The Path of Ascension

Chapter 164

Luna was situated amongst the crowd pretending to be Liz, when she felt an ever-so-subtle pressure try to rub against her and all the people around her.

A Seeker. She could smell it.

With a mental thought to Tur'stal, she alerted her that someone was trying to spy on the competitors and smiled. Through her spiritual perception, she watched a clone of the royal replace the original on the stage, where she was giving a speech, and the real Tier 47 teleported to one of the weaker planets in the star system. She returned almost instantly, pulling the Tier 37 Seeker up by her collar.

That Seeker would be finding themselves in a world of trouble; they would be ruthlessly interrogated to find out whether or not they were a greedy gambler, or a wannabe spy.

Either way, they had broken over a dozen laws with their little stunt, so they would be having a bad few decades.

Lunas gut told her it was greed, but you could never be too careful.

***

Quill stood with the other top teams as Tur'stal droned on about the tournament and how it represented the Empire.

He had long since tuned it out, like most everyone else.

Even Lila had bobbed her head as if she was falling asleep a few times, but he was pretty sure that it was just her way of trying to get the top contestants to laugh.

When Tur'stal got to the end of her speech, she waved her hand, rolled out an opaque cylinder, and opened a flap on its front.

This little beauty is made from Tier 47 materials, and it being so high of a Tier means that it's nearly Seeker proof. You will all spin the handle and receive a numbered orb. Then, you will fight the person who picks your paired number, starting with one and working our way up.

She started with Adam, who withdrew the number seven, which was green. Then Rewind spun the wheel, and out came a brown twenty-five.

When it was Queen's turn, she went up and spun the handle for nearly two full minutes until Tur'stal coughed slightly. When she pulled out her orb, it had a green number one, which caused a cheer to explode out from the crowd.

Quill bowed to Torch and gestured for her to go first, and laughed when she sent him a message with just a middle finger.

Her brown two made everyone aww in sadness. She had been so close to fighting Queen in the first round that everyone was disappointed.

The top fifty wasn't a single elimination, but a round-robin fighting style where everyone would fight each competitor at least once. The crowds number one fantasy fight would happen at some point, but the first match-ups would be determined by these draws. The winners would be decided by the number of victories over the course of the round-robin.

Quill sauntered over to the drum and knocked on it twice as he inspected it.

Everything was made from high Tier materials, but nothing that provided an increase in weight that scaled with Tier, like metal or minerals. It was the only reason he was able to turn the handle and listen to the balls inside bouncing around.

He stuck his hand into the opening and rummaged through the orbs until he heard some grumbling from the crowd.

Pulling out his orb, he tossed it into the air and let everyone see the green seventeen.

Sauntering back to his position, he waited with everyone else for the rest of the field to pull their numbers.

When he got his first opponent, he cursed.

Tara was not the one he wanted to fight first, but now, he had no choice.

She had spent most of the last night comforting her upset girlfriend, who had to deal with both her girlfriend and sister making it into the top fifty. Even when she lost, she wouldnt be eliminated, but he really didn't want to be the one to take out a friend.

Queen's first fight was against the man who beat Emily, and even with his rogue fighting style, Queen nearly cut him in half before the ref teleported the man out.

Even from outside the ring, Quill complained to Torch through their AI. She already learned how to lock down space? What the fuck?!

Torch just shrugged back. You taught her that it was possible. This is really on you.

He had no comeback for that, and could only frown in response.

Quill had prepared a dozen counters and trump cards that he hadnt needed to use up to this point, but knowing that Queen was so strong, he wasn't sure that the one trump card he had planned to use on her would be enough.

Torchs first fight was against a melee fighter who had little in the way of measures to stop her overwhelming heat and physical strength, and he was defeated in short order.

When Quill had to finally fight Tara, he almost felt bad, but didnt hesitate.

As the fight started, he dashed to the side, dodging the first arrow and starting to throw out talismans as if they were free.

