The Legend of William Oh

I once saw William Oh run away. Yep. Glanced up from sharpening my tool and spotted the afterimage of the one-armed lad bolting like a jackrabbit. I thought 'that boy's not so special; there's something he runs from.'

Then I saw what he was running from: War, Famine, Pestilence, Death…and the concept of Failure.

At the speed he was going, I'm pretty sure he gave 'em the slip.

Mark Saltminer, level 15 Salter

When morning came, Will and Loth packed their stuff up and headed out into the wilds to the east. The roc-feather cloak kept Loth toasty warm against the frost-tinged morning, and warded off the heat of the sun once it began to beat down on them in earnest.

Will was unaffected by temperature extremes, and made sure to tease Loth about it to the best of his abilities.

Today their plan was to head east and rub elbows with some other Grinders.

Grinding was a phenomena where hundreds or even thousands of Climbers would spontaneously form a rough line around the edge of a specific monster's territory, each group trying their hand at luring some close in order to kill them for loot and XP.

Sharing a border with another camp of climbers lowered the amount of XP and loot you got, but it provided a safety net, since monsters were unlikely to hit your camp from the sides or behind, and even if they did, there were hundreds of other Climbers eager to 'rescue' you.

It was a safe and boring way to earn XP, yet competitive and stressful…Or so Will had heard. He'd never actually joined in on one before.

Supposedly other Climbers were camping out on the edge of kaith territory, luring the homicidal bugs in and reaping huge rewards from slaughtering them en masse.

Hopefully Will and Loth could get a good spot as it was being vacated by a team that had reached their quota. Since they still had a day of Acclimation remaining, they needed to spend it on something.

Might as well make a little cash, maybe get some new Relics, levels, and prepare themselves for the 3rd Floor.

The two of them were a few miles outside the city, walking through a secluded mountain path on their way east when -

Will blinked his eyes blearily, finding a lot more gunk in them than usual.

Did I fall asleep?

The last thing he remembered they were going to bed.

Wait. No.

His head swam as his mind caught up.

The last thing he remembered was heading out to the East for some grinding, since he and Loth still had to acclimate for a day, they figured they should get some levels before they attempted to hit the 3rd floor, if they could.

He remembered them watching wistfully as a bus headed out to the south, aiming for the next floor.

The absolute fastest way to make it to the next floor was to run in the wake of a bus and assist in clearing the Key Point. The rules were pretty lenient. As long as you were there and weren't actively sabotaging the other climbers, you got a pass.

Sadly, they were still Acclimating, and he remembered…

He remembered Loth pointing out that going to a higher Floor with less than the maximum level allowed for the current Floor would be foolish, even if they could follow in the wake of a bus.

So they shrugged and decided to head East and see if they couldn't set up a camp and do some grinding before moving on. It was what 'smart' Climbers did.

Later, in the higher floors, when the Acclimation could last for months, then they would have to do it every time, especially after there were no strongholds to retreat to. Might as well get used to it now.

As I get to higher floors, I'll need a campmaker, Will thought, opening his eyes. Maybe a cute baker girl who can use charges to bake buns big and springy enough to erect my defensive formation-wait…Where the Abyss am I!?

He was hanging upside down by a meat hook. His legs were bound together by thick rope that was slipped through the hook. The ropes would be painfully tight around his ankles…if he could feel them. It seemed as though the ropes were cutting off circulation.

Will hadn't been around a long time, and he considered himself a bit green as a Climber, but it was probably a safe assumption… that regaining consciousness hanging upside down by a meat hook was considered a Bad Sign™.

What really bothered him though, was the hollowed out human torsos on the other meat hooks surrounding him. Like a butchered animal, the head and entrails had been carved out, leaving just the tasty meat, missing bits and pieces that the Eaters must have been snacking on. A hand here, a rib there.

Will had heard stories about Eaters in the upper floors. Heard about how there was nothing even resembling a natural creature in the upper floors, so everything that died dissolved into Miasma.

There were no vegetables or game meat on the upper floors, so sometimes…sometimes when a Party got trapped on an upper floor for months at a time with no Key Site in range, and growing hunger…they resorted to eating their weakest members first.

These people who threw away the last shred of their humanity finally succumb to The Miasma, and become monsters themselves, hunting humans for food forevermore.

Or at least, that was the story.

