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Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven
🕑 Added 2023-11-29 18:00:03 +0000 UTCBeth, meanwhile, continued her spar with the boss, finding its swings fast but not particularly skilled. In fact, she would estimate, based on her own limited knowledge and experience, that the boss wouldn't even be equivalent to the top of Apprentice level, maybe at Apprentice[7] or even just under. She was rather easily able to dodge its rapid attacks without needing to get her own sword involved, using it as a bit of a training chance, taking any opportunity to help her get stronger. She focused on avoiding the edge of the boss's blade without ceding any ground to the beast, moving laterally or returning a strike to freeze the boss in place.
She swayed and dodged around the boss's blade for first a minute, then two, then five, getting more and more comfortable with the dodges as she did so. She started throwing in parries after the first minute, punching the enemy's arm as it swung or even striking the flat of its blade with the back of her fist. This even further interrupted the commander's momentum, and Beth had to be careful not to actually overwhelm it and drive it back into its room, a room still full of other enemies.
After ten minutes of intense battle, mainly made so by Beth's efforts to use the boss as a grindstone to polish her skills, she started dealing damage to the boss. Every dodged slash was countered with a strike of her own, crushing and cracking the commander's armor. She had to pause after a moment, taking a step back to allow the commander to recover after pushing it back into the command room. Luckily the shades, just like other mindless beasts, didn't possess any tactics or capacity for abstract reasoning, meaning the rest of the enemy group just stood behind their commander as he was pounded into recycling rejects.
Beth had to regulate her uses of Beastly Body, the skill requiring a decent amount of mana to actively maintain and, while she could use it continuously, it did seem to have a cooldown every time she turned it off. She didn't really need the skill in order to win the current fight, but it was a valuable opportunity to train and start discovering everything it was capable of providing. The skill seemed to give a moderate boost to her STR and a tiny boost to her DEX while active. It also boosted her physical toughness, though that effect was both minor and a little hard to tell, considering her armor was still fairly good and the enemies weren't hitting particularly hard. It definitely didn't modify her END stat at all, as she didn't feel any extra energy when using the skill or like it made a difference in her overall stamina.
The combination of the new reinforcement skill, even more points in STR, and her max copper Crush let her deal ridiculous damage to heavily armored targets, though she was starting to pound her own gauntlets into scrap. Mana copper just wasn't able to keep up with her STR at this point, even mana steel not holding up that well, as the crumpled breastplate of the boss could attest to. Beth wasn't particularly worried about it, her own flesh and blood tough enough to withstand quite a few strikes before she even could cause herself minor bruising. She would look into buying or making a set of gauntlets for herself when the Trial was over, if she didn't somehow get a set as a reward. And speaking of buying, she glanced at her stat page as she parried a swing from the boss, crushing its left elbow even further in the process, before noting that she was back up over fifty silvers. Getting full money from each of their kills, and killing all level fifty plus beasts, was already doing a lot to refill her emptied cash reserves.
Beth was pretty sure, even though the boss was stronger than everything they'd faced so far, that the beasts in this mock dungeon were weaker than they ought to be. She finished pounding the boss into so much mana steel scrap before moving on to the remaining knights, pushing into the room to confront them after the boss fell. Blood followed her inside, distracting and knocking down the enemies as Beth crumpled them like old soda cans. It only took another ten minutes, even considering there were still two captains in the room, before everything was dead, Blood finishing the last enemy with a dose of Rending Bite. Beth noted they got a level as the kill notification dinged in her mind, quickly distributing her two free points.
Beth had just started to look around the room, curious if there was anything of note, when the world seemed to shift and they were back outside the array, one of the Warders motioning for them to step aside. Beth heeded his disgruntled waving, leading Blood over to the counter where a different woman and man were standing. She approached the woman and returned the smile she was given before asking her questions.
"Hey, uh, question. Are the beasts in the stages weaker somehow?" Beth asked.
