They'd covered raw physical power, then they'd covered much more speed orientated builds, but Beth wasn't really sure what could be next. There were several different possibilities that she could come up with, and none of them exactly thrilled her. The likeliest would be a totally physically overwhelming boss, a combination of strength and speed that outmatched them, but they would simply have to see.
Beth hopped up as the gate rolled up, prepared for what would come next, her sword and mind at the ready, Blood pacing in the background. As the gate rolled up with a quiet creaking, Beth got a bad feeling, and not that they were about to get pummeled. That feeling was confirmed when she scanned the creature that floated out of the gateway as soon as the barrier had fully ascended.
Level 80 Lesser Lich
Frost and ice swirled around the being, and it held out its arm as soon as it was clear of the starting zone, ice forming in front of its desiccated palm. A whitish-blue light glowed in the sockets of its eyes, its skeletal face seeming to leer at the two of them as it released an Ice Bolt directly at Beth's chest. The two girls immediately scattered, Beth leaping out of the way of the projectile and continuing to run to the side after she had done so. The ball of ice exploded behind her and she could feel razor sharp shards of ice ping against the back of her chest piece and a particularly large one be deflected by her helmet.
'Hit and run, Blood,' Beth called out to the wolf through their link.
'It's nothing but bones, sister. It will be tough to damage,' Blood replied.
'It might not be that bad. Some liches have weak physical bodies. My only concern is if we have to destroy its phylactery somehow,' Beth said.
'What is a phylactery?' Blood asked with some confusion in her mental voice as she dodged a blast of icy shards.
'Liches have an item they link their soul to called a phylactery. If you don't destroy it, the lich will just come back to life some amount of time after you kill it,' Beth explained as they continued circling the boss.
Fortunately for the two of them, the boss didn't seem to have any inclination towards martial prowess; even when the two of them closed with it to melee range, it only attempted to hit them with spells. The doubly fortunate thing was that it was a bit of a slow caster, though its spells were powerful, and as long as the girls could dodge taking a direct hit from one of the blasts, they weren't in too much danger. The ice was rather annoying, however, as the ice mana had a powerful slowing effect. It was mitigated somewhat by the girls' Ice Resistance, but it was certainly an annoying extra hurdle in defeating the boss.
Beth found, with a strike from her sword to the boss's left forearm, that its bones were rather hard, likely similar to a lower-level metal at the same level of mana saturation. Unfortunately for the boss, however, she had the perfect counter for such a thing, foregoing her sword entirely to pummel the lich with her fists. Tough as its bones may be, they cracked and broke before the unrivaled power of Crush, Beth getting better and better at gauging just how much mana to use for each strike.
Once Crush was deployed, the ending was inevitable. Beth systematically pulverized the boss's bones as Blood tore into its armored robe, shredding part of the bottom enough to get at one of the floating boss's legs. Blood didn’t seem particularly thrilled with the bone of the lich's thigh, but she did manage to wrestle it away from the boss, not that that affected the boss's floating in the slightest. What did affect the boss's floating was Beth's fist pulverizing its creepy face, a massively infused punch smashing much of the front of its skull apart.
The boss collapsed to the ground with a slightly amusing rattle, all its hardened bones clattering together in a messy pile. Beth and Blood waited a minute, but it seemed the kill notification they got was genuine. Either that or the boss's resurrection wasn't counted as part of the scenario as Beth watched its corpse disappear the same as all the others, glad that they didn't need to try to take care of its phylactery.
The two rested and meditated, waiting for the next opponent, Beth glad that the challenges were helping her focus on her mana usage even more. It was a topic that Baelvyr had covered a little, and she had heard a mention or two from the other Enforcers, that understanding mana, how to use it, how much of it to use, and how best to manipulate it were key if one wanted to progress far along their Path. She was happy that she was able to focus on her understanding and use of mana so early on and it was already paying dividends, considering that it was likely the reason she had managed to get Crush into Silver before even one rebirth.
The next four bosses followed the same pattern, and they weren't anything particularly special. Beth and Blood got a level after the third one, which wasn't a great surprise considering the lich and the second boss, an armadillo that shot fire from its back and mouth, were both level eighty. The third boss had been level eighty-one, and the fourth and fifth of the magic bosses were level eighty-one as well. The experience was also a great bonus of these stages, this stage in particular, as only a handful of fights had gotten them multiple levels.
Stolen novel; please report.
The stage was pretty clearly not finished, as after they had defeated the fifteenth "boss," the stage didn't end. By this point, the audience had swelled to fill all of the stands, and Beth assumed there was some form of higher challenge series for the last five bosses. They wouldn't have to wait for long to find out, as the time was just coming up for the next boss to join the fray. And speaking of next boss, the gate slowly slid up into the ceiling above it, a faint clanking echoing out across the arena floor.
The next opponent that emerged was like nothing they had faced so far; at least, so far in the boss rush challenge stage. It was a massive, hulking brute, a dozen feet tall with slabs of heavy muscle, its skin a dusky red. It looked like some type of troll, with large tusks jutting out of its lower jaw and massive fangs visible as it snarled. It had a spear in its right hand that was likely eight feet long, and in its left hand it held a dark red orb that glowed ominously. Beth quickly identified the being to see what they were up against.
Level 82 Empowered Troll Siegebreaker
This was going to be tough. It was going to be even tougher, they realized, as the orb suddenly brightened and a searing lance of flame shot out at Blood who nimbly dodged to the side, activating Swift at the max to safely maneuver around the fire attack. As soon as the flame was in the air, the troll shot forward with its spear pointed directly at Beth's chest, blurring across the arena as it activated some kind of movement skill with the thrust. Beth deflected the thrust with the flat of her blade by running Beastly Body at its maximum current output, just barely able to move the spear aside. The troll seemed to have a combination of all three things; magic, strength, and speed.
