The Path of Ascension

Chapter 267

As the three of them flew to the next fight, Quill was about to say something but Torch beat him to it. Can you believe that shit?

Quill laughed as his wife had taken the words out of his mouth, even as Scoop hung her head and murmured, Fucking battle maniacs.

Poking his bond, Quill winked. Come on. A Tier 19 who can hit that hard is a nice change of pace. It's a real challenge that isn't just someone being so much older and more advanced than us. This is a peer that damn near kicked our ass. We didnt use everything we had, but Seasadh MacMhunna proved why Inheritors are elites at their worst and Ascender level at their best. Did you guys catch the enchantment work on that armor? It was amazing! Five different runes layered on top of each other like that? Its got to be either a Tier 40 working on it or some incredible Talent-Domain combo to create that effect. The mana should get twisted up with a single set of conduits, but they managed it somehow.

She's also strong in her own right. She was able to outmuscle me on the fire manipulation. I put up a good fight, but when she took control of the flames, she chose to switch to light mana. I couldnt beat her outright. And look at the heat she can put out! That's a Tier 24 spearhead, and she melted it in a second. Saying that, she pulled out the spearhead that was now blackned and bent. Letting his sword fly through autopilot, Quill took it in his hands as he sent his mana and crafting skills into the blade.

With a burst of mana, he separated it from the staff and replaced the blade. It not being a growth item in its totality led to moments like this. The spears shaft was a growth weapon, and was much harder to destroy than any normal item. The blade, on the other hand, had no such protections. Even Quills best enchantments were still limited by his Tier, and they couldnt afford dozens of spares made by high Tier crafters.

But they were still able to carry a few spares with them, so it was a five-minute process to reaffix a new one, even mid-flight.

Scoop grumbled as Torch lamented that if she wasnt a phoenix, she would have needed to activate anti-fire enchantments just to remain in the melee range of Seasadh. She destroyed my cloud, and you guys are praising her. Even through her mask, she looked up to Quill and gave him puppy eyes.

Rolling his eyes, he slipped a finger in the collar of Scoop's chest plate and grabbed the necklace that held her growth item pendant. Feeding it mana, he accelerated the time it would take for the item to repair the crybabys cloud.

Beaming, Scoop immediately flipped her script. Shes really hot, but if you give me a little time, Im pretty sure I could freeze her. Or at least, once I get my Intent worked out. My goal is a cold thats so cold, even a star is frozen! No chance that one dwarf with a sun on a stick will be able to beat me!

Torch nodded again. I think if I can fight her a bit more, I can make some progress on my Intent. Shes able to push me in all the right ways.

Quill smiled as he had the same thought. Sparring and training with a true peer like Susanne or Seasadh felt different and more productive for making his Intent than most of the meditating had. Pushing oneself, experiencing new things, and living truly was the best way to understand one's place and how they fit in with the greater realm.

Letting his mask show a wicked grin, Quill gave a smile. Imagine what the Monster Collective people can teach us. If Seasadh and the three of us are here, they must have brought someone similar. They have a Tier 20 group, after all. Maybe we can draw them out as well.

Even confined to a single continent and with a top of the line flying sword, it still took them around fifteen minutes to travel the four thousand mile distance to the area where Monster Collective people were pushing into their lands.

Unlike the Clan team, the Monster Collective team wasnt headhunting anyone affiliated with the Empire, and so Quill, Torch, and Scoop didnt go in to kill. Instead, they kept their blows away from the heads of the team of Monster Collective delvers during their initial charge.

A humanoid elk with sparking silver antlers was killing an oversized ant while his team was preoccupied with another dozen of them. His delving mates were a human or at least someone who hadnt taken any animal features in their human form and a woman with gills and fish scales around her eyes that trailed down her neck to her collar bone like a tattoo.

Quill tossed out three mini-meteor talismans, allowing Torch to guide the small molten rocks into the ants.

