Savage Awakening 305. Titan's Body, First Form (I) (Patreon)

Titan Rhino’s Lung Chunk [Sky (S)]

The bloody chunk let out so much aura it was like radioactive material in the astral plane.

Casually the Barbarian Sage tossed it at Zane. 

Then—“I’ve got to check up on a few pets,” he said. “There's also a few Monsters imprisoned around these parts which could be a bit of an existential threat to the Faction if they got out. Gotta make sure they're down pat.” 

He grinned in a way that made Zane unsure if he was kidding or not. 

“If anything tries to eat you, give ‘em a few good whacks! They’ll go away.” 

He gave Zane a wave. “I’ll be back in a day for the next bit. Happy eating!”  

Then he blasted off, leaving Zane with a chunk of oozing meat in his hand. 

Zane inspected it for a moment. 

Well. Nothing much for it, he supposed. He shrugged, opened his mouth, chewed it for a bit—bit salty—and swallowed.

Then he sat down cross-legged and waited for it to reach his belly—it went down pretty easy. There it began to digest, dissolving to a tingling energy.

Energy that sank deep into his lungs… 

And suddenly there was a burning sensation down his chest. Spiking by the second, heating up each breath. 

Then he felt it—that warm rush of pain he had come to know as the feeling of growth. At this point he was pleased to see it. 

He felt a glut of Bloodline slowly dissolving in his belly, burning up as it spread, sinking slowly into the rest of him. 

Bloodline increased!  

40 -> 42 drops

He sat there, sinking into the feeling. 

His chest was wracked with sparks of burning, tingling pain. Growing pains. 

And slowly his breaths began to change. He could take in more at once—more and more each breath. It wasn’t just air—it was essence. 

Each breath drew in rushed through his whole body, lighting up each muscle it touched—filling them with new energies…

He breathed in. Breathed out.

Bloodline increased!

42 -> 45 drops. 

Endurance had always been one of Zane’s strengths, whether in fighting or other things. He never thought much about his lungs. He always figured he could last as long as he had to. 

He took another deep breath. 

But this was more than just lasting long—sometimes in fights, he clung on barely there. In no fit shape to do much. 

Now he could feel himself recovering. Lasting longer, better. 

The more he breathed the more he felt the difference. It was like his muscles were renewing every time he took a breath—pumped full of new life. He felt he could sustain longer too—push close to his limits, and last there… 

All the while, new Bloodline flowed in. 

Bloodline increased!

45 -> 48 drops. 

Each breath brought new energy. And slowly he could feel that Bloodline seeping into the rest of him—transforming him at the tiniest of levels, from skin to bone to muscle… his whole body felt quite hot. Like it was being tempered in a crucible of Godbeast Blood. Growing stronger. Denser. Purer, slowly forged to higher-grade raw material…

It took a full day and night this time. There was quite a lot of Bloodline in that one chunk. But when it finished up—

Skill evolved!

Indomitable Hide [Mythic+ (E) -> Uncommon (S)]

Skill evolved!

Behemoth Muscle [Mythic+ (E) -> Uncommon (S)]

Skill evolved!

Colossal Tendons [Mythic+ (E) -> Uncommon (S)]

Skill evolved! 

Divine Titan’s Heart [Mythic+ (E) -> Uncommon (S)]

Skill learned!

Goliath Lungs [Uncommon (S)]

Zane breathed out, and stood. He found he had reddened down his whole upper body—he was drenched in sweat. His body the sole  pyre of heat in the frigid night air. Hale flesh amid massive swathes of mists and desolation, ranged far before him….

He felt as good as he could remember, standing there. 

Hard to tell where he was. The true test of his new powers—as always—would be when he was pushed to his limits, though. He had a feeling that would come soon. 

*** 

The Barbarian Sage came back the next day, looking a little burnt. He grinned. 

“Funny thing—just so happens inmate #3 was about to break free!” he said. “Lucky thing I gave it a check, eh? I smacked it a few times, and it settled down.” 

He inspected Zane. “So how’d things go?” 

Zane told him, and the Barbarian Sage nodded sagely.

“I figured you’d take to it well. No heartburn? Nothing?”

Zane nodded again. He felt like pretty pumped up, actually—ready to 

“Great! Next up…”

Out came another chunk of bloody meat, this time squishier, more tube-y. He tossed it at Zane, who caught it.

Titan Rhino’s Brain Chunk [Sky (S)]

“…”

“Here’s the thing,” said the Barbarian Sage, putting up a finger. “We’ve got to get the foundation out the way. The fun stuff I've got planned comes after we get all these pesky body parts refined and put together. You’ve got to complete the First Form of the Titan Body!”

He nodded, crossing his arms. “You're pretty close. Just get that brain done, and we can bring everything together.”

He checked where the sun was in the sky, the way a normal person might check a watch, and rubbed his hands, all eager. 

“Well—speaking of the things I’ve got planned—I’ll have to go check on them, make sure nothing’s exploded or escaped. There’s also a few goodies I’ve got to get out from deep storage. You stay put and eat that brain, you hear?”

