MM - Chapter 244 - RELEASE THE BEASTS

Since the first moment that Raine formed his avatar of blood, he’d felt a growing sense of unease. The feeling only heightened when the Phoenix elite mentioned how big a mistake he’d made in doing so. With multiple life-ending attacks aimed in his direction, that initial uncertainty manifested as a throbbing, insistent pain that pulsed behind his eyes—a wrongness in his skull, a warning that this borrowed power came at a price that steepened with every passing second.

The Fraction of Grace filled him with speed, and Grace of Nirvana multiplied it further. His Movement Speed surged from an already impressive 95.53 meters per second, to an impossible 382.

Before the nearest elites could process the shift, Raine’s steel-like fingers spread wide, closing around their heads like vices. The man whose phoenix Raine had struck in the outer realm was still reeling from the mental blow, his eyes unfocused as a palm enveloped his skull. The other, a warrior with a shield, sensed the intent a fraction of a second too late. He threw his head to the side, but there was no escaping a grab enhanced by Uncanny Acceleration. Raine’s hand found its mark.

With a warrior locked in each hand, Raine did not dash toward the elites on the far side of the cage so much as he simply ceased to be in one place and appeared in the next. The air cracked with his passage, the sound barrier shattered despite Connection thinning that elusive boundary.

It was too late to stop the strategic resources from unleashing their charged payloads. A hundred sharpened bones, glowing with a sickly green energy, erupted from an unfurled scroll. They speared through the fleshy shield in Raine’s left hand. His twisted torso allowed them to slip by after puncturing several holes in the helpless elite. The evasive maneuver swung the man in his right hand directly into the path of a Fulminating Sphere—a crackling ball of raw current radiating deadly arcs of lightning. The sphere detonated on impact, enveloping all five of them in a deafening explosion of elemental fury.

[Spectral Slip: +2 (Current Charges: 2/3)]

Raine hopped back. A charge of Spectral Integration caused his form to flicker into intangibility for a crucial instant. The shockwave and residual lightning passed harmlessly through him. He spent the second charge before the first expired, not willing to take any chances with the dangerous lightning. 

He Lunged toward his next victim. This elite plucked Raine’s intent from the air. He moved with instinct bred upon the field of innumerable duels, altering the angle of the Annihilation Ray scroll he held. It unleashed its incandescent beam at point-blank range, aimed squarely at Raine’s chest an instant before he arrived.

If not for the impossible Attack Speed granted by Grace of Nirvana, Raine would have been vaporized. Debilitating Crush and Guardians Bane activated in perfect tandem, his fist becoming a nexus of overwhelming force. A glowing beam and spiked knuckles met in a titanic collision. The combination of skills lost a significant chunk of completion, but together, amplified his Attack Power by 962 percent, a theoretical equivalent of 82,391 damage.

[Debilitating Crush: (Completion - 61% Expert)]

[Guardians Bane: (Completion - 59% Expert)]

Raine’s punch did not just meet the Annihilation Ray; it consumed it. The beam, which held the destructive potential of fifty thousand damage, was bent backward upon itself and tore a gaping hole in the cage as it swept outward, eviscerating a large gash in CronGate’s army. As for the Phoenix Elite, the man simply ceased to exist, his form replaced by three invulnerable bubbles of loot that hung in the superheated air.

“He blocked it with a punch?! Impossible! That’s impossible!” An outraged cry fought to be heard over the multiple explosions.

Whoever was losing their mind wasn’t wrong. A single punch, even backed by a skill, had no right overcoming a strategic resource. If Raine miscalculated by even a millisecond in stacking his skills, and timing them with the instant of impact, he would have been vaporized on the spot.

Thanks to his avatar's senses, Raine felt a vicious presence looming behind them. He was forced to abandon the drops, Lunging to the side. The bone spears he’d already dodged once had followed him across the cage and darted through the afterimage he left in his wake. Unable to halt their momentum in time, they flew through the barrier’s gaping wound right as it was repairing itself, effectively trapping them outside.

He spun mid-flight, senses taking in the battlefield. Of the original ten elites, only five remained. Surprisingly, the woman who had unleashed the bone spears was still alive, though her armor was blackened and smoking. Whatever life-saving item she had used to escape hardly mattered. High-level combat was usually a battle of attrition. He would just have to keep punching until she ran out of tricks.

All of the equipment dropped after the Fulminating Sphere was gone, and as he flew away, she stole the three he had just abandoned. Raine made a silent vow that she, above all others, would not leave this cage alive.

One of the five remaining elites—a woman with a heavy hammer—Lunged from the side. She moved with incredible speed, even for his current perceptions, which were backed by 677 Acuity and a skull crammed with Discipline. Connection thickened the air between the head of her hammer and his face, granting Raine the critical microsecond needed to duck. As she flew past, she attempted to step off the air to come at him from behind. Weave Whisperer had already locked down the entire space within the cage. Her foot found no purchase, and she crashed heavily into the shimmering wall.

