The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

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A stoic Juni turned to face everyone and said, “So it begins. You all have your orders. Those queendom bastards will be on us quickly, so move to your positions. We don’t know if the first attack will be a probe, or a dedicated assault. Show no weakness.”

With that, he spun on his heels, climbed to the highest level of fortifications around the city’s main gate, and started to give a more energizing speech to the amassed kingdom troops below.

Team Bucket turned to the side and raced along the clear half of the wall, moving to their positions. Their team had been assigned to the eastern city gate, along with a mostly Pather force.

As they approached the large fortification around the gate, Matt swallowed. It was a harrowing picture to see all the faces turn to them as one and lock on. Some had unmasked expressions of greed and hope, but they were in the minority. The resounding majority of the faces shared looks of fear and uncertainty. These were feelings that Matt understood all too well, but he worked hard to disguise them.

This wasn’t a rift or a single fight. This was a siege against nearly a million enemies, and they were a small but key piece of the defense.

Matt was poked from behind by the dreaded ‘Finger of Doom’ and turned to see Liz. She whispered to him that he should speak with his troops. He still felt that she should be the one to speak, as she was the nominal leader. But she reversed the logic on him by pointing out that he was their in-battle commander and strategist.

He couldn’t think of a good counter for that.

As he mimicked Juni by climbing up the fortifications, his mind blanked, and his many prepared speeches flew from his mind. His mouth was left without direction, and started moving on its own.

“We aren’t here because we have a stake in the war.” His throat seized up, but he swallowed hard, and forced himself to keep speaking. “Either war. What do we care if two vassal states fight over a Tier 20 planet? We’re on The Path; it’s irrelevant to us.”

Matt had no idea where he was going with this and scrambled to bring the topic around to something applicable. He could see it on the faces below him. People were questioning his competency from this speech alone.

“Except that’s bullshit! This isn’t irrelevant to us. We walk The Path of Ascension, and this whole mini-war was set up for us. Us! Not the vassal kingdoms. What does a Tier 50 get out of letting us play make-believe in a little sandbox war?”

People started to look interested, so he decided to throw out something that he had learned from Liz’s brothers and various news broadcasts.

“War is coming to the Empire. We’re a part of the same Path that has succeeded in creating one monster-among-men already. Duke Waters. And a second pair are only a few decades away from repeating that same feat. I’m sure you’ve all heard the speculation. Once we have two sets of Ascenders, the other powers will target the Empire because of its success. Any of you could be the third, and now the Emperor is letting us experience a part of what’s coming in a safe environment, before it becomes all too real.”

Matt paused and looked around at his fighters. His mind frantically calculated how far he wanted to take his next statements.

“How many of you have died already?”

He raised a hand and watched as others raised a hand, some with confidence, and others with shame.

“We’ve died. And I’m glad for it. If this was a real war, then that would be it. The end. No coming back. This is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Ambushes that take down a stronger foe can happen to you as easily as it can to the enemy. I just stabbed a Tier 7 who thought I was a mage. He was dead before he knew to fight at full strength.”

Matt winced internally. He was rambling.

“Don’t let that be you. Take this as what it is—a learning experience. Babies’ first war. Don’t try to die but, if you do, learn from your mistakes. Make damn sure the other side learns from theirs, too.”

He flung out an arm, pointing at the opposing army as they formed into ranks that seemed to go on forever.

“This is our chance to fight real people and learn. As the battle goes on, follow your orders the best you can. And try to learn something. The next time we do this, it could be for real.”

He hopped down and activated [Cracked Phantom Armor]. He wanted to hide the shakes that started overcoming him as he’d realized how awful the speech was.

Then he realized his prepared speeches were in his AI. He wanted to slap himself. He could have just read off his HUD and been fine.

Liz rubbed his back, “That was good. People are more motivated, and a lot of the fear is gone.”

“That was awful. I forgot all my speeches and forgot I could read off my AI. Then started spewing that s**t out.”

Annie shoulder-bumped him. “It wasn’t that bad. Really. It was fine. Look at it this way; Once the fighting starts, no one will remember a word you said.”

Conor shrugged. “I’ve heard better. Maybe worse. But who cares.”

That actually helped.

Liz kicked the tall man’s armored shin and glared at him.

He repeated his shrug. “I call it how I see it. Matt doesn’t want us to lie.”

Matt turned his attention to the queendom forces and watched the square formations start marching forward with shields raised.

The siege towers rumbled onwards in between each formation, keeping the same pace. He didn’t miss the ladders and knotted ropes that some of the footmen held either.

As the enemy’s vanguard neared the three-quarters point, Matt called out through the command channels, “Catapults with anti-personnel ammo, aim for the troops! The mana cannons and ballista will take down the siege towers! Hold till my command!”

His AI was noting everything and was being relayed information from the city AI. He called out a minute later, and his message went to the appropriate teams on the voice chats. “Cannons and ballista, fire!”

Changing channels, he barked out, “Long-range archers, take out the earth mages if you can.”

If they could stop those damn earth mages, the soft ground would at least slow the massive siege towers.

“Catapults, fire!”

As he watched the various spells and mundane munitions being flung out, Matt felt a rush of power. This wasn’t the power of an individual, but the power that came from dozens of coordinated attacks against a similarly coordinated foe. The power of an army. It was a whole new rush, unlike anything he had ever felt before.

Just as the rush peaked, it came crashing down when he realized that for all their preparedness, they were sorely outnumbered and outgunned. Even as a dozen fist-sized ball bearings slammed into the queendom formations, only a few handfuls of people were teleported out, and their spots quickly filled in with reinforcements from the rear.

Their most powerful weapons were still only like throwing pebbles into a pond.

One of the siege towers suddenly stopped. He looked and noticed that the ground before it stopped turning to smooth stone. The earth mage was gone. One tower down out of five was a great start.