Cain watched the battle unfold from a safe distance away through the lens of his telescope. He resisted the urge to grit his teeth as he saw Nethershot’s signature purple beams being fired again and again at his men.
Getting Uttu’s attention with a few snaps of his fingers, Cain communicated through hand signs, “You were right. She lives. She stole my caster.”
Uttu closed the telescope he had been looking through and secured it to his bonded beast before responding with hand signs of his own, “We’ll fix it. She’ll tire soon. Go now?”
Cain nodded his head and kicked his heels into his spider twice. It obeyed his command and started skittering towards the butte. Uttu followed closely behind.
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Samantha finished placing the third boulder near the edge of the butte where caster fire had all but stopped. She had made the mistake earlier of assuming the lack of bright beams meant the raiders had run out of qi, when in reality they had just been conserving their energy. As soon as they had seen her checking over the edge, the intensity picked right back up again for several seconds. At least she was causing the group to waste some qi.
Playing it safer this time, she only poked her head over the edge for half a second to check the situation before withdrawing. Predictably the raiders started up their assault again, but she had seen what she needed to. The extremely wounded sand spider and its rider were beating a full retreat down the butte. Despite the precious time she spent gathering the boulders, the other two raiders had made less upward progress than she expected. It seemed they were focusing more on defending their fleeing member than anything else. Both kept their caster fire trained on her location in a near constant spray.
She laid down on her back and pressed both feet against the side of one of the heavy, rounded stones she had set near the edge, then pushed it with just enough force to roll it off the side. As soon as it tumbled into freefall she activated [Spectral Projection]. Following the rock’s progress, she put 5 qi into [Telekinesis] to guide and further accelerate it downwards. With the help of gravity, it only took a few seconds for it to reach her target.
Aimed at the semi-deflated abdomen of the crippled sand spider, the boulder smashed into the insect’s exoskeleton with the force of a meteor. There was a high pitched scream as both the spirit beast and its rider began falling the last 100 feet towards the desert sands. Knowing how sturdy a Low Bronze could be and wanting to ensure that he wouldn’t return to the fight later, Samantha canceled [Spectral Projection] to instantly return to her body. Then, she promptly kicked the next boulder over the edge and began the process again. This time, she aimed for the fallen rider.
She could see the injured raider struggling to crawl away from the mangled carcass of the sand spider during her descent. His leg had been broken in the fall and he left a wide trail of blood in his wake. The severity of his injuries confused her. The Low Bronze had withstood beams from Nethershot reasonably well, so she had expected his Resilience to be higher.
As if sensing his impending doom, the man turned over and faced the plummeting stone with wide, horrified eyes. Seeing his face, her own eyes widened–though for a very different reason. She had been deceived. This was a Low Copper, not the Low Bronze she’d intended to take out. They must’ve switched mounts when she had taken cover earlier.
Releasing the boulder from her influence and letting it travel the final feet on its own, she cringed in disgust as a small crater and circular spray of bright crimson appeared in the sands. It didn’t bring her joy to slay so gruesomely–despite the man being an enemy–but she didn’t have the luxury of clean kills in this situation. She needed the deaths to be flashy and leave the impression that further assaults against her would be unsuccessful and pointless. Her grim task complete, she flew back up the side of the butte in search of the Low Bronze raider.
By this point, the enemies had made it roughly halfway up the butte. She located the Low Bronze and scowled at his new mount and his freshly scabbed over injuries. He must’ve consumed a healing potion of some sort. She just hoped that there wasn’t such an easy way to recover the qi he had expended thus far as well. She checked her own qi pool and noted that she still had 147.6 qi remaining.
Reasoning that she had enough time to briefly check in on the others before resuming her defense, she visited Silas to see how he was faring.
Upon arrival she caught him firing a small [Antler Shot] down towards the Mid Copper and his mount. The eight inch long spike was practically invisible with the speed it moved in the dark, and a split second later Samantha saw the horn impact the side of the butte a couple hundred feet from the top. It didn’t hit anywhere near the raider but Silas seemed content all the same. If she had to guess by the feelings of concentration coming through their bond, he was using this opportunity to dutifully practice his aim. The Lunar Wolpertinger was even taking advantage of his [Translucence] to stay hidden on the edge while attacking with impunity. She wished she could’ve employed this approach herself earlier, but Nethershot’s glow would’ve given her position away.
Silas was most effective in a fight at mid or close range, and she had no doubt her bonded would give the enemy trouble once they climbed a bit higher. Leaving him to his own devices, she started to fly towards Harold next.
