Limitless Path

Beth was fully exhausted, but held on, not passing out as she surfaced from the inky depths of her fugue. She saw there were only a handful of beastlings left alive, looking off to the east to see the sky begin to burn a rose pink, the sun just starting to break the edge of the horizon. They had been fighting continuously for twenty hours or so, and Beth felt as if her soul was leaving her body, but she looked to the wall to see if they had held. She saw the wall still standing, the members of the defensive squad still atop it, the captain looking to where she was. Beth strode over, wobbling a bit before clamping down yet again, not wanting to appear soft before the unit. She leapt up when she reached the gate, the enchantments on the wall complex enough to recognize friend or foe, not impeding her as she landed next to the captain.

The captain was giving her a bit of a strange look, Beth able to tell that even through her bone-deep weariness. She looked around the area, seeing two of the mages sitting in the yard on chairs, which they had clearly dragged out from the building. The archers were all looking at her with faces split somewhere between awe and terror, Beth just shaking her head as she turned back to the captain.

"How'd we fare, captain?" Beth asked.

"Well…" the captain replied before pausing, the normally assured man seemingly at a bit of a loss. "I have to say, ma'am, I didn't have much hope for our chances in quelling this tide. I had thought we were going to burn out on a last stand to thin the numbers and leave it for someone else to finish up."

Beth shrugged, "I told you we'd give you a surprise, captain."

"Ah, well, that you certainly did. Despite a few injuries, we're mostly intact, even though it took a lot out of our mages. I just can't believe you and your companion managed it."

"It was tough, captain, but it's what we do," Beth replied with a nod.

"Respect," the captain replied simply, giving a form of salute that Beth was unfamiliar with. As the captain finished, the stage seemed to freeze before Beth and Blood witnessed a screen appear in front of them

For extraordinary performance beyond the stage condition, additional rewards are granted.

For fully defeating the beast wave, additional rewards are granted.

Reward of compounding experience granted.

Applied granted reward.

As the message finished, Beth felt a highly condensed stream of energy enter her body, flushing her with power for a brief moment. It felt as if she had just killed multiple powerful bosses at the same time, and the results certainly seemed to mimic such. Her level increased once, then again, and again, before finally settling a full four levels above where she was at when the stage ended. She noted that the same effect seemed to happen to Blood before she staggered a little as they suddenly appeared in the array room. One of the Warders on duty motioned for them to clear the area, though she did give them a nod, Beth too tired to do more but nod in response before dragging her tired body back to their room.

They still had a little more than a full day for this stage, and Beth was sure they were going to use a bit of it to recover from that ordeal. Once they were in the suite and had the door secured, they barely managed to strip out of their gear before Beth led the way back to the bed, where the two promptly passed out without a second thought.

**********************************************

It was almost nine hours later when they awoke, perhaps the longest sleep Beth had done in several months, and something they had sorely needed. Their mana was fully restored and, while she still felt a little bit tired, she knew they could take some time to relax, hopefully allow them to get back close to one hundred percent before they started the next stage. As Beth rolled out of bed and stretched, she checked their stat pages and was rather surprised to see where they were at, having quite a handful of free points to distribute. Once she had finished allocating all the points, she gave their screens an inspection to see what other gains they had had.