It really was steep, even from the very beginning. Zoe was amazed that any trees could actually grow on it, let alone so many of them. In any case, such was the extreme degree of the incline that she had to effectively crawl using her hands as well, even despite the increased grip of her talons.

Millie clung to her back the whole way. Zoe just had to trust her to stay on and not slip off. If she did, Zoe wasn’t sure she would be able to do anything to catch her quickly enough.

Fortunately, it wasn’t actually that difficult. {Kinetic Enhancement} in particular made the ascent more a matter of focus than of strength or dexterity. Of course, that’s when things started dropping from the trees.

{Instinct} warned Zoe that something was about to go wrong at the very last second, giving her just enough time to dash farther up and out of the way of what turned out to be a falling sloth. If she were alone, it wouldn’t have been a big deal—but with Millie on her back as well, the situation became far more precarious.

Millie herself yelped as Zoe had activated the ability. She clung on well enough though, which gave Zoe some relief by now confirming that she would be able to continue using {Kinetic Dash} to evade.

Now aware of the danger from above, it didn’t take Zoe long to pinpoint the location of more sloths—and of course, the first one was unharmed and was now climbing back up into the canopy. This is really annoying.

It was made worse by the fact that she was trying to get up into the cloud layer quickly. If she had more time, she would just put Millie down and exterminate all of them. So as it was, Zoe decided that her course of action would be to just climb faster.

“Brace yourself,” she growled, barely waiting for the girl to cling even tighter.

Zoe’s talons actually kicked up chips of stone as she burst up the incline. Instead of carefully choosing decent handholds, she relied on sheer speed and power to literally claw her way up the mountain. Her supernaturally sharp and strong claws were able to dig deep enough into the ground that she could practically fling herself upwards. By supplementing this with repeated uses of {Kinetic Dash}, she cleared ground at an astounding pace.

{Kinetic Dash has leveled up! Kinetic Dash is now level 8.}

Haha! Take that, suckers!

A savage blow knocked Zoe to the side just as she was about to touch down again. Sensing that Millie was slipping off as they both tumbled to the side, Zoe dug a single set of claws into the mountainside while reaching out with her other three to snatch the child out of the air.

It worked, but it left her awkwardly hanging on by one limb while the rest of them held onto Millie by just her clothes. Grunting more from habit than from actual exertion, Zoe hauled her back up and held her closer to her body.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what had attacked her.

This particular sloth completely dwarfed all of the others. Its mane was larger than a lion’s, and its claws were even larger and longer than Zoe’s. It was taller, too—at least a head or two above her, she estimated. The most notable feature, though, was the face. As soon as she caught its eye, Zoe felt that there was a cunning to it that was wholly lacking in its lesser kin.

{Entangling Sloth of Golden Flame - 49}

Fuck.

Under ordinary circumstances, Zoe wouldn’t be that concerned by a description like that at this point. A week ago, sure, but not now. Once again, the problem was the combination of her weaker companion and the treacherous terrain. Maybe bringing around an unawakened child isn’t actually a good idea.

The sloth barred its fangs and proceeded to whack its own chest. Completely ignoring the attempted show of intimidation, Zoe looked around for any indication of something to do with Millie. Trees are probably the best bet. Also, I thought the chest beating was a gorilla thing.

Before giving the monster time to advance, Zoe dashed up to the tree just above her. She almost slipped as she landed on a medium-sized branch, but her talons managed to find purchase at the last moment—mostly through sheer strength and force of will. “Stay out of the way and try not to die.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Not waiting for Millie to acknowledge her orders, Zoe advanced on her new enemy. The giant sloth appeared to have made it up to the lower canopy as well, as it was creeping towards her along the branches of another tree. At the same time, Zoe was aware of all the other lesser sloths converging on their position.

I guess she’ll have to fend some of those off herself. It wasn’t ideal—none of this was—but Zoe felt confident that Millie could keep the lesser ones away. If they don’t swarm her all at once, that is.

