The Path of Ascension

Chapter 146

Matt and Liz met up with Melinda and Annie's teams outside the group rift over an hour earlier than the scheduled delving time, which gave them a chance to catch up with each other.

The topic of conversation quickly turned to their upcoming delve, and the monsters contained. Wyverns were the dragons' failed cousins, according to the dragons themselves at least.

They were similar to dragons in nearly every way, except their lack of front legs, only having wings.

Attempts to domesticate them and breed the rift rage out had proven a futile effort, despite many different approaches. Something about the monsters put them in the same category as goblins, orcs, and the few other monster types which couldn't be removed from the rifts influence, though there was living offspring in the real world.

Wyverns were also some of the strongest rift monsters at their Tier. With this rift having peak Tier 13 monsters as the baseline, with the boss rumored to be Tier 14, they were going to have to play the rift slow.

That was what the other group, whose video they had watched had done, and their collection of teams agreed on.

The rift had its own challenge, but it wasn't a speed run or a full clear challenge.

The challenge for the group rift was a rating challenge. The fewer people who entered the rift, and the better the groups did, the better the ranking from the independent AI.

So far, only four groups had formed up to tackle the rift, but they had only watched two of the videos, which only really showed the rift monster and primary setting. Any sub-bosses and the actual boss fight were all removed from the videos available to them.

Half an hour before their rift delve time, everyone else arrived, and they went back over their battle plans after checking over their gear. This rift had a danger rating approaching that of most Tier 14 rifts. As Tier 10s, they needed to be extra careful and were taking nothing for granted.

With no one else waiting to enter the rift, they entered without hesitating and found themselves in a destroyed city.

The intersection they found themselves in was clear of monsters, but Matt, Conor, Janet, Mathew, and Kyle rushed forward and created a circle around their ranged teammates regardless.

Janet, as their leader, called out through their AI, Vinnie and Annie start scouting. Fen, what do your beasts sense?

From his AI, Matt watched Vinnie sink into the ground and Annie pass through a building's wall.

Annie was the first to report back with the news they had feared. As we suspected. The buildings are hollowed out, and I see wyrm skins along with eggshells.

Matt internally cursed.

The videos they had watched had been heavily edited, and only showed the fully grown wyverns. But where they were wyverns, there were usually wyrms.

The legless and wingless dragons were more like overgrown snakes. The only difference wast their propensity to grow a pair of rear legs and wings after molting.

While not every wyrm was a baby wyvern, it seemed like most wyrms present in rifts were the variants that were linked. Some rifts had the two monster types as separate breeds, and when removed from the rift, they each would only give birth to their respective species.

The problem was, the wyverns were incredibly strong in their own right. To make matters worse, the types that grew from wyrms were usually stronger than the types that bred true.

Vinnie came back seconds later, The city is as huge as we suspected, and most buildings seem hollowed out.

If they wanted to get the highest rating for this rift, they needed to clear out a significant portion of the buildings.

Janet only took a second to check in with Fen and his beast companions before making the call. Alright, this is our worst-case scenario. We push away from the rift exit and entrance, then start clearing each building.

As they started moving, Matt pushed forward and took a position in the front with Mathew and Conor. They were the strongest front liners with the best defenses in the group, so walking into the enemies wouldnt be as dangerous for them.

Janet and Kyle were right behind them, with the mages situated in the middle. Felix, being a melee fighter, along with Fen and his beasts using their superior senses, covered the rear for anything sneaking up behind them.

Annie, meanwhile, was abusing her Talent and roaming around the group to watch out for anything unexpected.

They had only walked through half a dozen streets when they met their first wyrms.

They were undersized for the breed, meaning they were young and far away from their molting, but they were still large at about four feet wide. a They slithered along the cracked and pitted street towards the group of delvers.

Matt moved forward alone while Conor and Mathew spread out to cover his flank.

Before he had even reached the monster, it turned and hissed at him before lunging at him with arm-length teeth exposed.

Matt hopped back and let loose a half-powered [Mana Slash] into the mid-Tier 13 monster's open mouth.

