Chương 145: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Seventy

The two had done quite a good job in thinning the herd as it approached the wall, with the defenders easily able to handle what flowed around them. Now they pulled back, back to the wall before leaping over it, clearing the field for a rest. Beth had been fine in the heart of the action, but now was gripped by a deep thirst and an urgent need for the bathroom. They both took care of several needs, including getting some rations in them, before returning to the wall to spectate for a short time.

When Beth and Blood had fallen back, a team of guards had sallied, moving into the field to help stem the tide in their place. The team also acted as cover for several guards to work to clear the field, one of them an earth mage that pushed bodies back and to the sides, burying many of them under the hardened earth. The team worked for just twenty minutes before falling back, but it was enough time for the girls to get their second wind and the field to be mostly cleared.

The fight continued through the long hours of the night, Beth not able to quite get into that fugue state, the break and the slightly slower pace of the scrum she found herself embroiled in not lending to that state of tired focus. Still, they fought on, continuing as the two moons orbiting the planet they were on rose and traversed the sky, a blue and a red orb hanging low and swollen, like overripe fruit on an old branch.

The moons slid by as the stars spun and time waxed on, the late night giving way to the wee hours of the morning, when the problems really began. Though they were not the first of the fight, level one hundreds were now taking the field, the numbers significant enough that Beth was unable to avoid running into them. Another four levels during the long fight had taken her and Blood into the nineties, but the amount of power that beasts gained once they hit one hundred was quite large.

It wasn't impossible for Beth to take them down, though, as she found out with the first of them she confronted. Finding a kobold wearing mana copper armor and wielding a mana steel maul across from her, she engaged it with a series of fast, sweeping strikes. She knew from the first two swings that something was off, with the beast responding much more quickly and adroitly than any she had fought so far.

She wasn't able to get any advantage in the first exchange, the kobold managing to keep its weapon well within the ideal area in front of its torso. A quick check confirmed what she had suspected, that this beast was level one hundred one and wasn't going to be an easy kill. That didn't discourage her in the slightest, a slight grin tugging at the corners of her mouth as she continued the battle, swinging a wide sweep from left to right, forcing the kobold to block or take a glancing blow.

When their weapons met, Beth pushed down and to the right at the same time as she stepped forward, releasing the hilt of her sword with her left hand as she did so and raising it, finishing the step with a fast but powerful punch directly to the kobold's ugly nose. The beast didn't react in time to block, it seeming that most beasts just didn't have the intelligence to intuit what she was doing when she set up for a punch or kick in the middle of clashing with weapons.

Beth followed immediately with a slash from her blade, disengaging the kobold's weapon to bring her sword up across its face. The beast managed to lean away from the strike, only taking a shallow cut along the jaw, but that had only been a feint. Beth had charged her left leg with Crush while slashing and now brought it up in a whipping sidekick, slamming the fully empowered limb into the right knee of the creature.

She could feel the beast's knee crack from the force of the blow, her mana steel boots multiplying her damage. She planted the foot she had just kicked with and swung her blade back around as the kobold staggered, stepping forward with her right foot to pursue it. Her opponent failed to raise his weapon in time and took the full force of Beth's blackened steel into its unprotected neck, tearing it open.

Hot blood, so very different from the kobolds she was used to fighting, fountained in the air like she had just ruptured a heated water balloon. The blow hadn't been lethal, but the injuries slowed the beast enough that a quick exchange of four more rapid, sweeping strikes was enough to finish the job. The fight had taken some time, much longer than even the empowered beastlings had, and this was only a "regular" above level one hundred kobold.

She had also burned some stamina and mana on that particular encounter, but she hoped she could avoid having too many of those fights back-to-back. The battlefield had other ideas, as it so often did, the press of bodies and movement of friend and foe becoming like a living being in its own right, sweeping up participants without sufficient strength of their own to control the tides.