His follow-up Lunge carried him to a wrinkled old man who had remained unmoving since the beginning. His posture was one of supreme indifference, as though such mundane actions as walking were beneath him. Without the man so much as twitching a muscle, the deadly punch Raine sent toward his jaw flew wide.

I missed? But he didn’t even move!

“Des!” The woman who must die shouted. Her voice moved through the air slower than Raine’s fists. He lashed out with six attacks, each releasing a shattering boom.

The man—Des—slid forward without taking a step. His body passed from one spot to the next in an elongated, stretched blur that glided through Raine’s barrage. He instantly recognized the old man’s movement. It was the same martial technique he used to fool Talerra’s aunt during the first round of her competition against Damian. Except, this was no mockery; it was the real deal. 

The Heavy Slash that followed came too quickly to perceive. A line of pressure erupted across Raine’s chest. [-53] He found himself flying backward from the curved sword’s impressive force, thankful that the man’s domain avatar had not struck in unison.

“Your speed, while remarkable, is useless without the stances to back it up,” Des noted calmly. His chin tilted arrogantly high, a silent dare for Raine to aim at his neck again.

He took the bait with a low growl, Lunging forward and throwing a dozen Discipline-powered punches in less than half a second. Each utilized Connection to bounce his elbows, speeding them even further; not one found its mark, passing harmlessly by the old man as if guided by an unseen force, but Raine felt no such force. He simply kept missing as though he were aiming at empty air all along.

“Like a child throwing a tantrum,” Des sighed, his disappointment palpable. “Truly pitiful.”

The cage flickered weakly under the cracking force of the punches. It had taken several powerful hits, and half of the array scrolls holding it together were now dust. A spike of frustration pierced the haze of discomfort in Raine’s head. There wasn't time to keep playing with the old man, no matter how desperately he desired to dissect and copy the mysterious technique. He made a mental note to review the recording later.

The other elites closed in to surround him. Still unmoving while Raine flailed harmlessly, Des raised a placating palm to halt them. They obeyed his command without question. “Surrender,” the old man commanded, his voice devoid of emotion. “Give us the item and return the gear you’ve stolen. If you do, I shall let you off with a single death. You cannot hope to defeat one who stands on the very cusp of grandmaster.”

Raine lowered his fists, shaking his head with an expression of genuine sadness. “I agree with you completely. I’m no match for any of you.” His words had the corners of their lips pulling up until he finished. “At least, I wouldn’t be if this were Earth,” Raine growled.

He triggered the cursed ring, sacrificing eleven percent of his health. For once, he got just what he was looking for on the first try. A greatsword shimmered into his hands. Without moving a step, he swung upward. Uncanny Acceleration lent the massive blade unnatural speed. The ground before him was devoured by a five-meter-thick column of pure destructive energy that left no room for fancy evasions or mysterious techniques. Great Divide’s roiling explosion of light and force swallowed the unmoving old man. The only thing visible was the impossible damage number that flashed in all of their HUDs as he was utterly annihilated. [-174,461]

[Great Divide: (Completion - 58% Expert)]

Raine Lunged straight up. His boosted Movement Speed carried him above the vengeful spears, sword, and hammer that roared in from behind, each was accompanied by a fierce phoenix avatar doing its best to tear his blood-construct apart. They struck nothing but afterimage. He spun in the air and swung his greatsword again.

His sword sliced harmlessly through the air, missing the nearest elite by a full meter. But just as before, they were never his target. Guillotine Slash tore five black gashes in the fabric of space, each pulsing with a horrific suction. Thanks to his multiple raid buffs, Raine’s Potency was 932. The force he could exert with a basic attack was enough to send any of them flying thirty meters. Guillotine Slash, even at his current completion rate, amplified that force by 540 percent, turning it into suction that left no room for escape.

[Guillotine Slash: (Completion - 60% Expert)]

They tried to Lunge away, but their feet were already off the ground. Their Connection failed against his hold on the weave. They were drawn inexorably into the dark holes and summarily torn apart. [-10,633] [Critical hit! -21,411]

Raine himself would have fallen prey to his own attack if he had not Lunged away repeatedly. Still, he took over a thousand damage from overuse of Discipline. And yet again, the stubborn woman refused to die. She appeared in the air beside him, snarling with feral fury. 

The holes in space snapped shut, revealing twelve shimmering bubbles of loot. Their eyes met. They both dove at the same time. Raine punched the air to trigger a Lunge. The woman threw out her arms, flipping upside down to push off the inside of the cage’s ceiling—a desperate, acrobatic maneuver that completely failed to match his speed.

