Leo had just finished informing his group of the ants spotted near the far corner that would hopefully not cause an issue. Unless the ants screeched for help, which they had done before... Either way, he felt confident they could manage.

  “Everyone ready?” Leo asked.

  Nods all round and they were off.

  Leo kept pace with everyone else, making sure not to pull ahead. His head should have been in combat mode but he was actually thinking about how fast he could run if he fully let loose. He hadn’t sprinted with all his effort since day one.

  Focus idiot, he scolded himself. This wasn’t the time for idle thinking.

  The ants soon spotted them, at around the halfway mark. Leo and the group forgoing stealth.

  This was a fight to be had.

  The ants charged too, with the Soldier holding back and letting the Lesser Antlings go first. He used Identify on the group of them, now in range to do so.

  Soldier Antling - Level 10

  Lesser Antling - Level 6

  Lesser Antling - Level 7

  The antlings seemed to be getting stronger as they moved closer to the Tower.

  He excitedly wondered to himself what kind of ants were lurking there and how strong they were. Hopefully they would give him a fight like the Alpha—preferably with less almost dying.

  Hell, who was he kidding, he'd take the almost dying again for another good fight and some sweet level ups.

  Leo stepped in to meet the level 7 Antling, deciding to handicap himself and use his Ice Spike for as much of the fight as he could.

  It was fairly useless against the Alpha, so now was the time to try to improve it.

  Now in melee range, it snapped out at him with its thick mandibles. It may as well have been moving in slow motion with how quick Leo’s reactions felt now. He easily sidestepped it as an Ice Spike fired into its thorax.

  The ice penetrated a little but nowhere near as much as he’d hoped. He clicked his tongue in frustration.

  Experimentation was needed. This poor antling would be the subject.

  First he tried firing two spikes at the same time, and to his surprise, it worked—even with the cooldown. However, it consumed almost triple the amount of mana and tripled the cooldown.

  Definitely not worth it right now with his limited mana pool and other, more effective methods to utilise it, such as his Refined Mana Strikes.

  Both spikes fired, and only one connected, inflicting similar damage to the first spike. So there was no increase or decrease to the power.

  Leo was continuously dodging the antling with ease as it attacked. It was barely costing him any stamina. His movements were fluid and efficient, his improved reflexes proving very useful.

  Second experiment: Push a boat-load of mana into the skill and see what happened.

  He focused on the Ice mana threading through him, then tried to turbocharge it. He poured in more and more until the skill started to resist. It pushed back, like a dam straining against a rising flood, then suddenly gave way.

  The spike swelled with power, growing nearly twice as large, but took more than twice as long to form. Holding it steady while dodging was tricky. It bucked against his control, unruly and bloated.

  When it launched, the force was the same, but the result was different. Instead of a clean impalement, the spike crushed the ant’s head like a falling icicle, too thick to pierce. Effective? Sure. But kind of sloppy.

  Leo grunted, half-satisfied.

  Big hit, but not better. Just… bigger.

  It felt like overfeeding a spell that didn’t know how to digest. Like shoving more stone into a mold without reshaping it. The end result being bulkier, but dulled.

  The system apparently agreed as there was no upgrade notification. Just the one for the kill:

  You have slain: Lesser Antling - Level 7

  Experience Gained

  +7 Store Credits

  During his fight with the ant—if you could call it a fight—Leo had kept an eye on the other two battles.

  Jasper and Lena were holding up somewhat okay. Jasper had taken a few scratches but nothing even remotely fatal. He was shouting for Lena to hurry up and kill it and Lena was shouting in reply that she was trying if it would just hold still. It was messy.

  Cecelia was proving to be fairly skilled in combat with the Soldier. Her glowing two-handed sword moved in clean, graceful arcs, clearly practiced.

  Her style was not to dodge and attack like Leo did. Nor was it to try and hit it so hard that it broke.

  It was to parry and counter.

  Her skill caught him off guard. It was beautiful, like watching an armoured dancer performing under moonlight.

  The silvery moonlight emanating from her sword shone bright, cutting through the glaring sun.

  From what Leo could tell, Cecelia had the advantage. It had landed a few blows on her but they did not cut deep—grazing blows at most.

  Leo got a bad feeling as he saw it snap out with its mandibles in a way that was most definitely going to miss. Cecelia moved to take advantage of its opening with her own counter.