The Wyrm's mouth snapped shut on the blade of mana, causing the attack to do absolutely nothing, and he cursed. Wyrms were known for their incredible durability, but this was on another level than anything that he had experienced.

Even his half-powered [Mana Slash] was more than enough to wound Tier 13 monsters most of the time, but these things were tenacious.

As Matt sidestepped a second lunging bite, he thrust his longsword at the wyrms eye and finally dealt damage to the beast. His blade sunk two inches deep into the monster's skull before being stopped by a layer of bone.

From Connor's side, he heard a second hiss and knew that their battle had attracted more monsters.

Still, Matt focused on his own battle.

His armor was specifically made to limit his physical abilities when he used [Mages Retreat], and he was already pushing against those limits to keep up with the beast three Tiers higher than him.

He could break the restrictions with a thought, but the whole point of doing those rifts was to establish weaknesses and limits to watchers.

Still, he was confident in beating the monster on his own.

Now half-blinded, the wyrm screeched and twisted around, setting its remaining eye on Matt.

They held still for a second before Matt cast a [Fireball] at the monster's face.

It reacted to protect its remaining eye just as he expected, and with all the strength his true identity was allowed to show, Matt lunged forward. Using his weight, he drove his blade through the monster's remaining eye, and punched through the layer of bone, into its brain.

The wyrm stopped moving almost instantly, and Matt removed his blade before turning to see Conor blocking each of his monster's lunging bites with a magically expanded shield. He returned its strikes with a glowing mace.

Conors opponent had deep wounds cut in its head from his [Demon Zone], which had the chance to return any attack to everyone in the area. As the monster was attacking with gigantic bites, its reflected attack left wounds even in its own durable hide.

It only took Conor a few more minutes to whittle his beast down through his efforts.

Matt was surprised at just how far his friend had grown in the last decade. He had seen some of that growth in their training, but nothing was as good as seeing someone fight for real.

Janet called out as soon as Connor's fight ended, No injuries. Perfect. What are your reports having fought them yourselves?

Conor spoke before Matt. Their durability is crazy. My [Demon Zone] has been grown to reflect all of the damage struck. That fact that it only took medium level wounds from my skill is a testament to how strong they are.

Matt felt the attention turn to him, and he said, They have a plate of bone behind their eyes that will protect them from eye shots from anything without an armor penetration ability, or someone who can put some serious weight behind the attack. Also, despite being fleshy, the insides of their mouths are very durable as well.

With their initial impressions out, they continued deeper into the city in ruin.

Their next encounter happened on Mathew's side, and despite being unable to hurt him through his incredibly heavy physical armor, Mathew could not kill the beast himself.

They had expected that, but the true frontliner kept the monster at bay singlehandedly for nearly ten minutes without breaking a sweat. Eventually, Janet turned to Kevin, the air mage on her team, and he stepped forward to join Mathew in the battle.

With a mage to protect now, Mathew seamlessly changed his fighting style from mostly dodging what he could, to throwing out his best impersonation of a wall. While Mathew kept himself between the monster and his teammate, Kevin chopped down with his arm that was always wrapped in a cyclone of wind.

From his arm, a tendril of white wind extended, and like a whip, it slammed into the monster's flank.

It only cracked some scales, but after learning just how defensive the wyrms were, no one was surprised. Kevin had a wind Talent of some variation that gave him the tendril of air, and it was powerful. He had cut a peak Tier 12 monster in half in a recording they had watched during their learning-about-each-other phase.

He wasn't weak. The wyrms defenses were just excellent.

Still, the wind mage quickly followed up by casting [Wind Slash] at the same spot where his previous attack had landed. That finally broke through the scaled hide of the monster and drew blood.

Finally wounded, the wyrm was enraged and moved to brush past Mathew, but then his Talent kicked in. The monster that was dead set on attacking the one who hurt it immediately turned its rage to the tank.

Mathew, being able to redirect the aggression of rift monsters, was amazing in situations like this. With that Talent and a good team, he had no need to be offensively strong himself, and simply took every attack his enemies could throw at him on his shield.

