed shut with yet more rubble, I guessed that I had to go up in order to get my hands on the thing.

"Stupid stairs." I grumbled as I jogged up them. "At least this is good exercise."

Going up led me to the top floor of the fortress, including a bunch of catapults and spear-throwers. I wandered throughout the abandoned machinery for a while before finally finding the crank handle, held in the hands of a defeated Undead Legionnaire with fancier armor than the rest. The commander of the fortress, perhaps?

I grabbed the crank haft and placed it in my hammerspace pocket before turning back. Predictably though, a bunch of undead soldiers appeared out of bloody mist in order to try and get the crank handle back…I think.

Well, regardless of why they arrived, I was eager to test out my new power on them. I clashed the Blades together and said, "Demigod's Will!"

Pale white light covered my armor, coating me in a protective shield. Every weak-point in my armor was covered, every exposed piece of flesh shielded. I felt invulnerable, which was quite a heady feeling, one I'd have to overcome because I was anything but.

As I tore through the Undead Legionnaires though, it felt as if I were invulnerable; any time I slipped up, the shield flared brighter as it took the hit instead of my body. This left me fight more efficiently. I managed to cut my way through the horde before I took that twelfth blow.

As the sound of a barrier going down sounded, the light of my Demigod's Will faded. I could only use it in an actual fight, so it was going into its cooldown period now the fight was over.

Going back down the stairs, I made it to the room where the crank was supposed to go but, surprise surprise, something showed up to stop me. It was a statue, one that looked exactly like the stone ones I'd fought earlier, except this one was larger, armed with a massive club and made of bronze!

I drew my weapons and switched to the Fire of Ares immediately as it came stomping towards me. Fire beat metal, and I planned to take full advantage of that. I started out by charging up fire in my blades and threw them into the chest of the bronze statue before just as swiftly withdrawing them. Seconds later, the fire left behind exploded, rocking the bronze creature and sending it staggering back a bit.

Can't lie, I love the Rage of Ares attack.

It wasn't enough to kill the damned thing though, so I kept on slashing with my blades. As it became more damaged, cracks showed in its body, revealing blue energy coursing beneath its surface. As I struck it again, the club came loose in its hands and I seized the chance to steal it and then smashed the damned thing to pieces with its own weapon.

"And stay down." I muttered as the entire thing dissolved into motes of light. I stomped over to the crank and shoved the handle back where it was supposed to go before turning the thing round and around. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the bridge, a long expanse of white stone, extending out over the expanse of lava.

After a moment, I felt the crank click into something and lower into a slot on the floor. Obviously, the bridge was fully extended.

Grimacing as I felt the heat coming off of the lava (or as we were inside, would it be magma?), I nevertheless started running across the bridge. There was no other route left to me, and I could see some gates on the other side, so it was likely the way to the next floor.

…if something attacks me on this damned bridge, I am going to be very upset.

Fortunately for my temper, nothing did attack me, and I made it across, pulling a lever that retracted made the bridge retract all the way back to the other side. Useful, as it sent a bunch of pursuing Undead Legionnaires to take the hottest bath of their unlives.

As I approached the doors, which were decorated with a sun relief, they slid open smoothly, revealing…an elevator platform, complete with a lever to activate it.

"Here we go again." I muttered as I pulled the lever, which made the doors slide shut, lights spring to life in the shaft and the platform to start to rise.

So, this is chapter 7. I'm planning on making a seventh before switching to another ficlet. I'm torn between Survive, Adapt, Win or At My Fingertips. If you have opinions, leave them in a review. And can people PLEASE stop reviewing with only punctuation marks! You know who I'm talking about. Smilies I can accept, but not just punctuation marks.