Ascension of Chaos

Ashley

The Unique Monster charges straight into all of my summons, clashing with them while taking injuries over and over again. All because it seems like it's completely abandoning all defenses to focus on offense.

But thanks to that, it tears through each of my summons with ease even with the numerous wounds it's taking in the process.

And after tearing through my summons, it finally reaches me with its remaining forepaw raised and its claws extended by its ice. Which I quickly meet with my own claws.

Only for the creature to prove that it's still a lot stronger than me as it slams into me, sending me flying as I feel actual cracks spreading from my claws through my hands and my forearms. Cracks that quickly fill with ice mixed with my own crimson light from my destruction resistance.

I grit my teeth before my last two remaining summons catch me midflight from behind.

Or attempt to catch me, at least. Since they end up joining me in my flight with them getting badly injured in the process.

All the way until the three of us slam into a floating platform, with me crushing the two summons and finishing them both off as we land.

I grit my teeth while looking up at the already-approaching tiger.

That was a lot stronger than it was before…

I focus on its body, looking past its fur to see veins of glowing blue energy filling it. Meanwhile its eyes glow with an insane blue light.

Almost like it's gone berserk.

I grit my teeth before glancing at my chaos energy. Then I look back at the tiger.

Damnit. Here's hoping I have enough to continue using Assimilate.

And with that thought, I activate a skill I haven't used much in combat before.

Chaotic Surge.

The instant I activate the skill, crimson energy begins to run through my veins as I feel my strength growing at a rapid pace. Then I rush forwards to meet the tiger while slamming my claws to meet it. With my hands and forearms already recovering from their previous damage.

I keep an eye on my chaos energy to make sure it doesn't decrease too much. All while clashing with the tiger and finally balancing out our strength.

The tiger and I send a shockwave of ice and chaos energy all around us, but neither of us cause much damage to the other.

A perfectly even match.

I feel a grin spread across my face though when I see the Unique Monster coughing out a mouthful of purple blood.

Implying it's now poisoned.

All thanks to the random effects added to my attacks when I use Chaotic Surge.

The only problem is that the ice in my hands and forearms won't go away unless I destroy it with my own Gaze. But I don't have the chance to destroy it as the two of us repeatedly begin to clash midair, so my arms are healing around it.

Every one of our attacks leave lasting effects on the other.

Each of the tiger's blows gradually freeze my arms bit by bit, meanwhile all of my attacks cause random effects on the tiger.

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Burns, poison, mutations, curses of all kinds, and even random little things like tripping midair.

The two of us clash over and over again for half an hour before the effects begin to build up.

To my despair though, I find myself still losing.

The tiger's ice is spreading across my arms faster than my random effects are tearing the tiger down. So ever so slowly, I begin to lose movement in my arms and claws.

But right as I'm about to begin backing away to find a new plan of attack, crimson and black energy begins to spread across my arms. The very moment my arms freeze completely solid.

Then that energy shatters the ice completely, making me grin as I feel a skill activating.

Unchained.

I guess the skill required me to be completely locked down by the ice for it to activate.

Now completely freed from the ice again, I begin attacking the tiger without any hesitation. Using more force than before in an attempt to finish the tiger off.

The tiger lets out a roar out of nowhere before changing its own tactics. Seemingly focusing the ice it was using to freeze me into just strengthening itself now.

Making it stronger than me again.

I grit my teeth before using a skill I was really wanting to avoid using.

Queen's Warpath.

Then, while activating Assimilate again to make sure it's active in case I run out of energy, I rush straight at the tiger once more. Now with crimson cracks spreading all across my body as the berserk skill slowly begins to make my body fall apart.

But the strength enhancement from the skill is enough to finally overpower the tiger as I slam into it, sending it flying into a platform.

The tiger tries to fight back, but I let out a roar of my own as I barrage the Unique Monster clone with attacks. Slamming it deeper and deeper into the ground as it makes a massive crater with every hit.

And right as I feel the tiger is about to finally die, it freezes solid before it begins to glow with a bright pale blue light.

Then a massive explosion of ice bursts out from the creature's body, sending me flying while firing millions of ice needles into my body and everything around us. And for a split second, I feel everything going dark before consciousness returns to me.

When I regain my vision, I already find myself slammed against a platform with my body covered in needles piercing my flesh all over. Making it difficult to move, let alone fight.

But I'm not the only one in a rough situation, because the tiger has shrunk even more than before. And in a rather disturbing way.

The thing is now the size of a tiny tiger cub without any fur and with two oversized legs coated in amber.

It's also completely barren of energy in the parts it can move, and is panting seemingly in both pain and exhaustion. Looking like it's about to pass out at any moment.

I look at my chaos energy to find it down to just a single point left as my Queen's Warpath has already deactivated on its own thanks to running out of the destruction mana I converted from my chaos energy. But Chaotic Surge is still going.

Pain fills every inch of my body. So much pain that I can't move at all.

My thoughts go blank when I realize I don't have enough energy to send any real attacks at the creature. And I can't move to attack it with my physical body.

At the same time though, the tiger can barely move as well. And it has no energy at all.

I glance at Assimilate's countdown to find that it still has a couple minutes left before it runs out.

Please tell me I'm not going to end up killing it without Assimilate active…

That thought makes me grit my teeth as I try to think of any way to finish this thing off now. Before Assimilate runs out.

I would just wait until my energy recovers, but I don't think I'll even survive that long with these needles stuck in my body. Especially since I realize I'm back in my regular humanoid form, with my transformation having ended. And I don't think the tiger will survive long either, considering the effects its body is full of.

It's still coughing poison as I'm thinking this after all. So it'll die, but not for at least twenty minutes to half an hour considering the life force I still sense in its body.

Then something on my arm catches my attention.

The jewels.

I push myself to grab the jewels with every ounce of strength I have left.

Then I use a fraction of the last point of chaos energy to fire off a jewel at the tiger. But all it does is make it stagger midair from the effect of Chaotic Surge.

So I fire another one. And another.

And one more.

Over and over again, fishing for the random effects in the hope they'll kill the creature.

Then, with just two more jewels left, I fire them both off at the Unique Monster clone with the last of my energy.

The first one hits the thing and makes a burst of some sort of gas appear around the creature, leaving the tiger coughing from the gas.

I grit my teeth at my own pain and the failure.

And at the sight of the Assimilate countdown reaching just ten seconds remaining.

Only for my eyes to widen when the last jewel – the Chaos jewel – slams into the tiger's forehead and makes a small burst of flames appear.

Flames that instantly light the gas, causing a powerful explosion all around the tiger that has it whining and roaring in pain.

Until the sound completely stops.

And I get a wave of System Messages flooding my vision.