Matt was impressed with one of his oldest friend's showing. He knew, as he had access to Melinda's full team's skills, that Mathew still had two different shield skills. He had a magical armor skill, and a taunt skill that he hadnt used yethe was just that good at being the frontliner and protecting his mages.

Kevin's third attack, coming on the heels of its attention shifting to Mathew, was [Wind Lance]. It punched through the monster in its already wounded side, and the wyrm began bleeding out through the gaping wound that was left in its flank.

Kevin came over to Matt, where he flared his Concept for a few seconds to refill the man's mana. Afterwards, they kept moving forward and taking each fight slowly but surely, giving each person a chance to fight one of the rift monsters on their own.

Harvie and Adam fought as a team of melee fighters, with Mathew ready to use his Talent to draw the monster's aggression to him, but they didnt need it.

The two twins fought with a strike and retreat style that always seemed at risk of being dismantled by one badly timed counter-attack. But even when the dragon-snake managed to guess which twin was going to strike out with their short sword, it was unable to punch through the shields that each brother possessed.

Matt still had no idea what their Talents were, but he was impressed at how quickly they managed to kill the monster, and was happy to have them watching the flanks of the group.

Felix and Fen got their chance to shine when they were attacked from the rear, and it was just as brutal as they expected.

Fen and his bonds moved like a perfectly coordinated team, and killed the wyrm in only a few exchanges.

The porcupine started the fight by turning around and drawing the ground into its body, and using the earth to reinforce itself and its spines. When the wyrm attacked the bond, it found its fangs met with longer and harder spikes of earth that launched outwards and impaled it through its mouth.

The earthworm burrowed into the ground, then through the distracted wyrm's underbelly. It was a gruesome sight, one that made Matt glad that Ruby was on their side. Having a monster just eat its way through you was a new nightmare that Matt wasnt aware of before seeing it in action.

But Matt had seen Fen and his bonds fight on their way back to the teleporter, so he wasn't that surprised when the man and his bonds quickly killed a Tier 13 monster.

No, Felix was the real surprise.

Felix had said he was an unorthodox dagger wielder, but his Talent wasn't really able to shine against anyone that he didnt truly want to hurt.

When the second wyrm attempted to go around Fen and his bonds, Felix stepped forward, and a silvery light launched from his chest and landed onto the wyrm.

With the light growing along the wyrms body, Felix swung his blades from over ten feet away, as if he was attacking from close range.

Dark shadows from a skill Matt didnt recognize launched out and slammed into the light area, causing deep, rending wounds that pierced the wyrm's hard scales.

Then, Felix just started to attack the air as the wyrm lunged at him.

Each attack at nothing caused more wounds to appear on the monster when the darkness that had lingered from the first attack stretched out.

Before the monster could reach Felix, the light and darkness seemed to reach a point where enough was enough, and both colors left the monster, jumping to each one of his daggers, respectively.

With glowing blades, Felix moved at an incredible speed as he lunged forward, and with two swipes of his blade, he cut the wyrm in half.

Matt whistled.

Felix had said that he had a gimmick to kill even higher Tier monsters, but that he was weak against groups of enemies. That display of power, and the fact that the lights lingered around his weapons, led Matt to believe that the other man had undersold his Talent.

With that demonstration of power, Matt was surprised when Janet moved forward and took care of the next wyrm herself.

Matt found out why she had chosen to add a second redundant blade with a lightning enchantment to her double-bladed axe, instead of using the typical single blade with a spiked counterweight on the other side for piercing heavy armor.

With each swing of Janets blade, lightning seemed to grow out of the weapon, encompassing herself and her axe before long. Matt tracked what was happening with the help of his AI.

Janets Talent, because something so specific in its use could only be a Talent, seemed to send the tiny bit of lightning from the rear blade to the front blade and reflect it back. Then, it added that lightning damage to the collective power until she built up a massive charge.

He suspected that she used lightning damage not because it was required by her Talent, but because she wanted the damage from the element.

His AI registered that the Talent was the movement and build-up of power, and it needed two blades to work with.

Liz went last as a melee mage hybrid, and quickly dismembered the monster in seconds with her Blood Iron empowered whip of blood.

