《Reborn: Last Chance to Ascend》24. Deadly Duel
Advertisement
When I looked around, I could see that most of the windows were already firmly shut. And all of the regular folk vanished out of the streets. The only sound that was made came out of the two groups facing each other. One of the groups consisted of the firmly organized ranks of soldiers equipped with chainmail. There was around a hundred of them. Few of them were wearing plate armours and white capes. Their weapons were shining in the darkness created by dark rain clouds covering the sky. But the most eye-catching was a figure wearing intricately decorated armour emitting a faint aura of light. There was also a bunch of people wearing miscellaneous equipment. Some of them even had magical staff. On the other end of the cathedral, the square was a menacing group wearing black cloaks with black chainmail under them. They were all masked and hooded, so I couldn't see their faces. Behind them was a horde of the growling undead.
'I can't see the bastards that killed my wolves. They are probably hiding together with a bishop or whatever is a title of that old Sulivan. I guess it's for the best as there is a smaller chance of them dying painlessly.' I thought while looking at both groups from the top of the roof.
One of the masked figures came to the front of the group and took off his mask and hood. His blonde hair shivered in the wind as he started to speak in a loud and clear voice. "We were shunned upon for a long time, but it will change this night. We will be as merciless as they were towards us. We will slaughter all of these that are affiliated with the church."
A shining man in ornate armour looked around himself until his gaze stopped at my location. "You are mine. I will show you the mercy of our gods." The brightness of his sword increased, "[Path of Light]", he turned into light before reforming in front of me.
Advertisement
I dispelled my [Camuflage] before casting a [Flame Cloak] and [Ice Armour]. Then I blinked further away from him, and a small sphere of plasma gathered at the tip of my staff. It flew towards a paladin who formed a barrier of pure, holy light around him. Plasma and barrier met in an explosion of energy. The roof under us melted and collapsed. A crack appeared on a barrier as a paladin counterattacked with a series of swings. Each time he swung his sword, a massive wave of light came out of it and flew towards me. Worlds warped as I blinked to another roof. Paladin followed me with his [Path of Light]. In the brief moment, I had a leeway. I saw a battle on the square also erupted, with spells flying between the sides and skeletons clashing with an infantry. I refocused on my own battle as paladin swung his blade on me after appearing right in front of me but was blocked by my barrier. I quickly back stepped, accelerating myself with a [Wind Dash].
"You can only avoid your punishment for a few moments, but it will eventually catch you." Paladin kept blurting one cliche sounding phrase after another.
Not responding to him, I fired a dense purple beam on him. Probably expecting the same beam as in our last time he didn't use his barrier but tried to block it with his blade. At the moment when a blade met with a beam explosion of heat, light and death knocked him away. Parts of his armour melted under intense heat, but no signs of pain appeared on him, even as his visor on a helmet melted and showed his burned face. But my beam still didn't stop. It even intensified. His armour melted even more, but it stopped melting when he activated skill, "[Path of Light]", he again disappeared in a trial of light before appearing right next to me, where he released a whirl blade swings, chipping away my barrier. Each of his swings released massive bone-breaking shockwaves, tearing tiles from the roof. I immediately moved further away, but he kept pressing on me with his attack, not giving me any space or leeway. I started to sweat as my barrier dropped to fifty percents. World warped as I blinked further away, but he again appeared right next to me with his [Path of Light]. The world around me slowed a little bit as my [Fast Thinking] probably levelled up. I created a wall made out of stone in front of me. Almost instantly glowing sword cut through the wall, and cracks filled with a light spread through it before shattering the whole wall.
Advertisement
'Only way out of this that I can think of is pretty dangerous, but I have to do that. '
I stopped and my concretion fully focuses on casting a [Empovered Death-Infused Plasmabomb]. A massive sphere of plasma started to form half a meter above my head as a paladin kept slashing on my barrier. Cracks already appeared on it, and only a few moments later, it shattered with the sound of breaking glass. His sword continued as it cut through my protective spells and armour, digging into my collarbone. Blood poured out and my HP decreased by a great portion. Holy energy filled my body but it had no negative effect on me. Still, I suppressed pain and smiled as I finished my spell before nimbly backstepping. Paladin was too focused on his offensive to notice a sphere of plasma levitating in the air as he moved forward to keep his pressure on me. Suddenly his face twisted in horror as he noticed a massive concentration of magic above his new position, but it was too late as the sphere dropped on him. A massive explosion appeared, turning the whole building into a pond of melted stone, as I blinked at the last moment out of explosion range.
Ding!