“No!” She roared, voice cracking with desperation. She descended from above as Raine’s fingers brushed against the last piece.

Her avatar loomed large in the outer realm, interposed with her physical body. Its talons shone unnaturally bright—a mixture of deadly intent and a brilliantly glistening power that was entirely new. The beast looked every inch the mythical bird of prey as its glowing talons rose in preparation for a rake. Raine felt an enormous threat from the attack, a primal warning that if even one of those long nails found his avatar, the precious mental strength he had so painstakingly gathered would be irrevocably lost.

Yet that knowledge was not what caused his eyes to fly wide.

The avatars can use skills?!

The thought was less a question and more a sudden, unquestionable epiphany. He understood full well that Travelers could not learn the skills of beasts. The technique slicing toward him was something she had developed and mastered on Earth. It all fit together perfectly. ZionLine was a training ground: summons to understand controlling a domain, and skills to learn how to wield the avatar as a weapon.

What she was doing, she had learned long ago on Earth. And if that were the case, then there was no need to actually possess a ZionLine skill in order for the avatars to use them: it was all about knowledge, application, and execution. The new skill system was not new at all; it was as ancient as the first human to discover their domain.

Before Raine had time to form the thought of what he planned to do, his knees were bending. He sank into a stance he had used countless times in the past. In the outer realm, his avatar of blood smoothly mimicked the posture. He knew the precise way Discipline should flow through his body, and the avatar matched it perfectly. As energy flowed, blood compressed until his avatar’s mass was almost solely centered at one point: the fist. 

For the fraction of a second Raine needed, Discipline, internal force, and mental strength united. All energy became one. All purpose became united.

Rising sword and descending spear clashed, both weapons flying wide. They were never the threats. A monster given form descended, led by the Talons of the Phoenix—an ancient technique created by a bona fide Old Monster, passed down through innumerable generations. A young man’s avatar rose to meet it. Bloody knuckles glistened with unrestrained power. This was Raine’s most destructive skill from the past, a 3rd-tier technique that required three thousand Discipline. It was the fist he had used to slay innumerable beasts. And the diving phoenix, in that moment, was just another beast to be slaughtered.

“33rd Art of the Koroken: Rising Desolation!”

For those unable to perceive the outer realm, Raine’s glowing fist and jumping uppercut appeared simple. For those with eyes to see, two transparent figures clashed in a blinding explosion.

Yet, there could be only one victor. The bird, so graceful and majestic, was swallowed in a spectacular detonation of light and force, vanishing for good. Feathers of dissipating energy flew everywhere as Raine’s physical fist, wreathed in the Soul Flame of Amanesh, blasted a hole clear through the woman’s chest. She exploded into loot, dropping every piece of gear she had fought so desperately to keep from him. His hands blurred.

As she was cast into the land of the dead, her inner realm vanished along with her physical body, leaving nowhere for the remnants of her mental strength to return. In the outer realm, Raine’s avatar of blood scrambled as well, grasping at the dissipating feathers, clutching as many as it could with one arm in hopes that they could somehow be used to recover what he’d lost.

The other arm was lost, gone completely, and worse, his control over the rest of his avatar was rapidly failing. The volatile energy he’d unleashed was clearly too much for the sloppily formed construct. Now that he knew the avatars needed to be capable of unleashing actual skills, he would do a much better job next time. However, that knowledge wouldn’t save him now.

Blood gushed from his form in gouts, lost forever to the gray ground of the outer realm. His attempt to plan ahead was a knee-jerk reaction to abate the panic seizing his guts. His life’s work was slipping through his fingers, thirty long years of suffering reduced to waste. Even if he could use the feathers to reclaim some of what he lost, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

In the physical realm, the cage that had contained their battle cracked and failed, its golden light winking out of existence for good. Only a few of the surrounding CronGate guilders dared attack the vulnerable Alaric. Skill-fueled arrows and Blasts whizzed through the air and were summarily swatted from existence by condensed whips of fire. The culprits were then snatched from the ground and lifted for all to witness their gruesome deaths.

Raine gritted his teeth, focus returning inward with an absolute demand that his avatar shrink, to retreat back into the dome of the inner realm he knew was at his feet. The avatar obeyed, but as it arrived before the dome, he found the crack was gone. The barrier was perfectly sealed. He knew with a single glance; from outside, its strength was absolute. That was why even ten domain-wielding elites, one on the cusp of grandmaster, had not entered. They could not, and neither could he.

A cold, sinking realization struck with the force of a physical blow. This was what the bastard elite had meant—the catastrophic mistake that sealed his future. There had never been a path for Raine to recover the mental strength he used to form the avatar. This was why the tiger had stopped him from absorbing more of the lake. It knew. It knew that whatever he took out, would never come back in again.