The Path of Ascension

Chapter 159

Quill stood tall as he walked into the ring.

As the tournament progressed, the arenas became simpler to a degree. There was still the odd biome of some type, but they were usually basic in design, like a fire biome consisting of a small copse of burning trees.

This time he had gotten a grassland arena with just half a dozen pillars of stone sprinkled through the barren landscape.

His opponent was a man expected to do well in the tournament with his short-range teleport Talent. It had carried him through both the solo and team fights alone.

Ronin was a young-looking man who appeared to be no older than fifteen. It was a stark contrast to all of the other Tier 10 Pathers, who mostly looked to be in their early twenties.

Despite his appearance, the man had used his dual short swords to good effect thus far, as he cut a path to the third month of competition.

Quill was looking forward to a good fight.

As he met his opponent's eyes, Ronin called out, Youre going to want to pull your cloak out now. Otherwise, youll be defeated in seconds.

Hearing that his opponent wanted to trash talk, he made his mask smirk and shot back, Nah. I doubt that youll push me that far. If you manage it, you'll be the first in the tournament. He pushed out his long coat and said, Besides, I think the coat looks cooler. Black and silver is a winning combination.

Ronin lowered himself into a low crouch and spat, Oh, youre going to regret not using that chance to change your opponent. Ill show everyone that you cant buy skill.

As the ref called the final countdown, Quill tilted his head and obtusely misunderstood his opponent's comment. You can't buy skills? I buy them all the time. Sell them too. Are you too poor to understand how money works? I can give you a lesson after this match if you want.

Ronin shot forward in small, several-foot lurches as his teleport let him cover the distance faster than would normally be possible.

Quill tossed out two [Wind Blade] talismans at where he expected Ronin would appear, but the man managed to sidestep the attacks, so he took to the sky while using a [Flamethrower] talisman to prevent the man from closing the distance.

Landing on one of the pillars, Quill stopped and twisted his foot while crumbling a talisman in his hand.

He was able to see Ronin's eyes widen as the pillar he was next to exploded in razor-sharp shards of stone, and despite his teleportation Talent, Ronin was unable to completely avoid the attack. Quill found that odd; while he had purposely shattered the pillar to create a wide area of effect, he had still expected that the swordsman would be able to escape.

Quill's opponent had two long cuts on his calf and arm, where the stone shards had grazed him after coming out of his teleport, but Quill still had to whistle.

Noting the oddity, he snarked, Impressive. Have you ever thought about selling your Talent to a courier service? Im sure that theyd love to have you run letters for them.

Seeing Ronin charge up his blades with lightning, he added as he took off higher, Never mind, theyd probably expect their employees to understand how money works.

Ronin flickered to the side and slammed his blades together, and a burst of lightning lashed out from his blades. Quill quickly activated a [Mana Barrier] talisman, stopping the attack in its tracks.

While he had been defending himself, the swordsman had launched himself into the air and flickered closer to Quill.

Taking off and throwing out two [Cold Air] talismans, Quill covered his retreat.

Turning and analyzing his opponent, he noticed something strange about how the areas of freezing magic had been cast.

The edges of the spell had dropped noticeably faster than the center, and Ronin had gotten a small degree of the slowing effect on him, as evidenced by his sluggish movements and blue powder covering his armor.

Quill ran the oddity through his AI and concentrated on his fight as the teleporting swordsman was nearly upon him.

He was forced to use two more [Mana Barrier] talismans to block the man's attacks, but when he reached a distance of five feet, Ronin teleported to his side.

Quill nearly overreacted and fully turned around to cover what would have been his back, but a small flicker gave away the man's destination with just enough time for him to abort his turn, and get his staff in position to block the twin swords.

Letting the impact knock him away, Quill cast a [Fireball] while throwing out half a dozen more [Fireball] talismans in a cone.

He caught Ronin with one of the projectiles as the man teleported above him, but it was merely a glancing blow.

Seeing that he was at a disadvantage with so much open space, Quill loaded a makeshift, seven talisman array into his staff.

The second he landed, he activated the talismans and used [Earth Manipulation] for some minute adjustments.

The once basic arena rumbled as the ground surged up in crude and crooked pillars of stone. Unlike the pretty and perfectly cylindrical pillars they had started with, Quills modifications were rough and dirty copies.

