LimitlessPath
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Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Fifty
🕑 Added 2023-12-05 18:00:03 +0000 UTCTaking down such a creature would be a massive undertaking for a full dungeon group, something like Beth and Blood plus her sisters and Sabs, or even a broader group of ten to fifteen individuals, let alone the two of them by themselves. While Beth's eyes were much improved, and had gained another level in the copper stage, she couldn't identify something of even that size from such a large distance. Depending on the level and what inherent abilities the beast had, this would either be a difficult challenge, an unbelievably difficult mountain to climb, or a straight up impossible to tackle task.
Being pretty sure that she had now identified the actual goal of the stage, namely the defeat of such a towering beast, Beth moved forward while signaling Blood to carefully scout. Just because the only obvious thing around other than trees and a few simple shrubs was the huge creature didn't mean that nothing else was really there. Beth still had the rending mantises locked firmly in her mind, aware that even low-level beasts could display a remarkable penchant for camouflage or outright stealth. There was also the faint, hopefully very faint, possibility that one of these hills they were jogging across was another enormous beast, but Beth had her fingers crossed that they wouldn't been thrown that far into the deep end on a mere stage six.
As they approached the beast, moving at a moderate clip while still trying to maintain some care for and awareness of their surroundings, Beth noted that one aspect of the enemy's massive frame did seem to be a noticeable slowness in all its movements. Suspecting that the beast would have both great strength and a truly incredible tenacity, she supposed she should count what blessings they actually received.
She wasn't even sure how they could confront it, issues that became all the more apparent as they approached closer to the massive being. The creature was well over one hundred and twenty feet tall, meaning what passed for its ankles were at a height above Beth's head. The beast's six legs were massive pillars, each more than fifty feet high, ending in huge stumps that jutted forward only a handful of feet towards the front, the duty of supporting the great weight of the beast being mostly on the massive oval base of the lower leg. Beth stopped about four hundred feet from the beast to examine its walking pattern as it moved to their left, slowly plodding northward.
"How do you eat an elephant?" she muttered as Blood stood beside her, the wolf scenting the air as Beth watched the heat patterns of their enemy. There was nothing particularly special that she could see, with the legs being slightly colder further from the body, but it all was pretty well within what most living beings would typically display.
'I don't know that I could be much use for this. I can't really climb well, sister,' Blood sent as she finished scenting and observed the legs of the huge creature.
"Maybe we can injure it enough to get it to kneel? I honestly don't even know where we should start for something like this…"
'Cripple the legs,' Blood replied decisively, nodding at her. Whether it was her keen hunting instincts from her lupine heritage, or simply her keen mind working out the best way to topple the overly large opponent, she was quite confident in her answer.
"OK, sure, kinda obvious, but what I'm saying is 'how?'" Beth replied with a frown.
'Sword and claw,' Blood replied with as much of a shrugging motion as she could make before slinking forward at a moderately rapid pace, clearly done with their strategy discussion.
Beth drew her sword as she followed along behind, keeping her eyes on the beast as Blood scouted them a direct path to where the creature was moving. She had to re-evaluate her estimation of their opponent upward somewhat as, when they got close, it actually seemed to take notice of them. It was a little unusual to her, considering they were the size of flies compared to it, but it seemed it had somehow been clued in to their approach.
That suspicion was confirmed when the creature turned and roared directly at them, Beth wincing and plugging her left ear with her index finger. The roar lasted for quite a few seconds before the beast began to spin, somewhat clumsily, towards them. Beth recovered with a frown as she moved to circle to her right to keep to the beast's flank, not wanting to allow it to maneuver to bring its jaws to bear. She would be little more than a hors d'oeuvre to the creature, considering she could quite likely stand upright in its mouth without much issue.
She cut in towards the front left leg, fast enough without even activating Swift to keep ahead of the circling beast. When she was a few steps away from the leg, she darted forward with a quick lunge and slashed at back of the foot with a heavy swing, but no additional skills. Her blade bit through the tough flesh of the beast with only mild resistance, Beth carving open a wound on its foot before darting back. She almost laughed at just how little damage it was, only getting a little more serious as the creature lashed out with its leg, moving the limb surprisingly fast compared to what it had demonstrated so far.
Beth activated Swift and darted to the side, avoiding the attack before looking for Blood, finding the wolf savaging another leg. Well, savaging might have been a rather strong descriptor, as she wasn't dealing much more damage than what Beth had managed. She was able to observe as the beast swiped at Blood next, watching as its leg lashed out rather quickly. She noted that the beast practically stopped moving when it lashed out at Blood, something that might be a weakness, but she wasn't exactly sure how they could exploit it at this point. It was at least something that they could keep in mind and use to help avoid any unnecessary damage.
