Aster Fall, Ch 35: Greystone Basilisk (Patreon)

His father raced through the scattered Coldfangs, following the path that the starflame arrows had cleared. A moment later, he sprang into the air, leaping twenty feet as he aimed for the top of the basilisk’s head.

The basilisk reared upwards, its head tilting back like a lizard’s as its mouth opened, preparing to swallow him. A yellow Earthen Shield appeared below Jeric’s feet as the monster’s fangs tried to close around him, giving him enough of a platform that he launched off again, jumping onto the back of its head.

His hammers swung down, resonating with their enchantments as he slammed them into the basilisk’s eye ridges. The Outsider reared up again, tossing its head backward, but Jeric hooked an arm around one of its spines and attacked again.

He wasn’t doing much damage, but he was definitely getting its attention. The Outsider’s aura wobbled, weakening for an instance before coming back even stronger than before as it let out another roar.

Going head-on with a Level 68 Outsider the size of a building was not a good idea. They had to find a weakness.

Sam grabbed two auras from his storage as he followed his father, combusting them to top his essence off.

Two dozen crystal flame arrows blasted away from him, dividing into groups as they flashed toward the remaining Coldfangs. Four of the ten had survived his first bombardment and their shields were in tatters. They were scattered across the snowy field in front of the building.

The arrows impacted in sizzling streaks, tearing holes through the injured creatures. Their blade arms blocked a few, but they were too slow to get most of them. Chunks of Coldfang exploded outward from the impacts.

Another flight of arrows followed, targeting the two that were still moving as he cleared the path. As he continued forward, a row of earthen spikes rose up from beneath the basilisk’s feet, stabbing into its claws. It was enough to make it shift its position, pulling up that foot as it moved to the side.

To his left, Krana was a shimmering silver and yellow figure as her mana poured out into the world. She was trying to help where she could, earthen spikes and shields forming to assist Jeric.

His father took advantage of the beast’s movement to hook his arm more securely around the spikes at the back of its head. His free hand came down again, hammering into the beast’s scales with a resonant tattoo as he worked to break through its scales.

Whatever else it was, the basilisk was not a normal Level 68 monster. Its scales began to gleam with a grey-green light as the essence in it surged, flooding upwards toward the human who was bothering it.

A flare of warning passed through Sam. He couldn’t let that ability land. It would probably turn his father into a stone statue.

A Starfire formed in his hand as he threw it toward the basilisk, aiming for the area directly under its chest. The spell exploded under the basilisk at the same time as Jeric abandoned his position and leapt away, jumping off before the grey-green light could reach him.

The Starfire’s eruption sent the basilisk rearing upwards, its neck and head flexing like a whip as it absorbed the brunt of the impact. Its front feet went ten feet into the air and a series of explosive cracks sounded from the giant armor scales on its chest.

A wave of rocky spikes stabbed up from below, filling the space below it as the basilisk crashed down on top of them. Shards of rock went flying in every direction as Krana’s spears exploded from its weight.

Streaks of green blood poured out from its chest, and for a moment, Sam thought the attack might have worked, or at least broken the basilisk’s armor. Then, the Outsider’s grey-green essence rippled over its chest, sealing the wounds as a layer of stone appeared on top of them.

Small injuries weren’t going to be enough to stop it.

Jeric landed on the ground to the far side of the basilisk, turning his jump into a roll as he hit. He sprang to his feet and pulled a scroll from his belt as he turned, activating it with one hand.

A storm of icy shards flew outward from him, slamming into the basilisk’s face and making it turn toward him. He spun away, another scroll appearing in his hand as he ran toward the ruined building, trying to lure it after him.

Thud.

The basilisk’s tail slammed into the ground as it spun around, shattering more of the stone spikes beneath it. It took several quick steps after Jeric, its movements faster now that it was angry. He’d managed to get its attention.

The Aura of Paralysis around the area was still strong. If he could get it far enough away, perhaps the others would be able to recover, but it would be better to deal with it directly.

Sam’s mind raced as he thought of the possible options, and how his crystal flame would damage the basilisk. If he poured in enough energy, he was able to cut through stone, but the basilisk had a huge body area.

