Chapter 792: Ascending The Leaderboards [I]

The metallic tang of crushed venom ferns hung thick over the rim of the sinkhole, rolling up on warm drafts that smelled of stagnant swamp water, sap and rotting dirt.

Down inside the hollow, the old cave collapse had left a natural bowl of damp stone ledges stepping down toward the bottom.

The fleshy spore pods hissed in low slow waves, puffing out clouds of pale green spores into the murky air.

Under the crimson ferns, the monsters shifted through the mud with a dry steady clatter, like hundreds of wooden knives sliding across a chopping board.

Standing at the top of the ridge, Ther’Abella drove the end of her starlight staff into the dirt with a sharp ringing thud.

THUMP!

The silver constellation marks on her cheekbones flared with cold light as her icy blue eyes swept over the hollow.

"Form up! Check your straps and get your blades ready!" Ther’Abella commanded, her voice cutting through the humid mist. "Don’t let the size of this nest scare you! A slow monster dies just as easily as a fast one if you hit it right!"

She turned halfway toward the line, her silver hair whipping across her shoulder.

"And remember why we’re here!" she went on, her eyes lingering on Aki’s girls. "Killing monsters is the only way this territory’s going to climb the Leaderboards... Every single one of these things we put down means we survive! Their meat goes on our drying racks, and their hides and quills go to our new smiths for weapons and armor! We take everything! Not one of these things leaves this hollow alive!"

"Yes, ma’am!" the front line answered, their voices blending into a sharp disciplined shout that set the jungle leaves shivering.

The five new Shieldmaidens moved into position right away, their boots digging into the damp ground.

The polished steel rims of their new Blessed Land shields rose together into a solid overlapping wall of dark metal, and they drew their swords together with a ringing hiss.

SHIIING!

They slotted cleanly into the second line behind Ther’Abella and Aki, their faces grim and focused.

On the right side, Elowynn stepped forward with long predatory strides.

Her tall curvy body moved with smooth flowing grace as she rolled her shoulders, and she passed behind Aki with her amethyst eyes flashing with eager dangerous amusement.

She took up a spot right at the front edge of the slope and left her cutlasses resting in their sheaths at her hips.

’Look at all of them,’ Elowynn thought, her tongue darting out to wet her lower lip as she stared down at the thick clusters of crawling monsters. ’So many of them packed into that muddy hole... If I can light this whole pit up before anyone else even swings a blade, his eyes are going to be glued to me. He probably thinks I’m just the girl who leans on his shoulder... I’ll show him what real fire looks like.’

Standing five paces back on the rim, Silas watched them get into position with calm eyes.

Beside him, the Blessed Land girls were practically vibrating with energy.

Lupina was crouched low on the balls of her feet with her wolf ears pinned flat, and the three-inch steel claws on her gauntlets kept clicking together in an impatient twitch.

Morrighan stood broad and still, her molten gold eyes locked on the biggest thorn-crawler below, while her spade-tipped tail cracked sharply against the damp ground behind her calves.

...Even Rowenna was lazily tracing a rune in the air with one fingertip and humming softly under her breath.

Silas turned his head, and a warm knowing grin spread across his face as he looked over his girls.

"Take it easy today, girls," Silas chuckled, his deep voice easy and teasing. "Remember why we came out here... This is Aki’s raid, Don’t show off too much. You aren’t meant to overdo it and turn this whole hollow into glass in three seconds."

At his right side, Aurelia stepped forward with a soft rustle of her white robes.

The Saintess folded her delicate hands over the silver medallion resting against her chest.

Her lips curved into a breathtaking radiant smile that looked completely innocent, but deep in her golden-amber eyes, bright swirls of argent flame flared to life with terrifying intensity.

"Well..." Aurelia murmured, her voice like honey poured over cold steel as the flames danced across her eyes. "No promises, my Lord."

Silas let out a rich laugh and shook his head at the gentle bloodlust coming off his healer.

