The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich was alive again but he could still hear the sounds of his bones crunching splintered, he could feel a thousand fangs tearing into his body all at once.

However with a start he heard the sound of the monster creeping towards him once again and he realized he was resurrected in the third floor, naked and without any weapon.

This was the last used seal of Tindalor, after death he was resurrected here.

Aldrich reached with his left hand to the seal of Tindalor to get out of here and teleport to the common room or anywhere else, really.

But, suddenly before he could activate the seal he ducked and rolled to the side. As he did so, he heard a horrific sound similar to the sound bombs made.

He looked up, where stood there was a diagonal gash that ran along the wall's length. He was still in shock, he saw a liquid splashed everywhere, colorless, without think he touched it, it was… water?

He looked back at the monster which was creeping towards him at a ridiculous speed, it somehow shot high pressure water at him from back there. If he had been even a single second slower he would be dead again.

'Shit!'

Aldrich awoke from his stupor and made a run to get his sword back. He wouldn't be able to run out of here now that the seal of Tindalor here was destroyed and the huge gate locked, he was trapped.

Aldrich regained his composure and realized that the after effects of the [Psychic Lash] were still not completely resolved.

However even if they weren't his inability to use the attribute panel wouldn't change. This is because he need a few seconds to focus his mind to use it, that's why he needed to by time.

'Wait! What if I die now that the seal I used to resurrect had been destroyed? I might resurrect in the common room or somewhere else, right?'

Aldrich took a chance to look back at the destruction caused by the monster and to his surprise although the wall was in shambles, the seal of Tindalor looked unaffected.

It seems like it wasn't easy to destroy a seal of Tindalor… ok, so he was still stuck here and unable to leave nor ignite his crest.

Aldrich ran towards on of the cage pillars and suddenly changed directions, the centipede monster slammed into the pillar most of the cages fell on it in a crash.

He smiled, this should buy him enough time to—

*CRASH!*

The monster flexed it's huge frame and twisted, using pure strength to free itself and send the metallic cages flying in different directions. However that was not a wise move.

The cages closest to each other were actually tied with ropes and although most of them had decayed others still retained some tenacity.

This caused a chain reaction and the closest three cage pillars fell on top of the struggling monster.

Aldrich took his sword which fell off when he was sent flying by the tail swipe. However all the time he got by that coincidence ran out as the monster chose a gentler approach and like an insect it crawled and slithered around the cages.

But Aldrich had regained his confidence, his eyes scanned the destroyed hall and lingered on one of the stone pillars. One of the cages flung off by the monster earlier had destroyed half of it's base.

This was not like the cage pillars, it was suitably heavy, and more importantly it tapered a bit toward the ground and looked very crumbly and unstable.

It wasn't precisely the plan, but plans change….

At least, it had a decent chance of working.

He ran to the pillar, started climbing up the stone formation gingerly, he put the sword in his mouth and climbed.

The fact that it was crumbling gave a lot of handholds, which aided his ascent. The fact that it was unstable made it shudder with every move he exerted on it, which did not aid his nerves.

The armored monster rounded the corner, bounding energetically even with a wing uselessly trailing the ground. Its gaze caught him.

*Chkreeeeeaaar!*

"Fuck," he cursed, and carefully moved faster. The rocks and stones of the pillar trembled and swayed. He paused, eyes wide.

*Sheeek!*

Aldrich set his teeth and ignored the swaying. 'Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down!'

He gained the semi-flat top of the pillar with a sigh of relief, then took out his sword, used to pull towards him, one of the ropes from the nearby cage pillar.

He glanced down, stepped to the side opposite the crawling centipede, inclined himself nearly horizontal, soles of his feet against the edge of the pillar, with the rope supporting his weight.

He bent his knees. Then with all the force he could, pushed off.

The pillar swayed in the opposite direction as he swung away. He reached the top of the swing arc, and bore down with all his weight as gravity pulled him back down.

Using the momentum of the return swing, he slammed into the pillar. Aldrich thanked Altunan that he had such high stats to be able to perform this task.

He bounced off deliberately to save himself the pain, but the shock of the collision still resonated in his bones.

The pillar leaned over. But it wasn't enough to fall.

The monster scrabbled at the slope, intent on getting to Aldrich and ignoring everything else.

He adjusted and pushed off again, with greater force, cursing.

Scratches on his knees and palms still stung. Even now, he felt his grip on the vine slipping. Sounds of broken stone echoed out.

He slammed into the pillar again. It tipped over. He huffed in relief. The pillar bumped one edge against the crushed base as it wavered in its descent; he nearly slipped off. Tightening his grip on his rope, he braced.

The monster was an insect adept at climbing and as soon as it got to the pillar it did just that, the distance of ten meters was only twice it's length.

It just a single leap from where Aldrich was hanging, could not avoid the pillar's falling weight.