"It pauses when it does a fast kick," Beth called out to Blood. "If it's kicking at one of us, the other has free reign to move or attack."
'Understood,' Blood replied mentally.
Beth really hoped this wasn't going to wind up being a 'death of a thousand cuts' situation, considering she wasn't sure they could bleed the massive beast out within their two-day time limit. There were likely two ways for them to go about it at their current power level, and Beth didn't really look forward to either of them. They were going to need to get eaten, which didn't sound like a very smart play, or they were going to need to somehow make their way up onto its back wherein they could hack their way into it and get at its vital organs.
Beth decided to go for a climbing attempt while Blood distracted the beast, slashing at a foot with her powerful claws while Beth moved to a separate leg. She sheathed her sword and leapt when Blood's attack distracted the beast, traveling almost twenty feet up the leg before she slammed her gauntlets into the creature's flesh and clung on. The skin of the massive beast was thick and filled with seams and odd knobs and spurs, none of them very large even relative to its size, but enough for Beth to use as hand- and footholds. She was no expert climber, but the 'terrain' she was making her way over made it easy for her to advance.
The beast did seem to notice that Beth was making her way up its leg, a little more sensitive than she had guessed something of its size might be, but she had progressed far enough that it couldn't really shake her off. It certainly did try, stopping almost all other movements to rapidly kick the leg Beth was clinging to in and out, attempting to fling her away. Beth merely dug her fingers and feet in, gripping tightly as she was propelled back and forth, waiting for the kicking to abate. She resumed climbing once the beast failed in dislodging her, noting that Blood was still happily savaging the same leg.
She reached the shoulder of the creature, finding an armored ridge of something resembling bone in her path. She utilized her quite high STR stat at this point to actually dig the tips of her fingers into the ridges of the bone plate, slightly cracking the surface of the bone as she pulled herself up across the shoulder. After a minute of struggle, she managed to cross the bone plate at the top of the shoulder, leaping up onto the creature's back and surveying the area.
The back of the beast was rather heavily sloped, with the central part rising to a high mound. The creature's skin and flesh were rather tough and leathery with a slight property of stone, not enough added toughness that it impeded Beth or Blood, but something that would slow down anyone with lower STR. Beth was still surveying the area when she had an inkling of danger, feeling something change in the air around her. Her moment of confusion, not seeing anything in the sky or obviously attacking her, led to her being hit in full by the attack.
A bolt of electricity shot out of the back of the beast right next to where Beth stood, slamming into her crossed arms, Beth having just enough DEX and awareness to partially block the attack. The partial block, however, wasn't really good enough, as not only was Beth filled with lightning, but she was blasted off her feet. Normally, this wouldn't have been much of a problem, her Lightning Resistance allowing her to nullify at least some of the damage and partially resist the stun. Being on top of the beast, still near its shoulder, made the experience of getting thrown into the air by the blast slightly more problematic.
Beth flew off the shoulder of the beast, letting out a quick "Fuck!" as she hurtled through the air, spinning as she fell. Fortunately, or not, depending on one's perspective, she was thrown into a copse of tall pines, slamming into the side of one after about sixty feet of flight in total. Beth didn't just let herself impact the tree randomly, but actively grabbed the trunk with her heavy gauntlets, grunting as she smacked into the thick bark. She checked herself over as Blood continued to worry at the massive beast, surprised to find that she was only lightly bruised after such a blast and fall. Looking back up to the back of the beast rather high overhead, she marveled at just how strong she had already become, a fall that should have killed her barely giving her pause.
'Are you well, sister?' Blood asked through their mental connection.
'Fine. Falling from a moderate high place like that isn't nearly as scary as it was. I could've hit the ground and been fine, especially with Lordly Reconstruction,' Beth replied as she climbed down, leaping the last fifteen feet to the ground without even noticing the impact.
Beth moved back into the fight, taking note of the fact that the beast didn't use any lightning or electrical attacks while they worried at its legs. It seemed it was either incapable of projecting the lightning from its body to attack adversaries on the ground, or it still didn't consider them enough of a threat to actually make use of such an ability. Beth repeated the same tactic she had used the previous time, waiting for Blood to distract the enemy before climbing one of its limbs. This time, once she had regained its back, she was careful to keep a firm hold of the beast, not wanting any more impromptu flight lessons today.
The beast slammed another thick bolt of lightning into her after only a few seconds on its back, which Beth simply tanked with an upraised gauntlet and a heavy grunt, allowing the electrical energies to flow through and back out of her body. Little sparks flickered off the metal of her gauntlets, and she noted that there were light burn patterns on the back of her right gauntlet where the electricity had seared it. Luckily for her, the blast wasn't powerful enough to throw her off when she was prepared for it, nor to cause her too much damage through her armor and Lightning Resistance. She shrugged off the lingering effects of the second blast and rapidly moved forward, towards the center of the beast's back, hoping to find a point where she could attack the spine or another weak point.
