Rogue Ascension: Book 5: First Ascension: A Progression LitRPG, page 23
“In fact, Joey, I think you and I function on similar wavelengths! And that’s an enormous compliment from me because nobody’s comparable to me.”
Eric used shorter, quicker teleport rituals. Joey could barely see the magic glyphs being inscribed into the air before Eric cast them.
The Strong Man Mage manipulated magic as fast as Joey could swing a sword.
They were in an impasse.
But Joey was losing the war of attrition. His gates were going unused. His fated essence was bleeding out of him.
He could still use cold and fated essences as fuel. But he couldn’t use his gates to make more of both since that was specifically a true magic ability.
He had to rely on pure Meditation Stasis + Double Essence. Just like he’d done back in the old sand spire dungeon.
It worked on his cold essence alone.
Would that be enough?
Joey didn’t care.
Dragon Wrath tunneled his vision. Dragon Kingship helped him keep track of Eric’s current tactics.
Eric kept trash-talking to distract. To further piss Joey off. It was kinda working.
Joey could barely talk back, so Dragon Desire remained useless. He knew he wasn’t being efficient. He wasn’t maximizing all of his powers and tools.
He knew he was making mistakes. And people were suffering from each mistake.
Each time Joey dipped down to avoid a ritual-made beam, Eric’s attack struck the city. Buildings blew up. People died. Joey’s hoard suffered. His valuables were burning and dying.
He killed Mollysea! Joey’s mind raged, distracted.
That wouldn’t have happened if you stopped. If you fell into the embrace of reluctance, whispered the inner dragon.
Dragon reluctance was at full power now. Another distraction. It made Joey feel horrible.
Maybe the inner dragon was right. But Joey was too wrathful to fall into nothingness. Maybe after he killed Eric, he would finally give in to the dragon reluctance.
As of now, nothing could stop Joey’s self-destructive and wrath-fueled fall. It seemed like he would lose the battle of attrition and everything in New Zam City.
Then Shady materialized and crashed into Joey.
“What are you doing?” Joey shouted at his spell-summoned Shade Dragon Head.
Shady ignored his shout and denied his controls. He clamped down on Joey’s arm with his jaws and dragged him away fast.
The only reason he could act out was written in the spell. The Shade Dragon Head could be disagreeable. Shady flew with all his might to drag Joey away from Eric.
“What? You’re actually running? Is this the Unstoppable Renegade I’ve heard so much about? The Great Genocider?! Oh, for shame, Joey, for shame!”
Eric roared with booming laughter that covered the entire sky. Arrows, bolts, crescent waves of adventurers attacking from below flew in a constant volley at him.
They smashed useless against his ritual shields. He ignored them and trailed after Joey.
“If you don’t kill me tonight, you’ll fail our deal,” Eric said. “You wouldn’t want to break your oath, huh, Joey?!”
I want to kill you! Joey mentally raged. But this damn dragon head is pulling me … out … over water.
Joey blinked, finally seeing through his wrath. Dragon Kingship and Meditative Stasis worked well in combination: raising his intellect and decluttering his mind. While it was hard to control his wrath, he could now understand what Shady was doing.
The dragon head pulled Joey over the port. Half over the water. Half over land in case others came in to help.
Now Joey had way more room to work and fewer people were likely to die. Eric could shoot the monsters for all Joey cared. New Zam City wouldn’t mind.
Joey felt great shame for a moment. His wrath burned that away.
He clamped down on all of his feelings. He focused with such sharpness his mind felt like it would cut itself into perfect pieces.
He took stock of the situation and what was available. He didn’t need true magic to win. Joey believed he was the greatest beginner in all of Multiverse Z.
The greatest could win with just about anything.
“Thank you, Shady,” Joey said with sparks of dragon fire exiting his mouth.
Shady bobbed up and down. He was a damn good spell-based summon. The dragon head understood anger very well. Nobody but Shady could’ve pulled Joey out of his downward spiral.
The two faced the Strong Man Mage with a calm but furious focus. Shady faded back into his ghost form and stalked around.