"Tell you what," Silas added, leaning forward a little as his dark blue eyes sparked with mischief. "Let’s make it interesting. Whoever kills the most out there today will probably get a very special reward from me."

The reaction was instant.

Lupina’s ears shot straight up, and her tail wagged so violently it kicked up a spray of shredded moss.

"A reward from Lord Silas?!" Lupina barked with a fanged grin, scraping her claws together in a shower of sparks. "You’re on! I’m going to rip through fifty of these overgrown weeds before the Saintess can even finish praying!"

Morrighan’s carved-stone expression didn’t change at all, but the air around her boots grew hotter, and small wisps of black smoke started curling up from the soles of her boots as her eyes flared molten gold.

"Wait, hold on!" Kaelia’s panicked voice squeaked from behind his left elbow.

The chef tugged frantically on the dark fur of Silas’s mantle, her eyes round and watering with desperate protest.

"That’s so unfair, Lord Silas!" Kaelia cried, waving her wooden tasting spoon in the air like a tiny flag of rebellion. "How are we supposed to win a reward when we can’t even throw a fireball?! Am I supposed to run down into that pit and hit a giant thorn-crawler with a soup ladle?! Solenne and I are going to be left out completely!"

"She’s right, my Lord," Solenne agreed, her musical voice carrying a soft pout that wasn’t convincing at all.

Her nine silver tails flared out around her hips in a wide shimmering fan, the fluffy tips twitching in a big dramatic display of sorrow.

"Dangling a reward like that in front of us when you know my fingers are made for springs and gears and not for killing things... It breaks my poor little heart, Lord Silas."

Silas chuckled warmly and turned around to face the two of them.

Without a word of argument, he gently caught Kaelia by the elbow with one hand and wrapped his other arm around Solenne’s waist, then guided them three paces up the slope toward a wide flat boulder that looked out over the whole hollow.

The rock was dry and cushioned with moss, and there wasn’t a vine anywhere near it.

It gave them a clear view of the entire fight below while keeping them thirty feet above the nearest monster.

Silas gave Kaelia’s apron strap a gentle tug and lightly smoothed the fur of Solenne’s nearest tail, his eyes crinkling with affection.

"You two don’t need to swing a sword to get on my good side, and you know it," Silas said, his voice low and warm and teasing. "You’re special. While everyone else gets covered in guts and green sap down in the mud, you two get the best seats in the house, completely safe, and you get to watch the whole show... Now sit tight, keep your eyes open and enjoy it."

Kaelia’s face flushed a bright flustered pink as she settled down onto the boulder, hugging her knees and biting her lip in quiet starry-eyed embarrassment.

Beside her, Solenne’s nine tails swished around the rock in a plush cushion, and a purr rumbled deep in her throat as her ears twitched toward the hollow.

Silas stepped back up to the front edge of the ridge and rested his hand easily on the pommel of his longsword.

Behind him, Kaelia had both hands pressed over her mouth, and Solenne’s tails had curled up around the chef’s shoulders like a fluffy blanket.

Down below, the line stood ready at the edge.

Aki stood dead center at the front, the steel plates of her breastplate gleaming in a shaft of amber sunlight breaking through the leaves.

She drew in a slow deliberate breath through her nose and planted her feet wide on the damp slope. Her slender fingers curled into tight armored fists, and her posture stiffened as her mana began to hum through her limbs.

’He’s standing right behind me...’ Aki thought, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. ’He’s watching me. He upgraded my walls and he brought his strongest girls out here to watch over me... I have to impress him... I can’t look like some helpless princess hiding behind him. I’m going to show him that Aki’s Wonderland has teeth!’

Down at the muddy bottom of the hollow, the wind shifted and carried the smell of steel and fresh sweat down to them.

The swollen spore pods clenched violently.

HISSSSSS!

Dozens of thorn-crawlers snapped their heads toward the ridge, their milky yellow eyes narrowing.

