Tower of God: The Flower of Earth (Slow Updates)

Chapter Forty-One

The Fishermen walked towards the wisps of smoke that rose to the sky, wringing out hair and clothes from the salty sea water, which left the smell of the ocean on them.

A few held their weapons upset, having not expected their test to be as hard as their teammates or as the other regulars had made it appear to be.

With the admins not having even told them what the test was, it was hard to discern what they had to do.

One of the clearly stronger fishermen walked over the hill to look and see what was causing the smoke. "Look! A village!" They shouted, pointing to it, as the rest of them slowly made their way up the hill. "It looks like it is being attacked!"
"But what is that?" Another asked, looking a little scared of the creatures down below.

"I don't know. But, I have a feeling that they are part of our test." Dustin sighed as he looked at them, terrified of what exactly they were. "Come on... Noe?" He turned around to get her to come along so they could finish the challenge, but saw her kneeling at the bottom of the hill. "Noe, you ok?" He sledded down the hill on the soles of his falling apart shoes, and looked at her worried. "I, I am ok. Just, need a moment to breathe." She panted, her eyes closed as she tried to control her breathing.
"Can you tell me what is wrong?" He knelt down in front of the Khun, as if she was a little child who wanted to talk to him face to face. "You are my teammate. We need to trust each other."

She sighed and brushed her hair that was falling into her face out of it. "The wounds are burning." She whispered.

He gently touched her pant leg to silently ask for permission, seeing the other regulars were distracted as they were staring out and trying to figure out how to stop the beasts.

She gave a slight nod, as he pulled it back to the closest one at the bottom of the pants leg, not wanting to make her uncomfortable as he looked at it.

Though she had been patched up on the previous floors and mostly healed, the wounds from the floor of riddles were bright crimson and turning slightly black from exposure to the salt water.

Dustin sucked in air through his teeth.

"That bad huh?" Noe bit her lip.

Dustin grabbed bandages out of his pocket and started wrapping the one he exposed to the air up. "It will heal. But it looks nasty. But it is weird... The salt water isn't real. This is a simulation. Right?"

"I don't know anymore Dust. But maybe. Whatever it is, the pain is real." She wrapped her arm around him as he helped her up.

He nodded, and helped her up the hill. "Are you going to be ok walking and fighting yourself?"

She gave a hesitant nod of her head. "So, did they figure out what is going on yet? Or is it up to us to figure it out and save us all?" She teased the group that had gone down the other side of the hill.

"Yeah. There is a monster attacking a village. It does not look like anything I have seen. Not a ranker's power or anything..." They reached the top as they saw the other low tier climbers trying to inflict damage on it, without any success.

Noe inspected the beast. There were thorns protruding from its back that were longer and thicker than the houses it crushed below its feet. The black and green skin reflected in the red eyes that bore down upon the tiny little gnats like Regulars.

Noe's eyes widened in fear, as she felt as if her soul was being sucked out of her body. She mumbled something under her breath, something that Dustin barely caught. "Bestia et what now?" He lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Bestia et potestas. The beast of power. My brother was fascinated with it, but I always thought it was a myth. If it is part of the illusion of this floor, there must be more in the tower." Her face fell as she flinched out of Dustin's arms. "I know how we beat it. Follow me." She half limped and ran towards it, as Dustin powered up his scythe, the twin bracelets on his wrists glowing. 

The two weaved through the destruction, blocking falling debris from hitting any of the little kids who always seemed to appear suddenly when the simulation decided to drop something large.

"Shinsu technique, warp!" Dustin shouted, as too much debris was falling on towards him. The falling rubble of the buildings that the beast destroyed with a swoop of his tail slowed once it hit his bubbled zone, as he quickly ushered the citizens out of the way.

Once the yellowed haired fisherman reached his maya blue haired teammate at the top of a pile of the rubble that had tried to kill them, he looked at her. "Now what?"

She spat out her braided pigtails from her mouth that smacked her in the face with the billowing wind from a nearby regular, who had tried a wind shinsu spell to take down the Godzilla sized monster. "I have no idea." She admitted, giving a sheepish look.

"You have no idea. You have no idea?! You just told me you knew how to beat it!" Ironwood shrunk back into Dustin's bracelets as he ranted, his arms going everywhere. "Now we are right in front of the monster that can squish us like a pair of ants, and you have no idea how to beat it?!"

Noe ignored him, watching the beast as her companion's shouting drew it's attention over. "Hey Dustin?"

"Don't hey me!"

"We might want to run." She took off in the direction they came from, ignoring the burning sensation in her lungs and covering her body.

Dustin paled from a chocolate to pure white as the beast roared. He turned and chased Noe, begging for her to wait up for him.