“Oh, don’t try that with me. I have rituals for everything, Joey! I can see your pet lizard head trying to sneak around me.” Eric laughed. “You have nothing new you can show me! I’ve done my research! I’ve calculated every trick you have. You barely deserve my full effort right now when I have the wheelies of ultimate strength!”
Eric’s boast thundered above the port. Monsters hissed, growled, and snapped from below as adventurers held off the wave regardless of the great fight hundreds of feet over their heads. A few flying man snappers tried to intervene.
“I’m like the shadows, Eric,” Joey replied. “I’m infinite.”
Ten sniper clones dropped into a free fall from Joey’s body.
Eric’s blue eyes blinked at their descent. He nearly cast his teleport ritual a split-second too late.
A few sniper shots ripped through the air where his head had been. Almost had him.
“Why did you teleport? Your ritual shields aren’t strong enough to handle a few measly rifle blasts?” Joey mocked with a dragon-like growl. He flew to Eric’s new location.
Eric’s eyes burned with cold fury. He’d uncrossed his arms for the first time since this fight started and punched forward.
Joey didn’t even need Danger Sense + Adrenaline Rush to know he should dodge now. He used Dark Dash to hurl himself aside a giant yellow-white fist projection.
It wasn’t a spell.
And it wasn’t a ritual.
That was true magic, and it warped the mystic physics of the area. It was so strong it nearly dragged Joey into its wake.
The fist projection yanked flying man snappers into its fated gravity. And crushed them into shell shards and fleshy giblets instantly.
“I am the strongest, Joey!” Eric roared.
“No, you’re not. Princess Maylolee is the strongest,” Joey said heatedly.
Eric paused. “What?”
“Princess Maylolee is the strongest.” Joey slowed to a hover. “And I am the greatest. It’s that simple.”
Eric clenched his fists so hard they trembled. Joey could see the ferocious madness in Eric’s blue eyes.
“All of my life, Joey, I’ve pushed myself to be the strongest man anyone has ever seen. Strongest of mind, body, spirit. I’ve pushed and pushed. And yet, I’ve always failed to go beyond my own expectations. To reach beyond human limits and be a true superman.”
Eric spread his arms.
“Then Multiverse Z arrived. My salvation. My hope. Where the strongest always ruled! This is the perfect place where I can set up my church of strength and be worshiped for my mighty pursuits! This place was meant for me, Joey. And it would’ve been perfect … if it wasn’t for you showing up! And dirtying this perfect place with your wormy, shady, roguish ways.”
“Cry some more,” Joey replied. “Your hypocrisy suits you. Even with all the chips in your favor, you’re scared I’ll do something you haven’t calculated for.”
“Impossible,” Eric spat. “I have everything in my favor. And you haven’t even seen what true power I can unleash.”
Joey stared Eric down. The blond, muscular mage was as vain, egotistical, and narcissistic as the worst villain imaginable. But somehow, he’d pushed himself through sheer effort and strength of mind to unlock his fated essence and use true magic.
Begrudgingly, Joey could respect that level of crazy effort compared to Steven who had Joey’s instructions and couldn’t break out of system rank. But that was all the respect Joey would give Eric Jaeger.
Eric had kidnapped and threatened Curi. He’d hurt and killed too many people. He might’ve killed Joey’s battlemaid.
For this one. He must suffer a death where he slays himself.
Joey’s already sharpened focus pushed even further. He dialed down Meditative Stasis + Double Essence to half power. He contained his wrath while keeping its fire burning.
And he’d wasted enough time for his hoard to arrive and show Eric he wasn’t fighting Joey alone.
He was fighting Joey and all that he owned.
“Sword Saint! Celestial! Divide!” Steven flew up from the port on a sword trailing silver magic.
Joey conjured another squad of free-falling sniper clones. They riddled the air with accurate gunfire in Eric’s direction.
Eric performed two rituals at the same time. He teleported and fired a volley of small but fast bolts that lit up the sky. Dozens of them converged on Steven almost instantly.
The Sword Saint Warrior teleported out of the way in a flash of silver light. The ritual bolts pounded the air Steven had left behind with brilliant yellow-white eruptions.
