The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich moved on to the third floor, but it was eerily empty of any husks. Even the blowing wind was lonely. He searched carefully in every room, every nook or cranny but it was deserted. The only notable thing on the third floor was a storage room with three sets of half-plate armor.

Now that was something he didn't have in the nightmare realm. He was of course going to confiscate them later on when he was done clearing the barracks. Aldrich made sure to light up the torches on the walls before he advanced to the fourth floor.

On the fourth floor the noise lead him to a room that contained one swordsman and two archers. At least thats what he believed them to be when a bolt stunned his shield hand. Aldrich took a better look as he retreated and found out that what he thought was two archer turned out to be two crossbowmen.

This was the first time that he encountered crossbowmen in the nightmare realm. Aldrich stopped retreating and charged in, he was going to lose if he widened the distance so despite the risk he chose to advance.

His target wasn't the two crossbowmen but the swordsman in the center. Aldrich finished it off in two clean strikes thanks to his superior power. Unfortunately in that short amount of time he had more than two of his ribs broken when he took a bolt to the chest.

Aldrich endured the pain and jumped on the husk that had almost reloaded his crossbow, that was a simple kill.

The crossbowman was nothing without the two factors of distance and time, Aldrich broke off the neck and flipped over exchanging places with the husk and he heard a clear thud of impact on the husk he had just used as a shield.

Aldrich threw off his body shield and tackled the last remaining crossbowman after which it was decapitated without much resistance.

After a short break Aldrich decided to continue his hunt but before ascending further he lit up all the torches in the fourth floor, and he took one of the crossbows with him. He judged that a medium range weapon might come it handy in the last remaining floors.

And he was right, when he encountered his foes in the fifth floor he found himself pitted against two shieldmen and one swordsman. Fortunately he used his newfound crossbow to kill one of the shieldmen easily. Although he wanted to shoot the second one too he was pressed back by the charging swordsman.

Aldrich wasn't upset, he was glad that he killed one of the shieldmen but his goal wasn't to finish off all of the husks with the crossbow but to separate them from each other and since the last shieldman took a defensive stance in the back and the swordsman charged to the front that meant that his goal was achieved.

Aldrich clashed with the swordsman, however his own skills and strength overpowered the lone swordsman sending it's sword to the air and tearing a gash in its guts. By the time the last shieldman came running everything was already over.

Aldrich smirked at the shieldman and pummeled it to oblivion. The nasty part about all this is that the sticky green and gooey blood of the husks had stained the sword and dirtied his hands.

Aldrich had to take a few moments to clean himself and his weapons up. It wasn't that Aldrich was a clean freak but other than the disgust there were other practical reasons on why he had to do that.

One such reason being was that the blood would dull the sword, the second was what if his hand slipped while swinging his sword? That would make for a funny death. If it happened to someone else, if he was the victim of such a death he reckoned that he might not find it all that amusing.

And so he had to clean up the sword until it looked acceptable. Aldrich looked back downstairs and saw that the torches that he had lit in every floor had combined their light to creat a very bright light.

Aldrich took the swordsman's sword for himself, his own sword had grown dull with use. It was about time for the new to replace the old. After testing the new long sword it turned out to be of the same size and weight as the old one.

Aldrich climbed up to the sixth and last floor of the tower. It was dead quiet and much narrower than the lower floors. Now that he thought about it the higher he went the smaller the area got and the less rooms it had.

Aldrich wasn't deluded by the quite and seeming peace of the sixth floor. After, all the ambushers signature move is to be quite and strike when he least expected it. The sixth floor had only three rooms.

Aldrich checked them in order and the first two rooms were empty. Aldrich almost believed that this floor was empty like the fourth floor but that feeling vanished like snow on a summers day when he stood by the door of the last room.

Aldrich felt a sense of danger similar to the one felt while battling the direwolf. Aldrich opened the door and his sight fell on an armored figure standing at the center of the room.

The room itself was devoid of any furniture or decorations, the armored husk unsheathed a sword strapped to its back. Aldrich couldn't clearly see the eyes of the husk behind its helm but he felt the husk observing him just as he was.

,m The husk didn't look like it was going to make an moves, it was just standing there. This was enough to warn Aldrich that typical tricks weren't going to work on his opponent this time.

First Aldrich started his attack by shooting at it with his crossbow, unbelievably it intercepted the bolt in midair and caught it in it's free hand. Then it charged at him with ferocious speed and its two meter body created a heavy pressure on Aldrich.

Aldrich had already discarded the crossbow right after he shot that bolt. He wasn't intimidated by the pressure of the husk at all. He calmly wielded his sword and exchanged blows with it.

Aldrich knew where he lacked, his skill was a step below the husk but his overall power made up for that difference. Aldrich was at a even greater disadvantage since his ribs were limiting his movements and the pain that sent throughout his body was intense.

But Aldrich soldiered on, the chance to hone his sword skill against a powerful opponent was priceless in value. Eventually he claimed victory but not without having his left arm completely broken in the process.

Aldrich looked around the empty room and found a small room behind a curtain the room was locked by a iron bars. Aldrich turned back to the husk and surprisingly he reaped four essence orbs. But that was only one of the reasons he was searching the dead husk.

Aldrich got his hand on the second reason, a key chain with three keys. Aldrich tried to smile but his body was in too much of a wreck and any movement was basically torturous to him at the moment, so in consideration for his well being he decided to not do anything that he didn't have to.

Aldrich opened the iron gate with one of the keys and found himself in an armory. All the weapons looked normal but for a sword and a shield hanged on pegs at the center of the room.

All the other weapons and basically anything in the nightmare town was covered in rust and dirt. And yet, the sword and the shield before him were unblemished, anyone who took a look at them would believe they were forged yesterday.

Aldrich traced his hand over the sword and admired the reflection on the blade, the pommel was engraved with the patterns of a white, four winged tiger. The same pattern was on the face of the shield over a red background.

Aldrich took the key chain and decided to return to the base as for collecting the rest of the loot that was for next time. Obviously his body was in a sorry state he could hardly walk back not tp mention carrying so many things with him.

This was only the first tower in this huge complex, he fought thirteen husks and one of them was equivalent to grade zero level two monster. Even without the loot he gained a total of twenty eight essence orbs, a sumptuous amount.

Aldrich got back out the same way he came in and even such a small jump was too much for him right now. Aldrich dragged himself the rest of the way when suddenly he heard dogs barking close by.

Aldrich quickly hid behind one of the many crates and barrels in the street. A few minutes later a pack of skinned dogs ran past him while drooling all over the street with their tongues dangling out of their overgrown fangs.