  Its mandibles then glowed a dull sickly green before extending out, straight at Cecelia.

  They punched through her armour and lifted her clean off the ground. A scream of angered, agonising pain followed.

  Leo moved instantly, unleashing every ounce of agility he had. Gliding across the terrain in rapid steps.

  He reached her before the ant could thrash her again, skidding his feet into the ground as he used the inertia of his movement to prime his attack.

  Charging a Powerful Haymaker with Fuel the Fire in full effect, he struck the side of the ant. Enhancing the blow further with his Refined Mana Strikes.

  He avoided the head in case hitting it caused Cecelia to take even more damage.

  The ant was stunned from the impact and extremely injured. Leo’s fist demolished the carapace, causing the ant’s legs to crumble underneath it from the heavy internal injuries combined with Cecelia’s already landed hits.

  Cecelia managed to pull herself free from the mandible as it fell, picking her sword back up and impaling it through the head with a yell.

  The soldier was barely moving after Leo’s full powered strike. Leaving it easy pickings for Cecelia. She collapsed onto one knee shortly after.

  You have slain: Antling Soldier - Level 10

  Experience Gained

  +8 Store Credits

  Leo looked over towards the last fight and saw it was pretty much wrapped up.

  “Amy! Need some healing over here, quick!” Leo shouted urgently.

  Amy ran over to where Cecelia was—half collapsed—and started healing. The injury looked really bad. She had almost been impaled in her heart. A few inches over and it would have been game over for Cecelia.

  “How you holding up?” he asked her.

  “I’ll live, thanks to you. Yet again,” she coughed, clearly irritated.

  “Sorry for interfering, I couldn’t just let you die,” he said, voice soft.

  “Sorry,” she said, sighing. “I’m not used to not fighting my own battles or being inferior to someone,” she managed to sputter out between ragged breaths.

  “Enough talking. You’re heavily injured,” Amy scolded.

  Cecelia ceased any talking or moving and simply accepted the healing.

  After a few minutes or so, Lena and Jasper came up to them too, breathing heavily with fresh green blood coating them.

  “Is she okay?!” Lena asked in a panic. “I heard Leo’s cry for healing and thought the worst.”

  “Relax, relax. She'll be fine,” Amy said confidently.

  “That’s a relief,” Lena breathed.

  “How are you both?” Leo directed his question towards Lena and Jasper.

  “Fine.” Jasper said between clenched teeth. That was good enough for Leo.

  “I’m okay. Jasper did really well in keeping it away from me,” Lena said, praising Jasper to both Leo’s and Jasper's surprise.

  “You’re scratched up still, here-” Amy raised one of her hands that was healing Cecelia’s wound and a glowing green light shot out towards Jasper.

  His cuts began healing up at a very slow rate but continued even after she began healing Cecelia again. It looked to be some kind of regeneration skill, that healed slowly over time. Leo remembered her saying that she had something along those lines when they had first gotten their Essence Skills.

  Very, very useful, Leo mused. It was something to keep in mind.

  “Thanks,” Jasper said in a small, skittish tone.

  Leo kept watch until Cecelia was healed up enough to move. It would take a while for her to be at full fighting strength, but she was no longer in any worry of bleeding out. Healers truly were a blessing.

  There was no sign of the ants that Leo had spotted earlier. If they decided to come back around, Leo was confident that he could take care of them by himself, even if everyone else was unable to assist.

  “Should we get out of the open?” Leo suggested.

  “Good idea, at least until I’m fully healed,” Cecelia replied.

  “I’m pretty low on mana, I can give you a Regen but that’s it for a while,” Amy added.

  “Okay.” Leo glanced around. “There looks to be a house further up that isn’t rubble. Let’s head over.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The group moved swiftly towards one of the houses further down the pitch. Leo was still dividing a lot of his attention towards the corner. Something was giving him a bit of a bad feeling once again but he had no reason as to why.

  Entering the house, Leo quickly scouted, searching for humans or ants that were waiting in ambush or hiding. His Voltaic Reflex wasn’t giving him any bad vibes about the place but he wanted to be sure before he put his friends at risk.

