Limitless Path

Name

Elizabeth Anne Bell

Class

Brawler

Level

14

Strength

34

Dexterity

22

Endurance

26

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

14

Free Points

0

Titles

Silver Flame Empress Inheritor

Skills

Ancient World Gate[0]

Crush Copper[9]

Focused Meditation Copper[5]

Identify Copper[6]

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[5]

Monstrous Blow Copper[6]

Pain Tolerance Copper[8]

Swords Apprentice[5]

Unarmed Apprentice[4]

Wealth

2s 74c

Emblems

CRA Copper Badge

Bonds

Blood

Name

Blood

Race

Red Wolf Queen

Level

14

Strength

30

Dexterity

34

Endurance

30

Intelligence

16

Wisdom

16

Free Points

0

Titles

-

Skills

Meditation Copper[5]

Regeneration Copper[3]

Swift Copper[7]

Wealth

6s 56c

Beth had put all her free points and most of Blood's points into END, hopefully allowing for them to have a good bit more sustain in these endless wave type fights. Beth noted that they had gotten a copper coin for about half of their kills. Again, they weren't going to be getting rich from killing thousands of beasts. At least, not at their level, it seemed. She also took note of the few skill levels they had gained, including two levels in Monstrous Blow.

"You ready to go? Need more rest?" Beth asked Blood as she stood.

Blood stood up herself, then gave Beth a quick bark, following behind her as they walked to the next door. Beth reached out, pushing on the right-hand door with the tips of her fingers, the double doors swinging inward to reveal the way to the next area. Beth stepped through without hesitating, Blood following right on her heels.

They came out in an old-growth forest, containing a variety of trees with a large number of ancient and massive specimens. The forest floor was a quilted landscape; patches of woody debris, great mounds formed from the fallen corpses of stately giants, with dips in between sheltering fresh fungal colonies. The area might not prove too bad to fight in, provided whatever they were up against didn't climb or use stealth. Thinking up to that point, she looked around for what they would actually be battling. It only took her a quick glance to find the next beast, something she was well familiar with from years of fantasy games.

"Rats," she said despondently. "Well, we had spiders and goblins, so I guess it was bound to happen." She muttered as she used Identify to check their new foe out.

Level 13 Razor Rat

"Well, I like the sound of that even less," Beth said, relaying her finding to Blood who grunted in agreement. "I doubt this is going to be fun. I would be really careful of the claws, but then again, you're the speed type here, so I'll make sure to watch out while we fight. Anything else before we start?" Seeing Blood shake her head slightly in the negative, Beth prepared to pull the first rat.

Beth's DEX had improved with two levels, but only by two points, and she knew the rats would likely be rather fast. High speed combined with sharp fangs and claws and possibly even tails or some such crazy thing would mean they would pose a high threat every second she spent fighting them. She wanted to test the waters and see how powerful their defenses were, hoping Blood and she could tear through them quickly. The first rat had detected her approach as she thought about her strategy and turned to rush her down.

Beth met the rat head on, sword ready, waiting for the beast to make its attack first. The creature didn't appear to be on the higher end of the admittedly very limited intelligence scale she had witnessed in her battles so far, as it just charged her directly. She had to admit, her earlier prediction was already proving true, as the black furred rat rushed her with a surprising speed, even considering it was the size of a large dog. When it closed with her, it powered forward with its heavily muscled back legs, lunging straight for her leg with its jaws gaping, teeth so sharp that they cut the air shining in the somewhat dim light.

The rat was quite quick, but Beth responded just as quickly, stepping back with her lead leg and swinging her blade around from left to right in a sweeping horizontal cut. She didn't empower the swing at all, instead relying on her now thirty-four points of STR to smash into the creature, sending it sprawling. As it swiftly righted itself, she noted a moderately long, though shallow, gash in its right side. While these beasts were now level thirteen and had a corresponding level of toughness, it still wasn't near the level something like the armored wolves of the previous floor had.

The beast charged her again and this time, she stepped forward into the assault, swinging her blade empowered with a Monstrous Blow. The ending third of her sword intercepted the right side of the rat's chest, the strike sending the creature sailing through the air. Already after only the second blow it was much slower to rise, clearly heavily wounded so soon in the fight.

Beth pursued the beast this time, thrusting at the creature as it rose with a simple lunge. The rat managed to avoid the blow, the serious injury seeming to make it a little more cautious. The beast swiped at Beth after it moved to the side, and she quickly reset to guard position. She was still close to the beast, however, and it lunged for her right leg.

Beth lashed out with the limb, changing the angle too much and too quickly for the rat to respond mid-bite. She thumped the beast in the side of the head with her heavy boot, imparting enough force to flop it on its back. She followed up with a high strike from overhead, slamming the center of the edge of her blade down into the rat's throat with a huge force. This was apparently enough, the rat's exposed throat pulverized by her heavy sword.

Beth straightened up, not even panting, the increase to her END already proving helpful. Before she could even turn to find the next rat Blood barked at her, making her turn to the wolf. Her companion was staring directly at her, however, and it only took her a moment to realize what she meant, feeling a small pain in her right forearm. Jamming the end of her sword in the forest floor, she twisted her right arm to bring the outside of her forearm directly in front of her face. Gripping it with her left hand, she was able to see a very thin cut open up on the side of the armored glove, a cut that had opened up her arm as well. The rat's claw had been so sharp it put a surgeon's scalpel to shame, Beth having not even felt her flesh separating from the strike.

