Blood was still on her feet, somewhat surprisingly, clenching at her right side and panting, though she gave Beth a firm nod as the other girl glanced at her. The two were brought out of the stage a moment later, Blood wincing just slightly from the memory of the wound as she straightened, patting at her side. Beth collapsed to her knees, panting heavily as Blood darted over to her, grabbing her companion and lifting her off the ground. Beth had pushed herself beyond her limits and didn't even attempt to protest, feeling safe in Blood's arms, nestling against the taller woman before directly passing out. Blood returned a cough from one of the Warder's with a glare before striding off, carrying her sister back to their room to rest.
This time Blood made the executive decision that they were going to use another free day of rest time, as they were at stage twenty-five and still had multiple rest days left. Blood was able, with some careful maneuvering, to strip Beth out of her armor, leaving her in just her CRA clothes. She then moved back and set Beth down in the center of the massive bed before shucking her own armor and crawling in after her, snuggling against her before falling asleep. They slept for more than ten hours, at least Beth did, before slowly waking up, feeling somebody's arms around her waist. It took her a second to shake off the grogginess of sleep, but she realized it wasn’t Sabs after a second due to the fact that she was the one being cuddled and not the one cuddling. She realized a second later it was Blood, due to the fur on the arms and the feeling of the body pressed against her back.
She didn't move right away, simply relaxing in the bed as she thought about the previous stage. She had pushed herself further than she ever had; it was not in a near mindless way as had happened in the first beast tide they did or a number of other situations. Instead, it was hyper-focused and concentrated, using every fiber of her willpower to push herself to the next level. It had been immensely draining, and she was still feeling the aftereffects, as if she had stayed up for multiple days straight and then run a marathon before going to sleep. She wasn't exhausted but, even before talking with Blood, she knew they needed to take a rest day.
She felt Blood moving behind her, able to tell from the moment she had recognized it as her that she was awake. Beth said, "Good morning."
"Morning, sister," Blood replied calmly, wrapping her arms tighter around Beth's waist and nuzzling against the back of her head.
"Thanks for taking care of me," Beth said, setting her hand atop Blood's and giving it a squeeze.
"Always, sister," Blood replied, giving a firm squeeze before snuggling against Beth some more.
The two stayed like that for a while, Beth muzzily drifting in and out of sleep for an hour or so before finally sitting up, pulling Blood with her. The lupine woman gave a rumbling growl, something that might have frightened others, but Beth was well-versed in growl-speak by now and understood it was a noise of contented affection. Beth rolled out of bed and stretched slowly, easing her joints loose and stretching her heavy muscles. Blood joined her in their morning routine, getting ready for the day before they enjoyed wandering out of the apartment without armor or equipment on, making their way to the restaurants to eat quite a massive amount of food before relaxing for the day.
They spent some time in one of the VR rooms, having the experience of sitting in an arena-side VIP box at a CRA Hall as a huge event was underway. It was similar to the grand melee they had participated in a few stages ago, and Beth had to say it was a whole different thing to watch than it was participating in one. She could literally feel the excitement in the air as the participants clashed and the crowd roared, the spectacle making her blood pump. She found herself cheering along in the later stages as contestants rose and fell, understanding by the end just what all the excitement for such an event was about.
They spent the rest of the day off relaxing, Beth spending a little time sampling a few drinks in the lounge at the end of their residential hall. Nobody else used the lounge when she was there, leaving it to just her and the bartender, who was a very genial woman that didn't mind spending the late afternoon and evening talking with Beth about a range of topics. She eventually returned to the suite, catching a handful more hours sleep with Blood before they were upped, prepped, and out the door, ready for the next stage.
They stopped and had some food first before moving into the array room, asking for the start of stage twenty-six and for their performance to be kept private. They had quite a long time to wait by the edge of the array, one of the Warders giving them a brief signal to be patient before again being wholly subsumed by the effort of managing the stages. It was eventually their turn, and they leapt through a regular red-colored portal at the Warder's signal. After a moment of disorientation and whiteout, they arrived in stage twenty-six, ready for their next challenge.
They found themselves in a vast, open plain, nothing around them but knee high grasses with a warm, whitish-yellow sun overhead. Based on the temperature and level of growth of the plants around them, it appeared like it might be spring where they currently were, and it was quite a pleasant day. The only thing around them apart from the grass, a few small flowers and shrubs, and a tree in the middle distance, was a small building. It wasn't even the size of the little building they had by them at the start of stage twenty-two, but it had enough room for a modest-sized bed, a small lavatory, and a little kitchenette. There wasn't anything else in the place, nor anywhere around them, and they did a quick scan to see if they could find anything else around or in the building, coming up empty.
Just as they were getting their bearings, a single word appeared in a message before them: "Survive." No other message appeared and no other context was given, the two girls glancing at each other with a sinking feeling deep in the pit of their stomachs. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they didn't have very long to wait to find out exactly what was happening, as beasts began appearing at the edge of their range of vision. They didn't attack right away, but as the numbers built up and some few started moving towards them, Beth's sinking feeling only grew worse, at least briefly, before turning into a coal of anger burning in her guts.
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"Fuck them," she spat out crossly.
"Sister, what?" Blood asked, though she was pretty sure she knew.
"It's a Beast Tide. And all we have is this shitty, lightly enchanted little stone box at our backs. We have to 'survive' this mess alone until we've fully taken care of the beast wave," Beth growled out.