  Thankfully it was clear, and they were able to sit down and hide out while Cecelia recovered and Amy’s and Lena’s mana replenished. Leo looked at his own reserves and saw that his mana was a bit under half but his other resources were looking great still.

  Leo was peering from one of the windows at the corner that still adopted his attention like a cat fixated on a bird. To his surprise, there was movement.

  However, instead of ants, what he saw was a group of four humans, all wearing some form of starting tutorial armour and assorted weaponry, that was all he could make out, at least until they came closer.

  Leo signalled for everyone to get down and out of sight.

  “What is it?” Cecelia whispered from beside him. She was leaning against the wall next to where Leo was.

  “People,” he said quietly. “Four of them.”

  “Do they look friendly?” Amy asked as she approached quietly.

  “Hard to say,” Leo murmured.

  Leo stealthily observed them as they approached. They were now close enough to be able to make out how they looked and to identify them.

  Human - Level 8

  Human - Level 7

  Human - Level 7

  Human - Level 6

  The man in the front of the group was wearing archer armour, with a bow slung on his back, next to a quiver. He had a thin face with a few tattoos that marred his complexion.

  Behind him was a very large man with dark skin and a rugged, worn face, wearing the starting armour for the knight class. He had a sword and shield, similar to Bjorn’s. The knight was flanked by two people. On one side a thin person in mage robes and on the other was a warrior of some sort, wielding a battle axe, still coated in green blood.

  “They were around here, I swear!” the archer said.

  “I can see that, idiot. Those ants didn’t just up and die,” the man wearing knight armour said. “They’ve either run off or are hiding somewhere."

  “I can probably track them, boss,” the archer replied.

  “I’ll try something first, see if we can’t speed things up,” the knight said.

  He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hello out there! We are friends!” the knight yelled.

  “Come on out of hiding. Some of you must be injured considering the blood out here. We can share some potions with you. We promise not to hurt you.”

  Leo didn’t believe him for a second, and made his opinion clear.

  “I don’t trust them.”

  “I don’t either,” Cecelia agreed. “But we don’t have much of a choice, they will discover us. It’s only a matter of time.”

  Leo nodded.

  “Let’s go then,” Cecelia said calmly. “If they show signs of aggression, we fight to kill. They won't hesitate. We can’t either.”

  “We are coming out!” Cecelia declared.

  Cecelia stood up first, Leo following shortly after and the others behind him. They moved out of the building until they stood opposite the group of strangers.

  “Hello friends!” the knight said warmly. “My name is Reggie. You folks look a bit weary. We have potions and food back at our encampment if you’d like to join us. If you have any other friends, they would be most welcome too!”

  His face was smiling and cheery but the smile did not reach his eyes. Leo could tell that this guy was full of it. And if Leo could tell, then Cecelia could definitely tell.

  “Greetings,” Cecelia said, taking charge. “We do not seek any help and would like to just be on our way. We can discuss alliances and such in the future but at this moment we are not interested.”

  “Now, let’s not be hasty,” Reggie said, eyes predatory. “This place isn’t safe for beautiful ladies, especially when your protectors let you get injured so badly.”

  “Hah,” Cecelia laughed. “You think you can protect us with those meager levels?”

  The man's eyes went cold, he looked over Leo’s party as he spoke. “Meager levels? Most of us probably completely outlevel y-”

  Reggie’s smile cracked when his eyes landed on Leo, his face shifting from confidence to something darker. Anger, Leo guessed, or maybe fear.

  “Level 12?! You think you’re better than us?” Reggie spat, suddenly aggressive.

  “Boss, he isn’t wearing the starting gear either! It must be some kind of new equipment!” The warrior on his right warned in eager excitement.

  “Indeed, we are very well protected,” Cecelia said while gesturing to Leo. “Now we will be on our way.”

  She began moving off, Leo was stunned by this whole encounter. He didn’t think that he was relied on so heavily. Perhaps Cecelia was just using him as a scare tactic. Either way, he tried to look as carefree as he could. Acting as if they weren’t worth his time.

  “Not so fast.” Reggie said.

  “You intend to stop us?” Cecelia said, placing a hand on her sword’s pommel.

  Instantly, the atmosphere changed. Everyone was slowly moving their hands towards their weapons. Leo simply rolled his shoulders in preparation for what was to come. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to kill anyone else but if these people were trying to hurt his friends… he would put them down.

