The Path of Ascension

With the official starting date of the tournament approaching, things started to ramp up.

It was something Matt could feel in the air as soon as he stepped outside of their apartment.

With Liz’s eldest brother having arrived and taking a well-earned vacation from the army, they had a calming presence nearby that somehow managed to stay unbothered by almost anything. Even his parents' antics were brushed off like water off a duck's back.

Matt found Sam to be a treasure trove of information. At least for things relating to the army. The oldest sibling was completely unwilling to let Matt peek into higher Tier only knowledge.

After his promotion, Sam was going to be in charge of one of the few Tier 35 battalions. They were a prestigious unit who were composed of only the strongest in the army. Men and women who had fought up through the Tiers, going from battle to skirmish for a minimum of a thousand years.

The cultivators who made it that far were all hardened elite troops who would be equal to his Tier if not his rank, and Sam readily admitted that he was nervous to command such a unit. If he succeeded in his duties during the upcoming war, there was nowhere else for him to go in the active military.

If he wanted to advance past Tier 35, he would need to leave the battlefield and take up a strategist position, or retire altogether. Both options meant an end to his career on the battlefield.

Even now, he had no idea what he wanted to do.

Matt found it refreshing to see a Tier 35 having the same problems as anyone else.

Despite knowing several immortals, he had always figured they had everything planned out. They had the time, after all.

He’d even cajoled the man into a few friendly spars, as he wanted to see how he compared to a man who had been fighting for thousands of years.

The answer, to his surprise, was pretty damn well.

When Sam limited himself to a Tier 9 level of cultivation, Matt was able to dominate the older man, even when spells were incorporated after they fought with just melee weapons.

Even with his years of experience, Sam wasn’t able to bridge the gap in physical ability between his Tier 9 strength and Matt.

When they fought on an even Tier, Matt started to lose, but only in a small minority of their duels.

It surprised Matt, despite knowing that he was good with his blade. All the lessons with the trainers Luna had arranged for him usually resulted in him getting smacked around, even with a Tier advantage.

Still, that didn’t mean he was able to actually fight against a Tier 35. Sam wasn't used to fighting with such slow and limited reactions, let alone the reduction in his spell repertoire.

When they fought with Sam's cultivation limited to Tier 11, but with Tier 14 skills, Matt started to lose more than he won.

Sam was able to chain skills and predict the battle in ways that Matt wasn’t able to with his short two decades of combat experience.

Sam’s instinctive reactions were leagues above Matt’s own in both ferocity, timing, and judgment of the battle. He always seemed to know what Matt was going to do before he had even planned it.

Matt wasn't upset with the results, as he had honestly expected to barely be able to fight Sam, even at Tier 9. But Luna just rolled her eyes and asked why he thought they cared about The Path of Ascension at all if years of battle experience couldn't be overcome with ability, talent, and Talents.

Sam was good. He was one of the best Tier 35’s active in the Empire's army, but Ascenders were on another level for a reason.

Matt was even more enthralled when Kurt and Sam sparred.

They only did it once, and the fight only lasted three exchanges before they separated, but it was a wake up call for Matt, Liz, and Aster.

They had moved so fast from their starting positions that none of them had even seen anything. The two didn’t even flicker from their positions. They had to watch a recording that the room had slowed down thousands of times to see what had happened.

Kurt used a simple thrusting sword in the fight, while Sam wielded a rapier and parrying dagger.

Kurt’s first attack was a high probing attack, which was easily countered with Sam’s offhand dagger. Sam followed up with a thrust at Kurt's waist, but that seemed to be what Kurt wanted, as he already had his own blade thrusting at Sam’s heart.

Not to be outdone, Sam dropped his rapier and had a glowing hand pressed to Kurt's chest.

With the apparent draw, the two Tier 35s backed away and returned to their original spots.

Even knowing they weren’t going all out, Matt was impressed. They had so much control of their power, they didn’t even cause waves of turbulent air from their attacks.

That much power on display was like a perfectly cooked meal placed in front of Matt. He could see it. He could smell it. He just couldn't taste it.

Still, he wanted it.

Badly.

That seemed to be Luna’s entire point of allowing the spar, as she redoubled their training on the fundamentals of Concept manipulation.

