C_Mantis
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Chapter 202
🕑 Added 2022-12-26 20:00:02 +0000 UTCThis arc is ending for the Tier 15 patreons on the 6th so the 10th and 13th will be a break for everyone. Not ideal with how we had a break with christmas but that is how things worked out and I need the time to plan out the next arc so there will be no chapters on the 10th and 13th.
Chapter 202
Reactions were mixed as they left the challenge room. All of them except Aster had gotten far more Genesis Energy than they’d put in, who only got close to fifty percent extra, and a tea set that allowed everyone drinking from the five cups to share their perceptions of taste. The tea pot itself could store different pots full of tea by twisting the top, which was a fun effect to play around with.
A handful of skill shards also appeared after a few seconds of the crystal pulsing out Genesis Energy, almost like it was reluctant to give them anything more. Susanne identified one as [Broken Ground, Broken Core], a Sect skill which destabilized the earth below a target’s feet.
Liz picked up [Pike Block], a spear skill that made multiple floating mana copies of the user’s weapon that could act in concert for a potent defensive ability. It apparently had some history to it that Liz said she would explain later.
Finally, there was a Tier 20 light aspected skill that no one recognized. It was their second Tier 20 skill drop from Minkalla, about as expected from getting to the sixth floor. Any skill of that Tier would sell well, and if it wasn’t in any of their databases, it had a good chance of being quite valuable.
Matt was slightly unnerved, though more rested than he had felt in weeks. Unending boredom wasn’t pleasant, but it certainly wasn’t that bad. Nowhere close to the vacation he had somewhat hoped for, but it was at least a welcome relief from the tension and soreness he had been feeling.
Susanne was mad about something that she wasn’t talking about, and while Liz definitely looked better, Matt could tell she was still a little shaken about whatever her trial had been. Though, if he hadn’t seen her earlier, he might not be able to tell.
Aster, of course, was ecstatic, having lived out her grandest dream for over a year, but she was at least courteous enough to keep her excitement to herself… mostly. When they exited the now disordered space ruin, they found themselves in the desert, and were immediately attacked by scorpions that burrowed out of the sand.
Matt brought his sword down on the carapace of the first one, and with its newly increased weight, it shattered the hard chitin and cut cleanly through the monster before its large stinger could descend on him.
Susanne appeared next to one of the others and removed its stinger off before slicing through its body in seconds.
Liz, who had finished off two more of the monsters, said, “First actual monsters of the floor. Should mean this ruin is mostly normal, but still, watch out for copies of others.”
She ended up being correct, as the ruin was a standard “kill monsters collect loot” affair.
Though, the boss was a little new.
It was some hybrid of a scorpion and man, with the upper humanoid half seemingly welded onto a scorpion's body.
Armed with a long spear, the boss used its weapon along with pincers to try and pin them down. It also had the ability to control time around it, allowing it to dodge most ranged attacks through a combination of slowing the projectiles down and speeding itself up.
If any of the four of them were alone, they might have struggled, but with their varied skill sets, they were able to take the boss out without much fanfare. And its loot turned out to be quite interesting.
It was a small hourglass that created an area of accelerated time at the cost of spiritual strain for everyone inside it, along with a boatload of mana. Considering Matt, the latter cost might as well not exist, but the former was a fairly harsh condition.
The hourglass only sped up time by a factor of two, so they couldn’t abuse it and completely remove their healing cooldowns, but it did let them rest completely in just an hour of real time, allowing the rest of them to recover mentally, albeit not spiritually, from the challenge they just cleared.
As it turned out, that was a good thing, because just minutes after entering the second level of the sixth floor, they felt a familiar someone else flaring with Genesis Energy not far away.
Despite the signal almost instantly vanishing from their Genesis Energy perception, they were close enough to easily catch up to the lone fighter.
Long Zhiyuan looked almost as surprised to see them as Matt was to see him.
Given their previous enmity, Matt didn’t hesitate to send a burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] at his fleeing back. But just like before, his robes rose up and blocked the neutral mana attack.
Not willing to let such a strong enemy Young Master live if they could help it, the four of them chased him down.
It immediately became obvious that he had already fought his way through this portion of the ruin, as there were no monsters present. He was seemingly intimately familiar with the layout of the ruin and was able to run, fly, and dodge his way through the rocky cavern leading them on a chase to a portion of the ruin he hadn’t cleared trying to lose them on the copies of other delvers still lurking in the forest.
They chased him to the neighboring ruin which turned out to be a winter one, which Long Zhiyuan smartly refused to enter, and forced him to take a [Wind Cutter] to the leg from Susanne after she cut her way closer, reappearing in a different spot while already invisible to land the blow. Blood flew, and the Young Master pulled back for a moment, interposing a physical shield between himself and Susanne. She instantly broke the shield with her next attack, and the man lost what looked like half of his left hand.
He tried to use his Concept to fly away, but Matt threw his own Concept against Long Zhiyuan’s, shattering the working and sending him tumbling to the ground. Aster hit him with [Kar’tan Greets His Foes], which only resisted his movement for a moment before he smartly spent a large chunk of mana on a [Cleanse Corruption] to remove the effect. Before too long, his mana would be exhausted, and he would be easily crushed.
Liz was the closest, and lashed out with [Blood Whip], but Long Zhiyuan sprang back at her with a skill enhanced lunge and slashed out with his trademark flaming claws, catching Liz in the face despite her attempted dodge.
Her helmet crumpled in, and Matt winced as he saw the double break on her jawbone. It was healable, but Liz would be in pain whenever she ate for at least the next week.
Long Zhiyuan took advantage of Liz staggering back to continue his retreat, but Matt cut him off with a [Crescent Sweep] combined with a quick [Mana Charge], throwing the sword with everything he had.
It spun through an arc to blow through the latest shield that Long Zhiyuan had thrown up before biting deeply into his back.
As Matt’s blade completed its arc and returned to him, he caught it and raced forward.
In theory, he could use the skill while moving, but it was his first time casting the skill in true combat, and he didn’t have that level of control yet, forcing him to pause.
Still, Aster was right there and picked up the slack, catching Long Zhiyuan in his good leg with a burst of [Snowbank] to cover him in clinging frost.
Susanne reappeared from somewhere, with her sword inches away from bisecting the Young Master when lightning flashed around the man. He teleported just out of range, and he narrowly avoided falling on his face as he redoubled his speed.
Liz was already back on her feet, and threw her spear at his fleeing form, guiding it with [Blood Manipulation].
