Godspawn Ascendant [LitRPG, Epic Progression Fantasy]

Wait? I thought. Gareth wants us to wait? For what? For the monsters to make the first attack…?

Though it wasn't ideal to not attain the upper hand by making the first move, acting offensively in the black darkness that enveloped us seemed impossible. Even the few dozen streams of blue essence that circled around our heads did nothing to light my surroundings. My ability to see essence didn't apply to anyone else's reality, so the streams could do nothing to illuminate the rest of the world. It's like the streams only existed in my head.

All I could do was heed Gareth's command for us to wait and keep a firm and confident grip on the shaft of my spear. I stretched the sharp tip of the weapon about a foot outside of my body, prepared to stab anything unfriendly that might come my way.

I heard a soft intake of breath from Cinthara to my left. She stood so close to me that I could feel the muscles in her arms and legs tense as she took a similar ready position. I caught a glimpse of the silver metal of her rapier flash underneath the fragment of light peering down on us from above, but the visage quickly disappeared into the darkness again.

Silent rustling all around me indicated that the rest of Elite Group #1 had fallen into their own battle-ready stances. We all held our breath in anticipation, waiting for another command from Gareth or for an attack from an unknown, unseen monster–whatever came first.

I felt the corners of my lips tug upward into a smile as I took a deep, cleansing breath. Even if the monsters attacked us while using the darkness to their advantage, I would be able to see them coming. Essence streams are attracted to all living things… since all life forms have cores with the capacity to store essence, including monsters and even plants. Because of this, I should be able to catch sight of the creatures' approaches as the essence they attracted around them danced their way toward our group.

I had used my unique ability to see the streams in a similar way during my duel with Cinthara. The spell she'd cast on me before the fight to heal a bruise on my face had revealed itself as a ruse. What initially looked like a healing spell had turned out to be an act of sabotage. As soon as the duel had started, an inexplicable blindness had overtaken my vision. She'd intended to defeat me by cheating in this way and attacking her opponent–me–while I couldn't see. But my ability to see the long, blue threads of essence surrounding her form had given me all I needed to evade her advances.

And I could do the same against this horde of unknown monsters.

Pop!

An ear-splitting sound like the cracking of a bone stirred up a chorus of gasps from everyone in the party, including me.

Pop!

I threw a hand against one of my ears the second time the sound happened. I gritted my teeth in discomfort, the strange popping sound having rattled my skull.

And then, bright yellow light flooded into the rift like a sudden torrent of rain. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, hissing underneath my breath at the sudden headache that came from an onslaught of light.

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"Just in time," Gareth declared.

He spoke as if all the rifts had a mysterious light just… turn on every time a team took a delve inside one of them. Convenient? Yes, but… also really strange and suspicious.

Gareth stood firm and with eyes wide open, staring ahead. The blade of Gareth's broadsword glimmered menacingly underneath the new light that came from an unknown, magical source.

Once I finally regained my footing, I glared ahead down the long, crooked path and then behind myself. I saw no creatures and only the occasional stray strand of essence twirling in the distance–definitely not a swarm of essence that would indicate the close proximity of a large group of monsters. And there was also something else….

"Gareth," I whispered through tight lips, "do you hear that?"

Gareth flashed me an annoyed look but said, "Hear what?"

"Nothing. Well, what I mean by 'nothing' is, it's completely silent."

Gareth narrowed his eyes at me, but then his expression softened as realization snuck in. He whipped his head around in every direction, listening for the growls, snarls, moans–any of the sounds the rift creatures had been producing during our climb down the high wall. But there was nothing, not even hints of distant scraping or shuffling.

Gareth gestured to our party to stay put as he tiptoed over to the rope ladder we'd used to climb down the chasm. He carefully pulled it free and began to expertly fold the ladder back into his large sack.

Gareth marched back to us with a stoic look on his face and said, "We'll head down that way."

I followed where he pointed his finger, squinting my eyes to try and see past the bright light and down the winding path directly ahead of us.

"But what if the monsters are behind us?" someone whispered behind me. Patricia, maybe? The voice sounded small, young, and feminine. But I couldn't turn my head quickly enough to confirm the squeaky voice had come from her.

Though the question was voiced quietly, Gareth still heard her.

"I'm sure there are monsters in both directions," he said, retaking his place at the front of the party. "I don't see any difference in heading one way first over the other."

We marched in our clump, all of our metal armor clinking and clunking much too loudly for my liking. And those with sandsoles, including myself, no longer hovered above the ground. The special shoes only activated when the wearer traversed through sand, and the cold floor of this rift was made entirely from stone.

But we all did the best we could, and no one was bad at the sneaking. I stepped lightly from toe to heel, careful to bend with the joints of my armor in synchronicity, and my comrades did the same. We were the best of the best of the Scout Supports. We were all here for a reason. But none of us could come close to Gareth.

Gareth excelled at the stealthy walking. His bronze armor was bulky and looked heavy, but he still moved adeptly and looked more and more graceful with every step. I wondered about the type of experience he could boast about and what Tier he was. The flecks of gray in his thick, bushy mustache suggested he was well into his middle age. Still, there was no way of knowing his actual age, depending on how high up he was in the Tiers, as his aging would continue to slow.

He had proven his impressive abilities just as well, if not better, during our Scout group's shift against that landwalker. I shouldn't be surprised to see such effortless agility, but I found myself thrilled to witness Gareth in battle again and watch his skilled work as a swordsman. That is, as long as I wasn't too caught up in trying to survive the impending battle myself.

It took a long time to reach the end of the rift–at least half an hour, thanks to our slow and cautious footsteps. We met only with a dead end. There were no monsters or any sort of creature, big or small, in sight.

Our entire group spun in a circle, each of us studying the various nooks and cracks in the dark brown, almost black, stone walls surrounding us.

"Where could they be?" Gareth grumbled, lowering his broadsword for a split second in confusion.

I couldn't see any sort of life, not even a bug on the wall. And no essence swarms appeared to suggest the presence of any creature besides the seven in our party. That is, until I looked up.