With all the melee fighters having shown their abilities, the ranged attackers started to test their abilities on the wyrms.

Tara practically cheated with her Talent and the growth quiver Matt had given her. Her first arrow punched straight through the scaled hide of the wyrm and then exploded, creating a head-sized crater in the monster's side.

Before it could do more than lunge at her, she drew a second arrow and cleanly put it through the monster's eye, putting it down for good.

She winked at Matt and teased, I don't know why you found that hard.

Matt just replied with a raised middle finger. They didnt all have Talents that let them punch through armor like tissue paper.

Emily showed her power of ramping up her skills damage with each different element by casting a [Tangle] at her wyrm to slow it down, and then following up with a [Fireball] and [Jolt] in rapid succession.

The empowered Tier 8 lightning skill was four times as strong as her base level skills, and fried the Tier 13 monster in a single attack. Even then, that was far more damage than she had been able to dish out when he saw her last, and it took some probing to figure out how she was able to kill the Tier 13 without pushing her Talent to a fourth or fifth skill.

After inspecting her gear with his spiritual sense, he found that her staff was built around empowering lightning skills. It reminded him that she had bought and intended to use a upgrade orb on [Jolt], which also accounted for some of the greater damage.

Then he reviewed the attack itself. He had felt a Concept in use, though it was slight. It felt more like when Liz used her internal Concept versus his or Asters usage of the ability.

She hip bumped Tara as she returned to her place in the formation, I think it was easier for me.

Matt tuned out their good-natured teasing as they moved further into the city. The fact that Emily was flirting with Tara didn't pass him by, but he hadn't expected Emily to be so bold, knowing that Tara was crushing on Aunt Helen.

Neither pushed the banter too far and they kept their focus on their surroundings, so no one stopped them until it naturally petered out.

Vinnie used his earth skills to entrap the wyrm he was engaged with, and then just buried it, leaving it to suffocate.

Kyle, with his new mage blade fighting style, empowered his blade and used his massive strength to beat the monster to death in short order with his oversized sword.

Samantha used her poisons to whittle down her wyrm while Matt took his turn playing the tank role.

They finally found the edge of the rift when they came to a sea that extended outward for what seemed like forever, but had an invisible wall not twenty feet out.

With everyone having shown what they could do, and having a safe area behind them, they decided to ramp up their speed and start tackling the buildings around them.

In the first building, they found half a dozen wyrms on the lower floors, but as they cleared the ten story building, they found half-grown juvenile wyverns with undersized wings and weak legs.

It was also the first time they had to deal with skills from the monsters.

The wyverns all seemed to be fire-based monsters, and shot back [Fireball]s and [Flamethrower]s at them when the group attacked. The strength of their innate skills was well beyond what any of them expected, and Matt had to resort to bringing out a shield to help block some of the incoming damage.

While [Cracked Phantom Armor] could have barely survived the attacks with around 700 MPS between the two layers, he wanted to establish his Armor Talent as being overwhelmed by the tier difference.

With that in mind, he kept his [Cracked Phantom Armor] to a level where it broke under the [Fireball]s, and flickered under the streams of fire.

While that was a deliberate showing of a weakness, with his physical armor under the skill, he was more than fine physically.

With a shield made to counter fire-based attacks, he was more than able to block the small wyvern's attacks.

Having seemingly just molted, the monster's attacks were strong, but their scales were soft, which meant they had little problem in cutting through the young wyverns.

That all changed when they encountered their first adult.

On one of the topmost floors, a full-sized Tier 13 wyvern awaited them. Standing eleven feet at the shoulder, the monster was only fit inside the building because it had destroyed the other floors. It had carved out a space large enough for it to comfortably move around in.

Not willing to test out this monster like they had the wyrms, Tara immediately launched an arrow at the monster's eye. It might have worked, but the wyverns, despite being rift monsters lacking sapience, were not stupid. Seeing Tara draw her bow, it immediately ducked its head.

That was all it took for even Taras arrow, empowered by her Talent, to deflect off the beasts fully hardened scales.

