Chapter 291 - The Best of a Crushing Situation (Patreon)

Zeke pushed with all his might, but his efforts were to no avail. Not only were those tendrils just as strong – or maybe stronger – than him at the most basic level, but he’d been caught in an awkward position where he couldn’t gain any leverage. In the back of his mind, he knew that was by design. The abyssal maw was clearly an ambush predator, and it wouldn’t have revealed itself, much less attacked, unless its success was assured.

But Zeke had a few tricks up his sleeve that he hoped would turn the tables on the creature. Even as its thigh-thick tendrils constricted and crushed, he pulled earth mana from the ground via [Metallurgical Repair]. It provided some relief, but Zeke could sense that the reprieve was temporary. Already, the maw had redoubled its efforts, outpacing the regeneration provided from his skill. Not by much, but enough to ensure his destruction. It would be a painful process of hours, but he would eventually succumb to the monster’s crushing efforts.

Relief, short-lived though it was, poured through his body, mending bones and stitching his internal organs back together. Immediately, those same bones re-cracked, and his organs burst once again, starting the process all over again. However, in the next cycle, the healing didn’t quite complete before the constriction renewed the wounds all over again. Every passing second lost more ground.

But the skill bought him some time.

Dividing his attention, Zeke embraced [Weight of Two Worlds], increasing the surrounding gravity exponentially. However, to his horror, the abyssal maw was completely unaffected by the mounting pressure. Certainly, Zeke could see it being compressed, but it didn’t show any signs of real damage. It shouldn’t have been surprising, given the thing’s amorphous body, but with the pain of being crushed over and over, he was in no position to consider it.

Seeing that his skill hadn’t had much affect, Zeke changed strategies. Immediately, the increased gravity dissipated, replaced by an opposing pair of forces. One pulled the creature toward the cavern’s ceiling, the other toward the ground.

This time, the monster reacted.

A shrill screech filled the air, and the shapeless blob of the maw’s main body writhed in obvious pain. But the crushing pressure applied by its tendrils didn’t weaken. In fact, the tendrils rippled with power – they seemed to be comprised almost entirely of muscle – as they flexed, bringing even more strength to bear.

He let out a breathless scream as his entire body was crushed, but he wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t. It just wasn’t part of his nature.

Zeke poured more and more mana into his skill. Pinned in place as he was, using that skill was his only hope. But it wasn’t enough. The skill could only do so much, and soon enough, he would run out of mana. Normally, that wasn’t an issue – he didn’t use a lot of active skills during battle, and when he did, they were usually efficient in their mana usage. [Weight of Two Worlds] was the exception to that rule. When it was active – especially in its current form – its hunger for mana was ravenous. Not surprising, given its effect.

But when that effect came up short, it presented a serious problem.

As he was slowly being crushed to death, Zeke felt the mana rushing out of him in great torrents. The monster continued to scream in pain, but whatever damage being done clearly wasn’t enough. In the past, Zeke had ripped weaker monsters in two with that skill, but the abyssal maw was much too tough for that.

Zeke needed more.

More power. More mana. More force.

He gritted his teeth and seized upon his martial path. A green mist erupted across his body, but without any way to apply the power of his path, it was useless as anything but untapped potential. He tried to push the power into his skill, but try as he might, it didn’t work. There was something between the skill and the flood of energy at his fingertips, some sort of barrier that simply wouldn’t let it pass.

His panic rising, Zeke let out another breathless – and ultimately impotent – roar. The abyssal maw’s shrieks continued to fill the air, but it was clear that the monster wasn’t going to stop.

For long minutes, Zeke continued to struggle through the cycle of his body being crushed and rebuilt, but nothing he did seemed to work. He was still losing ground. Bit by bit. Minute by minute. His bones and organs just didn’t have the time or energy to complete the mending process before the crushing pressure broke them down. It was a losing battle, and Zeke had no idea how to stop it.

