II-31 Dragons (II)

This struggle lasted years. But the knights endured. The city endured. Until things changed once more.

And by calamity were the Abyssal Dogs broken, and so too, through desperation, was a new order reforged. Centuries thereafter, the system unleashed its greatest horrors upon Constantia, using the body of the Great One themself to power a mana storm unmatched. Gates opened within the storm, and Constantia was cut off from the surface by these new dimensional pathways. Then, from within came monsters feared across all dimensions: The primal dragons.

They shattered Constant Point, smashing in, slaughtering the inhabitants on a scale never before experienced by any of the surviving chivalric orders. Driven to the point of extinction, they reunited. Within the last bastion of the city, the surviving knights brokered truths. They exchanged contracts of eternal loyalty and forgave old grievances, and thus the order was reforged as separate fraternities, separate cultures, separate knightly traditions, but one order all the same. And that order gave a single command.

“Descend! Descend and retake the city! Descend and drive the dragons back.”

The battle to retake Constantia took years. Years and millions of valiant knights. At first, it took a thousand knights to bring down even one dragon. Until, finally, a breakthrough occurred. An ascension unlike any other, performed by Semper Paragon Ellington Bueford, First of all Dragon Knights.

In a desperate battle to secure the lower city, he faced an enemy alone, all his comrades slain, his own body broken and spent. A dragon. The dragon was hale, and the dragon was raging, and the mana storm pouring down on it infused it with such power that it could shatter mountains. But against all odds, and by miracle or skill, Bueford prevailed. Prevailed at the cost of his own life… or so it should have been. As man and dragon lay dying, their blood pooling into one, the system rewarded Bueford for prevailing in the greatest of quests.

A great change happened. The mana storm collapsed on both man and dragon, and from both was something new born into existence…

When Semper Paragon Bueford rose once more, he was reborn as kindred to dragons, but he retained his mind and virtue. And the system bestowed upon him a new blade as a reward. One fit for claiming the heads of primals… After that, as other knights prevailed against their own dragons, the slaughter began to turn the other way…

-Storm, Scale, and Honor Eternal: The Descenders

II-31

Dragons (II)

“You know the worst thing about war and fighting?” Adam said. “It’s the waiting. It’s the part before, where you feel it in the air, you feel it coming, but you’re not there yet. And so you’re just waiting for the hit to come. That’s what Captain Irons always liked to say—before every mock battle, same speech, every time. Today I think I finally understand the man, and I don’t bloody like it at all.”

They were flying low, hidden from any aerial observers by the foliage. They glided through a dense, interwoven canopy of branching trees, or if they could even be called trees. The patch of the wilderness they were in didn’t have any of those large mushrooms. What it did have were these colossal briars, sprawling out across the land and leaving everything swallowed by absolute darkness.

Without his cloak, Shiv had doubted he would be able to see anything, and without Adam or Uva being synchronized to his mind, nearsighted was all he would be. It’s good to have allies, Shiv thought. For all he could do alone, he was very much a blunt instrument when it came to utility.

Adam’s eyes burned with unattuned mana, tendrils of wisp-thin power leaking out from his irises, the glow sky-blue and dawn bright. He was searching, even as they flew, hunting for the rogue Descenders and the Aviary agents they were ferrying. Can Hu was helping as well. It dispatched a few of its drones through the air and took considerably less caution than the rest of the group. The drones were replaceable, and frankly, if they were noticed, they might even lure out some unseen threats. 

Right now, though, there was nothing. All quiet before a clash.

Shiv, meanwhile, felt rather relaxed. He didn’t know if it was all the fighting that had conditioned him, if he was already used to death, or if it was just how he was. But tension, nervousness—that wasn’t so bad for him. Not right now. Instead, he felt a building thrill. He’d never fought a dragon-knight before. However, he did come face-to-face with one, moments before entering Weave: Ser Marikos. The dragon had obliterated him and a good portion of the landscape with a single Pyromancy spell. It was an awesome display of destruction, and also how Shiv unlocked Diamond Shell and Foreshadowing.

