The Path of Ascension

PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 5

Minkalla Chronicles Floor 5

Alvin looked at the cluster of buffalo with various elemental horns and contemplated how he could kill them.

Things had changed.

His team had earned enough Genesis Energy on the fourth floor, but with his repeated injuries and captures, he had been stuck in a rut. If not for those blasted extortionists taking all of his Genesis Energy for a single potion, he could have left with them, but no.

They had left him.

If that had been the only problem, it wouldn't have been an impossible rut to get himself out of, but when his team up and vanished one day, that rut became more of a canyon.

So, he decided to risk it and head deeper into Minkalla.

It was always a risk to head further in, where the planet got smaller and the people were closer together, but the monsters gave more Genesis Energy per kill as well. That combined with the exit reward not scaling meant he could, in theory, get away with a few dozen kills. Then, hed just have to find cleared areas to push through the three levels of the next floor and exit without too much fighting.

Except, he once again had awful luck.

Taxing Skills was never a good floor, but considering he had been robbed of most of his belongings besides his weapons and armor, he was faced with an issue.

How was he supposed to kill monsters this tough and durable?

If this was a rift, he would simply attack one of them at the edge and kite around them until he could whittle it down. But this was Minkalla, and things were never that easy. The monsters here weren't necessarily different, but these were herd creatures, and the first time he had tried to split the group, the entire pack had chased him down.

He had been forced to exit into the adjoining ruin to get them to break off the chase.

That tendency to group up and attack also explained why those monsters, in particular, werent killed like everything else on this floor.

Despite this floor being the antithesis to large scale magic, Alvin couldnt walk ten feet without seeing the signs of battle.

Large swaths of forests were burned or uprooted, deep pits littered the landscape, slowly filling with water, and in one particularly noteworthy area, a large portion of a desert was glassed.

Whatever fire mage thought it was worthwhile to spend that much mana on a floor that made skills more expensive with each cast was either desperate, or dumb.

Either way, Alvin avoided that ruin in case the monsters that would eventually respawn were stronger than the average.

So, he pushed on and eventually found the ruin with the buffalo.

As far as he could tell, it was the only ruin without most of its monsters killed off.

And he didnt know if he would be able to find enough monsters to satisfy his Genesis Energy needs without killing at least some of the buffalo.

He estimated that he was about eighty percent of the way to his goal, after a long, long time spent killing Fae, but the creatures here were so few and far between, hed be hard-pressed to close the gap.

Sighing, he decided against trying to fight the buffalo, and instead decided to look around for the few monsters that would have respawned in the meantime.

While Minkalla would boot him out at the end of the cycle, he had, at minimum, four more years before the earliest time the cycle could end, so he had time.

As someone over a thousand years old, he could be patient.

Even when he didnt want to be.

It took him almost six weeks, but he found an out-of-the-way ruin only accessible by a single entrance, next to a lava-filled ruin which few people were likely to stumble upon by accident.

Better yet, the monsters in the ruin were a physically strong, but magically weak type of zombie, which meant he could fight them without resorting to skills. After more than a year of slow farming as the monsters respawned, he slowly gathered up Genesis Energy to the point where he was halfway to his goal.

If he ventured out of the undead ruin, he could have gathered more Genesis Energy faster, but he knew he still needed to leave the floor, and might need to cast spells during that time to beat some of the bosses on each level, so chose the slower-but-safer method.

Even with nobody around to hear him, he complained to the thin air about the slow respawn rate, averaging just under a single monster per day.

Still, it was safer than remaining on the fourth floor and risking getting captured once again.

Three years after he entered the fifth floor, he finally felt the Genesis Energy in his spirit reach the point he could take the fourth floor exit reward. It actually surprised him, as the information jolted him from the stupor he had fallen into in the last few years.

Packing up his things, he pulled out his flying sword and immediately flew out of the ruin and through the nearest two, to find a boss rift he had found cleared when he was exploring.

Thankfully, the distortion was still there, and he entered it without hesitating.

He didnt care about rewards or skills. He just wanted his Concept to break through to Tier 15.

When he reached the third level of the floor, he found a team battling a ghost like boss and waited a respectful distance as they finished the boss off. When he was sure they had gone through the distortion, he followed up and walked into the distortion as well.

He wasnt even given the opportunity to take the floor challenge, as he didnt have enough Genesis Energy, but he didnt care.

