Chương 94: Limitless Path Chapter Ninety-Four

Limbs first and always, unless we have a perfect opening,' Beth thought to Blood, able to fully communicate through their link without making any audible noises.' I understand, Sister. Watch out for the tree,' Blood replied with a nod, her massive, beautiful eyes glowing in the reflected light from the stone attached to Beth's waist. Beth sighed, closing her eyes and centering herself for a moment, her meditation skill activating for a few brief seconds almost by instinct.

When she was ready, she stepped forward into the room, saying to Blood, "Let's get the fuck out of this shithole." The boss kobold was clearly a decent cut above the rest, even more so than the Ravager, its head snapping slightly to the side and eyes shooting open; the white orbs with thick, blue veins locking onto Beth before her first step even finished.

As her quip to Blood finished, the kobold had already hefted its club and moved toward her, its speed only slightly faster than what she would expect from a powerful level forty-five kobold thanks to its quite long legs. She met the beast a quarter of the way across the room, sliding a half step back and countering the initial sweep of the massive club with a left to right swing of her sword, aiding the huge hunk of wood in flying by her.

Beth felt the wind of its passage, grimacing as she realized at only a one level difference, she was greatly outclassed in terms of raw power. A hit here would crack even her reinforced bones, not something she could afford against this powerful of a foe. The deflection had pushed her back slightly, but she was relieved that she was able to counter the raw physical strength of the boss without being overwhelmed.

They engaged in a flurry of exchanged blows, once again showing the truth in Baelvyr's admonishment that strength can become speed. The boss really didn't have much Dexterity comparative to its overall level, but its massive Strength let it swing incredibly fast, even considering the great size and weight of its weapon. The boss proved difficult for Blood to close on, moving around too much as it dueled with Beth to give the wolf many opportunities to get a strike in.

That, combined with the large backswings of the massive club, rather effectively zoned Blood out for large parts of the fight. She was able to slip in and dig her claws into the back of the boss's left leg during a moment that Beth had the advantage, but darted away immediately after noting she barely scraped the skin. Blood just didn't have the stats, the mana, or the skills to do a lot of damage to such a tough, powerful beast with a single hit, or even several hits.

Beth had known from the start this was going to be a slugfest, and she settled in for a slow and steady progression, getting her hits in where she could. She was more concerned about getting hit and getting crippled, an outcome that could quickly lead to death, both hers and Blood's, than she was about rapidly defeating the boss. That endurance mindset was good, but it was going to be challenged severely by the boss; not just due to its massive Strength and Endurance, but also due to the frost and ice.

The boss had an absolutely frigid aura of ice surrounding it, chilling the air and leeching the heat from the girls without even using any ice-based skills. The cold continuously built as the fight wore on, sapping her strength, chilling her blood, riming her very bones in frost. The ring helped a little, even a weak enchantment able to provide a nice boost at her current level, but the chill still built over time.

She was confident in winning the war of attrition, and getting a few resistance levels in the process, but the war would be long and brutal. Beth's attacks against the kobold were rather infrequent at the start of their battle, but she was able to increase her chances to strike as the fight ground on. In conjunction with that slowly increasing number of strikes, she focused more on the precision and power of the blows against the kobold's limbs.

Her damage output was not particularly high, considering the kobold's Endurance seemed to be incredibly high, though that wasn't the only variable that determined a beast's toughness. Other factors, including the beast's mana type and density, could add or detract from various attributes, especially how tough their flesh was.

Beth wasn't entirely sure what all the factors were or how they interrelated, but she was quite sure the kobold boss had quite a lot of the various factors to make it a particularly tough bastard. Seconds turned into minutes as the fight progressed, Beth thankful that, so far, the boss really didn't seem to have any other tricks up its sleeve. It swung at her in wide, heavy arcs across its front, able to recover from her deflections quickly due to its massive Strength.