Exactly as he wanted.

Ronin had dodged the stone coming out from the ground, but having seen the man's reaction time and ability to teleport, Quill hadnt expected the move to hurt him.

He didnt immediately activate the next dozen talismans he threw out as he walked under the crisscrossing stone arches. The battlefield was now much more advantageous to him, with limited avenues of approach, so he began setting the stage for his next attack.

Ronin straightened himself slightly and asked Quill, You can't win in an even fight, so you throw money at the problem? Pathetic.

Quill laughed and tossed out a [Fireball] talisman as he forced the swordsman to move.

This is far more fun, wouldn't you say, Mr. Teleporter? How many people have complained about you flitting around like a leaf on the wind? I'm sure more than a few. And if you want to throw stones in a glass house, you should be able to fix said house. I can at least afford repairs.

Listening for Ronins flittering footsteps, he waited until he was next to one of the pillars of stone, and the second the man exited his teleport, he activated the [Shatter] talisman he had stuck to that pillar.

When the dust cleared, he saw Ronin with a thin but wide piece of stone sticking out of his chest armor. With the touch of blood he saw burbling from the wound, Quill knew he had finally hurt the man.

Teleporting is strong, but it has its problems. The lower Tier skills are limited in either range or direction. You only have one of those weaknesses, but when combined with the internal cooldown of the skill, it makes a predictable opening. Even if it's not always easy to predict where to attack. Though at that point, I can just use area of effect skills

Ronin threw a knife at Quill, and he was forced to cut his monologuing off and roll to the side.

When he came to his feet, Ronin was just one teleport away, and was already driving both of his short swords down in a plunging attack, preparing for the closing teleport.

Quill withdrew and activated two talismans at the same time while kicking himself up to his feet.

A lightning-infused blade came down on his shoulder, but the pillar of stone he had summoned from the ground pushed him out of the way in just enough time for the attack to only glance off his armor.

The second blow came from the side and deposited its lightning into Quill's flank, unblocked.

A third, fourth, then fifth attack followed the successful attack up in far too rapid succession for a teleport, and Quill activated a [Flame Wave] talisman to push the man away.

As he stood and inspected his wounds, Quill's AI flashed the information he had asked it to gather at the start of the fight.

Ronin wasn't a teleporter At least, not a true one.

The man was warping time in a localized area.

It explained the way the sections of [Cold Air] had fallen at different speeds, and the supernatural speed of his attacks.

He had actually slowed the AI down in reaching that conclusion, as he had started its calculations with the base of Ronin having a teleporting Talent.

Spitting out a bit of blood from where he had bit his tongue, he set to the clear area around him that was still scorched from the flames.

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You have a time Talent. How interesting. That explains a few things, but it also gives you a massive weakness.

Quill listened for any noise as he readed another talisman array.

Time manipulation, even in a small area, must be rough on the spirit. Trapping and affecting me would make that doubly difficult, since the spirit naturally resists those kinds of intrusions.

Talisman array ready, he flared his Concept to lock down space in a sphere around him as he sent a touch of mana into his staff.

All the pillars of stone he had created exploded away from him, crashing upon the barrier surrounding the arena, but also clearing the obstacles hiding Ronin.

Ronin made it through the explosion mostly in one piece, but there were new scratches on his armor that Quill smiled at.

Time manipulation in a small sphere clearly has its downsides. I bet it's even tougher on the spirit the more shit youre trying to stop. Then, you need to maneuver through all the debris yourself. Bit of a weakness there too. Still, being able to attack that quickly is incredibly strong at close ranges.

As his mouth filled with blood again, Quill spat before smashing his staff on the ground.

Honestly, Im slightly impressed. But sadly, you had to get matched against me.

Every loose stone in the cracked and destroyed arena rose up, and at Quill's command, flew towards Ronin.

The swordsman tried to dodge, but when pitting his Talent against Quill's Concept, which commanded space to stay firm, it didnt quite work properly.

Ronin flickered, but not as far or as fast as normal. Space and time were intricately linked, and while Luna had never trained him on the second, he was confident in his ability to lock down the man's power for long enough to win.

As he predicted, a stone caught the time manipulator in the side, and that mistake spelled the end of the fight. Shard afer shard was attracted to the man, with each successful hit slowing his movements, thus inviting more and more daggers of stone into his flesh.

