Chapter 334: Backstab

Kael transferred his thousand currency along with the rest, and the Leonard smiled as a system interface appeared before him. The pooled amount had entered his control. He moved rapidly through the available options, selecting placements and confirming purchases before anyone could reconsider.

Kael turned toward the walls, expecting the nearest ballista to begin repairing itself. Instead, nothing happened. Its broken firing arm remained split, its cord hung loose, and none of the cannons farther down the battlements showed any sign of restoration.

A heavy mechanical sound suddenly rose from inside the city. Kael turned in time to see a newly restored ballista emerge from the stone near the central building. Another followed, then a third. Within moments, five siege weapons had appeared around the inner keep, forming a defensive ring around the structure that contained the crystal. Four occupied the surrounding streets and courtyards, while the fifth materialized on the roof of the main building itself.

The outer walls remained completely undefended.

Kael stared down at the new formation. "What are you doing?"

The Leonard looked at him as though the answer should have been obvious. "What? This is the best strategy."

"You put all five around the inner hall."

"Yes. We give up the walls and protect the objective directly. The crystal is inside the central building, so we let the city and outer walls slow the monsters down. Once the enemies approach the keep, the ballistae will take them out."

Kael looked over the city again. The streets beneath them were filled with soldiers and families preparing for the invasion. Children carried bundles toward the underground shelters while their parents hurried alongside them.

"The whole city would turn to dust, though," Kael said.

The Leonard merely shrugged. "Who cares? They’re just NPCs."

Kael frowned. The casualness of the answer bothered him even more than the strategy itself.

"If we waste the currency repairing weapons on the outer walls, it’ll take longer and cost more," the Leonard continued. "The defenses will also deal less concentrated damage because the walls are too long. Here, everything is packed together. Every siege weapon can attack the same area, which means the enemies die faster."

He smiled as though he had just explained something elegant. "It’s all good."

Kael looked from the newly restored inner defenses to the broken weapons along the wall. The plan did possess a certain logic. Abandoning the outer perimeter reduced the number of areas they needed to defend, while the fortress and city became layers of obstacles. The enemy would waste strength breaking through walls, gates, streets, houses, and barricades before reaching the crystal. By the time the survivors arrived, the ballistae could concentrate their fire upon a much narrower area.

It was efficient, cold, and probably incomplete.

The Tower would never be this generous. It would not hand them a simple strategy that allowed one person to claim most of the credit while the other four waited safely for injured stragglers. Floors did not work that way. Every trial Kael had faced contained something that punished those who accepted the most comfortable interpretation.

His gut tightened. He had already surrendered his currency, and regret arrived almost immediately afterward.

A system message appeared before him.

[The First Wave will invade in 5 hours 55 minutes.]

Another notification followed before anyone could speak.

[Warning! You do not have enough currency to repair any ancient relics.]

Kael’s eyes narrowed as a third message appeared.

[Warning! If you do not kill at least 5% of the incoming enemy wave, you will be disqualified!]

Silence held the wall for less than a second before one of the women shouted, "Wait, what the fuck? You didn’t tell us about this!"

The Leonard’s confident expression tightened. "It’s not that big of an issue."

The burly man crossed the distance between them in two strides. His hand closed around the Leonard’s neck, and he lifted him cleanly from the ground. Before he could tighten his grip, a red warning flashed in front of them.

[Warning! Hostility between climbers is forbidden!]

The burly man froze. "Son of a bitch," he growled. "You fucked us over."

The Leonard clawed at the hand around his throat. "Put me down! You’ll get disqualified!"

The burly man released him with a hard shove. The Leonard stumbled backward and began coughing while the two women looked between him and the empty currency values displayed before them.

Kael turned toward the horizon. They had less than six hours, no remaining currency, and no personal defenses. If each of them failed to kill at least five percent of the incoming army, they would be disqualified regardless of whether the crystal survived.

That meant twenty-five percent of the wave needed to die directly to the four climbers who had surrendered their resources. The Leonard had purchased all five siege weapons himself, so any enemies killed by those weapons would most likely count toward him.