That got the attention of the Monster Collective group, and they turned as they readied themselves for combat.

Quill happily angled his flying sword down at the team, as he had already tossed a talisman with a detection spell out, and was prepared in case the Monster Collective elites arrived like Seasadh had.

The elk man stood forward and readied his longsword to land a blow at Torch's legs the moment she went in for a shield bash, but he might as well have been asking her to take him out. After all, Quill's blade of choice was the longsword, and they sparred together at least once a week.

Stutter-stepping, Torch messed up the man's timing, and even as he tried to do a quick backhand with his blade, she was already stepping on the flat of the blade and driving her shield into his chest.

Metal crunched as the elk man's chest caved in, but Torch didnt follow through with her spear through his neck as she would if the team had murderous intentions.

Instead, Torch stood her ground as Quill and Scoop readied their own spells to follow up her attacks if the others retaliated. Something they werent dumb enough to do. Their attacking of Empire delvers seemed unnecessarily risky, especially as fresh Tier 22s, but Quill suspected that they were here on a scouting mission, even if they didnt know it.

It was probably a test by the Monster Collective Tier 40 to see if the three of them were bloodthirsty and would kill a team so obviously weaker than themselves. At least, it made sense to Quill, who had learned just how little Tier 20s mattered to some high Tiers. They were very much still pawns in the games of the highest Tiers, just ones that happened to be slightly more useful.

Torch did the honors and said with a burst of theatrical flames on her shield. Leave.

Quill called out from the air, And dont come back!

The duo instead readied their weapons and looked like they were going to attack. The fully human man was the one who spoke up through gritted teeth, Not leave him!

His Empire was decent at best, but it was more than enough for them to understand that they wouldnt leave their comrade. Commendable, but not something they intended to prevent, so Torch jumped to the blade behind Scoop, and they quickly took off.

They were already in the border region, and there were a dozen calls for help that hadnt been directed up to them yet, but they could still help now that they were out in the area.

The three of them were operating off a simple method of how they handled enemies. Teams who killed Empire delvers were given no quarter and killed out of hand, but thankfully, that was rare. None of their Great Powers were inherently hostile to each other, and no one wanted to be killed in retaliation.

Still, they were kept busy protecting their borders so the weaker delvers could clear monsters and gather resources. Resources that they would get to keep regardless of the outcome of the planets ownership, which ensured that everyone was enthusiastically collecting. They, as protectors, got a cut of the profits, and they wouldnt be able to use most of what was found. Instead, they would be trading their shares for wealth that they would use to buy resources to help them complete their final push on The Path.

Two days after the Great Powers were let loose, and just seconds after they pushed back a Clan team into their territory, there was another call that made Quill sigh as he looked at the lacking report.

It only said that the Empire team was being attacked by a Monster Collective man, and gave not one other shred of information. It usually meant that the Empire delvers had started the fight, and were looking to get quick help through some selective omission in reports. Still, they were close, and Quill decided they should at least check it out and prevent any unnecessary deaths from either side, if possible.

When they arrived, he noticed there were a few bodies scattered around, the most notable being the body of a woman with bright green hair laying on the ground. There was a massive claw tear through her armor that exposed her chest and back. Not usually a lethal blow to an immortal, but if the woman didnt know how to replace her biological functions with essence, the attack could have killed her. Poison was another option, but there was no discoloration or deterioration around the wound, which made that somewhat unlikely.

Quill also didnt recognize the Empire team fighting off five beasts, which meant they were part of the group that hadnt stayed behind to report their skills and abilities. The fact they were still calling in for help after publicly dismissing them made a vindictive part of Quill want to leave them behind, but he reigned that part of him in and instead inspected their opponents.

There were two rabbits with a winter storm wrapping around them as they moved, an ice raven, and finally, two seemingly ordinary elephants worked together like a well-oiled team, preventing the remaining three humans from leaving or doing much damage.

