The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

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With that in mind, they needed a new approach, as Aster’s plan would make them sitting ducks.

Halfway to the rift entrance, they encountered the boss monster, who was bisected with a single s***h of Matt’s blade.

Seeing the monster fall once again without receiving any essence gave him a bad feeling. He started to wonder if they should avoid killing the other zombies, and possibly the boss itself.

They fought near the rift entrance, moving in large circles as the bell tolled its fog-removing sound time and time again.

At the forty-minute mark, they started to struggle.

The zombies were armored in thick bone plates that managed to fend off most of their attacks if they weren’t perfectly placed.

That wasn’t the real issue; Liz had enough pure damage to deal with them. The problem was the pale fleshed boss monster.

Matt sidestepped its lightning-fast swipe, more out of instinct than any sort of plan or recognition of its movement. He had abandoned Luna’s rule of not using [Mage’s Retreat] and [Endurance] when the monster became faster than him on the seventh wave.

Now on the eighth wave, the boss outclassed him in speed, even with his enhancements taking all the mana generation he could spare from [Cracked Phantom Armor]. The only reason he kept his limbs attached was that the boss zombie was fighting like a monster. It had no tactics or strategy in its attacks. It only took wild swings that were more likely to give Matt an opening than hurt him.

The next problem was that the monster’s defenses had improved significantly, along with those of the normal zombies. Its thin skin, which he had sliced through so easily during the first few encounters, now only caused Matt’s blade to skitter off.

Matt was just thankful that he had upgraded his sword to Tier 8 before this. He could feel the durability and repair enchantments struggling with each hit he landed on the boss, and even worse, when he blocked with it.

His sword had a chip in the blade from that mistake.

Baiting the monster forward with a shuffle step, Matt took the boss in the neck with a heavy, [Mana Charge] empowered swing that exploded its head in a gory mess.

Only then did the bell toll. On the fourth wave, they had learned through some testing that they needed to kill the boss, otherwise the clock tower refused to tick over and sound the bell.

Turning and helping Liz take care of the remaining zombies, Matt cast [Flamethrower] for a second, then used Hail to crack all the monsters’ armor. Early on, they had learned that fire did little to the bone plate and undead flesh underneath. Ice and cold did far better, and together, they were able to shatter the armor with minimal effort.

Casting his gaze to where they had first seen the boss, Matt found it once again standing there. As the sound of the bell ended, the monster raced forward so swiftly, it was blurring in its race toward them.

Matt realized that it was using an unknown skill, and called out to Liz, “It’s using a skill. Watch out!”

That in and of itself wasn’t odd. Most of the rifts they had delved contained monsters using at least one skill. This rift had been the exception to that rule, since the monsters had not used any skills at all, up until this point. That fact alone had raised his hackles by the fourth wave.

Matt intercepted the boss but was knocked back when his weapon was intercepted by shadowy armor. It was almost like a dark, corrupted version of his own.

Matt’s moment of surprise allowed the monster to get in a heavy cut that Matt barely managed to block. He had to drop all of his other skills and put all remaining 80 MPS into [Cracked Phantom Armor] and its second layer.

His under armor managed to block the blow, but having learned his lesson, Matt managed to recenter himself and take a swipe at the monster.

The mana held in his blade washed out in a wave, but the attack once again landed on the zombie’s shadow armor that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Unlike most armor skills, the shadow armor didn’t completely break. It had a hole where the boss’s skin was scorched. The rest of the armor was intact and began filling the hole that Matt’s attack created. Tendrils of shadow started to knit the hole closed as he looked on.

Unwilling to give the stronger boss the chance to get its armor back, Matt lashed out with a desperate attack, stabbing forward with his blade. The tip of his blade took the monster in the eye, slicing through the softer flesh as the boss scored a s***h at his leg. Agony pulsed out from Matt’s struck leg as the boss roared in defiance.

Keeping control of himself, Matt managed to start casting skills to take out the rest of the monsters, and called to Liz, “Leg’s f****d, but I can stand and fight.”

Matt wanted to know what Liz was planning. They needed to use the few remaining minutes to decide whether they were going to go for the rift entrance, or the exit in the house.

They had just finished the ninth wave, and only had one left if the rift subscribed to the same rules as the wave rifts they had encountered so far. The number of bars that had yet to disengage from the door indicated the same, leading him to believe that there was only one final wave to stand against. Matt didn’t want to give up now, but Liz would need to take care of the boss herself if they stayed.

Liz called out, “Let’s finish this. I can take him if you can keep the rest off me.”

As Liz took Matt’s shoulder on his left side, Aster scurried from Liz’s backpack to his.

They reached the porch right as the bell tolled, and the second to last lock disengaged. Matt used the railing to steady himself as he tried to avoid putting pressure on his mangled leg. Casting [Hail] and [Flamethrower], Matt took care of the zombies that tried to rush the porch.

When the boss sprinted forward, Liz was ready, and threw her spear at the monster.

It wasn’t a normal attack.

Liz used a spear that she had commissioned after their failed attempt at the Tier 9 rift, forged in the nearest city. While it didn’t have the bleeding enchantment that her old spear did, it did have a piercing enchantment, and a hollow core that she kept filled with blood.

As she had the entire spear coated with blood, and Matt could feel her Concept thrumming with power through his own, it was no surprise to him when the spear glowed with mana as Liz cast [Piercing Shot]. She had ruined the first version of the skill that they had found by bringing it into her inner spirit. The skill had simply shattered.

It was less effective, as Liz wasn’t using a smaller projectile, but it still gave the spear extra power as it slammed into the charging boss. As the shadow armor flared to life, Liz’s shot tore through it as well.

The boss fell with a hole in its chest as Liz panted heavily at the expenditure of mana, willpower, and stamina.

Matt and Aster fought off the remaining wave, and they were helped once Liz retrieved her spear, using it to attack the rushing zombies from behind.

When the bell tolled for the tenth time, Matt heard the door swing open with a soft creaking that made the hair on the back of his neck rise.

As he turned, Matt saw the boss standing there once again, and they rushed through the door to slam it shut.