Savage Awakening 225. Misty Isle (II) (Patreon)

A/N:

Retconned out a line--Avery can't cast an army of simulacra, too much

//

They got within a few dozen feet of the beach when Avery let out a yelp.

“Hey wait!” She ran up, grabbed the back of Zane’s shirt, tried to drag him to a halt, heaving with all her strength. 

Zane did not feel this. He took another step. She yelped again and face-planted.

“Oww…” 

He stopped, blinked back at her as she sat there, rubbing her hoodie, looking a little miffed. Then she was all serious again. 

“There’s stuff in that fog,” she said, nodding. “It’s hiding them from the mini-map—Monsters. A whole bunch of ‘em!” 

Zane frowned into the mist. It was still too thick to make anything out.

“One sec—let me cloak us first,” said Avery. “Then we’ll get a closer look…” 

Zane felt a shimmering touch wash over him. First in the physical realm, then the astral.

Cautiously they crept closer. The mists started shifting, lifting as they neared. And sure enough. Red dots started popping up.

Fat red dots scattered all over the beach like some sickness infesting the biome. They got a little farther in. Past the thick of the mists. And Zane saw them.

First, smack-dab in the middle—

Frost Drake (Monster)

Essence Level 270

A clutch of creatures that looked like Komodo Dragons sculpted of rotting ice—each as big as a Mack truck. Black tongues flickered out of their mouths, leaking clouds of some Ice-Poison Law with each breath. Melting the sands even as it froze them…

And to the right even closer, stalking around on all fours—

Great Zombie Ape (Monster)

Essence Level 272

They looked like Apes blown up a few sizes too big. Their skin was rotted, smoking with frost, as if just taken out of some cryogenic freezer. You could see their bones underneath—like icicles welded together. Poking out of their skin, making shiny icy exoskeletons dense with Law. Fangs poking out between caterpillar lips. Their eyes shone icy blue too. One solid color. 

There was a whole tribe of them. It had to be over a dozen. They had to be the main threat. 

Then, up above, making low circles in the air—

Terrordactyl (Monster)

Essence Level 270

Pterodactyls stitched of the same haunted icy-blue hue. Their tattered tarps for wings beat slowly as they drifted, shedding dirty snowfalls. The air shivered around their mouths as they breathed, distorting… 

It was a scene out of some twisted prehistoric era. Frozen giant dinosaur-things. Panting, snorting, waiting on this lonely Misty Isle.

Reina looked at him in vague alarm, beckoned him back. They retreated into the safety of the mists. 

They needed a plan. 

***

Reina came up with a solid one. 

She wanted to do it in pieces—there were a lot of those Monsters out there. She wanted to bait them out, lead them on a big chase, then pick them off one by one. But Zane could tell she wasn’t much confident in it. Even though she was pretending to be. He didn’t even need Sage Mind—he knew that wide-eyed look of hers. 

This was too tricky. Too much could go wrong. 

Zane knew there was a cleaner way. A better way. They could wreck them all in one big go. 

Reina sometimes purposefully discarded some of the best plans, he noticed. It was for his sake. If she could get away with it, she’d rather spare Zane—she got worried when a plan meant he’d take a lot of damage. 

Zane found this rather cute.

He asked her to trust him. 

He was sure of himself. He had tested his new strength against a few Monsters so far. None could make him feel threatened. They had barely scratched the surface of his new body—literally. 

She hesitated for a bit. He saw the worry in her big warm brown eyes. But in the end she nodded, if while biting her lip.

“Be careful,” she said softly. 

“I believe in you!” cried Evan.

“Yeah!” said Avery, tip-toeing to pat him on the back. “You got this big fella—go get ‘em!”

***

Everyone went into battle mode.

Zane got his hammers out—and readied himself for some heavy-duty blasting. Reina buffed him up with regeneration beforehand, gave him a determined nod.

“Stay back,” said Zane. He pounded his fists together. This could get messy.

They waded on in.

*** 

Avery scampered out first, throwing her hands at the skies.

A beat. Then a deep booming bellow, throaty, ferocious. A dragon's roar crashing over the beach, making all the Monsters jerk up—then the beast itself emerged.

Flames exploded from its brows, exploded from its mouth, exploded from its eyes even—one big black-and-red explosion. 

