Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

Generally, Glenn could get a sense of what was going on in a battle. He had grown experienced enough to know where to look, who to listen to, and what spells to cast.

But right now, he had to admit he was a little overwhelmed.

"Oh, this is fucked up," Diamanes spoke aloud, laughing. Glenn ignored him and raised his defenses again, a spear of bone shooting through them and piercing his guts. The pain shot through his body, but he filed it away. With a precise hand movement, he sliced the spear and ripped what remained out, relying on his Regeneration to save his ass.

"By the will of the King, die!" Lucian commanded, his crown shining with occult twilight. Shadows wrapped around Owl-Mask and tried to devour him, but bones sprouted out of his skin and hacked through the shadows as if they were made of a physical material. He tried to conjure a spell, but the world snapped around him, reality bending under Milena's will. The Newborn Ruler clicked his tongue and somehow grabbed Milena's spell, ripping the Mana out and destroying it.

"What? What the fuck is that?!" Milena yelled, outraged.

Liara flew past Glenn, covered in a white, perfect armor. She sent a spear covered in a strange white Mana at the Owl-Mask, piercing through a hastily raised bone shield and nicking him in the arm. Glenn hesitated to just leave the fight to them and go take care of the black pearl sucking in all of the desert's Mana, but that thought was quickly discarded.

He used Gravity Manipulation to pull Liara away from a massive bone maw that surged out of the black dunes, trying to swallow her. The skeleton shark- no, megalodon dove back down, waiting for an opening.

"Thanks," she huffed. He could still see her golden eyes through the slits of her crusader helmet.

"You're really hot, you know?" He blurted out without thinking.

Liara blinked. "What?"

"Flirt later, you idiots!" Milena yelled as large chains of moonlight captured a particularly hungry skeleton megalodon, holding him in place. Lucian traded blows with Owl-Mask, flying out while barely protecting himself more often than not.

Glenn shook himself awake and tapped his wristband, calling his sister. The call was answered almost instantly.

"Starborn's- "

"Lina, not now!" He yelled. A rain of bone shards fell upon him and Liara. He almost used his Saturn Rings again, but he remembered how it fared against the bone spear earlier and quickly switched it up. A large Black Hole appeared above them like a shield, swallowing the rain of bone shards and compressing them into nothingness.

"Oh, that's not too idiotic. Saturn Rings for magic projectiles, and a good ol' Black Hole for more physical threats. Yes, yes, I enjoy this development."

Glenn ignored the jesting entity. "Lina, I need you to send Nelg to my position now. Can you do that?"

The voice over the transmitter went silent, and Glenn bit his lip. 'I swear to the Gods above that I will kill this brat when I return to King's Rise!'

Alas, the giant sword-wielding skeleton that Owl-Mask had just conjured didn't let him think more about that. Nor did the four hundred others.

***

"Ah, it's been a while since I went on the Battlefield. Can't say I missed it," Nelg winced, his armor still as shining and rustling as ever. He was standing in the center of the Starborn Manor, renamed after its owner's new family name. Lina was standing nearby, as were Emily, Glenn, and Lina's mother. The lady was looking quite worried, pacing around the room while chewing on her nails.

"This is too dangerous. I need to talk with the King," Emily decided. "Why is my son the only one sent to the heart of the enemy's territory? Why him and his friends? Couldn't they send their knights or something?"

Lina, her eyes closed, groaned. "Mom, I'm pretty sure Glenn and the rest are stronger than said knights, aside from a few legends busy holding back each other."

Manalok, whose head was peaking out of a room, cleared his throat. "Lady Emily, I am certain that the Devil's" he coughed, "-that Glenn is fine. He's very strong, incredibly so."

"I don't care about!" Emily snapped, her healing magic coming to life. Manalok hurriedly hid back in his room while the lady shook her fists in his direction before sighing. "I can't lose him. I know he's needed, but can't we do something to help him, maybe?"

"Guys, can you shut up?" Lina frowned, her eyes still shut. "Even with the help of the communication wristband, it's tough to get his position. As for helping Glenn, I decided to jump in. Don't worry, I got it."

"M- Milady, I strongly discourage you from pursuing such dangerous ideas-"

"Shut up, Tiamanes! I'm a Third Circle, I can handle myself!" She proudly declared before smacking her hands together and stretching the fabric of reality open. The rip was situated right on top of a dune, black sand flowing through it like water out of a cracked jar.

"Well, off I go," Nelg grunted. Lina almost followed him, but he pulled her out of the gate's way, just in time for a spray of incredibly sharp bone shards to go through and destroy the back of the Manor. Lina stared at the destruction in awe while Emily grabbed at her hair, the colors draining out of her face.

Nelg cleared his throat awkwardly and waved at them. "See you next Sunday, then, I guess."

Lina and Emily were completely silent as the gate closed.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I advise getting back to training, Milady."

"Y- Yeah, you're right."

***

Glenn felt it in his soul as Nelg appeared on the battlefield. Instinctively, he opened his hand and called out to the living weapon. Nelg appeared in his longsword form with a blue flash, his voice connecting to Glenn's mind.

"Haha, what's up fellows? Are we dying yet?"

'Hmm, not yet. I bet we can stay alive for a few more minutes until Glenn decides to use his Mana instead of economizing it.'

"Why don't you guys stop- " Glenn caught a bone spear a second before it hit his chest. "-Backseating me and start being helpful? This guy is stronger than the Monkey!"

'And he hasn't revealed his second phase yet!'

"Oh, enemies have second phases now? That's dope!"