Long Zhiyuan proved he was a top-tier Young Master as he dodged the attack at his back, and in his roll, sent out an enlarged claw strike empowered with earth mana at Aster. Matt retrieved and triggered a talisman to block the strike without breaking stride, allowing Aster to land an [Ice Spear] on the Young Master’s chest.
Aster jumped on Susanne's shoulder and started pulling ice and snow from the adjoining ruin, throwing it at the fleeing man and encasing him utterly, literally freezing him in place. It didn’t hold for very long, as Long Zhiyuan erupted from captivity in a burst of flames, using the explosion to boost his speed and further the distance between them. He looked fairly singed and still had some ice clinging to him, but wind and fire whipped around him, lengthening his stride tenfold.
Matt redirected most of his mana to the combination of buffs that boosted his physical speed, sent the rest to [Air Manipulation], and took off after the Young Master. Just as he got close enough for an attack, ten new points of Genesis Energy appeared in the distance.
With the newfound urgency of needing to kill Long Zhiyuan before they entered into a larger melee, Matt swung a glowing sword at the Young Master’s neck, only to have it blocked as he raised his left arm between the blade and his head.
Whatever skills and equipment the man had was enough to stop the strike cold, but given the way his arm fell afterwards, it was at least broken. A good wound, and the man shouted in pain and annoyance as his defensive robe was torn. Then the new team of ten reached them, and Matt lost the opportunity to finish off his opponent.
Between their gear and the way they composed themselves, Matt recognized them as akin to the team of ten they’d encountered in the previous floor. Perhaps they were part of the same training regiment, or some Guild was trying to optimize their participation. In either case, Matt wasn’t too concerned about the risk they posed as they struck.
He was wrong.
Very wrong.
They focused on him, since he was somewhat isolated from his team, but didn’t seem worried about hitting Long Zhiyuan in the crossfire. The Young Master used the opportunity to retreat to the portion of the ruin he had already cleared, scrambling on three limbs- and cradling his mangled arm- to escape.
Matt brought up a [Bulwark] to block the first pair of attacks- a white spear and a tiny fireball that his spiritual sense veritably screamed was dangerous.
The white spear partially penetrated [Bulwark] without breaking the spell, but got stuck before it could pass all the way through. The fireball wasn’t even slowed down by the shield, passing through it as though it were a mirage. It didn’t strike- Matt had already shifted to dodge it- but as it detonated against part of the scenery behind him, it felt less like a [Fireball] and more like a miniature sun flickering into existence.
He responded with a flurry of [Fireball]s himself, like so many glittering stars, but one of the team’s mages deflected them upwards with a dismissive wave of their hand. Given just how quickly they’d been wrenched from his grasp, Matt assessed that mage as a dedicated pyromancer, and a good one at that. They may not have had quite the same finesse that Liz did- Torch could steal a fireball from him without him even noticing- but they had the power to more than make up for it.
He sent his assessment to the rest of his team and started pouring willpower into his AI. Minkalla lifted its restrictions on it, and it sped up accordingly, swiftly creating, discarding, and improving battle plans about as quickly as he could think.
Both attacks showed substantial armor penetration capabilities and were about as strong as he’d seen at his Tier. All of their gear was high quality, but not mastercrafted, and definitely seemed to prioritize some level of visual conformity, favoring a particular shade of royal blue that Matt didn’t recognize as associated with any major factions. However, there were definite concessions made to individual functionality. Four had enchantments that were more mage-like in nature, five were more geared towards physical defense, with heavy armor plates that more than likely indicated warrior combat styles, and the tenth Matt couldn’t quite pin down. His outfit was decorated with more silver buttons than his peers, while the fabric itself shone and shimmered in a way he couldn’t quite follow. Their gear was similarly mismatched- two carried swords, one was unarmed, one had only a shield, one wore spiked gauntlets, and the final attacker carried a glaive with a handle that doubled as a potent staff. The mages also had their own gear- two staves, one wand, and one crystal orb that floated at head height.
Their gear was exceptionally well-maintained in a way that spoke to the degree of reverence they held for their tools, but Matt could pick out the faint traces of blood left on some of their weapons that spun tales of a lot of bloodshed, not that he expected anything else.
He dropped [Bulwark] as he started to fall back to the rest of his team, and the white spear embedded in it vanished in a flurry of sparks, reappearing as a bolt of lightning in the hands of the unarmed warrior, who promptly threw it once more.
Lightning crackled along its length and shot out from the sides, connecting the projectile with its surroundings and its thrower, with each tiny bolt accelerating it more and more. His AI warned him that it was starting to bend mid-flight, but pointed out several safe zones he could escape to, and Matt quickly positioned himself into one of them. True to his AI’s prediction, the spear bent towards him, but it couldn’t redirect itself as much as it needed to strike him, and it obliterated a tree nearby instead.
He had enough of a head start to make it back to the rest of his group before the squad of ten first caught up with him, but as he took the final step to rejoin the circle, Matt found himself going in the wrong direction. He suddenly became very, very disoriented, and crashed to the ground.
He broke out of the dizzy spell in less than a second, but the first thing he could process was a foot mere inches from his face. It smashed into his mouth, and while [Cracked Phantom Armor] stayed firm, the kick’s energy passed straight through it and his mask alike, shattering and caving in several of his teeth.
Matt spat blood and teeth onto the ground, then rolled over to block a punch aimed at his head with [Bulwark]. The spell held firm, but the impact sent reverberations vibrating through his magic, disrupting the spell and giving Matt an odd sort of headache.
Not wanting to take the second hit from the next man thrusting out with his sword, Matt cast [Icicle] at his crotch, causing the man to flinch back.
With that opening, Matt was able to stand and cast [Sword Twin] twice by draining most of his mana stone reserves, and with two copies of his blade floating out and giving him some cover, he cast [Wind Cutter] at the man with the armor bypassing ability.
The man dodged the slash of wind, but before Matt could follow up, one of the swordswomen rushed forward, intercepted one of his blade copies with her shield, and cut out at Matt with her own blade while the other man slashed out with a fire spell.
Matt twisted, dodging and blocking the two attacks, but opened himself up to a rib punch from the gauntleted man, sending painful vibrations through his entire body and disorienting him enough that his counterattack was easily dodged. A high-powered pulse of [Endurance] cleared his head, just in time to take a [Shield Bash] to the face.
It broke [Cracked Phantom Armor] but was stopped by his helm, which still painfully aggravated his unusually empty mouth, knocking his head backwards even as his primary armor reformed around him.