Two dozen [Fireball]s raced out toward Tara, and she let loose a [Fragment Shot] to break most of the magical orbs with multi-point, short-range attack. Still, that was well within Quills expectation, and he threw out an [Earth Barrier] to catch the follow-up arrow he knew was coming.

Sidestepping, he prepared for her armor-piercing Talent to punch through the barrier of earth, but he had cast it for concealment, not cover.

As the arrow punched through the packed earth, he had already readied his talisman array and cast his makeshift [Tornado].

The raging winds would do more than anything else in his arsenal to counter his friend.

Stepping, he calmly walked towards Tara, who stood like a tree facing the raging winds, alone and unafraid.

He watched as she shifted her aim and finally loosed the arrow.

Quill smiled under the mask as he saw the arrow fly in a trajectory that would clearly miss him if there wasnt a gale assaulting the arena. As the arrow flew through the outer edge of his spell, it got caught by a gust of wind that redirected it perfectly towards where he was standing.

With a burst of speed, he launched himself forward and away from his previous location, quickly entering the center of the whirling winds.

Tara tried to cast her spells, but with Quill at the center of the tornado, her arrows were all tossed to the side no matter what enchantment she used.

Even the wind arrow she pulled out of her growth quiver was unable to pierce the cyclone.

Quill was readying his finishing move when he saw an arrow so dark, it seemed to eat all the light around it coming from her quiver, and he threw himself to the side.

Tara held her shot and tracked him, but Quill knew that the void arrow she had just pulled out wouldn't care about any of his defenses, or the wind. While the arrow itself would technically be affected by the wind, the void enchantment would make the detrimental effects negligible.

With the lessening winds, he didnt dare stand still, even as he slotted the last of his talismans into his expanded staff and waited for the right moment.

They were at an impasse now.

While he didnt need to stand still to cast the array, Quill couldn't do anything predictable, else he would find the void arrow stuck in one of his limbs.

He was sure his next spell would take out Tara, but he also knew that if he got hit with the arrow, he was just as certain to be eliminated.

Keeping his eyes on Tara, he waited and jumped around, trying to bait her into loosing the arrow.

He stopped for a second, hoping she would shoot, but she anticipated his sideways leap. Dropping his staff, Quill rolled and came out of the dodge with his staff glowing with light.

Tara hesitated for a second, and he threw a few [Jolt] talismans out as a distraction.

Tara loosed her void arrow, but Quill activated his mental boost talismans to pair with his physical boost talisman. The combination was enough for him to track the arrow's trajectory, and he was able to twist enough to take the arrow through the side of his chest, instead of the heart.

Tara tried to dodge the [Earth Spear]s he had targeted her with, but the array cast over forty spikes of rock. One caught her in the leg, then another in the chest.

Having been skewered, Tara was unable to use her bow, and was pulled out of the fight by the ref to be healed.

As the matches proceeded on and the first round of bouts concluded, the team fights started, and the round-robin format started off once more..

He and Torch were again paired up against a friend, Sam, the summoner.

As soon as the fight started, he cast half a dozen half-sized fire teardrops, and then ice and lightning variants in short order.

Torch burst forward with a jet of flame as he cast a half dozen [Fireball] talismans to give her some ammo to work with.

The earth summons that Sam created threw themselves into the path of the projectiles and tanked most of them, but they had a harder time entangling Torch. She was able to out muscle the golems and break through their line of defense. With Quill flanking him, Sam struggled to get enough summons out to defend himself from both sides.

That was the problem with having to fight in the team battles as a solo. He was at a distinct disadvantage against anyone who was able to handle his summons.

Still, he was strong and smart, and kept on the move. With a few wind summons, he was able to keep dodging everything they threw at him.

Seeing that the fight would go on too long, Quill just cast the talisman array for [Fire Rain], which Torch then took control of, and bombarded Sam until the ref pulled him out.

A few fights later, they had the pleasure of watching Fen fight a riveting battle with his bonds.

Unlike Sam, who was able to fight in both the team and solo side of the tournament, Fen and his bonds were all living beings. In the solo fights, he had been forced to go in by himself, or with only one of his bonds. It quickly resulted in Fen being countered and eliminated early, but in the team fights, Fen and his pack were able to shine.