But he couldn’t quit. He refused to give in. If this thing was going to kill him, then so be it. But he wasn’t going to make it easy. So, his pointless battle continued until the ceaseless pressure rendered him mindless. There was nothing but the pain and struggle.

Zeke had no idea how much time passed. It could have been minutes or hours, but it didn’t matter. He sank deep within himself, focusing every ounce of his being on the conflict.

Until his mana started to sputter out.

No. He wouldn’t die. Not like this. There had to be a way.

But there wasn’t. The tyranny of strength was such that, at some point, he was bound to run into something he couldn’t defeat. Even if he did everything right, he was always destined to find a fight he couldn’t win. The abyssal maw represented that inevitability. With its crushing tendrils that wouldn’t even allow him to move, he couldn’t bring his most potent abilities to bear.

He was powerless.

Weak.

“No!” he gasped, the lack of breath in his lungs rendering the word inaudible. But the sentiment remained. There had to be a way! Some loophole he could exploit. Some weak point he could target.

Feeling his body breaking down, Zeke pulled on the earth mana at his feet harder than he’d ever pulled before. A torrent of the earthen energy flooded into his body, but his skill could only heal him so fast. It still wasn’t enough.

Slowly, as Zeke fought a losing battle, his consciousness sank within himself, and his inner eye was nearly blinded by the sheer magnitude of the energy expressed by his martial path. It was so bright. So powerful. So much strength, there for the taking – but in this situation, it was entirely useless.

For long minutes, he grasped at any thread he could, and all the while, his situation grew more and more dire. His mental efforts grew more desperate, and at some point, he lost the ability to think rationally. Instead, he acted on instinct. On feel. And then, by happenstance, he stumbled upon something that actually worked.

With great effort, he siphoned a tendril of earthen energy away from the torrent flooding [Metallurgical Repair] and shoved it into the flowing mana heading toward the sputtering [Weight of Two Worlds]. The moment those two energies combined, an explosion of strength raced through the skill.

The abyssal maw’s shrieks had already been loud, but for a brief moment, they were absolutely deafening. Suddenly, Zeke’s conscious thoughts emerged from the agony and latched onto what had happened. However, the moment the explosion occurred, the earthen energy was rejected, and Zeke nearly lost control of his skills from the furious backlash of raging mana.

He flexed the power of his mind, narrowly maintaining control before forcing the earthen energy back into the flow of unattuned mana. It reacted much the same way – a surge of power followed by rejection and painful backlash. But it was something. It represented a thin thread of hope, and Zeke wasn’t going to let it go.

He tried again.

And again.

Over and over, he marshalled every ounce of willpower he possessed, but it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t control it. Something was missing. It was like he lacked some vital piece of the puzzle.

It didn’t take him long to turn his inner eye toward his martial path of force. Even when it had been represented by his focus on blunt weapons, Zeke had always known it was powerful. But in its raw form, it was so limited. It could augment his attacks, and back in the demon realm, he’d caught a glimpse of what it could be in the future. However, even that had felt like he was only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There was more there. Something important. Something integral to the entire system provided by the Framework.

So, taking an intuitive leap, Zeke grasped the energy created by his martial path and used it to force the earth mana to mingle with the river of unattuned mana flowing into [Weight of Two Worlds]. When the two energies came together, it exploded in familiar fashion. But with an effort of indomitable will combined with the well-earned path of force, he formed a barrier from which even that explosive energy couldn’t escape.

The result was instantaneous.

Heralded by a notification he didn’t read, the skill itself changed, and the earth energy already flowing through Zeke’s body split into two. Then three. Then four. Branch after branch arced through Zeke’s body, and as it did so, the unattuned mana fueling his skill took on a yellow tint.

Even then, it tried to run rampant. It wanted to explode throughout his body. But Zeke stubbornly held, and with each explosion, the mana continued to change until there was almost no difference between what he felt flowing up from the earth and the mana that ran through his body.

And with that transformation, the power of [Weight of Two Worlds] erupted. Unrestrained, the potency of the two opposing forces of gravity exploded, and to predictable results.