With a flare of his gravity gauntlets, he pulled the man into a pommel strike that should have broken bones, but his attack bounced off with a dull ring and earned him a kick to the knee for his trouble. It didn’t shatter the bone outright, but Matt felt fractures spread across it.
He jumped back, favoring his uninjured knee, and threw out a [Mana Slash] to intercept a dangerous [Fireball] he felt shooting towards his back. It detonated in a way not common to the skill, with a lingering miasmic cloud of violet flames expanding out, connecting with [Cracked Phantom Armor] and setting the skill on fire.
It dealt hefty damage to the defensive skill, but not enough to burn through Matt’s outer layer. [Analyze] revealed that the attack was something optimized for burning out enchantments and skills in part through mana exhaustion, which didn’t bother him.
The spell still clung to him like tar, but he was able to functionally ignore the flames while dealing with the swordswoman, who sent a series of tight cuts at him from behind her shield.
With little exposed to his angle, Matt sent one of his [Sword Twin] copies at the woman while he sent the other at the pugilist, countering his lack of weapon.
It worked. Sort of.
The brawler took a small cut to his shoulder, but retaliated with a punch that shattered the spell. They withdrew to the wanded mage, who started healing them, but that still left Matt in a two versus one, and a quick glance through his AI confirmed that the others weren’t doing much better. As the brawler was replaced by the shield-only fighter, Matt made a decision, one echoed almost immediately by Liz. “Retreat! We’re not winning this fight.”
A [Cracked Mana Spear] pierced the swordswoman’s chest and heart, but the healer, having just finished mending their brawler, had a spell already working on her wound, and the lack of Genesis Energy confirmed that the attack failed.
He recast the spell, but the shield wielder intercepted it, reflecting the beam back at Matt and nearly hitting him in the face, all the while sticking close and preventing him from casting the spell once more.
Matt cursed and struck out at the shield-wielder. They blocked, naturally, but he took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to flee. A teleport brought him above the group, and he used [Air Manipulation] to grab at the winds around him and blow himself away, just behind the rest of his team.
His spiritual perception warned him to dodge as the white spear screamed through where he had been right before his teleportation, and he responded with a [Wind Cutter] at the line of attackers who were already chasing them down.
The fire mage unleashed a river of flame at them, wider than Matt was tall and burning everything in its path to a cinder. As it approached, the heat coming off it felt like standing in front of a blast furnace, and he started summoning some water to protect himself as he used his own fire skills to contest control of the attack. With a wave of her hand, Liz threw half her remaining mana pool to [Fire Manipulation], seizing control over just enough of the onrushing inferno to divert it around them, like water passing around a rock. It had the benefit of concealing their exact position, but the move forced all four of them into tight proximity.
As the flames died down, a small barrage of magical arrows fell from the sky. Aster was able to blow most of the projectiles off-course with [Cross Wind], with Queen cutting down the few that made it through without so much as breaking stride.
A few thousand feet later, the spear shot through their midst with a crack of thunder, but this time, its wielder teleported to it instead, appearing next to Susanne and Aster while trying to skewer the former. The strike connected, and Susanne stumbled and nearly tripped over her own feet. Aster, riding on her shoulder, went flying, but still retaliated with an [Ice Spear] while Matt scooped up Susanne with his [Air Manipulation] until she could regain her footing. By his AI’s reading, she’d used her [Cracked Second Wind] to recover from the injury, and he let her resume her run.
Liz hadn’t been idle, and had simply tripped the spear warrior with a [Blood Whip], making them stumble enough to fall behind their retreat. Matt contributed with an overloaded [Cracked Mana Spear], and while the shield-user reflected much of the attack, he did hit two of the group located more towards the edge of their formation.
That was enough to get their pursuers to slow down as they grabbed their wounded and tightened up ranks against further attacks, but Matt still felt an arrow break both [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his physical armor, leaving a graze against his flank, but otherwise left him no worse for wear. He started pulling out talismans and dumping huge quantities of mana into skills to slow the pursuers down. He produced thousands and thousands of gallons of water appearing in a flood behind him, hail rained down in sheets to block their sight and movement, and the earth heaved itself up to create barricades and pitfalls. Aster sent a [Tornado] into their ranks, which they elected to scatter around rather than directly contest, and a [Wind Lance] knocked one cultivator out of the sky who was trying to fly over Matt’s obstructions.
At the same time, Susanne used [Mana Blade] to lengthen her sword, then felled clusters of trees for Matt to throw at the group chasing them.
Their pursuers proved their prowess by dodging, leaping over, or blasting through everything his team could throw in their way. Against anyone else, he would appreciate the skill they displayed, nearly doing an obstacle course at a dead sprint. But at the moment, all he wanted was for them to find someone easier to chase after.
The next arrow was aimed at Liz, prompting Matt to block the shot with a massive [Bulwark] behind them. His shield virtually exploded as it stopped the blinding arrow from getting any closer to his team, and he heard the splinters of the arrow ping harmlessly off his armor. The skill was thoroughly shattered in his spirit, more than he had felt in years, and it would take a few minutes for it to reform enough to be usable. Minutes which he didn’t have.
The four of them passed through a narrower portion of the ruin with large stone walls that they had chased Long Zhiyuan through not a dozen minutes before. Matt used [Earth Manipulation] to collapse the walls, but that barely slowed their pursuers, who simply blew through the barriers and sent rubble flying.
Of course, that meant they hadn’t seen the minefield of talismans that Matt had dropped when they barreled ahead with the force of a rampaging dragon.
Elemental explosions triggered all around them- clouds of acid, mountains of stone and ice, hurricane-force winds, raw kinetic force, chains of lightning, and flashbangs that rapidly alternated between casting darkness and light. He’d been forced to use nearly all of his remaining proximity-triggered talismans in the maneuver, but it managed to further the gap between them all the more. Most of the group was stopped, and only two of them- the spear warrior and the fire mage- kept pace.
Liz dropped a [Blood Chakram] behind her, paired with a small barrage of [Blood Bullets].
A burst of flame evaporated most of the projectiles, but it critically slowed them down.
Before they were able to capitalize on it, the spear wielder once more threw and then teleported to his weapon, despite Matt and Aster’s spatial lockdown. But this time, he arrived next to Matt, who met the man's thrust with a flare of his repulsion field and a burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] directed at his face.
The man vanished before the attack could land, but Matt didn’t pause in his desperate sprint.
