Mia had come to a bit of a realization. Her getting stronger, had delayed the pull of... Whatever it was that was pulling her. The pull, pulled her into a massive mosh pit, or in other words, a way to get stronger. As long as she stayed away from humans, didn't kill any, they should have no problem with her. And if she leveled up faster, she could start ignoring the pull sooner. All she had to do, was... Fight.
I can't believe I'm doing this... Just the other day I was desperately struggling away from this, and now I'm willingly walking into it? Aghhh... You know why you're doing it Mia, it's so that you don't need to do it again. So stand up, grit your canines, and eat that horse... Literally? What is that thing?
Mia was actively sneaking her way towards the source of the pull, her intention was to get as many kills as possible so... Might as well get an early start, no? In a single swift movement, Mia leaped up into the air onto a massive creatures back, or at least massive in comparison to her. It was probably just a little bigger then the average human. But regardless, it was all but defenseless once she'd managed to get on top of it.
It struggled for a moment, bucked and leaped. But Mia dug into the things back, opened her mouth wide... But hesitated for a moment. Not out of any foolish desire to not kill the thing in cold blood, but merely because she wanted to test something. She unhooked one of her claws from it's back and lifted the paw up into the air. Even while the horse thing kept flailing she held it steady, then she swung.
Her claws passed through the monsters flesh with sickening ease. Though they did a little more then just carve through where they'd touched. When she swung, despite her claws being sharp as can be, they caught onto the monsters flesh as they passed through... And on the way out? With Mia's claws, came a sizeable chunk of the creatures back... As well as part of it's spine. It fell to the ground paralyzed, for life presumably, or maybe it had some kind of regeneration skill? Regardless, she wouldn't wait to find out.
Yeesh... Sorry big guy, I'll put you out of your misery in just a second. Didn't think that'd happen.
Mia padded her way to the monsters neck, with a merciful gesture she tore it's throat out and finished it off, ending it's suffering. No level up, but I kind of expected that. I haven't gotten many since classing up again... But still, test kind of confirmed my suspicion. Stats don't really follow the laws of physics, huh? My claws should've just passed through. Minor harm, little bleeding, but no. Presumably it's constitution was low enough to take major damage. So my claws passed through with no issue... And took a bit of a souvenir, so to say, on their way out.
Mia took a few bites out of the dead horse thing, and continued to move on unimpeded. She got the occasional kill on the way, but she was more focused on safely arriving to the mosh pit of doom. Eventually though, she could hear the combat becoming more clearly defined. The time for stealth was now. Mia got low to the ground, pressing against the dirt and obscuring her form in the grass. With an even pace she crawled towards the source of battle bit by bit.
Actively trying not to be noticed close to such a fierce fight was somewhat easy. No eyes were on her, none of the monsters were looking for an unseen predator, only reacting to what was near them. Mia internally groaned as she realized that by panicking yesterday she'd only made the situation worse, but now wasn't the time to worry about the past. Right now she was in the outskirts of the horde, not quite in the thick of the fight but close enough to pick off a few wounded or off guard monsters.
Said beasts went down without much mention. Mia didn't really want to believe it out of a fear that she'd grow overconfident, but she really did seem to be a cut above the average monster now. The pull on her mind suggested otherwise, but the ninth monster she'd killed with one blow in a row affirmed it. Alright, cut out all the bull Mia, strap yourself in, this is gonna be a bumpy ride.
With one mental command Mia pushed a majority of all her absent thoughts to the side and focused in on the situation at hand. Nothing less then her full attention would do for this trial. She wasn't willing nor stupid enough to risk not paying attention to the horde of monsters literally directly in front of her. After picking off a few more stray monsters, Mia stopped fighting the pull and slipped into the horde.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Chaos, simple chaos. That was the best description of the raging torrent of combat. Blood flew, bones snapped, crackles and pops rung out with every other breath Mia took. Above all the ever constant growling marred only by the occasional shouting from the human front was omnipresent in all directions. Mia felt... At odds. At odds with the very scenario itself. Something in her being screamed at her that this wasn't where she was meant to be, and she agreed with it. But if she wanted to not be here in the future, going to it was the fastest way to make sure that she wouldn't.
Danger persisted regardless though, and Mia had no intention of dying here. She wanted to, and, WOULD, survive.
...
Mia's stealth was imperative to her continued success in the frenzy. Fewer attacks found their way to her, and even fewer made their marks. Only a scant few scratches marked her hide even after fighting for such a long time. Yet it also saved her from something else that she had noticed throughout the course of this whole event. They have archers? When did they have archers?
Many a monster around her had been skewered by a stray arrow. She'd have to have seen at least twenty killed right in front of her. Mia felt the hairs on her back tingle and twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding a heavy paw that would've slapped down and snapped her in half. She whipped around in a single instant and with a white flash of her claws, Mia ripped her enemies face off in the most literal sense.
Level up!
+12 strength, +12 dexterity, +21 constitution, +7 wisdom, +6 capacity, +6 intelligence, +3 charisma, +2 manipulation
How many does that make now? Seven? Eight? I'll check after this is all over.
Mia could still feel the pull, but it was no longer actively dragging her somewhere. She seemed to have reached where it wanted her. Now all she had to do was live long enough for it to let go. She continued in a thoughtless rhythm of slaughter, keeping low, striking fast, and dodging stray attacks. Though a sudden shock jarred her out of her battle born grace.
THUNK
Oh-An arrow planted itself into the ground a few inches away from Mia, narrowly missing her torso. It nearly startled her out of her own hide, and it certainly startled her off of the ground. Cancelling her stealth and making her being widely apparent to anything nearby. It's not like every monster suddenly dropped every other fight and all attacked her at the same time, but the amount of beasties that she was dealing with quickly piled up. She began to level and get stronger faster with more attackers and kills, but wounds also began to pile up. As did the arrows.
THUNK-THUNK-THUNK
Constant arrows began to rain down around Mia, not all of them were close to her, but a good majority of them almost met their marks. If she hadn't started paying more attention two of them would've hit her by now! She was starting to get the feeling that this was a bit more then coincidental fire.
The pressure continued to mount, and Mia was starting to proverbially sweat. Did I screw up by coming here so readily? Maybe I should've waited longer or just held out as long as I can? Crap crap crap crap crap! She tried to retreat backwards into the horde, anything to get out of the center. But the pull continually delayed her efforts. Every step back took a monumental effort, and she was quickly pushed right back in by some random monster attack. If I could JUST get my stealth working again-but I can't do it without going out of sight! Wait... Out of... Sight...?
Mia made a split second decision and chose to take a risk, plumbing the depths of her mind she reached in and took hold of the shadow proficiency skill. "High, Shade," cast, good lord please work. The runes quickly formed into reality, as did Mia's focus. Just in time too, an arrow would've shot right through her neck if she was even a moment late. She jerked to the side just in time to avoid it. Over the next few moments a massive ball of dark non liquid formed in front of Mia. And with a dive, they plunged into the amorphous mass of liquid darkness.