Relying on his own energy and combusting auras would only give him a dozen or so Starfires. He wasn’t sure that would be enough. He needed to get through the scales.

Fortunately, he had some other options.

His hands flickered as he pulled a series of auras out of his storage, tracking the basilisk’s movements as it started to pursue his father. After that, he pulled a scroll from his belt. He used tendrils of crystal flame to float it all in front of him, giving him extra hands.

It was an Advanced-tier Wind scroll and it dissolved in a spiral of whipping, silver light that turned into a tornado of force in his hand. He held it there, wrapping the spell structure in his essence to stabilize it as he pulled an aura towards him.

Aura of Spiraling Wind.

With his essence as a guide and the practice from creating a layered spell with Starfire, he infused the aura into the spell, using Assume Aura to pour it into the spell structure.

They were both Wind-aligned and the spell soaked up the aura in the same way that an enchantment would. The whirlwind spun faster, its energy taking on a green tinge. It was good that his Essence Control was at the Expert Tier, or what he was doing now might not have been possible.

He grabbed another aura, this one of Verdant Leaf, and poured that into the spell as well. He didn’t try to infuse this one into the heart of the spell. Instead, he created a layer of energy around it that glowed with a healthy green light.

Following that, he added another layer from an Aura of Compressed Flame, and then he took an aura from the Icesoul Wraiths, the Aura of Desolate Life, and poured it into a third layer. For the final layer, he used an Aura of Shifting Shadow, covering the spell in a dark grey, swirling barrier that concealed much of the energy inside.

The scroll had started out with about thirty points of essence. When he was done, it was strengthened with twenty from the Wind aura and  then covered in four layers of enhancive energy that had another twenty each, for a total of 130.

He looked up, tracking the basilisk. It was chasing his father, stomping back toward the ruined building. Jeric was taunting it, darting in and out as he attacked its face to keep its attention.

Sam held the layered scroll in his left hand as he ran forward. An Essence Blade began to form in his right, its focused cutting edge more useful right now than the all-encompassing blast of Starfire.

As best he could, he focused on the star rune in his bracer, using it to help construct the Essence Blade. He’d experimented with the bracer on forming spells besides Starfire, but he wasn’t as practiced with them.

The result was slightly unstable and not really an Essence Blade at all. The structure had changed to something halfway between it and Starfire, warping into a triangular wedge with a rippling white core. The star rune was at the point, just behind a single layer of crystal flame.

He was going to have to recreate all of his spells to use the star rune as a central concept.

The basilisk roared as it chased Jeric, stomping through the deep snow and hurling it in every direction. Its tail swept across the ground, sending up a wave of snow and rocks that crashed towards Sam as he got closer.

An Essence Shield flowed around him, tearing through the snow as stones rang off the edges and flew away. Then he was through, closing in on the ruins and the backside of the basilisk.

The monster’s tail swept backward again, the spiked club on it hurtling toward him in a deadly blur. He sensed it with Crystal Focus as he threw himself to the ground, cradling the spells in front of his chest as he landed on his shoulder and rolled.

Then he was up and running again. His Constitution made the fall irrelevant. Ahead of him, the basilisk’s rear leg was like an armored pillar, and he sprinted around it, his attention focused on its movements.

His father was back on top of the thing, hammering at its right eye with one hand while hanging on with the other. The basilisk reared up as it flung its head into the air, trying to dislodge him. The grey-green energy of its essence began to ripple through its scales.

“Look over here!” Sam shouted at it, trying to get its attention as he sprinted toward its head. A half dozen crystal flame arrows surged ahead of him, striking like fireflies just behind its right shoulder, where its scales were thinner.

The basilisk let out an angry hiss, annoyed more by the essence in the arrows than the damage. Its legs shifted sideways as it stomped around, spinning in place toward the new threat. Its head was the size of a carriage, horses included, and its eyes were swirling disks as big as a door, far larger than they should have been for its size.

He felt the attack before he saw it as a web of essence flared out of those eyes and headed straight for him. It was a sticky spiderweb of grey-green lines and as wide across as the basilisk’s head.