On the way over she caught sight of two new combatants climbing up the side of the butte. It seemed they were taking advantage of the fact that the other five raiders were drawing attention elsewhere and sneaking up along a blindside of the rocky pillar. Cain and the bonded Mid Bronze were still far below her current position, but their appearance was worrying. They seemed to be climbing much faster than any of the others and were over halfway up already. With the Low Bronze still in the fight and two higher ranked cultivators nearly on top of them, things had suddenly become much more dangerous.
“Silas, new enemies! Leave the other one alone–we need to stop the stronger raiders from taking the high ground.” she warned. She sent a mental impression of her current location so Silas knew where to go, then returned to her body.
Grabbing her weapons, she ran across to the other side of the butte. On the way, she stopped by Harold to pass on the new information.
“Harold, we need your help!”
He looked back at her and gestured downwards, “What do you think I’m doing?”
“The leader and a Mid Bronze are trying to sneak up on us over there.” Samantha pointed to where Silas was already waiting for her to arrive. “I took out a Low Copper and his sand spider, but there’s still three Coppers and the Low Bronze coming our way. We can’t stop all of them from reaching the top, so you need to watch our backs while we engage the highest ranked cultivators.”
Harold cursed, “You expect me to fend off four cultivators for you? Impossible.”
Frustrated and stressed, Samantha snapped at the man, “Then give up and wait for death! I’m going down fighting.”
She left without another word. He would either help, or he wouldn’t.
“What’s the plan?” Silas asked as she ran up to him and set down her weapons.
Samantha’s [Hyperfocus] worked overtime to analyze different approaches they could take in this fight. She considered all of Silas’s abilities, her bond abilities, and how they could have the most impact in the shortest amount of time. In seconds she had a rough idea laid out in her mind and conveyed it to Silas.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“It’s too high for that!” he pushed back, “And I can’t fly well yet.” The terror in his voice was obvious.
“This is the best plan I can come up with and it doesn’t work without you.” she pressed, feeling guilty, “I know you hate heights and this is scary, but I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?”
His ears flattened and his talons extended and retracted as if nervously tapping on the ground. He looked towards the edge of the butte and bared his teeth. Samantha could feel his conflicted emotions as he struggled against his fears.
“Fine.” he eventually agreed.
Before he could talk himself out of it or overthink it, Silas activated [Translucence] and leapt over the edge.
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Uttu continued feeding a steady stream of qi into his bond ability [Hasten Pack]. The skill had greatly accelerated their movement and they were only 300 feet from the top of the butte now. Everything was going as expected. The first wave had drawn the defenders away towards the other side of the butte, and now he and Cain would have a clear path upwards. As soon as they reached the top, the ascendants would lose their defensive position and would either be killed or driven off the butte.
A quiet rustling sound drew his attention upwards, but before he even had a chance to scan the area for danger a heavy blow crashed into him and his bonded beast. His spider screeched in pain and he was nearly tossed from the saddle. It was only because something caught around his left leg that he avoided being wholly dismounted. Looking to see what entangled him, he was shocked to discover a large set of sharp antlers impaling both him and his beast. His thigh had been entirely pierced through by two long points, and the other six prongs were deeply buried in the spider’s exoskeleton.
Before he had time to process the unexpected injury, his pants inexplicably began to be torn apart and bloody gashes were left on the flesh below. Instinctively he reached his left hand out to clutch at the wounds and stop the bleeding, but part of his hand seemed to disappear into thin air as he bumped against something unseen. A split second later, two fingers and half of his palm disappeared in a spray of red and the crunch of bones.
He screamed and tried to pull his hand away, but something like a steel trap held it in place. The harder he pulled, the deeper the gashes in his thigh became. It was then that he finally saw it: a slight distortion in the space above his leg. It seemed the mysterious spirit beast was using a potent stealth skill.
Clutching his caster tighter in his right hand, he brought it down towards the distortion with his full strength to try and club it. Before the hit connected, another fierce impact slammed into his leg and the distortion vanished–taking two sizable chunks of thigh flesh with it. He screamed in agony as blood rapidly pooled in the craters that were left behind. He was barely able to pull his strike short to avoid further damaging the abused limb. As he turned to fetch an emergency healing poultice from his saddlebag, his entire torso was rocked to the side as something punctured him just below the ribcage. He felt at the newest bewildering injury, and found the end of some rod protruding a couple inches out from his light armor.
Confused and in pain, he almost didn’t notice when a larger, human-shaped distortion appeared in mid-air holding a spear pointed at his chest. The spear blurred forward with incredible speed, and he barely had time to react. He managed to lean out of the way just enough to escape a lethal blow to his heart. Instead, the speartip punched through his armor, shattering his clavicle and only coming to a stop as it struck against the inside of his shoulder blade. As quickly as it had struck, it was cruelly twisted and torn out of him.
Desperate to defend against the onslaught, he pulled his caster into position and aimed at the distortion. It was then that he came to a horrible realization. His savaged hand–now missing two fingers–couldn't properly make contact with the charging runes, rendering the weapon all but useless. As the distortion drew back its weapon for another blow, he ordered his mount to jump.