Both him and Liz were still unable to use their Concepts’ external abilities. At least, not the unique ones like Matt's repulsive ability. So, they were focusing on general skills that any Concept could do, such as spatial manipulation and cutting through air resistance.

With only two weeks before the start of the tournament, Melinda’s team, as well as Annie, Emily, and Conor, finally arrived. They actually arrived just hours apart, coming from different connected planets. Janet’s team and Felix were happy to meet them, and quickly they all agreed to do at least the first month's group challenge together.

Melinda and her team had done well for themselves, and spent the last decade honing themselves to a commendable degree.

They were surprised by Matt, Liz, and Aster’s progress, or lack thereof in the tenth Tier. But knowing they had Luna behind them as a guiding hand, the Unbroken quickly accepted it.

Annie, Emily, and Conor had made themselves a name in the few years with their fantastic teamwork and synergistic combat styles. Together, they moved around and entered into as many Tier 8 through Tier 10 tournaments they could find, whether they were hosted by the local nobles, or by guilds trying to set up another avenue of recruitment.

While they hadn’t won all of their battles, they had spent their time at the top of Tier 10 well, and had honed their skills to a razor's edge.

Conor had turned from a good frontline melee fighter who relied on [Demon Zone] to deal most of his damage into a true tank. He used his new taunt skill to attract monsters’ attention to him, and then weathered their blows with a new magical armor skill layered upon his physical armor.

That combination allowed for Emily to run through her new and expanded spell repertoire to send a rain of lightning down on whatever was foolish enough to not die immediately. With her greater cultivation, Emily was now able to chain up to seven skills together before the strain on her spirit became too much. After that, she was forced to reset the spell combo, and bring her damage down to a more reasonable level.

In the unlikely event that that combination wasn't enough to overwhelm anyone they fought, they had Annie in the background, invisible and ready to stab anyone remaining.

They made for a formidable team, with only a few weaknesses that Matt could see from the recordings.

He wasn’t nearly dumb enough to say something that crude out loud, but he did see some places they could improve. He was sure that they would be earning a management team of their own after this tournament, and he couldn't wait to see how they grew with the additional direction.

While the twins' age would be forcing them to advance soon after the tournament ended, they had the best possible foundation to show off their prospective skills.

They spent two full days with the teams while showing them the delights of West Flower. As one of the capital worlds, it had everything and anything anyone could even think to ask for.

With the Tier 10 tournament bringing in the best of the next generation of Pathers from across the Empire, every business opened their doors and lowered their prices, trying to entice the Tier 10s into their establishments. Even if they would have normally had no such business in those places.

A Tier 25 spa had the highest quality of relaxants discounted to Tier 9 prices for anyone competing in the tournament. The business was eating a massive loss, but they were banking on the fact that once the Tier 10s experienced the higher Tier luxuries, they would be back in due time.

And as far as Matt was concerned, they were right.

He was counting down the days until he would be able to afford whatever lotion they had rubbed onto his skin. A part of the nearly free package was that each participant was only able to sample the higher Tier goods once, further driving them to reach a high enough Tier to be able to afford the services properly.

While it left him rubbery for hours, he had never felt so relaxed before.

Even the various dinners and exclusive restaurants were opening their doors and practically giving away the high Tier ingredients.

None of them had ever tasted something as excoitc and rare as a Tier 20 wyvern tenderloin, but they all learned something new that day.

Aster learned that even a thumb sized chunk of meat of such a higher Tier than her put her into a catatonic state in just minutes. Her body struggled to process the immense amount of energy contained inside the small morsel.

She got it the worst with her smaller size, but they were all nearly comatose from the single bite. It was almost worse when Matt informed them that they were only getting a fraction of not just the energy in the meat, but also the flavor.

If the meat was prepared as if they were Tier 20’s, they would have quite literally exploded from the power difference.

With their lower cultivation, they were only able to handle a stripped down version containing most of the energy, but with the extra layers of flavors removed. It was a massive waste of a precious ingredient, but it served its purpose.

It was the best thing any of them had ever eaten, and they would all be back to chance the more authentic version as their cultivation increased.

The only exception to those goods and services were items that could be useful for the tournament.

Things like weapons, armors, or even skills had had their prices fixed at their normal values.

As they explored, Melinda found the whole thing odd until Matt explained.

He had had the same questions, and had dug around until he found the reason why.

