Path of Stars, Ch 7: Battle in the Void (Patreon)

The flare of light from the runes blasted outward as a shimmering rain of crystal flame covered the area around Sam. His time traveling on the way to the Path hadn’t been wasted, and this spell was one of the results.

Hundreds of points of essence flowed into the runes and resonated with the concept of Astral Ice and Fire as those powers infused his crystal flame.

Crystal Storm.

A thousand burning spears took shape around him, each of them with a glinting, deadly point inside a spinning hurricane of force. Crystal flame was a bridge linking the two opposing forces, allowing him to greatly increase the destructive potential. Given their name, these Firesail Void Lizards were probably resistant to regular fire.

Hopefully, this would work better.

His hands flickered with two new runes as he didn’t stop there. Crystal Storm by itself was a large but diffused spell, intended for many enemies. Instead of allowing its power to disperse across all of those spears, he reforged the construct on the fly, fusing everything together. As the mass of energy began to spin, he kept an eye on the lizard that was trying to circle around him.

An angry hiss came from the beast as it lowered its head. The glowing red spikes along its nose and back became brighter than ever as a ruby-colored defensive shield formed in front of it.

That wasn’t all. As its hiss echoed all around, the Fire pool and elemental currents in the area began to warp as streams of flame stretched out, turning into tall columns that soared into the Void. As the lizard pawed at the air, the flames cut across the area like the bars of a cage, arcing around behind Sam as they tried to block him from the open Void.

The lizard’s affinity for Fire wasn’t all show.

In the distance, he could see the rest of the Firesail Void Lizards approaching swiftly and his expression hardened. The sails on their backs caught the elemental currents here like a wing and accelerated their speed. When he saw how quickly they were moving, he was reminded of the warning from the Will of the Path.

The Chaos Wild will be dangerous for you. You are not as strong as you should be.

He shook his head as he shoved the thought away. He only had a few minutes before they arrived and he planned to make the most of it. He ignored the elemental currents and the approaching reinforcements as he kept his focus on the Crystal Storm.

He completed his intensification of the spell with another flickering rune that caused the hurricane force to shrink into a single, intense spiral like a drill. Hundreds of points of essence were concentrated into a single crystal flame spear as the spell blasted toward the lizard.

The spikes on the lizard’s back glowed as a column of flame swept through the air between them, heading to intercept the attack, but with a flick of Sam’s hand, a single shard of crystal flame broke away from the spear and crashed into it. The lizard’s flame erupted in a rolling blast that carried the loose energy away to the side.

Before the lizard could try again, he reached out with Elemental Mastery and grabbed at the flames, twisting them into a sphere that he sent back toward the beast. The loose fireball flew side by side with the Crystal Storm as they both closed in.

The lizard’s hiss was interrupted by something that looked almost like surprise as its eyes widened. It took a strange side-step as its body curled in and its tail swung around to slam toward the spells.

He had to hand it to the lizard. It was brave. Nonetheless, he was fully intending to kill it before the others arrived.

The beast’s tail was a fifty-foot long whip that moved like a striking serpent, but it wasn’t fast enough to fully intercept the spells. Its tail slammed into the side of the fireball at the same time as the Crystal Storm struck home.

The spell tore into the lizard’s shield like a brilliant comet striking a mountain. The spear had the force of a celestial ballista as it bent the shield inward until the defense shattered into fragments. As soon as it gave way, the spear ripped through the beast’s armored scales and stabbed inward, shattering into a thousand smaller fragments that blasted into the lizard’s body.

A fountain of dark red blood erupted as the lizard was sent tumbling, rolling head over tail through the open Void. The columns of Fire that it had summoned collapsed into loose curls of flame as it lost control.

The beast flew backward for hundreds of feet as it flailed, its claws scrabbling at the air, but the spell continued to drive it away until it had spent its force. When the storm dissipated, the glowing red shield that had been part of its defense was nowhere to be seen, and the lizard’s side was a mangled expanse of broken ribs, blood, and deep gashes.

The explosion had shredded its side.

Despite that, Sam couldn’t hold back a sense of disbelief. That was one of the best strikes he could summon, but the thing was still alive. He’d thought the spell would tear in it half, but it was still moving feebly.

It looked like the spell had only pierced about a quarter of the way through the lizard’s body, and apparently that wasn’t enough to keep a Void beast down. In the damaged area where his spell had struck, he could see sparkling motes of essence like a miniature field of stars. The energy was slowly swirling, making it clear that the beast was not at all flesh and blood.

Even as he watched, it seemed to be recovering. Its movements were slow, but it was gathering itself.

A swirl of runes sprang into existence like miniature stars throughout Sam’s aura as he began channeling his essence for another spell, but before he was half done, the lizard’s head snapped around and its fiery red eyes settled on him. Before, it had been looking at him like he was the most delicious thing it had ever seen.

