Stormborn Sorceress: A Fantasy Isekai LitRPG Adventure

Around her, the fire was growing. The air was thin, more smoke than oxygen, all of it hot, scalding her lungs and skin.

She heard another scream and followed it into a plaza around a well. A group of people—a woman with a sword, two other women, and a man with a pair of small children—stood in the center, surrounded by six apes. The ground around their feet glowed in a gold circle and the apes seemed unable to step over that boundary, not that it did anything to stop them from trying.

They howled in frustration as they pressed themselves up against the circle. Their howls drew more from the nearby buildings. Already, two more were watching from the sidelines like Cass.

Could she handle eight at once? Maybe more as more of the things approached?

But she couldn’t ignore them either. How long would that barrier last? Already, Mana Sense could feel the strain from the ape’s hands on the boundary. It would last a little while longer, but it would eventually fall.

How many of the apes would surround those people at that point?

There wasn’t time for more consideration.

She threw a Wind Blade at the backs of the apes. It disabled the first and left lacerations along apes #2 and #3.

They howled. #2 through #4 abandoned the barrier, racing toward Cass, their teeth bared in hungry grimaces. #5 and #6 continued pounding at the barrier, sparing Cass little more than a hissing glare.

Cass threw another Wind Blade at the charging monsters, driving the blade at the leading ape’s head. It cut a clear path through the smoke. The ape covered its head with an arm. The Blade sliced a shallow cut in its iron-like skin.

Another and another Wind Blade followed the first, each one blocked by their arms.

Their backs might be soft, but those arms were anything but.

And then they were on her. #2 swatted at her, its massive hands leaving a trail in the smoke from the force. Dodge pulled her out of the way, while Staff Mastery blocked the claws of #3 at its side.

#4 swung around, trying to get behind her. She couldn’t let it. She dashed to the right, just as #7, one of the new arrivals, joined from that side.

She leapt out of the way of another sweeping claw, its razor-sharp tips passing through her Aura cape as it attempted to grab it.

#2 was waiting for her, a claw racing toward her face. Her staff got up in between the two, but the impact of the creature’s strength reverberating through the wood numbed her body.

#3 swiped at her. She couldn’t move fast enough. The claws raked across her leather armor and knocked her back toward the waiting arms of #4.

Midair time slowed. #4’s hands were open, the fingers spread like the maw of a waiting trap. It would grab her and then she wouldn’t be able to escape.

She could not let these things grab her.

Dodge suggested with Staff Mastery’s help she could dig her staff into the ground to slow her flight and redirect herself to either side. Wind Step asked why bother and to just step into the air rushing past her.

Neither had an answer for what she’d do after that.

There were too many of them. This was nothing more than a desperate game of tag where everyone but her was ‘it’. She needed to change something if she wanted to win.

Another skill whispered from a corner of her mind. A voice she’d not heard before.

Confounding Mists (lvl 1) (Racial)

[The Aether is a place of mystery to most, something with few well-traveled paths and much unknown. Not to the Slyphid, though. For the slyphid, it is a true home. You are no exception.

Draw a piece of the Aether where you will and confound the senses of those caught within it.]

The skill she’d gotten for surviving the epherwing. Her brief tests had shown most people—well, Alyx and Salos at least—found being within the aether mists disorienting. She’d only been fighting with Alyx and Salos since then, so there hadn’t been a chance to use it in combat since.

That was the only reason she hadn’t used it yet.

It definitely wasn’t because this was a slyphid racial skill. She definitely wasn’t still worried about that. That would be silly. She had a slyphid’s soul, anyway. What was a skill in comparison?

What did she have to lose?

The skill activated and she could feel a thick mist unspooling itself around her.

Simultaneously, she twisted her staff, dragging it through the dirt as she sailed back toward the ape behind her, pushing herself in a new direction.

She couldn’t have imagined pulling off such a maneuver as Earth Cass. Slyphid Cass, with 39 Wind-affiliated Dexterity, found no difficulty in it.

Time found its regular flow as her feet skidded over the dirt.