Clearly a beast team who wanted to savor their kills. Not the usual, but something they had seen before with some of the most arrogant teams from the Monsters Collective.

There was something odd with that in this case, but Quill couldnt put his finger on it, even as he focused his spiritual sense in case this was an ambush of some kind.

Staying a little higher up than normal, he called out, Why don't we settle this peacefully? I think we can manage that. You killed a few of us, we killed a few of you. WIth that in mind, Ill be nice and assume you have good reasons for that and let it go.

Even as he spoke, he was carefully inspecting the surrounding area for traps or anyone hidden, but he found nothing amiss. False alarms weren't a new thing, but they kept one alive, so he checked it with all the abilities he had.

As if to back up his feelings of unease, Torch and Scoop had the same premonition. They were ready to leave, but one of the human men slipped on a patch of ice as he landed from a bad jump, and one of the winter rabbits darted forward going in for the kill. With how the teams were set up, they had just enough time to intervene and save the man's life, but Quills instincts screamed at him. Something was wrong, and so he commanded his flying sword to rise up higher in a bid to leave the area quickly.

Just as he felt the blade rising, he realized what was wrong.

The Monster Collective teams who were aggressive and played with their prey were usually carnivores. Not that herbivores or omnivores couldnt play with their food, but through all the battles he had seen that in the last few days, there had been at least one carnivore in the team, usually instigating the hunt.

But here, there wasnt one.

They got a dozen feet up when the sky went opaque as a formation over a dozen miles out activated and locked down the space they were in.

As they started to fall out of the sky, all the bodies that had been scattered around the edges of the fight started moving, and three of the downed humans pulled crossbows out from under their bodies and shot bolts at them. The bolts glittered with purple void mana and were screaming danger to his spiritual sense.

Torch was already moving to prevent their downward momentum so they didnt fall into the void bolts, and from her spear came a blast of fire so strong, it sent them upward a little.

The moment the bolts passed under their feet, Torch turned the spear around and used the energy to send them to the ground faster so they might have some degree of cover.

The worst part was that Quill had arcane talismans to prevent void attacks, but most of them were in the spatial ring that had been locked down by the same spatial lock that prevented them from flying.

As they fell, he pulled out two of the three he kept on his talisman cloak for emergencies like this.

He hadnt been able to buy an arcane mana source for his mana ring, and instead bought the completed talismans from an enchanter who had been selling them a few years ago. They were only Tier 20, but they should be more than enough to block a few void items. A proper void mage could have just torn through the enchantments, but void items were rare and expensive, so he doubted this assassin team had more than a few.

As the absurdity of that thought crossed his mind, Quill realized that any team here for them specifically and three ice beasts indicated they were here to counter Torch might have been given all the void items they could want or use.

Suddenly, the three arcane treasures didnt seem all that much like the perfect counter they had at first.

Sending his conclusions to Scoop and Torch as he pressed the talismans on their backs and activated them, he took the moment necessary to ensure the film of arcane armor that appeared around them wasnt faulty. He didnt cast his, as he intended to use a far dumber method to deal with the void attacks.

He didnt have a nigh invulnerable hand for nothing. Hed even done his best to integrate the treasure, coaxing it to weather ever-stronger attacks over the decades, and it had saved him before. It would save him again.

His conjecture about them having void items proved true, as many of the weapons the assassin team had been wielding turned purple, and the sense of danger spiked to another level.

Unable to withdraw any more talismans, Quill fell back on his old favorites. He ignited a false talisman and cranked his physical buffs to their normal levels. The level that let him fight Tier 24 monsters as a Tier 19.

Power flooded into him, and he started moving just as fast as the Tier 22s. He closed in with one of the elephants whose tusks had turned purple, but didnt give off the feeling of void mana like the sword. Quill only had a moment to acknowledge the subterfuge before he dodged the swipe of its trunk and slipped under the beam of ice that tried to take off his head. One of the humans who had been feigning injury from the elephants attack wove through the beast's storming blows with the ease of long repetition, and drove his shortsword at Quills leg.