But…the 2nd Floor? Will thought with a frown. There were goats and birds and regular shipments of wheat from the lower Floors.

Why would an Eater be on this Floor? Unless they moved down for easier pickings? Lots of noobs on the 2nd Floor.

In any case, Will was not in a good situation, and it was time to take steps to correct that.

He looked up –down in this case– and saw that his hands were bound together as well. There was some kind of barbed metal clamp on his stump to prevent him from simply slipping out of the manacles on his wrists.

His mouth was gagged, rough rope digging painfully into his cheeks. His belt loops was empty. None of his gear was at hand.

Matter of fact… Will mused, looking back up at his legs. He wasn't wearing anything at all, save for a bell attached to the rope around his feet.

To make noise as soon as I start struggling.

Will's breathing began to grow rapid, his skin crawling, heart hammering, vision going blurry as he lost focus, picturing himself, a slightly different William Oh, stumbling upon this slaughterhouse and discovering a one-armed, hollowed-out corpse.

No. Will's vision snapped back into focus. Will directed his Phantom Hand towards the bell and the rope around his legs. It seemed oddly sluggish, to match his oddly sluggish awakening.

Drugged, maybe?

When it arrived, he didn't waste any time and scooped up the bell.

Dimensional Storage

A lance of pain shot through Will's entire body and nearly jolted him hard enough to cause him to ring the bell.

Which would've alerted his captor.

Which would've been a problem.

The shackle around his stump glowed momentarily, betraying itself as the culprit behind interrupting his Ability.

Okay, just a little harder than I thought.

Will took a deep breath, steadying breath and crunched his body up, his entire body straining as he slowly and smoothly lifted his arms up to his feet.

He stuck a finger in the bell, securing the ringer against the brass wall of the bell.

It made a quiet scraping sound, and Will's heart leapt in his chest, but nothing arrived to stop him.

Holding the bell, he heaved himself up momentarily, just long enough to shove his legs up and over the curve of the hook, detatching himself from the ceiling without releasing the bell.

There was a moment of weightlessness as he fell before hitting the blood-sticky floor of the slaughterhouse.

"MFF!" Will grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, the gag keeping him quieter than he would've been otherwise.

He lay there for a moment, blinking the stars out of his eyes as he considered his life choices, and how they might've led him to his current situation.

Slowly, carefully…Will released the bell and reached down with his stump, placing the clamp between his bound feet.

This is gonna suck.

Before Will could get cold feet, he tensed all the muscles in his core and yanked the stump out of the clamp keeping the manacle on.

He was thankful he had a gag.

When he stopped crying, Will tried releasing himself again. The barbs had taken some skin with them, but it was nothing permanent, and this time, he was able to suck up the bell and rope around his ankles.

Dimensional Storage

6/12 remaining.

That's odd. A lot less Charge than I should have. Did I resist being captured but can't remember?

Where's Loth?

Panicked, Will scanned the meatlocker for a black, scaly carcass, but found nothing.

Maybe he got away.

Will wrapped the manacle chain around his arm to prevent it from making noise. Sadly it was too voluminous to store in his hand.

Silently freed of his impediments, Will began creeping through the dimly lit room looking for an escape.

The first place to look was naturally the course of the light: A doorway with flickering candlelight streaming through the rough planks that composed the door itself, and a pool of illumination near the bottom.

the door itself didn't have bars or a convenient window to look through, so Will laid down on the floor and peered through the gap.

He saw an empty stone hall, with torchlight and deep shadows. Not much else, from this angle.

Wait.

A pair of feet arrived, then another.

Then the most Abyssal voice spoke in a hair-raising, guttural language that meant nothing to him, other than to demonstrate that the speaker was not human.

The demon-speech was answered by another, then the two pairs of feet turned away from each other and walked away from Will's door.

Hair standing on end, Will backed away from the door.

Well, that way is not what I need –

BANG!

Will startled and nearly lost his footing as a sound reverberated through the meat locker. The sound of steel struggling to contain…something.

Will ducked down and hid behind some poor bastard, heart hammering in his chest as he expected the demons to come to the door immediately to check out the noise.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

They're not coming?

Frowning, Will glanced back at where he'd heard the noise come from. He crept deeper into the dimly lit meatlocker and just as the shadows were about to become impenetrable, he came across a heavy steel door. This door had bars around eye level, but Will couldn't see anything matter how close he leaned…

He felt something move inside, the air shifting as something big rushed towards him, causing him to reflexively lunge backwards.