Long enough ago, companies had tried to buy the victor of the Tier 10 tournaments by lowering the prices of their better Tier 11 and Tier 12 items. They used contracts tying the fighters to future repayment in the form of service to be worked off after they fell off The Path.

It had worked for exactly fifteen minutes until Georgios, the former Emperor, had killed everyone involved. But the precedent had still been set, and no one was willing to test that line again.

That forced the Tier 10s to buy their combat equipment at the normal prices for their Tier, but that didn’t stop a number of higher Tier companies, guilds, and independent crafters from making lower Tier items.

Due to the better enchantments and experience used in their construction,the prices were correspondingly higher. They were at least three times the price of a normal item of their Tier, forcing the items out of most people's price ranges.

Besides, there was only so much power that even the best Tier 35 enchanter could eke out of Tier 11 or Tier 12 materials.

All of that culminated into Annie, Emily, and Conor each only buying one Tier 12 item in their tour of the various shops.

Matt found the items they ended up buying interesting, and was somewhat surprised by their choices.

Annie, being an invisible and mostly intangible assassin, was the only one who bought an item that he expected. It was a dirk that was able to extend its reach with a razor-thin edge of mana. When combined with the high Tier materials and armor penetration enchantments, it made for a fantastic strength multiplier for her abilities.

Emily and Conor bought what Matt considered strange choices.

The mage who increased the damage of her spells after each elemental skill used didn't buy a new staff, nor anything to augment her spell repertoire as he expected. Instead, she purchased a robe that was so chock full of defensive enchantments that it glowed slightly when active.

While its physical resilience was only mediocre, the spider silk Tier 12 robe was nearly impervious to magical attacks of any kind.

Matt understood the logic behind her reasoning, but would have gone with something to lessen the strain on her spirit from the increased spells instead.

Conor bought a helmet that Matt vehemently disagreed with.

The helmet had the normal enchantments of any defensive armor, but they were kept at a level normal to most armor of that Tier. The major enchantment was a sight amplifier for mana sight.

When wearing the helmet, Conor was able to see ambient mana with his eyes instead of only feeling it with his spiritual sense.

It was a choice that Matt didn’t understand, but Conor seemed happy with it, so he didn’t question his friend’s decision. Conor had more than proven his competence and acumen in the vassal war.

When the money earned from his team’s fights in various tournaments was taken into consideration, the cost of even the Tier 12 helmet was hardly bank breaking.

Matt still found it to be a head scratching choice, though.

No one in Melinda’s team even bothered to buy one of the high priced items, and instead chose to shop at the other Pather stores for the much cheaper items.

While his oldest friends had reforged themselves into a much stronger team, they flatly stated they didn’t really care about the Tier 10 tournament, and were only there for the experience.

They were ready at any point to advance to the next Tier. The last decade had forced them to all grow up, even more than Matt felt he had.

Despite being over thirty, he still felt like the kid who had just left the PlayPen last week.

Melinda's team had grown comfortable with their abilities, and their desire to stand on their own had morphed into a desire to be a force for good in the Empire. Participating in the Tier 10 tournament was just a step to get more experience and hone their skills.

Along with Janet’s team and Felix, the five teams spent a few afternoons practicing for the group challenge, but they were all more focused on their personal training.

Matt was up to his elbows in enchanting talismans when he received a message that jolted him out of his trance, and he ruined the dozen talismans he was working on. With an endless supply of mana, he practiced a method of multi-enchanting that, while harder, let him increase his efficiency at the cost of more mana. The only downside was that it forced him into making only one type of talisman per round of enchantments.

But when he was startled, he lost everything.

Reading the message, he didn't even care.

Eric and Dena were about to arrive.

Checking their reported arrival time, he still freaked out that he had less than a day to prepare.

As he ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, he was followed closely by Mara and Leon, who watched him curiously.

He had long since learned to ignore the inquisitive duo, and raced to get everything ready.

Liz and Aster just watched in amusement as he ran himself into circles, but he was just too nervous to care.

He owed the duo everything he currently had, and wanted to make a good impression now that they were meeting without deception.

Liz’s second oldest sibling, Leah, was nice enough to actually help him pick out clothes that would be appropriate for the occasion, while Sam just laughed at his predicament.

At Tier 44, Leah, was just starting to try and create her own Aspect so she could advance to the next highest realm.