When it was clear that Ronin couldn't escape, the ref swooped in, and with a wave of his hand, dispelled Quills work.

As Ronin was being pulled away, Quill tipped an imaginary hat to the man to signify it had been a good fight. And it had been. Quill was proud of the display he had put on, and his opponent had nothing to be ashamed of either.

The arena would have filtered his words about Ronin's Talent, which would keep the man's secret. Quill felt that Ronin would be able to fight through the losers bracket with little issue, especially with such a strong Talent and ability combination.

If he had to put money on it, Quill expected the man to reach the top two hundred, if not the top one hundred.

His Talent and abilities were that good.

Ronin just had a few weaknesses in his kit, and one of those was large area of effect attacks that were more taxing on his spirit to deal with.

In the end, the man would climb through the losers bracket just fine.

After all, it was there for a reason.

The winner would, by their very nature, take out everyone they encountered, and he intended to be that winner.

***

Luna nodded along as she saw Matt use his Concept to lock down the little time manipulator. She hadnt expected him to figure that out so quickly, but Ronin had shown his hand a little too obviously.

Taking a few hits to sell his Talent as a teleporting one was smart, but he shouldnt have used his Talent so many times, especially that early in the fight.

He was used to beating people early enough that it wasn't a problem for him, but the child should have known that he couldn't use such tactics this far in the tournament.

She jotted down a few notes for the boy's future manager and flicked a glance at Kurt next to her. What do you think?

Returning her attention to the note she was writing, she read his message with her spiritual perception.

Matt is learning well, but he is starting to reach diminishing returns. Hes better than most of the kids here, but they will close that distance a bit when they get their own managers.

She nodded along to his words but said nothing. That was to be expected, and happened to all the youths who earned a management team early. While earning a team early wasnt the end all be all for a Pather, it helped them get a step ahead of their peers. The best of Pathers didnt always need that advantage, but it helped.

When she had trained Lila, the dragon didnt have such an advantage, and neither did any of her actual Ascenders. In fact, the two that she had taken early had only turned out to be almost ascenders.

What mattered more was drive and willingness to bleed for their desires.

Kurts pen flitted across his page. His ability to adapt to new situations is good, but his willingness to take a hit to hit back harder will take him far.

The pen hesitated for a second before he added, His use of his Concept is good, and shows that he's actually learning the lessons we want him to. He's not only absorbing the surface level applications of skills were teaching him.

Luna purred an agreement. What about Liz?

Kurts pen flew across the page as he answered. She's going to be scarier than Matt, given a few more Tiers. She's learning all the same things Matt is, but she's more limited in both identities, and shes still keeping up. When the shackles come off, she's going to be terrifying. When its all said and done, I'd probably rather fight Matt than her at an equal Tier.

She nodded, agreeing with everything her protege and friend had said.

Luna answered for Aster herself. As a beast, she had a better view on the fox. Aster works hard and pushes herself to keep up, and with her bloodline modification, she's going to be hitting a lot harder once her spirit and Concept fully heal.

She chewed a knuckle before saying, I want the kids to go to the next cycle of Minkalla, and not the one after that.

Kurt jerked, and he locked down the area before verbally saying, That's beyond risky. Theyll be Tier 11 at best, and thats only if we have Matt fill rifts so they can delve at least two Tiers up. Theyd have to finish three delves a day under those conditions to even sniff Tier 11.

Luna nodded. That was in line with her own predictions.

But if you wanted monsters, you needed to forge them in the harshest environments.

But the rewards will be insane for them if they can compete with the Tier 14s who will be there. If they reach the core

She let that statement speak for itself.

And it did.

Kurt said nothing for nearly five minutes, with his pen dipping toward the pad before coming back up, pausing, and then doing it again. Eventually, he wrote out, They would. That they would...

With that settled, Luna started to plan for the future. While not all Ascenders went to Minkalla, let alone earned the greatest rewards, most did. Especially the best ones.

Even Duke Waters had delved the twisting depths to earn the greatest rewards. She could see the subtle signs in his skills. With such a specific skillset he could have gone in at Tier 12 with minimal loss but she wasn't entirely sure just from watching a few recorded fights. She was less familiar with Light and Shadow, but Luna suspected that they had as well. She just wasn't sure if they went in at Tier 11 or 12.

