The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

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When they reached the boss, they found a massive throne room laced with more ornate decorations lining the walls, as flames crackled in braziers despite offering no warmth to those inside.

Within, they found a massive orc sitting on a throne, with armor that looked to be made from silver and gold. It was gaudy enough to make Matt almost consider it ornamentation, rather than armor that served any realistic purpose. But at their Tier, they would still be tough metals for the trio to cut through.

Flanking him were five other orcs, each representing one of the sub-bosses’ elements, with corresponding symbols engraved on their armors. Their bearing and appearance were as intimidating as their first encounters with the armored foes had been.

The fire and water symbols glowed faintly, which told them that they were empowered somehow, but they had already decided on an aggressive plan of attack. They wanted to start the fight with as much of a boost from [Lesser Sacrifice] as they could, so they didn’t hesitate.

The final orc looked like the object inhabiting shadow assassins, but was more corporeal, as it had a steady form just standing there.

They retreated, then rested up before luring a pack of monsters near the boss room and killing them for the essence boost.

Matt took the fight to the water and fire orcs, while Liz and Aster attacked the other four.

According to their plan, Liz would attack the boss, while Aster assisted him in attacking anything else.

When his sword met the first attack, Matt was engulfed in a bloom of fire that washed over his armor. It was strong, but not strong enough to take him down in a single attack, so he held his breath and fought through the heat. The flames still stressed [Cracked Phantom Armor] enough that he had to direct most of his mana into its two layers to defend against them.

Throwing out a punch, he knocked back the fire orc, only to be swept over with a wave of water. A number of alarms started to beep through his AI as the rapid temperature change cracked the stone around him and penetrated his already stressed armor. Pressing on, Matt kept his head and arms protected as his blade cut into the orc’s leg.

He felt the blow pierce the water orc’s wave molded armor and draw blood, but he was forced to parry a second s***h from the fire orc.

As the fight settled into a rhythm, Matt saw that Liz was actually holding her own against the Tier 10 orc boss and shadow assassin, while Aster was easily fending off the earth and wind orcs. She actually had the earth orc half-frozen and was trying to finish it off while the wind orc shot out small gusts to harry her away from her prey.

Her [Shadow Armor] and physical armor were strong enough that the much weaker blows were of no danger to her.

When Matt felt the first burst of essence rush into him, he knew the tides were turning. The power boost let him get another heavy blow to land on the water orc, and he took off its leg at the knee.

With a roar, he took a blow to the chest from the fire orc, and even with the blade penetrating his armors and piercing a lung, he grabbed the fire orc’s head and repeatedly drove its armored skull into his knee. Eventually, the metallic crunching of armor caving in reached his ears. It sounded like a symphony of triumph when the final blow struck, and the second burst of essence rushed into him.

This essence reward was massive compared to the orc Aster had killed, and it was quickly followed up by a third burst equal to Aster’s first kill.

She had finished her two orcs.

Matt took the extra energy and found the water orc struggling to stand with its missing leg. He quickly drove his sword through its chest.

With four of the five lesser monsters dead, Matt and Aster were able to help Liz, but the boss had grown in size to match Liz’s prodigious blood golem form. Even with her [Blood Crystal Armor], it was able to cleave great chunks out of her body.

Anger raced through Matt as he saw her AI readout. Liz had already lost an arm and a leg while fighting the orc.

Aster took the attention of the final shadow assassin, and Matt threw himself into the battle of giants.

He might be smaller than the two ten-foot-tall behemoths, but he had his own tricks up his sleeve.

With as much mana as his Tier 9 weapon could handle, he filled [Mana Charge], and let loose an incredible explosion on the orc’s flank.

The blast was enough to crack its armor, but not destroy it outright, and he was forced to roll out of the way of a downward swing of the boss orc’s sword.

It glowed a dangerous mix of colors that spiraled down the blade in a pulsating rhythm. Matt’s instincts screamed that if the blade hit him, he would be killed, but was unwilling to let the monster hammer into Liz unhindered.

He was the front-line fighter of the group. If anyone wanted to hurt his friends, they needed to go through him first.

Taking hold of his Concept and digging deep, Matt embodied his phrase.

He was endless.

Matt would not die at the hands of a gaudily dressed boss in a shitty rift of his own making. He would fight because that was all he knew how to do in situations like this.

He didn’t make any timely breakthrough, but kept digging deeper despite having used most of his willpower to resist the turtle’s [Earth Manipulation].

Using every bit of training he had gotten in the past two years, and every bit of experience he had accumulated with delving, Matt took the focus of the boss, and kept its attention as Liz and Aster hammered it from the sides.

Anytime it tried to turn its attention to his friends, Matt pulled out a talisman he had prepared before they ran into the room, and launched an overcharged attack at the boss, spending money and mana like they were nothing.

Over the drawn-out battle, he eventually lost the boss orc’s attention, and Aster was nearly killed with a single attack. To make matters worse, Liz stopped sharing the reports of her damage after a second hit.