Matt, Conor, and Mathew rushed forward to be met by a wall of fire that washed over them.

Matt hunkered down, and as the stream of fire kept coming, he cast [Hail] over the spot where he expected the wyvern to be.

His [Hail] caused the stream of fire to pause for a second, but as the obscuring fire disappeared, Matt watched the wyvern look up at the area where the ice was falling from. It suddenly unfolded and flapped its front arm wings, then flew through the ceiling.

Rubble rained down on them, but they were safe enough.

Before they could reorganize, the wyvern had returned and slammed into the side of the building. From a destroyed window, it launched a [Fireball] at the mages from their flank. Conor was the closest and intercepted the attack, but he wasnt able to set his footing well enough, and was sent flying.

Matt's AI registered a few burns on him, and a cracked rib from where he landed on a piece of exposed rebar, but Melinda was quickly on him and cast [Healing Touch].

The wyvern was wise enough to keep moving while attacking, so the mages counterattacks just sailed out of the window harmlessly.

Seemingly faster than should have been possible, the wyvern repeated its actions on the opposite side of the building, launching a second [Fireball] at them. However, Ruby the earthworm raised a wall of earth to intercept it.

Janet quickly called out, Move to the roof so we can see!

Considering that from the videos they had seen, quite a few of the fights had been on rooftops, Matt agreed with the call.

He took the lead with his magical armor, and when he reached the mostly intact roof, it was proven as the correct decision. He was greeted immediately by a [Fireball] as it caught him in his upraised shield.

Having braced himself for that exact thing, Matt only got pushed back into a wall before he rushed out onto the roof.

With the mages taking the center of their defensive formation, melee fighters took the outer edge, and Matt finally realized why the monsters speed had seemed so off.

There was a second wyvern circling their building with the original.

Tara launched a lightning arrow that separated into half a dozen copies, and hit one of the monster's wings. But even with half a dozen holes in the thin membrane, the monster's flying seemed unhindered.

That didn't mean it wasn't enraged. It launched half a dozen smaller [Fireball]s in quick succession.

Matt slashed his longsword out, sending weak [Mana Slash]es at the attacks, causing explosions as the attacks intercepted each other. Tara shot two of the remaining attacks out of the air, but it wasnt enough.

Melinda was forced to cast an area of effect healing spell as the mages got singed and burned from the attacks that made it through. It was only the small size of the attacks that prevented them from seriously hurting anyone.

Mathew asked over their AI, I can probably get them to land if I taunt them, but I might draw over more attackers if I do so. What's the call, Janet?

Janet, to her credit, immediately answered, Not yet. Hold that in reserve. For now, try to damage the wings more. From the reports on wyverns, they cant actually fly with their Concepts. Focus on the one that Tara already hit.

With that order, all the ranged attackers sent out attacks at the single wyvern.

Emily actually got the final hit with an overpowered [Wind Blade] that was nearly four times the size of a normal one. Even as the spell hit the monster's chest and cracked its scales, its overflow damage shredded the wings of the wyvern.

With a roar, the monster plummeted to the ground, and they turned their attention to the second wyvern.

Before they could take it down, the first monster had climbed up the building, and Matt was forced to turn his attention to the angry Tier 13 monster.

He rushed forward to see the monster opening its mouth and a glowing ember flare to life. Not willing to take the attack, he launched a half-powered [Mana Slash] at its open maw, and smiled as the [Fireball] exploded in the wyvern's open mouth.

That earned him a scream loud enough to cause [Cracked Phantom Armor] to struggle at the low MPS he directed through it.

He was forced to dodge the monster's snapping bite, but Kyle was quickly next to him, and brought his sword around in a slash that cracked some of the scales on the monster's neck.

Seeing that, and the readout his AI spat out, Matt cursed. It actually rated the adult wyverns' durability higher than the wyrms.

This was a peak Tier 13 rift for a reason, after all, but this was a crazy level of defense.

Kyle's return strike was just slightly slower than Matts, and their blades cut into the already weakened scales of the monster.

There was a rocking of the building that Matt wasn't able to turn and look at, then Harvie and Adam joined them in attacking the monster.