He left a few more [Cracked Mana Trap]s in his wake, and was forced to sweep [Cracked Mana Spear] a couple more times to preserve their lead, but they eventually managed to make it to the blizzard ruin. Susanne fell to her knees and Liz moved to check on her, but Matt and Aster couldn’t afford the luxury of pausing. The two of them worked to create a massive dome of ice around themselves, compacting it and strengthening it as much as possible.
It took what felt like forever for the team to reappear, with all ten having regrouped and unerringly following his own team. Matt tried to resist as the fire mage burned through their icy shelter, but lost the battle within seconds.
Still, that wasn’t his main aim. He’d directed enough mana into the ever-raging blizzard around them that each snowflake was more like a sharpened needle, and they dug at and picked into the group’s skin and eyes.
They staggered back, trying to defend against a hundred thousand insect-sized attackers, and Liz finally managed to drape Susanne’s arm over her shoulders, the two of them continuing the flight deeper into the blizzard ruin.
Matt didn’t relent, instead redoubling the amount of effort he was putting into attacking the team of ten. They struck out at him, but he was never where they expected. He was the Herald of Winter, and that meant something. From needles to mana stones, then mana stones to daggers, the shards of ice kept growing and getting stronger. Aster threw in her own contributions, directing actual skill attacks and her own Concept to further empower the ruin itself.
Eventually, between the ruin’s natural blizzard, Matt and Aster making it so much worse, and a group of reflections that attacked them, the ten broke off their pursuit. After waiting for a few moments to ensure that it wasn’t just a trick, Matt and Aster took off to rejoin the others
Thankfully, they were able to quickly find where the ladies had wound up, and used [Ice Manipulation] to avoid any reflections that might have attacked them.
It took them a little while, but they eventually found their way out of the wintery area, and after running through another two ruins, they found a safe cave to hide in. As an extra precaution, Matt covered the entrance over with [Earth Manipulation].
Dropping their house, Matt and the others could finally relax, and they all collectively dropped.
Aster looked absolutely awful. Half of her fur had been burned off, and her tail had been fully incinerated, but she was still the first to speak. “What was that team? Were they secretly Tier 14s?”
No one had an answer, but Matt crawled to his knees and over to Susanne, who his AI said was in the worst shape. She wasn’t dying, but it seemed like she’d spent most of her [Cracked Second Wind] healing trying to get her back into running shape. The skill could return her to prime health… if she had enough mana reserved in it, and the wounds she’d taken had clearly outstripped it by a large margin.
Most critically, her armor had been damaged enough that it was tearing into her body with every movement. Beyond that, half of her face had been burned off. Her eye was in surprisingly good condition- probably restored by [Cracked Second Wind]- but her ear was a charred, shriveled lump of flesh, most of her hair was gone, and her mask was flickering and nearly failing. It looked like she’d taken a [Flamethrower] to her face while Aster had been on her shoulder. Still, while the burn was perhaps the most visual injury, the fragments of metal cutting into Susanne’s body with every passing second were higher priority.
Not bothering to get her onto the table, Matt started pulling off her armor and said. “Bwe beed bo—”
Pausing as he ran his tongue over his now shattered teeth, he concentrated and carefully enunciated. “We need. To. Get the metal. Out of her wound. Every. Time. Shaeeah- she moves, it ish mahking it worse.”
Despite having a broken jaw and hand, as well as missing massive strips of skin from her forearm, which were temporarily patched up with [Bandage], Liz crawled over and assisted him. In just half an hour of frantic work, they had Susanne closed back up.
He couldn't do much more than dump a healing potion over the charred portions of her head and neck, but it wouldn’t be hard to keep them from getting infected. And with that taken care of, the rest of her burns were fairly superficial.
Aster had gotten it much worse. The only reason she’d been able to keep fighting was a newer use of her Concept that she had developed, which let her ‘freeze’ her sense of pain. It didn’t provide any healing, but it did make cleaning out her newly-textured hide less painful for the both of them. Once she was relaxing in a sink full of ice water after the worst of her burns had been cleaned out, they dug through their supplies for salves to heal burns and delicately applied them to the ravaged skin. Only after she had been properly treated and medicated did Aster release her hold on her Concept, and Matt felt a dull wave of pain through their bond.
With the worst of the injuries taken care of, he turned to Liz and helped her remove her helm and then carefully examined her jaw.
Long Zhiyuan had done a number on her, and had shattered her jaw in two places.
It wasn’t pleasant, but he helped Liz set the bone before casting [Ranged Heal] and [Bandage] on the wound, allowing her to work her own magic with relative ease.
Her hand and arm weren’t quite so bad, but it was unfortunately her left arm, which was still on healing cooldown from when it was regrown just a few weeks earlier. They couldn’t do much more than wrap and splint it to keep it from getting any worse, but Matt was no healer, and he felt like he might have aggravated the entire limb with his clumsy efforts with [Ranged Heal]. Liz was also burning some of her blood to regrow the skin she’d lost, but she simply didn’t have enough to spare to do much more than encourage it to scab over.
After helping her, Matt returned to Aster, who had curled up underwater, licking the stump where her tail once was.
She looked up to him with watery eyes and asked, “Are you ok?”
That caused Matt to choke up, and he forced out a smile- realizing a moment later that the gesture may not have been reassuring- and said, “Ahm fine. How abo’ you?”
He’d adjust to the missing teeth soon, but talking would feel weird until they left the planet and he got them regrown.
Aster shook her head. “They burnt my fur and killed my tail.”
Through their connection, Matt could feel how devastated she really was, and despite her trying to put up a brave front, he could tell this was getting to her. She had been burnt before, with damage worse than this, but they were always near a healer, where they could fix the damage and then Liz could pour a hair growth potion on her to get her good as new.
But inside Minkalla, using a potion like that was both frivolous and dangerous. A hair growth potion was technically a healing potion, and would add some healing cooldown to her already stressed body.
Essentially, Aster was going to have to stay like this.
He reached out to pet her, but she flinched away and said, “I’m not pretty enough to pet.”
Matt ignored her as he scratched the top of her head, careful not to disturb her burns, and pulled her out of the sink to work more healing lotion into her leathery and charred flesh.
While he worked he murmured words of comfort to her, which eventually put her to sleep.
With her taken care of, he got to his feet and stumbled to the bathroom, and proceeded to pull out the remaining lumps of enamel that remained from his front teeth.
It was excruciatingly painful, but he suffered in silence. The others were all passed out and needed their rest.
After downing a healing potion and casting [Bandage] on his ribs, he put his armor back on and stood guard while the others rested.
