The Path of Ascension

Matt burst into a full sprint. Every ounce of energy he had was directed into his legs, and he cleared the plain in moments while heading into the forest.

He only had half of his attention focused on the path in front of him. The other half was preoccupied with the influx of messages, and the overlay showing the positions of the refugees.

As he crested the final hill separating him from his target, his steps faltered for a moment. The group was being overwhelmed by golems. The sky was nearly black, with the metal bodies blocking out the horizon.

Matt quickly glanced at the icons of Liz and Aster that he had permanently displayed on his HUD. They were low on mana but physically fine.

Refusing to be dissuaded, Matt let out a scream, and launched himself down the hill at a breakneck pace. He made a beeline for the shrinking space between the golems and the mass of survivors.

With his longsword fully charged, he obliterated the first enemies he came in contact with. The momentum was short lived as they instantly replaced the destroyed drones with more troops. Matt formed a defensive perimeter with the other defenders and covered the retreat of the weaker humans. If they were to succeed, the Tier 5s and 6s were in for the battle of their lives.

It was hard and brutal fighting where each attack felt like flailing in a pool. No matter how many times Matt brought his sword down into the swarm, they rushed to fill in the gaps created by his strikes.

Most of them were the lighter, flying models, and took only a single attack to bring down. Still, their effectiveness was in their sheer numbers. The continous onslaught of golems wore down the defenders’ bodies. As the mindless fighting continued, Matt engaged with three of the melee golems, wielding the usual mana swords and shields. He was unable to finish them off, but his sole objective was a successful retreat into the rift, so keeping the monsters occupied was good enough.

As he was backpedaling and parrying, he stepped on something fleshy and heard a cry of pain.

Pushing forward slightly, he tried to buy time for the survivor to get up and move. When he heard no movement he quickly glanced behind, and his shout of impatience caught in his throat. He found them still on the ground, with an obviously broken ankle. Judging from the other boot marks, they had already been trampled by quite a few people.

Cursing mentally, Matt let loose a blast of mana from his sword and with the space provided grabbed them. With a single hand he threw the survivor at someone retreating in the mass of people. He didn’t have enough time to see more than the two of them stumbling and gripping each other, before he threw himself back into the fight.

In the lull he quickly glanced at the icon of Liz; while low on mana she was physically fine. Aster was doing better on mana but she lost a chunk while he watched. If she was using mana, she was fine.

Matt wasn’t sure how the melee fighters were doing, but the fighting was growing more and more frantic as each moment passed so he assumed it was worse than the flying mages. Golems kept slipping through, and trying to grab the weaker Tier 4’s. Checking his AI, he saw that they were stretching out, pulling ahead faster than the rear of the formation, separating them further from the pack and forcing the defenders to cover more ground.

Allowing his anger at the situation to take hold, he let his rage fuel his strikes. He was forced to fight at max effort, and didn’t have much mana to spare for [Endurance]. [Mage’s Retreat] was eating everything that wasn’t fed into [Cracked Phantom Armor] or [Mana Charge].

The fighting seemed to go on forever. In between flashes of his released mana, he caught glimpses of spells and ranged attacks pelting the mass of golems.

It was helping, he knew that, but it felt so useless.

The anti-air constructs were sending out a continuous stream of mana bolts, and kept the golems from landing inside their formations. Still, some were already flanking them, and attacking those at the front of the retreat. There was a bright side though. The stronger people were running ahead, and were able to clear any golems that tried that.

A blast of flame washed over Matt, and the force of the explosion took him off his feet. Rolling and standing, he found more than a few humans moaning on the ground, while clutching themselves in various spots.

Matt swallowed, stunned for a moment. The smell of charred flesh was overwhelming.

Looking up, he saw a mage with a staff, who had a crossbow bolt sticking out of his shoulder, the bolt had thrown off his aim while he was using the skill. The mage looked on in horror at what had happened. His expression matched what Matt was feeling.

Shaking off the shock and jumping into action, he picked up the two most intact people, and started shoving them forward. He didn’t get much further, before a golem came into his sight, trying to grab an unconscious man. With a roar, he turned and lept at the golem, knocking it aside and into the encroaching horde.