  “Woah, easy now,” Reggie said, trying to diffuse the situation. “Let’s not do something completely stupid. You’ll most likely be killed if we decide to go down that route. What I’m offering is a deal.”

  “What kind of deal?” Cecelia asked skeptically.

  “We let you live and walk away without fuss. On one condition.”

  “The condition being?” Cecelia questioned.

  The man started slowly pacing back and forth, hands behind his back. “You see, we do not have very many healers in our group—none in-fact,” Reggie said, another predatory grin plastering his face. “Healers are very important.”

  “Out with it already.” Cecelia sighed in annoyance.

  “Let’s not be dramatic,” Reggie teased, his grin stretching too wide to be friendly. “You’ve got something we need, a healer. You leave her with us, and you all walk away. Clean and quiet, no hard feelings.”

  Leo frowned. No fucking way was that happening.

  It was time to try and channel some of Cecelia’s courage and assertiveness. She called him their protector. So he would protect. He’d had enough of this guy’s attitude.

  He walked forward at a slow, deliberate pace, eyes locked on Reggie.

  “We will be leaving now. Don't try to stop us,” Leo said coldly. “Or I will kill every last one of you.”

  His anger flowed like a wave as his killing intent was felt clearly, his storm flickered briefly before he clamped down on the emotion to stay in control.

  Reggie and his party took an instinctive step back, fear plastering their expressions. The fear on his face quickly morphed to rage.

  “You think you can tell me what to do?!” Reggie roared while lifting his arm up straight “I’m going to have your fucking head!” He swung his arm down.

  Leo prepared himself for whatever attack was coming from the man, but the arm swing didn’t do anything.

  Leo’s Voltaic Reflex was a quiet tingle that felt as if it was slowly building, until he felt a massive spark of danger coming from behind him. His reflexes were screaming at him to move and he did so, leaning hard to one side as a shadowed knife flashed past the spot his head had been a moment earlier, clipping the edge of his ear as blood ran down his cheek.

  Leo grabbed the wrist holding the knife, squeezing hard and flipping the person over his head.

  The man hit the ground with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of him, also removing him from whatever stealth was cloaking him. Leo placed his foot on the man’s chest, still holding the arm. Ready to crack it at the next sign of aggression.

  Everyone was still—stunned by what just happened. The knight the most so, his mouth was agape. Clearly, he was not expecting this outcome when he signalled for the ambush.

  Leo stepped forward calmly, heart hammering, but eyes steady, dragging the rogue along with him. Just a week ago he’d have never felt so assertive. He held the rogue’s life in his hands without shaking.

  “Now,” Leo said slowly, anger clear in his voice. “How about we both go our separate ways. Otherwise I'll kill your man here.”

  Leo formed an Ice Spike, aiming it directly at the prone rogue’s skull. He was bluffing, and hoping that this man Reggie would put his man’s life before his own whims.

  He was sadly mistaken.

  “Help me! Please, boss! Do what he says!” the rogue cried from the ground.

  “Shut up, Keith!” Reggie said, voice still full of rage.

  “As if I care about that rat!” The boss directed his men. “Kill em! Keep the healer chick alive!”

  Leo was hoping that he wouldn’t have to do it and they would take the deal. Sadly not.

  Instead of executing the man like he promised. He instead kicked him in the head hard enough to knock him unconscious. He was a bit worried about the power he put into the hasty blow but thankfully there was no notification.

  The knight rushed at him, with his shield raised. An arrow flew past Leo’s head as he ducked past it.

  Leo crashed into the knight at close range. The shield proved a decent block as Leo swung his fist into it. The knight was knocked back from the force but not enough to be out of the fight.

  He slashed downwards in an overhead strike, the attack fairly quick, but with Leo’s reflex and heightened agility, it wasn’t a difficult thing to react to.

  Leo easily dodged it as he countered—a low kick infused with his Refined Mana Strikes. It connected with the armoured leg of the knight, knocking him off balance as Leo went to deliver a fully infused Powerful Haymaker into the man’s head.

  A sudden burst of flames erupted from the man in an area around him. The force of the scorching heat pushed Leo back as he felt the burn from it.

  Must have been his Essence Skill, Leo figured as he patted the flames licking at his armour.