Shiv wondered how well he would fare against that dragon now. Guess he would have a better estimate soon.

“Shadow cells are reporting no signs,” Uva said, releasing her brooch. Shiv held on to her. The speeds they were going were still manageable. But he could go faster now. Her armor could endure it. It was just going to be extremely uncomfortable due to her lacking Physicality.

“All right. Well, while we’re searching, we might as well come up with something of a general plan,” Adam said. “I think we want to hit them quick with—”

“No,” Valor said. “No disrespect to you, young Adam. But you listen to me this time. This is not training. This is not practice. This is something more. This is too much risk.”

Adam wanted to protest, but the Young Lord choked back anything he had to say. With a rush of discipline.

Shiv grunted in surprise. “Did you just control yourself? Holy shit, Adam, you’re turning into a real boy.”

“Oh, shut up, you bastard,” Adam muttered. “Valor, continue? before I regret being mature.”

“I appreciate your sacrifice,” Valor said, a faint hint of grandfatherly amusement there. Then it was gone, and the grandfather was replaced by a legendary assassin. “The first thing you need to know about the dragon-knights, you cannot break their morale. They will not respond to psychological tricks.”

“What about Dread Aura?” Shiv asked.

“That…” Valor paused. “Not unless it is at Heroic.”

Shiv grunted. He kind of figured that was the case. “Cowards didn’t go into mana storms looking for dragons to kill.”

“Indeed,” Valor said, “and that is something else. They are all skilled warriors, each one mentally skilled likely in both a magical art and a weapon skill. Likely Physicality and Toughness as well. But dragons have a great strength and a great weakness. They are mana-hungry.”

“What do you mean, mana-hungry?” Adam asked.

Valor elaborated “Primal dragons live in mana storms or within gates, feeding off the core. This is for a simple reason: primal dragons are not capable of generating their own mana. Primal dragons do not have the intellect or nearly the self-control to shape a lore. And so they consume unattuned mana to feed their own attuned existences. Their nature is not fully understood, even by the Descenders. Without enough mana, they will starve.

“However, things are different when a dragon-knight is born. When the Ritual of Dragon Matrimony is completed, one binds their very being with a dragon. Then, a new being emerges. A new being that is capable of generating mana while also remaining extremely mana-absorbent. But this also means that their normal skills can experience the effects of mana strain if they are forced to overuse it, as it becomes their source of unattuned mana.

“So what does this absorption mean? Spells don’t work on them?” Adam asked.

“It has a diminished effect. It will still hurt them and affect them. But it will not deal nearly as much damage as it does to anyone else. And worse, it will overload all of their skills.”

“What do you mean, overload?” Adam said.

“I mean that if you hit a Master-Tier dragon with any kind of spell, they will take fewer injuries, and it will feel like you are fighting a Hero.”

“Oh Broken Moon,” Adam groaned. “How did the rest of you poor fools survive these bastards?”

Valor laughed. “All the Faiths have their own means and advantages, and the dragon knights are far outnumbered. There are also Heroes and Legends beyond mere dragon-knights. That is the fortune of the other Faiths. This will not be your fortune, however, as you will be facing these dragons.”

“Nice,” Shiv said.

Both Uva and Adam stared at Shiv.

“What?” Shiv said.

“Your willingness to fight anything is quite disturbing sometimes, dear brute,” Uva commented.

Shiv shrugged. “It’s a Pathbearer’s life for me.”

Valor cleared his throat. “Continuing on, the group will be composed of multiple dragon varieties. Not all dragons are the same. They are bound to a certain idea or concept, like a shadow, or flame, or the sky. This makes their natural magics odd sometimes—”

“Natural magic?” Adam asked.