BANG!

The entire door shuddered and glowed with warding magic, launching Will backward moments before clawed limbs swiped out from between the bars, missing his face by inches.

Gods! Will thought, heart hammering in his chest.

Whatever these demons are keeping captive in there, it's big, and it's angry.

Will glanced around at the butchered human corpses.

Are they feeding it these people?

Will glanced at the empty hook that had once held him aloft.

His absence would immediately betray the fact that he'd escaped. He needed to buy himself some extra time to run.

And he would run. These things had seemingly subdued him with little to no effort, which meant his only option was to remove himself from the situation. There would be no heroic fight if Will could help it.

Will took a moment to catch his breath and steel his nerve, finding the best hiding spot he could close to the door.

Once he was in position, he used Phantom Hand to throw the bell into the monster's cage.

Gods, I hope this isn't a stupid idea.

His thinking was, if they heard the bell ringing like crazy as the feral monster savaged it, they would investigate and assume he'd wandered close and been grabbed.

That wouldn't last forever, maybe giving him an extra fifteen seconds to run.

But every second counted.

DINGDINGDINGDINGDING! The bell began ringing furiously as it impacted against the wall of the monster's cell and tumbled to the ground. Thankfully whatever magic was placed on the door only made it durable.

Now we wait.

It took longer than Will expected. In fact, no one came at all.

Are they all taking a piss, or what? There wasn't a chance in The Abyss that Will was going to retrieve the bell and try to lure them in again.

Ding…

Ding…

Ding…

Will's hair raised on end as he glanced back at the cell.

A shadow-clad arm, nearly invisible in the darkness, extended from the bars, ringing the bell with precise, almost delicate deliberation, eliciting a single clear ring from the bell, pausing, then doing it again.

It's sapient. Will realized, eyes widening.

It's a giant monster that requires massive magical steel doors to contain, eats people, and is intelligent. It understood my plan to lure its captors in, and is making that plan it's own.

…What kind of mess just dropped in my lap?

Minutes of ringing later, the door opened with a metallic screech as a seven-foot tall demon stepped into the meat locker.

It had a humanoid shape, with obscenely bulging muscles covering the hulking frame. It held a torch in one hand and bore a cleaver on its leather belt, beside a keyring.

It's face was-

Will's attention snapped back to the keyring.

That seemed like something he might need.

Will had no guarantee that they couldn't see the Phantom Hand, so he guided the invisible hand around and behind the creature, avoiding it's peripheral gaze.

Thankfully, it's face was covered in a mask of a snarling boar.

Dimensional Storage

5/12 Charges Remaining.

Got it.

Will faded behind the hanging meat as the creature strode past him, heading for the ringing bell.

The monster behind the door had faded further back into its cell, making the ringing bell sound more animated, like whoever was wearing it was being killed.

The demon began shouting in the guttural demon-speech, stomping towards the cage.

There's another one, I know there's another one. Please arrive before he realizes I'm not in there.

As if answering his prayers, another demon arrived. This one was a bit more slender, with blood-stained weapons of every sort hanging from it's belt, and well-worn armor covering its vitals. It wore a mask of a snarling red man with canines that curved and extended beyond its mouth

It rushed past him to join the one peering into the cage, his guttural speech echoing the first one's

Time to go, Will thought, aiming for the door.

…just as Demon #3 turned the corner.

It was a lithe thing, every bit as tall as the others, but gaunt and skeletal, with a single wicked-looking scythe over its shoulder that radiated malignant power. This one's mask was a void of blackest black.

"Shit," Will grumbled as the creature let out a harsh shriek, reaching for the weapon on its back.

Will rushed forward and attempted to dive between the creature's legs, only to receive a kick to the face that felt like he'd insulted a mule's heritage.

Will tumbled back into the meat locker as the creature readied its weapon, shouting all the while in that inhuman speech.

Unfettered son of a pustulant cockroach! Will cursed as he scrambled to his feet.

With an effortless swing, the reaper cut the corpses above him down, forcing Will to scramble backwards to avoid being bisected.

"GRABUGALATHOR! EGROTH SANNUK GAM!" it shouted as Will turned and ran. He dodged, ducked and dived, scrambling faster than he'd ever run before, with every intention of outflanking the reaper, but the DAMN THING stayed by the door, it's scythe raised defensively.

