Savage Awakening 66. Thunderdome (II) (Patreon)

(2/2)

The instant Zane stepped out of the stairwell, they were on him.

Stormtalon (Monster)

Essence Level 52

Laws:

Minor Law of Spark (Elemental Law of Electricity)

Key Skills:

Wing of Lightning (Active) [Uncommon]

Each beat of the wings spawns a lightning bolt, wounding and stunning the enemy.

They swooped in low, cawing, whipping out their wings. Spears of light stabbed him so fast he couldn't even block. It was like getting a flashlight shone in his eyes, but much more painful. He hissed as the shocks rippled through him.

He slashed, slashed again, tried shooting out an Axe. He knew it was useless. The stupid things just flickered away, cawing loudly. He sighed.

Grunting, he kept making his way down the gorge. They swooped back around, started stinging him again from behind. He threw up a few Slashes. He didn’t know why he even bothered. He was just too slow.

Fuck it.

He started up a Cyclone. He’d do it brute-force if he had to. One revolution, two—

He hissed. A glut of lightning struck him all at once, and for just half a second he went still, spasming. He lost the Cyclone. A herd of Stormtalons drifted overhead, laughing at him.

They couldn't hurt him, or even paralyze him for long. Just pester him. What kind of dumb fight was this?

God, he hated birds.

It wasn’t even that they pestered him, though that certainly didn’t help. They kept teasing him with a real fight. Then not engaging! They got him all hyped up for nothing.

Fine. He’d just ignored them, then. He resigned himself to getting pot-shotted. It wasn't like they could do much. They were like the Ravens and Lightning Spirits mixed in one very annoying package.

He felt them swooping overhead, zapping at him, flitting away. They kept screwing with him as he marched.

He couldn't wait to get this over with. He'd been here hardly five minutes and he was already done with his floor.

There was a Treasure Area up ahead, sticking out this side of the wall. As he drew closer, he saw it was a cave mouth—

Cavern of Insight (C)

Sanctum of the Thunder Oracle

The Thunder Oracle, a millennia-old obelisk, lies at the heart of this Cavern of Insight. It casts a field of Electric Law, enriching all those in its presence. A haven for those who seek the secrets of Lightning.

Zane peered in, scratching his head. Its steel walls ran with pulsing electric-yellow veins.

He looked back at those stupid birds, then at the Cavern again.

Hmm.

He strode on in. Eventually the tunnel it opened up into a Chamber. There was a monument at the center of it—a rod of steel scribed over with glowing runes. This must be the ‘obelisk.’ You could see the density of the Electric Laws running off it before you felt it—it trembled the air around it.

Interestingly, there was some kind of Steel Law at work too, twining with the Electric Law. He felt an overlap. It made sense. One conducted the other, right?

Now that he thought about it... lightning strikes released energy. Same with fire. Lightning caused fires, right? There was some kind of natural connection between all three of them, he felt. He scratched his chin. Making that connection was a little beyond him right now, though. Right now he could only feel the vague shape of it.

He let the thought sit for now.

He had two choices. He could go out there and take his chances with the Thunder Roc. He had a sinking feeling it'd be even more annoying than that Raven, which was saying something.

Or.

He pulled the Thunderfoot Scroll from his Bag of Holding.

Hmm.

Originally, he'd thought he'd get a movement Skill like that demon Azeroth’s. Made from Fire—some kind of rocket-launcher type Skill.

But this would do just fine.

He was going to save all his Law stuff for one big binge, too. But maybe he could make an exception.

Let's even the odds.

He took out the two Lightning Law Fruit he'd got and downed them in four big bites. A cozy warmth washed through him…

He checked out the Scroll.

This Skill Scroll contains the Rare Skill 'Volt Blitz,' an explosive stomping Technique. Crafted by Elder Yu of the Black Bolt Faction, after a meticulous decade-long study of the movement style of the Thunderfoot Zebra.

Prerequisite: 2 Minor Laws of the Elemental Law of Electricity.

Time to get to work. I’ll show you. Stupid birds.

…If Avery were here, she'd be dying laughing.

He’d need Minor Laws first, and he had something to go off of. He was thinking about the Thunderous Beast. The way it charged. That was the Major Law of Discharge, wasn't it?

He closed his eyes. His head tingled with the rush of the Law Fruit. His head felt dreamy but not sleepy, perfectly clear.

When he thought back on how that Thunderous Beast had charged, the move came fully-formed into his head. As clear as if he was seeing it for the first time.

He saw the way the Beast pawed, the way it tensed, the way the essence flowed down its body, made shockingly vigorous by the Laws flowing through it. It was a sudden thing—taking it in all at once, holding it there, under immense pressure, down to the feet—and kicking off instantly. In a massive burst of power.

…He already knew this, kind of. It was pretty similar to Eruption, wasn't it?

He watched it through again, paying careful attention. It really was similar. He felt he got the gist of it after just a few watch-throughs.

The more you put the two of them together, the more a strange sparking happened in his mind. They connected in so many ways—he wondered if it was like this other Laws. It felt like it should be…

He went through it again, and again, and the picture filled out in his mind. It was about weaving in the Laws, concentrating the power. Then letting it suddenly loose. An explosion. But the way it expressed that explosion was different from fire. Eruption was a continuous thing. This was instantaneous, but it wasn't directionless. The rest he knew. He honed in on the difference. That point, the point of contact.