“Yes. I told you before, they cannot generate their own lore, but they are shaped by calamity. And it is best to understand the dragon as something that has hatched from a natural disaster, and they will always be able to call on the power of that disaster.”

Adam closed his eyes. “Of course they can, this just gets better and better.”

“And we’re not done yet,” Valor said, his tone severe. “This lance is probably also very used to fighting with each other. If we are lucky, this they are a mixed group, different turncoats fleeing together by circumstance. A lance is usually composed of eight to twelve dragon knights, and most often, it is supported by thousands of squires and other personnel.”

“Good thing they don’t have that,” Uva said.

“Yes,” Valor said. “One of the few good things: they are not supported. They are running alone. They do have Aviary agents, but they are comparatively far less of a threat.”

Uva let out a breath. “By the Composer. Weeks ago, if you told me that, I would have despaired.” She paused. “I’m still despairing. But at least I have a Jealousy I can use.”

Adam’s head snapped to attention. Shiv balled his fists. “What?” Shiv asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Dimensionals,” Adam said. “Wind dimensionals, they’re flying about us, we should—”

A flash of translucent magic erupted out of Uva and shot into the air. For a few moments, whorls of shadowy mana seeped out with her Psychomancy as the silhouette of Jealousy shivered like a halo behind her head. “They’ve been dealt with,” Uva said. “We keep going.”

Adam and Shiv stared. “Well. That’s… terrifyingly effective,” the Young Lord breathed.

“A Jealousy makes for a good weapon,” Uva finished. “Anyway, Great Valor? You were busy demoralizing us.”

Valor continued doing just that. “The lance has likely fought for more years beside each other than you have, and there will be more than you. They will be more experienced than you, and each of them will likely have more skills than you. And greater skills as well. But they can be bested. They are not invincible, and they make mistakes as well. I killed dragon-knights. They die hard, slow deaths, but they die still.”

And the skull turning its burning glare on Shiv. “You. You are something we have that they do not. One who dares to die, one that grows strong from dying. But more importantly, we are capable of strategies the dragons might not be prepared for. Shiv will engage them first. No Stealth. Be vulgar. Use your Momentum Core and smash into deep into their ranks. Try to get at the Aviary agents. Sell your first life as dearly as possible and draw them to you. Endure. Make it last.”

“Got it,” Shiv said. “See if I can avoid the selling my life part, especially with Can Hu in here with me.”

“I will support you,” Can Hu said. “Any and all efforts. Your bone is rated at master. It will take substantial effort to crack it. Do not worry, Pathbearer. My death will not come so easy.”

“Adam. Once you find the lance, try to locate the agent with my fragment. Or the knight. If I manage to reclaim the fragment, I think the quest will conclude—for what else will they use to bribe compact. The resulting completion should give you all a boost of levels—and that might be all the difference between life and death.”

“And stop the gate from getting more defended,” Shiv said.

“Sister Uva,” Valor said. “You will be most necessary among all. Your Jealousy will let everyone stay connected—so you cannot allow yourself to be pinned or drawn into a melee by the enemy. Strike the vulnerable dragons and break their minds. I expect at least one Psychomancer among them, but not a Heroic one. Use the Greater Demon to your advantage, but use its Stealth as well. Do not linger—and if you find yourself pursued, break contact through whatever means you can.”

“Understood, Legend.”

“There is another thing: Both you and Adam need to remain within a kilometer of Shiv at most.”

“What? That’s practically immediately close range for,” Adam said, confused. “Why? This sounds like suicide.”

“No, what will be suicide is if you keep your distance and remain alone. Because the knights will have Diviners with them—at least one. And they will have a Jump Mage as well. Multiple Jump Mages for a lance. They will immediately blink over to where you are. And I would not pit you against a single dragon in close combat, let alone two. Three is death. So you need Shiv or a Trapdoor Weaveress to respond and stall them while you reposition yourself”

“Right,” Adam said, letting out a breath. “Let the Omenborn take the hits.”