The shrieks of the abyssal maw never even had the chance to increase in volume, it happened so quickly. One second, Zeke’s body was bound by the monster’s crushing tendrils, and the next instant, the maw was being ripped into two pieces. The pair of halves stubbornly held on, but they couldn’t stand up to the increased pressure. With a horrifying squelch, they tore completely apart, and the two parts when in opposite directions. One hit the floor, splattering as if it had been dropped from an altitude of thousands of feet. The other went to the tunnel’s ceiling, hitting with similar results.

The tendrils weren’t spared, though as packed full of muscle as they were, the results weren’t nearly as dramatic. Instead, they only experienced a few rips and tears before they went limp.

The moment the pressure ceased, Zeke collapsed to the ground and released [Weight of Two Worlds]. He had the presence of mind to maintain [Metallurgical Repair], but even that was a strain.

Kneeling on all fours, his breath coming in ragged gasps, Zeke felt like someone had driven a series of spikes into his brain. It seemed there was a price to pay for his actions. Or perhaps he was simply wrung out from the struggle.

But against all odds, he had managed a victory.

And he’d been rewarded for it as well, judging by the notifications. First, he had achieved another level, bringing him to thirty-five. At thirty-four, he had allocated his two free points into agility, bringing it to fifteen. Now, he pushed the extra points into dexterity, and he intended to keep alternating between the two stats until they reached twenty.

Even though Zeke wanted to check his other notifications, he took a moment to admire his status:

And he had to admit that he was impressed with the progress. With the automatic allocation that came with each level, his strength and endurance had continued to rise. To a lesser extent, so had intelligence and wisdom. The only stat lagging behind was vitality, but Zeke felt that it was a little silly to invest too much into that category when he had [Metallurgical Repair] at his disposal. At some point, he would have to, he was sure of it. But for now, he had other priorities.

Satisfied with his allocation strategy, Zeke moved on to the first notification he’d received:

Congratulations! You have upgraded your attunement (Earth) to E-Grade. With this improvement, your body can draw upon attuned mana to fuel skills. Warning: not all skills will react well to all types of mana.

That explained the influx of power he’d experienced. Zeke was almost certain that there was a better way to advance his attunement – perhaps it was intended to be a slow process – but he’d never been all that patient. Using his path of force felt almost like a shortcut, and he could only hope there wouldn’t be any negative consequences for doing so. Either way, he couldn’t regret his actions because that was the only way he’d been able to survive the abyssal maw’s ambush.  If he hadn’t resorted to desperate measures, he would have died.

Of course, with his body being crushed and nothing he’d tried working, the combination of pain and panic had pushed his rational mind aside anyway. So, even if he could have rationalized a reason not to push the advancement of his attunement forward, it would have fallen on deaf ears.

Pushing himself upright, Zeke remained on his knees. As he did so, he felt his mind returning to some semblance of placidity. As it did, he couldn’t help but notice a vague knowledge of his surroundings. Certainly, he could see everything well enough – after all, his senses had improved with every evolution of his race, giving him fairly good night vision – but even if that hadn’t been the case, Zeke felt certain that he could’ve pinpointed the details of the terrain.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was related to his new earth attunement. Apparently, the ability to fuel his skills with attuned mana wasn’t the limit. In addition, it gave him a sixth sense of his surroundings. Naturally, the remains of the slain abyssal maw, which had flopped to the ground after he’d released his skill, were invisible to this new sense.

Would the sense work as well above ground? Probably not. But down in the mines, it could prove an invaluable tool; Zeke just wasn’t certain what role it might play. Either way, more information was never a bad idea, so he welcomed the new addition to his senses with open arms.

It would take a little time to adjust to the extra information, but Zeke was nothing if not a hard worker. So, he had no doubts that he could figure it out.

Finally, Zeke moved on to the final notification. With his ascension to level thirty-five, he now had the option of choosing a new skill.