Beth found herself facing one level one hundred after another, feeling targeted even though it was the messy brawl she was a part of that held more responsibility than any strategy on the part of the kobolds. Two fights turned into five, then ten, then more than twenty before she had to retreat, too much stamina and particularly mana expended in the struggles.

Blood managed to extricate herself just behind Beth, getting out of the battle just as a group of guards, led by the Bladedancer sergeant, moved out to push sections of the tide back and again clear large parts of the field of bodies. The only upside to fighting such powerful enemies was the experience, and it was truly bountiful indeed, as killing only about two dozen of the higher-leveled beasts had given her a level and most of another.

Blood had fared nearly as well, having gotten at least a level out of the last half-hour or so of being buried in the scrum and facing nearly non-stop level one hundred plus enemies. They were over three-quarters of the way through the horde, however, if the fort personnel's estimates were right, and Beth didn't hold out much hope, even with the numerous level one hundreds in the fray, that they would gain another six levels before the horde petered out.

It was especially true when considering the support they had this time around which was taking up a much larger portion of the burden than what they had experienced during stage nine. That also meant that they were getting fewer kills than what they had during stage nine, even more so when considering how long each battle against a level one hundred took to complete. The two rested for nearly an hour this time, Beth feeling like it was a bit of a waste of time, but they needed it.

In particular, their mana was running dangerously low, in her opinion, and they needed time to meditate and recharge in the safety of the fort. They returned to the battlefield as the grey light of an early dawn stole over the sky, the two moons having sunk below the rim of the horizon with a ponderous grace more than an hour before.

The tide would continue another six or seven hours, partially dependent on their performance, and Beth was hoping they could get as close to one hundred as possible, throwing herself into the fray with a renewed vigor. The morning blurred by, the sun rising to cast long, deep shadows across the valley they fought within. Beth was thoroughly coated in blood and viscera by now, though she had somewhat gotten used to it at this point.

Blood was in much the same state, though due to her eponymous fur, it was much harder to tell. Without the fugue dilating her sense of time in that blurry way that made minutes into hours but hours into seconds, the ending of the fight came as far less of a surprise this time. She had noted that they were no longer so underwater in terms of opponents, with the beasts having started to trail off by noon.

Now, just an hour later, they were down to little more than stragglers, with the defenses easily capable of handling those beasts little to no effort. Beth and Blood returned to the wall, tired and worn and slightly injured, but still alive and mostly in fighting trim.

They met the commander almost right away, the man having taken a rest during the early morning when it was obvious the level one hundreds weren't powerful enough to pose serious threat to the guard company, returning mid-morning to continue to monitor the end of the fight. He eyed her critically for a moment, giving Blood a long glance for good measure before he spoke.

"I see you almost made it, Enforcer," he said, giving her a slight nod.

"Level ninety-eight. As some people from my home world say, 'close, but no cigar,'" Beth replied with a small frown and a shrug.

"Well, not that long to go," the commander said, waving the topic off.

"I must thank you for your assistance in this tide. You greatly eased the burden on the men and women of my command. Without you, this would have been far more difficult and far more likely for us to take heavy injuries. I'll be giving a sterling report to your superiors." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"Thank you, sir," Beth replied, giving him a slight bow, to which he responded with a short, sharp salute before continuing his walk along the wall.

As soon as he was gone, everything around Beth and Blood froze for a moment before they were returned to the non-descript white room. The screen in the center of the room no longer displayed the possibilities of the scenario, but instead was showing their reward tabulation. In all her eagerness to hit level one hundred, Beth had somewhat forgotten that the stage only required a solid twelve hours of defense from them before being considered a success.

That meant that the time they spent seeing everything through to the end was all bonus on their part, and the stage completion reflected that. For fulfilling conditions beyond the base requirements of the stage, additional rewards are granted. For fully defeating the beast wave, additional rewards are granted. Reward of compounding experience granted. Applied granted reward. Beth and Blood were flooded with a wave of pure experience again, causing Beth to really marvel at the Trial of Celestial Awakening.