As he sat there, he meditated on the disastrous fight. Without his AI able to record, he couldn’t review it directly, but Tier 11 memory was essentially flawless for short-term situations.
Long Zhiyuan likely hadn’t meant to lead him into an ambush, but it wasn’t impossible. Meanwhile, the ten were definitely connected to the ones they’d fought earlier and that Claude had warned them about, but they were still substantially superior to the previous group. Any two of them were easily a match for anyone on Matt’s team. In an even fight, Matt felt like his team probably would have a slight edge, but they were outnumbered more than two to one, so they never really stood a chance.
Their coordination and teamwork had been exceptional as well. Not flawless, but for such a large team to perfectly weave spells and attacks without ever once interfering with plans or blocking lines of attack was extraordinary, to say nothing of the gear they’d been using. Their bodies were tougher, their magic was extraordinarily powerful, and they almost seemed to move as a single unit.
He wasn’t sure if it was a new type of death squad, but he shuddered to think of what they could have done if they were Tier 14 instead of alleged Tier 12s.
The four of them would have almost certainly died if that had been the case.
Again, he thought about Tiering up, but he shied away from the idea.
Had they come this far just to fail and Tier up at the last possible moment?
Matt rejected that notion.
It had just been one bad fight, after a long string of victories through Minkalla. There had been setbacks of various degrees, less than total wins, but they had conquered everything set before them until now, and profited enormously from it.
Except… that was how it almost always was, wasn’t it? There was no gradual increase in challenge until someone found their limit, with the option to leave before they got overwhelmed. For fighting other delvers, most people fared just fine, one way or another, until they ran into one of the big fish in this small pond, and were promptly eaten. Matt had personally ended the lives of dozens without giving them any chance to retreat when it became obvious he would overpower them, to speak nothing of the people who had died near instantly to his more powerful abilities.
They had lost this fight, convincingly, and they had come close to losing much more than that. He could prepare, make items or plans to help counter the group, but they could do the same against him. The biggest change in relative power that might occur in the near future was for members of the opposing group to fail their Folded Reflections challenge, and have their Concepts replaced with ones that were worse and unfamiliar to them.
It was something of a distant hope, but always possible.
Better skills and items for escape were feasible though, and that was something he could definitely work on before any more encounters.
Even if it meant they would just run away faster next time, instead of standing their ground. Long Zhiuyan had proved the efficacy of that strategy, and it was something they’d outright practiced for. Minkalla was eminently survivable, so long as you were careful to not overextend. It was a hard thing to balance, since he didn’t want to escape from his fight against his copy at the end of the floor. He needed to win, and without serious injury.
Still, Matt was worried.
They had taken serious injuries during this fight that would take weeks, if not months, to recover from. At least for the injuries they could heal.
Aster’s tail wouldn't be regrowing until they got her to a proper healer, and while Liz’s enhanced healing meant that she’d have basically full functionality within a few days, he wouldn’t be surprised if it would be sore for months, or effectively the entire rest of the time they were in Minkalla. His own teeth were gone as well, but that felt less important for the time they had.
Thinking of time, he pulled out the hourglass from their earlier delve and sent mana into it.
The spiritual strain was instantly noticeable, but he pushed through it and focused on meditating through the growing uncomfortableness. The others would be dealing with the same strain, but he was the only one with a skill that seriously stressed his spirit, which limited how much he could use the item right now.
He wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, but it allowed his team to recover that bit faster, which might mean the difference between life and death in the next encounter.
Pain was nothing new to Matt.
Discomfort was an old friend.
Seeing his friends so badly hurt was unacceptable.
He was durable and hard to kill; he should have been the one to take those blows.
Despite knowing how unrealistic it was, he wanted to be the center of the battlefield. If everyone was focused on him, they wouldn’t be attacking Liz and Aster.
He hadn’t even seen the attack that had so badly burned Susanne and Aster, and that ate at him.
Matt didn’t have an easy answer, but he was used to working through problems and started figuring out ways to draw all the attention, and therefore attacks, to himself.
His gravity gauntlets were a good start, and with the cultivation core of the black hole, he had a few ideas sparking. He also really needed to improve the second set of enchantments on his sword, and seeing Long Zhiyuan’s armor in action today had given him some interesting prospects.
While the others slept, he started tinkering.
Comments
Aaron Martinez
The biggest problem with this chapter is that it was obvious the instant that Blood Hand appeared that he would get away. Narratively it makes no sense at all for him to die here, especially when he started losing immediately.
Zadar Thule
Blood hand has the advantage that he mentions that escape is sometimes an option in 169. Bad is that Matt was twice close to finishing him off, only to be interruped at the last second.
Aegir
I mean its clearly stated thathey ran for their lives and couldnt do shit vs the 10man team. As strong as they are, i think its clear that that team is OP. Its also clear author is setting up the Blood Hand to being the main Sect threat for them in the upcoming war.
Shaun McDonough
Please please please don't continue with the lazy boring trope of running into the same enemy multiple times to only have them escape at the last minute. If it happens once it is fine. But having it happen twice is already making it immersion breaking as it is practically announcing to the world the heavy hand of the author. The less you notice the hand of the author the better.
Sheltron5000
I appreciated the hints at armor penetration being a significant point in the fight, but I think more could be made of it. Also, something to remind us all of how weird these teams are. I don’t agree with the other commenters that it felt like hand waving, but a little bit more emphasis on how they almost got the clan guy and how bizarrely overpowered the kill squad are would be good.
Yshua
Agreed, yes. There may be a good enough in-universe explanation for this but the comments around aren’t doing it for me so far and this sentiment is common enough that there’s at least a lack of clarity in the book so far. Reminds me of chapter 175/6 in Delve.
adam1
I think the thing to remember is that Matt's talent is an advantage, and he's leveraging it into making himself a powerhouse, but the true benefit it brings to the Empire is not combat, but basically providing the fuel that makes the empire run. He fears being shoved in a box because that's how he could benefit the Empire the most, rather than being a very strong Pather that fights the other powers. At this stage of his development, he's not able to come out of the gate with an overwhelming advantage, what he has is the staying power of not running out of mana, and not needing to ration his mana throughout the fight (plus the ability to make talismans that effectively store his mana for future use). In a few more tiers, he'll be able to blast our more MPS than his opponents' entire mana pools, which is I think where the mana concentration issue is meant to keep him from being too dominant to not have an engaging story.
