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Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirteen
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 17:00:20 +0000 UTCThe attack worked, though not quite in the way she had fully intended, as a massive cluster of vines exploded from the ground under her feet, Beth teleporting away at the last second. Still, it had caused whatever was in the woods to move, and she finally saw it, a being that looked like an old, scraggly bush transformed into a humanoid shape. It was coated in leaves and had twigs randomly sticking out all over its body, plus it had a series of thick vines interwoven between the 'branches' that made up most of its form. Beth could see something that was very much a face at the top on what would be the head, with two beady little eyes and a wicked mouth formed from thick vines with hooked thorns for teeth.
That was all the time she had to observe it, however, as the being shot lances of wood, looking like thick branches with thorns along their length, towards her from its body. They moved at an incredible speed, so much so that she had to teleport several times with Spatial Step to dodge the attacks, taking a quick glance behind her to see the massive furrows the branches carved in the ground. She might have thought she was out of her weight class, and she certainly would have thought that before her last rebirth, but she wasn't quite so sure anymore. The only way to find out would be to engage directly, fighting whatever this was to a standstill. She was also pretty sure what she was against, but she would need to make absolutely sure.
'I think I'm fighting one of the monsters. Finish up over there and get over here,' Beth sent to Sera and Blood as she twisted in the air to dodge another attack, closing the line immediately.
She walked forward, using Spatial Step to teleport repeatedly, rapidly closing with the monster. Unlike a beast, it was very clear that her opponent understood her intentions, the creature moving back and to the side, pushing off the ground repeatedly to rapidly retreat. Beth stopped messing around after a few teleports and teleported directly next to the monster, revealing that her range was a lot farther than she had been letting on so far. The monster reacted instantly, thorny vines the thickness of Beth's wrist exploding from its body in every direction. Instead of teleport again, Beth punch forward, Spatial Obliteration destroying the vines headed for her torso and head.
The monster reacted by having vines explode out of the ground again, likely banking on the fact that attacking downward was a foreign concept for many. Beth dealt with this in a new way, trying something out for the first time, stomping her right foot and directing Spatial Obliteration out through her sole and into the ground, or the vines under her, in this case. The skill was strong enough to counter the vines of the monster, which really surprised it greatly, as even its basic face could express surprise in a way that Beth could easily interpret.
The attacks continued, an overwhelming number of vines bursting from the ground, from the surrounding terrain, and from the body of the monster. Beth spun and twirled, firing off attacks in every direction before taking two steps, teleporting with each, swinging her fist at the monster's face. The creature reacted extremely quickly, sliding out of the way of the strike and shooting vines into her face in response. Beth flicked each of her fingers on her left hand, sending out shattering force with each flick that weakened and broke vines, destroying them all before they could hit her while using up less mana. She was trying to find ways to be more efficient, understanding that this was likely not going to be a quick fight. Not after she scanned the monster.
Corrupted Thornling Treant, Fallen of the Forest, Bane of the Wood, Death of all Beasts…
Honestly, Beth realized the middle part was its titles, which it wasn't hiding, and so she skipped to the end.
Level 320[16] Vine of Slaughter
Okay, sixteen rebirths, and it was a Vine of Slaughter, which couldn't be good. It certainly used enough vine attacks to be deserving of the name, even if it wasn't exactly slaughtering her at the moment. It was, fortunately, not a higher level, though she wasn't sure if levels worked entirely the same for monsters. It also didn't matter quite as much with that many rebirths, as its stats at level three hundred twenty would be quite high, and that was even considering monsters didn't have some way to do True Rebirths. She really doubted something that was not really even fully, one hundred percent sapient was all that concerned with getting the most out of its rebirths, but that didn't mean she could just dismiss the amount of power it would have from carry-over stats.
Luckily for her, while it was fast, and had what really felt like inexhaustible mana, it wasn't all that strong, and it was a lousy shot. Well, that wasn't fully accurate, it was more like it didn't really ever…learn? It tried many of the same attacks, made in the same way, with the same skills, multiple times, often multiple times in a row. Beth was wary for the hook, the trick, the time when it turned while she was reacting a certain way and did something new to catch her out, but she didn't encounter it. She guessed that it might be a byproduct of the thing not really being fully sapient yet, just running off its instincts some of the time, as it was having trouble with the kind of higher thinking or abstract problem solving that a sapient being would be engaged in to corner her.
It was good for her, though, as it let her stay one step ahead of the monster, dodging or destroying all its attacks as she fought to find an opening. The thing was just so fast and generated so much cruft with all its vine and branch attacks, that she was having a lot of trouble finding any way or place to get in on it. Every time she teleported near it, it would slide away, using vines and roots to help boost its movement speed, always lashing out with vines or shot branches as a return attack. She had to try something else and, while she didn't really like the idea, she decided to switch to engaging in a ranged battle.
She started darting around, firing out Celestial Annihilations from different angles and positions, trying to vaporize through the cover the monster threw up and hit its body. It was a frustrating thing, trying to destroy the vines and branches the creature created faster than it was making them with only one skill, and she realized quickly that it just wasn't going to work. She could sit here all day, firing out beams of annihilating energy just as fast as she could punch and kick, and she wouldn't make any progress through the attacks and defenses that the monster was putting up.
So, she changed it up again, alternating in a pattern of moving close, attacking, moving further out, attacking, moving close, and so on and so forth. This strategy was a bit better, as the monster was confused by her position changes, and she suspected it just wasn't able to process a being that would retreat to attack. She got the feeling that it was all about overwhelming offense, so stepping back once a fight had started to fire out an attack or gain a positional advantage likely wasn't something it could really understand and process.