The attack collided with his Essence Shield in front of him, which flared to life with a brilliant sapphire flame. The basilisk’s essence was a cold, grasping hand that pulled at his energy, trying to drain it away and convert it to something else as it worked to petrify his flames.

The crystalline structure of his shield worked in his favor, slowing down the effect and holding it off as he burned away the strands one by one, but it slowed him down.

An enormous, scaled foot slammed into his shield before he could move as the basilisk’s right foreleg came around, its claws as long as his arm.

The impact lifted him off the ground and sent him flying two dozen feet away as another dozen points of essence went into his shield. Its jaws gaped wide as it swung its head back toward him and surged forward, ignoring Jeric on its back as it tried to bite the enemy in front of it.

Sam rolled across the ground as he absorbed the impact of the blow and sprang to his feet just in time to see the head swinging in his direction. The basilisk’s gaping maw loomed over him. Since it was giving him such a large target, he couldn’t help but oblige it.

Both of the spells in his hands flew forward, first the Essence Blade and then the layered Wind spell. They headed straight for the basilisk’s open mouth.

He had time to see them fly into its throat, but that was all. The basilisk bit down on the spells and suddenly bent in a half-circle, its tail flying toward him, and he threw a burst of crystal flame in front of him as he flung himself backward.

The explosions were a muffled, distant echo as the tail swept toward him. It undulated in the air, surrounded by the basilisk’s essence, as it soared toward him. His evasion wasn’t taking him out of range fast enough. It felt like the air around him was trying to turn to stone, making it hard to move.

A moment later, the tail slammed into his Essence Shield with the force of a mountain erupting, like a boulder breaking through a castle wall. It wasn’t just a normal weapon. It had some strange effect of extra weight to it. Shards of crystal flame flew in every direction and turned to wisps as the bone club on the end slammed into Sam’s chest.

His battle aura buffered some of the impact in a giant flare of energy as his essence exploded outwards, but he felt his ribs shattering and the left side of his torso collapse as he was picked up and hurled away.

The weight of the strike stayed with him, pressing into his bones as he felt the energy in it trying to twist him out of shape. It wanted to break every part of him, to crush him and grind him to dust.

The partially-complete essence formation in his blood resisted the pressure as the stars flared to life, burning outward as they tried to absorb it, but they had limited success. He flew through the air for fifty feet before he slammed into a snowbank that had built up against a stone pillar.

The weight of the strike followed him, crushing down on top of him again with what felt like the basilisk’s entire body. It was like a mountain landing on him. The essence formation flared to brilliance as tiny crystal blue stars appeared across body, burning so brightly that they were visible through his skin.

The Amulet of Swirling Winds also came to life, pouring its mana out as it tried to block the strike, but its barrier shattered a moment later as it ran dry, leaving only the formation and what remained of his essence pool to resist.

The attack wasn’t dissipating like it should have. Whatever strange ability the basilisk had used, it was sticking to him like the strike still wanted to wipe him from existence. He felt his skin cracking as lines of blood emerged, bursting to the surface. Flickers of crystal blue flame escaped.

He had about sixty essence left and he poured nearly all of it into an Essence Shield. The crystalline dome flared with scintillating light as he tried to push himself away from the strike.

The power of the attack slammed down on him and he felt his shield shattering as a heavy, twisting force ripped it apart from opposing angles.

The Ring of Crystal Shield shattered next, the core in it exploding as it released all of its energy. 200 points of essence flared, surrounding him in a shield like a crystal egg.

He used the last of his strength for evasion, pushing off from the ground as he shoved the energy to the side and rolled away. It was like levering off a boulder, but he managed it with a mangled growl, his remaining lung barely working.

The crystal shell from the ring parted, releasing him as it stayed behind, and a moment later it shattered as the basilisk’s attack drove through it and into the rock behind.

His bones and muscles were mangled, many of them broken in multiple places by the twisting force, but the essence formation in his blood flowed into the broken areas, spreading farther than ever before as it stretched outward, filling the areas that had just been drained of energy.

For that moment, it supported him, an internal web that held his bones and muscles together and forced his lungs to work, but it wasn’t free. It was enough to let him move, but he felt his essence draining away moment by moment, as well as a building need for more.

