Ascenders Rift

Somewhere deep within the woods of a desolate and lifeless forest, a battle was occurring between a girl and a horde of vicious-looking mosquitos. These mosquitos grew to an alarming size of two meters as with each beat of their wings, a buzzing sound no different from a fighter jet's engine would resound across the forest.

Much like the latter, these mosquitos were similarly fast, they blurred across the hedges and fauna, nimbly maneuvering towards the girl from all angles with their proboscis gleaming in sharp icy rays, as glowing red eyes left behind trailing lines of light.

The girl who faced these pests was not inferior to them in speed; she bounced from the ground like a nimble rabbit, dancing in the air like a bird as she gently waved her slender arms a few times.

Swish-swish-swish!

Following a flurry of wind-like sounds, a flickering line of thin white lights would flash about wildly at speeds far beyond what the eyes could perceive. The sound of her wire moving and cutting through objects sounded repeatedly along with buzzing noises of the mosquito's wings.

With each flash of light, one mosquito would either lose a limb or a wing, forcing them to halt due to the pain. However, the unlucky amongst them would either be sliced into halves or multiple pieces showering the dead grasses with their blood.

Looking at the ground, one would even see that amongst the mosquitos which fell due to the girl's attacks, were corpses of dried up goblins, reptiles, and other various creatures. It seemed as if the mosquitos were on the losing side as most of them had already fallen, but sadly, this was only the beginning.

Buzzu! A loud sound far superior to other mosquitos sounded, a gush of wind swept across the area as a mosquito that was three times the size of the previous one's appeared out of nowhere.

"Bzzzz!" The mosquito droned loudly as its eyes glowed in a cruel light, its body shook as the wind around it grew stronger, but before it could even attack, the girl who was observing it spoke, "Well, a big one came; this would have been a whole lot more fun if I didn't have the time to prepare."

As Breya said this, she had unknowingly stopped in the air with her figure hanging down as her arms held onto a thin bundle of invisible threads. Now, she was no different from a spider on its web. As her head was upside-down, her loosely hanging hair was swaying about due to the mosquito's rising momentum.

If one looked closely, they would see occasional flashes of sharp white lights in various areas of the forest. Now, Breya's thread had already occupied many of the surroundings, completely encasing all creatures within its boundaries.

Breya smirked as she tugged her wire and flipped her body over with a low shout, "One-two!"

She quickly balanced herself on top of her thin threads showing skills that were vastly superior to any gold medalist in the Olympics.

The mosquitos didn't know the danger that was coming; they promptly acted along with the leading mosquito who had only now gathered up its full power.

Buzz! Instantly, a myriad of droning sounds resounded as the mosquitos blurred and vanished due to their speed. The largest mosquitos had similarly faded away, but what was even more terrifying was the fact that it didn't even make a sound nor leave behind a remnant shade due to its speed.

Breya did panic at this scene; she smiled and closed eyes before speaking, "Let's end this, Bind!"

The moment she said this, her arms, which were open wide, began to glow as she spread each of her fingers apart. Instantly, a series of wrapped wires had begun to appear around each of her fingers. When this happened, she clasped her palms together quickly.

The scene around her had changed, and Breya opened her eyes to a sight that would scare any living being. Now, all mosquitos had appeared one meter away from her body, with the largest mosquito directly in front of her face.

The proboscis of these mosquitos was roughly a few inches away from Breya's skin. They pointed towards her from all angles like swords facing an enemy. Carefully looking, one would see that an array of threads had bound them together, causing them to not be able to move an inch.

Breya mocked as she looked at the mosquitos and spoke, "Truly a dangerous set of pests, come, I'll send you on your way. Thread Slicer..."

After saying this, she locked her fingers together, causing her threads to shimmer in a sharp light before they easily cut apart the bodies of the bounded mosquitos.

Breya then looked at the scene before focusing on the giant mosquito for a short moment. She then looked at her arms and spoke, "My strength is now at its current limit, today is the day we should meet up. I should get moving."

Not long after saying this, she blurred and vanished from this region, jumping from tree to tree like a ninja from legends.

***

Within a different section of Belanore's ruins, Fatty Joe, Emilia, and Layla were now facing off against two squads. One comprised of goblins with the other consisting of crocomen and various reptiles.

Fatty Joe clashed against the two leaders, one being a goblin with magic arrows called Kalark and the other being a crocoman with a halberd, known as Angar.