The apes chased after her, even as the mist expanded around her. She could feel its expanding bounds and every inch within it. It was like Atmospheric Sense was thrown into overdrive. Like she’d been in a dark room and floodlights had just been flipped on.

She couldn’t see more than a foot or two through the mist, but she didn’t need to. Atmospheric Sense could tell her everything she needed and more.

The mist—no, the aether—filled the plaza the way light filled a room, intangible but self-evident. It was cool on her skin, an instant balm against the heat. It was clean in her lungs. Her body felt far more alive in that moment than it had since she’d arrived in this world.

Surprised shouts erupted from both the apes around her and the people in the center of the plaza. Their eyes emptily searched their surroundings, their sight working no better than Cass’s own but not supplemented with superior Atmospheric Sense.

She stepped into Stealth, padding around ape #2 to find its back. It and the others grunted in fear, anxiously whipping its head back and forth, its too-large hands twitching in anticipation.

She drew a Wind Blade to her staff. It sprung to life faster and with more vibrancy than they had ever come to her before. It went easily through the #2’s back. The ape collapsed without ever knowing she was behind it.

There was a muted quality to the sound of its body dropping. Yet she could hear its fall more crisply than she’d heard any sound before. To all the sounds, actually. Like the sound wasn’t carried on the air but the aether itself.

She was a ghost in the mists. Unseen and unheard. She alone remained unaffected by the surrounding aether.

#3 and #4 fell with little more fanfare, her Mana Wind Blade slicing heads from shoulders of both in a single movement.

While Cass stalked around to #7, the woman in the barrier stepped out with a Stealth skill wrapped around her body. In the mists, it was useless against Cass, but it was more than enough to sneak up on ape #5, still pounding at the invisible barrier. Her sword found its heart, twisting and pulling back before the creature could react.

Cass met #7 head-on, slashing rapidly with her Wind Bladed glaive. The blade cut far deeper amid the mists, slicing down to the bone in the monster’s arms before finding the creature’s neck as easily as the two before.

#8 hung back outside the mist’s confines, its grimacing teeth and anxious hands bared but hesitant.

But if the monster would not come to Cass’s blade, Cass would just have to take her blade to the monster. She threw the first blade, feeling it grow in strength as it passed through the mist and erupted into the smoke beyond with a speed she’d never managed before.

#8 blocked it with an arm but lost a chunk of flesh for the effort. It screamed and screamed again as Cass appeared a step behind her flying blade, another already affixed to her staff. It stabbed into the ape, dropping the beast.

Even outside the mist, Cass could feel what was happening within with unmatched clarity. #6 had seen through the mist enough to spot the woman as #5 fell and lunged for her, pressing her away from the safety of the barrier.

Long gashes ran up and down the woman’s body from the raking claws, but she didn’t drop her sword. Instead, she pressed forward again, jabbing between the thing’s hulking arms and piercing its chest.

The monster shook her off, a hand snaking out to grab her back.

But Cass was behind it. Her Wind Blade went through its back before the hand could clasp around the swordswoman. It collapsed in a screaming rage, paralyzed and out of reach of the woman. Cass slammed her staff down on its skull, ending the noise with a crack.

The woman stared back at Cass, her eyes wide, her legs shaking.

Cass ignored her, taking one more deep breath of the surrounding aether before dispelling the skill. She felt it disperse, like mist burning up in the noonday sun.

“T-thank you,” the woman stammered.

Cass pointed in the direction of Telis’s tent. “Go that way. You should be safe now.”

The woman nodded and pulled the rest of her group on with her.

Before Cass moved, she spent a minute to catch her breath. There were so many voices around her begging for help, but she wouldn’t be good to anyone if she was off balance.

First, how were her resources?

Stamina: 66/96

Focus: 147/324

Health: 72/78

That was fine. She wished she’d paid closer attention to how much Confounding Mists had used. The skill didn’t list a cost, which suggested it was variable, but variable on what? Duration? Area? Density?