The Terrordactyls started flapping angrily, started screeching at it, tried blasting the thing but it was too far out. It swerved and bobbed, returning fire. Until at last one of them caught it in the wing. 

The dragon bellowed fresh, very red blood spewing out the wound—really quite a lot of it—wheeled around—and bobbed away in a panic. The Terrordactyls shot right after in hot pursuit, blasting breaths at it, always just missing… 

Now it was Zane's turn.

He strode on through. Reina was right behind him, pouring regeneration through him, warm waves of it coursing through every fiber of his being. His Bloodline began to burn. His hammers flared white-hot at his sides, burning away the mists…

And the Monsters saw him for the first time—the Frost Drakes, the Apes, blinking giant eyes wide at the sight of him. At the sheer breadth of aura crashing out of him.

Zane bellowed.

And struck first. Slammed his arms down in one mighty arc. 

And his meteors crash-landed down the frozen beach. Crashed through dense sheets of ice, shattering them instantly—there was a massive cracking, a splintering, then a chorus of BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! Chain Explosions rattling all over, jumping the sands, and for a second it felt like the whole beach was listing on its side. Floored with searing blue light. 

Furious roars, wounded roars, rang out under the din. Zane saw two or three huge shapes—Apes, going up in smoke—blown skyward, flailing huge fists—

Then the rest of them were on him.

The Zombie Apes came first—and fast. Bounding after him, snorting frosty fumes, each step rattling the ground. Evan gave a cry, sniped one straight in the eye, sent it careening, howling, clutching at its face—But that left ten of them crashing right over Zane, giant hammer-fists falling, Ice and Steel coating their knuckles, made dense with heavy Law— 

Zane narrowed his eyes right through the middle of the pack. Braced his legs deep into the ground. Sent his bloodline as hot as he could bring it, ‘till it was coursing up and down his body, a mighty river… 

Bring it! 

And they did. They smashed right into him. One of them smashed a pillar of a fist straight into his face. Another rammed him in the guts. A third rattled his arms. He felt freezing rushes gripping him everywhere they smashed, deadening all feeling even as all that force crashed through him—a fourth Ape smashed him through the belly, bending him over, a fifth all over his back, and then they were all over him, blanketing him, hanging all over him, bashing over and over—

A living ball of giant muscle writhing all over him, bashing at every bit of him it could find—

Steel and Ice drove the wind out of his lungs. He grunted at every punch. He felt his numbed muscles bruising, and the bones bruising beneath… these things hit even harder than those Wardens. By a lot. 

Those Wardens had shattered him in seconds. But Zane was a new man. 

If he had a hard head before, it was nigh indestructible now. They could make his ears ring. They could batter his body back and forth, make his head whiplash to the force of their fists—but they were not cracking him.

His Health was dropping fast—

But Zane’s will, his focus, held firm. He gritted his bloody teeth. And kept yanking with all the power in his battered muscles—still burning through the freezing, through the bruising— 

His counter was swerving right back around. 

His hammers. Making long, wide arcs, gathering steam, and speed, and power—great missiles dropping, at last. Back home. 

Right in the epicenter of that writhing bludgeoning mass.

It struck every Monster there. Dead-on. Caught them deep in the middle of the blast radius… 

Zane bellowed. His Core flared as bright as it ever had—and he let loose. No reservations.

And his gamble paid off in brutal fashion.

BOOM!

And there was no coldness around him anymore. Not with all that boiling essence rushing out of him, gone in an instant, blooming violently mid-air— a sphere of pure shining raging heat, Stormfire reigning triumphant, whiting out the world, searing straight through ghostly flesh, ramming past those dense sheets of ice, raging through the vitals beneath—

Howls raked the air. Huge smoking beasts flew off him flailing, melting, burning…

These were powerful beasts. Sturdy. With thick exoskeletons. And the blast was spread out among the lot of them—he might’ve only gotten one. But he did manage to shatter six or seven of them pretty badly, make their skin, their bones, look like cracked vases.

They were furious. Wheeling back on him. But he was turning back too, swerving his hammers for a second go-round—

A giant fist crunched into his jaw, made him spit blood. Another battered his belly, and he felt the soft organs shatter there. He gritted his teeth, felt hot salty blood leaking through his split lips—

Warning!

