Savage Awakening 111. Testing (I) (Patreon)

Zane touched down and wiped a line of soot off his face.

He looked at the mess he'd made. All the half-melted boulders strewn about, gaping open, showing their swirling lava cores. He smiled.

Yes. He liked this.

Still though...he scratched his head. It wouldn't do to go flying every time he threw a shot.

Cranking up Steely Density would help, sure. It'd anchor him some. But there had to be a way to control these Extinction Smashes too. He felt like he'd gone a little overboard on those last two—they took a good chunk of his essence. Unintentionally. But he could be intentional about it.

Maybe it could be like with Rising Storm Slash. He didn't need to go full bore every time. He could choose how much essence he put into it.

He'd get to give it a try very soon; fires dotted the plains again. Another wave was coming. Giant Magma Golems were spawning one by one, lumbering out of the blaze, lumbering at him, lava streaming down their joints, sputtering a fuming trail behind them. About a dozen on the left, a dozen on the right.

He gave his meteors a little yank, and a little lift of will. And they started hovering. It was unwieldy at first. But as he wiggled them around a little, guided them in little arcs, he got a feel for them. He was shocked how fast they moved. It wasn't smooth like how his axe flew—not at all. These things jerked around. It felt like lightly pressing the gas pedals on a fancy sports car and seeing it jump forward five yards. He had to be careful not to overdo it.

This time he aimed one meteor at the left half. One at the right. He chose a Golem in the middle of each pack so he got the rest in the splash zone.

He knew his meteors would be fast. But he still wasn't prepared when he let them loose. They shot out like cannonballs—these streaks of brilliant howling white, so bright they drowned out the world; they seared a stark after-image in Zane's retinas. It took some blinking to get it out.

Even with Steely Density turned all the way up, he still ended up staggering a step back. He felt the rush of scalding air, heard the blasts roar out—then he saw them.

He'd thrown these things with about half the essence as before.

Still way overkill.

The Golems he'd struck were gone. There were little puddles where they used to be—puddles quickly evaporating. The other Golems were a little more lucky; you could still make out parts of them intact. A stump of a leg. A third of an arm. Something that could have been a torso if you squinted a little. Little fires smoldered everywhere.

That was just the blast. It took a little bit to find his meteors. They'd struck the target, broken through, and kept on going. They'd come to a halt about a quarter of a mile away. They'd left long black tracks as they skidded down the plains.

He blinked. Foundation really was different. And he didn't even have an Elemental Law in this thing. He didn't even have Stormfire in it yet!

The next wave was already coming, crawling out of new flames. He swung his meteors back around. He was getting the hang of it. The backswing was the slow bit. As soon as he locked on, he fired. And the meteors slingshotted out. A horde of golems got whited out. Like that.

Then everything died down. Even the spawning flames. Was that it?

Then the center of the battlefield came alive. Fire exploded out of the ground, shooting upwards, a wall towering so high it touched the burning sky.

And something enormous stepped out.

He knew something was up when what looked like a boulder skyscraper loomed out of the flames. Then he realized that was just one leg. When it touched down, it cracked the ground like an eggshell. Another leg came out, stomped down, and it felt like a minor earthquake. A black-stone torso, flat and big as a cliff, loomed over him, shadowing him totally—shadowing even the craters.

Then came the head, a rugged plateau haphazardly welded on top. Molten yellow veins snaked all over it. Its eyes were shining yellow tunnels. A reddish stone crown was fixed to its block of a head, and when it roared it sounded like an eruption. Fumes poured out of its fissure mouth, trickling for the sky. Lava drool leaked out too.

Pyroclast, the Igneous King

Essence Level 97

It saw him. Its brutal face curved into a frown. It raised a leg to step—

White scorched the air. There was a thundering blast. And it staggered back.

Half its face was now missing. In its place was a smoking, smoldering crater; it looked like its skull was caved in.

Zane hadn't even put that much into that shot. Just a feeler, really.

His meteor was looping back around now. Another cool thing—he didn't need to stop with every hit. He wheeled it back along his Chain and whipped it out again. And it took the rest of the Igneous King's face off.

