Savage Awakening 34. Mount Saint Helens (IX) (Patreon)

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They stared at the bubbling lava pool.

“So…” said Avery, puffing out a cheek. “Same strat? I bait, you whack?”

“I’ll need some time to set up the Cyclone. Once they're sucked in it should line them up. Then…” He made a slashing gesture.

“Sounds good to me.” Avery squinted at him. “Hmm…”

“What are you doing?”

“Memorizing you,” she said.

She snapped her fingers, and another him burst into being right next to her. It looked just like him. Eerily so—down to the lines of the face.

…Was his face really so dour all the time?

“Neat, right?” said Avery. “Here, look!”

Fake Zane started walking around. Rather, lumbering around.

“I don't walk like that,” said Zane. He paused. “… Do I?”

Then fake Zane bent over and leapt into a handstand. He started walking around on his hands. Avery giggled.

“…”

Fake Zane got to his feet and made a goofy grin. He struck a bodybuilder pose. “Aww,” said Avery, “Isn't he cute? Who's my good boy?” She ruffled fake Zane's hair.

Then, still grinning, she looked at Zane's very unamused face. “Uh… right.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry. Let's get started?”

“Let's,” said Zane dryly.

She snapped again.

And fake Zane went sprinting toward the lake, screaming and hollering and flapping his arms like a man on fire. Which he might very well be soon. The Flame Wraiths instantly took notice. The edges of the lake started bubbling. When he got close, a horde of them leapt out and lunged for him, spewing sparks. He sprinted along the lava fall's perimeter, and wherever he went, Flame Wraiths shot out at him, grabbing for his ankles, his legs, but he always found some little acrobatic trick to get out of the way. He stuck out his tongue. He made stupid faces. It seemed to enrage them.

He kept running, and the whole lake started to tremble. Zane started twirling his Axe. By the time his wind was picking up, it looked like the whole lake was erupting at once. There were so many Wraiths pouring out it was shifting the balance of the magma. Magma sloshed, spilling over the banks.

Fake Zane kept running. He was three-quarters of the way round the lake, and the stampede behind him was getting monstrous. Zane couldn't even count how many there were—just a thick press of tiny flaming people.

“Here it comes!” said Avery.

His winds were so loud by now he almost didn’t hear her. The Wraiths flowed in, and the winds snatched them up one by one. They were thrown up in clumps, spinning higher and higher, and so many were pouring in now it actually grew unwieldy, hard to keep straight. Zane was flailing a little. He could hardly distinguish the Wraiths from his own fires. He had to start cutting them down, and fast, or it’d all fall apart.

The winds drew in close, lining them up, and the Axes started their nasty work. They raked one clean line straight up and down the rows, cleaving 20 or 30 at once, then doubled back and ripped through another clump, then another. It was shocking how many there were, even more, more than he could’ve imagined, all screeching bloody murder at him. Two more rakes, and he'd slashed most of them down to size.

The problem was in that time, a huge clump had managed to claw their way to him. He couldn't dodge. He could only grit his teeth as the first few came through and dive-bombed him.

Warning: Health under 75%!

Then another, then another, and his front side lit up in pain.

Warning: Health under 50%!

Shit. There were too many more, maybe a half dozen, and they were too close to stop. He couldn't hold them like this. He had to—

Avery walked in front of him. She flowed right through the scything Cyclone currents, slipped between the edges of his Axes, so easily it was like she was walking through a still photograph. Everything just slipped off her. Her face was scrunched tight in concentration. And as the Wraiths came for him, she took them all, one by one, and flung them back deep into the raging winds.

His Axes took care of the rest.

Level Up!

Essence Level 52 -> 53

Skill Up!

Inferno Cyclone I -> II

He came out sweating and panting. He felt a little dizzy. Avery was in pretty much the same shape—her arms were bright red, the flesh had been burned off.

"You alright?” he said.

"I'm good! Just… a little tender."

He looked out at the lava falls pouring over a now-empty lake. “Want to try it first?”

"Hell no.” She grabbed her bag of holding and plopped herself down by the side of the pool. "I'm done getting burnt. Mind if I..?" She plucked out a handful of mid-grade essence stones. He shrugged, "Suit yourself."

She closed her eyes and started healing, absorbing.

Which left him to try the lava-fall. He walked up the path, down the middle, came real close. It wasn't as loud as a heavy waterfall would’ve been. The flow was slower, but its sounds were much lower, reverberating, like they came from deep in the earth.

A lava-fall which runs from the heart of the Volcano, teeming with its purest, most potent essence. Beware: to experience its flow is also to feel its burn on both the body and the soul. The latter is far more difficult to endure than the former. The rare few who can stand its flow gain the hyper-condensed essence of the volcano itself.

Normal fires didn't burn him anymore. But the Laws running through this fire were higher than his own, at least major. Hmm.

He stuck out a hand, shoved it under the flow.

It scalded his flesh instantly. He felt a strong instinct to jerk away, like he just put his hand on a hot stove. When he removed it, he saw it hadn't been burned much at all. The skin was still there.