"Take the next one or two please, Blood. I'll heal this," she said rapidly before quickly moving over to the area where they had entered and kneeling down. She began meditating, at the same time using her regeneration skill to heal her arm. Blood, meanwhile, intercepted the second rat and began battling it. While Beth's STR was high, allowing her to deal devastating damage, Blood's DEX was already enormous. If Blood didn't want the rat near her, the rat wouldn't get near her. If Blood wanted to strike the rat, there was nothing the rat could do to stop it.

Beth focused on healing, the neatness and thinness of the cut working to her advantage, making it easier for her skill to stitch her forearm back together, leaving only a tiny white mark where the cut was. In fifteen minutes, she was healed and rested and ready to continue, which was just in time. As she stood and moved to return to the battle, she saw that Blood had just engaged her third rat while the fifth rat of the pack overall was also rushing towards them. She moved forward into that rat's path, engaging the new opponent as Blood dealt with hers.

"Multiple opponents. Don't get too risky," Beth snapped out to Blood, who barked an affirmative response.

Beth engaged her second rat of the fight, being a little more cautious this time around. While this slowed her down in killing it, she felt it was worth it considering the number of opponents to go and the fact it was already turning into a continuous brawl before ten enemies defeated. It took her about half a minute to kill the rat, suffering no injuries this time, and she glanced over to see Blood had killed her current opponent and was preparing for the next.

The next few rats went smoothly, neither Beth nor Blood getting any injuries from the beasts. This floor was clearly a step up from anything they had encountered so far, as after the tenth total kill, they were confronted by three rats at once. Beth picked up the additional rat, slowing down her kill speed a little further, but she was still able to cope. This continued until they had killed thirty rats, both girls tiring a little, though their increased END meant it actually wasn't nearly as bad as Beth had feared.

Rats thirty-one through thirty-four all charged over at once, and now each girl dealt with two rats at once. This didn't prove to be much greater of a burden to Blood, as her immense speed allowed her to outmaneuver even two rats with moderate ease. Blood's STR wasn't quite as high as Beth's, but it was still at a more than sufficient level for her sharp claws and large fangs to be able to deal large portions of damage to the rats with each strike. The rats had moderately weak hides and flesh for their level, at least going by everything Beth had seen and the little she had read about so far. Someone with twelve STR would be hard pressed to do damage, but the girls both having at least thirty STR let them tear through the rats.

The two kept this up for another thirty rats, all the way until rat number sixty. Rats sixty-one through sixty-five all charged at the same time, and Beth moved smoothly to pick up three of the rats while Blood still handled two. The two of them were both tired out by this point, but they weren't at a point where they were exhausted, and they knew this would be the final push.

This last section was the end, but it was certainly not quick, turning into quite a slog. The primary issue was Beth slowing down even further and, as she was dealing with the bulk of the rats, it really meant that Blood was responsible for the majority of the last forty kills. Beth was also being cautious as she had taken several hits in the last group fighting two rats at once. While these scratches weren't life threatening, they were still a little annoying, and Beth also knew that a hundred minor scratches would add up to being heavily wounded.

Just as exhaustion was really starting to set in, Beth found herself only facing two rats. She took a very quick glance around to find any more beasts, but saw that Blood was currently only fighting one. It seemed like this was really it, and she felt quite relieved. Focusing up with a deep breath, she danced around the first rat in front of her, positioning it between her and the second rat. As the second rat attempted to scurry around the first, Beth dealt the closer rat a wicked blow with her blade, cutting deeply into the front of the creature on its left side. Its front left leg went limp, the creature's speed dropping dramatically as a result.

Beth danced back from the first rat and took two quick steps to the left, moving directly against the second rat. She stuck to her strategy, not letting the end of the fight amp her up and make her sloppy. She hit the second rat with a short chop and then moved back as the first rat recovered. Just as that rat charged her, she lashed out with a Crush empowered boot, catching the beast slightly off guard, sending it tumbling away. Turning back to the second rat, she moved in with a heavy overhand strengthened by Monstrous Blow, swinging powerfully and clenching her muscles right at the last moment. The strike ripped open the rat's side, blood and viscera fountaining everywhere.

This left only the first rat of the final pair, and she turned back right as it recovered from her heavy kick to its side. It was definitely moving slowly at this point; the heavy heel of her boot having added cracked ribs to the creature's list of woes. The rat charged her as usual, though it was more of a staggering jog, and she responded with a fast slash, cutting the rat fairly heavily and sending it sliding back a little. She stepped forward and swung a backhanded slash to follow up, the added momentum of her stepping forward causing her sword to rend the rat apart, killing it.

Beth looked over to Blood and found her companion looking back at her, the blood she was partially covered in barely noticeably on her eponymous fur. Beth was starting to take note a little bit more, as time passed, of her ability to sense Blood's feelings and interpret her thoughts. In this case she had not, for example, really needed to look over, as she had a rather vague sense of satisfaction and triumph from Blood, felt by her in a way that let her know the wolf had finished her current task.

Blood trotted over to her, head drooping slightly, and the two sat down off to the side of all the rat bodies to rest. Beth took the opportunity of them catching their breath to look over their gains from the fight. She put all their free points into END, bringing hers to twenty-nine and Blood's to thirty-six, hopefully enough to keep them going for some time. They had made a little bit more money, but still were barely scratching two silvers together in profit.