"Ah, I see you noticed the adjustments," the woman replied with a nod. "In the first five stages, the beasts are of the appropriate level for the trial, but their overall level of power is lowered to allow for under-leveled participants to catch up. The enemies will be slightly stronger the next three stages until they are the normal power such enemies would be at stage six."
"OK, that makes sense. Must be tough to do?"
"Oh, yes, the amount of resources spent on this Trial is rather enormous. The returns, as judged by the leaders of our factions, are well worth it, however. It's nothing you need to worry about, just do your best in every stage," the woman responded.
"Alright, I think we're ready for stage three?" Beth said in a bit of an unsure voice, tilting her head and looking at Blood. The wolf just nodded to her, Beth smiling and stroking her head before turning back to the worker.
"Of course. And would you like this session to be private as well?" she asked.
"Yes, please," Beth answered.
"OK. When you are ready, proceed to speak to the Warder," the woman said with a smile and a gesture at the nearest of the two Warders, the man twitching almost imperceptibly in response.
"Thanks," Beth returned the smile before leading Blood over to the Warder. He gave her the same terse instructions as usual, and they took their place to wait before he signaled them to enter. They stepped through the slightly darker blue portal as soon as the Warder finished speaking, finding the world twisting for a second before they were in the third stage.
When the short moment of disorientation was over, Beth found that they were standing in a large arena, the stands empty of viewers but an opponent waiting for them across the field. The floor of the arena was made of some kind of black stone, with the walls and much of the rest of the construction of varying degrees of red stone. The benches and seats in the general sections looked to be made of a lighter shade of the red stone, and they were padded with what looked like simple cloths. The arena had, at least currently, no ceiling, opening to a bright blue sky with two suns hanging high overhead. One of the stars was clearly larger and had a very slight reddish tint, while the other was a good bit smaller and had a more whitish coloring.
Across from Beth and Blood stood a single warrior, a woman wearing a fairly simple set of leather armor. She was only a little shorter than Beth and had two swords sheathed at her waist. She drew them as Beth took her first step forward, pointing the blades at Beth as she approached. Beth drew her own sword in response, ready for a fierce fight, especially after she identified the woman using her enhanced eyes.
Level 64 Elven Blade Dancer
When she was about twenty paces away, a second being appeared off to the side. Beth wasn't surprised by this, recognizing the format at this point as she waited, the man who was clearly a referee first signaling to her opponent. When her opponent bowed to the ref he turned to Beth, who signaled her own readiness, before having them bow to each other. Once that was complete, he raised his left hand, calling out that the contestants were ready. When his hand dropped, both Beth and the foreign woman exploded forward, the elven lady's eyes widening a little as she observed Beth rocket towards her.
Beth noted the tell but wouldn't rely on it, assuming skilled duelists would attempt to lure an enemy into a false sense of security through many methods, including facial expressions. Beth opened with a quick horizontal chop, both hands on the hilt of her sword. She wasn't using any enhancing abilities to start, wanting to trade a couple strikes before she started boosting. The elf made to deflect the strike with a quick movement of both her swords, eyes widening much further as Beth altered her blade's trajectory mid-swing, causing only part of the elf's counterblow to be effective. Beth's blade tore a shallow gash across the opponent's left side, the tough hide of her leathers proving more difficult to cut than Beth had first surmised.
The woman countered with a rapid flurry of horizontal strikes, darting back and forth as she attacked, attempting to further interrupt Beth's flow. Beth moved with the strikes, deflecting the quicker woman with rapid movements of her much larger blade. After only a dozen attacks, she had the measure of the enemy, and decided that she might have been a little too cautious based on her experiences with the phantoms that Baelvyr had unlocked for her.
She activated both Swift and Beastly Body at the same time, taking them to the maximum output she was currently capable of producing. Her black and red blade suddenly became a rippling blur, Beth watching as the elf's eyes went wide, just barely hearing her startled gasp before the greatsword dug into the woman's side, tearing through her armor and cracking several of her ribs. The elf stumbled back, blood shooting out from beneath her left breast as she instinctively clutched at her side with her left hand, swiping at Beth half-heartedly with her right blade.