Glenn tuned out the voices and sent his intention through the blade in his hand. The longsword turned into a massive, sleek greatsword vibrating with Mana. He sent a few Cut & Pull at the enemy while taking another look at the battlefield. Milena was tied down, controlling and getting rid of the undead skeletons Owl-Mask's conjured, while Liara and Lucian struggled to get a good hit in on the enemy. He was very nimble, moving almost every time like he knew the future.

Sword, spear, and spells slid past him, and whenever they touched him, they barely did any damage. Glenn was also struggling to fight the Newborn Ruler, but for a different reason. He kept looking back at the inverted pyramid and the Mana-sucking black jewel. Each time he wanted to turn his focus to the jewel and destroy it, Owl-Mask found an opening to slip past Liara and Lucian to force him back in the fight.

'Okay, that's for certain now, this guy doesn't want you to touch his jewel,' Diamanes remarked.

Glenn almost choked on his saliva at the weird phrasing, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Fuck it," he muttered. Black flames appeared in his left hand, instantly drawing in Owl-Mask's attention.

"You'll have to tell me how you came into possession of this power," Owl-Mask spoke softly, "Once I've captured you, of course."

Glenn drew a deep breath and combined the black flames with his Black Hole, sending the resulting projectile at Owl-Mask, who hurriedly conjured walls upon walls of bones to defend against the spell. The divine-slaying empowered Black Hole ripped through the bone wall, but it found no purchase. Owl-Mask had already fled to a safe distance, forcing Glenn to discard his spell.

"What am I even here for?" Nelg asked curiously. "You can't get one in on this guy. Maybe to finish him?"

"New Dawn!" Lucian screamed, a wave of soft golden light covering the land and burning every undead and conjured bones into dust. Owl-Mask raised a pillar of bone from the ground, but it disintegrated in a matter of seconds.

"Interesting," he simply said. He stumbled forward, a spear piercing through his chest. Black flames burned at its tip, completely different from the light-wielding Black Heir ess that had pierced him.

"Very interesting," he repeated, unfazed. He flexed his shoulder blades, sending a violent gust of Mana around him. Liara was sent flying back, and Lucian's spell shattered. Milena finally got the time to draw a breath, her constant war with the undead over momentarily. Glenn clenched his sword and rushed forward, feeling the opportunity.

Owl-Mask ripped out Liara's spear like it was nothing, staring at the black flames burning in his wounds with a masked expression. His Mana turned into a vicious, dark-green energy, just like for Monkey-Mask. Liara and the rest also recognized that energy as the same wielded by Bird-Mask.

"You are all very interesting," Owl-Mask spoke, his voice becoming strangely deep. "Unfortunately, I can't make you into one of my puppets, Duke of the Stars, but thankfully, your friend does not enjoy that same protection."

Large bone wings spanned out of his back, sharp and glistening despite the clouded moons. His mask remained stuck to his face, unlike the rest of his peers. He rose in the sky, his hands and feet still human.

"I suppose you've deserved this. I am Jean, Third Seat of the Occult Wanderers, Disciple of the King of Death. May you die swiftly and join my ranks without pain."

With this declaration, Owl-Mask raised his hand.

And was interrupted by a flying Orc that had come out of the bottom of the pyramid.

Glenn blinked. "Is that Decorus?"

'His name is Decimius, you dumb fuck!'

"Is it me, or your memory is degrading, Glenn? Aren't you a little young for these types of issues?"

He ignored Diamanes' and Nelg's gibberish and charged forward. He didn't know why Decimius was inside the inverted pyramid, why he was sent flying out of it, or why he ended up giving him such an opportunity. But an opportunity he was given, and an opportunity he was going to use.

"Oh, are you going to try my new powers? I reached Fourth Circle after digesting everything from three months ago-"

Glenn felt the weight in his hand increase exponentially, the greatsword turning into an absurdly large hammer with a long handle, as long as a spear. The hammer's head was round and enormous, large enough to flatten a man with no issues.

Glenn clenched the hammer's hilt with both hands, the information on its special ability running in his mind. Without thinking, he pulled himself right before Owl-Mask and combined his Mana with Nelg's, fueling it with the Corpse's black flames.

"Dark Fracture."

The hammer's head, covered in black flames, caught Owl Mask's square in the chest. All sound on the battlefield was suddenly muted away as one distinct, loud crack echoed over the black dunes. Owl Mask looked down at his chest, his mask slipping off and revealing a feathery, owl-like face. Somehow, the Owl looked surprised.

"Huh."

The blow sent him crashing into the dunes, reality cracking and almost ripping open where Glenn's hammer made an impact. The disturbance was quickly fixed, but Glenn did not fail to notice it. Decimius was lying in the black sand beneath them, blood trickling out of his mouth, and his ribs completely shattered. The Orc was probably out of commission for now.

Glenn's head snapped to the inverted pyramid as a rising mountain of curses made their way into his mouth.

"What the shit? Jean is losing?"

"I- I told you this is fucked up! This guy already took down two Newborn Rulers, and his friends are capable of the same thing!"

"Bah, stop being such a pussy, Lola." Rabbit-Mask pulled himself out of the pyramid, his half mask not hiding his wide grin. "Three Newborn Rulers is a much different deal than just a single one, right?"

Owl-Mask rose back from the hole he had been sent into, coughing heavily. His voice carried all over the desert, a whisper so powerful it sounded like the almighty wind.

"I am not done yet."

Glenn pressed his lips together while Nelg choked on his saliva nervously.

"Well, we had the Guardian with us last time and still lost. This time will probably go better, right?"

Diamanes cackled madly, unconcerned.

'Just another Monday for the Devil's Hand, am I right?'