The Gamer Chapter 1530 – Thrill? [Rave POV] (Patreon)

The world they found themselves in was one of brightness. At Rave’s feet was an expanse of sparkling grains. They did not lie flat on the ground, instead forming vast dunes, blocking much of her sight. Had it not been for the sheer number of grains breaking the light, the surfaces of these piles of multi-coloured sands would have been blinding. Instead, that reflective glory was reserved for the vast obelisks and other semi-natural formations that extended outwards from the desert, their shape defined by the gradual grinding of sandstorms.

Rave stared right into the light. Her pupils narrowed. When she looked away, not even a hint of the white had seared into her retina. As a Lightbearer, she had been largely resistant to the negative effects of natural light to start with, but as a quarter elemental she was effectively immune.

“So, does this feel like home?” Rave asked, while walking towards one of the two conspicuously raised pedestals in the valley between two dunes. Her opponent, Singed, stopped for a moment to look around.

“When I was… regular alive, the Sahara was considerably greener,” Singed revealed.

“Hol’ the phone, the Sahara used to be green?” Rave asked.

“Not green, greener – although old man Orkos often talked about how it used to be lush at one point or another.” The broad shoulders under the red robe moved up and down. Then, the helmet-headed arcane elemental resumed walking. “In any case, this does not remind me of home, no.”

“Hope I didn’t bring up any sore memories?” Rave sounded as apologetic as she felt. Sometimes (okay, all the time), she talked before thinking.

Singed laughed. A deep, hungry sound that reminded Rave immediately of… herself. A similar laughter rose in her throat, as the two of them stepped onto the starting positions. “Don’t worry about it,” the arcane elemental said. “Just make this entertaining!”

Tearing the robe off his body and slamming it into a dimensional pocket, Singed revealed the entirety of his arcane body. It was as much armour as it was stylized muscle and sinew. The sand element that was so prominent in other members of his tribe was barely visible with him. Only between the segments of moving muscles did the swirl of blue and purple show.

Despite the bulkiness of his pauldrons and the marching boot shape of his feet, the dimensions of Singed’s form were plainly human. He was a giant, yes, easily over two metres tall, but he had nothing of that overbearing bulkiness Rave remembered from the Ironborn. It dispelled the unpleasant connection her mind made to those monsters.

‘So, Cappy, whaddaya think should be our strategy here?’ Rave asked, while putting on her headphones. The earmuffs fit nicely over her human ears, the bridge between them curving around the pair of cat ears further up.

‘Does it really matter what I think?’ the solar feline responded. ‘I’ll be melded with you anyway, no way you won’t know.’

‘Why do ya sound so cranky about it? When we made our contract, ya said ya just wanted to give me blessings and lay around. Ya got exactly what ya wanted.’

‘No… yes… maybe,’ Copernicus responded with all the decisiveness of a cat in a door frame.

Across the fifty-metre divide, Singed gripped the air with his outstretched hand. A massive two-handed sword manifested. The blade was almost as tall as he was and thicker than Rave’s torso. Created from crystal, it had jagged edges and an unsteady spine. Without the presence of magic, it would have snapped in an instant.

‘Since there’s things riding on this, we should start all out,’ Copernicus stated. ‘None of your usual ramping foolishness.’

‘Awww, but it ain’t as fun if you just-‘

‘These are the allies of the people that have hurt Eliana.’

‘Say no more, Copernicus.’ The headphones began to thrum with a heavy beat. ‘I’ll pull a Nia on this one.’ The satisfaction of her elemental melded with her own seriousness, until there was no dividing line between them. Illuminare stuck to her skin, vibrating in unison with the music. It was like her entire being was surrounded by and lost in the beat of battle before it even began.

“Did the air around you just change?” Singed grabbed his giant sword with both hands.

“Yup.” The feline Lightbearer stretched the fingers of her left hand. Magic shot down from her shoulder with such intensity, the Lorylim scars shone through the pink material of her bodysuit. The technicolour illumination ended as claws of hard light, extending from the five digits of her left hand. The right, covered from shoulder to knuckles in reinforcements in the form of black patches of thicker material and metal plates, she clenched into a fist. A hand for magic and a hand for martial arts.

Rave got the distinct sense that Singed was smiling.

A flare exploded in the distance, booming louder than it spread its light. “A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…” Rave’s hair turned golden, the Unleash naturally occurring as the power of her Babel Phrase flowed out from her lungs and into the world.