She was an Independent, or sometimes called an Observer, and had taken a vow to leave all political ties behind her. It was rare to see anyone take the vow in the lower Tiers, but as one advanced, it apparently became more and more prevalent.

But none of the Great Powers were thrilled with having independents running around. Especially not ones with power similar to their own. While a Tier 50 could squish anyone below Tier 49 with a thought, they could only be in so many places at once.

And there were tens of thousands of Tier 44s who were trying to advance and find their Aspect.

The Great Powers kept that abundance of power in check by making them renounce their worldly affairs after a certain Tier if they didn’t want to join the official power structures. It didn’t mean that the cultivators couldn't advance, but they had greater restrictions placed on them.

Leah had never bothered with the political portion of the Empire, so had no issues with the vow.

Once she found her Aspect, she would be expected to leave this realm as soon as she reached Tier 45.

As it stood, she had been stuck at her current Tier for the last few thousand years, and had taken up the hobby of a fashionista. With her help, Matt was able to outfit himself in a nice, but casual ensemble that was neutral enough to pass in even the most humble of establishments. It wasn’t so casual that he would be barred from more formal restaurants either..

Erin, the sister with the harem, just threw out good natured barbs the entire time to her eldest sister while trying to dress Matt in the most outrageous outfits she could manifest with her mana.

Normally, Matt enjoyed the back and forth with Erin, but as he was frazzled, he made the mistake of throwing a pillow at her. It started a pillow war that devolved into a war that swallowed the entire family.

Eventually, the sides settled, and it was him, Aster, Sam, Leah, Travis, and Kurt vs. Alice, the third sibling, Daniel, the fourth sibling, Erin, and Liz. Despite the lopsided numbers, Matt's side was thoroughly trounced.

Alice was a crafter who, in seconds, created a device that spawned pillows by the dozens. Combined with Daniel and his experience of running a guild, he had them coordinated and well commanded. Meanwhile, there was Sam, who just laughed at everything.

Mara and Leon were less than helpful in the mini-war.

The phoenix returned to her bird form, sized not much larger than a chicken, and ran around, trying to dodge the projectiles that were larger than her. She always seemed to fail at the last minute and catch a pillow in the face, while Leon just turned into a cloud and flew around, trying to keep score. He did such a poor job, both sides teamed up to swat him out of the sky before long.

That distraction was enough for Matt to relax, but he was still nervous about his meeting.

Still, the next morning, he was ready with Liz and Aster to receive his Sponsors at the teleportation pad.

He didn’t know what he expected when the thousands of people rushed out of the scaffolding, but the couple looked exactly like they had at Benny's all those years ago.

Dena was still a 5’9 woman with copper colored hair in a simple ponytail and simple clothes, while Eric was slightly shorter than Matt at 6’2 or so.

Matt felt a weight lift off him as they smiled and walked over to him.

Somehow, seeing them exactly the same as they had been before was the lifting of a burden he didn't know existed.

Eric was the first to speak as he laughed and reached out to shake Matt's hand. “Matt, look at you. I almost didn't recognize you.”

Dena was a step behind and just pulled Matt into a hug. It surprised him when he was easily lifted off his feet and swung back and forth.

The last time he had seen them, they had been pretending to be Tier 4s, and some part of him still thought of them as that Tier.

Now, he could feel they were much stronger than he was, and it took his mind a moment to adjust.

“Look at you! Last time you were just a touch taller than me. Now you are too damn tall! Like this damn giant.”

Dena pushed him back to arm's length as she inspected him from head to toe, before adding, “You look good, though. And you feel strong.”

She looked into his cores, and he lowered his veil for a second so she could see his true self, and she whistled. “Well, that's telling.”

Eric was more cognizant of Liz and Aster, who had been standing off to the side and stuck out a hand to introduce himself. “Eric, and you two must be Aster and Liz. Nice to meet you two in person.”

Aster took that as her cue to leap out of Liz’s arms and, standing in the air, put out a paw to shake.

“Hi! It's nice to meet you guys as well!”

Liz returned Eric’s handshake with a more reserved smile and nod.

Dena had no such scruples, and hooked an arm with Liz’s and scooped up Aster to start walking down the packed streets.

Dena let her eyes wander up and down Liz’s frame with a mock leer as she turned to Matt and asked, “Did I awaken something in you for redheads, Matt?”