Haikaiko
I've flipflopped a full 180 on this, it's power-scaling whiplash. I went from the start of floor 4 going "Matt is too lackadaisy, he needs to lose Aster or otherwise suffer to learn to take this seriously, he's having too much fun for a serious, life or death environment", to the start of floor 5 going "wth, NONE of these guys were in any way a threat one chapter ago, now every time Matt coughs, a bajillion guys that are stronger than him pop up and break his leg or jaw or one of his growth items AGAIN." The issue, as I see it, is Matt is a badass. We know he punches up several tiers higher than he should, and that he'll be out-manaing the Emperor himself in a few more tiers, long before he hits T50. The author needs to show that he can lose, which I AGREE WITH. Hence why I was thinking Aster had to die, to break all the levity and excessively casual / cavalier attitudes they all have. Matt himself wouldn't lose easily in a straight fight (see his folded reflection battle, Liz and Susanne sarcastically summarize it far better than I ever could), so someone dear to him needs to lose. Ideally, someone who would believably be the weakest link in their group, a purely support mage with vain delusions of majesty and splendor far outside her actual power. Love her, but she's not Ascender quality like the rest of them. Instead, we're getting repeateded slapdowns that are handwaved away as "the enemies are higher tiers." When we know that Matt doesn't struggle against higher tiers. Shit, he killed a peak T3 boss monster as a fresh T2, before he even had his synergy / fixer talent, or any party members to cover his weaknesses. Back when he was still "Matt with the bad talent." At T10, he was clearing T13 rifts. When someone used their broken talent to sunder his favorite weapon, he stripped naked and took down that specialized warrior by literally smashing his face in with his fists, in his boxers. Tier differences have never really mattered, narratively, because we know that he is the protagonist, and this is a story about a guy who wrecks fools, no matter what tier. Now, at T11, there's a cutoff point literally halfway through the Minkalla Arc. First half: "this is so easy Matt is wasting time showboating, there's nothing in here that can slow him down, much less stop him." Second half: "Everything that moves can defeat Matt, suddenly." And yes, anyone that made it this far, is going to be more powerful than those who were attritioned out. And it's a given that there are going to be others who punch higher than their tiers, who are ALSO higher tier than Matt. But it feels like midswing of his phantom-glowing fist, he went from "instance-wide raid event that takes tens of thousands of people to participate? Yeah, I'll just solo it." to "Ouch, I took five steps without looking down and tripped over a very rare, high tier plant called soleyheretobreakanotheroneofMatt'sgrowthitem root. Who could have seen this coming?"
Azra
The problem is not with this fight, it's with the tournament result : => Out of dozens of billions of pathers, the top of the top comes to the tournament, Matt and Lizz fight evryone in the top 50 while not even using their whole capabilities, and finish both tournament in first place with ZERO loss. => Virgil takes 90 random children, do (admitedly very rare) experience on them, and of those 90 you get 10 that can fight and stomp Matt-Liz-Aster and Queen who are all probable Ascender, while they are using every power they have, and do not lose even a single member. The discrepancy is so obvious. I understand author want to up the tension and make our team arrive at lvl 7 with full healing cooldown to make for some real risk, but it felt a bit forced to have them lose this badly.
Hydrabogen
I'm kinda suprised everyones whining so much about this fight. It was honestly fine, what with the squad being hyped up and them being higher tier (this alone makes them like four times as strong as a baseline) than our heroes. They also outnumbered them almost 3:1. Hell, we can even see the almost opposite happening to the poor xoung master, who is as far as I understand also incredibly powerful, but just got outnumbered 4:1. I do expect him to put up more of a fight next time, now that he has saved Matt and Friends with his Talent. Excited to read more :p
webolive
Weak again the MC feel weak, ascender are supposed to be a once generation powerhouse. Why are you making the MC so weak?
Chemnerd263
I decided on a reread, and we'll see how far I get. So far I've reread chapters 1-174...
Curtis
The whole point of the rune system is that Jecker, the guy who enchanted them, has a talent that lets him reduce the rune's tier. I think they only keep the runes a tier or two above the soldiers actual tier. So a Tier 12 rune soldier probably has Tier 14 runes. This reliance on a particular talent means the rune system is not easily replicated. But it's also not easily productionised. It also required other things she can't easily scale - the attention of her head healer (his specific talent is required too, so no one else can do the work), multiple retainers ready to ascend (to ensure they get concepts/intents), the direct attention of the Tier 50 leader herself (to ensure loyalty). And we still don't know if it'll work! There's a reasonable chance that the rune soldiers will die in Minkalla. Or even if they survive Minkalla, there's no guarantee they will survive to higher tiers, or get their intent, or even be useful against actual ascenders at Tier 35.
Ernie 3
Is anyone else confused by the Rune soldiers? No matter how I look at it, they really shouldn't be allowed in Minkalla for breaking the Teir 14 teir cap. These soldiers are essentially just Overgeard soldiers with High Tier enchantments inbeded in their bodies instead of in their gear. But that shouldn't matter to Minkalla it doesn't allow anything over Tier 14 in at all. We know for a fact that includes enchanted weapons and items why would that not include enchantments placed in people. I mean it kills anyone who Tiers up past teir 14 within it so we know for a fact it can see within people since the Tier up process starts from the core. On top of all that there's no way that a Rune with less power then teir 30 could give these Common people more power than a top Ascender. This also definitively makes the Federation more powerful than all the other galactic powers combined. If one 10 man squad of these Rune soldiers are as powerful as 2 top 10 tournament ascender teams and they can make 50 every 10 years when it takes the Empire a hundred years to make only one equivalent team. Then the Federation is now definitively the most powerful galactic power. Without question! Even the Emperor talked about only being able to make 1 Ascender team every hundred years if they are lucky. It doesn't even matter that they can't Tier up past Teir 35 since no one is aloud to fight in the wars past Teir 35 anyways. All the Federation has to do is make a couple thousand teams of these soldiers and then they could pretty easily take over all the other powers. I want to clarify that I'm fine with Matt and crew getting beaten in the battle it just doesn't make sense that those soldiers are allowed in Minkalla. They feel more like super soldiers for the battlefield not Minkalla Assassin (especially with the Tier restrictions).
BookDragonling
I forgot this wasn't coming back until the 6th and was very sad on my chapterless Monday.
Thomasaurus Rex
They only managed to even escape when they got to the winter area and could use their boons, it seemed like if they didn't have that to fall back to they would have lost
C.W.
