Chương 69: Limitless Path Chapter Sixty-Nine

She opened the round by taking a step forward. This was something she had figured out in the first handful of failed rounds, where she found she could take one step off the starting circle to get into a better position and stance. She had her greatsword in her right hand, and when the shadow of her opponent appeared before her, she swung a backhanded slash horizontally across her front.

She immediately followed up with a half-step forward and a left jab, slightly disrupting the shadow woman's rhythm, as she had to respond to the quick follow-on strike as well. Beth didn't stop there, slicing her right leg up in a swift rising kick at her opponent's torso. The woman used the edge of her knife to deflect Beth's armored boot, a good decision on her part, as she used her right knife to shunt aside the overhead slam that followed before Beth had even planted her right foot back on the ground.

The woman slashed Beth's right arm with her left knife in passing, scoring a wound for Beth's trouble, but had to juggle deflecting an uppercut from Beth's heavy left gauntlet at nearly the same instant. The woman was quite skilled, however, and turned that deflection itself into a stab into Beth's neck. It wasn't a lethal blow, not in the first instant, and Beth continued to attack through the pain, feeling the hot blood gushing over her left shoulder before cascading across the top of her left breast.

She responded to the wound by bringing her greatsword back in from her right, slashing in a downward cut meant to bisect her opponent from shoulder to hip. The woman moved back and around the blade in a blur, but for the first time was caught slightly off guard as Beth kicked straight up with her right leg. The kick grazed the woman's left arm, likely slightly bruising it, and causing her to have to stutter step for just a moment.

This wasn't enough time for Beth to really capitalize on it as a mistake, her speed just being too low, but it did break the woman's stance slightly, preventing her from landing the counter-hit she had intended after dodging Beth's slash. With one leg in the air Beth decided to be stupid and let the end of her sword swing continue with full momentum, turning her back to her opponent.

She jammed the end of her blade into the arena floor and used the spinning momentum to pick herself up above the blade itself, scything her left leg upward to kick behind her at her opponent. She barely grazed the woman again, the knife-wielder clearly stunned by this foolish move for half a second before resuming her attack, getting clipped by Beth's heel in the process.

Beth was now suspended in the air above her sword by a one-handed handstand, and she had twisted as she kicked and flipped so she was facing the shadow woman again. As the opponent closed with her, Beth used her legs and waist muscles to twist to her left, or counterclockwise, and bring her sword up out of the floor at the same time. She slashed upward from close to her opponent's feet towards her torso, trying to again bisect her, but this time from left hip to right shoulder.

The woman actually managed to slide back just far enough that she could use both knives to deflect the sword, but this was just fine for Beth, as it helped her continue to spin after landing so she had completed a full three-sixty and was facing the woman again. The only problem with this was Beth was just too slow; though she had landed facing her opponent, the woman was already upon her, not impressed with Beth's antics.

Beth continued her strategy, blending her sword swings and punches and kicks, but it wasn't enough to do more than draw the fight out a little longer. She attempted a downward slash followed by a left straight punch, but the woman somehow slid around both with one movement, sliding a dagger into Beth's neck a second time as she finished her footwork. Beth, already on her last legs, collapsed from this, ending the match with another quick loss.

She wasn't at all discouraged, however, as she really felt that she was on to something with the way she had fought in that last round. The combination of both her weapon skills into one fighting style was still barely in its nascent stages, but she felt it was a viable path for increasing her battle prowess at the same level. This was the kind of thing Baelvyr had mentioned briefly, where skill levels were important, but they didn't tell the whole story.

Beth developing her own fighting style, born of the combination of her two weapon skills, elevated her combat capabilities without any of her numbers changing. Her level remained twenty-eight, her stats remained the same, both her weapon skills were Apprentice[8] still; nothing had changed on her status screen. But, at the same time, she was becoming stronger. Beth continued working on her technique with her new training partner for the rest of the evening, only stopping at night when exhaustion was setting in.

Still, she had to admit, the progress she made in just one day felt great. She was able to hold on for thirty or more seconds consistently against the assassin-type opponent until she got too tired to properly react and started getting killed quickly again. She knew that being able to defend herself just barely for half-a-minute was pretty pathetic overall, but the difference between the start of the day and the end of the day still felt like a win to Beth.

She made her way down to her room in the basement, finding Blood waiting outside. She let the both of them in, saying to the wolf, "Don't know where you've been going, but we've gotta make a trip home tomorrow. Also, gotta hit the dungeons up." Blood gave a clear nod while flicking her ears in response, letting Beth know she understood. They headed home the next morning, passing by John and Tazeen in the lobby, though only Tazeen appeared to notice, John with his face buried in screens of some kind.

She went through the usual routine in waking everyone and getting them moving at home, but they were intercepted by her father before they could leave for the day.

"We've been getting a little concerned about food, and we'd like to ask for you and the girls to help us with securing some more meat," he said in a serious tone.

"Zack has managed to get his hands on at least one of the trucks he was talking about, with the help of Mr. Jones, and we want to essentially go on a hunting trip."

"I don't think that would be a problem, but we can't really spend too much time on it," Beth replied, leaning her chin against her left hand with her elbow propped on the table in the kitchen.

"It's important to secure food, I get that, but we also have to keep training. At least, I'm super busy with training and studying right now. The other girls might have more time; or not, it's up to them." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Well, I would appreciate it if you girls could come over and meet with Zack and the others this morning," Thomas responded.

"Why don't we go do the dungeons first and then meet back here. We'll likely get these others a level in the meantime," Beth answered, rubbing Sabs' side absentmindedly.

"That's fine. We'll have Zack and the others come over to the house while you all take care of your dungeon fighting," Thomas replied with a nod.