Beth continued knocking the club down and to the side repeatedly, getting a good feel for the boss's movement patterns and timing. The better she understood the opponent, the more opportunities she not only found but took to deal damage. The kobold attempted to turn Beth into a scattered mist of pulped flesh for her efforts, but the lack of Dexterity really hindered the beast.

Someone without the girls' slightly boosted stats, high skills, and long hours of practice might have faced much more of a challenge against this boss, but it simply didn't have the stats or skills to pose them a genuine threat. At least, Beth really hoped that would continue to be the case. She settled back into the rhythm of deflecting the boss over the next minute, not going for any additional strikes as she just parried, giving Blood several chances to get in glancing blows.

She flitted away from the boss, its focus on her allowing Blood to get in and get her jaws on the left knee. She used her powerful new skill to crush the joint as she twisted with her freshly boosted power, the points Beth had dumped in the wolf's Strength stat paying dividends. There was a grinding crunch and Blood let go just as the kobold swung on her, spinning rapidly despite the wounded leg, its massive trunk of a club whistling through the air.

The boss, while lacking grace and finesse, was strong and enraged enough to hit the massive wolf as she backpedaled.

"Blood!" Beth cried, hearing her companion's ribs break from the force of the club even after the wolf had tried to dance away. Beth flooded her entire body with mana as the kobold boss turned back to her, her arms and torso emitting popping sounds as her muscles swelled then condensed. The next swing of the boss came immediately, and Beth moved with it, meeting the club with her sword and pushing up and away.

The kobold was unable to counter so much raw power being poured into its own swing and went wildly out of control, taking a step to the side while the club soared around and slammed into the ground halfway behind it. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Beth took a step forward while dumping nearly half her total mana into her right leg, snarling as she felt the bones start to crack and her muscle tissue shred from just how far she was overcharging Crush.

With her left leg planted, she lifted her right and twisted her hips, pivoting on her left foot to snap her right foot up and forward, delivering a whipping kick into the boss's stomach. She watched as, even through the armor, the kobold's stomach caved in like an air cushion hit by a wrecking ball, a sound like the boot stomp of an angry god ripping the frigid air apart.

The massive boss staggered five steps back, nearly dropping its weapon as a powerful fountain of blue blood sprayed out its gaping maw in a huge arc. Even considering how tough it was, the damage Beth had just delivered directly to its internal organs was enormous, most of the beast's digestive tract and part of its lungs pulped from impact. Beth herself was in bad shape, feeling the fractures in her right leg from the excessive strike, but she ignored them, leaping at the enemy with a determined grimace.

The strike had, as its name suggested, thoroughly crushed the armor over the kobold's stomach, and Beth didn't miss this chance. She dumped another insane burst of mana into her body, nearly bottoming her reserves out, as she lined up on the boss. She stopped in front of and just to the left of the tall kobold, continuously running Swift even as she swung her massive blade in from the left, the middle of the blade ripping through the crushed armor and into the stomach of the beast.

Beth didn't slow in the slightest from the impact as she twisted her torso with all her might, contracting the muscles in her arms and back as she tore the boss's stomach open, shredding organs and muscle as her blade bit deep. The swing impacted near the center of the beast's stomach and shredded everything in its path, tearing across the gut until it emerged from the creature's left side in a welter of blood and a shower of organ chunks. The boss was still not dead yet, but it was certainly in very bad shape.

Not that Beth and Blood were much better, with torn muscles and cracked bones, but they weren't ones to let a few small injuries slow them down. Blood reappeared like a red shade from the dark as Beth finished her strike, the wolf clamping down on the injured knee of the boss again. The boss attempted to recover and strike Blood, but Beth responded before the strike could be completed, deflecting the blow before taking a large step forward and shoulder checking the boss.

Her shoulder slammed into the massively wounded gut of the boss just as Blood bit harder and pushed forward, twisting the boss's leg in her jaws and moving around to her right behind the boss. The combination of the two toppled the kobold over Blood's back, who lurched forward with an even stronger shove, tearing apart the knee of the boss as it slammed into the ground.

