Savage Awakening 432. Farming Credits (V)

A/N:

We're back!

//

The explosion snuffed out, and Zane stood.

The cyclops looked down, nose wrinkling, as if it smelled something very foul.

Zane looked like he’d just finished a fight. He stood there, chains out. His hammers were already on fire.

Blood runes blazed down his chest.

The cyclops jabbed a finger so big its shadow swallowed him up. This is your great hope?

The Defiler leaned in, baring rotted yellow teeth, and tapped its pillar.

This pillar, it rumbled. Contains the souls of the Forsaken 10,000—the most elite of the race of Fiend-touched, sacrificed to serve the tomb of the Dread Emperor Baal for all eternity! You would stop this with your fleshy little body?

It leered—but whatever it expected to find in Zane’s expression, it didn’t.

Its eye narrowed.

Hmph!

Then it heaved the pillar up, and shrieking eyeless devil faces pressed up against the marbled pillar, howling, lending it otherworldly strength—

It brought the pillar down in one impossibly fast motion.

Creatures that big were not meant to move like that.

It slammed so fast it stymied the mind. World Rankers gasped; for a second they thought Zane had been crushed flat.

It bulldozed through reality, leaving heavy ripples in its wake…

But Zane was already moving.

He’d stomped—and his hammers, powered by new fuel, proved just as fast. And even brighter.

Hammer met pillar.

The explosion rocked through space.

And for an instant, they were deadlocked. Man against giant, sparks blazing down the point of connection.

Then a wave of force rippled down the cyclops’ arms…

Its pupils trembled.

Cracks snaked down the pillar.

Seams of golden light burst through—

It all erupted.

Every bone in that massive hand exploded.

Then the forearm. And higher still—exploding all the way up the shoulder, until the limb was a mangled mess.

For a half-second, the cyclops just stared.

Then it howled.

But Zane was just getting started.

As he called his hammers back, he felt the full weight of the Distortion Field crushing down on him. It still affected him—but it couldn’t suppress him anymore.

The Minor God essence pumping through him threw off that yoke.

It seemed he’d grown strong enough that he could power his way straight through.

When he sent his hammer crashing back around, it hardly slowed as it blazed into that heavy field—and crushed deep into the monster’s belly.

He felt bones the size of land masses shiver, crushed to dust in an instant—a lake of black blood spewed from the cyclops’ mouth.

Then another hammer landed clean—and finished the job.

That blow struck with such force it sent the monster hurtling head over heels, burning up into a lumpy meteor—a triumph of gold sinking into the distance.

Then—nothing.

True God, wrecked. Just like that.

Skill up!

Heavenly Solar Flare Smash V -> VI

Level up!

Essence Level 512 -> 513

He looked back and found a lot of World Rankers blinking at him, a few slack-jawed. “You guys alright?”

There was silence. Then the Spitfire Monk burst out laughing. “Zane damned Walker!”

“Good timing,” said Eze.

He nodded. “Is that it?”

“You wanted more?” Eze seemed amused.

Zane considered the fading light of the Cyclops. “I thought he’d last longer than that.”

“…”

He shrugged. “If you find another, let me know.”

Then he blasted off.

***

Level up!

Essence Level 513 -> 514

He still found some time during his off-hours to level with Reina. She was determined to get him as strong as possible.

It was also a chance for him to get caught up on how things were going in the outside world.

Reina had to work out a few kinks on her side. The World Tree had been hit hard by the first Wave—they’d even had to fend off an Empyrean. But their fortifications held, and she was feeling ready to make her first counterattack.

But she was leading a joint war effort with Thalia, Thunderclast’s Empyrean Warrior-Queen. In their first meeting, Thalia called her soft and bright-eyed. Quite a few of their old guard seemed to think she was either too young or just a pretty face.

“They’re not wrong,” she said. She pursed her lips. “Well—they are about me being just soft and pretty.”

She bristled a little at that. “But… I’ve only been around a few years. I just haven’t built up the credibility yet. It makes sense they’d think that.”

“But this is your chance,” he figured.

She nodded. “I’ll be planning the counterattack just next week. It’s just a few skirmishes, but if it goes well…”

She looked at him, and he could see how much it was all affecting her.

“Just trust yourself,” he told her. “You’ve got this.”

Her brow furrowed. “I’ve never faced an army like this before.”

“Reina, you know you’re brilliant,” he informed her. “You’ll figure it out.”

She looked amused and pleased at once.

There was another weight on her.

In the two years he’d taken to break through, she’d had time to finish her Grand Circle. Now all that was left was to break through.

It’d take time she didn’t have normally. But now that the essence in the Galaxy was peaking, there was another option.

Ancient magics of the World Tree were awakening—magics that could only go to the Mistress. The World Tree was older than the universe; it died and was reborn as a seed every Chaos Cycle. It was an endless wellspring of essence.

There was a chance to perform its Sacred Rite—something that would awaken a much higher essence affinity in her body and boost her right through to Minor God.