It could understand threat, and it could understand danger, as when Beth finally got a hit in, the whole fight shifted. The monster, whether it had been playing, or it didn't understand to take a dangerous opponent seriously from the start, now used moves and skills that Beth hadn't yet seen. It started with waves of thorns, firing out hundreds of thousands of the finger-sized projectiles at once, spamming more than anything Beth had ever seen. At the same time as the projectiles were flying so thick they were forming walls in the air, the monster started shattering the ground around the area, disrupting the terrain in an effort to make it harder for her to maneuver. That wasn't all it was doing, however, as it was destroying the terrain by growing slower, thicker, more powerful vines from every nook and cranny it could access. These vines weren't fast enough to strike Beth, but they took more than one hit of her skill to destroy, and they started boxing her in.
On top of all of that, the monster grew in size until it was almost three times as tall and broad as Beth before joining in itself. Now, here is where it made a rather bad mistake, the first truly bad error of the fight, because it found itself very quickly on the back foot. Despite its size, and despite its current level and number of rebirths, it did not have the raw power, the overwhelming physicality, to stand up to Beth's strength. She countered its attack with her fist, raw and unfiltered power surging out of her body as she met the monster, knuckle-to-knuckle, a sound like a mountain shattering echoing out, alongside a shockwave that blew apart the ground and surrounding vegetation for more than two hundred feet.
Beth pumped mana into Beastly Tyrant, amplifying her strength even further, holding nothing back as she slammed into the monster, which looked stunned after having lost the punching match, staggering back with a stupid look of shock on its face. Beth closed on it and started punching, fists flying like machine gun bullets as she pummeled the creature, which had so accommodatingly increased its body size. Bigger body meant bigger target, and Beth took advantage, pummeling the poor plant man, her fists hammering away at his vines and branches. Now that she had it in her grasp, she wasn't going to let it go any time soon, pounding away at its body, using her skills to hit harder and faster. She was pouring mana through Swift as well, able to burn a prodigious amount thanks to her Mana Physique, which also amplified the power of her skills.
The only problem was…she wasn't really doing any damage? It was hard to tell, and she was having an even more difficult time because the monster didn't have a typical body, having a body made of plant matter instead of flesh and blood. It also didn't help that the thing didn't react to any of the slight damage she did to its now large body, just trying to keep up with her punches and hits and failing miserably. She was also having to contend with its various attacks, throwing kicks and stomps at vines and branches that were appearing from everywhere to assault her while also having to fend off flying thorns.
She decided to go all-in, activating her Presence, which inspired a further reaction from the monster. It let out a hoarse cry, a weird, strangled, rough sound that made Beth wince slightly just from the sheer unpleasantness of it, though that didn't stop her fists or feet from attacking. The monster had also still been holding back, as after the cry, it started summoning in massive vines from nowhere, the plant matter just appearing in midair and swinging for Beth with alacrity. She was forced to be more defensive even with her Presence running, as these new attacks were no joke, posing her a serious threat if she didn't deal with them immediately.
It was the first time she had used her Presence with her Mana Physique, and she found that the increase in power was substantial. Enough so that she could shatter the new vines the monster was summoning with nothing but her physical prowess, not needing either of her highly destructive skills to break them. She also noticed that she wasn't burning her stamina as fast with her Presence deployed, though it wasn't a major difference. She grinned as she pumped more mana into Beastly Tyrant and fought even harder, shattering everything around her before firing off half a dozen Spatial Obliterations in just an eyeblink.
The power of her skills with her Presence running was incredible, shattering space in front of her for hundreds of feet and throwing the monster back dozens of yards. She appeared by the monster as it righted itself, lashing out with both her arms, but was stopped by a hundred vines the thickness of her thigh all slamming into her at once. She smashed her way through most of them, but was still hit by several, sending her flying back. She righted herself and dug into the ground, pouring mana into her skills and moving, cracking apart the very air around her as she used raw physical power and speed to appear in front of the monster, punching it hard enough that it slammed into a large hill, blowing it apart and continuing on to slam into and through the next one before smashing a deep crater in the ground.
Before she could follow up with another attack, the monster surged into the air, releasing an insane assault of a million thorns in combination with thousands and thousands of the branches it had been firing at her. She bashed her way through, but just as she cleared the air around herself, a hundred vines thicker than her torso sprang up under her and tried to smash her into the ground. These were much tougher, and she had to put in considerable effort to block even a few of them, giving the monster time to set up even more ranged volleys with even more thorns and branches. Beth snarled and dumped mana like running water into Beastly Tyrant, boosting her strength to an insane level as she smashed through all the obstacles, teleporting by stepping on vines, branches, and even the thorns themselves.
The monster retreated, but this time it was very difficult for it to move away. Beth was so fast now that she could appear beside the monster and strike it multiple times before it even realized she was there. Her punches were so powerful that they could crack the heavy, hardened vines that the monster used as armor, causing dark orange sap to ooze from various scars. The monster tried to keep up with her unending assault, attempting to get some space to be able to trap Beth in waves of ranged attacks again.
Though Beth's hit were slashing it up a bit, it was only the armor, and she could tell from the power emanating from the creature that she wasn't seriously injuring it. If anything, she was only making it mad, demonstrated by the even more furious assault of vines and branches that began to crash into her as the monster's armor took more damage.
Comments
SDCard
Thanks for the chapter!
PickledTink
---- in waves of ranged attack again ---- typo: Attacks. Thanks for chappie.
bladepony games
Thanks for the chapter
