Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

The green ripples of Savannah's shriek tore into their eardrums and their magic like wind snuffing out candles. Amelie's and Liz's bolts of magic turned to dust, while Ember's powerful, thick jet of fire was snuffed out, reducing to a barely flickering flame. As for Ethan, it threw him back a little, and it felt like something had tried to scoop out a part of his strength right out of his body. It didn't manage to do so, but he felt that if his grip on his spellforms were any looser, he'd have lost most, if not all of them. It was deeply unpleasant. It made his soul ache.

But it didn't bring him to his knees. Without waste, he rushed her once more and when she saw him still coming at her, Savannah flicked her wrist, and a green-tinged crescent shot out of her wand right as Ethan swung his dagger. The magic slammed into his stomach with an audible crack as if she'd swung a giant bat through his midsection.

It was the same spell as earlier, but it was much, much more potent. It wasn't enough to get through his scales and do any real damage, not after his very recent boost. But it still threw him back.

Whatever that gem's doing, it's boosting her magic. Way more than my horns are empowering mine, he thought as he landed on his feet a couple of yards away. This version of the spell would have absolutely cracked a few ribs before, as he still felt the pain radiating through his torso. With a flick, he threw the dagger to the side and focused back on his opponent.

She hadn't been the only one who'd scored a hit.

Savannah didn't even look at it, but a thin stream of blood was now trailing down the cut on her shoulder, and even though the wound looked superficial, it was enough for the magic mark to find purchase.

She was tough. Ethan had tried to inflict a deeper wound, but between her natural defenses and being thrown back by the spell, he hadn't managed to put a a lot of weight behind the stab. Then again, maybe he hadn't tried that hard. Maybe unconsciously he didn't want to kill her, and in the middle of the action, his body shied away from going for the kill but to be fair, it wasn't as if a little stab would kill her. He hoped it'd give her pause and force her to reconsider, but clearly, she didn't even seem to feel it.

In any case, whatever happened next, she was marked by the Harvester's Dagger.

He swallowed and readied himself for the next onslaught. He still hoped she wouldn't cross the point of no return, but if he was honest, she was already stepping on it. Trying to kill Ember and openly attacking them like this was enough for him to fight back, but he was still willing to let bygones be bygones if she would desist. Ethan could understand if she were extremely distraught and lashed out, and it might be possible to pull her back from the edge and even if he felt he didn't need to, he wanted to give her a chance. For her sake and his own.

"I don't know what your problem with Ember is, but she's done nothing to you. Stop this and leave us be. Or we will stop holding back," he said, hoping his words would get through the wall of rage and grief. But seeing her features, he knew the nature of the wall didn't matter.

He was still talking to a wall. And she wasn't hearing him.

She glared at him with bloodshot eyes. Tears dripped down from the corner of her eyes and for a moment, he dared hope she was about to crack, but her expression only twisted further, and Ethan knew he couldn't afford to hold back anymore.

Her green-hued dagger shot at his chest right as he flared out a blaze of fire from his frontal scales. The dagger still sank through the burning orange flames, but its tip barely cut through the scales. In exchange, Ethan blasted her with two streams of scorching fire. Even though she raised her shield on time, it wasn't enough.

Savannah screamed again, a sound full of pain and rage, and Ethan felt something drain out of his chest as his flames weakened. As if he was running out of mana. Which should not be the case.

Before Ethan could figure what was happening, a crescent of green-tinged light came at him once more and once more, it was empowered even more than the last one. It almost looked like a crescent of pure emerald, as if the earlier ones had been made of loose smoke while this one looked almost solid. He expected to hurt like hell so he braced and flared his protective flames around, and thought of his counter-attack.

Then the green crescent made contact.

If the earlier spell had been like a bat to the stomach, this one might have been a literal giant swinging a tree-sized club into him.

Ethan went flying. Wind rushed around him, whistling in his ears, and he couldn't tell which way was up for a few seconds as he was sent tumbling head over heels through the air for god knows how far. For a second, his forearms and stomach were numb before the pain made itself known. Still groaning from the impact, he hit the ground hard, sending clumps of dirt flying and then he proceeded to roll and skid as he tried to slow himself down, until his momentum was spent and he finally came to stop, back against the soil.

He stared at the cave ceiling for a second, waiting for the disorientation to hit, but it never did. His forearms were pulsing with pain, and his shoulders and chest felt a little sore, but that was mainly it.

That was a lot less damage than he'd expected from such a broad and concentrated attack, and as rolled to get himself up to his feet, he stole glance at his Toughness. He had to look, and when did, he stalled for a fraction of a second.

It was currently sitting at 55 points. The next highest stat was Might at 25.

Ethan dismissed the numbers and started running. No matter how impressed he was, he couldn't find joy in his progress at the moment and instead, he fully shifted his focus back on the current predicament.

Being thrown back so hard could have done some damage to the others. Thankfully, they had been fanned out around him, and as he eyed Savannah from across the battlefield, he could only notice how the gem in her chest had dimmed. It was slight, but he was sure of it.

She's storing her magic in that thing. Somehow. And she's using it up.

That was the only way her insane strength could be explained. She was only two levels up on him and maybe she'd completed a couple of extra hidden quests than he did, but that couldn't explain the difference in magic.

That last spell had been empowered by her reserves, and she would eventually run out. It also, again, confirmed how dangerous she was. She might not be able to keep this level of fighting prowess for long, but she could do some real damage with it.

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He still needed to do something about his weight though. He had the resilience to weather such mighty attacks, but not the weight to back it up. It would really be a pain in the ass if he'd ended up being chucked away like this every time he fought someone or something powerful.

