The Path of Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 50
With his AI predicting the path of the scratching enemy, he reached up with his off-hand, and snatched the monster by a wing. With all the strength he could muster, he slammed it into the ground.
He ignored the sounds of snapping and shattering bone and, with a turn, decapitated the monster gnawing on his armored leg. With his group of assailants dispatched, he shook off the raptor head still clamped onto his calf and checked behind him.
Liz and Aster fended off the waves from two sides of the pyramid. The combination of Liz's [Blood Manipulation] and Aster's ice attacks shredded the lightweight raptors.
The fourth side was undefended, and the wave that came up was quickly upon Matt. He was just glad the waves didn't seem to be synced up.
With the groups of monsters increasing in number, Matt settled into the corner between the two sets of steps he was responsible for. With blade and brawn, he slew all that dared to come before him. Time disappeared in the melee. The only things on his mind were the mass of feathered bodies and the medical reports from his HUD, updating him on Aster and Liz.
They didn't have magical armor with almost unlimited mana to feed it. But as he slew the last raptor and found no other to replace it, he saw they were fine.
With heaving breaths, he peered over the edge and into the distance. There was no movement. As he watched for any signs of the next wave, his attention was drawn to the corpses at his feet. They were dissolving into blood and running through the channels and into the three bowls.
As he watched, Liz's amassed blood was being sucked into the channels. Not all of it, but if he had to guess, it was all the blood she had taken from her slain raptors.
“Fuck. That's my blood! Don't take it! I earned it, damnit.” Her joke didn’t really hit home with her tired voice.
As they watched, all the blood ran to the center of the arena and separated into their respective bowls. Despite them being on separate sides, they each seemed to have a roughly equal amount of blood. Once it was all collected, the blood condensed into small spheres, floating through the air and into the stone heart the statue held.
Once the blood was absorbed, the heart became slightly redder instead of the dull gray of stone, and a rift reward appeared next to the exit behind the statue.
“Well, any interest in cutting and running?” Liz asked, but she didn't seem keen on the idea. Even the first wave had a good bit of essence, and it would only get better as the carnage continued.
“Nah, I think we can handle all ten and fight the boss.” Matt wasn't sure of that at all, but he wanted to keep things positive.
“Let's take the five-minute break and cycle the essence,” he said and followed his own advice. He plopped down on the now clean stone and focused inward.
He was finished before his alarm went off. The timing of the rift's waves never changed according to the guild, but he wasn't about to take that chance.
Standing, he found Liz still sitting and was about to shake her awake as the timer in his vision counted down. Before he could, she stood and tossed him a mana crystal.
“Can you recharge it really quick before the wave? I don't want to take any chances, so I topped myself off.” Matt did so, dropping his skills and turning his AI down to charge the crystals faster.
When he caught the first signs of movement, he spotted a flock of birds. He tossed the half-filled mana stone back at Liz, quicky activating his skills again.
His now fueled AI noted them as some type of parrot. The colorful birds quickly approached and circled above them. Aster and Liz saved mana and waited. Matt reached over his back and pulled out his crossbow. It wasn't ideal with the sheer number of birds, but if they didn't come down to them, Aster and Liz would have to waste mana taking them down.
Before he decided to take aim and fire, a part of the flock broke the circle and dove at them. As they approached, their wings glowed bright with white energy that extended their already large wingspans.
With a quick motion, Matt returned the crossbow to his backpack and swung with his blade. Each sweep took out some leading birds, but the ones that followed struck at his armored form with skill-empowered wings. If he had normal Mana Regeneration, he would have been quickly drained by sustaining the armor through the never-ending stream of blows. His Talent let him tank the bladed wings and cut down bird after bird.
Each hit, while damaging and mana costly, was too weak to break through [Cracked Phantom Armor]. With [Mage's Retreat] active at 2 mana per second, he was able to maintain a deadly assault against the descending birds.
