On the top floor of the final Trial Tower within the Dungeon that had trapped me, battle raged quietly. Naea kept the area blanketed in her aura, giving me a slight advantage which I sorely needed. Below, the members of The Ascent were making a choice, but it didn’t matter to me. The only thing which existed was myself and the enemy opposite.
Life on the speartip.
Not quite, as the weapon wasn’t as simple as a spear, nor as easy to dodge. The ratman boss monster engaged with me and within seconds, I was being cut to ribbons. Due to the shape of its weapon, I had some understanding of its attack patterns, but there were other factors at play.
The creature was just under twice my level and definitely on the cusp of evolution. It held a Dao, powerful and complex enough I couldn’t immediately understand it. Attribute-wise it probably had me beaten given the heavier array which monsters benefitted from. I knew Naea received nearly as many attributes as myself even before her grade evolution, mostly randomly assigned.
If I had to guess, boss monsters got way more. Maybe they even had achievements? Either way, it was a struggle just to keep my head as the beautiful weapon swung horizontally. I dropped low, my flexibility also greatly increased by the System. With my first attack of the fight, I tried to kick the ratman’s hand and disarm him.
A brick wall.
I flew away as all of my incoming force ricocheted back onto my own leg. I spun randomly in the air before landing in a heap. No time to groan, I threw myself aside instinctively and dodged the impaling strike aimed for my back. A lightning bolt smashed into the boss monster’s face and gave me some space. “You alive?” Naea asked, her form returning to normal.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m alive.” I held out a hand and Naea hauled me to my feet by my finger. Her strength wasn’t surprising to me, but we were a long way from when she needed help to lift me. She could probably fly me around with ease. “I’ve got something important we need to try after this.”
“After?” Naea held my hand, healing energy flowing from her to me. “I’ll just say the first clash wasn’t promising and let you work out the rest, then.” I smiled and activated Battle Bond. Naea’s eyes rolled a little as I more than doubled her maximum mana in an instant. Her features became slightly draconic, a thinner tongue than normal licking slightly sharper teeth. “Keep up the suppression. Round 2.”
Even our conversations were faster now the System had changed everything. Naea and I could move and perceive at high speeds, so conversations which might have taken a minute now happened in a few seconds. So, too, was the ratman’s recovery. Naea’s tackle had been akin to a swift jab in the mouth. I took up a battle stance again.
The next exchange was still less uneven, with the ratman taking some blows in order to land attacks which had hit only moments before. Indignation flashed across its almost human features and a snarl deepened by Dao came from its furry lips. I was starting to get an image of its specific Dao and it only made me more ready for the fight. It’s a damn shame I don’t still have the Yo Staff, I whined internally.
Our following trade was back to the original unevenness. My stomach was pierced by a stab I didn’t fully dodge. I lost half a finger down the middle to a clever feint. It stamped the blunt end of the long-bladed spear onto my foot and cracked bone. For each movement I was able to read due to Staff Mastery, the creature had another trick to capitalise.
“Are you going to mess around the whole time?” Naea shouted. Her voice whizzed past me like a racecar as she slapped my shoulder, releasing a burst of healing energy. Another angry yelp from the ratman who was clearly upset I was receiving aid mid-fight.
“Whatever, you should have trained a few of those frogs to be healers.” My words were said into the face of the rat as it got up close once more. I fought the urge to close my eyes and shy away. I really hated rats. Especially ones with glaives, which I was pretty sure the weapon it wielded was called. “Fine!” I shouted back towards Naea.
Infusion.
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The ratman had just enough time for its eyes to widen in surprise before my fist met its chest. A cannonball of fur in a cloth robe skipped along the floor a few times. It managed to keep hold of its weapon, which was impressive. The ratman stabbed the glaive into the wooden floor to cease its movement, using the momentum of the blow to its advantage in a way I had done many times. You’re only making me want the glaive more, I warned.
Once I had a layer of Infusion fueling my movements, control was all mine. To say I was toying with the creature would be incorrect, as I was still dancing on the glaive-edge. Literally at one point as I jumped onto the extended shaft to dodge a stab. I stepped lightly and kicked the ratman’s snout down. I was holding back, which to Naea was messing, but I had a reason.
I wasn’t the only one holding back.
