“First attempt”
Mia kicked off the ground, charging forward she stabbed into the first eyeball monster first, piercing its eye and kicking off, dodging beams and blobs of goo coming her way. In the air she spun around, blasting ice towards some of the smaller monsters before being hit from behind.
“just a bunch of low levels…” she gritted her teeth, lifting herself up she spun around ready to attack but instead back stepped, a group of fish leaping at where she used to be “its ok…” she blasted the area, freezing the group as a flock of sharp clawed birds flew down and slashed at her.
She swatted them away, creating a wall of ice to block more water beams coming her way “its fine.” She kicked off her own wall, forcing her way to a group of three eyeballs, ducking below their claws she stabbed through one and blasted the other two then ducking behind another hastily made wall.
“Just have to keep up…” beams and blobs hit the wall, she backed up, ready to dash to the next group but more birds and fish leaped out at her. She froze the water below her, stopping the fish she spun around, her freezing beam causing the birds to scatter.
“Ah!” she got hit again from behind, losing her balance as the mucus burned into her exposed skin.
She tried to brush it off, managing to turn to her attacker and stab through them but she had already lost momentum, and as her trident pierced the glob spewer the group of eye monsters had surrounded her, finishing her off as she was skewered with beams and claws.
“Second”
She instantly made a giant wall behind her, cutting off the monsters behind. “there, now- NYAH?!?” she found herself lifted by a vine that had wrapped around her leg while she was focused on making the wall. “Hrn!” she twisted her body, attempting to cast an attack but was spun around herself, then eventually tossed to the other side of her wall where once she landed was dog piled by the fish, eaten alive.
“Third”
She made a pillar beneath herself to cast one, rising it up to from a divider and leaping to the opposite side that had the tree on it. Freezing the group of fish as she made her way to the monsters on this side.
She slashed at one, pierced another, swatted away birds and freezing them out of the sky. but the numbers never seemed to dissipate, they kept coming, only made worse when the tree broke down her wall “cre cre cre” Mia tried blasting it, but nothing came out “eh?” her long fight had depleted her mana, leaving her at the mercy of the tree and the remaining monsters.
“Fourth…”
She didn’t notice blood suckers had attached themselves to her, she was sucked dry and unable to move.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Fifth…”
The birds caught her mid air, dragging her up into the sky and dropping her.
“Sixth.”
The tree had advanced early, attacking her with a barrage of vines she could not dodge.
“…”
Ran out of mana and overwhelmed.
“…”
She stopped counting after a while, stubbornly fighting the group of enemies. She tried doing what she had done previously, using her experience between loads to memorize what the enemy would do, but there were too many.
She tried brute forcing, relying on her superior stats and skills, but likewise, there were too many. She would eventually run out of mana, she would get tired, and all the while the tree waited, untouched while Mia fought for her life.
Eventually she just mindlessly fought, over and over again. The only silver lining she was gaining levels and skill levels during the fights, but with the levels they would just get reset. While with her skill levels she hardly noticed any differences, she could not make a dent to their numbers.
‘Need more power…’ she was lacking finishing power.
[Recommendation, load save 1]
“No.” between loads, Ami had spoken up while Mia was dead, floating in the void.
[Dead end detected, best course of action would be to aban-]
“No.” Mia shook her head “Can’t abandon, no point.” The way she saw it was, if she just went back after all of this, she would just wind up right back in another dead end, she refused.
[Additional option if you are adamant about staying in this timeline. Let me-]
“NO!” Mia stood up, that was the one thing she never wanted to do “Never again! If you can do it, so can I!” she started panting, remembering what happened last time Ami took control.
[Understood, the calculated time it will take for you to level your current skills to the level required to win this fight will be-]
“Shut up.”
[I am only offering to-]
“Shut up!” she hit the open air, flailing around in the void “Don’t wanna hear it! Heard it before!”
She loaded, dropping her trident she leaped towards the nearest enemy and gripping their body, “AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAA!” freezing its body while she held onto it, the monsters around her momentarily stunned before attacking “I can do it! No help!” she screamed, she didn’t care how much longer it would take doing it herself, why was it faster letting Ami do it anyways? All she did was kill, she just wanted control again.
Mia slammed her fists into the water, the resulting splash freezing and extending into needles that spread out, piercing any enemy that was approaching her “See? Can kill to. All have been doing.” She panted, breaking off one of the longer needles and reshaping it into a spear “Just level the skills, that’s all.” She panted, her face beat red.
[…Perhaps we should calm down for a mo-]
She chucked the spear at the tree, it is shattering upon impact “No, ill do it better. Show her.”
[Or better, take a break? Too many attempts isn’t good for your men-]
Mia loaded, slamming her trident into the ground she focused her magic onto herself and the surrounding area “do it better and faster!” she yelled. Her magic expanding outwards in an icy burst, freezing everything in a 10-meter radius, draining what was left of her mana completely, about 1,500 points gone in an instant.
She looked up, breathing heavily, seeing the monsters cautiously stare at her “Didn’t…hit the…tree..”
[What are you…]
She loaded, again she slammed the trident into the ground, freezing the same area while expanding her entire mana pool.
[Mia, this isn’t-]
“Shut-”
She loaded, repeating her process “up.”
She loaded again, slamming the ground and freezing everything “I’ll show you.” Another load, another freeze “It’s not a dead end.” She did it again “It’s not.” And again
“I DIDN’T MESS UP!”
With her scream she slammed into the ground again, freezing the area.
[Mia… I understand, but forcing it like this…]
She looked up, with teary eyes she glanced at her little frozen landscape, the monsters close to her had turned into ice sculptures, while the rest were trying to see if it was safe to attack or get on the ice.
A small smile spread on her face, a pitiful laugh escaping her mouth.
“Slightly bigger…”