Good chapter. But I would say it's a bit much to say "Each of them were easily a match for anyone on Matt’s team". If Matt's team faced people like that with almost perfect team work and amazing gear. In a 4v 10 senerio. I dont think there is any way they would have escaped. Seems like Matt's team could win in 1 v 1s but not 1v 2 with that death squad members. Its a small thing and maybe I'm reading that section wrong. Still great chapter. 👍
Thomas Todd
I agree with you, I'm not sure why this is being taken as a crushing embarrassing loss either. It was a 10v4 of tier 12s who also had been specially empowered. This wasn't some random team but a massive squad of top tier fighters who also had a tier advantage.
Allan Libby
I concur.
Allan Libby
I agree, I can't wait to see what he does with the sword.
Allan Libby
So far the rewards have been pretty darn good. They are a bit understated, but they are more than lackluster.
Blightdad
Making the death squad tier 14 would have made me feel better for the L
Charles handgis
Happy holidays and I just want to say I loved the chapter. I can’t really comprehend why this is being taken as a hard loss. The team was down a tear and faced a 10v4 disadvantage and still forced the other team to retreat in the end. In fact both Matt and aster forced them to retreat as soon as they got the field advantage. Also we really don’t know enough about the rune soldiers to be making baseless speculation on their pros and cons yet.
Alexander Hallonblad
Really loved this one to catch up on! Really hope we see the fight or aftermath from the other POV Soon!
Baconater
Sorry about all the negative comments on this one. Personally, I loved it. What’s the point of making a super strong squad with no one to fight? I don’t want them to dominate every challenge, I want there to be something on the horizon that scares them. Something that makes them reach forward instead of coast. Our team just found it. The federation rune jackasses are fucking badass. And they can take our team 10v4. That’s a challenge for the future and it is desperately needed. I can’t help but think that most of you have forgotten how much stronger Matt alone gets per tier. I’d Matt had been tier 13 he would have 4x the mana regeneration per second. He could probably have wiped the floor with them with all the other benefits. I really like what you did here, it’s nice to see what they’re going to be up against in the war.
Revenice
The purpose of the path as I see it is to force people to be stronger than their tier. We have seen for most people that delving one tier up is dangerous, but the time constraints on the path force you to be good enough to delve up 4 or 5 tiers if you want to stay on track to complete it. This makes a 100 year old ascender able to beat a 5000 year old fighter of the same tier because the ascender has been training themselves against thing massively stronger then themselves while the fighter has been fighting at his own level. In order to match the ascender he would need to force himself to the same standard as a pather. Now since a lot of very talented people fall of the path by accident like the flowers in the tier 10 tournament who would probably push for a similar level of power even after falling off the path so there is probably a decent pool of people nearly on the level of an ascender who just don’t get the prestige.
M
FWIW I don't think they're supposed to be able to fight up tens of tiers. They're supposed to be able to fight the T31 Duke Waters while they themselves are T35. Currently they're T12, and beat the T11 main cast. They're just supposed to hit T35 in the next few centuries, with the motivation that if they stop advancing they die.
M
I think a lot of the complaints can be boiled down to 'too many failures in a row for supposed ascenders' — the General fight being a near-loss, BH getting away both in Taxing Skills and here, the A team fight. Even the end of the tournament, where they took near-defeats against "merely" the top 0.1% when ascenders are supposed to be unbeatable among the best of trillions. Having some scenes of perfect victory against similar impossible-for-anyone-else odds would be nice. I imagine a lot of that happens off-screen because we've seen it before, but it would be good to show periodically.
M
I liked the fight overall! I think it kept to the rule of differentiating ascenders vs. everyone else, even 'almost ascenders'. YM BH got stomped and lost limbs, but the A team (who are ascender-level too, AND were T12s) caused our cast to retreat. It didn't feel too risky to me, since nobody expected any other ascender candidates to be in this run (after all, we'd only expect a couple true ascenders per millennia or so). Even a 4v10 disadvantage against people at floor 6 shouldn't matter, since it's well established that no number of elites should come close to a real ascender. I do wish that 1) the feds had called out each others' names so the readers were clued in that this is the A team, and 2) that either M&L take fewer small injuries OR we see other ascenders like DW or L&S taking more injuries. Every time we've seen other ascenders in action they've been completely untouchable, which makes ours feel a bit bad by comparison.
Enzo Elacqua
I was under the impression Matt got some mana concentration potions, Liz got a tear or something, and I forget the rest
Haikaiko
I sincerely hope none of the runed soldiers make it out of Minkalla. Their creator seems arrogant enough to tell them to push through to floor 7 or die trying, and really the best message to send back would be "and none of them returned." Best way to stop research of this variety is for it to be an apparent abject failure, 0% success rate. They're supposed to be able to fight up tens of tiers, designed to attack T25s or greater. For a group of T11s-T14s to take out every group with no survivors, after that many expensive resources were dumped into making them, would prove it a folly. Even better if it's Minkalla itself that stops most of them (Folded Reflections + they're already fighting so far outside their real tier they have no means to grow further = they get whittled down by their own relentless clones), that way we don't have to suspend disbelief thinking T11s can defeat T25-killers. (Get lucky against the weakest of them, sure), but that's the interpretation when none make it back.
Jessica
Have a Happy Birthday and New Year!!!! Thank you for sharing with us!!!!
Christopher Johns
Then why DO you read it? What didn’t you like? What DID you like? Show your work.
Buzz1089
I loved this chapter! Thank you!
AjiTae
Well, they're fighting mincalla devlers who had about the same upgrades. If they cleanly crush everyone outside of Mincalla, then everything is fine. If the author turns on "auto leveling" and their enemies outside are just as strong - that would be really bad.
Ryan Romano
I thought the rune soldiers were built to use up all their potential before tier 15, to try and wipe out a generation of ascenders, but would flame out before tier 25? trading long term soldiers for the chance at hurting the other powers when they can't protect their ascenders
secretchicken
and yet, feels like he's the one who would grow the most from advancing a tier. either they start forming nascent intents, advance matt 1 tier, or 2 others 1 tier.
Dominic French
I hope the rune soldiers have some kind of downside. Hopefully they show more problems as they tier up, or people find out how they are doing it and copy it
Jamie Trevino
Good, they’ve been spending resources with no time to rest for a while now, this is the perfect time to use crafting to build some counter measures and safeties.
Adam Andersson
Aster freezing the fall general who was relatively stationary and distracted by a bunch of pathers and pather equivalents, while Aster was fully empowered by the queen of winter, yet still being unable to freeze a man a tier higher who is moving away from her at speed and focusing completely on continuing to move away from her at speed, does not seem so strange to me. I understand why you have an issue with it but to my mind the circumstances are different enough that it makes sense.