Angar would skillfully flourish his halberd towards Joe with overwhelming power, but sadly, each of his strikes was parried by Joe's new shield.

Ting! Along with the sound of metals colliding, the sparks from their clash would scatter around them. As each of Angar's attacks finished, Joe would always try to make a counterattack, but sadly, he was forced to remain on guard due to magic flame arrows fired by Kalark.

Bang! The flames from this arrow would shoot across the air, as it was diffused from colliding with the scaly shield while Joe remained fixed in one place, his substantial figure seeming no different from an unmovable mountain.

"Che! The darn human, how can he be so sturdy?" Angar cursed in anger as he saw that yet another attempt at striking the fatty down was futile.

"Tsk! So much meat on his flesh, it's got to be a secret hidden within his frame. If we eat him, we could probably advance our constitutions..." Kalark said while licking his lips; his large bumpy nose sniffed the air as if he smelled something tasty.

"Save eating him for later, we have to finish him right now; the leader was right in recalling the most powerful among our ranks. It seems that these blasted humans were capable of growing too fast..." Angar said with a serious look on his face.

"It can't be helped, let's just do what we can to finish them off here, we'll use that technique," Kalark said with a knowing look on his face when he knocked his bow and began to chant silently.

"Che... fine," Angar replied as he once more hoisted his halberd and glared at Joe.

Though Joe didn't hear their words, as he saw their actions, he grew weary, though he seemed fine from their previous attacks, his arm was slightly shaking from behind the shield. He thought to himself, "Darn, I can't hold them forever, my stats aren't fully complete without a class, and I am not fully equipped. I can only rely on my sturdiness as well as my innate traits to keep two at their level at bay for now. Those girls have to hurry..."

As Joe thought to here, he glanced towards the side from the corner of his eyes, noticing the scene which was taking place around them. Soon, his lips curved into a smile when he muttered, "Heh, it seems I was overly worried..."

Angar's ears twitched as he seemed to have heard Joe's words; he set himself up in attacking posture with the tip of the halberd facing Joe as he shouted, "Ignorant human, we shall teach you the price of those words!"

Bang! As he yelled, his body erupted a vague power as the blade on his halberd began to hum. Kalark seemed to have only now finished his chant; his eyes flickered when yelled, "Fire Bolt!"

A blazing arrow shot from his bow at crazy speeds, as Angar, hearing this pressed his feet against the ground, causing the earth to break apart when he dashed forwards like a blur and shouted, "Human accept your end! Chasm Strike!"

The moment the two unleashed their most powerful attacks, the blazing arrow seemed to have a mind of its own. It joined with the ray of light at the tip of Angar's halberd, causing the power of the strike to double in the force as a blazing ray was beaming towards Joe.

"Damn! I guess it's all or nothing!" Joe's eyes shrunk when he cursed this, he gritted his teeth and pushed everything he had into the shield before him. His body then emanated hints of earthen colored lights that gathered into the shield, causing to it shimmer in the same hue.

Angar, whose halberd was now directly upon Joe sneered, "Haha, your small amount Battle Energy will not prevent our strike, meet your death human! Urrraaaah!"

With his roar, the combined attack of the halberd and firebolt had smashed into Joe's shield creating a small explosion and a shockwave for five meters.

Instantly, both Joe and Angar became shrouded by dust and smoke. Now, only the somewhat panting Kalark was visible as he had shot his arrow from a few meters distance from their impact zone.

Kalark looked at the scene and sneered, "Haha, it seems that we've won, now all we need to do is take care of those weaker human girls."

When Kalark said this, he shifted his eyes towards the locations that Emilia and Layla were battling against their teams. However, when he did this, his mouth opened wide in shock as now only the corpses of both his goblin troops and Angar's troops were strewn about the earth.

"This... how could this happen?" As Kalark said this, he felt a bad feeling and prepared to knock his bow once more, but a soft and gentle voice sounded from behind him, "I'm sorry, but we've already finished up, we'll send you to meet with your friends now."

"Damn you..." Kalark wanted to act, but before he could even move, the stabbing sound of a knife piercing through flesh sounded as he dropped his bow and reached his hand towards his neck.

"Ack... ack..." He wanted to chant a spell, but before his eyes were multiple rays of light, which seemed like arrows. They rapidly drew upon him, enveloping his sights before his world faded into nothingness.