Now, it was furious.

It tilted its head back as its jaws opened wider than he’d have thought possible. Instead of a hiss, this time a horrifying, grinding wail came out. All around, the currents of flame that had been dying down twisted like serpents as they responded, condensing into ribbons that shot toward the lizard at a blazing speed.

When the flames hit, they sank into the lizard’s scales, causing them to glow as brightly as iron ore in a forge. Heat radiated from it in burning waves as its scales began to melt together around the wound. Torrents of flame poured across its body, creating a new layer of armor.

The beast let out another wailing scream as it ignored its injuries as it twisted around to face him. Its entire body was a glowing mass of Fire-infused muscle and it was much faster than it had been before. Its claws left burning imprints on the air of the Void as it charged.

Sam growled as the runes around him formed faster, even as he sent a glance toward the other lizards that were heading this way. The lizard’s pack wasn’t here yet and his emotions were running hot, but he could tell it was time to retreat.

This lizard was far stronger than he’d thought.

He shifted his tactics as crystal flame began to radiate around him. The best thing to do now was to return later when this lizard was alone. Then he could finish it off. With a flicker of will, he fashioned a crystal flame tracking rune in the air and hurled it at the lizard.

The thing was nearly on top of him now, so he had time to see it sink into the scales around its shoulder just as the beast closed in. At the same moment, a wash of crystal flame wrapped around him as he teleported.

Or tried to.

As soon as Crystal Passage activated, he felt a cage of oppressive flames pressing down on him, sizzling with vicious energy as it lashed against the structure of Crystal Passage. The heat of it was strong enough to melt iron, but it was the dimensional pressure it exerted that was the most significant.

It was the same fire bet that the lizard had summoned earlier, which had collapsed and then reformed, but Sam only had a moment to consider the effect. The flames weighed down on the spatial energy here, preventing his teleport.

At the last instant before it reached him, the beast pivoted on its front legs and brought its tail around. The tail was nearly a hundred feet long, but it narrowed to a width of just five feet at the end. It whistled toward Sam with the full weight of the beast’s charge behind it.

It landed against his chest with the force of a collapsing mountain.

He was nearly fifty feet tall and the tail’s impact covered about half of his rib cage where it landed. He felt the crushing compression as the ribs in that area were pulverized and effectively turned into dust.  Shattering pain coursed across his body as he bent backward like a broken kite and flew through the Void.

He might have continued flying for a long time, but only a few seconds later, his back slammed into the lizard’s fire net, which stretched outward like steel cables as it flexed under the impact.

Then it flung him forward again, back toward the lizard.

The beast was waiting in a crouch, its horns and the spikes along the back of its neck tilted down like spears in his direction. If he struck those, he was certain to be impaled on them. He only had a few seconds.

Unfortunately, his body wasn’t responding that quickly yet. He let out a gasp of broken air as a wave of silver blood flooded his mouth and he spat it out automatically. It burned like a flame in the darkness as it floated away on the elemental currents.

But the lizard wasn’t the only one who was born to the Void.

The essence constellation throughout his body was humming more fiercely than it ever had before and energy flooded his limbs and broken ribs, holding them together. In that same moment, a pulse of clarity hit his mind and he reached for an ability he hadn’t used much.

Between one moment and the next, a brilliant pulse of crystal flame flared from Sam’s body. The effect was ghostly as streams of sapphire light spun through his limbs like the refractions inside a faceted gem.

Then he crashed into the lizard’s armored hide.

There was a sizzling pressure as he felt the beast’s flames and the roughness of its armored hide, but the actual impact was limited. He didn’t go through the lizard’s scales, but his body compressed as he became a formless blaze of sapphire flames.

With a force of will, he pushed himself away with a flare of crystal flame, redirecting his movement to the side. His body was ghostly, like a spirit of fire. His limbs were outlined in a haze of crystal light and as he moved, he left a faint trail of flame behind him.

Form of Crystal Flame.

It was the ability his subclass had gained at the Second Evolution and it let him convert his body into something like a fire elemental. In this form, he was almost pure energy.

The impact against the lizard’s scales drained some of its essence, especially when the spikes stabbed into him, but it didn’t hurt him anywhere near as much as it would have with a physical body.

With a pulse of essence, Sam pushed away from the lizard like a shooting star and headed for the open Void. The lizard’s net was still in front of him, but he tore through it with a slash of astral fire from the blade that appeared in his hand and slipped through to the other side.

Then he was clear.

He could sense the lizard chasing after him, but it had been waiting for him to land on its spikes and it took it a moment to get over the surprise and figure out what happened. Behind him, the lizard let out an angry, desolate howl as it looked around and saw its prey escaping.