Beth wouldn't show mercy, already moving as the elf tried to fend her off, bringing her greatsword around on the backswing. The large blade swept in from the elf's right, sliding around her right arm and smashing into her torso above her right hip, rending through her leathers and flesh alike. Beth didn't use any of her attacking skills, the raw power of her strike, enhanced by Swift and Beastly Body, tearing through the elf's torso and nearly fully bisecting her.
"Halt!" the referee shouted, raising his right hand to signal Beth's victory as the elf fell to the ground, blood and viscera fountaining from the wound before the woman suddenly disappeared altogether. Beth bowed to where her opponent had been, to the referee, and then to the audience before resuming her place. Based on the fact that the stage hadn't ended, Beth assumed she was in for more than one fight.
That assumption turned out to be correct, as a new opponent appeared across from her, the same ref remaining in his square off to the side. Her new opponent was a tall man, made quite obvious by his physique with his chest laid bare, wearing only heavily reinforced pants and boots. His skin was a dark red, and appeared to be rather thick and tough, though it was a little hard for Beth to tell based just on sight. He wasn't an ogre like Baelvyr, but he seemed decidedly something other than a simple human. Beth quickly checked before the referee was ready to start the fight.
Level 64 Troll-blooded Berserker
Apparently, the opponent had some troll blood in him, based on the description Beth saw. And a berserker; that would be something rather new to deal with, Beth making a few assumptions based on both his class and the two one-handed axes sheathed on his belt. The referee started the checks and ready process as she was still examining the man, Beth going through the forms by rote. She watched as the man drew the axes as he readied himself, slicing the blades into his own arms before the match started. Beth just raised her eyebrows at the gesture, guessing he was starting whatever berserker skills he had rolling with the injuries.
Beth wouldn't be polite, in that case, pumping herself full of mana as they were finishing the bows, running Swift and Beastly Body on full power. Once again, the duel started with both participants exploding forward, Beth noting that the Troll-blooded moved much quicker than the elf had managed. She was estimating, based on her observations and knowledge, that this guy had a lot more STR than the elf, able to burst forward in a straight line much more forcefully.
Beth met him head on with a powerful horizontal swing, the opponent moving both of his axes into the path to block the strike. Beth's hit lifted him entirely off the ground and sent him more than a pace back through the air, the Troll-blooded needing to take another quick step back to stabilize himself after he landed. Beth was right there in his face again, hammering him a second and then a third time, the dead-on angle of the blows shoving him back but not lifting him off the ground again. It appeared that her strategy of interrupting his momentum was working so far, Beth not wanting a berserker to get into the flow of a rapid flurry of blows.
The man lashed out with his left axe after her third strike, some sort of skill enhancing the speed at which it carved through the air towards her. Beth stepped back with her right leg, easily moving out of the path of the short weapon while bringing her sword in from her left, the man trying to perform a one-handed deflection with his right axe. Beth grinned as her arm and back muscles swelled, using Monstrous Blow to its absolute limit during the swing. The Troll-blooded's eyes widened as Beth's sword slammed into his axe, the mana copper blade of his weapon tearing before fully shattering, chunks of metal slashing into his face and chest like fragmentation from a grenade. The man staggered back with a curse, the rest of Beth's strike scoring a deep wound across his chest before he recovered.
His recovery was a little too slow against a max Swift Beth, her blade already looping back around for a massive forehand swing. The man tried to block with his one remaining axe, a feeble attempt as Beth empowered her swing again and stepped forward into the attack. She did note, as her blade bit extra deep, that she could actually see his wounds slowly closing as the battle continued. Not that that would help him combat his chest being split apart like an old log before a freshly sharpened axe. The ref signaled the end of the fight when Beth kicked the opponent in the chest, hard, tearing her blade out of the center of his torso and doing even more damage in the process.