It was a smart play, all things considered. With the space-locking formation preventing flying devices, and the planet being so high Tier that a Concept just didnt have enough purchase on reality to allow flight, limiting mobility was a death blow. And legs were hard to defend at the best of times.

The man probably expected Quill to dodge or retreat; the elephant certainly did, as it stomped down to prevent exactly that move, but he darted forward and grabbed the blade with his left hand.

The void mana instantly disintegrated his gauntlet, but the void mana only felt cold to his hand as it destroyed the very heat in the surroundings.

A Tier 20 void weapon was just inside the ability for his hands enhancement to survive.

The look of shock on the man's face would have been amusing in any other circumstances, but Quill didnt have the time to savor it. Instead, he yanked the blade forward and into the elephant's exposed belly.

He had armor, but the void weapon cut through it like a hot knife through butter. His intestines spilled out as the Monster Collective delver started to scream in pain.

Dipping his other hand into the open wound, Quill ended the elephant's pain by sending a short burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] to its brain from the inside, bypassing most of its defenses. Plenty of people, and especially beasts, liked to concentrate their durability on their exterior, enhancing tough hides all the more. It had its advantages, but its drawbacks could be lethal. Then again, even if they hadnt done so, it was unlikely theyd survive an attack directly to the brain.

The human didnt fare any better, and as Quill shoved the blade back into his body, his armor failed just like the elephants had. But the blade bent too much with the opposing forces and snapped. Cursing the reduced durability of void weapons, Quill turned his attention to the second elephant who was about to crush him. The blow wouldnt kill him, but it would force him to cut or dig his way out, and that would take an unacceptably long time.

Flaring his boosts until his bones creaked, Quill darted out of the way and right into another crossbow bolt. Snatching it out of the air tore something in Quill's rotator cuff, but he pushed through the pain, just barely noticing that the bolt was glowing green in time.

Decay mana tried to eat at his hand, but it was even less effective than the void mana had been. Quill had no problems crushing the bolt in his hand as he rushed down one of the archers.

Sadly, his assailants werent brain-dead, and one of the other archers shot him with another void bolt while he was distracted.

This one was targeted to hit him dead in the back, but Quill simply flared his boosts further and snatched the bolt out of the air, despite feeling something in his back tearing.

Growling, he launched himself forward and put his fist through the closest archer's back, returning the void arrow that was gifted to him in the process.

When the arrows void enchantment activated, it exploded and evaporated the Monster Collective archers entire torso.

Turning, Quill dodged another bolt and took a brief moment to check in with Torch and Scoop.

Scoop was occupying the ice beasts and two ice mages, and the way they were bleeding and trying to get out of the small blizzard she had summoned told him she was doing fine. She had scorch marks where it looked like a fire mage had hit her, but there was no obvious void damage to the arcane talisman, and most of the others were occupied with Torch, who was bloodied but carving a path through the attackers.

Despite that, she was losing ground. Most of the blood was hers, and Quill darted in to assist her, even as he cast [Hail] to add some chaos to Scoops' fight and give her more ice to work with. Just as he had hoped, the ice mages reoriented to start attacking him while stalling Scoop, and he soon had a veritable hail of projectiles heading for him. Pulling out three talismans from his sleeves, he activated them and threw them to the ground in front of him where they started pulling everything towards them with a strong gravity field. Anchoring himself in place with [Earth Manipulation] to resist the pull, he watched as a majority of the projectiles were drawn into the talisman array, exploding uselessly on the ground, not even shrapnel making it out.

The few attacks that made it through were easily dealt with. A cutting ray of ice did little against his invulnerable hand, a summoned falcon of animate frost tried to harry him before he managed to grab its wings and rip them from its body, and he unclipped his staff from his back to shroud it in flames and smash through a bolt of ice the size of his leg.