Eric teleported again by the time Steven came out of his silver-teleport.
“Going to shut you up now,” Eric said, aiming his hand at Steven’s back. Yellow-white true magic converged around the Sword Saint to crush him.
“Blade Stroke,” whispered a devious, shady voice.
Eric’s eyes widened.
Steven hadn’t been aiming at Eric. He’d been aiming at Joey.
Stealing another legendary spell might’ve failed if Steven wasn’t willing to give it up. Combining both legendary spells was almost too much for Joey, but he performed the blade stroke with his legendary katana.
Mirror Eye: Sword Sinner Accursed Divide Blade Stroke!
Joey cut the rainy night sky with a half-mile long stroke of shadiness. The lower end slashed through the port water and killed a few hundred monsters. The rest carved through the sky and divided it.
From that dark division, smaller but many blade strokes slashed out in all directions for a hundred feet like growing fractals. This was beyond the power of Steven’s spell and only possible because of Joey’s dwindling but very large essence supply.
The dangerous part about this maneuver was the reflection of Joey’s stolen power. Shade Dragon Mirror Eye had to ‘reflect’ back at the target someway, somehow.
Steven knew what to do. He’d waited until Joey completed the maneuver, then teleported away at the last moment for this to work flawlessly.
If only the Mirror Eye + Blade Stroke combo had killed Eric.
Joey settled with taking off Eric’s right arm, part of his torso, and a bit of his face. The Strong Man Mage hadn’t teleported fast enough to avoid complete injury.
“Gaaah!” Eric screamed, his blood pouring profusely from his wounds. He was still conscious, somehow. His mind was unyielding even with the pain. “I’ll heal this, dammit! This isn’t enough to stop me.”
Rosie flew in from above on wings of blood. She aimed her hand at Joey and shouted, “Blood Bedlam Curse!”
Before her spell activated fully, Joey blinked his left eye and stole her power.
This one ran through him differently. He didn’t just take Rosie’s spell.
He took something mad, red, and old. He touched on the power of a crazy, cheery, angry fiend that would tear and rip into anything and itself just to see the color red.
It nearly drove Joey crazy trying to wrestle with it. There was no wrestling with this fiendish force.
He negotiated a quick deal instead. He let the fiendish creature take control.
Joey sat back in the passenger seat with the inner dragon.
His dark pit of a left eye flashed a bright red light. His mouth twisted into an insane grin. A jovial Irish man spoke through Joey:
“Hells, lad! You really should be careful of whose daughter you’re fooling with! But I appreciate you being good to her, so I’ll give you this one pat on the back, aye?”
“Daddy!” Rosie called out.
“Rosie-o-girl, my heart of hearts, still searching for the best story Multiverse Z can offer? I’m liking this run you’re on. It’s the most dynamic beginner action I’ve ever seen! Would’ve been fun if I jumped in earlier, but you know how the rules are until this loophole opportunity with Joey here happened!”
The Red Primordial laughed through Joey’s mouth. There was a lull in the battle because of this change of events. But not everybody was honoring the break.
Eric’s wounds were slowly healing. He didn’t have explosive healing like Joey. But his true magic healing seemed strong.
He was slowing his blood loss. And he had the strength of mind to fire instant ritual beams at Joey, Rosie, and Steven.
Joey’s primordial-driven body flew around the attacks. Steven teleported out of danger. Rosie didn’t move fast enough.
A beam from Eric blasted her out of the air. A few of her limbs twirled away in smoking trails.
Joey and the Red Primordial frowned together, watching his servant goddess/wonderful daughter fall.
The red berserker.
The shady dragon.
Two in one body. They turned toward Eric.
“That was a bloody mistake – Blood Bedlam Curse.”
The primordial force ignored the rules of Shade Dragon Mirror Eye. It exited out of Joey with an air pulsating red glow.
The usual shadiness of Joey’s Shade Dragon Mirror Eye fused with the red primordial force. They cursed Eric with something fierce. Something no man should ever suffer.
A true mind-breaker of lunacy.