"Alright. Let's get this handled, then," Beth said to the group. The dungeons went quickly, and then it was back to the neighborhood, making their way in through the new front gate today, Soph riding on Blood's back while the other girls hoofed it. They headed down the streets to the Bell household, noting as they approached a pair of large trucks sitting in the cul-de-sac. They entered the Bell house using the front door, leaving their weapons and boots in the entry hall.

They found everyone gathered in the living room, the Bell parents there along with Zack, Scott, and Jack. Jack's eldest son, John, was also in attendance, the group currently discussing the plans for the rest of the day. Thomas turned to the girls as they piled in, commenting, "That was rather fast."

"We don't really have much trouble with the two closest dungeons at this point," Kim replied.

"Especially with Beth and Blood there, we don't really have to worry about being out-leveled or taking it slow."

"You should still be careful," their mother warned sternly.

"This is not a game; you could get seriously hurt." While the rest of the girls responded dutifully, if dully, Beth just rolled her eyes, thinking about the several close encounters she had had already. The warning was a little bit of shutting the barn door after the animals escaped, but she hoped the other girls would be even a little more careful because of it.

"Are we all ready?" Beth asked.

"I have things to do at the Association."

"We need a plan before we run off," Zack replied with a frown.

"Let's go over what we're doing today.

"I've secured two heavy transports that we can use for various purposes, but today we'll use them for a hunting mission. Considering the size and weight of animals and beasts after the changes, we need something more than a normal pickup truck to haul carcasses. We'll take the trucks to an area northeast of here where Beth has reconnoitered a group of the same kind of massive hogs she keeps killing.

"When we arrive on-site, we'll disembark and secure the area. We prioritize safety and security over other mission objectives. We'll then be relying on our frontline fighters to guarantee our safety and secure the mission objective. Any questions?"

"Yeah," replied Kim.

"What did you just say?"

"We're gonna drive to where the boars are, make sure no random beasts hurt anybody, kill the pigs and bring 'em home," Beth replied before Zack could, seeing the vein pulsing at his temple.

"Right. Any other questions?" he asked, the vein calming down.

"I don't think so," Beth pre-empted the rest of the group by saying.

"This should be pretty simple, even without Blood and I overwhelming most things out there."

"Being confident isn't bad, but don't get cocky," Zack rebuffed a little gruffly as he stood, the rest of the group following suit. The girls headed out with the rest, stopping in the front entry to re-equip weapons and toss on boots before exiting the front door. They found the two trucks waiting, Scott and Jack each taking the wheel of one.

The rest of the group distributed themselves among the two vehicles, many sitting on benches in the back that folded down, as the trucks were the kind with only a single wide seat in the cabin. They appeared to be fairly generic military-type vehicles to Beth, including that the large beds were currently covered with a stiff canvas roof, and the whole of both vehicles were painted in a simplistic green-camouflage style.

Beth eschewed the trucks, hopping on the back of Blood and quickly moving to the front of their little convoy. Once they were all lined up and moving, she led them down the neighborhood streets to the large, crude wooden gate at the entrance to the development. The two neighbors watching the gate swung it fully open at a gesture from Zack, Beth hearing them muttering about splinters from the rough logs as they pushed the gates.

The small convoy took a left out of the gates, heading down the road the same way the girls did to get to the CRA Hall. Beth had to give Blood a quick reminder to hold off, as she could easily accelerate faster than the trucks that were following behind. She also thought, other factors notwithstanding, Blood might be able to hit a higher top speed than the old trucks could manage as well.

It didn't take the group too long to get up to the spot by the edge of the field where Beth had found the concentration of boars. Having faithfully obeyed all traffic laws up to this point, it was now time to deviate a little bit, as the trucks followed right behind Blood in cutting across the opposing lanes and driving onto the edge of the field. The area was rather large, a section of several different patchworks of farmed area together.

It looked like the farmer or company that owned the area used it for corn and wheat in alternating blocks, though Beth could only tell by best guess, the fields already empty at this point in October. The rest of the group piled out of the trucks as Beth finished surveying the area.

"Alright, fall in," Zack grunted out, stepping up next to Beth as he took a quick accounting of the area.

"What's the plan here?" asked Scott, standing in the middle of the loose grouping of the rest of the participants behind Beth and Zack.

"Kill the boars, throw them in the trucks, drive home," Beth quickly spat rapid-fire just as Zack was opening his mouth.

"That, but with a little more organization," he added, giving Beth a bit of a glare from the side before returning to his inspection of the area. Beth just rolled her eyes and started forward, Blood trailing behind, as Zack began outlining the operation for the rest of the group. She stopped about a hundred feet into the field, looking at the nearest boar about fifty yards in front of her. She again rolled her eyes at the result of Identify. Wild Boar Level 5 Looked like more babysitting work for the day.

She wouldn't guarantee it at this point, but she doubted even the hulking "boss" boar in the distance would be a challenge for the dungeon clearing team, much less her and Blood. It would just be a day of spending time watching and keeping the group safe.

"That's a damn big pig," Zack muttered as he stepped up beside her.

"We're going to take down one of these closer ones first and both see how that goes as well as see how difficult getting it into the trucks is." Beth shrugged in response, saying, "I'm on over-watch, like usual." Zack just grunted before motioning the rest of the group forward. It looked like their brief discussion earlier, when Beth had moved forward, resulted in them deciding Jack's eldest, John, would take a crack at the first boar.

It seemed the rest of the dungeon party was backup, as they followed a little distance behind him, ready to intervene if necessary. Beth checked John's level with Identify as he approached the boar. John Smith, Level 3 Young Warrior