The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

16

They cut down another two Tier 6s before a larger presence moved up and out of the entrance like a charging bull. Conor retreated and let the man escape the confines of the tree façade.

The Tier 7 tried to turn and attack Conor, but Matt thrust his sword into the man’s side, causing him to abort the attack. The armor he was wearing was Tier 7, which meant that Matt’s blade was the same Tier, and would be able to pierce the armor.

The man was unwilling to take the blow to land one of his own.

Matt pulled the man away from Conor and engaged the queendom’s Tier 7 on his own. He wielded a white-hot war hammer equipped with a glowing blue spike. It also felt heavier than the man to his spiritual sense, indicating that it was a Tier 8 weapon.

Cursing the worst-case scenario, Matt settled in to defend against the man, and looked for an opportunity to finish the fight with a single, decisive blow. It was either that, or batter the man down with a few dozen [Mana s***h]es and [Mana Charge]s.

Liz ducked under a barrage of [Water Bullets] cast from near the top of the tree and thrust her spear into an attacking Tier 6. The man bled an unhealthy amount before he vanished, leaving only more blood to use.

Aster jumped out of her backpack, and before Liz could worry about her, the world went white.

Everything was suddenly flash frozen. From the trees, to the enemies, and the grass. Everything was covered in frost that slowly grew roses.

Chancing a look back, she saw Aster anchored in ice that grew up her legs, while more ice-covered her body in spikes. The nine enemies around them had it much worse than the surroundings. Each was encased in thorny, blooming vines that sapped both life and mana from them. It was a visible process that withered them and all the frozen foliage to nothing.

Emily looked as shocked as Liz felt. She knew that Winter’s Embrace was strong, but this was beyond her expectations.

Seeing that her partner was okay and handling the small fry, Liz gathered the blood. She pulled all of it to her. If this was back when she first met Aster, she would have been unable to control frozen blood, but now it was only slightly harder than the liquid variety. It was still blood, after all.

Pulling it together, Liz created a modified version of her blood golem, while Emily fried a group of Tier 6s who tried to attack Aster and her ever-expanding zone of frozen death. The now-empty vines reminded her that for all the blood spilled, no one was dying today.

After Matt had crumpled the Tier 6’s chest in a single blow, she had been hesitant to use her full force. She knew he was, too.

Taking a barrage of skills on her heavily armored golem’s head, she punched hardened arms and feet into the metal tree and started to climb. It took only a minute for her to reach the screams above her. Once she got to the top of the tree, she found a crudely built palisade disguised as tree branches.

Liz let loose with tendrils of blood that broke bones and spilled more of her red dominion. She was nearly blasted off the tree when a Concept infused [Wind Blade] took her in the side. The man was Tier 7 and had a Tier 8 staff that glowed with light green energy as more wind built up around the staff.

She didn’t have time to savor the look of shock on his face as he realized his sneak attack hadn’t worked. Infusing her own Concept into her blood, she struck out, intending to swat the man away, but he was pulled away by a force greater than her own.

With the realization that she might have been going a little too hard, she toned it back as she finished off the rest of the mages on top of the tree tower. She was a mage, yes, but in the end, she was building her body more than most mages. She was going with a forty sixty split with magic taking the larger portion, but she got more damage out of building her blood than most. After the addition and upgrade of the Blood Iron, she was debating whether to transition into an even split of essence.

After all, the stronger her body got, the stronger her main weapon was.

Pulling a little blood from her glove, she moved it to the tips of her arms and started to spin her limbs like drills. It only took a minute until she was able to pry off the top of the tree, and she fell into the mass of people still trying to escape from the tree’s front entrance.

Annie moved through the forest with her Talent keeping her hidden from everyone.

When she found the back door, she slipped in and carefully weaved through the escaping queendom people.

She was here for information gathering and to assassinate any leaders running the show from inside the hidden base.

It was a shock when she found a teleporter formation built into the floor. There was a pair of Tier 7s standing at a row of pads and talking as they watched the fighting outside. “We need to consider this a loss. Both Adam and Bret were taken out.”

The other woman cursed, “f*****g useless. Neither of them lasted more than a minute. Disgraceful.”

The first woman shrugged. “This clearly is a very strong Path team. Better to learn about them now than during a more pivotal moment. We now know how strong they are, so we can start planning to counter them.”

The second woman spat on the floor but nodded. “Do we pull out with the teleporter, or do we destroy it?”

“Set the bomb, and we’ll teleport out before it goes off.”

Not liking the sound of that, Annie debated whether she could take the two women. They were Tier 7 and might be able to sense her if she wasn’t careful, but she liked the idea of being here when a bomb went off far less.

She took careful, quiet steps before she drove her dagger into the leader’s armpit, activating the enchantment at the last moment. She twisted and jerked it out before ducking low and stepping around her victim. As the second woman tried to attack, Annie hip-checked the leader into her path, causing the second woman to stumble slightly.

That was all Annie needed to throw a dagger into the woman’s throat. In under four seconds, both women were gone, removed by the unseen referees.

Annie started to download everything on the pads to her AI and took careful scans of the teleporting formation. It might lead to other hidden bases, and that could be worth a boatload of points.

She checked her sister’s AI and saw that they were doing fine up top. It was weird to be in a team with others. Annie had expected to have to carry the team, but after their sparring yesterday, she was forced to acknowledge that her new teammates were heavy hitters.

Conor’s [Demon Zone] perfectly countered her, which was infuriating in and of itself. If she entered the zone and moved too quickly, he could feel the disturbance. If she attacked him, she would take a blow in return. If the blow was strong enough to kill him, it would probably do the same to her, as she was much less invested in heavy armor and durability. She was working on growing her Talent to counter that, but it was a slow process. If the man wasn’t so attractive in his quiet way, she would be even angrier.

Matt, Liz, and the fox, Aster, were another story together. Annie had missed it at first, but Emily had noticed that they were kitted out with growth items. It wouldn’t be suspicious if they weren’t on the Path, but as it stood, it let her know that at least one of them was lying about their Talent. She had met a seeker before, and they were the only ones able to gather that much wealth while on the Path.

Neither she nor her sister could figure it out, though. Matt’s Talent seemed straightforward enough, and its effects were obvious. Blood was rare enough that it seemed unlikely to be Liz, but that just left the cute fox. The problem with that was, with the fox being a beast, she would only have standard racial Talents until Tier 25.

Overall, their best guess was that they had a fourth member at some point, or one that wasn’t participating on the frontlines of the war.