In between the falling corpses, he caught a glimpse of Liz. She stood at the corner of the arena opposite to him.
The cheating blood mage was encased in a ball of blood, with her spear protruding out, surrounded by shards of ice and blood rotating around it. She had effectively turned her shielding technique into a blender, rendering the birds’ coordinated assault into the least effective kamikaze imaginable.
That's so unfair.
Matt mentally complained but was happy the duo would be safe for this wave.
Forcing his concentration back to the fight, he followed his AI’s suggestions for hitting more of the circling birds. The ones that made it past the reach of his blade curled back around and joined the circle in the sky before returning for a second or third attempt.
After a few more minutes of carnage, the wave ended. Once again, the blood was absorbed into the central bowls before feeding into the heart.
This time, when he allocated his essence, he completely filled the mana stones. He even burned the extra mana to convert the mana in the stones to Liz's type.
The third wave was a mass of centipedes. Each was no shorter than seven feet in length. When they approached, Matt slammed his enchanted blade down and found the Tier 5 metals and enchantments of his blade cut through their chitin like it was nothing more than normal flesh.
With brutal efficiency, he mowed down group after group of the monsters as they tried to latch on to him with oversized mandibles. Their bites stressed his armor, but they never lasted long enough to generate enough force to break through. They were fast with their many legs, but their size made them easy to target and dispatch. Especially when they were latched onto his limbs.
With heavy slashes and careful footwork, the armored swordsman fell into a rhythm, almost as if falling into a trance. This was happening more and more as he was able to sink into the flow of combat during the last few months. Liz said it was him touching his Concept in some way. But, to him, it was the song that played in his head, and the rhythm that beat in his heart, guiding him to victory during every battle.
Each ballad was as unique as the combatants, the steps and strokes of his dance deciding life and death.
A glorious entirety later, he came out of his hypnosis with corpse piles dissolving around him.
After repeating his filling of mana stones and allocation of essence, he said to Liz, “This rift is a gold mine of essence. If this is how the guilds train, I can see how they advance so quickly.”
“Nah, this is rare. Even for a guild. Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't boosted this rift to Tier 5. There's no way they let this one get dispelled, so it’d make sense for them to…to boost it.” Her panting interrupted the end of her sentence.
“No clue why they haven’t, then.” Maybe the rewards were better for lower Tiers? Or they might have better rifts for the Tier 5s. That thought made more sense to Matt, but he couldn't imagine what something better could even look like. Especially if they didn't feel the need to boost this rift.
Matt stowed his ruminations for later as the fourth wave of enemies quickly approached. They were large lizards that looked vaguely related to dragons. His AI recognized them as Komodo dragons. If they followed the standard version of the monster at Tier 4, their venom would quickly incapacitate and kill a similarly Tiered human. He looked to Aster, who had already noped out of the fight and jumped into her backpack on Liz's back.
The blood mage used her remaining blood to create a platform to stand on and raise her above the monsters’ bites.
As they approached, Matt firmed his control of [Cracked Phantom Armor], trusting in the skill to stop any of the bites from getting through.
These wanna-be dragons were fast, and just one bite could nearly get through his skill, from the sheer sharpness of their teeth alone. It was only thanks to his training with Liz and learning about the different facets of the skill’s structure, which allowed him to have pushed the skill. It was now able to accept a little over 9 mana a second.
It was a blessing in situations like this where he was surrounded by enemies that could potentially harm him with the skill operating at 8 mana a second. The small increase was a lifesaver, and he hoped to make the increased capacity permanent so the skill could handle stronger enemies.
With the added danger of the poison, he was forced to sink deeper into the ballad of this conflict. His movements became almost mindless. Only sheer instinct propelled his blade forward. It shifted his feet away from jaws. It closed his grip around reptilian necks. With the flow of battle completely consuming him, he sunk into the deepest recesses of his inner spirit. It was only then that he felt it. He felt like he would be able to name his Concept. It was close.