She always pushed her charges to do it, and they all earned a lot, and she usually sent them into the ruins at Tier 12 if they were solo, or T 11 if they were a team. While it might only be one Tier more of a wait, and while going at Tier 12 would ensure their safety against the Tier 14s, there were a small but potent number of rewards that only Tier 11s could earn in the depths.

Luna felt that the children would both want those rewards, and would eventually agree with her plans.

Most importantly, she believed that they could survive those treacherous depths.

Kurt finally nodded and wrote. I agree, they can do it.

With that settled, she called April through her AI. Go set up everything for a trip to Minkalla.

She smiled as she watched her other little project pull at her hair at the impossible order and curt dismissal.

April too was shaping up well.

***

Liz punched the man who burst out of the ground with a blood-encased hand. She smiled at the man's surprise as her fist met his face.

Rusty was right about one thing. People always looked surprised when you punched them in the face.

That was doubly true for hybrid mages who relied on their elemental advantage to try and ambush their opponents.

She had fought Vinnie enough times to learn all the tricks that an earth mage could pull out of their sleeves. Her friend had learned the same lesson about trying to ambush her that her latest opponent had just learned.

An ambush only worked when you didn't expect it.

As the man tried to flee back underground, she sent the blood she had on her fist to flow into his face.

While she couldn't keep control of the blood if she sent it inside of the man's body, she was able to cover his nose and mouth to stop him from breathing.

He threw his Concept against her blood, trying to blast away her [Blood Manipulation] skills control, but she flexed her own Concept in return and firmed her control over her blood.

Despite it not being inside her, the blood was still hers, and more importantly, she was blood.

It was her Tier 3, after all.

Her talk with Aunt Helen had shown her a path forward, and she was trying to lean into the idea that her Tier 25 Talent would reinforce what she already had.

She was blood, and blood was her.

Liz waited as her opponent tried to create distance to weaken her control over the blood, but it was futile. If she hadnt reinforced the blood with her Concept, that might have worked, but her Concept ensured that all of her blood was as easy to manipulate as if it was still connected to her.

That was the advantage of her internal Concept; it was more than just a boost of her blood's strength when attacking.

Seeing that he couldn't break free of his mask, her opponent tried to finish her off by launching attack after attack at her.

Liz dodged what she could and used a tendril of blood to smash what she couldn't.

She thought about taking to the sky to avoid the attacks, but every time she tried, the man started launching more dangerous, exploding earth spears at her. Exactly why he couldn't use that move on her while she remained on the ground, she wasn't sure, but it made her decision easy.

It took a little more than fifteen minutes of dodging stones spikes for her opponent's breath to run out. Even with an essence-supported body, he was only Tier 10, and he eventually passed out. It was only then that the ref pulled him from the ground.

Before she could celebrate her win, she was pulled to a room to change with Luna, who had been pretending to be Torch.

This next match figured to be much more interesting.

Cain was a solo Pather that Liz expected to not only do well, but excel in the tournament, and she was looking forward to fighting the man with her alternative identity.

Ironically, Liz would have easily countered the man, but Torch would have a hard-fought battle on her hands.

When she stood across the bare arena, she tsked.

She had been hoping for an arena with some burnable materials. That would make this fight a lot easier, but instead of that, she got hard-packed stone.

Still, it would be a neutral arena for both of them, which was better than nothing.

Cain waved at her and blew her a kiss while their platforms lowered, and she sighed.

Her fan club was alive and well. In fact, it was thriving.

If she didnt know better, she would suspect someone was fanning their metaphorical flames for her.

Cain shouted something out, but the barriers made it inaudible.

When they lowered, he repeated. Let me take you out for dinner after I beat you, Torch?

Liz would have snarked back, but Torch was quieter than that, and she only said. When you win? Unlikely.

With the ref counting down, Torch watched as Cain started wiggling his fingers, and the instant the ref hit zero, he summoned a strip of meat and tossed it into his mouth.

She didn't bother to move, as she had seen the effect already in a recording and from the stands. She knew that there was nothing she could do to stop the transformation that would overtake the man. Others had tried and failed in most of his early matches. His Talent protected him to a degree during the shapeshifting process.

In seconds, the unarmored human twisted and cracked as scales, and miniature wings grew from his back.