She knew that extracting and condensing experience to later give to another was incredibly complex, time-consuming, and resource intensive. The way they were showered in this extra experience multiple times really went to show just the kind of largesse the faction that ran the Trial was willing put into making it one of the premier experiences across the universe for young Wayfarers.

Beth didn't have that long to marvel, however, as she felt as if her body was flooded with power, scorching through her veins and searing her heart. She felt as if reality twisted slightly around her, staggering and falling to one knee as colors seemed to bleed together. For a brief, dizzy moment, it felt as if she could taste sounds and hear smells, everything inverting as black became white and white became black.

Dimly, she was aware of a second presence beside her, twisting the space in its own way, a way that seemed to speak to her. She recovered a moment later, breathing as if she was just now finishing the grueling fight against the beast tide. She felt the source of power to her left more clearly, concerned for a fraction of a second before realizing it was Blood's energy, though how she knew that she was currently unsure.

"Sister!" a throaty voice cried out before a body impacted hers, nearly knocking her over from her kneeling position.

"Wha-, who…?" Beth stuttered, eyes widening as she observed the gorgeous woman currently grappling her. The lady was tall, likely taller than Beth was if they were standing up, and had a thick mane of dark red hair, like spilled blood. And a mane it was, as the hair not only was long enough to extend past her hips, but grew from around her neck and shoulders as a thick ruff of fur as well.

Her eyes, a glimmering emeraldine, were set in a beautiful oval face, sitting over a large, strong nose which presided over full, dark red lips. The woman had a strong but still pretty jawline and in following it, Beth realized she had no ears. Well, she had no human ears, Beth catching sight of a pair of wolf ears sticking from the top of the woman's head.

"Blood!?" Beth exclaimed, standing up and pulling her companion, now in human form, with her.

"Yes, sisterrrr," Blood replied, growling a little as she tried to adjust to having a mostly human throat.

"Holy crap!" Beth exclaimed, looking Blood over. She had been correct in her assumption that Blood was tall in her human form, standing three inches taller than Beth would in her bare feet, putting her at around six feet three inches. She had fur on her shoulders and throat, as Beth as seen before, but also had patches on her elbows, around her navel and blending in to her pubic region, as well as across her knees and shins and feet.

She had what could only be described as claws instead of toe- and fingernails, and they looked both wickedly sharp as well as perfectly proportional to her current body. Speaking of claws, Beth took a look at Blood's mouth a little more closely, noting that the fangs had stayed in this form as well. Taking a step back, she looked Blood over fully, the wolf-woman chuckling in a throaty manner before turning in a slow circle to show off.

Beth noted more fur along her spine when she turned, tapering off in a large, bushy tail just above a very plump butt. She also noted that Blood presented as rather athletic in human guise, with slightly wide shoulders, wide hips, thick legs, and heavy muscling in her torso and arms. She also had some rather impressive assets, if Beth had to say so herself, with quite large breasts to match the large, firm posterior.

On this closer inspection Beth also noted there was a little more fur than she had initially seen in her first shocked look, with some around the wrists and on the back of her upper arms.

"Blood, this is…crazy," Beth said, still staring at her companion. Blood's ears flattened against her head somewhat before she replied in a querulous tone, "You…don't like it?"

"Like it?!" Beth exclaimed.

"No, I love it! You look so fucking good in that form, Blood! It's awesome!"

"Sister!" Blood growled out, again pouncing on Beth and hugging her tightly. Beth returned the hug, only breaking it up after a minute when it was clear Blood was perfectly happy to cuddle right there without a care in the world. Beth was glad they were still in the non-descript room, as it might have been somewhat embarrassing for them to be thrown back into the array room like this.

"Alright, Blood, let's relax a little," Beth said with a chuckle.

"I understand it's all super exciting, but we…we need to…" Beth was starting to feel rather tired all of a sudden and didn't really understand what was happening.