Bow and Arrow, Fen's original bonds, had fully absorbed the lightning wolf skull, and now each had a streak of yellow fur running down their backs. The pair were now able to innately use lighting attacks to support their other pack members.

Even against a full team of five Pathers, the team of bonds were able to surround and then overwhelm their opponents as Fen transferred all the damage to himself, keeping his bonds in perfect fighting shape.

The porcupine, Garnet, started their latest fight by sending a volley of razor-sharp spines at the team of five, forcing them to hide behind their melee frontliner. That set them up perfectly for Ruby, the earthworm. She softened the earth underneath their feet, slowing them enough for Bow and Arrow to have free rein in shocking and tearing at their limbs.

Even with only the two wolves in an offensive role, they were able to dart in and out of the enemies, taking small injuries to rip at flesh and armor without distinction.

The team fights and solo fights switched off every round, and each day, every contestant participated in two battles. For teams like Quill and Torch, who were in both, they had no breaks. It was a test of endurance and willpower as much as it was one of pure combat power.

It was in the second week that Quill was finally paired to fight Queen in the solo competition, and he couldn't have been any happier.

Despite her not knowing it was their rematch, Quill was itching to get back in the ring with her.

He was thrilled that he hadnt needed to unleash any of his best trump cards yet, so he could get the most out of them against Queen.

As they stepped into the ring, Quill tossed off his coat and replaced it with his talisman cloak, but didn't stop there.

Pulling out gloves and shoes, he laughed at his opponent's tilted head.

Did everyone think I only made a cloak of talismans? No, I made an entire set of armor out of them.

While it looked kinda stupid, he had done exactly that, and was now covered in parchment head to toe.

Queen seemed happy to let him get ready, and when he finished, asked, Are you ready? I want to see everything you have.

He knew there was an unspoken message of, if you want to team up, you need to be able to keep up,' but he smiled.

Gesturing with his hand, he said, When the ref calls it.

Light jumped into the ring instead and started to speak, The most anticipated match of the day. Quill versus Queen. Who will win in a battle of juggernauts? The man who has endless talismans, or the woman who cuts everyone down with her sword? Will the range advantage give Quill the victory, or will Queen show her Legacy skill again, and cut him down at a distance?

Looking between both of them, he asked, Are you ready?

At their nods, he started the countdown as he floated into the air.

The instant he said zero, Queen slashed out with a [Mana Slash], but Quill stood there and activated his armor talismans.

Black smokey armor appeared, and absorbed the attack with only a ripple.

He had used Aster's [Shadow Armor] as the base for the spell, as his own [Cracked Phantom Armor] was far too conspicuous for keeping their identities separate. Still, it worked well. With the talisman array that created the spell, it was nearly impervious against magical attacks. At least for a short while.

Queen tilted her head at his non-reaction, but Quill expanded his staff with a flick of the wrist as he tossed out twenty-three spikes of steel, and directed them to land around the edge of the arena.

Queen, using her Concept to fly at him along the ground, stumbled as her flight stopped working.

This was a lesson he had taken from the wild side. Limiting the fight to the ground had its advantages.

The spikes had cost him an arm and both legs to make, but anything inside their area was forcefully restrained from going into the air. Sadly, he wasnt good enough to make an array that would also allow him to be an exception to the restriction. It was all or nothing, and he chose all.

Running to the side and forcing Queen to chase, he threw out handfuls of [Fireball], [Jolt], [Earth Spear], and [Wind Blade] talismans, but none of them even scratched Queen as she blocked or parried the spells with her greatsword.

Even with the restrictions, Queen was fast, and he was forced to dodge attacks from her extending greatsword in all directions.

With a burst of mana, he activated a physical enhancement talisman, which allowed him to dodge most of the attacks by pushing himself to his limits.

Unlike his fight as Matt, he was able to stay unbloodied, and even landed a few magical attacks on her body.