Picking up the downed man, Matt ran for all he was worth to catch back up with the retreating masses. Leaving behind the others tore at him, but he knew he had no choice. Not if he wanted to save the still unconscious man, or himself, for that matter. Getting killed or captured wasn’t exactly on his list of things to do.

Turning and running, Matt got back to the group, and after handing off his still unconscious baggage, returned to the fighting. The trees were a blessing and a curse. They stopped the golems from pelting them with their crossbows, but they also impeded their progress, forcing people around the thick trunks.

Matt kept his HUD up, and saw the group he was next to split off to the left a little too far. They ran into a hill too steep to climb, getting themselves separated from the retreat.

Checking his surroundings, he found that the defenders had the situation mostly under control. So he ran to the side, and launched himself off the top of the hill that the stragglers were stuck under. While landing, he tried to lead with his sword. It worked for the most part, but he still tumbled down into a mass of metal limbs.

Something stabbed into his side and punctured his armor. He let the pain add to the rage already fueling him, and brought his fists down on anything that moved. Before he lost himself in the killing, he retrieved his sword and screamed at the party of nine.

“Fucking get your asses moving. Now!” His voice cracked on the last bit, and he spit out a mouthful of blood. He had bit his tongue hard during his… graceful entrance.

The survivors only looked at him as if he was stupid and the rage flared up again. He started shoving them to get them going. Seeing that no one wanted to take the lead, Matt pushed forward, with his sword cutting through a pair of golems. With him leading the way, they quickly reunited with the rest of the retreat.

In the moment he was inside the defensive line he took a swig of water from a canteen someone had out and checked his AI for Liz and Aster's status. They were full on mana now but out of his range so with his primary concerns ensured safety he made to return to the fight.

Before he could return to defending the rear, Matt got a ping. Fen was pinned down close by, along with a group of survivors. Not slowing down, Matt turned and rushed through a volley of crossbow bolts. They were simply nuisances that he ignored as Matt didn't feel any connect.

After nearly five minutes of sprinting, he found the group. Fen, Bow, and Arrow were the only fighters defending the group of seven. The others were bloodied and wounded, but trying to help as much as they could. Their wounds only rendered their already weak weapons and skills essentially useless. They were barely holding on.

How did they get so separated?

He didn’t have time to consider the question, as he slammed into the back of the small group of golems. One of them turned towards him, and fired a crossbow bolt into his side at point-blank range. He grunted in pain before punching out blindly through the agony. He was quickly surrounded, but he grabbed the crossbow golem and used it as a shield. Charging forward, Matt barreled through the line of monsters and made it to the group of survivors.

After coughing out a mouthful of blood, Fen called out, “You look like shit Matt!”

Matt didn’t know how the man had the energy for banter, and just nodded to the side in response. He led the group away from the rest of the golems, breaking out of the encirclement. The monsters tried to stop them, but with Matt leading the charge, along with the two massive bonded wolves, they were able to secure a path to safety.

Fen was limping heavily, and he struggled to keep up, but some of the survivors helped enough for him to keep pace. Matt moved to help as well, but then noticed that the cut on Arrow’s side was disappearing, as Fen’s limp grew worse.

Being able to transfer injuries was a very interesting Talent. Matt wanted to probe more, but now was hardly the time for an interview.

They were able to meet back up with the rest of the party, and Fen, with his two wolves, made towards another group that needed saving. Fen slapped Matt’s back, and the wolves nodded as they passed. Matt gently patted the injured human’s shoulder, while scratching the wolve’s heads in response.

Matt begrudgingly returned to the melee. They were close to the rear, where the fighting was fiercest. He was tired, exhausted from the effects of [Mage’s Retreat] boosting him so far beyond his physical means, but someone had to do it. The defender’s ranks were growing thinner, as more and more were being taken out of the fight, or fleeing.

As he fought on, he nearly slipped on the churned mud the ground had become. A bolt of lightning arc’d from the small hill behind him, and struck the melee golem closest to him.