Beth found that the spine of the beast was armored with further bone plating, particularly around the head and neck, though it did stretch for dozens of feet down the back before petering out. While she had enough STR to crack into the exposed surface layer of the bone plating, it would likely take hours for her to fully smash through one of the plates. She was constantly being bombarded by the lightning blasts, the only positive she could spin on it being the frequency and power of the strikes remained unchanged. She moved around the back as she continued to get hit, feeling as if she got a little better at absorbing the lightning, looking for anything she might be able to attack.
She did eventually, long enough that she got another level of her resistance, settle upon a place and plan of attack. The next eight hours need not be recounted in all their detail as, with Beth fully capable of shrugging off the lightning, she proceeded to carve her way into the beast and deal enough damage to its organs to kill it. The amount of blood and gore that she waded through, and was coated in, was enough to make even the somewhat hardened warrior retch, but she kept her lunch down and finished the job.
The two were teleported back to the array room shortly after Beth's victory, having gained a level from the kill. She was pretty sure they had both almost gained two levels, but it wasn't quite enough to push them over the line. The experience of digging through the beast's guts was enough that Beth needed a break and, as long as they didn't tap into their extra seven days, there was no real disadvantage in using the remainder of the two days they had per stage. She led Blood out of the array room and back to their temporary quarters, glad none of the blood and gore transferred out of the instance with them.
They took copious advantage of the massive bathroom they had access to, or at least, Beth did, with Blood not being a particular fan of the tub. Not that she absolutely hated it, but she didn't really enjoy it, nor how annoyed others would get at her for all the fur that wound up shedding from her while she soaked. Beth, on the other hand, was starting to greatly enjoy baths, especially ones taken after a thorough shower, so she was extremely clean when she went to soak. She spent long enough in the water that she was rather thoroughly pruned by the time she got out, laying down with Blood for a good sleep before they did anything else.
The first order of business when they were awake was food, and Beth decided to continue making use of the restaurants, though this did necessitate her getting dressed. With that tiresome task complete, the two headed down to the area with the eateries, noting that no one other than the attendants at the counters were in the main lobby. This was not true for the first time, however, for the restaurant they chose to eat within, for there was actually a lone man sitting at a table in the back corner. He was tall and thin, though his face did portray him as being rather young, lacking a certain lean hardness it might have had if he were that much older than Beth. He glanced up from his meal as they were led in, giving them a distant, appraising look before returning his gaze, and full attention, to his plate. Beth merely gave him a nod in passing as they were led to the back corner and seated before the waiter took their order. The young man left a short time later, rising and walking out with quick steps as soon as the last bite of food was cleared from his plate. Once they had eaten, Beth felt like it wasn't quite time for them to resume their challenge of the stages, still wanting to take a little bit to relax before rushing back into it, something she would be quite glad of in the coming stage.
They made their way into what Beth was dubbing the 'Entertainment Complex,' that being the hallway opposite the eateries that contained the spas, lounges, VR rooms, and training areas available for all the guests to make use of as they saw fit. Out of everything that was available, and keeping in mind both their upcoming stage and picking something that Blood could also participate in, she decided they might as well check out one of the VR studios. They had equipment within that allowed quite a broad range of body shapes and sizes to be immersed in the virtual space utilizing several different methods, which Beth and Blood took advantage of to allow the large wolf to immerse herself alongside her bond in a virtual world.
They didn't do anything particularly crazy in the virtual space, and Beth was amused to see the massive variety of games available for play, including ones with heavy focus on RPG systems. Instead, she selected something that acted as a relaxing beach getaway, allowing them to experience an entire day of fun in a beautiful coastal location all compressed to only a couple real-time hours. Beth had to say, it was really nice to relax somewhere that felt like a real vacation getaway, only slightly disappointed she didn't get a bit of a tan out of the deal.
When they were finally ready, they made their way back to the array room, Beth seeing that the attendant she had been talking with originally was on duty again at the desk. They made their way over and quickly selected to begin stage seven and keep it private before heading over to the array Warder, moving in front of a light-yellow portal which he indicated. At his signal, they again leapt forward and into their next stage, experiencing just a faint moment of bright-white sensory overload before they were in the heart of the stage.
Comments
Garrett Byers
The others each have just under one gold or even less right now; buying the simplest unenchanted ring would take up most or all of their money. That's buying one ring, not enchanted, when their only enchanter is still lacking the skill to reliably enchant such a piece without totally messing it up. As Beth wisely points out, spending all their money on rings that do nothing and likely having their only enchanter break them isn't a good use of their funds, especially when they need various supplies, so they don't do that.
Arkeus
The rest of the group should definitely have enough money to buy the unenchanted rings