The dragon-like shape of his head and teeth gave away the source of the meat he had eaten. That was a new one for him, but it was an improvement over the wyvern meat he had been eating for the majority of the tournament.

This time at least, he had arms, which meant dragon meat.

He breathed out a stream of liquid metal, and Torch cursed. A molten metal dragon?

That was a surprisingly bad combination for her Torch identity to fight against.

Dragons were hard enough to hurt as a baseline, and they always had innate resistances against their own elements.

She doubted that she'd be able to easily burn through a dragonhide that was able to handle liquid metal.

With a burst of fire, she took off the ground to dodge the splash of glowing metal, and sent a probing bar of flame with [Flamethrower] at Cain.

The attack splashed off his scaly hide and didn't even scorch his more vulnerable wings.

The mans Talent was truly unfair.

With two flaps of his undersized wings, he rose into the air, but Torch felt most of the lift was provided by the Concept that the man was using. That would have been easy to stop if she had an external Concept, but unless she was able to use hers externally for the first time now, she had no way to punish that.

Letting flames gather around her spear, Torch thrust forward and let a [Fireball] lose. It caught Cain in the mouth and caused his next breath attack to rebound in his maw.

With her boosted abilities from her blood alchemy, Liz reached forward and thrust her reinforced spear into his wing.

The leathery flesh parted easily, and she pulled her spear to the side to widen the wound, listening to Cain scream in pain. She might not be a dragon, but she knew more than her fair share of them, and none of them liked their wings being damaged. The older ones learned how to deal with said pain, but the younger ones were extra vulnerable to damage on the sensitive membrane.

Clearly, Cain hadnt used dragon meat in practice.

Given how expensive getting his hands on even a tiny piece of the meat had to be, she had expected nothing less. While his Talent didnt demand he kill the creature he wanted to take the form of, not many dragons were willing to slice off a bit of flesh, for any reason.

Flying to the side, she activated her new cloak and smiled, and fire started to gather on its fluttering leather.

Going in for another attack, her spear was intercepted by Cain's claw while his tail was coming around, but she punched out with her off-hand to stop it.

She had to pretend that it was the fire that empowered her, but Torch hit hard. Hard enough that she felt scales crack from the impact, and saw Cain's eyes widen at the fact that he had lost the exchange.

After all, few things were able to match a dragon in physical might at the same Tier

Torch was simply one of them.

Once her cloaks ability was finally ready to be cast, she let the stored fire blast out in a wave.

She was unaffected as the item's wielder, but Cain, who was still so close she could feel his breath, wasnt so lucky.

After the auction, they had learned that the more flame they stored in the cloak, the stronger the explosion was. And Matt had no problem using his [Flamethrower] on the cloak between fights to keep it fully charged.

As the arena was filled with flame, and Cain was slapped into the outer barrier, Torch started to swirl her spear in a circle and started gathering the fire that now flooded the arena. She then activated her armor's enchantments as the fire washed over her.

The metal started to glow as it absorbed the fire, but it also strengthened her, like a second layer of muscles.

Cain had righted himself by the time she finished buffing herself, and she flew at him as fast as she could, dodging the streams of liquid metal he spat at her.

Landing, she started to use the blood she had layered between her flames and heavy armor, and guided her actions.

With boosts coming from her blood alchemy, her armor burning the fire for power, and her ability to manipulate the blood in her body and layered in her armor, Torch punched Cain in his scaled chest. She felt bone and scale break under the blow, and Cain flew backward into the barrier.

He tried to run, but Torch was faster, and snagged his one intact wing.

Planting herself, she pulled, and as the dragon-man tried to go with the movement to reduce the pressure, she shoved her spear through his foot, pinning him into the ground.

Cain screamed from the dual pain of having his wing ripped off and the spear pinning him into the ground. Not letting go of the momentum, Torch uppercutted him and felt bones and teeth break.

She took one claw to the side, but it was little more than a glancing blow.

Torch was surprised that Cain hadnt been removed yet, but didnt stop throwing punches at her pinned in place opponent. If the referees didnt pull him, it only meant that his life wasn't in any danger.

She caught an oversized claw in her own hand as it tried to encase her head, and pushed back with everything she had to keep the razor-sharp claws at bay.

Looking up to her opponent, she saw him gathering his breath for a final breath attack, now that they were so close.