Glancing back, he saw a group of about twenty standing and fighting.

Matt screamed at them, “Fucking move! No heroic last stands! Just keep pushing forward!”

They didn’t move as quickly as he wanted, so he resorted to herding them with shoves yet again. It got the momentum going, and they all started running together with the last stragglers. A wave of crossbow bolts slammed into the whole crowd through the treetops. Scores of the retreating survivors stumbled and staggered, but most were helped along before they could fall.

As they reunited with the main group, the relief was palpable, but it didn’t last long. He thought the darkening of the sky was the approaching night, but the flurry of messages caused him to look again. The golems were sending a large force to flank them and split the formation.

The worry for Liz and Aster skyrocketed but his AI had an update on their position and he found them with the front of the group and physically fine, just once again low on mana.

A second quick glance at his AI indicated that the group had grown more and more stretched out as the retreat proceeded. There was simply too much ground to cover.

Finally, the order he dreaded came down.

They were to cut and run. The Tier 4’s would be unable to keep up, and they would be sacrifices to protect the Tier 5s.

It was a cold, calculated call.

Matt agreed with it.

Without hesitation, he turned and ran. The horror on the faces of the people they were abandoning finally broke something in Matt. It wasn’t fair to anyone. He didn’t want to leave them to the mercy of the golems, but they were about to be enveloped because of the difference in speed and endurance.

Each step felt like failure. Each beat of his heart reinforced that he was leaving humans to the mercy of the ruin’s monsters. Matt knew how much restraint they had. He had seen it firsthand growing up.

Eventually, the stragglers gave up and stopped moving. Matt found himself free of pursuers, and with about twenty others who ran fast enough to catch up with the rest of the retreat.

The new, smaller group moved much faster with the Tier 4’s gone, and they quickly were able to close the distance and tighten up the formation.

It was just in time, as the army of golems enveloped the nearly fifty Tier 4’s, along with the people that stayed behind with them.

Now, the fighting retreat was so fast, they didn’t even need to fight golems on their rear. Seeing as much, Matt ran to the front and joined in the melee to secure a safe route forward.

As they cleared the forest and reached the grassy plains, they saw the rest of the rear defenders sprinting out to meet with them. The help was everything they needed, and they were able to make a loose corridor, with the noncombatants flowing through it.

The golems adjusted tactics, and threw themselves into the defenders, trying to cut through and catch the easiest targets. Matt saw more than one flash of a skill, but the remaining defenders were able to hold, with the help of the mages flying above.

Right in front of Matt, a rain of dozen arrows made from mana peppered the golems from above. It reminded him to throw out a cast of [Hail] to his side, where the defenders looked to be struggling slightly.

A steady stream of fireballs started launching at the golems, burning them and knocking them back.

It was the first time during the retreat that Matt wasn’t actively fighting for more than the time it took to reach a new fight. He took the opportunity to scan around, and saw what looked like a tornado of blood flying through the sky. A quick check of his AI showed Liz and Aster were fine and draining mana rapidly.

Dozens of people were casting everything they had, but even Matt could tell that the flight golems were getting closer. They were now in range to pelt them with crossbow bolts. The survivors were being overrun by the weight of the golems’ numbers.

His AI still picked up the pleas of the Tier 4s, who were being collected, shackled up, and transported.

Matt cursed his inability to use proper spells as he saw his flying sword lower itself out of harm’s way. Even the anti-air constructs couldn’t keep up with the golems. Matt wanted to help, but they were at half their mana capacity, and firing at their fastest setting. More mana wasn’t the answer.

Finally, the last of the noncombatants passed Matt’s position, and he fell in with the rear defenders.

The golems saw that the humans were nearly out of their trap, and reports of the monsters attempting to cut off the rift flowed in. Matt and Basil rushed to the front in response.

The man in heavy armor was covered in dents and scratches that told the story of his defense of the heaviest hit areas. Matt caught a slight nod, as the two of them ran faster than the stream of refugees, and crashed into the side of the golems force.

