Scorching Ascension - 2.50: Interlude - Ember

A/N: It's a little late, and it's short, but here are the leaderboard. Update on my work, I finished the Book 1 edits. Took me a minute, but they're already sent back. Now I just gotta edit what I wrote in book 3 of Undersea and book 2 of Scorching this week.

Should be easy enough.

Laters!

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Ember’s POV

It had been two days since the attacks on Wyldrock and New Dawn, and Ember was still pissed. Her… territory had been attacked, and she hadn’t been around to defend it.

It frustrated her.

She stalked the busy streets of Wyldrock, attracting curious stares as her ears flicked in annoyance. It wasn’t that she had been just lounging around. She’d been clearing a rift, by herself, so it took her a while. And while she had heard that the tension was rising and that other factions might soon make their moves, she hadn’t expected it to happen so fast.

Thankfully, they had held. Mostly. There were some casualties on the side of New Dawn, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been and well, if this world was about to become like hers, then this would be a good preview of what they should expect the next few months or years to be like. At least, until a ruling faction rises above everyone else. Until then, Ember expected skirmishes and raids to be a constant thing.

Since coming back, she of course had had the chance to check on the others. She’d caught up on what had taken place and after making sure her new companions were alright, she got back to work, clearing out more rifts, which was also going to be a whole other thing. But it should soon ease up a little. As soon as the wild mana reached the necessary strength to spawn a tier-3 rift, the frequency of new rifts spawns should slow down.

With her mind still churning, Ember continued prowling toward the meeting hall as the sea of legs parted in front of her until, all of a sudden, they stopped. Gasps and excited chatter filled the air, and everyone stopped what they were doing. Noting the blinking light in her interface, it quickly became clear why.

She wasn’t sure why she was seeing the new messages, considering she wasn’t from this world. I guess it’s being sent to the pylons instead of individuals? She mused as she tried to see past the many legs blocking her path. But after a couple of seconds, she sighed and with a nimble hop, she climbed up the side of a cabin and sat on her haunches at the edge of the roof and finally, she pulled up the System’s message.

The leaderboards are now active

The leaderboards will be updated weekly and every week, the top 3 factions and the top 10 individuals will receive random rewards

The leaderboards will stay active until the first faction reaches tier-5, at which point the limitation to communication and teleportation between Earth and outside civilizations would be reduced.

And here were go, thought Ember as she read the message. Soon enough, the outside factions would start spreading their feelers down here, at which point Ember might need to scram. As much as she enjoyed spending time with Ethan and his people, she didn’t think they’d be willing to align behind the awakened species of the universe. The species that the rest of the universe’s humans called ‘monsters’. Not that she expected they’d be welcome, of course. But generally, fence-sitters didn’t last long, so they’d have to pick a lane, and their lane wouldn’t be hers. Of course, that was all still a little far. Tier-5 was still a bit away, considering how expensive upgrading their pylon to tier-3 was. But with their population increasing and with the rifts growing more powerful, she’d bet they’d get there within the year.

With a wave of her paw, she opened the first leaderboards as she yawned. At least the System was still protecting them. So there was still time to grow stronger and prepare for the trip back home.

The Faction Leaderboard

1. The Li Dynasty - 48 pylons

2. Amazonian Pact - 39 pylons

3. Delhi Aegis - 38 pylons

4. New Cali - 36 pylons

5. New Tokyo - 31 pylons

…

23. Free Midwest - 15 pylons

24. Pacific Frontier - 15 pylons

25. The Crown Restoration Authority - 15 pylons

26. Carthage Coalition - 14 pylons

27. Rome Accords - 14 pylons

28. New Baltic Command - 13 pylons

29. New Dawn - 12 pylons

30. Damascus Crescent - 12 pylons

31. Red Steppe - 12 pylons

32. Gael Sovereignty - 11 pylons

33. Ivory Dominion - 11 pylons

Ah, there we are, mused Ember as she scanned through the random names until she found their faction. She couldn’t tell much from the faction names, but plenty sounded somewhat important. And it was impressive that some managed to integrate so many pylons already. But it was too soon to call it.

Shoving the list away, she pulled the next one, and she wondered if she’d be on this one. Would she even be eligible? Considering she wasn’t even from this place?

The Individual Leaderboard

1. Li Zhen - Level 97 - Li Dynasty

2. Alina Reyes - Level 94 - Amazonian Pact

3. Takahiro Ishida - Level 92 - New Tokyo

4. Tahar Haddad - Level 90 - Carthage Coalition

5. Luc D’Aubigné - Level 89 - New French Republic

6. Ethan Voss - Level 89 - New Dawn

7. Viktoria Runeberg - Level 88 - New Baltic Command

8. Ravi Patel - Level 88 - Delhi Aegis

9. Elias Marr - Level 87 - New California

10. Siobhan Kelleher - Level 87 - Gael Sovereignty

11. Arthur Pembroke - Level 85 -The Crown Restoration Authority

…

Ember chuckled inwardly as she found Ethan’s name. While they didn’t manage to place too high when it came to faction, the little monster did very well for himself. If it wasn’t for the boring meetings and annoying politics, he probably would have placed even higher, but she couldn’t begrudge him that. He cared about his new faction, and well, she was sure his early attention would bear fruit eventually.

But this is certainly a good starting point, she purred as she swished her tail back and forth. She scanned through the rest of the list, but it stopped at the hundredth individual, and she couldn’t find herself before that, even though she’d surpassed the last individual’s level. It wasn’t surprising, but she couldn’t get mad at the System excluding her from the leaderboards.

With that done, she dismissed the window and gazed below her. The chatter of the crowd was growing louder as the people of Wyldrock slowly got back to their affairs. But she couldn’t help but see the twinkle in their eyes.

Ember couldn’t wait to see how this faction would grow.