System Announcement
You killed LV 34 [Human Paladin]
You obtained 745 XP (modifier from titles: 1.5X)
You obtained 2100 CE
You are now level 25
The level of your passive class skill [Increased Elemental Damage] increased to 2
Level of [Photomancy] increased to 3
You learned the spell [Light Lance I] as a reward for reaching level 3 of [Photomancy]
Level of [Fast Thinking] increased to 4
Level of [Wind Dash] increased to 2
'This was harder than I originally thought it would. But, at least I got insights on what I need to improve. All of my strong spells are damaging ones. I need to create some defensive ones to combine with a barrier. Also, some spell with a knockback to have the option for making a space would be good too. Also, a strong damaging spell without explosion that I can use in close range is needed too.
At first, I was weirded by that no one interfered with our fight, but when I noticed chaos dawn on the battlefield, I knew that everyone was too occupied to even think about leaving to join another fight. I looked at my wound that had already closed.
'It is time to join the main battle.' my mouth was literarily salivating at the thought of XP I would gain from a battle.
Advertisement
Legend of the Spellthief
Logan Hall, a simple family man and office worker, was abducted from Earth and thrust into the fantastical world of Avanar. Lost deep in the wilderness, he quickly finds that fantasy is fraught with danger: fangs, claws, and magic. Gifted with the power of the unique class, Spellthief, which allows him to absorb spells cast against him and cast them back at his foes, he swiftly learns to fight back, trampling his way into safer civilization. Shunned by adventurers, who see spellcasters like him as poor party members, Logan finds few allies, but his progress does not go unnoticed. As he gathers the personal strength to fend off wolves and goblins, he also attracts the attention of evil magi, eager to steal his powers. While he scrambles to find a way back home, will he even muster the will to do so? Or will he be seduced by the power of magic? Chapters have an average of 3,500~ words. New chapters every Friday at 6pm GMT. This work is only posted on Royal Road. Cover image by JiiBee.
8.18 715Curse of the Lycan
Twenty-year-old Katrina Monich is a scholar studying abroad far from her home in Cape Cod, South Africa. After an ominous meeting with a man at three in the morning, a strange domino effect seems to fall into place. From her content two years in Maryland to an unknown desolate land only miles away, Katrina feels as though things are not as they seem. If only she knew how right she was.
8 110Not Quite What You Meant (Short Story Collection)
My shorts and prompt responses from across the internet, gathered here into one convenient bundle. Quality, genre, and rating will vary. (This collection only includes original content. Fanfiction prompt responses and shorts can be found in my Not Quite What You Meant collection over on fanfiction.net.)
8 113Monster Girl versus the Multiverse (Isekai)
Akumi Fuji is the world's greatest Dungeons & Drakes Online player—and she's in trouble! She's been isekai'd into the Multiverse, a video game-like network of universes based on fiction genres, from High Fantasy to Cyberpunk to Space Opera. What's worse, it's in the middle of a civil war. The United Worlds, a federation of imperialistic demihumans, is fighting the League of Monsters, an alliance of xenophobic monsters. Now, Akumi is going to have to use her newfound ability to turn into monster girls, from a sneaky goblin girl to a ferocious werewolf girl to an invincible dragon girl, if she wants to survive, make allies, and eventually rule in this strange new world. Oh, and did I mention she has to eat a monster before she can turn into its monster girl type? Talk about a bad roll! This isn't your typical isekai, this isn't your typical litRPG, and this isn't your typical system web novel. This is as weird as it gets. This is Monster Girl versus the Multiverse! Author's Note: Chapters will be released on Sundays, GMT. If you like anime, comic books, video games, and tabletop role-playing games—especially Dungeons & Dragons—you'll like this. It's going to be one of those long web novels with 100+ chapters, deep lore, and a huge cast of colourful characters. The story will eventually turn into an epic quest across the Multiverse in the same vein as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
8 86My Parents are Gay
Just a cute lil story about Ironstrange trying to raise lil Spidey in the safest, non-dangerous way. A happy lil family. Fluff and slight nsfw. So be careful.
8 196Dungeon Crawler Katia
The aliens killed everyone on Earth...almost. Every structure, from the Taj Mahal to the lowliest lobster trap, vanished into the earth, killing everyone inside. The survivors were given a choice: Endure on the surface without food or shelter or tools, or descend into a world-spanning nightmare dungeon that is also a reality TV show. Katia, an art professor from Iceland who has given up her humanity to transform into a shapeshifting doppelganger, meets up with Carl and his cat, Donut. Together, the three fight to survive in a dungeon filled with Clarketech goblin murderdozers and pyramid-scheme fairy moonshine-makers. The above is, of course, describing Dungeon Crawler Carl. With DoctorHepa's (the author) permission I'm posting some fanfic to expand on Katia, one of the secondary characters who started off not getting as much exploration as I would have preferred. I started off writing chapters that matched up to canon except from her POV instead of Carl's; that lasted a couple of chapters before going off the rails and spinning off into a completely new story, which suggests I should really go back and renumber all the chapters as soon as I find some tuits.
8 123