That burning feeling was in his mind. This lava scalded him twice at once, in flesh and in soul. He shoved his hand under the flow again and let it sit there, blinking at it. There it was again, that spike of heat, but the pain wasn't physical. All mental.

He observed the pain with an almost detached curiosity. After that first spike, it grew slowly, like it was bringing his mind to a boil, and held him there. It wasn't very comfortable. But it wasn't all that bad.

He took off his shirt, laid it out on the ground, and turned to sit down under the lava fall. He found Avery staring at him, wide-eyed.

"What?"

She blinked and jerked up. "Sorry! It's just… y’know…" she flapped a hand at him. “Abs.”

“…”

“What?” she said, blushing. “Stop judging me! What am I supposed to do, not look? How about I take off my shirt, and you try not staring?”

“…Let’s not.”

He sighed, turned, closed his eyes, and sat down into the rush. Instantly he felt it hammer him into the ground; he had to force his spine upright. All that dense molten steel pouring over him… He gritted his teeth. It did hurt a lot. His body and his soul. And yet…

He felt apart from it somehow. The pain was a feeling floating in his mind, just kind of… there. It grew steadily worse and then leveled off. It wasn't so bad. He kept sitting there, letting it wash over him. Even as it burned him, he felt its essence, dense as the flow itself, pouring all over his back, seeping through the skin.

Soon it was more interesting than it was painful. He'd reached a level of acute pain he'd never felt before. He lost himself to the sensation.

Soon,

Level Up!

Essence Level 53 -> 54

… That easy? He blinked. What had that been, like... three hours?

This was… broken. Far too broken.

He stood and waved to Avery. He had to share this. “Try it," he said. "It's free Levels."

"Really?"

"It won't damage you. Roll the fire off with your Laws. It’ll burn the soul, which hurts. But it's not so bad. It gave me a Level in three hours."

"Oh, wow."

She came over and frowned skeptically at it. “I don’t know…”

"Just try it."

So she did. The instant she sat down—"Fuck, fuck!”

"It's in your mind," he told her. "Yeah," she said through gritted teeth. "I know. FUCK!"

Ten minutes in, she shot to her feet. "Nope, I'm done."

He was just saying it's not so bad if you stick to it—when she pitched over on her face and vomited.

“…”

"I can feel when I'm about to black out, you big dummy. That sucked."

He was a little baffled. ‘Can’t you push through it?’

“It’s not even a willpower thing, it feels different,” she said. “Like a … soul power thing? Look, it doesn't work for me. It works for you because you're like a big hunk of rock! You don't feel things."

He frowned. He did feel things. But he didn’t bother correcting her.

“Anyway—I'm happy sticking to my essence stones. Thanks, though.”

He watched her go. Then—eh. He turned back and started sitting again.

A few hours later,

Level Up!

Essence Level 54 -> 55

And a few more...

Level Up!

Essence Level 55 -> 56

He didn't sleep. He grew obsessed with feeling himself fill up with that wonderfully dense essence. He was starting to like the pain. He was gaining Levels so fast it was dizzying.

In the end, he'd stayed there a full day. And in that time—

Level Up!

Essence Level 58 -> 59

Avery was content to wait for him. She didn't rush him. When he opened his eyes, she was still asleep. At least he thought it was her. She'd curled up into a ball and yanked the cords of her hoodie, so it was hard to tell.

Each time he Leveled up, the essence he needed ratcheted up a lot. That was five easy Levels, but he could sense it’d take maybe another week of sitting here to pour in another five.

Still… no wonder there’d been powerhouses in the 60s or 70s weeks ago. These higher-level dungeons were different.

He would have gladly kept sitting here, except somewhere midway through his fifth level, it dried up.

He blinked. Then he checked with identify.

Crucible of the Volcano is tapped out

Refill time: one month.

Aww.

…Somehow he got the feeling that wasn’t supposed to happen. The description made it sound like you were supposed to quit before the Volcano did.

Zane Walker

Essence Level 59

Signature Title: Savage Sage

Class: Infernal Mauler

Stats:

Vitality: 52.3

Regeneration: 19.3

Strength: 62.3

Dexterity: 25.8

Speed: 19.3

Titles:

Goblin Slayer I (Common)

Dragon Slayer I (Common)

Arsonist I (Uncommon)

Savage Sage (Signature)

Laws:

Minor Law of Ignition (Elemental Law of Fire)

Minor Law of the Undying Flame (Elemental Law of Fire)

Skills:

Weapons Mastery I

Unarmed Striking II

Unarmed Grappling II

Chain Mastery III

Titan’s Fist II

Soul Bind I

Promethean Noose II

Infernal Lash I

Inferno Cyclone II

He felt pumped up as he got to his feet, raring to go. Then he had a sudden thought, a thought that froze him still.

Avery was waking up, stretching, yawning. She blinked at him. "Jesus! Level 59?!”

"Was it too much?"

She stared on blankly.

"I think I did this in the wrong order," he explained. "I should’ve slain the bosses first."

"Why?"

"What if it's too easy now?"

“… I’m going to punch you.”

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A/N: Flying home to visit family on the west coast for Christmas today. Second chapter could come out a little later at night than usual, depending on if I can get wifi on the plane