The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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Aster’s prep work meant that the ants, with Tier 14 exoskeletons normally tough enough to block her skill, were brittle and lined with cracks and frost. They were oh so very vulnerable to their bodies being fully exsanguinated. Soon their internal fluids, close enough to blood for her Talent and skills to work on them, were hijacked by thousands, then tens of thousands of ferocious little sparrows who only desired to create more of their kind.

By the time she landed, her birds were already tearing through the ranks of frozen ants like a veritable swarm of locusts, and her spear mercilessly crushed the unfortunate ant that she landed on, with [Bloody Cleave] activating and empowering her follow-up strikes with every drop spilled. The onslaught allowed her to cut through a good dozen of the Tier 14 monsters as if they were Tier 8. On top of the focus that maintaining her [Blood Sprite] took, Liz still kept herself busy as they rushed toward the elephant, looking for any stragglers which the relatively mindless sprites had missed. She handled any stragglers by breaking their exoskeletons with [Blood Bullet] and leaving them bleeding just enough for the next stage.

[Hungering Darkness] had been one of the rewards she’d gotten from the tournament, and when her Talent passed through it, it did not disappoint. The normal skill drained life-force directly, leaving its victims as dry, withered corpses while healing the caster. It was just very slow and was limited by the requirement of the skill’s targets to not be in direct sunlight, in addition to not having that great of a healing conversion rate.

[Hungering Blood] had none of those weaknesses, particularly when paired with [Blood Wind]. So long as her targets were already bleeding, it served as a massive AoE blood drain, siphoning off inordinate amounts of blood and delivering it straight to her, for use in her other skills. In that way, it worked similarly to [Blood Sprites], but was far less difficult to control, and started off at full speed. It may have been technically less powerful than [Cracked Blood Drain] but was definitely better against an army. The yellow-greenish ant blood cast everything in a very different hue than her normal red, but it responded just as well to her commands.

Like a rising tide, Liz commanded the blood to rise, and so it did.

The [Blood Sprites] had reached the end of Aster’s frozen ants and were fruitlessly pecking at their still-healthy brethren in a vain attempt to break through the tough chitin. With them not really accomplishing anything beyond scratching the chitin, she let the skill lapse, and the birds collapsed into a fresh river of blood that surrounded the ants. Aster dashed off to deal with her half of the surviving ants, while Liz concentrated on the other half, using the mana stored in her teleportation ring and throwing herself forward with [Blood Dash] to help her close the distance in the blink of an eye.

With her connection to the flowing blood, she mentally closed the grip it had on the ants into a tight fist. The ants were too tough to be immediately crushed, but by concentrating, she was able to crack their exoskeletons well enough for [Hungering Blood] to do the rest of the job.

A few ants managed to wriggle their way out of her grip before she could crack them, but a [Blood Chakram] took care of those. The deadly conversion of [Floating Disc] decapitated them with relative ease. At the same time, Aster collected and brought down her mountain of ice, sending it slamming into the ground and creating an avalanche that ran right up to the edge of the pocket space.

The ants didn’t take their assault passively, of course, and those ants still in a state to actually attack raised their pincers and charged. Globs of acidic spit arced through the air, but Liz raised screens of blood to intercept each projectile in turn. Aster, by contrast, blew the projectiles aimed at her out of the way with [Air Manipulation]. Since her bloodline change, she got about as much aid to air mana as she did ice mana, though admittedly without the benefit of her Talents.

Liz eliminated each ant that got too uppity, whipping her blood across their backs and cracking them open like so many nuts. Above them, the elephant trumpeted angrily, the distant roar echoing throughout the pocket space as it kept trying and failing to squish the annoying insects that were Susanne and Matt as he started his own attack.

Well then, she couldn’t let them win their little race.

Liz stretched out her spiritual control, letting the ocean of blood around her settle into her direct grasp. It was a bit less than she usually preferred, but she could make do.

[Blood Tidal Wave] swept up all the blood around the elephant’s feet, pulling from the line of destruction that she and Aster had paved from where they entered. The wave surged forward, building momentum, and crushing the ants in its wake like they were… Well, ants. Chitin was crushed, legs were shattered, and most of those strong enough to stay in one piece and survive the initial pass were simply swept up in the blood cataclysm, serving as little more than massive bludgeons to crush their fellow insects.

Any ants which somehow made it past the [Blood Tidal Wave] had to deal with Liz herself. The Tier 20 skill strained her spirit and Concept alike to control, but it was manageable, and she was able to pick off any stragglers with empowered blows from her spear or her lesser skills. Those few ants didn’t last too long after becoming victims to Liz’s personal attention. The blood-soaked ground served as the perfect medium for [Bloodthorn Vine]. Formerly [Thorny Grasp], a plant-based skill that caused thorn-covered vines to spring up from the ground to grapple and lacerate enemies, [Bloodthorn Vine] required a not insignificant amount of blood to form. But once it pierced the defenses of an enemy, it grew into their bloodstream, tearing at their internals. She typically used it on heavily armored foes, but with the amount of material she had to work with, the spell coated the ground with glistening, liquid vines that were veritably dripping with death. They turned any ants she missed into porcupines, with their own ‘blood’ piercing the insects’ chitin from the inside and swiftly ending their lives.