The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

24

Liz just rolled her eyes, but Camilla snapped, “Killing for a first delve of a rift is nothing new. Even I know that. Look at the situation. They had their backs to the rift, so the other team probably came second and tried to push them off. While I don’t know if I would have killed them, I can’t say they were wrong. And if you’re going to kill one person in a team, you might as well finish them all off. The last thing you need is to get ambushed in retaliation. Are you sure you’re cut out for being an explorer? You seem pretty pitiful to me.”

Liz nodded and said, “We can fly you back to the city in a few hours. Camilla’s right, you’re not cut out for this.” After a pause, she said, “I’m not trying to be mean, but it seems like you’ve come out here completely unprepared for the reality of how things are done in places like this. And while we won’t throw you at a monster, you need to be careful once we split up.”

Malcolm took another swig of his canteen and spit the water off to the side.

“No. I can do this. I want to explore new worlds. So…I need to get used to this.”

Though they were skeptical of his conviction, the group decided to carry on. They continued for the rest of the afternoon, until they eventually came upon a clearing, as they had done many times during their trek to the ruins.

When they were halfway through, there was a roar that rumbled the very grass and trees around them. Out from the side of the thick foliage, a nine-foot-tall monster trundled in, armed with a rib bone from some massive creature.

Matt’s AI noted it as a troll. One of the few low Tier creatures with innate [Regeneration], or a variant of the skill. All his sources gave conflicting reports, but they all agreed they were hard to kill without fire, poison, or acid.

Matt called out, “Pull back into the forest! That will limit it a bit.”

The five of them retreated as fast as they could. Matt kept to the rear of the retreat, covering their backs, and had his sword at the ready. It was a Tier 6 monster, but they were four combat proficient delvers, disregarding their one non-combatant.

As they passed into the trees, Matt realized their mistake. The troll was fast. Too fast. Its massive form crossed the small clearing in three steps, and it wasn’t slowed at all by the trees. It simply barreled through them.

They scattered to dodge the toppling trees, and Matt stepped forward to face the beast. He had been charging his longsword’s [Mana Charge] skill and wanted to use it to end the fight quickly.

Hopping over a freshly felled tree, Matt slammed the glowing blade into the creature’s thigh. With the release of his mana came the familiar bright flash, and the surrounding flesh was burned away. As he retreated, Matt assumed that the monster couldn’t regenerate that much missing tissue, but the troll proved him wrong.

In just seconds, the flesh wriggled together, and the creature’s leg was completely healed.

Dropping [Mage’s Retreat] for a moment and lowering [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s draw, he cast [Hail]. He had to fill his mana pool with the mana stone he kept in a bracelet to activate the skill, but the situation called for it. The storm of ice rained down, and Aster began collecting the ice to unleash an attack on the threatening beast. She gathered the ice and formed large shards, then drove them into the creature’s side.

Matt kept [Hail] active with a few MPS but struggled to keep the troll’s attention. It had decided Aster was the origin of the ice attack since she was also launching [Ice Spears]. With a defiant roar, the lumbering monster charged toward the fox, but she was much too nimble for it to land a blow. She bounded through the frozen trees and foliage, with her speed seemingly enhanced by the icy forest environment.

When Matt approached again, the monster spun away from its hunt for the fox and tried to slam him with its bone club. The creature was both larger and a Tier higher than him, so he didn’t dare risk taking a hit head-on. Even if he survived it, he would be sent flying, and would be stunned and vulnerable.

As he too used his superior agility to dodge the creature, he lashed out with his blade at its arms and chest. The wounds instantly healed, but at least he was doing his job and keeping its attention, while also charging his blade again. This time, he wanted to see what [Mana Charge] would do to the creature’s head.

Liz’s [Blood Bullets] peppered the beast’s side with wounds that also quickly healed, and Matt even saw a generic [Mana Bolt] flash across his vision and toward the troll. His AI indicated that it came from Malcolm. It was completely ineffective, but it was more helpful than cowering in fear, or vomiting in the corner.

At least he’s trying.

Matt was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. He had half expected the man to turn tail and run. Actually, he was shocked that he hadn’t.

Camilla came from the beast’s flank and slammed her mace into a still closing wound. It splattered chunks of meat across the forest floor with its impact. The extending function of her weapon was ridiculous. It added so much range at no cost. The weapon allowed her to effectively put out poleaxe levels of damage with the extra leverage created by the extension.

Matt and Camilla rotated back and forth between quick bursts of attacks and retreating, keeping the troll occupied. Meanwhile, Aster and Liz were using a combination of attacks, causing more and more damage. Shards of ice and frozen blood peppered the troll, while blood whips lashed at limbs frozen in place by the snow fox.

Aster was so much more effective when she didn’t have to create her own ice and could simply manipulate what Matt generated using [Hail]. On top of her combos with Liz, she was sending [Ice Spears] directly into the monster’s face and slicing up the troll’s entire upper half with bursts of razor-sharp fragments of ice from [Hail].

Despite her impressive onslaught, the wounds shrunk and closed quickly. The troll’s regeneration prowess even pushed out the ice and frozen blood still embedded in its skin.

This wasn’t a battle to kill the beast. It was one of endurance. Their only recourse was to last until the beast ran out of mana and could no longer keep up with the inflicted damage.

That was the plan, until the beast let out a deafening cry, and shook the very air. Everything went bright, and Matt was forced to use his own Concept to counter that of the beast.

It was using an ability that any Concept was capable of. Any person or beast equipped with one could slightly influence reality with their phrase and image. All Concepts were capable of simple alterations, like restraining others by pitting one’s will against their own.

Matt and Liz had trained for this with Travis and Keith. It was a common monster tactic, and one that was fairly easily countered. That is, as long as one had their own Concept to counter with.

Camilla’s moves started to slow, as if she was dropped underwater. The troll tried to take advantage, but Matt had his own Concept activated slightly to stop it. He wasn’t engaging either of its abilities but was instead immersing himself in it. That partial activation was enough to negate the monster’s effect on Camilla once Matt projected his own will into reality.