With a string of wet chittering shrieks, the swarm surged into motion.

The slender six-legged monsters came bounding up over the slick stone ledges, their bark-covered bodies scraping and their wooden quills rattling like dry bones as they charged straight up the slope.

Behind them, the big vine-spitters uncoiled their fleshy pulsing stalks, and their swollen petal mouths yawned open to show glistening sacs of corrosive green bile.

Aki didn’t hesitate for a heartbeat.

She thrust her armored right fist toward the charging swarm, and her clear voice rang across the whole hollow.

"Aki’s Wonderland!" Aki shouted, her azure eyes burning. "Charge!"

"With me!" Ther’Abella roared, shooting forward out of the line.

The silver-haired elf was a blur of pure speed.

Her boots barely touched the slick moss as she sprinted down the rocky ledges with her starlight staff spinning in a blinding silver wheel that hissed through the damp air.

Aki surged forward a split second later, keeping pace right beside her.

Her long blue hair streamed out behind her like a banner as she dropped into a low predatory crouch.

...The two of them hit the front of the swarm together.

Ther’Abella’s staff came down on the first crawler’s skull like a falling hammer and burst it apart in a spray of bark, and she used the rebound to whip the other end around into the next one’s jaw.

Aki ducked under a lunging pair of mandibles, came up inside its reach and drove her knee straight up into its throat, then grabbed it by the quills and threw its whole body into the two crawlers charging behind it.

THWACK! KRUNCH! WHAM!

The three crawlers went tumbling back down the ledge in a tangled ball of legs, and Ther’Abella flicked out a thin crescent of starlight that cut all three of them apart before they hit the bottom.

Over on the far right, Elowynn didn’t run for the middle.

The tall curvy redhead bounded sideways instead, her long legs carrying her across the stone shelves in big sweeping leaps until she had the high ground over the western side of the horde.

She stopped at the edge of a five-foot drop and planted her boots firmly against the rock but she didn’t reach for her cutlasses.

A wicked confident smirk curled her lips, her amethyst eyes flashing with dangerous fiery light, and she raised her hand.

Elowynn snapped her fingers.

SNAP!

A tiny bright orange spark the size of a pea popped into existence out of thin air and whistled across the twenty paces between her and the charging monsters.

It flew straight into the open mouth of a lunging thorn-crawler.

BOOOOM!

The tiny spark blew up like a cannon shell.

A blinding dome of orange fire ripped outward, blew the crawler’s head into smoking splinters and threw the four monsters around it into the air like ragdolls.

Before the pieces could even hit the mud, Elowynn’s fingers were already moving again.

She snapped them again and again.

SNAP! BOOM! SNAP! BOOM! SNAP! BOOM!

A rapid string of blinding blasts tore through the western ledges one after another.

Every snap of her fingers sent another unstable spark of white-hot flame whistling forward, and every one of them blew up the second it touched monster flesh, turning the whole charging line of thorn-crawlers into a chain of fiery explosions.

"Hehehehahahahahaahah~"

Bark shattered into burning kindling, broken quills whistled through the leaves like shrapnel, and the thick undergrowth disappeared into a swirling storm of crackling orange heat.

Up on the ridge, Silas blinked in honest surprise.

A string of pale golden windows flashed across his vision one after another.

DING! DING! DING!

[Hostile eliminated.]

[Hostile eliminated.]

[Hostile eliminated.]

[UP acquired.]

Silas rubbed his chin as he watched the tall redhead leap gracefully across another ledge, her fingers snapping in an easy rhythm while explosions bloomed behind her.

’Hm, what a neat trick...’ Silas thought, thoroughly impressed. ’She isn’t wasting anything on big flashy fire. She’s just throwing tiny sparks that blow up the second they touch something... It costs her next to nothing, it hits hard, and it’s practically instant. That girl really knows how to handle fire.’

But all that fire came with a cost.