She commended him for the attempt.

Against someone who didnt know dragons, it might have worked.

Torch shoved her arm into Cains broken maw and then pushed into his throat.

With a grip like iron, she grabbed the soft flesh in his throat as soon as she found the orifice that was opening up to dispel the stored liquid metal.

Unlike most cultivators, dragons didnt necessarily need a skill to cast their bloodline elemental breath weapon. It was a physical attack more than a magical, skill-based one.

While most dragons used a skill that did the same thing to save their more limited natural attacks, it normally didnt matter, as the attacks were so similar. But the ability to cast without spending mana was an invaluable trump card.

That is at least, unless someone grabs the organ that dispels said attack and holds it closed.

Torch gathered fire around her arm as Cain tried to bite her, and thankfully, her armor resisted the broken teeth as he chomped down.

After she gathered enough flame, Torch started to send it into the exposed gums of the teeth she had knocked out. The attack against a vulnerable bit of flesh caused the dragon man to try and recoil in pain, but Torch kept her hold over the man's throat.

It was only a question of what would give first.

Her grip or his flesh.

Finally, something gave, and Torch was left standing and holding a chunk of flesh in her hand, as molten metal started to leak out of Cain's mouth without the orifice that normally kept it stored away.

It only took the referee seconds for the referee to come in and snatch the now drowning dragon-man to get him to a healer.

Though, Torch wasn't sure if would need a healer before or after he was turned back into a human form.

Pulling her spear up to her with a touch of [Blood Manipulation], thanks to the blood incorporated into the shaft, she started to absorb all of the fire in the surroundings. Despite the lack of flammables in the area, the fire cast from Matt's endless sub-aspected mana liked to linger, and Torch never left any for someone to examine after a fight.

It would be wasted to power her armor, but that was better than the alternative.

With her expressionless mask, she flew out of the arena and heard the roaring of the crowd. For all Liz didnt want to be vain, she had to admit, it was nice to hear the cheering of the spectators. They might not know her, but they loved to watch her work.

She was enjoying the adulation when she saw a group of Pathers hoist a massive sign that said My love for Torch burns forever. She resisted the urge to burn the offending sign and people. Her Torch Barers were infuriating with their lewd puns.

If she had known she would get a fan club, she would have never agreed to this. At least it was for her Mask, and not her true identity. She couldnt help but feel a renewed sense of understanding as to why Duke Waters was so adamant about protecting the separation of identities.

Appreciation for her abilities was one thing, but the fervor some of her fans had was worrying.

She flew off to the rest area when she caught a glance of Matt and a copy of herself cheering in the crowd. To her horror, he had a cringy My Torch Burns for Thee banner, and a tee shirt saying, I stand for Torch. Even her other self was wearing a too tight shirt with a cartoon torch and heart overlapped.

That settled her down. Matt had watched her fight and enjoyed the show.

She was proud of her showing as Torch. While she couldn't use her obvious blood skills, she was able to out-muscle most everyone else here.

If she was lucky in a few Tiers, she might even be stronger than Matt. At least, if he wasnt using Mages Retreat. She was pretty sure her Concept scaled harder than his single skill did.

That could lead to some fun times.

As she changed into her Liz clothes and swapped places with Luna, she pulled Matt's arm around her and stood on her tippy toes to snatch a kiss.

She made a note to make herself a few inches taller when she was Tier 15. Matt was just too damn tall, naturally.

Liz refused to be the girlfriend who had to fly next to their boyfriend.

That was just embarrassing.

Looking over to the side, she asked, Want to go watch Kyle's match? He's up next I believe.

Matt smiled and agreed before saying, I don't know. I might want to go get myself a Torch fan club membership. She's so hot.

Liz resisted smiling to give him a flat look and asked, Oh, I bet she has red hair as well?

The call back to their first meeting was funny.

She still hated the obvious redhead jokes, but this was at least amusing.

Matt nodded deeply. Oh yeah, she has to be. Redheads and fire skills. It's a universal constant after all. He leaned in to nip her ear, sending a shiver down her spine as he whispered, And you know I love me some red hair.

Liz was half a second away from dragging Matt back to their room when Melinda sent them a message that she had saved them a seat. She disengaged from her frisky partner as they started walking to see their friend fight.