“That’s the spirit,” Shiv said.

“The lance will try to set up a defense posture when attacked. Expect massive, wide-sweeping spells cast by multiple magi in concert—Shiv, interrupt them if you can. Adam, call out what you see. A firestorm can spread beyond control and burn away all cover.”

Valor trailed off at this point and sighed. “I wish I had more time to prepare you. I was content to let you all train, to let you develop tighter bonds first. I thought it would be enough for the gate… but this is more than that. The system that’s forcing you to grow faster than…” Valor paused. “It did the same thing to me. When I was a boy. One conflict after another, one quest after another, so much death and struggle. If you survive this, you will be on your path to being truly favored, and you will have to survive the next thing as well, you will start embarking a path to higher power. Power that few Pathbearers will ever see in their life, let alone weeks or months.  But there were those who walked alongside me when I was young. Only one still remains aside from myself. Be ready… be ready to die, all of you, and be ready to lose each other, if that is what’s to come.”

“No,” Shiv growled. “I won’t let that happen.”

Valor regarded him and huffed. “Shiv. You will need to learn this lesson at some point. You would have learned it the teleportation anchor weeks ago, had you not performed that admirable act of sacrifice. You cannot protect everyone, and the system demands strife. With strife comes death. Hold on to these moments and memories. In the end, that might be all you have.”

“And my morale is almost entirely eradicated,” Adam moaned. “Thank you, Valor, we will take your tactical advice into recommendation, and I will pretend I didn’t hear the rest. I don’t want to soil my armor before we get there.”

“So, Adam, what was your cunning plan?” Shiv asked.

“Well, it was mainly about you lying launching yourself into them with Momentum Core, causing chaos, me firing them from far away, calling out orders, and then, as we kill all the easy threats, we would have you wreak havoc in the middle of the dragons while the rest of us and the Weaveresses hit them from the outside and trap them in a pincer. I would rely on your cockroach-like nature not to die as we whittled them down from the outside.”

“And it would have been a good plan,” Valor said. “Alas, the knights are dynamic, and they do not hold and defend. They turn and attack. A final thing to note: They are very hierarchical. If you kill their leader, and that is a major if, if you can kill the captain of this lance, then perhaps their cohesion will collapse. But it will not stop them from being dangerous.”

“I’ll see if I can find the captain, then,” Adam replied. Just then, his eyes widened. “I see something… I see…. I have them.”

The Young Lord laughed. His eyes flared once, and Uva fed what Adam was seeing directly into Shiv’s mind. For a moment, even while observing the distant horizon through Adam’s senses, Shiv didn’t know what was happening.

The air was clear, aside from what seemed to be a few glowing spores that twirled through the sky, their forms thin but bulbous at the end, feathers pulling them aloft. The ground below was alight with glowing plants. Gleaming rivers mingled with glowing trees. These were unlike the nests Sheridan and the others were currently passing through. They were large dome-shaped flowers that fused with one another, petal mingling together, making them seem like a series of pimples flanking the forking streams.

“There,” Adam said, focusing intently on a specific spot in the air. Finally, Shiv saw it: a shimmer in the air, nothing more than that, but the shimmer moved, and the surrounding light bent unnaturally. It curved like there was something hidden, a bit like a Trapdoor Weaveress’s cape at times, when it wasn’t fully covering them.

“They’re cloaked,” Shiv said.

“Optical camouflage,” Can Hu agreed. “Every proper fighting force uses it. To remain unnoticed is the first and outermost means of self-preservation.”

“How far away are they?” Shiv asked, clenching his fist. His gravitic field shivered around him as his battle thrill climbed.

“Approximately 20 kilometers. We should reach them relatively fast if we accelerate. I’ll find us an interception point. Shiv, start filling your momentum core. You’re going straight out, like Valor. Hammer your way into them and make a mess. And drag out your death as best you can.”

“Always intend to,” Shiv said.