The instant he appeared in the safe room, he readied his shield for an attack that never came.

Spreading out his spiritual sense and looking with eyes, he saw that most everyone was keeping to themselves, and was either wounded and recovering, or bartering with the trader who had set up shop.

Ignoring it all, he ran at the crystal pillar in the center of the room.

Alvin almost didnt believe it when his fingered touched the pillar, and he was given the option to exit or head deeper.

He had expected someone to attack him or try and rob him, despite no one being near enough to do so.

As he disappeared, he felt a list of his passed floor rewards being offered and let out a breath, seeing he both had access to and could afford the floor four reward.

Mentally selecting it, he felt the Genesis Energy he had painstakingly gathered rush and swirl into his cultivation cores, filling and then shattering the bottled Concept he had used to break through to Tier 10 so many years ago.

Even as the Genesis Energy settled into place, he was given the option to choose his exit destination, and with a feeling of relief he never knew he could feel, selected the Empires moon.

Appearing on a random street, he knelt down and let out a sound that was somewhere between a cry and scream, venting the last thousand years of frustration.

With a thought, he pulled out an essence stone and absorbed the energy to his spirit and immediately crunched with it, breaking through to Tier 15.

Even as his AI was inundated with offers from celebration halls, he just took a moment to take everything in.

He was immortal.

He had all the time in the world.

Looking at his hand that had started to show the signs of wrinkles and age he was keenly aware of despite his gauntlets, he threw his head back and started to laugh.

***

Valerie clenched her armor-covered fist and punched the orc in the face.

Metal met flesh, and the flesh of the creature exploded.

Taxing Skills was one of the five most annoying floors for a Paladin candidate, thanks to the block on [AI] usage, but she knew what was important, and it wasn't rushing ahead and killing everything for Genesis Energy.

Oh, the Genesis Energy was important; vital, even. But she wasnt gathering it for the rewards, even though she took each one from the floors she passed.

As a Tier 12, they weren't so expensive and were quite useful.

But her entire purpose of entering Minkalla was to have the set of armor protecting her bind to her as a growth item, which had thankfully been forced by the fourth floor reward.

The Paladins were one of the most elite forces the Corporations had to offer. While the Chosen were their answer to the Sects Young Masters and the Monster Collectives Alphas, the Paladins were an entirely separate military unit that were based on two extremely valuable resources.

The first and most obvious of the two was the hyper-advanced magitech power armor she wore almost like a second skin. It was a wonder of modern engineering, handcrafted by entire teams of the greatest crafters the Corporations had and formed entirely from natural treasures, Talent-made materials and fused into a single, beautiful and cohesive whole.

The second resource were the remnants of a Talented crafter who Ascended ages ago that could create rechargeable custom mana stones, with each able to hold an insane amount of mana for their size. They were integral to the function of the armors at higher Tiers, when they could burn upwards of millions of mana every second.

She didnt have any of those crystals with her, of course. Not only were they worth far more than everything else in the suit combined, which already cost exa-credits to produce, but they failed the single most important requirement for the entire suit.

Everything had to be below Tier 15.

The goal of the armor, after all, was to bind to someone and turn into a growth item.

And as it was a single item by design, if it did bind, it would bind as a whole.

Valerie had trained for nearly five hundred years before getting this chance, and she wasnt going to squander it.

Her power armor had been into Minkalla twice before her entrance, and was generally considered unlucky, if not outright cursed. But Valerie had been the one to bind with it. Even if she hadnt gotten a floor that automatically bound it to her, she was sure it would have happened anyway.

From the moment she was encased in the seven foot tall armor system, she knew they were destined to work together.

Using her shield, she blocked the next blow and drove her vibro knife through the orc's armor.

Stepping out and down, she shattered another's leg before firing her mana cannons at the remaining two creatures.

She could have killed all the orcs from a distance, but melee combat had shown a small but historically noticeable tendency to increase the chance of binding to the power armor.

When the final orc fell and started to dissolve, she checked her readout and saw that she only had seven percent mana left, and signaled the team behind her to retreat.

Her handlers.

Her power armors protectors.

They would watch her kill herself in combat, but the second she died, they would immediately move in and claim the power armor.

It was far too valuable to allow Minkalla to absorb it, after all.

She was disposable.

Or at least, she was until she had bound with the armor.

Now that that had happened, she had become one of the elite Paladins, and that was a status few could match.

