The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

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The fort itself was fifty percent larger than any they had encountered in the war thus far, with an interior tower two stories higher.

Overall, he thought they could take the fort if it was staffed by the usual number of guards. They just needed to draw the defenders out, and let Annie use her invisibility to sneak in and start wreaking havoc. She could even just open the gates for them. Ideally, they would be able to lure at least a small number of defenders to protect the simulated mine. According to the rules set down, any simulated resource had to be protected in order to keep generating points, as any real one would.

The reward for taking a medium fort was listed at 5,000 points, and Matt was eager to collect. Taking it as a solo team, Matt expected even more when it was all said and done. That didn’t even take into account the number of defenders they would be killing, or the additional rewards from the kingdom.

The largest catch of the assault would be at least one Tier 7 guarding the fort. If they were lucky, there might even be two or three. It was how the kingdom was deploying them, and their intelligence report suggested that the queendom was doing the same. Still, it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, which was why Matt started briefing his team about his idea as they flew.

Matt lay behind a short bush atop the hill overlooking the simulated mining site. It was about two miles away from the target fortress, and the queendom had created a small wooden wall around the simulated mine. He peered through the sparse underbrush and watched as people stood around the building next to the hole that was the mine.

There was a guard station in the small wooded palisade that the defenders had erected so they wouldn’t be out in the open.

Matt breathed slowly and deeply as he kept watch.

Their plan was laid out. They just were waiting for the signal.

“I’m in place.”

With that message from Annie, he slithered back down the hill, and with Conor’s help, pushed the boulder they had prepared beforehand. They got it right under the crest of the hill and set their feet before looking at each other around the backside of the massive rock.

“Ready?” Matt grunted out the question. Even with [Mages Retreat] active, this rock was still just over three feet tall, almost halving Matt’s six and a half foot frame. On top of that, it was made from Tier 4 material. While the boulder was lighter than it would be if it was of a higher Tier rock, it’s still incredibly heavy. Thankfully, it was only rock and not metal as rock didn’t get as heavy with Tier as metal did.

Conor didn’t respond verbally and just started to shove, and Matt quickly joined him. They grunted as they struggled forward, and slowly, the two-and-a-half-ton boulder crested the hill and began rolling on its own.

The pair of front-liners watched the boulder pick up speed as it started racing toward the bottom of the ravine, heading straight for the wooden wall.

Breathing heavily, Matt summoned his blade and started sprinting after the bouncing boulder with Conor right behind him. They screamed with what little breath they had left as they raced forward, futilely trying to catch up to the careening boulder as its multi-ton weight bounced around.

The rock had been their answer to the wooden walls that they didn’t know how to get around, but as Matt watched it bounce down the slope and build up speed, he worried that it would actually kill someone. The rock was now hurtling through the air at a frantic pace.

They struggled to keep from tripping as they ran down the steep hill, but Matt managed to see the rock obliterate the wooden wall. It passed through as if the barrier had never existed. Wooden splinters flew everywhere, and the rock flew through the building and out the other side of the wall. It continued to roll and skip up the far slope before it lost most of its momentum.

Matt cursed their luck and choice of rock as Liz sent a message. “What the f**k was that!?”

“We did the boulder plan.”

“Ascenders’ balls, that was a s**t ton more than we wanted!”

Matt and Conor rushed the fort and started to fight the defenders who were still standing. Of the nine that were in the base, five met them with weapons drawn. The two of them limped out with clear injuries and fought at their worst, while the others had escaped the improvised missile.

During their planning phase, Emily mentioned that if they instantly wiped out the mine’s defenders, the rest would just hole up in the fort and not risk sending more people to an ambush.

That was why it was just the two of them attacking the mining base. They wanted to appear to be part of a foolhardy attack by rogue elements hoping to earn some easy points.

Liz, Emily, and Aster waited in a bush situated along the most likely path that the defenders’ reinforcements would come through. In the end, it all depended on Matt and Conor’s acting skills.

Through the shouting and clanging of weapons, Matt heard the orders being shouted, “Hold them down and don’t let them deeper in!”

“Hold the entrance!”

Someone else shouted, “For Ingrid! She got blasted by those bastards’ boulder. Give them no escape!”

Matt parried a blow and returned with what he hoped would come off as a lucky thrust through the defenses of the spear wielder.

They screamed and were suddenly gone as if they were never there.

He caught sight of Conor downing his opponent and pushed forward enough for them both to get surrounded individually. Matt was trying to seem overeager after downing one of the defenders, hoping to draw more attention to himself.

Finally, the message they were waiting for arrived. “Ten people on the move. I slipped in while they went out.”

Matt grinned and burst forward with his full strength as he felt Conor’s [Demon Zone] activate. He grabbed the Tier 5’s sword with his armored hand and thrust his longsword through their weaker chest armor. As he withdrew the blade, they vanished, and he lunged at his other attacker, taking their mace attack on his exposed head.

The queendom fighter was too weak to damage him through [Cracked Phantom Armor], and Matt pounded them in the face with the pommel of his weapon, breaking their nose as he transitioned to a thrust toward the leader.

In three moves, three more people vanished as they were taken away by the army watchers. Matt smiled, pleased that the plan was going so well.

Conor stood over a few spots of blood, and he saw the man return his grin from under his helm.

“Let’s go help the mages.”

Conor scoffed at Matt’s suggestion. “They don’t need our help. I bet they’re already done with the reinforcements.”

Matt shrugged; his fellow melee fighter was probably right, but they still hurried to their teammates’ AI reported locations.

They were only halfway there when they received the message that they were expecting. “Reinforcements dealt with.”