“And… good luck,” Adam spat quickly.

Uva said nothing at first, but she sent him a few memories. A feeling of focus and calm. He replied with a memory of his own: strength and fearlessness. More than anything, there trust there. They fought, bled, and survived many things together in this short time. And that shaped a bond harder than most could fathom.

“Go,” Uva said quietly. “Show them who’s the greater monster.”

***

“Still Water in position.”

“Gray Zone in position.”

“Liquid Serpent: My crossbows are loaded. Six shots. Six arms. More than enough to kill a dragon-knight.”

“Liquid, just say you’re in position next time,” Still Water grumbled.

“Ah, but where’s the fun in that?” Liquid replied with a sneering laugh.

“Shiv here, in position.” The Deathless stood atop a towering mushroom cap, staring in the direction Adam had indicated. He couldn’t really see the lance with his own eyes, but since his mind connected to everyone else’s, he could still track the enemy. When Adam gave him the signal, he would find out just how hard a dragon-knight really was.

“Do you feel ready, Shiv?” Can Hu asked.

Shiv shrugged. “Sure. I don’t really think of that.”

“You don’t?” The Penitent sounded curious. “What do you think of?”

“Mostly, I don’t know… cooking.”

“Cooking?” the automaton said, absolutely stunned. “You think of cooking before a fight?”

“Yeah, you know, I’m wondering what I can make with dragon flesh. I… You know. For the buffs.”

“I… that is… interesting.”

“Uh, I guess,” Shiv replied. “Listen, Can Hu, I don’t really fixate on the whole dying-danger-what-if-they’re-stronger-than-me crap. I like to think about how fights go beforehand. I like to prepare for them as best as I can. When the time comes, I just give myself to the violence. I go after the enemy however I can, whenever I can, whatever way I can. And until one of us drops, that’s the fight.”

“You are very determined. But I feel this method of thinking is somewhat simplistic.”

“Probably,” Shiv said. “That’s why I need to get in more fights, learn more. Probably need more training too, but hey. In the absence of having ample time, this is what we got.”

“I have some experience,” Can Hu replied. “Dragons—most primal dragons are reluctant predators despite being beasts of massive scale. Mana storms are their main source of food, and so they cling to their territory. As such, the best method against them is to hit them with a tungsten-tipped two-stage mini-nuclear munition launched out from a railcannon by someone with a Master-Tier Gun Proficiency Skill.”

“Sounds… impressive,” Shiv said. “Not sure what that meant.”

“I will explain to you the full spectrum of old world weapon in time. If we survive.

“Alright,” Shiv said. “I think I’m gonna focus on breaking their necks if I can for now.”

“That will be difficult. Dragons have rather flexible necks. Their shoulders and chests, however, can suffer joint damage when exposed to sufficient strain.”

“Huh. I’ll keep that in mind. Anything else?”

“Control their bodies if you can. Their center mass affects their flight.”

“See, that’s great, Can Hu. I think we’re already working well together. 

“You may update this assessment once we are engaged in active combat.”

A whistling gust of wind rushed over Shiv. The air sang in shrill notes, and below the slightly glowing leaves, the surrounding vegetation waved. Somewhere in the vast darkness, the Shadow Cells were waiting. High above, Uva lingered with the Jealousy fully unleashed, with Adam not too far away. Everything was calm. Just for this moment.

The Abyss felt like a place of perpetual night, but also of a gentle peace at times. It wasn’t nearly the pit of nightmares the Republic betrayed it as. Sure, it was dangerous, but Shiv kind of liked looking into the dark. There was a meditative quality to it.

Can Hu hummed a murmur of satisfaction. “This is my favorite time, a final moment of calm before the fight. I do not know if it’s the system allowing you to savor one final sip of peace, a final inhale of air.”

“Or maybe the first,” Shiv said. “I don’t remember breathing very much before a fight, but I remember every heartbeat, every blow exchanged during.”