Mere seconds of terror-fueled scrambling around the meat locker later a ham-fist clamped down around Will's neck, encircling it entirely.

"Urk!" Will croaked as he was lifted

"UDERGAAR VIK BEN CLOTH HAGAR!?" The boar-faced one screamed in his face as he lifted Will by the neck, brandishing his cleaver.

Through the terror and the sudden loss of air, Will realized that he was about to die.

Will had always been petty.

As the three demons closed around him, his Phantom Hand tossed the keyring into their captive monster's cell.

The three creatures presumably argued about how they were going to kill him, holding him aloft as their guttural speech reached new volumes, taking hostile stances against each other.

None of them were facing the cell door, which was lit by a fallen torch.

A single pale arm reached through the bars, slender and beautiful, as though it belonged to a mermaid in a fairy tale.

It bore the key ring.

As Will's vision began to fade, he watched the delicate arm quietly and carefully reach down, insert the proper key, and turn it.

Seeing one last chance at freedom, Will patted the boar-masked demon on the arm under his chin and pointed at the cell door, which swung open, revealing the vacant interior of the cell.

The reaper looked first, uttering a booming exclamation of surprise. As the monster swept down from the ceiling of its cell with the speed of a lunging snake, heading straight for them. The others were a bit too late.

The hand clamped around his neck released as a horrifying tangle of limbs barreled through the open door and smashed into the three demons, sending two of them slamming into the wall while the third readied his scythe.

Will ran for the door.

Demon # 4's hulking shape filled the doorway as he arrived to investigate the noise.

This time, Will managed to slide between the demon's legs as it stared at its bretheren being tossed around the room by the wild tangle of limbs seemingly without end.

Will didn't get a good look at the creature, but he could hear it, speaking with the same voice that seemed to emanate from thousands of mouths along every point of the tangle of limbs:

"Wanna go home!"

"wanna go home!"

"Wanna go HOME!"

Will's feet hit the far wall of the hallway, and he didn't bother to slow down for the turn. The wall offered his bare feet a solid grip as he ran, covering half the rough-stone hallway literally sprinting across the wall.

At the end of the hall was a somewhat grungy living room, with cots and a simple cook pot, along with four set of crude wooden bowls, filled with a suspicious gravylike substance.

On a nearby table, Will saw his gear.

Bang!

Will glanced behind him and saw that the four demons were busy battling the creature, which was pushing the four of them out of the meat locker and further into the hall.

But gradually.

I got time, Will thought, possibly setting a world record for one-handed dressing as he slipped on his ring, his bracer and whipped the cloak of Misty Escape over his shoulders, pulled on his pants and cinched the cord tight while simultaneously slipping on his shoes.

A bellowing roar caught his attention, and Will glanced over, noticing the demons, who'd been pushed back nearly to the room he currently occupied.

They looked at him.

He looked at them.

Will bolted, snagging his tomahawk and sling as he ran, kicking open the door and blinking against the light that stabbed his eyes. He was outside.

The Reaper began chasing him, moving like greased lightning.

Will began sprinting downhill, sure the reaper would catch him, as the demon flowed like air over the obstacles in his way, but the reaper's fingers fell a hair short of Will when he tripped over a protrusion that had previously cupped Will's heel to provide extra grip.

I can use it like that!? Will thought, too desperate to stop and dissect how it'd happened.

Without the fourth member pushing the creature back, their formation buckled, and the other three demons broke away, deciding to chase after Will instead.
Together, the four of them erupted from the plain shack in the hidden dip in the mountainside, limbs pumping as they attempted to catch up with Will.

The limb-monster followed suit, screaming and crying with the same voice in a thousand flavors of agony.

Will whipped around and shot a bullet at the reaper's shin as it stood up.

The reaper flowed around his attack and effortlessly avoided the tracer, seemingly turning to smoke.

I should've known that was pointless.

If they'd kidnapped him effortlessly the first time, there was no way he could win a fight.

The reaper pushed off the ground, flying towards him, his entire body smoke save for the strangely shimmering void-mask and the scythe cocked back and ready to kill.

Cloak of Misty Escape

5/12 Charges Remaining.

Boots of Ouflanking active.

Will exploded out of the way of the attack, rapidly gaining ground as he began sprinting at triple speed downhill, the demons and monster hot on his heels.

He thought he might've passed somebody, but he couldn't be sure.