As for the other Firesail Void Lizards, they were still too far away to interfere. Before, they had seemed dangerous, but now he knew that he’d vastly underestimated them. His elemental form flickered like a candle in the breeze as he released it and returned to solidity.

Without hesitating this time, he channeled a massive amount of essence into Crystal Passage and tore open an escape route through the Void.

Then he disappeared.

All that was left behind was a line of burning silver droplets. The blood floated in the air as it crackled with power, still hissing in the Void.

*****

Sam continued teleporting through the depths of the Chaos Wild until he’d left the Firesail Void Lizards far behind. His essence was running low by the time he found an astral thread heading in the right direction, but he didn’t stop until he stepped onto it.

The power of a star whisked him away, stretching time into one frozen moment, and about half a day later he reappeared again, staggering as he stepped off to the side. His left hand was pressed to his chest as he tried to take a breath, but every sliver of air was like a knife stabbing into him again.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to breathe.

He held himself still as he scouted the area, which was much deeper into the Chaos Wild. The area was vast and held a wild medley of elemental currents, but he couldn’t sense any nearby sources of essence other than the closest stars, which made it rather barren. That confirmed the impression he’d got from the astral thread.

It was why he’d chosen it.

The most notable thing here was the presence of a small blue star, the origin of the thread that he’d followed. It was burning brightly in the distance, casting its light and its unique essence signature across the Void.

Close to him, there was a vast field of rocks floating like islands. Without paying much attention to which one, Sam headed for a rock that was in the middle of the expanse. As soon as he arrived, he sat down and pulled healing scrolls out of his dimensional bracelet.

Waves of sharp and dull pain were radiating from his chest throughout the rest of his body. Not for the first time, he was glad he could force his essence and body to move even while he was injured. Without that, he would have died here.

He plastered the sections of parchment across his chest and let them begin their work, and then he closed his eyes as he turned his attention inward to examine the damage. The lizard’s attack had been far harder than he’d expected and he was a little surprised that his body hadn’t completely snapped in half.

Three quarters of his ribs on the left had been pulverized. They were basically dust held together by his essence. More than that, his spine was fractured in multiple places and the organs on that side of his body had been flattened.

Without his durability as a Titan, he’d have been dead several times over from that one strike.

His chest had been effectively flattened and then popped back into its current shape as his essence held it together, but the underlying damage remained.

It was also proof of something the Titan Star had told him a long time ago, something he’d never fully tested. His body was more like an enchantment than flesh and blood. As long as he held himself together and had time to heal, it was hard to kill him.

Perhaps the lizard was similar, since it had definitely survived a blow that would have killed a normal beast. He’d underestimated its strength.

Despite the situation, his mind was clear and firm. He’d survived and learned an important lesson. The continued pain from his chest was also keeping his thoughts razor sharp as he recalled each part of the battle.

The scenes played through his memory as he began to analyze the lizard, its essence balance, the durability of its scales, the way it healed, and the way it blocked his teleport. Slowly, he was getting a better picture of how things worked in the Chaos Wild.

Astral flames burned around him, heating the rock he was sitting on as he unconsciously shaped it into a more comfortable spot, and his eyes were bright. Time began to flow away like a river as he rested on the floating stone island in the Void and healed.

*****

Several months later, he stretched his arms upward as he examined his injuries. Astral fire rippled easily across his chest for the first time since he’d settled down here to recover. The wounds from the fight with the void lizard were gone.

It had taken dozens of healing scrolls and a long process of restabilizing his essence through the wounded areas, but he had healed. Moreover, the lingering injury had left him with a startlingly clear mind, and the months alone had done a lot to help him think through his approach to the Chaos Wild.

Chasing down the strongest thing he could sense had been too foolish. He needed to work his way up more carefully. There were plenty of smaller things in the Chaos Wild than the void lizards.

While healing, among other things, he’d taken the time to construct another message home. His speed with the spell that the Astral Guardian had given him had improved a great deal over the years, but it still took him a solid month to put it together.

He had to try, but even as he released it, he had his doubts about whether it would be able to reach across the Chaos Wild to Aster Fall. This area was much more distant than where he’d been before.

When he finished stretching, he looked around the rocky slope that he’d made his own. He could have dug out a cave, but he’d felt an intrinsic desire to stay in the starlight of the Void. Hiding under the stone was distasteful. As a result, instead of digging into the rock, he’d reshaped its surface to suit himself.

Now, the area around him was similar in many ways to a large hall. He’d carved the sides into a series of large pillars, which were reinforced with runic wards, and the area in the center was taken up by a long bed, study area, workbenches, and more.

Starlight filtered in from the open Void above and through the pillars on the sides, and he’d engraved an enchantment to channel the essence toward a seat at the center, which looked something like a throne.