Matt froze as he realized that Liz did share a vague similarity to Dena. They were both redheads, though the shade greatly differed. Liz’s hair faded to a more blood color with her advancement, as opposed to Dena’s copper tone.

Still, they were both attractive women who bore more than a passing resemblance to one another.

Eric saved him with a laugh and elbow bump. “Clearly he just has good taste.”

He added a saucy wink at the women walking ahead of them.

That seemed to break Liz out of her reserved facade, and she laughed as she joined in the teasing. “Oh, is that so?”

Dena leaned in with a mock whisper, “You should have seen him when I took off my shirt that one time. We had just given him a ticket to the PlayPen, and he was more interested in my breasts than his future. He must have stared for an hour.”

Now out of his funk, Matt threw back, “Hardly an hour. Fifteen minutes at most.”

That broke any tension, and they started swapping stories about their recent activities.

For the most part, Dena and Eric kept the conversation on his adventures during their dinner at a decent Tier 25 restaurant.

They wanted to hear the actual details of their adventures, and seemed to be happy to hear them retell stories of the golem attack and the vassal war.

As they sat around and picked at the unending food, they started to swap stories about their various adventures in and out of rifts.

Dena and Eric were cagy with most of their stories, but after Matt and Liz regaled them with the story of the trio tackling the Tier 9 orc rift at Tier 6, they got them to open up.

Matt knew that Luna was nearby, as she had given him the ok to reveal that bit of information.

Eric leaned back and then rolled up his right sleeve and showed that his arm was waxy looking.

“This is why we’re pulling off The Path. Just too many injuries piling up. Our last rift was a Tier 25, and one mistake led to my arm getting mangled.”

He flexed his arm, and while everything seemed to be working, Matt also noticed the muscles twitching and bunching under the skin in ways that were clearly not correct.

Liz leaned forward and asked, “What did that?”

Dena poked Eric's side and answered for him. “The idiot tried to punch the boss barehanded. Not a very smart move, but it probably saved my ass.”

For the first time, the playfulness dropped, and she slithered an arm around her partner. “Delving up three Tiers is nothing to scoff at, as you know. But the gap between Tiers only increases as you advance, and it gets harder.”

Seemingly trying to lighten the mood back up, she winked and added, “Not that delving three up at Tier 6 is easy. So few skills and all. I think I'd rather do it at our Tier if I'm being honest.”

Eric rolled up his sleeve and said, “The body can only handle so much healing after all, and we have to constantly push that line. With our manager's help, we eked out every bit we could, but in the end...” He shrugged, “It wasn't enough.”

Liz snorted, and Aster joined her with a scoff. “We know how weird and temperamental managers can be.”

She leaned in and said, “Our manager had us running rifts with a dozen restrictions and kept piling them on us. She also has the worst training measures I've ever seen. For a month, she took to just throwing things at us. We could be sitting down and eating dinner, and she would throw a book or something at us, expecting us to dodge it.”

Aster chimed in with the indignance only she could manage, “She kept making fake ice cream and tricking me! How mean can you be?”

They looked at Matt, and he pulled a line out of Leon's book. “I hear no evil and see no evil, therefore, that evil isn't real.” Seeing that wasn't enough, he added, “I really could have done without the training to handle inclement weather. Freezing my ass off isn't fun. Or burning in the lava rift.”

Aster howled at that in agreement. She had hated the fire training even more than the other two because of the conflicting elements.

That launched them into a friendly competition of comparing the various training methods that their managers had subjected them to.

It eventually became clear that Matt, Liz, and Aster had had it much worse.

Dena and Eric rarely had their actual manager there with them for more than a few months out of the year, with most interaction coming from their liaison relaying the information.

They only won in the time department, as they had spent nearly a century with their management team, versus the decade that Matt, Liz, and Aster had.

Eventually, they ended their dinner, and at Dena’s insistence, moved to a rented training room.

She wanted to see how much Matt had progressed in the past years, and he was more than happy to show them their investment in him had been a good one.

In a near mirror of their first fight, Matt stood across from Dena with his longsword brandished in a mirror stance to her twin daggers.

As they sized each other up, he said, “I remember you saying that you liked staffs more. You might want to use that if you want a chance to beat me.”