Eric screamed. The last bit of blood leaking from his wounds became the kindling for the curse. It glowed bright red and shady dark.
The red shade hammered at Eric’s mind. The red shade tore at his sanity with ravaging glee.
“No, no, no! I won’t let you break me!” Eric screamed. “I have the strongest mind in all of Multiverse Z! I won’t break!”
Joey took control of the driver’s wheel for his body. The Red Primordial was gone. And he left Joey a parting gift.
[You’ve leveled up Shade Dragon Mirror Eye from 7 to 10!]
Joey shot through the air. He brought everything he had and the kitchen sink to Eric’s chewed-up face and ravaged mind.
Joey used his ancient serpent fangs, a burst of essence entering the curved, short swords. Spirit tethers whipped out from the handles. They latched on behind Joey’s shoulders.
The swords unsheathed themselves and pointed the tip of their wicked spirit venom blades at the enemy. Like a pair of viper fangs, ready to strike.
He let sniper clones freefall at a periodic pace to keep the pressure on Eric. The Strong Man Mage rightfully feared his snipers breaking through his shields and landing a shot on his dome.
But the sniper clones didn’t enter the air alone. Joey formed knife-throwing shadow clones, too.
Each one had four ninja knives, Dark Dashes, Combat Acrobatics + Minor Air Manipulation, Slick Knife Tricks + Lucky Edge, and more.
They dashed around and threw their knives with slick and lucky power. Those struck closer and cracked Eric’s ritual shields more than the snipers did.
It just occurred to Joey he should probably form lucky knife-throwing clones more often – they were very effective. The sniper clones were probably deadlier, with their combination of powers surrounding Glyphlock Hitman + Luck Shot.
Eric could barely settle into a spot in the air without sniper fire and knife throws cracking close or threatening to break his ritual shields. He teleported constantly and tried to keep up the offense: multi-laser beams, explosive magic bolt volleys, and more.
As he grew more desperate, the Strong Man Mage unleashed more magical attacks: spiraling magic blades, magic nets, magic walls that blocked and bashed, and more that were ritualistic.
Then there was his true magic. It punched, grabbed, swept through the air like an aura projection of a mighty giant.
His rituals were powerful. And so was his true magic. But his rituals required steady aim. And his true magic was clumsy. Lacking finesse, skill, or surprise.
Eric’s many attacks hit nothing close.
It was impressive that he could still cast so fast and with so much power while suffering cursed lunacy. But he couldn’t aim particularly well at the moment.
Even Joey’s clones could dodge around Eric’s attacks while using new tactics. They now formed as knife-sniper clones, combining the best traits of both clone variants.
Knife-snipers shot the rifle first. Then threw all of their knives. Each clone had five chances to threaten or hurt Eric, which was more than plenty for every knife-sniper.
Joey was running low on essence now. He had to use creativity to cut corners while improving on his newest designs and chasing down Eric to keep him pressured.
It didn’t help that Joey was draining essence fast by keeping Shade Dragon Mirror Eye + Primordial Blood Bedlam Curse activated.
To ease the burden, Joey used a superior essence scroll. Just one of a few he’d gained from killing outer planar invaders.
[You’ve recovered 5000 EP. But you’re now immune to essence scrolls for the next hour.]
Was it bad that 5000 EP was barely enough to fuel Joey’s needs?
Something had to give.
Eric was the one who gave first.
“If I’m going down, I’m taking your friend and people with me!” Eric screamed.
He stopped to concentrate. Sniper rounds cracked off the ritual shields near his head, forcing him to make more rapidly.
Knives had better luck piercing through the shields over his body and punching into his torso. Not enough to kill. Plenty good for hurting, however.
Eric spat blood as he shoved true magic against Joey’s dark-dashing charge.
Joey narrowed his eye. Be like flaming water.
Joey spiraled around the giant projection of true magic meant to shove him back. He let out a wrathful breath of dragon fire.
His flames didn’t work against true magic – just like it wouldn’t work against a devil. But the splashing flames drew close to Eric and stole his attention. He looked at Joey with a blue-eyed frenzy.