They had indeed been fucked over.

"Fine," Kael muttered before turning back toward the Leonard. "So you’re banking on the enemies breaking through the gates and charging into the city center. Your ballistae rack up the points, and once that happens, the rest of us come down and kill the weakened stragglers. Right?"

The Leonard rubbed his throat. "Exactly. It’s efficient."

Kael stared at him for a moment. "I see."

Now that the immediate physical threat had passed, the Leonard straightened his armor and regained some of his confidence. "You’ll still get your required kills. You just need to listen to me."

Kael looked toward the others. The staff-wielding woman appeared furious, while the spear user looked more worried than angry. She repeatedly checked the timer, as if five hours might somehow become longer if she stared at it enough. The burly man kept his fists clenched, but there was nothing he could do without violating the rules of the floor.

"I don’t like that," Kael said. "You tried to fuck us over."

The Leonard’s expression turned smug. "Nothing you can do about it, bud. All you can do now is listen."

Kael looked along the battlements, taking in the broken ballistae and damaged cannons. Their gears had split, their cords had rotted, and deep cracks ran through their ancient frames. According to the system, he lacked the currency required to repair any of them.

That was all it had claimed, however. It had never said the ancient relics could only be restored through currency.

Kael’s gaze settled on the nearest ballista as his hand moved toward his inventory. He had Brokk’s Hammer, plenty of materials, and enough time spent learning how to use it to understand that broken machinery did not care whether the Tower considered him wealthy enough to repair it.

Kael turned toward the others. "I’ve got a better idea."

The Leonard frowned. "What are you doing? I told you, this is efficient."

"Nah."

Kael walked toward the damaged ballista while the others watched. Up close, the weapon appeared even worse than before. Its firing arm had split almost completely, and the mechanism beneath the platform was clogged with stone dust and rust. Several metal components were missing, while the gears that remained had teeth worn almost smooth.

He placed one gauntleted hand against the frame. The wood was old, and the metal was even older, but both could still be worked.

Kael smiled beneath his helmet. "I’m gonna fix these myself."

"Are you mad? How are you supposed to repair that without any currency?"

"Sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box."

Kael approached the nearest ballista and drew Brokk’s Hammer from his inventory. He struck the loosened cords first, then moved on to the damaged base and the deep cracks running through the frame. With every blow, the ancient weapon repaired itself before their eyes. Fractures closed, warped sections straightened, and broken mechanisms shifted back into their proper places.

Within minutes, the ballista had regained its original form and function. It stood pristine among the ruined weapons lining the battlements.

Kael had not even given an order before four soldiers rushed toward the restored ballista. They took their positions around it and began loading the weapon with enormous javelin-like bolts.

[You now have 1 Operational Ballista.]

[You may assign your ancient weapons to any member of your team.]

Kael slowly turned toward the Leonard. "Son of a bitch."

"What?"

"This fucker really did want to screw us over. Apparently, whoever repairs a weapon can assign it to any member of the team."

"Son of a bitch!" The burly man rounded on the Leonard. "So you could have built the weapons in the city and still assigned them to us? Instead, your greedy ass wanted us running around for our share of the kills while you sat back and collected points from all five weapons."

The Leonard’s face twisted with anger. "It doesn’t fucking matter." He glared at Kael. "You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you? You’d better hope you don’t make it out of here."

"Was that supposed to be a threat?" Kael asked.

"Of course it was. If you leave this floor alive, I’ll make sure you’re hunted down. You just ruined my chance at setting a new high score with your fucking interference."

Kael gave a quiet laugh and looked toward the remaining weapons along the battlements. "This fucker really wanted everything for himself."

He rested Brokk’s Hammer against his shoulder as his smile widened beneath his helmet.

"But you know what would be funny?" Kael asked. "If none of the monsters ever reached the center of the city."

The Leonard member opened and closed his mouth as he looked at the rest of the walls.

Could he really repair them all?