Even knowing that and experiencing it for the first three floors, she wouldnt have wanted them to step in and save her.

More than one of the Paladins had their armor bind right at their moment of crisis, and she had been willing to take that risk as well.

If she had exited Minkalla without the armor binding, she would be kicked out of the Paladin Cadets, which might as well be death for someone like her.

As she retreated to her handlers, she opened her chest and took the straw in her mouth, then started taking large gulps of the protein smoothie. The suit was built with the idea of an immortal and didnt carry anything so mundane as food for the pilot, and frankly Kepler made pretty good blends of the stuff.

At the same time, the mechanics in the group started inspecting the suit, to make sure its self-repair functions were still working and integrated well after its bonding.

Valerie herself had nothing on her; she couldnt if they wanted to increase the odds of the armor binding. And despite the armor already becoming a growth item, they didnt change their plans mid delve.

Looking at Darren, the Tier 14 leader of the team, she asked, How are things looking?

Not glancing up from his pad, the man nodded slightly. Good. Things seem to be stabilizing. Your integration with the armor has risen to seventy three percent.

Hearing that, Valerie clenched her fist. Fucking finally.

Darren looked up and shot her an evil smirk. Dont get too excited. That's dead average for someone who is bound with an item because of a floor reward. Good, but youll need to work harder to fully integrate. You still have potential to grow, dont squander your time.

Im aware of the statistics, but it feels way higher than the seventy percent mark.

Pausing, she watched the other mechanics start to channel the tens of thousands of mana to refill her armors reserves and asked, Whats up ahead?

Giant birds. Lightning and fire mostly.

Despite that being a less than ideal combination, Valerie nodded. Im going to fight them.

Darren looked up, and she could see the sigh he restrained. That is not recommended. It's a non optimal match up with the floor theme.

Valerie disagreed. We can do it.

Darren didnt argue further.

Valerie was already a full member of the Paladins, which meant she was officially in command.

While he was technically a higher rank than her, his responsibility and authority started and ended with her power armor. As long as she wasnt deliberately risking her power armors recoverability, she had the authority to pick and choose her engagements. And even that small technicality of control over her vanished now that she was no longer a cadet, and was bound to the armor system.

Despite the readings only indicating a small increase in synchronization, she felt it in her bones.

The two of them were merging.

Becoming one entity.

Binding in more than just in spirit.

Im taking the fight.

And that was the end of that discussion.

Our reports indicate the monsters are faster than average, but have slightly weaker bodies in compensation. Also, their elemental attacks are mostly based around their wings and claws. You are being officially warned to retreat at thirty percent mana remaining, at a minimum, to ensure damage stays within repairable parameters.

That last bit was said in his official capacity, and she responded in an equally official manner. Understood. Thirty percent.

As the mechanics finished their work, she shut her opening and readied herself to engage with her new enemies.

Darren then said the same thing he had hundreds of times before. Bind or die, cadet.

Not bothering to send the response back through her AI, she said to herself. I chose to bind.

The call and response were as old as the Paladins themselves, and was another part of the superstitions regarding the process. Just because she had already bound to the armor didnt mean she was finished. She needed additional growth item floors if she wanted to reach the heights she was aiming for.

Better to not jinx it.

With a full charge of mana, she activated her thrusters and flying enchantments, taking off with a burst of speed.

She could fly with just her Concept, but she felt that it wasnt the right course of action when she was trying to deepen her tie with the armor.

Valerie did use her Concept to part the air before her as her speed quickly passed the sound barrier while she flew into the next ruin.

It was a plain with waving grass and a ceiling she couldnt see or sense with her sensor suite or spiritual sense.

More of Minkallas spatial shenanigans, she was sure.

She did see the two dozen person-sized eagles banking to attack her, and noted them as they appeared on her screens.

The normal Heads Up Display from the power armor was integrated with her AI, but it did have redundant backup screens just in case her AI was suppressed, in Minkalla or elsewhere.

For a less experienced pilot, she might not be used to fighting blind, but Valerie and every other cadet had practiced for this a million times.

Their training was long and brutal.

But she had come out of it victorious.

Now, it was just time to synchronize with the armor and hope that she got another floor with a growth item reward.

She was in a better position than the gray Paladins, who bound to the armor by themselves, but got no floors related to growth items. A fourth floor Courtly Warfare meant she was already on track to be a Green Paladin, but reaching the ranks of Blue or Indigo would only make her victory all the sweeter.