Health under 75%

The whooping screeching Ape-mass tore into him.

Right up until his meteors touched down once more. Dead-on, again. And this time he finished the job. 

Stormfire crashed right through those cracked exoskeletons, found their undead hearts—and erupted them.

Giant Ape-limbs went flying. Torn off of seared bodies. Their blood was permafrost-blue-white, burning up under a hotter, fiercer blue-white; Stormfire raging over everything…

Then there were only a handful of the beasts left. Picking themselves off the ground, heaving, broken.

Zane grinned. Licked his bloodied lips. Reina was already pumping him back up.  He could feel her pride and hope swelling behind him, her relief—he was nearly over 75% again—

Then, a spike of fear. 

“Look out!” she gasped.

And it hit him.

He hissed.

He hadn’t even seen them at first—the beasts came at him from a side blinded with blood. Come crawling through the wreck, the mists. He hadn’t clocked them in all that mess—

The Frost Drakes. They had converged on him. Mouths hung impossibly wide open. And they were blasting him with everything they had. Bloodlines were burning at full tilt.

These things shared a lineage with that Ghoul Eel—but some evolved form, much thicker, denser. A greater shard of the Blizzard Hydra’s powers. And it made Zane feel like he was stuck naked in the dead of winter, frostbite creeping over his limbs… it wasn’t the soul that did it. It was the essence. It crept past his skin, sinking cold teeth into his muscles, a different kind of cold, the kind that froze things dead, that welded them forever together, a deep-freeze…

He felt his Health dipping fast. Living tissue deadening inside of him. Felt Reina straining, doing her best to push it back—it wasn’t enough— 

He snarled. 

Zane’s own Bloodline raged hot in his veins. Slowly pushing back the invasion. But it was five-on-one, and he had his hands full—it felt like five sets of thick heavy chains were lashing him down, making every little move a fierce effort. His joints felt weird, far too stiff—he groaned, tried to turn, tried to get at them, grimacing—

But then the Apes were coming for him again. And this time Zane was slow to recall his Chains. He could barely turn to face them in time. He was burning his muscles hotter and hotter—but they wouldn’t thaw fast enough—

The shadows of giant fists loomed over him.

Shit. 

Evan cried out. A gold flash sniped a beast right out of the air—then the rest were pounding into him again. Getting free cracks into his face, his belly, ringing, blinding him—he heard Reina’s angry cry. He smacked one of the things off him, but another got him in the gut—right in a tender spot where many things had burst already—and he felt a deep lurch of nausea, hunched over, involuntary, hacked out a pool of blood.

Warning!

Health under 50%

Savage Body Activated!

Strength increased 25%

Speed increased 25%

Vitality increased 25% 

Zane forced himself back up. Turned. Found Evan, who was aiming frantically at the Ape behind him. Zane pointed instead at the Drakes’ open mouths.

“HRNGGGG!” he grunted.

For a moment Evan looked baffled. Then—“Ohhh!”

At the last moment he changed course, sniped right through the Drake’s maw. It choked, reeling, jaw snapping shut… and one set of icy chains snapped right off Zane. One arm yanked free. 

And with it he smashed an Ape off him in a brilliant blast of Stormfire. 

Another flash of gold—another cold chain snapping off him—and now Zane was back in the game. His Bloodline, Reina’s efforts, were taking over. Thawing him. His muscles were burning at a peak—brighter than ever… 

A line of hot blood trickled down his temple. He narrowed his eyes. 

The last of the Apes were stumbling back at him. The Drakes were rallying too, closing in on all sides—at the same time he heard a screeching, saw Avery’s wounded exhausted dragon simulacrum limping back, dragging the Terrordactyls along— 

All converging on him. 

It was time to finish things.  

That was the thing about getting Zane under 50%, with his hammers in tow. He got to make use of one particular weapon. 

He gave one last bedraggled roar, and threw hard and true. His hammers shot deep into the sky. 

And hung there. Blazing to life. Shining so bright it hurt to look at—hurt just to be in the presence of it. Sunrise lighting up the underworld. 

Zane brought it crashing down to earth. 

That was the end of the dinosaurs.