Savage Awakening 242. New Powers (II) (Patreon)

The weird thing was, the whole way here they saw no Monsters. Not one—Avery didn't even find any on the horizon. It was as though they'd all deserted.

Maybe they'd already cleared out most of the Monster armies said Evan hopefully. Or maybe they knew they couldn't take on Zane anyways—so they just left. Though that seemed unlikely to Reina. 

Whatever the case, it was a pretty easy path through to the final section.

You have entered: 

Citadel of the Damned

Ahead, circling the Citadel, loomed an imposing set of wrought-iron gates. Made of that same soul-touched steel; tortured souls pressed up against the material, shrieking soundlessly before fading back. There were runes etched throughout—crudely and angrily, as though with a jagged stone. They seethed the color of blood.

Past those gates there was a clear energy difference. Like they led to a new zone—a new Lair… the essence density, the density of the Corruption Law inside, crackling on the air, was otherworldly.

There was something weird going on with that gate, Zane felt. It gave the impression like it was the trunk of a tree—like its roots went deep into the realm. Its aura was that of this world itself. It was the same way with the Citadel.

These things were very old. Set pieces. As clear a Boss Lair as they had seen in a while. Marked out stark on the mini-map.

Reina could already tell it had been tampered with. Just by the auras inside. She was sure there were creatures there too strong for this realm.

Yet they all felt ready. 

They were all evolved. With Reina’s new powers, she could buff him like never before. And Zane’s new powers made it hard for this realm to hold him at times. It would take a lot more than a demon army to threaten them now.

She nodded to Zane. They were all ready.

He started thinking happy violent thoughts. Crushing bones, blood exploding out of shattered bodies. That kind of thing. It gave him a simple warmth in his heart. It got his blood pumping, got him amped up.

He took a deep breath. 

They marched on through.

*** 

As they stepped up the gate swung slowly open, creaking. A long wail of rusted steel. 

They went on through. 

You have entered: Boss Lair: Desolation Field

And sure enough—

Lair lock!

Clearance Condition: survive every Monster Wave that emerges from the Citadel.

The Citadel rose before them, a bleak crumbling tower. It had a gaping black maw of an entrance.

Between them lay a vast open expanse, a shattered landscape of rocks and chunks of smoldering obsidian.

The ground here was charred black. The air thick with static, with Lightning Laws. They coalesced around strange black pillars studded throughout the field, pillars striking halfway up the sky.

Pools of fetid oily liquid were scattered here and there too, like windows to another realm; whispering, eyeless faces bubbled up against the surface, pressing pale ghostly hands against the thick waters before fading back…

Thunder boomed overhead.

The centerpiece of it all stood at the yard’s center. An altar etched with the same runes as the gates. Pulsing with great waves of Corruption energy. The storm overhead seemed centered there, swirling around it, feeding off it, almost…

Then there was the Citadel itself. On the mini-map it was one giant block of red. At first, it looked like a coloring error. Then Zane blinked and realized it was swirling. Sloshing around with a frantic manic energy. Growls and hisses and shrieks issued out of its bleak entrance, so many at once they merged into some awful ear-piercing white noise… 

“Oh, boy,” mumbled Avery.

The Citadel was stuffed to the brim with Monsters.

“They must have been saving them up,” said Reina. “So they could rush us all at once.” Her expression darkened. “They wanted to make us fight the whole realm…”

There was a silence as they all considered it.

“We can do it!” chirped Evan.

Zane figured it was a good time to take out that last gift Zane got—the one from the Azure Flame Faction. The Earth S-Ranked Talent Elixir. 

If that last big battle had been a great chance to Level…

***

They'd hardly finished drinking when the Citadel began to rumble. Began to shiver down to its foundations, leaking gouts of smoke, as though about to collapse… there was a great shift happening in that tower. 

Auras descending en masse.

The Monsters were coming. 

The Citadel’s entrance was like the entrance to a cave of endless depth, a stark black cutout in the world. They started seeing vague shapes materializing from the gloom. 

Wave One

Begin

Zane began to burn. And it wasn't long before he started noticing the difference in his body. The first thing was his new heart. Every thump came fierce—like he had swapped out the engine of his body, the part of him that powered everything. His whole body thrummed with new vigor. His blood flowed faster, hotter—essence rushed through his muscles, lighting up every last fiber. 

He felt alive. More alive than he ever had. Powerful just standing there, trembling. A dense pure energy began building in every inch of him—down his arms, his legs… 

He clenched his fists. His aura flared. He stared down his enemy.

The demons emerged from the dark. In one vast horde. 

The ones they’d fought had been like dinosaurs decomposed, black rotting bodies, white bone sticking through tattered skin, making exoskeleton armors, limbs all out of proportion. Mistakes of nature. 