He rose shakily to his feet, staggering, as a burning emptiness spread through him, demanding that he fill it. It was an all-consuming hunger, like a devouring void that stretched into the darkness.

Looking down, he saw tendrils of dark energy running across his body, connecting the essence stars.

The stars and their connections were usually a crystalline blue, lighter or darker sometimes, but always blue. Now, that dark hunger had joined it, forming its own type of energy.

Somehow, he’d reached a critical moment.

Using the formation to block some of the attack had triggered it, as if the threat of death were a dangerous catalyst. Now, he either had to finish the essence formation and fill it with energy, or this hunger would tear it apart and kill him.

Across the field, the basilisk hadn’t escaped unscathed from his attack. It was hunched close to the ground and thrashing, its eyes closed in pain as its mouth hung open. Chunks of internal organs and shattered teeth had been vomited across the ground, and there was a growing pool of blood all around it.

His father was on its head again, hammering down as the enchantments on his hammers built higher. There was a reverberating cascade of notes humming as natural runes began to form around him, the echoes coming to life.

Sam turned toward the corpses of the Coldfangs they’d just killed, the demand for essence sweeping outward. It felt like the world was falling in on him, the veins of mana and the auras of the world crumbling away to nothingness.

His eyesight blanked out as he stumbled, falling to the side. When he opened them again, an empty void stretched out in front of him, speckled with stars that were going dark.

To anyone watching, streamers of the same dark energy from the essence formation were now flowing through his eyes. The hunger twisted inwards as the dark threads grew thicker, taking over more of the blue.

A wordless roar ripped out of his mouth, his fangs bared as he slashed outward around him, his talons cutting toward the corpses of the Coldfangs.

A storm of essence sparks rose out of the dozen corpses all across the snowy field and filled the air with hundreds of flickering lights, like an army of spirits had been born from the ice.

At that moment, the basilisk let out a vicious roar as well. Its half-glazed eyes opened as its attention turned to the essence storm that was filling the air. A sense of palpable hunger poured out from it.

The basilisk’s Aura of Paralysis flared all around the area. The sparks that were starting to flow toward Sam hesitated for a moment, slowing down as if they were suddenly surrounded by sand.

The Outsider's mouth opened as it lunged toward the essence, even as Jeric’s hammers crashed into its skull again. Its eyes went unfocused for a moment, but it ignored the blows as it pushed itself to its feet. Its gait was unsteady, but it was moving, pulled by a deep-seated need.

If it got ahold of all of that essence, it wasn’t clear what would happen.

Sam snarled, the dark lines devouring his energy growing thicker by the instant, as he called out to the essence all around him. There were no words in his call, just a command.

It was a matter of life and death. Either he absorbed that essence, or in the next few instants, everything that made up who he was would be consumed by the void that was expanding through his blood.

The essence was his. He would not abide a challenger.

The basilisk’s attempt to gain control of the essence was stronger than the Iceblood Shaman’s had been, but it wasn’t enough to interfere with Sam’s call for long. As if sensing that, the basilisk began to move more quickly, its feet scrabbling at the snow and stones as it pushed toward the feast in front of it.

It paid no attention to Jeric’s continued attacks, even as the scales around its eyes and forehead started to shatter, or to the adventurers all around who were starting to recover from the Aura of Paralysis now that its attention was distracted.

The parts of their bodies that had turned to stone were not recovering, which left Selis and Arena half-crippled, but those with a higher Constitution were starting to move. Lesat was on the border and as the aura faded from him, his strength returned. He and Krana began to rush forward, chasing after the basilisk.

Sam ignored all of it as he focused on the essence in front of him. It felt like his body was tearing apart as the void between the essence stars expanded again.

Come to me!

He called to the essence again, commanding it, and it jerked free of the basilisk’s distraction, flowing across the snow toward him faster as its color began to change to a deep crystal blue. When the first sparks hit his body, it was like cool water on a parched desert, soaking into his skin with an instant sense of relief.

The void stretched before his eyes as the flicker of new stars appeared in the distance. Tiny, blue stars that gleamed with life. They began to spiral around, flowing through the void as they moved toward the darkness.

It wasn’t enough and the strength of his call intensified, pulling more toward him. All around him, the storm of essence surged, turning to a brilliant blue as it flew into him in a swirling cloud.