Master Thorn was as cliché as they came. It saw my level and assumed the fight would be simple. It had first tried to intimidate us into leaving through pure pressure. We had stood before the Storm Dragon, so that was never going to work. A modicum of respect had been shown when the so-called master had started the battle using a weapon but my own Dao growled when it came into contact with the rat’s. Not just because it belonged to a rodent, either.
My Dao was on the cusp of an evolution. In fact, it had been since my evolution to Grade 1. A true dragon was waiting within my inner world, ready to be birthed from the volcano of power. I tamped down on that power instinctually at first, but consciously now. I wasn’t harming myself, on the contrary, I could feel the power of my Dao solidifying and purifying as the base concepts were more deeply understood.
The reason I had yet to let my Dao evolve was because while the Dragon might be, I wasn’t even close to ready. An Aspect was essentially a Guidance Stone for the Dao itself. I had understood the Dragon intimately due to the Aspect’s presence and that understanding in turn became the Dao itself. If I let the Dragon evolve now, I would never be able to connect other Aspects to it. Three subordinate powers with the Dragon above them as the vessel. That was my plan and I was sticking to it.
All of that to say I could tell when someone else was restraining their Dao for some reason. I doubted it was the same as mine, but the ratman was holding back against me, too. Wait, maybe… Maybe it wasn’t holding back, maybe it was building up? Either way, the dragon within was affronted. Anything less than full strength against us was an insult, wasn’t it?
So my movements were slightly less perfect than I could make them, slightly more insulting in nature. A kick to the rear, a stamp on the end of the tail. Tufts of fur ripped out of its face fur. All in the effort of breaking the control it kept over its Dao. Naea wasn’t wrong when she said I was messing around, but I was looking for something in the tower more important than loot. If I was just here for the shinies, I would have kept the earlier weapons.
From the moment I entered the dungeon, the difficulty was completely thrown off. Each time I met a wall, I had casually broken through my limits, almost by accident. The Storm Dragon could have annihilated me, but it wasn’t really here. All the pain I had felt was real, the effort I had put in was true and yet, something had been missing. Something I could sense within a filthy ratman of all creatures. The goal I had searched for from the moment the System descended was right there.
A genuine fight against someone stronger than me.
Except, until the stubborn bastard unleashed its Dao, I wouldn’t get that. “Take me seriously, you fuck.” Despite my insulting fighting style, despite me actually dropping my Infusion and continuing to keep up, it held back. Why? What is that Dao? In the end it was me who lost my cool first. Fine, I decided, be another disappointment.
Infusion. Infusion. Infusion.
I locked eyes with the ratman and roared, my voice empowered by the power flowing through the body’s every cell. My shout was draconic, both in its anger and the force of it. Naea whooped her support for my aggression and I lost just a little of the edge in my mood. I went on the offensive.
Harmony of the Storm. Mana Bolt.
I moved like a fluid, using the energy from my dodges to flow unstoppably into heavy strikes. When the creature tried to dodge, it was slapped back into my attacks by powerful magic projectiles. Each of the Mana Bolts appeared in the air, impossible to expect, especially as my every move became charged with storm affinity. Both my fists and the orbs of mana left a stinging electrical build-up, tasing the ratman and causing muscles to spasm.
I saw determination appear in the rat’s all-too-human eyes and my heart leapt. In contrast, I myself dropped to the floor. I had also seen mana snake through the glaive for the first time as Master Thorn’s Dao punched out. Naea shot upwards. In a horizontal line directly from the rat’s glaive space split. For a singular instant, natural order disappeared. I smashed into a wall at incredible speed as I became untethered from the gravity of the Earth.
I felt the threat of death.
“There ya go, you got your answer. It’s the bloody Dao of Space!” Naea shouted down from somewhere above. I had taken the brunt of the attack, even mostly dodged. My mind raced while I pulled myself from the wall. Even the impossibly sturdy wood of the Trial Tower had been cratered by my impact. With the level of Infusion I was burning, it would just about bruise me.
I looked at Master Thorn, who was definitely done messing around. My second attempt at bringing out its true power had worked. The air around the ratman was fracturing and warping in my vision. The glaive in its hand was thrumming with power still yet to unleash. The previous attack was the rat’s Dao, not a technique of the weapon. So there was more to come. My Dao was absolutely purring with pleasure.
Time to fight for real.