The only real advantage they had was the troll was only wearing some loose hides over its bulging muscles, not equipped with anything that could be considered armor. This allowed Blood and Beth to dish out a little damage from time to time, though Beth felt like this was the Mantis all over again, only worse. She was on the backfoot the whole time, barely dodging and deflecting everything that came her way, just trying to stay alive while giving a few chances for Blood to attack the legs.
She took a blast of fire right to the chest before a spear hit smashed into her side, cracking ribs as she staggered to the right. Beth responded with a fully empowered strike to the troll's left knee, taking the opportunity that had been created when she absorbed that strike to nearly remove the creature's leg below the knee. Blood completed the dissection, tearing the limb off and body-checking the troll onto its side. The boss fell atop its spear, trapping it beneath its massive frame for a few moments, just enough time for Beth to hit its neck with a fully empowered strike, the center of her blade cleaving through the thick neck of the beast, spine and all.
Beth sagged but didn't collapse, refusing to go down even with her injuries. Her armor was missing scales, her hair was partially burned away, her muscles were still cramping from the blasts of electricity the boss had been able to channel through the orb, and her chest ached quite painfully. Still, she faced the crowd, letting the roar wash over her as she held her sword aloft, saluting the people with her victory. The roar of the crowd continued unabated for more than a minute until suddenly the stage ended, returning them to the array room. Beth hadn't been exactly sure, but it had seemed like one of those final in a series kind of things, and it looked like she had guessed correctly that it was the end of the stage.
Beth sighed, wincing just slightly at the phantom pain of broken ribs, her chest having been cracked up enough now that she was starting to get used to the feeling. She wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that, but the pain was something almost normal now, and her Pain Tolerance being in Silver rank also helped quite a bit. She indicated for Blood to follow along and left the room, not bumping into anybody else this time around.
They headed back to the room to take a quick shower and have a nice rest, sleeping for five hours before waking fully refreshed. They took care of their "morning" routine even though Beth was fairly certain the time back on Earth would have been the middle of the night. They left the room shortly after, stopping to eat at one of the restaurants before heading into the array room. There, Beth asked to start stage twelve and keep it private, going through the same routine, including waiting for a Warder's signal to enter the portal.
When the lurch of the transition through the portal faded, they found themselves outside, standing in something that seemed like a marshalling yard. There were several large stone structures spaced out around them, with one looking like a large keep while another seemed like some kind of multi-storied barn. There was another outbuilding that looked like an armory, and there were two one-story buildings further back from the yard that appeared to be barracks. The other thing of note was that the northern end of the yard ended in a sheer cliff, the yard stopping abruptly to plunge three hundred feet straight down. The building that seemed like an odd, multi-story barn or stable was right on the edge of the cliff and its purpose became clearer as Beth saw a rider, mounted on something that looked very much like a griffon, launch off a ledge from an upper floor. This fort seemed home to a type of air cavalry, with the barn where the mounts were kept.
A young woman, though still appearing a bit older than Beth, wearing full plate armor with an open-faced helm approached them before stopping and firing off a quick salute. She was some kind of elf, tall with dusky skin and bright eyes, and the mana copper she wore was of obvious quality. She carried a sword at her hip and a shield on her back along with something that looked very much like an overly large crossbow.
"Ma'am," the woman said with a nod. "Good to see you've finally arrived. We're just about to start the operation, however, so I'm afraid there's no time to rest."
"And what, exactly, are the details of this…operation?" Beth asked, Blood tilting her head and flicking an ear behind her.
"Ah, right, sometimes central command sends out a few of the stronger warriors without a full briefing," the woman replied with a nod. "My name is Shell, by the way, just so you're aware. You can come to me or ask for me if you need anything.
"Anyway, the operation. We're about to conduct a two-day sweep of the surrounding area. We're the only fort for over two hundred miles, but we're able to cover a massive range thanks to the fact we're a full griffon battalion. We have about four hundred griffons and riders present, as well as a large number of secondary units. Total combined strength, including all the griffons, is about eleven hundred, though we're at seven hundred or just under without counting the griffons. They're tamed animals, not beasts or monsters, and they have no sapience to speak of and only a limited sentience, just to put you at ease there. If, on the insanely rare chance, one develops sapience or, more likely, one of their offspring is sapient, they are given full manumission immediately. Have no fear in that, ma'am, everything is by-the-book here.
"The sweep will be done by wings, which are fifty unit teams, with two of these teams comprising a company. Typically, one wing of the company is on patrol in the air while one wing stays close to the fort or within the fort itself, depending on where we are in the rotation. We hope an elite unit such as yourself will accompany several of the patrols over the next two days, as we've had a large number of sightings of those Blue Thorns bastards. They move about in their own unit structure of a hundred to a hundred and fifty, though a big chunk of them typically stay ground bound, and they always have a couple elite-level soldiers of their own present. Any questions?"
"What kind of class/skill sets can we expect? Do you know?" Beth asked, hoping to fish for a little info on the opponents.
"Lots of swordsmen and skirmishers, mainly. They have a reserve of a couple mages that have some fairly powerful plant and wind magics, but they don't typically send them out on their skirmishing sweeps. We don't need to kill them to a man or anything, but if we make contact with a unit, its likely to be fast and furious from the start," Shell replied, smiling at Beth as she broached another topic.