Matt didn’t have the room to do anything fancy, and simply hacked into the golem's metal bodies over and over. It was more frantic fighting, where he saw more than one person fall to a crossbow bolt or a sword. Some got back up, but many didn’t.

After what felt like hours, they were the last of the survivors outside of the rift, and they quickly retreated inside. The transition from plains back to dense forest was abrupt, and Matt immediately received a countdown on his HUD. The first person through the rift had started it, if their plan was being followed correctly.

Seven minutes and twelve seconds remained until the rift instanced, making it impossible for anyone or anything else to follow them into their version of the rift.

Matt passed through the defenses already set up, and joined the other fighters, simply slipping into an open space. There were a few simple, earthen constructs only about waist-high, but they would slow the golems down. At least, long enough to give the defenders an advantage. As the final humans passed through, Matt watched as a portion of the defenders rose up in a quiet rumble.

The golems didn’t immediately follow, sparking a small bit of hope in him, until he saw them come through in formation. The leading golems were the heavier shield and sword users. They had their glowing shields raised, ready to absorb the first volley of spells and ranged weapons loosed towards them.

Matt dropped a cast of [Hail] directly on the rift entrance, and lashed out at the first golem in range of [Mana Charge]. The golem’s shield held for a brief moment, but crumpled from the explosion of unleashed energy. Other golems quickly replaced their killed comrade, and Matt was forced into a shoving match to keep them from stepping over the defensive wall.

An arrow whizzed over his shoulder, and took one of the golems in the head, dropping it to the ground. Only for it to be replaced once again.

Matt brought his blade down in another mana filled attack.

The countdown seemed to tick down in minutes instead of the seconds that actually passed while Matt watched. Thankfully, the flight golems were all quickly shot down, and they stopped trying to gain air superiority in the rift.

The fight ended suddenly, when Matt turned from a bisected golem to find the killing field empty. The rift entrance sat quiet, and only a few scattered limbs still moved in the pile of metal corpses.

Matt didn’t join the small cheer. He quickly checked his AI, and saw that Liz and Aster were ok. He dropped down, letting his back rest against the makeshift wall.

As he did, he jolted up at the sudden pain, and leaned forward.

There was a bolt in his lower back.

When did I get hit in the back?

The pain now made itself known,and Matt moved over to the area that his AI had marked for the healers. They had a “whopping” four healers, out of the nearly one hundred and fifty survivors remaining.

That number, and the realization of their losses hurt much worse than the pain in his back and side. They had lost so many, it made the victory feel hollow.

Looking around the open-air infirmary, Matt found an aide, someone trained in first aid and mundane medicine. They were all busy with much more severe injuries, so Matt just lumbered over to a stack of bandages, and grabbed some before leaving.

The cries of pain were digging up memories that he wished would stay buried.

Matt moved to a tree, and braced himself as he started fumbling around his back. As he struggled, a small white form ran up to him, and tried to scurry into his arms. Aster's yips were accompanied with thoughts of panic and worry.

Leaning down, he kissed the fox on the head, and went back to his fumbling.

“What are you doing?” Liz’s voice stopped his hands, but for only a moment. He almost had the angle he wanted, but his hands were pried off, with Liz cursing at him.

“You need a healer.”

Matt killed that quickly, “They have more important injuries to deal with.”

Liz grumbled at that, but he felt her hands feel around the bolt still sticking out of his back. The sensation of her cutting around the foreign object wasn’t comfortable, but he was able to grit his teeth through it. He was so tired, he was almost falling asleep while she worked.

Matt jolted slightly as he felt the bolt leave his back, and Liz started wrapping the bandage around his lower waist. Then she rolled him over and worked on the bolt in his side.

With his face now out of the fallen leaves and dirt, Matt asked, “You ok?”

Aster answered him with a yip and a headbutt, so he started to rub his bond’s ears the way she liked.

“We made it through fine. We ran out of mana right before the end. It wasn’t pretty there for a while. I can’t...” Her voice trailed off, and she flopped down next to him, having finished her task to her liking.