"Sister? Are you alrrrright?" Blood growled out.

"I'm super tired for no reason, Blood," Beth said, not understanding what was happening.

"Maybe it has to do with that crown?" Blood questioned in response.

"Crown? What…?!" Beth replied with some confusion evident in her voice, which turned to concern as she reached up to feel a crown resting on her head.

"Blood! What the hell is this?"

"You're wearing a quite fetching crown, sister," Blood responded with a small shrug, grinning at the fact the motion was much easier with human shoulders versus wolf shoulders.

"Hold on, let me see," Beth said. As if to answer her command, a full body mirror appeared a few feet from them in the room, allowing both girls to see their reflections in it. Blood started immediately moving around, trying to see herself from all angles, while Beth took a step forward and stared at what was resting upon the top of her head. It was a crown, looking to have been forged from some blood-red metal, having been shaped into the images of a series of wolves.

The faces of the wolves all met cheek-to-jowl, with all of them fixed in an expression of aggressive snarling. The strangest thing of all was that all twenty eye sockets of the ten wolf heads were empty, no detail work in the metal nor gem filling them in.

"I have a crown of ten blind wolves on. What the actual fuck?!" Beth exclaimed, feeling at the metal, which was warm to the touch and seemed to resonate with her. She focused for a moment, willing the crown to disappear and, much to her surprise, it vanished with a slight pop. She immediately felt…well, not better, but the large drain on her stamina had stopped, and she supposed the crown was what had done it.

"Alright, miss streaker," Beth said, running the claw tips of her right gauntlet through her hair, "Let's get some clothes on you." Blood immediately pouted, "Do we have to?"

"Yes, Blood. Come on, I know you're, like, not even a year old, but you're more mature than a lot of adults I know. Wait a minute, I'm an adult now too. Ah, shit," Beth said with a sigh. She continued, "You know you can't go parading around nude. Not in human form, at least. Well, not in public. You can be nude in the apartment all you want."

"Well, at least there's that," Blood sighed, ears drooping as Beth pulled off her pack and started rummaging. She came up with an extra set of CRA clothes, staring at the bra for a moment before tossing it back in the backpack with a roll of her eyes.

"I'll guess you'll just have to let your tits hang free for now," Beth said, handing Blood the rest of the clothes, using a pair of the boxers instead of the panties, as the boxers had more stretch and Blood's hips were rather wide. The wolf dressed, struggling only a small bit with the shirt, which Beth gave her a hand with.

"How is it, sister?" Blood asked once she was fully dressed.

"You look like a teen that outgrew their clothes two years ago and hasn't shopped yet to replace them," Beth replied with a small giggle.

"But! It will pass the sniff test. At least, for now. I'm sure the Celestial Awakening guys can sell you some clothes. Give you something to spend all that dough you have saved up on."

"Oh, that might be nice," Blood said, combing her claws through her long hair as she smiled. It really did look like she was wearing old clothes or, maybe better, it looked like she had borrowed her little sister's clothes to wear. The fine quality of the CRA garments meant they didn't really have any problems stretching to accommodate Blood's larger form, but they were still just too short. The sleeves ended on her forearms, the pants a little way above her ankles, and the shirt left a little midriff exposed.

At least, with the fine cut of the clothes, it didn't look too bad.

"Alright, ready to get out of here?" Beth asked.

"Yes, sister!" Blood replied enthusiastically.

"By the way, it's not tearing up your stamina to stay like that?" Beth asked as she walked over to the screen.

"Nope. In fact, I feel even better than ever!" Blood exclaimed happily. Beth saw that the screen had changed to display a timer, allowing them to remain in the space for a certain period before getting kicked to the array room, which she was immensely grateful for. She also saw there was an option to return to the array room available to select, which she proceeded to do.

The world went white for a moment and there was a sensation of falling, and then they were back in the array room, being shooed away by one of the Warders, who barely gave even the poorly dressed Blood a single glance.