The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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As they carried on and with no reason not to, they advanced through the rift, with Matt and Liz killing off swathes of the horde with carefully-positioned [Earth Manipulation]s.

They had been in the rift for close to an hour when they all saw the light change. They looked up to see the tentacles in the moon glowing and writhing, flicking its tentacles at them in a way uneasily reminiscent of the swarm-monster’s flung projectiles.

With no desire to stick around for whatever moon-scale assault was headed their way, Matt and Liz grabbed the earth around them, digging down as far and as fast as they could, making a bubble of stone for the three of them. As their now-unleashed spiritual perceptions picked up the first incoming projectiles, Matt halted and reinforced the roof above them with [Bulwark], joining Aster’s [Snowpack] in keeping the stone from collapsing.

The earth shook as dozens of skyscraper-sized pillars of stone slammed into the ground and monsters flooded out, veritably blotting out the sky as they flitted and jerked through the air like mosquitoes. For each spire, a dozen larger, golden monsters emerged that his spiritual perception tagged as far more of a threat than their lesser brethren. They were likely the next stage of the rift monsters, tougher and more important than the disposable pawns they’d been dealing with.

Matt glanced at Liz. His girlfriend wasn’t acting concerned, and while her helmet was as implacable as ever, with his spiritual sense he could see her wide smile, tongue pressed against a canine in anticipation.

“You know, I was worried there for a moment, that we’d have to deal with the bosses after all my buffs had run out.” She turned to Matt and asked, “Spot me?”

“Always.”

The grin grew wider as she responded, “Love you.”

Liz closed her eyes and began muttering mnemonics under her breath, forming and using potions directly in her bloodstream as Matt moved their earth bubble up and up, flying through the ground as they neared the surface.

They erupted from the ground in an explosion of wind and fire with Liz launching herself up to the closest monster, her spear glowing with an ominous red light as she stabbed it. It tried to fight back, but with Aster’s contributions, it was having a hard enough time simply staying airborne. It was only a matter of time before Liz finished it off, and as the monster plummeted to the ground, [Hungering Blood] drained it dry, and Liz leaped to the next-closest monster.

She couldn’t kill the monsters with a single blow, but she could make them bleed, and that was all she needed. Silver blood streamed from open wounds as Liz ran along lashing tentacles, building up speed from [Bloodrush] and feeding through her weapon into strengthening its attacks and her own cultivation. [Lesser Blood Sacrifice], [Hungering Weapon], and her own Concept all reveled in the bloodbath as wounds refused to close and bled profusely thanks to [Blood Wind], and it all fed into making her an unstoppable gold and silver juggernaut.

Soon, Liz was killing a member of the swarm with every strike, diving through the jerking masses of tentacles and adding their blood to an ever-growing wave following her. It quickly got to the point where she was simply incapable of controlling the sheer volume of semi-earth blood around her, and it erupted in a conflagration so massive, Matt could feel it from where he was.

He wasn’t completely idle, of course. While Liz enjoyed letting loose, he was keeping an eye on anything that could serve as an interruption to her enthusiasm. That necessitated being in the sky, and the monsters weren’t about to let that happen. They’d been attacking him, but he was staying within range of Aster’s [Headwind] and [Tailwind], slowing the monsters enough that he could avoid the swarm just fine. He couldn’t afford to get hit, of course, but Aster’s efforts made that a fairly minor concern. Instead, he spent most of his time funneling 5,000 mana each second into [Sheer Cold] and unleashing it periodically.

While 10,000 mana made for a very sizable area of effect, the monsters were resistant enough to ice that it took several seconds of charging between each cast if he didn’t want to just waste his mana. The spell wasn’t that efficient in a purely mana to damage ratio, but with his ability to throw mana at the problem, even the Tier 18, cold-resistant monsters were overwhelmed and killed off by the thousands. At least, the lesser variants were. The gold monsters seemed to be able to shake off his quick burst of [Sheer Cold], but it wasn’t his job to kill them.

The other half of his mana, of course, was being spent on all his buffs, defenses, mobility, and occasional [Arcane Powershot] or burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] intercepting a monster attempting to sneak in an attack on Liz.

Even as he watched, a [Blood Whip] snagged the passing tentacle of one of the golden ‘elite’ monsters, and Liz launched herself into the air above it, kicked off another monster, and dove at the elite. It summoned a stone-gray barrier that shattered like glass under Liz’s attack, and while her attack failed to kill it, it tore off one of the monster’s tentacles and sent the creature into a death spiral. [Headwind] refused to allow the beast to regain its balance and sent it plummeting to the ground below.

Aster finished off the monster with a titanic [Glacial Spear], the mountain of ice only made slightly less impressive by the dozen monstrous spires of black stone dotting the landscape.

An AI message came, and Liz responded by igniting her tide of blood, creating a new sun on the surface of the rift. Red and gold flames washed out as her ammunition ignited, a massive cascade of flames immolating much of the remaining swarm. Matt flew to meet her, catching her by the hand and jetting them to the ground, sheltering behind a [Bulwark] as Aster detonated her [Glacial Spear] with a [Cracked Shatter].

The resulting explosion shook the landscape and sent nearly all the remaining swarm monsters tumbling to the ground, frozen solid. Even some of the elites fell from the sky, either caught in the blast radius or bludgeoned by their slain brethren. Aster was merciless with any of the monsters who stumbled for even a moment, her winds casting them to the ground like oversized pebbles.