The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

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The explosion of the [Bolt] hitting the barriers caused Quill’s ears to ring painfully, but he had confirmation that a single [Earth Barrier] could tank the monster’s attack head-on, which was a comforting realization.

Rushing out from his dome of protection, he was just in time to see Torch flying next to the monster’s head, slamming her flaming spear into the monster’s head.

[Fire Weapon] was an incredibly strong skill when paired with Liz’s innate phoenix bloodline despite the skill only being in her outer spirit. It helped that her spear was made with that particular skill in mind and boosted its power.

The attack left a deep, cauterized wound in the monster’s head, but didn’t pierce the Tier 14’s thick skull.

Quill pulled out three talismans and tossed all of them in the air after completing the runes inside with a tiny bit of mana to activate their latent power.

The [Wind Blade] activated first and left a shallow line on the monster’s hide, while the [Fire Burst] detonated just in time to empower the [Wind Lance] as it passed through the skill.

The fire empowered [Wind Lance] created a much larger crack in the snake’s hide, and it whipped its tail at Quill in rage.

The attack was so blindingly fast, he was only able to activate a [Mana Barrier] before the impact. The single defensive spell was far from enough, and he was sent flying into the rocky wall.

Climbing out of the hole, Quill felt at least one cracked rib. If not for the talisman increasing his durability, he would have been in a much worse state.

Torch had been forced to dodge a series of bites from a head that was larger than she was, but she had left a series of shallow cuts on the monster’s head in retaliation.

With a flick of his wrist, Quill sent out an [Ice Spear] and [Wind Wall] to speed the attack up while it was in flight.

The combination sent the chunk of ice deep into the snake’s flank and earned him another tail whip. But this time, he was prepared, and he quickly flew over the racing tree trunk.

Torch immediately took the monster’s attention back with her attacks at its head and eyes.

They engaged in a few more rounds of attacks, but with the power levels their masked identities were allowed to show, killing the giant snake would take a few minutes longer than they had left with their talisman buffs.

After running the calculations again, he came to a decision.

Quill called out, “Firestorm incoming! Buy me thirty seconds.”

At that command, he pulled out thirteen talismans. With a twist of his wrist, his staff bloomed, and he used his Concept to guide the pieces of parchment into their correct locations.

[Firestorm] was his low-level imitation of the Tier 32 skill [Meteor Shower] and took a full thirteen talismans in an array to cast.

It was his third most complicated skill, only matched by a similar version that he was saving for the solo fights, since it didn’t pair as well with Torch.

As fast as he could, he started linking the talismans in the proper sequence. Then, once he had everything in place, he sent a flood of mana into the talismans and jammed his staff into the ground.

Nothing happened for a long second, but as he continued to flood the talismans with mana, they finally activated. All the while, he was careful to keep his mana usage under the limit of a normal Tier 10 mage’s mana pool to maintain his cover.

From a hundred feet above them, the sky started to light up as dozens of [Fireball]s started to manifest, and they rushed downward like a deadly version of rain.

As if it was endless, the storm of fire incinerated the area around the boss.

Each impact of the overcharged [Fireball]s created a crater, as they each were created with obscene amounts of mana. Unlike the last, self-cast [Fireball]s, [Firestorm] blasted apart the Tier 14 scales as if they were mundane slates of shale.

The snake, sensing that it was unable to escape the area of bombardment, coiled up in a tight spiral. It tried to make itself as small as possible while trying to intercept the rain of fire with its own [Bolt]s.

Quill watched as Torch pulled back from the monster and started to twirl her spear around her head.

This was phase two of their combination attack, and all the [Fireball]s that would have missed the snake redirected themselves as she took control of his mana.

They had spent months perfecting this attack, and even as his mana generation was draining to assist the talismans for their final activation, he watched her gathering the attacks.

The snake tucked its head, just trying to weather the storm, but Quill just smiled, knowing how futile that was.

As the final portion of the spell activated, the parchment papers crumbled to dust, and a single, oversized [Fireball] was created. At twenty feet across, the spell had nearly a third of the mana that the talismans had cost during their creation.

It was the descent of a sun.

Liz’s armor’s defenses flared to life, and she was encased in fire as she used it to increase her [Fire Manipulation] control. She looked like a fire elemental as she brought her spear down in a chopping motion, guiding the massive [Fireball] onto the Tier 14 snake.

Quill hit the ground and activated two [Water Barrier] talismans, then an [Earth Barrier] as he waited for the impact.

When the [Fireball] landed and released its stored energy, the world went white for an instant, and the ground rumbled in a small earthquake.

Even under the barriers, he felt the rush of Tier 14 essence that signified they had killed the beast.

As his defenses crumbled, Quill found himself in a circle of blackened earth that had been swept clean of loose rocks and anything not rooted to the ground.

At the center of the desecration was a crater, where the Tier 14 snake lay in large, scorched black pieces.

Torch still hovered in the air, but Quill could see it was taking everything she had to not fall over. Guiding that much energy for the final attack always put her on her butt for hours.

Now, she was pushing through because everyone in the Empire would be watching.

Jogging over to where she was descending, Quill sat down next to her, and they pulled out mana stones and started to run them through converters to give everyone a show of them being out of mana.

In reality, they were using Tier 1 mana stones, and Matt was abusing his Concept.

With a rapidly filling mana pool, Torch was able to stabilize herself, but they were both hurting from the physical boosting talisman.

Only a minute later, Fen popped his head over the edge of a hill and said, “What the f**k was that!? Are you guys f*****g crazy!? You almost fried us as well!”

Quill waved the man over as he said, “You were fiiiine. The hills protected you! I made sure before I cast the spell.”

He really had checked first. While Fen might not know Quill was Matt, he wasn’t going to risk a friend’s safety like that.

That seemed to mollify the man, and he trekked over with his five bonds in a slow procession as they inspected the destroyed corpse of the Tier 14.

Bow and Arrow moved in unison as they sniffed the monster’s corpse before pulling chunks of the charred monster’s flesh away. They quickly revealed the non-burnt flesh underneath, and they started to grab a meal’s worth for all the bonds.

Even the mouse, Kenny, was given a small chunk to gnaw on.

Fen seemed used to that and sat down with the three of them and started to recharge his own mana.

Matt felt bad, but he kept his Concept pulled in so only Liz was affected and turned it off anytime one of the bonds moved too close.

After half an hour, even the bonds had their mana restored, and the three of them moved to inspect the snake’s lair.

Kenny directed them from Fen’s shoulder and, soon, they found a small cave with a massive wolf skull that radiated the power of lightning. It seemed to be Tier 14 itself.

Quill asked, “Is that the item?”

Seeing Bow and Arrow’s fur rise as they neared the object, he suspected it was, and he even had an idea of what it did.

Fen, to his surprise, didn’t hide anything. “Well, I’ll be damned. Yes, this is what we were looking for. Kenny only knew it was good for Bow and Arrow, but I didn’t think it would be this good.”

Fen looked at them and explained, “This is useful for upgrading a beast’s bloodline, and as it’s a wolf related item, it’s perfect for Bow and Arrow. They can probably upgrade their bloodlines to have lightning powers if they refine this head.”

Matt only knew the generalities of the beast’s bloodlines, as every time he asked, he was told not to worry about things he had nothing to do with.