Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

The first thing Lev noticed was that the carts were suddenly not nearly as far as he wanted them to be. The second thing he noticed was that Drakys wanted him to protect them for a reason.

A single clash, one that he couldn't even perceive, was enough to make tonnes of stone explode in every direction. Dirt and trees were flung much the same, and the carts were well within the radius of the debris shower.

Lev was already descending as fast as he could while hoping the distracted monster wouldn't turn to him again. A barrage of lightning… darts? He couldn't tell what it was exactly, given they moved faster than he could track, but the darts were landing on the monster's dark gray chitin in a special pattern.

Thousands of them were embedded in the centipede in a blink, and a pulse of mana made them come alive. Lightning rushed out from each, forming a massive net on its surface before exploding downward, pushing the monster into the ground as a large amount of the element dug into its body from each dart.

Lev couldn't stay to see more, both blinded in sight and mana perception, but also too occupied with the approaching debris rain. Barrier shields took form one after another, using too little mana from Stargazer's core to care about wastage.

Each construct smashed into the most dangerous projectiles, most of them shattering in the process. He just reformed them to deflect as many things as possible, even bringing in his bubble for the bigger boulders and trees. The enchantments on the bubble were powered in bursts to let it be used as a large shield.

Even then, several things passed by his defense. Melvine was waiting for that, and a slash of her sword produced a gale wide enough to freeze most of the debris mid-air, and even the boulders simply lost their momentum and fell straight down.

Before they could heave a sigh of relief, the hill closest to them shuddered. It was quite surreal, watching such a massive natural structure shake ominously, but reality got worse when the hill's top exploded.

Many of the loose chunks of stone were thrown sideways. Regardless, too many of them were flung at the carts, and Lev didn't need to look back to see the platinum hunters and workers retreating inside. The carts would do little to protect them, but he could change that.

Taking all the regenerated and remaining mana out of Stargazer, he painfully tapped into his own pool to create arrows. Dozens took form behind him, and the number swiftly ballooned to the hundreds due to the negligible cost.

Breathing heavily, Lev ignored the sweat pouring down his brow from tension and agony from risking soul damage and focused on the converted fire mana. The amount was relatively small, but it was enough.

In a blink, all of it turned blue before being equally teleported to his arrows. Five of those were launched in the first wave, one targeting the closest clump of debris flying at the carts.

Powered by blue mana, they flew fast and landed with large explosions. Each blast empowered the next, shattering the boulders into chunks small enough that his walls would be able to block them with ease.

Another two dozen were fired at a stone chunk the size of a building, and he realized with a jolt that the amount wasn't enough. He sent even more arrows at it, shredding it into several smaller chunks that were still perfectly capable of smashing them to bits.

Behind him, Melvine sent out a pulse of mana, one tinged with meaning.

First you, then me.

How she had accomplished that communication, he didn't care. Instead, he waited for the large stones to fly down straight at them.

When they were a few seconds away from impacting, he launched all of his waiting arrows at them. Without waiting for the result, he ducked down and landed on top of the first cart.

Melvine was already prepared with a ton of mana infused into her sword. Lev felt his fingers and toes go numb when she slashed, instantly dousing the fires from his arrows and freezing the large chunks of stone. Even the air became thick enough to slow their descent, giving him enough time to array all of his walls above them.

Over two dozen of them joined in a roof to protect all of the carts, and not a moment too soon. Most of them were bombarded by small boulders and rocks, but it didn't take long for the first massive boulder to show up.

All of his and Stargazer's regeneration was channeled into the walls' enchantments when it landed. The constructs held with a small crack, which he fixed even as a solitary tear rolled down his cheek.

He didn't pay the pain any attention and waited for the next boulder. More and more smaller variants impacted his walls, and it was only after a few seconds that the rain paused. Nothing else threatened them, and distant vibrations announced that the fourth-threshold monster was far away, busy fighting the two Exalted.

They had made it out of the crossfire.

Lev waited a few more seconds before removing his walls, fixing all the cracks and damage before storing them in his bubble again. The bubble had also survived with minor cracks, saved from the brunt of the rain.

Above him, the sky was clear, but in front of him, hell was slowly being unleashed. The centipede's size continued to dwarf expectations as its bulk slithered from one hill to another, the kilometers between them not even close to a hindrance.

The front of it, especially the face and mandibles, continued to rise higher, showing its impressive length in all its glory as it chased after Sherron.

As if feeling Lev's gaze, the ripper king turned towards him. A single glance was almost enough to make him drop to his knees, landing on his shoulders like a physical weight.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Sherron capitalized on that opening before the monster could start chasing the carts. Massive lightning bolts tore through the air, slithering of their own accord like snakes. Each accurately landed on the centipede's head, targeting a single spot that was glowing brightly from the barrage.

Drakys appeared in that moment, kicking the air. Instead of hitting nothing, an invisible mana slash was fired from the limb, distorting Lev's mana perception as it flew with its sheer speed. Most likely, he only ever saw the afterimage of the slash. It was just that fast.

Thankfully, as the clash rose in intensity, the carts were too far to be caught in the crossfire again. Within seconds, he could see multiple landslides rushing down the neighbouring hills, as well as a myriad of fires and other effects of the battle, one that hadn't even properly started yet.