Robin Richards
For all that Minkalla was presented as something that will result in huge improvements everything has so far has seemed kind of lackluster. It feels more like Minkalla is going to be an excuse for leveling up the opposition. All of Matt's rewards have been ok. Liz, Susanna and Aster seemed to have got at least one that is better but I kind of expect that in the next 5 to 10 tiers we'll run into opponents who got far better, more synergistic rewards
Brendan Kiely
Are they ever going to use their rewards for getting first place? We've seen them use the rewards for winning the mini tournaments and spend their points, but not the big one for winning the whole thing, aside from Matt getting that prototype that didn't become a growth item and is thus useless. First place is usually taken by ascenders and is the Empire's only chance to give resources to their ascenders on the path. That was the whole point of the previous arc. Also, how is Minkalla not doing anything about the robe that is able to completely nullify [Cracked Mana Spear] repeatedly for free?
Phillip Hunsicker
I mostly liked the chapter. My only problem is Aster was able to freeze, maybe only for a second, but completely freeze a peak tier 14 with a concept and 75% of an intent, but was unable to freeze a tier 12? there is no way I believe that he is stronger then the fall general was. As for the rest of it, yes sometimes the enemies get lucky, like when he ran into the kill team which also tried to kill him. I'm glad to finally see Matt start using some of the benefits that he is getting from Minkalla like his winter boon and Concept power. I'm glad to see Matt starting to get better which hasn't been there really for awhile. If he is smart he will look into how to evolve his armor skill to be resistant to armor piercing effects as that is one of his biggest weaknesses right now. Either that or find another armor or skill that resists armor piercing I'm also glad to see him realize the importance of having a fast getaway. No one likes to retreat, but sometimes it is the option that allows you to gain more power and come back and win later
Draega
Matt’s Talent trivializes all the normal barriers to progression like rift access and money. And on top of that their relationship with the Emperor/Luna and Liz’s parents gives them the option of leaving the Path entirely and just being objectively better off for it. It just feels like they’re playing hard mode for no reason, especially with how important it is for Matt not to draw like any attention to himself. Minkalla on paper gives them access to things they can’t obtain elsewhere which is good, but so far those actual rewards feel lackluster. Maybe an innate skill slot makes it all worth it the end, but so far Liz flat out seems worse off then when she entered.
Valter Anunciação
Did not enjoy this chapter. Now at all what I read this series for.
Corwin
The problem with this line of thinking is that it means the sects can only ever have a few good ascenders. This doesn't match up with how powerful they are or how many people they send to Minkalla.
SilasDrekken
My thoughts while reading it were similar. It came off like those 1v4 fights in cheesy action movies where if you pay attention to the 4 during the fight, they’re just waiting for their turn to attack ineffectually or to get clobbered. The 4 are not fighting like you would in an actual 1v4, overwhelmingly with numbers and teamwork. That’s what came to mind for me. An example of good teamwork that people fighting together for decades would have is: Matt headshoting long z with his laz0r while he was frozen by aster. His robe was immobilized by ice and couldn’t protect him. Support immobilizing so the Attack can land the finisher is the most basic teamwork. They immobilized him a couple times in the fight but they were all attempts to stop him running, not to ensure a kill shot lands.
Drakken17
I know a few mentioned how it seem unfair that the young master blood hand has more items but the author did state that while all factions have an ascender program it is not all ran the same. The sects start off fighting each other and are thrown on training worlds with resources that they can steal from each other. Imagine if Matt and Liz could kill everyone in the top 10 and take their rewards for themselves. The empire drives home they are all working together so they usually don't see each other as enemies when they are all working to make the empire a better place. You don't see that with the sects. Remember they have bodyguards that are literally there to kill them young master if they don't take a challenge. They are always fighting with their lives on the line. This is really the first time Matt and co can face death from other delvers and not rift monsters.
yannick schwende
I think it might be better for one or two of them to advance to tier 12. Sure the flexible innate Skillslot is great, but the one who most needs it out of them all is Matt. So I think he should not advance, the others though?
C_Mantis
how is it a trap? Like i dont get that. BloodHand and the fed team didnt plan this out.
Starfall20
It’s weird they are fighting like champions not like a team. They don’t have any abilities that stack make each other better in battle. No combo attacks, no using intents or skills to boost each other or to prep the field for each other. Matt doesn’t have bleed skills, or frost skills barring hail which he uses for himself not for aster. It’s like they fight together but not as a team.
Gabriel
Nah, because full implications of what's been written isn't something that will be seriously taken into account. This is useful as a plot device to be thrown away later. It's so frustrating when authors do this, "hey things feel to easy so I do to find something that adds more danger even though the actual implications of such a thing are going to be completely ignored and this will turn into a very clear fiat plot device."
Gabriel
This feels forced and that you just wanted them to be at a bigger disadvantage so you rigged them for falling into an obvious trap. If you want to put your characters at more risk(pointless because plot armour) please make it more believable for the characters and situation.
WierdWebLurker
Never forget, the Sects are every Xianxia trope rolled up into one, especially the “Young Master swears revenge and comes back to kill you at the worst possible moment” trope. Taking him out at that point was sensible, though they absolutely should have been on the lookout for the ten-man death squads.
Chuck K
Have a Happy Birthday and New Years!
Matt H
So once again the squads of super soldiers from The Federation, which can be semi-mass produced, are shown to be superior to the exceptionally rare Ascenders, huh? That, or Matt, Liz, Aster, and Susanne aren't actually Ascender-level. Guess The Federation will be the number one Great Power in short order then.
Violet
Having to fight Long Zhiyuan and the A Squad back to back is the worst day. Matt definitely needs new tools to handle hard tanks. And a mouthguard. There's a loot idea for you. A high-tier mouthguard, otherwise Matt's gonna end up with an Intent of "Endlessly regrowing my teeth".
Firinen
And again and again they seek out completely unnecessary fights. Because of "enmity". They just blindly ran after him not caring about a trap. They already were on healing cooldowns and still chose to face one of the strongest in Minkalla. Absolutely stupid. 'End of me raving and sarcasm.' Thank you for the chapter. Happy New Year.
Liveyourlifeinpeace
A great chapter as usual. Have a nice break and a Happy New Year!
AH
Have a nice break, and Happy New Year! See you in 2023!
C_Mantis
So long, yo ho!
yannick schwende
Happy holidays everyone, thank you for the awesome chapter and see you next year 😉
Brittholomew
Kinda. But I do set my calendar to this.
Kacoo
So, I set my watch to this. That's not weird right?