“Ah. I should be more like you in that since. I suffer the past. You enjoy the present.”

“Nah,” Shiv replied. “I prefer you the way you are so far. I need people with perspective. Don’t think the world would survive a bunch of bastards like me just breaking shit.”

“Shiv,” Uva said, her voice echoing the impenetrable darkness above. “Get ready.”

The wind stopped, and with it, the peace perished.

Adam’s call came a second thereafter. “Shiv! Now! They’re approaching! Discharge now!”

“A pity,” Can Hu said. “I didn’t quite manage to finish composing a poem. I wanted to make this moment… poignant.”

Shiv laughed as he slammed a fist into himself and drank one final hit of momentum. The world stopped. “You can finish the poem after we get out of this.”

“You are so certain there is an after,” Can Hu replied.

“Yeah, I am, and I’ll show you why I believe that.” 

Shiv discharged his Momentum Core.

The top of the mushroom cap ceased to be. An entire pocket of destruction opened up among the fungal forest, and Shiv accelerated himself further using his gravitic field. The sound barrier shattered against him in under a second. 

He felt Can Hu shuddered, but the automaton reassured him mid-flight: “No damage, just adjusting to the pressures.” And to his surprise, Can Hu laughed. “Flying again. Flying fast… I am… I am a chassis once more. Thank you…”

Shiv cut across the sky, moving faster than he ever had before, and faster still as he pulled ever harder on his gravitic field. Gravitic Wrestler was a wonderful skill when paired with Momentum Core. It was—

A shape tore out from an empty patch of space. The mirage hiding the rogue lance as twelve dragons exploded into action. The first among them shot towards Shiv. It wasn’t nearly as big as the Jealousy—perhaps only a quarter of the size at most—but it was far larger than the Deathless. 

It also closed on him faster than he closed on it.

Shiv’s eyes widened in surprise.

The dragon had higher Reflexes—not substantially higher, but higher nonetheless. He could see the weaponry it bore: a massive polehammer coated with a raging whirlwinds. The dragon itself had long-flowing wind chimes connected to its pale-white armor, and its scales were the color of a stormy-sky.

“Engaging,” Shiv declared.

At the same time, the dragon bellowed, “Intercepting!” 

Then, they collided, and the world broke as they clashed.

The dragon brought down its hammer. The force of a descending hurricane crashed against Shiv, only for him to catch it with his Gravitic Wrestler and wrench it aside. It took considerable effort, but he managed to throw the dragon off course. And just then, with that act alone, another one of his skills went into Adept-Tier.

Skill Evolution: Parry (Advanced) > Frictionless Vector (Adept)

Frictionless Vector > 51

Suddenly, Shiv felt the dragon’s blow jerk violently off course—as if the world lost all friction.  The dragon twisted off to the side, but rather than being pulled along by the violent tug of its hammer, it released the weapon and spun in the air, lashing out with a bladed tail to strike at Shiv. He caught the tail too—only for him to be impacted by a colossal blast of magical force before he could do anything.

Shiv was knocked back momentarily before he drained momentum from the hit and stabilized himself with his gravitic field. He struck the spell with his Magebreaker and a flash of brilliant multicolored mana broke.

A few hundred meters away, the other dragons were impacted by spells and attacks from all sides, drowning them in a maelstrom of chaos. But before they were swallowed, Shiv saw the dragon that hit him with the spell—saw their radiant lance and how the knight held up a finger and summoned a protective dome around the rest of the lance.

“Dynomancer,” Can Hu said. It then revealed another benefit he possessed that most Master-Tier armors didn’t. Can Hu highlighted the new enemy and designated them, marking them based on their likely role in the lance.

Then, a flash of lightning called Shiv back to the blue-scaled dragon. It soared through the air, its wings like massive slabs of sapphire, shrouded by raging wind. It summoned its hammer with a crash of lighting and swung fast—almost faster than he could react.