The demons coming at them now made even less sense. Heads to either side of their bodies, two, three arms welded on lopsided, prowling in drunken gaits, teeth sticking out of every conceivable place. Creatures ripped straight from children's nightmares.

Great Corruption Demon (Monster) 

Essence Level 299

Their sick warped auras felt almost double as strong as the demons that had come before. They’d fused. Grown even more monstrous. Reina let out a little gasp. 

And they just kept coming. Slobbering tar, growling…

Zane’s Chains flickered to his hands.

Hammers for now. The Notifications had mentioned that these things would come in waves. If he used his axes, his Cyclone, it would be all or nothing—he would burn out too fast. He had to be sure he finished them all by the end.

Waves, one by one, would be a matter of endurance.

He sensed much smashing in his future.

This first wave seemed to be just getting started. Enough Monsters had spewed out to fill half the enormous yard, seventy or eighty, and they just kept coming. Greater Auras too. Nascent Auras…

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. 

Heavy footsteps trembling the ground—and three Monster Knights ducked out of the Citadel. One by one. Groaning, knuckles dragging against the ground, making furrows deep as riverbeds… 

Netherworld Giant (Monster Knight)

Essence Level 319

Then—stalking out behind them—

Blight Wolf (Monster Knight)

Essence Level 318

Two big ones, the size of pickup trucks. 

Five Monster Knights in just the first wave. 

They really were throwing everything at him. 

The last of them were coming out now. And the horde was complete. Running one end of the Lair to another. Too many to count, all gnashing curving teeth, acid drool, cracked red eyes, nightmares in flesh... 

Zane’s eyes narrowed. 

They could throw however many as they liked at him.

He felt his heart pounding stronger than ever. Proud, blazing with life. 

He would see who fell first. 

*** 

Reina had his back. Evan and Avery at the sides, ready to help as the shambling army advanced on them.

Zane lifted his hammers. And Stormfire blazed to life. Two purple suns suspended in air, burning out the dark.

The Blight Wolves snarled. The Netherworld Giants groaned deep. The Monsters let out all manner of grotesque war cries.

Zane let out a bellow to match. 

He smashed down a step. And barreled straight into the thick of it, hammers flashing.

Then it was not so much a battle, but a slaughter.

He felt at that moment like a charging Titan Rhinoceros, felt viscerally the immensity of the power in his body as he let loose his first hammer-blow.

It sank straight through the head of a Giant, crashed out the other side—and the massive beast's jaw shattered, skull ruptured, black blood exploding out the ears. Then the huge head was falling, a meteor of Stormfire careening to the ground…

Zane’s second hammer struck dead into the heart of the army. And lit up the battlefield.

Rotted limbs showered like debris. Burning up brilliant purple, shattering first on the impact, smoking up mid-air as the fires did their work…

Zane just kept smashing. Roaring. He struck left—and crushed a swathe of souls, a dozen Level 290s beasts—smashed right and crushed a Monster Knight flat, driven twenty feet into the ashes, splattered in a smoldering crater.

He was a machine of fire and blood. Everywhere he turned he wrecked. The difference and what he was made of was so clear to him now. These creatures, these lesser bodies—their teeth scrabbled against his skin, fists and claws pinged off his back, his chest, even his head, finding no purchase on his muscles, finding no weakness in his bones, breaking themselves uselessly against him. Even as he turned, and lay waste to them. Every little movement. Every stomp, every punch, was done with a ferocious new power.

His heartbeat thumped strong in his ears. 

These creatures could not contain him.

He mowed down the army’s whole left side in a chain of Stormfire blasts. The Blight Wolves leapt for him more desperate than fierce, blazing Corruption—his hands shot, caught them by the scruffs of their massive necks, stopped their momentum dead, until they were thrashing in his iron grip, giant red eyes bulging helplessly. And by now his skin was burning so hard it scorched theirs, melting the skin to slag; they howled even as they choked.

He slammed the beasts into the ground. So hard he split fissures down the length of the yard. Felt with great satisfaction the way their bodies gave way—the bone shattering, the muscle tearing under his fists…

When he let go of them you couldn’t tell what they’d been. The way squashed bugs look—just bloody splotches, smashed flat beyond recognition. 

He turned back caked in blood. None of it his own. Black blood all down his front side, staining his back too. Teeth bared.

And lay waste to the rest of them.

A/N: Sorry about the delay folks! Had to scrap and rewrite yesterday’s chapter b/c I discovered an issue in editing that derailed it

Chapters are scheduled for release at 6:30PM PST, if it’s not out by then, assume it’ll come out the next day—don’t want to keep y’all refreshing