He used an [Air Burst] to deflect one of her attacks upward, then ducked under the blade and sent it into the air while punching out at her midriff. He got in a clean hit with a shadowy fist that crackled with earthen mana.

To his horror, Queen had an illusionary version of her arms and sword appear, and cut at him from the other direction.

That was an ability he had dealt with in the Legacy with Shen Ruogang. She had even said that was an incredibly advanced application of one's Domain, and few managed to do it before they created an Intent, let alone before spending a few centuries as an immortal.

Perfecting the ability at this point was completely unheard of.

And yet Queen was doing it right now.

The only good thing was, it was a half-formed replica of her weapon and not quite as solid as her primary and lasted less than a second. Still, Quill was unwilling to take the blow head-on, and redirected his punch into her illusionary arm to block the attack.

The earth mana he had made into a gauntlet exploded with power and destroyed the Concept copy, but Queen was already kicking at his knee, and Quill was forced to retreat.

Before she could charge at him, Quill created an [Earth Barrier] between them and used a talisman to push himself to the side.

As Queen burst through the barrier of earth, he pointed his staff at her and unleashed a [Jolt] array.

The lightning blasted Queen, despite the illusionary arms moving their own copy of her blade to block.

Quill saw the Concept arms shatter under the blow, and her armor try to ground the attack, but the enchantments were overwhelmed, and Queen was sent flying.

***

Luna whistled a long and low note as she sat next to Carol in their viewing box.

It was only a clone of her real body that was pretending to be Liz, but most of her attention was present.

You taught her this?

Carol scoffed with pride coloring her voice. Of course I did. Im the best after all.

Luna laughed at the younger managers pride.

Queen was exceptional for learning a second copy in less than two months, so she decided to let the quip from the manager responsible slide.

***

Quill started to cast an ice barrage at the spot where Queen would land, but she used what little Concept his anti-flying array allowed to slow and correct herself, stopping short of the area of effect.

Queen slashed down, and even from forty feet away, Quill felt the instinct to dodge. His intuition was the only reason he was able to avoid the top portion of her greatsword as it slammed into the arena.

The explosion of stone peppered him through his armor, and Quill activated another two talismans on his chest plate, then one on his glove.

Pointing his palm at her, he sent an unending stream of [Fireball]s at her.

This wasn't him using a talisman, but himself casting the spells, using the one percent of his mana pool that was nearly impossible to empty.

At his current 1280 mana, he always had 12.8 mana available, and with [Fireball] costing 10 mana, he was able to cast the spell as fast as its structure in his spirit would allow. As he had absorbed this version of the skill for the streaming effect, instead of making it stronger or cheaper, he had modified the skill to allow for faster casting.

Quill was sending out seven [Fireball]s a second in an unending blaze of fiery destruction.

The talisman on his glove fell apart, and he stopped casting long enough to see Queen approaching, despite cutting down each attack with her two weapons. Her real set of arms attacked on her left and the false one to her right. Still, her armor was well singed from the portion of the attacks that got through her defenses.

As soon as the air cleared, the two [Mana Bolt] talismans he had activated launched out at incredible speeds, and arrived in unison with the last of the [Fireball]s.

Queen decided the fireballs were the lesser of the two evils, and chopped down at the [Mana Bolt]s.

That proved to be a mistake, as those [Fireball]s were talisman cast ones, and were much, much stronger than the 10 mana spells he had been casting.

The explosion that rocked the arena sent Queen skittering along the ground, but she quickly got back to her feet and readied her blade.

Quill saw her look down, and watched her shoulders move as if she was taking a deep breath, before she looked back up to him with her sculpted mask.

Her eyes glowed through the mask like weapons-grade steel as their manifestation overwhelmed her mask.

They were a match to his own white holes, and as they stared at each other across the blood and debris-strewn arena, he had to wonder what she was thinking.

***

Queen cursed mentally as she looked at Quill.

The man had more talismans than a forest had leaves, and she was getting slapped around, even with the new Concept manifestation that Carol had taught her.