As Kalark's corpse fell to the ground, Emilia soon after appeared by Layla's side. The two looked at each other with a smile before they looked at the fading clump of dust and smoke before them.

Eventually, the dust cloud faded, revealing the towering Angar whose halberd was pierced into the ground. Fatty Joe stood directly before him with his shield pressing against Angar's chest as a sly smile was on his face. Looking closely, one would see that a few spirit arrows had pierced Angar's back, causing it to bleed profusely. He lowered his head and glared at Joe while speaking, "You... darn... human..."

Having said this, Angar lost all light in his eyes before they rolled over, and his massive form smashed onto the ground, resting at the side of his halberd. The halberd glowed and disappeared before a myriad of items appeared on the ground, curiously, one of the items seemed similar in appearance to the halberd used previously.

As Joe saw this, he laughed as his eyes lit up, "What good am I if I can't feign weakness, erm? Ouu! Leftover loot, I'll be taking that!"

Joe said as he grabbed up the halberd with one arm and put his shield on his back. His eyes then shone with gold as he licked his lips when he saw the different items that appeared by Angar's corpse.

"Holy shit! Emmy, Layla, we struck gold again, look at this we'll now be able to equip ourselves fully." Joe said with a hearty laugh when he grabbed up a piece of armor.

"Brother, we're quite lucky this time," Emilia said with a smile as she took up a wristlet from the corpse of Kalark.

Layla seemed to have found a new knife; she compared it with her previous one and tested the two in each of her arms.

"There both sharper than even our technologically advanced knife, how did they even craft such items?" Layla said with a hint of wonderment when she compared them carefully.

They continued to loot for a while, but it was at this time, Emilia's shout drew their attention, "Eh? Brother, Sister Layla, I... I've level up!"

"What?" Both Layla and Fatty Joe exclaimed, they checked their status and saw that they've leveled up as well, finally arriving at Level 2.

"Haha, today is a good day, and here I thought we wouldn't have made it." Fatty Joe happily said.

He clenched his fist and felt an abundance of power and sturdiness. Now, even without his shield, he felt that he could tank the previous duo.

Layla liked her new feeling; she felt as if something was changing in her body as if she was growing closer to awakening something. While Emilia, on the other hand, felt even more strange, as if nature was growing closer to her.

Layla looked at everyone and spoke, "We should get moving. We have to meet up with Evan and the others after all."

"Mm, let's go after sorting out these gears," Joe said with a smile.

The team quickly cleaned up before leaving this area, their figures vanishing behind a sea of dark-colored leaves and dead trees.

As they left the area, a blackish blue-haired silhouette appeared before he stared at the direction they left and muttered before leaving like the wind, "Heh, looks like I didn't need to help, Emilia was as splendid as always..."

***

In an area filled with deep swamp waters, was a small patch of land. It was a strange surface, one that seemed to be covered in moss along with hard rocks and dirt. Yet, if one paid even closer attention, they would soon come to realize that the surface wasn't land, but the body of a beast.

It was a scaly creature whose size was more than a dozen meters, based on what was revealed from the swamp waters.

A beast such as this would cause panic an alarm no matter which world it resided, yet, at this time, based on the deep red stains of the waters around it, one could tell that this creature had already met its demise.

At the top of this beast's body, was a youth with brown hair, he calmly rested and ate a piece of fried meat as his eyes stared at the beast's corpse.

"Well, that wasn't too bad, with this I can only say I'd need about 500 exp to level up to Level 4. Tsk, it truly is a hassle to level up in against weaker creatures. So troubling that I have to go through this all over again..." Evan said as he shook his head, his eyes surveyed his surroundings, looking at the corpses of a few goblins and crocomen in the far distance.

Amongst the bodies of these crocomen, none of them were even of the superior grade. Evan sighed as he thought to himself, "It seems that the boss duo isn't as foolish as I'd thought, they're no longer sending us exp to farm. Maybe, their changing their approach, having found that we are already so capable they might be bolstering the strongest amongst their troops to meet us in direct combat."

Gulp! As Evan swallowed the meat, he stood on his feet and wiped his lips, revealing a happy smile when he spoke out loud, "Ha, I wouldn't have it any other way, a battle like this should be quite fun. It can even inspire Joe's heroic potential. I suppose I should go meet them now, our battle, after all, begins tomorrow at dawn..."

As Evan finished his words, he jumped from the corpse and vanished into the distant trees and hedges, leaving behind cold waters and a dreary scene.