She just smirked, but Matt shook his head, cutting her off. “I'm not joking. If you think being only two Tiers higher than me is enough with a weapon you don't specialize in, you’re going to lose. Quickly.”

Dena narrowed her eyes, but the smirk dropped off her face.

Seeing that she was now taking things seriously, Matt set his stance and readed his weapon.

The second she started to move, he flooded [Mage’s Retreat] with 250 MPS to more than double his physical strength. He had spent long years improving the efficiency of the skill, and he lunged with his blade extended for a perfect attack at her center of mass.

The speed of his attack caught Dena off guard, and he watched her eyes widen as she tried to side step the attack, but he was already moving through the attack. He turned his thrust into an upward slash that she only narrowly blocked.

Even then, his full essence allocation into his physical core was more than enough to push her back a few steps when doubled by his skills.

When he added [Mage’s Retreat] to the equation, he was able to fight up two Tiers with no difficulty. He was stronger than most peak Tier 11s, but weaker than a typical Tier 12, as his boost put him right between the normal dividing line. But that was more than enough to fight someone one at bottom of Tier 12, which was where Dena had limited her cultivation to.

He dealt with larger gaps all the time.

As Matt kept up an unending stream of mundane attacks, he was keeping Dena and her shorter ranged weapons on the defensive, unlike last time.

Finally, when he had pushed her around the training room for a full minute, she laughed and vanished from his attack.

Seeing she was halfway across the room and laughing, Matt lowered his weapon.

Dena cracked her neck and laughed heartily. “I thought you were talking a big game Matt, but hot damn! You can fight up two Tiers without an issue. At least against the battle prowess of a normal cultivator. No bullshit now. I'll fight you with everything I have, but limited to a Tier 11. Let's add spells and have a real duel. I want to see everything you have. How have you grown? Show me! Can you stand toe to toe with even an almost Ascender?”

With that final command, her daggers vanished, and she was wielding a staff, standing in melee range.

The ends of her staff were glowing silver and yellow, giving off a feeling of danger that Matt didn’t ignore. He had spent more than enough time fighting the unknown to trust his instincts, and he activated [Cracked Phantom Armor], maxing out the first layer with 500 MPS.

Being Tier 10, he could generate 1280 MPS if he was below 12.8 mana, and with his channel skills, he had no issue staying below that parameter.

But, that extra mana generation gave him a massive advantage compared to his lower Tiered self.

He had mana to burn.

And he burned it.

Sending mana into [Mana Charge], he let his excess mana generation fill his weapon with a truly absurd amount of mana. As the skill was inside of his spirit properly, instead of in his weapon, he had been able to modify the skill.

Instead of holding only 1000 mana, it could now hold close to 7000 mana, and the actual damage was far more effective for each unit of mana than it had been before.

As he slammed his glowing blade into Dena’s staff, he didn’t release the power, as it had only reached 1000 mana.

She tried to strike out with the yellow edge of her staff, but Matt was already moving, and swayed out of the way.

They both held their ground and exchanged blows, until Matt noticed the way she engaged him in their flurry of attacks changed. Openings in her forms and hesitations in her advancements vanished as if they were water tossed into a forge. Despite her cultivation strength being reduced, the fight was far closer.

That actually put Matt at a small disadvantage, but it was nothing that technique couldn't close the gap on.

The trainers that Luna had found for him hadn’t been wasted.

As he kicked the middle of her staff to block an attack, Matt smiled and decided to cut fully loose.

He was going to be restricted in his fights for the rest of the tournament, as both himself and as Quill. Quill was limited to being a mage, while his true persona would be limiting his attacks to a normal Pather’s level.

Still, he was wary of the change in Dena’s fighting. Where he had been handily winning, he was now being pushed to his full strength. She had been holding back far more than he expected, but that only made the fight all the more desirable.

He wanted to see just how far he could push his sponsor, giving her everything he had.

With [Mana Charge] fully filled, he sent his extra regeneration into [Mana Slash], and launched a full 1000 mana crescent of power at Dena.

She got her staff up in time, and a shield of mana that he expected was [Mana Barrier] formed. This was the actual Tier 14 skill, not the stripped-down version that he used in his talismans.

Stifling a smirk, Matt launched himself forward and brought his glowing weapon down on the barrier.

7000 mana unleashed in a single attack was more than enough to overwhelm a Tier 11's defenses, but Dena, while limiting herself, was no ordinary Tier 11.

