The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

36

She got her staff up in time, and a shield of mana that he expected was [Mana Barrier] formed. This was the actual Tier 14 skill, not the stripped-down version that he used in his talismans.

Stifling a smirk, Matt launched himself forward and brought his glowing weapon down on the barrier.

7,000 mana unleashed in a single attack was more than enough to overwhelm a Tier 11’s defenses, but Dena, while limiting herself, was no ordinary Tier 11.

Still, with Matt’s endless mana, and the pure quantity packed into the attack, the released energy from the impact turned the world bluish-white. The color of his mana was considerably lighter due to the influence of his Concept. Even with the attack being his own, he felt [Cracked Phantom Armor] strain under the backlash.

If he didn’t trust that he couldn’t actually hurt Dena’s Tier 22 physical body, he would have never attacked with so much power.

When the energy was expended, he looked over their locked weapons to see the [Mana Barrier] gone, and Dena’s hair now free of its ponytail and scattered across her face.

But she looked up at him with a glowing smile.

“Now that is one hell of an attack, Matt! There is no way that I could beat you as a Tier 11. Not even at the peak. Let’s increase the power and see how far you can go.”

Dena spun off from their lock, and the silver end of her staff shot what looked like a wrong-colored fireball at him.

Matt dropped [Mage’s Retreat] and put another 500 MPS into [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s second layer and took the attack head-on.

It felt like a [Fireball], but as the skill burned, he could feel the element of the attack was some metal type that he didn’t recognize. Still, it wasn’t strong enough to punch through both layers of his armor.

In only a second, he lowered the mana output to his armor until he was just barely holding the fireball back. With his free regeneration, he reactivated [Mage’s Retreat] and threw himself back into the attack.

As they both started to mix spells into their engagements, Dena increased her strength and widened her repertoire of skills. It forced Matt to bring out every trick he had, even with her cultivation only at the bottom of Tier 12.

Now that she was using all of her skills that had been honed in countless rifts and battles, the increase in her available power changed the pace of the battle.

Dena fought like a rabid dog, and ferociously punished any openings that Matt left open. If it wasn’t for his armor, both physical and magical, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand her onslaught of attacks for long.

But Matt wasn’t an average Pather.

He took every attack and countered with his own, forcing her repeatedly into disadvantageous positions whenever he saw the opportunity. She always wormed her way out of them and counterattacked, but Matt did his best to keep her on her back foot.

His smile matched his sponsor’s own as they battled around the sparring room.

When she brought her power up to the middle of Tier 12, he started to be pushed back, but Matt didn’t let that stop him.

He had already covered the entire battlefield with ice from [Hail], and as he was forced onto the defensive, he started to use his elemental manipulation skills. Throwing around those more freeform skills let him retake the advantage for a while, but Dena hadn’t made it to her current Tier by being mediocre.

She was able to dodge or block everything he threw at her after seeing it once. She even started to interrupt his elemental attacks when they started to form.

If he hadn’t been trained by Luna to deal with that exact situation, the backlash of losing control of the skills would have lost him the battle, but he had trained for such moments long ago.

In return, he started to throw his Concept’s general spatial disruptions and air hardenings at her.

Still, he was unable to push her to release more of her cultivation and finally resorted to full use of his Concept and its repulsive effects to draw in close for a final attempt to land a blow.

The fight ended when he blew back her [Ice Spike], [Jolt], [Fireball], and the odd metal version of the [Fireball] with his Concept. In a move that nearly mirrored their last fight, he scratched her under the arm as she tried to dance away.

This time, her shirt was visibly sliced open, and Matt dropped his skills as he panted a grin back at her.

Eric started clapping, “Fantastic showing, Matt!”

Dena walked forward and punched him in the shoulder and waved her hand as all the remnant elements from their spells vanished.

“Hot damn, Matt. Now that was impressive. You could easily solo a top Tier 12 rift, probably could handle a Tier 13 rift as well.” She looked to Liz and Aster and asked, “Now, what about the three of you together?”

With that, Eric laughed and summoned a massive ax and appeared next to his partner.

The spars lasted hours as they were pushed and prodded by the older Pathers. Dena and Eric didn’t necessarily guide them as much as they pushed their limits, trying to see what Matt, Liz, and Aster could do under duress.

Eventually they still lost, but the three of them forced the pair to increase their cultivation to peak Tier 12 by the end of their fight.

It was a fantastic evening, and Matt was on cloud nine as they returned to their home.

Or he was until they entered the apartment to see the Emperor sitting next to Mara and Leon at the dinner table.

The only Tier 50 in the Empire waved at them and said, “Come sit down, kids. We need to have a conversation that has been delayed too long.”

9

Matt froze like a rabbit that had just noticed Aster was standing above it.

He also felt the instinctive urge to run that the rabbit must have felt before it was gobbled up.

In the instant their eyes met, Matt settled his instincts and looked at the Emperor, trying to analyze him like any other person.

Without knowing that he was a Tier 50, Matt wouldn’t have looked twice at him in a crowd.

He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with just a sprinkling of gray in his hair around the temples. Otherwise, his light brown hair was cut in a short but classic style that had been trendy a few decades ago.

The clean-shaven face was otherwise unnotable except for the classically wide jaw.

It was his eyes that drew all the attention on his face.

It looked like someone was mixing molten gold in his luminescent eyes.

Despite having a source of light that should have overwhelmed his ability to see the Emperor’s pupils, the light did no such thing. In fact, he thought he could see images playing across the Tier 50’s pupils.

Matt tried to peer deeper, as he was sure some questions that he couldn’t put into words would be answered if he just looked deep enough.

As he did so, the color in the world around him seemed to sharpen to a painful level.

Matt noticed something was wrong, and with that realization, he was able to settle his racing mind and pull his eyes away from the Emperor’s.

He was met with a kind smirk, if such a thing was possible.

“Well done, Matt. I didn’t expect you to pull out so quickly.”

Matt turned to see that Liz and Aster were nowhere near him and had seemingly showered and changed their clothes at some point.

A quick reference to his AI showed that he had been standing in the doorway for the last hour and a half.

Mara and Leon both clapped for him as the storm mage said, “Better than most people. Now that you know the feeling, you won’t be sucked into the passive effect as easily.”