Even only realizing the Phrase would take a weight off his shoulders, as it would allow him to start looking for his Image. A harder task, according to Liz. The Phrase would also allow him to channel a small fraction of his Concept, at the cost of some minor damage to his body.
The fight continued with Matt instinctually letting snapping jaws get closer and nearer as each reptile attacked. His inner consciousness pushed the Phrase closer and closer into his mind with the added danger.
Once again, the dance with the Komodo dragons ended before he could reach a realization.
The next wave was a mix of the centipedes and parrots. It was a far more dangerous combo for the trio, as the crawling insects had the mass to break through her ball of blood. It was a hard-fought battle.
The final five waves of monsters had more numbers and were each composed of all four variants of rift monsters. The final, tenth wave had an endless stream of monsters, pushing the group to their very limits.
They were exhausted, and Matt was about to ask Liz if she wanted to fight the boss or take their reward and go.
Before he could, the blood from the combined monsters was drawn into the basins. Once it was absorbed into the heart, they felt a pulse of power. Liz and Aster flinched back, while Matt only felt a weight on his cultivation.
The phenomenon only lasted for a moment, then the statue came to life and took a massive bite out of the blood-filled heart. In a scene reminiscent of when he gave Liz the dragon-empowered heart of the parasite monster, the statue, with blood dripping down its chin, changed.
In the flash of an eye, the statue turned flesh and morphed into a great snake. At least, that’s what Matt thought it was by the fangs that jutted out from its massive maw. As it roared a high-pitched, bloodcurdling scream, the large headdress of feathers adorning the statue expanded into a pair of wings on either side of the monster's head.
The scene was normal enough for a rift until the fifty-foot-long snake monster took flight despite the stunted wings.
Liz screamed at him, “It's a feathered serpent! It's a variant of dragon. Watch out for its scream!”
The warning was just in time, but ultimately useless. As the flying snake took to the air, it let out a screech that utterly paralyzed Matt. Nothing was exempt. His mind, his essence cores, even his mana, stopped in pure fear from the monster's skill. The skill took an ethereal form of red misty chains binding him to the floor.
As the chains pulled every facet of his being down toward the floor of the arena, Matt followed the direction of the force and sunk deep into his spirit. Driven to the brink, his mind became almost fluid, ethereal even, just like the chains that bound him. He was forced to the very core of his cultivation, where the empty space of his Concept lay dormant.
With his consciousness compressed into the very center of the blank space, something awoke within him. Strength flooded into his limbs as the compressed ether of his mind exploded outward from his Concept space. As his mindfulness came back to the arena and the giant serpent before him, a single Phrase echoed loud enough in his head it seemed to reverberate throughout the entire rift.
I will not be held down.
I will not be stopped.
I.
AM.
ENDLESS.
With that, the hold of the skill broke. His realization had freed Matt from the chains that bound him.
The revelation was clear now. Matt was not one to be stopped. He was never-ending. He would put one foot in front of the other and continue to advance. The tides of his enemies would break against his unyielding will.
In the center of his cores, he felt something taking hold. It wasn't a perfect Concept, but it filled that space in his spirit. However, it was incomplete without an Image to go with the Phrase. For now, he was satisfied with countering the beast's skill. That would allow for a much better matchup.
Then he pushed his spiritual sense out at the boss of the rift. It was Tier 5.
It had its own Concept.
Matt rushed it. Liz and Aster were just shaking free of the chains while he charged. The serpent didn't seem to have any ranged attacks as it dove with wings that glowed with the same light the parrots’ did. He ran and slashed at the diving monster. For the first time, his blade didn't cut smoothly through a monster's flesh.
This was a Tier 5 rift boss’s scaly armor against a Tier 5 weapon. And dragon scales were famous for their toughness for a reason. The blade only left a white mark as it skittered down the flank of the beast.
The blow diverted its attention to the prey that should have still been locked away but wasn't.