Her opponent had begun to charge before she had even uttered a single word. The mighty sword swung down on her. Aura ignited, Rave slammed it aside with the reinforced back of her right arm, then slashed at Singed in a counterattack that seared across his chest. “Are you fucking seriously that fast while chanting?!” he roared in excitement.

“…and we all fight...” Rave continued, a smile on her lips, even as her eyes screamed bloody murder. Dropping in golden radiance and cheery pink, she easefully dodged a second swing of the sword, caught herself with both hands and her upper back, and pulled together like a loaded spring. Promptly unloading that energy, she launched a flying heel at Singed’s face. Again, she connected, catapulting the man backwards, while doing a flip from the counterforce of the impact.

Her claws swelled in size and brightness. She crouched down, her legs positioned like an Olympic sprinter, except she had only one hand on the ground. The left was raised, her fingers spread out, the energy still rising, gathering in her throat, to prepare for the moment she was ready.

Singed had slammed into the side of a dune and was now bursting out with a roar of laughter. Enveloped by a shroud of crystals, his feet pounded the ground, compacting grains into solid chunks with the force. The ground around Rave was melting into one solid unit for metres.

“…let our worlds collide.”

The surge in power was phenomenal. In one single instant of time, Rave felt more powerful than anyone. Her speed was such an absolute certainty that she could have outpaced Sylph three times over or even more. It was impossible to measure. John had tried.

In this one instant, she was light.

Faster than senses allowed to track, she appeared in front of Singed. The absolute moment of speed was followed by a tiny lull. So tiny that all Singed could do was begin to move the flicker of his eyes in her direction. Then, the redirection of the power was complete. The light of the geometric pattern of her scars reached its zenith, technicolour melding into blinding white.

A diagonal slash.

There was no wind, at first, only heat. Five streaks of hyper-condensed heat. They cut through the air, turning it into fire. They hit the dunes, turning grains into crystal glass, several metres deep. They sliced through Singed, turning what arcane defences he put up in a hurry into nothing but fizzling sparks.

Then, there was wind. The wind from the speed of her motion. The wind from the air collapsing around the bubbles of heat. The wind from just how awesome she was – all aligning with the beat.

Rave landed and immediately delivered a haymaker to Singed’s torso. The blow sealed the bisection of the arcane elemental’s body. The upper half was blown back, while the lower half collapsed where it was. Much of it was molten slag, still glowing. Only some bits of azure managed to largely retain the original shape.

Slamming right back into the dune, the torso disappeared from view for a moment.

“LET THE ROAR OF BATTLE BE HEARD!”

One phrase and the dune entirely exploded. The five slices of molten crystal were catapulted dozens of metres into the air. The arcane swordsman hovered in a storm of crystal grains. Where his body had been separated, an arcane facsimile was constructed. Plates of mana barriers wrapped around bones of crackling energy. Arms and legs that connected to the still intact torso, which in turn turned more human. Naked muscles of grains so fine they passed as oiled skin bulged. The helmet opened, turning into long, luscious hair of white-blue. Revealed was a hard face with an immaculate jaw-line. One of his eyes was closed, marked by a long scar, the other glowed bright with purple magic.

“THIS IS AWESOME!” Singed roared, gripped two chunks of crystal, and chucked them at Rave with all his strength.

Mid-flight, both projectiles turned from largely harmless chunks of crystal into perfect copies of the man himself. Both were armed with the same massive sword that Singed himself brandished once again. On mana-forged legs, he charged after his doubles.

‘Gotta hand it to tiger,’ Rave thought. ‘When he’s right, he’s right.’

Preparations for the fights had contained a dull seminar about the various spells they could expect to see. Since her fiancée did have a respectable roster of high-end arcane spells under his belt, he could speak with some expertise. Research and past run-ins with mages did the rest.

Someone was bound to have access to a variation of his Ambassador Double.

Rave met the two additional attackers head on, blowing one back with a punch to the stomach, before blinding the second with an explosion of light. A strategy that, as she had expected, did not work. Using the sight of the original body, the double continued his slice without halt.

Still moving with the beat, Rave jumped and managed to fit her nubile body right between the two slicing blades. She could feel the air brush over the hairs of her cat tail. Landing, aura ignited, she Drifted in place, facing her opponents before they… he…? Before Singed could take advantage.

That was the two of them she had just dodged.