"If we fall here, we've still come so far," Blood tried to reassure Beth, and herself, but it didn't really help that much. "Besides, we've grown even stronger."
"That we have," Beth agreed grimly. "And don't forget, we got a total of three levels last stage, two as rewards, so distribute your points if you haven't."
Blood had already done so the day before and simply nodded in response before moving away from Beth. She was the one with the scouting knowledge and experience of the two of them, and she might as well put it to use before they got overwhelmed. She moved out quickly, not using any mana, but taking advantage of her three hundred plus DEX and the bonus her humanization brought to her power to cover huge amounts of ground. She hit the edge of the Tide and moved through it, the beasts still spaced far enough apart that she had no problem penetrating deep into their midst without getting waylaid, scouting how large and deep the waves were.
She decided to return after only fifteen or so minutes, turning and heading back to the starting area, finding Beth had killed a handful of the beasts they were up against in the meantime. Blood didn't have any good news for them, explaining that the beasts extended out as far as she could see even after running deep into the tide. The only bright spot so far was that the beasts didn't seem particularly strong, with the few Beth had killed falling fairly easily to her fists. They were some kind of hobgoblin-like being, with a natural armor covering many parts of their body, but with several key weak areas, including their joints. Beth's Crush could easily bypass the armor, and Blood's claw skill would be able to easily tear apart the weak areas without expending much mana.
The enemies were all in the mid one-twenties as far as Blood had seen, though that could change later in the Tide. They focused on taking out the early stragglers first, not wanting enemies to group up too much at the start or to pile up in the area right around the house. Beth took the lead at the start with Blood hanging back, their plan for Beth to drain her resources first and then rest in the little house for a while, during which time Blood would take care of all the enemies. If they could do this rotation a few times, with Blood resting while Beth fought, they might be able to hold out much longer with their extremely limited resources.
Beth was assisted in her efforts by a big benefit she had gotten during her intense exchange with the boss at the end of last stage; she had pushed Beastly Body into the Silver tier. It was a whole new experience having a boosting skill at Silver, something that Blood had become used to with her Swift having been in Silver for some time, but it was a big adjustment for Beth. She was able to rely on her knowledge of Silver skills from Crush to get used to it quicker than she otherwise might have, but it was still difficult to adjust to overall. She did a quick double-check of the skill description just to make sure she understood what it was doing now.
Beastly Body Silver[1]
{You have acquired the strength and toughness of beasts. Your muscles are naturally stronger and body more durable. Using this skill, infuse your body with mana to increase the effects.}
The description was almost the same, and that almost part was the key. It was worded basically exactly the same as the Copper version of the skill, but with two key differences that were slight, but really represented a big change for the new tier. In the original text, the second sentence had been very specific in saying "Your muscles are naturally slightly stronger and body slightly more durable," which had now changed to remove the slightly. It had in fact gone from slightly stronger and slightly more durable to no adverbs adjusting the words at all, and Beth could absolutely feel the difference. Even burning a few drops of mana through her body as the skill pattern suggested caused her to feel power surge through her muscles and a solidness to radiate from her bones and flesh that she had never felt before. The beast tide, in fact, would be a good chance to test just how deadly this new level of the skill made her.
It wasn't a doubling of the skill’s power or her combat capabilities, by any means, but she was significantly stronger than what she had been. The skill at Silver[1] was as much as thirty percent stronger than what it had been at Copper[9] by her best estimate, and the level of deadliness it added to her for not that much more mana was extremely impressive. Like with many other changes, it took her a little time to get used to it, tearing through the hobgoblins like a blender through old fruit. She would have to train with it, particularly in regards to how it affected her basics in terms of stance, footwork, movements, and even the simple arm extension when throwing a punch or swinging her sword. It was pretty lucky that she had such a target rich environment to practice in, which she was already taking advantage of to adjust to her new power.
She spent a few hours clearing the initial dregs before the Tide became a constant wave of endless bodies hurling themselves at her. She did notice that there were far more beasts coming from the north and east, only those that circled around as she made contact with the ones closest to her coming from the south and west. It didn't really do them much good right now to know that, but if they were still up and fighting a decent amount through the wave and getting overwhelmed they might be able to retreat southwest and get into a free area and avoid the wave for a time while they rested. Beth filed that away in the back of her mind for later while she smashed through beast after beast, the strength of these creatures quite high, but her skills and stats combined now made her a formidable threat in her own right.
After those first few hours, she actually moved into overdrive, fighting even harder, pulsing her Presence to tear apart ever more enemies at an increasing speed. She intended to stick to the plan and holding back now wouldn't allow them to do the kind of alternation they had planned for the early parts of the Tide. She was coated in blood and gore, her muscles having started to ache and hurt from the constant use of Beastly Body while her bursts of Presence were taxing her stamina. The use of all of her skills weaved together had also taken quite a toll on her mana, and after over six hours of constant battle, she retreated to the house, allowing Blood to take over.
The wolf had been on standby mostly, just slowly battling around the house to keep a somewhat clear area, not letting anything get too close. They didn't want the house damaged, and they also didn't want piles of corpses right next to it, so Blood circled the area killing what she could without overextending. Now that it was her turn to dive headfirst into the fray, she accelerated to a brutal speed, blurring between beasts as she sliced them apart with incredible finesse. She worked on managing the mana usage of her claw skill, trying to do as much damage to as many enemies as possible while using as little mana as she could to even get the energy claws to fire out.