Blood darted away with the bottom of the boss's leg as Beth stepped forward and lunged toward the boss, sword digging into the rent in the boss's gut and traveling upward. She blocked a weak blow of the beast with her left arm, feeling the heavy plate dent further, but did not let go of her blade or stop. She hit the heart a moment later, returning her left hand to the hilt of her sword and stepping forward again, smashing the kobold's heart apart.

With a final paroxysm of ice and anger, the beast died as a turgid wave of blue blood surged out of its wound. Panting, with a heavy grimace on her face, Beth staggered away from the boss's ice encrusted corpse before falling on her ass, dropping her blade next to her. Blood staggered over and lay down next to her, the two silently pushing comfort and warmth to each other through their bond. Beth ignored the messages and alerts from the Path, dropping into meditation alongside Blood.

The giant wolf began healing her wounds immediately, but Beth had to spend some time resting to restore her mana. Blood was mostly healed by the time Beth started her own recovery, working on all the cracked bones before she eventually moved on to the torn muscles. It took quite some time, enough for Blood to have torn her way into the boss's chest cavity, retrieving what was left of the heart before devouring it.

The huge wolf coughed a little at the frigid cold the organ contained, trying to warm her throat and stomach back up. Eventually, she moved on to scanning the rest of the room, utilizing her keen nose to see if she could detect any hidden caches. Beth finished her healing and rested for a time, mostly to top her mana up before shifting around to a kneeling position. The first thing she did was take out the canteens so they could have a drink before she got to work cleaning her equipment as best as she could.

She made sure both her and Blood were fed and watered before they were ready to move, finally getting to the last and best part of the dungeon, the loot. Kobold Labyrinth completed. Calculating rewards. Already this was new, as apparently the system was going to do some kind of post action report. It seemed they would be rewarded based on their performance. Labyrinth cleared in under ten natural days. Bonus points awarded.

Labyrinth cleared solo (Bonded companions are not counted in calculations below level one hundred). Bonus points awarded. Labyrinth boss defeated at lower-level solo. Bonus points awarded. One elite variant enemy defeated. Bonus points awarded. Calculating final score based on a matrix of variables and appending bonuses. Calculating… Final score calculated at a B+. Disbursing awards. Beth watched as two pillars appeared out of thin air before her, Blood jumping back and snarling at the sudden, unexpected change.

"It's alright, girl. I'm going through the rewards for the dungeon now. I guess we didn't find anything because this type gives everything at the end." Blood chuffed in response and moved forward to study the two items sitting before them. The objects seemed almost tailor made for the two, or at least, there was a pretty clear bias in the rewards. On the left pillar was a harness with some cloth stretched between some of the sections.

Alongside this arrangement was a pile of metal pieces, which Beth quickly realized were metal plates that could be attached to the harness as armor. While she didn't have an item identifying skill, the Path helpfully provided a nice little textbox for both items. The harness was exactly what it looked like, a war harness for a wolf complete with padding and a full set of frost iron armor plates.

As Blood sniffed at the harness, seeming quite happy with the item, Beth turned her attention to what she felt was 'her' reward for the dungeon clear. What was sitting on the second pillar sent her eyebrows into her hairline, something she found slightly more amusing based on what she was looking at. Staring back at her from the top of the pillar was a set of eyes. No skull or other parts, no vat or jar holding them, just a large pair of eyes.

Fortunately, even for Beth's toughened stomach, they weren't all bloody or gross, simply sitting there and staring at her. The greater part of the eye was white, but the iris was an iridescent blue with darker lines of frost shot throughout, while both the pupils were a dark, chilly silver. Beth wasn't really sure just what the hell was staring back at her and decided to take advantage of the explanation provided to her. Eyes of the FrostFlame Lord {Eyes of an ancient lord that hold the power of piercing cold. Able to see through many of the basic, and a few of the greater, truths of the universe. To apply, hold eyes up to user's eyes and touch them while emitting a brief pulse of mana.}