Shiv barely managed to stop the hammer this time; the blow shook him, making him groan as his Gravitic Wrestler strained under the dragon’s might. His Adamantine Adaptation triggered, and his bones withstood the impact without fracturing, albeit barely. The dragon groaned as it strained itself too, surprised that it was struggling against a foe so small.

“Master-Tier!” the dragon yelled. “Master-Tier! Ambush! Clear the zone!”

But though it resembled a monster with its draonic features, it was a knight. And knights fought with skill—and allies.

Instead of wrestling with Shiv, the dragon dismissed its hammer into a blast of lightning that blinded Shiv.

And that stopped him from seeing the other dragon, which scored a deep cut through his left rib. A stroke of pain tore through him as a blade so thin and fine slipped through his bone armor and bounced off his actual rib. Shiv roared in rage and pain as he clawed out blind—but caught nothing.

“Armor breached!” Can Hu cried.

Shiv didn’t see who or what hit him. All he knew was that something slashed fast and strong enough to split adamantine. Valor wasn’t lying. These foes were of a different caliber altogether. And Shiv loved it.

“Come on,” Shiv said, slamming his hand together. His gravitic field magnified the force of his blow, and the shockwave made the hammer-wielding storm dragon flinch. Before the dragon could recover, Shiv launched himself into its chest and dented the large beast’s brigandine with a sky-shaking knee.

As they grappled against each other, the dragon struggled, and to Shiv’s delight, he discovered his adversary’s Physicality to be lacking. Shiv recalled Can Hu’s advice, and took control of the dragon’s body. It pushed against him, but he drove a blow into its neck and twisted it off balance as it choked. Then, Shiv secured a lock around the dragon’s left shoulder. He twisted the joint. A pop sounded. The dragon cried out, but managed to stop him from breaking the limb entirely. 

It wasn’t that much weaker than him.

Just then, an arrow zipped by Shiv and hit something behind him. He heard a loud crush as a blade barely missed his head. Adam, Shiv realized.

“Shiv! Momentum Core! Get into the lance! Never mind that one! Uva will get him!” The Young Lord’s mind was stressed. He was firing as much as he could but—Shiv caught a glance of the battlefield from Adam’s perspective, and saw the full scope of the situation. The dragons were launching their own spells and skills back, and with every attack, entire kilometers of space vanished within tides of ruin and magic.

“Right! Got it!”

Shiv then pulled the dragon’s limb instead. He couldn’t break its limb in time, but he could dislocate it. A crack sounded through the air and the dragon howled in pain. Shiv slammed the hardest left hook he could across the dragon's head and drank the momentum. His core filled. He prepared to—

“Incoming!” Can Hu warned.

Shiv reacted on instinct. He parried with his gravitic field, and his Momentum Core kept him ahead—only barely. A lightning infused arrow slide off from his hand and tore a massive gouge through the rivers and plants behind him. It kept going for a few kilometers, and by the end, more than a few trees were ablaze. 

Momentum Core > 80

Frictionless Vector > 52

More attacks came. The crashed into Shiv, but he ignored them—choosing to slam his fists together. His core built. Time slowed. Shiv discharged into the hellstorm of suppressive spells keeping the dragon’s in place. His Biomancy reached out and crashed against three different bodies. He could feel them—their magical defenses weren’t as strong as the Jealousy, but there was a Biomancer with them. But where were the Aviary agents? And why was there only three—

A sudden pulse of pressure washed over Shiv from the right. Teleportation. He tried to turn—but he got hit by something faster than even he could perceive.

For the first time in his life, Shiv experienced what it was like to be on the receiving end of someone else’s Momentum Core—while he was mid-discharge, no less.