Twirling his staff above his head, he activated the enchantment in it to start a gout of flames coming from both ends, the staff burning through the few mana stones embedded in it to create a ring of fire so thick it was opaque. It was stressing his control to manage it, but he held the fire for the duration of the gravity talismans, and as soon as they ran out of fuel, he shot a stream of fire at the ice mages. Partway to them he faltered for a heartbeat and the stream lost a bit of cohesion, vaporizing a swathe of the ice, but he redoubled his efforts and kept hold of the fire long enough to make his impact.

The ice mages were well prepared for fire magic, naturally. Two of them shot rings of frost that intercepted his stream and started slowing and chilling it, and a foot thick barrier of ice mana appeared in an instant to block his attack. It bored halfway through before losing steam and dissipating, harming no one, but that wasnt the point of his attack.

For a moment, the heat was off Scoop, and she had her counterattack ready.

The assassins couldnt have realized the irony of sending rabbits to fight a fox, but Scoop capitalized on the distraction to create snapping jaws of frost from the ground, tearing into the mage with the rabbit bloodline. A second fell to the summoned mass of wind ribbons, first becoming entirely encased before Scoop pulsed her concept and the mans bones were crushed under the pressure. Knowing Scoop could handle the rest of the fight, Quill threw himself into the melee that Torch was fighting through.

Landing on the one man with a void sword, Quill grabbed the weapon and pulled. The man, not wanting to let go, screamed as the void blade ate through his own face until the weapon snapped, just like the previous one. Jumping forward, Quill was unable to dodge a crossbow bolt that took him to the side.

It was poisoned, but [Lesser Regeneration] was effective against the poison, and while he felt it decay his flesh, the spread was slow enough to be manageable. Continuing with his jump, Quill grabbed one of the final void weapons that had cut large chunks out of Torch's shield after taking the wielders life with a heavily modded and point-blank [Bolt], which tore through her head like putty.

Flipping the void short sword into his right hand, Quill blocked the blade that was thrust at his back with the flat of his newly procured blade, and smiled through his mask as it cut through the metal all too easily. Spinning, he stuck out his left arm and cast [Lightning Torrent]. It was the stronger, lightning version of [Flamethrower], and one of the more expensive Tier 20 skills, but it had proven a worthy purchase.

Forks of lightning arced from his left hand to two of the enemies, who started screaming as the spell crashed into them, and through their magical shields in just moments. As a Tier 20, he had 1,310,720 MPS at his fingertips, and he could send nearly a third of that into [Lightning Torrent]. His main limiter on using it was his control, more than anything else. Especially just after doubling his mana, he was having problems safely directing as much lightning as he could make, but its short range made it a great complement to his long and medium-range arsenal composed of [Arcane Powershot] and [Cracked Mana Spear] respectively.

The assassins fell in seconds, and that bought Torch the freedom she needed to unleash her own assault, even as Quill used the void blade to devastating effect.

Lunging forward, Torch drove what remained of her spearhead through one man's chest. To everyone but Quill's surprise, the man exploded like a balloon. Torch added some flames, but Quill smiled as everyone dodged the wrong part of the attack.

The blood would slowly congeal and harden. [Congeal] was a healing spell usually used by blood healers to make someone's blood harden, but Torch had repurposed that idea and had pushed the skill a step further. It now would harden on any targets that werent Torch, and the Blood Iron within would make the normally non-combat spell a seriously debilitating debuff.

Best of all, it was a known niche tactic used by melee fighters who used Blood Iron, so they hoped it would bring no negative attention to Torch for using a blood skill.

With a burst of speed that he knew was only possible with her potions, Quill decided to assist her and added his own boosting Concept to the mix. After days of running around putting out fires, he was running low on willpower, but Torchs burst of power was more than worth it.

His own prowess with melee weapons paired with the destructive properties of the void mana helped take out three more attackers in moments. He took a deep cut in his thigh that was ultimately his own fault, as he hadnt expected the man to keep thrusting his halberd after Quill cut the head of the weapon off.