Unless they were both relevant, she wouldnt be a Rainbow Paladin, and becoming the semi mythical Pearlescent Paladin was already dashed when her entire run wasnt made up of growth item floors.

Still, it was only a starting point. Size-changing was a classic Paladin power, but shed also gotten the ability to manipulate her suits force fields, and that opened up a whole new set of options for her.

Her synchronization and combat skills were more important for her long term growth, which was why she threw herself into battle time after time.

As the first eagle approached her, she relied on her shield to block the wings set ablaze while she slashed out at the eagle with her integrated blade, wrapped in a cutting-edge force field just for good measure .

It was decidedly overkill- the blade was already some of the finest enchanting work around- but the force field took it to the next level, allowing her to slice through the monster like it wasnt even there.

Spinning and falling, she dodged the talon trying to grab at her and fired her mana cannons at the second eagles underbelly, smiling as the two streams of Genesis Energy rushed into her.

Valerie was ready to take on the world.

***

Chuck dropped his invisibility at the same time he activated his glaives lightning, scything through the Sect healer in a single blow.

Always kill the healer first, his father would say, which was the first of many lessons Chuck had taken to heart over the years. He had tried doing it the other way a few floors ago, just to see what would happen, and it took so much longer to actually finish the fight. Also, there was nothing more demoralizing than taking down a partys nursemaid, which was an edge that he wasnt eager to ignore a second time.

He sent a followup beam of lightning through the healers head with a snap of his fingers as her body fell to the ground in pieces. Chuck locked eyes with the partys presumed leader as he did it, just to really drive home the message of who was in charge here.

The Realm is vast and contains many tricks. Do not simply assume that someone is dead. Ensure it.

That was lesson number two. Another good one. Or two, technically. The first part was worth being a lesson on its own.

There was no burst of Genesis Energy when she died, which would normally have been suspicious, very few people collected exactly enough to buy the floor rewards with nothing left over, but he thought he knew the cause in this case. There was that Corporations trader from the last floor who had been buying and trading Genesis Energy, and they must have sold off exactly enough to ensure they still got the floor reward. It was frankly pathetic that they had been on this floor for four days and still not managed to kill anything, but he could believe it.

He pulled the girls bags to himself with a crackle of his Concept and latched them to his belt. Probably nothing spectacular, but you never knew.

Ill give you a fair shot, since Ive been itching for a real fight for ages. For every hit you land on me, Ill let one of you live. I think thats fair, but if you barbarians want something else, Im sure we can come to terms. Chuck challenged them while casually holding his glaive out to the side.

Honestly he was pissed, though he thought he was handling it well. Summer should have been a sure thing; it should have been the easy win and boon for the first cycle of Courtly Warfare.

He deserved that win. But now it was gone, and he was stuck on a mediocre fifth floor with these ingrates.

Maybe their corpses would have something to make it worth his time.

The party charged at him without even acknowledging what he had said. There was one guy with a spear that looked decent enough, the leader with the tower shield and short sword, and a mage of unknown ability, though she struck him as a mud mage. She had that slimy, grovely feel to her those types often had.

Like necromancers but less interesting.

From the Sects he expected better of Tier 12s, this group was hardly enough to give him a warm up. Fighting at Tier opponents was easy for someone like him.

The leader came first, at least doing the bare minimum as a tank after failing to protect his backline. He tried to go slow, let his team get into position, but slow and steady had never been Chucks thing. A short feint at the head made the oaf duck behind his shield, then Chuck latched onto the top of the shield with the hook on his glaive, pulled the shield down, and made a quick stab to the throat.

Hed be down for at least a bit before Chuck could make the rounds and finish him off. Besides, the tank living meant that his gear wouldnt decay. A tad risky, maybe, but so was this whole thing.

The others fell in short order. A good spear fight was always a nice way to greet the day, but the spearman was sadly not up to snuff. Three exchanges were enough to prove that and leave the other man dying on the ground, even with some support magic from the girl. He actually got a little excited when the girl showed that she was a mud mage. She shot a blast of mud at him, which he simply teleported around. He actually waited a second just to see what she did next; he so rarely got to see what his opposite element could do.