Matt turned and watched the quiet forest. It looked normal, but the sounds of pain still rung in his ears.

Before he could get too deep into his own head, Matt got a message from Juni calling a meeting.

Matt wanted to sigh and protest, but there were matters that needed addressing.

Getting up, Matt pulled Liz closer to him, but was interrupted by a second message that rescinded the original order. The new message said that they would meet up the next morning. The rift was already cleared, so there was little to worry about. It was as safe as a forest could possibly be, decidedly different from the one they had just escaped from.

Matt sat with Liz and Aster for an unknown amount of time, while they rested in silence, holding each other’s hands. Before long, they were joined by Camilla and Geraden. The latter of them was covered in small nicks and scrapes. Camilla had blood covering most of her armor and exposed skin. It almost looked like she had been in a fight with Liz instead of the golems.

He felt slightly guilty that he hadn't checked up on her once during the retreat.

No one broke the silence as they sat around. There was nothing to say, really.

They needed to decompress and vent some of the stress that had accumulated over the last few hours.

Soon, Fen, Bow, and Arrow all joined them. They had the worst injuries by far, with Bow missing her tail, and Arrow missing a front leg.

At least they were alive. Limbs could be regrown.

Not even Melinda can heal the dead.

Matt finally fell asleep, with Liz and Aster in his arms. They were safe, and that was all that mattered.

***

All of the people who were planning to leave the rift were gathered together, and sitting in a half-circle to get a good view of Juni. They had only thirty-four people who were combat capable, after the golems’ assault on the rift. Too many of their fighters had taken crippling hits, or injuries that severely hampered them.

There was no reason to force them to fight. The rift was safe enough, and with the reduction in numbers, they had more than enough food to last for four months.

When everyone finally settled down, Juni said, “That was a fucking shit show. But we made it through. Though, not completely unscathed. But now, we need to decide what our next steps are. The Prince’s original plan was to wait for a single day, then break out in coordination with the other groups.”

There was grumbling at the mention of the prince, and Juni let them vent some of their frustration.

Finally, he held up a hand and regained everyone’s attention.

“We still need to plan our next moves. We should be moving in the next five hours, but if anyone wants to stay here and wait this out, no hard feelings.”

No one exactly sprung to their feet. Not that Matt expected them to openly declare their intentions. If anyone wanted to stay behind, they would simply decline to show at the rift entrance in five hours.

“Our next steps are to move to the center of the continent, and meet up with the rest of the Prince’s forces.”

One of the women who had been with the guard force interjected, “Are we still going to join him after what he did to us?”

Juni shrugged. “You’re free to do as you please. I can’t stop you, nor will I. But that golem fortress is still sitting there, and they will only grow in numbers. We could wait until the higher Tiers are forced to step in, but that might take a while. And how would we know, even if they did?”

Another woman from the guard party spoke out, “What’s your idea then? We never even got firm details about what to do after we arrived, well before this disaster.”

“We need to get out of the rift and meet up with the prince. We’re hoping they aren’t guarding the rift entrances closely, now that people are inside of them. Anyone that stays would always be vulnerable, even if this isn’t an ideal rift for the golems to gather materials.”

They talked a bit more, but in the end, it was up to people to decide on their own.

As they were about to leave, one of the crafters came up and said, “We have a bath house carved into the river, and a small steam house built as well.”

That was all Matt needed to hear. They were still covered in blood and sweat from the fight yesterday. They had been abruptly woken up for the meeting, and had not had the time to clean up at all.

Everyone else clearly had the same idea, and rushed towards the river. Matt saw that Fen was now missing an arm, but Arrow had four legs once again. The human looked battered, but was still smiling.

They reached the river, and found a small area dug out in the shape of a small halfmoon and a set of steps built into the side.

Matt rushed to pull his under armor off, and fell into the shockingly cold water. He spluttered, surfacing with a shudder. The cold was a brutal way to get the last remnants of sleep out of his bones.

Everyone else had joined him, and was scrubbing away at themselves with bars of soap from the ledge. As he went to grab one, he stopped and twisted to check his injuries. The bandages had come off when he pulled off his clothes. Poking, he found them mostly healed, at least the surface.