To call the hit hard didn’t do it justice. He felt one of his lungs pop and all of his ribs break. He tried holding himself in place with his gravitic field, but he wasn’t strong enough to stop himself. Not immediately. He crashed down through the earth, cleaving the land in half, blasting through rivers and smashing through trees. He kept going, twisting and turning, over and over—the world spinning around him—until finally he found his bearings and forced himself to stop with a final burst of his gravity field.

As he finally came to a stop, Shiv tried to rise, only to rip his outer helmet off as he coughed up a small pond of blood. The world spun. The idea of collapsing onto the nice, soft mud and just laying there for a while seemed great. But he could hear Can Hu calling for him. He could hear Uva and Adam screaming across the link.

“DECOY! DECOY!” Adam was howling—fleeing through as he was being pursued. “THE OPTICAL ILLUSION WAS A DECOY! THEY’RE ON ME! THEY’RE ON ME! I SEE—Aviary! I have eyes on them! Everyone—on me! On me! They—” Adam’s thoughts cut off as an incredible spike of pain rushed through Uva’s psionic link, and then the Young Lord was screaming.

“Adam! Hold on!” Uva cried. Shiv could feel her shaping a spell. The shadows sky above him shifted and danced columns of fire came crashing down all across the wilderness. Then, the Weaveresses started crying out as well, declaring their casualties and positions compromised.

Valor was there too. He was fighting. But the details were coming too fast… “Steel yourselves! Hold together! Do not break!”

There was so much detail coming from everywhere, but Shiv couldn’t focus. He realized why a second later. Concussion. Then, as he looked down, Shiv blinked in surprise. There was another wound he hadn’t noticed: his intestines were hanging out, and most of his chest was in ruins.

“Good hit,” he chuckled deliriously.

And he fed his Woundeater. A rush of crimson mana swept through his wounds, and a second later, Shiv rose to the sound of discord and most of his allies crying out for support.

“Shiv?” Can Hu asked. “Are you alright?”

“I will be once I break the felling bastard that just punted me. Where—” He turned and gawked at the massive trail of devastation he left. “Holy shit.” It was like a giant had dragged a rake across the world, utterly ruining the land, and leaving the ground fractured deep.

Can Hu gave him hard numbers to go with the visuals. “We were launched four kilometers away from where we began. Four kilometers in 43.25 seconds.”

“Damn,” Shiv grunted.

Adamantine Adaption > 108

Gravitic Wrestler > 110

He pulled one of his old bodies out from his cloak and transferred his wounds, but just as he prepared to leave, a spatial bubble expanded before him, and a new dragon emerged.

This one’s body shimmered like brilliant silver, and a rush of frost began to mist the very air. The dragon knight also wore little more than a tight-fitting leather vest. And to Shiv’s surprise, the knight didn’t charge. It glided over the ground with the grace of a dancer as it flared its four frozen wings.

It was small for a dragon. Maybe only a tenth of the Jealousy’s size, but it still towered over Shiv substantially. The weapon it bore didn’t fit its titanic form. It held a gleaming kukri knife, its hue the color of broken moonlight. The dragon angled its long serpent neck as it regarded him, its eyes the glow of snow beneath sunlight. “Hm. Still alive. Adamantine Adaption. Very rare skill for a human. Woundeater—vampire skill... Strange. Very unique build. Grappler too.”

Shiv spat the last bit of blood from his mouth and snapped his helmet back on. “Yeah. And you’re the one that hit me just now?”

“Yes,” the dragon said. “You have Momentum Core too. Not your highest leveled skill. It is mine, though.” Her voice was quick and thin, like the hissing sound of a blade through air. “I am Sir Tarlow,” she said. “My strongest skill is Momentum Core. I am Master Tier. You are a unique adversary.” She took on a fighting stance then, extending her blade high while bringing an open claw low. Behind, her wings spewed cold like never before. “It will be an honor to claim your life in proper battle.”

Shiv sneered at her through bloodied teeth. “Yeah. Let’s see you start trying. Make it quick, too. I got a friend I need to save.”

She hummed. “Good. This will be memorable.”