Implode ~ 18!

It wasn't too terribly long before they found the first enemies along their path. The small group of cat-like creatures made Joe think nervously about Queen Cleocatra, although these were definitely monstrous Lynx. While they may have been as intelligent as normal cats, they certainly were not a shape-shifting race of hidden beings. He didn't even need to ask; Cleave simply announced what they were up against.

“I don't remember the name of these things, but I know what they do. These are another type of Threshold monster, which is a Dexterity disparity to Strength.” Cleave cracked her neck and limbered up her axe. “Expect them to be fast and hard to hit, but easy to kill when you do! The damage they do mostly inflicts debuffs, so watch out for bleeding. Joe, do your best to keep on top of that.”

“Too easy.” The Ritualist calmly tossed his orbs in the air and set them to moving in randomized patterns so that he could have a clear shot at any enemies that got past the front line, currently consisting of the Dwarf and Chiropractor. Daniella was standing next to Joe, perhaps a couple of inches behind him, and shifted into a ready stance.

“If I throw them off the path, do they stay out, or can they come back?” she questioned Cleave.

The Dwarf sliced the first of the monsters in half with an easy backhand before she managed to reply. “If someone or something is off the path, they are off for a long time. Creatures like this are allowed to re-enter at a lower area, but it will take them a fair bit of work to get back to us. If you toss them away, expect that they are out of combat. Unless they can fly. Pretty sure these can't fly.”

“Between my own Perception and Dexterity, I have a pretty good feeling about this fight,” Daniella stated confidently to Joe, and he nodded along while pretending not to notice the trickle of nervous sweat dripping down her right temple. His Neutrality Aura caused it to summarily vanish and would have made him doubt his own eyes if he hadn't seen it so clearly.

“I'm always nervous during fights, but at least I have a barrier. It's pretty impressive that you’re just standing here, no weapon in hand, no magical defenses, ready to take on the world. You're pretty cool.” His casual compliment made her blush slightly, and she turned her head away to avoid meeting his eyes. Instead of dwelling on the odd response, Joe studied the cats that were swarming their front line, and decided to get involved. “Cone of Cold!”

The blast of Arctic air swept over the kitties from the side, dealing a little less than their standard damage. He wasn’t terribly surprised, as they were thickly furred and likely adapted to the cold environment. He found more luck with sending in his Ritual Orb of Strength, managing to smack one of the animals in the side of the head hard enough to send it sliding off the path, where it promptly vanished as if it had never been. “Great call on throwing them away, Daniella!”

“Son of the abyss, that stings!” Major Cleave had taken a paw swipe to the face, shaving off the tip of her mustache and opening a wide laceration on her left cheek. “You overgrown pests, be happy I don't have time to waste on you!”

She turned to the side, putting all of her force behind her metal-clad foot and punting the animal that had sliced her out into the open air next to the mountain. It yowled its rage as it flew, vanishing without a trace as soon as its head crossed the boundary of the enchanted path. Jaxon turned toward her, catching one of the animals midair as it tried to leave a matching slice on the Dwarf's other cheek. “A long time ago, I found the best way to skin a cat! Would you like me to keep a few for the road?”

Daniella stepped forward and grabbed the Lynx, tossing it over the edge without waiting to hear Major Cleave’s reply. “Either slay them or just get rid of them. Please don't make strange plans that a normal person would get squeamish about.”

“But I wanted a new set of boots!” Jaxon wailed as his hands darted at another pair of incoming monsters. “I need another pair. I've gotten a great amount of mileage out of these custom baby seal leather boots, but they are starting to get a little worn! Obviously, I need to throw them away immediately.”

Even Joe stuttered to a stop at that line, frowning down at the cloth wrappings that kept Jaxon's feet protected. He breathed a sigh of relief. “I'm going to go ahead and chalk that one up to a Charisma-based filter that made us hear something really… yeah, I think we can go ahead and ignore what he just said. Dark Lightning Strike!”

The timely spell landed just as a dozen more of the beasts joined the growing clowder, managing to stun a large number of them, which in turn kept the vast majority alive as they were swept to the side instead of forcing the group to take the time to slay each one. There were a few inevitable casualties, as monsters did not back down or run away. Even so, within five minutes of combat starting, the group was able to start picking up the pace once more.