Sadly, she just made a boring wall of mud between the two of them. Chuck did need to care about efficiency on this floor, at least a little, so he elected to smash the wall with his glaive rather than overpower it with lightning. The new growth effect on it was nice, and he wanted to utilize the armor breaking as much as possible. He cut the girls hands off to neuter her as a threat; it might be amusing to keep her around for a few more minutes, just so she could grovel at his feet before he needed to move on.

He missed all the groveling from his fathers servants. It had seemed like hundreds of years since he had some good groveling.

After that, he went around to kill the men and relieve them of their presumably hard earned items, but when he got back to the mud girl, she was weeping over the body of her healer friend, which was really killing his buzz.

Whats the matter, girlie, cant you try to hit me with [Cresting Dragon Waves of the Overwrought Metaphor]? No [Lashing Vines Hidden Beneath Summer Nights Harvest]? Some other overly pompous description of your impotent magic? She was still crying, sobbing into her missing hands. Your magic is weak. Your people are weak, and they will not survive the coming war. I hope that youve learned a valuable lesson on attempting to exist in the hunting grounds of your betters, and the most valuable thing you can do with your life is take this message back to your sniveling Sects. For their sake, I hope you make it.

With his mood appropriately brightened, he stood up to see if there was anything else of interest nearby, and started walking in the direction of the closest uncleared ruin. The girl could figure out what to do on her own, or she could die. Either way, it wasnt really his concern.

Force the Realm to remember your passing.

Lesson forty-seven. A classic.

***

Long Zhiyuan watched the team from the Clans and was about to move when he felt four sources of Genesis Energy start approaching with a hostile speed.

Backing up into the shadows, he sent more mana into his obscuring cloak and let it hide his presence from spiritual perception.

That, combined with having most of his Genesis Energy in a ring, meant he was nearly undetectable.

Once the attacking team passed his hiding spot, he rushed forward with his claws ready to rip out the last man's throat.

His hand was just inches away from flesh when the man turned and cut out at him.

Dodging, Long Zhiyuan barely avoided catching the blade in the face, and seeing he wouldnt get his clean kill, activated [Heavenly All Seeing Eye].

The technique started parsing the information, and he immediately set two of his clones to fighting the man's copies.

It wouldn't be a perfect copy of the man, but his technique was now upgraded and had a better measure of people it encompassed.

Withdrawing a sword and shield, he stored his cloak so as to not damage it and engaged the man with more traditional weapons.

He nearly caught the man, but he was good with his blade, and almost caught Long Zhiyuan a number of times as well.

A rare occurrence, as people who could match his training efforts were hard to find.

And Talented.

That was always a possibility he couldn't discount.

Still, [Heavenly All Seeing Eye] would eventually gather all the information he needed, and then he would learn how to beat anyone.

He was just settling into the brutal rhythm of a life and death battle with an equal when they were attacked by another party.

That wouldnt do.

After taking care of the trash, Long Zhiyuan jumped back at the man, but to his surprise, he shot out a weapon that activated his last measure defensive artifact.

Despite the Sect leader not liking him, Soaring Clouds Sect knew how to take care of its most valuable resource, and commissioned him a set of embroidery for his robes that would protect him from neutral mana spells.

It cost a Tier 14 mana stone every second of activation, but its defensive power had the strength to match.

And he came in with a spatial ring full of the power sources for the embroidery.

In the second he had to attack, he used his off hand to replenish the pocket where the mana stones were kept, in case the man could cast that same spell again.

At the same time, he cast [Heavenly All Seeing Eye] once more, wanting to get more information about his opponent.

He cataloged the information to his [Spiritual Self]. Stronger than the average Tier 12. Faster than average. A higher defense than average. A higher attack than average. Average regeneration. The armor that flicked in and out of existence was rated as exceptional, with a potential weakness to either the floor theme or innate duration. The skill suspected the man in front of him had done exceptionally well on Genesis Cultivation and Back to Basics, which would explain most of his physical abilities.

As he updated his copies of the man to fight, he started planning his retreat.

He could see that the tide was turning in the larger battle that was happening next to them.

When an explosion went off and knocked everyone around, he was already ready to run for it.

Hed come back once he had a better understanding of the man's abilities and how to counter them.

As far as he had seen in a purely one versus one, he had a good chance of beating the man, but with the rest of his team, that was a long shot at best.

And this wasnt the time to take a fight for pride.

He could always kill the man deeper into Minkalla, when he had a more perfect model.