  The damage was fairly minimal, his Stoneskin making it barely effective, but the knockback less so as he was sent skidding back. Leo was hoping to have taken him out quickly so that he could defend the others.

  The warrior came up from the left, finally working up the courage to attack after seeing Leo stop his companion. His swing was sloppy, but as he swung down, a glaring light was infused into the axe that blinded Leo as he instinctively raised his hands up to shield his eyes.

  He still managed to mostly dodge, but the attack had caught him off guard.

  Another bloody Essence skill, Leo thought in annoyance as the axe sliced his forearm.

  It didn’t do as much as either Leo or the warrior was expecting.

  Thank you Stoneskin! Leo praised his own Essence skill, fully aware of the irony of his complaints.

  His vision returned in full as he fired an Ice Spike at the warrior. The man reacted quickly, and held up his axe to block it, the ice shattering on the head of the axe.

  At this point the knight had managed to recover enough to limp towards Leo. Still fairly uninjured.

  Leo swung his glowing fist in the warriors direction, aiming for his midsection. The warrior blocked again with his axe but Leo had used a Powerful Haymaker this time, fed with a lot of Fuel.

  The warrior took a massive hit as Leo’s reserves did, flying backwards still clutching his axe. The no doubt internal injuries stopped the man from getting up straight away.

  Reggie swung his shield towards Leo at a speed that far eclipsed its normal. Leo was barely able to dodge it thanks to his Voltaic Reflex and spun on his heel, twisting into a roundhouse kick aimed at the man's head.

  Glowing with bright white mana, his heel struck the man’s temple. The instant it did, the light faded from the knight's eyes as they rolled back. Leo followed through with the force of the blow in order to push him to the ground as he brought his leg down.

  There was a definitive *Crack* when he hit the ground. With a notification coming right after that he dismissed instantly.

  Leo quickly scanned the battlefield, spotting Cecelia with an arrow in her leg and a rough complexion. Lena and Amy were behind her, the former being injured also.

  Jasper was nowhere to be seen. Not dead, nor injured. Just gone. Leo wasn’t sure what happened and didn’t have time to figure it out.

  “Holy fuck!” the mage exclaimed. “He killed the boss!”

  The mage fired a blue sparking bolt towards him from his wand, Leo didn’t even dodge it, his Voltaic Reflex barely warning him.

  He was pissed. He had failed to protect his friends from harm. The storm of emotions started to brew, slowly being wrenched from his control.

  He let the bolt hit him square in the chest as he walked towards them. A current of electricity passed through his body but it was barely enough to cause injury. It sent a spasm through his muscles that he quickly suppressed.

  “We need to ru–” The archer was impaled by Cecelia’s sword from behind, right through the chest as she lifted him with it.

  The man spurted blood from his mouth and grabbed onto the sword in a desperate attempt to get free, but shortly succumbed to the attack. She had used the time Leo had distracted them to charge the archer and kill him.

  The mage kept firing bolts towards Leo and Cecelia as he backed away in fear. The bolts towards Leo missing or being dodged and the ones at Cecelia hitting his dead ally, still impaled on her sword like a grim shield.

  Leo darted forward, pushing his agility to the maximum and launched a full powered strike at the man’s head. A roar of anger followed it.

  The mage’s head exploded with the force of the blow. Like smashing open a watermelon filled with red paint and bone, covering Leo in blood and gore.

  He wiped it from his face as he tried to calm himself down. His hands shaking from the anger and adrenaline. The storm surged even harder as he tried to control his emotions.

  Leo stared at the blood on his hands, brief nausea rising in his stomach. Was this who he was becoming… someone who kills without hesitation? The brutality left a sour taste in his mouth, an ugly reminder of the world they now inhabited. It was a necessity, kill or be killed.

  He looked over his notifications and noticed that the warrior he had first hit hadn’t died. His head spun, instantly locating him. He was trying to sneakily crawl away into the longer grass.

  Leo ran towards him, intent on killing, but heard Cecelia say, “Stop him, but keep him alive!”

  Leo was barely calm enough to oblige as he caught up to the man, forcing him into the dirt face first, knocking him unconscious in the process.

  The grisly fight was over.

  It was time to lick their wounds and to get some questions answered.

  Where did these people come from, and what happened to Jasper?

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  LitRPG Progression Portal Fantasy Summoning

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