Rose started by running along the mountain pathways that she had been following so far, but quickly realized it was too inefficient. The pathways were a winding web that circled around and around the mountain, a gradual ascent of a thousand ceremonial gates—but just that. Gradual. Could I just run straight towards the top?
She stopped and turned to regard the mountainside. It was a thicket of trees, bushes and cliffs, but it wasn’t impossible to scale by any means, especially with her newly enhanced physical prowess. But that felt too easy. Too direct. Rose narrowed her eyes, trying to remember.
Didn’t the dungeon description say something about the guards guiding travelers along the paths? It almost seems to imply that something bad would happen to those who stray from the path. But even still—
Rose absorbed the blood she had gathered from a guard that had tried to stop her run.
Blood: 14/100
If there are tougher monsters on the direct path, let them come.
A challenge in her eye, Rose ran off the path, straight into the cliffside forest. Immediately, she noticed her pace improving. It wasn’t just about the path being more direct, her instincts seemed to better fit running through a thicket than along paved paths. And that was very odd.
Most my life I’ve lived in a dense city, weaving through alleyways and crowds. I’d never even seen a forest before! How does it feel this natural?
It was almost as if the trees and brush were making way for her. She never had to slow down to dodge a clump of trees, nor did she ever misjudge her footing and step on bad ground. No—her every step flowed like a dance, even as she climbed up cliffs and hopped over stumps.
There were small stone shrines hidden away in little nooks, and ancient graves with inscriptions weathered standing here and there, making it feel as if civilization had retreated from the shaded forest long ago. But every now and then the forest would suddenly end, as a paved path cut through it, and then Rose was back in the woods.
In one minute of running straight up the mountain, she ascended as much as in the previous ten following the paths. Then, just as she jumped over a small stream—
Pain on her lower back. Teeth, digging in. Something was biting her!
Almost by instinct, Rose shot out a thorn from her back, right into whatever was biting.
Then she stumbled onto the ground in a messy heap, jump turning into a crash, but there was also a yelp from behind as something jumped back, bleeding. Rose rolled on the ground and got up to her knee, finally seeing her opponent.
Correction—opponents. A single bleeding fox with monstrous proportions and a thin web of burnmarks was licking a wound on its neck, while three others watched from the other side of the creek. Their canines had grown so oversized they couldn’t seem to close their mouths, but they were still much less twisted than the humanoids monsters so far.
Paslamm Fox
The group of foxes that live on the shrine mountain are revered as messengers of the spirits. The people of the shrine often leave bits of food for them near the forest, which the foxes gladly eat as long as the people stay a respectful distance away. They are careful creatures, quick to make themselves scarce if anyone intrudes on their forest.
“That is a very unhelpful description,” Rose muttered, one eye on her wound, the other on the foxes that were slowly moving to surround her. So, it’s not just people that become monsterified by that… corruption or whatever it is. Why can’t I sense them with Divine Sense?
She had felt no approaching monsters, which was the whole reason the creature had managed to sneak up on her. Maybe they have some sort of stealth ability? At least I seem to be able to stop my own wounds from bleeding too. Very convenient.
It was taking a bit of her effort to hold the blood in, but not much. The foxes on the other hand…
Rose pointed at the one she had wounded and activated blood siphon. The beast yelped with panic as the shallow wound started gushing like an overflown gutter, then turned to run. Oh no you don’t.
Rose almost summoned petals to chase, but then a branch cracking revealed one of the foxes approaching from behind, and Rose spun to meet it, pulling all the blood she had siphoned forward. The fox was midair, jumping for her neck with jaws wide open, and Rose responded by drawing up a barricade of sharp thorns right in front.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
It couldn’t stop the momentum, and slammed into the gleaming spikes with a whimper and a sickening crunch, but Rose had no time for that. The other two foxes were already coming for her, again to her back.
She dismissed the thorns, then jumped forward and pulled blood from the impaled fox as she passed it, sending it behind her in a petal storm. The foxes evaded to the side, dashing back to the brush, and Rose kept moving forward, but again felt a bite on her skin.
Another fox had crept up on her from the front, then hid in the grass, waiting for her to approach—then bitten down on her ankle.
“What the—!”
Rose started to get angry. Her other blood was too far away, so she pulled some from her own wound this time, forming a long palm leaf as sharp as a razor in her hand—then swung it at the fox biting on her.