Even as he picked up the equipment from two of the bodies that were blown this way, he wondered just what techniques the man used to be that strong at Tier 12. That raw physical strength was hard to match for a long time, and could make any prolonged battle a challenge.

With that information, Long Zhiyuan let the two clones fight each other.

He needed to hurry up and get ahead of the pack.

This whole getting third partied thing was growing old quickly.

He was supposed to be the one interrupting fights to take advantage of both sides.

Finding an untouched ruin, he found a lone sheep monster and carefully fought it while gathering its information with [Heavenly All Seeing Eye].

Once he had enough information, he set two sets of clones to fight it. When he knew everything about the monster, he started a one sided slaughter.

Deeper into Minkalla. That was where he needed to go.

But first, he needed Genesis Energy, and if he couldn't properly ambush people without dozens more teams coming in to scavenge, he needed to focus on monsters.

***

Jasper jumped to the side as a bolt of mana swiped past his flank, while his bond darted from under his bulk and sent out a lightning bolt of her own.

As an Earth Armadillo, his outer shell was harder than most and was reinforced by his mana, even without an active spell. Which was very good for this floor, as the cost of his defense never increased.

Thankfully, Amsond was a Ground Gopher with a penchant for lightning spells, despite what her Talent would like to force her into.

As good as the bound pair was, they had been forced to fight their way through a number of ruins that were less than ideal for an earth mage, and she could pick up the slack.

As his bond chittered at him, Jasper sent a pulse of mana through his feet and felt for any more monsters nearby. Thankfully, nothing came back to his senses, and he was able to let out a sigh of relief.

Amsond climbed onto his outer shell and pointed off into the distance. Oh! I see a lightning-struck tree. Head that way, and we can see if there is anything good.

Not particularly caring about where they went as long as he could minimize spell usage, Jaster sauntered over towards the charcoal tree and started digging through it.

Instead of a natural treasure, they found a pillar of crystal.

A challenge room.

Want to do it?

His bond rubbed her paws together as she thought before shaking her head. No reason to risk it. We have enough Genesis Energy to take the floor reward as soon as we find an exit.

Agreeing with her, he started to walk forward once again. Can you scratch that scab where the crab thing pinched me? My armor is rubbing there.

He could feel as Amsond rolled her eyes but helped him out.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he moved the two of them forward.

***

Han De jumped to the next tree and grabbed the squirrel like monster, and drove a dagger he had found on a defeated foe into its brain.

To say this floor was not good for him would be the understatement of his life, but it was forcing him to learn.

This planet was one giant training ground where one needed to get rid of the crutches they once relied on, and it seemed he relied too much on his techniques, as they had been growing ever weaker while he fought.

He noticed the difference quickly, and had been fighting with just his body for a while now, but his real issue was the lack of monsters.

It seemed that being behind the others was finally making things hard for him. On the other floors, he had been able to find untouched ruins with a little effort, but now he couldnt find a ruin with even a dozen monsters in it.

That, combined with his techniques being limited, had led to him gathering a few new wounds, but thankfully, nothing debilitating.

Gathering his resolve, he looked off to the distance, where he could feel the newly respawned boss of this ruin.

With pumping legs, he charged at the purple and silver man-sized squirrel and slid along the ground, cutting at its front leg.

Before his blade could land, it jumped into the air and tried to drive its claws into his body, but Han De was just as fast as it was.

Rolling to the side, he brought his blade around and slashed out at the claw.

Sparks flew as Yi Zhelans sword impacted with the claws.

The purple squirrel seemed to have a mana type that actively ate away at Yi Zhelans sword, and seeing that, he changed his tactics to avoid using the sword so much. He didnt want to risk it in a fight. It wouldn't be the first or even the tenth item he had gone through in Minkalla, but that one was special to him, bonded to him even.

But as they fought, Han De was forced to use skill after skill to defend himself, and felt the skills he had previously hoarded start to get more expensive, until finally, he couldn't cast them any more.

Close to ten minutes later, a bloodied Han De looked at the squirrel and shifted his grip on Yi Zhelans sword.

He could feel this would be the final exchange.

One of them would die here.

With a heart like iron, he knew it wouldnt be him.

Rushing forward, he met the monster's attack with Yi Zhelans sword, and steel met claw. His chest may have been on fire and his vision may be turning black, but claw gave way, and the blade sank deep into the monsters hide as it erupted with lightning.

Yi Zhelan was with him always, even to the bitter end.