He grinned. This was fun.

Once the meteor went through, he could swerve it back around, smash it again and keep going. He could do a kind of fluid assault this way. Building momentum as he went, pounding it until it was dust.

He was quite glad he took the time to warm up. He was learning a lot.

The thing wasn't dead. It didn't seem to need a head to function. Now it was bending over, clenching a mountain of a fist. It seemed to want to bury him under it.

So he loaded another of his meteors. Both this time.

Two shooting stars took flight—and socked the giant in the chest.

Then it was like seeing one of those volcanic explosions so violent it tore the whole mountain apart. Chunks of rock streaked everywhere—little mini-shooting stars, trailing debris. The giant's hand came apart right over his head. And its thumb shot down and struck him and crumbled into a thousand little boulders. Boulders that thudded all over Zane, shattering over his body, blocking out all light.

It took a while for the rumbling to stop. Then there was silence.

He had to shove his way out to daylight, coughing a little. He looked to be in the middle of an ashen mountain range—the broken-off remains of massive limbs. That was the first time he'd gotten hit, he realized, and it was by friendly fire.

He felt something new sitting within. A little extra trickle of power, just waiting… was this that 'Wish Upon A Star' Skill? The one that let him reuse the damage he took, like payback? He couldn't use it right now. He had to fill it up first. He needed to take more damage.

Then the scene before him started fading away. Dissolving like he was waking from a dream.

Layer One, Wrathful Inferno, has been cleared. Kill Count: 100

He blinked. When he opened his eyes, he was somewhere else.

Before him lay an ocean. Above there was a full moon. The waters were inky black and still, mirror-clear. The sky melted seamlessly into the sea, like you were stuck in some unfathomably big sphere. A white path of moonlight stretched over it, heading for the horizon. A bowl of stars winked above him.

He was standing on a little barren island. All was quiet.

Then the water started to ripple, shudder, slosh all over with waves. And oil-black tentacles burst out of the water, rearing like pythons.

In a blink he was surrounded.

They lashed at him, snatching up his arms, his legs, coiling around. Their suction cups had some bite to them but they couldn't get under his skin. They tugged insistently, tried yanking him away. But with Steely Density cranked up, they couldn't do that either. They had him pretty well trussed up though.

Shadow Kraken

Essence Level 95

He saw a dozen red dots circling him on his mini-map.

Then they started blasting. Dark essence shot up the tentacles, slapping all over him. It burned a little, but that was all—like having alcohol rubbed on a wound or something. It wasn't doing all that much. He was hoping they'd get some good shots in so he could load up his new Skill. But at this rate he'd be here forever.

So he just brought out his meteors.

He held them up high. And slowly started loading them with power. They felt heavier the more he shoved in. But after a few go-arounds, it was starting to feel natural moving them around. They were really seething now, all bloated up with essence; he could still hold them in place.

Skill up!

Chain Mastery III -> IV

Now there were three heavenly bodies in the sky. Two black suns shrouded in burning white. And one white moon in a sea of inky black. Seeing them side-by-side tickled his brain.

Zane dug his feet in, tensed his arms, and flexed. Hard. His arms wrenched forward, coming together—and with them came the tentacles. And the Krakens exploded out of the water.

He saw them as giant Rorschach-blot things flying overhead, spitting ink everywhere; he caught a vague glimpse of one as it tumbled. A single giant watery eye, rows of bone-white teeth. It clumped in with the rest of its buddies in a writhing whirlpool mess.

Then the suns fell out of the sky.

It was like watching a time-lapse of a sunset, but there was no peaceful sinking beneath the horizon. The moment they touched water, every red dot on his mini-map vanished.

So did several swimming pools' worth of water.

Then it felt like he'd been thrown into some weird tropical hurricane; he was swamped in a mess of swirling, shrieking steam, a sudden tornado racing for the skies. When it cleared—enough to see, anyway—he made out water crashing all over the place. The sea rushed in to fill the void; it overflowed the edges, flooded up his little island, and drenched him in spray.

Level up!

Extinction Smash I -> II

Level up!

Essence Level 100 -> 101