She was fast—the fox’s teeth barely had time to hit bone before her blade hit its neck—
And beheaded it as easily as a knife through butter.
For a moment, Rose was surprised by how easily her blade had cut through, but she continued her swing behind her—
Hitting the fifth fox that had just jumped at her. Another head rolled.
Panting, Rose swung the leaf-sword around her wildly, trying to get her eyes on all the foxes that were there. She could see more and more poking their heads through bushes and creeping along the grass, waiting for a chance to jump her. Just how many of these things are there? Do they keep coming as long as I stay in the forest?
A lot of blood was spilled all around her, plenty enough for her to continue the fight, so she kept half of it swirling around her in a defensive vortex, while absorbing the part that was starting to lose potency.
Blood: 15/100
This time, Rose felt a portion of the blood go to her wounds, and her flesh started to reknit around her bitten ankle. She was glad to see her skill have a healing component, but the situation still wasn’t good.
Her eyes scanned the trees and brush around her carefully. Some foxes were wounded, running away from the range of her blood siphon, but many more were creeping up from all possible directions. This isn’t working. I need to get to the top fast, there’s no time for a siege.
She took a running step forward and—stumbled.
Rose caught herself, surprised. Her step had been a lot weaker than before. She looked at the leaf blade in her hand. I thought that was too effective by half… if the blood inside me is what’s empowering my body this much, I’m not surprised it's also strong as a weapon.
She dismissed the blade and was glad the blood from it returned to normal, not having lost its potency like the normal type did. She sent it back into her veins through the wound on her back and felt the strength return to her body. I lost a lot more strength than the proportion of blood I used for that. Need to be careful.
But the foxes were circling. Rose eyed them and waited. They kept circling, eyeing her vortex of blood. Rose kept waiting. She was getting annoyed. Come on—I don’t have time for this!
Finally, she sensed one pounce at her from behind, and Rose turned her blood vortex into a thin screen, blocking the view of her from all directions. She ran forward as she felt foxes impact the screen from all directions.
Rose ducked under the one in front of her, burst out of her own veil—then ran forward as fast as she could, turning all the blood behind her into one big petal storm.
But then she was out of it, running up the slope once again, ignoring the plentiful blood behind her. That should keep them off for a moment. This time she ran more alert. The foxes that had died had appeared to her divine sense instantly with that distinctive feeling, so they had to have an ability to cover their presence somehow. So Rose decided to ignore her divine sense completely, instead focusing on the next best thing—blood.
What does fox-blood taste like? She still had a bit with her, floating behind her in a glob, so she sent a sample into her mouth and tasted it like a fine wine. Sweet, with a slight earthy flavor? It was very different from Adan’s blood, or that of the corrupted shrine guards—the distinct taste of a fox.
She concentrated, rolling the blood around in her mouth, trying to hone in on it—
And all of a sudden Rose could smell it everywhere. Feel it everywhere.
A fox that had been waiting behind a log tried to ambush her, but she just kicked it on the face and kept running. Two coordinated an ambush from up a tree, but Rose didn’t even look at them, instead just leaning forward and letting them collide on each other.
Many more foxes tried to assail her, but Rose met them with thorns and petals, impaling any that got in the way and running past all the others. Rivers of blood flowed down the mountainside, and Rose was drinking greedily on all she could collect.
Blood: 17/100
Blood: 19/100
Blood: 21/100
Then, after a final climb up a sheer cliff and a skirmish with one last fox, Rose broke through the treeline and spotted the mountain’s peak. A small stone wall surrounded a temple hewn from stone, and a cobblestone staircase led down from a gate, back towards those winding mountain paths.
Rose ran like a convict hungry for freedom, collecting the very last bits potent blood she had into a globe in her hand, then jumping over the wall to finally arrive at the fight.
She landed hard, and for a moment, stood there, panting, trying to take in the situation. One figure was dueling an armored monster, while two more stood back, helping from a range. Those two heard Rose arriving, looked at her, and screamed.
“Human!”
Rose had made it in time—and finally saw the enemies of her former order in the flesh. Two demons, crimson skin and horned heads, and one goblin, a diminutive, green-skinned figure with a savage smile. Followers of the Flame God, Vulkus, the other side of the eternal war.
And the boss monster looked almost dead.