"Did you know?" Lev asked after landing on the first cart. Since he had used mana over an extended period instead of channeling all of it at once, the damage to his body was manageable. Most of it was already healed.

"It wasn't hard to guess," Melvine answered, already sitting down to observe the show. "Two Exalted suddenly showing up can only mean a few things."

"You detected Drakys?"

"No, but I saw him when I was fighting the matriarch," she answered distractedly. Most of the centipede was burrowed underground now, though the monster's head still ran in circles after the two Exalted.

Both of them settled in silence to watch. Lev didn't take any chances and fired arrows at weaker centipedes with Stargazer's regenerated mana, his own pool too depleted to use. Minutes passed without interruption, and he had to reconsider a lot of things when the battle in the distance showed no signs of abating after half an hour.

His mana had regenerated enough to at least not hurt with every usage. As it turned out, given the sheer quantity, his lower limit was lower than average. He was pretty happy with that discovery, as that allowed him to use even more mana safely in dangerous situations. As it stood, his soul had stopped hurting too much around the 5% mark, and the pain was slowly receding with every bit of regeneration.

Eventually, the battle became too distant to observe, and even the vibrations stopped. All of the workers and platinum hunters were on top of the carts by that point, their gaps in strength and different social roles forgotten, to excitedly talk about the dreadful battle.

Lev left it to them, resting in his bubble to go over the previous encounters.

The matriarch wasn't even close to dying. He let out a long, tired breath. And the worst part is, it wasn't even above level 600.

[

Your Group has slain [Ripper Matriarch - Level 589]

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 268

]

Not even a skill level, he stared at the notification for a moment before dismissing it.

Somewhere far away, Lev could feel that the battle was still ongoing. If anything, it was picking up in intensity now, for the carts were nowhere near the battlefield.

I was used as bait.

There was no denying it now. He had assumed that, when Drakys mentioned a threat being present in the hills, the Exalted meant a threat to Lev and Melvine, and not a whole fucking fourth-threshold monster.

He couldn't fault the man, either. If nothing had changed, the carts would've just passed through the area without ever luring the ripper king out of the ground. Perhaps it was his combined aura and the call from the matriarch that finally caused it to make a move, so it made sense for Drakys to have Lev pass through the region.

Or maybe he just got used as bait without being told, and was trying not to blame anyone for being kept in the dark about something so important.

What would that change?

There were no answers, so he stepped out of his bubble and flew higher. Facing the matriarch had revealed that his skill evolutions, while potent, weren't nearly enough to take it easy and slack off. It didn't matter that the monster was considerably stronger than anything he would face on average— more training and leveling were in order.

After all, he had no plans to face anything weaker, only stronger.

****

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, no more third-threshold monsters attacked them. All of them had been called by the matriarch to assist in the final battle.

Lev also suspected that Drakys had culled them in advance, not to let the Masters be overwhelmed when the matriarch called the gray rippers. It would make sense.

The battle with the Ripper King lasted for several hours, all of which he tensely spent waiting for either the Exalted to show up at the carts or through a communication message.

It was the latter that put his worries to rest. Drakys informed him that the threat had been dealt with after backup arrived and that he no longer had a reason to worry. The carts moved on without stopping after that, and Lev let the hunters kill all the second-threshold monsters in the meantime.

A week passed without any major interruptions. The humans stopped to rest for once during that period, mainly to let themselves relax from the constant fighting and danger.

Ten days after the big battle, they finally reached the end of the hilly region. It was only because of their speed that they crossed it so quickly, and also because of how smooth their passage was, because Drakys or someone else had already carved a long road for them.

"Jared," Lev called out, sitting on the first cart, above Melvine's driver's seat.

"Yes, boss?" the hunter replied casually. In the past few weeks, none of the hunters were wary of him anymore. Even the non-worked addressed him normally with a smile, understanding that Lev wasn't some cold powerhouse, only a boy.

A boy with a lot of power, still, but they were looking past that now.

"We're gonna stop now in a few minutes," Lev answered, glancing over his shoulder. "Are you guys ready?"

"Have been for a whole day now, boss," came the excited reply.

The platinum team had hit the level cap in no time, specifically because of the sheer number of monsters Lev attracted. With the help of non-combatants, the hunters had fought a lot of monsters. Given how harpies had also started attacking them in the past few days, the combined kill count might just be over a thousand, a number that would earn the respect of any who heard it. All of the monsters were a threshold above the hunters, after all.

It took only another two minutes for them to cross the base of the last hill, the road underneath turning completely flat. Green stretched on in front of them for as far as they could see, whereas towering hills blocked the horizon behind them.

Melvine let the horses go on for another few minutes before gradually slowing them down. When the carts stopped, Lev formed a barrier platform for the platinum hunters and summoned Stargazers.

Four chairs formed in it, and he motioned for the hunters to sit down. They did without asking, so he created a dome above and enclosed them inside. Runes took form on the dome next, ranging from durability to dampening to concealment.

When all of his strongest protections were in place, he looked at the waiting hunters in front of him.

"If anything can get past these defenses, neither Melvine nor I could've stopped it," Lev announced, forming a chair for himself and sitting down. Setting Stargazer on his lap, he nodded. "You can proceed with the evolution whenever you're ready."

His words were accompanied by a thrum of mana as the dome vanished completely to outsiders, and its durability was amplified exponentially.