The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

21

It looked like [Mana Shield], but the skill extended out nearly a foot in each direction, which wasn’t typical for the skill.

Ruby Wand had circled left and shot a [Mana Bolt] at Quill while Emerald Blade rushed him.

As a mage, he was considered the weakest link, so they had expected the strategy. Especially considering the numbers disadvantage.

Slapping a talisman on his chest, Quill raced forward for two steps with the parchment’s help. That was enough to break the trajectory of Ruby’s spell and make Emerald’s s***h miss.

Pulling out a number of talismans, Quill threw two at the ground and watched a series of [Ice Pillars] rise up, cutting him off from his two attackers. Intending to turn their advantage into a victory, Quill turned to attack Sapphire Shield, but his instincts screamed that he needed to move.

Trusting his intuition after years of combat, he threw himself into a roll.

Where he had been not even a second ago, a massive [Mana Arrow] that was larger than he was shattered a pillar that held up the balcony as it impacted the far wall. Activating a [Mana Barrier], Quill blocked the sword blow that tried to chop at where he was rolling.

Pulling out another talisman, he aimed at Emerald and activated it at point blank range. The [Jolt] hit the other man in the chest and sent him stumbling back.

Considering the thousands of mana he had shoved into the paper, Quill had expected more damage. That level of talisman had killed Tier 10 bosses in a single shot before.

That Emerald Blade had survived the attack was a testament to the power of Pathers.

With a second to breathe, he looked at Ruby Wand and saw her aiming her massive staff at him. An arrow glowed in the arc of the staff. Or, more accurately, the longbow. A true magic archer wasn’t something you normally saw, but with the power of that last shot, he pegged her as having a Talent for the specialization.

Giving her a pure mage name was a good cover. That longbow didn’t have a string and could double as a staff.

He certainly hadn’t anticipated that.

Pushing them to reveal it would explain the scowl on her crystalline mask.

Once Emerald Blade was blown back, Ruby Wand let loose a second, charged [Mana Arrow]. Quill wanted to curse, but kept himself in front of the arrow, casting two [Mana Barrier]s on top of each other.

She had chosen her angle well, and if he dodged, Torch would have taken that attack on her flank.

As the [Mana Arrow] landed, it shattered the first layer of defense, and Quill cursed as the second shield finally dissipated the spell. He had created those with standard mana types but pumped close to five thousand mana into each of the papers.

It only confirmed his belief that the woman had a Talent for spell archery. It wasn’t easy to punch through that much armor, but now that he knew, he swapped the talismans he was using.

After the arrow hit, Quill didn’t pause, and rushed left to get behind Torch and reset the battle lines.

Both teams paused as Sapphire Shield disengaged from Torch.

It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that Sapphire Shield had burns all down her less protected right side.

Even her shield was blackened after fighting with Torch for a minute.

Quill, keeping in character, shouted, “You’re all so weak. And this is the top seven? How pitiful.”

Before Ruby could send the arrow at him, he threw up a talisman, and it started to suck in heat as a massive ball of fire began growing over Torch.

Sensing that they shouldn’t let the spell grow but, unwilling to shoot at a mass of energy that large, Ruby shot the skill at Torch.

Quill cursed internally. That was actually the right move, as Torch needed to stay still to fully utilize that little trick. Shooting the skill would have only sped things up.

Torch shoved her spear butt into the miniature sun and sucked it into her armor.

Like a sun herself, Torch sidestepped the arrow and lunged at Emerald Blade.

Unwilling to stay in her heat range, the sword wielder tried to back up to maintain distance from Torch, but she was far faster.

Her spear let loose a portion of the fire and burned a hole through his chest armor. Quill had already moved to prevent Sapphire’s shield from attacking his partner’s rear and sent a barrier of spells from his talismans.

They were enough to stop her progress, so he used his staff and cast his first real spell of the fight. The [Jolt] wasn’t anything special, but he didn’t intend for it to do anything but break up Emerald Blade’s attack pattern.

As he hoped, the difference in timing was enough to catch Sapphire Shield off guard, and the next [Earth Spear] took her in the leg.

There was no breaking of bone as he hoped.

Seeing Ruby point her bow toward the sky, Quill raced forward and cast two [Mana Barrier]s over Torch and Emerald Blade.

As an unending [Arrow Rain] slammed into the shield, he cast a [Water Bullet] at Emerald. The other man ignored the attack, even with it carving a line into his armor, and focused on defending against Torch and her relentless assault.

While most of her attacks were melee oriented, and her fire skills were weaker because of their being in her outer core, Torch made up for those deficiencies with aggression and raw skill. The items that increased her fire damage at the cost of mana didn’t hurt either.

As the [Mana Barrier] was about to end despite the [Arrow Rain] still falling around them, Quill cast another pair of [Mana Barriers]. Suddenly, it felt like he was fighting against the person with endless mana. That [Arrow Rain] had lasted for nearly a minute when the normal spell lasted about five seconds.

Knowing that she couldn’t keep up the spell forever, Quill prepared to take out the annoying ranger mage.

Twisting his staff, he summoned three talismans into the prepared holsters, and then another five in a circle behind the first.

The [Arrow Rain] ended, and Sapphire Shield must have been warned by Emerald Blade, as she was standing with her shield raised between him and Ruby Wand.

Smiling under his mask, Quill activated the five-layer talisman array.

A three-foot-wide pillar of ice raced out and slammed through Sapphire Shield’s glowing shield. The fact that she lasted longer than initial contact was impressive, but as her magical shield cracked, [Phantom Armor] appeared, then shattered in quick succession.

Quill had to dodge the arrow that Ruby Wand sent at him, but he already saw that Sapphire Shield was dissolving in a ray of light.

Turning his staff, he cast the second three talisman array at Ruby Wand.

Seeing another arrow already racing toward him, Quill held his ground and tracked the dodging mage as he sent a triple [Jolt] at her.

She vanished in a spray of light, as he expected from that level of damage output.

Turning to Torch and Emerald Blade, Quill watched as his partner was able to quickly overwhelm the other man. Each s***h and thrust of her spear inflicted wounds of burnt flesh and melted armor.

It wasn’t long before Torch sidestepped Emerald’s massive saber and punched her spear through the man’s chest.

Once they were alone, Matt asked Liz, “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Perfect. I was able to match them in pure physical ability, though they’re better with their pure weapons handling. It’s what I expected.”

That was her greatest weakness as Torch. Liz needed to fight in melee range with a sixty-forty split, with the majority of her cultivation going to her mana cores.

While she could match the more physical fighters so long as she used her boosts, once she ran out of mana, she would be placed at a disadvantage.