The third assailed her from the side. His blade swung down towards her head. Almost leisurely, Rave raised her hand and caught the weapon. “Not trying to offend ya or anything, but you must be the weakest of your guys?” she asked. The blade stopped pressing into the reinforced palm of her Fusional bodysuit.

Singed seemed happy to stop for a chat, his two bodies spreading out to surround her as he answered. “Guess so,” he shared willingly. “Did not expect to face someone this strong here. Mengele made it sound like you were a bunch of losers.”

“Yeah, well, ya should never trust what a nazi thinks.” Rave rolled her shoulders. “You’re kinda cool, dude, why do ya stick with the ‘human supremacy über alles’ crowd?”

“I genuinely don’t give a shit about any of that,” Singed responded, grinning back at her. He really was a handsome, tall one. Did not give her the happy tingles she got when looking at her man or their women though. “I’m here because of loyalty and for a good scrap. Can’t fault a man for that, can you?”

“Ya know, normally I’d agree, but you’re fighting for the literal, actual nazis, so…” Rave’s eyes drifted to the abdomen of the man. “Are ya stalling for time to knit yourself back together? ‘Cause that would be lame-o.”

“Like you aren’t stalling to recover from that opening attack,” Singed pushed back. “That was your best, now it’s a war of attrition!”

“Eh, I mean…” Rave bit the inside of her cheek before she could divulge anything that could be classified as her leaking how many more nukes she had lying around. She couldn’t have used that attack back to back, but a singular usage certainly wasn’t enough of a draw on her endurance to be something she needed recovering from.

Singed just laughed, right up until Rave decided to jump straight at him. Her flying knee clashed against his blade. “If that wasn’t your best, show me!” he roared.

“Fine, just ‘cause I like your vibes!” Rave turned into a streak of golden light, just before two weapons could slice open her back. She consolidated again a few metres away. Her aura exploded, blue turning gold, then consolidated back down into a thin corona around her. She looked like she was a walking Eclipse.

The bodysuit reacted to the activation of its focusing Enchantment, fusing Fusionals into the hardlight claws, turning them from technicolour to prismatic. Rave’s senses sharpened. Her speed grew. All of her Unleashed state further heightened to an unsustainable peak.

If her opponent was just trying to mess with her, he was doing fine. The beat of her song, however, was picking up. If this was Singed’s strategy, she was going to make him regret it.

Singed barely managed to turn his head in time to even follow her. His body did instinctively move along, but his reflexes just did not suffice. The Penetrative Blast blew through the thin layer of defences around his reconstructed abdomen, then blasted a hole into the mana veins below.

The original body flew backwards and Rave had already whirled around before the two others reached her. One she caught in a roundhouse Cutting Kick, slicing the leg off the leaping giant. The other might have had a chance if she hadn’t Eclipsed her usual limit. As it was, even this opponent looked like he was moving against a strong gust and she had the winds of expectations on her back.

Iron Weight kept Rave in position as she caught the descending blade with a vertically raised heel. “You’re so fucking hot,” Singed suddenly complimented her.

“Sorry, no shot, I’m happily engaged,” Rave returned instantly. She drew back, then sliced the second body open shoulder to hip. Her reinforced claws ripped through the facsimile of sand and metal like it was all paper.

Turning into light again, then Shifting to teleport several more metres, she found herself with her back to Singed’s true body. Even if he had expected her to cross the distance that fast, her speed was simply overwhelming. Her strength was a not too distant second.

Ramming her elbow into the pit of Singed’s stomach, she shattered enough of the mana body for him to bend over forwards. A slice of her claws followed, turning the hard pecs as soft as butter, as they seared five paths into the muscle.

Singed was catapulted backwards again, nearly flying into a gorgeous crystal formation. Rave outpaced his uncontrolled trajectory and stopped at the foot of the crystals. The hard ground there was good footing. ‘This one’s for you, Dad,’ she thought and crouched down, balling her fingers into a tight fist.

Feet apart, body curled, shoulders tense with energy, she focused her ki into her bones, her muscles, and her limbs, then sent it all shooting down her arm at the pivotal moment. Singed reached her, her Ascending Cut was about to meet his stomach, and then he was just gone.

Rave blinked, using a Flying Step to turn her uppercut-leap into another direction. Disappearing enemies usually meant trouble and that was exactly what she prepared for. She landed atop the crystal formation, blue-pink cat eyes looking for any signs of danger.

She found nothing, not even the doubles.

John: the Fateweaving activated, you won.

The text hovered in front of her and she giggled.

Even through a screen, he always knew what she was thinking about.