Savannah turned her wrath on Ember once more, spittle flying, teeth gritted as she threw spell after dagger after spell, but the cat was extremely slippery. Ember kept hopping away, kicking off the air, dodging seamlessly and slowly pushing further and further away from the group, luring the dangerous assailant away. Any stray attack of Savannah could do some real damage. But his companions weren't cowed and as he sprinted back toward the battle, Ethan was shocked at how savagely they fought back for the cat.

Liz and Amelie peppered her with spells and bolts, with Audrey standing grimly in front of them, but Savannah held her shield high and managed to block most of them. Those that slipped through barely did any damage, bouncing off the green-veined skin. One or two had seemingly found their mark, but they barely broke skin, and that was enough to get on Savannah's nerves. But Ethan quickly realized something was off.

Where was Gerald?

Ethan's questioning was cut off as Savannah shot her remotely-controlled dagger at the cat and within the same movement, she swished with her wand. She missed Ember, but a white-crescent shot at a furious but relentless Amelie. The healer saw the spell coming at her but she refused to relent, either too mad to back down or she fully believed in her sister. Audrey jumped forward and put herself in front of the spell, and the pale crescent hit the shining metal like a gong. Audrey was violently hurled back, slamming violently into those she'd been trying to protect before she came to a stop.

Fuck, Ethan cursed as he heard Liz's shout and he triggered the horn's ability. He was finally past the wrecked area of the clearing, and his straight path was clear toward the unhinged woman. An golden haze began forming around him as he tore through the ground.

Savannah whipped her wand once more, this time at Amelie. The girl was back up to her feet, nose bleeding as she hunched over Liz while Audrey struggled to get off the ground.

The crescent flew at the three girls, and Ethan's heart dropped. He was almost there. Only a couple of seconds, but it'd be too late. Thankfully, Ember was not letting the assailant get her way. The Ignisra jumped in front of the attack and practically explode in blaze of fire. The wall of force hit the flames and was stopped, but it still sent Ember flying out like an uncoordinated smoking comet.

The dagger flew after the cat, tracking her to hit her right as she hit the ground—and Gerald stepped out of thin air, right behind Savannah, and thrust his sword through her guts.

The dagger faltered mid-flight and fell to the ground, and the woman took a shuddering step. Then her features tightened before she whipped around and elbowed the man hard enough to send him rolling. Gerald tumbled a few times and when his momentum stopped, he didn't get up, but she couldn't finish him off.

The sword had stabbed right through her stomach and even as the blade dissolved into motes, the site pulsed with green light, and the jewel in her chest dimmed even more, as if it was barely lit by an inner candle instead of the bright shine from before, and aside from a grimace of pain and a subdued trail of blood that seeped into her grimy t-shirt, she looked fine.

But she won't be in a second.

Savannah turned to see Ethan take one final step and leap up at her, a corona of orange light surrounding his form. Ethan kicked the kite shield with both scaled feet and felt the metal deform under his feet. The shield–and her elbow–dug into her side. Something crunched and snapped as her body twisted around his legs and the next thing he knew, the thin woman hurtled away from him.

Ethan fell on his back in an explosion of upturned soil and instantly got up. With a hand, he tracked the rolling ball of metal and limbs, hesitated for a beat as he glanced around. He saw Liz still screaming and gritting her teeth. Her leg was bent the wrong way. Audrey was stumbling. Gerald was still passed out, and Ember's was picking herself off the ground, a good distance away from them.

His eyes firmed, and looking back at Savannah, he saw her getting back up. So he let the fireball fly and turned to the healer.

"Amelie! If they're good go check on Gerald," Ethan shouted as he ran at the explosion. He readied the flames around his arms as he approached the dissipating dust and smoke.

Savannah stumbled out. Panting. Soil and soot stuck to the trail left by her tears, and blood seeped out of her mouth. The arm he'd hit was all mangled, broken in multiple places, skin torn were the edges of the shield had dug into. She was sporting more burn marks and under it all, she looked paler than usual. Gaunter, as well.

Ethan wasn't underestimating her. It seemed she had almost burnt through all of her resources, and between Gerald's stab, and his own full-force kick and fireball, she was barely standing. But he still gave her a third and final chance, though her once rage-filled eyes were telling him she wasn't looking for any.

She looked tired. Done. With everything.

"Stop. Please," he asked. But she didn't hear him.

Ethan exhaled, and readied himself to dodge if one of those green crescents showed up again. He was absolutely not being flung away again.

She took a step toward him. Then another. Her clothes were smoking and smoldering, eyes vacant, and on the fourth step, the gem in her chest completely dimmed, and dissolved into motes.

Savannah's legs failed her.

The woman's knees shook for a second and then she fell to the ground. Blood gushed out the stab wound, seeped through the burnt-holes of the polyester and cotton. Wordlessly, she tried to raise her unbroken hand, to point her wand at him, but she couldn't. Only her shoulder moved. Her lids were growing heavy, and tears continued to stream down her face.

She looked up to him, silent, then she looked back down and her bleeding stomach, as if it was someone else's body. Savannah sighed, and her shoulders relaxed.

The wand dropped soundless out of her hand, and as she closed her eyes, she reached to her side and sunk her hand into a small leather pouch attached to her frayed belt. A second later, a pink backpack appeared in her hands.

Ethan didn't move, but he let the flames gutter out. It was over.

Savannah hugged the bag to her chest with her unbroken arm. Her features relaxed, and she closed her eyes, then sighed.

The calls and roars in the mushroom forest continued as always. They seemed a bit lesser, now that a good portion of the water monitor died in this improvised battlefield and only moments later, as the others approached the still standing Ethan and the kneeling woman, a message appeared in all their interfaces.

You have defeated [Human (I) - Level 47]

You have reached Level 46. 1 stat point awarded.

Main Quest: Gain access to the tutorial's exit within 5 days, 4 hours, and 22 minutes.