“Retreat!”
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Samantha’s heart raced as her second attack struck open air. She had been hoping to take the Mid Bronze out of the fight entirely, but supposed forcing him to fall back was the second best outcome. Not waiting around to see if he survived the fall, she turned her attention to the raider leader who was continuing to climb as quickly as he could towards the top of the butte. His comrade’s call to retreat seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.
After Silas dove towards the enemies and unleashed a combination attack of [Antler Genesis], [Savage Bite], [Thump], and [Antler Shot], she switched places with him using [Jackalope of all Trades]. This put him safely back at the top of the butte until his cooldowns finished, and gave her an anchor point to return to if needed. The bond ability had cost her 30 qi–around 1 qi per 10 feet of distance–and maintaining [Cloud Step] for both feet had already cost her 4 qi. This left her with 113.6 qi to try and make a lasting impression. She pumped 9 qi a second into [Swift] to bring her Agility to 40 and began the assault on Cain.
She blasted forward with the tip of her spear firmly pointed towards Cain’s waist, reasoning that being mounted on spider-back would make it more difficult to dodge an attack aimed there. When the spider flattened itself against the side of the butte so Cain could lean out of the way, she realized that she hadn’t fully considered all of the variables. Her next attack was a horizontal slash aimed at the man’s head, but Cain brought a caster up above him to take the blow instead. Her entire spear vibrated with the impact and a loud metallic clang echoed out from the clashing weapons, but Cain only scowled in her general direction. He didn’t seem worried at all.
Changing tactics, Samantha tried to attack from the rear as he climbed. The stubborn enemy responded by fully leaning back in the saddle and defending while upside down. It was unconventional, but oddly effective. Though she was able to get in a few shallow wounds on the man, his skin was extremely tough to the point that she was doing more damage to his cloth armor than to his flesh. His Resilience was truly frightening.
During one unlucky attack Cain caught her spear in an iron-clad grip, and she immediately activated her sphere of dominion to further increase her perceptive abilities. She was taking no chances with getting caught by the Peak Bronze.
Time seemed to stop as she simultaneously funneled qi into [Flurry] and [Indomitable Body]--focusing the fortifying energies into her right leg and effectively raising its Resilience to 25 for the next six seconds. Not wanting to fully enter Cain’s melee range, she aimed her kicks at his wrist and elbow joints in a bid to either break his arm or force him to let her weapon go.
Her leg blurred as nearly 10 kicks struck Cain’s arm in a second, and she was gratified to hear the crack of broken bones accompany the sight of Cain relinquishing his grip. That was, until she felt the pain. She wasn’t sure if she had successfully injured the raider or not, but she had certainly just broken her foot. A stupid, possibly fatal mistake. She had misjudged her own strength.
Checking her qi pool, she only had 46.6 qi points remaining. She had spent a whopping 67 qi in the last five seconds alone, and feared that the steep cost of [Flawless Healing Touch] would leave her with too little qi for the remainder of the fight. It couldn’t be helped though. She would just as easily die from lack of mobility than not enough qi. Channeling 10 qi into the healing art, she was rewarded with the uncomfortable sensation of her bones near instantly realigning and joining back together.
Given her rapidly depleting pool, she decided to try one last approach. Cain was clearly favoring his uninjured arm now, but he wasn’t retreating and was still making steady progress towards the top. In fact, Samantha thought that he perhaps looked even more determined to reach the top now that he was so close. She hoped that even if he didn't fear her... perhaps he would fear his own weapon.
Moving backwards into the open air so she was out of reach, she canceled [Swift] before the next second ticked over. Then, she focused her attention on Nethershot, which she had strategically left slightly hanging over the edge of the butte. Moving her spear temporarily under her armpit, she summoned Nethershot into her left hand with [Telekinesis] and pointed it at the raider. With all of her fingers resting on the glyphs for a max-powered shot, the caster began glowing with ominous purple light as it greedily drank 10 qi from her pool.
Cain’s expression quickly shifted to shock, then fear. His eyes widened for a split second as he stared down the familiar weapon, and then he jumped, abandoning his mount to its fate.
A thick purple beam punched straight through the now-vacant saddle of the spider, through the spider’s carapace, and into the rock below. A breath later, the red-hot stone exploded outward and shredded the beast into chunks.
Another spider gone, at least.
An orange colored flare shot up into the night sky from a short distance away from the butte and Samantha’s heart dropped. If a red flare had been the raider’s signal to begin the assault, what could this new color mean? She activated [Jackalope of All Trades] to return to Silas’s side at the top of the butte as quickly as possible and her qi pool was brought down to a mere 7.6 qi.