Some of the design ideas had come from his memories as a Titan, which the Path had given to him, and a few had come from the designs of the Moonlight Relic, including the tall pillared hall that had once existed at the top of the control plateau. The rest of it had simply occurred to him as he worked.

Given his current size and the designs that felt most comfortable to him, if any humans came across this place, they would probably think it was the home of a giant. The pillars on the sides towered nearly a hundred feet into the air and they glowed with a dense silver enchantment from the runes that were engraved into them.

He looked around at it with a satisfied nod. He needed a place to stay while on the Path and this region suited him. After so much time here in this desolate area, the light of the little blue star felt welcoming and cheerful now, like a friendly candle.

Even in this region, however, it hadn’t been entirely quiet.

The corpses of quite a few chaos beasts were scattered around his rocky home, including some Darkscale Hunters and Fireshadow Stalkers. All of them were outside of the runic pillars. Part of the reason he’d added so many wards was because of them. The attacks since he’d settled down here had been irregular, but constant.

They’d come to investigate while he was recovering, but none of them had been as dangerous as the lizards. Even wounded, he’d dealt with them quickly enough. The fragments of essence from them had helped to accelerate his healing a bit.

Overall, the area was as peaceful as it seemed to get for the Chaos Wild, and it was enough to convince him to make this area his base of operations.

While recovering, he’d spent a lot of time considering where he’d gone wrong with the lizards, and how to improve his tactics and make the most of his advantages. He’d been rushing into things too much and had gotten over his head.

A couple of notable points were now clear to him.

The first related to his sense for distant sources of essence. He hadn’t taken the time to understand it well enough before, but that sense wasn’t as precise as Crystal Focus, where he knew every detail within its radius. It was more like a directional pull, where he could feel that there was something in that direction, but the specifics were missing until he got close enough to see for himself.

The energy he’d sensed from the lizards had probably been the entire pack gathered together, but in his haste he’d missed that detail, since they were all roughly in the same direction of the red suns. He should have considered that there might be more of them than the one he could see.

In the future, he would be more cautious.

The second key point was the nature of the beasts in the Chaos Wild, especially the Void ones that had dense essence. He’d seen several things from the lizard that were informative, starting with its attacks. The flames it used were elemental and had barely any trace of essence in them. They were like an aura-based skill, something unique to its race.

On top of that, even when it had been gravely injured, the essence in its body had not moved in a concerted pattern. It had just been there, passively increasing durability and helping the lizard to survive. As a result, he was certain that the lizard didn’t actively use essence.

It had a high concentration of that energy within its body, but it looked like it primarily increased the beast’s physical attributes and survivability.

The words from the Will of the Path also supported that guess. It had said that of the Primordial Races in the Void, very few had survived into the current age. The two main ones were the Titans and the Vos’Rekan. There might be vestiges of others remaining, but these lizards were not one of them.

Most importantly, that meant the lizard didn’t have the ability to actively use both essence and experience. Instead, it was some type of transitional race, which was where it got its name as a Void beast. It probably absorbed essence passively from the stars and from the prey it caught, which then increased its attributes.

That was why it looked at Sam like he was delicious.

The durability a Void beast gained from essence was enough to make it stronger than normal. Its levels were worth more. When he encountered one in the future, he would have to be more careful.

He was still only Level 202. It would be a little while before he could easily deal with a Level 320 Void beast, even with a Titan’s advantages. He needed to strengthen his own essence first. More than that, it seemed the Void beasts had other skills that were common to the Void. Namely, the way it had blocked his teleportation.

He should have expected that beasts who lived in the Void would be familiar with spatial and dimensional abilities. They were probably common here and the beasts had evolved to deal with them.

He stretched again as he pushed the thoughts away and tested out the movement of his lungs, freely expanding and contracting his chest for the first time in months. Then he nodded in satisfaction. The stabbing pain from his healing ribs had finally disappeared.

When he was finished, he looked out at the small blue star in the distance and then over to the pile of beasts that had attacked him. He’d gained quite a few new auras from them, all at the Heroic tier. Now, he was considering what to do with the pelts and bones, as well as the other materials they’d left behind.

They weren’t the best that was available in the Void, but they were what he had on hand. The pelts could be turned into scroll parchment, their claws and fangs into amulets, their bones into larger weapons. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he studied them.

After a few minutes, a slight smile appeared on his lips as he laughed at himself. These might not be the best materials in the Void, but they were still a higher quality than anything he’d used on Aster Fall.

The Chaos Wild lived up to its name.

Within moments, the beast parts began to float into the air around him, hovering at the center of his crafting hall. Sapphire crystal flame and astral energy flowed in bright currents as he divided them into the important parts and directed them to various workbenches.