Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

Ivan advanced towards the target at a steady pace, consciously measuring his steps. At intervals, he would scale to the top of a tree to check the distance. After thirty minutes of fast walking, the distance to the target was now less than nine hundred metres.

He swapped his attire, changing into his majestic, full body armour. His cape fluttered gently in the steady wind above the treeline as he stood on a thick branch, surveying the distance. Ivan had no intention of continuing to walk; he feared that the rebellious teammates might actually live up to the potential they spoke so highly of. If they did, they would quickly deal with the problem at their chosen pit and be on their way to this one.

Ivan leaped off the tree branch, soaring through the air in a parabolic arc towards a target on the ground. He pulled his sword from its spatial sheath, priming to strike down a monster he had locked onto.

In an unsual clearing in the forest, a little over fifty rabbits were gathered around a not-too-narrow trench that radiated a vibrant yellow light. The monsters' gazes were vacant, lost in the euphoria of absorbing the energy being emitted from the pit, which was at least twenty metres deep.

The vacant stare in the monsters' eyes suddenly vanished as they simultaneously turned to look up. High above, a human clad in full body armour was rapidly descending towards them.

Ivan's descent was too fast for them to react in time. His hard impact upon a monster and the ground resulted in a shockwave that scattered the gathering. The monsters were quick to recover. Ivan had been warned about the risks of soloing the monsters. They possessed a high speed rating of 20 points and, apart from intelligence and HP, had a physicality that could rival his own.

Ivan quickly cleaved down two monsters before taking off at a speed of nearly sixty kilometres per hour. He could have gone faster, but he was not yet skilled enough in navigating the dense forest at such high speeds. The chase was tight; the monsters caught up with him at various points. Fortunately, he was smarter than the monsters, giving him an advantage, and he successfully evaded their attacks. Trees fell as a consequence of the brutal battle between the monsters and the martial artist.

A few times, Ivan would mistakenly run into a tree. The force of his collision would tilt the trees, but it wasn't enough to fell them. One rabbit managed to circle ahead and barrelled into Ivan's chest. The two of them crashed into a tree, and the force of the impact snapped the tree in half.

Ivan's back seared with pain. He grabbed the monster's head with his left hand, pushing it back just enough to land a good cross-punch. His punch was brutal, disorienting the monster and causing it to stagger backwards away from him. Ivan angrily grabbed the end of the fallen tree trunk. He didn't care that other trees might impede his intended attack. He carelessly whipped the tree log in an arc towards the unsuspecting monster.

The force with which he whipped the tree log made it clatter past the blockade of trees in its path before it landed on the monster. The log obliterated the monster into a bloody pulp. Ivan's efforts had resulted in the levelling of the area where he stood.

He continued his escape. Upon arriving at the 'trap' area, he quickly scanned the surroundings and discerned where he was meant to lead the monsters. He curved his run, turning to the right, and raced straight to the south of the forest.

Ivan ran past the tree Wanyama was perched on. "Good," Wanyama thought, delighted.

He had set runic 'grenades' on a stretch of the forest floor. The herd of monsters came racing into the trap like sheep being pursued by a shepherd dog. Wanyama triggered the runes, and explosions erupted. However, he sensed that some of the 'grenades' hadn't detonated. This was a drawback of his ability; there was a chance of unsuccessful detonations when he attempted multiple simultaneous explosions.

The team had ultimately decided not to risk Troy_to_me shadowing Ivan as he led the aggro. They had reasoned that the monsters were faster than her, and any slip-up could be fatal for her if Ivan couldn't detect or react in time to save her. They had assigned her to the strike team to clean up the overflow.

Some monsters survived the explosions but had one part of their body missing. They swiftly met their end at the hands of Shecyclones and Troy_to_me, who launched projectiles at them from a safe distance. Ivan circled back to the trap zone.

There were monsters that hadn't walked into the trap. Ivan met them and engaged. He used a combination of sword slashes, kicks, and punches to annihilate them. The battle was not simple; they outnumbered him. It was his quick thinking that kept him ahead of the monsters. The battle caused even more devastation to the already wrecked area.

After Ivan's battle with these monsters, the area was a complete wreck. A combination of fallen trees, wood ash, and blood rendered this patch of the forest a clear-cut zone.

Wanyama descended from the tree where he was perched. In his thoughts, he marvelled at the tree's resilience. It hadn't buckled from the shockwave of the blasts.

"Is that all of them?"

"It should be. I tried to count and got a rough result of about 53 monsters. I cleaved down some of them on the way here. I sensed that all of them followed, but I will do a reconnaissance to make sure that none of these bastards are lurking in wait for us."

Ivan vanished back into the forest in the direction from which he had attracted the monsters.

A bunch of wrens that had been in the area before the explosions and the brutal battle between Ivan and the monsters returned to the scene. The birds flew on and about the wreckage.

Shecyclones had gotten out of her cover and approached Wanyama. She was not alone; Onelight had followed her.

"That was scary. I was holding my breath with every passing second," Onelight said.

Shecyclones was observing the area, on high alert and ready to react to danger. Her attention was briefly drawn to the birds.

"This feels surreal. It doesn't feel like a game," Shecyclones commented on the experience. Her comment was warranted because of the presence of the birds.

"The only thing that feels like a game about all of this is that the dungeon resets after we win," Wanyama said.