The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

22

Quill’s limits with a normal mana pool for active spells and limited physical ability were far less restrictive.

Liz was afraid that her weaknesses would drag them down, but as she proved to herself with this fight, she was able to fight two on one for a while against dedicated melee fighters.

Kurt’s and Luna’s training wasn’t for show.

Their advantages over the general contestants were numerous, and Matt felt that if they were to both go all out, they could easily take out all the competition.

Just Liz with her [Blood Manipulation] could have probably taken out both melee fighters in seconds.

Her Blood Iron and growth glove would have allowed her to overwhelm and suffocate them as soon as they tried to attack the ‘weak mage’, as they did with Quill.

Liz would have been a near reminder of why Duke Waters was so feared.

The setting started to dissolve, and Quill caught Torch with his Concept as they returned to their previous positions.

The number eight now hovered above the gem trio.

Quill didn’t feel like rubbing in a well-fought loss, so just said, “Well fought, but not nearly enough to beat us. Where are the higher numbers? Color me interested in meeting them.”

Emerald Blade had regained his composure and gestured to a door in the corner of the ballroom.

“Head up, and you will find the top ten lounge. If you think it will be easy to beat everyone, you are sorely mistaken. We didn’t use all our trump cards either, of course.”

Torch waved the words off with a flick of her fingers. “Neither did we.”

Ruby sounded infuriated, but her mask hid the expression. “You can’t rely on talismans for every fight. You’ll eventually run out and be brushed aside. A gimmick can only take you so far.”

“Truly, your insight is staggering, and I had never once considered that I might have such a flaw with my primary weapon. I suppose I shall now reconsider the strategy I have spent decades utilizing and refining. Thank you for your sagely advice.”

That earned him some snickers from the crowd.

“It just takes mana to make the talismans. Easy come, easy go.”

While he didn’t know exactly what version of the fight they had seen, he knew the use of so many talismans couldn’t go unremarked.

Walking through the air, he and Torch stepped down to the balcony and proceeded up the stairs.

6

With their victory over the now eighth-place team, Quill expected some pushback from the other top ten competitors. With just a look, the pair prepared themselves to deal with a hostile atmosphere.

As they entered the large and dimly lit lounge room, they were surprised to see only four sets of people sitting around at different tables.

Quill’s attention was brought to a team that raised their glasses to them as they entered with a cheer.

“Welcome to the club.” A woman’s voice came out of a violet mask with a stylized flower over one eye.

Quill nodded slightly, but his attention was pulled to the side, where a lone woman sat.

Matt was tempted to go over and have a chat with the woman with an oversized greatsword. It was leaning against her shoulder as she watched videos of swordsmen fighting on the screen that had risen out of her table.

As his gaze lingered for longer than a second, she immediately looked up and asked, “Are either of you swordsmen?”

At their shaken heads, she sighed and looked back down to her videos. That single look was enough for Quill to get a good look at her mask, which was fashioned into the likeness of a screaming woman that seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

Not wanting to blow his cover Matt slipped back into the Quill persona and moved to the table that had welcomed them.

With a lazy wave, he asked, “How should I call you guys? We’re Quill and Torch. Obviously.”

The same woman with the violet mask said, “I’m Daisy.”

She pointed around the table at the man with a vine etched on his brown mask. “That’s Thorn. Next are Primrose and Carnation.”

The final two of her team members had more recognizable masks that were both slightly off-gray colored.

With the gesture to sit down, they joined them at the round table.

Thorn was the first to speak. “Good fight. Those idiots needed to be taken down a peg.”

A quick glance showed the team was ranked fourth, but his glance didn’t go unnoticed. With an androgynous voice, Carnation said, “Ugh, please don’t be obsessed with ranks like these idiots.”

Torch shook her head. “We answer in kind.”

Quill expanded, “We will care about ranks about as much as anyone who challenges us does. If they hadn’t started the fight, they would have been fine, but we won’t just let that sort of thing go unanswered.”

That earned them a second toast, and Quill asked, “What about you guys? Do you care about the ranks?”

Daisy laughed. “Yeah, we do. Or at least, we will when the tournament actually starts. Until then, who cares?” Her mirth dropped like a stone as she leaned forward and added, “And fair warning…Queen over there”—She nodded to the lone swordswoman and said—“don’t f**k with her. That woman is a f*****g monster. She’s only rank three because the old rank three was a swordsman, and she f*****g eviscerated him in a single exchange. She just doesn’t care if you aren’t a blade fighter.”

Quill turned to take a better look at her.

Now that he heard her mask’s name, he was able to place it as a replica of a statue of the Fallen Queen.

The screaming woman filled with despair was iconic enough that he was sure Luna would berate him for not noticing immediately.

It was an old story whose origin was hotly debated, but for all the iterations, the narratives were similar enough. A female ruler was betrayed by her spouse and stabbed in the back, turning as she died to see that her lover was the one to betray her.

Sometimes, she was a leader elected by her people. In other versions of the story, she was a hereditary ruler. In some she was betrayed by a spouse, sometimes a wife, and sometimes a husband. Her background was as varied as the people who told her story. Other times, a trusted general or friend were the ones to betray her, though that scenario was rare to come across.

No matter how the details about the story changed, the only thing that remained constant was her being a woman and a ruler of some sort. That, and the image of the screaming, betrayed face. It was based on an old statue found in a ruin and had been replicated enough to become the official face of the story.

Queen’s mask wasn’t a carbon copy, but it was similar enough to get the meaning across. It also spoke of implications of her past that he didn’t even want to consider.

Primrose’s voice was masculine, and he said, “That woman is scary. I wielded a sword and shield, which was enough to garner her interest. But after seeing one of my fights, she said I wasn’t what she was looking for. Gave me the creeps.”

Thorn shook his head. “I’d recommend not challenging her. To be honest, she has the best chance of winning this tournament outright if she has some hidden cards. There’s a video going around of her slicing a Tier 12 boss in half with a single swing of her sword.”

Matt desperately wanted to go over and see what the woman was about but quelled the urge. If she was looking for swordsmen, she would inevitably seek out his true identity. He just needed to wait.

Checking the video, he whistled. A single swing didn’t give the woman’s attack justice.

In the video, she was facing a bus-sized wolf and, with a casual wave of her greatsword and no visible skills, the wolf fell into two halves.

Restraining himself, he said, “It’s a good thing I’m a mage.”

Morphing his mask into a wink, he added, “I think Torch can surprise her.”

Torch just shrugged next to him.