Still, with Matt’s endless mana, and the pure quantity packed into the attack, the released energy from the impact turned the world bluish-white. The color of his mana was considerably lighter due to the influence of his Concept. Even with the attack being his own, he felt [Cracked Phantom Armor] strain under the backlash.

If he didn’t trust that he couldn't actually hurt Dena's Tier 22 physical body, he would have never attacked with so much power.

When the energy was expended, he looked over their locked weapons to see the [Mana Barrier] gone, and Dena’s hair now free of its ponytail and scattered across her face.

But she looked up at him with a glowing smile.

“Now that is one hell of an attack, Matt! There is no way that I could beat you as a Tier 11. Not even at the peak of that Tier. Let's increase the power, and see how far you can go.”

Dena spun off from their lock, and the silver end of her staff shot what looked like a wrong colored fireball at him.

Matt dropped [Mage’s Retreat] and put another 500 MPS into [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s second layer, and took the attack head-on.

It felt like a [Fireball], but as the skill burned, he could feel the element of the attack was some metal type that he didn't recognize. Still, it wasn't strong enough to punch through both layers of his armor.

In only a second, he lowered the mana output to his armor until he was just barely holding the fireball back. With his free regeneration, he reactivated [Mage’s Retreat] and threw himself back into the attack.

As they both started to mix spells into their engagements, Dena increased her strength and widened her repertoire of skills. It forced Matt to bring out every trick he had, even with her cultivation only at the bottom of Tier 12.

Now that she was using all of her skills that had been honed in countless rifts and battles, the increase in her available power changed the pace of the battle.

Dena fought like a rabid dog, and ferociously punished any openings that Matt left open. If it wasn’t for his armor, both physical and magical, he wouldn't have been able to withstand her onslaught of attacks for long.

But Matt wasn't an average Pather.

He took every attack and countered with his own, forcing her repeatedly into disadvantageous positions whenever he saw the opportunity. She always wormed her way out of them and counterattacked, but Matt did his best to keep her on her back foot.

His smile matched his Sponsors own as they battled around the sparring room.

When she brought her power up to the middle of Tier 12, he started to be pushed back, but Matt didn’t let that stop him.

He had already covered the entire battlefield with ice from [Hail], and as he was forced onto the defensive, he started to use his elemental manipulation skills. Throwing around those more free form skills let him retake the advantage for a while, but Dena hadn’t made it to her current Tier by being mediocre.

She was able to dodge or block everything he threw at her after seeing it once. She even started to interrupt his elemental attacks when they started to form.

If he hadn’t been trained by Luna to deal with that exact situation, the backlash of losing control of the skills would have lost him the battle, but he had trained for such moments long ago.

In return, he started to throw his Concept’s general spatial disruptions and air hardenings at her.

Still, he was unable to push her to release more of her cultivation, and finally resorted to full use of his Concept and its repulsive effects to draw in close for a final attempt to land a blow.

The fight ended when he blew back her [Ice Spike], [Jolt], [Fireball], and the odd metal version of the [Fireball] with his Concept. In a move that nearly mirrored their last fight, he scratched her under the arm as she tried to dance away.

This time, her shirt was visibly sliced open, and Matt dropped his skills as he panted a grin back at her.

Eric started clapping, “Fantastic showing, Matt!”

Dena walked forward and punched him in the shoulder, and waved her hand as all the remnant elements from their spells vanished.

“Hot damn, Matt. Now that was impressive. You could easily solo a top Tier 12 rift, probably could handle a Tier 13 rift as well.” She looked to Liz and Aster and asked, “Now, what about the three of you together?”

With that, Eric laughed and summoned a massive axe, and appeared next to his partner.

The spars lasted hours as they were pushed and prodded by the older Pathers. Dena and Eric didn’t necessarily guide them as much as they pushed their limits, trying to see what Matt, Liz, and Aster could do under duress.

Eventually they still lost, but the three of them forced the pair to increase their cultivation to peak Tier 12 by the end of their fight.

It was a fantastic evening, and Matt was on cloud nine as they returned to their home.

Or, he was, until they entered the apartment to see the Emperor sitting next to Mara and Leon at the dinner table.

The only Tier 50 in the Empire waved at them and said, “Come sit down, kids. We need to have a conversation that has been delayed too long.”