With a flick of its head, the serpent flew higher in the sky, and Matt saw the headdress tremble as the same scream ripped out.
Matt pushed out with his own Concept with a new instinct to counter the skill. But, instantly, his vision went white, and warmth ran down his face. The only thing keeping him standing were the chains of the monster’s skill. He quickly reactivated both of his own skills, which had failed when he had faced the backlash from the clashing Concepts.
Spitting out the blood that filled his mouth, Matt noted the incomplete Concept Phrase of a Tier 4 was no match for the monster's Tier 5 fully formed Concept.
Waiting out the duration of the skill, he watched as the dragon turned around and aimed directly at him. Its wings glowed with the bladed-wing skill while the large serpent's head opened with fangs larger than his arm bared at him.
The skill released with just enough time for the armored swordsman to sidestep the snapping jaws and drive his blade into the serpent’s cheek. The softer flesh yielded to the longsword enhanced with the sharpness and durability runes. Matt felt a tug on the repair rune that made him nervous for his new weapon.
His attention was quickly brought back to his enemy when the light-encased wing slammed into him. What was an easy to deal with blow from the parrots sent Matt flying with [Cracked Phantom Armor] shattered. He was fortunate the armor lasted long enough for the momentum of the blow to send him flying instead of the sharp wings bisecting him at the waist.
With a frantic effort, he got the skill reactivated as he hit the ground and slid off the edge of the pyramid. Landing two terraces down, he used [Mage's Retreat] to enhance him enough to jump the six-foot height of each terrace. As he made the first leap, the movement caused pain to lance up his body. It radiated from his side. Two ribs were cracked according to his AI.
Ignoring the pain, he made it back to the arena to find a huge, bloody gash along the serpent's face. He had managed to make a more even trade than he thought.
Liz was free and had used her blood to break the wing opposite of the one that hit him. Or at least that’s what the crooked shape of the wing implied. The broken wing didn't seem to hamper the creature's ability to fly, not that it needed the wing with its absurd proportions. If the creature wasn't a dragon, and magical by nature, there was no way two wings of that size would allow it to fly.
A massive shard of ice formed and smashed into the charging monster's face. Aster out of her backpack and parallel to Liz was forcing the serpent to choose one or the other.
Through their bond, he felt pure rage directed toward the boss. He had never felt such feelings from her. The feeling was so cold, his first instinct was to distance himself from the bond but, instead, he pushed comfort to her. If it helped, he didn't have time to notice as the serpent corrected its flight path and went for Liz.
With its attention on the other member of the party, Aster shot shards of ice at its eyes, blinding one.
That caused the monster to retreat upwards and circle again. Seeing Matt back on his feet, the serpent let out another screech, binding them all in place. When it made another pass at Matt, he dodged to its blind side just as the skill duration ended, while a pool of blood grabbed its already broken wing and held.
There was a moment where the blood and the monster stood still in complete balance when the momentum of the monster carried it past. Watching the trail of blood, Matt saw the blood mage had won the exchange. Half of the wing was ripped off, and the remaining stub was being drained of blood. This time, the serpent’s screech was one of pain. There were no chains binding the trio to their positions.
The next pass, Liz carved a chunk of flesh out of the side of the serpent with Aster’s help, using a shard of frozen blood. The monster seemed to be fixated on Matt, with him being the most injured target.
He charged his blade’s [Mana Charge] skill as the boss took passes at him. He had only used the skill sparingly in the last few months, as it was still incredibly draining. But if it let him finish the serpent off, huddling in a ball for an hour would be an acceptable outcome. It was his strongest attack, after all.
After two more dives, with Aster and Liz both damaging the serpent, the monster went for Matt once more. It wasn't stupid enough to try the same attack a third time. At the last moment, it bent its serpentine body unnaturally in on itself and turned directly toward Liz. The mage had all of her blood ready to carve another chunk of flesh out of the serpent’s flank.
