The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

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Camilla called out, “Cave ahead! We can hold them off there.”

Matt noticed the area and weaved between the trees. As they made a turn, Matt felt a bolt skitter across his back, and cut a deep furrow along a line of ribs. Even Liz called out in pain, and his AI’s status reading for her indicated that she had a bolt in her upper thigh.

As they crossed the threshold of the cave, another bolt bounced into Matt’s side. Unlike the crossbow bolts that bounced well in the ruin itself, this one had no power left, and didn’t penetrate his armor. He breathed a sigh of relief when the wave of pain he anticipated didn’t come. He didn’t need to add a second bolt to the budding collection of wounds on his torso.

With shaky movements, Matt landed the flying sword, and pulled out his longsword. These enemies were already fully powered, and he wanted to be ready to blast them.

The four of them followed the tunnel, stopping just after a bend that would prevent the golems from pelting them with their crossbows.

They waited with heavy breaths, and Matt channeled [Endurance]. He needed as much healing as he could get before the fight began.

The problem was, he needed to charge his blade with more mana to get [Mana Charge] to 1,000 mana. So, he stopped sending mana through [Endurance] and directed it to his longsword. Those thirty seconds were long and painful. But it had to be done to survive, so he pushed through.

Moments later, they heard the sounds of metal feet approaching, and Matt’s hand tightened on the hilt of his blade. This was a wide cave, and he would be able to use that to his advantage. He just needed to avoid getting hit with another crossbow bolt. He wasn’t sure if he could fight through many more direct hits.

As the sounds grew closer, Liz whipped a large sphere of blood around the corner, and two bolts slammed into the far wall. Camilla followed that up with her extended mace head and used its range to attack around the corner.

Matt ignored the pain and AI warnings that he would catch another crossbow bolt in the side and turned the corner with his longsword fully charged with mana. He swung with all the might [Mage’s Retreat] could empower him with.

As he turned the corner, Matt saw a golem being tossed around while encased in blood. From the way the blood appeared more real than the surroundings, Matt gathered that Liz was using her Concept to empower her blood.

Matt’s sword took a second, uninjured golem in the chest, and he unleashed his [Mana Charge] with a giant flash of blue light. It didn’t get absorbed as he feared, but instead blew the entire top half of the golem into scrap metal.

Not taking the time to think, Matt pressed forward and engaged the third and fourth golems.

He saw that a crossbow was raised and pointed at him, but he didn’t deviate from his attack. The bolt grazed across his shoulder while he chopped down on the golem’s exposed arm.

These flight models sacrificed the thick armor and heavy construction for their enhanced flight capabilities, and his Tier 5 sword had no problem cutting through them. There was a strain on his sword’s durability rune, but it wasn’t bad enough to worry about the blade’s integrity. He could always use the repair rune if they made it out of this mess.

Shoulder checking the fourth golem, Matt lifted it and used it as a shield while charging the next line of golems. Two more bolts slammed into his newly acquired shield, but they were unable to punch through his repurposed golem and armor.

Matt cut into the next squad of golems with heavy swings of his blade, ignoring the pain from his many injuries, while doing what he did best.

He swung his sword and challenged the world to take him down.

More teams must have arrived because there seemed to be no end to the golems.

After the first two rows, the next line of golems had mana blades that he had to contend with. As was the case inside the ruin, [Cracked Phantom Armor] absorbed the strikes from the mana blades without struggle. Matt made them pay dearly for each swing.

The cave filled with more and more dismembered metal limbs as Matt cut down the opposition. Camilla joined him after the archers were taken care of, and her mace struck out with his blade, crumpling golem after golem with each swing.

Matt stepped left, in between the shaft of the weapon and the extended head and struck out at a golem that was trying to tackle Camilla.

Ice and blood dispatched any and every golem that tried to flank the melee fighters.

Soon, the momentum of their push through the golem ranks slowed, and it eventually turned into a standstill. Liz and Aster came closer to the front and took any opportunity to use their magic. Liz even sent her spear over to harry the backline.

They were making progress while pressing forward as four, and eventually reached the front of the cave. There, they found another line of golems with crossbows, which took the chance to unleash their volley.

A part of him wanted to complain that the golems shouldn’t have been smart enough to set an ambush like this, but instead, Matt’s world slowed. Thoughts didn’t matter. They didn’t even happen. All that mattered to him was action. The instinct to protect his friends guided him, and he reacted without any thought or hesitation.

Reaching down into his Concept, he used its repulsion effect, and spread it out to cover everyone.

Unlike last time, he didn’t need to slow a mana crystal. He needed to stop half a dozen crossbow bolts that could punch through [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his under armor. The rest of his team would be dead if something didn’t change.

With the world turning white, the bolts slowed and then stopped, before reversing their direction and rotating to have their tips face the direction of their owners.

Reaching down for a final burst of power, Matt pushed the last bit of his will harder than he ever had before, and the bolts accelerated. He expected them to pierce and kill the golems, but they weren’t aimed, and only one had the desired effect.