He had kept [Endurance] running for most of the night while he slept, and with nearly 40 MPS to dedicate to the task, it had healed rapidly.

A slight gasp caught his attention, and the crafter who led them over was covering her eyes while looking up.

“Is there a problem?”

“Umm… uhh... Men and women don’t bathe together. It’s not really considered proper.” Weakly, she pointed to the partition that he hadn’t noticed and continued, “That’s the area for men.”

Matt shrugged, walked back into the water and started scrubbing. He didn’t notice that only the people from the Empire proper were here. Thyme and Basil were nowhere to be seen. They and the others from the local kingdom must have suspected something like this would happen.

He didn’t have it nearly as bad as Camilla, who was covered in dried blood. Liz was helping her with [Blood Manipulation], and was using the same skill to keep the blood from lingering in their bathing water.

Finishing his cleaning, he scooped up Aster, who was busy creating chucks of ice and trying to bite them. In between chomps, she was sending shards of ice at the two wolves splashing around the struggling Fen.

Aster resisted his interruptions of her playtime, until she saw the soap. Then she made her way over to the ledge, ready to be pampered.

After he finished scrubbing the dirt and debris out of her fur, returning it to a pristine white, Aster jumped back into the water and resumed her splashing with the wolves.

As much as he wanted to sit in the frigid water, Matt got up and moved to the sauna. He found a fire device designed for camping, and filled it with mana, sending the water in the bowl on top to a boil.

Steam quickly filled the air, and he was joined by Liz and the others soon after.

He called out, “Shut the door! You’re letting my steam escape.”

A chorus of complaints were good-naturedly returned to him, and the others filled in.

Liz plopped next to him, and he couldn’t resist the opportunity to check her out. It wasn’t the first time he had seen her naked, but it was the first time since they had agreed to date exclusively. His appreciation was cut short at the long red line across her hip.

Running his finger down it, he asked, “How did you get that?” Liz had her unique [Blood Endurance], but she didn’t have his unlimited mana to spend on the healing skill. It couldn’t have been terrible, but he didn’t like seeing her hurt.

Liz leaned into his side and whispered, “Fucking golems from the ground started to shoot at us at the end. I got snagged. Nothing crazy. It was a glancing blow, but...”

He felt her shrug at the end. He understood. It could have been much worse.

They sat there for a long while, until the heat had chased away the cold of their baths, and they came back out into the pleasant air of the rift.

As they toweled off and slipped into their clean clothes, he found Aster holding court with the other two bonds. Bow and Arrow both sat together, and had their heads cocked at the little fox’s yapping.

Matt found Fen with his feet kicked up, and his good arm covering his eyes.

“You see what your bond has done to mine? It’s not fair.”

Matt laughed, “She’ll miss them when we leave tomorrow.”

That caused Fen to lift his arm and look at Matt questioningly. “Who said we’re not coming?”

Seeing where Matt’s eyes went, he rolled his eyes. “It’s only an arm, and I can fill in just fine as a spell caster. I only prefer melee.”

He shrugged and added, “And I bet that prince has a capable healer. Can’t get it regrown here, so might as well push forward.”

They sat there for a while, watching Aster until she turned around and bolted off. Matt was worried for a moment, until Bow and Arrow followed her. He saw that Camilla had exited the steam house, and was promptly tackled by a mass of fur.

Bow and Arrow looked confused, but didn’t hesitate to join in on Aster's fun.

Matt let the laughter and quiet barks lull him into a peaceful state. With Liz curled up at his side, he relaxed. He used the down time to allocate the essence in his full spirit. He hated to think how much essence he wasted being full.

His hand slightly shook as he reached into his spatial bag and pulled out a few drinks. It took concentrated effort to stop the shaking, but hearing Aster playing was enough to lighten his mood. A part of him wanted to stay here and let the world pass him by, but images of destruction kept flashing in his mind.

Someone had to clean up this mess, and he didn’t trust anyone else to do it right.