I had never thought that a man could be so selfless and pure as Jacob. I was wrong.
Jacob treated us like brothers. As we progressed towards the first-floor boss, I watched his wounds get healed once more. Nymphadora was pulling her weight in heals. She had not yet casted a single fire spell, Jacob was such a good tank.
It was really quite impressive how little he truly cared for his own life. If an enemy was going to pass him, he used his body to block them. He hadn't learned an aggro skill yet because he wasn't strong enough.
Despite not having an aggro skill, he was remarkably skilled. He was easily able to cover for my inconsistent DPS.
I watched Atlas's low, but constant DPS and wished I could last longer. This wishing turned into anger that strengthened the flame blade I had just cast and utterly obliterated a pair of hobgoblins.
Sighing at my mana usage, I moved back behind Jacob.
Taking a swig from my water flask, I heard Jacob call out to us.
"Should we do the first floor boss or should we turn back?" He asked.
I nodded, thirsting for the thrill of battle.
"I'll just follow you, Jacob." Nymphadora said.
Atlas pondered for a moment. "Sure. Let's try it."
The first floor Tower boss was an Orc.
Sure, there were Orcs outside the Tower, but if anyone spent too long in the Tower they could go insane.
Once you went insane inside the Tower, you were bound to a never-ending cycle of death and undeath. The first floor boss was an example of this. His name used to be Groudon Lightsword, but now he was little more than a husk.
The first floor boss stood at four meters tall, with skin that was a waxy yellow that was once the forest green of the Orcs, pure red eyes customary for the monsters within the Tower and two massive two-meter long broadswords.
I watched as Jacob easily drew aggro and Nymphadora prepared two healing spells. I had long since recovered most of my mana, so I charged in just behind Jacob to deal as much damage as possible.
Even before I could do anything aside from cast a flame sword, Jacob was knocked mercilessly into a wall.
Now, over the short time I had known Jacob, even if I had never said 'Thanks.' to him, I had come to like him.
Seeing him get knocked into a wall like that ignited something deep inside me.
Roaring a wordless battle cry, I dodged the Orc's massive broadsword and ignited another flame blade.
Normally, my flame blade would be yellow or blue, depending on my mood. But this flame blade was black.
Not sparing it more than a glance, I swung my blade as hard as I possibly could. To my shock, it phased through the Orc's sword and continued into it's face. My reach wasn't long enough to do anything other than blind it with that blow, and I was knocked aside very similarly to Jacob.
I hit and saw stars. My eyes couldn't focus properly, but I saw the broken figure of Jacob get back up. Nymphadora was desperately trying to heal the both of us at once, but it wasn't enough.
Jacob's figure slowly reassembled its internal structure and he stood proudly and yelled at the Orc.
The Orc stopped chasing the figure of Atlas, and went after Jacob again.
Jacob went flying once more and this time the Orc didn't refocus. It kept going after Jacob.