“But there’s a catch,” she said. “To go through with it, I’d have to touch the World Tree's very soul—and take in a shard of Creation.”

Since her body was already blessed by the World Tree, she was well-suited for it. Still—Creation was a tough ask for anyone.

There was just a lot stacked on her right now.

***

He had one last lunch before the first Event. By the end of the fourth week, it was a lot of waiting around.

He took another bite of Dreamsteel.

Skill up!

Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form VI -> VII

More tingling. Then—

Friend of the System, Tier II — 4% Progress

It was still a ways off, but he was intrigued.

***

Zane stood at the heart of his sector and stared down the seam in reality.

A timer ran above it.

The first challenge has begun

Instance dungeon opens in 30 seconds

Just the notification had his body firing up.

***

“This is a big one, folks,” said Tyler. “It’s a chance for all of Earth’s top World Rankers to power up massively. Some of those perks could even let them hold off True Gods!”

Becca nodded. “Zane’s sights are set even higher. With the Wave ramping up, the burden on him just keeps growing bigger. He’s taken it on himself to grow just as fast… and he’s kept his promise. I don’t know about you, Tyler, but I’m hopeful!”

“Earth’s in good hands,” said Tyler proudly. “As for the challenge itself, it’s pretty simple. It’s the ‘instance dungeon’ variant—meaning a seam will open in reality. A little pocket dimension stuffed full of Monsters.”

“It’s calibrated to the strength of the fighter,” said Becca. “You’ll have an hour to clear all the Monsters, or they pour out into the real world. It’s do or die. Really intense stuff.”

“But it sounds just like Zane’s thing, doesn’t it?”

“Mhm.”

“Here it comes!”

Portals tore open at the seams.

All over their scrying glasses, World Rankers stepped on through.

Zane was the first of them.

***

Red sands. Clear skies. Dunes as far as the eye could see. Twin suns beating heavy overhead.

A desert biome. It reminded him a bit of that one time in Astra; less dreamy, though. More stark and barren, dry as a bone.

He’d hardly set foot in it when the sands began to shake.

Domains and Distortion Fields burst through the sands.

And Monsters began to surface. Jeweled eyes. Quivering stingers…

Scorpions the size of Mack trucks, with skeletons made entirely of gold, leaped out of the sands.

Desert Idol Scorpion [Monster Prince]

Essence Level 599

Dozens of half-step True Gods shivered all around him.

And behind them, two True God Cobras reared out of the sands, fangs oozing an amber-like liquid that seemed to freeze time itself.

Their Distortion Fields froze the dust in the air.

One was white, smaller, but with sharper, longer fangs; the other was black and significantly bigger—built to crush.

God-Emperor Cobra

Essence Level 624

God-Empress Cobra

Essence Level 625

Each held three 100,000-year bones.

Those scorpion stingers began to swell with venom. Cobra fangs began to drip rivers; dozens of monstrous bones lit up all around him.

It was on.

Zane cracked his neck; he was starting to grin already.

Then he stomped—and the smashing began.

He took two fangs to the chest; a stinger lashed him over the cheek, drawing blood. More struck his forearms, his thigh.

Up this close, swamped by monsters, he considered that the cost of doing business.

But he had a simple theory.

He could crush them all before it’d even start to matter.

He went for the True Gods first. A hammer smashed off the Empress Cobra’s teeth, flattening its nose—but the beast still lived. It kept ripping tail-strikes into his chest, drawing blood—and he felt the muscles there freeze under some strange paralyzing venom.

But it wasn’t enough to stop his second hammer.

When that meteor struck, it scorched the monster from the inside out. It was still stabbing when a third hammer crushed it flat.

He barely had time to stomp out of the way before the Emperor Cobra slammed down a tail strong enough to cripple True Gods.

Then he felt a vast mass coming up on him from behind.

He whirled around, crushing a hammer into the scorpion horde, and felt the force connect viscerally—the beasts were bunched so close their skeletons pressed up against each other, they were so eager to get at him; his raw force tore through the mass.

Dozens of half-step True Gods shattered in an instant.

Then the God-Emperor Cobra screeched.

Just as he was reloading, a massive tail lashed him tight, right around the arms, locking him down.

The beast had timed him well.

Its Empress had slowed a huge swathe of the muscles in his upper body.

Now the Emperor was taking advantage, to crush him.

Its strongest muscles coiled tighter and tighter, and he could only fight them with his weakest.

The pressure came on fast. Three mighty bones, working in tandem—he bucked, growling, and though the bind bulged, he couldn’t quite break free.

The Emperor’s eyes gleamed; it hissed and sank its fangs into his back.

Zane roared.

That burst of pain was a wake-up call to his body.

Even as the paralysis sank deeper into his muscles—

Asura Body: 200% Power

Zane flexed with all his might.

The Emperor exploded off him, screaming; so much force went through it that it landed spasming.

Then Zane’s axes came out, and he took it to task.