Zoe was the one to make the first real move. Dashing straight at the sloth, she prepared multiple copies of {Corrupted Strike}. A brilliant, golden barrier of swirling flame slammed into her just before she could connect with her target. Not only did it completely halt Zoe’s trajectory—it even did meaningful damage to her within fractions of a second. A searing pain flared up all over her body. Zoe ignored it and activated {Corrupted Spirit Shield} before she could fall or bounce away.

The ghastly mist wreathing her entire body dispelled the flames instantly. A surge of power rippled through her at the same time—so Zoe didn’t hesitate. Keeping up the shield despite the massive mana cost, she swiped at the sloth.

The monster screeched as her claws tore a gash through the fur of its side. {Corrupted Strike} followed through, sinking into the flesh beneath and sending a disproportionately large spray of glowing blood into the air.

As the shield turned out to not have been necessary, Zoe finally dropped it. At the same time, a bright burst of flame exploded from the sloth’s wound—and her innate connection to the corruption she had inflicted all but vanished. While there was still the faintest of connections, it was dulled to the point of uselessness for now.

Damnit! As the monster dropped down and Zoe followed, she reevaluated the situation. I guess it can suppress infections with its fire? Annoying.

As soon as she touched down, Zoe lashed out with her tail and a {Corrupted Strike}. The sloth caught it. The blow devastated the monster’s hand, at least—but it showed surprising willpower and cunning by holding on and yanking Zoe off of her feet. Had she been prepared, her superior strength would have caused the attack to fail. But as it were, the complete surprise of the tactic caught her off guard enough for it to work.

Before she could start being swung around like a particularly irritated flail, Zoe activated {Kinetic Dash}. The sloth actually held on, once more much to her surprise. But this time, that turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as Zoe’s ability was strong enough to overcome the monster’s inertia and pull both of them streaking through the air. While this messed up Zoe’s intended course, sending her off into empty air, it also had the effect of slamming the sloth face-first into a particularly thick branch. Take that.

Now freed from its grip, Zoe reoriented herself as she tumbled through the air. Skidding to a stop and steadying herself against a trunk, Zoe snatched a nearby sloth from its perch and bit its head off. {Devour} happily topped off her mana again and began taking care of the burns she had taken in the beginning of the fight.

While the scales and plates where she had been scorched were almost entirely intact, they had still become a bit scuffed and it felt like she had taken relatively minor damage to the tissue underneath.

Hmm—If I don’t use the shield, {Sapping Strike} will keep giving me mana as long as I hit it, and then I can spam {Corrupt Wound}…

Launching herself back at her main opponent—who was now just coming out of its own disorientation—Zoe slammed through its hastily conjured flame barrier. It almost held—but {Kinetic Enhancement} and some good leverage off the ground pushed her through.

Zoe bit the sloth.

It screeched again—and a burst of searing, liquid flame poured down her throat. The experience immediately brought back memories of Zoe’s initial demonic ascension, but she didn’t let go. {Corrupt Wound}!

Spamming the ability on both herself and the sloth, Zoe continued to claw and bite as both {Devour} and {Sapping Strike} flooded her with mana. The mana then went right back into both healing herself and clawing and biting and thrashing the sloth to death.

After what felt like a whole minute, the monster was still fighting back at nearly full force. Holy hell, how tough IS this thing? But Zoe was relentless, and the fighting only favored her. Dimly, she was aware that they were rolling down the slope, tumbling over each other as they fought. Like a gator death-roll. Ha!

Finally, Zoe’s jaw crunched down on something brittle and hard. By this point, her snout had burrowed deep into the monster’s chest. As soon as she crunched the hard pieces, the sloth went completely limp.

{+490 Mana}

{You have leveled up! You are now level 35.}

Woah, how much mana did this thing HAVE? That was more than Zoe’s entire normal maximum. I guess that was its spirit core or whatever.

{You have devoured an entity possessing a useful arcane trait. You have unlocked an arcane trait.}

{You have acquired Arcane Reservoir!}

The world twisted, going dark and then blooming into light as Zoe’s entire perspective shifted to a completely alien vision. Wait no oh fuck not this! Frantically, she tried to somehow cancel the effect of {Devour} to no avail. Fucking hell.

This might start getting annoying.