Matt only half-heard Janet's order for them to just hold the first wyverns' attention while they killed the second one.

With the other three, Matt focused on trying to block the flame attacks for his team while they dodged or blocked the monster's shredded wings and tail attacks.

More than once, they were in danger of being thrown off the buildings roof, but as the battle stretched on, they learned the patterns of both the monsters attacks and each other's abilities.

While they were dealing with a bite attack, a hand and dagger rose out of the roof and sliced the wyvern's left leg tendon, before turning translucent and fading back through the floor.

Matt smiled as Annie finally showed herself.

With the monster's damaged leg, they had a massive mobility advantage, and quickly started to turn the tables and beat the wyvern.

***

Liz dodged the second wyverns attack with a stream of blood pushing her to the side, and struck out with her spear, taking the monster in the side.

While Matt and the others fought the first wyvern, the rest of them tried to take down the second, much larger flying beast.

They had finally damaged its wings enough to bring it down when Vinnie sent a weak spear of rock into the wings of the monster.

Instead of falling to the ground like the first wyverns, this one had chosen to glide into the building and rush them.

They quickly discovered that this monster was at least twenty percent bigger than the first, and far more dangerous.

With its larger body, this wyvern seemed to favor its physical attacks, and had already sent Mathew flying into the small building on the roof with a slap of its tail.

Melinda managed to get Mathew back into the fight despite four broken ribs, but it set the tone of the battle.

Liz was frustrated by how limited she was.

This was a hard fight, no doubt, but she was confident that if she used every ability she had in her arsenal, she could have killed the beast quickly. Having to purposefully show herself as weak should have been of no consequence by now, but it still rankled in a tournament.

As the monsters began attacking the ranged fighters, Liz lashed the open wounds on its wings and redirected its attention onto her.

Felix was setting up his weird light and darkness Talent while Janet hacked at its legs.

Liz rolled under a stream of fire and changed her spear into a halberd just in time to chop down on the momentarily still tail.

When her blade cut through the scales and bone, the wyvern screamed.

Conor and Mathew were finally able to take their places and keep the monsters attention while Emily and Tara attacked as fast as they could. Sadly, for all that the two of them were good counters to the monsters, it never sat still long enough for them to get a good hit in.

It always seemed to know when Emily was getting a spell strength high enough to kill, and shot a [Fireball] at her every time, forcing her to defend with her over-charged spell instead of attacking. Anytime Tara attacked its eyes, it always managed to duck and take the damage on its harder scales.

As Felix and Janet got their Talents going, they finally started to inflict real damage on the monster.

Fen and his bonds kept to the side of the monster and moved in for quick attacks and nips that were fantastic distractions for the rest of their team to capitalize on.

With more and more blood building up from the leaking wounds, Liz made her move.

She sent a wave of blood over the wyvern's legs, and didnt even bother to try and cut the hardened scales. Instead, she pulled with every ounce of control she had with [Blood Manipulation].

That was enough to make the gigantic beast slip and crash onto the ground.

While she struggled against the Tier 13's immense physical strength with just her magical skill, everyone else unleashed everything they had.

Tara finally landed an attack on the wyvern's eye as its chin hit the ground and stunned it momentarily, while Emily finally got her [Jolt] off and caused the monster to seize.

In seconds, they had the monster dead, and the rush of essence confirmed it.

The Tier 13 essence was high in quantity and quality, firmly pushing down on her essence cores as she automatically allocated it.

A second rush of essence hit her before she could do more than turn to help Matt and his group.

Even split so many ways, the rush of power was nice. Not as good as the werewolf rift, but enough to make a difference. The difference between a bottom Tier 13 rift and peak Tier 13 rift was evident just from their rewards of killing a single monster.

Annie climbed to the roof and said something to Matt before both groups met back up.

Melinda cast a healing spell over all of them while everyone took advantage of Matt sharing his Concept.

Annie turned to everyone and smiled as she waved towards each of the other buildings in the cityscape.

Great job everybody. Now we just need to do that a few hundred more times, presumably with each taller building being harder and harder. Who else is having fun?