He watched back the moment the Thunderous Beast kicked off, searching for the crack there. It didn’t take long to find it. He peered into the beyond, trying to make sense of it…

It wasn’t long before—

Law Comprehended!

Minor Law of Spark

Neat.

He had some more Fruit left in him, and his head was still buzzing with the thrill of the learning. He dove straight into the next one. It was so close to the Spark Law he felt he already knew half of it. If there was a Spark, there had to be a buildup, right? A charging. And it came in the way the Thunderous Beast crouched down, the way it commanded all that essence to flow through, to hold still, to ready for the moment of impact…

Law Comprehended!

Minor Law of Charge Accumulation

How long was that? Time was tricky in Law traces, but there was no way that took longer than half a day. That was the fastest he’d ever learned a Law.

He was starting to wear thin, but he had all he needed. Just one last thing to learn.

He pulled out the Thunderfoot Scroll and sat down with it beside the obelisk. Right in its charged embrace.

He closed his eyes, crossed his legs, and let his body dissolve. He breathed in, out, in…

It didn’t take long before he was gone. He wasn’t in some gorge in Portland anymore, but in some unknown space, floating outside his body, a pure space of the mind.

Colors flooded that space. Shapes. The scene shifted…

He stood there, crouched in the middle of a vast plain. Not him—he was seeing through the eyes of Elder Yu, he guessed. It was dark. Thick thunderclouds rolled above, low to the ground. It seemed about to rain. The straw yellow grasses went up to his waist. Huge shadowy beasts lurked in the distance; deep howls carried on the winds. But those were all blurs. Elder Yu had eyes for just one creature.

And it was magnificent.

A zebra, but like none Zane had ever seen. This thing's coat had an understated gleam to it, like expensive metal. And it was huge, well-muscled, with its head held proudly high, a stallion with stripes. It snorted and a little thundercloud blasted out of its nose, crackling with tiny bolts of lightning.

It fired at the ground, and its stripes began to glow. It was starting the Skill. Zane tracked the way its powers coiled down its legs, coming to a simmering rest on its massive hooves. It wasn't the same Skill as what the Thunderous Beast used, but so much of the mechanics seemed similar…

It didn't leap. It blasted off. The force was immense—you didn't even see it go, just saw the blur of it, the bright afterimage left as it streaked into the distance. There was a crack as it broke the sound barrier. Then it was one white line fading into the horizon.

The instant it moved the savannah flattened. Grasses were mowed down as though they were bowing in awe. And all the Zebra left behind were its hoofprints shining in the dirt.

The scene faded, but the hoofprints lingered. Zane blinked.

Skill learned!

Volt Blitz [Rare]

Zane breathed out. To his surprise, he saw his breath crackling a little with electricity—sparking with it, just like the Thunderfoot Zebra’s.

He grinned. Oh, yes. This will do just fine.

Standing, he stretched out his arms, his legs. Then he left the Cavern.

He had hardly gotten out before the Stormtalons found him again. They started circling, cawing, floating around him.

Damned birds. Round two.

He had a plan. No Chain this time, no Axe—too heavy. He needed pure speed. He’d take them down one by one if he had to.

He started charging up for the Stomp. The Minor Law of Charge Accumulation poured through his body, his essence pooled into his feet, crackling fast. The birds saw he was up to something. They started shocking him with those Lightning Wings. He’d planned on just tanking these—it wasn’t like he needed to be in motion to charge up, like with his Cyclone. But this time the charge poured straight through him, down to his feet.

…He’d just absorbed it. Huh.

Maybe it was because it was an Electricity Skill? It was already charging up, so it just took the new energy?

The transfer was weirdly smooth. Before, it’d gone straight into his internal organs, or his brain, or his muscles. But now his body just caught it and used it.

Something about the way Steel Laws wove into his body, working with Charge Accumulation… there really was a synergy. Maybe the universe was made to work together. He had that weird feeling again. Maybe at some very, very high level, it all came together. 

Anyway. Back to the matter at hand.

The Stomp. His essence was well and truly loaded now. His feet had so much electricity they physically hurt. His skin was straining to hold it all. Go time.

He coated his body with Fire Laws.

Volt Blitz!

He would later realize charging his Volt Blitz for ten seconds straight, and pouring so much energy into it, was way overkill. He didn’t realize it in that moment. In that moment he was just hyped.

Then he stomped.

One moment he was on the ground.

The next moment he hit the side of the gorge so hard he gave it a new crater.

…Ow.

As he slid to the ground, massaging his face, he tried looking on the bright side. At least he knew the thing worked. He was still clumsier than he would have liked, but he could move now. He could really move now. In spurts, at least.

He looked up at the birds. They seemed to be laughing twice as hard.

…Okay, so he deserved that one.

But they wouldn't be laughing for long.

He had a feel for it now. He just needed to get the essence just right.

He crouched down, and aimed for a bird perched right above him.

Volt Blitz!

One moment he was on the ground. The next air whooshed past him, the cliffs streamed by. Zane caught the briefest glimpse of the bird—the sheer disbelief in its face as it clocked the giant clunky human hurtling toward it at mach speed. There was a squeal, a splattering, and he was spitting out feathers. He looked down.

Below him where a Stormtalon had been a second before, there was now a fireball. Its buddies went flickering away, screeching in fright.

He’d made himself a human flaming cannonball. And he'd slide-tackled it out of existence.

As he fell, he had the biggest stupid grin on his face.

That had no right being so satisfying.