It was a good thing that her soon-to-be temporary teammate was strong, but Queen wanted to win. No, she needed to win.

If you didnt win, you died.

It was that simple.

Queen refused to give up, and dug deeper.

Deeper.

Deeper than she ever had before. She felt herself grow closer to her own Concept as she pushed, but she needed more than what it could give.

Carol had said she that was leagues away from her Intent, but Queen felt that it was only a hair's breadth away.

She couldn't touch it yet, but she didnt need to truly form her Intent now. She only needed it to break that damn restriction on flying that Quill had created. Any time she tried to near one of the spikes to ruin the formation he attacked her and forced her into a defensive postilion.

Pushing with everything she had, it felt like she was trying to break through a membrane to reach her sword's handle, but was unable to.

But that was fine.

The membrane separating her Concept from her Intent was stretchable. It was no longer a wall.

Pushing with everything she had, she hooked a single finger around the blade that was her Intent.

It was like when she was a Tier 4, and had just began delving against monsters with Concepts. Her own nascent Concept had been able to resist their fully formed Concepts slightly, despite being the furthest thing from solidified.

She didnt even have an idea about her Intent's Phrase or Image, or even the bridge between them. Carol had said that she needed to figure them out for herself, but Queen didnt need the finished product.

She just needed to be able to move with her Concept.

The single finger that touched her Intent created something like an umbrella that blocked a portion of the anti-flying formation, and she rocketed forward, fueled by her Concept.

She could feel the blood pouring from her eyes, ears, and nose from pushing herself too far, but she didnt care.

Losing was death.

Queen refused to lay down and die.

***

Luna once again whistled a long and low note as she sat next to Carol in their viewing box.

She once again asked, You taught her this too?

Carol once again scoffed, but Luna heard the worry in her voice this time. Of course I did. Im the best after all. The manager then added, But I hope she doesn't push too hard here. This is dangerous.

Luna translated that to mean, I didnt teach her shit, and am terrified that she's going to break her Concept by pushing too hard.

That was good, because if Carol had, that would have been gross negligence. Intents werent as simple as Concepts, and forcing it like this was dangerous, but Queen was only brushing up against the slimmest piece of her Intent. It being completely unformed was actually preventing her from shattering her Concept so easily, if only by limiting the power she could channel.

Shed be fine.

Probably.

Luna was impressed, though.

The girl was Ascender quality if she had ever seen it.

Matt would have his hands full trying to take her down like this.

It would be an interesting show. She just wondered which trump cards he would need to pull out to beat her.

***

Quill cursed out loud as Queen sped up with what was clearly Concept enhanced flight. Or at least, near flight.

She bounded along the arena like she was on skates.

Cursing, he activated the talismans on his boots as she neared him, and they flung him through the air to the other side of the arena.

Sadly, Queen was Queen, and her greatsword extended to cut a furrow through [Shadow Armor] and physical chest plate.

Landing in a roll, he stood and expanded his staff to its max form, then called out to the rushing Queen.

How well do you dance?

She was in the zone and didnt reply, but he didnt mind.

The seventeen talisman array slotted into the staff, and he raised the staff into the air and slammed it into the ground.

A burst of mana slammed out, punching Queen in the face as she raced forward, and sent her tumbling back.

From the ground, she had the perfect view of what was manifesting in the sky.

This talisman array was based on the fireball one he made with Torch in mind, but this one was meant for solo fights.

Instead of a [Fire Rain], it was a [Sword Rain].

Swords made from sharpness sub-aspected metal mana formed in the air, crashing down towards the ground in a deluge of destruction.

The array was horrendously expensive to make, needing Tier 14 monster hides for each talisman, Tier 16 enchanting ink, and tens of thousands of mana in prep work. But it was one of his strongest moves.

You showed everyone your Legacy, so let me show you mine!

Quill threw that out there for the watching audience who would have been wondering what he got from his own Legacy.

This was impressive enough that no one would question it.

In a dense cluster, the mana formed swords slammed into the arena and lingered for a few seconds, with their edges razor sharp.