Experience gained: 715

“Is anyone else surprised at how much experience these creatures are worth?” Joe wasn't complaining, but normally his experience bar barely budged from defeating individual monsters.

“Those were a base level of level twenty-three each. If I was not here, you would have been in serious trouble,” Major Cleave informed him sternly. “Remember that this path is meant for people that are on their way to seek high-tier magical skills. That means that they must have completed their stint in the Legion in order to go and pursue their own goals in life.”

That made sense to him, so he stopped asking questions. Clearly someone that had served the entire stint of time required in an active war world was going to have the combat prowess necessary to scoot a few kittens out of their way. Combat continued in a similar manner for the rest of their journey, all the way until they reached the portion of the path that was supposed to represent the first steps as an Expert.

Having taken the time to sleep the night before, they had no need to reduce their speed, pause at a rest area, or even fight monsters if they were too slow to keep up. A small issue was that walking side-by-side was becoming treacherous, with the path too narrow to safely traverse two by two. The Dwarven guide took the lead once more, and the rest followed in single file.

Those factors made it seem strange to Joe that, only a half an hour of travel later, the path widened out once more into a comfortably large area. Or, in his mind, he considered it an uncomfortably open space. “I don't like the look of this; why would there be so much space if we weren't going to need it in the next few minutes?”

“Yeah, sometimes the random encounters in your path just aren't enough, so they make sure to put in a few places to test your resolve.” Major Cleave kept her head on a swivel, but no matter where they looked, there was no sign of a monster waiting for them. That made Joe even more suspicious, and he decided to send his Ritual Orbs forward to test the snow ahead of them.

“I hear a sound…” The Ritualist knew what it was, a manifestation of his Hidden Sense skill. The only question was, what was it that was hiding from him? “It's got to be something in here, so can we all please stay back for a moment while I try this out?”

The icicle-shaped orb darted into various snowdrifts, while his strength-bound weapon bounced across the ground at set intervals. As the blunt weapon came down for the third time, it impacted with a terrible *crack*. The entire path began to crumble, slowly shifting and slumping into open air on the side of the mountain. Major Cleave gaped in horror, one hand reaching out as if to grab what was being lost. “You destroyed the path! Why would you cause an avalanche here?”

“It wasn't the path. Look.” Joe gestured to the ground that was falling away, over half of the open area that they had been about to step into. “That was a thin ice shelf, something that only looked like the path. If we would have tried to cross, not only would we have been booted from continuing to advance, but we would have been caught in an avalanche and likely crushed, or at least taking a severe amount of terrain damage.”

Jaxon waved his hand in the air like a schoolboy, “Oh, I know! I know! This was to show that while some people continue on the path to Mastery, other people take the incorrect path, falling through the thin ice that they were trying to-”

“No, stop it. That's not supposed to be here.” Major Cleave twirled her weapon nervously. “Anyone can step off of the path at any time, but no Dwarf would intentionally offer someone the wrong path. This reeks of Elves.”

“How could there possibly be Elves here?” Joe rubbed at his head in annoyance. “Let's go over the facts. We are in the center of the Dwarves’ seat of power. We are about as far from the border as you can get. We are on an enchanted mountain that has hundreds, if not thousands, of devices meant to keep this place hidden.”

The Dwarf ignored his logic, as she had more information about this subject than he could bring to bear. “They must be setting up their attuners already… I thought we would have more time. The issue that we are running into right now, humans, is the fact that the Elves have won. With most of our population moving away from rural areas, including major and minor forts, into the more well-protected cities, the Elven infiltrators must have started working to change the flow of mana in the Zone.”

Joe wanted to roll his eyes and call it a conspiracy theory, but there was an easy way to check if the power flowing in the world around them was changing somehow. He sent a Ritual Orb floating out of his bandolier to hover over his hand, specifically the one bound with Essence Cycle. “Slap this out of my hand in a few seconds, would you?”

“What did he say?”

Having expected that he would be heard properly, Joe had already cut connection to the orb, and it dropped into his hand. Before he could curse at the fact that he should have spoken up, the way he saw the world shifted into a spectrum of energy normally invisible to the naked eye.

“Abyss.”