Zane nodded.

“Right then!”

The Barbarian Sage grinned, waved, stomped, and vanished into the clouds.

Now Zane inspected the brain.

It did not look like the most appetizing thing. He wondered what it did. 

He supposed he’d see. He opened his mouth, and down it went. Also quite chewy and salty. 

It wasn’t long before he felt a similar burning to the lung. This time starting in his head, like he was running a rising fever. Quickly hot pangs started spreading through his skull, and he frowned. 

A new glut of Bloodline started spreading through him too… 

Bloodline increased!

48 -> 50 drops. 

He was already a good chunk of the way toward his new cap—128 droplets. And as he sat there, face slowly reddening, it went up and up.

Bloodline increased!

50 -> 52 drops.

52 -> 54 drops.

He wasn't sure what he was meant to feel. 

Then—above that fiery haze—he started to sense subtle things. They showed up when he looked for them. He felt the hairs swaying in a gentle breeze. And as he blinked, and blinked some more, the mountain-peaks in the far distance started to come into focus. He could make out each little grain of gravel. Things were sharpening for him, and fast.

Little things—the patterns of heat in the air, sulfur and salt on the breeze as he sniffed… all of his senses seemed to be getting a tune-up.

But there was something else still—something more substantial.  

He couldn't quite put his finger on it at the moment…  

Skill evolved!

Indomitable Hide [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

Skill evolved!

Behemoth Muscle [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

Skill evolved!

Colossal Tendons [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

Skill evolved! 

Divine Titan’s Heart [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

Skill evolved! 

Goliath Lungs [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

Skill learned! 

Titanium Mind [Uncommon (S) -> Legendary (S)]

The heat in his head was dissipating. 

Then he heard a distant, low scraping, reverberating from deep within the earth… 

The mountain began to shake.  

Zane held onto a boulder.  

Sure enough—winding her way up the mountainside, there was Fluffy. Showering chunks of loose granite as she came—a few pebbles shot toward him at high speed. His hand shot up. He snatched them out of the air a foot before they hit his face, and crushed them. 

He blinked at the gravel in his fist. 

That was new.

It’d been a while since he felt he could lean on his reaction times. He remembered he used to be fast enough to dodge things, especially when he saw them coming. But pretty early on he started fighting creatures much higher Level than he was, and he couldn’t quite compete with them in speed. But he could wield his power and durability—so those were the things he tended toward.

He dropped the dust. 

He didn’t mind being hit. But he supposed it would be nice not to be hit by everything, all the time. There was something to be said for being able to explode away at a hair-trigger. It was something to explore, he figured. 

Fluffy sniffed him, and gave him a lick.  

“Hey there,” said Zane, patting her snout.  

She was holding something in her mouth: a branch the size of a small skyscraper. She dropped it on the mountain-peak; the force made all the cottages there jump. Then she looked at him expectantly.  

“What,” said Zane.  

She kept looking at him.  

“…”  

He had an inkling what was going on.

He picked it up with both arms—with his new new strength, he hardly felt that hundred-tons chunk.

Then he reared back, and chucked it into the distance.  

The giant serpent made a u-turn that drowned a vast swathe of the continent in shadow, and raced down the mountain. Zane saw entire peaks flattening in her path as it burrowed underground. She smashed clean through, upending entire forests, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake—until she got to the stick. .  

Then she came back, dropped the branch there again.  

"…" 

While Zane waited for the Sage, he played fetch with Fluffy for a while. 

***

"So," said the Barbarian Sage. "How’d the brain go?"

"Pretty good," said Zane, throwing a thumbs-up.

"Hmm," said the Sage. He picked up a rock. “Ready to duck, lad?”

"Sure."

It broke the sound barrier the moment it left his hand—aimed straight at the center of Zane’s forehead.

Zane’s body almost moved on its own—jerked out the way. He saw the thing streaking past his face in high-fidelity. Catching fire like an asteroid piercing through the atmosphere, exploding to dust. 

“Good stuff!” said the Barbarian Sage, grinning. "The last step is all you’ve got left. We’ve got to put it all together, and make the First Form of the Titan Body. Then your training really begins.” 

He gave Zane a once-over. “Still hungry?” 

“I could eat,” said Zane, wondering where this was going. 

“Good! Well—the last step’s just to max out all levels of each of your body-parts.  You should be at Legendary-Sky, eh?” 

Zane nodded. 

“This ought to do it.” 

The Sage tapped his Interspatial Ring. 

CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. 

Four massive blocks of pure Spirit Steel cratered the ground. So big each was nearly the size of a cottages. They glowed proud in the pale sun—the highest-quality metals Zane had ever seen. In the highest quantities too.

Spirit Steel Block [Sky (A)]

He blinked at them, a bit speechless. 

The Barbarian Sage scratched his head. “Pretty chunky, eh? It’ll take—eh—maybe a week if you digest fast, I’ll wager.” 

He slapped Zane cheerfully on the back. “Better get to it!”