That put Quill in an awkward position, and he took a [Mana Bolt] to the face that he was only able to partially block with his hand. It had scorched his face, and he could feel the damage with how his mouth wouldnt open properly. Growling, he changed the target of his [Lightning Torrent] to take out the halberd man while he threw the void weapon into the chest of the mage who hit his face.

Both of them died, but he decided now was about the time for his fake buffing talisman to wear off, so he reclaimed his role as a mage.

[Arcane Powershot] took less than a second to charge to the point where he could no longer keep it stable, and the bolt of mana it shot out was the size of a ballista bolt. The hole it made in one of the assassins fighting Torch was larger, and the hole it punched into the ground was larger still.

Quill used a touch of [Earth Manipulation] to keep the ground near Torch stable, but when the projectile exploded and rocked the ground like a localized earthquake, he took the opportunity to grab the assassin's feet. They almost immediately broke his control over the ground with counter spells, but that was all the advantage Torch needed, as they were dead in moments. Ripped apart, her spear and shield were discarded in order to avoid damaging them further. Together, they turned to see Scoop standing in a barren landscape of ice and snow.

The other ice mages were just statues of ice and frost, but Scoop didnt seem to be done, as she had been spreading her ice to envelop the remaining assassins who had been assisting the mages. Still, Scoop was in bad shape, blood dripping from the dozen wounds she had taken while killing the opposing ice mages.

The thought that they might have fought this fight without Scoop was a daunting one. Torch and he would have had to expose far too much of their real abilities, probably all of their skills, if they had needed to fight a dozen ice mages on their own. They were already all too close to revealing their true identities, and worse than the publicity and assassination attempts that would bring, it would be a loss for them personally. He didnt even want to think about what Luna might do if they failed in that mission.

Before he could do more than start casting healing spells, the opaque barrier that was locking down space vanished, and a familiar dragon rose out of the ground like it was water. The dirt falling off Lila seemed to turn to sand in midair.

Her draconic face was distorted by a wide smile as Lila wiggled out the rest of the way. Stretching her neck, she observed the fight and laughed.

How was it? Your first real attempt on your life? Exhilarating, isn't it? I still remember my first serious assassination; they took off one of my wings and tail. I took their lives, so really, it was a fair trade. Taught me to keep on my toes.

The sand-colored dragon turned to Quill as she snorted, And taught me to trust my instincts when something is wrong. Did you even notice that the bodies all had a hidden hand? Tsking, the older Ascender slipped into a lecture that could have been given by Luna herself, and he was forced to remember that she had been through the same training.

Ultimately, the lecture didnt last long, as Lila laughed as she nosed through the loot. You kids made out well on this one. Your hoard grows! Two of the void arrows survived, and they sell for a polished mana stone. The swords would have sold for a medium fortune, but someone wanted to show off his special hand.

Quill, in the meantime, healed his team the best he could before Torch took over after getting acknowledgment from Luna and Lila that they were obstructing the area, so no one could see her using blood healing. There was no reason to work so hard on keeping their identities secure during the fight to give up the gambit to the other Great Powers while recovering.

Lila did answer one question Quill had as she went through the loot like it was her own. These assassins were good. They came in late, so we knew what they were doing, but I and the other Tier 40s were bored and wanted to see how you guys did. Won me a nice bit of loot with the bet. Aplald bet a set of his claws that you two would need rescuing, so guess who will have a new necklace?

Lila poked the giant gem in her chest. Me, that's who.

She turned her massive head down at the three of them, who were still covered in blood. Drinks are on me!

Opening his mouth, Quill was going to say they needed to get back to the patrol, but he realized he really could use a stiff drink. After confirming with the other two, he nodded his agreement.

Lila loved to boast, so he wondered what she would think about some of the whisky he had bought at the Capital.

But first thing first, he needed to sit down. He had ruptured two discs in his back and needed to relieve that pressure while his body healed.

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