If she had to guess, that use just then had been over 100 points of Focus? Less than 150? That felt right. She’d have to sneak off and experiment sooner rather than later.

Regardless, too much to use the skill again like that here.

Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 14.

Confounding Mists has increased to level 2.

Confounding Mists has increased to level 3.

Wind Step has increased to level 9.

Wind Step has increased to level 10.

Staff Mastery has increased to level 11.

Dodge has increased to level 11.

Sprint has increased to level 7.

Sprint has increased to level 8.

Sprint has increased to level 9.

Wind Blade has increased to level 9.

Wind Blade has increased to level 10.

Mana Blade has increased to level 6.

Wind Step has reached the First Step! Congratulations!

[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:

+ 4 Dex

+ 3 Res

+ 2 Wll

+ 2 Ala]

Sprint has reached the First Step! Congratulations!

[Your varied use of Sprint has opened choices.

Gain Skill: Stone Spiked Trails (lvl 9), Forsake: Sprint

Gain Skill: Stormstride Sprint (lvl 9), Forsake: Sprint

Keep: Sprint (lvl 9) ]

Wind Blade has reached the First Step! Congratulations!

[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:

+ 4 Wll

+ 3 Ala

+ 2 Dex

+ 2 Res]

She’d gotten a lot of skill level-ups from the constant fighting, but no level. In Uvana, she definitely would have gotten a level from this much. Was it because her level was higher than these things? Or because the requirements for the next level went up as the level increased? Or was it just because she was outside of the trial now?

A little of all three?

Probably.

In any case, she needed to decide what to do about Sprint before she ran off to save the next person. She had the option between two new skills or keeping the skill as it was.

This was harder to choose between because, unlike previously offered skills, the function of these skills was not obvious from their titles.

What was Stone Spiked Trails, anyway?

Stone Spiked Trails

[Run and let them chase you if they dare!

Increase one’s speed the longer one runs.

Leaves a trail of stone spikes with every step.

Stamina Cost: 1/sec

Modified by Dex]

Cass stared at the window. Had she always been able to do that? She supposed there hadn’t been a reason to try before.

Whatever.

She brought up Sprint’s description for comparison.

Sprint (lvl 9) (Wind)

[Run! Run like the wind!

Passively increases your running speed.

Actively consume additional Stamina to further increase speed.

Association with the Concept of Wind passively decreases the Stamina cost of all running-related activities.

Modified by Dex.]

Stone Spiked Trails looked like a combination of the trick she’d used on Levina in Uvana and Sprint, though it lost Sprint’s passive increase in running speed and pay-to-super-charge speed capability. It was also unclear if it would keep the Association with Wind that Sprint currently had or how that would manifest.

How about the other option?

Stormstride Sprint

[Run like the coming storm.

Passively increases user’s running speed.

While active, generates a gust of wind around the user and greatly increases the user’s speed.

Stamina Cost: 3/sec

Modified by Dex.]

This looked like an advanced version of Sprint, though it traded the flexible Stamina cost and speed payout for a fixed one.

Stormstride Sprint was less flashy than the effect of Stone Spiked Trails, but to Cass, the effect it did have was more useful to her. Right now, if there was no wind, Cass needed to spend 54 Focus to Wind Step (49 for Wind Step and 15 for a ranged Wind Blade). She also needed to have her staff (or a weapon of some kind) and the time to swing it.

Stormstride Sprint would mean Cass could Wind Step from any run for just Wind Step’s cost and three points of Stamina.

That seemed much more likely to be useful than leaving a trail of stone spikes behind her as she ran from an enemy.

Stormstride Sprint (lvl 9) (Wind)

[Run like the coming storm, for you are the howling winds.

…

Association with the Concept of Wind passively increases the speed of all wind-based attacks passing through Stormstride Sprint’s summoned gust.]

Stormstride Sprint has reached the First Step! Congratulations!

[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:

+ 4 Dex

+ 3 End

+ 2 Str

+ 2 Ala]

Either way, she couldn’t just loiter. There were more people to save. She raced off after the next scream.