The dark lines edging his eyes turned bright sapphire as he felt something in his body cracking and expanding. His meridians burned and the lines of the constellation that was the essence formation shifted, carving new lines.

A second system.

The new essence flowed into his blood, filling the darkness with life. Star after star was born as strands of essence connected them together, and they flew into place in the constellation, completing it.

It was a swirling, multi-layered formation that spiraled through his body and soul, its lines gleaming bright blue.

Racial Essence: 1,147 / 1,000.

There was a silence that pervaded everything as the world around him paused. The attention of the World Law pressed down on him with the all-encompassing weight of a mountain.

Congratulations, Essence Bearer. You have formed your initial Essence Constellation and taken the first step to advancing your Race.

Choose your Racial Path now.

A list of options unfurled before him as time froze, but it was a short list.

Your bloodline grants you access to the following paths.

Path of Devouring.

Path of Blood.

Path of the Elements.

Path of Transformation.

Path of Stealth.

Each of them came with a burst of information that was limited, but incredibly important.

The Path of Devouring focused on killing other forms of life and consuming it for energy, and at higher levels, non-living things as well. If he chose it, he would gain a Racial Ability to Devour Life.

The Path of Blood was about commanding forms of blood and life essence, whether for healing or destruction. For that, he would gain an ability for Blood Manipulation, which would grow into more complex things as he gained power.

The Path of Elements was similar to the one he had already started to walk, focusing on the elements that made up existence. Choosing it would add a racial ability for Elemental Manipulation. It was a more general ability than anything he had so far, its reach wider, but more diffuse.

The Path of Transformation focused on changing his appearance, strength, and body. At higher levels, it also allowed him to transform other things. It would give him an ability for Physical Transformation.

The Path of Stealth focused on concealment, infiltration, and deception. It would give him the ability to create illusions, hide in the shadows, and change his appearance.

Both the Path of Transformation and Stealth were tempting, since he would be able to change his appearance with either of them, and perhaps to hide his race and other information. For a moment, he considered them.

No matter how tempting that was, however, it was a short-term goal, and he would be able to accomplish the same thing on his own, as soon as his enchanting improved.

The various paths gave him a great deal of insight into the basic powers of Outsiders, at least of the ones who looked like him.

It felt like time was slow, but that didn’t mean he had all the time in the world to deliberate on the choices, so he took the one that felt the most right to him.

Congratulations, Essence Bearer.

You have chosen The Path of the Elements.

As no Elder of your race is present, the World Core will assist you in configuring your soul essence to align with your Path.

With that, the power of the World Core poured into his body and wrapped around the essence constellation in his blood. A heavy, silver energy poured into the constellation, flowing through the strands.

Under the command of the World Core, the formation shifted, spinning like a nebula as it took on a shape similar to a natural rune. It was only a small change, like aligning the pattern to a particular magnetic pull, but the effect was immediate.

You have gained the Racial Ability: Elemental Manipulation.

For each new layer you add to your Essence Constellation, your ability will advance through a new tier.

He felt a sudden connection, a new awareness of the elemental energies all around him, and then he also felt his attributes rising.

Attribute Gain Quantified by Aster Fall Standard.

Strength increased by 4.

Constitution increased by 6.

Agility increased by 2.

Intelligence increased by 9.

Aura increased by 9.

Then the World Law’s voice disappeared and time sped up again, as he saw the last flickering mote of essence from the Coldfangs disappear into his skin.

Racial Essence (First Layer): 1,151 / 2,500.

STR: 31

CON: 66 (68 with Belt of Gentle Climes)

AGI: 26

WIS: 47

INT: 139 (145 with Starfire Bracer)

AUR: 139 (145 with Starfire Bracer)

CHA: 30

All the aches and broken areas throughout his body flared back into his awareness as he saw the basilisk running toward him. His father was still on top of it and Krana and Lesat were chasing it from behind.

Its tongue lolled out of its mouth like an enormous whip of pink and grey that was stained with its own green blood. Its eyes were disks of furious, swirling essence as it headed for him in an uncoordinated charge, a bow wave of snow surging away from it.