Slapping on a physical amplification talisman, he started to weave in and out of the swords in a well-practiced pattern. When he had started to practice maneuvering through the aftermath, he had done it with [Cracked Phantom Armor] to protect him. But even then, a single misstep had cost him most of a hand, and a trip to the hospital to reattach the appendage. And that was with [Cracked Phantom Armor] taking all the mana it could hold in both layers.

These swords were dangerous.

The swords didnt fall randomly, but they were so dense, and fell so quickly, it was impossible for anyone who wasnt the creator to path through them.

Quill raced toward Queen, taking two steps forward for every one back and to the side, but he successfully closed the distance, even as she used her second sword copy to help deflect the rain of blades. Real and illusory arms passing through each other as she furiously tried to block the falling spell blades. The second version of her arms and sword only lasted for a second but she used that second to best effect and kept herself safe.

Quill was nearly upon her when Queen sidestepped, taking a falling sword to the arm to dodge the [Jolt] he sent at her, and the mana sword landed with a stream of red coloring its edge.

Queen didn't seem to mind, continuing to use the flickering illusionary copy of her weapon to block while she swung at Quill.

He ducked and sidestepped the attack, as well as the falling sword he knew was about land on top of them.

Carefully throwing out talisman after talisman, he tried to force Queen into another falling blade, but he noticed something as the fight lingered.

Queens eyes glowed an even brighter shade of molten steel as she watched his feet.

She was using his own movements to predict the pattern of the falling blades, then using her second greatsword to block the ones she couldn't dodge while attacking with her real blade and arms.

Not willing to let her learn the pattern, Quill purposely stepped into a falling blade and watched as Queen mistimed a blow, taking a much worse cut down her back. Her heavy armor was sliced through as if it was streetwear, versus his own relatively minor cut along his calf.

Queen tried to punish him for the move, but Quill ducked the blow and reached out to where he knew a sword would fall.

He knew that she and everyone else must be wondering why he had closed the distance with her, and this was exactly why.

The swords lingered, and could be picked up.

With a falling sword dropping into his hands, Quill drove the mana blade into Queen's chest. There was no technique to it, save for surprise.

No one expected Quill to be able to interact with the skill after it being cast, but his endless sub-aspected mana gave the swords just enough of a shelf life to do it.

Her greatsword cleaved down in an effort to bisect him, but he tackled her and sent them into the ground. [Sword Rain] didnt last forever without a power source beyond the talismans, and he needed to take advantage of the last cycle of falling blades.

A falling sword took him in the hip, but he twisted and felt the blade shatter as sideways pressure was put upon the mana construct, and watched as a falling blade pierced Queen directly in the chest.

She had been unable to block the sword, despite her secondary blades best efforts.

Her eyes were dim, and her Concept copy vanished.

Even her normal greatsword was flickering and becoming translucent.

As the [Sword Rain] came to an end, he cast a [Jolt] at her head from point-blank range.

An armored hand caught the lightning in a gauntleted fist, as if it were a physical attack instead of a magical one. Light laughed with the flickering lightning flashing in his hand. Now, thats not how anyone expected this fight to go! Quill finishing Queen with a rain of swords. That has to be a record for irony, at least somewhere. The man picked up Queen, and as he vanished, added, Well, maybe not. Theyre magical swords, so it fits.

As he returned, he slapped Quill on the back as he stood and raised his hand to the crowd.

Our victor, Quill! Is there anyone who can beat such a mad man? With this victory, it's up to just a few others to take him down, and break his streak. Can Diana do it? Nyx? Maybe one of the Gems? Who knows. But what I do know, is that Im looking forward to the matches.

With that last bit of showboating, they were teleported into the healing area, and Light dropped some of the persona.

Good victory, kid. That was impressive. I look forward to your next fights. The top fifty is a gauntlet of blood, and you're doing well.

With that, the man vanished, and Quill heard him announcing the start of the next match.

He was just settling in when he got a message from Queen.

Rematch?

Quill just laughed.